Sin of Lust

CHAPTER 37

“Isn’t it cool!” Mary Jane bestowed her a warm smile, that Stephen would most likely believe if only they never witnessed something horrifying, “because mayor is truly amazing. That’s why, I think, she’s going to introduce herself and see if all of you are looking good.” She replied, “And… this is just a little secret, but I think she’s going to surprise you with her magic!”

“Wow! Magic! The mayor has magic?!” children happily chimed, and that’s when certain four eyes widen like saucers.

“The mayor has a power?!” they all think at the same time. “This will be a trouble…”

“Yes, and in this city she’s the most powerful!” Mary Jane answered with the same grin.

“Wow, mayor is so cool!”

“Right?!”

Everyone is glad and happy from the thought of seeing a magic. But the certain four are not that glad that the mayor is going to be there.

“What are we going to do?” Mildred asked in a hush tone. “What if she found out that we have found everything?”

“She’s not going to find out.” Stephen consoles his friend, “Just pretend that you’re enjoying everything. Nunna is looking.”

“Pretending is too hard.” Mildred let out a stiff smile.

“I know.”

“Okay, kids! Prepare yourself because the mayor is going to arrive here in just an hour.” The mayor’s arrival is anticipated by many, everyone is asking each of them what kind of person she is and their answers are all the same, “she must be a great person.”

Mildred clenched her fists and grit her teeth. “I can’t shut up like this.”

“Calm your nerves, Mildred. They are going to notice your agitation,” Blanche whispered on her ear. “Smile.”

Mildred forced herself to do what has been said, but she’s not good at hiding her feelings because every time she sees their smiles her resolve is buckling. “I can’t… it’s just too hard for me. Am I that bad? That I don’t want to see them happy? Am I that bad to think about someone ‘great’ is an enemy? Am I that bad that I don’t want them to see like that?”

She shut her eyes and grip the hem of her shirt but her trembling shoulders were stop by a pair of gentle hand, “Mildred.” A voice so soft called her name, and slowly she opened her eyes only to see the orbs of Blanche.

“Mildred, smile. Not for you, but for your siblings, they are getting worried of you.” She spoke gently, “I know that you don’t want them near anywhere that woman, but you have to. If they see that you are getting distant for sure they will notice everything.”

“But sister…” she let out a whimper. “How can I fake everything? How can I fake my feelings if this…” she clenched her heart through her shirt, “if this won’t shut up.” She whispers, “my head is saying the same thing you were saying, but this heart won’t shut up. Now that I knew the truth… I can’t even close my eyes at night without having a quick nightmare of what would happen to my siblings and what have happened to those… to those who were… shipped out. Sister, how can I shut these feelings up, if it’s too heavy and too loud.”

Blanche can see her younger self with Mildred when she learned that her siblings were getting toyed night and day, her hands on her tiny shoulders gripped tighter. In hope that she’s going to stop the trembling of her stature. “It’s hard, right.”

Mildred only nodded her head with her tears brimming on her eyes.

“It’s hard, but you have to bear it. Because I know it in your heart that you will not be able to bear if one of your siblings is going to handle that pain.” She said to her, the said kid looks behind her and saw two children holding each other’s hand while looking at her with eyes filled with concern for her.

“Mildred, is your tummy hurting? You’re not as cheery like before.” Choi asked.

“Yeah, the Mildred we know is full of joy…” Ladi agreed.

Mildred softly curved her lips upwards into a sweet smile, “No, I’m alright. There’s no problem. Wait, your shoes, where are those?” she asked and walked past Blanche who just remained having the same fake simper while she looked at Mildred who’s tying the shoelaces of the younger ones.

“Now… we wait.”

The mayor arrives in the same time she said she’s going to arrive, “Good day children! How are you?” she hummed at the last part. Her stature is truly mesmerizing her blind locks are like a goddess’, however the men behind her seems intimidating, and because of these the children wasn’t able to answer quickly.

“Ah? These men are harmless, they are our friends.” Mary Jane enlightened them however, children wasn’t comfortable with them, so Stephen stepped up and went in front of one of the securities, “Hello.” He spoke softly.

It took the security a few seconds before he finally responded with a small smile and greeted him back. By this, the children grew warm to them and began to gather around them, admiring their tall stature and huge physique.

“Is everyone here?” she eyed everyone with her wide sickening smile.

Blanche looked at her, scrutinizing each and every word she’s saying. Every move she’s making, she’s making sure that it’s being inculcated in her mind because at the point where they can see no weakness from her, defeating her would be like a game of tag with an eagle up in the sky while they’re bound by chains on the ground. “Truly, troublesome.”

“Yes, madam!” kids shouted with excited faces and admiration is barefaced. The mayor looks at their flawless skin, reddish cheeks, and healthy body, she can’t help but let out a menacing smile in herself.

