Another Day, Another Life
Chapter 21: Blade of Oedipus
by YaoiKitten
Alexis' order had been simple.
He was more than a little upset over the Mayor Gloria incident. Cain had wiped out his public figurehead - the public representative of Delilah - managing not only to kill the man but get rid of his assistant, another important member of Delilah. Alexis was not going to stand for it.
/ "Go and make sure he realizes that he has not gotten the best of us." /
Riffiel had heard the order, and obeyed. As he walked along the dark streets of London, his mind entertained several ways of torturing his former master. He could kill someone close to him. He could destroy his property. He could hurt him directly.
It didn't take long for Riffiel to choose number three. It was much more fun that way.
He walked leisurely to the Hargreaves estate. It was well past midnight and there was hardly anyone in the streets. He didn't even need the pale moonlight to find his way home. He knew the house, and the way there, like the back of his hand. He stood outside of the iron gate, gazing at the large mansion resting quietly in the darkness.
Riffiel smoked a cigarette while he contemplated how he was going to carry out his order, then put it out on the brick wall. He climbed over the tall brick and iron fence quickly, displaying great agility and strength. He landed soundlessly on the other side.
He walked up to the house, going around to the side door that they always kept unlocked for the servants to go in and out of at all hours of the night.
He was surprised to find the door locked. He contemplated for a second. He could do it the easy and loud way, or the quiet and hard way.
He sighed before standing back to plant a firm kick directly next to the door knob, effectively kicking the door in. Loud and easy it was then. He winced when the door slammed into the inner wall.
Riffiel hurried inside to the kitchen, up the back stairway, and into the hall of bedrooms upstairs. There were hardly any servants on the premises so he had no trouble avoiding detection. He walked along the hallway quietly, his hands in his coat pockets as he continued down to the room at the end of the hall.
It too was locked.
Riffiel gritted his teeth and took out a lock pick. He could have probably went down to his old room on the first floor and gotten the bedroom key from there, but he didn't want to take the time and risk being found, especially since there was a very good chance that the key would no longer be there.
Riffiel worked at the lock quietly, working at it until he heard a click and felt the machinery turn inside. He pushed the door open a bit and slid into the room, closing the door silently behind him.
He looked toward the bed in the center of the room and noted that there was, in fact, a person sleeping there. He locked the door behind him.
The plush carpet muted every footstep as he made his way to the bed. He found the oil lamp on the nightstand and turned it up a bit, just barely enough to see.
He looked at Cain sleeping peacefully in his bed. The auburn hair shined red in the light from the small flame and the dark lashes rested on golden cheeks. Riff reflected on how beautiful the boy really was, lying on his stomach in bed with his face turned toward him, his auburn hair glimmering around his face and shoulders.
Riffiel sat down on the edge of the bed gingerly, watching carefully.
Cain moved slightly, cuddling closer to Riff's body.
Riffiel reached out, running his index finger along the boy's lower lip. Cain moved again, turning over onto his back but still not opening his eyes. Riffiel reached out and laid his hand on the boy's cheek.
Cain's eyes opened slowly, looking at Riff calmly.
"How long did you know I was here?" Riffiel asked in a whispery voice.
"Since you kicked the door in downstairs, then I heard you picking the lock," Cain whispered back.
"I see," Riffiel said, running his hand slowly down the boy's cheek to his neck. He liked the look of panic that came across Cain's face when he touched that delicate, slender white neck. He continued to caress the skin there, not grabbing or tightening his grip any.
Cain looked away from Riff, tried to control his uneasy breathing.
Riffiel leaned over him, resting his arm on the other side of Cain's body so he could hover over him and prevent the younger man from jumping up and trying to escape. "You know why I'm here, then?"
Cain closed his eyes and nodded. "I'd rather have this than have you hurt Merry or someone else I care about."
"You're so self-sacrificing," Riffiel cooed. With one swift motion he yanked the covers off the bed, making them land in a heap on the floor.
