"Ahhn." The wails of a girl and the grunts of a man reverberated around the corridors. A drawn out kind of voice grasping for air.
Now I wasn't that much of a kid to not know what it was. Brothels were common in my town and the same sound would play on repeat whenever I went past them. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared about it if they weren't doing it at the crack of dawn in the church. There was a limit to debauchery. One that they clearly crossed.
I wasn't the most religious person, only remembering God's name when it was convenient. My parents on the other hand were true believers in the divine. So even though I didn't believe in it, I at the very least had some respect.
Or at least more than the worshippers of this religion did... Evidently.
'Some people were just irredeemable.'
You know what, I shouldn't concern myself with this. As I remembered what I was here for, the smile returned to my face while a part of my heart sank. Happy but uncomfortable.
I was about to meet Luno. I ignored the sound of thumps and started walking again in the other direction. There was no way that she was there. It was probably a nun and a priest getting it on early in the morning when no one was around.
Looking at it more rationally, they were just humans too. And humans get frustrated-
"Grab me! Ugh, there!"
"!!" I halted immediately!
WHAT? EH? That doesn't make sense. At all.
Wha-I... Huh? I knew that voice. No, at least, I thought I did!
My heart was already beating quickly because I was- But it started to beat even quicker. Hell, I could almost hear it beat out of my chest. My ears were pulsating with every beat. I couldn't think straight.
No way.
BUT I KNEW THAT VOICE!
Did I not want to believe- it? No, I wanted to confirm my suspicions? What suspicions in the first place? I mean- There's no way. Absolutely no fucking way.
NO! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING!
Leaving my initial goal aside, my body instinctively followed some foreign moans through the corridor behind me. A familiar voice that made sounds I had never heard it make before. A voice that should not have made those sounds. The tips of my temples were bulging? I was short of breath, but not quite suffocating.
'There was no way right? Surely!'
"Uhhhm~"
My steps were slow, dragging across the marbled floor. My eyes were starting to burn. The light scattered by the dust in the air didn't quite reach inside all that well, or maybe it was because all the doors were closed but it was getting darker and darker.
It took a while for me to cross the main chamber, or maybe it didn't, I couldn't think straight. I was gasping for breath with every reverberation of that voice.
With every step, the voice only got louder. Again and again and again and again.
I stepped harder and harder and harder and harder. Further, slower, my feet weren't leaving the ground anymore. I could smell a sweet scent, that of smoke and the district.
"Come on, don't stop now!~" The voice was now only a second away. And I was close enough to know, close enough to throw my doubts away. My quivering feet came to a halt. Within the dark depths of this corridor, there was light leaking out of an open door. The only open door in the entire area.
The only room with people in it.
My fingers ran across the wall as I turned at the door.
It was just an open door. But an open door through which I saw two bodies entwined and lips connected. A face I knew all too well, and the other I couldn't even begin to recognise. A sight I couldn't understand.
Or didn't want to understand. A sight I wanted to deny with all my might.
Under the clothes- hugging? Who was I lying to? Who was I trying to protect?
There was no covering this-
Against the nightstand, my childhood friend, first lov- only love, my fiancee, my life's wish, the one that woke me with a smile everyday- was with a man that wasn't me. Indulging in the one indulgence she wasn't allowed to by the cloth. Amidst defilement and degeneracy. A face of unmistaken ecstasy.
Disgust and euphoria.
I stopped breathing, I wanted to throw up- there were stones in my stomach, my legs went limp, the tip of my ears were burning, my eyebrows furrowed in a cringe, and my eyes burnt as if someone threw salt in them.
I wanted to run away. If you ignore the problem it solves itself, right? Nonetheless, I couldn't do anything.
I wanted to confront her as a man would. But I could do nothing.
'Surely she had a reason?'
NO! FUCK! THERE WAS NOTHING THAT COULD JUSTIFY THIS!
DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT WITH MY RING ON HER FINGER? SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO LOVE ME. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO ONLY BELONG TO EACH OTHER! IT WAS AN OATH! DID THAT MEAN NOTHING? DID NOTHING MEAN ANYTHING?
FUCKKKK!
This was a betrayal. My heart was burning, I was seething with rage. And in the thick of it all, the food I carried here for her- the food Mom made for her, fell from my hands.
'Tell Luno I sent love.' My ass.
I was almost sure that I threw it out of spite. With how tightly I was gripping it there was no way it slipped.
But my mind was so engrossed in the violation in front of my eyes that I felt nothing.
The sound of metal on the marble below, the food spilt over my shoes. I didn't feel it burn.
Eyes turned to me.