407 Real Scary
"What about you? Why are you playing cloak and dagger?" I asked, as we walked and Gloria looked down.
"We had five council members. My father was one of them, but he tried to stand up to James, but now he is locked up, along with my mother. I was able to stay free as long as I did my job, so that is what I am doing. The last council member was killed trying to escape. No one knows who did it, but we all have our suspicions," Gloria said, and her voice was full of pain and anger as she spoke about her parents being locked up, but I didn't say anything; I just kept walking until we turned down another street that led us away from the market area and towards a more residential area with houses built close together; each one unique in design.
"This is my home," Gloria said after a few minutes as she came to a stop in front of a large two-story house that looked like it was carved out of stone with different symbols covering the front door. "Come on inside."
I followed her inside, feeling like I had been here before somehow, as everything looked really familiar, even though I knew for sure that this was not my old room back on earth or anything close to it either, for that matter. It probably had something to do with the fact that this place even smelled familiar.
We walked into what must have been the living room where there were three other people sitting around drinking tea from strange-looking cups while chatting idly amongst themselves; their eyes all snapped over onto me when I entered through. They all stood up at once, which caused Gloria to step in front of me defensively while putting a hand on my chest to push me back slightly behind her body while still keeping an eye over her shoulder at them defensively, which told me everything about how these people felt about intruders into their home without having any words spoken between any of us yet.
The man who must be Gloria's husband stepped forward first after glaring daggers at me as I watched them all cautiously; he pushed right past his wife without sparing her so much as a single glance which told volumes itself, even if nothing else did.
He stopped right in front of me while continuing to glare, trying his best to intimidate me despite being shorter than myself by several inches though his body language screamed aggression more than anything else. He raised his chin defiantly as if daring either of me to do something before finally speaking in a surprisingly nice tone, considering how he was acting.
"Who are you?" He asked politely enough despite still trying scare tactics which weren't going to work no matter how hard he tried.
I pushed Gloria's hand away before stepping around her to stand up in front of the man with a smirk on my face, one that just seemed to infuriate him even more, but I didn't care in the slightest. "A friend of Gloria's," I replied nonchalantly as if his behavior was nothing out of the ordinary, which only seemed to piss him off more from how he started gritting his teeth.
"What are you doing here? We don't want any trouble," he said through clenched teeth, and I had to resist rolling my eyes at his attempts; it was pretty weak if he thought something like that would work on me when I could just squish him like a bug no matter how hard he tried to intimidate me.
Instead, though, I decided to just ignore what was happening as much as possible while still maintaining eye contact, so they knew that their attempts weren't having any effect while mentally shrugging off everything else. I casually leaned back against the wall behind me with crossed arms over my chest, waiting for someone else to say or do something since it looked like no one else wanted to say anything yet besides this angry husband guy who still hadn't taken his eyes off me.
He looked ready to explode at any second now, which wouldn't be good for anyone involved since this whole house probably wouldn't survive such an explosion, considering how old and brittle everything appeared to be. Instead, I did everyone a favor by lightly pushing him aside without much effort and got past into the next room without being hindered by further foolishness.
These people really needed to learn how to relax more if they wanted to live their lives without constantly being worried about something happening to them; it would do everyone some good, actually! If nothing else, then they could at least try not to make such fools themselves so often!
The little girl was holding onto her dolly for dear life while burying her face into her father's back while he held onto his son, who looked only slightly less scared than she did right now, even though he wasn't shaking nearly as much either. He also had a sword strapped across his back over one shoulder like he apparently thought that might actually stop someone like me. It would be just nice for everyone to just stay calm and actually listen to what I was going to say before making any foolish assumptions!
"First off, you can relax," I said in the most reassuring tone possible.
"Now, I understand you may be scared right now, but let me explain what going on before making any stupid decisions that won't end well for anybody! I am here because Gloria asked me to come to speak to Chana about something! That is all there is to it," I said with a groan, and the husband relaxed slightly.
"Why didn't you say that?" The husband demanded, and I used all of my willpower not to reach out and slap him. This place was right full of winner, I just hoped that Chana wasn’t part of the same group.