Thomas slowed to a walk when he got to the outskirts of a small town. The sun beamed down on his armor, and his body was uncomfortably warm. I can't keep going for much longer, the suit might break down if I keep going. Thomas thought as he checked the cooling coils on the visor of his helmet. The coils were ricocheting off the walls of its power core. Man, I hope this town is friendly. He thought before turning off the thermal function on his suit. Lifting his visor quickly to take a deep breath, he welcomed the cool breeze that gently whisked across the area. Before he could take a moment to enjoy the breeze, a furious scream pierced the air setting Thomas skin crawling. He let out a disheartened sigh, and began forward again, much slower than before.

"Begone you cheating bastard!" The female voice screamed out again, louder as Thomas drew closer. A bottle shattered somewhere near him, so Thomas pulled the visor back down.

A thin man came stumbling into view. He was short and lanky, but seemed to be healthy. He was covered in dirt, among other things, and he was trying desperately to get away from the screaming voice. He had one hand over his head, and the other carrying a knapsack, which he used as a small shield to cover his back. The woman that was chasing after him was a large woman, and her voice grated harder against his ears with each passing second. She was carrying a broom and a second bottle. The man quickly hid behind Thomas and began to breathe heavily. "Please help me, my wife has gone crazy!"

Thomas paused, looking at the area around him. The tree leaves were swaying in the soft breeze, and the air seemed charged. "I don't think I should interfere." He explained while taking a step to the side. "I don't know what happened, and I don't want to get involved in a local problem."

"Local!" The woman screamed out, coming to a stop near to the two. She was a tall, pudgy woman, and was wheezing as she got closer. "What the fuck, do you mean, local problem?" Her long black hair was flowing in the wind, and Thomas noticed a small knife handle in her side pocket. She was much taller than her husband, and her body was shaped in a robust, curvy fashion that inspired lust in both men and women alike. "Who the fuck are you?"

Thomas took a deep breath, trying to ignore her loud heinous screeches that sounded like an ox in heat. "I am but a simple traveler who seeks lodging for the night. Nothing else,"

The short man seemed to appear behind him again, making Thomas take another step to the side. "W-We run an inn. I would happily give you a place to lay your head if you protect me from that monster I was forced to marry!"

The woman's face turned red, and she began walking towards her husband menacingly. Thomas had taken another few steps out of the way trying to stay out of it. "I uh, I think I'll pass. Are there any other inns nearby?"

The man rushed back behind Thomas and grabbed the back of his pack holding tightly as he whimpered in fear. "Please don't go, there's not another inn for miles! It's getting dark too! There are all kinds of evil things in those trees that come out at night. Just promise to keep the pig away from me, and you can sleep at the inn for free!"

The woman had lost her temper after his remark. She dropped her broom and grabbed the knife from her side pocket before she rushed the two. "That cowards going to die!" She screamed, swinging the knife like a lunatic in their general direction.

"Please miss, can you explain what happened?" Thomas asked as she swung the small blade towards Thomas, who quickly grabbed her hand and took the knife. "I don't want to interfere, I just don't want you to stab me on accident."

"I'll tell you what this sick fuck did! I caught him having sex. Not with a woman though mind you, but with another man! Gay's should be sent to the underworld for eternal torture, and I fully intend to deliver him there!" The woman started to dash for the man, and the two started to run in a large circle around Thomas.

"Please help me, I didn't want to marry her I was forced to!" The husband cried out as he tried desperately to get away from his wife.

"Oh for pete's sake," Thomas mumbled, growing annoyed with the two. "Miss, your religious views are blinding you to the truth. Your husband never loved you, and killing him won't change that."

"Oh, so you're on the faggot's side now?" The wife declared as she stopped chasing her husband and glared at him. Her dark green eyes reminded Thomas of decaying lettuce.

Rolling his eyes, Thomas ignored her comment. "Miss, I'm not on either of your sides. I simply said that your husband was probably forced into marrying you because of his parents. I assume they, like you, are religious and demanded that he take a wife. I don't see a problem here with his attraction to another man."

The man sighed with relief, "Th-Thank you good sir! I'm so glad that somebody finally understands! I never wanted this, none of it!"

The wife turned to her husband and glared at him with eyes like daggers. This silenced him, and she crossed her arms in disgust. She glared at him a moment longer before her cold gaze turned to Thomas. "This town ain't for faggot's, or their friends. I suggest you move along."

Taking in a deep breath in, Thomas held it in, trying to keep his calm. Don't keep talking, don't push her. Just let it go and walk away. He thought as he turned to his left and started walking down the road again. Hoping to see a sign somewhere leading to another town. The wife spoke up again, but this it was demeaning, and filled with disgust.

