Croque-Monsieur

Amy clicked her tongue after rereading the message inside the mask. Of course, there would be a hitch; of course, it would push her into a situation of having to be dishonest with people or else gain no benefit. The oni sighed and tucked the mask away, sitting up fully. There was movement on the opposite side of the aisle she was in, and in short order, Arietta poked her head out and smiled at Amy.

“Ah, you’re awake at last and looking none the worse for wear.” The shopkeeper’s white robe swept across the floor as she approached and leaned in to the reclined oni, stretching her hand out to cup her cheek, “You gave your master quite the fright.”

Amy’s eyes shot open wide, “Caleb?!” Part of her mind knew it was only logical that he had been the one to bring her here, but even so, knowing his phobia, Amy had thought maybe he would have asked for help. Her eyes scanned over the area she could see and not finding the raven-haired man, asked, “Where is he?”

Arietta chuckled, “Over a few aisles, getting some rest himself. He looked dreadful, bringing you in. Carrying you like a princess while he looked ready to pass out from overexertion. So after I got you situated, I made him lie down so he’s just resting his eyes now.”

Locking eyes with the proprietress, Amy felt a dull ache in her chest as Arietta explained how Caleb had carried her here. “Anxiety,” she reasoned, “Caleb obviously pushed himself too hard and now is probably in rough shape, so of course I’m anxious.”

She then paused and her eyes shifted to the mask before focusing once more on Arietta, “Did you know what the mask would do when I purchased it?”

Keeping her expression even before her lips curled into a dry smile, Arietta answered, “I’d be a very poor shopkeeper if I didn’t know what my wares did.”

“Another indirect answer,” Amy noted before pressing on, “If you knew, why the secrecy? Why hide the mask in the first place? I had assumed it was because it was some sort of bonus item, and I suppose I wasn’t too far removed from the truth. But I don’t think that’s the whole of it.”

“Why do people keep secrets at all, dearie?” Arietta leaned in, “Because we don’t want someone to find out about them.” Before Amy could continue interrogating her, Arietta pulled up her hood and said, “That’s enough, dear. I’d say you have discovered all the puzzle pieces; questioning me further is liable to only increase your confusion. Perhaps it would be prudent to focus on the now.” She then turned, her robe giving a brief glimpse of long, shapely legs before she returned to the front of the shop.

Amy sighed, her fingers running over the porcelain surface of the mask. Maybe it was wrong to think of Arietta as an ally, she was part of the show after all. But Amy couldn’t shake the trust she felt compelled to give the older woman. She was sure that, despite all the double speak and smoke in mirrors, she was on their side, or maybe more accurately, whatever side she was on was not as directly opposed to them as whatever side Lucian and Reyna were on.

The oni crawled to her feet and walked around the shelving to the aisle a few rows down and saw Caleb splayed out on a mat similar to one she had been on, though notably, he lacked a pillow. His eyes were closed, but his features looked sunken, and his complexion was pale. Amy knelt down next to him, reached out, and took his hand in hers. He tentatively opened one eye and gave a half smile, “Hey, you’re alright.”

Smirking back at him, Amy squeezed his hand, “Hey, yourself. Yeah, I’m alright. Woke up just a few minutes ago and I’m perfectly fine, nothing to worry about.”

Caleb let out a long breath and nodded slightly, raising his free arm to cover his face, “Good, good. I’m glad…you..um.” He lowered his arm and looked directly at the oni, “When you collapsed and sent me flying…I was so worried.” His voice was even, but there was a tremor at the edge that Amy could tell he was holding back.

Still holding onto his hand, Amy moved to lie down next to him, and Caleb shifted to give her room. She raised an eyebrow, “I sent you flying?”

Caleb gave a low chuckle and shrugged his shoulders, “Well, the mask did, I guess. Just after you put it on. Magically sent me flying, which is now the second time that’s happened to me here, and I don’t want it becoming a habit.

Rubbing her thumb along Caleb’s palm, Amy gave a sideways smile, “Maybe stop picking fights with demons that are bigger than you.”

“Not fair, I haven’t met any that were smaller than me.” Caleb joked.

“At least the same height next time.” Amy grinned before gesturing around them, “Why’d you bring me here?”

Letting out a sigh, Caleb drummed his fingers against the floor and then explained, “You had collapsed, right? We were alone in the Master’s suite and, given the mask that had caused the incident, it felt like a bad move to call Reyna or Lucian. Arietta seemed like the only person who might be helpful, and I couldn’t waste time searching for people. So I powered through.”