“Beautiful children, so beautiful.” And then her eyes darted to the oldest children and the top tiers of them all. To which all of them let out smiles. “As far as I can see, you are all in good condition.” She spoke, “Good job, Mary Jane for taking good care of our goods.”

“Goods?” some of the children went curious on why they were called goods but some of them remain innocent, however, certain four were

“Yes, ma’am. It is my pleasure of taking care of them.” Mary Jane replied with a sweet smile yet her eyes became dead in that instant. Blanche could only do is to watch her fake everything for the sake of these children.

“Hey! Hey! Can you do magic?” Ladi and Choi asked.

“Uhm, yeah… a little.” Security replied.

Blanche and Mary Jane were alerted when they heard about the magics.

“Can we see it?” they asked with their puppy eyes, “Can do you some, please?”

“Of course, just a little. But don’t get shock, okay? This is just a magic.” Security guy said before a bone popped out of his hand, as if it’s a sword. Everyone was amazed from the simple stunt.

“Wow, does it hurt?”

“Nope, it doesn’t hurt one bit.”

“Can we touch it?”

“Uhm, I highly suggest that you don’t touch it, because it’s too sharp for you.” Ladi and Choi whined when they were denied.

“So, that thing is a weapon?” Lino and Stephen walked up close to see the bone.

“Yeah.”

“How many can you produce?”

“I have no capacity, as long as my strength is not gone, I will be able to produce as many as I can.”

“But how many swords can you produce before you run out of bones?” Lino asked innocently.

“I am not technically running out of bones, but it would take four hundred of these.” He replied and tossing another bone to the air.

“Four hundred? How many is that?” Rani, one of the six years old pulled the hem of Stephen shirt.

“That is more than your toes and fingers combined,” he simply replied.

“Wow?! That much?!” Rani exclaimed as she stretches her tiny fingers.

“Can you make another thing aside from sword?” Lino asked with his eyes almost sparkling from excitement.

“No, I can only do this but in different sizes.”

“So, depending on the size of your sword, you will be able to produce more than four hundred if it’s smaller?” He proceeded to ask.

“Yeah, you’re getting it.”

“Troublesome guy number 1… noted.” Lino and Stephen internally listed.

“Hey, hey? What about you?” asked Mildred on the man behind the bone-man. “Oh! I’m Mildred.” She introduced herself with a huge grin.

The security guy number 2 spoke, “My magic is not that fancy, all I can do is make bubbles.” He then proceeded to make series of bubbles.

“What these bubbles do?” Mildred asked as the children one by one jump trying to catch each of the bubbles.

“It can do like this…” the man then make the bubbles bigger and captured each kid in each, making them float.

“Wow! This is amazing!” Mildred decided to jump up and down to test the bubble, making it bounce up and down, toppling down other bubbles in the process. “It’s not breaking even when I jump!”

“Of course, that bubble will not let go of anything inside it unless I say so.” He proudly said. “They can’t even burn.” He said them with a quite smug smirk.

Blanche went to touch the bubble where Mildred is in, and under her touch the bubble is hard and far from the bubble she knew.

“Troublesome guy 2, confirmed.”

While they are admiring the securities, the mayor went to talk with another child. She went to talk with a girl named Kim, one of the ten years old. They went out and have a little chat without most of them knowing since they are too engrossed with the wizards, however, that won’t pass from Blanche’s watchful eyes even though her focus is on the security guards.

She saw the mayor guiding Kim away from the rest of them, “Hey, little one. How are you?” she simply asked with a fake smile.

“I’m… I’m fine… how about you?” Kim replied as a proper etiquette even though Blanche can see that she’s not comfortable with her.

“I am just as fine as you are,” Ester replied. “Can you help me for one second? I just want to tell you something.”

“Y-Yeah, sure.” Kim stuttered but still follow her outside.

Blanche wanted to go after the two and just leave the task of gathering information to the three kids, however, if she followed them the mayor will suspect everything and because of that she decided to not follow them.

The day goes on and they have a little chitchat and some storytelling, they even have lunch together filled with giggles and bubbles, and when it’s time for afternoon play the mayor spoke, “Why don’t I join your little games?” she asked.

“Yey! The mayor will join us!” kids shouted from glee.

“I will be an it then. You have to escape from me before the given time ends.” Ester grinned. “I don’t have enough time so we will stick to thirty minutes.”

The mayor let the children run from her as she closed her eyes while she counts from one to a hundred. When she finally counted the last number, she opened her rather sharp-predator-like eyes, “Now, now, let’s begin the hunt.” She grinned before running fast through the vast forest.

“Who do you think she’ll catch first? The oldest of the youngest?” Lino asked.

“There’s a huge possibility that the little ones are going to be the first ones to get caught…” Stephen said to Lino to which the latter agreed, “Let’s split up.”

