"HOW COULD YOU LET HER GET HURT!?" Empress stomped her way over to Mare and stroke her across the face, unaware of Gaster's presence. Mare fell to her knees from the force and her weak state.
"T-there—"
Empress kicked her chest before quickly walking over to her daughter.
Master was nowhere to be seen as he might have had something far more important to do. There were only them and a few guards standing by the door. Mare slowly got up and limped out of the room, holding back her tears. Gaster stared at Empress, his mind filled with disgust and anger. He quickly walked out of the room, aside from wanting to get away from the shameful woman, he had the urge to help Mare. He soon reached Mare and offered her help, which she politely declined. He shook his head and placed one arm behind her knee and another behind her neck, sweeping her off her feet and in to his arms.
Mare protested to be put down but Gaster refused. After a few light hit against his chest, Mare quieten down. Secretly, she liked being carried by him.
Mare led them and finally reached her own room. Gaster gently kicked the door open with one foot and surveyed the interior. Compared to Queen's room, hers was tiny. It had a single size bed, medium sized oak cupboard, a table and chair and a few photos on the wall. There was a dark brown door on one side of the room. The thoughts of how Mare was being treated made him angry on the inside but he had no idea why. She was no one to him and yet he felt this way towards her. He walked over to the bed and slowly put her down. She propped herself against the headboard as Gaster looked for a first aid box.
"Under the bed, take the red one…"
He nodded and quickly grabbed the red one which was labelled with 'Open Wound'. There were two more boxes, blue and green, each labelled 'Pills' and 'Poison/Venom' respectively. Gaster wondered why she would have such boxes but decided not to think further as he did not want to imagine the things she had went through. He opened the box and took out bandages, a bottle of disinfectant solution and other necessary equipment such as cotton bud, tissues, etc. Mare had removed the bullet from her shoulder and the injury was now bleeding freely. Gaster saw this and moved quicker, grabbing a nearby towel and putting it against the wound with enough pressure to help it stop bleeding as much, making Mare gasped and hissed in pain. He increased the pressure for a few more minutes, which made Mare's hand shot up to the hem of his blazer and gripped it tight. He finally let go of the towel and earned a sigh of relief from Mare. He quickly treated the wound and bandaged it up while Mare still had her eyes closed.
He leaned back and looked at her with worry in his eyes. Mare seemed to be the kind of person who got used a lot by this family and from the looks of it, it wasn't good purposes. She had hidden bruises underneath her dress and they looked painful. Mare wheezed and coughed before extending an arm out.
"Thank you. It was really… nice… of you to take care of me when you really didn't need to…" she said with a small, barely visible smile on her lips.
Gaster nodded and grabbed her hand and kissed it. "No worries. I was glad to help someone so important and well known." He smiled at her. Her eyes widen and she quickly drew her arms back from him. "What do you mean? You know who I am? How?" Mare demanded from the taller skeleton. Gaster only chuckled and leaned back, sensing her distress and gave her space. "Well, you are Nightmare De Silva, correct? You are very well known throughout town, you do know that right?" he asked her, slightly confused how in the world she would not know this. Mare's eyes soften and she laughed a bit as she finally felt secured around this monster. She leaned back against the headboard and nodded, saying, "Well, yeah I guess. The boys always update me with tales of myself from the streets… but excuse me, not being rude or anything, why would you care? I mean, don't you have anything better to do?"
Gaster gave out a hearty laugh, his voice deep and velvety, sending shivers racing down Mare's back.
"Yes, perhaps so. But then again, you have caught my attention once. It's hard to ignore when you finally found a fabled myth turned out to be real. Your tales are incredible."
"Once? What? When?"
"That's the story for another time, my dear. Maybe next time we meet." he winked and got up from the bed to put away the medical box back under the bed. After he did so, he patted his hands against his thighs and placed them behind his back, folded. "I think it is time for me to leave. They will come looking for me soon." he said. Mare only nodded but then realized she should probably lead him out of the maze like corridors. He declined before she could even asked, as if reading her mind, and leaned down to grab her hand and kissed it gently once again, saying they will surely meet again soon. She blushed slightly and nodded at him before wrapping herself in to the blankets.
She blinked once and he disappeared from her sight.
Mare eased her mind and slowly fell into slumber, ignoring the mysterious man that was so generous to her.
A second later she woke up in a darken corridor illuminated by only red lights.
Wha…?
