Dark Tides

So that's why "Harrington" sounded familiar. Percy wasn't sure what to make of the fact that he now worked for the man who'd been harassing Emily since her family had come out of mourning. From the couple of minutes that he did encounter the man, it did not strike him as unusual for him to be so awful to be around. Emily was giving him a funny look, seemingly having noticed that something was wrong. When he didn't say anything, she nudged him, waiting for an answer.

"I managed to find work," Percy finally said. "I'd been looking for a while, without much luck. Finally found a job yanking weeds out of the ground all day."

"Please tell me you're not going to say what I think you're going to say," Emily frowned.

"...And I happen to be doing this job at the Harrington residence," Percy finished.

"Why?"

"Because some of us have to work for a living."

"No, I mean why are you working for someone like Gregory Harrington?" Emily said, rolling her eyes. "He's terrible to the help, everyone knows that. No wonder you're all dirty and grimy, he probably threw mud at you."

"He didn't do anything, I just work in the dirt. I can't be choosy about who I work for," Percy told her. "Besides, I'm not working for him, I'm working for someone else. It just takes place at the house. I'm not seeking his approval."

Emily still seemed a bit on edge, but accepted it, shrugging lightly.

"He does like you, though," Percy said. "From what I could tell."

Emily looked at him with a slight smile, tilting her head. "What's that face?"

"What face?"

"That face you make when you say he likes me."

Percy shook his head, unsure of what face she was talking about. She still had a sly grin on her face, but both of them stopped and froze when they heard voices near them, sighing in relief when they heard that it was coming from over the wall.

"So, what were you doing?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Hm? Oh, not much," she shrugged. "I would have been home sooner, but some men decided to stand in my way, and I had to move them."

Percy furrowed his brow in confusion, so Emily sighed and reluctantly told him where she'd been. Percy was well aware of those streets, and the kinds of people who roamed it at such an hour. He learned a very, very long time ago to take the long way home so he wouldn't be bothered by the drunks. When he was younger, at least. Nowadays, the drunks didn't dare look him in the eye, let alone try and take the money he didn't have.

"Why didn't you take the back alleys?" Percy asked.

"Back alleys?"

"Yeah, it's much safer," Percy told her. "It sounds like bad news, but the reality is that it's an unwritten agreement not to attack anyone in a place too dark to see your hand held in front of you. The Smokes has its own law and order system. If anyone breaks a rule, formal punishment will seem kind compared to what the ordinary people will do to you."

"The Smokes?"

"That's what they call that entire area," Percy explained. "It's because the air is smoky, for some reason no one can explain."

"How do you know so much?" Emily asked, somewhat amused.

"Well... I live there," Percy admitted, a little embarrassed to say it out loud. "I learned the hard way while I was growing up."

"Can you show me the back alleys?" Emily asked, seemingly unfazed by the awful area Percy lived.

"You don't have to go over there," he said. "You don't need to know how to navigate the alleys if you don't have to go there."

"Fine, I'll figure it out for myself then," Emily shrugged. "I'm going to learn it, one way or another. If you teach me, it'll just be faster and less risky."

Percy sighed, giving in. "Fine. But not right now. You need to go back up to your room before someone catches you missing."

"When?" Emily pressed, refusing to go and pulling Percy back down when he tried to stand.

"I don't know, one day," Percy muttered.

"Tomorrow," she insisted. "When you're done working. I'll wait by that old perfume shop. If you're not there, I'll take it personally."

"Fine, I'll be there tomorrow, around dusk," Percy said reluctantly, pulling Emily up with him and urging her to go back up to her room, before she got in trouble and he got hanged for trespassing. "But don't think I'll do things like this for you all the time."

Emily grinned and nodded, though Percy wasn't so sure she'd be dropping the subject after he taught her how to navigate the back alleys. He wasn't even sure it was a good idea to bring them up. He'd just always been under the assumption that everyone knew how things worked in The Smokes. He helped hoist Emily up as she climbed back up to her room, waiting until she was safely inside before sneaking away.

On his way home, he noticed a couple people gathered around one man and helping him up off the ground while he twitched slightly, looking around in a daze as they helped him up to his feet. Looking around at where he was, Percy realized that this must've been the attacker Emily was talking about, and he couldn't help but smile when he saw that Emily had put a man twice her size in his place. She'd been such a quiet and scared little thing when he first met her, but she certainly didn't have an ounce of fear in her anymore.

When he arrived home, he saw that his mother was sitting at her table, carefully examining some herbs and incenses she'd bought earlier that day. He slammed the door slightly to get her attention, giving his mother an annoyed look as he wiped dirt off his forehead with the back of his hand. She only glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, ignoring his obvious annoyance with her.

"You just left this morning," Percy said. "You didn't tell me where you were going, or what you were doing."

"I'm your mother, Percy," she said, laughing lightly. "But nowadays, you're the one acting like I'm the naive teenager. Let me tell you, we do have one of those in this little family, and it's certainly not me."

"Something could have happened," Percy said, sitting across from her at the table. "What are you going to do if your legs give out and I'm not there?"

"When my time comes to and end, Percival, you will be there," she said. "And when I pass on into my next life, you will still be a part of it."

Her tone of voice when talking about her life ending was almost eerily serene, and it made Percy's stomach do a backflip. As sure as his mother was about what she saw in the future, Percy had yet to believe her completely. He leaned back in the chair and sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. Malina reached over and pulled his hands away, holding them in her own pale, slender hands.

"Don't do that," she told him. "Your hands are filthy, and you'll go blind. By the way, I'm glad you finally have work to keep your mind busy. That boy told me. The one who's soul smells worse than he does."

"He's not a bad person," Percy said slowly. "He just... seems like a bad person."

Malina let go of Percy's hands, and next thing he knew, the crutch leaning against the table beside her had collided with the side of his head, making him wince softly and rub the spot he'd been whacked.

"If there was one thing your father and I could agree on, it was that you needed to stay away from that boy," she said, using her crutch to stand up. "You know, you look so much like him."

Percy frowned when she said this. He knew he looked like his father, as much as he hated to admit it. An exact copy of his father at that age, so they would say. His mother turned around and gave him a gentle smile, making her way towards him to fix her son's hair and rest her hand on his cheek, leaning down to give him a kiss on his forehead.

"Nathaniel was a handsome man, Percy," she said. "You shouldn't worry. What you are on the outside matters little when you two differ so much on the inside. You will never be as cold and dark-spirited as he was. I can promise you that, lamb."

Percy nodded and smiled as she walked away, though he wasn't feeling all that much better. no matter what his mother said to comfort him, he was still going to see Nathaniel every time he looked in the mirror.