Ria
I pretended to be confident and sure of myself as I walked towards the highest rooms in the castle.
Arsheus, Rin and Allea were walking by my side, their hands busy with some sheets we had stolen from a hamper earlier. No one had questioned us yet, so that at least was good.
I didn't know what I was looking for, neither what Arsheus's goal was, but he seemed sure that it would be in the highest rooms, so there we were going.
The servants that passed us by cast weird glances our way but ultimately shook their heads and let it go. The guards were the same. The moment their eyes started to move towards us they would look at our clothes and move on as if we were invisible. Arsheus was right about one thing at least. Having someone dressed as a servant was the same as them not existing at all. Everyone pretended we were not here. It was great.
With each step I took that the guards or other servants didn't catch us I grew more confident.
They hadn't caught us and they weren't going to.
I begun smiling as we walked.
Arsheus was taunt by my side, his smile gone. Rin and Allea also didn't look in their best as they moved as silently as possible, their eyes darting all over the place even when there weren't any sounds or threats to be seen or heard. They were paranoid.
" Allea, why are you so....?" I couldn't even finish my question before Arsheus's eyes bulged and he covered my mouth with his hands, glaring at me.
What the fuck? Could I not even speak now?
Arsheus took his finger to his lips and made the sign for me to shut up.
Why couldn't I even speak a little bit?
I got annoyed. Fine, if he wanted to play like that we could play like that. I shut my mouth and didn't speak any further, walking faster and away from they just out of pure spite.
Behind me I heard Arsheus swearing softly and running to my side. So he wanted me by his side now? He should've thought about it twice before he told me to shut up like that.
I kept walking, ignoring his hands as they grabbed me and pulled me back.
I didn't want to listen to him. I was tired of doing as he pleased.
All my hatred evaporated when I saw what was in front of me and what Arsheus had been trying to protect me from.
In front of us were the two ugliest angels I had ever seen. I wasn't kidding when I said they looked as if they had crawled out of the gutter after fighting the rats. Their faces were covered in scars and their eyebrows were in a perpetual frown as their non-existent lips formed a smirk. They honestly gave me the creeps.
" What do you want?" Their voices as they spoke sounded as broken as they were. They didn't even try to be soft nor did they ignore us just thinking we were part of the service. They were the first ones to notice us. This wasn't good.
I begun shaking just thinking about what they'd do to me once they found out I was not one of them. I was so afraid I couldn't even speak, my mouth closed up on it's own no matter how badly I tried. I felt like when Arsheus controlled me, only than worse.
The guard's gazes turned cold when I didn't answer them immediately. They looked at me as if I was scum as they moved closer to me, their hands on their weapon's handles.
" What do you want?" Their voices were even darker and lower as they walked towards me.
I panicked and looked back. Arsheus and the others were coming my way, pretending they weren't with me and had just seen what had happened. If I thought about it coldly it made all the sense in the world. They couldn't afford to get caught. They had to pretend they weren't with me. It still hurt all the same.
Arsheus's face was calm as he walked up to us, Rin and Allea following behind him, and rested his hand on my shoulder, his eyes kind as he looked down on me.
" Don't mind her, she's just a rookie" Arsheus smiled and looked down on me as he said that, as if he was a graceful superior that didn't care about his subordinates mistakes. That smile made me want to wipe it off his face, but it was doing it's work. The guards looked at each other confused before looking at Arsheus with a frown.
" And you are?"
" I'm Tony" Arsheus smiled even bigger as he offered them his hand. The guards looked at him with disdain and then at me, not taking his peace offer.
" And her?" The one on the left pointed at me as he spoke, as if I wasn't capable of saying my own name. Motherfucker.
" She's Ria" Arsheus's smile was paternal as he picked a strand of my hair and twirled it in between his fingers. " She doesn't know the ropes yet"
The guard's gazes softened and then they smiled.
" Don't let this happen again"
Was that it? Were they letting us go?
Arsheus didn't let me rethink anything else as he grabbed my elbow and pulled me out of there, bowing down to the guards.
As soon as we were out of sight Arsheus held me even tighter, tight enough to bruise, and ran, followed by Rin and Allea. Only when we were far away did he stop and turn to look at me.
