Hearing this voice, I shot a glance at Oliver and Frank. Meeting the two pairs of eyes, Oliver nodded his head and gestured for us to remain silent before we swerved our heads to look at the door.
"I'm here with several visitors, Flint!"
Rising her voice loud enough to be heard, but not to the point of shouting, Mary replied as she alternated her gaze between us and the door. Biting her bottom lip, several thoughts flashed across her eyes as she seemed to contemplate something. However, before those thoughts finished, the voice from the other side called out again.
"Visitors? If you're busy, Zack and I can come later!"
Flint's voice lowered slightly in volume as Mary whipped her gaze towards it again.
"Ah, no. You can come in. In fact, it might be good to introduce you all to each other."
A glint flashed across Mary's eyes as she finally decided what to do and forced herself back into an elegant posture. Sharing glances with Oliver and Frank, we narrowed our eyes slightly and nodded our heads to each other, agreeing to keep silent as much as possible. Observing all this, I saw Linel raise an eyebrow at our actions, before enlightenment shone in his eyes. Then, he gave one last glance at the door before pretending to act dumb and not ask any questions.
"Introduce us?"
The doorknob of the house rattled as Flint fumbled with it from the other side. Then, with an energetic swing, it was flung open to reveal an ugly and slightly dumb face. On that face, two wide eyes narrowed into crescents at the sight of Mary.
"Mary!"
Dashing over, Flint passed the boxes in his hands to her before facing the four of us.
"Who did you say you want to introduce?"
Smiling, Flint looked towards us. However, the moment he saw who we were, his smile froze for a second before dropping into a scowl.
"Rats!"
He hurriedly extended his hands in front of Mary, physically placing himself between us, and dropped into an aggressive stance.
"How did rats get into the asylum?!"
Glaring at Oliver, Flint barred his teeth and growled at him.
"Flint! You can't just call people rats!"
"Shush Mary! Don't worry, I'll chase them away before they can infect you!"
Shifting his eyes to 'reassure' Mary, as his gaze returned to us, he spotted Linel and sneered at him.
"So it was you Hanks that let the rats in!"
Listening to Flint's aggressive words, Mary's hand shot out from behind him and patted him on the arm.
"Flint. Listen to me."
Reluctantly tearing his eyes away from Linel, Flint tilted his head to speak to Mary while keeping one eye on us.
"What is it?"
Mary frowned and used strength to push aside his extended arm. Then, lifting both hands to cup his face, she turned his head towards her.
"What have I always said about treating other people, even those from lower streets, with respect?"
Flint froze, flickering his gaze to us for a second before lifting his hands to cup Mary's.
"...but"
"Don't you 'but' me."
Making a face of anger, Mary successfully reigned in the situation and Flint slumped his shoulders, his face filled with remorse as he lowered his voice to gently reply to Mary.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Sighing, Mary gave the four of us an apologetic smile as she gestured to Flint. With a face filled with reluctance, Flint turned his body to face us and folded his arms. Face looking away, he spat out an apology with an exceptionally ugly expression.
"...Sorry."
"Flint."
"Sorry."
Standing up, Mary grabbed a chair from the stack and placed it behind Flint. Sitting down, the six of us faced each other in silence. Flint shifted in his seat, his gaze constantly switching between Mary and us.
"Flint, these four are my dear visitors today."
Emphasizing the last three words, Mary gave Flint a not-so-subtle smile before properly introducing us.
"Starting from the left is Oliver Evans. Next to him is Linel Mark followed by Dan Evans and Frank Walton."
She looked at us and gestured at each of us as she said our names, before pointing to Flint.
"And this is Flint."
Flint shot a glance at Mary before giving a small, tiny nod, and snuck his hand to tap on Mary's legs. Turning her body slightly to him, Mary tilted her head slightly in a questioning gesture. Taking a deep breath, Flint opened his mouth, clearly wanting to speak, when another voice came out from outside the house, interrupting this delicate atmosphere.
"Mary? Flint? Why are things so quiet?"
The second part of the pair we met last night, Zack, popped his head out from the door as he questioned with a gentle and soothing voice. Looking into the house, he noticed the small gathering and immediately stepped in.
"You have a visitor?"
With a gentle expression, Zack walked in with a couple of bags in his arms. However, as he got closer, his gaze skimmed over us and his face dropped.
"Zack!"
Jumping out of his seat, Flint broke out into a wide grin as he practically bounced over to Zack.
"Flint, what's going on here?"
Gesturing to us with his eyes, Zack casually asked as he walked over to Mary and plopped his gifts into her arms.
