Guardians: Dark Stars

Chapter 14: Bitter Comfort

"You want to tell me what's going on 'Des," Mason hissed underneath his breadth.

"No," she replied shortly, "stop asking me."

Brother and sister were in the kitchen cleaning up. A long night had finally come to an end. Leticia was in the bar gathering the sloppily littered glasses left behind by uncoordinated drunk men. It had been ten minutes since she last went in and out of Caitlin's room. Though hours had passed since the man Thom Nettle arrived, the one looking for Caitlin and her partner, her little brother's curiosity still hadn't curbed. Frustration built in her joints as he continued to hound her while she wiped dishes with a dirty wet rag.

"If something's wrong, 'Des, you have to talk to me," he insisted for the 'nth time, "maybe I can help you."

"No, I don't have to tell you anything" she repeated heatedly, "now shut it and go help your sister."

"'Des," he moaned pleadingly.

"Now Mason," Odessa ordered firmly, "I tell you to do something, you do it. That's how this works."

His eyes widened ever so slightly. Resentment began to color him enraged. Mason stomped away infuriated at something. Whether it were solely due to her or because of something she had been trying to forget, she couldn't tell. At the open archway, where dim candle light from the bar spilled into the shadowy kitchen, he stopped for just a moment.

Back turned towards her, he muttered, "I wish you could just be my older sister again."

Stunned still, she couldn't utter a word and he took the silence as his cue. Her brother soon disappeared out of her misty vision. The empty, bleak, kitchen was once again her only companion. On nights she had felt overwhelmed, she had the habit of running into this very kitchen in search of refuge. Here, she could still see the outlines of brighter days. In the air, she could still smell the broth of happiness that once cooked on a brilliant fire. Late at night, when all was calmed and she could finally be alone, she took comfort in the grim darkness that now consumed the thin, wooden walls.

Before she could free-fall into the blackness of her heart, she was startled back to her senses. A sudden urge to return to Caitlin's side overwhelmed her. Her friend needed round-the-clock attention if she even hoped for a slimmer of a chance in surviving. Quickly, Odessa finished what she could before impatience grabbed her by the throat. She put down the dish she had been scrubbing on and quietly exited the kitchen herself. It felt strange to have to sneak around her siblings. Usually, they were asleep when she found herself alone in the kitchen and never questioned her always being the first one up when the sun rose. No matter what happened, she couldn't have Leticia or Mason getting involved. She wouldn't risk losing them too.

When she soon found herself up the stairs and in front of Caitlin's door, she could feel something was wrong. A quick glance around convinced her Thom Nettle wasn't hiding in the crannies. The other customers were no where to be seen, not that she had to worry about them: Hector Somers rarely left his room sober and the woman across from Mr. Somers never came out at all. The three occupying the room next to Thom Nettle's were the busied types who were most likely passed out from exhaustion. All that was left was the room she shared with her siblings, a room used for storage and a special room no one was allowed into.

Still, the air was shifting with anticipation. Cold air was rising up from under the door. The old iron knob was lively with electric current. A thought crossed her mind suggestively: if she left now and found the militia, she wouldn't have to face what awaited. That woman under her roof dying, icy-skinned, would be taken far away. If she ran now, her life could still go back to normal.

Odessa shook her head to rid herself of such musings. Gripping the knob tightly, she opened the door carefully. Her eyes trained onto the wooden floorboards, frightened by what they might see if she looked up. She turned around and locked the door behind her and took a deep breadth before she could dare to turn again. To herself, she tried to reason she was scared of watching Caitlin release her final gasps of air. Perhaps, she could have even convinced herself of this lie if not for the blaring truth scolding her violently: she didn't want to walk into another world, a darker world, far away from her brother and sister. A world she wasn't sure she could walk out of alive.

There was a large man by Caitlin's bed side. His features were dark, hidden even by the thick cowl wrapped around his head. Odessa controlled her desires to run back out. Shaking, she walked closer with as much mustered courage as she could.

Honestly, she half expected to screech out when she opened her mouth again but instead found herself whispering, "who are you?"

"Don't worry, I'm a friend of Cain Moore," he explained smoothly, "he was the man who helped bring this one in here."

"Oh," Odessa replied speechless.

The cloaked man let out a deep sigh. He walked around the bed, in heavy boots somehow silent in sound, until he reached the weak, red head covered in an old rag soaking up sweat.

"How'd you get in here," her voice croaked, she was unsure exactly what she should say to the stranger.

"It's best you don't ask too many questions," he murmured.

"I don't know how you got here, I don't know what your name is or who those people were who brought Cait in," she complained, "you all want me to trust you but you won't tell me anything!"

He slowly switched the old rag with one sitting in the bowl on the floor. She couldn't tell what he was thinking or what he would say next. Frowning, she got as close as she comfortably could so she could see Caitlin easier in the indefinite lines of a late night. Her friend was paler than before, stiller than before and it almost seemed like she really was gone. Tears flooded olive green.

"Is she-" Odessa's voice hitched.

"No," the man paused before adding, "my master calls me Locke. I am good friends with Cain Moore, the man with Emily Ridland right now. Those are all the names that matter at the moment. I, well, I got in here by climbing up and through the window."

She looked at him thoughtfully. Odessa was closer now but she still couldn't see what laid beyond the shroud. Just outside, a distant church bell rung solemnly four times. He turned his head to the pulled curtains, looking beyond the thin sheets and out into the quiet murmurs of onlooking stars surrounding a shimmering white moon.

"You must go, I will look after this one until you return," he said roughly. 

"I can't leave Cait or my family," she countered, "at least not until she wakes up and they go to sleep."

"I doubt Caitlin will be waking up again if you don't go to Cain Moore right now," the man's voice hung low in the slight breeze.

Odessa looked at the door, longing for one of her blood to rush in for any reason. She remembered than that the door was locked, because she locked it. 

"I will protect them," Locke answered her silent fears, "don't tell them where you are going. Tell them you have something to do and that they should stay here. The less they know, the less you involve them in, the better off they'll be."

"Where is he waiting," she stood up with barely enough strength to stay on her own two legs. 

"Dr. Aurora Bor's clinic in the Pauper District where the Nox has claimed the walls," he instructed. 

A small nod mechanically ran through her head. She couldn't say anything more, not with the dryness in her mouth muting her will. Odessa took one final look at Caitlin, a small glance at the hiding Locke and allowed herself one more lingering desire that involved Mason and Leticia. She apologized to them in waves of increasing guilt: she couldn't just run from this-it wasn't right and abandoning Caitlin would disgrace the lessons she had learnt from them. Dishonoring her parents would spit at their memory; those bitter sweat nothings she clung on to so desperately.