How to Make a Sinner Sleep - Chapter 55: Chapter 55

Niklas, with his brain full of plot twists and dramatic scenes, hurried over with the intuition of a dog. His stomach—ever so reliable—told him there was something important occurring in the silence between his two friends!
Both heads turned to his loud approach. Kaden gestured directly. "Niklas. What sort of plot can you create from this painting?"
"Hey, now. The story teller isn't me, it's Noah." Seeing the dragon glance over, Niklas grinned. "C'mon, you might not have whispered it into my ears like with Kaden, but I pay enough attention."
"I didn't say anything."
"Oh, but the look in your eyes told me all I needed to know!"
Noah suddenly felt that he could really understand how Kaden and Niklas got along. They were both fantastic at spouting nonsense at times.
"Anyway," smiled Niklas casually, waving his hand as he crouched and squinted. "For a painting, obviously, the first step is to either turn the painting around, or break the glass to reveal a hidden message inside!"
"We will not be breaking somebody's belonging's to satisfy our own curiosity."
Kaden shook his head, crouching beside as the pair attempted to lift the heavy frame. He'd barely strained his muscles before spinning his head. One human and one dragon gazed at each other quietly.
Noah felt as if it would be wise to look away.
Before he could, Kaden implored the spectating dragon, "Bellamy. Help us lift this, please."
"...the two of you are enough."
"Unfortunately, my meager strength cannot compare to your overwhelming genetics—"
"You aren't weak."
"I was referring to my ability to work hard. It's too much effort."
Noah stared at him in disbelief, debating whether he should bring up the neat study notes that Kaden made a religious habit in class. Not to mention, the discomfort whenever Kaden spoke lowly of himself.
To others, it appeared as a joke. Only a few knew that Kaden was often serious in his self-deprecation.
"Come, now, princess!" cheere Niklas noisily. "I believe in your perseverance!"
Kaden, who had been tentatively trying to pull at the frame, lowered his eyes to Niklas' hands that were clearly touching the painting, but not exerting any strength. In other words, he was only pretending to help.
"If I'm the princess," said Kaden in a flat voice. "And Bellamy's the dragon, does that make you the hero? Then go on, hero,  lift it." His smile was a little vicious. "I believe in you."
The frame that had been slightly lifted was released, and Niklas gasped, forced to use his strength to prevent his fingers from being crushed.
"I'm hurt by your cruelty. These fingers of mine are important."
Kaden sneered. "In what way?"
Niklas wriggled his fingers obscenely. "Do you really want to know?"
Kaden glared with evident disgust, and Niklas laughed out loud. He wasn't really offended by Kaden's actions—Kaden, that fool, still hovered his hand nearby in case Niklas really wasn't able to catch it.
"Well, lifting this away completely is only waiting for disaster. Wait. I think I can wriggle my fingers behind this gap..." Niklas twisted his body in a funny angle, stretching his arm behind the painting.
He groped at the back, his face paling as tendrils of what was likely cobwebs wrapped and stuck to his fingers.
Kaden squatted beside him, frowning. "What is it?"
"Spiders... I fully appreciate and respect their existence of catching bugs for us, but if one crawls on me this instant, be prepared to hear me shriek."
"....." The words were spoken with such seriousness, that Kaden had been tense for a moment. "What? I can feel around instead."
"No! I've accepted this mission, and as a proud adventurer, I must continue."
Kaden gave up on offering help immediately.
Something was wedged in the slender gap of the frame, and Niklas struggled to grasp it. The item slipped, and he felt something slice the space between his fingers. Paper cuts. The bane of his existance, and certainly more painful than they appeared.
A hidden enemy, he lamented sorrowfully.
With a hiss, he attempted to use his nails to pry the letter away from the backing.
"What?" Kaden sat up straighter, alarmed. "Did something bite you? Crawl on you? Touch you? Anything poisonous?"
"I think you're actually cursing me now, Kaden. Don't jinx it!"
Noah, standing between two stacks of dusted boxes, was silent while watching their exchange. From a bystander's perspective, it was a little silly.
Niklas, half lying down in an awkward angle with an expression that seemed to be facing torture, and Kaden who squatted beside with a face twisted in something between worry and a look that seemed to constantly wonder, 'is this person a fool?'
"Any success?"
"Don't they say, the more patience you have, the greater the reward."
"I find that my lacking patience only allows me to get the reward sooner."
"Tch." Niklas clicked his tongue, still wedged in the space. "I'll have you teach you some manners some time, my dear younger brother."
Kaden scrunched his nose. "Yes, because I absolutely wish to be related to the fool stuck behind a painting."
"I'm not stuck, I'm resting."
It had been a joke, but as Niklas said that, he wriggled his body like a worm, pausing slightly. It seemed... perhaps he was temporarily stuck behind?
