There were so many. And she hadn't yet seemed them all. Not that she needed to know. What she could still see already painted a full story. Their skin was pulled right over their bones and looked ill-fitting, an obvious sign of starvation Lozen knew all too well. All of them had sunken in eyes and wore what looked like modified sacks over their bodies that anyone could just barely call clothing. The stench of feces and rot came exploding out into the open air the second the doors came open, but she didn't flinch from the odor. She didn't flinch from any of it.
"So...." Judas started before he just waved his hands around in mid-air as if he were trying to literally pull the words from his throat. He eventually rested his head in his hands and started wrapping his fingers against his cheek bones as he said without an inch of confidence "Thoughts?" Lozen blinked away her shock before glancing around them and making sure they weren't any guards around to see that they had found this little secret. She grabbed Judas before he could gather himself and quite literally tossed him down open doorway before racing over to grab Alberta. "Speak and I choke you to death with your own throat." Lozen warned as she pushed Finch towards the doorway and she replied "I don't see how that would be possible."
"I'd find a way. Now get in or I'll toss you."
Judas shouted up "Why did you give her the option?!"
"And you can shut up. I don't want you luring every guard in the perimeter this way."
"Why?!"
"Because I have a feeling we weren't supposed to find this." She answered as Alberta finished her descent. Lozen took one last look around to make sure they still hadn't been spotted and then followed the two of them down, pulling the doors closed behind her. Candle light from inside the subterranean fixture provided their only source of illumination and made her eyes gravitate towards the opening at the bottom of the steps.
Judas was acting as a sort of wall between the muttering crowd beyond and the rest of them, giving her a brief moment to catch her breath. What to do? First things first, find out what was going on here. A creature that was a tribesman attacking a man whose manor had what looked like a small army of tribesmen. That couldn't be a coincidence. "Okay, serious time people. What the fuck are they saying?" Judas asked, sounding nervous and shuffling in place as the prying eyes of the tribesmen started getting to him. Lozen took a listen to what little she could pick up, but it was difficult even with the experience she had when it came to dealing with the other tribes.
"Why do you-let me guess." Lozen realized the second she started asking. "Because I need to know if they're calling me a leper or not. That's starting to get a little annoying." Alberta and her sighed in unison before the former said "Now that's not too surprising all things considered."
"Still disappointing." Lozen murmured.
"Disappointing implies you had expectations in the first place."
"I did, actually."
"Best douse that now."
Lozen sighed again before saying "I know."
She rounded Judas and stood in front of the crowd for a moment, trying to figure out if any one of them might have been a threat. It was a fear that didn't last long. They all looked too emaciated to be a threat and there was this strange look of drowsiness that had clutched each of them. It was so saddening to see, but useful. "Come on. We're going in. And keep Alberta close."
"Why!? To any of that! Why can't we just question them here?!"
Lozen rolled her eyes and shouted out to the crowd "Whoever can speak English, raise your hand!" All of them seemed to stare blankly at her for a while before they started talking with their numerous, complicated tongues. "I meant, can't you understand them?" Judas corrected to which Lozen merely replied with "What?"
"You can hear them, right?"
"Obviously."
"Well, what are they saying?"
"How should I know?"
"You said you speak the language!"
"I speak English and I know Iroquois and Apache. Except those are a little rare in these parts."
"What about your tribe? Aren't they Apache? What are they doing here?"
Lozen froze for a moment as she heard that and forced down the answer that popped into her mind with a small cringe coursing through her. "Just stay close and keep moving. Don't touch any of them." She shouted back before she started wading through the crowd. They all seemed to part around her, she assumed out of fear, but kept their eyes transfixed on her at all times.
It was strange in a way. The looks themselves she was used to. Colonizers had the same reaction to her every time they so much as glanced at her, but it was unusual to see such looks coming from other tribesmen. Like it was a miracle she was even here to beging with. That wasn't the worst part of having to walk through the barrack though. It was realizing how unaffected she was by all of it. She knew those faces, she had seen those eyes, and she could recall each of their stories.
