Domino Effect

The sun cast its warmth in the otherwise cool weather, Clear skies stretched the horizon. Alejandro arrived at the quiet café minutes before noon; Griselda waited for him under a tree by the café’s entrance. His alcohol-wreaked breath lent to his exhausted expression. The silent torture of his scattered thoughts often returned to Enne, whether it be the current state of affairs or a past long gone.

Griselda flailed her hands in an exaggerated greeting, her long curly hair bounced. Her beauty was down to earth, but her mannerisms betrayed. The loose blue dress gave an impression of innocence and undeniable femininity. The young woman’s joyous expression soon devolved to a bitter frown, crossing her arms as he inched closer.

“You kept me waiting!” she muttered.

“It’s not even noon yet,” he yawned.

“It’s rude to keep a girl waiting!”

The wanderer’s tired expression did well to mask his irritability. His day hadn’t even begun, and she’d already begun to nag him. He wanted to leave, but he didn’t want to stoop so low. When she realized his indifference, she quickly changed her tune, tugging his arm with a flimsy smile.

“I was just teasing,” she admitted.

“That’s a good way of driving away potential suitors,” he said.

“Oh? Like you don’t have a few things to work on?”

“That’s not what I’m here for! Ugh, I really need a boost.”

They entered the café at the balcony Alejandro grew fond of. His gaze was lost in the clear blue skies, glimpsing the manor from the side of his eye. The nurse’s lingering scent triggered his thoughts of Enne, prompting a reflexive sigh; As sweet as it was, it paled in comparison to the complex notes. Griselda looked on with him, noting the melancholy within his eyes as she listened to the gentle downstream. Alejandro and Griselda hardly spoke until after placing their orders, which she summoned the courage to talk when their orders came.

“You sure have good taste in settings.” she complimented.

“Someone else showed me this spot,” he admitted.

“It was Enne, wasn’t it?”

He abruptly set down his coffee, startling the nurse. She thought she had something wrong when he narrowed his eyes. He licked his lips, savoring the coffee’s taste, releasing the cup’s handle before he could focus his thoughts. Seeing her ease back into her lax nature, Alejandro realized he came off the wrong way.

“Did I say something wrong?” she asked to be sure.

“No, not at all,” he answered. It’s just that—Yes, she showed me.”

“So, it’s true?”

“What’s true?”

“Before you came along, she wasn’t always so cheery. I mean, she’s still a great person, but she was usually smug. Everyone notices that when you’re with her, she’s a lot more at easy-going.”

I see no difference, he thought.

Alejandro glimpsed his haggard expression in the coffee’s ripples. He considered himself a rather unremarkable person and the thought of anyone thinking otherwise was an entertaining thought. Enne was everything he wasn’t, a commanding presence full of vigor and wonder. It was a magical affair ever since he stumbled upon the city. Clearing her throat, she gained his attention.

“I think you two make a great couple,” she continued. “Even that little performance I heard was pretty awesome.”

“I had no idea what I was doing,” he admitted with a smile emerging from his saddened face.

“You two had a great time, though? That’s what counts. A—Are you planning to stay?”

“Wanderers aren’t known to become a city’s hermit. It’s literally in our title. But, I am helping Kenneth with something.”

“By chance, is he dating anyone?”

Alejandro raised an eyebrow; Kenneth was old enough to be her father. Sipping his coffee only exacerbated their awkward silence. She cleared her throat again before looking into his intimidating amber eyes.

“How’s your morning so far?” he changed the topic.

“Great, great, I was excited and all,” she smiled weakly.

“Are you okay?”

“You have really intimidating eyes.”

“Eh, this isn’t working. You said you were curious about the outside world. Let’s talk about that, shall we?”

“Yes, of course. Um—What places have you been to?”

“Mostly settlements along the eastern coast and occasionally the west coast, which there isn’t much of left. I’ve roamed for hundreds of years, observing how they all thrived. There was instability in every settlement I went—sometimes worse than the things happening beyond. And if it weren’t contending with nomadic cannibals, you dealt with necrobytes and dangerous creatures emerging from randomly generated portals. And—Are you listening?”

Griselda’s eyes glazed over from boredom. Alejandro knew he wasn’t the most entertaining speaker, but he was still offended.

