Faith [3]
Sweet Sleep and Sweeter Dreams
Ririe
Her husband’s hands were strong and warm. She felt their strength as his fingers crushed her throat and the warmth of his palms as they pushed her back against the shattered glass. Faith writhed and kicked desperately at his middle, even at his crotch, but Roth was relentless, his teeth barred and the white of his eyes gleaming, his green eyes like spears piercing through her own turquoise.
Faith struggled in vain for breath, black spots blooming in her vision as she grasped at his sleeves. Aster, calm and collect as a cool winter breeze swept in a swung a kick right into the side of Roth’s head, knocking him out cold and sprawled across the floor.
Without a word, Aster extended an alabaster hand, which Faith gratefully took, getting to her feet. Her throat was raw, and she hastily wiped away the small spot of saliva on her chin. Colt and Pierce hefted Roth up and dragged his unconscious self out of the apartment and into the hallway and upstairs into the decrepit attic room, locking the door.
Faith was bent over, her hands on her knees as she coughed up saliva that dribbled from her lips, her olive face turning the same red as her throat.
“What the fuck was that about?” Sonny snapped, having returned at the sudden explosion of noise.
“I…I’m sorry…” Faith croaked as Aster slid a cold hand around her upper arm, and guided her to the door by the kitchen. Just before he opened the door, he looked to her arm and said with complete seriousness, “I think you may have some species of parasite attached to you.”
Faith looked to her arm and found Maverick clung it. Faith cocked her head over and looked to Aster saying, “Don’t worry, I don’t think it’s lethal.” She coughed, and plucked the kitten from her arm and placed him carefully in a pocket in her side.
Aster opened the door to a large, high-walled bedroom with two beds, a tall, rhombus shaped window and another smaller one beside it with a door cracked slightly ajar, leading to a small bathroom. Judging by the clear division in living spaces (and the strange combination of smells, of some sickly sweet flower and cinnamon,) Aster and someone else slept in here. One, a messy unkempt scatter of clothes, and other folded, without a spec of dirt and inhumanly neat. Even the beds, one of them unmade and other smoothed over and immaculate.
The white haired boy motioned to the bed, and Faith slumped on the tidy bed. Aster’s white eyebrow twitched before he left the room and locked the door behind him. Faith nearly gasped aloud as the bed squeaked and the bedsprings jumped as someone landed on the bed beside her.
“Do you never go away?” Faith sighed at the brown, curly haired boy beside her.
“No, actually. I don’t,” Eli grinned. He bounced up and off the bed and swaggered around the room, arms folded as he paced. His crooked grin forever seemed to be about to break out into a foxlike snicker or chuckle.
“That guy’s a real buzz-kill, eh?” He said, motioning over to the door.
“I would’ve given you a fair warning about our Roth friend, but, you felt so inclined to rush towards the man inclined to kill you that you didn’t give me much of a chance. I took a sweep of the room whilst you were having a lovely conversation with your husband, you know, just some casual recon. Interestingly enough, I found that Sonny has weak spot in the small of her back, Cash has a nervous twitch in her right hand and middle finger, Colt has a slight allergy to cats as proven by Mav’s fur, Taylor looked like he was about to curl up into a ball and have a panic attack, Pierce looked like he was ready to drop-kick Roth out the window, so I may have nudged Aster to maybe nudge Roth in the head instead of his entire body out of the window.”
Faith leant back onto the bed, one eyebrow curiously raised.
“How. When…What?” Eli sat on the other side of the bed and lent back onto the bed, his head next to her. He sighed through his nose and his green eyes flickered, once again, foxlike.
“I’m here to help,” Elijah smirked.
Irate voices sounded through the door before he could continue, and Faith slipped off the bed and crouched by the door, pressing her ear against the door. Eli joined her, but elected to sit and lean his back against the door. Faith gave him a look that assured him she’d bring up those questions again. He seemed nonchalant, crossing his legs as he cocked his head to the side, his fox-eyes turning puppy-like.
Faith recognized Pierce’s voice through the door easy enough, “We can’t just through her out, or him for that matter, he just tried to kill her.”
Sonny’s voice was more or less a growl, “If we don’t get rid of them, they’ll end up killing us.”
