ALL NOVEL Interlude Two (The Black Cat) Part 2
Watching his back disappear into the rain. Maria couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever be able to get through to him. Taking one last look at the dimly lit street she turned around, and attended to a few more customers before she wearily swung a “closed” sign down with a small noise.
Passing by a display case, she idly grasped a few of the unsold pastries, which had gone stale and lazily grazed on the desserts enjoying the sweet feeling filling her mouth. A quiet sigh escaped her mouth as her body plopped down on an empty seat. A moment of stillness passed only interrupted by the hum of a car passing by outside, as she half listened to the tv broadcast that was playing in the shop.
[female TV anchor] “As you can see, the forecast calls for at least two inches of precipitation in the following counties. . ."
Snacking quietly she couldn’t help but run through the previous conversation in her mind.
[Mariam] “The last time he says? It’ll only be the last time when he succeeds. Why can’t he just give it up already? Ugh, I can’t believe he thinks he can just come here and do whatever he wants without even considering how I feel. It’s not like I work this hard so he can throw his life away for nothing. Maybe if father hadn’t left, he might not be so stubborn about this."
Regretting the way she had been thinking, she shook herself, forcing a smile to return to her lips.
[Mariam] “Well, this kind of thinking won’t get you anywhere, Maria. Oh, and look how dirty the shop is; you better go clean it before more customers arrive.”
Laughing at her own scolding, she planted a hand on the counter and slowly rose to her feet.
When a set of words coming together on the TV screen managed to catch her attention.
[female TV anchor] “Our main story today is on the developing situation regarding the rift incident in residential district 23.”
Maria's ears caught on the anchor's voice; she had heard rumblings of some kind of accident from the customers.
[female TV anchor] "An official report by the warden-assigned press offices revealed that a grade four gate, was misclassified due to malfunctioning military equipment, opened 200 meters away from an evacuation point. A joint military warden task force was able to neutralize the rift with minimal loss of life. So far, only two people have been confirmed missing, a female resident of 56th Street, and Paul Evenworth, a decorated and highly praised military private. If you have any information about these individuals, please report it to your local police hotline immediately."
[Mariam] “Huh, that’s strange? When was the last time a grade four has appeared inside the city like this.”
Sure, rifts appeared all the time, but they were usually spread out enough to avoid population centers. Something like this happening, and even claiming two victims, was just not common in recent years.
Her eyes flitted down to look at the information displayed on the bottom of the screen as the anchor paused for a moment to listen intently to her earpiece. The tone of the broadcast was a little grim, she considered changing the channel as she wasn’t in the mood for this sort of thing, stuffing the last of the pastries into her mouth she got up a bit heavily as she went to clean up the shop before she laid down to rest a bit.
Humming a tune to herself, she swept under a table which, judging by the amount of food scattered underneath it, belonged to a partially dysfunctional customer.
Stopping to swipe a bit of sweat that had pooled on her forehead she took a look at the shop and feeling satisfied with how clean everything was, this feeling was taken out of her when she saw the several empty trays of pastries that would need to be refilled tomorrow. Letting out a breath she decided just to put it off to tomorrow as she finally was ready to rest her exhausted body.
As if mocking this thought, a crash reverberated through the left wall of the tiny shop, as if it had just been hit by a sledgehammer.
[Mariam] “Ugh, who’d be making a ruckus in weather like this? It’d better not be another drunk again. I swear I don’t care who it is; they’ll be getting a piece of my mind!”
As she walked towards the door, she stopped. What if it was a dangerous criminal, or maybe a wild animal? Should she really be going out there alone?
She hesitated for a moment before steeling her resolve and pulling on the door.
Stepping out on the street, her hair was immediately soaked by the pouring rain. Pushing it away from her eyes, she grabbed her broom tighter before inching closer. She scurried around the corner of the store, trying in vain to use the dilapidated brick building to shield her from the rain. Getting to the corner of the store, she let out a series of disgruntled mumbles. Cautiously peering around the building into the alleyway, what met her eyes caused her to forget her fear and run past the loose trash that scattered the pavement into the back of the alleyway.
In front of her laid a woman with closed eyes nested between a half-torn-apart bag of trash and the brick wall of the alley. Her appearance was nothing short of astonishing. Long black hair swept down her body, casting a striking contrast against jade-white skin that even in this environment would bring admiration from anyone who saw her.
Because of how the woman lay curled up as if trying to protect herself from an attacker, making it hard to tell how tall she was. Mairam guessed the woman was a little taller than herself, she wasn’t sure if she should get closer to the woman, worried that her presence might destroy the strange feeling the scene had, for the beauty lying with tattered clothes contrasted so heavily with the place of alleyway that it subconsciously caused a blush to creep across her face. Finally breaking the Ephermal spell she got closer examining the women tenderly.
She had a hobby of following TV and movie stars, so had seen her fair share of beauties on this girl's level. No, the issue wasn’t with the woman herself; it was with what she was wearing. The white dress with riveted leather patches sewn around it wouldn’t have looked out of place at a cosplay convention if not for the state it was in. A large hole was torn out of one of the sleeves as well as the skirt. Around this damage so much red liquid had dried that it almost made it look like those spots had been dyed.
The rest of the dress didn’t look to have fared much better from whatever unexplainable event it went through. Streaks of fabric burnt as black as charcoal covered the garment as if someone had taken a blowtorch to it.
After taking in the woman's form, Mariam finally managed to rouse herself enough to reactivate her slacked jaw.
[Mariam] “This is just horrible. How did this happen to such a pretty girl? Maybe she was attacked by a criminal, or maybe she escaped her abusive husband. No, it couldn’t be; she was kidnapped…”
Taking a deep breath, Mariam calmed her rapidly derailing thoughts.
