Night's Children: Cetera Desunt
Chapter Six: The Seven Vices
"I…don't…know…what…you're…talking…about," Chuck attempted to protest as he struggled with the breath that was rapidly leaving his lungs, his sandaled feet flailing in pathetic attempts to discourage Kiriak's grip.
"Do not play dumb," Kiriak hissed, his fingers clenching even tighter around his windpipe, "We know who you are, and what you did."
Aria watched the scene in front of her unravel with horror. It had to be one huge misunderstanding, because she was not naïve enough to believe that it was Chuck in all actuality who these strange robbers were searching for. And, using the ability of common sense, it was easy to conclude who their real target was. Herself.
But she didn't understand why. To her knowledge, she had never met any of the four who seemed to hold a personal vendetta against the 'Follower of Selene', nevertheless offended them. What did they want?
Her introspection was cut short by horrid, racking sounds that were made when a person is choking to death. Her eyes were immediately trained on Chuck, his feet had stopped their flailing and his eyes were beginning to roll back into his head as his hands still attempted to break Kiriak's grip.
A hideous fear filled her then.
After all, the Goddess of Healing should be able to recognize death's creeping.
"Let him go!" She protested, renewed with vigor as sheer instinct drove her movement, "You're killing him!" She cried, as she began to fight Damien's hold on her arms.
"Shut up, little girl," Kiriak hissed between his clenched teeth, "He has it coming."
"Bad man's gonna get it," Rena stated matter-of-factly from her seat, nodding knowingly.
"He hasn't done anything!" Aria attempted again, only to be shoved roughly back into her seat by the blue-eyed robber.
"You're getting on my nerves," Damien spat, "I say we kill her too."
Those words set a stab into whatever conviction she had, and she slumped, once again compliant. In the background, Chuck's harsh gasps for air had become further spaced and more shallow. "Please," She muttered pathetically, "Just let him go, he's dying!"
Loki, who stood next to Kiriak crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes, "Dying? I sorely doubt it." His citrus colored eyes narrowing, "No idiot would go as far as to die to preserve his cover."
Aria's lower lip began to tremble, "What do you mean?"
"Duh!" Squeaked the smallest robber, "He fixes owies!"
"She means we're looking for a healer," Loki continued.
The blood drained from her face and the air left her lungs as she realized that any reason for doubt was now vanquished. It was her they were looking for, and it was supposed to be her within Kiriak's fierce grip. Not Chuck, who was more than likely an innocent bystander who had the bad luck to be wearing his family heirloom.
"Kiriak," Loki said, his tone implying that Kiriak should restrain his ever-increasing rage, "She said to wait until she arrived."
"He's fine!" He snarled, even though Chuck had long gone limp in his chokehold.
"Kiriak!" This time, Loki's voice held more authority and assertiveness, "Put him down!"
Kiriak's sneer grew in size, but he tossed Chuck to the floor like a rag doll, and he hit the ground with a sickening thud, his head connecting to the back of the bench. Kiriak sent his orange-haired counterpart a venomous glare, "He'll heal, she said he would regenerate automatically."
All four of the robbers stared then at the unconscious surfer with a scrutiny and concentration that would have been almost comical, had the situation not been so dire. Silence filled the cab, and yet nothing happened with Chuck, and he did not regain consciousness. Aria desperately stayed the urge to sprint to his side and check for vitals, knowing that it would turn their attention towards her.
It was Rena, who interrupted the ironically suffocating quiet. She tugged on Loki's pant leg, "Mr. Loki, I think he's broke." She whispered, nudging the teen on the floor in the ribs with her little buckle shoes to emphasis the point.
Loki turned and glared at Kiriak, "You went too far!" He yelled condescendingly, "Now it's our asses!"
Kiriak returned his scream with one of his own as he signaled wildly to the fallen Chuck with the barrel of his gun, "He's fine! Breathing! Look, breathing!"
Loki snorted, "That's preposterous! The Mistress stated that the Selene worshiper would be a healer! One that can regenerate! He's the only one with the trinket, it has to be him!"
