Hellacious Hospitality Ch. 13

"Sleep tight."

*****

He probably should have followed her lead. With all the continuous drama, there had been precious few hours of sleep, and none of it properly restful. More than a few yawns escaped his mouth as he pored over the journal another time. It still withheld a mystery from him. He could feel it in his bones.

The ability to read the illegible text would have been helpful, but even before that, the mere recovery of the journal hadn't sat right. For someone so exacting and meticulous in all that she did, the haphazard way that it had been hidden away was highly abnormal. More like an afterthought than something fully intentioned.

Ultimately, the question still remained. What reason would Caeli have had to kill their previous master? Not even with her life threatened by Luna's hand had she risen to that extreme, so what would it have taken to push her over the edge? Xochitl knew something, but it didn't seem like she was going to open up unless presented with incontrovertible evidence. Which led to him seeking out this diary. That logic just kept leading him in circles, with no end in sight.

All the loving attention to detail in those notebook sketches. It was a shame to keep them to herself. Being the doting sort of person she was, it was almost inconceivable that she hadn't shown Merah and Aila their baby pictures at some point, like any proud parent would. But Merah seemed completely blindsided when they turned up.

Were they really the last? A hundred years with no more permanent residents? It was hard to believe the sisters were even that old, but time seemed to be less of a concern for the demi. Or maybe it was another function of this place itself? Caeli and Xochitl still held onto past grudges like they'd happened yesterday. That was a fruitless train of thought. Nothing that his mortal brain could comprehend, nor did he intend to. It wasn't really relevant, in the end.

It was as he reached the end again that he noticed something off. The final page, with Merah's entry, was thicker than the others. Caught up in her emotions, she hadn't noticed the extra sheet stuck to the back. It didn't come loose easily. He had to be very careful in removing it without damaging either page.

Unlike the other pages, cleanly separated from the binding at the spine, this final sheet was jagged and torn, incomplete. Only the top half remained, roughly crumpled. Dark brown spots dotted its edges. Blood?

He tried to make sense of the partial illustration. Just two tall, vertical shapes, drawn with scratchy lines. Fur, maybe? The stains obscured most of the rest of it. Holding it up, the backlighting brought a bit more contrast between the ink and the blood, revealing strands of hair and what looked like an eye. Alright, so this way is definitely up...

With the furry shapes pointed up, they couldn't be anything but long, rabbit-like ears. No, it couldn't be... No, no jumping to conclusions. The shape of this girl's eyes weren't quite right. Although, with the passage of time, it was hard to say for certain. The girl in the illustration appeared quite young.

Still, the existence of this portrait raised questions. As far as he could tell, these journal entries were still maintained in chronological order. Iara came first. She seemed the most important of the denizens to meet, responsible for physical and spiritual health. Xochitl came next. It sounded like Caeli had been placed under her care soon after her arrival. So then, this final girl. Why would Merah feel the burden of being the last, if there was at least one other?

Unless...

*****

"No, no, NO! This isn't right. Not right at all. Curse you, Caelestinum! Why did you leave me?"

Xochitl was muttering woefully to herself. No longer parked within her planter ring, she had migrated over to where the coffee table had been, before getting crushed to smithereens. Only broken glass remained. She reached to the sky with her myriad tendrils, apparently attempting to repair the great crystal chandelier, to no success.

"You're probably not going to get very far like that."

She immediately froze in her tracks, startled. Benson was surprised that was even possible. She seemed to have watchful eyes at all times, always commenting on his comings and goings.

"Look, half the pieces you're holding are all broken. They don't even have the holes to hook them onto the frame." Gingerly sifting through the remnants, he managed to find a few shards that were in reasonably usable condition. "See? Like these."

Hesitantly, she accepted the offerings. A dense weave of her vines patched the hole in the ceiling where the fixture had torn itself free from, and reached out to suspend the mangled frame above their heads. An angry look washed over her face, with how easily the crystal fragments hung in place.

"Is that what this is? Have you come to mock my uselessness and stupidity?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Then why are you here? I think I've made it clear that I want nothing to do with you."

