Death Hath not Visited, Death Hath not Seen
"The stage is set, feel but regret, or leave with you behead."
Money is an important thing with pride following suit. That being said, however, life is the first priority one should consider and this has been drilled into his head the very moment he was born and it sure stayed. Spying on a bunch of sad kids for a strange gentleman, however, did not seem to be the perfect life anyway and he wondered often why he decided to bluff his way through, though as an older brother, he was pretty proud of the act his younger put into action, it seemed to work pretty good. People pity piteous men as they say.
"I'm being watched..." Sniffles grumbled.
"What? How?" Cuddles turned on his heel rather quickly and spinning a few rounds, was still pretty dizzy. His words came out slurred and low, like the words of a dying man.
"It's a feeling," the other boy replied naturally.
"Okay, that's...okay," the blonde one finished.
An ominous wind blew every so often, whipping at the trees and the bare flesh of many in the surrounding area, causing Petunia, with her blue hair flapping like clipped wings, to hold her nearly transparent dress to her shaking broken limbs.
"He still in?" Petunia angrily asked, shivering under the thin fabric.
"Ya mean Flippy?" Disco Bear instantly answered her, though it was a question as well.
"Of course!"
"Ya, he is."
Petunia shook her head.
"Taking so long..."
"Indeed," Sniffles butted in. Did checking storage really take that long? It seemed unlikely, at least to him. That said, a bushy head of hair popped out of the little basement hole.
"Uh, bad news," he announced gently, slowly blurting the words out.
"Oh, how lovely!" Petunia replied sarcastically.
"Logs, 20," Flippy started then stopped, waiting for the replies. Nothing to big of a comment was made, so he continued with on though with slight hesitation.
"Edibles, 10 cans..." He started to stutter as the number had dropped though the importance increased, the crowd seeming to share the sentiments for their worried sounds grew rapidly in volume.
"Drinking water, 1..." That caused the listening audience to make some noise.
"What! One what!"
"Er, bottle," Flippy replied and he scratched his head and Lumpy tapped his chin in a manner of thought.
"Petunia bought, right?"
"T' was last week," she replied solemnly and shook her head.
"We're doomed," Splendid noted rather pleasantly and they all looked at him in a scolding manner for being quite pessimistic.
"Well, our balance?" Petunia asked a little hopefully and she stared at his clutched hands impatiently.
Flippy dropped 10 small golden coins in a mound of dirt and pointed at them.
"That's all."
Splendid laughed. He seemed to have given up on any hopeful or optimistic way of looking at the current situation for he replied negatively,
"That's hilarious." Petunia shot him a glare once again.
"Oh, really now?"
"Lost his mind," Disco Bear replied, gloomy. There was a strange echoing silence that seemed to follow his statement and some nodded slowly and subtly though whether they agreed with him or not was questionable, the bobbing spiky ball of a head that was Flaky's seemed to be perpetually moving up and down, swaying with the grumbling winds.
"Well, work then?" Lumpy asked, the silence worrying him second by second.
"We'll needa move," Petunia noted, her hands on her hips, and the others started to get up and question her.
"Why is that?" Toothy asked, frowning.
"I like forests!" Cuddles joined in with his fellow's petition and the elder female groaned.
"Oh, grow up!" she whined and they both shut up quickly as her eyes narrowed and her face darkened with frustration.
"Yes, she's correct," Lumpy agreed then nodded.
"What about storage?" Flippy piped in, concerned about the leftovers of their inventory.
"We'll move it," Lumpy started, then after a thought, continued.
"To the city," he hesitated for the others seemed rather unhappy with this decision.
"Non Mortuus, yes?"
"Yes, yes!" Petunia suddenly clapped and the others stood to attention.
"First, get aid!" She pointed to another open path through the forest. It was more clear than the one the other two boys took, however, it was wet and seemingly damaged. The others grimaced and the mud stains that would take home in their sticky clothes.
"To the church?" Sniffles asked.
"Yes, good idea," Petunia cheered and though still sitting down, she pointed orders here and there. Lumpy and Disco Bear hung her over their shoulders after a while as her veil-like dress stuck like glue to their open backs. The cold wind blew relentlessly despite the complaints, curses, and occasional pleads thrust up to the still grey afternoon sky; the more they grunted as they trudged through the mud, the more horrible their situation seemed to be become.
"We're moving nonetheless," Petunia started.