Cain jumped at the sudden movement, the sudden chill wafting across his skin. He was wearing only a nightshirt so he shivered a bit. "What are you--"
His words were cut off as Riffiel placed a hand over his mouth. Cain glared at the other man, indignant that he would be cut off like that. Riffiel smiled, taking his other hand and running it up Cain's bare leg, starting at the knee.
Cain bit Riff's hand, but the older man didn't seem to care. He felt Riff reach the holster that he kept strapped to his thigh while he slept and remove the small pistol.
Riffiel opened the chamber and checked the number of bullets. "I've been thinking of the best way to do this. You're a dangerous little thing, so I had to consider carefully what would be the most effective."
Cain sat up on his elbows, contemplating jumping up and running for the door while Riff was playing with his gun. However, he realized that Riff would easily shoot him before he even made it to the door. "So, what did you decide?"
Riffiel smiled wickedly, "The one thing that will finally break you, since my 'betrayal' apparently wasn't enough." Riffiel reached out and placed his hand on Cain's chest, pushing down roughly until he flopped back onto the pillows under the weight. Cain kept his indignant glare, his eyes flashing gold in the firelight. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."
Cain's eyes widened as realization hit him. He knew what Riffiel was intending, and his heart sped up as he watched him lower himself down close to the boy.
Cain began to struggle, pushing on Riff to keep him away from him, "No! Stop!"
Cain's yells were cut off when Riff backhanded him. His head spun and his vision blurred as he felt Riffiel press his lips against his own roughly.
"How can you… do this?" Cain asked as he tried to push Riff away again, only finding that he was no match for the much larger man. His head swam dizzily as Riffiel kissed down his neck.
"It drives me crazy, you know. The way that I want you. I know it isn't even me that wants you, but the desire is still there…" Riffiel bit down on Cain's lower lip hard enough to draw blood. "I can do this because 'that man' wants it too."
"No! Please…" Cain begged, blood running into his mouth and down his chin. He tried to squirm free. "Don't do this… Riff…"
"That 'Riff' is dead. I already told you." Riffiel got up and straddled the younger man so he wouldn't escape. "Just because I share his thoughts, his feelings, doesn't mean he is still here. He doesn't exist anymore, only those reflections of him are left."
Cain shuddered as he felt Riffiel push up his nightshirt, feeling warm fingers running across his bare stomach. He turned his head to the side so he wouldn't have to look at Riffiel, who was taking off his coat at the moment. Cain's eyes landed on his gun on the nightstand.
While Riffiel was pulling his shirt over his head, Cain reached over to the nightstand and grasped the small pistol desperately. He saw Riff's hand wrap quickly around his wrist, holding the gun pointed away from the two of them.
"Not very smart," Riffiel told him, slamming his hand down onto the hard wood of the nightstand tabletop. Cain let out a cry as the gun slipped from his fingers, clattering from the table's surface to the floor. Riffiel brought the hand to his lips, kissing the fingers delicately while his own hand ground the wrist bones together. Cain cried out in pain.
"Please, stop…"
"Are you going to be a good boy?" Riffiel asked, tightening his grip even more as he sucked lightly on Cain's index finger.
"Yes…" he whimpered.
Riff let go of the hand, which Cain immediately brought up against his chest. He held his throbbing wrist and tried to blink the tears from his eyes. The next thing he felt was Riffiel ripping his nightshirt right up the middle, tearing it off his body.
Riffiel ran his hands up and down the boy's smooth chest and stomach, feeling the soft skin covering the hard muscles and flesh underneath. Riffiel dug his nails in and Cain gasped.
"Aren't you going to cry?" Riffiel asked, licking the blood that he had drawn off of his fingertips. "You have been rather fond of doing that lately."
Cain glared at Riff. "No."
"We'll see about that," Riff told him as he stood up and began to undo his pants.
Cain looked at Riff, then back at the door. He even looked toward the window. He would never be able to get to either of them before Riff was on top of him, and his gun was currently at Riff's feet.
He considered screaming at the top of his lungs, but he was the only one who stayed in this wing and anyone else probably wouldn't hear him. Cain turned on his side and curled in on himself, trying to calm his nerves.
Riffiel finished undressing and reached out to Cain, grasping his forearm and forcing the younger man on his back to face him. Cain's jaw was set indignantly as Riff lowered himself down on top of him.