"He could have stolen it," Damien supplied coolly from the sidelines, "Because it looks like this kid isn't getting up anytime soon to me."
As the robbers continued to argue amongst themselves, Aria's eyes drifted over the passengers once again. The married couple were numb, the wife's hysterics forgotten and the husband, Otis, simply sat, staring blankly. Thomas, the older man with the pocket watch, was as pale as a ghost and shaking violently. However, the only one making any sound at all was Lilian, the blonde girl, who was sobbing to herself. These people were all innocents, and they were all subjected to this terror because some robbers wanted…her.
A myriad of thoughts flew through her then. Chuck could have been killed, he came close enough as it was. These people appeared ruthless, holding back only because they were afraid of breaking some rule, not out of any sense of morality or compassion. Should she confess? Should she save these people? Or would her doing so only place her in unnecessary danger? For the first time, she desperately wanted Jimena to be there with her. She would know what to do, and she would make the right choice. Aria could only wallow in her own indecisiveness and self-preservation.
Suddenly, for the second time that night, the train jerked roughly, the lights dimming and the wheels spinning to a stop.
The four immediately stopped their bickering and froze.
"We…we can't be here already," Loki whispered slowly.
"There's no way…" Damien trailed off, "Suiren must not know how to operate this thing."
"Suiren knows," Kiriak cut him off, "Do not be a fool."
"We're in big trouble now." Rena said fearfully.
"What's going on?" Otis piped up, his vacant expression still in place.
Loki grimaced, "It seems that our boss has arrived."
A tense and heavy feeling filled the room then, as each passenger shared the single fear of the danger this psychotic group's leader would present. Thomas began to pray, quietly to himself, as his veined hands gripped his watch tightly. Aria stared at the old man, her eyes widening in a realization as she observed his hands. These robbers were most definitely not Followers. The only reasonable solution was destroyed when she noticed that the pocket watch, a time piece, had been in plain sight throughout the entire ordeal. A Follower would have destroyed it, their hatred for those things would not allow one to be within their presence.
She felt cold sweat beads begin to form on her forehead, if these robbers weren't Followers, what were they? The speed with which Kiriak had moved was inhuman, and their eyes portrayed some sort of supernatural sentiment.
Her deductions were cut short when fast-falling footsteps were heard echoing throughout the train. She tilted her head up just in time to see another person enter the room, and her jaw dropped when she noticed who it was.
Blue-black hair was done up in a sloppy ponytail, almond-shaped grey eyes pierced through her own, and she wore a bus station uniform with an embroidered '7'.
"You!" She whispered in shock, immediately recognizing the tired looking teenager from the bus station. The teenager that had directed her to this train. She then noticed that the same sense of shock had passed over Lilian, as well as Thomas.
The girl smiled back cattily only at Aria, completely ignoring the other two shocked occupants of the cab.
"Suiren!" Loki proclaimed in half anxiety, half aggravation, "Is she here?"
The girl, now identified as Suiren nodded, "Hai. This is where I was instructed to stop," She yawned and shifted slightly on her feet, "Is there a reason why you are all crowding around some stiff?"
Rena stuck her tongue out at the older girl, "He's the one we've been looking for, except he's broke!"
"Broke?" Suiren reiterated in curiosity, and turned to look at Kiriak, "Let me guess, it was Kiriak who broke him."
"Ever perceptive," Loki muttered under his breath, tossing the ring to Suiren who easily caught it, "This was his, can't you feel Selene's influence in it?"
She stared at the ring, and for a moment, her grey eyes glowed, "This is very strong, but I don't think that this was what she was looking for," She muttered.
"What do you see in his aura?" Damien inquired cryptically.
Suiren sighed as her eyes once again began to glow, "It's fuzzy, Mistress's power is dimming," She muttered as she squinted, "But it seems strong, unusually strong." There was a pause as she turned from the unconscious Chuck towards the other passengers, "But it is also strong in the others I led here," She whispered, "The blonde's is the weakest, the old man's a little stronger…" She trailed off as her finger pointed straight towards Aria, incriminating, "But hers is the strongest presence here, aside from the boy you just throttled."
Kiriak snorted dismissively to the accusation.