"The city's next," she finished, huffing despite not walking, her breaths landing stifled and short on top the bare skin of the two boys carrying her.
"Yes, after treatment," Sniffles strictly replied, wagging his pointer finger. He walked quickly to the swaying movement of the three bodies. Walking by, he glanced at Petunia's sickly pale face and mumbled,
"Don't rush it," he said, then patting her head, walked forward.
The ringing of a bell jolted the olive-colored butler suddenly and he grumbled.
"What, is it Truffles yet again, m' lady? He is out very often."
"Oh, maybe. Or probably your little twin demons, I hope," she replied casually as she focused on her one-player chess battle.
The bell continued ringing as he stared at her odd way of playing a game that was intended to be played by two and annoyed after awhile, opened it.
"Hey, Pickles!" Truffles greeted the other happily, though he was returned a frown.
"You're all wet. Did I not tell you it was raining heavily today?"
"Yes, you did, dear!" He chuckled merrily as he shook the hanging droplets violently, causing an ensuing shower of filthy rain.
"Oh, and these two kids told me they wanted to see you, Mr. Butler," he said, smiling, and two coat-covered figures appeared clutching to each others thin fabric.
"Oh, these two?" He asked curiously, revealing the two pitiful looking thieves, awed as they stared at the various silver and gold furniture pieces that dotted the glass-like house.
"Pickles, dear, are those your little twin devils?" Lammy asked shocked, the brown-colored water spreading throughout the pebbles of her floor as they walked around freely behind the sailor's large scarred back.
"Seems like you've made some friends," Pickles commented, his eyebrows raised as the two males attached themselves to the black leather coat of the other male.
"And seems like you've made some enemies," he retorted, laughing.
The church was a one gigantic building, it loomed over the smaller shacks of the other outcasts that lived amongst the forests, mostly deserted orphanages or hideouts of small unknown bandits or thieves of all sorts that did not dare to venture further to make their living. Despite being charged with thievery (and never caught and punished for), they never did live any better than the other groups of small run-down houses and kids, it was probably this that left the forest area ever so populated, people driven to thievery never did get better, never did get new lives, left forever in an area labeled for outcasts and small criminals that never got to eat as much as successful criminals would've. The church was a government-funded building that was supposed to take care of this. However, the nuns stayed cooped inside, never went out, never did help until the people went to their doorstep did they noticed that yes, there was something wrong outside of their little lighted sanctuary.
Knocking on the door, it swung open, a black-veiled nun leading them through the battered hallway, letting them sit on the eaten wood benches below a dangerously leaning statue, the fading light shining through the broken glass windows. Petunia laid stiffly across one bench as Flaky did another while the others less injured sat breathing unevenly, grabbing and trying to comfort whatever limb that does them pain.
"Oh my, that's..." the nun trailed off as she brought them a first aid kit, metal and patched up through band-aids. It was like a measurement of the shape of the deteriorating church, the government had left it to become another piece of junk in the forest full of trash.
"Patch that up!" the nun said firmly, pointing at the bleeding and swollen head of The Mole, the red liquid dripping steadily onto the foul-smelling tiles. She passed a roll of bandages into the shaking hand of Cuddles.
"Ah, thanks..." Cuddles said, then stopped.
"What's your name?"
"Number 203," she said while chuckling. Cuddles looked at her curiously, as if she wanted to fool them.
"Eh? A number?"
"Yes, a number," she said, laughing at his bewildered expression.
"Government gave it," she said, replying to the nonexistent question plastered onto his face.
"Ahh, I see," he mumbled, though not very understanding. He decided to ignore it in favor of The Mole's head, which seemed like a squeezed orange, it's juices still oozing out of it's container.
"It looks serious," Lumpy said while frowning as he rolled up his sleeves, already stained with blood and other things Cuddles did not want to phantom.
"Mostly the ear," Cuddles noted, and Lumpy nodded.
"You okay?" Lumpy asked, not bothering to look over the other's appearance seeing as most of the blood on his clothes probably belonged to the other male.
"Ankle hurts," Cuddles frowned then stopped noticing the concerned stare.
"It's nothing much," he nervously chuckled.
"Ah, okay then," Lumpy sighed, finishing the conversation swiftly as he turned to the other side. Cuddles then returned to his own center of attention, his hand against his cheek as he lazily looked over the other's leaking injury.