While she’s in the middle of the forest, she halted for a moment and cup her ears to listen to any rustle nearby, and her grin only widens when she smells something, “I can hear the footsteps from here, I don’t even have to use my full potential just to get these children.”

“Found you…” she lunges towards a bush and there’s a company of children that she immediately captured.

While the mayor is on the loose, the three top tier children watched her from afar and is constantly predicting everything she’s doing or about to do. One by one children are getting caught, and finally the number of the children were down into five, the mayor found the two of the children just a few feet away, but before she could catch them, they were immediately swept off from their feet.

“What the?! Who did that—” she was stunned for a few seconds when she realized that Mildred was the one who did that, “one of the top tiers?”

“Don’t let out a sound!” Mildred spoke to which Ladi and Choi slapped both of their hands on their mouths as they remain on her shoulders.

Ester run after the child who has two kids on each of her arms, “she’s running fast despite having added weight… great physical aspect.”

Mildred run to the part where huge rocks and stones are prominent, when the mayor finally landed on her feet, she looked around but she found none, she trod around to look for any sign. “Everything is silent, no erratic breathings and not even a furious heart. This kid is quite good.”

She’s having a hard time, finding the three of them until one of them sneezes, to which she immediately responded by going to that direction, “Found you…” she whispered menacingly with her lips curved up in a smile, but her eyes say different.

In just a split second that Mildred and Ester shared a look, however that second, Mildred felt like the mayor is telling her ‘No one will get away from me.’ But the tension immediately interrupted with series of giggles.

“You would have gotten away from me if only you leave that two behind.” Ester spoke in a low tone, “Or that two would have save themselves if you didn’t take them.”

“Mayor has found us!” they cheered and jumps from Mildred’s arms to her. They went back to the others while the Ester remain in the field to look for other kids and found out that there’s only two of them that weren’t found yet, “Stephen, Lino…” she mumbled their names.

“Wow, I didn’t know Stephen has the stamina for this.” Pand said as he laid put his arms under his head to make a pillow. “Lino too? I never thought Lino will join something trivial like this.” He scoffed.

“This game isn’t just about stamina you know; this is a battle of tactics and skills. If this is just all about physical aspect then track and field would be enough.” Dean butted in, “and besides, we’ve only started just 25 minutes ago.”

“25 minutes?!” Mildred chirped, “are you serious?” her voice is filled with shock and her voice even made Dean looked up from how loud it is.

“Yeah, well according to the clock it’s been 22… 23 minutes now, basically 25 am I right?” Dean responded.

“In just 25 minutes most of us were captured. If we’re going to escape at this point, we will be all killed in just 15 minutes if the mayor went serious.” Blanche whispered on Mildred’s ears as if she has read her thoughts, “You are right, we can’t survive this, not yet.”

“Sister…” Mildred whispered back as she clenched her fists on her sides.

Back inside the forest, “Okay, just two more…” Ester grinned and decided to sense everything around her, “quiet, too quiet. No footsteps either, so they’re not on the run. There’s no scent lingering around, probably because I’m downwind, where could they be?”

Her eyes are close to intensify her sense of hearing and smell, although she’s confident about her senses, she can’t hear a thing nor smell. “What is this?”

But all of a sudden, she felt a shiver runs down through her spine that made her eyes shoot wide open, and there she found the two of them standing on the rocks. Their eyes are soft and innocent, but something is burning behind those orbs. They share a short yet eerie glances, before running on different direction.

As the children run, both of them are thinking the plan they’ve laid down to get the mayor.

“Let’s do it this way,” Stephen spoke. “We are the only ones here in the field, all of them have been caught, even Mildred.”

“Yeah, we have to make sure to save at least one of them,” Lino replied, “in this case, I will distract the mayor and you will run away and hide.” He sends him a proud smirk as if his plan was impeccable.

“No.” Stephen mirrored the grin.

“What?”

“You are not going to distract her yet,” he said. “Splitting up and distraction is such a cliché; when you want to save someone, you have to sacrifice one until the time ends. But I’m sure she has already thought about that, that’s why we have to outwit her. This is our battlefield, Lino.”

“What are you planning?”

“Listen… it’s like hitting two birds in one stone.”

Lino runs as fast as he can with a concerned yet excited look on his face, “You’re too insane, Stephen.”

Ester decided to follow Stephen since she knew he has weaker physique than Lino, she chased him all the way but even though how close she is to him, she can’t touch him. “What is this? I know that I’m a lot faster than this kid, so why am I not catching him? What is he doing? Does he have a magic? No, I can’t sense any magic coming from him.” Ester thought to herself, while she’s thinking she hadn’t realized that he’s only getting far away from her.

To the point that she found herself the same position where she found the two; Stephen on top of the rock, “What the hell? How can this be?”

