Roman Moreau's crazy fun filled life

5

A massive headache was the first thing Roman felt as he started to come too. He moved his hands and grabbed the blanket he lay upon. Grasping it tightly, he looked around to see he was back in his room.
Last nights events hit him like a hammer, making him crumple into himself. Roman could still feel the horror and grief in his mind at seeing his family die. His brother was dead, and surely by now poor Thomas understood the situation.
Roman felt himself shudder out a cry as he put his hands to his face, wanting to hide from the world. As he was about to break down, the door creaked open to let someone in. Roman looked through his hands and saw Isidora walking in with a cup of water and some food for Roman to eat.
"You're awake." She said quietly, coming over to sit next to Roman's bed as she dragged over the desk's chair. Placing the food on the desk, she glanced at Roman. "How are you feeing?"
"Better, now that you're here." Roman said with a small smile. Isidora looked as if she was about to say something in return, but eventually Roman couldn't hold back what he'd been through. He told her everything that had happened. From fighting with Franc, although he didn't include what it was about, to taking Thomas away from the city, and all the way to shooting Sabelle and Gregor.
Isidora stayed quiet through it all, but when Sabelle was mentioned, her face went dark.
"Han tried to get her help, but she lost too much blood."
She said nothing more, but it slowly sunk in for Roman.
"Oh no. No no no, I never meant to-" Roman could feel his heart twisting even more, but Isidora interrupted him with a sharp voice.
"It still happened, Roman!" She spat out, turning to look at Roman. Just now, he realized that every since she walked in the door she showed no signs of comfort. Her usual warmth was now replaced with bitterness.
"Isidora I didn't mean to-" Roman began, but she interjected.
"I don't care that you killed Sabelle." Roman looked at her with narrowed, confused eyes. "What I'm mad about is you."
At a loss for words, all Roman could do was stare at Isidora. He reached his hand out to touch her face and began to try and speak, but Isidora suddenly turned on him and slapped his hand away, putting her hand to his throat. Roman felt himself fighting for air.
"Do you know how I felt, seeing you knocked out in a bar with people at each others throats, with two of my colleagues dead? I felt so scared and worried, me and the barkeep dragged your miserable body up the stairs and to your room. And me? Oh, I insisted to stay and help you, terrified you'd die of blood loss too. You had been kicked around quite a bit, you know? I thought you had a broken rib cage. I thought you'd die and I was mortified. But, all that was there, was a fucking lie." Roman tried to scramble away from Isidora's grasp, but he was forced to stay and listen to her in fear.
"Isidora what-"
"You lied to me all this time so you could please whatever sick fantasies are in your head. I don't think I've ever met someone as revolting as you, 'Roman' Moreau." She spat out, and got up to leave. Roman slowly began to make out what was happening, and he stumbled out of bed to try and get to her before she left.
"Wait! Please, I always meant to tell you, but we can-" He pleaded with her desperately.
Isidora turned on Roman much faster than he ever expected she would, and pushed him back. Her hands moved quickly as she grabbed a knife from the cutlery that was set next to the food and plunged in right into Roman's shoulder. Roman screamed and felt himself fall against the desk in pain. For a split second, he looked at Isidora and could see a look of pain in her eyes as she hurt the person she had loved. But it lasted for less than a heartbeat, and the cold, heartless look returned to her face.
She said nothing as she pushed herself away from Roman, leaving the room and slamming the door behind her. The knife was still in Roman's shoulder, and he had to make up the courage to pull it out. After he did, he did what anyone would do.
He cleaned up the blood, cleaned the wound, patched himself up...right now it was all a blur for him.
Roman thought about how Marcus didn't love him enough to stay faithful, did he just never even love Roman in the first place? And how he had held his daughter in her last, dying moments as she coughed up more and more blood, how he'd seen his brother and wife killed from the greed of someone who'd been a close friend, and now his brother's only son was off with his grandparents, and Roman knew he could never see him again.
And now as Isidora walked further and further away, the stitches in Roman's shoulder were causing the least amount of pain for Roman to worry about.
_______
The days dragged on but Roman felt like he was stuck in place. His first business was to talk to the barkeep about his secret, but it turned out Franc had told him about it the very first few days Roman was getting settled at the Inn.
From his judgement, the barkeep seemed pretty neutral on the topic, so Roman left it like that.
