He was sent to the ground and stunned. He got trampled. By the time he was back on his feet, his blood flowed on his face. His right eye became bloodshot short after. It happened in the blink of an eye, the kid didn't get the occasion to fight back, however, the poor guy who chose to hit him in the face had a deep cut on his fingers. The young boy probably touched Keith's upper jaw. He heard Show's voice in his mind.
'Don't swallow the blood you have on your face kid! Some of it isn't yours! We can't risk you going on a feeding frenzy now.'
He dusted his hair to get rid of the annoying bits clouding his sight and with a hand in front of him, he did his best to exit the brawl.
A hand pulled his hand and brought him back in the melee, he screamed out of surprise.
More punches assaulted him. Who was the target? Everyone! And who was the tormentor? Anyone! Show had only a shirt to protect the kid who felt too hot to keep his cloak in the wet cave. The air was hard to breathe and the low light made friend and foes alike.
Evander hammered his fists left and right to re-equilibrate the treasurers' mind. "Stop it ya morons!" He shouted.
Keith did his best to defend himself. He managed to grab one of the foot that hit his ribcage and decided to not let it go. He tightened his grip, again and again until he heard a loud crack.
Another voice rose above all, one that moaned in pain. His tibia had been broken in the hustle and with his assailant under belt level, he missed the occasion to see the culprit.
"Enough!" Evander said at the top of his lungs. "Enough of this nonsense! I want all of you aligned against the wall, those who are too injured to do so, don't move, as for wimps, you better be heavily injured if you don't go next to the damn wall!" He added as veins almost popped up on his forehead.
The kid breathed heavily. The bruises they earned that day gave them a lesson. Greed couldn't buy them food. Also their friends were not always 'that' friendly. Few pillows exploded, tables broke and indoors fences fell when all fought.
Evander lifted the plank with the golden nails up in the air.
"It doesn't matter! Okay? It'll come back! Treasures are important only when they unify people, not when all of you fight each other and shed blood like a shark school!"
Lowering their heads, the kids avoided looking at their mistakes. Shiners, cuts on their faces, bite marks on their arms, scratches from their nails, broken teeth and nose bleeding. They chose to let off steam and paid consequences.
Three remained in the middle of the room, one had a broken ankle, and two were unconscious.
One suffocated under other children's weight while the other had been inadvertently killed with a kick that broke his ribs and pierced his lungs. On the first one's ankle, there was two bruises with a distinguishable hand printed pattern.
It was Keith's first fight, he learnt how bad he was at it.
All boys were enrolled to help arrange the living room back. Everything was forgivable for the kid who hadn't identified any of his assailants, he couldn't say either who hadn't run over him either.
Two hours later, evening arrived. Maverick was back and with him order and livelihood too. Kids would often excuse their friends quickly even if not given a reason to.
Keith was about to go out when Evander stood still in front of the secret entrance.
"Dinner hasn't been served and, I can't let you go outside at night!" He said before grabbing Keith by the shoulder.
He brought his two arms together and lifted him with only one hand. The man's reassuring eyes made Keith unable to consider Evander a threat. The kid spoke with a serious tone. "I have an appointment."
"No, you don't" Rebuked the door's guard. He moved the kid near his head, to aggravate the tone of the situation. "If you go out during the night, you can get captured, get enslaved and spend the rest of your life to work for free, all this under someone's whip." He said, adding more details before the kid could argue about his current situation. "They'll feed you water and rocks. They'll wake you up every minute you'll fall asleep and once you're too weak to be useful, they'll simply throw you overboard."
'Who could he need to meet? Maverick said he was a loner.' He thought.
"I have to go out." Repeated the kid, calmly. He could feel something cold under his cloak, covering only his back while his two arms were kept above his head. Hanging about a meter above the ground, he did not even try to move his legs around. His kind of cape undulated with this unnatural move, making Evander curious of his ignorance.
'What's this?' He wondered, as the kid he held suddenly felt ten kilos heavier.
Two arms appeared in his back. They were pale and clumsy, every of their movement were brutal to watch. Their sudden halts gave off the sensation they moved according to the limit of their articulations. The slight grinding of the bones against each other could be heard.
They followed the kid's ribcage and one extended to touch the man's face.
He felt the icy fingers caressing his cheek in a silence only interrupted by the moist noise of the contorting dead flesh.
The man froze, he let go of Keith the instant he remembered how to move his fingers.
Keith waited for the additional weight to fade to get back on his feet and escape the treasurer's lair. Without a word addressed to Evander, the man was left stuck in a corner of the entrance, biting his index in worry of his own sanity.
Walking under his hood, amidst drunkard and bandits, Keith thought. 'That was as creepy as it was heavy! Who's hand were those?'
'I still have the corpse from the guy Maverick killed the day we arrived. I used it, but trust me it's not that simple to control.' Show answered. It wasn't the first time he manipulated a corpse. He had done it once in Varanasi, with the monster Lorbe created out of madness. Alas, the such a little body couldn't fit a monster as big as Show. Nothing bind the two together and compared to Keith's complex persona, there wasn't much to hide under.
As promised. Ardi was waiting next to the secret door. He walked in front of the kid who could only be mesmerized by the floating clothes in front of him. The agility of the clothes made them look alike underwater behaviours.
Ardi spoke. "Why did you do that to the coin? I've heard that guy... Evander's story a thousand times, and he never missed the part where he says it's a cursed object! Are you new here? I can't say, I've seen so many different heads here I can't rely on any characteristics."
As described, the cave was full of people even during the night. In the crowded main street that connected the cliff to the sea, it was hard to distinguish one's voice. He was now in the center of muffled hubbub that plagued every night's quiescence in Chittagong.
Soon, he remarked Ardi wasn't the only one with strange clothes, many around them had some too. None of the floating people had a weapon, yet they walked freely and alterations on their bodies could be seen when people involuntarily interacted with their fakes existences.
'This place is the same as the explanation, my senses are not altered yet I can observe those impossible things happening over and over again.'
With the kid not answering, Ardi kept talking alone. "I've told them about you and the news spread like wildfire, they are so impatient to see you! I can't wait to introduce you to the crew. Let's turn left here..."
When they saw Ardi, the strange people followed him as well. About a tenth of the crowd outside was composed of strange people. The more Keith looked at them, the more he felt overwhelmed by their number.
Each time someone looked at Keith, before they could say a thing, one of the strange men blew hair into their faces, making them sneeze and lose track of their thoughts.
But what could they do? No one could touch them! Those illusions in the night became more cheerful with each step they took. The growing mass tailing them seemed to engulf their path.
They went toward a depraved house, hidden in between many houses. On the harbour, trees had been cut to fit man's foot. And in years, many floating walkways and dwellings had been built along the shore. It allowed the city to extend in a direction few dared to sustain.
The hundred people or so following the kid weighed less than a feather and all of them could be easily handled by the hundred years old structures emerging from the sea.
They entered a long house in which half of the floor had sunk because of its rotten wood.
Many kinds of seafood were attached to the planks in the center of the hole. Shellfish and algae that clung to the sides of the gap between the old floor and the low waves were so numerous it darkened the whole thing into a black hole.
Here, all of them stood in circle, welcoming Keith with their amazed gazes once he pushed the door.