Sinister (COMPLETED / TO BE REWRITTEN)

14 👣 The Notice

"She's coming."

"Who?" Tears of boredom lacing Raiden's eyes are dried by Trixy's haste.

"Your psychopathic, antihero-wannabe sister, Ece." Trixy strikes a sack of leaves with her boots. A growl escapes her lips at the leaves' messy rustlings.

She currently resembles a factory's chimney than a hilarious jester.

"Whoa, watch it." Raiden's gained his strength back after the full-day rest inside the skeleton, and as he's fit enough to lift himself off his seating. "That's my sister you're insulting."

"A sister who, unlike you, despises the relationship between you both."

Trixy knows when to zip his lips or unlock it, with a mere sentence.

"What is she doing here?" Raiden clears his throat slowly, afraid of poking Trixy's aflame composure. "Why is she here? What is she looking for?"

"She's looking for you." Anger may be dominating Trixy's intonation, but flickering amidst the flame is dim care, aimed to him.

Like a calmer beast approaching its upset cub, he approaches Trixy.

"Just calm down, and I'll make the tea." He offers, glancing sideways at her crumpled features. "I know how to. Just rest down, and—"

"There's no time to relax, nor to refresh." She stares at Raiden with seldom blinks. "That unstable monster is out there. She's about to erase your memories. She didn't expect you'd escape with me."

"Erase my memories of what?" His shoulders tense at her breathy precaution.

"You've...no, we've known almost everything about her abilities. That they're threats for our city and herself. That the onyx, in a negative connotation, is a dawning curse. She can't alert the others—both her clients or not. The onyx is her only way to seek money and fame."

"And to hook herself off me." His whisper is barely audible as an invisible arrow pierces into his mediocre heart. What have I done wrong to you, Ece?

"Listen, we can't let her find us. She's dangerously aggressive during forlorn moments like these, and look what calamity has she caused in the city."

👣

The flutters of unfathomable papers ambush Raiden's hearings when he first steps onto the concrete flooring of Trixy's hut. Though it's nearly afternoon, the curtains are drawn, blocking the sunlight from penetrating into the settlement.

According to her, guests shouldn't get enough glimpses of this hut's interiors, and she prefers a candelabra over the sun.

All Raiden can make out are the outlines of spiraling banisters on his far opposite. Also meeting-desks on the room's either sides, with scrolls atop them. The bookcases are able to graze the triangular ceiling, and enough to pass over horizontally for an hour.

For a jester, Trixy is the knowledge-seeking kind. Far from the uneducated jester stigma the society has cast upon them.

"Will you ever stop daydreaming? We're in an emergency." Furious clinks come from his back, and Raiden turns to find Trixy, forcing her key to lock the door to its fullest.

What has Ece done that causes an adult like Trixy to fear over her security?

Trixy leads him with the pounces of her bare feet against the quietness. Passes several desks and columns of bookcases. Slightly before the stairs, she bends their direction rightward, where a cozy corner under a makeshift tent is visible.