In the meantime, Roman found himself hiding in the shadows of the Inn and other pubs around town pickpocketing and eavesdropping. Weeks started to go by and Roman listened to street thugs talk about how many Moreau guild members scattered and some were joining a new guild, led by no one other than Isidora herself. At first, every time he heard her name, he had to leave. All her name did was bring back memories of everything all at once. But soon enough it just became a dull ache in his mind.
As Isidora built up her strength in guild work, Roman began to save up to leave this god forsaken city. All he wanted was to move back to France and find a place to stay quiet for the rest of his days. There'd be no violence, no heartbreak, and no more lies. Maybe he'd get his own property and start a farm by himself. Or have a dog, he'd always wanted one of those. Roman let himself daydream sometimes to give him enough hope to at least get out of London once and for all.
But about a month later, Roman was going through what he'd gotten from a nearby bar's usual drunks. He walked and was putting away the coin like usual when a pair of hands pulled him into a dark alley way and flung him against the wall. Adjusting to the shadows, Roman still felt hands holding him down as he focused on the face in front of him.
"It's been a while, hasn't it, Roman?"
Isidora smirked at him in the shadows, and Roman tried to look at the people holding him down, but her hands grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her.
"I've heard rumors you're still slumming around these streets doing petty thievery. That's true, isn't it?" She said with a sickening sweetness. Roman had no idea why she was acting like this, and this whole meeting was putting him on edge.
"Why is that important to you?" Roman replied with no emotion, staring Isidora straight in the face. She raised an eyebrow, and with a flick of a wrist Roman felt the hands holding him down release. He rubbed his wrists and glared at Isidora now.
"What do you want from me?" He demanded, but she said nothing. With a gun in her hand, she and Roman walked into a nearby abandoned shop. Roman could see the thugs waiting outside by the door as he and Isidora went further into the shop.
"What is this all for? Last time I checked I thought you despised me." Roman muttered under his breath, sitting down in a chair as Isidora told him to do while she took a seat respectively across from him.
"This is all on business terms, believe me. I feel revolted enough just being in your presence." She said simply in reply. Roman knew she was being honest and felt it hurt him to hear it. No, he shook it off, he couldn't just let her get to him like that.
"The thing is, I'm trying to get more guilds under my control. While many of them are easily persuade, some of them seem to think the Moreau guild, or what's left of it, should be in charge rather than me. Apparently it's some sort of 'respect' towards alliances." She let out a mocking sigh, and Roman just stared at her with a blank face.
"So, what you're going to do is start up the guild again and work for me." She finally got out to saying what she wanted, waving the gun in her hand and looking at Roman with a dead serious look in her eyes.
"No."
Roman refused and Isidora scowled, clenching the gun tightly in her hand.
"You're not in good position to refuse, Roman." She spat back at him, saying his name with malice.
"I don't care. I'm not letting anyone control me. Not now, not ever. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave. Go ahead and shoot me in the back, I could care less at this point." Roman stood up and turned away from Isidora, but she stood up as well.
"I know what you are, as soon as I tell the police you'll be killed for deviancy against God." That made Roman stop in his tracks. He paused for a second to debate if she was bluffing or not, saying nothing. In the end Roman decided to just leave. Isidora did nothing as Roman walked out he door, and he hoped that this would be their first and last encounter.
_____
Turns out it certainly wasn't the last one. Over the course of the next weeks, Isidora did everything she could to try and 'motivate' Roman to join. It started out with just tense conversation where Isidora would continually try to verbally abuse him. Those got to him somewhat, but they never worked in the end. Roman already had a low enough image of self worth to begin with, Isidora couldn't make that any worse to her bidding. When Isidora lost her patience with words, she'd have thugs toss him around like a toy as she sat and watched. At the end of it she'd always ask if Roman changed his mind, and Roman always replied with a simple 'No'.
Nothing Isidora tried worked, and as time went on Roman was getting close to having enough funds to move away. With his dreams so close, Roman felt as if everything Isidora did to him was worth it.
And then, one day, Roman arrived to his room to see a box on his floor.
It was fairly sized, wooden, and made of dark wood. Leather straps held it together, and as Roman lifted it up slightly he found out it wasn't as heavy as it looked. He could hear something shuffle around inside of it, and Roman set it down again. A note on his desk had caught his attention, so Roman walked over to read it.

