Chapter 4

Good Times End

It had been a couple of days since Erin had her talk with Eba and everything seemed to be fine. The only thing that the brunette thought was weird was that her employer had started to act a bit differently. It wasn’t all that much, just a slight change in Eba’s attitude. The old lady seemed to be strangely nervous nowadays and was being even sweeter towards her new employee. All in all, Erin didn’t mind this change all that much, as she thought it was just a result of what she had revealed to the granny and it didn’t seem to be that big of an issue.

Right now, Erin was preparing for the day. She was setting things up in the dining area and cleaning the place up a bit, just in time before the first customers of the day arrive. Eba herself wasn’t anywhere in sight, as she had told the brunette that she had an important call to make. Erin guessed that it was something related to the restaurant business, like ordering supplies or something like that.

Just as the brown-haired woman finished cleaning the last of the tables, Eba walked into the dining area with a sweet smile on her face.

“Mrs. Eba, the preparations are finished,” Erin said with a smile on her face. “We are ready to start the day anytime you want.”

“That’s good to hear, dear. Go and open the door, so we can let the customers in,” Eba said. The brunette was about to go and open up the restaurant, when the old lady suddenly continued. “However, I need to tell you one more thing before you. We’ll be closing earlier than normal today.”

“Closing earlier? Why? Is something wrong?” Erin asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing bad, I assure you,” Eba quickly answered. “It’s just that there will be a special visitor today, so we’ll need to close up early. Just two hours earlier, so nothing much.”

The brown-haired woman simply nodded in response and went to open the door. She didn’t think too much about who this visitor was going to be. Her best guess was that it would be Eba’s husband coming for a visit from the hospital, but she wasn’t sure.

The day itself went on without any issues. There weren’t many customers and the ones who did come didn’t cause any problems. It didn’t take long until it was time to close the restaurant and Erin began to clear things up.

Just as she started to close down the place, Ryan and Holly entered the dining room. Erin was saddened that she would have to tell them to leave, but she had no choice. Her employer had told her that they were closing earlier, so there was nothing she could really do. Eba herself had most likely already cleared the kitchen.

“Hey there, Erin!” Holly called out to the waitress happily. “Can you get us our usual orders?”

“Sorry, but I can’t,” Erin said apologetically, earning confused looks from her two regular customers. “Mrs. Eba is closing earlier today, so I won’t be able to get you guys anything.”

“She’s closing earlier?” Ryan asked. “This is pretty rare of her. Any idea why she’s doing this?”

“She told me that we’ll be getting a special visitor today,” the brunette answered. “I don’t know who it is, but I’m guessing it’s her husband, coming for a visit from the hospital.”

“Her husband? But isn’t he-“ the gray-haired man began to ask, but stopped himself. “Never mind. We’ll be taking our leave then.”

Erin said goodbye to the two regulars and went on to complete the rest of her tasks. It didn’t take long for her to get all of her work done, after which she went to clean herself up in the bathroom upstairs. She didn’t want to look bad in front of Eba’s guest, after all.

Just as she finished putting on clean clothes, Erin heard Eba call her from downstairs.

“Erin, our guest is here!” the old woman called out. “Come down here and say hello to him!”

“I’ll be right there!” the brown-haired woman replied and began to make her way downstairs quickly. What awaited her there was Eba, standing next to a man Erin had never seen before.

Judging by the man’s general appearance, he seemed to be an orc. This was easy to tell by his gray skin, large and muscular body, pointy ears and the two sharp canines on his lower jaw. He also seemed to be a member of the police force and a high-ranking member at that. This was because of the uniform her wore, which consisted of a dark gray long jacket with silver highlights, black pants, black gloves with metal plating and black combat boots he was wearing. He also had a badge on the right side of his chest and he was also carrying a gun in a holster by the right side of his waist.

At first, Erin didn’t think too much about this person and simply assumed he was a friend of Eba’s. However, alarm bells soon started ringing in her head.

For starters, why hadn’t Eba told her that the person that would be visiting them was a police officer? No matter how many times Erin had asked, the old woman hadn’t even hinted at the guest being a man of the law. Second, why was he still in his uniform and armed? Wouldn’t it have made sense for him to come after his work was over?

Despite the uncomfortable feeling she was getting, the brown-haired woman made her way to Eba and her guest. As she walked up to them, she realized just how big the height difference between herself and the orc were, as he was towering over her. This difference caused Erin to start sweating nervously, as she felt intimidated by this man.

“Dear, this here is Officer Harger,” Eba introduced the police officer. “He has come here to see you.”

