-Break-
Location: Zaad Ziener; Captivant's home
Φ Taking in a deep breath with a basket in her hand filled with baked goods, the lady holds her fist over her chest and walks forward to the door in front of her. Opening the door, she sees Captivant sitting in the middle of the room on a wooden chair, looking up towards the sky.
His eyes fall down, and they connect with hers, and for a moment they both stay locked on each other as she tries her best to hide the scowl on her face. Her skin crawls, her heart pounds, fear fills her vessel, her eyes try to avoid his own, and she moves to cover the view of her body, yet she still stands there, and mere moments after, a sick feeling rises from her stomach. Captivant smiles like a child staring at their sibling and says, "It's nice to see you doing well, Valda."
She freezes when looking at him, but he quickly stands up and says, "You look as pretty as ever, but your feet are very clearly swollen by the way you're balancing your body. Come and sit down."
She begins to move her arms up to deny her request, but he quickly, in one motion, picks her up, lays her on the seat, while pushing the door wider open, and sits cross-legged in front of her as he places a blanket over her legs, covering her skirt.
Then, with a big goofy smile, he says, "Don't worry, it's my pleasure. You're working hard saving lives as a nurse. You should be proud, oh, on the note of lives. I should apologise. I both tried to break your husband's back and threatened your son, and for both, I ask you to forgive me. Any excuse only exists for me to feel better about something I could control, so I hope you can find it in your heart to let me make it up to you."
She sits stunned, then says, "Umm, huh, what? How do you know I am a nurse; how do you even know Bell is my husband?"
"I kinda of just guessed, and I haven't seen you around. You had an affinity for caring for people, and based on your personality I assumed you study medicine in the village for the sake of controlling your own health; all these things lead to be some kind of medical worker, and for your husband, well, Ring looks a lot like you; your face isn't one I have been able to forget. I kinda have given your existence a lot of thought, even though I didn't want to admit it myself."
Freezing for a moment, she says, "Adrian, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am doing fine. But on that note, it seems we've both changed a lot in these almost 18 years, so even if just for a bit, would you like to catch up?"
Valda, sitting in front of the boys whose attention is all on her, says, "Is there something on my face?"
"Nothing, really? I am just kinda of interested. I never really noticed how shapely your nose was or how round your ears are, your eyes are also pretty wide, and is that some make-up covering up a beauty mark?"
"You know some men would consider that flirting."
Pointing past her, he says, "My little sister is watching me; I can't go doing anything immoral, so if you can't trust me, trust her."
Holding the basket forward, she says, "If only I could feed her some of these for keeping me safe."
Opening it up, a whiff of the baked goods flows into Captivant's noise making his mouth salivate, as he says, "Are those muffins?"
"I made some for your father and mother as a thank you for saving Bell, so don't you dare start touching the-."
Captivant's stomach lets out an earth-shattering roar as his face completely zones out, focused completely on the basket, and seeing this, Valda moves the basket from left to right, watching the man in front of he move along with it like a puppet attached to a string.
Reaching into the basket, she grabs a muffin and throws it behind him, and he quickly jumps up and grabs it with his mouth before easily devouring it in seconds, causing her to slightly smirk, before the scowl returns to her face as she says, "What, are you a dog?"
"I can't help it; I have barely eaten."
"Adults should never be so obsessed with anything that they forget to take care of their basic needs; things like that are how your mother has to clean up your own corpse."
"I would never do such a thing, but from one mother to a son, I guess a better lesson," he says with a smile, getting her to turn her face. "Also, on that note, why'd you bring up my mother? She wasn't around during the incident."
With a saddened tone, she says, "Bell has been struggling to leave the room ever since the incident; he has been scared of getting killed. The knife-wielding bastard stuck the blade deep in him at times for the sake of provocation, and now he struggles to even be around sharp things."
"Sorry, I-."
"But my son is a big giant whining idiot. He loves to read a lot like you, and when he was handed a special little book from your family's library about butterflies, he instantly forgot his fear and wanted to start going out and about again. You can tell he is a lot more cautious and even a bit more reserved, which I didn't even think was possible, but the excitement of what he has read has pretty directly translated into him wanting to go outside more. Just how he is, and I love the little kid for it."
Smiling, Captivant says, "I see, I did wonder why such a big coward would always be going outside."
"Are you really saying that? You could barely string together sentences when talking to people from the village."
"Hey! Who told you?"
With a smirk of victory, she says, "I happen to be rather social when it comes to everyone."
"Of course a chameleon like you could do such a thing; you should try and become a spy."
She clicks her tongue, then says, "It's a waste of my skills to do such a lowly job."
"How honest of you, but on any note, if you need to get any books, you can just ask me."
"Don't worry, I've already been snatching them from your room."
"HUH? YOU THIEF!"
"It's not like you were using them when galivanting around the world, now were you? Besides, knowledge is power, and my son is quite knowledgeable."
Staring up into the roof, Captivant says, "Power. I wounder if power really is worth that much."
"Of course it is; even in this situation we all find ourselves in, power has allowed us to remain stabler than those who've lost their lands."
"Still, how much of yourself will you give up to gain it. Since at the end of the day there will always be someone with more of whatever by fate or fortune. But I guess such a debate is pointless for someone like me to have with anyone else. On that note, did all that power allow you to properly integrate your friends into the village?"
"More or less, it was hard at times, but being married to the leader of a lot of the hardliners in terms of rejecting outsiders allowed me to fully squeeze my group in before the sentiment started swirling around."
With a sour expression, Captivant says, "I think Bell is more or less a good person; he probably has some rough edges, but he's probably trustworthy, maybe."
With the emotions in her face draining, Valda says, "I never expected you to say something like that about him. But in this chaotic world, being able to find someone who can always keep me stable and guard those I love against the chaos of the world with such vigour is someone I've been able to open my heart to even in my current life. I truly do love him."
Smiling, Captivatn says, "It's nice to have people you care about to such an extent. I really am happy for you, Valda."
In an instant, anger rises on her face, and she says, "Why? Why are you like this?"
"What? Have I been doing something wrong?"
"No, you fool, you haven't; that's the problem. You're an arrogant asshole, you're a selfish bastard, you're a raging misogynist, you could never wish someone was doing better, especially if that person had hurt you before. You turned this land into chaos, but here you sit nothing like that. It makes no sense. I work as a nurse. Do you know how many people who have been dying on this land I've had to patch up, how many bloody incidents I've had to fix, how many corpses I've had to handle due to your nonsense?
It's been so much suffering and pain that I feel like I could rip my eyes out. I have to see people who were just like me every single day and reject their pain and suffering, and even now, as we are denying more entry, I have to hear their fear ringing in the back of my head as I hold my shaking son in my arms. It's all your fault, and I wanted to hate you, but where is that pest? Where is Adrian, the man who could care for anything other than himself? Because right now you're kinder than ever before; I don't see the man who caused all of this to befall us, and it drives me to wretch.
Why can't you be the person you hate? Why can't you be the person who stands in front of me waiting to destroy every single thing that I care about and try to end it all? I have nothing but hate for you in my heart, but your not the you who I had in my heart. So what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to continue moving on when you're like this? I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. I FUCKING HATE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!"