by Eric Vall
“That’ll make it so much easier to find Ortensia’s room,” Daisy breathed, let go of the body for a second, and ran a finger over the paper.
“Here we go,” the brunette whispered. “It looks like Ortensia’s room is on the third floor, all the way at the end… she has the largest room in the entire complex since she’s the Chief Constable.”
“Which way?” Rian asked.
“That way,” I pointed down the darkened hall to our right. “We just have to climb the stairs at the end, and then unlock the door with Ortensia’s key.”
“Alright,” Valerie whispered. “I’ll lead the way just in case, okay? I’ll keep a lookout if anyone comes down the hall, so follow after me, and then stop moving if I give you a signal.”
“What’s the signal?” Daisy asked.
“I’ll just reveal my hand,” the feline-woman murmured. “And wave for all of you to stop or turn around.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I praised. “Now, let’s go, I want to get this finished immediately.”
“Oh, the danger!” A.B. exclaimed. “I think I may faint. Leave me. Go on without me.”
“Nonsense,” I replied. “Just stay quiet and don’t work yourself into a fit now.”
Valerie phased out of view for the second time, and we listened as she thumped ahead of us. Then we moved painstakingly slowly down the hall, but none of the lamps on the walls were lit, and the sounds of soft snoring escaped through the closed doors. I was more worried about the climb up the stairs, in the walled-off stairwell, the sounds of our feet would be louder and echo down the halls.
Once we made it to the stairs, I glanced up at the higher levels, and then turned back to my women.
“We need to be extra careful here,” I murmured. “Our footfalls will echo in this space, and if anyone hears, all of this will take a darker turn.”
“Maybe I should carry the corpse,” Rian offered. “That way, our defense is at the ready.”
We all turned and pointedly looked toward Daisy, the brunette’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened as if to speak.
“I’m the defense?” the bear-girl giggled.
“Well… yes,” I chuckled. “You can tear fully-grown men limb from limb, I watched you do it with my very own eyes.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Daisy giggled. “Alright, Rian, you take the body, I’ll stay up front with Valerie, then. But what if someone comes up from behind? What will the two of you do then?”
“I could probably throw a few punches,” I snickered. “I did fisticuffs Milton rather well before we killed him.”
“You did,” Valerie nodded. “You looked so strong and handsome while you did it, Charles, it was breathtaking.”
“And that is the reason I’ve chosen him to be my mate,” Rian assured. “You are handsome, strong, and healthy. We will have resilient and robust offspring. Once we return home, you must mate with me at once, and fill me with your fertile seed, I wish to be impregnated as soon as possible.”
“That’s great and all,” A.B. murmured. “But I don’t think this is the best place to be discussing mates and offspring. Maybe when we get home? We are on a mission right now.”
“A.B. is right,” I chuckled. “We’ll discuss those things once we arrive home. Right now, we need to get Ortensia’s body back into her room.”
Daisy nodded, shifted the corpse off of her shoulder, handed it over to the red-skinned imp-woman, and then came to stand next to Valerie. The two monster-women climbed the stairs together as quietly as they could, and Rian and I followed after them. The stunning black-haired woman adjusted the body over her shoulder, raised her head toward the stairs above our head, smiled over at me, and then began to climb.
It took only a few minutes for us to reach the top, and Valerie stood with her body pressed against the wooden grain of the door. The feline-woman rested a hand on the door handle, swung the door open a crack, peeked through, and then slipped in with the rest of us behind her. The hall was deathly silent except for a few loud snores here and there, and we crept past them on our tiptoes. The floor beneath our feet creaked occasionally, but not loud enough to actually wake someone from a deep sleep.
“We’re almost there,” I exhaled. “We have to be in and out, though, as fast as we can, but we also have to be thorough. Do we all understand? We can’t leave any evidence behind, and we have to take everything that Ortensia had on Josephine and us.”
“I understand why we’re taking all of the evidence that has to do with us,” the imp-woman uttered. “But why are we taking the evidence against Josephine?”
