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Monday December 26, 10:00 A.M.(-ish)
“Mr. Schultz, are you awake? You have a visitor.”
The nurse’s pleasant voice woke me up. “A visitor?” I asked, rather surprised.
“Yes, he says he’s your grandfather.”
Well, that couldn’t be right. My grandfathers are dead
Before I could protest however, the visitor slipped in and gave the nurse’s shoulder a small pat. “It’s okay darlin’, my grandson is always up to see me.”
Shit.
The Grigori.
The nurse gave a timid nod and went on her way. Dammit, couldn’t she have been one of those veteran nurses who strictly adhere to the rules or something like that.
Grigori took a seat next to my bed, removed his bowler and simply stared at me with a small smile. Silence filled the room for what felt like hours. I’m not sure if this was just some sort of intimidation tactic or if he was just waiting for me to wake up a little more.
“So I see you took my advice and had yourself a very grand time during Solstice.”
“Oh yeah, so much fun. Look at how crazy the festivities got.” I motioned to my battered body with my free hand “So let me guess you’re here to finish the job. Beat me down with your cane again?”
Grigori let out a loud amused laugh “You’re still sore about that? You need to learn to let things go my boy. And no, I am not here to finish you off. That’s His job.” He looked down and one of my gifts, a bag of those miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups “Ah, I certainly have a soft spot for these, would you mind if I have one?”
“If you are willing to answer a couple of questions for me.”
“A question for a cup then.”
“Alright, but only if you can answer it.”
“You have yourself a deal.”
“So why hasn’t Slendy come to kill me while I’m in here yet.”
“Well…I’m not exactly capable of knowing what goes on in my Boss’ head, but I’d say it is because you are not…ripe enough yet. My Boss loves fear as much as I love chaos. You could say it is what we thrive off of. And you just haven’t reached that point of you being a satisfying meal yet. But if you want my opinion, you are very, very close.” He took his first peanut cup as a reward. He already gave me quite a bit to take in before he added “Granted, I cannot make any promises about my other colleagues. I’m pretty sure you know how they are through all those blogs you read.”
“Lovely, should I include Andras?”
“Andra-“ he let out another laugh “Oh that’s right, that’s your name for him.”
“So he does have another name?”
“Of course. But you can stick with Andras. If he wants to tell to you his actual name, he can do some himself. Although he is a rather quiet individual. By the way I am counting that as two question.” He said and took two more cups. He couldn’t help but note that he seemed a lot more casual than he was during the last two conversations we had.
“So why’d you club me that night?”
“Well…like I said, if you remember, I can’t have the both of you dying on me. I’m Andras’ Handler, and the kid has potential so I can’t afford him gone. As for you, other than the whole meal explanation I gave you earlier, well, in all honesty you remind of my when I was being stalked by him.” He seemed to grow a little somber “So filled with hope to you could overcome this. Gung-ho about trying to take him down. And one stubborn bastard. Unlike you however, I realized that my Boss has offered my something that I never would have experienced if it weren’t for him.”
“And what’s that?”
He stopped for a moment “You know I should thank you for that clash you Andras.”
“Oh, and why is that? And that does not count a question to get you a peanut butter cup.”
“In my 50 some odd years of working for Him..”
50 years??? Holy crap how old is he, he looked fantastic for his age.
“…I have learned something that I feel is important for every new Proxy to learn. We are not invincible. For some reason nine out of ten new proxies have it in their head that working for something that is seemingly invincible should make them invincible as well. Oh, it’s certainly not the case. I like to teach some of the newbies that and, well, you saved me time of teaching that to Andras.”
He took at a pocket watch and smiled “Well look at the time I must depart. I hope you get well soon and sorry about the mess to your apartment” He looked out the doorway for a second. “Oh, by the way, don’t scream.”
Before I could say anything, he brought his cane down on my busted leg like a samurai sword. I bite my lips trying not to scream but fuck it hurt.
“Consider that a little response from my Boss for everything you did to him last week.” he smiled and went on his way.
