Chapter 107: A Sob Story (2)
The man choked on his saliva. He hadn’t expected Kain’s bluntness. The woman’s eyes quivered under her lashes. Neither of them spoke. All eyes were on them, and whether from nervousness or something else, they began to fidget.
The man broke the silence, laughing awkwardly, his back hunched. "You make it sound so...wrong."
He released a breath, sighing heavily. "I wouldn’t call it a sob story. I did what I had to do to make sure my family is safe.
That day, when we went back, Vick kept cursing and talking about how you all ran away with such a good catch. He was talking about how much meat we lost. He wanted to go back and see if he could find more food after we ate.
I told him that you didn’t seem like you were lying, but he wouldn’t listen."
He rubbed a hand over his face. "Long story short, they ate it. I told Gertie not to eat it and not to let our daughter eat any. They died. Some of them died the second they swallowed it." He closed his eyes.
"If they died from the food, why do you both look so guilty?" Marcus asked.
A single tear fell from the woman’s eye.
"Survivor’s guilt, maybe?" the man chuckled helplessly.
No one spoke. They didn’t think it was survivor’s guilt, but since neither of the two wanted to talk, they couldn’t force them.
Just then, the holy maiden Hannah stepped up. She wrapped an arm around the woman and scolded them. "Can’t you see she’s having a hard time. Don’t ask any more questions, just let the family have a good rest. Aren’t we leaving tomorrow? We should all get some rest."
The man’s and woman’s heads shot up. The woman grabbed the man’s hand, whispering his name, "Julian."
"Leaving? The man asked, "Why are you leaving?" He looked agitated. "This is such a good place to stay, why would you want to leave?"
Kain frowned, but he didn’t say anything.
Hannah sighed. "We want to know the same thing. Leadership," she said, pointing out Kain, "decided it would be better for us to leave. Won’t tell us why. For some reason, he wants us to go on some ship with a bunch of other people. Isn’t this place already cozy? Why do we need to leave?"
Julian and Gertie looked over at Kain. The panic in their eyes made no sense for their predicament. They have no reason to panic. They have never been here before.
Kain didn’t care what the reason was; he would leave regardless of their panic.
"It doesn’t matter how much you stare at me; I still intend to leave. No one’s stopping you from staying. The building’s right here. If you don’t want to use this one, there are others," Kain flatly replied.
Gertie stood up, shaking off Hanah. "You can’t! You can’t leave, I won’t let you!"
She kept repeating herself, becoming more and more hysterical as she spoke. Julian grabbed her, his eyes apologetic.
"I’m sorry. She’s been like this ever since that day. Every time she thinks about people leaving, she goes a bit crazy."
He held her tightly, whispering in her ear. He kept telling her that it would be fine. That no one was leaving. She struggled until she couldn’t move anymore. Her body was already tired, so her tantrum didn’t last long.
She slumped against Julian, breathing heavily.
When she finally came to her senses, all she could do was cry. She bit her lip, pressing her face into his chest. Her gasping sobs echoed in the room full of onlookers.
Complicated expressions moved through the people sitting there.
Amelia held Kain’s hand and wrote a few words on his palm. He nodded, a small smile on his lips.
"Let’s not talk about it anymore. I think we all need to take a rest. Everyone, make sure you’re ready by noon tomorrow." He looked at the couple. "If you want to come with us, I don’t mind. You can make your partner feel at ease as well."
Everyone separated, returning to their own residences.
When the family of five went back to their private apartment, Ashton couldn’t hold it anymore. He took something from his pocket.
"Look!" He said excitedly. In a vial, about 2 inches was a midnight black leech. It was still wriggling around as if looking for a host. "I found it on Hayley."
Hayley, Kain guessed, was the little girl. He frowned, seeing this.
"I’m putting it in the lab. It reacts to energy," Ashton said brightly.
"Okay, okay," Kain replied. "Stop hopping around. Tell me what you and Hayley talked about."
The family of five walked to the sofa to talk, and Ashton put the leech back in his pocket.
"She says that man’s not her dad, but her mom says he is," Dominic was the first to report.
"Not her dad?" asked Amelia. "Did she say who her dad was?"
"Her dad’s dead," he replied deadpan. "He ate food and died."
"What else did she say?"
"She said a lady told them to come and stop us from leaving. The lady put the leech on her and told her parents that if they don’t stop us, Hayley will die."
"Because she put a leech on Hayley? That’s not believable. Isn’t Hayley fine?" Kain asked.
"Hers is full. A hungry one killed another little boy," Ashton said.
Feeling he had gathered all the information he needed, he let them go and do their own thing. He sent them to the nurturing station. Mainly because Ashton was begging to send the leech to the lab.
Did Kain feel distressed at having used his children as spies? Not at all, they would have to learn at some point. Children were the easiest way to get information because everyone thinks they are too young to understand.
The truth is that children understand many things. Sometimes, they understand more than adults.
"Well," Amelia said, after sending the children away. "They seem like a fun couple. Let’s see if they follow through tomorrow without the leech."