“Josephine is our friend,” Valerie explained. “She’s also a brute sympathizer. If Edony or any of the other aristocrats find out that information, she’ll be thrown in an insane asylum, and we’ll never see her again.”
“You’ve never met Josephine, though,” Daisy offered.
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t like her,” the feline-woman giggled. “I can be friends with her from afar… even if she doesn’t know I exist. She’s still a really nice woman, and she likes Charles, so I like her.”
“That’s right,” I agreed. “Josephine is the only aristocrat that’s ever been kind to us. We don’t want anything to happen to her for that reason, but as Daisy said, Josephine is a brute sympathizer, and in a way, we’re also brute sympathizers. You’re in love with a man, aren’t you, Rian?”
“I am,” the black-haired woman concurred.
“Then that makes you one, too,” I smiled. “That also makes Josephine your friend, too, and we will do anything to protect her.”
“Ahhhhh,” Valerie cooed. “Charles likes Josephine baaack.”
“I will admit,” I smirked. “I do like Josephine, I mean, who wouldn’t? I bet almost all of her workers, her consorts, and servants are enamored with her. She treats all of them so kindly, it’s very different from the way all of the other aristocrats treat their men.”
“I hope that someday,” the imp-woman sighed. “Josephine can become one of our sisters, and I can formally meet her. She sounds like a wonderful person to know.”
“W-Wait,” Valerie whispered. “I hear something.”
All four of us paused, turned slightly, and then listened for anything in the distance. I couldn’t hear anything, and it seemed that Daisy and Rian didn’t, either, but Valerie’s pointed ears twitched agitatedly. Her blue eyes glowed in the dim light around her, her sleek, brown tail twitched at the tip, and her knees bent slightly as she lowered herself closer to the ground.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” the feline-woman whispered. “But, it sounds like something is shuffling around.”
Valerie listened intently to the sounds for a few more seconds, but just as suddenly, her ears relaxed, lifted, and then swiveled toward the door at the end of the hall.
“It must’ve been nothing,” the cat-girl murmured. “Let’s carry on--”
Right as we all turned back toward Ortensia’s door a few feet away, a door behind us crashed open with a thunderous bang.
Chapter Two
All four of us froze, Valerie instantly phased out of view, the floorboards inside of the room creaked loudly, and a woman wearing a white nightgown trundled out of the doorway. The petite constable stretched her arms, yawned loudly, blinked twice, squinted down the dark hallway, and then paused.
“What do we do?” Daisy mouthed.
“Stay absolutely still,” I mimed. “She looks half-asleep.”
The petite, blonde constable hobbled down the hallway in the opposite direction, tried one of the doors, opened it, and then peered into the darkness beyond. Her voice was muffled from behind the open door, so we couldn’t make out what she was saying, but I assumed she was checking in on someone.
“Hm, must be in the bathroom or something,” the constable mumbled, closed the door with a thump, and then padded back our way.
I held my breath and focused my mind for what our next steps would be
if she spotted us. She’d have to die, or we’d at least have to knock her out, and take her back to my laboratory, there was no question about it.
We couldn’t let anyone see us, or we’d have to kill them.
“Martha?” the half-asleep woman called. “Is that you?”
The small constable leaned forward, squeezed her eyes into slits, and then suddenly leaned back, clicked her tongue, and turned down the hall. This was it, she was about to spot us, and I tensed all of my muscles to leap forward, and smash her over the head with my fists. Just as suddenly, the petite constable sighed under her breath, shrugged, and then turned toward her open door.
“No, Martha must still be on patrol, probably just some shadows from the trees outside,” she grumbled. “I really need to start wearing my glasses, I can’t see a damn thing… and I need to stop talking to myself, the other girls are going to think I’m crazy or something.”
The nightgown wearing woman scratched at her scalp, smacked her lips together, rested a hand on the door handle, and then shuffled back into her room. My heart hammered in my chest, sweat beaded on my forehead, and we all stood stock still as we listened to the constable climb back into bed and roll over. The seconds ticked by as we waited, glanced at each other out of the corners of our eyes, and finally heard the sounds of breathy snoring come from the tiny constable’s room. I breathed a heavy sigh, wiped the sweat from my brow with my sleeve, and then turned toward my women.