"I bought you some sweets from outside the asylum. There are also several letters from Victoria and Lucian."
Smiling at Mary, Zack, together with Flint who was trailing behind him, walked over to the stack of chairs and brought one over.
"Mary said that those four are her visitors."
Starting with a slightly loud voice, Flint 'whispered' to Zack before a sharp gaze his way stopped his voice in its tracks. Then, noticing his voice was too loud, he lowered them as the two of them made their way back from the chair stack.
Sitting down, the atmosphere turned from delicate to freezing as the three people from High Street sat on one side while us four children stayed still on the other.
"Continuing with the introductions, this is Zack."
Feigning ignorance at the thundercloud hanging over the room like an angry god about to start throwing lightning bolts down, Mary smiled as she spoke.
"Why have people from Bottom Street come to search for Mary? I thought all ties to the MDVA faction were cut 2 months ago. You won't get anything by coming here."
Going against Mary's efforts to lighten the atmosphere, Zack's cold voice rang out in the room as he crossed his arms and lifted his chin to look down on the four of us.
"Zack!"
Mary exclaimed from the side, her voice tinged with warning as she leaned sideways in her seat, clearly intending to scold him. However, working in sync with Zack, Flint immediately blocked her actions with two hands and gently 'coaxed' her back into her seat.
"Mary, just leave things to Zack. He'll definitely be able to chase those ... people from Bottom Street back to where they came from!"
Fuming in her seat but powerless against the two young men preventing her from speaking, Mary broke her usually graceful demeanor to give an exasperated look at the two before crossing her arms in her seat, her eyes rolling up to show her annoyance.
"I don't see a problem in visiting Mary. She used to be in the faction, so it isn't weird for faction members to visit her, right?"
Linel retorted back to Zack with an obviously fake smile. Taking reign of the conversation, he gave Mary a reassuring look before focusing his attention on the seething man in front of him.
"You Hanks are one thing, but you shouldn't bring those from lower streets into High Street. Your family may be able to afford to hide the infected, but those of lower positions than you can't. It's irresponsible, regardless of your views toward them."
Shooting a gaze towards Oliver, Zack sneered as he 'lectured' Linel. In response to this, Linel frowned in displeasure and narrowed his eyes at Zack.
"MDVA isn't contagious. It isn't even a mental illness. You and Flint both work for the Slim family, so you should know this better than other people in High Street."
"Oh please, you can stop with the lies and coverups. We both know that this information came from Andrew, that traitor who would stoop low enough to desecrate his own 'daughter's' body. If he even considered her his daughter. Add to that, the origin of this whole saga comes from your faction meeting, propagated by the leader and vice leader of your faction. There isn't even a paper about it, so it may as well be bull. Although I'm sure the lower street personnel from the research centers would aid in fabricating such evidence for you anyway."
Scoffing, Zack laid his back against the chair as he looked down at Linel. Beside him, Flint assisted his mockery by giving us a weak glare as he kept an eye on Mary. And Mary, when she heard Zack's words, further sighed and closed her eyes, seemingly praying to god to free her from this mess in front of her.
"With all these roundabout justifications against everything we do, any action taken by the faction will look like devious tricks in your eyes. Even the truth would be turned into lies. Don't you think that such an unfair outlook on us would prevent any real conversation from occurring?"
Hearing Linel's rebuttal, Zack seemed to pause as he eyed the four of us suspiciously. Beside him, Flint snarled at Linel before sneaking a hand over to pat Zack's leg.
"Don't believe in the words of those ...people. Jeremy said that those from the lower streets will always lie to get their way. That, and if you even let your guard around them for a little, they'll steal everything from you just to get some cheap change."
Flint warned Zack with pure worry in his eyes, his hand on Zack's thigh gripping onto his pants the same way a child would cling to their parents. However, Zack only narrowed his eyes as he listened to Flint's words and put his hand on top of his. He patted it, seemingly comforting Flint, which put a smile on Flint's face, before he turned back to Linel.
"Then if you wanted me to believe you, what sort of proof do you have? Surely you don't expect me to believe your words just based on rumors and the words of a traitor? Does the faction have any solid evidence?"
Zack smiled as Flint's face turned ashen with his words. Leaving Mary's side, Flint flung both hands onto Zack's legs to convince him to heed his warning. Which Zack ignored. Beside me, Linel fell into silence as he racked his head for a comeback.
Due to the nature of MDVA as an 'illness', that was basically 'kill on diagnosis', finding concrete evidence was incredibly hard legally. And what we did have was illegal, which probably wouldn't be fit to show someone from the opposing faction.
