章節 25: A Sinner’s Affection (1)
Her angelic voice resounds clearly through the lounge, the spotlight focused solely on her. Everyone sways slowly to her sweet melody, seemingly captivated beyond control. Everyone is wholly focused on the beautiful songstress; all except one. The songstress observes a single soul who seems to be focused on something else entirely. Her eyebrows furrow slightly, but no one is observant to the slight change, as her voice carries on unwavering, toned to pleasing perfection.
The show soon ends and the curtain closes, the woman disappearing behind it. The chatter soon picks up, rising from an audible whisper to full acoustics. Everyone returns to their own interests, a variety of things that one might expect others to do at a lounge. Sitting at the bar, a figure clad in dark clothing and a black hooded jacket downs their third glass of whiskey, lightly slamming down their glass when finished. They throw some money on the counter and get to their feet.
"Excuse me." The voice of someone unfamiliar calls out to them, making them freeze for a moment, but they quickly move forward, as they decide to ignore the voice. However, that person doesn't intend to take no for an answer, grabbing the figure's arm. "Wait just a moment!"
The figure immediately whips around and pushes back against the stranger, forcing them to fall against the bar and leaving them trembling as a knife presses against their neck close enough to feel the cold, hard, steel. The figure glares at them menacingly, with dark, intense eyes of anger.
"Hey! Bring that shit outside!" The bartender shouts. "You know my rules. We don't do that here!" When neither of them budge, he leans in closer. "Do I need to repeat myself again?"
The figure releases the man with a shove and proceeds to leave as intended, and the man doesn't immediately follow, shaken by their sudden defensive to offensive actions. He watches them exit as he gets to his feet. He'd heard they were aggressively reactive and volatile but is still in awe.
"You good bro?" The bartender ask the man with genuine concern. He nods. "Glad to hear it. You might even consider yourself lucky. That one is…well, best to stay away from that one."
The man shakes his head. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm afraid I can't do that. My lady wishes to speak with them, so I must interact accordingly. Please excuse me and good day Sir."
He quickly exits and the bartender simply shakes his head with a shrug. "Ok…your funeral."
The man scans the outside to try to detect where they may have gone, but it seems as though they've vanished in thin air. He hears something clatter in the dark alley beside the building and while he's wise to know it's dangerous to go alone, he's determined to see his mission through.
He walks down the alley cautiously. "Excuse me, I know you're apprehensive of me and that you have good reason to be, but I assure you I mean you no harm. I only wish to talk, for my lady's sake. She's had her eye on you for a while, doing everything in her power to make you turn your attention to her, but you're always looking elsewhere. It makes her quite sad, so you know."
The figure jumps down with a thud, just inches away from him. "Why would I care about that?"
He turns around with a start and is now face to face with the hooded figure, a dull purple eye revealed beneath the moonlight. "She has an offer for you, and I think it's one you'll quite like."
"I'm not looking for anything from anyone and I'm not in the market for any offers. Go away." The voice is coarse and unrefined, but still has a feminine tone to it, revealing her as a woman.
"Trinity…we understand how much you've been through and why you're doing all of this, but you're getting sloppy and attracting unwanted attention. We believe in your mission and support it, but my lady would like a chance to properly enable you. With her guidance, you'll be great."
"I'm not looking for any guidance and I'm not on any grand mission. I'm doing this just because I want to. Nothing more to it." She steps forward and removes her hood. "How'd you know me?"
"My lady is quite knowledgeable on all things in this domain, as she is the unofficial head. While that man may hold the title and power of judgment, my lady runs this city of Limbo in Power."
Trinity looks at him suspiciously. "By that man, are you referring to…." He nods and she sighs. "If this is some kind of power struggle and attempt to initiate a coup with my help, forget it, ok?"
"Oh no Trinity, this isn't a coup. That would mean we'd be fighting for something we already have. No, what we seek is to return this domain to its rightful balance. That man has all but sent this domain to ruin, and he needs to be put down before it's beyond repair. Only you can do it."
"You've got the wrong girl, sorry." She turns to leave, but the man once again grabs her.
"Please just give me a chance to explain further-," he starts. "Ah!" He lurches over with a yelp, and stares down at the knife embedded deep in his abdomen. "Oh dear…that's no good at all."
Trinity glares at him and with a growl says, "I told you to go away and leave me alone! You did this to yourself." She snatches the knife out, the blood splattering on the ground as she does.
