Omake 27: The Gate and the Key (4)

The railroad was fixed, everyone had been returned to the train and… I was moping like a moron about what had happened today. Robert was stable, but still unconscious after two hours since we came back and resumed our journey. The doctors on board confirmed that he was going to be fine, and that he only needed to rest. I was relieved of hearing this, but it didn’t soothe my uneasiness.

I could only guess that the panic was still there to keep me company for a while. It had been a fright. A big one at that. I was genuinely stumped by the suddenness of this all. Maybe I was overthinking it, but it was the first time in years since someone I cared for was injured to this degree. The closest thing I could think of was when Hannah was hurt by my counterpart and… it caught me off-guard. Of all things I could have predicted, the fact someone got deadly wounded so easily and beyond anything I could have expected was… infuriating. And the anger was all aimed at myself. I’ve taken too much pride into planning everything around me that I didn’t expect for unknown factors. I set myself up for this kind of event, and I also set others too in this route in the process.

Things had to change, starting with the fact I had to personally speak with Bhediya before he did something stupid. While I had taken my time to try and focus on what to do, I had completely left the entire situation with him untouched. I knew something was going to happen if I didn’t approach him soon and talked about what was going on with him. That was the plan, and so I started to check where he might have been within the train. Before I could end up reaching that section, I paused mid-way as I heard a light sob reaching from… somewhere near to where I was standing.

I paused, surprise building up as I started to look around to where it was coming from and… I eventually found the source of it. Abby had found herself a little spot just nearby the wagon’s entry point to the living quarter. It was a small opening that hid her well from the eyes of anyone passing by, and I only ended up noticing it due to the noise coming from there. Crouching down, I spotted the little blonde, crying and holding herself from shaking too much. I didn’t need any big thinking to know what drove her to react like this and soon I was crawling up to her. She tensed up as soon as she felt my approach, with her hands pressing by her eyes slowly parting away to reveal the situation I was currently facing.

Her usually blue eyes were now darkening in violet ones. A sign that she was slowly getting corrupted by the monster waiting on the other side. Abby was nervous at first, but she allowed me to pull her closer and bring her in a tight hug. In fact, she quickly started to nuzzle her head onto my chest, her arms wrapping around my waist while I hugged her head close.

“What’s wrong, dear?”

“I… I want to be bad… because I think it would be good.”

I blinked, confused by her logic. “How… so?”

“I-If I’m bad, I can track the mean man that hurt Robby down and… punish him.”

“You could. But that wouldn’t be right.”

… “Maybe I don’t want to be right?”

I ruffled her hair, knowing that this was just the logic a normal child would do. The very moment they see something that is bad, they would go for the route that get them to the short-termed success rather than think over the ramifications over their actions. In this case, it was way more dangerous than just that. Especially when an eldritch entity was just rubbing hands at this opportunity to get in and sow some chaos all around.

“Then you would end up being more than just wrong at that. Especially when you are taking things upon your hands out of grief rather than common sense,” I replied carefully. “Sometimes we find ourselves dealing with a choice. Do we want to go the easy way or the right way?”

“Why is easy… not right?”

Ah, the question many have asked themselves and wiser people. Not an easy topic to treat without feeling upset myself, but I didn’t mind discussing this with her.

“Because easy isn’t ‘easy’ for everything,” I answered with a calm sigh. “It’s not something that is meant to be a permanent solution as it can cause more trouble after the first issue is solved. The best way to know when something is right or not is to think… what would happen after I go through this plan?”

“Hmm,” Abby hummed loudly while thinking about it. “I… I think it would be bad because I would do more bad things if I go bad… but I want to punish that mean man.”

I nodded. “And that’s a feeling everyone is well interested into. But that doesn’t mean we have to react hurriedly to it. We have the chance to think about it and then… punish the mean man without having to be too rushed about it.”

“So… we’re still punishing him?”

“Definitely,” I promised, ruffling her hair once more. She sighed and seemed to accept it. I noticed her shifting and fixing herself so she could directly stare up at me. Her eyes were back to her usual blue, a small smile on her face.

“Now, how about we go and check Bhediya? I’m sure he is feeling guilty right now and he would definitely do if he had someone to keep him company. Are you up for it?”

Her eyes widened and she nodded. “Can we make some pancakes for him?”

I chuckled, ruffling her hair one last time, this one getting her to huff. “Sure, sweetie. But remember that you also need to eat other things instead of just that. You don’t want to end up with tummy aches and some caries in your teeth.”

She pouted. “Only if it’s apples and pears.”

I hummed mirthfully at that response. “Sure, sure. But first, lets cheer that big pup up. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind getting some head scratches.”

Mentioning the dog form seemed to completely gain the girl’s interest and soon we were reaching out and seeing how Bhediya was doing. We soon started looked from one side to the other, eventually finding him in the living quarters and that he wasn’t alone.

“You should just stop,” Bhediya remarked fiercely, standing over the kneeling form of Bloody.