A Lonely, Sepia Melody[A BATDR Story]

Part 9

 "-alright, honey. I understand." An echoing voice of a woman reaches Bonzy's ears as they follow Charlie through more twists and turns and halls. It's a testament to how well Charlie knows this place simply on his confident navigation. "It's not every day one gets to bask in the glory of... an angel." Bonzy snorted, opening their mouth to comment on this lady's clear self-obsession line when Charlie's hand claps over their mouth.

They send him a sharp look for the physical intrusion but only finds Charlie with a finger to his lips as he leads them out to a ledge, crouched fully against the corner of a wall. He points to the grand library-like room with a table in the center, finger still on his lips, just as Bonzy hears Audrey's voice. "An angel?" She sounds a little rough.

Bonzy peers around the corner and sees Audrey sitting a little weakly in a chair at the far head of the table, and the echo-y voice returning is what draws their attention to the woman at the head of the table closest to themself and Charlie. "Alice Angel, to be exact. That's who I am. Sent from above." The figure spans who inky arms up and out like a choir child who thinks they're more special than they truly are. Bonzy leaned back to Charlie, dropping their voice to a low whisper.

"I think I've met Alice, though? She was nice." Charlie nodded his head a little, eyes glued to the speaking 'Alice'.

"You met one of the two. I call our nicer one Allison. This is Malice, Mr.Stein coined the name." There it was again with this Mr.Stein fellow. Bonzy feels he's important to this plot somehow, yet they're sure they haven't met anyone introducing himself as a 'Mr.Stein'. Or maybe they have and they just forgot, who knows. Audrey speaks, low and incredibly untrusting in a way she'd never sounded before as she asks the woman what she wants.

"Malice Angel," Bonzy whispered with a grin, "how horrible, I love it." Charlie sent them a brief smirk before training his attention back on the two ladies seated at the heads of the table. It was after Malice laughed deviously that they realized the many dark-colored Lost Ones sat around the table in between the ends, bags over their heads and hands bound. Bonzy cringed, yikers.

"Ah, right to the chase," exiting her chair at the head, Malice follows the line around the table slowly towards Audrey, incredibly dramatic and theatrical in her tone and presentation. Bonzy might wanna ask her for theater lessons after this is over(and if they're all still alive), "I like that." She clicked her tongue, "the truth is, honey. You're one of a kind and, to put it bluntly, what I want... is your face removed." Bonzy reeled back a moment, Charlie's sturdy hand on their back keeping them in place.

"Wow," they muttered, "I... did not see that coming, are we sure this is the same wife Arabel was talkin' about?" Charlie nodded, something humorlessly amused on his face.

"The very same." The papers felt heavy in Bonzy's back pocket but they straightened their shoulders.

"Well, I did promise to give her Arabel's letters, so..." their eyes turned back to Malice leaning around Audrey's chair, speaking lowly about being beautiful with sacrifice.

"But for now," Malice's voice slithered around the room, "let's have fun." As Malice lays out the terms for the riddle game and the stakes of Audrey's life if she loses, Bonzy sucks in a breath when Charlie's hand shifts, drawing their attention to him once more. His eyes are narrowed as he scans the room before turning to Bonzy.

"Here's how this is going to go," Charlie murmurs, "once Audrey gets up there, I'm gonna lead her over here. You distract Malice and tell her about her... wife and how she has a message for her. Can you play a role for a bit?" Bonzy nodded enthusiastically, hands patting their thighs with energy as they agreed.