“Wait… See me?” Erin asked, confused over what was happening. “Why would he-?”

“Is this the person you told me about?” Harger suddenly asked Eba. “The one you said held dangerous information in regards to the five lords of the world?”

“What!?” Erin yelled out of shock as her eyes went wide and face turned pale.

“Oh yes, she is the one I told you about,” Eba replied with a nod while still smiling. “If you interrogate her properly at the station, I’m sure you’ll find out just how dangerous of an individual she truly is.”

“M-Mrs. Eba, what are you talking about!?” the brunette asked in disbelief, not willing to believe that the kind old lady that had been taking care of her was now betraying her. “This has to be some sort of a joke, right!?”

”This isn’t a joking matter, lady,” Harger said as he roughly grabbed Erin’s arm, not caring that she let out a pained yelp from the pressure on her limb. ”Now come peacefully or I I will have to get rough. I am allowed and more than willing to break all of your limbs in order to take you in.”

”Mrs. Eba, please! You have to say something!” Erin desperately pleaded as she was being dragged away. ”You know that I haven’t done anything wrong! You can’t let this happen!”

”I’m sorry, dear, but this is all just business,” Eba replied without even a hint of remorse in her voice as she kept smiling. ”Just as I prepare warm meals for customers to eat, I also prepare gullible fools with shady backgrounds to be taken in by the government. It honestly pays my expenses quite nicely and you might have just earned me my retirement.”

Shock ran through the brunette’s body as she let the old lady’s words sink in. Eba had not helped her out of the goodness of her heart or anything like that. From the moment she had seen Erin, the granny had been preparing to betray her for money. That’s why she kept pestering the brown-haired woman about her past. It was in order to see if she had anything shady in her past that would amount for a reward.

The shock was soon washed over by another emotion, anger. Erin felt rage boiling within her body over being used and betrayed. With all her might, she started to struggle against the man holding her. She pulled with all of her strength, hoping to free herself of the hold, and even began to kick at Harger.

For a second, it seemed like Erin’s struggles had paid off, as the orc let go of her arm. However, this was soon followed by a vicious backhand to her face, which sent her flying. The brunette crashed onto a table that hadn’t yet been cleared of tableware and the sound of plates, bowls and glasses breaking followed the sound of the table itself breaking apart.

Erin’s body was in pain from the impact. She struggled to push herself up from the floor, when she felt something strange. Some warm liquid was falling down her face and dripping from her chin. The brown-haired woman also couldn’t see from her right eye for some reason, like her eyelids wouldn’t open. Erin brought her hand to her face and touched its right side around the eye. As she brought her hand away from her face, she saw that it was covered in blood. It was at that moment that she realized her eye had been damaged, either by Harger’s hit or by the tableware she crashed into.

As the realization over her eye hit her, Erin screamed out in horror and shock. This didn’t affect Harger or Eba at all, as they didn’t care at all what happened to the brunette. In fact, the only thing the old lady cared about at that moment was that some of her belongings had been destroyed and she was complaining about it to the orc, who in turn told her that it would all be paid for by the police department.

However, Harger was more concerned with his captive possibly escaping, so he went to apprehend her again. This time he grabbed one of Erin’s legs and began to drag her out of the restaurant. As this was happening, the brown-haired woman desperately tried to grab something, anything to save her life. She eventually managed to get her hands on a fork and she swung it down onto the hand holding her leg.

Upon getting stabbed, Harger roared in pain and let go of his captive. He was cursing at the young woman, promising to make her life a living hell in the interrogation. These threats didn’t really matter to Erin, who quickly grabbed a knife and stood up. She stared at the orc with the most hateful glare she had ever had on her face, and with a primal, almost animal-like scream charged at him.

When thinking about the situation logically, Harger should have been more than capable of handling the situation with ease. He wasn’t a high-ranking police officer for nothing, after all. The orc had seen his fair share of conflicts and confrontations, most of which would have left anyone that had less skills dead.

However, for some reason, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to at all. Maybe Harger had been too focused on his injured hand, he might have underestimated Erin’s skills or perhaps the adrenaline coursing through the brunette’s system gave her a surprising boost. It might have been a mix of all of these and other reasons, but it still resulted in the same outcome.

Erin struck the knife into Harger’s neck, causing him to lose large amounts of blood immediately.

The orc’s eyes went wide as he tried to hold the cut on his neck, desperately trying to hold back the blood flowing out. This was of no help, as he soon fell to his knees and to the floor.

