Stop Listening To The Melody

“What a cramped ride!” One of the butlers rang out, his sharp teeth gnashing as he threw the various bags out of the plane and onto the runway. The other brother emerged right after, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down, we’re on vacation. Relax a bit.”

The two continued down the stairs, with the pair of Blitz and Cora right behind them.

“It’s getting a bit cloudy, isn’t it?” Cora chimed in, staring at the sky.

“We didn’t pack umbrellas, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Blitz answered, making his way down the steps to catch up to his other travel companions. “So, what’s the plan, Gauche?”

With their backs turned to him, the brothers walked in tandem. “Droite and I will meet up with the president, while you and Cora stay behind and figure out our rooms.”

Blitz paused for a moment.

“Actually… Could me and Droite be the ones to meet the president?” He sheepishly asked to the back in front of him.

“Uh… I’m not too sure about that, but...”

As he let out the unsure answer, the other brother leaned in close as the two whispered to each other. After a few moments, the same voice came back.

“Well, we’ll see how everything plays out.”

The four walked in unison, exiting the runway as a group of men in suits came to greet them. After an exchanging of bows and introductions, it was made clear that they were the escorts for the group going forward. No words were spoken in the following minutes. The group was only silently led to a series of cars, riding along with the supervision of the black suits around them.

Flashes of the city showed in the windows, giving a brief look at the daily life of living in the city. Blitz would’ve liked to compare it to the culture he dealt with back home, but found himself at a loss. He had been so divorced from daily life back home that, at the present moment, comparing the two was difficult.

The motorcade continued until it stopped at a building nothing short of fancy. Men opened the doors, leading the guests out to their destination. The butlers went ahead, as special envoys representing Blitz’s father themselves, leaving Blitz and Cora in the gilded lobby of wherever they had been dropped off.

“Off to an interesting start, huh?’ Cora asked, turning her head to her friend who had taken a seat in one of many white chairs.

“We’re just sitting around doing nothing. I expected a bit more action, you know?” Blitz retorted, resting his head on his hand.

“Don’t you have rooms to book or something of the like?”

A youthful voice filled the white lobby, approaching the duo. It was a young child, no older than ten, with black hair and green eyes. His approach put the two on their guard with his icy demeanor, but his steps lost their gravitas when matched to their originator.

“Are you the person we need to ask about that?” Cora looked down on the kid, clearly not understanding where he had come from.

“Nope, but you two are of interest to me, however.” The boy approached, sitting across from Blitz. He crossed his legs as he sat with a classy air to him, one unbefitting of a kid his age. “You’re an interesting group, coming from the West. Tell me, what about our country do you like so far?”

“’Our country?’” Blitz retorted back.

“Right, allow me to introduce myself. I am Ellis Smith. My father is the president of the Eastern States.”

Cora took a step back at the weight of the presence they were in, but Blitz pressed on.

“It’s boring.” He replied viciously.

“Oh, what are your issues, pray tell?”

“Nothing fun has happened.”

A vein popped on the child’s forehead.

“Well, if you won’t answer me, then I guess we’re done here.” The boy stood up, done with Blitz’s retorts. However, as he started walking away, he turned back for a moment. “What did you say your name was again?”

“Blitz Bolzen, and don’t you forget it.” He flashed a smirk across the room, but found a blow to his head right after.

“Please try to show some respect, Blitz. This kid is high profile,” Cora scolded with a roll of paper in her hand.

“Hey, Cora!” The boy let his own pretentiousness show. “Who said you could tell me what to do?”

“I’m a lot more experienced than you in how to grovel.” She put her hands on her hips and gave a light kick to his shins.

“Now, now. Settle down you two.” Ellis chimed in, somehow becoming the most mature one present. “I appreciate the thought… Cora, was it? But, I really must be going. I have business to attend to.” He turned away, heading towards another area of the building, but quickly spun around. “Blitz, I urge you to consider your goal in coming here. That is all.” He briskly walked off, leaving Cora and Blitz more confused than they had been at the start of the conversation. To Blitz’s delight, however, he was no longer bored.

“He was a piece of work, huh?” Cora turned to Blitz, but found the seat now empty.

“Come on, we have work to do.” Blitz had left his seat, exiting out the front door. The men in suits had gone with the butlers deeper into the building for their meeting.

