Chapter 55: The Body in the Burlap

Thomas Kasuto

Mandrake Town

24 Hours

 

The Thanatos Bandits are different from other organization of bandits. For one, they’re a great deal more intelligent — some of them could even read — and very, well, organized. That, I’m sure, is what makes them more dangerous to fight than other bandit groups; they know how to read any sort of terrain well, and can — and will — cleverly plan out their formations on the spot as soon as they are faced with one from our group or, more uncommonly, a squad of Valencian Knights. They were also stronger than most other bandits, as banditry, to the Thanatos Bandits, is a way of life more than it is to other groups, and when they are not burning down settlements or killing innocent people, they would train day and night to strengthen their bodies. They were also more inclined to rape than other groups. The very sight of them made me feel ill — not because fighting them could be considered a challenge — but because they all reminded me of Clive. The two Human men whispering to each other also bore a striking resemblance to him in terms of the same glint of perversion in their eyes, and the same nasty grins. They stood in front of me, completely unaware of my presence as I hid myself in the shadows of a darkened hallway of a very old palace, abandoned for ages.

And these two are the leaders of this group, I thought. Once these two are taken out, the rest will fall like Flymon. I was concealed behind a stone archway, and Statuedramon stood directly across from me on a stout, square pedestal meant for a sculpture. He stood unmoving, without so much as blinking, making him look like an actual bronze statue. The two bandits finally finished speaking to each other and began to leave. They walked past Statuedramon; a devilish grin spread on his face, and he jumped off the pedestal, aiming to ambush the bandits and attack them with his sword and…he landed face first on the floor behind the two. I rolled my eyes. The bandits heard him fall and quickly turned around.

“‘Ey, dis thing ain’t really a statue!” one of the bandits said.

“That’s good; it was freakin’ me out!” the other bandit said. “It was too scary-lookin’ to steal!”

“Ow! Goddess, that fucking hurt!” Statch exclaimed. He picked himself up off the floor and rubbed the front of his snout. Their backs were to me as they observed Statuedramon as the Rookie level Digimon began to ramble on about…something. I wasn’t paying attention. I quietly drew my sword, and without making a noise, I ran across the hallway unnoticed, behind the bandits. I snuck up behind the one closer to me and clasped my hand over his mouth as I slit his throat with my sword. He was dead in an instant and hit the floor with a dull thud. His friend noticed and wheeled around to face me. I stabbed him in the chest as Statuedramon stabbed him in the lower back. He, too, hit the floor, dead, when we removed our swords. “Well, that was easy,” Statch said.

“What about the bandits they commanded?” I asked.

“Already dealt with,” Statch replied. “Hardly any Digimon among them; it was pretty easy.”

“So, we’re done here?” Statuedramon nodded.

“The people they’ve captured have been freed, the leaders are dead, and the other bandits completely vanquished,” the Rookie said. “Sounds like we’re done to me.”

Saias’s Villa

4 Hours

 

“Thomas, Statuedramon…welcome back,” Luna said as the two of us slowly and exhaustedly strode up to the villa. The witch sat herself on one of the chairs of the villa’s front porch, shaded from the bright light of the gently setting sun by the porch roof. “You weren’t gone nearly as long as I thought you would be.”

“That’s ‘cause the bandits took one look at me and ran like hell!” Statuedramon boasted as he jumped onto the porch. “Seriously. Some of them actually did that.”

“I thought you told me you killed them all,” I said.

“Oh, well, I did that, too, of course. Some of them ran, though.” I sighed, smiling down at the short Digimon as I reached for the front door. Luna grabbed my arm and forcefully pulled it closer to her.

“You’ve bled…you’re bleeding…again,” the witch stared at the back of my hand with a crazed look in her golden eyes.

“Yes, that does tend to happen in our particular line of work…Luna! Is that really necessary?!” I yanked my arm away just as Luna began licking up the wet blood that had stained it.

“Oh…oh, I’m sorry!” Luna’s face immediately flushed bright red once she had realized what she had done. “Sorry…I just…I saw all that blood, and…well, when I see blood, I just lose control of myself…”

“What else is new?” Statuedramon asked sarcastically. “There’s not even that much; just a small trickle…”

“Ooh, but now that I’ve tasted it, my stomach hungers for more!” Luna’s eyes were glued to the blood on my hand and running down my arm. She made another attempt to grab my arm, but I had moved too far away from her for her to reach me.

