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As they walked away from Pleasant Evenings, Jerry couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt constricting his guts for bringing these men here and endangering the life of a girl. He swallowed nervously as a hand laid heavy down on his back, and behind him the railroad man smiled in his best impression of a polite smile as he stopped walking, holding him tightly in place and preventing him from walking any further.
"Jerry dear, could we talk for a moment?"
His words made Mr. White and Mr. Erskine stop in their tracks as they looked at the pair, waiting for Jerry’s reply.
Feeling like he had no choice left, Jerry Brotherton nodded as he looked at the man in the charcoal suit, with two frightened eyes.
"S-sure, is everything alright?"
The man from the railroad nodded.
"For now yess… my dear friends, I need to chat with Jerry. You can go ahead. It will only take us a couple of minutes”.
Having said that, he turned his back on the two hollow men and moved his attention back to Jerry, as the pair left them alone, in the tiny clearing of the woods surrounding Pleasant Evenings.
“So, Jerry… I have some questions about Miss Walker that I hope you will help me answer.”
Jerry nodded along with the man’s words.
"I’ll do what I can, how can I help you?"
"Do you know her well, Jerry?"
"I wouldn't say I know her well, I was here only a couple of times and- and she didn't talk to clientele unless she needed to- to kick them out".
The man from the Railroad nodded as he crossed his arms against his chest.
"I see, I see…Then, Jerry, why do you feel guilty about bringing us here, mh? Isn't she just a stranger after all? A stranger who's protecting a thief, I would add".
"W-wait a minute here, I never said I felt g-guilty-"
"Oh no you did not, but come on Jerry dear, you were thinking about it just now, yesss?"
Jerry's face paled, feeling like when he was caught stealing candy from the local grocery store by his daddy as a kid. Found red-handed, he didn't try to deny it any longer, it wasn't like he could lie to the Railroad man. He wasn't sure why he couldn't, but his good sense told him to not even try, it would be like trying to lie to god, pointless.
"Well, well it's just because I don't like the idea of you killing them folks because of one thief, but I don’t want to discourage you from the plan or anything like that", he said as the man from the railroad clicked his tongue and smiled even wider.
“Oh, so here is where you draw the line? Not having the blood of three hundred men on your hands? Interesting… interesting indeed”.
Jerry felt lightheaded as he moved the weight from the top of his feet to the bottom, his eyes moving downward on the grass that was starting to get yellowish with the approaching end of August, dead, dry flowers near the polished black points of his shoes, resembling a human skull making Jerry’s belly feel funny.
But his gaze was soon brought back up by the railroad man’s slender fingers wrapping around his jaw, their eyes meeting in a tense silence broken only by the other man's laughter.
“Now don’t get shy Jerry, you should be proud of digging a hole through the skin and meat of a mountain… of waking up things that were put to rest centuries ago. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for men like you, would I?”.
The man from the railroad cocked his head to the side like certain dog breeds do while observing something curious, his smile starting to slowly fade.
“But that's not the point of the conversation, Jerry. Oh no, not at all… the point is that if you need to feel guilty over anyone, it is not a girl who stole company property and caused huge trouble nor the woman who oh so bravely decided to protect her, no. No, you should be feeling guilty for those men you took away from their loved ones, from a normal life. For how the curse of their life was supposed to be to feed them to the hungry mouth of a mountain, those are the people you should feel guilty about. So guilty, in fact, that you want nothing more than to vomit, hoping that the pain will leave your guts that way”.
Jerry could only swallow hard as the man in a charcoal suit talked, his voice sounding like a weird amalgamation of a thousand other voices, all with different pitches, his brown eyes shining in the sunlight and almost looking red as he gripped tightly and almost painfully at Jerry's face. He was already tearing up, his bottom lip quivering pathetically.
“That’s how you should feel, yesss… of course, I'm no saint either, and honestly I don’t mind nor care that you are so self-absorbed you barely noticed you were signing up and approving a massacre in the belly of the gods. The slaughter you are responsible for, fueled me up oh so well, now that I think about it. I should be thanking you, Judge Brotherton, more than scolding you, yesss… and you’ll get that thanks eventually, just keep being useful to the cause”.
After finishing his speech, the man from the railroad smiled again, looking way more calm as he squeezed Jerry’s face in his warm hand more gently.
“Are we clear, Jerry?”
"Y-yes… crystal clear” Jerry whispered out, his eyes filled with tears, as he stared at the man from the railroad who, against all odds, hummed before leaning down and kissing him.
It was like a slap in the face that you didn’t expect to receive and if Jerry wasn’t so busy leaning into the kiss, he would have instinctively touched his cheek to find that usual soft warmth that comes with a hit. He could feel the Railroad man grin against his lips, undoubtedly proud of how easily he could sweep him off his feet, how little effort there was to put in this.
Jerry thought the kiss was going to last forever for a moment, his hands awkwardly caressing the man in the charcoal suit's face, but before he knew it the railroad man was letting go of him. The huge grin he had felt stamped on his face as he let out an appreciative sound, gently moving Jerry’s hands off of his face.
“Good, my dear boy… then let’s go, we have a lot to do in preparation for tonight, and there’s no time to rest. Ever onward, ever forward, remember?”
He purred out, jokingly booping Jerry's nose before walking towards where Mr White and Mr Erskine had gone with his usual elegant facade, like nothing had happened at all, leaving behind him a Jerry with a startled expression, his cheek still warm and his knees feeling weak.
His mind, a shaky and confused mess, was all concentrated on the man in the charcoal suit as he followed him without further hesitation.