" Never do this again" Arsheus's tone was commanding as he spoke. He didn't order me to do it, but it was as if he had. The latent fear in his voice and the way his hands shook told me he had really been afraid.
I thought nothing could ever get to Arsheus, but I was apparently wrong.
" I'm sorry"
Arsheus sighed and rubbed his temples.
" It's fine, just never go up"
" Isn't there where you want to go?"
Arsheus nodded.
I didn't understand. If that was our final goal then why was he telling me to never go upstairs?
" Our goal is up, but we can't go just now. They need to trust us first"
" What's the worst that could happen if not? I've seen you coming back from a slit throat"
The moment I said those words I realized I had fucked up. Both Rin and Allea turned to stare at me.
" What do you mean by that?" Rin looked worried as his eyes darted between me and Arsheus, as if he was trying to figure out what I had said.
I swallowed. I couldn't exactly tell him that I had slit Arsheus's throat back when I didn't like him with the hope that he'd never come back, could I?
" She slit my throat " Arsheus sounded proud as he spoke of my feat as if it was a great act and not an attempted murder.
Rin smirked and laughed, falling to the floor, the sheets he had been carrying scattered all over. Allea smiled as she walked up to Arsheus and gave him a two over.
" So you liked her even back then?" Her voice was mocking as she asked the question, her eyes gleaming. It was no wonder she was married to Rin. They had the same dark humor and urge to mock and make fun of others.
I watched, amused, as Arsheus stammered a non answer and backed away, picking up the sheets discarded on the floor and running away after glaring at Rin one last time.
" He liked you since the beginning"
I blushed listening to Allea. There was no way he had loved me since then. He had hated me. I knew that.
" You're wrong"
Allea smiled knowingly and chuckled.
" Whatever you say, darling"
Rin walked over to us and smirked.
" He wouldn't have let you live if he hadn't liked you, no matter how useful you were he would've killed you if he had hated you, but you're alive"
Allea winked at me and grabbed the few remaining sheets off the floor, a smile on her lips as she handed me half of them.
" Let's go have some fun"
" Cleaning isn't fun" I wanted to clarify it because it seemed like neither of them had ever done a manual task. Cleaning wasn't fun. It was tiring and it got you on a bad mood.
Allea smiled.
" Who said anything about cleaning?"
I stared at her. Arsheus would get mad if he caught us and more importantly, what were we going to do?
" What are we doing?"
Allea looked at Rin and the both of them smiled, their lips crooked.
" Did you know that we can go out?"
So what?
Allea must've read the confusion in my face because she laughed and placed her arms over my shoulder, pulling me closer to her.
" Let's get drunk"
Drinking?
I smiled. Hell, yeah.
" Let's"
A few hours later
When Allea had told me she knew a good place to drink in town after we had finished all the task for the day, which were just cleaning a few sheets and pretending to work until dusk, I had thought she meant some kind of bar or a place where it's main objective was to sell alcohol, not a strip club in the middle of the city.
" What the fuck are we doing here?"
I glared at Allea as she laughed, walking past the door where the sign your night of pleasure, the name of the stablishmet, was written in big, cursive letters.
" Relax"
Allea grabbed my hand and pushed me inside. Rin didn't seem to even hesitate as he smirked and walked inside. For once I hoped Arsheus was with me. I knew he wouldn't approve of this, but he had gone to god knew where to try to earn the angel's trust. Fortunately that meant I wasn't the one doing all the work, which I totally approved of. The only thing I hated and was the fact that we were in a fucking strip club.
" Allea, are you sure about this?"
" Absolutely"
Allea smiled big as she pushed me past the door and into the place itself.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the debauchery around me. I kept my eyes closed as Allea dragged me and then dropped me into a chair.
Rin was chuckling by my side.
" Why are your eyes closed?" His tone was mocking as he asked, as if he already knew the answer and just wanted to fuck with me.
" I don't want to see it"
" See what?"
I frowned. What did he mean?
Now that he said it there were no noises coming from around me, not even a simple moan.
Okay, I could try to open my eyes.
I opened my eyes and was met with an ordinary bar. What the fuck?
Allea laughed by my side, her laughter echoing off the walls.
" You thought this was a strip club, didn't you?"
I blushed and looked away. Of course I had thought that. The name was awful.