It was always one of two paths.
Either it happened in the dead of night when those awoke to the sound of fire and metal raining down in them, tearing everything their ancestors had built into ash. They wouldn't have had time to even know what was going on. All they would remember was the running. Through what or to where? They wouldn't know. Just that they had to run because standing meant you weren't going to see the sunrise and you'd be added to the red pools and charred graves born that very same night. They'd wonder as they ran. Wonder if it was so easy. How could everything so soaked in culture and fortified with rich foundations be gotten rid of so easily? Was it truly the home to a great people? If so, did it make such good kindling? Why did it welcome the fire? Or was it just a bundle of sticks stuck together with tarp?
Or it'd be slow. She heard about that. Mainly from the ones who came from the East. They complained about how it happened sometimes. First white men would come from away, tired, hungry, and severely out of their league in this world. Usually they'd starve to death unless the tribe would offer them assistance which they more often than not did. Then there'd be peace and they'd doubt all the horrible stories they had heard from the other tribes. These people didn't seem too bad, they would think. Friendly even. But then they'd start asking for more. It'd be slow though. Like a sickness creeping through your veins, you wouldn't know it was killing you until it was too late. Soon the colonizers would ask for help building their own village. Then they'd want a little more land. And more and more and more and more until, inch by inch, the encroachment swallowed up their homes. Most say they didn't see it coming. Lozen didn't believe any of them.
In the end, it didn't matter though. Whether by a quick or slow fire, they all arrived in the same place. Hidden within a crypt and left until even the memory of them rotten away. She remembered though. The red and black, the smoke and blood. She had to. It kept her on her toes and from doing something stupid. She remembered them now as she looked around. These faces, she knew. These people, she recalled. Only they didn't wear sacks. No. The small ones wore what little clothing Lozen could buy and the occasional piece of crude skinwear that got from one of their horses. The elders still wore the exact same thing they had on when they ran from the fires. Some said it was because those clothes were all they had left. Their tapestries had been burned down, their homes were cut to ribbons, and their minds were starting to fad. Even if anyone bothered to listen to them anymore, they were starting to forget all the stories and histories who's transcriptions had been washed away. Not that she cared. All of them knew they needed to be focused on staying alive. Why couldn't the old ones see....She shook away the memories when she realized what she was doing.
She pulled her attention away from the faces, but kept repeating the same phrase in the only languages she knew. "Whoever can understand me, raise their hands or speak up." It wasn't fruitful for a while though. All of them kept scuttling away from her and muttering those incoherent languages. She was sure most of them could understand her, but her voice was dissolving into the chatter. Even then, she wasn't able to discern who exactly was speaking Iroquois or one of the hundreds of languages that dotted the continent. It may have been a challenge to hear anyone, but at least none of them were attacking. It gave her a chance to scout out their surroundings.
The crypt itself wasn't a very appealing place. In fact, it was similar to a mine in many ways. Dirt comprised the ceiling and walls and was only held up by wooden beams stationed every so often in the middle of the complex. Most of them looked too old to be trusted and made Lozen glance up every now and then to make sure the ceiling wasn't about to collapse in on them. Lining the walls were rows upon rows of hammocks clearly made from more bags of sorts. They were packed so close together that at times they looked like one massive sheet stretching onward into the catacomb and sometimes she could barely even tell there were people still sleeping in them. Everything looked the same in here. The people, the sheets, the dirt. It all just blended together into a fermenting mixture of grime and dirt.
"What the hell is going on here? These guys look like they're being buried." Judas commented as he followed close behind her. "I believe that's the point, Jebediah." Alberta said, crushed between the two of them.
"First off, don't you dare use that name again!! I don't have to wait to get you to a sheriff anymore so I can kill you whenever the fuck I'd like!! Second, huh?"
"Look around. Whatever has happened to these people, I take it Sirius doesn't want anyone knowing about it."
"Really now? I never would have figured that out judging from the abundance of almost corpses!!"