“Thank science,” I grunted.
“I thought we were going to be caught, for sure,” Valerie murmured. “I can’t believe she didn’t see us.”
“Well, she did say she needed her glasses,” Daisy giggled. “We should be thankful she wasn’t wearing them when she came out.”
“But if she had caught us,” A.B. offered. “We might have gotten another monster-girl, I couldn’t help but be a little excited.”
“No, no more monster-girls for a little while,” I chuckled. “We just got Rian, we can’t make any more until someone else threatens us. Now, we have a task at hand, let’s get it finished, and then get the hell out of here.”
“Yes,” the feline-woman whispered. “This place gives me the creeps. It’s like we’re in a den of constables, and at any second, all of them could burst out of their rooms and attack us.”
“Ortensia’s room is all the way at the end,” I instructed. “Let’s keep going.”
All of my women nodded in agreement, turned back toward the single door at the end of the hall, and tip-toed toward it with light feet. Once we were in front of it, I tried the handle with Ortensia’s key in hand, but thankfully, it was unlocked. I turned the knob, swung open the door, and then peered into the gloom beyond. The Chief Constable’s room was huge, bigger than I assumed all of the other constables’ rooms were.
“She has to have some oil lamps around here somewhere,” Rian murmured. “I’ll find them, I can see the best in the dark since I lived underground for so long.”
“Here,” Valerie smiled, rushed in, and grabbed stray clothes from the floor. “Charles, close the door, we’ll stuff these underneath the crack just in case anyone wakes up, that way, they won’t see the light under the door.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” I stated. “Everyone in? I’m closing the door, and then we’ll stuff the clothes under the crack.”
“I found her oil lamps,” the imp-woman murmured. “She has three of them. One by her bed, and two of them on her desk.”
I slid the door closed, took the clothing from Valerie’s hands, and pushed the fabric into the crack underneath the door. Right as I finished, light bloomed across the room, Rian hurried to the other lamps, and hastily lit them with a burning match. Ortensia’s room in the light was even bigger than I’d thought before, and I gazed around it for a second.
The Chief Constable’s quarters were comprised of three rooms, and a small kitchenette by the large bay windows at the front of the building. She had a spacious office with an enormous roll-top desk, a cushy emerald green couch, and a dead fireplace. The next room was her bedroom, and it reminded me of the one I’d seen at Delphine except without all of the pastel pinks and frilly adornments.
Most of Ortensia’s furniture was a deep scarlet color, black, chocolatey brown, or emerald green. The reds in each of the rooms reminded me of the Chief Constable’s fiery hair, and I almost wished that Rian had inherited her hair color.
“You said that we should hang her,” the gorgeous red-skinned imp-woman muttered. “This beam would do perfectly, we can position her desk chair directly underneath her to make it more believable.”
“Let’s do that,” I nodded, picked up one of the oil lamps, and headed for her desk. “And we’ll place the letter at her feet, so when they come into the room, it’s one of the first things they find.”
Rian lowered Ortensia’s body, rested it against the floor, and then grabbed the coil of rope from her hip. The dark-haired woman tilted her head, unspooled the rope, and then tossed it up over the thick beam. Once she’d tied it off, she got to work forming a noose at the other end, and I watched her deft hands for a moment.
I turned, lifted the lamp over my head, and then hissed through my teeth. Once I shined the light onto the darkened wall over the roll-top desk, all of Ortensia’s evidence came into view, pinned onto the smooth wall. The bottom layer was a drawn-out map of Edenhart with red circles around points around the city, pictures of different people were pinned to different spots, and red thread had been wound around a single one in particular, and the threads branched out from there.
The single hand-drawn picture was my own.
