Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Thirty-Five: Escape Plan

WARNING: IMPLIED SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ATTEMPTED MURDER!

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Nyx sighed as he flipped through a book, sitting at a dusty dining room table in a dirty dining room. He was using the glass, sliding door next to him, trying to catch the morning light that was streaming through. His eyes scanned the contents of the pages. After a few more minutes, he sighed once more and leaned back away from the book and table, raising his hands to rub his temples. He's had a pounding headache since waking, something that seemed to recently become a frequent occurrence lately.

"You're hard at work, huh?"

Nyx looked over at the entrance to the dining room, seeing Lust walk in with his arms crossed over his chest and a lit cigarette held tightly in between his thin lips. He stopped at the dining table and raised a hand to take the cigarette out of his mouth, holding it between his fingers, and stuffed his other hand into his pocket. "How long have you been looking through that?"

Nyx leaned forward again, resting his arms on top of the table in front of the open book. "All morning."

Lust huffed a short chuckle. "Terra's been pretty unhelpful lately."

"How so?" Nyx raised his eyebrow. He had been so focused on torturing their captive and looking through this book, that he hadn't noticed what his other two partners were doing.

Lust took a long drag of his cigarette and breathed out the smoke. "You've been doing this," he gestured with his cigarette-holding hand toward Nyx, "and I've been keeping an eye out for the princess and her friends and getting supplies in the town."

Nyx stared down at the book. "What's Terra been doing?"

"What do you think? She's been down in the basement with that Sabor." He scoffed. "She's got a thing for that guy that I don't understand."

"I don't think he'll like her very much."

"You think that'll stop her?" He took another drag of his cigarette and breathed out. "I went down a couple of hours ago and found her fondling him."

Nyx furrowed his brow at that, his gut twisting with an uncomfortable feeling. "You mean...?" He didn't want to voice what he was suspecting Lust meant.

Lust nodded his head. "It's disgusting." He rolled his eyes and strolled over to the sliding door, leaning against the wall next to it. "I was tempted to deck her."

"You don't have a problem with torture though." It was almost comical to him, that Lust was against what Terra was doing but not torturing people. Though, he supposed that ironic was a better term. He leaned back and wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly feeling more sympathy for the blonde man in the basement than he did before.

Lust shot him a glare and jabbed his cigarette in Nyx's direction, sneering, "don't tell me how to live my life."

Nyx only rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the book in front of him, hoping that it would be a suitable distraction from their topic of conversation. However, not a lot of time passed before Lust spoke again, "what are you even looking for?"

"Terra didn't tell you?"

"Hell no. That bitch is too busy molesting blondie down there and barking orders whenever you try to take a break."

Nyx sighed again and continued to stare down at the open book. What was he supposed to tell Lust? He was under strict orders by Terra to not tell him about Starfall. He couldn't tell Lust what he was really doing. Why was Lust even being barred from the knowledge of Starfall? Nyx hadn't been able to figure it out. He flipped the book closed and leaned back in his chair again, purposefully avoiding Lust's gaze that he could already feel boring down on him.