Lament of the Traitor King (Complete)

Chapter 73 - Arisen from the Ashes

The entranceway was filled with a light that blinded Netta. Raising an arm to her face, she covered her eyes and then lowered it to find that the light had gone away. Netta realized when she looked at where the man had been that he was no longer standing in the doorway. She sensed movement in the bottom of her eyeline and looked down in time it to see that Wallace was laying on the ground.

In her mind, Ash asked her if she was alright. Netta felt him tighten an arm on her shoulders. A comfort, perhaps, but also it was more something else.  A warning, to the man on the ground

On the ground, slowly, Wallace craned his head up to look at Ash, his eyes wide. His glasses had fallen off of his face, hanging, pathetic, against the slight curve of his chin. He made no movement to grab them.

Ash spoke finally, echoing what Netta had realized in the moment that had just passed. "Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks he can take a physical form to try to gain the interest of a woman."

And then Netta realized what had just happened. How the man currently laying on the ground had tried - unsuccessfully- to use magic, trying to strike Ash. But, if he had been trying to use magic -

Wallace grimaced and struggled to his feet, shaking. "I-I'm sorry," he said, beseeching Ash. "I did not know that she had taken another."

"Don't apologize to me," Ash said suddenly. "You need to tell my Master here that you're sorry for bothering her."

The Monster calling itself Wallace turned to look at Netta, his eyes wide, bright with fear. "I'm sorry, truly sorry, Neith. Only - only, how did you meet him in the short time that we have been apart?"

Netta looked at Wallace - truly seeing him for the first time. How had she never before seen the way that he hardly seemed to blink, the overbright quality of his wet, so very wet, eyes?

"We - we didn't meet, really," Netta found herself saying. "we've known each other since I was little." She couldn't stop staring at the man that she had thought was as straight and narrow as it got.

In spite of everything that she had seen, still.  How could he be a - Monster?

Wallace reached up to his head and began to fidget with his hair. Chuckling nervously, he said. "So - ah, you've been..." he cleared his throat, and his next words sounded harried, higher in pitch. "C-childhood sweethearts? Something like that?"

"Yes," Ash answered. Netta felt a sensation of warmth - pride - in her chest at his words. In spite of their odd situation, and how low her spirits had gotten, she felt a smile begin at her lips that she could not, for the life of her, wipe off.

From behind them, Netta heard Winnie. "Who are you two talking to?"

Netta turned around. "Just an old friend," then she turned around, only to get confirmation to what Wallace had said. He had simply vanished.

"Great," Winnie said, angrily shaking a jar of dried seasonings into the pot she had been stirring on the stove. "One, two, three - hey, why not add another Monster into the mix, it's not as though we're already facing enough on the Witch front as it is, let's open ourselves up to subterfuge, let's play Russian roulette with possession by keeping four of those kind around!" 

It was two hours later, and as opposed to leaving as they had thought that It had, "Wallace" had decided to stay.

The Monster was what appeared to be a Bogey, in all likelihood, and had created the illusion that It and Netta had some time ago met in line for a tickets to a show. The more Netta thought about it, the more it occurred to her that the show It had claimed that they had met at seemed unlikely to be one that she would have wanted to attend.