"Relax, isn't this what you wanted?"
"No," Cain protested. He couldn't keep his eyes from running up and down Riff's body. He had never seen Riff with so much as his shirt off, but now he could see everything, including the rose-shaped burn mark on his chest. Cain blushed, "I wanted Riff. I didn't want you."
"I'm sure if you closed your eyes and pretended, you could easily forget and think that I am Riff." Riffiel chuckled, "I'll even treat you gently and call you 'Master' if you want."
Cain's temper snapped. He slapped Riff across the face, hard. "Don't you dare assume that you can impersonate him! I will not tolerate you playing games with me!"
Riff simply smiled cruelly and slapped Cain back, hard enough to make his own hand hurt. "Oh, but you will. I will play games with you all night long until I get bored with you."
Cain was unable to reply, his head was swimming too badly for him to be coherent.
Riff opened the bottle he held in his hand. It was some massage oil. He coated himself liberally with the liquid, trying to hold back a moan at the sensations his own hand was giving him. Once satisfied, he wiped his hand on the sheets and spread the unresisting boy's legs, settling between them.
"Fine then, if you don't want me to be Riff, then I'll make it very obvious that I am who I am now," Riffiel told him as he positioned himself. He placed Cain's legs against his chest and leaned forward enough so the younger man couldn't move.
Cain tried to focus on the form above him, but his vision swirled sickeningly. He could feel Riff's movements though, and it scared him. He started to panic.
Calmly and carefully, Riffiel forced his way into the boy.
Cain gasped and screamed, strangled noises coming from his throat as he started to feel faint from the pain. He had never imagined it to hurt so much, it felt as though a hot knife was tearing apart his insides. He screamed again, but Riffiel simply put his hand over the boy's mouth.
"Shhh…" Riff told him, pushing himself in further until he was completely inside. "You wouldn't want your sister to come in and see this, would you?"
Cain's eyes opened and he stared at Riff with the expression of a frightened child.
Riffiel loved that look and began to rock back and forth, moving in and out of the boy slowly.
Cain choked, trying to relax, trying to ease the pain and make it easier for himself. "Stop it," he pleaded. "Riff, please… don't…"
"I'm not 'Riff'" Riffiel pointed out, speeding up a bit, making the boy cry out with each thrust. "I won't stop until you admit that. Until you scream MY name"
"Why?" Cain managed to force out.
"I want to break you. I won't be happy until I see you break, Annoying Count."
Cain gasped as Riffiel thrust into him, fighting back the tears that came to his eyes and twisting his hands in the sheets. Riffiel was not gentle at all as he pounded the boy into the mattress.
Riffiel wrapped his fingers into Cain's auburn hair and yanked back sharply. "I will make you suffer…for making the other me love you."
"It hurts…"
"That's funny, because you seem to be enjoying it," Riffiel pointed out as he wrapped his hand pointedly around Cain's erection.
Cain squirmed in his hand. "Stop…"
"Not until you say it," Riffiel told him, stroking him firmly as he continued to thrust. In all reality, Cain was so hot and tight, he didn't think he could last much longer anyway. The friction was too good, almost painful.
Cain's whole body shook as Riffiel pounded into him, the bed squeeking with each movement. "Stop it… Riffiel…"
Riffiel smiled a feral smile. He kept his hand on Cain until he made him come a before pulling out and emptying himself onto the boy's stomach. The sticky, milky liquids mixed together on Cain's abdomen.
Slowly, Riff got up and began to get dressed. Cain laid there on his back, staring up at the ceiling as the tears streamed down his face
Riff finished getting dressed and grabbed his coat, tossing it over his arm. "Your father had a message for you. 'Don't think that you can get the better of us'"
Riff turned and unlocked the door, letting himself out.
Cain laid there in the lamplight. He hurt all over, and his head ached. He was sticky and he wanted to get up to wash himself off, but it hurt too much for him to move. He laid there, curling up on his side and letting his sobbing out in body-shaking breaths. He cried all night before he could finally move the next morning to go and draw himself a bath.
