The dullest period of the afternoon had approached timidly as if it wanted nothing, with birds hovering in the sky and a calm and tranquil breeze after the heavy rain of early morning, leaving only the tranquility and silence in the air. Karl was on the roof of the house, watching the view of the city like an eagle watching the forest, attentive to every detail as he did on the less cold days in the village, when he could drink some wine and bread, taking a few hours to imagine what it was like to have freedom - he never came close to having the feeling for years on end, but now the idea was exciting. And how exciting it was... getting around, working, meeting new people... of course, spending so much time messing around with different bodies and playing Frankenstein didn't do his head any good, but he was absolutely sure he would get along with people.
He heard the sound of metal banging against the facade wall and slow footsteps increasing as he saw the top of Mia's head, clinging to the rail with one hand and holding a basket of food in the other, taking momentum and climbing unsteadily onto the roof - Karl was too distracted watching the view, even though he had mentally registered that the woman was there.
"You really like rooftops, huh?" she said, panting and taking a moment to breathe.
"I'm surprised to see you here again, won't your husband be mad?"
"Oh, he... doesn't want to talk to me for now."
"Really? I knew he'd be mad as fuck by the help... sorry!"
"No, no! Relax, this is between me and him. If he says anything about you I'll tell you." She replied quickly, taking a slice of cake from the basket and a bottle of wine. "I didn't know which flavor you liked, so..."
"Wow, looks yummy!" He finally turned his head to look at her, picking up the cake and admiring it before starting to eat. "Hmmm-!"
"It's strawberry, I'm glad to…"
"Mia…"
"Yes? Something wrong?"
"..." He paused, thinking. "I... FUCKING LOVED THAT CAKE!"
"Pfft-! I've never seen anyone praise a cake like that before, I'm glad you liked it!"
"I think when I start work, I already know what I'm going to spend it on first!"
"Oooh, you're going to spend it all on food?"
"And what else would I use the money on?"
"Very wise..." She bowed, laughing as she sat back down. "Changing the subject...gee, what a view."
Karl wiped the corner of his mouth with his left hand, looking back to the horizon.
"When the cold in the village wasn't so intense I used to climb up on the roof of the factory and...just stare, you know? It gives you a good feeling. Hopeful. It was the only thing that made me feel human."
Mia turned her head slowly towards him, picking up the bottle of wine and filling the two glasses that were in the basket quietly, the breeze swaying her hair in the air as well as the man's, a silence hung in the air but it wasn't uncomfortable,it was relaxing. This was a moment of peace, of contemplation, so all the talk was about the view of the city. Fingers were pointed at small details like birds landing on chimneys, graffiti in hidden corners, objects wrapped around wires, people in windows, and other things. They both joked and laughed when they saw a person hanging his underwear on a clothesline on the balcony while they drank more wine. Soon, the silence returned naturally and remained, calm and peaceful.
Until Karl decided to talk again.
"You know, I don't want to play the cliché, but... it's nice to do this now with someone on my side."
"Really?"
Karl nodded, laying back against the tiles carefully. Mia slid her finger along the rim of the glass, smiling sweetly.
"That's nice. I think I'll start doing that with Ethan, too."
"..." He closed his eyes, putting his arms behind his head. "I was wondering if... he doesn't want me around here anymore."
"Of course he does! Ethan...he's traumatized by everything that's happened, you know? It wasn't hard to face it all alone. I mean, as far as he could handle it on his own."
"I don't know, Mia... I think I'd better get somewhere far away, stay away, until I decide to come to town and face this life." He confessed, even though it hurt to say it out loud.
"Karl...don't think like that. Listen..." She removed the basket that was between the two of them and sat closer to him, creating a rather intimate distance (which Heisenberg was not at all used to). "...I had started journalism school a few years ago and when I realized that the studies piled up I just gave up and dropped out, I was afraid to face everything that might come next...but it was all a result of my anxiety."
"College" Karl thought as he listened to the woman's words, her hair hitting his face with the closeness.
"What I mean is that it's okay to feel afraid of some things, but don't let anxiety take over...I would have loved to have finished studying journalism, I love telling stories."
