The Peculiar Alchemist

35 || Second Date

Hiding under the table was not very effective, and Aubrey stood in his spot wondering what else he could do about his predicament. Seems like he was only making one bad decision after another lately, he wasn't thinking things very thoroughly.

Not only did he go back to the people who kidnapped him, but he also asked Agnes to be his mentor while being tied up to a chair. Frankly that wasn't his brightest moment, but the chance to study alchemy blinded him to how reckless he was being. Thankfully his situation ended up being not as serious as one would initially think – at least that's what he thought after spending a considerable amount of time with his so-called kidnappers – but there was still one tiny problem that he faced.

Putting aside the fact that necromancers were trying to control him, Agnes was a murderer. Not only that, but Agnes uses those very people she murdered for her ingredients – because yes, she killed people, too. It wasn't just Kellen. There's a reason why she loved her poisons.

Then there's another problem that he faced, Kellen himself.

The guy had no trouble kidnapping someone because Agnes had told him so, not to mention that he was also a liar whose words could never be trusted, and a thief who'd steal things whenever he felt like it. There was also the fact that he was a murderer, a deceiver, and someone who had no qualms about using rituals to curse and bend people's will. Aubrey had witnessed him do it a few times too many.

Everything was telling Aubrey to turn around and run, to just tell someone, anyone, about all the crimes that he witnessed being committed right in front of his eyes.

There were so many strange things that happened in a relatively short amount of time, and even after all of that, even after everything, he still found himself repeating the same mistakes he made before. Seems like he had lost the ability to think, because seriously he wasn't thinking.

Actually no, he was thinking, but he wasn't thinking correctly.

It was as if he was in a daze and was just allowing himself to be dragged in all of this instead of stopping it, because here he was again being an accomplice to yet another crime he did not agree to. He forgot that Kellen made him break into someone's house and dig graves for bones.

He just keeps conveniently forgetting those very important details around Kellen and he hates himself for it.

"Why did you bring me with you here?" He couldn't help but ask as he held onto a shovel while standing in the middle of the same graveyard they had dug Samantha's bones at. Things had a funny way of repeating themselves, and Kellen smiled at him amusedly as he, too, held a shovel in his hand.

"Why did you come with me here?"

Aubrey frowned. "Why are you answering me with questions?"

"Why are you answering my questions with questions?"

It appears that Aubrey was so good at making bad decisions even when he wasn't making them consciously. These feelings he had were just one of those bad decisions he wasn't aware of, and he was suffering because of it. Just why, why was it that he decided to have feelings for this guy?

What on earth had made whatever it was responsible for causing these feelings agree that Kellen was a good choice to develop something for? Whatever it is, it was stupid and had no idea what it was doing.

"I'll just stand over there and pretend I'm digging." He muttered walking over to one of the graves before he felt himself be stopped by a hand holding the back of his clothes.

"And let me do all the work like last time? I don't think so."

With a sigh, Aubrey planted the shovel right next to him when he turned to face Kellen. "Okay, fine. But I will only dig a grave if I know for sure that the dead person wouldn't mind."