Story: The Heartless Bastard (all chapters)

The Heartless Bastard

Part One

               “Only a fool would do this.” Thomas grunted as he placed a mug of frothy ale on the table. As he sat down, people looked away quickly. The other patrons did not want to meet him eye level, which only added to his annoyance. Unconsciously, he touched the many small hills and valleys on his face.

               “And you are a fool for following me, old man,” laughed the woman across from him. Cerulean eyes peeked from under a black velvet hat. She winked as she reached over for the mug and took a sip. The other patrons began whispering around her, some even pointing a finger at her velvet hat.

               “I suppose it is working,” Thomas said flatly. The patrons scooted out of their chairs and quickly made for the back end of the tavern. Two rows of armed men, wearing full-bodied armor of the holy knights, filed into the tavern and lined around Thomas and the woman.

               A holy knight with a draped silver cape over his right shoulder entered the tavern. He twisted his thin mustache as he swaggered and stopped a few paces from the pair. “What do we have here? Two scum sucking rebels shamelessly drinking in the open and no less the King’s tavern?”

               Thomas sighed and folded his arms across his chest. “It seems I wasn’t aware that it is Fool’s day today.”

               “Watch your mouth, ugly!” barked the holy knight.

               “How original,” said Thomas and reached over and snatched the mug from the woman. “I’ll let you deal with him.” He nudged his chin at the silver caped knight.

               The woman frowned and turned around. “I was expecting Sir Gerimiah, not some pig dressed in armor prancing around as an Archmon of the holy knights?”

               “You whore! How dare you speak to me?” The Archmon raged and pulled out his sword. “You two will die now!”

               “Hold up,” said the woman. “Are you sure that me and my friend are rebels?”

               “Of course you two are. That hat has the symbol of the enemy of the holy Divine,” said the Archmon.

               “Or I could’ve picked up this fine hat off a dead rebel body,” said the woman.

               “Why would you do that?” The Archmon then shook his head. “Wait, I know what you’re trying to do!”

               “Do what?” asked the woman innocently.

               “What you are doing now. Enough of this prattle!” The Archmon wavered his sword with an air of authority. “Take them out now!”

               None of the knights moved. The Archmon wavered his sword again. “Kill them now!” Still the knights did not move. The patrons, who had been watching the ordeal, whispered among themselves. The Archmon turned to one of the knights and pointed a sword. “You there, do you not hear my order!”

               There was a creaking sound and the soldier’s helmet fell over, followed by a pink slush of flesh. The Archmon took a step back, his face paling as the rest of the other knights followed suite. Armors clanked onto the ground and liquid flesh fell into pools around the armors. The patrons screamed and sprinted out of the tavern, leaving the ‘rebels’ and the Archmon alone.

               The woman looked over to Thomas who shrugged. “It wasn’t me,” he said and took a sip of ale.

               “You two are not rebels. You are monsters,” quivered the Archmon. The hand holding his sword shook uncontrollably. “Monsters!”

               “If we’re monsters, shouldn’t you try to kill us?” smirked the woman.

               The Archmon looked at her, then Thomas and then his shaking sword. He repeated this over and over, unaware of a pair of slender hands closing around this head. His neck crackled, twisted at an odd angle as he slunk onto the ground. Standing behind the Archmon’s body was a figure draped from head to toe in white, face covered by a frosty cloth.

               “Hello, wifey,” said the woman, waving a hand. “I should’ve known this was your doing.”

               Thomas was wide-eyed and wiped his mouth. “Mistress Avanti.” He stood up abruptly and bowed. “Forgive us! It was Reese’s idea.”

               “Traitor,” said Reese.

               Avanti flicked a finger of silence. “We will talk later but we must leave. The others will not take lightly the death of their companions.” She looked around. “A shame that such specimens had to be disposed.”

               “I shall make a way, mistress.” Thomas picked up the table and flung it away. He made a series of quick hand movements before tapping a foot on the ground. There was a sucking sound and a round shadow appeared where the table had been.

