Creep. | Act I: There is No End

"Oh yeah. There they are." Lentil said, deeply.

As we slowly crawled through the grass and into the bushes, we both spotted through a open window three women and three girls preparing to go outside, brushing their hair and tightening up their clothes.

I didn't watch so much. I wasn't so much as devishly curious as Lentil was.

I only came into this specific scouting spot a couple times.

One was to hide from Mr. Eualiu, the butcher whom I "borrowed" a bit of meat from at the time.

Another was to relax for a little.

The third was coincidental, as I did watch this specific group of women do about the same thing as of now,

The fourth was, well, what we were doing right now.

"Look at 'em, Deus. They are just so beauitiful, aren't they?"

I just gave him a scoff. Barely any of them had any beauty in themselves.

In fact, I could tell him about them.

"If they were so beautiful, then why would they hang around the dead? Or rather, the dying. Did you know that these women are known as the Femine Reapers?"

I told Lentil, pointing at the tall, pale and black-wearing women.

"No, I did not. Tell me more, though."

I settled in the leaves, getting comfortable to tell the story. Before anything was said, I assured him that I did not make up this story. Many have recounted it before and I just happened to pick it up.

Although that doesn't mean it couldn't have been made up by others.

I pointed towards the women, starting with the tallest of them all.

Based on what we could see, the female was thin, had a small cape dragged by her gown. She seemed like she was taking care of the other women and the girls, as she was the one that wasn't fixing up her hair and putting on her clothes and as such.

The other women were similar in form. However one was shorter and a little thicker, wearing a bodice and the other was medium, but with such a long nose that it almost seemed like it could fall apart at any moment just by touching it.

But back to the first one.

"People call her the Orchestrater. The Puppet Master. The Ugly Truth. Many have noticed that she's always around these women, so they believe she's the mastermind when it came to their routine." I stated, throwing in a little prick of dramatic prose into it.

Lentil was intrigued.

"Well, go on. Continue. What was their routine?" He said, his curiousity ever growing.

I slightly grinned, purely out of mischief, and then replied...

"Their routine was simple: they find multiple targets, they flirt with them, they go have fun with them and then just walk out of their lives."

Lentil just stared at me as I finished the sentence, like if he was expecting something bigger.

"That's it? Just..... just them going on dates?" He said, stupidly surprised at the outcome.

"That's about it.... Oh no wait. I think I forgot something. Ughh. What was it?" I remarked, pretending to have forgotten a detail.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot...

After those dates, the targets, who were all men, die within a week or less."

I may have casually said that like if it was nothing, but that wasn't something to just casually talk about. Lentil had his eyes opened wide for quite some time, looking back forth between me and back to the women, repeatedly. I may have looked back with a cheeky grin, but I knew that was just... horrifying, especially to a young boy like Lentil. Death wasn't easy to talk about, yet it's happening everywhere.

Why was this story any different? Well...

Dying to someone else isn't unheard of but the idea that it's intentional... and the fact that they're not even dead yet, considering that anyone who has or carries the plague dies, is just absolutely chilling.

Lentil slightly shivered, seemingly like if he had goosebumps, and tried to change the subject by asking:

"Well then... How about the girls over there?"

"Oh yeah. Yeah, there really isn't much about them other than them being some rich, privilleged lasses'. Nothing great about them."

Well, except for one thing: they were beauitful... well, for many. 'Fancy and colorful dresses with just exquisite hair and a bright, youthful face and rather such divine proportions.'

That's what a lot of boys like us would say about this specific trio of girls.

To be quite frank, I didn't really pay a lot of attention to them. I didn't like the amount perfume they used nor did their dresses ever looked appealing. And don't get me started with their ridiculous amount of makeup they used.

Heavens, they could be like the jesters that would perform at court or by the streets if they weren't so.... "magnificient".

"Oh yeah. I think I've heard of them, I believe. Father talked a lot about these damsels. Aren't they the Noble Archibald Liushad's daughters?" Lentil replied.

"Yeah, they are."

Like I said before, there's nothing noble about nobles, especially ol' Archie. The only reason that man is as well-known as the royal family is the amount of civilians he hires to work on his land.

However, it's a mystery to me as to how the family rose into power. They're anything but royalty (although their status are starting to become similar), and like I said, there is nothing about them that truly makes them noble.

So, how?

Some men speculate that the royal family helped them at their time of need. Others presume they came from a long bloodline of nobility, but that quickly is debunked, since no one has ever heard of the Liushads before.

Honestly, they're one shady family, and I best stay away from them.

Not like I can ever touch them either.

Although.....

Ah, scratch that.

As Lentil continued to spy on them, followed by me, relucantly even looking at them, he eventually started feeling cramped. This was a perfect spot for him to spy on them... but it wasn't the most comfortable.

"Mate, I'm feeling mighty itched here and while I would love to continue admiring these broads, I would much rather watch them out on the open now than in this bush." Lentil complained.

"Well, there really isn't another place for you to "admire" these girls so we either stop watching them or stay here." I replied.

Lentil sighed.

"Come on, mate. Don't do me like that. Let me have some fun."

"Your definition of fun is to stalk people while they're putting on their clothes? In that case then, I would believe that you are botching up your future like that."

He chuckled.

"Well then, your future would be just about the same." He replied.

"Yeah yeah... Just as much." I lightly commented.

In the end, he decided to not leave the bush. So, in the end, we stayed in there.

But it wasn't so bad.

In fact, we spent quite some time on that bush too.

But, it wasn't only for watching the women, no.

They left the room and presumably, the house, just about 35 minutes afterwards.

So, what did we do next?

....

Honestly... we slept in. The bush provided much needed shade and in matter of minutes, we decided to take a nap.

Slowly but surely, we drifted away to a land far beyond our own, where anything can happen but nothing ever does.

And so we could dream now.

And so we can leave this wretched world for a while and temporaily forget...