Time - (Identity V-Elisop)

Chapter 26

The next morning, Aesop woke up earlier than usual, 5 AM. He wasn't tired, nor did he go to bed early. He didn't even intend to.

As soon as the embalmer sat up, the memories of what happened yesterday came back and hit him like a train. He felt extreme remorse and regret, if he couldn't even forgive himself, how would the seer forgive him?

Aesop stood up, leaving the comfort and safety of his bed. He made his way to the window and opened the curtains, it was still snowing, lighter than yesterday but still enough to be visible. He made the regretful decision of opening his window, even though it was cold and dark outside. His hands rested on the window sill, where some snow had gently fallen. The bitter cold stung his hands, and left them a light red but he didn't care and just stayed put. The candle he had lit from last night was fully burnt out, the wax would be dripping over his desk if not for the sheet of scrap paper he had placed under it.

He still had the distant taste of alcohol in his mouth from the evening with Vera. He sighed and left to his bathroom, starting his day early for once.

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Eli woke up quite suddenly from a nightmare, something he hadn't had for a while since he got with...

Throwing away such a sad though in such an early morning, he sat up in his bed. He looked around the room he was in, before nearly instantly realising it wasn't his own.

He looked again and realised it was the mercenary's. He could tell with how it was both messy and organized at the same time.

Then he noticed the person next to him. Naib was still asleep facing the other direction to the seer.

The time was 5 AM, very early for the both of them. The night before, Eli came to Naib in near tears, and the best solution they had was to drink his sorrow away. Not that that was a good idea, it was just the easiest option. Eli wasn't the type to spend hours talking about his emotions, maybe just a quick chat and then he got on with his life, it hardly did any good. They didn't get massively drunk though, just a bit tipsy before Eli decided to go to bed.

Deciding that he still had a headache, Eli layed back down, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts ran wild.

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Aesop left his room in dead silence, hair still slightly damp from his short shower.

He went downstairs, and found himself stopping at the 2nd floor. He glanced over at the door at the end of the hall, a door which had the nameplate "Seer-Eli Clark". He found himself so focused on it that he didn't notice someone come up behind him.

"If you want to find Clark, he'll be with Subedar," Aesop turned around to see a very familiar person stood behind him.

Edgar looked to have only just woken up a couple of minutes ago. His hair was down and let loose over his shoulders and he wore a white shirt that was clearly too big for him, Aesop wondered if it even was a shirt, since in his personal opinion it looked a bit like a nightgown, which he didn't even care about. The painter had paint stains on his hands and even his face, so he had clearly been doing some painting in the night, nothing uncommon in his behaviour.

"Are you alright?" Edgar asked as an expression of sincerity rested on his face. He clearly noticed how Aesop wasn't in his usual happy but calm mood, even with the mask covering half of his face.

"Yes, I'm fine. My apologies," Aesop replied before he went back down the last flight of stairs.

Aesop knew that Naib's room was on the 1st floor, along with Emily, Emma and a few others he didn't pay grand attention to. He avoided his gaze from that specific door.

The embalmer made his way to the kitchen silently, it was early and still dark but he managed. All he wanted was some tea for the morning, he didn't care about a proper breakfast.

He was focused on getting the necessities and boiling the kettle when he noticed Emily enter the kitchen out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't pay attention, or even say a friendly 'Good morning'.

The silence was loud. It made Aesop's thoughts even louder, and those thoughts were painful. It wasn't just his breakup, it was everything before that as well, and everything before the manor even. As much as he trued to forget, that wasn't possible.

"Good morning, Aesop" Emily broke the loud silence. Her mood seemed happy and positive, as she usually was.

"Good morning Emily," Aesop replied politely, he didn't even care about Emily at the moment, he just didn't want to come off as rude.

He poured the hot water into his mug carefully, he wasn't in the mood to be burnt by scolding water such early in the morning.

"Aren't you usually with Eli such early in the morning?" The doctor asked as she walked past him.

Aesop sorrow was reminded once again, and he practically malfunctioned. His eyes went wide as he realised his grasp on the kettle had gone. He quickly jumped back as the hot water spilled everywhere, quite a bit splashing on his hand.

The shock left as quickly as it came and the embalmer hissed in pain as he quickly examined his left hand. It clearly suffered burns as parts of it were a dark red, contrasting to his pale white skin.

The kettle was on the ground, and water had splashed quite a bit, Aesop was lucky he hadn't burnt his whole hand.

"Dear Lord, are you alright Aesop?!" Emily rushed over, avoiding the puddle on the ground.

Aesop cradled his hand as he stared at the small incident he had caused, "I think I burnt myself,". He hated causing a scene this early in the morning.

"Go and run it under some cold water, I'll clean it up don't worry," Emily let Aesop pass her to the kitchen sink, and she grabbed a rag to clean up the small spillage.

The two of them didn't even notice someone else come to the kitchen as well since they were caught up in the small commotion.