She looked down to see a mangled body of someone familiar to her sight. The body seemed to be a female, with the hair colour that she had grown accustomed looking at every day. But everything else was disfigured and bloody, unrecognizable. Parts of flesh, bones and body fluids were everywhere, splattered in the closed radius. Mare stared at the body for a few more minutes before finally realizing the ring on its severed hand was a De Silva emblem.
A customized emblem only for Queen.
She gasped inwardly but couldn't move away, only being able to move her eyes and mind. With fear in her soul, she glanced down at her right hand, feeling she was holding on to something and saw a bloodied knife. It was silver, caked with blood that was slowly drying and had black wooden grip. She wanted to drop the knife, gather the remains of who she thought it was and cried but she couldn't. She couldn't move, she could only stood there and stared at what she did. Mare heard footstep coming towards her from the deep, dark end of the red corridor and her head turned. Who she saw made her filled with rage, sadness and fear all at once. She knew who owned the knife she was holding on to now.
It belonged to CA of The Fallen.
And he was approaching her with that cursed smile of his.
She was so confused on what was happening. Where was she? Why was there Queen's mangled body in here? Why did she kill her? HOW could she have killed her?
CA stopped next to her and snaked one arm around her waist, chuckling at the sight of the human leftover that was sprawled on the floor. No matter how hard she resisted, she could not make a sound or move at all.
CA leaned over close to Mare's ear and whispered something to her.
"I knew you were always a part of us…"
He leaned away and laughed out loud, his repulsive laughter echoed throughout the corridor.
The red lights were now blinding despite the fact that Mare's head was casted downwards, everything was spinning and the smell of flesh reeked her sense of smell. She-
THUD!
Mare fell off the bed headfirst from moving around too much in her small bed. She groaned and gently propped herself up, trying not to injure her injured shoulder even more. She heard snickering behind her and swiftly turned around, ready to attack whoever it was. Turned out, it was one of the boys from the basement, Mark. He was a few years younger than she was, blonde hair, beautiful green eyes and pretty well built. He had a white collared button up shirt on, black vest that wasn't buttoned yet and simple black pants. On his head sat a black fedora with a single, thin, golden thread going around its side. He was sitting on her table, one foot kicking back and forth while the other on her chair.
She got up from the floor and asked how long he had been there and why he was dressed rather fancily.
"Long enough to see you fall off the bed and also if you forgot, Bub, Fred, James, Hank and I have our day off today. And guess what we found out as well?" he asked.
"What?" Mare sat on the bed with her palm pressed against her throbbing forehead.
"Today is your day off too! Isn't that great! Come on, let's go hang out together! We haven't done that in a while, haven't we?" he got off the table and went to lean against the doorway.
"How about Queen?"
"Don't worry, the boys said she's staying in her room all day today. John and Dom's guarding her door all day. Beside, Empress wanted her to stay locked up too anyway. She's safe, don't worry."
"Yeah? Last time you said that she nearly got kidnapped."
"Well, that was different. Come on, Mince, let's go! Don't you miss Randy Joe's? I do!" Mark was now in front of Mare, poking her face. She thought about for a moment before sighing and said fine, agreeing to go with them. Mark grinned and walked out of the room, saying how he would told the boys he managed to convinced Nightmare De Silva to come with him. Mare herself smiled and proceeded to shower. She washed all the dirt and blood away from her body and washed her hair clean. She tried to forget her nightmare, trying to wash away the grotesque dream along with the blood and dirt from her body but her attempts were futile. Getting out of the shower, she dried herself and choose something comfortable to wear; a white buttoned up collared shirt, red suspenders and black pants with matching black oxfords. She took out a pair of black gloves and her wallet, stuffing them in her pockets. Mare rolled her sleeves up to her elbows before walking out of the door and joining the boys.
Mare and the boys used one of the cars that was not in used to hit up one of their favourite pub, Randy Joe's. Music, alcohol, pretty women, everything was there. The pub was situated in the heart of the buzzing city, on the point where everything meets and it was extremely popular. Only known customer were allowed in and Mare knew the owner, Randy Joe, herself. But of course, Randy doesn't know Mare as Nightmare De Silva, he knew her as Mince.
Another nickname she had earned.
But that was another story.
The group walked into the pub and was greeted by Randy himself behind the bar, which they all greeted back. The De Silva group walked over and sat in comfortable sofa surrounding a circular table by the window. It was around lunch time, the pub was crowded as usual. Inside the pub was styled with wooden furniture and expensive decoration. The bar itself was massive, fitting every kind of liquor possible on its shelves. Randy Joe's had a beautiful life size angel statue made of rose quartz, smooth cut and shaped, fully equipped with gorgeous heavenly wings in the middle of the bar as the main attraction. Ángel Guardia del Subterráneo was her title and Rosa was her name. The story goes that Randy had a wife, beautiful Spanish woman, named Rosa that passed away during giving birth to their child. He wasn't there when she passed away and so, he made a statue of her. No one was sure where Randy kept the baby but rumour has it, it was a female babe.