"Jebediah, I'm aware you're being sarcastic, but with you, that could very much be true."
"Hey!"
Lozen snapped back at them with a little more ferocity than she intended "Both of you, shut it! If I have to hear more of your bickering, I will flay you, gut you, and turn what remains into boots!!!" They both fell quiet for a moment and gave Lozen a few more chances to repeat her phrase before Judas insisted on opening his fucking mouth "Right. Sorry, Lozen."
"I said shut up!" She shouted back again. If there was anyone here who didn't get to apologize, it was him. Apologies meant you understood what was wrong and he was the last person who'd comprehend any of this. He didn't even get to pretend like he did. Not for this.
"Okay, okay! Christ, like herding cats." Judas muttered before allowing her to keep shouting for someone to come forward and explain what she was seeing.
There had to be hundreds of people all crammed into the corridor, some which were even children, and they all looked just as decrepit as everyone else. They skittered around her, keeping their distance, but their curious eyes kept looking over her as they avoided her. None of them stopped murmuring as she passed by, none of which sounded remotely like a language for quite some time. In fact, it was only because of a wayward murmur she heard slithering through the crowd. It was faint and she was pretty sure in another world, she would have missed it, but in this one, she was sure she heard it. A flicker of Apache.
Her head snapped towards the left wall where she was sure she had heard it from, scanning as much as she could see and trying to catch any more scraps of language she could understand. "Who said that!?" She shouted out to the room and hoped her voice could reach over the crowd. No one responded, but she still heard someone speak again in that language and utter something about the noise or hope. This time she was able to get a better grasp on where the voice was coming from and started rushing towards that spot she was sure it was coming from.
She shifted between a pair of hammocks and came out staring right at the dirt wall. Someone was sitting up against it and finishing the sentence she had been following as Lozen arrived. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw exactly who it was. An elder. One who's hair was greyed with time and draped over their shoulders. Their skin was dry and drooping from every inch of their figure, but for some reason, the fabric of their clothes were much neater and in all honesty, newer than the others. Strange, but inconsequential.
"Can you understand me?" Lozen asked in Apache as she knelt down to the man's eye level. It was difficult to look right into his sunken-in sockets and those tired eyes that looked like they were barely even alive. They were just too familiar and the thought that they buried under here wasn't something she wanted to contemplate. She closed her own eyes for a moment, trying to push down the faces that were overlapping over the elders, before she could actually start to focus. "You speak Apache?" The man said, his voice croaking from the strain of being used and making Lozen quiver. It was the same. That tremble in the tone, the raspy breathing to follow after it, and the drained aura that fluttered out of it. It belonged to someone who had already seen one of those stories before and knew what waited after the end.
"Yes. Who are you?" She asked after pushing down those realizations again.
"You're not the usual man. Did the other leave? I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did."
Lozen raised an eyebrow at that before saying "The usual man? Who is this?"
The man paused for a moment before lifting his head slightly and saying "He doesn't trust one of us to relay his instructions. Not that many of us speak their language in the first place. He sends a translator down to do that, though they usually have guards with them."
"He? Do you mean Sirius Cane?"
"Is that his name? The master of the house? I always wondered."
That shocked Lozen enough to silence her for a moment and in that single second, a voice came up behind her. "Wow. Who's this old bag?" Judas asked as he slapped away one of the hammocks. "I'm trying to figure that out. Now be quiet and let me talk." Lozen said before pulling her attention back to the man. "Who are you, stranger?" He asked.
"No. I'm asking the questions here and you're going to only answer them. Is that clear?"
"Then I'm afraid..." He stopped and his eyes seemed to widened as if he realized something. Lozen instinctively thought Judas had dropped his disguise, but instead the man's attention seemed to focus on her. One of his hands trembled as he tried raising a hand up to her and his jaw bobbed up and down as if he were trying to force some words out.
