Nate kept screaming until the light reached Zoly’s window.
“What do I do?! What do I do?! Do I run and look for Dana…? Dammit! If only I knew what was going on in there… ” He covered his face with his hand and that’s when he noticed the faint voices echoing up the alley walls. In the windless silent night, Nate felt as if he could almost make sense of them.
That was right, the skill! He had a skill called Evesdroping, but he didn’t knew how to use it… Shit! Why did no one tell him anything about skills?! Is not as he haven’t asked… Wait, he had one skill whose effects he more or less understood; Dana had commented his Clean skill would improve marginally his cleaning capabilities.
Assuming Eavesdropping was similar then it too should improve marginally his hearing… No, something wasn’t right about that... He had been led to understand that skills grew in strength and versatility with each tier, that meant Bronze skills have to be eider weak or inflexible…
That was it!
The skill was called Eavesdropping, not Hear or Hearing! The ability should only help him eavesdrop on other people’s conversations and, if it couldn’t improve his overall hearing, then the only way the skill could function was by helping him make sense of what he heard. In other words, translate intelligible sounds back into recognizable language.
All these realizations happened at the speed of thought, and with them came understanding. He needed to feed the voices to his skill and hope it could do the rest.
Nate tightened his eyes closer, straining to listen... and slowly, the disjointed murmurs started to become words:
“How… her…?” That was the Brat’s voice.
“Yo… ister is… olding on…” and that was a man’s voice,“…for now. But you need not worry… that. In a couple months I’ll take our family back from the claws… monster, then you will be able to come back to us, but you can’t be here now…”
“Are those… alarm bells?” That couldn’t be good…
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Something is happening. You must leave! Now!”
“But brother I…!”
“Take hart, little sister, I’ll take care of everything… Now go! Every minute you stay near this house is dangerous! We can’t risk him getting another pawn for his sick games.”
*DING*
- [EVESDROPING] LEVEL UP! –
- [EVESDROPING] LEVEL UP! –
- [EVESDROPING] is level 3-
“Wow! Level up! First that happened. And twice in a row… But what did I just hear? The brat’s family is in trouble and they sent him away because of it… him… Hold up! The brat is a tomboy?! How didn’t I saw that one coming…!? Does she cross dress to hides his identity or…? Ah, there she is, his brother is letting her go… Ugh…! She is crying… Should I ask? Tell her I hear the whole thing…?” Nate distractedly closed up the window, and ended up in front of his unsettling new reflection, “No… Lord’s knows I don’t need anything else on my plate right now… Besides, the brat is smart, I am sure she can take care of herself… Yeah! Brother-guy said there was no need to worry and is not my problem to begin with! What good could I possibly do there? Better I forget the whole ordeal and let them manage their own problems…”
Between her crying and hiccups, Zoly wouldn’t have managed to held onto the rope if not for her Climb skill. She hadn’t expected to confront her previous life, no, her reality, like this, and the last melancholy smile on his brother’s face would have broken her then and there if she hadn’t had to react catch the rope he tossed her way.
The girl gathered the rest of the rope and walked away without looking back, swallowing her sobs as best she could.
“Holy moly! He didn’t get you! I don’t know what happened there but thank goodness you are alright! Who would have thought a guy would show up out of nowhere like that! I repeat, I don’t know what happened inside that room, but I am sure glad you are fine…! You are fine, right?”
“Yes Nutjob, I’ll be fine… you are the worst watch ever, by the way.” She chuckled bitterly.
“Oh, yeah, I am so terrible at it. Worst watch ever, that is me…” he stepped to the side for her to lock her neighbor’s house, “Did I mention that I don’t know what happened there? Like, I have no Idea.”
“I… My Brother… Nutjob, I-I am so sorry for dragging you here tonight. The truth is that my family is…”
“My gosh! Who keeps ringing those crazy bells?! They are being so loud, and in the middle of the night no less! I wouldn’t be able to focus on a conversation with those bells chiming on and on like that! Why would someone do this?! I wouldn’t know! Never heard of those bells before!”
“Right! The alarm! Stupid-stupid-stupid!” she facepalmed,” I don’t know what is going on exactly, but we need to ran back to the…!”
Zoly’s eyes opened wide as saucers. She jumped, pushing Nate to the ground with no warning, just as something black zoomed pass over the exact place they just stood, leaving a deep slash in the solid stone tiles.
It skited away into the darkness, letting out a low, guttural hiss.
