Chromatically Cursed

CHAPTER 7

Song: Human by Rag'n'Bone Man

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Killian

Blood curdling screams of agony greet me as I enter the prison. For most, it strikes fear. For me, it's mollifying. The seething anger that's clung to me since I came across Hinge's daughter on her knees, accepting her fate, is finally loosening it's claws.

The liar who nearly took her life, wails endlessly as my men do their job. It's so worth the couple days of waiting I endured. When we returned to the scene of his crime, he was gone. Though he took care to leave his information with an officer. When we went to his home, he wasn't there. I told them to just come back another day. Let the man enjoy his time thinking he won.

When we finally found him home, a lie similar to his own brought him to me. He was told that it was thought to be his coat that was found, but we weren't sure it was the same thief. It would be a great service to us if he could come down to the prison to identify the thief and his coat. Upon his arrival, he learned very quickly what he did wrong.

Up to this point, no one has revealed the truth to him. As I take the stairs one by one to his cell, I revel in the pleasure of being the one to shed the light. His cries get louder and louder as I approach. Then I hear him begging, his words slurred, "Please, please, stop. I didn't do anything! I thought it was my coat!"

The door swings open and I step inside. The sight before me is gruesome at best. He's bloody from the top of his head down to his shoulders. His right eye is swollen shut, all shades of black and blue. His arms are wrenched behind the chair he sits upon, tied tightly. I hear his lungs wheeze with each shallow breath. Once he sees me he starts to cry, "Oh Your Highness! Please end my suffering!"

I frown, "Have you been treated unjustly, Sir?"

"Oh yes, Your Highness. These men insist I lied about a coat! It was just a misunderstanding."

"I see. What kind of misunderstanding?"

The swelling from all of the beatings he's taken makes his words muted and run together, "Your Highness, I saw a young woman with a coat on that was much too big for her. It looked like one I had taken from me a few weeks ago. When I asked she said it was an unplanned gift. I just knew it was mine. She was a shady sort of girl. Hiding her face and soft spoken."

My memory of Hinge's daughter was anything but soft spoken. The last words she said out loud to me were to damn me to hell, "So you chose to yell thief, for everyone around Mezar passage to hear?"

"It was a nice coat."

"Uh huh. Well it's a very unfortunate circumstance we find ourselves in here. There isn't really anyone to corroborate your story. And even more unfortunate is that a witness has provided information that says you could have never had a coat like that at all. That it was custom made for him, and that it was actually a gift to that girl."

He swallows loudly. I continue, "Care to tell the truth yet?"

It takes him a minute. I wait. Finally he speaks up, "Okay, it wasn't my coat."

"Then why did you claim it was?"

He closes his eyes and his head drops, "I wanted it."

I circle him slowly, "So you saw the poor, shady girl, and thought she was an easy mark? Scare her into giving up this nice coat that was all she had to keep warm. Then when she didn't, you still wanted that coat so badly you put her life on the line by causing a scene."

His undamaged eye goes wide, "Her life? No! It's just prison time."

I chuckle, "You see, the bare minimum for a thief is prison. That poor girl had other circumstances that would have led her to be hung in Judgement Square. So not only have you admitted to attempting to steal, you also are looking at perjury and manslaughter."