Damien stared at her, and Aria felt herself back up in her seat as she felt a choking sensation rise up in her throat, weakly, she muttered, "What are you talking about?"
Loki grinned, making his angular face appear wolfish and predatory, "We're talking about the presence of Selene, little girl," He took a step closer, "And according to Suiren, you and that boy on the ground have the strongest auras."
"But," Damien cut him off, "Suiren isn't a master of the ability, and Mistress stated that all of these passengers had a connection to Selene." He looked at Kiriak in contempt, "Don't jump to conclusions like last time."
Kiriak growled, "It made no difference in the end, I found and decimated the target," He rolled his eyes, "I found that Tessa Lockland and followed the Mistress's wishes, I don't see the harm if civilians were casualties."
Aria gaped when she heard Kiriak's slip. Tessa Lockland, the illusionist Daughter of the Moon? She wanted to be sick when she recalled Jimena's words earlier that day, about how they had found her beaten to a pulp in some alleyway. She trembled, after Kiriak's display of power with Chuck, she had no doubt that he was more than capable of rendering Tessa into such a position.
"Tessa Lockland?" The feminine voice threw her off her spree of blind terror for a moment as she turned to see that it was Lilian, the sobbing wreck, who had recognized the name, "What did you do to her?"
"Ah," Loki crowed, "A plot twist."
Kiriak was in front of the blonde in moments, the gun pressed against her forehead, "How do you know her?"
Lilian had once again resorted to her fit of hysteria as she began hyperventilating, her eyes looking upwards in an attempt to see the gun, "She's-" She inhaled shallowly and desperately.
"She's?" Kiriak spat in irritation as he cocked the hammer of the handgun.
"She's my cousin!" Lilian screamed, sobbing heavily as she pressed her hands to her face, "Her dad's my dad's brother," She wept, "Please don't shoot me!"
"Kiriak, her aura's too weak to be the one we're searching for." Suiren reproached, her voice holding an icy detached quality, "Torturing her like this is pointless."
Kiriak nodded grimly, and Lilian exhaled in relief shakily before continuing her crying as he removed the gun from her forehead. But then, everyone froze at his next words, "Then so is keeping her alive," His hand was quicker than imagined as the gun shifted down from her head towards her gut, and his finger wrapped around the trigger as he was about to squeeze a slug into her stomach-
"What exactly, is going on here?" Came a regal, and dignified voice from the opposite end of the cab.
Everything seemed to freeze as the other four robbers turned and went on their knees reverently. Kiriak froze his actions, as he too slowly turned around to face the source of the voice, dropping to one knee, "Mistress." He whispered humbly.
Aria allowed the air to come back into her lungs as she then realized that Lilian, Tessa's supposed cousin, had escaped a bullet to her stomach. But when she looked up, and saw the amethyst eyes of the 'Mistress' the air rushed right back out. The coincidences of the night were far too many, and when she recognized the elderly train ticket saleswoman from before, she knew she was in way over her head.
"You've got to be kidding me," She mumbled to herself.
The Mistress stood with authority, her grey-purple hair still up in its bun, and her hands grasping a wooden cane tightly. At her hip there was some sort of rectangular pouch, and her purple eyes blazed with intensity. "I leave you five with a simple task and immediately you resort to ruthlessness," She glared at Kiriak with obvious disgust, "I specifically instructed that no killing was to take place until I had arrived."
"Yes, Mistress." Kiriak muttered once again.
At her cold, clipped words the passengers began to get anxious again, squirming in their seats.
The older woman, whose name Aria currently could not place, scanned the area with her eerie eyes, her gaze landing on each of the robbers in a seeming evaluation, "Loki," She said at last, the orange-haired man's head snapping up instantly, "Tell me what is going on." Her words were as cold and hard as granite.
Loki cleared his throat, the somewhat smooth con man actually appearing nervous, "We apprehended all the passengers as requested, and proceeded to search for the signet of Selene." He gave a discreet nod towards Suiren who handed Chuck's ring to the old woman.