Pierce sighed, and Faith swore it almost sounded like he hissed smoke between his teeth.
“I didn’t save them just to throw them out. They’re my responsibility, I don’t care. We keep him in the attic and question him when he comes to, we should at least ask her what this is all about.”
“We should take a vote,” A voice that she supposed was Taylor’s said.
Eli poked her in the shoulder and smirked “So, what’s the plan. Climb out the window, scale the building run out into the horizon hand in hand?”
“I’m not running anywhere,” Faith sighed and then squinted at him, “Especially with you.”
“Well, you haven’t got much of a say in the matter,” Eli said, licking a canine that looked oddly sharp.
After the growing list of impossible things Faith had seen over the past two days, she wasn’t entirely taken aback at the sight of her disappearing, invisible friend’s pointed teeth.
“I vote we at least let Faith explain herself,” Cash said.
“Yeah, explain why her husband was trying to kill her,” Sonny snapped.
“I don’t…I don’t think they should stay. I just think that’s best for the group, they’re dangerous and unpredictable, that’s all…” Taylor half-mumbled.
“Well, he’s not lying,” Faith sighed. Eli just shrugged and half-smiled.
She continued to listen in as Pierce paced the room, the wood creaking under-boot.
“Colt, watch the attic door. Cash, get me a damp cloth. Aster, get her back in here.”
At that, Faith scrambled to her feet as Aster unlocked the door and ushered her outside. It was odd, Faith somehow felt even more nervous now than she did when her and Pierce fought off the Ashlings. She sat on the couch, her boots crunching on the shards of broken glass. The others stood around Faith, Eli slumped beside her, (no one seemed to have noticed him, despite the fact that he had his feet up on the on the broken frame of the table.)
“I think, you better explain,” Pierce muttered, suddenly crouched by her and pressing a damp, cold cloth against her neck. Faith instinctually pulled away, but Pierce but his other hand around the other side of her neck, gently pulling her back. This close, she could see the dark stubble shadowing his jaw and neck, and the smallish shape of his eyes that suggested he was of Asian descent, despite his broad shouldered build. He wore a thin, dirty-white shirt, the small silver buttons at the soft spot of his collar bone undone, the sleeves pushed up to his biceps that flexed as his Adams apple bobbed, but why, Faith wasn’t quite sure.
Pierce only pressed the cloth for a moment more before he took her hand and pressed it back onto the cloth and stepped away. Despite the rawness in her throat, Faith tried her best to explain, saying, “I…I have no memory. To be specific, I have no memory of my past, I can’t remember a thing before waking up in the abandoned town. I…-I lied about Roth being my husband, if you hadn’t guessed, I have no idea who he is, or why he tried to bloody kill me.”
They remained silent, but exchanged words through glances. Pierce crouched down to her level again, and pressed a hand against the cloth, and a stern shade glinted the oak of his eyes as he said, “I trust that you’re telling the truth.” The fingers pressed against her throat were pressed harder than before.
Eli shifted beside her, “That’s a bit touchy feely, ain’t it?” He grunted, narrowing his fox-eyes. Despite him speaking, Faith was somehow the only one aware of his entire existence, as she made the mistake to glance at him, leaving Pierce to raise a brow as he awaited an answer.
“Yes...I’m, - I’m telling the truth I swear.” Pierce looked into her turquoise eyes unflinching, and Faith met his challenge. She looked right back, unflinching as he was, and dared him to call her a liar. His eyes dared her to prove him right. After what felt like forever, Pierce stood, and broke the daze he’d somehow locked Faith in. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Eli watching them both, curious, as he was intense.
Pierce crossed his arms across his chest and let out a deep sigh.
“She stays.”
Those two words earned a grunt of indignation from Sonny, who stalked out the apartment door, wordlessly fuming, a grin from Eli, a nervous twitch from Taylor, a slow blink from Aster, and triumphant hmph from Cash as she rocked back on her heels to lean back on the wall and bite her lip in a smile.
“Aster and I will watch Roth. Cash, grab Colt and you two can take Faith out into the town, see if anyone recognizes her or if she recognizes anyone, buy dinner too,” Pierce said, tossing a small pouch of coin to Cash.