"Faggots should be burned for their sins. I'm going to make you pay for your mistakes Barry if it's the last thing I do!" The sound of a fist connecting with a face echoed toward him as Barry cried out in pain before falling to the ground. She began to violently attack him, kicking and stomping on him before the sounds of punches began to repeat mixed with cries of pain from Barry.

"Please, help me!" Barry called out, as the wife continued to strike him.

His blood beginning to boil, Thomas could no longer take the abuse. Turning around, he threw the knife with lethal accuracy towards the two. It sliced a chunk of her boot as it stuck into the ground only a few centimeters from her toes. "Miss, I know you think you're doing the right thing, but if you continue to assault this man, I will be forced to take action. I am a special agent in the Brindain military, and I cannot just turn a blind eye to your assault of an innocent man."

The woman turned to Thomas, her bloody fist raised above her head poised to strike again. "You can't do anything here! This is Flarra territory you idiot! If you touch me, I'll be sure you're marked as a warmonger! You can't-" Suddenly her words were cut short as a painful scream flew from her lungs. Both Thomas and the woman looked down to see the knife was buried in her stomach. "You just stabbed me!" She cried out in anguish as she looked at Barry with malice. "How dare you-"

Another loud scream cut through the air as Barry twisted the knife. Once he had made a circle, he pulled the blade out. The woman covered her wound and glared at Barry with pure hatred. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, he thrusted the knife into her breast. She screamed out again for a few seconds before she collapsed on top of him. Thomas awkwardly looked at the two as Barry began to wiggle his way free of the mass that was his now dead wife. "I can't believe I had to waste thirty years of my life with that monster!" He grumbled as he continued to wiggle out from beneath her. When he finally managed to get out, his shirt was stained red with her blood. Thomas watched as her blood began seeping from her wounds into the dirt around her. "Thank you for helping me finally get rid of her!"

"You murdered her," Thomas replied vexed with how out of hand the situation had become. "I didn't want to interfere, and now I'm an accessory to the murder of your wife! What are we going to do?"

"Get a drink to celebrate?" Barry suggested with a weak smile. A moment of silence passed with Thomas glaring at him before he spoke again. "You don't have to do anything stranger." He said in a somber tone. "She has been tormenting me since my father arranged our marriage. Always going on and on about the end of the world this, and rotting in the pits that. I just couldn't stand her anymore!" He took a step away from her corpse and looked over to Thomas. "I'm sorry to have caused you such trouble sir. You can go elsewhere if you want, I won't say anything about you being here."

"You just murdered your wife Barry!" Thomas seethed as he turned his attention to Barry. "The crowd is going to turn on you no doubt. It won't be safe for you here! Once word spreads you killed her the town will want to ki-"

"No, they won't!" Barry interrupted with a sickening smile. "The whole town hated her. She came from a few towns over, and she was only married off to me because her father wanted to get rid of her so badly. He gave my dad almost a hundred cows to get rid of her! He didn't even care that I was gay, he just wanted her gone!" He chuckled confusing Thomas even more. "The whole town knew I was gay long before we got married. Not to sound like a whore or anything, but most of the men in this town have slept with me at least once. I will be protected from any repercussions, of that I am sure."

Looking at the body of the dead woman, Thomas sighed again as the picture of the spy, and his squad lay beside her, bleeding out into the dirt around them. "She may have been a horrible person, but she didn't deserve to die." He repeated as he lifted the visor of his helmet. A gust of wind sent a cool breeze across his cheeks, making him shiver in his suit. "Look, I don't have time to get to the next town over. Can I stay at your inn? I'll pay for the room and whatnot, I just need to get indoors so I can try and reach out to one of my contacts."

"So you really are with the Brindain military?" Barry asked in a shocked voice. "I thought that was just a bluff, I didn't see any stars or markers to identify you."

"That's because I'm working undercover," Thomas growled as his irritation became apparent. "I've lost my recon team, and now I need to get back to HQ. I don't suppose you have a sat phone by chance?" Barry frowned, looking over to his wife's corpse.

"No, all technology was removed from our town when the Flarra showed up. They claimed it was a way of simplifying the town. Going back to the good times, or some other bullshit. I don't know it's stupid, but they let me keep my cooking pots so I guess I can't complain all that much." Barry smirked, "I make a killer pot roast though! I may not have electricity, but fire and an underground roaster works almost as well as a crockpot! I have one back home that's almost ready!" Barry paused for a moment, then chuckled lightly. "Funny thing about today, I planned to poison her today. I was going to use the roast to kill Irene there. Blame it on the lack of proper cooking technology. I guess this was natures way of saying don't waste the food!"