"Oh God!" Riff sat up quickly, his nerves on fire. He had moved with Alexis to a new location, retired to his room, and tried to take a nap. His skin was wet and cold, he wasn't sure if it was the medicine or his dream that was causing it.
Riff, before he had gone to take his nap, had done some thinking. He didn't know how long the drug that Alexis had given him would last, so he decided the best thing to do was try to detox. It could last a couple of weeks, or it could last only a couple of hours. Alexis would have to give it to him again if that was the case, so he had decided not to eat or drink anything from the house except the tap water. He hoped that even that was not tainted at least.
He couldn't return to Cain because he had no idea how he would react if he saw the boy again, afraid he would carry out the hypnotic suggestion that Alexis had given him. So he stayed with Alexis, hoping to gain more information about the drug and his hypnotism. Besides, if he was with Alexis, he could monitor his movements.
So Riff had gone to bed after drinking a lot of tap water. He was hoping that maybe sleeping would wear off some of the drugs effects.
But he had had that dream.
Riff rose from the bed, running his hands through his hair and cursing himself. He couldn't believe that he had done something like that to his past love.
He stood up, looked down, and cursed himself again. He also couldn't believe that even now he was reacting to such a thing. He had hurt the boy, both physically and mentally, and here he was getting hard about it!
He went to the adjacent bathroom and turned on the shower. He could understand why, in the dream, Cain's body couldn't help but react the way it did. And of course he - well, Riffiel - had to use that to instill guilt and shame into the boy.
How many crying nights had Cain spent after that?
Riff stepped into the hot water, feeling disgusted with himself. He felt dirtier than he ever thought he would be able to wash off.
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Cain made his way up the carefully manicured lawn to knock on the front door of the neat little two story house. He had left Jez and Oscar in the car parked on the street to wait for him.
Cain whistled a chipper tune while he pulled on some thin black leather gloves, waiting for someone to come to the door. He smiled brightly as the door opened and Terry Green, one of Jamie's friends, blinked out at him.
"What are you doing here?" Terry asked uncharitably.
"I was wondering if you knew where Jamie Rose has been keeping himself?"
"Six feet under, the last time I checked," Terry told him before going to shut the door.
Cain reached out and put his gloved hand on Terry's wrist, the smile completely gone from his face. "You and I both know that's not true."
Terry tore his arm away from Cain's grasp and backed up into the house. Cain stepped up into the house, allowing the door to swing shut behind him.
"Ew! What was on your hand?" Terry wiped his wrist off on his jeans.
"Are your parents home?" Cain asked. When Terry didn't answer, Cain raised his voice to yell. "HELLO?"
No answer.
"What do you want?"
"Jamie took my little sister, now I want you to tell me where he had been hanging out with my father so I can find her."
"Your father?" Terry looked shocked, "that guy is your father?"
Cain raised an eyebrow. "So you do know something about this."
"I'm not telling you nothing," Terry said as he leaned against the wall to keep his balance. Suddenly, he wasn't feeling very good.
"You look a little green there, Terry. Why don't you tell me where Jamie is, I'll give you the antidote, and we'll go on our merry little way?"
Terry looked at Cain in shock, "antidote?"
"To the poison I just gave you." Cain clarified, taking off his gloves and shoving them back into the plastic bag he had gotten them out of and into his pocket.
Terry's eyes grew wide. "You're lying."
"Am I? Those symptoms you are experiencing surely can't be a lie of mine. And look at your jeans, the thigh is becoming discolored where you wiped the poison off."
Terry looked at his jeans, seeing the color separate from the fabric and leave a bleach stain.
"It's called 'Akonichin' and it will cause death within 10 minutes. It takes only a gram or two to paralyze the nervous system, resulting in death."
"You're crazy!" Terry told him, his voice rising frantically. "You'll go to jail for this!"
"Just like I went to jail for killing my father?"
"Your father is still alive!"
"My mistake."
Terry looked at Cain, looked at the calm and bored expression on his face. The pieces were falling into place. "Fine, I'll tell you. Jamie has been living with that older man in some abandoned house that he had fixed up on the very edge of town, about a forty minute drive from here."
