ROSES HAVE THORNS

Inside the drafty warehouse down by the slum’s murky canal, Rupee lay bound in rope on a beaten-up stained couch. Her ankles and hands were tied together, and a dirty cloth was stuffed into her mouth to muffle her frightened whimpers.

In the center of the dusty floor, two men were seated on rickety wooden chairs.

One of them suddenly scrambled to his feet, pacing back and forth in nervous strides. The second man, sitting casually with his boots propped up on a crate, grunted in annoyance as he chewed loudly on a strip of dry meat.

"Would you kindly sit your ass down, Dole?!" the seated man yelled.

"I can’t help it, Dale! I’m nervous, alright?! Nervous as a cat on a hot-tin roof!"

Dale lowered his bag of jerky and glared at him with utter disdain. "What the fuck you so nervous for, huh boy?!"

"What chu mean, ’what’?! It’s the Brotherhood! I’m nervous about finally meeting them high-and-mighty cult fella’s! And hey – do not swear in front of the little lady! It ain’t appropriate!"

"Ain’t appropriate?!" Dale slammed his boots onto the floor and stood up so fast his chair fell back. "What the hell do you care about ’appropiate’?!"

He marched over to the couch and reached down to yank Rupee up by her hair. She let out a muffled cry as her tear-streaked face was forced upward.

"This here little lass is going to be dead real soon anyway! I hear them Brotherhood boys are some mighty freaks with the kids they take in!"

With a cruel chuckle, he shoved her head back down onto the stained cushions.

Dole rushed forward, shoving Dale’s shoulder aside and gently smoothing down Rupee’s tangled hair.

"Leave her be, Dale! I feel sorry for the girl! She were our neighbor not that long ago, always smiling and never missing a chance to greet us on the street! Don’t you feel a little sympathy for her?!"

"What chu tryna say, Dole? You want to free this here little lass? Because it sounds to me like yer tryna fuck us all over with yer pathetic sympathy!"

"Naw, Dale! I get it! I understand that giving her away to them Brotherhood fellas will bring us a whole heap of fortune! I’m just saying... you ought to treat her a little more kindly while she’s still breathing, is all!"

Dale stepped closer with a mean scowl. Dole’s eyes darted around nervously, but he forced himself to stand his ground, puffing out his chest with a fragile burst of false bravado.

Dale stopped right in front of him. For a second, a gentle, friendly smile spread across Dale’s weathered face.

Dole relaxed, smiling back. "See? I knew you’d–"

THWACK!

Dale threw an unexpecting sucker punch straight into Dole’s cheekbone.

"Argh!"

Thud!

"Don’t you ever tell me what I can and cannot say!" Dale shouted down at him, spitting on the ground. "I do whatever the hell I well please! Especially if the person I’m talking to is going to die for my and the community’s benefit! Fuck you, Dole! And fuck you, Rupee!"

He then turned toward the couch and pointed an accusatory finger at the sobbing girl.

"Lying there crying like a bitch... Yer lucky I ain’t killed you – like we killed yer parents – for putting up that little fight when we snatched you at yer folks’ place!"

Rupee’s blue eyes went wide as her muffled cries hitched in her throat.

Dale grinned, thoroughly enjoying the horror on the child’s face. "Oh, didn’t you know, little girl? We helped them Brotherhood folk kill yer ma and pa! We even had ourselves a little fun with yer ma before we threw ’em in the ditch! Ain’t that right, Dole?!"

Dole lay on the ground, keeping his face turned away, refusing to look.

Dale kicked his side hard.

THUD!

"OW!"

"I said, ain’t that right, Dole?!"

"Y-Y-Yeah! That’s right!"

Rupee’s eyes welled up with fresh tears as her body shook and muffled her heartbroken screams into the cloth.

"Hahaha! That’s what I thought!" Dale bent down, grabbed Dole by his thinning hair, and yanked his head around so he was forced to face the couch.

"Now say it to her! Say, ’Fuck you, Rupee!’"

Dole closed his eyes tight and shook his head. "No, Dale... come on, man..."

Dale grabbed him by the upper eyelids and pried them open forcefully with his filthy fingers. "Say it! Say it right now or I swear to the Almighty Goddess I’ll cut yer throat and leave you in the canal!"

"Alright! Alright! I’m sorry, Dale! I’ll do it!"

With a cruel smirk, Dale released him and casually walked back to his chair. He kicked it upright, sat down, and pulled out another strip of dried meat, watching Dole like a hawk while he chewed.

Dole wiped the blood from his nose, swallowed hard, and looked at the weeping girl on the couch.

He took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "FUCK–"

"Don’t. Move."

The cold, deadly edge of a steel blade pressed firmly against the front of Dole’s throat.

Dale sat up so fast his boots kicked his own chair over again. "Who the fuck are you?"

Dole shrieked at the top of his lungs without moving his neck an inch. "How the hell could you let him sneak past you?!"

"Sneak past me?! I ain’t seen shit! I was looking right at you the whole damn time! He just came out of nowhere!"

