"No, we're not in a forest. We're actually on an island. Your room is just overlooking the forest side of the Island"
After helping Aziel fix his closet, Astraea began showing Aziel around the first and second floors of the casa villa and some of the outside if necessary.
Inquiring about the place, in his own interest, of course. He wasn't familiar with the place and there were unforeseen scenarios that might require him to be familiar with the details that might be a help to him incase bad turns worse.
"How did you even find this island? Are you the only one here… two of us now", Aziel asked Astraea as she was describing to him how she wanted him to help her keep this place clean and organized.
Astraea stopped talking, contemplating how to cohesively make sense of what she had told him before and her future make up answers.
"It's a gift and Yes, hopefully" she confidently answered, almost too proudly. In all truthfulness, a gift… from herself.
Astrea glanced at Aziels' face for any change of emotion or twitch of muscle, looking for any clue what he was thinking, but there didn't seem any. She could only be curious if that answer satisfied him or made him suspicious of her.
"I see, so you volunteered to have me here?" Aziel can only applaud her if she truly was a dedicated member of the 'organization' as she confidently claimed she was, but from her answers in regards to the personal topic, he inferred that this Womans background wasn't of an average person. not even an average member of the said organisation.
"I didn't have much of a choice."
In half truth, she truly didn't have a choice. Being around this man made her feel sick, yet murder would not solve murder.
"Until when will I remain here?"
This was an impractical way of hiding him from the world, it was too creative and unnatural.
"Until you are deemed well enough for your next mission and the public's rage passes, as per them"
'He is a villain on a mission' Astraea said in her mind, trying to humor herself. This conversation has been a brain teaser for her. Playing safe with the most showbiz reply she can think of.
"How did they find you or… or how did you find them?"
Astraea knew that he was referring to the still unnamed organization again.
'This might be a trick question'. Wiring her brain of all the possible and valid excuses she can make. The only problem was she lacked the context to form any plausible justification.
"Guess"
Astraea was right, it was a trick question for her. Aziel wasn't someone who trusted easily and he didn't have a minor trust on her.
"You have a debt of some sort, don't you? Tell me what they have on you to make you so obedient, like a dog on a leash exactly. Have they killed one of your family members?" Aziel asked, waiting for her to slip up. He can play too.
He wondered who would last longer in this game of push and pull.
Her answers were too safe for him. She was playing it too safe. He sensed it from the very moment she avoided his first question, he grasped a feeling that she had something to hide. She doesn't even know their code.
The question always leads back to 'who is she?'
Although her saving him for another purpose is plausible, he cannot be sure.
Aziel knows that Astraea has her own motives.
'What exactly is her motive for leaving herself vulnerable? Is it more important then her life?' He wondered. She was too carefree as much as she tried to be careful and sneaky around him.
Astraea bit her bottom lip hard, trying to distract herself from the growing disgust for him. Why must he remind her of what he is truly capable of? He talks about threats and death casually, too casually, like it's normal, like it's nothing.
"You've asked a lot of questions. It's unfair I don't know anything about you, do I? Aside from what I know, tell me about yourself" and what evil you might have done. That is worth noting she wanted to add.
She needed to play this smart. Yes, she acted too heedlessly, but as long as she doesn't reveal any major secret, she'll be safe.
"Nothing significant really. It's all about surviving." for now it was. It was his absolute or nothing. He needed to survive. It was the fundamental step to attaining what he had always wanted.
Astraea was uncertain if that was all there was. Such a deranged pursuit doesn't seem to be just about surviving. Aziel seemed like a prominent figure for this syndicate-like organization, a loyal, devoted fanatic to do what he had just done.
'Yet again, those types of groups lean more to threatening and blackmail to accomplishing their objective, she would infer from what he had said. What does he have to lose exactly? That is forcing him to be willing to have so much blood on his hands.'
She could only ponder and carefully select her next question, toughening her guts for a little more confidence to ask more.
"After you've achieved whatever it is you're aiming for… what next?"
After asking that almost similarly philosophical question, silence engulfed them. The silence you can usually hear in a classroom after a professor asks a pass-or-fail difficult question. Aziel's mind was somehow empty, he wanted to think, to imagine.
He didn't plan that far ahead.
In truth, He had no dreams or hopes for himself.
'What's next after my revenge?'
Aziel was aware that for people like him who have done unthinkable things to others, he does not have rights to a future that his victims will never have. Darkness with a window or total life in the void like abyss for enternity is the only future he can imagine.
"I-I". He couldn't find the right answer.
'Is there even a right answer to such a question?' He used to dream, not until 'that' happened, which made him unable to go forward. Unable to dream and want anything that doesn't involve his lifelong desire for revenge.
"It can be anything, you know, You don't have to think so hard."
Astraea noticed him stuttering for the first time. It wasn't her first time to encounter a individual who didn't seem to have a dream in mind for their future. Some people just don't see the point of living for a range of reasons. Some just let the flow of time and life lead them to whatever it might be. Some just don't care about the future. Some are scared of it and the disappointment it gives.
Aziel. She wondered what was his reason for his lack of purpose to dream of his future. 'Maybe this organization took away his wanting to dream' that's what she can only presume for now.
Aziel contemplated in all seriousness. Going as far back to his early memories, when he was still a child. It was such a simple question, yet his mind was empty. He only ever lived in pursuit of revenge. He was disinterested in anything else, whether it was money or power or fame. Those things can only serve as tools to make his greatest ambition easier. They would never make him truly happy.
"To be happy."
He found it within himself to answer that. People pursue such called dreams to be happy, right?
"Right. To be happy…"
Astraea wanted to go against his answer. She felt like this man in front of her didn't deserve an ounce of happiness after what he had done. Yet, even with everything he had done, she felt somehow pity for Aziel.
"How about you? Are you happy?"
It was only fair of him to ask her.
'Is she truly happy?' Astraea doesn't know if she's happy right now. Happiness comes and goes, everything seems so fleeting in this world. It was a choice to stay happy.
"I believe so. I think the word to put it is joy. Happiness is temporary, you can be happy, then sad again the next minute. Having joy meant being able to endure and find light in little things."
Astraea saw herself as more blessed than most people, so even though her life wasn't perfect she always tried to appreciate things, small or large. She wondered how Aziel was brought up as a child and influenced him to turn out as he is.
They were somewhat half way deep in their exchange, they didn't notice that they were already back in the dining room.
"How do you find this joy you are referring to?"
Aziel glanced at her side profile, her hair tied with a cream-colored scrunchy. The lady in front of him, he will admit, was pleasing to look at from every angle. She was even pleasant to converse with and looked neat even with the most very casual clothing she wore.
Although he knew the dictionary-based definition of the word joy, he was interested in what joy meant for this still mysterious lady.
"You can find joy in doing even he littlest things. Like eating."
Apparently remembering something, she turned towards him.
"Speaking of eating. Is it fine with you to eat instant ramen again?"