He was ready to help the children follow their parents when he suddenly received a new offer.
An offer that would take them off his hands and promised him enough riches for two lifetimes over.
The futures of both Noah and Renee.
It was the offer he had given the Pendleton's.
Asked to turn over the futures of the kids for a fortune, the burly man was all but happy to accept.
I mean he had nothing to lose.
So with the kids turned over to another demon, the female demon of the red light district who drove their mother to insanity and was now relocating her booming business to Hatchett's City.
"..."
Renee and her brother Noah were now en route to the imperial dome of the Hatchett's bustling city.
"..."
Soon after they arrived in Hatchett's City, the siblings were astounded at just how different life here actually was.
From the fanciful lights that decorated the streets, the paved roads and tall buildings that demanded your attention as you passed them.
The city that was likened to Fernworth was anything but.
Trampling Fernworth in nearly every category when it came to glamour and wealth.
But that wasn't all...
If a show of sheer superiority wasn't enough for the siblings to laud their new home over the last, they were additionally treated to a whole new society.
Wholly different from what they had come to know in Fernworth...
Living in the imperial dome came with it's quirks. And high up on that list was how the residents treated each other.
The fact that anyone even lives in this dome is enough to curry favour with the residents all around.
Whether demon or human, the residents of the imperial dome treated each other with kindness and smiles on their faces.
Perhaps in appreciation of each other's ability to have climbed all the way to the top.
Hatchett's city was like nothing Renee and Noah had ever seen.
And at the time the younger sibling, Renee, even genuinely believed the woman who had bought them to be a godsend.
A blessing that they would only attain after they had gone through the various perils of the world.
She was so pleased with her current circumstances in fact, that she went as far as to thank the demon.
And be kind to her, praising her accomplishments to this point and actively trying to get closer to who she thought was their messiah.
...Wednesday, was the demon's name.
She came from nothing descent and had always had to fight her way up from the time she was born.
Never knowing her mother and running from an abusive father, the demon Wednesday had only known survival all her life.
And even though she had it as rough as she did she was still proud of her journey and how she came from offering 'services' to lowly beast kin and miners of the Marina trenches, to having respect put on her name and being master of many a demon now.
Madame Wednesday, they now called her.
A tag she got after she was able to use Renee's mother to full advantage before her passing...
"..."
...Renee was inspired by the drive of her new master, despite everything she had done to them.
She was grateful for the treatment she got and how it seemed like Madame Wednesday was always willing to listen.
Was always willing to turn her schedules inside out or spend lavish amounts of money on her and Noah whenever they needed anything.
The Madame didn't feel anything like a master, she was more like an older sister.
And even though Renee had an inkling to the source of the Madame's wealth... She often brushed it aside in favour of what felt like a renewed take on a life that had only disappointed recently.
Renee was happy.
The happiest she had ever been even taking into account the time she had with her family before it eventually all begun to fall apart.
Living in Hatchett's City was like a dream...
The tagline 'City of Dreams' wasn't just a phrase it seemed.
...But not all dreams are happy
"..."
A few months in, and the year from hell that had been Renee's life as early as the previous year decided to rear its venomous head once more.
A single night...
A parched throat...
And a blurry eyed girl heading to a shared kitchen was all that was needed to turn this place completely on it's head.
First came an unfamiliar sound... One that enticed and annoyed her ears in the worst way possible.
Then came an orange hue, a light emanating from her brother's room that both called unto her and asked her to stay away at the same time.
*KLINK!!!
The glass slipped from Renee's hands along with the façade of what this city actually was.
Before her lay bare her brother, beneath the weight of Madame Wednesday and the true nature of the city she had come to love.
This was no city of dreams...
It was one of nightmares.
One that's sole purpose reminded her that all the demons desired from her was to suck her and her family of everything they owned.
Crushing them and stripping them entirely of everything they had.
And that includes their humanity....
"..."
What Renee saw that night mortified her...
Breaking her mind, it sent her into a spiral for days on end.
Was it this?
Was this the reason Madame Wednesday went all out to acquire them??
Was this the price they had to pay for the lives they were now enjoying???
In the aftermath of these events, Renee was eventually able to muster up the courage to confront her brother.
And ask him of just what relationship he had cultivated with their master.
The answers she got, while she half expected to hear them still shook her to her core.
Wednesday was no messiah.
Wednesday was no humanitarian.
She was the opposite.
A predator.
A parasite who sought to reciprocate everything the world had done to her onto others.
One who deluded herself into believing that perhaps If she did what had happened to her onto others she could maybe reclaim her innocence.
She could maybe reclaim that special something she believed herself to have lost when she was younger.
As the story goes, it appears the first time Wednesday met the children...
When she came to collect their mother...
She immediately found herself drawn to Renee's brother.
And infatuated with him and his innocence to the point where she was ready to risk everything she had on him.
Wednesday desired Noah.
She wanted to have him at her beck and call.
So to her, receiving his mother instead felt like an insult.
She knew the business benefits of having her but she didn't care.
Believing she had finally found what she sought after all these years.
She had finally found what could return that special something to her...
Renee's master begun on her new plan.
A plan that would not only allow her climb the social ladder but also lead the boy straight into her hands.
The first phase of the plan involved pushing their mother to her limits.
Her initial plan was always going to have Renee's mother work lowly customers.
That was always going to be the way she'd bring in the most income and build her reputation enough to buy higher and higher quality workers.
It was just never intended to be over as soon as it was.
So instead of spacing out her work dates, Wednesday pushed Renee's mother to the limits of her body.
Making her work everyday for a quick run and gun strategy that would bring her fame and raise the money she needed.
But this wasn't all.
In order to have access to the boy, she thought, she needed to get the parents out of the way.
Otherwise, knowing humans, she couldn't see any other way for Noah to ever be hers.
So, by deteriorating Renee's mother's body...
And bringing her mind to it's zenith, while the children's father still needed her...
Madame Wednesday believed she would in fact be killing three birds with one stone.
Her fame and popularity would grow in line with her income, because Renee's mother was always available for work...
Renee's mother would deteriorate faster and faster, meaning she wouldn't need to wait long for her new infatuation...
And Renee's father would soon follow suit, after the rock that allowed him to walk the path he chose was taken from him...
All Madame Wednesday had to do at this point was simply wait.
And wait she did.
Renee's mother barely lasted a month, and her father even less when he had to juggle all the responsibility he suddenly found himself drowned in.
It was done.
She had achieved it all.
And all that remained now was for the burly demon to feel infuriated with his falling pawns to the point he had no need for them.
That was when she would step in and use the money she had saved up.
That was when... She 'stepped' in...
"..."
What once felt like the happiest time of her life faded in an instant for Renee...
And as the days turned to weeks and months and so on and so forth... Renee grew cold.
Numbed by the answers her brother gave her, telling her time and again she didn't understand their love...
As well as the tortured sounds she heard on what became an increasingly less accommodating home for her.
Her matron had become less and less secretive of the relationship she shared with Renee's brother after a couple of weeks.
Now blatantly making it obvious and difficult for the young lady of the Pendleton household to even lead a normal life.
Renee was at the end of her rope.
She was ready to meet her mother and father now.
The world had nothing to offer her but pain.
She was ready to move on...
...When her brother suddenly appeared at her doorstep.
Bruised... battered... and in tears...
"..."
"..."
-To Be Continued-