As her assailant was dying, Erin simply gave him a hateful glare. Rage and hatred had completely taken over, which prevented her from feeling any regret, shock or even surprise over what she had just done. All she felt was justified satisfaction, as she had just defended herself from someone wanting to hurt her.

What’s more, the brown-haired woman’s rage wasn’t calming down at all. She was still feeling anger over everything that had just happened to her. Being betrayed by Eba, almost getting taken away to be interrogated and having lost her eye had all mixed in together to create a raging storm within her that wasn’t going to calm down until she had taken her revenge on those that had wronged her.

However, something suddenly happened that stopped her rage. First Erin felt a strange and painful feeling inside her head. Then she saw something. They were visions of Harger, but they were not what the brunette would have expected. In her mind, Harger was nothing more than a brutal and crooked cop, one who abused his power and authority to suit his needs. Instead, the visions Erin was getting showed a completely different person. This Harger was a kind and loving family man. A person that put the needs of his family above everything else. A man that had tragically lost his wife and was now doing everything he could to protect his only son. Someone who was willing to even sell his soul to the devil to keep his only living family happy.

Having been shown such a touching story brought Erin down to her knees, as tears fell from her remaining eye. Reality soon came crashing down on her, as the visions left as fast as they had come and she was only left with the sight of Harger’s dead body on the floor before her.

It was at that moment that Erin realized something. Despite what he had done to her, Harger had been just a father trying his best to take care of his son. And now he was dead, having been killed by her very own hands.

A terrified scream brought Erin back to reality and she turned her eyes to where it had come from. She saw Eba standing there with a horrified look on her face. The old lady had not expected to see the big and strong orc to get killed so easily. Not only that, but now that Harger was dead, was she going to be next?

Seeing Eba lit the rage inside Erin once again. It was because of her that all of this had happened. It was because of Eba that the brunette had been almost taken away. And it was because of her that Erin had been forced to kill someone.

The brown-haired woman stood up, still holding the knife in her hands. She began to make her way towards Eba, while glaring at the granny with pure hatred in her one remaining eye. She was going to make her pay for what had just happened here.

Eba had been frozen in place, like a deer in headlights, and wasn’t able to run away. It didn’t take long until Erin was looming over her, a vicious glare on her face and her hand gripping the knife with all of her strength. The brunette started to slowly raise her weapon up, readying to strike down the one who had betrayed her. As soon as she had brought the knife as far as she could, she brought it down in a fast and violent strike, causing Eba to scream in terror and close here eyes.

However, despite being sure that her life would end there, no pain ever came to Eba. She slowly opened her eyes to see the knife mere inches away from her face. Erin herself seemed to be frozen in place, like a statue.

What the old lady didn’t know was that the brown-haired woman was having visions again, like when she had killed Harger, except this time they were about Eba. In these visions, Erin saw her betrayer as a loving person that had built her restaurant together with her husband. How they had worked hard to keep the place running, even when Gibbot had taken over and had imposed heavy taxes on businesses. The hard work and loss of their son had eventually driven Eba’s husband to fall sick and hospitalized, forcing her to sell out people who had revolutionary views to the government in order to cover the medical bills.

Having seen all these visions made it impossible for Erin to strike down her enemy, no matter how much she wanted. While she was fully aware of the old lady’s betrayal, she couldn’t fully judge her as evil. This was because now she knew Eba had been desperate and had done her best to collect money in order to take care of her sick husband. Had the brunette been in a similar position, she doesn’t know if she had done the same or not. Even if she tried to ignore the things that had been told her through the visions or tried to rationalize the whole situation by focusing on the crimes Eba did, Erin couldn’t bring herself to strike down her betrayer.

In the end, all that Erin could do was drop the knife and run out of the store while holding her bleeding eye.

Once outside, all that the brown-haired woman was able to do was stumble around, delirious and confused over what she had just gone through. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t make any sense of her situation. Why was all of this happening to her? And where did these strange visions come from?

Eventually, Erin stumbled into an alley, where she finally fell unconscious. The toll on her body and mind had been too great, from the feeling of betrayal, the shock caused by the visions she had seen and the loss of blood from her eye.

The last thing she saw was someone standing next to her, while looking down at her body.

“Wow, you look like shit, but I guess I should have expected that much,” a strangely familiar female voice said, but Erin was unable to recognize the voice as her mind was too cloudy. “Harger is known for being quite rough with his suspects. Or I suppose I should say that he WAS known for that.”

This was the last thing the brunette heard before everything went black for her.