Cain sat down at the small desk in the hallway and pulled out a pen and paper. "Give me directions."
Terry felt like the blood was solidifying in his body. It was a sickening experience, "I'm not really sure, because I never drove up there. Jamie would always meet us when we'd hang out. I can only tell you what he told us."
Cain was fairly sure that Jamie was sneaking out to see his friends without his father knowing, but said nothing about this. "Well, tell me all that you know."
Cain wrote down the various clues that Terry was able to give him about the location. Cain felt fairly certain that they would be able to find the house based on the information. He stood to leave.
"The antidote!" Terry implored as Cain looked as though he was about to walk off.
"Oh, yeah." Cain pulled a small vial from his inside coat pocket and set it down on the desk. "Take this and you'll experience no side effects from the poison. Drink it with a glass of water."
Terry hesitated a moment before moving forward sluggishly to grab the vial. Cain turned and left, trusting Terry to take the antidote.
He walked back down the walkway to Oscar's car parked and waiting out front.
"How did it go?" Jez asked as Cain climbed into the car.
"I convinced him to tell me kind of where the house was."
Jez turned around in his seat to look at Cain, who had his eyes closed and was leaning back against the seat. "Is he still alive?"
"He'll live" Cain confirmed. He handed the piece of paper with the directions to Jez.
Oscar pulled out into traffic. "Are you feeling all right, Cain?"
Cain nodded. "The fumes from the 'Akonichin' kind of got to me, I'm feeling a bit weak…"
Jez squawked, "Will that stuff kill you?"
"Not the fumes. I'll be fine, I think I'm just… going to pass out…"
Oscar looked up into the rear view mirror worriedly. "That can't be good."
Jez shrugged and looked at the directions that Cain had given him. "There's not much we can do. Besides, he is trusting us to find this house."
"Is there an address?"
"No, but we know the general area."
"Besides," Cain said sluggishly from the back seat, "how many newly renovate-- newly fixed… houses… can there be…?"
"It is because I had an interest in collecting the experimental ingredients from you." Alexis explained, smoking his pipe calmly. "I wanted you to show me in what way a demonic child given a cursed life and raised without being loved would grow."
Alexis pulled back the curtain covering one side of the wall, revealing Riff on the other side. "To that end I created him."
Cain could not hide his shock as he came face-to-face with the man for the first time since that night a few months ago.
"I brought her along." Riffiel said, addressing Alexis and completely ignoring Cain.
'It's just as if…'
'...he doesn't even see me.'
"Oh, show her in." Alexis instructed.
Cain looked anxiously at the two men who were engrossed in their conversation. Cain lifted his hand surreptitiously in Riff's direction, as if he could grasp the man's attention if he just tried.
Michaela rushed through the curtain behind Riff, her voice and face excited, "CAIN!"
Cain stared at her in surprise as she threw herself into his arms.
"But, the planned day draws near…" Alexis said to Cain, cutting in on Michaela's heartfelt reunion. "Consequently, she won't have much spare time to play with you. Accordingly, this is your final role, Cain. You will conceive a child with Michaela for me."
Cain pushed her away, holding her at arms length as he spoke to his father. "What nonsense are you…"
"Is that disagreeable?" Alexis asked. Michaela bounced over to stand in front of him as he placed one hand under her chin, the other on her waist. "Have a look. She's a masterpiece created from your cousin...your first love, Judith. My darling Michaela wished it herself and so she received a surgical procedure to grow up."
"Uhuh." Michaela confirmed. "Since Alexis, who is enamored of me, recommends it then there's no mistaking it, is there."
"Wait!" Cain demanded. "For what on earth purpose?"
"I want a child that is even more warped and more closely related to itself by blood. Once fertilized, I will extract it and allow it to develop...Because a wholly cursed child is necessary for the sake of the forthcoming planned day. The sacrifice of a maiden that will lead this world into darkness!"
"Are you saying that you plan to create an even more unfortunate child?" Cain demanded, rushing forward to grab onto his father. "That's ridiculous... you're mad! I'm not a toy for use in your--"
Cain words were cut off as Riffiel grabbed him from behind and threw him roughly to the ground.
