Ch.5: Shock and Improvise

A million thoughts raced in Nicholas's mind. Why in the world were Milo's friends involved in this? Milo talked about them like he trusted them with his whole heart, and he'd known them for a long time. So what did that mean?

Had Albert and Valentino prepared Milo for this? Had this been their plan all along?

With fear and rage churning in his stomach, Nicholas could only watch and wait.

"We've been waiting for you," the male captor said, extending a hand to Valentino. "It's an honor to meet you."

Valentino blinked lazily at the man's hand, and then, in a disinterested manner, barely raised his own.

He intended a handshake.

It was really, really clear, from the position of his hand, that Valentino had intended a handshake.

But the man took Valentino's gloved hand instead, turned it so his palm was facing downward, and then kissed his knuckles.

Albert's expression pinched with disgust, his shoulders tensing. Valentino arched a brow ever so slightly, but otherwise remained put. He didn't flinch and pull his hand back-only watched warily.

Nicholas was going to puke at the sight. The captors were really trying their best to butter Valentino up, but he didn't even look impressed. Just impassive and patient.

When the captor finally let Valentino's palm down, Valentino smiled and wiped his hand briefly against his coat, before clasping it behind his back again.

"I've had to bring back souls this entire week, every night," Valentino said. "I'm really tired, so can we skip the formalities?"

"Of course, as you like," the man said. "Come in, Master." He stepped aside, reaching an arm behind Valentino to touch his back and guide him forward. Valentino saw the action, but again, he didn't react. Instead, he looked around the place, bored out of his mind, like he'd done this a million times before.

Albert grabbed the man's wrist before it could touch Valentino and lowered it.

"You kissed his hand for ten minutes," Albert said. "Enough touching."

Valentino smiled the shit-eating type of grin. He glanced at the captors to catch their reaction, briefly adjusting his black pork pie hat as if he were trying to hide his amusement.

The man's arm quickly shrank back to his side, shocked by Albert's dry mockery and bluntness. Neither captor said anything. They distanced themselves from Valentino as they led him and Albert into their house. Nicholas couldn't see them anymore, but their voices were still loud and clear.

"Master," the woman said as someone shut the front door with a loud thud. "May I ask who this man is? I didn't expect you to bring someone with you."

"Do you know how my parents died?" Valentino asked.

The woman didn't answer for a few seconds. "We're new to this, Master, so I'm sorry if I'm mistaken. But I think they were attacked and killed while they were doing a ritual to bring back a soul?"

"Yeah. Some paranoid old man thought they were satanists messing with black magic. So he followed them and"-Valentino clucked his tongue-"shot them. So don't you think I need someone to watch my back? Do you want me to end up like them?"

"No, yes, of course, that makes sense, Master..."

"Show us your basement," Albert said. "Let us get this over with quick."

Nicholas's heart stuttered as the sound of footfalls passed by his and Milo's room. They didn't stop. The four of them kept walking and walking, then they desceneded some staircase, and then all noises disappeared. They'd entered the basement now, too far below for Nicholas to catch their voices anymore.

Albert and Valentino were probably retrieving the soul of the captors' son.

Pretending to, more accurately.

They were scammers for sure. There was no other explanation.

Turning his neck, Nicholas glanced at Milo beside him; he looked confused and exhausted and miserable all at the same time, probably unable to draw a concrete conclusion about Valentino and Albert's appearance. He'd tried to make as much noise as possible as Albert and Valentino passed by, but in vain. No one heard.

After a long, long while, footsteps ascended a staircase. The wind had been calm when Valentino and Albert arrived, but now it picked up again.

Nicholas strained to listen, irrational fear pouring in properly now; his hands shook and his entire chest felt like it was quivering. His heart couldn't beat any faster anyway, so it just kept up.

"Thank you so much, Master," the woman said, her voice shaky with elation. "Thank you for your time and for bringing our boy's soul back. I can't tell you how happy we are to have him back! Here's your payment."