               Avanti walked over the Archmon’s body and disappeared into the shadow.

               “You think she’s mad at me?” said Reese, scratching her head under her hat.

               “If she is, I don’t want to be you,” said Thomas and followed Avanti into the shadow.

               Reese looked around. The pools of pink flesh had already sunk into the cracks of the wooden planks. The Archmon’s dead eyes looked at her, trapped in fear. She shook her head and walked into the shadow.

The Heartless Bastard

Part Two

               The man looked around nervously before taking the pouch from the hooded woman’s hand. He opened it up and took out a golden coin to shine against the sunlight. Satisfied that the coin was genuine, he plopped it back into the pouch and tucked the pouch under his shirt.

               “Start from the beginning,” said the hooded woman.

               “What I tell you, you will not believe,” he said, his voice a mix of awe and horror.

               The hooded woman regarded the man for a moment, wondering if it was money well spent. “I will be the judge of that. Just tell me. What happen in the King’s tavern?”

               “Most horrifying thing I’ve every laid eyes on. I was sitting there with my buddies when two strangers entered. One was a huge man with a hideous disfigurement,” the man motioned around his face and continued, “one can never look at him too long without feeling something was dead wrong. The other one was a woman, tall as the man, and we immediately thought they were rebels.”

               “How so?”

               “The hat she wore bore the symbol of the resistance.” The man drew a straight line and then a curve in the air.

               “I see.” The woman’s voice had a hint of anger.

               “Yes but I thought it was strange that the two rebels would walk into the tavern like that and even ordered a drink! Such outrageous cockiness, I say!” The man thumped his chest and then made the holy sign with his finger. “But, rebels do not melt the flesh from with in the holy knight’s armor.”

               “You’re kidding me?”

               “I wish I was. I saw the armors fall the ground and the pools of melted flesh.” the man’ s eyes were dilated and he shook. “Dark art was at play. Never seen it in life till today. I ran out with the rest of us and never looked back. Later I heard they found the Archmon’s body, neck broken. These rebels…what monstrosities! If I had known before that they would do this, I’d never traded with them. Hell, I’d turned them in!”

               “Thank you,” the hooded woman said. She had head what she wanted. “Have a good day.” She bowed.

               “It’s dark days, I’m telling, m’lady. I’m getting a bad feeling,” said the man.

               The hooded woman nodded. “Perhaps.” She turned around and walked down the alley, which led into the streets.

               Beyond the stands of fruits and meats was a platform that many people had gathered around. A robed man, waving a scepter, kept them captivated with his religious rhetoric. She weaved past the crowd, careful to keep her right wrist concealed. She headed, across the city, to a clusters of buildings where the most socially detest lived.

               Again weaving through, she made her way between buildings before stopping at one alcove. A bald man sat there smoking a pipe. He blew a puff of smoke as the woman lifted her right arm and pulled down the sleeve to show a tattoo--that of a straight line with a curve at the end--on her wrist. He nodded in recognition.

               “Jiando,” said the hooded woman, “we have a problem. Someone is impersonating us.”

#

               Reese, nestled in an ornate chair, twirled a tendril of her dark hair with one hand and turned her velvet hat over with the other, studying the embodied straight line with a curve at the end just above the brim. “My plan was going to work,” she said dully. She looked over to see Avanti’s back move.

               “You were not ready.” Avanti turned around. Her arms were covered with congealed blood. The frosty veil that once covered her face was gone.

               Reese had to take it in the sight of Avanti unmasked for it was rare the woman revealed her face. Alien crimson eyes looked at her as if to provoke a thought.

               “Is there something wrong?” asked Avanti.

               Reese only smiled. “You should show your face more often. I like your hair.”

               Avanti turned right back around and proceeded to pop an eyeball from a severed head. “Pretty words will get you no where.”

               The dark haired woman pressed her hat to her chest. “Augh, that breaks my heart.”