"I could tell by the amount of books in the house..." he joked with a laugh, making her laugh as well.
"True... but, look, whatever Ethan is going to say to you, try not to absorb too much. I can already tell you're not very comfortable around him after the fight."
The man nodded slowly, watching the sky without saying anything else. Mia slowly lowered herself down, lying down next to him, and the two of them went back to enjoying the view for a few more minutes.
"How about..."
"Hm?"
"Is there somewhere the four of us can walk? Somewhere open?"
"Well..." Mia stood thoughtfully for a few seconds, turning to him. "There's a park, downtown. Do you want to go there?"
"Yeah, you can't get everyone up here without breaking the house."
Mia laughed softly, getting up to head toward the stairs when Karl took her hand.
"Tell him it was your idea, please."
"I will."
Dry leaves rustled on the ground like slugs when the wind suddenly came up among the trees and forced them to float for a few brief seconds, the swaying of the branches and the symphony of nature were the perfect request for a sunny evening like that. The park itself was neither gigantic nor very small but guaranteed a beautiful view of the flowers and plants, away from the cars passing by - a pure, serene and welcoming air. Mia had given Karl a black t-shirt that Ethan had received for Christmas, but it was too loose and got lost in the closet, so it fit him perfectly. She in turn chose a red blouse with a vivid yellow crocheted jacket and brown pants, making it blend in with the flowers in the park and almost look like a painting - Rose was wearing a green jumpsuit and little white shoes, while Ethan chose only a blue sweater with black sweatpants. The four of them walked quietly along the stone path, commenting on the view of the place, Karl's idea seemed to have been a perfect way to calm things down.
"I'm going to swing a little with Rose, will you take care of the cart?"
"Sure, love. Have fun!" Mia held the cart and pulled the wheel lock, sitting on a bench that was in front of a beautiful wall of peonies.
"Yeah, he's still avoiding me..." Karl said, sitting down next to her right.
"Ah, soon he'll stop acting like that."
"Has it happened many with you guys…? Stay like this?"
"Fighting? Avoiding each other? Sure, that's normal. The important thing is to always talk to each other, to understand each other's side...to seek happiness together."
The man leaned back in his seat as if he had heard a heresy or a legend. Mia looked at him over her right shoulder, raising an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Happiness, uh..." Karl bit the corner of his lip, frowning.
"Yeah...? What do you think that word means to you?"
Gee, that was clearly the hardest question he had ever been asked. If he was made of screws and gears he probably would have crashed and been on fire by now.
"Joseph?"
"Oh, come on...don't say that fucking made-up last name!" He joked, nudging her with his elbow.
"Well, answer me then." Mia laughed, leaning back in the seat along with him.
"Answer me...answer me… I have no idea what this means to me. I think I've only felt it recently, maybe, I'm not sure!" Karl grumbled as if he was trying to avoid the subject.
"When?"
"Uh, er...well, when..." A cross of his arms was enough to let his guard down. "...When you hugged me, you know...no one had ever done that before. No one had… stopped to listen to me, without judging me. To be honest it was the first time in years that I had opened up to someone and not a fucking book. So I guess I felt happiness."
Mia stared at him as she mentally smiled, not saying anything back, but Karl understood that she liked what she heard and just blushed in response. She raised her head to look at Ethan and Rose on the swing, exchanging laughter together, making her smile immensely.
"Look at them... laughing together, this is what I meant about happiness, Karl. It's on the simple things."
"I hope someday to feel what you are feeling so consistently...I guess not having a real heart makes it harder to understand."
"...you've been through a lot, even if you had a human heart it would still be...a hard road to travel."
"...yeah." He stood up slowly with his arms still crossed. "I'll go over and talk to him."
"Oh - Hm, tell Ethan to bring Rose here, I'll take care of her."
"Okay. And hey...thanks for giving me a chance."
Karl took short steps toward the man, a little reluctantly but it was necessary - Ethan didn't seem to want to talk to him anytime soon so that barrier needed to be broken again just like it was at the factory. As manipulative as he was he couldn't use what he knew to get close to the Winters, after all, they welcomed him into their home even after what had happened. It would be too unfair to keep the games going there. The man heard the mechanic's footsteps approaching, so he grabbed Rose right away in his arms to keep her safe-even if there was no danger at all.
