City of Sinners

Chapter 12

“So I think we’ll be sitting here for at least half an hour just to get those loots, am I right?” I asked to the both of them.  

We were sitting on top of Bermuda grasses who turned red because of the glaring of the sky. Still the silence was invading the whole memorial park and it is starting to make me feel uncomfortable. Especially these two guys beside me seems like part of the dead cult. 

All the time, they were quiet. They were not making any noise. They even seem to be having no bother to waste any effort of talking. These guys, Valour and Solomon, were just sitting on the ground as if a stone who cannot be moved. That is why, I did my best to start a talk—though for a fact, I do not usually initiate the talk first. 

“Ten more minutes, Sitri,” said Solomon. “We already spent twenty minutes.” 

“Oh, I see.” I nodded, showing a fake enthusiasm on his answer.  

Then silence went back once again. Damn it! Why are they this quiet?! I can bear with the Silence of Valour because he has been with me for most of the time. I just got used to him. But two glued mouths right beside me? I think it was now difficult for me to handle.

It was definitely hard for me, but I swallowed another ten more minutes of silence in between the three of us. I think I am just the only one who was having a hard time with the silence because looking at them, at Valour and Solomon, they were really unbothered with it. 

Until in a snap, Solomon started to stand up. 

“What’s the matter?” I asked. 

He looked at me, and I have once again, met his ash-colored cold eyes.

“Let’s collect the loots,” he answered. When I realized that thirty minutes has already passed by, and that we are going to start working and moving again, I happily stood up. With a restrained smile, I started looking at the surrounding.  

On the ground, there are peculiar, colored things that was lying. I immediately noticed it because the color of it doesn’t reflect the redness that was blazing on the surrounding. It has a various, different shining color that is not being affected by the redness of the surrounding. There were almost hundred of them, making me think that it is probably what Solomon and Valour is saying: the loots.

I picked one of it. An orange-colored small box. One of its surface has a small red button. I pushed it, and the box had immediately jerked. It opened. I almost threw it because of shock, but good thing I have immediately realized what it has revealed: A vial with green liquid. A healing potion. 

“So, this is how the loots are being given?” I once again asked. But, to my disappointment, no one had answered me. Both Valour and Solomon were busy collecting and opening the loots that was given after all our wait for painful thirty minutes. I noticed that as the items were plucked out from the box, the box would dissolve into ashes. 

Honestly, I thought that the loot would be kind of gross to get. I imagined that we have to cut through the chests of the Sinners before we could get the loots that we badly needed in order to survive. But luckily, it was not as how I thought it would be. Who would think that the loots is needed to be waited for half an hour in order to get it? In just a snap, the boxes just appeared in the surrounding even though the Sinners were long dead and defeated and turned into dusts already. 

I sighed because of disappointment to the two guys. However, I bothered not to talk anymore. I realized that my efforts to get a less awkward silence would be useless and my energy to talk would be consumed in vain. And so, I just accepted defeat, and let the awkwardness take all the lead in all three of us. Instead of being bothered by the awkwardness, I just focused on picking and opening the boxes that were scattered in the ground. 

When we were finally done collecting all of the loots, Solomon has now decided to move forward.

“Are you sure you will let us keep these loots instead of compiling it as if items for everyone?” I asked Solomon because I thought, being the leader, he will get every loots that we gathered, and that he will be the one to take care all of it. It was what Gaston were doing, and I unconsciously got used to it. That big man scammer leader of the Vultures. However, Solomon said that he will not get the loots that we have collected. 

“It should be yours. After all, I am not just the one who killed every Sinners in this place. You had your efforts too.” 

“Gaston must learn from him,” said Valour. 

I shrugged my shoulders. I don’t want to vocally agree with Valour because I don’t want Solomon to think that he was being complimented by me. But, yes, to be honest, this man, the leader of the Raven gang, has some good qualities in him aside from his physical attributes.

“Let’s get going. We’re going to find the others too,” said Valour. The three of us had agreed, and started venturing the whole memorial park to find the entrance and exit door of this memorial park. As I have said, I have never been here, and I got no idea of the whole place. I just discovered that we are almost at the end of this big cemetery, and it would take around fifteen to twenty minutes towards the gate if by running. That’s how big this place is.

When we heard the howling of the unseen dogs earlier, Solomon was about to reach the gate. But then he said to us that he too had heard the distant howling of the dogs, that is why he decided to come back. He said he felt an instinct that someone was in dire need for a help. And he was right.

I may not say this directly to him (because why would I?!) but I am thankful that he was there, and helped me save my messed up life. 

“I hope when we got out of this cemetery, everything would be back to normal,” I out-of-nowhere blurted in whispers. 

“I don’t think that would be possible,” Solomon said. 

I looked at him with confused gaze. I am about to say that I know it would be impossible and that was just an out-of-nowhere wish, but he was the one who started to speak again. 

“I already told I was already near the exit earlier, right?” he asked. 

I didn’t answer him. Ha! A revenge to their awkward silence earlier. 

But then he still continued explaining. “And before I go back and help you, I was able to take a peak of what is the outside.” 

From that, my curiosity had started to kick once again.

“What did you see?” Valour asked. Even him, the lazy and always sleepy man, was intently listening to Solomon. 

“River,” Solomon answered. 

“That’s normal. There really is a clean and well-maintained river a few meters away from the entrance of the cemetery. It was at the other opposite of the road. 

“No, you don’t understand,” Solomon defended. ‘It was a river. A river … covered with fire. The river of hell. And before I turned my gaze away from it, I am pretty sure I have seen something in that river.” 

“Wh—What was that?” I asked, hesitating. 

“Humans. Or maybe human soul. They were weeping and screaming endlessly while swimming in the middle of that river of fire.”