Lozen wasn't afraid in any way as she saw that hand reach out to her and let him keep moving towards her until she felt the tips of his fingers brush against the bandana covering her face. In that instant, one of her hands rushed up and snatched the man's wrist with as much strength as the wave of adrenaline rushing through her granted. His bones felt as if they bent under her grasp and that was a sensation she found herself wanting. She shoved his hand away from her, not caring how violent it was or that it looked like it was going to break, just so long as she kept it away from her mask.
The man rubbed the wrist she had grabbed and said "You're Apache."
Lozen froze for a second before saying "I'm aware. Now tell me who you are."
"Why do you hide yourself?"
She froze again, not sure of what to say at all. Why was he so surprised by that? He knew why. Of course he did. They all knew and yet she still found herself having to say "To keep myself alive. You think the colonizers would take kindly to this face?"
"Do you fear death?"
"And you should have to. You could have avoided being stuck down here if you did. Now start talking."
He paused again before saying "What's your name, child?"
"Why do you care?"
"It's the least you could do. You come here into our prison and demand answers without offering anything in return."
Lozen raised the shooter in her hand until it was pointed right at his heart. "Fine. In return, I'll give you your life. Sound fair?"
The man just stared at her after her threat and then let out a small chuckle that rattled his entire body. "Is that so? I'm afraid this Sirius Cane already did that, child."
"Is that supposed to make sense?"
He swiveled around and spread his arms out as long as he could before they dropped, gesturing to everything around them. "Look around, my dear. There isn't much of a life to take around here. Honestly, you'd be doing me a favor."
Pathetic. That was the first word that came into mind when she heard that. Simply pathetic. She saw people like this every now and then and it sickened her to see someone just give up like that. All they could do was live and they weren't even able to do that. Sure it was hard, more so than any of them ever thought possible, but that wasn't an excuse like that.
"Nonsense. Everything wants to live."
"That's not a very high bar to pass, my dear. Even the worms in the earth want to live."
"And you're not less than that."
"And we're not much more, either."
"You don't need to be."
The man hummed for a second just before saying "I suppose not. But I would still like to know your name."
Lozen felt her finger twitch at that, but before she could do something unbelievably stupid, she lowered her weapon. "Fine. It's Lozen. Now start giving me answers."
"Very well. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lozen. What would you like to-"
"What is going on down here? Where did all these people come from?"
"Oh, here and there. Some of them were snatched from up north, others were bought from what the colonizers called 'the Deep State'."
"Bought?" It hit her the second she said that. All these people, herded down into this prison. A prison who's door was right next to a door that led throughout the house, and who had been bought and who were dressed like dolls and-Her mind was racing too quickly and she couldn't put any of her thoughts together. She snapped back onto her feet and tried getting a look at the front of the room where she saw what cemented her realization. A hole cut into the wall with another set of steps leading upwards, though they were clearly much steeper than before and seemed to be carved into a much straighter tunnel. One she was willing to bet led right up to the passageways she saw coursing through the manor.
A service tunnel.
"Oh." She said, her voice more flaccid that alarmed as this place started making sense. "So, am I allowed to ask questions again orrrrrrrrr...?" Judas started asking to which Lozen replied with "They're slaves."
"WHAT!!?"
"All of them. They're slaves."
"But...but aren't those illegal or something?!"
"Ten years now and running, but that doesn't mean people stopped wanting free labor."
"But we fought a whole war and everything! Didn't we get rid of this shit?!"
Lozen raised an eyebrow at that and said "Why do you care?"
"Why do you not!! That's like one of the most infamous crimes around!! I mean, it's no genocide, but it pretty decent in it's own right!" He waved an arm around him to motion to the assembly. "Case in point!"
"You sound almost impressed by that."
"Impressed? Nah. Excited? Muy sí."
Alberta cut in "Well, I suppose that all explains the tunnels in the walls. Even the people Cane Kees company wouldn't stand for this. If the wrong person figured out about these people, every deputy this side of the world would be after his head."
"Did you know about this?" Lozen asked.
"Of course not. If I did, I wouldn't have to keep threatening that maniac with Isacriot if I did. Or, if you're implying I had anything to do with bringing all of this about, I must say I am deeply offended. I always make sure those in my employ have a good reason to stay around me."