Which of course, cost a fortune.
But Rosa wasn't why the De Silva was there, no no.
They were there to have fun.
Mare stretched in her seat, her body aching from being in the same car with 4 other people, which was not fun and despite being a smaller size, she still had no space. The boys were arguing who should order the drinks and it was decided that Hank, a quiet middle aged man, would go fetch the drinks for them. Mare told him to just ask for a bottle of Whisky, Brandy and Vodka and glasses for each of them. Mark left with him to also buy bottles of beer for the crew. Mare leaned back on her chair and propped her feet up on the table as the rest of her crew chatted away. She looked around and felt warm in the inside knowing that this day would be spent just relaxing and drinking, not worrying about her work. Mark and Hank came back with the drinks and settled them down on the table. Putting her feet down, she grabbed a glass and filled it with enough quantity of Vodka for two shots.
"Whoa, Mince, already?" Fred filled his own glass with Whisky. James laughed and popped open the beer bottle first.
Mare grinned and quickly drank the strong liquid, setting the glass down on the table with a loud clack once finished. Bub whistled and downed his own drink slowly in one go. Mark had his own glass half empty, enjoying it slowly, while his eyes wondered out of the window and into the bustling street that was filled with people and automotive. Hank had pulled out his deck of cards and started playing poker against James and Bub, a cigar hinged between his lips.
The crew were just relaxing, unaware of a few pairs of eyes that were watching them from the other side of the room. The eyes never left them, especially Mare, who had her glass filled to the brim with Brandy in her clutches. One pair of eyes looked at another before nodding and raised its hand slightly, signing for service. A waiter hurried along to their table and the figure whispered something to waiter and pointed at De Silva table. The waiter smiled and nodded, going away. With a bottle of the finest champagne and 6 antique glasses, he went over to the De Silva table.
"Excuse me, gentlemen and lady but a favour has been done in complimentary to you." he cleared his throat before settling the bottle and glasses on the table.
"Wait, what? Who?" Mark looked away from the widow, curious of who had bought them the expensive drink.
"The folks over at table 15, just across the room, Sire." The waiter replied with a smile.
The whole table turned their heads towards the said table and saw a group of monsters staring back at them. Mare noticed one of them was a skeleton, the same skeleton Queen was talking to at the party, sitting in the semi-circle. There was also another one like him, but taller and softer looking compared to him. A blue fish lady with long red hair tied into a pony tail in a black suit was also present with them and next to her was small yellow lizard like monster, dressed in sparkly short dress with an intricate looking headband. The skeleton Mare met at the party grinned and waved at her, which she replied with a confused yet grateful small wave.
The group of monsters wanted to befriend the De Silva.
"You know them, Mince?" asked Hank, pausing his game just to pour himself a cup of fancy champagne. Mare nodded slowly, still staring at the skeleton who was now talking to the other skeleton. She realized that if they were there, the chances of Gaster being here as well is present. She finished her Brandy in a single gulp, filled it with Whisky and stood up, telling her mates she was going to go talk to Randy Joe. She walked over to Randy Joe, who was cleaning a clear glass before settling it down and folded his arms once he saw her.
"Well, if it isn't little Mince. Haven't seen you in a while, dearie, how are ya?" he smiled at her.
Mare smiled back and sat on the stool in front of him, telling him how busy she had been lately.
"I could tell. You ok there in the shoulder? It's not proportional looking as the other one." Randy poked her gently in her injured shoulder, which she replied with a groan and move back slightly.
"Yeah, just usual stuff you know. Part of the job. Hey, Randy, you know uh…. Mr. Gaster?" she sipped her Whisky, avoiding eye contact.
"Dearie, there's a lot of Mr. Gaster. Which one are we referring to?" Randy grabbed another glass and started wiping it.
"Um… Gaster from Delta Rune?"
Randy set the glass down and folded his arms. "Sir Gaster from Delta Rune… yes, I do know him. Why do you ask?"
"No reason. Is he here? Because his… crew… seemed to be."
