Tied up at the Moment

Daniel came back with the bucket and walked into the room with a confused expression. He sat down in his chair and handed Leo the bucket and his pen. Then he watched Leo with a face filled with expectation.

Leo grabbed the bucket and placed it between himself and the table, wedging it between his legs. He got slightly comfortable in the uncomfortable metal seat.

Then, Leo threw up a large mouthful of blood.

"Woah, what the fuck!" Daniel jumped out of his seat.

Leo looked up from the bucket, "Sit."

Daniel gulped slightly and returned to his seat. Before he could say anything, he felt himself shudder slightly and his face grew pale.

Daniel had noticed a slightly ethereal contract in Leo's hand, which was now trembling uncontrollably.

Leo gripped his trembling arm tightly with his other hand. He sat in silence with gritted teeth as he stared at Daniel, waiting for the pain to subside, his consciousness wavering slightly.

Eventually, the arm stopped trembling and Leo opened his mouth to let a large amount of blood to fall into the bucket once more. He spat a few times to get the majority of the blood out. Leo leaned back in his seat with a slight pant.

A crimson red slowly trickled from his nose, but Leo didn't bother wiping it away. He was already covered in blood, why would he care if there was a bit more.

Leo took a moment to collect himself and he spoke to Daniel.

"I told you don't know everything about me." Leo said warily, his eyes slightly haggard.

Daniel gulped as he stared at the contract in Leo's hand. This was bad, he didn't expect to have to sign one, not ever. There are a few types of contracts, but easiest to make and most simple was a voidable contract.

In school, Leo was taught about three types of contracts that any dealer can form. There are more, but they are either extremely advanced, a secret technique, forbidden, or just completely forgotten to time.

While in school, Ethan had this to say about the contracts, "The three most prominent types of contracts are: voidable contracts, restricted contracts, and spoken contracts. With each of these contracts, they increase in difficulty to summon, with voidable contracts being the easiest and spoken contracts the hardest.

"These contracts can allow a dealer to place restrictions on someone or make sure they achieve a goal. If the contract is broken by either party, a punishment will be handed out to the party guilty of breaking it. It will be handed out by the Judge, but more about them later.

"The dealer can write a punishment in the contract, where if broken, the individual who breaks the contract must comply to said punishment. Different contracts can have different punishments, with heavy restrictions on which contract can use death as a punishment.

"First contract type, also the most common, is a voidable contract. It is a contract that if not properly formed can be left by either party, being the drafter or the signee, if they present their case to the Judge. Voidable contracts can outright kill the drafter or signee if they agree to death as a punishment and the contract is broken.

"The second is restricted contracts, they cannot be left by either party once the contract is formed. These are more advanced to summon than voidable contracts, meaning many less demons can use them. These contracts cannot have death as a punishment.

"Lastly, spoken contracts are the hardest, at least among the ones I'm telling you about here, to summon. Most demons will never be able to summon one of these. These are contracts that can bind the signee, although they technically don't sign anything, with just your voice. It can even be done without their knowledge of the contract. Like restricted contracts, you cannot make the punishment death."

Ethan looked the round the class, pausing for questions. A student raised their hand and asked, "How does one escape a contract then? If someone is stronger than the dealer who made the contract, do they have to suck it up?"

"One escapes by accepting the punishment from the dealer outright. But sometimes the Judge will interfere. They might make the punishment better or worse. It is the only way out of a contract if it isn't a voidable contract, so be cautious." Ethan replied.

"So, what's a Judge? I've heard my parents talk about them once, but I was never told." A student asked

Ethan answered the student, "I was just getting to that. The Judge… hmmm… the Judge is an enigma. One that every single creature should be afraid of if they ever enter or create a contract."

Daniel stared at the contract, trying to determine what type it was. He looked at the bloody Leo, then back at the contract. He knew next to nothing about them, if fact, he only knew about voidable contracts and restricted contracts. Even then, he wasn't sure of their differences, only hearing about them in hushed whispers.

But he did know that voidable contracts were the most common, so he assumed they were the weakest. He looked quickly between Leo and the contract as Leo got a grip on himself. Daniel bit his lip and determined that it was a voidable contract, so he assumed he could get out of it if he tried his hardest.

He knew all he had to do was call upon the Judge. Whatever that meant.

After having a moment to rest, Leo finally spoke up in obvious pain, "Sign the contract and I'll tell you the rest."

