The Skelitin Saga: Volume One

10. The Guest

Knock knock knock!

"Nobody's home!" Oscar called out. He never glanced up from his bottles, if the visitor was someone he knew, they'd know what to do.

The door opened anyway, and footsteps entered the house. Oscar payed no attention. Then another pair of feet followed. And another. And another.

This finally caught the Craftsman's attention. He set the bottles down, stood still, and listened...

Nothing. Oscar reached for a necklace on the wall beside him, but before he could reach it, a sharp blade scraped the back of his neck.

Oscar cried out and gripped his scruff as he stumbled away, knocking the necklace onto the ground. He spun around and stared at the figure in the corner of the room. Dare smiled at the crimson blood dripping off the end of his dagger.

"That felt good," he wandered forwards and wiped the blood on Oscar's sleeve. "It's been a while since I've torn the flesh of another," Dare whispered.

"D-Dare," Oscar stared at him in feigned disbelief. His constant nervous behavior did not betray the fact that he already knew Dare had been freed. "How... when did you-"

"Oh, you know," Dare waved the blade casually, narrowly missing Oscar's face more than once. "I've been out of commission for a few years. I just felt a little... stuck, if you know what I mean. Finally got my foot out the door a couple of days ago,"

"What do you want from me?" Oscar demanded, turning to his workbench in search of a bandage. "I can't make you invincible. I can't travel through time. And I definitely can't make anyone fall in love with you. Other than that, name it,"

"I want Scary," Dare whispered, stepping close to Oscar and hissing in his ear. "I want to finish what I failed to do, eighty years ago,"

"So Scary is free too?" Oscar asked, allowing a hint of hope to sneak into his tone. "I haven't seen him,"

Dare observed the Craftsman carefully, eventually concluding that Oscar was telling the truth. He straightened up, and turned to the door. "We'll be sticking around, so don't get your hopes up. Skelitin will be dead the moment his face enters my line of sight,"

"I won't be telling you if I see him," Oscar replied calmly. He found a potion among his possessions, and took a sip. The bleeding stopped, but the cut remained.

Dare watched the effect, before nodding slowly. "I expected as much. You always were a team player. Weren't you, Oscar?"

Oscar faced his old friend, and new enemy, for several seconds. But he turned away, telling Dare that he was no longer worth a reply.

Dare sighed, and turned to go, but something caught his eye on the workbench. A spot of jet black.

In a split second he crossed the room and seized the tuft of hair from the counter. He knew it anywhere. The smell as he lifted it in his palm. The feel as he attempted to crush it into nothingness in his fist.

"You said you hadn't seen him," Dare growled, letting the hair fall to the floorboards.

"See who?"

"Don't lie to me, Oscar," Dare snapped, leaning up against the table and grabbing a random potion off of the shelf. "We know he was here,"

"Who was here?" Oscar asked.

Lutherious, Ava, and Red entered the room, behind Oscar.

"Here's an idea," Red flicked her curly red hair out of her face, and made her way around the skinny man. She leaned against Dare's shoulder and stared at Oscar with scorching red eyes. "Why don't you tell us?" She replied softly.