42: Memory Fragment – Edward [01]
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(I'm afraid you guys won't like it, since, well, it has the whole 'confusion' around it. but bear with it. You should have some trust in me at this point in our relationship, no?)
A boy sat on the roof of a building, gazing at the dome-like ceiling, which appeared to be made of something black, with small and shiny specks glittering like…
"Stars?"
The boy muttered, looking down at the pendant he had in his hand. It was dark-blue and waved like ink would, if splattered in clean water. There were flakes of dust inside: Glowing, shimmering dust. But not too much. Just a little.
The boy's head shifted back to look at the stars in the ceiling… if stars looked like what his mother described them to be, then the specks of light on the dome definitely looked like stars. He sat there, silently, just gazing at the 'stars', his face unreadable.
He heard shuffling noises from behind and turned to look at who it was.
"Hey, Ed, what're you doing here?" spoke a girl around his age.
"Nothing," Edward said, swiftly pocketing the pendant.
"What are 'you' doing here?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
The girl flinched before laughing nervously, "N-nothing. Jacob said to go find you. Said he's got a whisper or something."
"What? Another hunt?" Edward questioned, standing up as he dusted his bum.
"Don't know. He was quite secretive about it. But probably is a hunt." The girl shrugged.
Not again…
Edward sighed.
"Let's go," he ordered and started jumping down the building, maneuvering down adroitly. The girl followed behind him, but she lacked the familiarity he had with this building, so she was quite slow.
As they neared the ground, Edward just jumped off against the wall before landing on the ground with a quick thud. The girl, however, wasn't as good as him, so she slipped, toppled over herself, and hit him square in the head, felling him alongside her.
"Ouch!" she cried as she got up, holding her right hand in pain; was it broken? She frowned in concern.
Edward grumbled as he stood up, and glared at the idiot before dusting himself— though perhaps there was no point behind that, as his appearance was dusty even without that. Torn clothes, scarred face and neck, and without the pinky finger on his right hand, any normal pedestrian passing by would've said he was a beggar.
That, of course, wasn't so far off the mark. But it wasn't the whole truth either.
"S-sorry…" the girl winced, her right-hand trembling.
Edward understood something was wrong, that's exactly why he got near her to see her hand, but she skidded back, giving him a tight-lipped smile.
"I'm fine." She spoke.
'...Whatever.'
Edward ignored her and strode forward toward their hideout. Behind him, were tall skyscrapers, nearing the 'stars' in the far-up ceiling of the dome they called a sky. Different colored lights and sounds were blasting off from behind, painting a wealthy, and happy—or so it seemed—picture.
Where he was walking towards, however, wasn't as bright as the place behind. The buildings were tall here too, but not nearly as tall as the ones behind. They lacked the luster the ones behind him possessed. The lights were here, and so was the music, but it lacked the wealth and happiness he felt from behind.
He passed by a lot of people, sitting on the sidewalks, naked, or barely having any clothes. Most were women, with a child or two behind them. A certain dirty redhead did catch his eyes though. She was begging, for the most part, and she had no child beside her. She was fairly naked, but not enough to show her private parts.
Without saying anything, he eyed her coldly, throwing a Sprittle—their currency—at her. Which she caught swiftly, of course, and gave him a scrutinizing, lazy look. Her eyes, however, squinted for a second before she nodded at him, going back into her dazed state.
Edward ignored her and continued walking. He'd given her the sign, so there was no need for useless chatter since she'd be explained by Jacob—the fucker had a knack for keeping a mystery. Even Edward was kept in the dark for the most part. He hated Jacob just because of that, too.
Edward was followed by the girl, who didn't say a word but kept rubbing her hand.
After a while of walking between rude, and dirty people—just like them—they stopped in front of a pub. Now this place, in Edward's opinion, would be the place the most fucked up people tended to visit. And that's exactly why this was their base of operation.
Pickpocketing from these drunk fucktards was so very easy, after all. Edward just strolled in, ignoring the pathetic excuses of guards—who immediately started licking the girl's ass so that they could get a promotion or something.
"Oh, if it isn't the young miss. Are you alri-" Willy, the buffer of the two, smiled with his yellow teeth glistening as he spoke, but was promptly elbowed by the supposed young miss.
"Ha!" Nilly, a bit skinnier, barked out a laugh. "That's not how you to talk, Willy, my brothe-Ooomph!" his eyes almost bulged out as the young miss threw a solid kick at his nuts, eliciting a chuckle from Willy.
"You wanna get fired, huh? Willy? Nilly?" the girl narrowed her eyes at them, glaring coldly.
"Cut the no-names a slack, Rose." A voice blared from inside the pub, sounding rather lackluster and dull.
Rose, the girl who'd been following Edward, huffed in annoyance before she glared at the two no-names Willy and Nilly—they were no-names, but people called them Willy-Nilly, the strange pair of brothers.
Rose followed behind Edward as the latter strolled through the loud blabbering of drunkards and the putrid smell of booze—the worst kind. The outskirts had no luxury, after all. Even these imbibers in the pub, who were considered 'rich' by the normal denizens, were nothing compared to the ones in the central city.
Rose hoped to shift in that place someday, and leave this old and fucked-up place for good.
"Hohoho! If it isn't the young lad!" the same lackluster and dull voice sounded, and even though there was a tinge of excitement in it now, Rose knew that this was just acting on part of Jacob, her dad.
"Jacob," Edward nodded, not moving an inch from where he stood as he scanned the packed room.
His eyes traveled from one skirt to another, the smell of different perfumes, salt, citrus, and booze coiling inside his nose. Some hunched drunks were in a corner, grunting for refills, and women in revealing clothes and skirts served them more.