Daniel stared at it, tempted by it. He knew the dangers, but the allure of killing someone he hated was too strong. He reached towards the contract and grabbed it. He hesitantly opened it and looked at the inside, only to find a massive wall of text. He looked at the bottom and found a dash where Leo's name was supposed to be and a line for him to sign his.

"Aren't you supposed to sign your name." Daniel asked.

"I made the contract, its bound by my soul and is using that as the signature. So no, I don't need to sign it." It was something dealers could do if they wished to remain anonymous.

Daniel gulped slightly and started reading through the text. He surprisingly found himself actually understanding most of it. It really only did say that he wasn't allowed to leave the room before Leo and that Leo would have to recount the events that came after the nightclub incident without lying.

But he broke out in a slight cold sweat upon reaching the bottom and seeing the punishment. It was a single word, but a word Daniel feared, nonetheless.

'Death.'

Daniel thought about backing out of the deal once more. He remained silent in the room for a long time. By the time he finally decided to sign it, Leo had already recovered from his pain.

"Alright, I'll sign it. Do I have to use my blood or-" Daniel was about to ask before being interrupted.

"What? Use the pen, dipshit. Why do you think I asked for it?" Leo said harshly, aggravated from the pain he experienced earlier.

"I thought contracts needed blood."

"We aren't that barbaric, geez." Leo muttered while glaring at Daniel.

Daniel took the pen that Leo was now holding towards him. He hesitated before grabbing it, but he steeled his resolve and finally took it. He started writing his name on the paper and put the pen down.

He stared fiercely at Leo, making him slightly uncomfortable.

"Dude, calm down. I'm getting to it..." Leo muttered while shaking his head.

Leo's eyes shot open after he woke up. His arms were incredibly sore as he found them raised above his head, and he couldn't feel one of his legs. He looked around and noticed he was in a relatively dark room hanging from something.

Leo looked up and found his arms bound by chains and being hung from a large hook. Leo then looked down and found himself stripped of clothes, save his underwear. The abundance of scars laid bare for all to see. His leg was incredibly bloody but wrapped in a bandage. Leo found a very small pool of blood beneath him as it trickled down from his thigh and fell from his foot.

Leo looked around and noticed Faust hanging from a chain to his left and to his right was…

Evelyn Castille and Kyle Stout, from the squad that was backing Leo's squad up. They were supposed to provide intel if Leo needed it, but Leo didn't ever bother to use them for help.

But Evelyn was a grim and Kyle was a dealer, meaning someone was missing from their squad. They both weren't reacting to the environment, but Leo assumed they had been there for a while. Kyle had a leg wound, much like Leo, and Evelyn had a large bruise on her head.

"Ah, our main guest finally arrives. Hello Mathias." A bald man with a scar along their face said as they entered the room.

"Oh, hey Keegan, what's up?"

"Nonchalant as always, I see."

"Aw, you should have said I was up, since ya know, I'm hanging from a hook."

"Damn it, I could've!" He snapped his fingers and looked disappointed in himself.

"No biggie. How's the wife."

"She's doing fine, we've had another kid since the last time I saw you."

"Aw, that's wonderful! Boy or a girl?" Leo asked with a smile.

"A girl."

"Congrats!"

Daniel cut in, "There is no way in hell that this happened."

Leo looked up from cleaning his nails again, scraping out even more blood from underneath them, "But it did."

"Well, I refuse to believe it."

Leo sighed, "Look, right here." He pointed somewhere at the contract.

'The drafter, ---, will be punished immediately with death if they tell a lie during the recount of events after the Schloss Adler Nightclub incident. In the case of not remembering something, no punishment will be given out, but a lie about this will also cause the punishment to be enacted upon the drafter, ---.'

"See?"

"I refuse to believe that."

"Well, I guess that's your problem." Leo said.

He continued retelling what happened.

"What's her name?"

"We named her Anita."

"Aww…"

"Alright, alright, we're getting off track." Keegan said, his face getting serious. In response, Leo also got serious.

"I will not be your torturer this time. I removed the bullet in your leg, but Montague and that masked lady will be watching you. They also gave me this to use on the one named Kyle." He lifted up a clear vial, it was one of the supposed drugs that was given to him back at the nightclub.

Leo's face darkened and Keegan put the drug down, he continued, "Like I said, I will not be watching over you. I hope I get to see you again my friend." Keegan turned and left the room, just like that.

