How to Make a Sinner Sleep

40 | stranger; whispers in the dark

Night fell rapidly, blanketing over day and smothering out all lights, save for the few dim windows along the street telling of those who had yet to fall asleep.

Kaden sat on his folded bed, holding a mask between gloved hands.

The lights had been long turned off, waiting in bated breath for Arlo to gradually drift off, enjoying the luxury of a soft mattress. In the Academy, Arlo's present single room that Kaden had arranged was even more luxurious.

Nevertheless, the boy would never take for granted simple pleasures, like a whole roof over his head, or warm covers to wrap his body.

The man quietly ran his fingers along the grooves of the skeleton mask, gifted by Niklas, and carried over here by him. A new identity, he figured, that he could roam the towns with.

A man with no ties to anything was suspicious, but if he were investigating on behalf of the Misfits of Obscurity, he could create a reputation and tie himself to a group with less suspicion.

Seeing that Niklas fully intended to involve himself in serious matters, Kaden could be the stepping stone to something greater.

He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to Arlo's breathing.

There was no doubt in his mind that Niklas and Noah would become something great. That perhaps, this little organization, under Niklas' intelligent hands, could transform into something much larger.

Well, if that annoying friend of his chose to do so, of course. Kaden would just give him the opportunity if he ever became serious.

Having ties in the Underground wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

He peered outside the window of the small inn, hearing the soft rolling wheels on stone. Masked and quiet enough to not wake the sleeping, but nothing out of ordinary to alert the awake.

Turning, he fixed the mask on his face and relaxed his shoulders. He donned a black suit, and a top hat that covered his slicked pink hair. Although the hair colour was uncommon, it wasn't impossible to find.

To begin with, he wanted to disguise his identity, but wasn't worried if it was discovered. Because Kaden Chauvet was a figure one would expect in such filthy places, dealing dark and terrible deals.

Of course, he had rarely made public appearances, and the description of him that roamed the streets was more of his disastrous personality than his face.

In the Academy, students had recognized him because of his gait, and that there was no other that radiated such a condescending, irritable air. Not to mention the carriage he rode in that belonged to the royal family.

He straightened his jacket with slender, straight fingers and opened the door.

In the room, the child's inquisitive eyes opened, slowly turning at the back of the man, watching as he stepped out, ready to escape into the night.

Arlo pulled the bed covers off, shivering at the cold of the night breeze. Bare-footed, he walked over to the window and stared outside, watching shadows wander through the streets.

He watched, as Kaden slipped inside the carriage.

He watched, as the carriage drove further away to an unknown destination.

Kaden had said he wasn't a good person, and Arlo didn't think that he was lying. Maybe he wasn't a good person, and maybe there was a list of crimes more spectacular than Arlo had seen within the backstreet.

But he figured, maybe that was okay.

That if it was that man, the one who had killed his father under his own roof and taken him in, then maybe Arlo didn't mind being betrayed or abandoned.