"I don't think that's true. You don't trust me, but that doesn't mean you don't have your own questions."

"What are you angling at, human?"

"I just wanted to thank you, for looking after her all these years. She should've been here, to say those words herself, but I think you needed to hear them nonetheless. It must have been hard, watching the vivacious woman you cared for bottle up all that pain for so long, and not be able to say or do anything to help. It bothers me, and I've only known her for a couple of weeks. You? You've got me beat by a century. I can't compete against that."

"Whatever it is you're doing, I don't like it."

"I don't blame you. You've had to keep your guard up for however long. Did it start with Caeli? Or has it been even longer for you? You seem to keep everyone at arm's reach, almost as if you're afraid. Merah calls you Mom, but you have no similar words to her back."

"Nobody asked that child to do so."

"That's exactly what I mean. It's like you're stuck in the past. Unable to move on. You don't see how devastating that's been, because you're just fine moving at your own pace. But this is my life now, too, and I'm telling you straight-up that it's not working."

"You DARE make light of what we've been through?"

"Not at all. That's exactly why I need you to tell me everything. You've sworn yourself to secrecy, haven't you? You two think not knowing will protect everyone. But really, everyone's stuck now. You're steering a ship without a captain, and no sense of direction. Do you really think you're going to get very far like this?"

"I'll ask you this, human. Do you understand what my life was like before this?"

"Caeli gave me the short of it, yes."

"I was alone. Forever alone. I had no concept of 'mother' or 'father', no 'sister' to share my laughter or tears with. My very genesis is an aberration. The very notion of 'humanity' to me was foreign. Of the few interactions I ever had with humans, I was treated as either a monster, or a plaything to sate their sexual desires. In all cases, the end result was always the same. They became my sustenance."

"Worse off, the more I consumed, the more my sense of 'self' grew. Assimilating those things you call 'souls' into myself, I began to feel their pain and their cruelty. There was no escape from it. That perpetual agony was my existence."

"And then I was brought here. It was a place where I could feed and grow, without having to drown a new voice inside myself each time. I had finally attained peace and quiet. But with that, I had time to myself to think. What was my purpose? If it was to consume, then by continuing to reside here, I had abandoned that aspect. To continue, however... I could no longer subject myself to that madness."

"Then she came along, with all her stories. She was fortunate, having experienced all the sides to humanity that I had not. Through those stories, something blossomed from within that I had not known was there. I wasn't able to explain it at the time. I just knew that the hunger stemmed not from my body, but from my mind. I became utterly devoted to her, so that she'd have reason to stay by my side and teach me more. I don't know if that was the 'love' of which you speak, but I feel it must have been something akin."

"And so, what happened next?"

"And nothing. Eventually, there were no more stories left to tell."

"But not by her choice, I'm guessing."

"I have nothing to say to that. Something must have come over me, to have said so much already. Now will you leave me be?"

"Not this time, because I need answers. You think that, if you break your promise to her, you'll forfeit your right to those stories. You're rooted in one place, unable to move beyond. The souls that gave you life, your intelligence, they give you a yearning to be free. You lived vicariously through those stories, giving you experiences you wouldn't have had otherwise. But both of your are stuck, aren't you? Unable to move past your last chapter, and begin writing something new. Isn't it about time you stopped holding onto that past so tightly, so you can move on?"

"I..."

"Let me make it easy for you. Just let me know, what happened to this girl?" He asked, producing the sketch of the rabbit-eared demi.

"When did she have the time...? Where did you get that!?"

"Caeli has her own way of keeping track of all her stories. Merah and Lily helped me find this. By your reaction, I'm guessing you know who this is. I'm not going to force you to speak. But ask yourself if this secret is really worth keeping anymore. The sooner we figure this all out, the sooner we can devote our energy to bringing her back."

"Caelestinum, you traitor! You force me to hold this secret, but you're the one leaving evidence in plain sight. Tsk."

"Well, I've never known her to be a particularly good liar."

