Chapter 20: Life at Gerik

They now live in the town of Gerik, despite being force to. They try to live their best in the town, but it doesn't look to be that easy

            The king was exhausted after today’s trial, it was tough to decide what to do; he does believe he made the right one with those two. Since the barrier is broken, people will start to come in, bringing who knows what with their knowledge. He couldn’t help but think about his next course of action, keeping him up late at night. There is a knock on the door, a soft yet firm knock. The kings get up from the bed, thinking to himself, who is up this late at night? He gently opens the door to find a woman standing there. Blonde goldilocks hair with piercing violet eyes, in a formal dress. “Hello Russel, do you mind if we had a chat?” Russel gasps at the reveal, “Mindy, what are you doing here?” Russel said, nervous and shaking on his body. “Do I need to repeat myself, I said do you mind if we have a chat!?” Russel rashes towards a reply, “Yes, please come in.”

               Mindy checks herself in on his room, surveying the place; she takes a seat at one of the nearby chairs next to the bed. “What a horrible design, whatever.” Russel follows quickly and sits on his bed. The room is stiff, the air is quiet, the tension in this very room is building, Russel can feel it in his shoulder, at just how dangerous this situation is.” Queen Mindy, what brings you this late at night?” She stares into his eyes, into his very soul. He just couldn’t believe she was here. “Normally I wouldn’t even bother attending your kingly affairs, but the one you had with the two prisoners was quiet a rare situation.” His mouth was wide open, she knows all of this already?! “I just had to see it for myself, as for you though, you made a poor decision!?” The king was taken back, “How did I made a wrong choice?” She went on, “You should be torturing them instead, tracking them, literally anything but that choice you made. We need to know what they are, and what they do.”

The king scurries back further up his bed, fearing the woman in front of her. “Why, I think what I did was fine enough.” She closes her eyes in anger of the king, “Have you not been paying attention? Then tell me, who are they?” Russel calls back to the trial. “The little girl is from a village that burned down apparently, looking for her parents, and that guy is….ummm” The kings thinks and thinks, trouble to call any resemblance to Jack at all. “That’s the point I’m trying to make Russel, we don’t know anything about this person.” She gets off her chair and heads towards to the door. She makes one final remark before leaving for the night, “Investigate him, we need to know more about him, for the future of Gerik.” She closes the door, leaving the distraught king, alone in his room.

               The cool breeze of the morning air sweeps into a room, a room where Cacyie lies asleep, covered in a blanket of white. The city is full of life again as the new day begins. She yawns out loud as she arose from her slumber, gently rubbing her eyes, hardly opening them from the sun that hits her at the perfect angle. She crawls out of bed, almost forgot about her situation, hardly remembering anything from last night. She took a good look at the room she’s in now, everything was shiny to the teeth, which was weird for her as she imagines cobwebs everywhere; looking for any sign of abandonment. She couldn’t find any, as she is speechless about it. She checks back to the blanket; she does remember the bed having a lot of dust in it when she jumped to it. Picking up the blanket, she sniffs the blanket for dust but instead was met with a beautiful smell, a smell of flowers on the early spring day. She couldn’t figure out what was going on, was she even in the same abandoned hotel anymore?

               Cacyie ventures out of her room to a hallway of doors, the walls had no holes in it like she expects, although she didn’t really know, as it was too dark for her to see last night. Walking down the hallway, she felt like it was home, a thing she forgotten not so long ago. It was a few days ago, but it felt like years to her. She reached to the end of the hallway to find a staircase; she hears some noise downstairs, sounds of metal clanging together and a sizzle of sorts. A smell entered her nostrils, a smell of food. She heads down the stairs to find herself in a lobby, the furniture was nicely place in an arrangement that is pleasant and the desk was polished, allowing to see her own reflection. The smell continued to overflow her senses, and it directed her to the cafeteria in the next room.

The cafeteria is big, probably the biggest room in the whole building, chairs and tables absolutely fill the room to the brim, on one table thought, there is bowls of food, ready to be eaten, inviting her to sit down. She blindly follows and sits in a chair. Jack enters through another door in the cafeteria, with more bowls in his hands, wearing the same outfit as last night. “Jack, was the hotel this clean when we enter last night?” Jack put down the bowls into an empty spot on the table. “No, this place was an absolute filth when we came in.” He sits downs, grabs a bowl from the selection of food and begins to chow down. She wanted to ask more question, but the food was just too tempting to say no too. She puts her hands together and says, “Thank you for the meal.” Jack was confused at first about what she did, but eventually just ignores it. The two sat in silence, enjoying what was in front of them.

