Starless Child

12. Planet Lunatic

 I wish to set the world on fire.

I wish to see it burn down to ashes.

Rotten and wretched, this world is a-

The song echoed within the sealed walls. The tune started as Rigel pressed the button on the door at the end of the stairway. Hera stared at the small wooden door in front of her. Her face scrunched up at the depressing tune playing from the small speaker above their heads.

Whoever lives in this place must be a ball of sunshine and rainbows.

"He's gotten weirder", Bellatrix mumbled. She started tapping her foot impatiently on wooden board. Hera could understand her frustration. Despite her seemingly fragile frame, Alice weighed like 150 pounds!

One by one, the bolts opened. That is a lot of bolts for such a small door. It opened with a heavy creak and the strong smell of cigarettes and scented candles hit her nose.

Hera expected a lot of things to be on the other side of the door. Maybe she let her imagination run a little too wild to be considered practical. But the sight in front of her was definitely not what she had in mind.

In front of them stood a short, plump, middle aged man. His skin the color of wood, strands of coarse hair the color of amber fell down his shoulders in dense braids. Hera struggled to find a single area on his face that wasn't mutilated with piercings- cheeks, ears, nose, eyebrows, forehead, chin. She shuddered at the small rings hanging from the piercings above his eyelids. It looked so painful that she felt her own eyelids get uncomfortable just by looking at them.

An ear to ear smile spread across his face. "Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to my-"

"Wow", his cheshire cat like smile faltered a bit at Blondie's interruption "look Cavum no offense but I don't think you're aware that you're nearly making everyone pass out at the sight of those monstrosities on your face. So we'll be very thankful if you take care of a little something for us real quick and allow us to get the hell away from you, fast."

"Ahh. Belle flower, I see your people skills have improved", he stepped away from the door "it's about time. You'll need them to get yourself a boyfriend so you can satisfy those raging hormones."

"And to get that stick out of your ass", Hera mumbled. Blondie glared at her from the corner of her eye. Hera pretended not to notice. She looked the other way and saw Ares trying to suppress a smile. Her own lips quivered a bit, a smile threatening to spread across her face.

Stepping inside the door, Hera felt as if they had crossed some kind of a barrier and travelled a few hundred years back. The interior of the house seemed like it was isolated from the rest of the world, untouched by any changes in time since the sixteenth century.

Cavum hastily emptied a bed and motioned Bellatrix to put Alice down. He crossed his arms over his chest and silently stared at her for a few minutes with his eyes half closed. Hera was starting think he had fallen asleep until he bent over to open her mouth and inspected it. "I'm not even going to ask how you kids got yourselves into this mess", he sighed.

"You think you can help her?", Rigel asked.

"Depends", Cavum said, "If the siren's blood enters her brain there's nothing I can do. If not, then there might be a way to help her. But there's a catch."

"What catch?", Hera asked.

"I can remove most of the unholy blood from her blood stream. But some people have cells with an unusual appetite. These cells absorb the blood making it impossible to suck out all of it from the body. The problem is if they do absorb the blood, there's no way to tell until it's too late", his face darkened, "the smartest thing to do would be to kill her."