The Non-Human Society

Chapter Forty Four - The Sleepy Artist

      The final board snapped off, and I quickly ducked into the window.

Stepping into the Sleepy Artist, I took a deep breath and regretted it.

"Damn," I cursed at the smell of lifeless emptiness, and...

"That's blood," Renn's cracked voice said as she too snuck underneath the boards I had just broken. I didn't need to turn around to see the face I heard from her.

"Don't cry," I said.

"I am," she said without shame.

Glancing around at the balcony room, I tried to listen to the rest of the building. For any hope.

I couldn't hear Lughes's odd footsteps.

I couldn't hear Crane's feathers brush her clothes as she walked.

And Shelldon's trembling was completely gone.

"Vim," the woman behind me said my name with a broken heart as she stepped past me, hurrying to go deeper into the building.

I didn't respond to her nor stop her as she ran to the hallway.

While she went into the hallway, I tried to put together the pieces. To understand what had possibly happened.

The whole building had been boarded up. There had been a note on the front door, mentioning that the Office of the Lord had seized the property because of criminal activity.

Such a sight was rare, but not uncommon. Usually it was because someone was tried for treason. Or because they had murdered someone and been tried by the nobles and church.

Tried and ruled a criminal.

Lughes? Crane? Shelldon?

Criminals?

Lies. Human lies.

"Crane!" Renn's voice pierced the quiet house, and although I knew better than to expect any answer to come... I still waited to hear a response.

None came.

Stepping towards the hallway, I did my best to ignore the mess around me.

Broken chairs and bookshelves. Rugs moved and tossed to corners of the room. Paintings missing from the walls.

Not only had this house been seized, it had been searched. And by many men.

I could still smell the tinge of metal. The iron and steel lingered in the air.

As did the blood.

"Lughes! Please!" Renn shouted, from farther below me. She had already ran through the whole building, it seemed.

Walking down the hallway, I stopped by each door I passed.

They were all open. Most had been opened with force, and were broken too.

Each room had been searched. Each room looked ransacked.

As I examined each room, I quickly understood something obvious.

"Vim they're gone!" Renn shouted up the stairs.

"I know," I said. My voice sounded hard and cold.

"They're all gone!" she said, hurrying up the stairs. To me.

Had she not heard me? Impossible. She had as good of hearing as me...

No... maybe she was in shock.

"I know," I said again as I headed down the stairs. She found me before I reached the second floor.