[Mariam] “Ahh, it doesn’t matter what happened to her; it doesn’t look like she’s injured in the first place. But I’d better call the police just to make sure.”
She turned around a little unwilling, afraid to leave the girl in her current state out in the rain.
[Mariam] “Maybe I should try and drag her inside; she doesn’t look that heavy.”
Tentatively reaching out to grab one of the girl's wrists, she noticed that it had two straps holding onto broken bits of shining bronze metal. Filing the discovery away as yet another strange thing about the girl, she tentatively reached out towards the girl's tender wrist.
The moment Mariam's fingers made contact with the woman's skin, a change overtook the woman. She shook faintly as a groan escaped her lips.
Caught off guard by the woman's awakening, she dropped her broom. A loose series of exclamations escaped her lips.
[Mariam] “Hey! Hey, are you alright? Hey, please open your eyes. Ah, you’re awake! Haha, did you drink too much? Hey, hey, it’s okay; no need to look so frightened. But really, miss, you shouldn’t fall asleep in a sketchy place like this!”
While nervously laughing, she peeked down at the woman, waiting for her reaction, but all that met her was a hollow stare the woman’s eyes seeming to have no emotion in them, which gave off an indescribable feeling of oppression.
[Mariam] “Eeep, miss, you should just stay there while I call the police. Yeah, that’s it. Just stay right where you are.”
As Mairam tried to distance herself to escape the strange feeling that had come over her, she felt the cool touch of delicate skin against her leg, as A hoarse rasp barely audible over the rain escaped the lips, of the poor women lying behind her
[Iris] “Please, don’t . . . Please don’t go, Please, don’t leave me! Mother, Mother I’m sorry I can't pay your bills now, I have a real job, so please don’t leave me again!”
The woman was mumbling something in an unconscious state of delirium, tears running down her face making for a heartbreaking sight, her body convulsed slightly as she grasped onto Mairam’s leg with a surprisingly firm grip. Though she was unsure what the woman was talking about, there was no way, even if the woman gave off a strange feeling that she could leave her like this.
Quickly making up her mind, she used all her strength to pick the woman up, Mairam wasn’t particularly strong so she had to be careful not to drop the girl, as the rain beating into her face made it hard to see.
Hastily pushing inside the shop. she carried her back to her bedroom placing the girl's body down gently on the bed, suppressing her feelings of regret over dirtying the bed. She carefully started to wipe off the woman's soaked hair and body with a towel, not even aware of the large blush spreading across her face as she cleaned off the tender flesh covered with blood and dirt, contrary to what she had feared she found, that the women was unharmed, even the areas that were caked in blood showed no wounds when the dirt and grime was wiped away.
During the entire time, the woman groaned and made incomprehensible noises, almost as if she was speaking, but even if Marim couldn’t understand what was said, she knew it was spoken with intense regret.
Looking at the dingy state of her dress she wanted to undo it, but somehow it felt like she wasn’t qualified to stain this beauty any further with her touch, though this feeling was almost certainly her delusion.
Carefully setting aside the now filth-stained towel she wasn’t sure what else she should do, she figured that maybe she should have called the cops by now, but she was worried that this woman might have some reason for being in such a state, though she looked like a warden by her dress, she couldn’t find any weapons on her, and if she really was a warden that made her state even more odd, afterall there wasn’t any rifts which had opened up in this area for a long time, which means those holes in her dress and that blood could have only come from humans, thinking this Mairam suddendly jumped up as thoughts started to connect in her brain, maybe this girl was some sort of murder, that she had just brought into her house. With this thought she turned around in horror to see those empty eyes staring at her, now seeming wide awake, as the girl asked with a clear and drawn out voice as if she was choosing each word carefully, staring at Mairam like she was prey.
[Iris]: “Hello?”
. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. .
System>
*Ding Triumphant noises*
. . . . . . .[Success]
{Congratulations, soul successfully modified; displaying new data}
System>
{New information: [A Tier Modification Successful]
{Gained new active skill: “Monarch’s reach” [Grade B]}
{Active skill Description: Allows the User to manifest tendrils which can steal any energy compatible with the system that they come in contact with.}
{Gained new passive skill: “Lesser Recovery” [Grade B]}
{Passive skill Description: Allows the User to regenerate from minor wounds this effect persists as long as the system is operational.}
Peeling opened my eyes, they were burned slightly by the intense rush of light that greeted them, despite everything that had happened they didn’t feel particularly heavy, looking up I fully expected to either see the strange white realm of the goddess or the infernal stone wall of the caves, instead I was met with the comforting site of cheap apartment roofing, the illumination coming from the single led lightbulb suspended above me, under me I could feel the comfortable touch of a mass-produce blanket and bed, feelings I had almost forgotten in the short time I had been without them.
Involuntarily tears started to flow from my eyes as the desperate hope that I was back in my bed at home started to rise in me, however as if to crush this hope in the next moment a flood of system messages started to cloud my vision reminding me where I was. In a way in which I couldn’t tell if I was enraged or depressed, I cleared all the messages out of my vision forcing my body to sit up.
To my surprise what was in front of me was a girl, one who was now shaking like she had seen a ghost, seeing her look of fright I raised my hand out carefully, while I was unsure what was exactly happening, I was desperate not to let the first person I see escape like that, I needed to know where I was, who I was, no, more than that I just needed to speak to something which wasn’t an ant. Trying my hardest not to scare her any further I spoke quietly.
[Iris] “Hello, and who are you?
{Current Time until apocalypse: 213rs, 19m, 23s}