"Yeah, yeah. No problem. It's my job," Valentino said. There were a few clicking sounds, like someone opening a suitcase to show the contents. "Alright. Our work's done. Goodbye!"

Nicholas frowned.

Goodbye?

Were Albert and Valentino about to...leave?

Didn't the captors tell Valentino that they wanted him to transfer the soul he'd brought back into a body?

"Actually," the man said. "Master, how about you stay a little longer? If you want to, you can spend the night here since the weather is so bad."

"No," Albert said. "We're leaving."

"Hold on!" Desperation seeped into the female captor's voice. "We're serious. Master, why don't you stay here and rest a little bit? We just have one more request."

"No," Albert repeated.

"Wait," Valentino said. "What request?"

"We're really happy that you brought back our son's soul," the man spoke this time instead, "but we want a little bit more than that..."

"Spit it out," Albert said.

"We want you to perform that rare ritual. The one where you put a soul into someone else's body. I know-"

"What rare ritual?" Valentino asked. He maintained his composure, but now there was a thread of confusion in his tone. "What are you talking about?"

The man chuckled, not the least bit startled by Valentino's confusion. "We were told this would be your reaction," he said. "I know transfering a soul into a body is way, way too exhausting for you. I know you hate just talking about it, but we're willing to pay as much as you want. We're willing to handle full responsibility. Whatever you need after the ritual, we're ready for it. But please, bring our boy back. We have everything prepared! You just need to transer his soul into a vessel."

There was silence for a long time.

"Can you hear yourselves?" Valentino said. "You're asking me to revive your son. I never said I could do that. All my demon can do is bring back souls. That's it. I can't bring back the dead-" He trailed off, a realization landing a little late. "Hold on. You...You said you wanted me to put his soul in a vessel? What vessel? Don't tell me you dug up his corpse?"

"No, no!" the woman quickly coaxed. "Don't worry. By vessels, we mean two boys that look like him. You can just choose the better the one."

"That's it," Albert said. "You heard your Master. This isn't something he can do. We're leaving-hey! Out of my way!"

Nicholas hoped the captors wouldn't let Albert and Valentino leave. If they hadn't been in on this entire kidnapping, then they might be useful.

"No! You're not leaving!" the woman shouted. Her voice wasn't frightened or pleading. It was sharp, and it concealed a threat. Nicholas suddenly wondered if the captors were armed. "Master, I know you hate the exhaustion, but you have to give it a try. Take a look at the vessels. Come. I'll show you."

Footsteps fell straight towards the room Nicholas and Milo were in. Nicholas tensed in his chair. Milo lifted his head and watched the door with wide eyes.

After a few minutes filled with the clinking and clunking of chains, the door was pushed wide open.

Albert and Valentino stood at the threshold, staring inside. Their sights landed on Milo first. They frowned and squinted, deciphering his face, matching it to his original looks, to the Milo with brown hair and no beauty spot or grey eye.

It only took a few seconds for recognition to slam into them.

Albert and Valentino's faces blanched. Horror filled their eyes, and their jaws fell open.

"How...in...the...world..."

Albert was speechless. Valentino couldn't even finish voicing his shock. He glanced at Nicholas, then back at Milo, then whipped around to face the captors, his ponytail swinging with the motion.

Nicholas didn't know what to expect.

The captors must've misinterpreted the shock on Valentino's face, because they held out their hands in a conciliatory gesture.

"Don't worry! Don't worry! We took care of everything!" the woman said. "The older boy's mom hates him and doesn't even talk to him, and his dad is in prison. He moved out anyway and currently lives alone, and he doesn't have friends at all. There's no way someone would even notice that he's gone missing! The younger one was harder to deal with since he's got family, but we got that part covered too. We thought about everything. No need to worry about cops or anything. Just do the ritual."

Nicholas's gut squeezed. How long had they stalked him to know all of this?

"I..." Valentino sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. But behind his back, he was squeezing his hands together. "Ahh, fine. Fine. Since you've gone this far, I'll do it. But you're responsible for anything that happens to me after I finish. I might pass out for three days."