Cora stammered out a reply: “You mean? Now?”

Blitz reached for his backpack, slinging it off of his shoulder and checking the contents. “I’m ready. You need to stay here. When you see Gauche and Droite, tell them where I went.” He scowled, rushing out of the building and into the cold streets which had just begun being assaulted with an influx of rain.

Gauche stepped down the stairs with Droite in tow, the two having a small stare between them. The brothers found Cora in the lobby, sitting alone in the white chair Blitz had previously occupied. Too focused on each other at first, it took until they were directly in front of Cora to realize what was missing.

“Where did Blitz get off to?” Gauche let out, voicing his worry. “Is he off getting our rooms?”

Droite tapped his foot impatiently, cocking his head and baring his teeth.

“If he’s doing something he’s not supposed to, I’ll just chew him out.” He shrugged his shoulders, but Cora and Gauche were well aware of where his affiliations lie.

“Do whatever you want, but he ran off out the door. Looked like he went towards the alleyway in the back.” Cora dropped, awkwardly injecting it into the conversation. Gauche and Droite gave her strange looks, but Gauche blew past it.

“We just need to bring him back here. President Smith congratulated our arrival, but asked to meet Blitz. Starting our trip with going against a world leader’s wishes doesn’t seem like the best idea.” He tapped his foot just like his brother, an exasperated tone now taking him over.

A silence took over the group, as they all stared at each other. After the silence became unbearable, one voice rang out in the lobby room.

“It’s fine, I’ll get him.”

The volunteer exited the building, brushing past a gentlemanly old man who was entering the building. The man, dressed in military attire and awaiting a meeting of his own, turned to look at the frantic butler temporarily, before turning back and heading inside.

The black-suited brother made his way around the corner, entering the musky alleyway Blitz had, according to Cora, ran away to. To him, though, it didn’t make much sense. He stormed forward looking for Blitz, unsure why an alleyway of all places would be his sanctuary in this foreign land. Before he could wonder about the topic further, the silhouette of the boy standing at the end of the alleyway.

“Blitz! There you—“

A loud bang reverberated throughout the alley. The butler lurched backwards, with a crimson infection spreading throughout and dying the black suit even darker.

Blitz looked from the end of his barrel to his target in the dark attire, just as he’d planned since the beginning. He stashed the gun, turning to a manhole cover in the alleyway and lifting it up. He didn’t have many options to escape, but he knew damn well he couldn’t stay here. He had finished moving the manhole cover out of the way when he heard his second pursuer’s voice.

“Blitz! What the hell hap—“

The voice stopped, supposedly upon seeing the body slumped over on the ground and bleeding out. Blitz looked back at the originator of it, recognizing the voice, but wanting to see the reaction himself out of morbid curiosity.

Falling over the body on the ground, the rain splattered on the face of the beige suited butler, his hands being covered with the spreading blooms of blood that stained the pavement.

“Blitz, what is this…”

“I killed Droite, Gauche. I had to. He always favored my father. If I want to be free of him, I had to kill him and disappear. You of all people should understand, you were always by my side.” Blitz began to turn away, putting one foot on the first rung leading to his escape.

“What? You killed… Droite?” The butler let out, lifting his face to meet Blitz’s which caught a glimpse of the mourning brother. What Blitz saw prevented him from fulling rotating, locking his eyes onto the face before him.

“Wait, no…”

“Blitz… How could Droite be dead…” He put a hand to his bangs, combing his wet hair back with his palm and flashing his sharp teeth in a sinister smirk. “When I’m alive and well, right here?!”

The eyes of the criminal became deep wells, unsure what they were even seeing anymore. “What… do you mean?”

Droite laughed as he took a defiant step forward. “Oh, Blitz, you’re far too naive. If you’re going to discuss a murder plot, don’t do it on a public chatroom anyone can see if they just figure out your password! I don’t know who this ‘Armeniaca’ character is, but you sure were in deep with him!” His voice boomed throughout the alleyway, bouncing off the walls and attacking Blitz from all directions. “With one small suggestion of switching clothes with my brother before the start of this little trip, everything you’ve done becomes unraveled.”