Leo cursed silently as Kyle and Evelyn started moving. They lifted their heads that were bleeding and looked towards Leo with defeated faces.

"How long have you two been here?" Leo asked with a serious tone.

"…"

"…"

Neither answered him, they just remained silent watching Leo with their dead tired eyes.

Leo turned and looked at Faust, whose eyes were closed.

"Roderick must've given him to Montague." Leo thought and sighed. He looked around the room and figured the building they were in was an old slaughterhouse. The tile on the floor was cracked and moldy in some spots. The walls were covered with slight grime as well, but there was still evidence of it being used often.

Then Leo realized Max wasn't with them. He obviously thought of the possibilities, but not for long as the door swung open and two people walked through.

Montague and the doll lady.

"Hey, Monty… Hey creepy doll lady who wants to kill me or something."

"Hello little one." She paused for a moment, "You weren't kidding when you said he would be like this." She said towards Montague with a slight cock to her head.

Montague remained silent.

"Well, Mr. Doe, my name is Lady Elinor, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh… that explains a lot."

"You know of me?"

"Yes, you're the 10th apostle if I'm remembering correctly."

"Hmm… I see John's told you of us. Well, Sebastian has told us about you. He told us that John went out of his way to protect you."

"Mighty peculiar."

"Indeed, it is. Sebastian said he thinks you're the first prince, although I can't say I believe him."

"How's he doing by the way."

"He has a prosthetic jaw now. But, besides that, he's alright."

"Well, that's nice."

"I'll tell him you said that."

"Please do."

Montague's face got progressively worse as their conversation went on. Until he snapped, "Can we get this over with?! I don't want to see him here any longer!"

"Mr. Whittemore, I am your guest, just as Mr. Doe here is my guest. It is impolite to shout at a guest."

"Your guest? It was my men who caught him!"

"Incorrect. I told Mr. Overture to capture Mr. Doe rather than Maximillian. And you remember that it was me who also ordered you to capture Mr. Doe. Meaning, Mr. Whittemore, that Mr. Doe here is my captive, not yours."

"Pfft." Leo laughed suddenly, "I got it now. You didn't capture me at the café so you could find Roderick. When you did that, you gave him some money to give us up."

"Yes, it seems Mr. Overture will do anything for money. Quite surprising, although I guess people do refer to him as 'Mr. Moneybags.'"

"Man, who would've thought that Mr. Moneybags himself would do immoral things for vast amounts of wealth. Truly a shocker."

"Hmm… Sarcasm I believe?"

"Bingo."

"Well, I would be lying if I didn't say that I'd like to know where you hid Avery Junior. That was my mission after all. But I think you'd agree that finding out if you're the first prince takes precedence, correct?"

"I agree wholeheartedly." Leo said as he cracked his neck.

"Well, then I shall start with your friends. Mr. Whittemore, I believe it is time we find out why Castille squad was in Riftmoor."

Suddenly, Evelyn's head shot up with tears falling from her eyes, her voice cracked as she pleaded.

"You already know why! Please!"

"Well, I need to know for certain Ms. Castille. Sometimes the files that get leaked are not one-hundred percent accurate. I like things being perfect. It makes me giddy when they are."

Lady Elinor walked forwards and grabbed a syringe from the table, as well the vial of the clear liquid.

"Now, Mr. Stout, chin up please. I dislike people who don't look at other's while they speak."

But Kyle did not move his head.

"Mr. Stout. Chin. Up. Please." She paused between every word, ever so slightly.

But once more, he did not move his head.

"Kyle, raise your head." Leo said calmly.

With that, Kyle slowly looked towards Lady Elinor. She walked forward to Kyle and made sure he was looking at her.

"Now Mr. Kyle. This is, contrary to its appearance, not a drug. It is actually a highly corrosive acid." She stuck the syringe into the vial and put some of the chemical into it.

"Would you like to see an example, Mr. Stout?"

She tilted her head back and lifted the syringe above her eye. Without a single shred of hesitation, she ejected some of the liquid.

Her other eye winced slightly upon the acid's contact, but besides that she didn't show any reaction to the pain as the acid dissolved through her eye and face. After nearly a minute, a gaping hole appeared in her head, and she fell to the floor.

Then, extremely rapidly, as if being pulled up by something, she rose to her feet and the hole in her head started disappearing.

Leo saw this and smiled grimly. He knew exactly who she was.

Lady Elinor Sharpe, the 10th Apostle, the Undying Angel.

She was also Luke's older sister.