Deals

The sun sat at the apex of the sky, the city below it moving at its usual midday pace. It was a modest place — a large dormitory at the center, wide fields with sports equipment, a handful of shops, a river running along the outer edge like a natural moat. Beyond that, houses, most of them dark. Most of them empty.

The students were out. Shops full, fields busy, voices everywhere. But the adults moved differently through all of it — careful, eyes low, carrying something heavy underneath the ordinary motions of a normal day.

And among it all, a hulking wall shrouded the horizon. One looming to far for anyone to even think about crossing.

Alice tore off a piece of tough bread with her teeth and kept walking, Bjorn at her side.

"I saw a cute kid earlier."

Bjorn said nothing.

"Annoying, but funny. He had this pretty red scarf."

They settled on the grass by the soccer field and watched the students run drills. Alice chewed her bread and looked out at nothing in particular.

"What an unfortunate bunch. They're thrown away segregated by that big wall...They don't even have standard issue phones, just one crude landline...So what do you think?"

Bjorn considered it.

"We'll leave by tomorrow."

"Guess it can't be helped."

Alice pushed off the ground, patting her skirt as she stood to her feet.

"I'm going into their cafeteria. You want anything?"

"No—"

"Hey! Shaman!"

Turning Bjorn watched as Maren took lanky steps over to him. He couldn't help but feel annoyed to face this clown once more. Well it was a good thing Alice was here, he could off load any talks to her.

Turning his head, he opened his mouth, only to realize she had already left.

'Right. She just ate.'

Standing over him, the lanky man blew out a haze of nicotine before taking an unwelcome seat next to Bjorn. Bjorn couldn't help but let out a bellowing sigh, before shifting as if to get up.

"I know I was rude before. I'm..."

Maren held his tongue. The words wouldn't come out the way he wanted them to. He was never good at apologizing, he knew that. Instead he held out a small bottle. Bjorn looked at it, then at Maren.

He shifted once more, taking it from Maren and downing the whole booze.

"What do you need?"

Maren relaxed slightly, leaning back on his arms.

"I need a favor."

He leaned in close, cupping his hands around Bjorn's ear.

"Kill everyone but the boy with golden eyes."

Bjorn went still. He pulled back and looked at Maren properly — not the way he had been looking at him since he arrived, but actually looked. Maren looked back. Whatever had been between them before — the rudeness, the posturing — was gone. What was left was just two people who understood each other.

"I'll try. But it's up to lady Alice."

Maren pulled out a second bottle from somewhere and drank it.

"So the master gets the last say."

Bjorn's expression shifted slightly. Immediately regretting his reassessment of Maren.

"Sorry. I meant only one of two on this island."

————————————

Walking around the dormitory Alice somehow made it to the cafeteria without getting lost. Opening the doors, she assumed it was empty enough to strike a pose.

"Safe!"

"Pfft.."

A single red haired boy fell back on the rowed seats laughing a hearty laugh. A single tray sat in front of him with the standard half loaf of bread and a bowl of red soup.

"You're so lame, Alice!"

For a second the room was only filled with Naren's laughter. When he finally stopped, he noticed Alice's expression wasn't the most pleasant.

Her grey eyes were sharp compared to her previous playful expression, a cold and heavy atmosphere consuming the room in correlation. It was like a shroud of fog fell over Naren, enough to get his brain to assume he would die.

"What's so lame, Naren?"

For a second his golden eyes wavered in the presence of Alice. Then it shattered, the entire illusion of death squirming away like a drain emptying a bathtub.

"You remember my name?!"

"Of course I did. Who do you take me for?"

Naren began bowing to her several times, in both reverence and pure joy.

"I was wrong. You're not lame at all. You're the best Alice."

"Yes. Yes. I know I am. Don't be afraid to continue praising me."

"You're the—"

However before Naren could finish his praise he noticed Alice's expression laced with contempt as she caught sight of single tray of food on the table. She muttered under her breath:

"How the hell's he eating with no meat."

"Maren said I'm forbidden from the meat."

Alice's face contorted into surprise and pity.

"How the hell can you not have mea—wait...How'd you hear me?"

Naren grabbed his ears, wiggling them.

"I have real good hearing."

Alice titled her head, then whispered.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow, you get more impressive by the minute."

Just then, Bjorn burst through the doors, Maren trailing right behind him. They seemed closer now, actively acknowledging each other, both their strengths and shortcomings.

Alice whipped her head around.

"Oh shit."