“Yes…well, you enjoy yourself,” I said. “Statch and I are going to get something to eat. Feel free to join us if you begin hungering for food instead of blood.” I opened the villa’s front door and was greeted by Zelda when Statch, Luna, and I walked inside. Smiling sweetly, she kissed me on the lips once I had closed the door behind me.

“I’m glad you’re back; I missed you,” she said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have gone with you…”

“It’s not your fault; it was Apollomon’s idea,” I said. “He said it was a good idea for the two of us to not go together when we’re out on jobs. He said if whoever we fight discovers we’re together, they’d be able to use that to their advantage by holding one of us hostage…or something to that effect.”

“A load of crap is what it is! The two of you can take care of yourselves!” Statuedramon said. “Also, I’m always there with you! When I’m around, nothing bad like that will ever happen! Does he really think I’d let something happen to you kids?!”

“Or maybe he doesn’t want you two to get distracted,” Luna suggested. “If you know what I mean.”

“Yes, well, all the same, I agree with Apollomon to a certain point. Zelda, I love you, and I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you, but I seriously think Apollomon might be overestimating the mental capabilities of some of the bandits we fight.”

“And that’s assuming some of them even have mental capabilities,” Statch added. “Hey, you still have that necklace Zelda gave you, right?”

“Of course I do.” I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the necklace that had once saved me from death. “I keep it in there so it won’t break.”

“If one of you was to be kidnapped by some bandits and held hostage or something, and the one that was being held hostage was wearing the necklace, then wouldn’t that ruin their plans?”

“I suppose it might…”

“Statuedramon, what if the one that isn’t wearing the necklace got kidnapped?” Luna asked. “They’d have an easily killable hostage, and then nothing would be accomplished.”

“Who would kill a hostage?! That’s just plain wasteful!” Luna and Statuedramon began arguing. Zelda sighed and walked closer to me. As I continued staring down at the necklace, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned but saw nobody.

“What’s wrong?” Zelda asked.

“I thought I saw……never mind. It’s nothing to worry about.” I was staring down at the beautiful gemstone in the center of the necklace when, without warning, an unseen force struck me in the head from behind, and I fell to the floor in a daze.

“Thomas! Are you okay?!” I heard Zelda ask. I was only half conscious, so it just as easily could have been anyone else. The room was spinning and my head was pounding, but when I reached up, I couldn’t feel any physical wound. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Hey, where’d the necklace go?!” Statuedramon asked. I looked into my hand and gasped; the necklace was nowhere to be seen. A knock on the door broke the silence. Hesitantly, Statuedramon opened the door.

“Nice to see you again, lizard.”

“…BioBeelzemon…” Statuedramon began slowly backing away from the open door. The Bio Hybrid followed him, holding a shotgun aimed right at Statch’s face.

“Sorry…but you won’t be needing this little trinket anymore,” BioBeelzemon grinned. Sephyrus suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind him, holding the necklace securely in one hand and a burlap sack in the other.

“I apologize that it had to come to this,” Sephyrus said. He carefully slid the necklace inside one of his robe’s pockets. “However, our lady is in dire need of this.” Sephyrus’s words pulled me out of my dazed stupor. With a small effort, I forced myself to stand up. “We do not have any explicit orders to bring any of you to harm, so I implore that you do not force us to do anything drastic.”

“Your lady…you mean…Lilithmon?” Statch looked up in horror at the two taller men. “But…Thomas killed her a year ago, didn’t he?”

“That’s right; but she’s back!” BioBeelzemon grinned down condescendingly at the shorter Digimon. Statuedramon glared at the two Bio Hybrids.

“…Give that necklace back,” he said through clenched teeth. “Zelda gave that to Thomas…It’s really important to him…”

“I have already explained that we are unable to do so,” Sephyrus said sadly. “However… The two of us are far from ungrateful; we’ll be more than happy to trade you something. We’ll let you have this in return for the necklace.” The priest tossed us a brown, burlap sack, which landed in the villa on the floor with a thud, indicating the presence of something solid inside. “If that is all, we’ll be taking our leave of you for now.” The two Bio Hybrids turned their backs to us and began walking away.

