1173. Wounded minds, 5
(Armylè)
Morhens entered a rather normal looking room. High under ceiling, wider than the common rooms.
An impressive canopy bed, a wide desk and cluttered shelves. It was far more luxurious than any place he had ever seen and still impressed him.
Néphéline was making a nonchalant and uninterested show. She was reading on her bed as if it was a sofa, not raising or batting an eyelash to the bug’s presence. She wasn’t going to dignify his existence.
Morhens walked around the room as if he was discovering an ancient cave. He was a little curious about the foreign objects and art pieces here and there, unable to comprehend their distinct culture. All was very odd.
It was a boring museum, but he had a look around. Néphéline pretended not to care, holding her boiling anger in check inside. She was not supposed to attack him.
Morhens noticed how things had been shoved out of the way clumsily. He commented on that. She didn’t reply and turned a page. Morhens scratched his moustache and thought about it.
Now he felt indeed playful. The sickness was clutching his lungs and guts inside. It felt horrible even though nothing appeared wrong.
He had the beginning of a smile, thinking about Johann. Well played Johann, he thought. Morhens had finished reviewing the data available to him. He picked up a chair and sat for a moment. Néphéline was not looking toward him. Someone finally defying him... Just because it was a temperamental child.
G - Since you’re not going to answer me. I’ll make my monologue.
N - ...
G - I bet I can get you to react under let’s say five minutes.
N - ...
G - If I wing, I’ll borrow your records of Cheryl Rough I noticed up there. I’ve heard about it. So I can check what it’s worth. And take them from you.
N - ...
G - I guess my name doesn’t matter to you. But you will need it to insult me later. I’m Geder Morhens. My age... My job... Who cares, right? I hate people challenging my perspective, I hate doctors, I loathe stupid people... Well, I don’t like many people really. No... There’s no one I really ever liked.
And Morhens chuckled a little at that.
G - Johann found the right person weirdly to help me feel a little better. Not a help, but a bright reminder. Of everything I hate. You.
N - ...
G - Well, no reason to linger about me. So from what I saw, you’re Néphéline Wolframite, 14 years old...
He had purposefully made a mistake to her age, and was rather happy not to get the reaction from such a simple tease.
G - Good, you’re not so stupid. Dumb people annoy me to no end... 15. High school. Takes me back... You like... Cheryl. You don’t like... strangers. Although I can guess you don’t like many people either. You don’t have friends. Probably not for the same reason as I. Thank goodness right? What would feel worse than having something in common the two of us?
N - ...
G - Right... It’s not that I’m in a hurry, but now I’m going to win my bet.
Morhens stood up. He got a step closer to say it. Something mean.
G - Cheryl died pathetically.
N - !
Néphéline had twitched, an anger bursting. Morhens had a smile. Now he was enjoying cruelty.
G - There you go. Already lost, but we won’t stop there right? You wouldn’t start talking just for so little.
N - ...
G - She’s already been forgotten by everyone where I work. She really didn’t matter. Anyway, it’s only her ridiculous death that gave her a bit of success, right?
Néphéline’s aura changed.
Now she wanted to kill him where he stood. She wanted to see him explode, shred to bits by invisible powers she would have commanded.
She looked up. She wanted to kill him.
Morhens felt that glare but didn’t react to it.
He was packing nonchalantly the records that had been kept so preciously. He stole them, since she refused to react.
G - I’ll bring them back if I remember to. I probably won’t. But your old lady can help I’m sure.
N - ...
G - He was right... Something reminding me of my reasons was much better. You are... ugly, spoiled, and weak willed. You are embodying everything wrong with our city. And you have this... nauseating presence. It’s really off. Anyway, you think you’re annoying me by refusing to talk, but really it will only help you suffer more.
N - ...
G - Last advice from someone smarter than you. Be more intelligent with your quandaries, because stupidity makes people like me crueller.
Morhens waved a goodbye and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Sadistic impulses were quenched sufficiently. He wanted to laugh, but held it as he passed by Margarette.
It had been short enough.