Eli stood, walking right up to Aster who looked him directly in the face, but failed to see fox of a boy. He snapped his fingers, as if testing whether Aster was playing some sick joke, but the white-haired boy didn’t even blink.
Eli put his hands on his hips and spun round back at Faith as she stood to join Cash.
“Let’s go meet some lovely townsfolk,” He sighed with his constant crooked grin and crooked green eyes.
~ ~ ~
The leeches on the bounty-hunters back were fat and looked as if they might burst. But despite his pretty looks and heart-breaking smile, his answer was the same.
“Sorry love, I don’t know ya. Too bad, I dare say.”
They’d had the same general answer from the baker soft and plump as the dough he kneaded, the Ghar’ish nomad, the shoe-shiner who looked suspiciously like the wanted posters of the Imperial fugitive Illick Lance The Bees Bane, and even the troupe of husky-voiced, thick-bearded and smoke-stinking Miners from the Neverpeaks, all drinking themselves into a stupor at the tavern, The Six-Tailed Wyvern, who claimed they’d remember a strange, white haired girl like that.
All the while they made their way through the bustling, narrow town, Cash haggled for the best price for bread, vegetables from The Sun Pathed Stretch to the south, venison all the way from the Silverpine coast, tea leaves from the Crimson Elder Groves of the very North and honey from a farm in Westerport. Everything to be bought on the street-side markets, just as everyone who lived here, seemed to be from every possible corner of the land.
It was odd, when they said the names of these places, Faith recognized them easy enough, even picture them to a degree, but she could not quite work out why she’d been there or what she’d done there. It was all quite confusing, like trying to piece together the fractured shards of a dream into one coherent picture.
By the time they returned to the apartment, the sun had half-sunk behind the horizon, orange and red strokes of color playing amongst the pink clouds. The apartment building itself was decrepit, and essentially abandoned, save their lively apartment, awake and lit with fire-fly lights and lanterns strung above the windows and across the roof of the living room. All the other apartments were more or less uninhabitable, overtaken with weeds, worn down with rain and weather, or entire walls had been completely knocked down. Colt led them right back up through the tiny lobby, up the stairs going up all three floors and up into the final floor.
Maverick sat on the inside of her collar, gently, ever so slowly trying to gnaw away and possibly get at her jugular with his tiny needle teeth. Instead of death by tiny, purple, kitten, Faith offered her pointer for him to nip and paw at. Eli however, wasn’t so easily soothed. All the while they wandered the town, he trailed behind her, never straying far as he clearly voiced his complaints at sticking around with these people. By the time they got back, Faith was ready to sick Mav on the invisible boy.
Colt and Cash had already gone into the apartment, but Faith paused a moment at the stairs to grab Eli by the shirt and press him against the peeling paint-job.
“I swear, if you don’t shut up I’ll-” Faith began.
“…-Just like you swore before. I’m calling your bluff, again. You can’t really swear if you’ve got nothing to swear on, can you?” Eli interrupted.
“Are you saying I lied to them?” Faith hissed, loosening her grip on his shirt, yet drew closer.
“Well, yes and no,” He shrugged, not meeting her eye.
“Speak clearly,” Faith warned. Eli hesitated, and in that moment Mav reached out a tiny paw and swiped at him softly with a squeak.
The two paused and looked to the kit for a moment.
“That was like being assaulted by a fuzzy cloud made out of cotton-candy.”
“Down, boy,” Faith said, prodding her nose onto Mav’s fuzzy ear.
Before Faith could return to her interrogation, Cash called out to her, saying that dinner would be ready soon. They sat to a dinner of soup, the smell of which sent Faith rabid. The table was a low-set one, hovering only centimeters above the floor. They each sat on a pillow, and Eli lay on the floor beside Faith.
All the while they ate, Faith couldn’t help but stare at the sun mark on her hand, or notice the irate glares from Sonny, the flirtatious quips between Cash and Colt and the cold, analytical stare of Aster’s. Her mark stood out like a sore thumb, so much so she felt almost ashamed of it.
