The Brave Warrior, the Light, the Lame, and the Flower
"Hannah...What are you doing?!"
A small spasm hit the maid's calloused hands as she heard him talk roughly to her. His icy voice echoed in the dark chamber of the hallway. His icy, cruel voice that she loved...
"Just finishing up cleaning..." Hannah said, not letting her eyes stray from the red marbled ground. She had spent all of today making sure it shined. To her hidden dismay, the Master was not impressed. If it was Claude, however... "Why? Is there something needed of me?"
"Not particularly, no, but that comment was enough for me to cut you, whore." The master said, his footsteps picking up speed as Hannah realized he was closing in on her. "You're very, very lucky that I'm tired..."
"If you are tired, Master, please head to bed." Hannah said, instantly regretting her choice of words. She quickly added, "O-Only if you want to..."
The blonde teen, from what Hannah could only speculate from her super-hearing, put his hands in his purple frock's pockets and stamped one of his feet in annoyance. "Don't go around ordering me, Hannah. Remember last time?"
How could she not remember? It had taken her two whole days and nights to heal herself after that incident. "Yes, I do...Do you need anything, Master?"
"Hm...actually...yeah! I do need something Hannah!" Her master said with a sadistic giggle. "I need you to come to my room after I get dressed! That's an order!"
And with that, Hannah heard her young master run off, well, skip off really. He was so...happy yet sad. He bottled all his emotions except happy up, and because he was always at a boiling point, he went off at anyone. It was quite a sad sight...
A quick knock on the door and a quiet, "Master, I'm here." was all it took to get Alois to open the door. He was in his long, white pajamas, and in his left hand was his favorite hairbrush. Such an innocent look for such a tainted boy...
"So, I bet you're wondering why I called you here intend of Claude, right?" Alois asked, walking back to his bed and sitting atop the purple and green sheets.
The maid with long, gray, braided hair nodded silently and took a a few steps inside his room. She made sure to not make eye contact.
"Well, I want a story!" He exclaimed, his voice rising like a girl's would in excitement. "Yes, Hannah, I want you to tell me a story! The ones Claude musters up are half-baked and shitty, so I thought maybe you could entertainment me tonight. Got that Hannah?"
"Y-Yes, I suppose I could try to muster up a story for you..." Hannah replied, already swirling the contents of a good story around in her head. "Alright, I am ready to present you with a story worthy for you."
"Good!" Alois clapped his hands together, in both excitement and impatience. "Well, what are you standing there like a reanimated corpse for?! Sit on that chair over there and begin!"
The maid took her seat and, with a smile aimed at the ceiling, started her tale. "Our story begins with an ending. An ending of a life, actually..."
"Oh boy, this is a downer already..." Alois mumbled, tucking himself under his covers.
"It gets better, do not worry, as with each ending begins with a possibility. And that ending just happened to open up a position for a young Angel by the name of Flos." Hannah said, putting her hand to her chin in thought. "She was a gorgeous, young, spirited Angel who had spent countless decades trying to climb up the ranks of the Angels to become more powerful and help aid in the quest to purify the sins of humans."
"So even Angels have power pyramids..." Alois stated absentmindedly. While it looked like he was focusing only on his long finger nails, he was actually trying to imagine a woman of the same beauty of this Flos his maid told him about.
"Yes. Everything has a system of power...Going back to the story, Flos, upholding her new position, continued day after day to go to the living world and cleanse those who needed it. She did her job with pride and without question. If any angel did such a thing, they'd be punished. Everyone knew that, and everyone knew not to mess up...Flos, however, still did."
"It happened one night as she was about to cleanse a poor soul from his sins. A demon, one with hair pointed like that of a spider's appeared before her. His name was Lame. He enticed the young Angel to no end. She had witnessed many demons before, but never had she seen one like this. There was just something about him that drew the Angel towards him...And that was only her first mistake."
Hannah was forced to pause as her master's laughter filled the room. "H-his name was Lame?! What the hell!? Who names someone Lame?! Oh my bloody God, how stupid yet...hilarious..."