“W-why are you laughing so much?! Your brother is dead! Shouldn’t you be mourning?!” Blitz let out his own mournful cries, processing the fact he had just killed the last man he’d ever lay his hands on. His hands slipped his gun back out, waving it around as a threat.

“Call it delirium, shock, or what have you. Ultimately, it’s inconsequential. Because I’m much more focused on my plan coming to fruition.” Droite approach continued, unhindered by Blitz’s intimidation.

“Your… plan?” Blitz stammered.

“I’ve despised you for the longest time, Blitz. You’re a spoiled brat who squanders his gifts and does nothing but make trouble and invest in useless muck. However, your father told me one day… That if I were to ever surpass you, he’d be open to making me his successor… Ever since that day, I’ve been at his side, and against yours.” He snarled, smirking as he approached further.

“You just want me dead?!” The gun pointed forward at Droite’s abdomen.

“Well, who’s worse here, the actual murderer or the guy who wants justice for his brother’s wrongful death?” Droite placed his forehead on the barrel of Blitz’s gun, staring him down as he bent over with his hands in his pockets. “But, you see, that’s the fun thing about murder. First time you try it, it takes a bit to get used to the taste.” A leg sprang up and jutted forward, pushing Blitz backwards.

As the boy fell into the manhole below, his leg was snagged by a rung. He would’ve preferred if he had stopped falling, but gravity had different plans, as he continued his descent with a snap as his left leg went limp and was overtaken with pain. Before he knew it, Blitz found himself sprawled out in the rising water levels of the sewers below.

“You see, Blitz, I’d rather not kill you. Honestly, I’d like to see you make it out of this. But, I can’t let you come home either. I will head home tonight, telling your father you were killed in an attack by the Eastern States. You’re welcome to try and follow me, but if the police catch a crazed murderer on the streets, I doubt they’ll let him back to the airport. Besides, if I killed you, then that would make us equal! I’m very fond of the moral high ground, it’s very comfortable. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” With his finishing line, Droite’s head disappeared from the manhole cover’s opening, ending the last time Blitz would ever see him for the next few years.

Now, he was left alone. Rain was pelting his face, his leg was searing with pain, and the water levels were rising by the minute as it slowly creeped up his skin. In all honesty, Blitz knew he could probably sit up and survive a little longer, but what would be the point? He had killed the man closest to being a real father to him. He had been scammed out of his entire life by a weasel of a butler, and now nobody even knew where he was. At this moment, Blitz’s fate became all too clear, and he made peace with that.

“You messed up, didn’t you, boy?”

A muffled gruff voice came down the manhole, but Blitz couldn’t see anyone. The water in his ears didn’t help him analyze the voice either. He had already given up, ignoring a voice wasn’t the hardest thing for him to accomplish now.

Another voice chipped in, but this one he couldn’t make out at all. That is, until his body jolted out of the water. When his eyes opened from the shock, Blitz found his face across from a groomed old man with a mustache. Before he could react, though, Blitz had a slap ring across his face.

“What were you thinking?! That you were just going to die?!” Cora cried out. The rain masked whether she was crying or not, but Blitz imagined her tone of voice gave the answer away.

“I—“ Blitz tried to think of an answer, but lowered his head as his body was lowered to the wet pavement by the muscular old man.

“Well, whatever you had planned, be glad your friend here let me know you’d be here. Otherwise, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t have drowned down there.” He spoke in a tone one would expect from a lecture from their father, eliciting an appropriate response from Blitz.

“But… Maybe that would’ve been better. I’m just scum…”

“Is that really it? Satisfied with writing yourself off over one mistake? I can see the corpse, I know you’re a murderer.”

Blitz’s eyes widened again, but the man continued.

“We all have skeletons we want to bury. We all make mistakes that change people’s lives permanently for the better or for the worse. But if you get held up on that and stop moving forward, then how in the world are you going to make up for that?” The man’s face became intense, a determined gaze furrowing along his brow. He continued, without waiting for any answer. “I have been running from my mistakes for years, but I’ve come here today to a meeting called by President Smith to change that!” He paused for a moment, took a breath, then turned to walk away. “You two. You’re welcome to join me if you’d like. If you have nowhere else to go, I can at least help you find places to make amends.” The gentleman walked back towards the building where the evening had began, and soon after, a young girl and her friend began chasing after a man’s back they would continue after for the rest of their lives.