Page 48 of Heartless Heathens

“You said not now, that was yesterday. It’s most definitely not now,now.” Well shit, she wasn’t wrong.

“Fine, come in.” I waved her inside and she practically jumped on top of me with excitement, leaping onto my back as she took in the chapel with a marveled look in her eyes.

“You guys redid this place in a week?” she asked, the disbelief in her voice echoing out through the high ceilings.

“We paid someone to do it. You saw what it used to look like?” I asked her.

“We broke in a few times and got drunk out here last year, but the smell of the rats wasn’t worth the possibility of getting kicked out and sent to the poorhouses.”

I dropped her on her feet before sitting back down on the couch, propping my arms up on the backs of the cushions and lifting my feet to rest over the coffee table. Reesa looked like a kid in a candy store, unsure which part of the house she wanted to inspect first. Then she whipped her head back towards me and her eyes went wide.

“Where is she?” She steered back on track to her original mission, the alert in her eyes letting me know all her focus was directed back on our latest addition.

“She hasn’t come out of Sonny’s room yet. Good luck getting him to share.” I chuckled and she frowned.

“Is she Frollo’s daughter then?” she asked me and I shrugged, not feeling right telling a story that wasn’t mine.

“Was she really in the belltower? Was she living up there?” She began firing off the questions before I could answer, and not that I had the answers to give to begin with.

“I know almost as much as you do. We’re still trying to discern the truth from the lies.”

“Has she been up there this whole time? I mean, the legend is as old as I am,” she said in a hushed voice.

“I think there’s a good chance of that. I think she’s even tried telling us that. It’s just hard to believe that any monster out there could do something like that to anyone,” I told her with a heavy sigh.

“I always got tales from the crypt vibes from him man. You think he’s been doing something pervy with her?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. But we haven’t gotten the full story from her yet.”

“My parents thought good old ole’ Claüde Frollo would get my life back on track, because nothing else could.” She snorted a laugh. “Can you imagine If they knew he’s been keeping a sex slave in his attic? They wouldn’t believe it even if they saw it with their own eyes,” she said with a smirk.

“Your folks are really religious?” I asked her.

“Big time. This…” she points to her short hair and then fans out to the uniform, “was their idea. Not sure if it was to get me out of their space or actually for my benefit.” She didn’t bother to hide her contempt for her parents, and I could easily see why.

“They thought cutting your hair would keep you safe here?”

“Yeah, they still don’t realize it’s the combination of carrying a taser, mace, and a sharp key fob between my knuckles.”

Folks like hers were the worst kind. The ones who blindly followed Frollo and his crusade because they believed in some old concept of what religion was supposed to be.Faith, they called it. There was nothing to have faith in anymore, and there was no one listening to their prayers.

The only magic that existed was the kind you created on your own.

The universe always answered yes, you just had to make sure you asked the right questions.

Until people truly understood the weight of that, they would stay trapped in their own self-created prison. Unable to grant themselves the simplest form of manifestation.

“Ughhhh!” She dropped into the couch heavily, “What are they doing in there? It’s practically lunch time already,” she complained, shuffling her legs anxiously before getting back up to stand.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I warned her with a chuckle when she started walking towards the hallway.

She didn’t get a chance to do whatever she thought she was going to do. Before she could even position herself directly in front of Sonny’s bedroom door, he was stepping out of it with Romina in tow. Whatever she must have been preparing to say must have dropped right out of her head instead of the mouth she left gaped open.

Sonny had that effect on people.

Maybe it was because of how good looking the dude was, and maybe it was because he exuded a vibe that seemed like hell incarnate in the shape of a person. Either way, she lost her composure and backed up into a wall to let Sonny by.

He didn’t even spare her a glance. I didn’t miss the way Romina’s hand clutched his forearm tightly while she tip-toed behind him wearing nothing but an oversized shirt and knee-high socks. She smiled brightly once her eyes landed on me and she let go of Sonny and bounded over, jumping onto my lap and wrapping her arms around the back of my neck.