That was, until she looked to Pierce for the first time since night had fallen. Faith wasn’t entirely sure why, but despite their stare-off before hand, she felt as though she couldn’t meet his eye. So for the first time that night Faith began to look to him, only to stop when she reached his left hand. And the fact that he was missing two of his fingers. Well, not so much missing, but replaced with mechanical ones that had been hidden beneath gloves before. She froze, her body refusing to move as she plainly gawked at them. They moved and operated just as the rest of his fingers did, but they had a strange click to them.
“You like ‘em?” Pierce asked, stirring the soup.
“Ah…I…I like them. How did you make them?” Faith asked, amazed as she casually took them in her hands and traced her thumbs across the metal. When the initial amazement wore off, Faith came to the quick realization that everyone at the table was staring at the two of them. Biting her lip nervously, she looked back to Pierce, who simply smiled back.
“Well, I-I could tell you about it-” He began.
“Ah…never mind,” Faith murmured, returning his hand and drawing away. Her heart dropped when she watched his smile disappear.
And a silence rested over all of them as they returned to their meals. After a few moments only filled with the sounds of spoons scrapping against bowls, Taylor began to mumble to himself, even shake after a while, dropping his spoon on the floor. Faith looked to him, concerned as she was curious. He went to adjust his glasses, but dropped them, only for Aster to catch them in one, deft swoop. The white haired boy stood, and offered a hand out for the poor shaking boy, who hesitantly took it, and stumbled into the room by the kitchen.
They continued yet again in silence, but this time, it was interrupted by Sonny. She sat at the other end of the table, and seemed to pause for a moment, and stared at Faith.
“What exactly is your name?” She said, a strange tone of accusation ringing clear.
“Faith?”
“Not your first name, genius. Your actual, full name?
It may help in finding wherever you came from?” Sonny said, her head slumped against a propped up hand.
Faith thought of this for a moment, and searched her memories, cautious and careful. Yet all she found was a numbing pain that signaled the wall in her head, a wall that shielded her memories from her reach.
She clenched her fists for a moment and said, “I…I don’t know.”
Sonny tilted her head condescendingly, “Oh, how convenient. For you.”
Faith dug her fingernails into her palms.
“How so?”
“For someone, say, who wanted to get away from somewhere or from someone, to just, forget their name, forget their past, and forget their place? Wouldn’t that be a tad convenient just to forget it all?” Sonny said dryly.
A muscle in Faith’s jaw twitched as she drew her hands to her center.
“I. Don’t’. Remember. But, if any one of you is endangered because of me, please, feel free to get rid of me. But…” Faith closed her hands into fists.
“…While I’m here, I won’t lie to you. I won’t lie to any of you, e-especially you Pierce, you saved my life and let me stay here. I promise, I won’t forget that.”
Pierce looked sincerely surprised, his fingers, real and mechanical interlaced, the oak in his eyes turning dark and warm, almost like coffee. Coffee…how strange. Faith could remember the taste of it, the overwhelming smell and energy it brought, the warmth it spread around her body on the cold, early mornings…but where had she had those mornings, that she needed the warmth? From then, Faith couldn’t help but stare, and drink in the warmth of those eyes. The warmth was snapped away in an instant when Sonny began to speak.
“-What if she’s lying about not lying? Are we supposed to just take her word for it? Take her word that she won’t slit our throats in our sleep?”
Pierce sighed through his nose, and brushed her off.
“Sonny, give it a rest. Trust me, if she tries to slit our throats she won’t have a head for very long. Go get some spare pillows and blankets and set up the couch.”
Sonny challenged him with a contemptuous glare, but Pierce didn’t even need to stand, move or seem the least aggressive to be downright intimidating. His mechanical fingers twitched ever so slightly, and Sonny pursed her lips. After a few moments, every muscle in Faith’s body tensed, Eli resting his head on her shoulder casually as Mav gnawed and played amongst his brown curls.
With an audible sigh, Sonny stood and disappeared upstairs. After the scene, Faith realized she’d forgotten about Cash and Colton sitting silently in shock beside her, fixed at the same scene. Pierce cocked his head back slightly and rubbed his neck, then grinned, saying, “So, who wants to play Tempest?”
