(Back to Eddward-nya)
I was brought back to the town 'square' main building. Elder Granite was speaking with her companions about something that sounded troubling. Their voices went silent as I approached the table where they sat.
"Hello again Mr. Vincent." Elder Granite greeted with that grandmotherly smile. "I must apologize for not introducing ourselves yesterday. As you heard I am Elder Granite, this-" She gestures to the man on her right"-is Elder Brock and-" To the man on her left "-Elder Render." The men stood from their seats and I exchanged and shakes with greetings before they sat down again.
"You gave us quite the surprise, normally those raised in the Facility that were half Rebel would try to push their other selves down and lock them away until finally they, themselves, go mad from their own blood bond." Elder Granite spoke cleaning her spectacles. "But you, dear child, have some sort of agreement with yourself and only want better communication, correct?" I nodded remaining silent. The elderly woman slipped her spectacles back into place, "We have just the shop you can go to for this. But first we don't wish to rouse unnecessary attention about your....presence." She waved a hand and in came a woman, late thirties at most, glasses placed atop her head surrounded by a tangle of brunette hair, lively golden hazel eyes, her clothing was simple with a white button up, brown vest, and brown capris with a sewing dangling off her hip, and old, mud-caked boots.
"You called for me, Elders?" The woman asked slipping a pencil behind her ear, I noticed she held a large sewing needle between her lips as she spoke.
"Yes, Scarlet," Elder granite nodded her greeting. "This child is in need of proper clothing to hide in our society temporarily." She raised a hand gesturing to me. The woman, Scarlet, squinted at me before putting her glasses on, her expression softened to look more thoughtful.
A grin grew on her features as she approached, "Such perfect figure..." She muttered to herself, circling me calculating mentally. After about her ninth circle she stopped to my left and faced the Elders. "I can work with him." Scarlet concluded before dragging my off to somewhere.
She stopped at the edge of the makeshift city making me collide into her back, she walked on unfazed that I ran into her. "Umm.... Where exactly are we headed.... Scarlet, right?"
"We are headed to my shop. The Elders want you to blend in here while you're doing whatever it is you're doing. So I'm gonna make you some more fitting clothes than those tacky white rags." She explained turning a right corner. I looked down at my clothing formerly pure white now stained and disgusting, even my gloves.
A faint voice snickered at the back of my skull. Him.... He brought me down here and practically shoved me around making my clothes dirty and now I have to replace them.
I followed Scarlet into a small building similar to the glasses shop in the Facility except there is a painting of pieces of clothing on the side of the open doorframe. Inside there was lively chatter and humming of sewing machines filling the place. Despite the outside appearance the inside was very large, about twelve sewing machines were at opposite sides in four columns two on each side leaving a walkway down the center. At each and every machine was a young man or young woman and older chatting away with their neighbor without a care in the world, or more rather underworld. Children ran a muck chasing each other with hand sewn monster dolls or pretending to be monsters themselves wearing costumes.
Through all this I continued to follow Scarlet into the back and down a flight of stairs into what I guess would be her workroom.
"Step on the scale, please." She ordered kicking a small bathroom scale to my feet. I did as I was told wondering what my weight had to do with my clothes. "Tell me what it says." The woman demanded picking up a sketch pad from her desk.
I looked down at the scale, "Roughly one hundred nineteen pounds." I answered. I heard scribbling of pencil on paper and her muttering.
"Step off," Scarlet ordered approaching me with a roll of measuring tape. "And arms out." Again I did as I was told. The woman took my fedora and tossed it aside with obvious distaste, muttering about the Facility having no originality or proper taste in color, and started measuring me.
"You don't eat a lot do you?" She questioned wrapping the measuring tape around my waist.
"I suppose not or I just eat a bit too healthily." I replied a bit sarcastically. Scarlet looked up at me with amusement well written in her eyes before writing on the pad again.
"I thought the Facility trained you to be more refined." She spoke walking back to her desk.
"Not everyone developed a different personality. Several of my fellow trainees stayed well the same even after graduation." I replied.
The woman snickered. "I like you kid. What'd you say your name was?" She asked peering over her glasses.
"Eddward Vincent, two d's in the Edd." I answered taking slight interest in some fabric samples pinned on the wall.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm Scarlet Gem formerly known as Red Poison." She said not looking up from her sketchpad.
"Red Poison," I echoed questioningly. The name sounded familiar somewhere.
And then it hit me, "You are Red Poison? As in acupuncture poison then stringing victims innards on thread, Red Poison?" I asked.
Scarlet nodded looking up at me, "Are you a fan of my work?"
I shrugged slightly, "Not exactly, but my friend's little sister is a big fan of you. She does acupuncture with a friend that grew up in our neighborhood for a career."
Scarlet smirked, clearly amused. "Good to hear my work still carries on in the hearts of children." She spoke wistfully, "What is her name?"
"Ah... Sarah. Sarah Blackcut." I answered curiously. Scarlet's expression softened as if she were going into her memories. "Are.... Are you alright, Scarlet?"
"I'm fine, honey. Just dandy." She responded without a second thought. "I was just thinking about my younger years working, killing targets i was assigned, be ridding innocents that got in my way because we both were just being paid to do our jobs. Even young members of the Facility that had just got out of training." She looked up at me, straight into my eyes, her golden eyes moistened with tears. "What I always never understood was why I had to do it, take lives of men and women who had families waiting for them and they were just doing their jobs to keep food on the table." She took in a shaky breath. "And we even train our little ones to do the same, every child, every generation young ones like yourself are being paid to kill your targets at any cost without even knowing why.... Such a sad life to live."
As I listened to her, I kept thinking 'I wouldn't have to worry about this. I only clean up the mess, tie up loose ends and such. Why is it such a big deal?' But then it made sense because it's part of my job to deal with witnesses and that means killing innocent people who were nothing related to the situation. I could see where she was coming from, with all she could have seen when she was on the field. The way we live, the way we grew up knowing what we were taught, it is such a sad life. Having that kind of blood on our hands, some of us losing our minds because of that blood. How can we ever live knowing that and being aware of it?
