Contractor: Chapter - 32

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“You look a little angry, I take it you didn’t learn anything useful?” Amy was laughing quietly from her seat at the chess board.

“I can’t believe Dante did all that, just to tell me that there was no escape and that I should be doing what I was already doing because it’s supposed to be the right thing. He actually had the gall to ask me to trust him, can you believe that?”

“Absolutely. I’d expect nothing less from him, he’s disgusting.”

“Well thanks for telling me.” I fell back into the bed and stared at the freshly stirred dust.

“Not a problem sister.” She tapped a piece off the board. “You’re calling him by his name now…?” She gave me a glance, which was a slight deviation from her normal chess behavior.

“Yeah, I give up on being professional, one more victory for the dark side.”

“If it’s any consolation I’ll give you credit for not falling at his knees and begging him for servitude.”

“Does that actually happen?” There was no way that could possibly happen.

“See for yourself.” Something dropped onto the bed next to my head, stirring up more dust.

“What is it?” I felt too lazy to even turn to look.

“It’s a book I took from Dante’s library. The guy likes books, among other things, if you didn’t know.”

“Reading is boring.” I’d never been fond of reading, English and literature courses had always been the hardest on me in school and had always been my lowest scoring subjects. Not that I’d really had a high scoring subject to begin with. English was just one of the many reasons I stopped going to school. It was also probably the reason I didn’t like reading in the first place.

“Just read it or I’ll regret aiming just shy of your head.”

I reached blindly for the book until I felt the rough texture of the unjacketed hardcover. It was thinner than what I’d been expecting from the cloud of dust. I guess that just meant the bed was dustier than I imagined. Why there was even a bed in a house full of people that never slept felt incredibly stupid the more I thought about it. It was just another question that would hang around in my head chasing the promise of an answer that would never come. I was starting to think that this book was going to be the same way, it was just going to almost answer one of my questions and give me a hundred more.

“I don’t know. I feel like this is a trick.”

“What did I just say?” I didn’t have to look to know that the expression on her face would not be pleasant.

I opened the book in the middle and flipped back to the front page. It was weird, there was dust on the cover from the bed but the pages and everything else were clean. There wasn’t even a crease in the paper from being held open. Ten pages in and I couldn’t see why, it was a good book. I could sympathize with the main character, a boy that was forced into working for a monster to prove that he was worth keeping alive.

It took me what I assumed was a while to finish it. I heard Amy finish three games while I read. I wasn’t a big fan of the end, but there wasn’t really another way it could have ended. The main character had to die because the point of the book was that death was inevitable. The more I thought about it the more it sounded like an attempt to appeal to Dante’s ego. This book was about him, he was the monster and the boy had to have been some poor sap that he’d contracted. I looked at the spine of the book again. Dear Death by A.W Carroll. I tossed the book back into the dust.

“Hey, Amy, who’s this A…” My throat closed up out of nowhere and I was left choking on my own words. It was the same thing that had happened when Dante had forced me to be silent. This was completely random though, Dante wasn’t here and he hadn’t given me a serious direct command in a while. I actually had to think about it before I figured out why I was choking. “It’s the kid I killed isn’t it.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out. Practically wrote the book on his life, only part he missed is when you put a bullet through his heart. Sadly he couldn’t see the future when he was writing or regenerate after you killed him. Kid was just a lackey, still can’t even remember why he was with Hope when you killed him.” I tensed up a little more every timed she said that I’d killed him. Worthless pathetic lackey or not he was still mostly human. Human enough for me to be able to kill him. No matter who he was, murder was something I could never live down even if I lived forever.

“I bet learning a little more about the kid that got you into this mess hasn’t really changed anything. That’s one bet I feel I can win against Dante.”

“Wait, what?” Getting tricked by Dante into doing something was to be expected. Getting tricked by Amy was a more painful betrayal.

“Dante had Hope make me give you that book. Neither of them said anything about telling you what they were up to afterward. Consider this explanation my apology. Whether he wanted you to figure out about young A.W. Carol or not is irrelevant, I can only assume there is some other meaning he wants to convey to you through this little exercise. It could even be that you shouldn’t trust me, which to be fair, you really shouldn’t trust me that much. What it is he actually wants you to think only the two of you can know.”

“I don’t get it.” I shrugged. “But you’ve got me thinking, I have an idea that I bet he didn’t even see coming.”

“What?” Amy looked playfully curious.

“I think I’ll be the jerk and let you guys figure it out slowly this time. Up for a game of chess?”

“Sure, I always am. Why though? You get that you can’t win right? Those first few games were just to humor you.”

“Well humor me one more time, I need something to do while I wait.”

“Wait for what?” I just smiled. “Really? I get that you don’t like that they’re not telling you things, but that doesn’t mean you should take it out on me.”

“That’s just part of the game though, isn’t it? They want me to trust, then I’ll let my guard down around you and they can force information out of you.”

“Or I could just tell them. Save myself the hassle of being staked.”

“Exactly. So I figure if they want information out of you, they won’t get it if you don’t have it.”

“But then they’ll just punish me, do you really want that weighing on your conscious?”

