Silence Falls

That night, after a lovely hot shower, Bert was headed back to the comfy beds in the mattress store they had deemed the bedroom. He hadn’t expected to be waylaid along the way by a trio of dazzling alluring women while he was rooted deeply into his agitated mind. Almost walking into them, Bert cursed audibly as he nearly jumped out of his shoes. “Shit, ladies, you scared the crap out of me!” Suddenly, he perceived the serious looks on their faces. All three had their arms crossed over their chest as they stood in unity in a stance that resembled an immovable brick wall. They weren’t pleased with him at the moment and he had a hunch why. Perhaps he could obstruct them instead. He already had too much on his plate after all, he didn’t need more. “You guys headed to the showers? They were all open when I left a few minutes ago.”

“No Bert, we’d rather have a talk with you. It’s about Hermanni.” Onika brought up, reminding him of a long overdo matter they still haven’t gotten around to accepting and moving on from. They most likely never will if their mutual thriving interest in him continues to flourish and never dwindles.

“Fuck me!” Bert let out a wearied groan, rubbing his hands over his face. He really didn’t want to have this debate right now. But the set looks on their faces told them they wouldn’t be swayed. Letting out a long sigh, he installed his hands on his hips. “...what about Hermanni? I’m guessing you’re not about to inform me if you spotted him trying to abscond from his cell or not.”

“Let him go, Bert. Hermanni has done nothing wrong to us. Instead of looking for ways to reproach him, why don’t you focus on all the wonderful things he has done for us. That’s the only evidence we have after all, am I right? The wonderful things he’s done.” Natasha recommended, raising both of her thick dark brows.

“And to expound on that, you can’t really prove any of the ‘bad’ things you believe he has done. They’re all nonfactual skepticism on your part. You have no proof!” Demitria added in, making a good point.

Bert lifted one finger that silenced them so he could wrap up this feud. It was obvious they had some infatuation with this Hermanni, because he got them questioning him. They had never doubted his leadership before now. “My answer is still no, and only no, ladies. The reasoning being is that my gut instinct is telling me that he had something to do with the unnatural happenings encompassing us. I know it’s all been good luck rather than bad luck so far, but if I’m right about him and he does have a hand in all of that, then I wouldn’t feel safe with someone like him in case he decided to change those odds on us one day.”

“But it can’t be-” Natasha began to start again only to be disrupted.

“Please, you guys, just trust me on this one, okay? If he turns out to be dangerous in the end you’ll thank me later for this.” Bert ceased the strife by stepping in between them and roving away to the mattress store on the highest floor of the mall.

“And what if he’s innocent?” Onikia hailed after him. “What then?”

“Then he’ll be released with no hard feelings!” Bert returned over his shoulder, turning around midwalk to flash them an amiable smile as he continued down the center aisle. “Something tells me he’ll forgive me for it anyway, and we can finally put this all behind us.”
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Otep was taking a walk down the hallway before bed for some exercise when she explicitly decided to pass by Hermanni’s cell thinking he’d be reading like he always did every single minute of the day. Oddly this time, he wasn’t. He was standing in front of the black gate sealing the Electronic store and viewing her with the most intensifying grief-stricken look on his face. Otep instantly bounced back from his cage out of aversion, her eyes magnifying as his eyes seemed to bore straight into her soul. It felt violating.

Fuck, it’s as if he’s looking right at me, Otep thought to herself. Her eyes widened even further when he finally stirred by slowly tilting his head to one side. It suddenly dawned on Otep that he was in fact somehow looking into her for she swore she could feel him inside her now. It was a feeling she’d never experienced before, it was indescribable, and yet she knew it. Swallowing the anxiety it wrought down her throat, Otep steadied her voice to snap out at him in offense. “Just what the fuck are you looking at, pretty boy?”

Hermanni’s face didn’t move for the longest. He was so still as he stood there, staring at her in the most prying way possible. It was a bizarre feeling, but not a life-threatening one, he made sure of that. “Your pain, Otep. It is just too great for you having to carry it alone for this long.”

Petrified, Otep didn’t plan to stick around to find out if he meant what he said figuratively, because deep down she knew he didn’t. He was glimpsing into her and all the anguish she was carrying. It was in his eyes as comprehensible as words could describe. But her affliction was her affliction alone, and she wasn’t about to park her behind down in front of him and chat about it. What happened to her happened, there was no changing it. In her mind’s eyes, all she could do was brush herself off from it and keep marching. How else was she supposed to outrun it if she didn't?
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A half an hour later, Bert stepped up to the very same Electronic store, biting his lower lip. Originally, Bert was heading to bed, but as soon as he was about to burrow down under the sheets, his back was literally melted alive by the glare of three pairs of eyes. Bert moaned, knowing those eyes were from Onika, Natasha, and Demitria. Goddamn it, they are not gonna let me off the hook until I settle this once for all, Bert thought. Feeling a little cranky, he hurled off his blanket and exited the mattress store to go to Hermanni. Despite being grouchy, he wasn’t inconsiderate enough to rudely awaken someone on the off chance they were asleep, so he called in quietly as soon as he stepped up to the black metal gate. “Hermanni, you awake in there?”

On the nest of pillows came a dull sound before movement toppled them aside. Hermanni’s head popped up, his hair looking disheveled all around his head. Getting out of his nest he called a bed, he walked over to greet him. “No Bert, not yet. What can I do for you tonight? Do you need a book to help you sleep?”

“No, but thank you. I was actually wondering if it was okay to have that talk with you about now. I wanted to see if time was what you needed before you finally spilled the beans to me.” Bert said, crossing his arm over his chest in a way to try to appear serious, but he only looked tired.

Hermanni shoulders slumped in disappointment. He didn’t want to withhold things from Bert, but he had to. Cris was different though, he knew Cris wouldn’t open his mouth out of fret of being the messenger. But Bert isn’t Cris, Bert is the leader, the alpha male of this group. If Bert knew the truth, then everyone would know and then they might not like him anymore. Bert wanted to keep everyone in the loop just as much as he was, he wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping this a secret between them. With a defeated sigh, Hermanni shook his head in response and stepped back from the gate.

“Hermanni, look, if you don’t tell me the truth then you’re gonna end up staying in this cage even longer than you want to. Don’t you want to come out and associate with everyone else? Don’t you want to stretch your legs and see the cool stuff they’ve got in this mall? Don’t you want to see the girls? I know they wanna see you.” Bert spoke softly, hoping to teeter the steadfast Hermanni in by mentioning his squad of cheerleaders presently fawning over him.

As much as Hermanni would like to flee the cage (in the applicable and human way) and be around the others, he couldn’t jeopardize losing them out of fear. He was positive his heart would break...if he had a heart. Hermanni conclusively looked Bert right in the eyes before ending the consideration with a single word. “No, I cannot speak of this. I do not want to speak of this. Goodnight, Bert.”

Fucking godamnit, Bert cursed in his head as spun away from him. Grumbling beneath his own breath, he stalked away back to bed. He guesses this meant the girls will have to despise him just a bit longer then until Hermanni was ready to speak.