The Mistress held the ring to eye level as she seemed to inspect it carefully, her violet eyes igniting for a moment, "This isn't it." She replied calmly, "While it is full of Selene's powers, it is not her amulet." She sighed with an air of disdain, "I'd suspect thirteenth century monk instead."
Loki lowered his head humbly, "It was the only thing with Selene's aura around it."
The Mistress stared at her lackey for a few minutes before nodding slightly, "Then there is only two other options. One, the person we're searching for isn't here," Her eyes trailed the crowd over again before landing on Aria, "Or they're hiding from us."
Kiriak, still kneeling on the ground, followed her eyesight to the teenager, his grin looking feral and reminiscent to a shark.
Aria stiffened, and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, praying to whoever could hear that they would just leave her and the other passengers alone. Cold sweat beaded down her forehead, and her eyes kept reverting back to the unconscious figure on the floor. Concern filled her, to the point of paranoia and outright terror. She was found out, and would be punished for something she wasn't sure she had committed.
"Who are you? What do you want with us?" Came a series of questions that threw her thought process out of whack, Aria turned and realized that it was the brunette, the wife, that had spoken for the first time that night. Betraying her earlier sobs, her voice was smooth and utterly calm and Aria envied her for that brief second.
"Silence!" Kiriak barked, making the middle-aged woman flinch slightly.
"Now, now Kiriak," Came the Mistress. From her inflection she almost sounded like a concerned grandmother, "It's rude to keep our guests ignorant."
Aria released a breath that she hadn't known she was holding, realizing that the housewife had just bought her some extra time.
Three footsteps echoed against the wooden floor of the train, as the old woman sauntered forward towards her inquisitor. The presence of her cane did not make her appear feeble as it did with most older women, but rather much more intimidating. "What's your name?" She hissed through clenched teeth.
The housewife seemed to loose a bit of her nerve, "Miranda," She whispered.
"A pleasure, Miranda, I am Ms. Agatha Regan," She replied, clearing her throat, "These are my subordinates," At this she pointed, a manicured and regal fingernail extending towards the kneeling figures, "Kiriak, Loki, Rena, Damien, and finally Suiren." Each nodded in affirmation as their names were called, "And I'm quite afraid," Her grandmother voice faded almost instantly, "That if you're not careful tonight one of us six will kill you."
Miranda paled to a ghastly shade, fear paralyzing her. Otis, the husband, gripped her hand tightly, his own face becoming ashen.
Aria watched the old woman bully the pair, and something akin to bile and disgust filled her, "What are you doing here? Why are you terrorizing all these innocent people?" She demanded, as a speck of her old personality flared up within her, "We've done nothing wrong!"
Violet eyes flashed and Aria swallowed a hard lump in her throat, "Someone in this car is far from innocent," She spoke crisply, but the tightened grip on her cane betrayed her fury bubbling just beneath the surface, "We want compensation."
Aria shook her head, "For what?"
"For the murder of one of our own, Mammon." The old lady ran her tongue over her weathered and cracked lips, "The moon Goddess Selene has sent one of her followers to destroy us, and we want revenge for the death of our third. Our master has given permission to kill whoever gets in our way."
The Daughter of the Moon pressed her palm against her forehead, "You're not making any sense!" She blurted, not understanding the allegations against her.
The eyes narrowed once again, "I, little girl, do not have to explain myself to anyone, least of all some degenerate child."
Aria bit viciously down on her lip and stared at her feet for a moment, her mind working as quick as it possibly could to figure these robbers out. Her thoughts were startled when she heard a groan, and she looked to see Chuck beginning to regain consciousness. A flutter of hope filled her then, thankful for his safety.
She exhaled slowly, she had to find out the reasoning behind this attack, and it seemed the only one with the authority to talk was the old hag, who seemed quite prideful herself. Aria worded her question as diplomatically as possible, "Please, if you could just elaborate your reasoning a little more, I was having difficulties comprehending your words."
Agatha snorted, "My reasoning would be lost on such an ignorant specimen," She scoffed before sliding to look at the girl, "But no matter. As I've said, one of you on this train murdered a member of our…family, if you will. We are here to extract compensation."
"I didn't hurt anyone!" Lilian blurted suddenly, "Please let me go!"
