To A Thief - Chapter 29: Who I Am

As the sunlight shone over Stiff's tireless face, he couldn't help but open his eyes and turns towards the window. He was well aware of what had happened the previous day, and had been laying there hardly moving, just losing himself in his own thoughts. The others seemed to know something was really bothering him, so they chose to leave him alone. 

It was their day off anyway, so everyone was off doing their own thing. Annie would occasionally peek into the room, looking like she had something to say... but in the end would just pretend she was checking in on Okina and then shut the door again. It got kind of annoying... 

"What do you want?" Stiff called out to her as she shut the door. "I know you're just curious about what happened yesterday. I told you guys everything, didn't I?" 

She didn't respond, but he could feel her presence behind the door. Why was she so curious, anyway? Stiff figured they all knew by now that he was just some freak. 

Stiff bit his lower lip and turned to his side facing Okina on the opposite bed as he groaned. "Look, the darkness inside of me took over my body... I went ape s**t and obliterated her f*****g tiger. Then she started screwing with my head telling me that if I hadn't been such a p***y back then, Okina might not have become the experiment she is now..." 

Recalling her words alone brought a bit of anger into Stiff's voice. He couldn't help but lightly dig his fingernails into the side of his head while resting it on his hand, not taking his eyes off of the dormant monkey girl. 

Just who exactly am I angry at...? Myself? Or that Kahlee woman? 

Nevertheless, I know for a fact I pierced through at least one of her vital organs. She should be dead by now. Good riddance. That b***h deserved it... filling my head with all this nonsense and bullshit. 

Perhaps... I'm just angry because she's right. I'm a monster. That's all there is to it. 

"I just think you should get out of that room," Annie's voice finally responded to him through the door. "... and let Okina recover." With that said, her footsteps finally trailed off leaving Stiff to ponder some more. 

... This sucks. Why do I feel so empty? It's like... I'm living for nothing now, knowing that I'll eventually have to be taken care of in order to prevent this feeling of doom that comes with my existence. 

Listen to me. I sound like such an emo. 

Stiff sneered at himself and tossed to the other side, facing away from Okina. "Who does samurai girl think she is, telling me what to do?" 

A minute later, a knock on the door caused Stiff to throw a pillow over his own head. "You guys got the whole day to yourself, and you spend it bugging the s**t outta me!" 

He could hear a silent, "Huh..." come from the other side before the door opened. Judging by the silent footsteps and calmness in the air that followed suit, he could tell it was Draven. 

"You're still bothered about yesterday's mission? You need to let that stuff go, Stiff. What's done is done," He said. His footsteps went from the area between the beds over to Okina's. "She looks a lot more relaxed now. I heard she had been having trouble breathing and was shivering a lot when they first brought her in." 

Stiff simply closed his eyes and kept the pillow over his head. "What do you want, Draven? I don't think I need your analysis on Okina's well-being... I've been in here since last night and can see for myself well enough." 

He could sense Draven turning to face him. The stunned silence probably the product of his surprise towards Stiff's sharpness. "That's not it," He said with a sigh, making his way over to Stiff. Pulling the pillow away from his friend's head, he chucked it aside and tossed a satchel over Stiff's face instead. "I came to tell you to get your a*s out of bed. We've got some work to do, remember?" 

"Hey!" Stiff furrowed his brows as his pillow was stolen from him, turning to look at Draven just before the satchel landed over his face. "Wha...? Work?" 

"Quit lying around in bed like the end of the world is coming and do something productive for a change. You don't want me to fire you, do you?" He snickered lightly. "I showed you where this money making spot is, I can just as easily close it off to you." 

Stiff grunted irritably, smacking the satchel off his face and crossing his arms behind his head, looking off to the side. "What's a monster need money for?" 

Draven blinked for a split second and then pursed his lips briefly before turning to the side in a bit of laughter. 

"Ta' hell? What's so funny!?" Stiff growled at him, sitting up. "We have all this crap going on nowadays; me on the edge of losing my humanity, and of all days you decide to come in here and laugh at me trying to get me to kill some fricken' slimes for money!?" 

Draven turned to him unable to hide his smirk, crouching down to pick up the satchel Stiff had slapped away and held it out towards him. "Well, of course... you retard." 

Stiff opened his mouth to complain some more, but then he eased his brows and showed slight surprise in his eyes. He realized there was no reason at all for him to be angry. In fact, this is exactly what he needed. 

After a moment of silence, Stiff couldn't help but snicker in defeat. "Alright, whatever... you win. Let's do this thing." 

"See this?" Draven began, reaching into his own satchel and pulling out a ruby ring, holding it up to Stiff to see. "These things have sky rocketed in price over at the Auction House. A slime was carrying this one from our last load the other day, but I didn't want to sell it without splitting the profits properly. One of these things is worth probably more than the rest of the crap we find. And where we found one, we're sure to find-"

He stopped abruptly as the door opened suddenly and a surprised Mel stopped in her tracks, her eyes going a bit wide. "Um... did I come at a bad time?" She asked in a tiny voice. 

Why wouldn't she think that? Let's see, Draven crouched on one knee... holding a ring with a big red ruby on it up towards me while I'm sitting on the bed. Isn't this just... peachy. 

Draven quickly hopped to his feet and chucked the ring at Stiff's forehead. "Shut up, this isn't what it looks like... I was just... explaining the value of the ring-" 

"No, it's okay." Mel waved her hand with a pursed smile. "I'll just drop by another time." She left the room without another word. 

Stiff's right eye twitched as he cocked his head towards Draven in disbelief. "Nice. Way to go, you ding bat." 

"Shut up... just... shut up! Let's get out of here already. I'll meet you at the stables," He growled, gathering his things and quickly making his way out, face palming on the way.

Scary, eh? 

Anyway, prior to the embarrassment at headquarters before our departure, hunting for some lost jewelry was even funner today than it had been before. I don't know if it was because we had our routine all planned out already or if it was simply because it really was what I needed to clear my head. 

Honestly, I didn't care about anything else anymore. Whatever happens, happens... at least I'll have some people by my side if and when stuff goes down. For now, I'll just look to enjoying my time with my friends and living this crazy tornado called life in Vana 'diel. 

Draven was right, after all... I can't just lie around waiting for the world to end. Who knows, if I'm lucky... maybe I won't become the harbinger of destruction. So long as we play our cards right. 

I think that's just what Vincent had in mind, too. Over the course of the next few months, he had us do some wicked rigorous training regimens. It felt more like natural selection, really. Even if you were off by a hair from his expectations, he would run your a*s out of there. He was really tightening the list on the Brigade. It sucked seeing some people go, but I'm sure he did this with good reason... I mean, Moku seemed pretty okay with it. So I'm sure it was done with reason. Thanks to the tightening of the group, we all got pretty close... we were starting to feel more like a family rather than an organization. Vincent was like our older brother, constantly looking out for us and setting us on the right path... while the rest of us looked out for each other and made sure we stayed on that path. 

However...

Just as I had began to forget about the evil I harbor inside of me... one particular team of our "family" left me wishing I had come with on an important mission. I could have stopped what was to happen next because of who I am. Because of this thing inside of me. I know it. 

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Continued in Chapter 30: My Little Summer - Part I

Author's Note

What the end of this chapter states- "I could have stopped what was to happen next"- describes the forthcoming Chapter 31, not Chapter 30. Reason for this is Chapter 30 and 31 take place during the same time in the story. Sorry for any confusion!