"Well, yes. In fact, he's upstairs right now. Probably taking care of some business, sweets." He smiled at her. Mare stayed quiet for a while, thinking, before nodded and smiled back at Randy. The two always had a close relationship ever since one of the older boys took Mare to Randy Joe's pub years ago. Randy occasionally teaches her how to make a drink or two whenever he was free and Mare gladly accepted the lessons. The feeling of guilt did rose every now and then every time they conversed as Randy doesn't really know who she was. Not that it would matter anyways. A hand pulling Mare by the arm brought her back to reality from her train of thought on Gaster. The force made her got off her seat and dragged her towards the dance floor, which was in front of the stage where a band played a merry, up beat tune. She turned to see Bub leading her towards Mark, who was already dancing on the dance floor.
Finally reaching the dance floor, Bub joined Mark in his dancing as Mare just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. After a few minutes of being bumped against and standing there awkwardly, Mare relaxed and slowly smiled, moving her body to the beat. Bub noticed this and edged closer to her, moving his feet. The two danced wholeheartedly throughout the song, not caring about anyone. Like a pair of compatible swans, Bub and Mare ruled the dancefloor with their fabulous dance moves, in sync with the beats that was being played. Mark saw the two dancing to themselves and decided to join them, making them break their rhythm. Bub scowled at him while Mare laughed and turned around, heading back towards the stool she was sitting on a few songs ago, tired from the activity. Walking back, she glanced at her table to see Hank still playing poker against James and this time, with Fred too. Mare smiled and took out her gloves from the depths of her pants pocket and proceeded to put them on. She gave them a few good stretches before finally reaching her stool and whistled for Randy's attention. Randy walked over to her with a smile after a moment or two and placed a small glass of alcoholic drink in line of her vision. It was electrifying green mixed with purple, fizz bubbling up the inside of the glass. Mare licked her lips and said her thanks before grabbing the glass and leisurely downed the content, enjoying every savoury second.
"I'm sorry but you seemed rather awfully interesting."
Mare nearly spat out her drink which was halfway gone but managed not to and set down the glass, placing a sleeve over her mouth and coughed violently. She turned her head, still coughing, to see a gorgeous young woman, about a few years younger than she was, smiling at her. Her coughs eventually died down and she looked around before pointing to herself as if the lady was talking to another behind her. The lady laughed and nodded, extending her hand for a handshake.
"Jeanne Marie. And you are?" she asked.
Mare raised an eyebrow but took her hand otherwise, shaking it. "Mince De Silva. You do realize I am a female, yes?" her tone was confused.
"Yes I do, but that does not matter. What's between your pants does not worry me. Are you here alone?" she continued, letting go of Mare hand and rested her arm on the bar. Mare shook her head slowly, starting to get suspicious, and told her that her mates were in the area. Jeanne gave out a stunning laugh and rested her head on the palm of her hand which was on the bar. She used her other free hand to place it on Mare's right cheek, making her blush.
Jeanne suddenly moved her head and leaned in, catching Mare's lips in a soft kiss. Mare was too shocked to move, her body paralyzed on the spot as the other young lady moved her other hand to grasped Mare's other cheek after a few moments have passed to deepen the kiss. Her mind was blank, her heartbeat was faster than the beat of the music and her body was unresponsive. Before she could do anything, Jeanne leaned away and smirked at the blushing older woman. She gracefully grabbed Mare's glass and gave it a spin before handing it to her. Mare, on the other hand, could only nod and took the drink, gulping it down in one go, unaware of the different taste it left behind on her tongue. Jeanne giggled and was about to say more but Mare had bolted out of the pub from the emotional pressure that was building up inside of her. She didn't realized the vicious smirk that grew wider on the lovely lips she had kissed moments ago.
Mare sat on the curb in front of Randy Joe's windows. She cradled her head in her arms, feeling the headache slowly seeped into her mind. It was very strange as Mare and alcohol got along well. She could hold her liquor strong and one glass of her favourite drink wouldn't hurt her. The headache amplified, her mind couldn't take it and everything was ringing. She gasped for air, the pain unbearable as she slowly slumped down the sidewalk, eyes slowly closing.
The drink..!
But it was too late.
The bells on the door chimed as a figure walked out of the pub.
The last thing Mare saw was a smirk on that familiar lips she tasted only moments ago.
Hey guys, sorry if this chapter is a bit bland. I just want to set up some points for future chapter and let's see if you catch it too ;) To be honest, I have nothing much to say :( This might be last update, since I have exams on may till june but probably not. I'll probably update anyway :) Anyways, thanks for reading this, really. You guys are the best and I love all of you 3
Goodnight, Reader-chan.