"So, we have our little devils here, do we not? What do they have for us?" Lammy asked hurriedly. Truffles kindly ruffled their hair dry, throwing the towels one by one in the face of Pickles who got more aggravated which each and every dirty and wet towel that hit him square in the face as the conversation was delayed second by second. Lammy tapped against her glass pawn again, scraping the dent with her fingernail as usual in impatience.
"We saw it," they spoke up suddenly and Pickles leaned over against the table despite a silk towel still hanging over his combed hair.
"Now, did you?" Lammy stated and asked, doubtful.
"According toooo..." The younger dragged the vowel sound as his elder brother flipped through the pages of the ancient book.
"Ah, here. 136," he finished and all three adults leaned forward together instantly for a even closer look.
"Hmm, isn't that the forest the government calls 'The Junkyard' ever so often?" Lammy asked, noticing the location of the scribbled X.
"Now, before that, m' lady, would you mind describing just what is this? You get me to fetch you these rotten paper books from the foggy library that should not even be one and now these kids tell me they see something on this page that you can see as well that I seemingly do not? This is quite baffling!" Mr. Pickles pointed out, he was, in fact, like what his speech indicated, quite confused.
"Ah, why not? Well then, Pickles listen well. This ol' town has an old legend that describes many curses and blessings, given out only when one finds certain books that reveal a location of one curse or blessing. This curse or blessing is unlocked when you plant that curse or blessing's seed, it grows into a tree and then unleashes the curse or blessing onto it's surrounding area. It's said that the one who gives birth to such a tree is granted wish, a wish that apparently will forever surround the planter with eternal happiness."
There was a pause before Pickles decided to comment on Lammy's story.
"I say this with no offense, however, it seems to be complete blasphemy, m' lady." He nodded and Lammy chuckled.
"You'll find some legends to be quite entertaining, specially when you decide to pursue them to find their truth or lie," she said, laughing.
"Sister must just be very bored, Pickles, you bore her very well," Truffles said convincingly and Pickles stared at him, unbelieving.
"No, that must not be so! I am pretty sure you is quite occupied with managing what needs to be done, with her controlling many parts of the organization," Pickles said, trying to make himself believe.
"No, Pickles, I am rather bored and dulled," Lammy joined in with a straight face, though she lost her calm face a few seconds later as she laughed in such a exaggerated manner that she gripped her stomach and table to balance herself. Pickles frowned, however, tipped his hat in a playful manner as he smirked and responded,
"Touché, both of you," he replied.
The night crawled on as the moon flew up to meet it's lover, the sky, who opened it with wide arms as it does with the sun. A cheater, it is. The rain had stopped and the winds that blew in chilly trembles left with it, leaving behind a calm dark night, a humid dark night. The ones who could move swatted at the irate flies and though the nuns fluttered around trying to make the place as comfortable as possible, the church still did not meet a three-star hotel. They had little visitors, the things were unused and old, the guest pillows stunk like dust, and of course, the flies buzzed around to keep them company.
"Ohh, I'm dreaming~" Splendid sung depressingly and with no complaint, he continued,
"Dreaming 'bout nothing~"
"The sea's wide," the others joined,
"But, not us,"
"It's not wide for us,"
"For the others,"
"wide for others~"
"Stage is set,"
"leave no regret,"
"or leave behead~"
"Darling, leave here,"
"leave here quick~"
"Ohhh, darling~"
And the chorus of despair ran throughout the stone church, the holes between the bricks singing the song of left behind hope, spreading it across the forests, across the sea, across the wide, wide, sea.
A/N: Um, yeah, I told myself I would write one chapter a month however I believe I'm late. Funny thing is, I wrote most of this in one day probably because I was struck with inspiration or maybe just because procrastination was what actually causes such a delay. Sort of short though, at least it sort of looks like it... And yes, Lammy's story in Chapter 4 is connected to the others, it just isn't shown yet though it's shown a bit in this one. The plot starts here since Lammy just explained what I decided the story would revolve around, isn't it just blasphemy and hard to believe? Yeah, I tried hard on thinking of a believable reason that would link what was said in Chapter 1 with what I saw as snippets of the story I pictured that I would love to write. Unfortunately, that was sort of hard so I decided to settle with this. I sure hope it's okay. Also, the town's name Non Mortuus is Latin for "undead." Uh, well, according to Google. Anyway, I think I'm just talking to myself, haha!