The woman in purple once again snorted, "That's hardly a bargain, the word of a teenager for a life? Doubtful."
"How do you know it was one of us?" Aria muttered yet again, "Anyone could have killed this Mammon."
"Because you all have the presence!" Came Suiren, who received a sharp look of content from her mistress for her interruption. Humbly, she lowered her head to the ground.
"What the whelp means," She hissed out slowly, "Is that I can detect the presence of any otherworldly influence, the aura of Selene is with you all…except," Her finger pointed, landing on the married couple, "You two. I assume you just have bad luck."
It seemed as if the middle-aged pair were not sure whether to be relieved or terrified.
"And I know it was a Follower of Selene because of these," She reached into the strange pack that was nestled against her hip and Aria held her breath, preparing for the worst. She exhaled quickly when she saw the old woman withdraw a simple deck of cards. They were weathered and had an odd insignia on the back, but cards nonetheless, "They tell me my future, and yours." Purple glared at amber and Aria backed away slightly. "Care to look?"
Hesitantly, Aria approached the woman, looking carefully to the submissive lackeys, waiting for one to stand and shoot her while she was distracted. But none moved, and she tensed before hesitantly picking up the top card.
"Look." Agatha said.
Aria slowly turned over the top card, and was surprised to see the depiction. Through knowing her friend Amanda, who was into such things, she recognized an illustration from the major arcane of a standard tarot deck. A shiver went through her as she read the bottom, "Judgment." She whispered.
"An interesting choice," Agatha smirked, sounding as if she'd won a lottery of some sort, "Would you like to see some of the others?"
Aria shook her head, her fingers shaking as she tried desperately to remember what the Judgment card stood for and represented.
"Are you sure?" The old woman chided, "They have wonderful illustrations," With that, she withdrew the next four cards and slapped them onto Aria's quaking palm.
Tentatively, she turned over all four cards in her hands, and her jaw fell when she saw the illustrations.
The first card she held in her hand was labeled The Hermit, and depicted a cloaked figure holding a lantern above the heavens. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed that the figure, upon closer inspection, had maroon colored hair and tired, gray eyes. She instantly placed that card behind the Judgment one, desperate to not see the parallel. But it was to no avail, as the next card, The Star, held a thoughtful and young brunette sitting on a hillside looking at the night sky. A girl with golden eyes and numerous facial piercings. That one was also quickly discarded, until she saw the next card, entitled The Magician, with a blonde, blue-eyed teenager standing behind a table of some sorts with a crestfallen look on her face and a moon amulet around her neck. The final card, was that of The High Priestess, and Aria immediately knew that no High Priestess illustration ever had two tattooed tears in her eyes.
"How?" Aria whispered shakily.
The elder woman smiled cattily, "Easily, my master has bestowed upon me a great gift." She quickly snatched the cards out of Aria's shaking hands, "The gift to capture souls in these cards."
And suddenly, it clicked. The self induced comas of Riley and Imy, the report of Tessa being beaten, and some obscure warning that she couldn't remember quite clearly kept circling in her head. This strange string of events that she hadn't thought were related now all seemed to start on one specific night. Two nights ago, when she had liberated the Follower who was attempting to rob a bank.
She trembled, and backed away slightly from the old woman, and her five soldiers who were now standing up from their positions. Carefully, she licked her lips and asked, "Who was Mammon?"
"Now you're asking the right questions," Agatha stated, nodding her head to Loki.
"Mammon was our third member," Loki began, "If you couldn't tell, little girl, each of us is bestowed with a gift from our master." He sighed, "Kiriak with his unnatural speed, Suiren with her ability to copy moves or powers from anyone, Damien and his power to hypnotize, Rena and her everlasting youth, myself invulnerability to physical harm, and The Mistress, who has the greatest powers of all."
Aria could feel her throat becoming incredibly dry, "Which are?"
Loki coughed awkwardly into his hand, "Unfathomable. The master gave her the power of convenience. Any power she truly needs, she is granted."
Terror gripped her heart as the implication of those words fully hit her, and she once again began to shake.