My face looked years younger, taken from my identification card right before I aged out of the brute school, and I stared at it for a few seconds. There was a picture next to mine, also hand-drawn, and it was Daisy’s face. Both of our portraits were positioned above the location of our manor, and I followed the red lines of thread to all of the other pictures. The largest one was, of course, Edony’s regal portrait positioned over the duchy, and I plucked the string with disdain. The next line of thread led to the location of Milton and Delphine’s deaths. Their pictures were pinned to the wall, too, but I barely glanced at them as I followed the last red thread.
“Josephine,” Daisy murmured from over my shoulder.
The blonde’s stunning portrait grinned down at us from the wall with red letters scrawled across the parchment.
“Harlot,” I read. “I wonder if she has anything else in her desk. We have to take all of this down, no one can see it… we have to protect Josephine along with our family.”
My hands moved before I could stop myself, and I ripped all of it down. I didn’t even care that the Chief Constable had suspected us, I was angry because she’d dragged Josephine into all of this. The blonde aristocrat hadn’t done anything to anyone, she was struggling to survive and provide for her sick mother. If any of this got out, it would be the end of Josephine’s life, everything would be stripped from her, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.
“You really feel for Ms. Josephine, don’t you, Charles?” Rian asked. “She must be such an amazing woman for you to want to protect her this much.”
“Charles liiiikes Josephine,” Valerie teased.
“Maybe I do,” I exhaled. “But it’s more than that. Josephine hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s nothing but kind to those around her, and if… if someone found this, her life would be utterly destroyed. She doesn’t bother anyone or break her men down like all of the other aristocrats. She treats them kindly and with respect as if they were her equals, and I respect that about her. If someone were to find all of this, they’d dig deeper into it, and the bright light I see within Josephine would be snuffed out.”
I crumbled all of the papers, string, and tacks together, stuffed them into the pack around my waist, and then glanced down at the floor at my feet.
The only paper remaining had fluttered to the ground, its edges torn, and crumbled from my rage. I be
nt down, took it gently in my hands, and then smoothed out the harsh wrinkles against the blonde’s face.
“You should keep it,” the bear-girl assured. “Maybe… if we ever tell her about us, you can explain how you protected her, I think that Ms. Josephine would like that.”
“I think I will,” I smiled. “Though, I doubt we’ll ever tell her about us… she’d surely think all of us were insane, and run for the hills, but… I’ll keep it just in case.”
I folded the portrait, placed it within my pocket, and then ripped open the roll-top desk. Papers were scattered across its surface, and they shifted lightly from the air rushing inside. Names, places, and small notes were scribbled across their surfaces, I barely glanced at them, and stuffed them all into my pack. We’d burn all of the evidence once we returned home, and I didn’t care what we took as long as all of it was gone.
Once I cleared the desk, I turned, glanced toward Valerie and Daisy. Both of them were carefully searching through Ortensia’s belongings, and every once in a while, they’d place a piece of paper or note into the pack on the floor. Rian had unrolled Ortensia’s body from the tarp, affixed the noose around her neck, and slowly raised her from the floor into the air.
It was a grotesque scene, but the purplish and blue color of the Chief Constable’s face made the hanging look more believable. The imp-woman didn’t seem bothered by the body at all, I knew she’d never done something like this before, but she acted so nonchalantly even as Ortensia’s limp feet bumped into her shins.
“What’s the matter, Charles?” Daisy asked.
“It’s nothing,” I chuckled. “I feel as if we should say something about Ortensia as if this is some type of funeral proceeding, but… there was nothing good about that woman to begin with. She was horrible from the moment she stepped into Edenhart, and she left this world as all of the women who step into my machine do. At first, they beg for their lives, plead with me, bargain with me, promise never to breathe a word about what I’ve done, and what they’ve seen, but as soon as I refuse… their true colors come out. They hurl insults, threaten me with bodily harm, and activate their powers. The first prisoner I used almost blasted out the compartment window with her fire, and when that didn’t work, she bashed the glass with her forehead. Delphine was exactly the same, though she barely begged for her life like the others… It’s almost as if their hatred of men is in their blood, and I want to know… what changed? At what point in history did women decide that men were the enemy? There has to be something in history, some type of turning point when the women rose up against their equals…”