"Like bribery and death threats!" Judas spat back.
"Close. More money and luxury then they can ever possibly hope to expend."
"That still doesn't explain as much as we needed." Lozen said out loud as she placed against her chin. She then marched back over to the man and returned to his eye level before saying "Elder, have you heard of the legend of the Chunuxu?"
"Indeed. It is a tale older then me."
"And do you know of it's reality?"
"I do not understand, child."
Lozen swore to herself. She was far more used to speaking English and that language didn't translate well into Apache. What she needed to know was if the old fool knew about the truth within that myth, but for some reason she felt her patiences start to dwindle away. This place, that creature, all the hollow eyes and grim faces she saw filling the room, she just wanted to be rid of all of it as soon as possible. She was so used to bringing these people relief from the constant threat of death and now, she couldn't shake this feeling of failure. As if all she could do was leave these people to be buried. These weren't the people she needed to aid and it was getting hard to remember that. Just get the info and get out.
"Judas, show him your hand."
"Excuse me?"
"Just show him your hand."
"Why-"
"Because he's a...." She had to think for a moment. "Sar-jakar."
"What's that?"
She had absolutely no idea and was half sure it wasn't even a word, but he seemed to be believing it, so she ran with it.
"A story teller. Most Apache tribes have at least one of them in their social circles and the entire group listened to them recount great stories of mythical figures and legendary heroes. Stories that will be passed down from generation to generation."
"Really? These guys have those?"
"Yes, this is-" Alberta started being silenced with one hateful look from Lozen and then correcting her tone "-entirely true. I once hired one to entertain me for a night."
"Huh. Well in that case." Judas said as his hands started reaching up to the blanket covering him, but before he could reveal him, Lozen barked at him "Just your hand for now."
"Why?!"
"Because...It'll be great build up. You're going to come back and tear this place down later after all. Maybe this could be four shadowing of what you look like."
"Ohhhhhhh. Clever. Maybe I'm growing on you a-"
"Just show him the hand, Judas."
"Fine, fine." He said as he leaned down and pulled off one of his gloves. "Keep it under your cloak though. We don't want anyone seeing it and alerting the guards." Lozen added as she looked around at the prying eyes still surrounding them. Judas did as she asked and keep his glowing appendages obscured by his cloak until only the elder could get a good look at it.
The second he saw the hand was obvious. His shriveled eyes expanded to fill their sockets and a shaken breath came bursting forth from his lungs. He lurched coward a bit, trying to get a closer look at the miraculous limb and stared, dumbfounded, at it for some time. Judas was turning the exposed hand around, enjoying the attention he was getting from the elder and not wasting a second to show off further. "Alright, that's enough." Lozen said as she slapped a hand against Judas shoulder and pulled him away from the elder. "You, have you ever seen this before?" She asked him, but the man remained quiet and shocked. "Old man, focus. Where have you seen this before?"
"I.....I have never. Is he...Chunuxu?"
"Indeed. He is a spirit brought back to life, sent out from the grave on a quest to take revenge on those who ended his life. That's what we are here for. Sirius Cane, the one who imprisoned you, is one of those people."
"This....this is impossible."
"You doubt your eyes?"
"Ever since they started failing me."
"Do you think your senile mind could come up with that image?"
"No...are you going to kill him?"
"Not unless we have what we need. Tell me if you've ever seen a creature like this before."
"Never, child."
Lozen silently swore to herself again and felt her face cringe as yet another piece of information escaped her. "What's wrong?" Judas asked.
"He doesn't know about what you are. So he hasn't seen that creature-"
"WRAITH!!"
"Whatever, and.....wait."
She turned back to the man and said "Is there anyone here who has died recently?"
"Everyday."
"I meant, who was killed by Sirius Cane?"
"Would they become....like your friend?"
"Perhaps. But I need..." She paused when she noticed the suffix he used. "They? What do you mean by 'they'?"