               “Hearts don’t break. They can be cut, smashed, diced into small pieces but no. Hearts can’t break lest they were petrified first or maybe….”

               “Uh, I was speaking fugitively.” Reese laughed nervously.

               “Even so. It would require that you have one.” Avanti picked up a knife and stabbed through the top of the head, wiggling it deeper. “Hmm, I think I’d need fresh ones. This one had been dead for too long. You think you can get me another one? Preferably one that wasn’t dead for more than a day.”

               “Gee, let me go and find a body somewhere recently killed,” mocked Reese.

               “Are you going to get me one or not?”

               Reese got off the chair and putted on her velvet hat. “If I find one along the way, then yes. Otherwise, go get Thomas to get you one.” She turned around and headed for the door but stopped when she put a hand on the doorknob. “Avanti….”

               “Hmm, yes?” Avanti proceeded to pop the other eyeball out.

               “Thanks for everything.”

               Avanti stopped what she was doing. “I wonder if you’ll still say that after our contract is completed.”

               “Why do you have to be such a pooper, wifey?” smirked Reese. “I’ll see you before that head can, er, never mind. See you soon.” She turned the knob and pushed through the door, closing behind her as she stepped out.

The Heartless Bastard

Part Three

               Reese picked up the mug and wondered how the tavern master had gotten the ale to be so frothy. “Hey!” Her voice slurred and she wavered a little. “Hey!” she repeated, trying to get the attention of the tavern master.

               The tavern master raised an eyebrow from behind his bar. “What is it, woman? More?”

               Reese looked him straight in the eye. She opened her mouth for a moment and then smiled sheepishly. “Nothing,” she said and took a long gulp.

               The tavern master shook his head. “You’ve been here for over an hour. Drunk as muck.”

               “It’s, it’s….” She giggled for a long moment and then became very quiet as she stared into her mug. Then she shrugged, swirling the remaining ale in her mug. “The only thing making me feel alive right now.” Her voice had suddenly become clear.

               “Hmph, so you’re one of those people. Lucky bastard.” The tavern master has heard of people who can drink a tank of ale and can overcome drunkenness in mere moments. He has always thought of them as traveling myths but guess there were some truths in it. Besides, was that good or bad? He realized he didn’t care really as long as the woman kept buying and not stir trouble. Speaking of trouble, he eyed a mean looking group of people sitting in the shadows and observing the woman. That woman was a great patron but trouble was at her heel and he rather not have it right now. The holy knights would come upon him like a storm and they might find his secret stash opium hidden in his back room.

               “Bastard? Damn right!” Reese slammed her mug onto the table.

               “You break it, you pay it,” said the tavern master. “I think you should leave.”

               “I didn’t break it,” whined Reese. She wavered her mug in the air to show there wasn’t even a crack but fumbled, the mug dropping to the ground and smashing into pieces. “Uhh, here’s another coin for the mug. Heheh.” She threw a silver coin to which the tavern master caught. “Thanks for the ale…I think, I’ll leave.”

               The tavern master flared his nostrils as he watched the woman pick up her hat and left his tavern. No sooner as he called out for the dishwashing boy to clean up the broken mug, did he see the group of people get up from their table and followed the woman.

#

               Reese whistled nonsensically as she walked carefree down the road, her hat nestled in her right armpit, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of them. She stopped and purposely dropped her hat, hoping that her followers will fear her if they saw the symbol on the hat. “If you see my hat, then you will know what will happen if you mess with me.”

               Five bodies emerged from the overgrown trees clustered along the road. One of them, a short blonde woman wearing a hat that was exactly like Reese’s, took a step forward with sword in hand.

               Reese bit her lips. “Shit.”

               The blonde turned over Reese’s hat with the tip of her boot. “You’ve been impersonating us. Why?”

               “We should just kill the woman, Darbyr12;“

               “Jiando has put me in charge. He wishes to know why the imposters are doing this before we kill them.” Darby eyed her comrade who backed down. She turned her attention back to Reese, one of the two people she had been tracking down. “Why?” she repeated.