"Mia asked you to leave Rose with her...so we could talk." Karl said, looking at the floor.
"Talk? Talk about what?"
"Ethan…"
"No, no. First, you yell at my wife... break the floor of my house, and the next day you're all buddy-buddy, and suddenlyeverything's fine? What kind of power is that?"
"Power...?" He looked up, frowning, "What are you implying? That I'm using some kind of mind control? Sorry, Ethan, but I only do that with corpses. Besides, I only have magnetism powers… comic book powers, remember?"
Ethan walked past him with a frustrated expression, walking Rose over to his wife and leaving the baby in her care, turning directly to Karl and punching him in the face - Mia immediately stood up, running to them and pushing her husband away from him.
"Ethan?!" She shouted with a look of disbelief and anger.
"Mia, please... if he's playing with you..."
"Wow, there you are then...you wanted to do that from the beginning, didn't you?"
"Oh, how I wanted to! I SAVED YOU, YOU BASTARD!" Ethan advanced on him, holding him by the shirt. "You can't be trusted, you're all a bunch of the same scum!"
Karl frowned looking into Ethan's eyes, incredulous at what he was hearing from the person he had trusted the most.
"You're forgetting that you and I are practically brothers, aren't we? Mr. Mold, the invincible daddy! The superior dad!" He laughed nervously, trying to get away from the couple as best he could.
"Really funny. isn't it? You ungrateful bastard, I'm regretting every second since I brought you here! Manipulating my wife with all this drama, just to have Rose, aren't you? ANSWER!"
Karl held Ethan's arms tightly getting rid of the distance between them and gasped, looking at Mia.
"...Do you think...I still have that on my mind? After all I've been through...?"
"Karl..." Mia moved closer, touching his shoulder and receiving an aggressive slap on her hand from the man, who moved further away.
"No!" he shouted, gasping in anger. "I'm not staying in a place that I'm seen as a monster… not again!"
"You guys need to calm down...Ethan, please listen to him..." The woman began to fill her eyes with tears, desperate for some sign of empathy from her husband.
"Listen to what else, Mia? Once a villain will always be a villain! The Bakers were being possessed by Eveline, but what about him? He was already raised that way from the cradle, Miranda taught them to be snakes!"
Karl couldn't stop and listen to all those accusations anymore, so he just turned and started running out of the park - hearing Mia's screams for him to come back - but he couldn't stay there another second. He didn't know exactly where he was going but the mountains seemed like a good choice, so he passed between the cars and ran as fast as he could in a mixture of anger and sadness - maybe if he hadn't screwed up, just maybe, he could have been Ethan's friend. But no matter what he did, any slip up would be cause for a fight, since his first impression of the man was not one of the best.
There was no way he could have a normal life.
Mia and Ethan returned home, Rose was clearly upset about what had happened as she hadn't stopped crying since the way back so the wife tried to get her ready for bed as it had been enough for the baby's day. Ethan, still furious, sat on the couch while he removed his shoes - muttering something that his wife didn't quite hear but she didn't even want to try to understand at that moment. She felt a deep sadness seeing them fight again and with what he had said in the park to Karl, all she wanted was an understanding. Her husband was behaving like a child.
"What is happening to you, Ethan? He's not doing any harm to us! For God's sake, at least leave the fighting for when you come home!"
"He just seems to be friendly, Mia...I'm not going to risk letting you and Rose anywhere near him."
"Why? What was the sudden suspicion?"
He didn't answer right away, provoking even more anger in Mia.
"Wow...and you promised me you'd gotten better…"
"I just want to protect you."
"By keeping anyone who comes near your daughter away? How is she going to develop like that, Ethan?"
"She will, and it's the best thing for her! Do you think those fucking scientists are just going to let her live a normal life after what happened? The last thing I want is Heisenberg wanting to use her!"
"How can you be so sure that's what he wants? Besides, he has no one else to obey, he's not taking orders from Miranda or anyone else. What you are saying is absurd!"
