“And make sure to eat properly. Do you have your identification papers with you? Enough food for several days? And enough socks? You know they can get wet easily … do you have sturdy boots? You do have …” I was kind of overwhelmed by Mary´s fussing. She hugged me tightly and refused to let me go for several minutes already, worrying if I had everything.

I chose to stay silent for the most part, especially because I couldn’t answer all her questions. I mean, Hannah packed my things for me while I drowned in alcohol the day before … so it was kind of hard to tell if I had more than enough socks. And if I didn´t, it would be Hannah´s fault. I could just wear some of her socks in that case.

Judging by the amount of luggage secured to our carriage though, this wouldn’t be necessary. And this time, I didn´t even artificially increase the weight of our baggage at all.

“And you make sure to hurry up back in Eastminster as well, alrighty? It will be kind of lonely without you.” I said and hugged her even tighter. At last though, she let go of me and looked into my eyes.

“Take care of yourself, will you?” She said, while squatting down a little.

“I´m sure the sixteen guards you gave me will do that just fine.” I said a bit dejected we couldn’t travel alone. They wouldn’t be able to help anyway, not against the army we would be facing off against.

“That was just a precaution...” She commented, but I knew why they were with us for real.

“Sure. Mum, we are off. Have a great time!” I said, returning to my usual happiness and waving towards her as I jogged towards the carriage.

“You too.” She shouted, wiping a few tears out of her eyes. Smiling bitterly, I climbed into the carriage, closed the door after waving to Mary one last time and sat down right next to Hannah. Instantly, I closed my eyes and wiped my own tears in the corner of my eyes away. I wasn’t in the greatest mood to be entirely honest. I really liked living in that mansion together with Mary and to a certain extend even Hannah, even though I never showed that to her. And I was sure I would miss that.

It took only ten minutes for Hannah to interrupt the peaceful atmosphere while we travelled through the noble district.

“Should we talk about it?” She asked, while I had my eyes closed.

“About what?” I said, already slightly annoyed by everything.

“Our guest.” I gulped loudly, and then shook my head.

“Which guest?” I asked, still refusing to open my eyes.

“Please … not again.” Hannah said, really frustrated about my behaviour.

“She doesn’t want to talk with me, Hannah.” Our guest said, while I had to give my best to ignore the amusement in her voice.

“Hannah, could you tell that bitch she is only here because we needed an adult to travel with us and Tom has other things to do?”

“I´m not doing that again.” Hannah stated. From the three of us, she was surely the most sensible one.

“Bitch? Do you see too much of yourself in me or why are you always like that? Why don’t you ask your lover Jacob how you were in bed? Or even better, ask me!” She exclaimed, knowing exactly how to provoke me perfectly.

“I didn´t sleep with you!” I exclaimed, gripping the bench tightly and finally opening my eyes.

“Maybe you have schizophrenia. One of you is a slut, while the others are … whatever you are supposed to be.” The whore said, pointing towards me from the opposite side of the bench.

“And here we go …” My maid commented, just as I glared over to the whore who was staring at me with a smirk on her face. I wanted to punch her so badly, but the sun was robbing me of most of my strength and so I didn´t even try.

“You call me a slut? You are switching out your partners weekly, you town bicycle!” I exclaimed.

“I´m more of a city girl though.” She said nonchalantly.

“Shut the fuck up.” I growled towards her, but she still didn´t seem to care much.

“What do you want to do? Hit me with your cute hands?” I closed my eyes, imagined it and then opened them again.

“I´m want to murder you so badly …” I wanted to hit her with my cute little hands to death.

“But you won´t. You still need me, and truth to be told, you are enjoying this, just like I am.” Was I? Sure, there was a temptation of bullying her into eternity, but otherwise? I wasn’t entirely sure yet as she always brought me close to exploding.

“The only thing you are enjoying is a freaking sword in your seethe.” I said angrily.

“Hey, that’s at least one thing we have in common. ‘I yelped loudly as I was overwhelmed by the sheer pressure and started to grasp for air myself, despite not needing any.’ “ I shouldn’t have given her what I wrote down that day. I really shouldn’t …

“Watch out Pauline, she is really sensitive about that.” Hannah warned while looking over to me with worry in her eyes.

“Sensitive? I´m not the one who is sensitive here!” I exclaimed, not really thinking what I was uttering there.

“That is …” She said, but didn´t continue as my words hit her quite hard. I mean, she was murdering her tormentors every third day or so and was still failed to keep her emotions in check every time I introduced her to one of them.

“… sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.” I said and lowered my head a bit.

“Oh, what are you talking about?” The whore shrank back a little as she was not only faced with my glare, but also Hannah’s. “Okay … that´s the perfect time to switch topics then. Slut, have you ever thought the missing memories you have might be in any way co-“

“Very thin ice.” Hannah warned, rightfully so. Naturally, it wasn’t hard to link my current amnesia to these blackened memories in my mind space … but I refused to accept that. Aska wouldn’t do such a thing. He missed a reason to do so. I offered him my body already and he declined. Doing it and then sloppily eradicating my memories wasn’t his style. So it must have been something else entirely.

“Wow, can I not have a little bit of fun with you two?” The whore asked, making my eyelids twitch in anger.

“STOP!” Hannah shouted loudly. “This is my first journey out of the capital city, so don’t ruin it before it even started.” Taken aback by Hannah´s outburst of anger, we could only look at her in amazement for a little while … until that bitch ruined the mood yet again.

“See, that’s your fault, slut.” The whore said, not even bothered by Hannah´s gnashing teeth.

“Don’t call me slut, you freakish whore!” I replied, getting angrier by the second. Surprised, I had to realize that Hannah meant it for real. She stood up, glared at me and pointed at her old seat.

“I´m not sitting next to her.” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“And I don’t want her psychohazardous waste to spill over here.” The whore said, underlining our position perfectly.

“Sit. There.” Hannah growled. The problem with training her to be fine with murder … was that she somehow gained the self-confidence to stand up for herself, at least whenever she didn´t have to fear any recuperations. Sighing, I looked one last time out of the window and switched places meekly.

“Whore …” I said as soon as I was in my new place.

“Slut …” She answered as if we were greeting ourselves.

“Have you ever thought about hanging yourself?” I asked, smiling brightly.

“Have you ever thought about getting rid of your enemies in a non-self destructive way?” No … no I did not. Self destruction was apparently a hobby of mine.