The way he stopped laughing to say hilarious made Hannah question her safety. "R-Right..well things were different back then...Anyway, Flos began sinning more and more. Instead of working, the winged beauty found herself following Lame. night after night she stayed out later and later tracking him, watching him, studying him...until the other Angels found out."
"Basically, an Angel by the name of Messenger found out what Flos was really doing, and told her higher-ups. As soon as Flos returned from her day of tracking and not cleansing, the Angels banished her for being so interested in something from Hell. As they cast her out, they broke her wings off and sent her to the living world to die."
"Jesus, what a harsh punishment for liking someone..." Alois snorted, impressed for once by what Hannah had told him. "Now, keep going! My eyes are droopy but my head is interested."
"I am glad." Hannah said before continuing with a melancholy smile. "So, after Flos found herself on Earth, bleeding to death and left without any hope...But than a miracle happened...a miracle she later found herself calling a curse. Lame, seeing her sorry state, granted her a place in Hell. He had saved her life by turning into her a demon..."
"At first, Hannah was honored for the demon she was so fond of to come in her time of need, but as soon as he appeared, he was gone, leaving her alone in the world to fend for herself. But he did not make her into just any demon..her made her into a Sheath, a demon that exits for the sole purpse of being used by others of its kind."
"If she was so bloody pretty, why did Lame leave her alone? Makes no sense to me..." Alois thought aloud before inching his covers up higher, so that they blocked the bottom of his face.
"Who knows why Lame does anything...He's so complex yet so basic at the same time." Hannah said, trying her very best to keep her eyes away from her master. "Back to the story; Flos was lost. She did not know or understand these new powers she was bestowed upon, but she knew one thing. She needed to eat. She found another demon that night; a contract-less, mangy mutt of a demon anyway. But, well, she was desperate, and stuck by the Mutt anyway for countless decades after that."
"Nothing changed. The two would find, contract, and eat together. Flos soon became cold and ruthless, killing with an unnatural ease. She became so good at hert job that, in fact, she began to grow bored of life...Until one day something happened that changed the Mutt and Flos forever...In a small village, Flos, who was bored out of her mind, and the Mutt, who was brainless as ever, contracted themselves to a young boy by the name of Light."
"Light? Mutt? The hell with these names..." Alois said before unleashing a yawn.
"I know they are different, just bare with me." Hannah said, knowing she'd have to wrap up her story quickly at the rate her master was falling asleep. "Light, bless his soul, was a young boy, and the little brother of Brave Warrior. Brave Warrior was unhealthy in his mind, so Light thought that if he seeked help from a angel. What he got was a heartless demon...So, Flos helped Light achieve his goal and in return Light let her consume his innocent soul. Brave Warrior was not healed from what Light did, and instead spiraled into darker madness..."
"Poor guy..." Alois muttered, his blue eyes hidden by his eyelids. "He...has it rough..."
"Yes...But Flos never forgot. No, how could she? Not with Light's pure soul still residing in her system." Hannah lightly touched her sternum, as if feeling for a presence inside her. Nothing spoke out to her. "So Flos followed young Brave Warrior trough his terribly hard life. Years for him were mere seconds for her. As time when on, she found herself growing very fond of poor Brave Warrior. All the emtions she lost had returned in what seemed to be a span of a minute...Brave Warrior was just a lost child, who needed someone to hold his hand and guide him to a safer, better world...But here he is...alone and broken in the world while Flos tries her absolute best to save him..."
Hannah rose from the cushioned seat and quietly made her way over to her master. He was asleep; his face in wordless bliss of sleep. Yes, no dreams stirred his fragile mind, but he was contempt.
The gray-haired maid gently rested the back of her light-brown hand on Alois's cheek, who responded with a small flicker of a smile dressing his worn lips. "And until Brave Warrior finally is happy," Hannah said aloud, not caring if her master wouldn't be able to hear her story's ending, "Flos will stay by his side, keeping the selfish Lame away and ensuring Light can one day return to his brother's side..."
