Strings of Sin

Chapter 7

"Hello," Stardom said to a dark figure that lay behind the bed and brought his friend's attention over to this deep shadow.

"Hello!" December cheered as she scanned that corner of the room. "Can you please come out of the darkness? It's kind of hard to see you there, buddy."

"Hi!" the dark figure shot up almost immediately in response to the simple greeting, beginning to reveal their strange features to the two intruders. "Customers?" They inched back into the corner, turned to face the wall and started to whisper to an invisible dragon very quietly. "... after so long? ... I must be dreaming. ... am I going insane? ... don't mess this up. ... not this time." They smiled as they turned to face the two guests again. "Welcome to my lovely establishment! My name is Generosity, and I will be serving you! The customer is always right!"

Stardom inspected the strange sandwing with curiosity, picking up on his queer smile, strange tension sprinkled with a twinge of anxiety, something was off. They had these masses of black under their eyes, scratch marks all over their body, some appearing to be new; how strange? Stardom peered in the direction of his friend and noticed that December was more intrigued and probably ready to help than scared.

"Do you know anything about McWings?" Stardom got straight to the point because he didn't want to linger here any longer. December frowned as she directed her attention to the nightwing, fearing that their intentions were both very different.

"McWings? Oh..." the sandwing went back down again and pointed their body towards the wall with something persisting in their mind, something scary... "... they aren't here for what you have to offer. ... try to interest them in something. ... don't let them leave again!" They got back up and struggled to keep that smile on their face, twitching and shaking a bit. "Could I interest you in..." they twitched as it wouldn't go away... "Could I give you some..." they couldn't escape it... "Could I..." they were trapped... "Please, don't leave me... please, try my food, not hers..." they shook out their whole body and tried to remain calm. "Would you like a table? I'll give you my best one! I'll serve you the best food! I'll do anything to..." they stopped midsentence again and again because it was everywhere, cluttering up their mind, draining them, preventing them from... "What would you like?"

"We would like to help you out!" December spoke up, first. "It's pretty messy here, and it seems like you need someone to help you clean up!"

"No, no, no," they widened their eyes and jumped back into the corner. "I'm just as independent..." They quickly turned around, getting down so that everything they were dealing with right now could be forced into this one, controlled corner of the room... "... I'm capable. ... I'm worth something. ... I'm supposed to be on my own so that I can prove that I'm just as good as..." They swiftly picked themselves up after discerning that they were escaping for too long. "I don't need help, I just need to serve you, so please, be my guest!"

Stardom grew very impatient with this whole ridiculous situation. His ignorant friend was blind to this dragon's creepy vibe and wasn't smart to leave in time before he hurt himself. Was it time to speak up? Was it time to be honest? This place is filthy, and he didn't want to stay! He didn't want to dwell! He opened his maw and began to yell! "No! We don't want to be your guests! We don't want to stay! You clearly have some problems to fix with this ugly place and yourself, and I'm not going to let you manipulate my friend into giving you undeserved help at the expense of his own health!"

The nightwing had retained enough of this hopeless mess of a problem and knew that this was too much for dragonets such as themselves to handle, and he grabbed December by the foreleg fiercely and started to drag her away from potential, helpless pain. But the sandwing was determined to get them to stay, alarm beginning to rush through their veins. "Wait! Where are you going? Why did you say all those things? Is it..." They began to retreat to the corner again and then stopped. "You only came here to humiliate me, didn't you? Came to check how low I've fallen. You know what, I don't care anymore! I don't care what you say to me! I don't care what you take from me! I just... leave."