"Well clearly he didn’t come out of nowhere if he’s holding a knife to my damn throat! He would’ve had to come from right behind me, and you were sitting right behind me!"

"I said I ain’t seen shit, you idiot!"

While the two screamed at each other, Kurt ignored them and looked at the terrified little girl on the couch.

"Hey, Rupee. I’m here to save you."

Rupee’s muffled sobs broke out anew. Recognising him, she began squirming against her ropes, trying with all her might to inch closer to him.

"Hey!" Dale shouted. "You stay right where you are, little girl!"

"No... you stay right where you are," a smooth female voice echoed from directly behind him.

Dale spun around, his heart leaping into his throat as he came face-to-face with a young woman with silver hair and green eyes. "Yer... Yer that famous gal, Emelie Herst!"

"Bingo. And you’re royally f, u, c, k, e, d."

Dale took one look at her, looked at Kurt, and looked at the exit. "This shit ain’t worth it!"

He bolted right past Emelie, who didn’t even bother to raise a finger to stop him, and sprinted toward the giant sliding doors of the warehouse exit.

Dole watched his partner abandon him in disbelief. "Yer just going to leave me here?! Traitorous bastard!"

"Sorry, Dole! But this is a bust!"

"DALE!!!"

THUD!

Outside the wooden doors, Dale ran full-tilt into what felt like a solid wall. He bounced off the impact and crashed hard onto the dirt, landing butt-first in a puddle.

He slowly looked up.

Standing in the frame was Reuben, whose arms were folded, and his expression as stoic as ever.

Inside the warehouse, Kurt looked down at Dole, then up at Reuben, when a mischievous idea popped in his head. Exaggerating his tone, Kurt slipped into a terrible mocking drawl:

"Well now, Duke... would you be so mighty kind as to show that there fella out the door? I reckon we only need one of these fine gentlemen, and this here fella I have in my grasp seems real keen to cooperate. Ain’t that right, mister?"

"Y-Yes! Yes, sir! I’ll cooperate! I’ll tell you whatever you wanna know! Just please don’t kill me!"

Outside Dale scrambled backward in the puddle, screaming at Dole, "Traitorous scum!"

Reuben stepped forward, grabbed Dale by the back of his vest like a misbehaving stray cat, and dragged him away into the darkness. Dale’s high-pitched screaming slowly faded into the distance.

Emelie walked over to the couch and undid Rupee’s bindings, gently pulling the cloth out of the child’s mouth.

The moment her lips were free, Rupee let out a loud wail. "UNCLE KURT!"

She threw herself off the couch and threw her small arms around his leg, burying her face in his trousers as she sobbed hysterically. "Uncle Kurt! They killed them! They killed Mommy and Daddy!"

Kurt pulled his knife back from Dole’s throat and bent down, scooping Rupee up into his arms. He held her close against his chest, gently rubbing her back as she cried into his shoulder, her tiny hands clutching onto him for dear life.

Seeing the one-eyed man occupied with the child, Dole scrambled across the dirt toward a crossbow lying near his chair. He dived for the weapon and shrieked, "I’ll kill you!"

Before his fingers could even graze it, the crossbow suddenly lifted off the floor on its own and floated high in the air.

"What in tarnation–?!"

"Nuh uh uhhh~" Emelie casually twirled her finger in the air as she tutted playfully.

With a flick of said finger, the floating crossbow spun 180 degrees in mid-air, pointing its loaded bolt straight at Dole’s lower body.

Pew—STAB!

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Dole shrieked in agony as the iron bolt shot forward straight through his thigh.

He fell onto his back, clutching his bleeding leg and weeping like a baby.

Footsteps echoed near the main entrance as Reuben stepped back inside the warehouse. He was calmly adjusting his black gloves, pulling them snug over his fingers.

"The loud one has been dealt with. Before his demise, he mentioned that a unit from the Brotherhood is scheduled to arrive at this location in approximately ten minutes. He tried to make it sound like a threat. It was not."

He then stopped and looked over at Kurt. "What is your plan, Rossana?"

Kurt looked down at the sobbing girl in his arms, then shifted his gaze to the groaning thug bleeding on the floor.

He whispered softly into Rupee’s ear. "Rupee... I need to take care of one last thing here, and then we can go right back to the orphanage, alright?"

Rupee pulled her face back slightly. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her tiny lips trembling, but she gave a small, resolute nod.

"Cool."

He walked over to Emelie and gently set the little girl down beside her. "You two stay back and hide at a good vantage point. You too, Reuben. Take the high ground."

"And what exactly do you intend to do?"

Kurt turned around, walking over to the couch. He reached down, grabbed the whimpering Dole by his collar, and threw him onto the couch. He then casually sat down on the right beside him, resting his elbows on his knees and popping his knuckles with a dangerous grin.

"The two of us are going to sit right here and politely wait for whatever cultists show up. Once they walk through those doors, you two ambush and incapacitate them. Once we have them wrapped up, we hand them straight over to the Prefects and go home. Bada-boom, bada-bing. Mission complete."

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