Chapter Text
The unforgiving rain spat at the spherical, stained-glass window, shaped in the form of a butterfly, in curt intervals, like the rhythmic pitter-patter of lithe fingers tapping at the surface, an ode of the heavens. The day had started rather mediocre and would only escalate from there. Dense and cold, this air that encaged them, the aura that hung above their head like a swaying noose coiled around their throats, seeking to ensnare any victim it could grasp, flinging with wild abandon. It was only natural, they concluded. The situation was tense, taut, like a rope stretched thin. Nooroo shifted in place, mustering enough courage to speak up at last.
“Please, sir, I’m begging you to reconsider.”
He was ruthless in his pursuit, that much was clear, but Nooroo figured even the lowest of the low could manage to retain some of their humanity, even if a sliver of what had once been. It was a childish, naive idea, but he clung onto that thought like a lifeline. As expected, the man sneered at him and his supplications, face twisted into a scowl.
“Why should I?”
“They’re children.”
“A new reality will be created—a better reality, a happy reality. It’ll be like they never died.”
“Like they were never murdered.”
“Semantics.”
“You know that’s not how it works, master.”
“Then how does it work, Nooroo?”
“For a wish to be completed, a sacrifice of equal value has to be made; one for another,” Nooroo said, swaying from side to side in his discernible apprehension, gesticulating with wild abandon, “it could be a family member, or a random stranger, or it could be you.”
Silence plagued the room.
“That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
“Are you, really?”
“Is your whole existence’s purpose to nag me until my ears fall off?”
“I’m being pragmatic.”
“I don’t think you are, but I suppose I’ve entertained this nonsense long enough.” A hand was raised, a call for silence, for arrant obedience, no other option remaining for either of them. “Nooroo, I order you to be quiet.”
There was a sinking feeling this unfolding set of circumstances would only go downhill from that point forward, like a bowling ball careening towards its chosen target at maximum speed. Nooroo opened his mouth in hopes that the connection may have flickered. It, alas, did not, no sound coming from his parted lips. It shouldn’t have happened, this situation in its entirety. Perhaps there was a way it could’ve been prevented. He didn’t know. He was powerless against his holder, bound until death. The thought pierced through his cranium like a nail to the head. The silence was withering. Swallowing his fears, Nooroo spared a glance towards his miraculous holder, the man he was shackled to in flesh and soul.
“It doesn’t matter if you physically silence me or not, master,” he said, “for we’re chained by spirit.”
“Goddammit, why won’t you shut up.”
“I’m trying to save you from going the same path as Emi—”
“Do not talk about my wife,” came the snarl that forced Nooroo to pipe down.
It would take the man a second, then two, to compose himself, running a hand through his greying hair. “I’m doing this for us—for all of us. Remember our glory days, Nooroo? Remember the thrill, the praise, the acclaim? You can pretend we’re simply playing catch, if that makes you feel better. Imagine we’re hunting a few geese for dinner.”
“This is fucked up, master.”
“Who doesn’t love some well-prepared foie gras? Although I admit I’m partial to roasted goose myself.”
“And he just keeps going, huh.”
“We’re doing this for a good cause.”
“No, you’re doing this out of sheer selfishness under the pretence of a ‘good cause’.”
“This isn’t for me, you know that.”
“Then who is it for?”
“My son, of course, he’s been downright miserable since Emilie…” The conversation petered out into a discomfitting nothingness, the ashes of the past. “Well, it doesn’t matter, I don’t have to explain myself to you, I never had to.”
“Are you willing to risk your son’s life for this?”
“Pardon?”
“Equal exchange, master,” Nooroo said, “equal exchange.”
“He won’t be taken. I won’t let it happen.”
“You don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“We’ll see about that.” The rain slowly, steadily, ebbed and faded with the motions, nothing more than mere background noise at the back of their heads. Nooroo was sure there was a metaphor to be found there. “For now, I have two geese to kill with one stone.”
The mood was somber.