Roman,

Since after many attempts to persuade you peacefully to follow under my new command of guilds, I went to my last resort to possibly gain your interests. He was hard to find, believe me. His grandparents were a pain to get information out of. But the two of them sent him away to France to be with your very own parents as it turns out. Oh, I very much enjoy your actual name, Manon. It rolls of my tongue sweetly. Too bad it must belong to someone like you. We're getting off topic aren't we? In this box is what I swear will happen to anyone else I desire if you don't agree to do as I say from now on. And we both know, Manon, I stay true to my word.

Your dearest,
Isidora

The letter fell from his hand and floated lightly down back onto his desk. His heart thudded in his ears as he slowly turned to the box that sat in his room.
Oh god, what had she done?
Roman stumbled to the floor as he hastily opened up the clasps keeping the box closed and opened the lid, instantly regretting it as he saw the horror that lay inside it. The putrid smell hit him first, making him curl over and be sick in the nearby waste bucket.
Roman's hands shook as tried to burn the image out of his head.
Thomas' once bright, glowing face now stared at him with dull, dead eyes. His hair was crusted in places with dry blood as well and the jagged scars across his neck made Roman believe it wasn't one swift blow that ended his poor nephew's life. The box reeked of death and soon the whole room smelled of it, and it spilled into Roman's head, his heart, and his whole being.
He rushed out of the room and out the back door, for once actually welcoming the disgusting reek of the slums of London. While he thought he'd be alone, as he rushed out the door and ran into the form of someone standing out there waiting for him.
Isidora stood with her hands crossed, looking at Roman with a bored expression. Her thugs were gone and it was just her and Roman alone in the alleyway. All he could do was stare at her, himself shaking involuntarily from what he just saw upstairs.
"You...you killed him. You killed my nephew, a CHILD." He said in disbelief, backing up from Isidora. This wasn't the woman he'd fallen in love with, this was some sort of monster that was sent to ruin everything Roman had.
"Yes, I did. And the way he kept kicking and squirming was really pathetic." Roman backed up even more in fear and disgust.
"Why? Why would you do that?" He asked back, his voice shaking as he felt his eyes ready to spill out tears hearing the way she talked about Thomas.
"Because I'm sick and tired of your bullshit, Manon," That name was like a slap across the face hearing her use it. "At first, I thought you were a cowardly type. But no, it turns out you're the typical cliché of 'you can hurt me but never my family'. It's boring, I was hoping for better from you. What I want from you is to stop messing around and do what I say. Do that or I'll give the same fate Thomas had to your parents, and then I'll let you hang on the public square where everyone will know what a disgusting thing you are. Or I could do it in a different order! That seems fun, having your parents look at you in utter revulsion as they see what you've become before they're both kill as well." Roman could say nothing as he realized this was it, he couldn't do anything against her. He could never let that happen to his parents, and this time he could tell Isidora was being serious, he had the proof of it upstairs.
"What....what do you want me to do?" He asked, looking to the ground in defeat. Isidora smiled.
"That's more like it. Now, let's go inside and discuss things more in depth, hm?"
_____
With the deal set, Roman would start the Moreau guild once more by hiring members as thieves and hit mans, and take on a few jobs himself as well. Isidora herself would get 60% of his earnings, leaving with Roman barely enough to pay the Innkeeper and get himself enough to eat. And even more so, Roman would be forced to give these earnings to her once every month. Now, after Isidora left, Roman himself left too. He had other things to handle before the guild would begin.
In the middle of the night, Roman glided across a graveyard with the box in one hand and a shovel he nabbed in the other.
Franc and Elise had been buried at the edge of the property. It'd been months since he'd dared to go back to their resting place, but he had to for Thomas.
He'd sent an anonymous letter already to his parents explaining what happened and why their grandson was gone before he left to bury him. But now he silently buried up the box, placing a small wooden cross in the dirt with Thomas' name written on it. They'd make a proper headstone for him eventually.
And then, all Roman could bring himself to do was sit and stare at the grave before. Three graves too many. It twisted his heart to be here, but he couldn't make his legs get up and walk.
So as the sun rose on a new day, Roman knew that he'd have to start finding recruits soon. But for now, all he wished to do was lay here for just a minute longer, holding onto whatever family he had left.

That morning was colder than usual.