“Uh, sorry!” she snapped out of her gaze. “I was just thinking—"

“I hardly said much at all. What did I say?”

“That’s the problem! You were talking about things of eh, little substance!”

“I can’t do this.”

Alejandro lost what little interest he had in discussing anything. Unfortunate, considering she was so well dressed for the occasion. He recalled Griselda’s fondness for books, specifically romance novels. She began to fidget while silence reigned; He slumped in his chair slightly, anticipating a tangential response.

“Then…What would you like to talk about?” he asked.

“I like romance novels,” her voice softened.

“Romance novels aren’t something I’ve read.”

“But you’ve been alive for hundreds of years! And you haven’t read a love story?”

“Nope.”

“You’re missing out on tales of adventure, of heartache, of an undying love that could never be quenched!”

“Yeah, not my thing. It usually depicts unrealistic outlooks on love, some more unrealistic than others. Let’s take 50 shades—Or no, Love in the Time of Cholera—"

“If this were a real date, you’d put her off!”

“Well, this isn’t a date, Gris,“ he sighed amidst her impassioned anger with her hand placed over her heart. “I’m only here because I offered to talk about my experience.”

“Aha! So, I lured you in with my feminine charm last night? And you came to confirm your icy heart’s feelings of lust toward me, right?”

“What are you talking about? You know how deranged you sound?”

“It doesn’t change the fact you want to hurl this table over to kiss me passionately because of my gushing heart. And it's only with a kiss could you confirm your heart’s content!”

She can’t be a real person, he thought, his eyes glazing over from her incoherent reaction.

“Are you done?” he asked.

“Uh, well—No, but,” she stuttered.

“Well, I’ve got things to do.”

“But I didn’t get to the part about how our destinies are—"

“It was nice having coffee with you, Gris.”

*****************

Griselda burst through the door, scrambling toward Alejandro as he turned the corner. She began shouting, attracting unwanted attention as he tried to walk faster. He regretted their rendezvous, although in secret it brought some amusement to the start of his day. There wasn’t much substance to the nurse beyond her shenanigans and theatrical manner. The wanderer remained cordial with the belligerent maiden, passing her each time she attempted to stand in his way.

“I can’t believe you were just going to leave me!” she ranted.

“I said I had something to do, didn’t I?” he muttered.

“I’ll tag along and teach you a thing or two about how a woman should be treated! You just going off like I’m some, some—"

“Maybe out of respect for yourself, you could keep it down.”

Griselda saw everyone watching their shameless interaction. She fell silent, blushing as he kept walking. Not to be outdone, she waved her clenched fist as she followed him. Alejandro prayed for a miracle as his senses were bombarded with her nonsense.

“I’m not through with you yet,” she continued. “Today I will teach the wanderer how to treat a woman!”

“Please, please,” he decided to respond sarcastically. “Don’t beat it into me.”

“I—I am not into BDSM.”

That was unconvincing. Why does this happen to me?

He turned to see Kenneth and Billy await by the headquarters, who chuckled to his visible annoyance. Griselda’s eyes lit up when she saw Billy’s friendly face after he waved at them. She quickly left Alejandro’s side, relieving him of her overbearing antics. Griselda grabbed the young man’s hands with a heartfelt smile after walking up to him.

“Billy, you’re looking great today,” she said.

“You too, Griselda,” he responded in kind. “Wow, what’s that you’re wearing? It smells great!”

“Oh, it’s just a fragrance I picked out. It’s my first time wearing it!”

Liar, I smelled it on you the other times, the wanderer rolled his eyes.

Kenneth looked away from the young couple with a low chuckle after seeing Alejandro’s deadpan expression. He saw the bags under his amber eyes, worse than the other day.

“You—” he spoke. “Look like shit.”

“Well, I feel the weight off my shoulders now,” the wanderer responded. “So, I should manage.”

“All right then. I just spoke to the guards who interrogated the prisoner this morning.”

“And what did they find?”

“That joker just kept laughing at them. I may need to reach out to Mathias for help.”

“How about Rita?”

“I know as much as you do,” she responded.

They turned around to find the mayor returning from her afternoon jog. Her eyes remained on the wanderer, knowing of his predicament. They exchanged glances while she took a swig from her water bottle. He nodded politely, biding his tongue from how he felt about how she managed the circumstance.

“You’re still here?” she asked.