It turned out Faith was terrible at Tempest. A card game, (as Pierce put it), that a toddler could master without difficulty where was every man for himself, with Colt, Cash, Pierce, Faith and Sonny in a match.
When she was meant to say one thing, she’d say the opposite. When in a head to head skirmish with Colt, she ended up flinging her stack of cards in his direction, as per the instructions of Eli who she discovered, hadn’t the foggiest idea how to play. When the hour grew late, Pierce dimmed the paper lanterns dangling from the roof, and they all began to retreat back to their rooms. Faith kicked off her boots by the couch and shifted slightly uncomfortably in her crop-top styled bra (but she dare not take it off) beneath the white shirt of Colt’s. She’d ended up discarding Cash’s black clothes into a neat, folded pile, as they proved to not fit her at all. (And may or may not contain small shards of glass from the table.)
So instead, she wore a white shirt of Colton’s that seemed to fit her fine, along with her old black pants and boots and a light brown jacket with a high collar, frayed edges and tears in the material, and smelled off the apartment ruins, of dust and lavender candle-scent. It was perfect.
Faith collapsed onto the couch and tucked in tight under a thick blanket half-heartedly tossed by Sonny. Mav curled up into a fuzzy ball of purple fur by her chest, purring contently as he slept soundly. She began to close her eyes when an irate, tired voice said,
“Well, where am I going to sleep?”
“I don’t know, try outside Elijah,” Faith said, lazily motioning out the giant round window that poured moonlight over the two. He sat on the floor, looking utterly discontent with a pout and look of annoyance dancing about in his green eyes. Eli shuffled forward and rested his chin on his folded arms on the couch by Faiths head. She gave him a sharp glare, and he resorted to softening his eyes into pleading, puppy-dog eyes.
After examining the inch of space left on the couch and debating on how heartless she could be, Faith bundled Mav up to her chest and rolled onto the other side, saying, “Promise not to kill me in my sleep?’
Eli wordless slid onto the couch, laying with his back to hers he drew the black blanket up over both of them.
After a few moments of silence, both of their eyes closed, Faith murmured sleepily,
“Well?”
Eli huffed, “We promised not to lie while we’re here, didn’t we?”
~ ~ ~
The moment Faith awoke, she knew she was dreaming. There was a strange weightlessness about her as she shifted underneath the blanket and rolled over, discovering Eli to be gone. Which, by now, shouldn’t have been so surprising, considering that appeared to be a habit of his. Maverick still slept soundly, so Faith cautiously slid off the couch as not to wake him. Despite her careful footsteps, the wooden floor underfoot creaked, muttering otherworldly mutters of what was in the shadows. She wandered out into the hallway, and came across an odd sight.
There was…a door. A door at the end of the hall that was most definitely not there before. Unlike the other doors of the apartments, this one was completely intact. And, in front of it, sat Eli. He sat there so placidly, staring up at the door without a word or sound. Silent as she could, Fait made her way down to him, and prodded his shoulder.
“…Eli?” She whispered under her breath.
He shuddered, turning slow, twitching and tensed. It was then, that Faith noticed his pointed, sharp ears, the saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth and his pointed canines that he bared. And the utterly feral look in his eyes. He turned from her and bashed on the door, screaming, “LET ME IN!”
That, was when Faith really woke. Eli, at some point during the night had rolled onto the floor, and was sprawled about, asleep. Restless, unable to get the mysterious door, Eli’s appearance or the strange mark on her hand off her mind, Faith began to make her way apartment door. She extended a hand to twist the doorknob when it began to shift on its own, being opened from the other side. Faith gasped, thinking, It’s Roth…no, no, no, he’s going to kill me, he escaped, somehow he escaped and he’s going to kill me…
But then…Faith smelled a familiar smell of sickly sweet flowers. No…Quiet as she could, Faith hurried back to the couch and dove under the blankets and squeezed her eyes shut. She listened to each, individual footstep of Aster’s as he made his way across the room. It felt as though a shadow stood over her, cold and staring. Faith wasn’t sure how long he stood over her, but she didn’t dare open her eyes for what felt like hours. It was only when sleep finally began to catch up to her that she realized she’d been holding Eli’s hand beneath the blankets, as he began to hold hers tighter.
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