Looking over at the trio of women who had chosen to come with her, Evelina nodded and a slight tug pulled at the corner of her mouth. They were all quite different. All from different times, different places, and yet there was some odd similarity to them. What it was she could not yet place her finger on it but it was there and it scratched at the back of her mind. She would not dwell on it now, it would be something to think on later. For now they had matters to attend to, they all did. Some more pressing than others.
Gio and Bart were going to Egypt in the 1920's. She imagined that Gio would want Gilbert to gather a few items for them to take with them before they left. While it would be best if no altercations broke out, it was always better to be over prepared than to not. She gave the men a passing glance before motioning with a finger for them to follow her. They would be moving from the Main House passed the garages, down the main road, to the servant quarters (which were empty) and to the edge of the grounds. A large gate would be there for them to open and allow others to come into Ville Au Camp.
As they walked, she spoke.
"We are simply a welcoming committee as it were. We will direct them where to go and try to put them at ease. The children that come are open and curious. They tend to be far more welcoming and open to things of another nature than the adults but isn't that how life is? When one is young they are unblemished by the world. Their imagination runs wild and all things are possible. As we age less and less becomes so. We close our minds to deal with day to day life, to cope with tragedy. Yet is blinds us to so much. With there being four of us, I do suggest that each of us take a small group to walk through the grounds and speak to. Be careful for anything that Nancy has up her sleeve. She tends to take full advantage of this night. If you abilities start happening, calm yourself. Do not worry. We will deal with anything that happens when it does, otherwise it is foolish to worry about what might happen. Worrying about matters s about as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum," she said in a mild tone.
Reaching the gate she smiled. Seemed they had guests waiting. The
costumes that the children wore were creepy to say the least. It was nothing though that Evelina wasn't accustomed to though. She had seen the same ones night after night and years before that. The world had not yet moved into the sluty phase of costumes, which to her was a good thing.
"Well my, what marvelous costumes you all have tonight. You are sure to scare off any demons that are out tonight," she said in a kind voice as she pulled a key from her sleeve and unlocked the gate. The old iron creaked as she did and people started flowing through it. Children looking up at Evelina but moving passed her quickly, and the other girls as well. Thankfully the change of attire for them made it easier for them to blend in. Yet one child wandered straight up to Andromeda.
"Are you dead?" she asked of the girls pale skin.
Evelina chuckled and nodded.
"They all are, she just doesn't hide it," Evelina joked a bit.
October 4th, 1924 - 11:25 p.m.
Cairo, Egypt
Looking around, Alicia ducked back into the alleyway. They had spent the last near hour walking the streets and grabbing a small bite to eat from a street vendor. It was all they could do while the so called crime scene had been tended to by the local law enforcement. Staying down there in hiding was risking too much to be seen. Alicia would have been fine but George had seemed to be a bit more morose than usual while they were talking and she felt it was something that had needed to be addressed. So she shuffled aside her personal mission to figure out what had happened to Peter and why a Destruere had attacked them in Cairo.
There hadn't been much talking, at least not on Georges part. He was always the quiet one but this was down right disturbing the silence that came from the man right then. This was something he hadn't ever opened up to anyone about. Not even Nancy. In fact he had asked her not to delve into his previous life. Whether she had or not was not something he ever asked her about. It was just one of those things he had asked and never brought up again.
Alicia however wasn't as standoffish and she was pressing now. the alleyway was now empty and dark. The later hour in this part of town meant no street vendors. The government areas were always empty at this hour. And now that the police were done and cleared out, it was probably the deadest place in Cairo outside of a cemetery. Whatever it was that Alicia said seemed to make some small part of George snap and he finally let it all out. Alicia stood there, jaw slacked as she listened. It was hard to believe. Not so much that he was talking, that was astonishing in its own right, but what he was saying.
The man was shaking when he spoke, anger an pain etched on his face, in his voice, in his body. The emotions coming off of him were intense and it caused Alicia to real back in over-stimulation. This was a flood of emotions that had been building up and now the dam had broken. Reaching back she grabbed the edge of a crate and slumped onto the ground. Looking at the man, she couldn't believe that story was coming out of his mouth. He was still half hidden behind his tin mask but it seemed he had been hiding something far worse and far more devastating.
"Mmm, I am a monster..." he said, finally done telling his tale as he turned away from her. She couldn't say he wasn't. After that tale of woe she knew she would never look at the man the same. Yet something in her understood. Not what he had done but how he felt right then. She too had lived a life that had only come to her in memory when she died. Yet she was hardly very different in either life. This man was a nearly completely different person from one to the next. Living two lives was shaking enough, to find out you were everything you detested was a completely different matter.
"No, you were a monster," was all she was finally able to say.
"Still am... mmm. Still kill, still hurt people," he said shaking his head. Alicia sat there for a moment. He did still kill and hurt people but that was different than what he had told her. Now he did like she did, like the rest of they did, out of necessity, out of survival, not out of pleasure. There was a difference.
"That isn't who are anymore, you have to put it behind you. Move on. This life isn't a punishment." It was rare she didn't let out a slew of curses but right then, she didn't have it in her. She could feel his pain. She believed what she was saying. That this life wasn't a punishment, not in a karma type of way, but she did believe he was making it a punishment. Punishing himself.
"It has to be,mmm she deserves the justice of me being punished for eternity. After what I did to her mm, she deserves me spending an eternity in hell." "Then wait for hell to punish you, stop doing it to yourself." George looked over to Alicia slowly, he couldn't agree with her. He refused to do that. After what he did to her, he deserved everything he got and more. Just because it had been a different time, just because it had been basically legal back then to do what he did it didn't make it right.
She deserved better from him. 