"You may have a point, there. I suppose there's not much point hiding it anymore. You've proven clever. Much too clever. That's what I tried to warn her about in the first place."

"Is that why you've been trying to wedge us apart?"

"Among many reasons. I hold no great trust for humans at the best of times. They've given me no reason to provide them that courtesy, and I've lived long enough to be proven right in that judgment just as frequently. But for her sake, I was willing to give our Master the benefit of the doubt."

"He was not the person that brought me here, and how he inherited stewardship of this place, I do not know. None of that mattered to me. I sought not to involve myself in any of their affairs. The isolation suited me. Only when she came did I begin to take notice. With the responsibility of her care imposed upon me, I first came to learn 'happiness'."

"Curiously, even though he seemed quite smitten by her, as she him, they never shared carnal relations. You must have overheard, I was the one tasked with providing her regular 'feeding', through use of my own talents. I never expected nor intended our sessions together to amount to much. But I'm sure you're well aware of how persistent and persuasive she can be, as she tried to win me over to her ways of thinking."

"With her taking the lead, there were so many new faces to learn, and there seemed to come more and more by the years. Somehow, she got it into her head that I would be suitable to raise the two children. But that's also when she started to notice. She'd gone with the Master many a time before as an ambassador, always managing to find a lone new inductee, desperate for a home. But here, she tells of a great natural disaster. Both nests abandoned by circumstance. Only a single egg rescued from each clutch. It would've been simple to save them all, but one would be 'enough', she was told."

"Highly suspicious, she stopped going on those expeditions with him. And without her, he seemed to lose interest. There were no new faces for quite some time. Not until that final time. They brought that beast girl with them. But it wasn't like all the other times. There was no fanfare or welcome party. The girl just stayed with me, bewildered and afraid, as Caelestinum and the Master argued without end for an entire night. Such a small, quiet thing. The girl hadn't spoken a word at all."

"Caelestinum decided to take personal care of the child for a while. Shy, she did not seem to integrate well with the others, and still, she had no voice. It was only when the Master took special interest in her again did we hear her words. And that voice was terrifying. Deep and ominous. It didn't even sound like it should belong to that girl. You must know of what I speak. The nymph is far too quick and trusting."

"You mean... the warning?"

"The sound of it burned its way into my brain. I had no clue what to make of it, I had to share that message with the nymph. For all her eccentricities, she's still much more worldly and wise than I am. There was more like that as well, but I was too shocked to think straight, and some of the words escaped my ears. Human, do you know what a seer is?"

"As in, fortune-tellers and prophets? Clairvoyants?"

"I learned after the fact that the girl's tribe had the predisposition to that sort of skill. Perhaps she had glimpsed into something she wasn't supposed to, because in a flash, the Master had his hands around her throat. Just like that, she was dead. And Caelestinum... after a brief struggle, she had her hand through his heart. And, in the aftermath, I was made to dispose of the evidence."

"You... both of them?"

"Him, yes. After that betrayal, he didn't deserve the honor of a proper grave. Thankfully, he did not join the well of wailing souls within my being, awaiting its eternal silence. Perhaps Caelestinum spared me that torment. As for the girl, one of the many rooms in this place is home to a burial site. She was not known to many, her internment is effectively a closely-guarded secret. It's honestly a rare event at all. Most of our residents nearing the end of their life have chosen instead to brave the outside world one last time, to spare us the pain of witnessing their passing."

"That... it must have been hard on you."

"For me, not so much. I don't process emotions with the same acuity as you. Maybe because I don't have a complete soul to call my own? No matter. Of course, for Caelestinum, it was heartbreaking. She places so much value on life. Too much for her own good, I say. It hurt me more to see her in such a state."

"From that point on, she threw all her efforts into administrating this place. I don't know how she still retained hope. For her sake, I was ready to seal us away from the outside world, to spare us such mortal treachery ever again. But she resisted, with more fire than I ever thought her capable of. In the end, I too, was defeated."

"Is that how you see your rivalry, in your mind?"

"It is."

"Then stop fighting me, Xochitl. You and I want the same thing, and that's what's best for her."

