A Small Act of Spite

= A Small Act of Spite = Posted by  Largehobbit

Posted: Mar 19, 2018, 10:21pm

- August 19th. Black Gallows, Paramount Hill, Morning -

Edward woke in agony. His leg was on fire and his head was pounding. He sat up with a gasp and reached for his medication and a glass of water from the table beside his bed. Greedily he swallowed down both before closing his eyes and waiting for the pain to subside. In the distance he could hear the screams of the inmates as they were given their morning treatments.

His small room was a dismal affair, dark despite the grey gloom that passed for morning beneath the Maelstrom. Edward got to his feet and dressed himself in his usual black garb before seating himself at a table next to the barred window and dialling up the gas lamp to illuminate the papers that sat in a neat pile before him. His notes from the previous day. He leafed through them for a few minutes before reaching for a small bell that sat at the tables far edge. He rang it gently and after a moment the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching from without. He looked up as the door opened.

A tiny mouse of a woman stepped in, she had close cut white hair and a harelip. He motioned for her to approach and handed her the papers.

"See these filed in the red room." he ordered and she gave a nod. "and that little task I ordered last night?"

"The... dog?" she asked.

"Yes, a fighting beast I believe. A favourite of the Montclaire boy."

"Yes erm... well as you ordered we managed to acquire the animal before Tate returned home from his evenings... revelries. It is just..."

"Well?"

"Our man was forced to put the animal down, it was quite aggressive."

A shame he mused, he would like to have done the deed himself, but small acts of spite were so often a disappointment. He shrugged and scribbled a note on a loose sheet of paper. "From an admirer." he wrote, before handing it back to the woman.

"Have the head removed and returned to the Montclaire boy in a velvet lined box, and keep it anonymous."

She was clearly sickened by the order but agreed with a bob of her head regardless. The image of the young lout knocking over Stella flashed through his mind and he grimaced causing the woman to step back. She then reached down then and drew her own note from a pocket and handed it to him, looking eager to be elsewhere. Looking down he scanned the message and shook his head. "Too bad." he mumbled.

"It seems I have business in the city, have my carriage prepared."