“For now,” he answered.

“You made quite a mess.”

“No one expected that to happen.”

“Yeah—Well, we went from critical mass to fucked. That’s no Bueno!”

“Let me talk to the prisoner again.”

“Good luck with that. He’s got more screws loose than Enne.”

They arrived at an interrogation room on the same floor as the holding cells; Alejandro sat alone with Clement while Kenneth and Rita observed behind the glass. The wanderer leaned forward with clasped hands set on the table after examining their cold, dark setting. He saw the prisoner’s deranged expression after noticing the cusps chained to the table’s railing.

“You’re wasting your time,” Clement smirked.

“How long do you think it’ll be before your people showed up?” he asked.

“You ain’t gonna do nothing.”

“If you cooperate, I promise to treat you well.”

Clement felt the discomforting pressure on his wrists, gently tugging away as he tried to loosen them. Alejandro laced mana into the cuffs, gradually tightening them. He growled at the wanderer as he pulled against his cuffs, noticing the subtle smirk along his face.

“Hey, the hell do you think you’re doing?” he yelled.

“Sorry, just adjusting it a little,” the wanderer replied.

A loud crunch echoed as a cuff clamped harder on his wrist. The prisoner grit his teeth before he yelped hysterically. He desperately tried to loosen his cuffs, nearly tipping his chair over. Rita held Kenneth back from intervening, seeing his disgust from the low lighting. The mayor didn’t mind breaking rules if it led to results. The wanderer was unmoved while watching his captive shrivel in his bolted chair.

“You dumb fuck,” Clement said. “You’re supposed to ask questions first!”

“Sorry, I don’t do this often,” he withheld his laughter. “So, how many are out there?”

“Ack!”

“Oh, I forgot about the other handcuff.”

“Loosen them up, will you!”

“That would defeat the purpose now, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re cutting off my circulation!”

“So, how many?”

Alejandro gave him a moment to collect his thoughts, seeing the defined vein on his forehead. He didn’t want to hurt him any further since the tightened cuffs already cut into his flesh.

“Over 500…We travel in big groups. We’ve roamed around for months from place to place. There’s—nowhere for us to go. We’ll take what we have to because ain’t nobody else gonna help us.”

“That’s just fucking great,” Rita said. “We can mobilize 80% of that and who knows if they have more guns than us.”

The wanderer eased the pressure from Clement’s bloodied wrists. His prisoner took a painful breath as he reflected on his experience in travel, remembering the dehumanizing conditions many lived in. Cruelty turns man into a monster, especially in an environment that fostered a dog-eat-dog mentality.

“Where are you coming from?” the wanderer asked.

“The northeast,” he responded.

“Any woman and children?”

“Why is he asking that?” Rita wondered. “He’s gonna be out in the next few days. Intel is all I care about here. Unless this prick expects me to feel sympathetic.”

“There’s a lot more at stake, Rita,” Kenneth spoke. “We need to be as prepared as possible.”

“We start falling back on their help—”

“They’re there to help us when we need it.”

Her silence prompted his attention to the interaction on the other side. The prisoner’s eyes drifted to the side amidst the wanderer’s patience. But after 30 seconds, he still hadn’t come up with a response. The wanderer tightened the other cuff, sending a crushing pain as he tried to loosen the grip.

“Are you going to answer?” he asked tiredly.

“Y—Yes!” he howled. “It ain’t many! But, they aren’t going to wanna talk with you. We’re tired of being under some asshole. When we come, you’re fucking dead!”

“Even at the cost of those you’re supposed to protect?”

The wanderer finally loosened his cuff before standing up.

“Let them come. See ya later, rat-face.”

“Fuck you, asshole!”

The wanderer closed the door behind him while the prisoner continued yelling at him. Kenneth and Rita waited by the door with a mix of concern and dread. The old guard massaged his brow, leaning against the cold cement wall. Rita looked on with her arms crossed, awaiting his assessment.

“Well?” the wanderer asked.

“We’ll be paying a visit to Mathias later tonight,” Rita answered. “I hope he can help us.”

“That—seems to be the wisest course of action.”

Tell me how you feel about the story so far, if you've made it this far, I super appreciate your time. Namely, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did taking time to flesh out the story from its barren roots! Feedback is always appreciated and a like always encourages! :D