He was about to give him the records of Cheryl he had taken to anger her.
G - She didn’t lend them to me exactly. Do you want them back?
Margarette glared at him and then the records. They did not like each other but they could see the intelligence of the other party.
He had gotten what he came here for, and was now offering something in exchange.
Margarette had heard of him and their job. Another painful opportunity...
M - Keep them...
Morhens had been ready to wash his hands with everything, but they had agreed for him to now play his role one more time. His turn to be useful, now to Néphéline.
To incite her to fight, to go outside and recover these...
It was an ever more painful chapter Margarette was envisioning for Néphéline. But one where she could coerce Morhens to be useful as the enemy. He deserved it, and he wouldn’t deny it.
He was amused. A nasty and twisted character he was to her old eyes.
But one that could be of use to her.
Morhens left, chuckling.
Margarette was left in the hall, holding her arms crossed, thinking. She was not devoid of sympathy for Néphéline and worried greatly for her. But she had found no better path to force her to adapt and thrive.
Then savage screaming ensued from the floor above.
Enraged yells echoed loudly, along sounds of broken furniture in wrath.
Margarette climbed the stairs and opened the door to find Néphéline trashing her room in loud anger and pain.
She had been humiliated and tortured.
She was hurting her arms and feet on anything that could be broken around her.
When she had finished her violent tantrum, Margarette approached her to calm and sooth her.
N - That sod dipshit! Fucking asshole!
M - Néphéline... If you want to recover what he took, you will have to face him...
N - Why!
M - It’s a fight between you and him...
N - Maggie!
M - I cannot help you Néphéline... You will have to succeed by yourself. He represents a part of the world outside. The world of men... So, fight against him, not against yourself.
Néphéline was trembling and struggled accepting her grandmother’s embrace. She was breathing fast, uneasy. She had pain swallowing. She now was recovering a part of her lost consciousness.
What she had done to her room became plain. A childish tantrum that solved nothing.
N - My room...
M - Your room is a part of you Néphéline... Your room always reflects a little part of you.
Néphéline observed with horror the desolation. She was horrified by herself.
But despite the pain and the faster heartbeat, she managed to ask.
N - Where... Does this motherfucker works?
~
Around the same time, I was reached out more directly by the real Cheryl.
I was having lunch outside, pensive.
I was nibbling on a biscuit without much enthusiasm, looking at the nice weather outside.
Cheryl invited herself to sit in front of me. Her look was too uncommon to mistake with anyone else, even if I couldn’t see much of her face. We exchanged a few hollow words and empty polite forms.
An awkward silence was quickly set. I wasn’t answering the hints because I didn’t want to.
C - I would like to know what the doctors told you, when they told you of Prume’s death.
A - That is unkind to ask.
C - There is... An iceberg of lies. What you’ve been told, is merely the tip. Do you get me?
I sighed, looking around us. It was peaceful. I didn’t feel spied on but I would never be able to tell.
A - What about the white snakes? Are the emissaries watching?
I asked that so seriously, Cheryl was taken aback. She wondered what nonsense I was talking about or whether I had gone insane. No, it meant that if she wanted to talk about confidential things, she should start first.
The young woman lifted her fringe to show me her desolate and eyeless face. She has a raw beauty I should paint, but I didn’t react to her look.
C - I’ve been looking for a long time for something in the deeper underground layers of the iceberg. No snakes I believe... Only humans and machines. The surveillance of the denizen is higher than you would believe, and yet far weaker than I feared when I began digging. We’re not watched nor listened to here Éloïse. Rest assured.
A - What do you want? Be more direct.
C -Ah... Okay then.
I was annoyed by her insistence and ludicrous dreams I could guess.
She sighed and breathed in.
C - Prume’s body wasn’t taken anywhere. She disappeared right after being declared dead. All that was left behind was her implant and no one found her. I want to figure out what happened and where she went, because she was my friend. And because this is only a small part of everything I’m trying to reopen.
My eyes opened a little wider in surprise.
At least, that was a bit more direct.
~
