by Sara Bushway
This is it. I'm going to have to break my oath to myself, Honey thought.
He drew Cinderella from her holster and clumsily loaded his only two magical ammunition into it, though magical was a bit of a misnomer at this time since he hadn't had a chance to put magic into them. It didn't matter. He had to do something. He pulled back the hammer and pressed the barrel to Beaumont's temple. Beaumont either hadn't noticed or was going for broke, still reaching for the little snub-nosed pistol under the desk.
Honey murmured, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
Bang. Cinderella went off, the ball smashing against Beaumont's skull. His eyes bulged, and his mouth opened as if gasping for air might give him back the blood his brain needed to keep him moving toward the weapon under the desk. It didn't help. He gasped and went limp, eyes still wide and mouth open, as if he was calling to the gun mere inches from his hand, frozen in his quest.
Honey gazed down at the white marble embedded in Beaumont's skull, blood trickling all around it. It was like a little rotary for bloody by-ways. Breaking his word to himself made him feel terrible but looking down at the mess of man on the floor made him feel validated in his cause. He had fought so hard to be free and to be strong enough to defend those he cared about, and here it was, the final culmination of his efforts, and no one would ever have to worry about him again. He would be just fine in his pine box wherever his next of kin would see fit to put him if he even had anybody. It wouldn't have surprised Honey if the man had a whole family somewhere that he neglected so that he could spend all of his time in this big House with these beautiful girls that he could torment. If not, surely Betty would see to his arrangements. She knew him better than most did, it seemed.
Honey tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
It's over.
He sat atop Beaumont's cooling corpse trying to let the adrenaline in his body pass by him. Then he felt something move. In the blink of an eye, Beaumont was a thrashing shark caught beneath Honey's muscular body. In all of his shock, Honey dropped Cinderella, and Beaumont made short work of pushing the revolver across the floor to the other side of the desk. Then he sat up and wrapped his hands around Honey's throat. It wasn't long before the black spots in Honey's eyes threatened to take over completely and make him lose consciousness, but Honey refused to give up. He brought his hands up to Beaumont's head, covering the marble with his left and pressing his right to the other temple. He drew magic within himself and began to cast into the marble under his left hand, hoping the magic coursing through his right would find its way to it as well. He rushed the words he had learned to cast the fire spell, making sure to say them as clearly and concisely as he could under the circumstances. Beaumont screamed and began to shake Honey while tightening his grip around his neck. By the end of the spell, Honey was screaming the words, hoping that they were audible to the powers that be and not just whispers leaking out through the fingers clenched around his throat. There was a loud pop, and Beaumont wailed, falling back to the floor with his hands on either side of his head.
"Ahh! Get it out! Make it stop!" With Beaumont on the ropes, Honey took a chance. He dismounted Beaumont and slid under the desk where his gun had gone. He reached out, grabbed Cinderella, slid back over to Beaumont, and sat atop him again. He turned the gun around, taking Cinderella by the barrel, and held the stock over his head. Beaumont struggled against Honey's weight, rolling around this way and that, flailing and screaming as the fire-laden marble burned itself through his skull and into his brain.
"It's ok, Beaumont," Honey said. "It stops now. All of it stops now." Honey brought the butt of the gun down onto the marble, cracking it open and releasing the fire spell. Beaumont shrieked, and Honey reeled backward, landing on the palm of his left hand and struggling to crawl backward with his gun in hand. When he found the gumption to look back at the man, he could see that the fire spell had done what it was supposed to. It created a ball of exploding fire inside Beaumont's head, which was still on fire from the ordeal, but he wasn't squirming or screaming anymore. The room filled with the stench of burning flesh and the sounds of Beaumont's brains and eyes bubbling from the heat. Honey scrambled over to the wastebasket and puked before exiting out to the hall.
*****
Honey went down to the lounge and slumped down into a chair. The girls surrounded him and berated him with questions about what had happened, but he couldn't hear any of them. It may have been the sound of the gun going off so close to him, or maybe it was the blood still working hard to return to his brain. He wasn't sure, but all he wanted at the moment was water. He just couldn't work up the energy to ask for it.
"Here," Betty said, pushing through the gaggle of girls. "Back away, back away, now." She set a small glass in front of him with a clear liquid in it. Honey accepted it, and upon tasting it, he realized that it was gin and not water. It went down well just the same. He even enjoyed it a little. He wasn't much of a drinker, but feeling that gin burn down his throat was almost soothing. It cleared away whatever was in his throat and keeping him from speaking. Blood. Dried blood.
"Thank you," he managed to whisper. "Beaumont is dead." The girls let out a short squeal of shock.
"Dead?" Loretta asked. "He's dead? Are you sure? What happened?"
Honey explained how the battle had raged on through the hall and into the office, culminating in him burning a hole in Beaumont's head, killing him. At first, the girls seemed a little bit excited, but then their faces all began to droop.
"What will we do?"
Honey was taken aback. "What do you mean? He was a terrible man. Someone else can run the House."
Scarlet shook her head. "No, Honey. Beaumont had no wife or heirs--well, none that are citizens. The House will be closed, and we'll all be out of jobs." Honey felt very foolish. In all of his bravado and insistence of being a hero and saving the girls, he had doomed them.
Betty whistled and straightened. "Don't fret, dears. None of you is going anywhere. Byron was not the only name on this House." The girls looked at one another and then up at the older woman. She wrung her hands and stared into the floorboards for a few moments, then gathered herself and looked into the faces of the girls. "It's true. He and... I--but a long time ago--"
"Married?" Cynthia asked.
Betty nodded. "Yes, married, but that was a long, long time ago in another life. After things stopped working out, he left my name on the House, in case he was out and about at one of his other houses and some business needed to be done."
"So, the House is yours now?" Honey asked. "You'll stay here and run things for the girls? Take care of them?"
"No," Betty said. "I will not run this House, just the kitchen."
Honey cocked an eyebrow at her. "Then who?"
"You."
His eyes went wide. "Me? What do I know about running this place? I don't even live here anymore. I have a job--"
"But, if the Master of the House were gone a lot, I would keep an eye on things and take care of business affairs."
Honey blinked at her. "You want to run the House--"
"But not in name," Betty interjected. "After all, I never did take that man's name. I'm just glad he took my advice and gave it to you. I'll take care of things here while you're gone, and we'll figure out what to do about those other Houses. I can't run them all myself and work in the kitchen. I think we're going to have to appoint some overseers."
The girls all looked at one another, and Loretta spoke for them all.
"So, we can stay?"
Betty looked around at all of them. "Don't ask me. I just work here. You'll have to ask the Master."
They shifted their gazes over to Honey.
"Uh...Sure."
The girls all jumped up and hugged each other, then Honey.
Honey's first order of business as the new Master of the House was to appoint his second in command, Loretta. She would be in charge of everything while Honey was gone, which he suspected would happen a l
ot. After all, he wasn't planning on quitting the Adventurer's Guild yet.
What would Andy and Torq do without me? He thought. And what better way could there be to help Kage with his cause, even if he was a bit of a loose cannon?
Even with his newfound freedom, he still craved to know more of the world and help people. If Kage really could make the changes he intended to make, Honey wanted to be by his side to help all of those people find their way to freedom as well.
The next day, Honey rejoined his team at the local outpost, which brought on another group hug.
"So," Honey beamed, "what's our next adventure?"