Chapter Text
Chapter 38: Chapter 37
Elysia slipped into the room, glancing back down the hall behind her before closing the door to block out the light hallway. Hansel glanced up from the newspaper that he was reading, his hand twitching restlessly on his bedside table, "Do you have it?" She pulled out an antique pistol from her pocket and handed it to Hansel. He made a disappointed grumble as he inspected it, "Will this even fire?"
The girl only shrugged in response, "It was difficult to get a hold of that and getting the bullets for it was a nightmare." As Hansel turned the gun in his hand, the bullets gleamed dully from their chambers in the cylinder of the gun. "You've only got three shots, so you'll have to make them count." She paused for a second, her eyes flitting upwards as she thought. "His arrogance makes him predictable," she started slowly, "he thinks too lowly of humans to consider us a threat."
Hansel glanced down at the gun again, "Are you sure this will even fire?"
Elysia spotted Kage as he flew in front of the window, "Not entirely, but it's our only shot."
Hansel sighed and tucked the gun under the blankets by his side, "I don't like this. When is he going to arrive here?"
"I just saw his bird, it'll be soon."
Hansel's eyes narrowed, "How does that even work? How can a bird work as his eyes and alert him to dangers?"
"The same way any other bird alerts the flock the danger," she responded, moving away from the door nervously and taking a seat in the wheelchair by Hansel's bedside.
He watched her retreat with a slight frown, "Is everything okay?" he asked worriedly. The girl had been brave so far, but this couldn't be easy for her.
Elysia sighed, "I'm just worried that this won't work out."
The suspicious look on Hansel's face softened and he gave her a slight grin - she was helping him achieve his goal after all, he could afford to be nice to her. "I won't let him kill you, you've been a great help to me."
Her face looked stricken in horror at what he said, and she opened her mouth to respond - but Hansel's sudden cry of shock cut her off. Elysia turned to look at the door and felt a stab of dread in her heart at what was to come.
"Hello, Hansel." A dark shadow filled the doorway, expanding through the room like a flood of water. "I believe this is checkmate." A chill spread across Hansel's neck as a dark mouth full of glittering teeth grinned at him.
Hansel gasped, the shadow was wrapped around his neck and tightening its grip.
"I'm sorry," Pride said with an apologetic frown. "Did that hurt?" The shadow relented slightly, just before increasing its strength. "Now imagine the pain that I went through because of you!"
Elysia could see this wasn't going to end well, Pride was on the verge of yelling and if he killed Hansel here then he could be tried as a murderer. "Hansel! The flashlight!"
The man fumbled with his pockets, gasping feebly for air. Pride tightened the shadows around Hansel's neck, but he was too slow and the light flickered on. His screams echoed down the hall as the shadows around him were burnt away. Normally, the light wouldn't have been that powerful even in the darkened room, but he was still weaker than he had anticipated. He really did need to stop overestimating his abilities.
Elysia grabbed the wheelchair and spun it to face the bed, "Come on! That'll do for now!"
Hansel grabbed the gun and Elysia took off in a mad dash, fleeing from the enraged homunculus and pushing the wheelchair as fast as she could. Hansel could walk with some help, but running wasn't on the list of things he could do anymore.
"Why did you stop me?" Hansel gasped, "He was going down!"
"Yeah, and there were more than enough witnesses there to see a boy get shot."
Hansel ground his teeth, "Yet he can use his shadows and nobody will notice." He held onto the chair firmly as Elysia steered him into a nearby alley. "This should be good enough."
"Can we really escape from him?"
Elysia shrugged, "Probably not."
Hansel's face paled, "Why do you say that?"
"Because he can smell us," she ground her teeth as she looked at him, trying to convince herself of her next words. "And because you deserve whatever is coming your way for what you did to Mrs. Bradley."
Hansel dropped the flashlight, "What?"
Elysia's voice was shaking with either anger - or maybe it was fear, "You tried to turn his mother on him with threats? Did you really expect me to sympathize with you?" She could though - what he had done was wrong, no question about that - but no one deserved what was going to happen to Hansel if Pride got his way.
Hansel's jaw quivered, "But he's a monster! He killed so many people..."
"And he was changing," she said with confidence. "You may have destroyed that though."
It didn't take Pride long to track them down and he immediately directed a shadow to wrap itself around Hansel's ankle, but the man dodged as he lunged forward and out of his wheelchair. "You bitch!" He snarled, wrapping his hands around Elysia's neck. "He'll kill me! And he'll kill you too when he done using you!"
Elysia scratched at Hansel's hands, but the man refused to let go. She released a strangled gasp, aware of someone else saying her name, and smashed her head into Hansel's. The hands released her immediately as Hansel reeled backwards, clutching at his nose.
Elysia felt another pair of hands shaking her, but Hansel had done a good job on her neck. "Elysia! Elysia, you have to stay awake." She felt her head loll forwards but the hands shaking her kept her awake. Her vision was slowly clearing now that she could breathe again.
"Did you really think that strangling a girl would save you?" Selim snarled, gently putting Elysia down to let her slowly come to her senses. He stalked forward, his fingers mimicking the twitchy movements of his shadows. "Did you actually believe that if you killed her, I would spare you?" His eyes narrowed, "Or how about this one, did you really think that my mother was the wisest way to get to me?"
Hansel's mouth only opened and closed repeatedly, nervous whimpers escaping him every now and then.
"Can't even speak?" A shadow brushed past Hansel's face, "That's a shame. I was looking forward to your excuses."
