No Cost for Blood
"Lo-Lord! Please! Do not bow your head to filthy people like us! We deserve no praise, we are simply repaying you for saving us from a life more crueler than death!" Seilo hurriedly waved her hand in dismissal, her heart throbbing with anxiousness, seeing Ferrin bow like that.
Ferrin got up and smiled from the depth of his heart, as he was wiping away the few tears at the corners of his eyes, a thought flashed in his mind, 'Wait, is she calling me Lord?'
He blinked his eyes after realising that he hadn't introduced himself, "I am Ferrin and she is my mother, Aria! Thank you for doing so much for us!"
Seilo's eyes widened before she lowered her head and introduced herself, "I am Seilo. Thank you for saving me and the others."
"Thank you for saving me, you deserve our greatest gratitude for what you have done. You can call me Aoci."
Ficko and Ano glanced at each other before going ahead themselves, "I am Ficko, thank you for saving me!"
"Me too, I am Ano!"
Ferrin nodded his head, memorising their names. He got up from the ground and nodded his head towards the girls', "I will be going off now. Please protect my mother in my absence!"
"Huh? Wa-Wait Lord, I will be going with you!" Seilo hurriedly got up from the ground, a smile bloomed on her face as she stared at Ferrin's cute face, his eyes blinking constantly in confusion.
"Seilo? You want to..." Aoci's words drove off, she realised mid-way that she had expected this coming, she resolved her mind and looked towards Ferrin, "Seilo and Ano will accompany you, Ferrin. Please do take care off them on the way!" Aoci slightly lowered her head.
"Huh!? Me too?" Ano glanced at Aoci in surprise.
Aoci nodded her head, "I want you to go with Ferrin as well."
Ano frowned, she didn't want to go outside with anybody, let alone a male she just met a while ago, it was even more questionable after what happened to her yesterday and seeing after seeing what a monster Ferrin was... she felt her heart wavering but she feared what Ferrin might do if she rejected.
Aoci stepped up and walked towards her, "I want you to keep a close eye on Seilo, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. If that monster boy does something to any of you, I wish at least one of you comes back and warns us. I don't want any of you to go with him in the first place but I know Seilo isn't in the state of mind to agree. Please, do this for me." She murmured quietly in her ear, while pretending to help her stand up.
Ano frowned deeply, "Then why not you go? I will stay here in your place."
"I... I hate to admit it but," Aoci glanced aside I embarrassment, "I suck at running."
Ano blinked her eyes speechlessly. 'Aw! Yes, wasn't there a rumor saying that Aoci walked like a snail?' She shook her head speechlessly before glancing in Seilo's direction and sighed, "Fine! I will go, just pray I don't get eaten by him myself in case of any bad news."
Aoci smiled helplessly before saying, "Thank you!"
Guu!
Ficko blinked her eyes before speechlessly glancing down at her tummy. She along with the others hadn't eaten anything since yesterday' lunch!
Ferrin blinked his eyes before asking, "Ha-haven't you guys eaten yet?"
Ficko's face flushed red in embarrassment. Aoci helplessly gazed in her direction before shaking her head, "We didn't had the guys to go out and search for food. The last we ate was yesterday around 3 PM."
Ferrin suddenly remembered the things, he and his mother gathered yesterday, "Wait, I will bring you something to eat first before heading off." Despite not having friends, Aria didn't forget to teach her son to repay kindness with even more kindness.
"Aw! N-" Aoci's words got stuck in her mouth before she nodded her head, "Thank you!"
Seilo was about to interrupt Ferrin's plan when the latter spoke out while hurriedly rushing outside, "Wait here, I will be back soon!"
Seilo frowned, "Why did you do that? He has already done enough for us."
Aoci, without any worry replied, "We need to see what he is capable off. If he can't even go down and bring us food, then what will he do with the two of you outside?"
Seilo frowned deeper, "I can't understand you."
Aoci sighed while saying in her mind, 'Because you are currently blinded.'
Ferrin, while maintaining his peak weariness rushed down the stairs. The arm laying near the bags of supplies caused him to go into a deep daze, he subconsciously moved around his right arm, 'What the-'
After a long daze, he sarcastically chuckled and said out loud, "What the heck are you surprised about? What more could you accept from a monster?" He walked towards the bags and grabbed each one of them, all the while once again putting the things that had fallen off from inside them, back in.
As he grabbed everything, he glanced at the arm before a glint flashed in his eyes and he kicked it heavily, causing it to slide away into the distance.
He walked back to the staff room and knocked the door. Aoci opened it, seeing Ferrin with a lot of bags, she blinked in surprise while saying, "You found so much? In such a short time?"
Ferrin didn't bother saying much and handed the bags over, "Please help yourself!"
Aoci grabbed them and walked inside. She, along with the others skimmed through the contents while taking each what they wanted. As they were eating silently, Aoci suddenly glanced in Ferrin's direction and asked curiously, "Are you not going to eat?"
Ferrin sighed heavily, his focus from the severed corpse disturbed and he shook his head, "No. Is the water still running?"
Seeing that he was gazing at the bathroom, Aoci nodded her head whike continuing to nibble on her snack.