Alexis pulled out a whip. "You're rather determined to disobey me, aren't you, Cain. Had you perhaps forgotten the pain of those marks on your back?" Alexis snapped the whip across Cain's back with a quick flick of his wrist.
Cain grabbed onto his shoulder in shock, the searing pain lacing itself across his skin and tearing him back through time. He felt the fabric slide away to reveal the dozens of scars on his back.
"The proof of your cursed sin."
Michaela gasped in shock when she saw the scars.
Cain hid his face behind his shoulder as he clutched at the torn fabric, knowing that everyone was looking at his marks.
"Those...wounds…" Riffiel said, staring at them in shock and looking taken aback.
Cain whipped his head around to look at Riff.
Riffiel laid his hand on the side of his head, looking as if he might throw up any minute. "Ah....Ma...Master Cain?
Cain slowly rose to his feet. He approached Riff cautiously. "Ri....Ri...ff?
"Master Ca...in?" Riff asked.
Cain placed his hands of Riff's shoulders soothingly. He leaned in closer, searching Riff's face desperately. "You…"
Cain felt the sharp sting on his neck of a needle piercing his skin. His eyes grew wide as he stared at Riff, feeling the thick liquid begin to course through his veins. He reached up one hand and laid it against Riff's cheek just as nausea hit him.
"Yes, indeed." Riffiel said. Cain slumped against the man, not knowing if his legs would keep him up. He clutched at the fabric of Riff's jacket as Riff's right hand unconsciously came to rest on the boy's shoulder, helping to support him. Riffiel addressed Alexis, "I told you that he might believe after all that 'he' still lives, didn't I?"
Riffiel tossed Cain to the floor. Cain looked entirely too pissed for anyone's good.
"Is it affecting the freedom of your body? It's a poisonous substance extracted from the nerve venom of my precious friends," Michaela told him, leaning forward and resting her hands on her knees to gloat to Cain.
"Numbness of the muscles, a feeling of hypersensitivity...Followed by hallucinations resulting from anxiety of the mind... As time wears on the irregularity of the heartbeat advances, blood pressure decreases…" Riffiel took out his handkerchief to clean the blood of the syringe, looking at Cain coldly. "Due to partial respiration, you descend into a coma...finally resulting in... Death."
Cain's eyes widened once again as he felt his heart rate speed up and he felt his throat contract.
"If you ask me nicely, I'll save you." Alexis told him calmly, holding the whip between his hands. "Take a look...now do you see....Michaela reflected in your eyes now?"
"Cain...are you in pain?" Michaela asked as she saw Cain bring his hand up to cover his mouth. "How pitiful... You...came to be treated ill all that time by Alexis in this way...didn't you...Oh...but these red stigma that countlessly run across your white skin are so very beautiful…"
Michaela reached out her gloved hand to touch the scars running across Cain's back. She was the only other person besides Riff to touch them, ever. "I alone will be able to give you love, Cain…"
Cain looked back at her, the drug causing his vision to blur. He looked at Michaela and saw the beautiful, smiling face of his cousin. 'Ju...Judith?'
Cain turned over and leaned back on his hands to look at her. Michaela leaned forward to kiss him. "Embrace me, Cain…"
Cain forcefully pushed her away from him, scooting back a couple of feet in a desperate effort to get away from her. He glared at her. "Quit referring to me as a 'pitiful child', Michaela!"
Michaela turned around and stared at Cain.
"No matter how much we seem to be alike, only you appear to be unloved! You are not loved by my father, Michaela." Cain glanced at his father and Riffiel, one looking smug the other uninterested. "All that my father sees is himself and the end of the world. You are one of father's 'guinea pigs'. If a child were created between you and I, he'd probably say a requiem for you with the mouth that had whispered love."
Cain pointed at the bandaged arm that was becoming unraveled, exposing charred and burnt skin. " The truly pitiful one is you. If you would call me wrong, then what on earth is that body?"
Michaela looked at her arm before letting out an indignant scream.