“How many panic attacks count as powering through?” Amy shot him a wary look.

Shaking his head and giving a despairing chuckle, Caleb looked down, “Oh, too many to count, pretty sure I passed out on the boat at one point, and felt like my chest was going to cave in by the time I got to the shop's doors.”

Hiding her face in her chest, Amy shook her head, “So fucking stupid. ‘Doctor, help my friend, she had a splinter! Oh this? Yeah, I got shot on the way here, don’t worry about it.’” She lifted a hand and thumped it into Caleb’s chest, “So.” thump “Stupid.” thump. Silence hung in the air for a few moments before her fingers gripped his shirt. “Thank you.”

A gentle smile cracked across the Master’s features, “Hey, anything for my grand vizier.”

This got Amy to swing her head up and cackle, “Oh my god, you’re such a dork.” The oni wiped the wetness from her eyes with her arm.

Caleb smiled and then glanced down towards the mask tucked away in the Oni’s bag, “Did you learn what you wanted?”

Amy had to think for a moment before answering, “No, not what I wanted. I was hoping for something that maybe might help us navigate the game. I did learn a lot, though.”

The curious response caused a raised eyebrow from the Master, “Oh? So if it wasn’t about the game, what did you learn?”

It probably was pointless, but Amy still looked around to ensure no one else was in the shop before answering, keeping her voice low, “Lucian’s past, before here, before he was a demon.”

Caleb’s eyes shot open wide, “What? Why would we need to know that? What difference does it make?”

“I-” Amy paused, feeling the overwhelming sensation of having watched the past well up in her, “It…contextualizes some of his behaviours. I’m not going to sit here and pretend it absolves him of everything he is doing, it doesn’t, but…someone wanted us to know, or at least someone to know.”

Caleb could see the intensity of Amy’s expression and how she had unconsciously gripped his hand tighter, so he tried to swallow his feelings towards the host. “So what did you learn?”

Amy paused, trying to think of how best to summarize things, “As a human, he only lived to be fourteen. He watched his parents die of disease and then was burned and buried alive by the foster parent who took him in.”

Wincing, Caleb nodded, “Ok..”

The oni pressed on. “He then spent two hundred years in purgatory being manipulated by some woman into reliving that moment over and over. She then turned him into a demon and made him **** humans in hell.”

“That explains the hatred of humans…wait, then are we being tortured on a sex show by a fourteen-year-old virgin?” Caleb asked incredulously, and Amy couldn’t keep herself from snorting in laughter.

The oni collected herself, “I don’t think at this point you can really consider him fourteen, he must have been a demon for hundreds of years? It may affect his mentality, but he’s an adult. Also…don’t know about the second bit; the mask didn’t delve into that. There’s got to be fucking in hell though, right?”

Caleb just shrugged, “Never really considered the cosmological implications of heaven, hell, and who is fucking. Though I suppose I have an easier time imagining demons and devils fucking than angels.” Amy gestured with her hand like “see?” and the master laughed.

After the laughter died down, Amy frowned, “I don’t know what to do with this. Someone didn’t want Lucian to know about this mask, which means Lucian wouldn’t want people to know this, right? Which makes it potentially dangerous and possibly useful for throwing him off balance? For now, though, I think it’s best we keep it between us.”

Nodding, Caleb muttered, “Shame that’s all it did, you had to spend so much BP on it, right?”

The words on the mask flashed through Amy’s mind, and she swallowed and frowned, “Yeah, it’s a real disappointment.”

Caleb let go of Amy’s hand and began to crawl up, “Ready to get up off the ground?”

Amy sat up and gave Caleb an appraising look, “Are you sure you’re ready to be moving around? You still look half-dead.”

Chuckling ruefully, Caleb did his best to smile, “Let’s see if I can borrow an umbrella from Arietta, and I should be fine."

Back at the hotel, Maddy and Stella had spent the last few hours trying to get through to Lily. Not straight through, they had taken a break for lunch, even offering some to the plant mass in the corner of the room, only to be insulted by what they had to assume was the flower on top of Lily’s head, hidden from view.

Stella was sitting in the rocking chair, away from the plants, and irritably rocking in place even as Maddy sat on the bed as close to the plants as possible, “Lily, please come out, no one here is going to judge you, we just don’t think closing yourself off like this is healthy. We’re all concerned for you.” The chef tried to keep her voice gentle as she leaned in to speak.