Kaden stared, bemused. "Don't tell me you're actually stuck now?"
"No! I'm practicing, actually. For a performance."
"And which character are you playing?"
"A pitiful worm."
Niklas feigned hurt as he called out, "Wouldn't you love me if I were a worm?"
Kaden snorted. "I'd toss you to the birds."
"...Noah! My precious friend, wouldn't you love me if I were a worm? You wouldn't be so cruel as to feed me to the birds right?"
The dragon, who'd been quietly leaning against the boxes and watching the ridiculous play, raised his eyebrow. He considered it quietly. Kaden's gaze darted sideways, attempting to read the impossible to decipher thoughts.
"I wouldn't." started Noah as Niklas made some sound of happiness. "What quality worm would you be?"
Niklas was confused but yelled out, "The best! Best quality, obviously!"
He wriggled his body more, flopping in a silly manner as if to prove his point.
Noah hummed in response, nodding his head slowly. "Mn. You'd be good bait for fishing."
"Pfft—" A laugh slipped from Kaden's mouth as he hastily covered it, coughing.
Noah's lip quirked slightly at the reaction, tilting his head as he watched Kaden laugh to himself. Niklas stilled, having the odd feeling of being a third wheel—in other words, he truly felt like some worm on the ground at that moment.
"Okay, okay! Enough mocking me! I know I always bring delight, but get me out! I'm stuck! I grabbed something,  so free me to reap the rewards!"
"Finally admitting it?" smiled Kaden.
"Just you wait, Kaden. I'm going to punish you."
Kaden's face warped again. "Don't speak such disgusting words to the only person here who could help you."
"Only, you're not the only one here. Noah? Help?"
Kaden spun around, shooting the dragon a sharp look of warning.
Noah raised his chin slightly, his dark eyes darting between the two figures on the ground. The seconds ticked by as both men waited for the dragon's move.
Niklas, seeming to realize he was likely to lose, quickly came up with a bribe. "I! I can give you what you want the most!"
Noah glanced over coolly. "That is?"
"Time alone with Kaden!"
Kaden's eyes went wide with disbelief. "What sort of bribe is that—"
"Deal."
Noah ignored Kaden, who spun around with a hundred thoughts written over his face, a touch of embarrassment and plenty of confusion. The dragon calmly strolled over, using both hands to lift up the frame slightly.
He kicked at the wriggling worm on the ground. "Hurry up and move." The painting was incredibly heavy, and his arms ached from strain.
Kaden crossed his arms and Niklas crawled away from the space he'd been trapped in, seeming to be sulking slightly. He looked away from the scene as Noah dropped the painting with a thud, and turned to watch him.
When Noah moved left to stand in Kaden's line of sight, Kaden turned to the right. When he moved right, Kaden turned to the left.
The dragon was a little amused as he cocked an eyebrow in question.
"What is it?"
Kaden said one word bitterly. "Traitor."
"That would imply we're on the same side. Did you want me to take your side?"
"Naturally, everybody should take my side—"
"Then in the future, Chauvet, I'll always be on your side."
"....." Kaden fell speechless, uncertain as to what he should say in response. He stared, opening and closing his mouth before shaking his head. "I was joking. Don't take me too seriously, dearest dragon."
Then, he looked down sideways and almost had a heart attack.
Niklas squatted between the pair, blinking his eyes innocently with a smile. "Aren't you adorable Kaden?"
"....I'll shove you back in that space if you keep talking."
"A little childish though, no?"
"I don't recall ever proclaiming my maturity." said Kaden, waving his hand to the letter grasped in Niklas' hand. "What does it say?"
"To my Dearest Adrianna," begun Niklas, creases wrinkling his eyebrows as his gaze skimmed the paper faster than the words left him. "I promise you, with my very life, that I'll soon return with a cure. Your illness will not best you, my love, I won't allow it. Please be patient, and continue believing in me. Wait for me. Signed..."
Niklas flipped the paper over twice, the crinkle loud in their silence. "The name is smudged by soot. It can't be read."
A soot coated picture was taped crudely to the back of the letter, smeared as a middle-aged man smiled. It was a smile that didn't reach his dead eyes.
"What're you guys doing?"
Holly had climbed and navigated through the boxes like a monkey, situated in a flexible and rather inhumane position as she twisted through the stacks of items, her bright eyes gleaming.
Nicola, the more wise but equally curious of the two, had followed their earlier path, her hair now combed back into a messy pony tail as she glanced at the letter.
"I heard a part of it. The lady of this house seems to have had an illness."
"Incurable, most likely." added Kaden grimly.