"I've known that. I've known that for a while now."

"Then why do you continue to antagonize?"

"It's because then I'd have to acknowledge my own weakness. Caring for her was my only given purpose, my sense of pride. You made me feel weak. Our relationship remained static, deadlocked for nearly a century. That fire that I couldn't help but concede to was being extinguished of its own accord. And then you came along, and crushed that stalemate in a matter of days. Do you realize how infuriating that was? The worst thing is, I came to realize she was right all along. It came as a surprise to me, what you did for that child - my child, as she so insists - in helping her realize her hidden potential. This realm provides so much for us, and yet, we can't seem to do anything right with that resource."

"So, how do you feel, now that this is all out in the open?"

"Lighter? Does that make any sense?"

"See, you do have a soul, after all. You just need to listen to it more."

"Damning with faint praise, is what that sounds like to me."

"Maybe a little. I can be a little petty at times, too. Can we stop going at each others' throats now? Err, pardon the turn of phrase. That was a bit insensitive."

"Hah! You're quick with the tongue, and clever like he was. But you're different than him. It was easy to fall for his charm, but I see it now, why she had so much faith in you. I've learned something."

"I... thanks, I guess? But you know what? If you really want to show you've learned something from all this, then stop being so indifferent. I'm not just a human. My name is Benson. The others, too. They're not 'the children' or 'the nymph'. Call them by their names. Aila, Merah, and Iara. You got that? They care for you, so don't keep pushing them out."

"I... I will try. And if I may B...Benson..."

"Alright, it's not like you to hold your tongue. Out with it."

"Well, you see... now that I've done you the favor of telling you my secrets, I'd like... may I ask for one in return?"

"If it's for the sake of burying the hatchet, I'll bite. You want me to help you fix this thing? There's no way we'll be able to get it looking like new with all this mess, but I guess it's the thought that counts?"

"No, not that. Well, I supposed it's sort of related, but... I know how futile this looks. I've seen the effort you're making to bringing her back, and all I'm able to make is this token gesture in order to convince her to stay. But if... if you're willing to help me, then maybe there's something more I can do for her."

"Once we get her back, just hearing you talk like that will have her overjoyed."

"You idiot, have you forgotten? Just bringing her back doesn't solve all of our problems. She hasn't been taking in the mana she requires. Subsisting passively the way she has been only gives her enough energy to go gallivanting about with you. But what of her other responsibilities? If she had her full strength, then that rabbit sorceress would've been out cold before she even started."

"So what exactly are you proposing here?"

"What I need is -" she let out a deep sigh. Her very human affectations were bleeding through again. "- is for you to teach me your ways of love."

"I...what!?"

"Don't make me ask again. The first time was embarrassing enough. I wish to give her the full life she deserves. If that happens to be with you... then my pride will have to allow it. But as things are, neither one of us are fully capable of giving her everything she needs. So..."

"Xochitl, I... are you sure this is what you want? This isn't just you showing your vulnerabilities after our talk, is it?"

"Clearly you have something that I've neglected. If possible, I would like to experience it for myself. Do you hesitate because you hate me? I've never met a man so resistant in my presence before. Or is it that you need more inspiration?" She asked, with a husky growl. Unfurling her nipples from behind their leafy coverings, she pinched and rolled them until they were stiff and leaking her sweet nectar.

"Whoa! I'm... I just wasn't expecting this, not from you. We don't have to do this all at once. Take it slow. I don't hate you. Now that I've gotten to know you better... I'm glad she has someone like you looking out for her."

"I'm over taking it slowly! Look what my hesitation and inability has cost us! Would you see me grovel? Because I will. Anything that helps bring her back to me!"

"Huh. I never thought that you, of all people, would have this cute side."

"Are you mocking me, again?"

"No. I think I get it now. You've never really experienced sex as this intimate thing before, have you? It's always been aggressive and one-sided. For Caeli, it's all about the mutual experience. Ease her into it first, so that she sees you're enjoying it as much as she is. Then ramp up the intensity until you have her squealing."