" I've told the owner to change the name multiple times, but he refuses. He says he gets more clientele like that and I can't say he's in the wrong"
I looked around and saw that most of the clients were looking around them, confused as to why they weren't any strippers in a strip club.
I smiled. I had probably looked ridiculous refusing to open my eyes when there was nothing to fear or hate at all.
I watched a middle-aged woman with bright blond hair and a big smile coming our way wearing her uniform, which in the stablishmet's defense wasn't sexist at all. It barely showed her legs.
" What do you want to drink?" The woman looked at Allea and winked at her. " I know what you like"
What was that about?
Allea looked at me and chuckled.
" I'm a regular here"
The waitress smiled and lowered her head to speak in my ear.
" Don't let her fool you. She's here every single day"
Allea smiled sadly as she looked up at Rin as if he held her whole world.
" I had to deal some way"
The waitress nodded and walked away from me, putting on her best service smile, all the jokes gone as she looked back. When I followed her gaze I found a group of guards laughing loudly as they hit the waitress in the ass and called them names so loudly that even from the other side of the bar I could hear their words.
I looked up at the waitress, wondering why she did nothing.
The woman followed the direction of my eyes and smiled sadly.
" They are guards" Was all she muttered under her breath before her fake smile was back on. " What do you want to drink today?"
" The usual" Allea didn't even look at the guards as she said what she wanted, as if it was a daily occurrence that wasn't even worth her attention.
I looked at the waitress and hardened my heart. To each their own.
" The strongest drink you've got"
The waitress smiled at me and looked at Rin, but he was gone, his eyes focused on his wife's face.
Allea smiled and answered for him.
" He'll have the same as me"
The waitress nodded and walked off to get us our drinks.
" Why?" Rin's voice was low and soft as he asked, as if he was afraid of breaking Allea if he asked too loudly or hard.
Allea looked at Rin with eyes filled with sadness and regret.
" You weren't here. You were gone"
Rin stared at her and opened his mouth to speak up. Allea ignored him and turned to look at me with a genuine smile on her lips.
" Do you like the place?"
From the corner of my eyes I saw Rin swallowing hard and looking defeated at his own feet. He looked like a man that had lost everything and didn't know how to ask for it back. I could help him or get myself out of trouble.
I chose the peace.
" So, how do you know this place?"
Allea smiled and begun speaking.
" I've been here since they were founded. I was a friend of the original owner. I loved his drinks"
Allea's eyes got nostalgic looking at the horizon.
" What kind of drinks?"
Allea smiled.
" Every kind, like...." She twisted her head and looked at the waitress approaching us with a tray filled with our drinks. " There are our drinks!"
I looked at the waitress as she walked up to us with a smile and put them down on the table.
" Your drinks"
I looked at the drink in front of me and swallowed. It looked like shit and quite literally. The liquid was brownish and had a weird, thick texture.
I looked at Allea and then at my drink. Was this good to drink?
Allea's and Rin's drinks seemed more like actual things you could swallow and ingest. They were transparent and seemed like water.
Mine was even worse.
" Are you sure this is drinkable?"
Allea looked at my glass and chuckled.
" Of course it is"
I looked at the drink and then at Allea. I would give it a try.
I picked up the glass and downed it in one gulp.
The taste was off at the beginning, the thick texture mixing with my saliva and making the whole thing seemed like a solid, but the taste was actually solid. It was bitter and sweet at the same time. It was actually good.
Allea chuckled looking at me drink and Rin smirked by her side.
" So you do like it?" Rin's shit eating grin threw me off balance. I wanted to say it wasn't good, but even I knew that was a lie. Despite how it looked the drink had a solid taste.
" It's fine"
Rin laughed and Allea smirked.
" Another one!!" Rin screamed for the waitress and she smiled and nodded.
" Your drinks are coming" Allea was using a happy tone as she mocked me.
I didn't care. The buzz of the alcohol was beginning to make everything brighter and funny. I could still see and think, but those issues could be solved with even more alcohol.
When the waitress walked over and placed the new drinks in front of us I smiled.
Time to get drunk.
I picked the glass and drank it at once as Rin and Allea cheered in the background.
" Come on, I dare you to drink more than me" Allea smiled as she picked her own drink and downed it in a second.
I smiled as the world blurred a little.
" You're on"
I picked another glass and drank it as Allea did the same. I was gonna win.