The rain worsened when Kiara returned.
I stood, a bit tired. "I was distracted."
"Know that distraction has a name, right?" she teased. "Anyway, it's time."
Her arrival lifted my spirits a little. I got ready.
We headed to Vermina.
"Will you give me Sentinil?"
"Think you can handle it."
Her belief that I could endure all that horror sober surprised me. I nodded firmly. I had to.
We reached Vermina. The blood-soaked boulevard.
I bound my emotions as dying bodies moved toward white vans.
Children displayed in shop windows wore emptiness on their lost faces. The red on their skin accentuated the bones beneath their emaciated flesh. A thin little hand clung to the window from inside. Small, dirty fingers pressed against the glass, leaving damp marks. The eyes behind it were hollow, sunken, hopeless.
But they saw me.
Kiara's eyes traveled along the boulevard, passing indifferently over the bodies. The empty eyes. She simply kept going.
The smell of decay flooded the air. Expressionless faces appeared in darkened windows. Hid when they saw Kiara. They weren't mercenaries. Only anonymous residents living on balconies decorated with human remains. Framed by the purest sadism. Who allowed this? Who was the Matriarch?
The place represented life's end. If darkness had a home, it was here.
I saw my reflection in crimson puddles. Impossible to tell whether anger, disgust, contempt, or acceptance explained my passivity.
No. I would always reject this.
We stepped onto the boulevard's only decent stretch. The jade entrance with its luxurious pillars. Inside, wealth and antiquities crowded the space. The thick, soft carpet beneath my feet absorbed my steps and the blood flowing in from outside. In here, it stayed immaculate.
My pulse raced at the thought of seeing the Matriarch. Kiara seemed fairly calm. I assumed she might be absent. Naturally, when it came to…
"Yes. It was excellent." His hypnotic voice echoed through the hall.
Kiara and I stopped a few meters from him.
His vile gaze found us. His face twisted into a malicious smile. Standing still, he shuffled the cards, his eyes on the figure before him. As though he already knew every move. As though I were just one more. The icy cold of Saymon's presence reached me from afar.
"Glad the Matriarch is pleased with the results," the other person said. The voice tore through my inner veil.
"Certainly. She's very happy to have you here, Mr. Riki Akiyama ♪" Saymon hissed, savoring every letter. His enigmatic gaze pierced me. Told me I was a piece in his game.
My stomach sank. His name there, in Saymon's mouth. My blood froze. My mind screamed that it was impossible. But then the knot unraveled and tied itself into possibility.
I clenched my jaw and my fists.