She grew frustrated from the thought that she was beaten by children and because of this she let out a burst at the last seconds, she clenched her fists and suddenly Stephen screamed on top of his lungs from the pain that suddenly surge through his whole body, and when he looked at the source of the pain, he found his foot was pierced by something sharp, rendering him from running away making him vulnerable to Ester. Lino on the other hand reveal himself to look for him, and this gives the mayor a chance to seize the both of them.

The three of them went back with the others, with Stephen on Ester’s arms as his feet bleeds, when they were seen by others, they were all worried, Blanche immediately went to his aid. “What happened?” she asked in a worry as she caressed his sweaty forehead.

“I think his feet was pierced by something,” Ester replied nonchalantly as if it’s nothing serious. “His bleeding a lot but I assure you that it’s not that fatal. He’ll be safe.” She reassured her.

Blanche didn’t bought the reassurance and immediately took Stephen from her arms and went inside to treat his wound. The children followed their wounded sibling inside and Lino was about to when in an instant he was stopped by a firm grasp on his arm.

Ester’s fingers perfectly wrapped around his petite limb, making him unable to get away from her. Lino swallowed the lump forming in his throat and forced himself to look up, trying to be as casual as possible, “What is it, mayor?”

Ester’s eyes are boring holes on his head, “What? How did you do that?”

“Do what?” he asked as innocent as possible.

Ester falter when he asked that, since she can’t just accept that they nearly beat her in that game, so instead she alters the question. “What magic do you have?”

“I don’t have magic,” he simply replied, pulling his arm from her grasp. “None of us have magic here. We are all weeds.” Lino stated. “Ah! If you’re wondering how we outrun you, it’s because you’re tired.” He said before running away from her, Ester could only do is to watch him as he run.

“Tired?” she mumbled to herself, “Maybe, that’s maybe the reason why I wasn’t able to catch him that fast.” She then proceeded to went inside with the worried children, and as she waits there, she can’t help but clenched her jaw.

“I am stupid!” she internally yelled to herself, “I lose my temper from a child’s game and ended up hurting one of the highest qualities!” but her trains of thought were interrupted when her securities went close to her side.

“Are you alright, mayor?”

She let out a sign before replying, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

The medical room is currently filled with screams of pain. Blanche tried to ease the pain by giving him bandages and other sedatives but it seems like it’s not working on him, “Why does it not working? I can’t give him anymore of this or else he’ll overdose it. The bleeding hasn’t stop yet. What the hell is going on?” She watched him as he writhed in pain.

Meanwhile, the children are just outside hearing everything, some of them starts to cry and pray that Stephen will not die, or at least someone heal him. Ester just sat down there, not bothering if the children are bawling their eyes out.

“Hey, hey, Stephen will not die.” Dean encourage the little ones, “you know he’s smart. Smart enough to outwit even death. So, you don’t have to worry about him.”

“Okay…” Ladi and Choi hugged Dean and Kim.

With his statement Ester’s ears rang, making veins under her neck popped up, “F*cking s**t! For that child, the pain would be unbearable.”

Until Mary Jane arrived with a basin of water, “Children, please go to the common room. Dean, please guide them.” She shortly instructed them to which the children begrudgingly did.

“Come on, guys. Stephen will be alright.” Dean said to them as he and Kim guided them to the common room.

“For real?”

“Yeah! for real!”

Mary Jane went inside and found Blanche holding Stephen’s foot, trying to bandage it, however the blood is not stopping at all and the kid is just trying to brave it all with his gritted teeth. Her brows knitted together as she saw his child’s status quo.

“Blanche, take off the cloth,” Mary Jane said and Blanche didn’t hesitate to do what has been said the moment she take the cloth off, blood gushed out.

“I can’t stop the bleeding; medicines are not even working at all.” Blanche said in one breath.

With that information, Mary Jane immediately knew what it is, “Stephen, my child, please put your foot here.” She pleaded as she took the basin on the floor.

Stephen slowly gets up from his lying position, crumpling the bed sheets that is now soaked with his blood, “It hurts…” he grunted.

“I know, but It will be over if you put your foot here.”

Stephen put his foot in the water and the relief rush over him as the pain stops and everything slowly heals. When the healing session was over Stephen has fallen asleep.

“What happened?” Mary Jane asked Blanche. “I know this place like the back of my hand, and I know for sure, there’s not a thing that has a magic in here. So, why does this child’s wound have magic?” her eyes are filled with fury.

“I don’t’ know, but Ester said that he was pierced by something.” Blanche replied.

“That b*tch.” She growled.

“What is it? Do you think she did it?” Blanche question was never answered.

After they change the sheets and clean the child, they went outside and saw Ester and her men, “How was the child?” She asked with worried expression, an expression far from what Lino was witnessed in the first place.