Thomas's mouth dropped in shock at Barry's casual humor about death. "You've been planning to kill her?" Barry looked at him, then burst into laughter. He continued to laugh for a few moments before he slowly composed himself.

"I forget you didn't know her. Yeah, this was her on a good day. I was planning on killing her for a long time. I have been trying ever since I was forced to marry her! Poison seemed to be the best chance I had since she couldn't cook and demanded that I do it. Thankfully I was lucky enough to learn from my mom back when she was still with us, so I had free range in the kitchen." He paused for a moment, his joy mellowing at the thought. "I miss my mom, she was a lovely woman, but my father..." Barry grimaced in disgust. "Well, he taught me that not all men are as lovely as the ones that happen to stumble into my inn."

Unsure of what to say, Thomas looked up at the sky for a few seconds, then back down to the bleeding body. "So uh, we should get going to the inn then?" He suggested as the thought of going back with Barry suddenly made his stomach flip. Silence answered him, so he looked over to Barry and noticed that he was smiling. "What?"

"I would like that," Barry responded as he gently wiped some of the blood from his nose and squatted down. Pushing his now dead wife over, her corpse let out a large gust of wind as the air started to escape from her body. "I would like that very much." He reached for the knife and pulled it from her chest, ripping a large portion of her dress in the process, revealing long, unhealthy stretch marks. He wiped the blood from the knife and his nose onto the dress than let it drop back to the ground. "No sense in letting this perfectly sharp knife go to waste is there?" He stated to himself grabbing the sheath from her somewhat ripped pocket and started back for Thomas.

Something clicked in Thomas's mind, putting him on full alert. Something felt wrong with this man. The way he was so calloused about killing his wife; to the scrawny weakling appearance that he portrayed only a few minutes before. "So uh, Barry, do you have any other guests in the inn right now or is it empty?"

Barry looked up at him and smiled as he adjusted the shiny metal blade in his hand before sheathing it. The blade caught on the sheath at the tip of the blade. Quickly pulling it back out, he began to inspect it. The tip had been bent by bone, or the collapsing weight of his wife and frowned. "I only have one other guest in the inn right now. An outsider just like you, he seemed to ignore my wife with enough passion as to piss her off, so I rented him a room at a discount." he chuckled as he pocketed the sheath and held the blade in his hand.

Feeling somewhat uneasy, Thomas pressed a button on his helmet that pulled a pop up view on the inside of the visor. Looking at the power levels, he noticed the coils had slowed considerably. Smiling gratefully, he turned the thermal field back on and instantly began to feel cooler. Brushing his arm over his chest, he pressed the same button to close the menu and cool air began to blow across his skin. Leaning forward to enjoy the cool air, he stretched his arms down, brushing across his chest as he did so. Hearing the hissing from his chest plate, fear raced through him. Standing up quickly, he kept his finger on the button, but had to wait for the case to open before he could shut it. As the plate opened, Barry looked at the journal with interest. Thomas quickly pressed the button again, sealing it shut before looking at Barry again. He had been staring at the chestplate intently, and it made Thomas uneasy. "I uh, keep a log of where I go. It's nothing important aside from sentimental value."

"Ahh," Barry commented still looking at the chestplate. "It looked like a nice binding job was done over it, who made it for you?"

"My uh, my mother." Thomas replied, trying to sound convincing, "She was a bookbinder before she passed away. It was one of her last works, so I try and keep it close to me when I can." Barry nodded his head, but gave him a skeptical glance.

"Ok, well we should be getting back to town. I am going to talk to the village leader and let him know what happened. Meet me at the inn in an hour or so from now." He started away towards the town, leaving Thomas standing there confused.

Following after Barry, Thomas tried to keep the thought of his comrades rotting bodies in their tent. "Umm, what's the name of the inn? I never did catch the name..."

"The Drooping Dragon!" Barry responded in a curt voice as he marched forward. The assassin's of the old times used to use it as a hideout! If you believe the rumors anyway!" He chuckled again as Thomas's blood went cold.

I just run into a man who knew about the assassin's I had just read about a few hours ago. That same guy, just so happens to run the inn that was once used by said assassins? It couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Forcing the thoughts from his mind, Thomas quickly started into town looking for the inn. 

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Hey there friendo's how are you doing? I hope you are doing well! Don't forget to drink lots of water! If you wanna make my day, could you drop a few comments and a vote for the chapter? It would really make my day! :) Thanks a million everybody!

-Asted!