"Of course! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Okay," Valentino said. "Before I can start, I need to spend some time with these boys so I can figure out which one to choose. And while I do that, I want you two to deep clean the basement. I want it to sparkle, or else it'll affect your son's soul when I transfer it."

"On it!"

"Wait," Valentino said. "There's more. This ritual's much harder and bigger. So I need more candles. Light up 150 of them." Looking at Albert, he patted his arm. "My good friend here will show you where you have to put them in the basement, and then he'll come back here and help me choose."

Albert's face was still pale, making the dark shadowy pattern drawn below his eye even more prominent, but he seemed to understand the code in Valentino's words.

Before Albert could leave, Valentino held his sleeve and tugged until he leaned closer. Valentino whispered something in his ear. Albert nodded and left.

The second the captors were out of sight, Valentino spun around, hastened towards Milo and dropped on his knees by his chair. He removed the tape on his mouth as gently as possible.

"Milo, Milo," Valentino said. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know how the hell this happened. I'm gonna get you out of here, okay?" Leaning a little closer, he inspected the grey lens, and then the beauty spot. "Oh my God. What did they do to you? What's with your eye? And your hair?"

Milo only stared at him, unable to find his voice.

"Lens," Milo finally managed to sputter. Despite the confusion, and despite the horrid situation, Valentino's presence clearly comforted Milo. "My eye is fine." He watched Valentino busy himself with untying him. "Valentino..."

Valentino lifted his chin and looked up at Milo, but he kept working on unwinding the rope, quick and efficient despite the black leather gloves on his hands.

"Valentino?" Milo said with a shaky, frightened voice. Tears spilled from his eyes, and his bottom lip trembled. "Is that really you? I-I thought...I didn't know what to think. What are you doing here?" One of his arms was free now, and he lifted a hand to touch the pattern drawn under Valentino's eye-similar to Albert's. "Wh-What is this? Are you gonna get me out of here? Are you gonna help me?"

Valentino nodded vehemently. "Of course! Do you think I'm gonna leave you here?" he said, his voice incredulous. "I sent Albert to make sure the coast is clear. I'm gonna get you out first and I'll explain everything later. And I'm gonna make whoever set this up pay for everything you went through."

Nicholas wanted Milo to ask Valentino more about the entire thing-you know, why he was the Master of a cult, for example. But Milo looked like he was willing to overlook everything as long as Valentino promised to get him out.

Nicholas couldn't overlook. He frowned at Valentino, suspicious of him even with how genuine his concern appeared.

"I don't want an explanation," Milo said. "Just get me out. Please, please, please."

"Shh. Don't beg. Ten minutes and we'll be out of here."

Milo frowned, more tears mapping his cheeks. "Too long! I want to get out now, Valentino!" His voice broke, shattered completely. "Right now!"

"Five minutes," Valentino compromised, patting Milo's head. "I promise. Start counting."

Milo nodded, then he looked aside at Nicholas with his red, watery eyes and tear-streaked cheeks, as if he'd almost forgotten Nicholas existed.

"Don't be scared," Milo told Nicholas. "Valentino will save you too, okay? I won't leave you behind." He set his gaze on Valentino again. "Right, Valentino? We can't leave Nicholas here."

Valentino was almost done untying Milo, and he spared a glance at Nicholas.

The moment their gazes met, any and all gentleness and concern in Valentino's expression vanished. Just like that. Poof. Gone. Boredom and disinterest returned to his blue eyes, like his empathy was reserved for Milo only.

Still, Valentino smiled at Milo. "Don't worry. We won't leave him behind."

Now that was the least reassuring thing Nicholas had heard in his entire life. But to be fair, no one had ever reassured him before anyway-so he might just have nothing to compare it to.

• • •

hiii. Can you tell nicholas and valentino will not be getting along? :D

Oh btw! This book does *not* contain fantasy/supernatural elements. So nicholas is right! Albert and Valentino are scammers

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Feel free to share any thoughts with me <3 and thank you for reading/voting/commenting, it genuinely means the world to me!!