“You’re just as much of a murderer as I am, probably more so. Your punishment would help me get rid of some of the guilt I have. I’ll be fair though, because you’ve been more or less nice to me. If you want me to open up to you, you’ll have to read me through how I play.” Not only was I shutting down one route of feedback to Dante, but I could also test Amy’s willingness as a spy. The slower she played and the longer she took to analyze my moves the more willing she probably was. If she just played at her normal rate she’d win just as easily, but it meant she didn’t care as much about helping Dante.

“White or black then?”

“Black.” I smiled, more so to confuse her, but I guess I enjoyed the thought of confusing her so it kind of justified itself.

 

 

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I had lost four games in a row. I’d expected to lose, Amy had been right, she had been humoring me. The rate at which I lost, however, was constant. That disappointed me, it meant Amy was being more careful and reading my moves more intently. All signs pointed to her being a willing spy. I still couldn’t understand why. It was obvious her dislike for Hope was genuine and she wasn’t entirely broken to the point where she’d blindly obey, I could tell that much just from having talked with her. She had a strong resentment towards anything involving contractors. Why would she be a willing spy for them then?

“How many games do you intend to lose before you give up?” Amy was getting aggravated.

“I would hardly call it losing, but if you really want to know, I’ll play for as long as it takes.” Which was until either Dante came looking for me, curious as to why I didn’t go to him first, or Amy went and got Dante herself. I knew he was waiting for me to come looking for him because he’d just presented me with tempting incomplete information. One question would lead to another and I’d end up knowing less than when I’d started.

“You win Dante, you can come in now.” Amy called over to the door then turned back to me. “For the record I was actually betting on you.”

“And she was probably better off losing.” Dante walked in hardly making a sound, I hadn’t been paying attention but the door had probably been open a crack. He could have been listening the entire time. “Cough it up.”

Amy rolled her eyes as she got up and crouched down beside the bed. Dante followed her and took something out of her hands before she was finished pulling it out from under the bed.

“As I said, Samantha, it’s a good thing she lost. Today would be a bad day for you otherwise.” Dante dropped what looked like a harness on the chess table, carelessly knocking over pieces in the process. “I’ve won you some training wheels.”

“Say what?” I glanced at Amy for an answer but she was still pouting over the mess.

“Since you really only have one weakness this armor will only cover your heart. You and Amy are about the same size so you shouldn’t need to do much adjusting on the straps. I’ll be waiting outside.” He walked out the door and this time I paid attention to the click that meant it was closed all the way.

“He’s a much faster researcher than I gave him credit for, he’s a real jerk too.” Amy had begun to pick chess pieces up off the floor as I took my shirt off. “I never did like that thing though… slows you down, limits your range of movement. You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.”

“Does it look like I don’t want too?” I caught her eyes latch onto the scar over my heart for a brief second.

“No, considering you’re already trying to put it on… incorrectly.” She stopped with the chess set and lifted the heavy leather straps from off my shoulders. I was honestly a little embarrassed, I felt like a little girl again that didn’t quite have the hang of putting a bra on yet… which wasn’t too far off. “Here.” She put the straps back on over my head and positioned the metal plates over the scar on my chest and on my back first before pulling down on a strap on my left side. The tightness of the straps pushed the air out of my lungs and I was breathless for a second. “See what I mean, less mobility in the arms and to be honest it chafes a little.” I tried to put my shirt back on and couldn’t quite manage to get it on without it getting stuck on the straps on my back which I couldn’t quite reach.

“Little help?”

Amy tugged the fabric loose and pulled my braid out from underneath the shirt. I tried moving around, she was right, the harness limited the range of movement in my arms and I felt considerably heavier.

“You’re right, it’s not comfortable at all, but if it’ll stop me from getting staked, stabbed, or shot through the heart, it’s worth it.”

“I’m surprised, for someone that seemed so rebellious and intent on not listening to orders a second ago, you made the choice to put that armor on rather quickly.”

“Just because I put on the armor doesn’t mean I intend to follow orders. I figure it’s just a nice thing to have, heck it’ll even make it harder for you to stake me if Hope tries to make you as punishment for my ill behavior. Your loss in that little wager is my win, but still Dante’s loss.”

“So does that mean you’re up for another game?” Amy was failing to conceal a smile.

“Looks like you get my plan.”

“It’s a stupid plan, but hey, I’m bored.” Amy sat back down at the table and finished resetting the board.

“I’ll take black again.” I sat down and waited for her to make her move.

“No.” Dante opened the door and walked over to me. “I tried to be nice but this is important. No games. Stand.” My legs stiffened but I resisted and managed to stay sitting, but unable to focus on much else. “So it’s going to be like that.” Dante grabbed the collar of the back of my shirt and yanked me up. “I won’t bother doing you the favor of telling you what you’re about to walk into then, you’ll have to figure things out on your own without any knowledge of how to win. All I will give you is some very basic advice, kill it before it kills you."

“What?” Dante put his hand on the flat of my back shoved me forward into darkness. The familiar feeling of disorientation gave me a good idea of what had just happened. “Funny Dante, how about some light.” I waited but there was no response. “Dante?” I could have sworn I heard the faint sound of someone snickering in some distant patch of darkness, but I couldn’t be sure. “Amy was right, you’re a jerk!”