Sentenced to Life

6

Silas shifted, looking about the IHOP. He wasn't used to such diversity. He stared at the food. Everything was too rich for his tastes. So much...flavor.

He instead focused on Emory. Her eyes were closed as she meticulously cut her pancakes into bite sized pieces.

"How do you...deal with all of this? The noise, the amount of people observing and perceiving you?" He asked quietly. Even at the height of the court he he'd never been around this amount of people.

"You just have to take that little voice in the back of your head, the one that says to be sweet, trusting and understanding, and take it in the back of a shed," she waved her fork. "And shoot it. Shoot it in the fucking face." She grinned.

He cocked his head. "What if...I don't have that voice?"

"Then you're probably like, a sociopath or something." She remarked offhandedly.

He frowned. "And...what is that?"

She waved her pancakes. "You don't have empathy." She shrugged. "But you haven't been around people for three hundred years, so you have to get used to people again."

Silas pressed his lips, putting a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"Of course," he said carefully.

Emory took her time showing him basic things, like restaurants, currency and cars. Silas picked things up with record speed, his eyes shining with intelligence. The two walked through an abandoned, somewhat bad part of town. Emory decided that it should be fine, since the large man next to her looked refined. She forgot though, that he always looked rich. Not from his clothes, but his aura.

"Might you spare me your company tonight," he mused gently. "I...do not like being alone in the dark."

Emory smiled sadly and patted his shoulder. "Of course Silas. You know, I think you and I will be great friends."

"Put your hands up bitch."

Silas looked straight ahead and put his hands up.

"Is this...robbery Emory?"

Emory sighed. "You feel that gun pointing into your back?"

He nodded.

"And the way he called you a bitch? And told you to put your hands up?"

He nodded. "So rude."

"That's how you know this is for sure a robbery. Next bell probably tell you to empty your pockets."

"Hey shut the hell up. Turn around big guy. Nice and slow."

Silas did so, peering down at the ragged peasant.

"You too bitch." The robber demanded.

"You should never swear around a lady," Silas intruders calmly, his blue eyes frigid as he stared down at him. The robber shifted.

"You on something man?" The robber demanded.

Silas raised his brows, but said nothing.

"Look we ain't got nothing worth taking. I got 20 in my wallet. Just take it alright?" Emory sighed with her hands up, cursing her luck.

But the robber was no longer occupied with robbing them. Instead he'd been sucked into the coldness of this man's eyes. He was...inhuman.

Silas smiled gently. "Then, kind sir? Will you let us go? We have nothing for you to steal."

The robber lurched his gun at Silas as he spoke, his hands beginning to shake.

"Yo what's wrong with you? What's wrong with him?"

Silas was silent. He peered down at the man; trying not to show any expression that would disarm Emory, who, rather than being scaredy, seemed only extremely inconvenienced.

"What's wrong with him? You're robbing us. And ineffectively. Can I move my hands?"

"No!" The robber lurched the gun at her. "J-just stay still."

He walked close to Silas, coming face to face with him. "I'm...I'm robbing you. I have the gun. There's nothing you can do," he said shakily.

"Yes I see. We're willing to give you what we have. Will you take it or not?"

The robber swallowed, and stepped back. "D-don't make no sudden moves—"

"I'd rather give you the money myself," Silas said, disregarding the robber's instructions, and grabbing Emory's wallet, taking out the 20.

"Silas," she hissed but stayed frozen. He was probably immortal. She was unquestionably not.

Silas stalked forward as the robber walked back, a glint in his eye and a small smile on his face. He reached out encasing the man's hand in his, holding onto it firmly.

"Here. The note we have," he murmured, smiling. His teeth seemed unusually sharp as they glinted in the darkness. "Is it enough...kind sir?"

The robber swallowed roughly trying to pull away. Silas held onto him for a moment longer before letting him go. He flew back scurrying away. He quickly put distance between himself and the couple, glancing back to see two blue eyes glinting back at him.

And though Emory sighed in relief, praising him for keeping calm, but complaining that they'd been unfortunate, the robber breathed deeply, his hands shaking.

It was clear to him, and abundantly clear to Silas that the two were not the ones who were unfortunate for having crossed paths.

Silas let him off.
Let him escape with 20 dollars and his life.

The two walked away with idle chatter, Emory chastising him, explaining robber etiquette, the dos and don'ts of being robbed. Silas was quiet, simply nodding his understanding.

"I think you've begun to make me a more merciful person, Emory." He said kindly, with a soft sincere smile.

Emory smiled back and patted his shoulder. "See! I told you you just have to get used to people again yknow? And then, you'll regain your humanity."

Regain. Regain something he wasn't sure he ever had?

He smiled and nodded. "...hm. I'm sure I will. Thank you, Emory. Your kindness is beyond measure for this abandoned creature of the night."

Emory raised her brow in question and shrugged. "Yeah sure whatever you say I guess."