He took a few steps forward, allowing the shadows to more easily reach Hansel. A huge smirk spread across his face, "And to think, you orchestrated this all on your own." He laughed, "I'm going soft for letting you get this far." He shrugged, "All's well that ends well, I suppose."
Pride could hear Elysia's breathing hitch behind him. He felt a stab of guilt; she had to watch him kill Hansel knowing that she had led him here. He was going soft, he was rethinking his revenge plans just for the sake of someone's feelings.
He walked forward, closing the distance between himself and Hansel. "You disgust me," he spat. "I shouldn't even waste my time dealing with a pest like you."
Elysia closed her eyes right before Hansel screamed, and then fell silent.
She didn't want to look, but there was a part of her that was dying to know what she had helped accomplish. Her curiosity won out in the end, and she cautiously opened her eyes. She couldn't believe it though as the sight of Pride gently nursing his bruised knuckles left her gaping.
"I didn't realize how painful that would be." He mused, walking over to her.
Hansel was lying on his back, but she thought that she could see his chest moving.
"Is he-"
"Alive," he answered swiftly. "Death is too good for that idiot."
She glanced at his fist, noting the split knuckles. "Why aren't you healing that?"
Pride flexed his hand, "That's part of my act."
Elysia frowned, jumping in surprise as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the alley. He glanced around before rushing to a nearby pay phone, dialing a number and speaking hurriedly into it. He returned to Elysia moments later and smirked slightly before morphing his features to a shocked expression as he began to pace the sidewalk. The sound of a police siren drifted closer, and Selim allowed himself one more small smirk. Elysia only looked even more confused as this continued, but Pride only told her to play along and agree with him. She nodded in response as a police car pulled up.
"Are you Steven Brown?" A policewoman asked as she stepped out of the car.
Pride nodded quickly, "You've got to do something, officer! He just- he just came out of nowhere!" He was putting her mediocre acting job with Hansel to shame; his hands were even shaking as if he was truly terrified. "I didn't even realize that I hit him until he was on the ground..." He ran a hand through his hair, careful to not ruffle his bangs enough to reveal the node on his forehead. "But he attacked my friend! I couldn't let him hurt her!"
The policewoman smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry; this sounds pretty straightforward to me." She looked at Elysia, noting the purple marks beginning to form on her neck, "The man tried to strangle you?"
Pride looked slightly to her, and Elysia nodded firmly in response.
The policewoman 's face darkened, "I'm assuming he's back there, still unconscious?"
Pride nodded, a wicked glint appearing in his eyes but it quickly vanished. "I hit him pretty hard..."
The officer shook her head, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure that he'll get worse in prison."
Pride looked on with a huge grin as the policewoman dragged Hansel into her car with minimal effort - not bothering to coddle his injury - and bundled him in.
"You two don't have to worry about this lowlife anymore." She told them as she started the car, "Do you want me to call in an ambulance to get you some medical care for those bruises?" She told Elysia, "They look nasty."
Selim shook his head, "We'll go there right now, miss. It's only a few blocks away."
The policewoman nodded and climbed into her car. The second the police car was out of sight, Selim broken down laughing. "Can you imagine his expression when he wakes up in jail?"
Elysia chuckled slightly, though she felt like laughing hysterically in sheer relief. "Why didn't you kill him?"
"What?"
"You were so dead-set on killing him, why didn't you?"
Selim scuffed his shoe on the concrete, "By extension, you would have been my accomplice in that murder. I don't want to involve you in this anymore than I have to."
Elysia scoffed, "Liar, but whatever lets you sleep at night."
He growled, "That's rude! I do something humane and I get criticized!" A few red sparks danced over his knuckles as he repaired them, "Let's get back to my house and we can put some ice on those bruises before it gets any worse."
"I don't think that'll help much now."
Pride ignored her and whistled, calling Kage to his shoulder from wherever the elusive bird had been hiding. "I need to finish this," he whispered thoughtfully, running his fingers along the bird's feathers. "Prison just doesn't cut it for some."
Kage released a series of chortling caws, bobbing his head up and down in apparent agreement.
Pride wasted no time in returning to his house, leaving Elysia on the doorstep as he hurried off to see his mother.
Mrs. Bradley looked up and smiled sadly, "Hello, dear. How have you been?"
"He's gone." Selim told her immediately, grabbing her in a hug and barely resisting the urge to jump in joy - sometimes human emotions were so overwhelming. "That detective has returned to Xing, he won't be bothering you anymore." He won't be bothering anyone anymore; Pride had made sure of that.
Mrs. Bradley released a sob, holding Selim tightly, "I couldn't do anything about it. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that." She weakly laughed, "And all you keep trying to do is live a regular life and I end up getting you in trouble."
"Why are you apologizing?" Selim buried his face in her shoulder, a searing rage entering him at the thought of Hansel trying to take his family away from him.
Elysia looked away, she felt like she was intruding. Pride would keep his word about helping her find her father's murderer, but that could wait. She walked off down the steps with her hands in her pockets, maybe she should go tell Uncle Roy what happened.
"You saved him then?" Roy mused, leaning forward on his desk.
Elysia sighed, looking away from Roy's piercing gaze. "It seemed like a waste to let him die after all that's happened."
The fuhrer nodded slowly, his eyes glancing over a picture frame on the desk. "I understand completely." A smiling family was frozen in the picture on a sunny day - not many people could boast having a complete family even this long after the Promised Day. But sometimes even a monster - former monster now - deserves a happy ending.