Ferrin got up and walked inside it, his clothes were covered in blood, they reeked a pungent odor but what could he do? He didn't have a spare or something. He sighed before taking off his clothes and walking down the shower and winding the know!
Dizzz!
The water begun to flow down, quickly drowning Ferrin's whole body. Ferrin sighed again heavily, he stepped outside the range of water and went towards the sink, he gazed at his own reflection.
'No change. Nothing at all... Is it so simple to take a life? Is it so meaningless?' Ferrin frowned, his eyes falling down to his right hand, seeing it all grown up without a single scratch, he couldn't help but feel something grip his heart.
'It would've been better... if it had remained severed.' A deep look of pondering flashed in his eyes, replacing their usual hazy tone.
'Ugh!' Ferrin clasped his mouth, feeling something itching to come out of his mouth. 'Ugh!'
He tried to hold it back but when he became overwhelmed by the urge, he rushed towards the toilet, almost the same time he reached his limit.
Blurge!
As he was vomiting out, his gut bent upon emptying every last bit of what was inside, his eyes let loose as well, 'What the heck did I do? A human... it wasn't even a monkey, it was a human! HUMAN!'
'What will mom think when she wakes up? Huh? FERRIN!! Oh Ferrin... just, just what did you do? A humans life? His blood... on your hands? Yet you... you can't even feel anything when you gaze at his lifeless body... Ferrin... you truly are someone, fit to become a monster! Relish now, no body can even say anything. After all, you are a shape-shifting monster!'
Blurge!
By the time Ferrin walked out of both himself and the bathroom, the girls had finished eating their fill. They didn't have much of an appetite either, considering all that occurred yesterday.
As Ferrin pushed back his wet hair, he gazed at the girls and a thought suddenly flashed acrossed his mind, 'If my reason is that I am a monster then,' A slight forward appeared on his face, 'Why are they unbothered?'
'It's fine if they don't mind that I killed him considering they must've wanted to do it themselves but... how could they be so unnerved when sitting next to it for the whole night?'
"Lord! Here, have this towel!" Seilo got up and handed Ferrin the towel they discovered last night.
While taking hold of it, Ferrin glanced at her and asked, "You are Miss Seilo, right? Why do you wish to come with me? It's dangerous outside and... you are injured aren't you?"
Seilo touched her head reflexively, before smiling gently, "Its only a small scratch! Besides, I wish to repay you as much as I can!"
Ferrin dried himself up and nodded his head, "Then let's head off!"
Seilo nodded her head readily. Ano glanced at Aoci, the latter doing the same and lazily got to her feet.
Aoci gazed at Ferrin while saying, "Please keep them away from harm's way."
Ferrin nodded his head and walked outside the room alongside Seilo and the weary Ano.
'Be on your guard! He might attack anytime, you must run back the second he does something fishy!' Ano nodded and braced herself.
Ferrin calmly walked down, already sure of the fact that there weren't any monkeys inside as he had successfully came down earlier without any major problems.
"Please try to keep as quiet as you can and also follow behind me while always being on your toes!" Ferrin carefully warned them before stepping outside and checking for danger.
Seilo nodded her head at his warning while Ano smirked sarcastically while thinking, 'Already plan to do that!'
Ferrin motioned for them to come when after successfully finding no danger.
"Which path should we take?" Seilo asked whooe looking around. The situation had cooled down a lot from yesterday. The cars had stopped burning and even the smoke was less but most importantly, it was morning time! It provided a lot more visibility.
Also, after having emptied the ground from a great deal of corpses, even the monkeys were nowhere to be seen.
"Of course, the shorted one!" Ferrin nodded towards them and headed off. The two girls flowing right behind him.
Ferrin copied his mother's role with the girls, this time, he stepped in the front and moved the girls away from the few monkeys' that were sleeping whike snoring loudly. All the while warning them when he saw something disgusting like a half chewed or burnt corpse, to close their eyes and follow him.
Seilo listened to his orders like they were absolute commands while Ano had her reservations at first.
'He doesn't seem to have any ulterior motives but its too soon to judge now. But at least for now, I think I can trust him.'
Ano's great deal of weariness was shaken off when she once ignored his warning and opened her eyes to peek at what he called as disgusting thing. Her feet froze the instance she saw the sight, she nearly screamed aloud. But she still managed to hold on and shut her eyes right away.
"Huh!"
Just after having by-passed a disgusting thing, Ferrin exclaimed in surprise and confusion. Causing Ano and Seilo to open their eyes reflexively.
Even they were surprised from what they saw, a great deal of the ahead buildings had broken down and had blocked the path forward.
"Wh-What is this?" Ano asked in clear dumbfoundedness.
'Could it be... that skyscraper sized monkey walked past here?' Ferrin's eyes flickered worriedly, he knew his greatest concer in this... parallel world was that monkey right now. 'I hope it doesn't appear anywhere near the supermarket.' Ferrin sighed, knowing that turning around and walking back without any aid won't help anything bit worsen things.
His eyes flashed resolutely and he turned around towards the girls', "Lets take another route!"