Nicola pressed her lips into a flat line. "I found boxes of ashes. From the remains, I made out items that appeared to be baby toys, a soft blanket, or I suppose, the pieces left of it."
In the distant hollows of the walls, a woman's tragic wails echoed past, a shrill sound that faded as soon as it was heard.
All five heads swiveled, startled.
"...okay, I know my fitness and health is sort of lacking... but you all heard it too, right? Or am I just mad?" said Niklas, wide-eyed.
Holly shook her head with a frozen expression that soon warped into excitement. "A real ghost! What a catch!"
"Holly, if the ghost belongs to the woman, it is nothing happy for her to be haunting these rooms." reminded Nicola, smoothening her long skirt with a sigh. "What sorrowful wails..."
"But— Yeah, I guess you're right, Pres."
"It's said that ghosts only remain when they regret something in the living world, unable to pass on into the after." Nicola couldn't help but glance around, feeling as if there were another pair of eyes watching in the room. "Could she have regrets?"
"The baby." The dragon's low voice sounded more ominous in the face of such solemnity. "If the mother haunts the house, and the father had failed to return with a cure, then what became of the child?"
They'd overlooked the detail in the painting, the small child cradled into the woman's loving arms.
Kaden frowned. "The infant's items and clothing were turned to ash... the books in the study room... where did the ash come from?"
Simultaneously, Noah and Kaden's eyes locked together, sharing the same hypothesis.
"The Reversal. Unless it was her blessing itself, but this appears to be a lack of control. And a worsening illness that can't be cured..."
The dragon's face was gloomy. "If everything she touched turned into ashes..."
"...what became of the baby? She wore thick gloves to prevent her from destroying the things around her, but what if there was a moment she had no time to put them on? What if it had been a slip of her hand, the slightest graze made of pure instinct?"
Silence filled the room at his words.
The possibilities were too cruel to imagine, the twisted and horrific truth of what had befell the lady of the house and her infant.
An imagine flickered through Kaden's head, of a mother reaching out to protect her child, to grab them from falling or injury, to save them, or perhaps in the midst of her dreams her hand had strayed too far, and the glove had risen just slightly—
A child that likely shattered into ashes, soot and dust before her eyes.
A father that returned to his own blood killed by his beloved, to the shell of a mother that lost her most precious, or perhaps to an empty mansion where nobody waited.
Holly's horrified whisper interrupted their quiet. "It can't be... the Reversal couldn't have such cruel effects? What if it were another illness, a curse—"
"The books in the study were researching ways to reverse the Reversal." told Kaden in a muted tone. "It can't be confirmed, but it's likely."
"That is..." Nicola held one arm, turning her head away. "...cruel."
A beautiful and happy family in one second, then ashes and bones that were nothing more than untold memories the next. Everybody was always told to live every moment like it was their last, but nobody really knew what that meant until they lost it.
When time caught up too quickly, and the precious were buried under the ground.
"Hey, hey, Niklas, you didn't know about this did you?" Holly's voice was strained.
The other paused, and shook his head. "Not about this." He turned to Kaden and smiled forcefully. "I wouldn't lie to you, my precious friend."
Kaden scoffed. "Still have the times for jokes?"
"Always."
Their small, bickering exchange had lessened the tension, if only by a little. Kaden's shoulders smoothened out as his hair swept over solemn green eyes. They reflected the careful strokes of the painting, delicately painted, lined with emotion.
A joyous family. Even happiness and love could lead to tragedy.
Noah tapped the box twice, a firm sound that freed Kaden from his thoughts.
"You have an idea where the child's ashes are." said the dragon—it was more of a statement than an inquiry.
Kaden looked over in surprise. He had a theory, sure, but he wasn't confident and therefore didn't mention it. To mislead himself was a meaningless thing, but if he directed the group the wrong direction, wasting their time—he couldn't do that.
Kaden, always so confident when alone, was a fool when it came to social interaction. The dragon shook his head with that thought.
"Where? If it's not there, we'll look somewhere else. And if it's there, then we've found it." He calmly stated the two possibilities, and suddenly Kaden wondered what he was subconsciously worried for.
If he lead them the wrong way, then they would simply turn the opposite direction. And if he was right, well, then there was no worrying about that.
Noah's eyes, black in the shadows and grey in the light, fixed on him within the narrow space.
As if telling, that wherever Kaden led him, he would follow.
Kaden felt immediately embarrassed by that thought. It was one thing to be delusional in one's own mind, but to believe in the delusion—that would truly be a problem.
He cleared his throat. "Let's go then. To the place I suspect."
Niklas and Holly both shared a look, the former wriggling his eyebrows obscenely, and the latter grinning. Beside them, Nicola sighed with an amused smile. It was impossible to forget the tragedy they might uncover, but in the present, all they could do was enjoy each other's company.