"Quite right, you did warn me, I suppose." He says this with a hint of humor as he falls back and collapses to the ground. She gives him one final look of indifference before she turns away. "One moment more! Just give me one more moment! It's regarding a very important matter!" He's met with silence. "Nevermind the matter with my lady anymore, but please, my, my child…."
Trinity freezes in place but doesn't speak. Just then, she hears small footsteps approaching. "Pa! Where are you Pa? I came to find you because you were taking so long. Pa, where…Pa? Pa! Pa!"
"Oh, Ena! Ena, my sweet girl…what are you doing here?! I told you to stay put at that place."
"I know Pa, but you were taking so long…I was feeling lonely. But now you…you're hurt!" She looks over to Trinity, who's back is still turned, frozen in place. "You hurt my dad, didn't you?" She gets to her tiny feet and stands tall against Trinity. "Why did you hurt my Pa? I'll kill you!"
Trinity remains silent, but her hands tremble subtly. She hears the girl fall back to her knees and lean over her dad, her low sobs growing gradually. "Ena, oh my sweet, sweet Ena, don't cry. Pa is fine, I promise. I'm just a little…weak, but I'll get better. Go on home and wait for me, ok?"
"No! I won't leave you Pa! Don't die! Please don't die!" The girl pleads with her father, but even if she doesn't realize it, Trinity can feel it. His soul is nearly voided, and he'll be gone very soon.
"Ena…I know I wasn't always the best dad to you and couldn't give you what you deserved, but I hope you've known how much I love you. I love you more than anything, my sweet, dear girl."
"Pa! No, Pa! Don't go! Please don't go! Don't leave me alone!" She pleads and cries, but soon his body shimmers and evaporates into sparkling light, before disappearing completely. "Pa no!" She gets to her feet once more, with venomous tears, as she shouts, "You killed my Pa! Witch!"
Trinity finally turns around and faces the girl. "Yes, I killed your Pa…what will you do about it?" The girl glares spitefully at her. "You say you'll kill me, but do you think you really can?"
The girl charges at her and tackles her leg in an attempt to bring her down. However, her actions have little effect and Trinity barely moves. The girl punches and kicks at her legs, to no avail. Trinity can't help but smile in amusement at this tiny girl attacking her with all her might.
"You're going to tire yourself out before you can land a proper blow on me you know. You need to get way stronger and more powerful to even hope to give me a scratch. You understand that?"
"I don't care! I may not be strong enough now, but I still have to try," she says with tears in her eyes. "My dad told me to always stand tall, no matter how much bigger or stronger my foe is. I'll get stronger, no matter what! When I do, I'll definitely kill you! Just wait and see you Witch!"
The girl finally tires and drops her hands. Soon after she drops to the ground onto her backside and with the most miserable expression, she starts to sniffle. After a moment she begins to sob and after a moment more, she starts bawling, her thick tears streaming down her tanned cheeks.
Trinity loses her smile, and finally starts to look sympathetic towards the girl. Seeing this girl, with her dark hair and chocolate eyes breaking down on the ground, brings back unpleasant memories Trinity would rather forget. Memories of her own experience when her mother had died, and she finally understood she wasn't coming back. She never really recovered from it.
Trinity crouches down before the girl and places an awkward hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so insensitive. I didn't mean to kill your dad, but I also won't apologize for it. Your father kept pestering me even though I asked him to leave me alone. I gave him many opportunities to walk away, and he refused. He seemed to have a reason, a mission important enough to risk his life for, so I don't think he'd have any hard feelings." The girl continues to cry, only mildly reacting to her words. Trinity sighs. "That said, I know how it feels to lose a parent. I lost my mother when I was only a few years older than you. I wanted someone to comfort me back then. It should've been my father, but he was not the support I needed at all. He only hurt me more. It was after my experience from that time through to even now that I came to understand this world is cruel. There's no comfort to be found. No one will offer you affection. It's a lesson everyone in this place learns, you unfortunately learned it a bit too soon. This world sucks, and there isn't any happiness to be found here. The sooner you accept that, the stronger you will become. So I won't shower you in affection, despite being partially the cause of your sadness. I can only leave you with this." She kisses her forehead gently. "This is my gift to you."
創作者的想法 
OtakuGamerGirlTA
OtakuGamerGirlTA We have a brief flashback to the dark times of Trinity's past...will we meet that little girl again? Hmm...;)
*Note: Chapters will begin getting longer from now on, but that also means only one chapter will release per week (on average). Thank you as always for reading my story and all of your awesome support!
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