"Anyways, Mammon had the most unfortunate power of all," Loki continued, orange eyes blazing, "He could possess other's bodies, but because of this he lost his own. He existed as a sort of parasitic spirit, filtering in and out of other people." He paused, "And, just so you realize the full effect of the back story, our lord has regarded the Atrox as untrustworthy for a few centuries, meaning he desired a spy. And since Mammon's eyes flashed yellow occasionally when he was in a host's body, that means that-"
"His host was a Follower," Aria muttered, horrified.
"That's correct," Loki's eyes narrowed sinisterly, "A Follower that the Healer of Selene destroyed when he or she purified the host's body of his presence."
A myriad of feelings hit her then, and she could only shake her head and ask one of the most mundane and simultaneously incriminating questions she could ask, "How do you know that it's me?"
"We don't," Agatha stated, "But we do know it was a Daughter of the Moon who committed the murder," She once again withdrew the four cards from her deck, "We tracked each of them down, questioned them before stealing their souls in reparation for their crimes against us. We found all of them, but we needed two more to fulfill our revenge. The fourth Daughter, whose fault it was, and the Magna Mater, who mentored them." She singled out The High Priestess card, which bore Jimena's resemblance, "When we cornered this one, she had stated that there were only three Daughters of the Moon, since she didn't look like one to lie, we believed her and switched our focus, drawing all those with the aura of Selene to this train tonight."
"The master had instructed us that the Healer would bear some sort of crest or pendant, showing their allegiance to Selene," Loki cut in again, gesturing to the slowly stirring Chuck on the floor, "Which is why we thought it was originally him."
She shook her head as if to dispel the accusations that were being flung at her, "Who is this master?" She demanded.
The old woman smiled, "They call him many names, most notably, the King of the Underworld."
Aria racked her mind for a possible correlation between the title and Greek Mythology and her eyes almost bulged out of her sockets, "Hades? You've been sent by Hades!"
"Ooo, a scholar," Damien commented dryly from the sidelines, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and looking incredibly bored. Rena absently tugged on his pant leg.
"You've angered our master by destroying one of his guardians," Kiriak stated, once again withdrawing the handgun, "And now you, like your friends, must pay the price."
She backed up again hesitantly, until she felt the backs of her knees hit the bench, "I'm not who you're looking for!" She mumbled pathetically, tears welling in her eyes, "I can't be who you're looking for!" She continued to protest, self-deluded and in denial of the obvious.
Kirak bared his too-sharp teeth and began to cock the hammer of the gun, before Agatha placed a stilling hand on his arm, "You're not Selene's Healer?" She asked, her tone deceptively flat.
"No!" Aria lied through her teeth, too afraid to say anything different.
The violet woman pursed her lips, "Very well," She said lowly, "There's one way to find out for sure, isn't there Kiriak?"
The bald man grinned sadistically as he turned on his heel, and faced the old man, Thomas. Without a second's hesitation, he aimed the barrel of the gun, and squeezed off a single slug into the man's stomach.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Woo hoo! We've reached the halfway point! Man this chap was a real biatch to write. This is a longer AN, sorry
Notes on the Tarot Cards:
I've actually been able to read tarot cards for a few years now, and I carefully selected which card would hold which character, as with many things, the Major Arcane of the Tarot have several different definitions, but here are the more widely used ones:
The Hermit: Riley's card represents isolation, an inner-search, silence, introspection, and reclusion among other things.
The Star: Imy's card portrays trust, harmony, optimism, joy, and generosity. Inverse, it means poor mental health, but we'll ignore that one ;)
The Magician: Tessa's card is symbolic for personal power, action, manipulation, determination, and energy, the perfect card for an illusionist.
The High Priestess: Jimena's card demonstrates wisdom, patience, mystery, and symbolizes someone who sympathizes with one's troubles as she has gone through them herself.
Judgment: Aria's card is rather self-explanatory, but it can also represent a fresh or new beginning, salvation, and rebirth.
Next Up: When faced with her ultimatum, will Aria be able to make the right choice? The matter of life and death is in her hands, and her fellow passengers are hoping she won't let it slip through her fingers.