The next two days on the road and at camp were largely uneventful for RAM. Rhian and Michael took turns driving, and Strauss focused his efforts on the Vonsinfonie book and trying not to throw up in the back of the wagon. It was evening by the time they arrived in Istok, and given the proximity of a cozy Inn, they decided to stay in town for the night.
Strauss tried to give a history lesson, and I knew from our own visit to Istok together, he was trying to tell them about the Fire House legend. Nobody wanted to hear it.
“You know that’s Alexander’s old place right?” Derek asked from our perch, looking over the small fishing town. “And this is Lidia’s territory. I didn’t know we’d be stopping here.”
“Well, my mates are hunting Lidia, aren’t they? Even if they don’t know it yet.”
Derek hesitated. “Gus, if you asked me to join you so I could help you and your friends the way Alexander or Everleigh do, you know I can’t, right?”
“That’s not why I asked you along. Besides, I’m not supposed to interfere.”
“Sorry—
“It’s all right,” I said, and I smiled, and we kissed. But it wasn’t all right. Ever since our first conversation about Lidia, I’d been experiencing a Rhian-sized niggling.
From where we were watching, we were able to see two sides of the Bountiful Blessing clearly. The lower level had big windows, and we could easily see RAM get a table, sit for a while, chat, and then—wait, where was Rhian going with Ursula? Oh, she’s back. And—wait, did Michael just—
“Did your friend just punch the innkeeper?”
“I’m sure he had a good reason.”
RAM disappeared for nine seconds while they climbed the stairs, and they appeared again on the upper level. The window in the hallway was smaller so we couldn’t make out as much, and if they went into any of the inn rooms, we wouldn’t be able to see them.
I gestured for Derek, and we dropped to the ground, zipped to the other side of town, and found a new tree.
When I was looking over The First One, something stood out to me when considering this event from our side of the fence. And that’s really how fast everything happened. Less than seven minutes, actually, and as you all know: Michael took down his second Anima, and they found the real Vincent Delestade’s priest friend, Gregory Keller, naked and dying.
Below, we spotted an ambiguous figure moving through the shadows, travelling quickly from the Bountiful Blessing toward the Fire House. Aye, mates, it was less than seven minutes when the window to one of the bedrooms opened, Rhian hopped out, and without skipping a beat, she ran in the same direction as the shadow.
Derek looked to me inquisitively, and I motioned him along again. We made our way across town and found a vantage nearer to the Fire House.
If Rhian and I had been together, I’d have gone with her out the window. But I’d have been there, and we’d be together, and she was alone. And why she was she going inside? I motioned Derek along again. There was a window at the back where we’d have a better view from the ground level. Derek disappeared next to me, and I peered in from the side.
The window looked into the kitchen, and in the kitchen, there were four old men with mustaches tied to chairs. And as I’m writing this down, I recognize how absurd that sounds, but what can I say? It’s what happened.
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Rhian made her way into the kitchen. At first, she made a face, and I knew that face. I could practically hear what would have come out of her mouth if I were there: “Old man decoys. Didn’t I say so? Didn’t I bloody say so?” She then sighed and checked each of them for a pulse. They weren’t dead because two started moving their mouths, and the other two started twitching at the fingers. She tried talking to them, she tried shaking them.
Then she left the kitchen and went upstairs, and we climbed a tree again.
We watched her move through the upper landing and make her way into each of the rooms. She stayed in one of them for a while—talking to herself? Or someone? But we couldn’t see anyone else from our angle. What was she doing?
Well, we know now she was finding Ivan, the missing boy from the village. We know he was in a sorry state, but that unlike the mustachioed men, he was responsive. We know she gave him water, but he wouldn’t eat anything.
When Rhian barrelled down the stairs, we went back down to ground level, Derek disappeared next to me again, and I peeked through the window from the side. Back in the kitchen, Rhian circled around the men in their chairs, trying again to wake them up. She shouted. She slapped one across the face. She tried splashing a bit of water from her canteen on another. She later told me Ivan had been crying upstairs the whole time.
“She looks mad,” Derek said.
“Shouldn’t she?” I replied.
Rhian reached for her knife. She spun it once, twice, three, four, five, six, seven times, and then she went around to the first man and sliced his throat across, and upward along the right hand side of his neck.
I hugged her, hugged her as much as I could with my mind.
“Love you, Rhian.” I whispered quietly, and Derek appeared beside me.
Rhian stepped over to the second man and sliced his throat, too.
I kissed her, kissed her as much as I could with my mind.
“Love you,” I whispered again.
Derek was looking at me now, and I didn’t even have to turn my head to know he was. He watched me, and then he watched my sister when she moved in beside the third old man decoy and ended his life, too.
During the Ambiance investigation, you might remember I’d asked Alexander about the Tragers. He told me to be careful, that while they weren’t killers, their lifestyle was still dangerous. And maybe that was true, but what was quickly becoming even more true, was that my lifestyle was the real problem—not Derek’s. Forty-eight seconds: the time it took for Rhian to murder four men. By the time Rhian finished off the fourth old man, her hands were covered in blood and the light was gone from her eyes.
The light was gone from Derek’s eyes, too. We watched each other in the shadows, and in the silence, and the silence asked, “This isn’t going to work, is it?” Once second, three seconds, three and a half seconds, five: the time it took for us both to shake our heads no.
And that’s when Derek disappeared again, mates, and then he was gone, and I know he was, because I felt alone again. Inside the house, covered in blood and shaking, Rhian braced herself against the wall, dropped to the floor and cried.
Outside the house, just on the other side of that very wall, I did the same.
We all know what happened next: Strauss and Michael eventually joined Rhian inside where Strauss killed his first Anima, they rescued Ivan, and then they promptly burned Alexander’s house down.
I wasn’t there for any of it.
A Day in the Life With Zack - Entry Log #11
“It’s good to see you. I was beginning to—wait, whatever’s the matter?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then come, rest your head. We don’t have to talk.”
“I’m not sleeping in your dream coffin again.”
“No, your entire body is pulsating with a fierce, fiery urgency. Let me help you.”
“Are you inviting me to cuddle?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“There you are.”
“Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, I don’t know what to do.”
“No, but you will, Feargus Finlay. It’s all inevitable, after all. Now—concentrate on breathing, on feeling present here with me, and for Creation’s sake, let it all out.”