"He saw it! Cain did...My....my...nooo!" Michaela cried out. She grabbed the whip from Alexis' hand. "Liar! You're all filthy liars! I hate you!"
Michaela raised the whip, bringing it down again and again onto Cain's body. "Michaela is loved! Liar that you are, Cain, die!"
Cain raised his arms to cover his face, wincing under each blow. Alexis looked on smugly while smoking his pipe.
"Even if you knelt before me to beg forgiveness in such a way, I would not help you... Continue to die here all alone and miserable, Cain! I have no need for you ,Cain, who will not love Michaela!" Michaela dropped the whip and ran back through the curtain from which she came, trying to stifle her tears the whole way.
Alexis leaned forward. "My, my...Michaela is a severe woman isn't she. Isn't that your favorite, Cain?"
Cain wiped the blood from his face, glaring at his father and Riff standing motionlessly in the background.
"Your fate is that you will never be able to attain love. Even things of yours that you believed in were, in reality, different, weren't they?" Alexis asked, obviously referring to Riff. "Now, about the small flower that you so preciously shut up...what if it were really something short-lived?"
Cain raised an eyebrow at this, his brow furrowed deeply
"If you mean to be overly stubborn, then you should be made to be punished, shouldn't you."
"Y...you can't lay a hand on Merryweather!" Cain told him, trying to rise up from the ground.
"He shall probably be the one for the job. At any rate, if it concerns such things as you or your house, he will fully grasp it." Alexis pointed toward Riffiel with his pipe. "It seems I must make you understand once more just how foolish a thing it is to disobey me. If I were to set about placing the head of his beloved, little sister on a golden platter, even this child would repent."
Riffiel pulled out a pistol from his breast pocket, checking it over carefully to make sure it was in working order. "As you wish, your excellency."
Riff turned and left without another word.
'Ri..ff! RIFF!'
The last thing that Cain heard before he passed out from the drug was his father laughing.
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Merry followed her brother up the hill to the mausoleum currently being constructed on Hargreaves property. Her white, frilly dress blew around her legs in the brisk wind. The ribbon in her hair lost itself among the golden strands being played with by the breeze. She held her favorite hat in her hand. It was her favorite because Riff and her brother had picked it out together and bought it for her.
'When I was told of the betrayal of Riff, who brother had put absolute trust in...and the fact that he was father's card, I could not believe it. But then…'
Merry closed her eyes, remembering a scene she had witnessed just a month prior. She had watched through the doorway as Cain had stood before Riff, his forearm raised so Riff could button his cuff. Cain was watching Riff's fingers tame the unruly button while Riff performed the task dutifully, his eyes closed and his senses directing him.
'It seemed that not even I could approach it, the atmosphere that surrounded brother and he….It seemed to have an altogether different kind of air.' Merry crinkled her nose as she thought about it. It confused her more than anything, though she thought she understood. And that only confused her even more. 'I'm becoming uneasy.'
Merry snapped to attention as her brother turned around and looked at her, noticing that she had all but practically stopped walking as she was thinking. Merry looked at that smiling face and felt her heart break.
"Are you coming, Merryweather?"
"MERRYWEATHER!"
Merry opened her eyes and sat up blearily. She had fallen asleep on the floor what barely seemed a minute ago. She had started dreaming immediately, and now she had been woken up. She listened again.
"MERRY!"
"I'm in here!" Merry called out to the muffled voice she could barely even hear. "I'm up here! Brother, is that you?"
"Merry! We're coming!"
The voice was getting closer now, and she could hear footsteps just outside of her door. "Brother! I'm in here!"
"It's locked."
"I'll break it down."
Merry heard a thud, then the door to her room swung open. Oscar entered the room, her brother and Jez following close behind him.
Cain rushed to her, "Merry! Are you all right?"
Merry wrinkled her nose at him, "Brother, when did you ever find the time to cut your hair?"
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Fate wrung her hands as she watched the show play out before her. It was time now. The characters were arriving, the stage was set, the curtain was rising.
She chewed her nails as she felt the chill run down her spine as Death came to stand behind her. He made his icy presence known.
Fate watched over her children. Death watched over them as well. She had done what she could, now it was all up to them.