"See, you of all people changed your mind so quickly... If it's not some kind of trick like he says I'm left then wondering if you're creating some kind of feelings for him, Mia."
She frowned, processing what he said.
"...So at the end of the day is that it? Jealousy?" She moved closer to him, looking into his eyes. "Is that it, Ethan?"
"...maybe."
"I...wouldn't put that ring on your finger to be with another man, I would never cheat on you. I'm already happy with you, how many times do I need to tell you that?"
"Mia…"
"Wow, you...are unbelievable sometimes." She said in a low tone, leaving Rose on his lap and walking towards the stairs, slamming the bedroom door.
"...I'm sorry, Rose...I..." Ethan sighed, nestling his daughter in his arms.
The rain came down hard again in the early evening but without very aggressive winds. Among the mountains beyond the iron bars of the city was Karl, climbing dangerously among the rocks and foliage, finding a perfect place to rest next to a huge rock covered with leaves. He collapsed, panting, wishing he would die right there - or that they would just take him back to the village somehow. Being trampled on and rejected was nothing new - but Ethan had not been blacklisted, nor did he imagine he would be so soon.
A few drops fell on his hat, sliding over the edge and hanging down to the dirt floor, only the faint light of the moon illuminating around him.
Karl didn't know exactly what to do, where to go, how to deal with the words spoken, but he was relieved to have at least gotten away from the situation before it got completely worse. Mia was sure to be furious with his attitude, the lesser of two evils in the face of Winters' attitude, as arrogant as that damned Chris Redfield. "Two assholes," he thought as he threw a rock down a hill.
"This one is for Alcina who treated me like crap..." He threw another stone away, watching it disappear from sight on the horizon. "This one is for Beneviento for framing me at the winery... I didn't eat for a week because of you, you bitch!" Another stone flew through the air. "This one is for you Moreau, you bastard...you told Miranda I was being useless...but in the end it was YOU!" Another rock, this time hitting a tree trunk before falling away.
"Now this...for the biggest bitch of all..." Karl stood up, picking up a heavy rock, but with the anger, he felt it weighed like a feather. "...MIRANDA, THE BIGGEST WHORE THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!" He took a breath before throwing the rock, but lost his balance with the throw and rolled a few feet down before hitting his back on a tree in the middle of the path and passing out.
If it hadn't been for the rain he probably would have heard something cracking inside him.
After several hours, with the rain getting heavier, he slowly opened his eyes feeling the world spinning as he tried to get up but the slope was too slippery for him to make any sudden movement. He would certainly fall if he tried to walk or crawl - there was no metal there for him to try to pull and use as support so he was stuck in the rain not knowing for sure what time it was, in complete darkness. Karl looked over his shoulder and saw the city lit up, wondering if it was worth going back, if it was worth the effort to go into Ethan's house and try to have one more uncluttered dialogue - no, the right thing to do was to stay there until the rain stopped, go as far away as possible and start over on his own.
The pain from the impact was not intense, but uncomfortable (he made a mental note not to throw things bigger than his head in a dangerously steep place). He pulled up his shirt and looked at his chest, the Cadou was in one piece and functional. The necklace with the dog tag was there too, everything in order - at least those two things were okay.
"Damn...what's gotten into me to come up here."
Suddenly, the sound of breaking dry leaves came from behind him. He turned quickly with a minimally thick branch in hand, preparing to attack.
It was Mia, holding an iron bar for support and gardening boots, completely drenched.
"Karl...!" She walked with difficulty to him, who stood up to help her.
"Mia, what are you..." She hugged him tightly, knocking them both to the ground and slipping a little when he grabbed onto the tree with one arm. "Mia! What are you doing here?! Are you out of your mind?
"I couldn't relax imagining you out here alone in this rain, so I came back for you." She took the umbrella from her backpack, protecting him from the water.
"M-Mia...but what about…"
"He's sleeping, relax. Come on, it's too dangerous here!" She offered the iron bar to him, who took it and levitated into the air, holding her by the waist and putting her in a sitting position to climb up soon after, flying close to the ground to the foot of the mountain safely.
He felt strange happiness by seeing her again… but also fear of what was about to happen between him and Ethan.