The big feast is over, both bellies were fill and dishes piled up on the table. She felt completely satisfied over the breakfast. Jack grabs some dishes and goes back to the door in the back.  She felt bad doing all this for her. She remembers the promise from last night, and now feels guilty about it. She also grabs some dishes and goes to the back door. She opens the door to see Jack washing dishes in the spotless, stainless kitchen. It was a long room, as big as the cafeteria but thinner than it. She walks to Jack and puts the dirty dishes next to him. He stops what he was doing and tells her, “Thank you.” She was happy to hear it, as Jack continues to clean the dishes. She went back and grabbed the rest of the dishes to bring to Jack, putting it near him, as his focus on the dishes were scary to see.

 “Jack did you do all of this?” Jack was scrubbing away but answers Cacyie, “Yes I did, took almost all night to do, but I got it down.” Cacyie was worried, “Don’t you need sleep?” Jack reassured her, “I don’t need sleep yet, I’ll be fine.” Cacyie couldn’t help but be more worried, he did all of this, after promising to help her out. She looked back to the symbol on her hand, the crest of Gerik. “You seem rather calm for a guy that was cursed yesterday.” Jack was done with the dishes and proceed to dry his hands, Cacyie notices the same symbol in Jack’s right hand as well, “Well, so are you, and besides; it nothing to worry about. Yes, we are forced to live here, however it isn’t a bad thing. Despite how much I hate coincidences, we did find a place to live.” Jack exit out of the kitchen, Cacyie followed him. “Now if you will excuse me, I want to explore the city we’re in.” Cacyie yelled out, “WAIT! I’m coming with you.” Jack had his hands on the knob of the front door,

He took a firm look at Cacyie, who is eager to follow Jack, in the same outfit they got for free. “Ok.” Cacyie was excited to go with. They exit the hotel, which still looks the same as last night, she guesses Jack didn’t bother with how it looks on the outside. The street was empty, she at least thought there would be people here. Jack goes on forward with Cacyie right behind him, they enter to another street where it was packed of people. Businessmen, woman and children were out about with their days. This street looks like a marketplace, with stores extending on each side of the road. With horse roaming the streets with carriages, it was rather a busy street, with the early morning sun smiling down on everyone. “Hey Jack, I need some new clothes, can we stop by the store to get some?” Jack: “Sure.” Cacyie only saw it in a glance, but someone was staring at her as they were walking by, she got chills down her spine and held close to Jack, who paid no attention to her.

The found a store that sells clothes and went inside, it’s a pretty average clothes store, though it was an all-women store, so Jack sticks out like a sore thumb. “Alright, pick out the one that you want. I can pay for it.” Cacyie: “Thank you. Wait, how will you pay for it?” Jack: “You think I just clean last night?” Cacyie: “Yes, I’ll be back.” She runs off deep into the store. Its weird to think Jack did so much last night, she did worry about how Jack got money in the first place. She took her time choosing what she wants to wear, there was so many options, honestly, she wanted them all. She set herself back to choosing one outfit, for Jack, he’s been working so hard for our promise. She looks at Jack again, who was standing in the middle of the front door, looking outside to the street we were in before in deep concentration. He is a weird man, but a kind one as well.

She finally assembly the outfit she wanted, a pink blouse and a short orange jacket, with dark pants and walking shoes. It also has underwear and Its fits her very well and runs to show Jack what she grabbed. He nodded and directed Cacyie to the counter. “Hello, did you find everything ok?” The woman in the counter said. “We would like to buy these.” Cacyie said as she drops the clothes on the counter. She starts to list off the prices of the clothes, then a question pops up, “Hey, are you two new here.” The lady said. “Yes, we moved here recently” The lady’s hands begin to shake, still checking the prices. She adds in another question, “Are you outsiders to the town of Gerik?” Hardly keeping herself calm, Jack said the quietest yes, avoiding eye contact to her. The lady stopped checking prices, her hands are violently shaking, “Will that be all sir?” she said, nearly mumbling, refusing to give eye contact to us. “Yes.”

“That will be 5200 Yen.” Jack reaches his back pocket for his punch of money, it was a tiny pouch, only big enough to fit coins in it. He reaches in and grabs all the money in exact change and gave it to the lady in the counter. Jack and Cacyie walked out of the store in total silence, terrified. The lady, who has seen them off, scorn and curses them behind their back, saying to herself, “Outsiders.”