The cold

Scary giants and big dumb moments

Andrew looked at the man across him, Micheal , the guy who ended up being his bodyguard for a while. Perhaps it came with being a guard, that permanent scowl on the man's face, to be very intimidating, maybe? He didn't really have to try, Andrew found him intimidating enough without the scowl, it  was hard not to, he was a six foot something giant with a long ghastly scar that ran down one side of his cheek to the mouth, like someone had decided to make half a joker out of his face . He had no idea why the man was glaring at him since the moment they met, sure he had an idea, protecting a nobody like him would've probably not made it to the man's career plans but one couldn't exactly say no to royalty now could they.

For what it was worth, he didn't like the man much either, the man didn't look like one of those people that minded air pollution, what with the way he was actively contributing to it by the perpetual drag of his cigarettes. Well one could at least hope he was creating an acute shortage of them someplace else,it was rather plausible, the man using a minimum of a hundred per day. He didn't count properly, this was just a rough estimation , it could be more. 

It was easy enough to get used to his life in the palace, the only thing that needed getting used to was a giant tagging behind while he worked ,the unusually peaceful sleep and the lack of beatings. Neil and him had gotten pretty friendly over the days,  he wasn't really sure if Neil would call him a friend, it had been quite a while since he had a friend, almost a few years since he had a decent friend not counting Jeremy. They had made a small habit of meeting up in the evenings at the library, a time Micheal used to smoke with his soldier buddies or whatever it is that he does.  Now Jeremy and him, they could understand each other well, empathize they could but they had never gone out  of their way to help the other, not that they could actually do it, one had to look after one's own back when one found oneself in master's household , there was literally no other choice. Had he actually tried to help Jeremy the day he was killed, he was pretty sure he'd be the dead one instead. 

Neil laughed aloud at what he said, little tears coming out of his eyes at just how hard he laughed. "I told you you won't believe it, but it's true I swear, hundred's the minimum. The room even get's all foggy in the night, I'm lucky my bed's at the window" Andrew said  pouting. It's not that Neil didn't believe Andrew, just that Neil found Andrew's expression seriously funny, the boy was like one of those rare , overly comical characters, with often exaggerated expressions that almost compelled one to laugh . It kind of lightened the mood. Neil was kind of tensed since morning, his father had come into his head uninvited , actually apologized , like an apology would do him good, said something about there being two polar halves to his soul and all that blah, yeah, bummer, the man apparently wasn't a big fan on staying dead . Well if he was telling the  truth, he couldn't exactly expect Neil to just believe him, the man had been a major witch most of his life, mean and extremely manipulative. Was the 'other half' going to take the blame for all that? Neil had no idea what was going on but on the good side he did find out he could keep the uninvited voices out if he screamed "shut up" loud enough in his head. That piece of knowledge came quite in handy.

Damien rushed into the room annoyed with himself, he had no idea how he  could be so silly, with the answer staring right at his face all along, in fact it was so obvious it was painful. He felt almost ashamed that Nerezza had to point it out, it made him feel like a child who had enthusiastically screamed the wrong answer out in the class. It wasn't like the boy Andrew didn't know the way back to where he lived, where "master" lived . He just had to lead them there or tell them where it was, as simple as that, hopefully. 

Neil looked at Damien wide eyed when Damien asked Andrew to take them where "master" was, of course it made sense but it sounded very cruel to ask Andrew to go anywhere near that place. It was quite obvious Andrew would never go back willingly but he was far too scared to say no, too. He couldn't exactly give an address, not when it was a deserted shack in Blackwoods, not when the place didn't even have a pin code. But if he really had to look at the bright side it wasn't like he actually had to go in, he'd just have to point the place from afar, perhaps a mile off... or longer.

Damien agreed to that of course, he had no interest in getting the boy in, the boy would probably get in the way . Nerezza would want to take her own sweet time with getting this guy to spill anyway. She liked to let her inner demon loose at such times, have her idea of fun. Alaster and Nerezza both had this bad habit of acting up when they couldn't let loose for a while, something Loki loved exploiting. He figured he might as well call Abbadon too, Abbadon and Hissana had been fighting a lot lately and to top it all Eyene and Lady Legasus had sort of disappeared off the face of the earth , leaving a very pissed off Abbadon in the wake. He figured Abbadon would probably need something to keep his mind off it, and this seemed as good a thing as any.