Seeing Linel's dilemma, I peeked at Zack's expression. Based on his reasoning just now, I expected his reaction to Linel's silence would be of glee or condemnation. However, there wasn't even a gloating smile on that face. Zack's eyes were serious, and even slightly disappointed, as he watched Linel struggle to give an appropriate answer. Instead, after a while, he gave a small sigh and turned to face Flint, patting his hands in reassurance with a slightly complicated look on his face.
"There is evidence. However, if we promise to show you, you'll have to switch over to our side. Since it's something confidential."
Speaking out in this gloomy silence, Oliver's voice rang loudly in the room. Turning our heads, we watched his small back straighten as he faced the much larger and older Zack.
Hearing Oliver's announcement, a sneer returned to his face as he looked down on Oliver.
"And what can a little snot-nosed brat from Bottom Street do? Don't bother quoting Andrew's research at me. A person who can carve up his own 'daughter' has no place in High Street, and if there's no concrete evidence, I wouldn't give his stuff the time of day."
Oliver shook his head calmly, his eyes serious and expression confident as he argued back, not the least intimidated by Zack.
"We do have some new evidence and data, solid ones that would prove our faction points to you. However, they are stored in a research center."
Mary narrowed her eyes at Oliver's words, her back straightening as she leaned forward.
"The is new. The other researchers never told me about this."
Next to Mary, Flint, and Zack whipped their heads towards her as they heard her words, and Zack sighed.
"Fine, I'll consider switching sides. But only after I see the evidence. If it's some nonsense, don't blame me for exposing your lies for what they are."
"Zack!"
Crying out from beside him, Flint grabbed Zack's arm as he stared anxiously at him.
"We can't do this! We can't just betray the Slims like this!"
Patting Flint's hands one more time, Zack shook his head with a small grin on his face.
"I'd rather become a traitor than listen to Jeremy's words. You remember how he snitched on Emily. That bastard doesn't care about us at all, and if he's going out of his way to 'warn' us like this, there must be something up. Besides, there has been a rumor about some drug."
At the last sentence, Zack turned his head towards Oliver, his words pregnant with meaning and his eyes sharp as they landed on him. Similarly, Flint followed Zack's gaze and his eyes narrowed suspiciously at him.
"But that's just a rumor. We haven't found out whether it exists or not."
In a small voice, Flint objected to Zack's words. However, his wide eyes didn't leave Oliver, and I could see the hope within them bubbling to the surface, like fresh air bubbles in a stagnant lake.
"That is also confidential."
Linel stepped in and distracted the two intense gazes away from Oliver. Looking at him, the two men shared a gaze with each other before Zack nodded.
"In that case, I hope that the evidence your teammate is talking about is truly as convincing as he believes it to be. For both our sakes."
Standing up, Zack and Flint said their goodbyes to Mary. Then, walking towards us, Zack reached into his pocket and pulled out a small card. He then placed it into Oliver's hands.
"We have something up after this, so we can't follow you right now. But here's my number. We'll be free anytime after sunset today, so call us and we can set a time and date to meet. We'll be waiting."
And with those words, the two of them left the house, closing the door gently behind them.
"...Sorry for the two of them."
Once they were gone, Mary relaxed her shoulders and sighed.
"I know it's not an excuse for their behavior, but the two of them have been through some horrible stuff in High Street. And it resulted in their absolute hatred for the lower streets."
Mary planted her face in her hands as she hunched over slightly, the weight of her relationship with the two of them breaking her down.
"Is it about that irrational belief that MDVA is contagious?"
Crossing his arms, Linel shook his head. Mary nodded, and Linel gave an 'I knew it', before the two of them decisively dropped the topic.
"It might be a little late to ask this, but how has it been in the asylum?"
Taking the snacks that Flint had given her, Mary distributed them to us with a smile as Linel asked her. Receiving the small snack, that was eloquently packaged with higher quality wood than I was comfortable with, I gingerly unfolded it by copying Frank, who was much more used to these packages, and fished out the small little sweet gems piled in the boxes.
"I've been keeping myself busy by sitting in the garden. At first, it was because of its beauty and wonder. However, after a while, it was because I noticed some very peculiar people constantly visiting the center containment area. Even though they have said on record that they would rather be dead than be contained."
Popping open her box causally, Mary cheerfully tasted the sweets as the mischievous glint returned to her eye. Raising his eyebrow, Linel gestured for her to continue as he opened the box. Then, as he looked down to pick up the sweets, he picked several and dropped them on the cover of the box.
"The Slims."