Chapter 7: Consequences

Time was frozen. In front of me, I had the two options.

"yes/no"

If I were to say no, I would die and if I said yes, I would be able to try and save Lia and her father.

"yes"

I felt my entire body shift around, and I was soon after, standing behind the two intruders. I grabbed the knife the first person had brought with him and took a stance. This was it. If I failed here, it'd be over forever.

"What the fuck!"

The bigger guy had noticed me and started rushing me. I backed up a little. My talent had stopped its effect when I was knocked out so I made sure to activate it again.

"Haste."

I quickly charged against the larger opponent, slicing wherever I could to make him slow down. The smaller offender didn't sit still either. He was stabbing against my person and managed to cut up lots of smaller wounds. After I turned back to the last guy, I stuck my blade in to his side. He traded blows with me, blood was running down my forehead and we has cutting up my arms trying to free himself and gain some distance.

To no avail though as I finally felt his struggle dissipate. The bigger dude who had been charging up a big swing with club, hit me on my left arm. The pain was immense. I rushed towards the last guy over the two corpses that littered the floor in front of me. Jumped, and stuck my blade in to his neck. The large man slowly sunk to the floor. I had done it. I laid down on the old mans bed that was disgustingly bloody and closed my eyes. I felt the strength leave my body.

...

Waking up, I could hear Lia crying next to me.

"Congratulations!"

"You have cleared a quest."

"You have gained a new Talent: Deterioration"

"Description: Make bodies disappear"

"Costs: 4 mana per 1 corpse"

"Talent level: F"

My entire body burned but that didn't stop me from celebrating that I first of all survived, but second, I had gained a new skill. This skill however was a lot more... special, than what haste was.

"3..."

"2.."

"1."

I looked at my character sheet and noticed that instead of one corruption, I had four. By this time, Lia noticed that I was awake.

"Ian!"

Her crying intensified.

"I thought you had died."

"I'm so glad you're alive, but..."

The old man who had appeared in the door opening was now looking over all the bodies with a concerned look.

"We can't call the police about this. They just wont believe us."

"Don't worry old man. I can take care of this."

I stood up, walked over to one of the corpses and.

"Deterioration."

A green energy siphoned from my hand onto the corpse. The green energy was slowly dissolving the body and the dissolved parts flooded back into me in a more dark red gradient energy. I didn't feel anything strange from it other than seeing my mana leave my body instead of just disappearing into thin air.

When I looked back at Lia, she was covering her eyes with her hands. She was still sniffling but seemed to have stopped crying. I used 'deteriorate' on the rest of the corpses. It took some time but when I was done, I had decided what my next move.

"Lia. I want you and your dad to come with me while I go run an errand."

"But... Your wounds! We need to treat you first!"

"I will be fine. If it makes you feel better, I'll go to the hospital after the errand."

I was fine. It only really hurt when I touched the wounds. They both looked at each other. It was not like they wanted to stay at the house full of blood. The old man let me borrow some of his old clothes from when he was younger. I couldn't walk around with bloody clothes.

We locked the door and entered my car to drive away.

...

I drove up to the Deal Reds, showed the man guarding the parking lot entrance my tablet and parked the car.

"Wait here and don't leave the car."

I grabbed the bag with some of the remains from the men who had attacked yesterday and left the daughter and father in the car. I couldn't just sit and watch how Chandler did something like this. He needed to pay for his actions.

I stormed into the hall.

"Is Albert Lucius here?"

The girl behind the counter looked at me worried. I must have scared her. She had not done anything wrong.

"Sorry. I really need to see Mr. Lucius."

She typed on the keyboard.

"He is available on floor 14."

"Thank you."

I got entered the hall of floor 14 and it had the same vibe like floor 12 did. Once again, I went to the one door that was open.

"Albert!"

I entered the room and closed the door behind me. Albert was sitting in a wooden chair at a desk with lots of paper on top of it.

"Well isn't this a sight to see. What happened to you? You were dressed properly yesterday."

"Your son invited me to a class reunion and I participated with my plus one. Someone I consider very dear to me."

I could already see Albert's face twist and turn, not finding the appropriate answer for the situation. He stayed quiet.

"I was used to how Chandler treated me when we were in the same year in grade school but what he has done now is waaay over the line."

Albert almost slapped himself in the face, placing his hand over his mouth.

"What did he do?"

"Your son both ridiculed my plus one and threatened her."

Albert returned to sitting up straight.

"Alright I get it. I'll make him apologize for his rudeness."

I looked Albert in his eyes.

"I wasn't done. Your son actually held up to his threats and sent four men armed with knifes to her house that had the objective of killing both her and her father. It was only because I was there that they survived."

I could see that Albert was mad. The question was whether it was towards me or his son. Albert crushed his armrest with his hand.

"I apologize on my sons behalf. I will make sure this does not happen again."

After discussing for a bit, I left the building and returned back to my car leaving behind the bag with some of the 4 offenders remains.

"Are you okay?"

Came back to a worried Lia and old man.

"I'm okay. No need to worry."

A sigh of relief could be heard from Lia.

"It would be best if you stayed with me and my family at the new apartment I recently bought. It's a lot safer than your house and it will take the cleaning crew a few days to clean everything completely."

"...Ian. I know this isn't really my business but please tell me you don't usually do this kind of stuff..."

Lia had a worried look on her face but I reassured her that this was the first time I had killed someone. We left Deal Reds and headed to my new apartment.

...

"Hello?"

We stood at the entrance of my new apartment. My family should be here. Were they still sleeping?

"Bro?"

"Yeah it's me. Do you know where mom and dad are?"

"They're sleeping."

Okay good. Everyone was safe. My sister came to hug me but was startled when she saw the two people behind me.

"This was my old employer and his daughter."

"Hi."

Lia waved. It was clear that she was tired. She had barely gotten any sleep during the night.

"Lia, come, you can sleep in my room. Old man, just come in and sit wherever you want. If you feel like you also need to rest then the sofa should work. We sadly don't have more rooms."

Lia took off her shoes and followed me while the old man went to sit in the sofa. My sister, Lynn, bombarded the old man with questions when me and Lia got to my room. We bot sat down on my bed.

"How are you feeling?"

She slowly leaned into me and started crying. The scenery at her house was gruesome and must have overwhelmed her greatly. After a while of just comforting her, she stood up again.

"You going to sleep?"

"Yeah... I feel like that would help a lot."

She undressed until she only had her undergarments on. The bra and panties had blood on them. Lia noticed this and panicked.

"You want to borrow a pair of boxers and a shirt?"

She nodded and unbuttoned her bra. I was surprised over how she didn't mind me seeing her naked. It was in the middle of the day and sunlight came shining through the window. I handed her a shirt and boxers. When she was ready to jump under the covers to sleep, I quickly grabbed Lia's arm to stop her and kissed her on the cheek. She smiled and continued into bed.

I left my room closing the door after me. Lynn and the old man were watching TV. I didn't mind them and decided to make breakfast. I hadn't had a lot of time to buy groceries but I still had some left.