Janus 02.Redemption #Wattys2018

4.01 Cassandra

Eden was sleeping on Ed's bed when an angry female voice woke her up.

"You are a traitor! You had no right to go there, no matter what!"

"You know well why I went there. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't  have made a different choice." Ed was talking with her trying to calm her down.

"You are not alone! You put each one of us on danger and you didn't even ask about it! You had no right!" She sounded extremely upset and had no intention of postponing their quarrel. 

"Cassandra, choose your words wisely. No matter what you may think, you are still level four. You are in no place to judge me or my decisions." Ed was back on "Father Francis" mode.

"Without me you would be nothing! All the power you have, I showed you the path. I taught you everything you know. You don't want me to stand against you. You replaced someone else. Someone else can easily replace you. Nobody can replace me and you know it."

"Is this a blackmail?" Ed asked her in profound irony.

"This is a warning Ed" She lowered her tone yet that by no means implied that she was anywhere close to making peace with him.

"It sounds more than a threat. You don't want bad blood between us Cassandra."

"She's left you once. She's going to leave you again. You are expendable and you know it. Eden is nothing but trouble not only for you but for all of us."

"You are so jealous of her that you don't even care trying to hide it."

"We could have had it all, you fool! We could rule the world if only you could get over her. She's playing with you and you don't have the guts to tell me the price you had to pay in order to get back. Faceless would never let anyone of you to come back without a price. Neither of you would be alive now if you weren't more valuable to him alive than dead. So what is it? What did you give up on? Don't try to lie. Your dogs weren't valuable enough to him. Did you surrender out people? If any Lost Soul was offered as a sacrifice, I swear I am going to make you regret getting out of there alive." Eden was listening to Cassandra hidden behind the door.

"Let's be honest for once. Which one makes you more furious? The thought that I might betrayed each one of you or the thought that Eden in sleeping on my bed right now?"

Cassandra punched Ed before he could see it coming. She laid him on the floor and put her knife on his throat.

"You are in no position of playing games with me. I can kill you right now and settle this thing for good. You lost every power you had over the Lost Souls, the moment you crossed that line and asked for Faceless' help. You are one of them now, an Outcast." Cassandra told Ed while pushing his head against the floor. She checked the skin behind his ear.

"Faceless marked you like a cow. You are no longer a free man. We both know what this sign means, you own him a life and he's going to claim it. I bet it's not yours the one he wants otherwise he would have taken it already. So whose life is it?"

"You are wrong. Check my other ear." Ed answered while he stopped resisting. 

She turned his head and checked his ear. There was a different tattoo behind it.

"You can't be that stupid! Tell me that you didn't make that deal with him! It's too absurd even for you." Cassandra was in shock. 

"Now you know. It's up to you to decide what you will do." Ed remained still. 

Cassandra pushed his head on the floor again and raised her knife. She was about to kill him. She wouldn't let him live after what she had just seen. Out of a sudden she screamed and grabbed her arm as she was letting her knife fall on the floor. Her right arm which was holding the knife was stubbed. Cassandra removed the dagger from her arm in agony. Within a blink of an eye she saw Eden standing on the bedroom's door, holding her second dagger, in position to throw that to her too.

"I missed you." Eden said to Cassandra with a grin on her face. 

"People always get a second chance. Should I take my second chance now or I had better save the pleasure for sometime later?"