"Child, it is almost everyday that we are killed. Whether because we are disobedient or failed to do our jobs well, that man, Sirius Cane, comes down and kills us himself. Every time."
"What?" Lozen found herself speaking in English. "Why?"
"I think he wants us to fear him. He wants to make himself a monster to us. I can't say it isn't effective."
"So he kills all of you by hand? With what?"
"A pistol, I believe."
Another piece snapped into place. Lozen leveled the pistol in her hand until the elder could get a better look at it and asked "This pistol?" The elder squinted at the weapon before saying in surprise "Yes. But, how did you get that-"
"That's not important. I need you to tell if you've ever seen a person be put down by this. A tall man, big and strong, maybe from the northern plains land."
"I'm sorry, but that could describe a lot of people here."
"So you can't tell me anything about why a Chunuxu would be loose in the manor?"
The elder stared at her for a moment before saying "There's another?" With that, Lozen realized she was scraping the bottom of what this man knew. "Child, what is-" He started saying before Lozen started ignoring his voice and skirted away from where he sat. "I think I know what we're dealing with. Judas, stay close." She said as she marched through the hammocks again and started making her way towards the entrance. "That creature used to be one of these people. Probably was caught by one of Cane's men and taken back here to work. He either didn't do his job well or was disobedient, so Sirius had him put down. He's using the old service corridors built into the manor to move around and if we-"
"Wait, where are you going?" Judas cut in and Lozen answered "Back to the manor. We still need to find that thing before it kills Cane. Maybe we can lure it down here and then detonate some TNT sticks. We'll have to see if Cane has those and move these people out. I don't think Sirius would enjoy-"
"Not that! I mean are we really just going to leave all these people here?"
Lozen stopped as she heard that and almost laughed at the notion before saying "What are you talking about?"
"I mean, do you really not want to do anything about this?"
"Why do you care?"
"Don't get me wrong. I really don't. It's just if I were you, I'd be a bit furious looking at all this."
"Why...." She pressed a hand against her forehead when she realized what he was getting at, trying to remind herself that he didn't know any better. Still, the indication was clear and it was starting to dredge up some thoughts. Those faces she saw transposed over so many of the people around her started to burst back to life, a fire she didn't expect to see again. It liked at the back of her mind, filling it with images of hollow faces and dark eyes, so close to death that she could only just save them. Now, there had to be hundreds more, some dying, most already dead. But they still had a pulse.
"No." She muttered and somehow Judas overheard her. "What was that?" He asked, more so just to date her into repeating herself. "No. Judas, I put up with a lot of from you, but this-" She gestured to everything around them. "this is something you don't get a say in."
"Oh come on! You're the one who's gonna leave your tribesmen to die!"
"First off, they're as much a part of my tribe as you are German. Second, I don't see why I have to help these people."
"Ouch. Now that's cold."
"No, it's practical."
"But they're slaves!"
"And again, why do you care?"
"Why do you not?!"
"Because I already have people I need to take care of. The souls in here are just some saps who were born on the same continent as me."
"Wow. I think I got frostbite from that."
"See? Even you don't care that much."
"But shouldn't you!? These people are tired, hopeless, driven from their homes and forced through numerous tribulations all just to arrive here."
No.
"Their homes have been burned to the ground, their women raped, and their men scalped and slaughtered."
No he wasn't. No way in hell he was doing this. Her hands started to tremble and her teeth gritted together she tried telling herself he wasn't saying this. But yet he continued.
"And what about the children? All those poor people who had to watch as everything they knew and loved go up in smoke as their mothers and sisters-"
The red and black came back, carving their way out of the box she had crammed them into. Not him. Anyone but him. She could barely take it when Alberta spoke up. She was sure what she'd do if he did.
"And their brutalized and their fathers and brothers were slaughtered where they stood."
At that one line, everything snapped out of existence around her. Like a bomb had gone off right next to her head and blasted away every sensation she could have experienced besides his fucking words. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as her body went rigid as if it were shot. The legs had been cut out, but she wasn't falling yet. For a split second, she was suspended in mid air, weightless and hovering somewhere nothing could touch. But then gravity went to work as the deadman opened his mouth one last time.