"Why don't you come and sit here, huh Edward?" Jacob sounded, tearing him out of his observations. "I've got something special for you today."
Dragging a wooden stool butting up against a brass foot rail, Edward sat on the cushioned seat and slumped on the counter as Jacob—a bushy-haired middle-aged man—prepared a drink for him.
"How's your search going?" Jacob made small talk as he prepared the drink, hoping to make Edward spill out something.
"You know," Edward hunched over the counter, looking at the drink Jacob pushed towards him. It skidded across the counter stopping in his outstretched hand. "I fail to see how my search is any of your concern." Said Edward dully, picking up the glass as he sipped.
"Haha!" Jacob barked out in laughter as though he'd told some kind of big joke. "You're funny."
'No, I'm not. There isn't anything funny here.'
Edward frowned for a jiffy before ignoring the weird man, he was just like that, always. No one really knew his intentions.
"You should've never lost her if you cared." A man said in a hiccup. Edward glanced behind him. "She was really sweet-" the man was coming towards him, clearly drunk, but Edward wasn't going to take this. This was, after all, somewhat of a usual occurrence.
That was exactly why before the man could complete his sentence, Edward had already smashed the glass in his hand at the man's face before grabbing him, plunging his thumb and middle finger in his eye sockets to hold him up.
The eyeball matter gushed out from both his orifices and coated Edward's hand before he made quick work of him by smashing his head into the counter, making a mess of his brain.
Silence descended in the pub, and every drunkard looked up from their seat, staring at the man, and then at Edward before sighing and getting back to their work—drinking their sorrows, flirting with the women, or outright sexually harassing them—without batting an eye. This was a normal occurrence, after all.
"Clean the mess!" Jacob roared to the side, smashing his hand on the counter as a small kid ran out of a room, a basket filled with water, and a cloth in hand. He wore eyeglasses and was quite ugly. He quickly cleaned Edward's hand first before moving the dead body away and coming back to clean the counter.
"Why did you call, Jacob?" Edward asked again, leaning on the counter, not bothered in the slightest about the boy clearing blood and brain matter just beside him. The boy was all fidgety, and due to that, an eyeball was hurled toward the ground. It hit the ground with a soft sound no one paid attention to before rolling like an egg, coming to halt in a few seconds.
"I've got something special for you, as I said before," Jacob said, frowning at the poor job the boy was doing. The boy ran up to pick up the ball, only for it to be squashed under a drunk's feet, making a mess out of the floor. The frown grew heavy as the boy sat down and started rubbing the floor.
"And what might that be?" Edward asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jacob grinned, showing teeth so golden that anyone would have a hard time deciphering if they were just that dirty, or if he'd transplanted them with gold ones.
"Why don't you follow me?" Jacob said finally, standing up as he gave Edward a look. He would admit, the boy had talent, but he wouldn't say it out loud, of course—Jacob wasn't a fool. A fish like this was hard to catch, and he'd spent so much time laying the baits that it would be such a waste if Edward wasn't caught in his trap. The trap that would get him stuck with his daughter forever, and compel him to look after her. Even after Jacob passed away.
Jacob stared at his green eyes, eyelids drooping over them before Jacob's eyes traveled down to trace the hideous scar that traced the fairly young boy's left cheek. Of course, Jacob made sure to not stare for too long.
Edward stood up from the stool and followed behind him silently. Jacob made his way to a certain room before pressing a button—well hidden from prying eyes—on the wall. The wall shifted and revealed an elevator. Both entered, waiting silently for it to go down.
'Rose should already be down there,' Jacob thought, mulling over a few things as the elevator went down. It came to a stop with a chime, and the door opened, leading to a dimly lit basement.
On the left was a big screen, with a map of Elysium—this whole 'city'. On the middle of the map, was the central city, brimming with wealth and happiness. And in the outskirts, was the outskirts, the slums, where the poor, outcasts and basically the most fucked up people resided. In the center of the central city, was a big yellow sun-like object. While the whole of Elysium—both the central city and the slums—were covered by a spherical black dome. A dome so strong that no one was able to break through and leave. Everyone was basically a prisoner inside here, with no way to get out.
On the right was a big table, and some other stuff. Mainly a fridge, T.V., beds, food, and a lot of other things.
No one but Rose sat on a chair beside the table, gazing over the screen—specifically the central city—with longing.
Edward walked up to the table and sat down on one of the chairs leisurely as Jacob walked around to the big screen with a stick in hand—which he'd picked up from the wall behind, that's where he usually left it, so it wasn't so difficult to find next time.
"There's been some whisp-" Jacob was interrupted by a chime from the elevator, and he grunted in annoyance as he turned to glare at whoever it was. But he stopped once he saw that it was his lovely wife.
"The lad tossed me a Sprittle; what's up? Got a new hunt or something?" said the redhead Edward had met sitting with the beggars, walking towards a shelf with familiarity before taking out a pair of clothes and donning them, not caring that she'd gotten practically naked to do so and that Edward was looking.
Neither cared though.
"What's up, sweety." The woman smiled at Rose, but her daughter just rolled her eyes in annoyance and ignored her like she was nothing but air. The woman sighed before smiling bitterly and sitting on one of the chairs.
"So," Jacob coughed. "As I was saying. There's been a whisper around. Some High-born near the outskirts bought some high-grade Gothlic, and we've got a client who's paying a high price to scoop it over to him without the authorities catching a whiff—something we specialize in."
The grin splitting his face widened.
"Who's in?"