“Get back here, damn it!” Statch began running after the two.

“Don’t tell us what to do; Double Impact!” BioBeelzemon pulled out his guns and shot Statuedramon in the knees, making him fall helplessly to the ground. The two were soon out of sight, all of us alone at the front door with the sack Sephyrus had tossed to us.

“Statuedramon, are you okay?!” Zelda asked, kneeling down beside him. Shaking her head, Luna closed the door.

“Yeah…I’ll be okay…I’ve been hit by worse than this,” he smiled weakly. “I might need one of Luna’s potions, though…So, Thomas, what’s in the sack?”

Why do I have the feeling that there’s something alive in here? I knelt down and slowly opened the mouth of the sack. Or dead, from the smell of it…

“What’s going on? What happened out here?!” Apollomon and Chrysania came running downstairs. “Are you all okay?”

“Well, I got shot in the knees, but otherwise, I’m fine,” Statuedramon said. “Also, two of those Bio Hybrids showed up and stole the necklace Lilithmon said was a Horcrux, but we got a sack in return for it.”

“The Bio Hybrids?! They were here?!”

“Yeah, they said something about Lilithmon being back. So, Thomas, what’s in the sack?” Statch asked once more. I didn’t answer — well, it was more like I couldn’t answer. My eyes were completely transfixed on the contents of the sack. Nausea, dread, confusion…so many emotions and feelings were occurring all at once. I felt myself grow dizzy as tears began to well up in my eyes. “Thomas? What’s wrong, buddy? What’s in there?” I heard Apollomon’s heavy footsteps as the tall Mega Digimon walked up to me. “Thomas?” Apollomon opened the mouth of the sack wider, and gasped.

“……Irene…” Zelda’s face went completely colorless. Chrysania gave a chilling scream and Luna broke down in tears when they saw Irene’s mutilated corpse, thoroughly soaked in blood. Statuedramon slowly backed away from the sack. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t think. In all my years fighting bandits, I had never once seen a body this badly damaged; she had bled from practically every area of her body; her dress had been torn to shreds; her face was eternally frozen in wide-eyed, painful agony; there was a huge vertical split running down the front of her body. After a few minutes of gazing wistfully and silently at Irene, Apollomon finally knelt down and closed the mouth of the sack, tightly clenching his fist around it.

“I’ll…I’ll take care of it…” Apollomon gently picked up the sack containing Irene’s body and as he slowly walked outside, presumably to the villa’s backyard, I could hear him quietly choking back a sob.

“Thomas…is she…is Irene… really dead?” Statuedramon asked quietly. I nodded grimly. Luna had taken Chrysania upstairs, but I could still hear her crying hysterically. “Damn it, it was those two bastards who did it, wasn’t it?! How could they do something so horrible like that to such a sweet little girl?!”

“She didn’t…suffer…did she? Thomas? Did it…look like…she suffered?” Zelda asked tearfully.

“No…please…don’t make me remember it,” I said in a barely audible whisper. I tried to stand back up, but my legs were shaking too fiercely; I had to sit back down. Zelda sat down next to me and placed her arm around my shoulders. For a few moments, we sat together like that until Apollomon came back inside.

“Thomas…we’re going after them,” he said. His hands, arms, and chest were smeared with blood that I could only assume was Irene’s. “We’re going to find those two…and the two of us are going to make them pay.”

“Just the two of you?! By yourselves?! What about me?!” Statuedramon asked. “Those bastards killed Irene; I wanna hurt them, too!” Apollomon sighed. He fiddled with the blood-stained bandaged that were still wrapped around his torso, a nervous habit of his I noticed not long after his fight against Lector.

“You…are injured, Statuedramon. Zelda…take him up to Luna’s room so she can heal his legs.”

“Apollomon…do you know where they went?” I asked.

“They took your necklace, didn’t they?” Apollomon asked. “That means they’re headed for Cyprus Desert.”

“Apollomon, that makes no sense,” Statuedramon said. “At all.”

“I don’t have time to explain! We need to go! Now!” Apollomon grabbed one of my arms and hoisted me to my feet, and the two of us began running as fast as we could. “Zelda; you make sure to take Statch to Luna, okay?!” A confused ‘yes, sir’ was all I heard from her before Apollomon and I turned around a corner, and soon, the villa vanished from my line of sight.