"Just be glad your tribe was camped out somewhere in the middle nowhere all safe and sound. I know you can't understand, but you can at least emphathize-"
"NO!!!" Lozen roared as his words started stabbing into her mind and a wave of fury suddenly rushed over her. She lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar, forcing him down her eye level until her gaze could better burn into his skull. Her gun whipped up and the barrel stabbed itself into his chin, but there was no need for a bullet.
"No, no, no, no, no!!! You don't get to say a damn word about any of this and especially not act like you care or even understand!!! You think I should be shocked?!! You think I should be alarmed or motivated to do something!? You!!? The self-centered egotist who literally thinks the world revolves around them!!! And what do you know about these tribulations, huh!? How could you possibly even know about any of them?! Word of mouth!? I'm sorry, but not all of us got to learn about this through a friend of a friend! Some of us had to look! Some of us didn't have the luxury of reading about this in our spare time!! It's not a hobby!! It's not a neat fact!! It's not even a tragedies tale!! This just is!! Every day, every hour, every second, this is all there's going to be!! And then, you die!! You die and no one will care!! You'll just be another blade of grass on a beaten road no one bothered to name!! As if you never lived in the first place! We don't get to go down in history!! We get to live and die! Can you even imagine that!? Because I've had to live it!! So don't you dare start acting like you have the fucking right to lecture me!!! I am tired of your ego and I'm tired of your fucking tongue!! This isn't a story!! This is just something we need to survive!! Every day. Every hour. Every second. Because when we die.....all that's left is a corpse."
The murmuring had stopped by the time she finished and with the last of her word having been spat out, the entire room was plunged into a death like silence. She could have heard a pin dropped, but all that captivated Lozen's ears was the thundering of her own heart and the echoes of her voice. It wasn't until she heard those last ghost of her words die off that she even realized she was screaming even if she didn't care in the slightest. Everything seemed to stand still after that, even Judas didn't dare to move a muscle. Though the only attention she even noticed was that of people standing around her. It was that they were shocked or even reactive in any way. All looked just as hollow as before, staring at her with empty eyes. Where was the desire? The drive to act? Was this it for them? Was this all there was? All that effort and tribulations, every time she brought them back what they needed and let them know they were going to survive, they were still those people who thrived only because of her. Pathetic. It was no wonder she needed to take care of them.
Her heart skipped a beat when that thought fluttered through her mind and her grip around Judas's collar wavered. A cold shiver ran down her spine as so many images exploded into the limelight and filled her vision with dozens more of those sad, lonely eyes and mouths that could barely stomach their food. All of which had barely even changed their expression as her words passed over their heads. As if she hadn't spoken at all.
And the only one who listened insisted on talking. "But these guys are still alive. Shouldn't we give them a reason to stay that wa-" She didn't give him a chance to finish. Her finger squeezed around the trigger and delivered one tiny bullet right into Judas's skull. He fell backwards right into the floor, but only let out a tiny grunt as his back hit the ground. Other than that, the entire room was still just as quiet and unresponsive as usual. The people around her barely even blinked as they saw her fire that round in Judas's head and another person was killed in front of them. He didn't move or maybe she did and she pulled her eyes away before he could.
"You. Get over here. We're going back to the manor." Lozen commanded at Alberta and when the patron just continued staring at her in shock, she stepped over Judas and snatched Finch by the arm. "Don't make me say it again. Now keep moving." She hissed into the former patrons ears before she started pushing her back towards the door, not bothering to wait for the people in front of her to move. A few of them were forced aside as she batted them away with Alberta's body. She kept her eyes aimed at the ground the whole time and only looked up at the sad dregs around her whenever she needed to see if she was heading where she wanted. Nothing more, everything less. One step at a time, making her way through the glorified graveyard and starting back up the steps towards the creature. Step by step, pulling her closer and closer to the bounty awaiting her.