And the beginning of the incredibly short lived 'fuck if I know what I'm doing here' saga.

Short 23

(Day 17)

"You know what we should do today?" Plague Knight asked as he lazily stretched. The last couple days he had spent keeping Mona company since she was confined to her room. This started out fun, but quickly became annoying when he started to get bored. Still, he was unwilling to abandon her, especially considering that the Magicist had shoved the job of catering to her every whim on him. At least he got over that cold quickly enough.

"What?" Mona questioned, looking away from her book.

"We should kill something. Or someone."

"And what brought on this urge?" She closed her book, sensing that the conversation was bound to get long and there was no reason to hold it open for the next 10 minutes.

"I didn't get to kill or even horribly maim the twins. I need something to fill the void."

"We could always have the Magicist gather up some more chickens."

Plague Knight shuddered. "And what makes you think I'd be willing to do along with that? I think I was scarred from the last incident involving poultry."

"As am I. But what else could you kill?"

"A slime."

"But… those are pretty far from the village. I don't know about that."

"Why are you so worried?" Plague Knight cocked his head to the side in confusion. He was used to getting treated as a child by now, but for some reason it concerned him that she was hesitant to allow him out of the village. "I just want to find a slime and smack it around until it begs for mercy. Not that it could, of course."

"I know, but with the way your luck has been for the past 2 and a half weeks, I'm starting to get the sense that it would be best if we simply locked you in a nice, comfy cell somewhere secluded so you won't get hurt, killed, or kidnapped again. Or worse."

"You're overreacting; I'm not going to get hurt, or killed, and that family doesn't have any interest in my anymore. And nothing could be worse than those three things."

"Oh, it can get worse. It can always get worse. And how do you know that? How do you know they bought that was the real child they were looking for? How do you know that they aren't just waiting around for you to appear again so they can take you away again? How do you know-"

"Mona, you're scaring me!" Plague Knight announced, getting her to stop rambling for the moment. He placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder and said, "I need you do something for me, alright?" Slowly, she nodded. "Take. A deep. Breath. Got that?"

Mona sighed. "Right, right. Sorry, I guess I'm just stressed. I knew this wasn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows when you did this to yourself, but I was not prepared for things to get this hectic."

"Yeah, we need to fix this, quick. Otherwise, I think your sanity's going to take a dive into a dark hole from which it can never escape."

"Yeah, if one more thing goes wrong, I'll probably turn into a raving lunatic."

"Even if you went completely insane, I don't think you would be raving. A little nuts, sure. Anything beyond that? Nah."

Mona scoffed. "Please, if those brothers hadn't hurt me like they did, most of this continent would be nothing but a crater."

"We don't have that kind of fire power, though," Plague Knight pointed out. "We likely never will. Even if the people suddenly pull a complete 180 and start thinking we're better than their fairytale heroes and lavish us with the most explosive materials known to mankind, we would still not have enough. This is a big continent, I hope you realize."

"I didn't say I'd blow up all of it. Just most of it. Otherwise, I might risk harming you." She smiled sweetly in a way that warmed Plague Knight's heart. With that wonderful smile still on her face, she said in a dangerous tone, "And don't worry. I would find a way. They would have paid dearly for what they did…"

Plague Knight found her behavior equal parts unnerving and comforting, as strange as that might sound. Sure, it scared him a little that she was essentially saying that she got very close to blowing up the world as they knew it, but at the same time it was a side of her that he had grown somewhat fond of, though it rarely emerged.

He chuckled. "I don't doubt it. You know, theoretically, you could have still done that. Throwing bombs doesn't take as much energy or work as swinging a sword."

"Well, no, it doesn't. But I would get caught and probably killed because I was chucking explosives around like an idiot with no viable way of escaping."

"I suppose that's true." Plague Knight stood. "I hope you realize that all this talk of throwing around bombs is not helping to scratch my itch."

"I know," Mona said with a sigh. "I can't stop you, but… promise me that if something stupid happens to you, you run away with all due haste."

Plague Knight crossed his arms. "You say that like I would just sit around with a happy, oblivious smile on my face and await my untimely demise, maiming, or kidnapping."

"Or worse," Mona added.

"It couldn't get worse!" Plague Knight yelled, feeling somewhat exasperated by her talk of his potential next situation getting worse.

"You could be tortured. I consider that worse!"

"Couldn't that be counted as kidnapping?"

"I believe that's considered a whole other offence."

"I don't feel like anyone would gain a single thing from torturing me."

"People are sadistic, I hope you know. There are those that simply find it fun. There are also the other creeps you have to watch out for, too."

"Dare I ask why you mean by 'other creeps'?"

Mona did not hesitate for a second with her answer, saying it in such a way that Plague Knight was unsure if she was serious or joking, or a mix of the both. "Rapists. Or, more accurately, considering you're a kid at the moment, the pedophiles."

Plague Knight's eyes widened. He parted his lips slightly to reply, but quickly stopped when he found that he wasn't sure he wanted to. Slowly, he closed his mouth with a grim look on his face. Eventually, he conceded, "Okay, yeah, that could be put under the 'worse' category."

"That's why I said it could get worse!"

Plague Knight, with minor issues, managed to crawl onto the bed. He hugged Mona and said in a traumatized tone, "I take it back. I don't want to go out anymore."

Mona snorted. It was clear that she had not honestly expected to dissuade him from going out. At least, not that easily. Wrapping an arm around him, she replied, "It's probably best."

Well, not much to say here...

Ah, how about a small complaint on how no one loves me anymore?!