Grabbing her, Bjorn swiftly dragged her out the room, ignoring her wailing and shouting about wanting to "speak to the Naren some more"

Maren walked by them, muttering under his breath:"Naren?". Then he continued straight to the little boy, crouching before him.

"What're you still doing here this late."

Yawning, Naren finished the rest of his bread.

"Aw come on, the sun's barely setting."

"See you're already tired."

"Ok ok...but answer first...What's cannibalism and devour mean?"

Maren tilted his head.

"Where'd you hear that?"

"Alice said it to the headmaster."

He stroked Naren's hair. Then stopped and grabbed his ears instead, pulling.

"Those damn superhuman ears. Always hearing what they shouldn't."

"Ow! Ow! Stop!"

Silence filled the cafeteria.

"You're not going to tell me, are you."

Silence.

"Then what was the favor you asked Bjorn?...I couldn't hear it."

Nothing.

"Come on. Tell me—"

"I asked them to be good to you."

Naren went quiet.

Maren looked down and placed both hands gently over the boy's eyes.

"It's too late. I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Come on…fess…"

His voice trailed off. Sleep took him before he could finish the word.

——————————————————————

An hour later, the sun had completely dipped below the horizon. A dark veil cast over the sky, briefly interrupted by bouts of moonlight through the scattered clouds. The narrow halls of the dormitory were all but dark, occasionally letting said moonlight seep in through the giant windows.

And in those empty long halls, two students were tiptoeing.

One was a boy who had lost a red scarf he found to Naren after the Wendigo attack. The other was a girl he'd known since he was cast away in this disregarded dormitory.

"Hiro...Where are you taking me."

The boy didn't respond. Not until the girl with brown braids shook him from behind, weaving her hands into a systematic sign: Where are we going?

Hiro took a deep breath, before he began signing with his hands: "I heard the headmaster talking...to a shaman...Apparently those monster — "

The girl tilted her head, pulling her hand back before Hiro could finish signing. Her face struck with fear.

"A shaman?! One of those people are here?!"

The boy stared at her, barely illuminated by the moonlight. The girl paused as clouds once again cast a dark shadow on the hall. She began to start signing, then stopped.

Her hands trembled as her eyes widened.

The shadowy figure of Hiro in front of her began to convulse. His face snapping into a mess of a bile and blood as his body began to stretch. A horrible scream gurgling through his blood covered mouth as he began to croak out:

"A...shaman...here...?"

The girl backed up slowly, her hands trembling as tears began to swell in her eyes.

Her breathing grew haggard as the creature before her took shape.

The sudden smell of rot and iron hit her nose causing the girl to throw up on the spot. From the shock of it all, she fell back on the floor. Her mouth open trying to make some noise for help, but nothing coming out.

A limb moved through the shadows slowly, the moonlight shining on a stretched out hand reaching toward the girl's face.

SHING.

The arm hit the floor in front of her, a pool of blood spurting out, painting the girls face in red.

The beast shrieked from the shadows as the girl did the same, violently crawling back, covering in puke and blood.

"My, oh my. What long arms you have."

Alice landed between the girl and the creature, an executioner's axe over one shoulder, her black ribbon catching the moonlight. She was in no rush, instead a tranquil calmness oozed out of her.

Within the next second, her axe struck again. This time the head of Hiro rolling on the floor. His flesh sunken into the skull, a stretched and mortified expression frozen on his face.

The braided girl rushed to Alice, gripping her trench coat as tears flowed down her face. Her words croaked out as she gasped for breaths.

"What...What is this...!"

"What a shame..."

Alice looked at her. The warmth that should have been there wasn't as she spoke:

"...I'm too late."

Something grabbed the girl from behind. Pulled into the shadows by an elongated limb. She clawed at the ground, wailing and flailing for Alice. But there was no point. Alice just watched as the sounds of flesh tearing consumed the hall.

"What's the point."

Alice's eyes adjusted to the dark staring at the creature that just pulled the girl in. One with frizzy rough hair and glasses so thick it made it hunch over from the weight. The creature devoured the girl, unhinging it's jaw as flesh churned in it's mouth.

"You were all served the same meat at the cafeteria."

She tilted her head before continuing:

"Did you know headmaster, it wasn't your offer I accepted? It was that of the city over the wall...they wanted, begged us to kill you all after getting wind of just how you've been running things here."

Alice gripped her axe.

"What should we do about this Bjorn?"

The axe answered.

"Please refrain from unnecessary words, my lady."