"I donna know," I murmured, lowering my head so that I seemed shy and innocent. It was an act that I had perfected over the years, and I was damn good at it. "I called out for anyone, but no one answered."
Even with my head down, I could still see through Greed's eyes as the bear of a man stared at me, judging each and every one of my reactions.
I could see his eyes narrowing as I hunched my shoulders, trying to make myself even smaller.
"Marie," he finally called out after a tense moment. "Take the girl. She'll be coming with us after I speak to Christopher."
It took me way too long to realize that the 'Christopher' he was talking about was actually Père.
Greed briefly turned his attention to the twenty or so men and women waiting on my front lawn. The men were all dressed in the same uniform as the bear and the snake, but the scattering of women were dressed like they were still in the 1800s.
A thin woman stepped forward until she stood at the bottom of the two wooden steps leading up to the porch. I assumed that this was Marie, but she was doing her best to be invisible. Her mousy brown hair was tied back in a tight bun and it looked like it couldn't decide between being brown or golden.
Her dress was hanging off her frame and I could see her right eye was swollen shut, a beautiful purple bruise already on full display.
Two things hit me at that moment, the first was that the bear and Père were cut from the same cloth, and the second one was the snake pushing me down the stairs and into Marie.
The two of us hit the ground at the same moment, and I bit my lip from yelping at the feeling of my forearm snapping.
That was the problem with bones. If you have broken them too many times, it just made them easier to break in the future.
"Are you okay?" asked Marie, her voice nothing more than a whisper. I nodded my head as I felt her scrambling to her feet. Ever so gently, she helped me up and tucked me under her arm like she was trying to shield me.
Because of the push, my connection to Greed was gone, and I was left in the dark, both literally and figuratively.
"You need to be quiet. I'll explain the rules later, but you cannot speak when the men are around," she continued to whisper in my ear, her words almost impossible to make out.
Clutching Teddy even closer to my chest, I nodded my head. It sounded like the bear had the same rules as Père did. I guess water really did seek the same level.
"You have a bone sticking out of your arm, Little Star," remarked Envy. He sounded almost nonchalant about it like he had just determined that the sky was blue, but I could feel pure rage flowing out of him.
"It's interesting, isn't it?" murmured Pride, but I knew he was speaking to Envy and not me. It wasn't the first time he had ever seen a bone sticking out of my arm. We've learned to ignore it. It would heal itself after a while.
"You would think that by our very nature, we couldn't feel wrath, and yet, the longer you are around her, all sorts of new emotions pop up out of nowhere," continued Pride and I could feel a hand stroking the top of my head like he was trying to comfort me.
"Meh," grunted Envy, and I could see a faceless shadow in my head, shrugging his shoulders. "At least we know it won't be boring anymore."
"And admit it, you are jealous that we've been here for 12 years, and you've been stuck back home," chuckled Greed.
Normally, the voices didn't speak so much, and I didn't know if that was because I had signed the contract, so they had more energy, or they were trying to keep me from freaking out.
Either way, it was nice to be included.
"Hattie," growled out the bear. I lifted my head in his general direction, but I had no idea where he actually was. Pride hadn't decided to share his vision with me, and I was going in blind. "Your Père is dead," he continued, his voice just as bland as Envy's was.
Dropping to my knees, ignoring the pain, I tilted my head back and screamed as loud as I could, letting my tears fall from my eyes. "Père!" I screamed like the sound of my voice would rouse him from the dead. "No! Père ! You canna leave me!"
I felt Marie's arms surround me from the side as she tried to sooth my 'inner turmoil'.
The truth was that I really should have gone into acting. I was pretty damn good at it.
The resounding thuds of heavy footfalls sounded on the steps as they protested the weight of whoever was coming down. The sound stopped right in front of me, but I continued to call for the man I had killed.
"Shut up," growled the bear, backhanding me so that I fell even more into Marie's embrace. "You are going to bring the zombies to us. We couldn't find your brothers. Is there food stored in the house?"
His words were coming out clipped and fast as I buried my aching cheek into Teddy. I needed to remember that he was a leftie.
"There is some in the basement," I murmured.
"Basement?" asked the bear, and I could hear the confusion in his voice. The homes here flooded too much for anyone to have a basement, but I always loved the idea of one.
"The crawlspace," I murmured softly. "There is a set of stairs in the kitchen to take you down."
The man only grunted as even more footsteps fell around me, going into my house and taking everything that they wanted.
But that was fine. I didn't want anything from that place. I had my voices and I had Teddy.
Everything else could burn in hell for all I cared.