Through the vines, a voice broke through, unfortunately, without both speaking, it became increasingly difficult to distinguish whether it was the flower or Lily herself, “Of course, no one is going to judge me! No one has grounds to complain when they keep focusing on themselves over anyone else! Why should I come out for a bunch of miserable backstabbers?!”

Stella’s eye twitched in her chair as she continued to rock back and forth. This had essentially been every exchange between the girls ever since they got here, with Lily refusing to budge. For what it was worth, while the bartender could tell from her increasingly exasperated expression that it was grating on Maddy, the chef didn’t let it come through in her voice.

“Lily, you know it’s not like that. Remember who you’re talking to. I’ve never once betrayed you, and I wouldn’t do that.” Maddy’s voice was pleading, hoping to break through to her friend.

There was a break, and the room was silent for a bit, making the two outside wonder if the chef had finally gotten through before the flower spoke up, more sad than angry than before, “You say that, but you have feelings for Caleb. It’s only a matter of time before you choose him over me.”

Maddy’s face grew red with a mix of embarrassment and frustration, “Lily! Just because I like Caleb doesn’t mean I’m choosing him over you! It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“Yes, it does!” The voice rang out, and it was clear this time it was Lily who was speaking, and the **** of her voice pushed Maddy back like a slap to the face before Lily continued talking, “That’s how it always is, no matter what people say. They might care about you, but the moment they care about someone else more, it doesn’t matter; they’ll always pick them over you.”

“Lily…” Maddy sighed as Stella got up from her seat and irritably walked over.

“So…what?” The imp cocked her hip to the side and stared down the green, tendrilled mass that was currently Lily.

“Stella? What are you doing?” Maddy reached toward Stella, her face full of concern, but Stella disregarded it and pushed forward.

“Like you’re making such a big fuss about people choosing other people or themselves over you, and? Big fucking whoop. Do you know who I have to go to bed with every fucking day and be stuck dealing with every fucking day? Because it ain’t you.” Stella’s tail whipped around with annoyance.

“That’s right! All you people do is think about yoursel-” The voice from the flower started before being interrupted by Stella making a dramatic, loud yawn.

“Stella!” Maddy reared up, offended, “Lily is hurting here!”

“Yeah, and making it everyone else’s problem, like jeeze, I know better than anyone what it’s like not to enjoy what everyone is thinking about you, but you’re the one who told me to start thinking about others. She claims everyone is being selfish, for what? Not automatically siding with her? For trying to do things differently? Sounds pretty damn sus to me.” Stella started pacing in front of Lily, “Like, oh, ‘being selfish is bad, unless I’M the one doing it, because I’m doing it for the right reasons’ get bent.”

The grassy tendrils quivered and seemed to lose some of their tension. Stella was far from done, though, “Like we all came here with baggage, right? Maya doesn’t get people, Amy is neurotic, Mira has a huge stick up her ass, Eliza can’t take being wrong, Noemi is actually insane, Maddy bends over backwards to get people to like her, I’m callous as heck, so like you’re not unique. We’re all working through it. Your issue is that you need to feel like you’re right about everything, and even when you do wrong, convince yourself it’s for the right reasons. Just be honest! You’re a fuck up! Like the rest of us.” The imp's chest was heaving as she finished rambling, and Maddy stared on in disbelief before Stella straightened herself up, “But, last round taught me that even when you fuck up…maybe it’s worth it to keep trying if other people are willing to believe in you.”

“Maddy believes in you, I’m willing to bet Caleb does too, or he wouldn’t have asked Maddy to check in, and hell, I don’t care either way, so you know what? There’s room to grow there.” She put her hands on her hips and sighed heavily, “You don’t have to fix it all today, but can you at least just let Maddy in?”

There was a moment of stillness in the air, before the vines began to retract from the area, spiraling around and pulling towards the corner chair as the cocoon that had formed there unraveled and revealed Lily, eyes full of tears, her hair gross and matted with sweat, all curled in on herself and clutching her knees to her chest.

Seeing Lily’s revealed form, Maddy rushed over and hugged her friend, turning her head to Stella and mouthing a silent “thank you.”

Lily’s voice came out choked up and strained, “I’m sorry…I just…I’m at my limit, I don’t know what to do anymore, and it just feels like I keep making things worse.”

The chef stroked her back, “We’re all figuring things out, Lily; no one knows what we’re doing here.”

Stella smirked, “Like I said, we’re all a bunch of fuckups, takes some of the pressure off.”

Lily gave off a garbled chuckle through her tears before the flower interjected, “I’m still less fucked up than the others, though,” eliciting an eyeroll from Stella