               Reese shrugged. “I just wanted Archmon Gerimiahr12;“

               “Archmon Gerimiah? That fucker?” Darby spat.

               “He’s a sore spot on you too, eh?” laughed Reese.

               Darby was not amused which made Reese shut up and gulped. She was getting that feeling and that was not going to end well for them.

                “If you wish to kill him, by all means but impersonating us? You’ve given us a bad reputation of using dark magic. We’ve lost several supporters not to mention the entire kingdom’s army searching for us frantically,” said Darby.

               “Ah, that was my wifey,” smiled Reese and backed away from the approaching rebels. “I apologized for the inadvertent smearing. I was just trying to lure Gerimiah. I’ll stop pretending to be one of the rogue prince’s rebels. So we’re good?”

               Darby shook her head. “Do you take us as fools? We don’t even know if you’re telling the truth. You and whatever sick people…dark magic is never good. ” She moved swiftly to cut Reese off from escaping.

               “Oh, c’mon, it wasn’t me! She-look, you don’t wanna fight me.” She could already feel her tunneling in her mind like boney fingers. It is too late for her to run.

               “You will tell us everyone involved with you, where they are right now and then we will give you a quick death!” said Darby and slashed horizontal, managing to make a shallow cut across Reese’s chest as a show of her deadliness with the blade.

               “Gee, that’s not really a good deal for me.” Reese’s face was stone cold compared to the non-seriousness of the tone of her voice.

               Darby and her fellow rebels stopped their advancement. Was this the same woman a short moment ago, full of life, now explicable dead? Darby had to blink several times to make sure that she wasn’t delusional. Before her, the same woman, but the skin had become considerably pale and the eyes…it was like she was talking to a corpse.

                At that moment, the night clouds parted for the moonlight to splash over them and they saw.

               “What in Valsala’s name?” One of Darby’s comrades murmured. He was backing away, fear dancing at where Darby had cut Reese.

               “How the fuck are you standing?” Darby voice squeaked. Her body wanted to run.

               Reese looked down, eyes hollow but moist, and touched the gaping hole over where her heart had been. “I sold my soul to the devil.” She looked up. “She compels me. Run.”

#

               Avanti had heard the door crack open and smelt the familiar copper scent in the air with a hint of alcohol. “Right on time.” She turned around, pulling off her veil.

               Reese stood at the door holding out two pair of heads by the hairs. Her eyes were glassed and lowered at the floor as if looking for something lost.

               “I see you’ve missed one,” sighed Avanti. She signaled Reese to shut the door. “Come, put them over here next to me.”              

               Reese placed the head on the indicated table and Avanti caught her hands.

               “You regret it don’t you?” Avanti clasped her hands around Reese’s face, pulling the taller woman close enough to kiss. “The road of vengeance is never easy. It is Death’s weapon and one that will not distinguish between the innocents and the sinners. All is equal under death.”

               Reese stared as Avanti stroked her cheeks for a while. “Why did you compel me to kill them when I could’ve just escaped?” she said finally.

               “Because I needed heads or did you forget I asked you to get some for me?”

               “You said only one, not four and Thomas should’ve done it for you.”

               “Well, it would’ve been five if you hadn’t miss one. I just wanted to make sure I had enough just in case I made a mistake.” Avanti withdrew her hands and turned to the heads. “I sent Thomas to fetch me something else.”

               Reese watched Avanti pulled the skin off her left hand, revealing the white bones. Then Avanti started working on the heads.

               “What if I wanted to back out?”

                “You know I don’t compel you to stay. So the true question is why do you not want to back out?”

               Reese approached Avanti from behind and wrapped her arms around the shorter woman’s waist. Then she rested her chin on a shoulder. “Because I want my vengeance.”

               Avanti smiled, far wider than humanly possible. That was what she wanted to hear. “Have patience. In a few days, it will all be over.”