MHOS Part 30: A little healing before the hunt

*beep beep beep*

My eyes open and I groggily look around.. No Peaches to be found.. I grab a drink before I head out to meet Alastor. I am going to be early if I don't do something first.. Anything.. but I am drawing a blank.. Aside from going to sleep in a mud hole I have nothing I want to do right now..

I can change.. I can go home and put on a new outfit.. I just went shopping.. that will keep me from being early. I find a beautiful purple wrap dress with 3/4 length bell sleeves.. it's skirt is flowy and goes down to the shins. It's gorgeous but the neckline is wide and low.. I need something to take attention away from my chest.

I grab the gold and red apple necklace and put it on. The only spot of red on my entire outfit.. a simple and beautiful centerpiece. Not the only red.. I grab Husks tie and throw my hair in a messy bun, the red heart and red diamond subtlety peak out from behind my waves.

I do a twirl in my full length mirror for one final inspection.. Demure, aside from the chest.. it hides the bruises I have been neglecting to tend to. "Good enough" I say to myself as I empty out my messenger bag, pack the matching brass knuckles and some wash clothes with a water bottle. I grab my notepad and a pencil because notes are always a good thing & I have no idea what I am getting myself into, but I am going to look good doing it and wipe the blood off afterwards & keep track of it all. I grab my keys and head out to Alastors tavern.

As I approach the last of the patrons are leaving for the night. From what I understand, Alastor's closes at midnight so he can broadcast nightly, so they have to find their late night fun somewhere else. I walk up the stairs and take a deep breath before I put my hand on the door handle and enter.

Husk is cleaning the glasses for the night while the waitress is running across the bar with a feather duster treating it like a push broom. She sees me as she turns to sweep another line across the bar and throws the feather duster excitedly as she runs in my direction. The feather duster knocks into Husks freshly cleaned glasses knocking one on the ground, breaking it on his freshly swept floor. Not even a blink back as she runs across the floor at me, crawling up my body, grabbing me by the collar and saying "Your secret admirer is Husk"

Alastor walks up to me and says "Yes, it would appear so" as the waitress jumps from my collar to Alastors shoulder. He walks back behind the bar and places his arm on it letting her run down his arm safely as he makes a whiskey on the rocks and grabs the waiting burger platter. As he walks past Husk he says "You two can leave. I'll take care of the rest when Ella and I are through here." Husk looks up at Alastor from the dustpan below as he is sweeping up broken glass. Alastor cocks an eyebrow and waves to the exit. Husk stands up and says "Yes, sir" as he stands up and leaves the glass behind. Husk looks at me one last time as he walks out the door and hears the door lock behind him.

Alastor turns around and scans my outfit as he walks toward me with my food and drink. He sets it down in a booth as he says "You look LOVELY tonight my dear. Special occasion?" I smile and reply "I am the special occasion Alastor. I'm just here to talk business." He stands beside me as I sit down in the booth. I look up waiting for him to do something and he sighs as he continues to stand in place. He wants to sit beside me I internally groan.

As I go to scoot over he notices me wincing and grabs my wrist pulling me from the booth. He slides my sleeve up and notices how little the wounds have healed and glares. "You still haven't taken care of that?" He sets the drink on the table and says "Drink" as he walks away, throwing the burger platter behind the bar with the broken glass as he unlocks the front door and walks out. I sit back down in the booth, swallow the drink down and look out the front window to see what he's doing when he comes across a shadowy figure walking alone. One of his tentacles comes out of his body and stabs the shadow in the shoulder and he screams in agony as he is carried like skewer meat back to the tavern.

He walks across the tavern floor with the screaming man as blood trails behind him and returns with a forearm that is suspiciously fresh on a platter and a file under his arm. He stands beside me again, waiting for me to scoot over in the booth. I do as he expects and he puts the platter down in front of me as he begins to thumb through the file. I stare at him in disbelief. He looks up from his file and says if you need cutlery and waves at the utensils sitting on the table. I look down at the utensils and back at Alastor.

"You should eat while you kill, it helps prevent injury and speeds up healing. This won't fix everything but it will stop you from limping like a wounded animal. Don't fuck up your developing reputation by making yourself an easy target."

As tempting as it is to pick it up and eat it like a burrito I grab a knife and fork to eat. I want to be able to put my hands on those files. He sets the files down between us and opens the first page. It's an amphibious man alright, he seems to be a nobody.. a rat and a coward.. he was thrown in the ocean with weights around his ankles and died in the water on earth which is why he is amphibious now. His debt to Alastor was time and now that his time has elapsed he's on the run trying to evade the consequences of his decisions. Truly living on borrowed time as he hides in underwater landscapes to evade Alastor's reach.

As I continue to read I am so engrossed in the material that I don't even notice how much better I am feeling at first. I reached for a page that would normally have made me wince to reach for and it was a bearable pain. I stopped chewing and looked down, I take a deep breath and it doesn't hurt. "No way" I say as I grab the tie of the dress and undo it to look down at the ribs that had me writhing in pain when I had landed on Peaches floor, blinded by her newly discovered power. My ribcage looks so much better.. the bruises are faded, the ribs no longer feel broken, I can touch it again. I smile and chuckle at the vast improvement and Alastor is studying the wounds on my exposed skin.

I look up at Alastor realizing.. I am wearing a wrap dress hanging open and underwear out, some ballet flats, a necklace, Husks bowtie and absolutely nothing else. I look back down at my body and slowly close my dress, tying the dress closed. "Sorry" I whisper "I didn't expect it to work so well" as I sit quietly uncomfortable, cutting flesh into bite sizes as I wait for the moment to stop sucking.

Alastor says "Let's make one thing perfectly clear. You will not manipulate me into a kiss a second time." Alastor says. His face turns dark as he continues. "If you want my lips on you a second time, you are going to have to say so." as he looks me deep in the eyes, enjoying the discomfort he's causing me.

I begin to slide the long way around the booth to let myself out and as I get to the end Alastor stands up and offers me his hand to help me get up. I put my hand in his and he gently pulls me up towards him. My body is pressed against his and he says "Now that you know your target he should be an easy catch. A few notes of your siren song and no man would be able to resist your call" Alastors eyes rest on my lips.

It feels intimate, it feels sexual, it makes me want to reach up and touch his face. I removed my hand from his and placed it on his chest. His eyes dart down to my fingers and his hand slides over mine as I push him back two steps. When he looks back up at me "Thank you for the meal and the information" I say as I gather the file together and put it in my messenger bag. I will go to the Cannibaltown lake and rest in the mud baths tonight and start exploring the lake in the morning. I will head to the furthest reaches of the lake and work my way back using my siren song to lure him out and report back once my search is complete."

Alastor smiles and says "I think the lake may be bigger than you realize, the last person I had search for him took 3 days to search a single lake. I would like you checking in with me once daily to report your findings. Your evenings will still be your own so you can tuck that lovely girl from Obsession in.. at the end of every night. Peaches hates to sleep alone if I am not mistaken."

I walk out of the tavern thanking him for my servitude, feeling absolutely disgusted at the words as I say them. Feeling the urge to go back to Peaches place stay up all night and protect her. I fight the urge and head back to Cannibaltown parking Gary at the entrance and walking down to the lake after dark.. enjoying the quiet, calm as I silently disappear into the water.

I swim my way down to the mud baths and find an empty spot to hang my dress and tuck myself in for the night.. a little healing before the hunt.