The Earth After Rebirth

He noticed instead of a crazed look on his face, he wore an elegant saddened smile. He couldn't discern whether he was even enjoying what he was doing. But he was, Wilfred didn't want to be consumed by the demon within him, it was just his way of not forgetting his humanity.

His bag had all sorts of crazy tools, including ones to pump blood. To ensure the ones being tortured didn't die from blood loss.

'I've never seen someone so prepared to torture in my life.'

While he had left that life behind, when Sekani ordered him to investigate his family's past, he reckoned he'd need them so he took them out once again, he became that person once again.

"What are we gonna do with the bodies?" Philip asked, breaking the silence of dripping blood.

"What bodies? I'm not going to kill them." He said not looking up once.

Philip complained that they'd talk once they release them. Wilfred explained what his intentions were, after that he had nothing to say, he was simply lost for words that anybody was capable of taking someone's sanity away.

The torturing took hours. Philip then saw something amazing, Wilfred was cleaning them up, patching them nicely.

"What the hell?"

"It's so they don't die, I want them to live long enough to suffer and know the world doesn't care for them one bit. Are you sure you're as smart as Master Waynworth says?"

"Huh—I, of course I am." He stuttered as if not believing in his intellect anymore.

"Well then, help me clean this up. We can't let Master see such a mess."

"Are we hiding this from pops?"

"Not really, I'll tell him there were thieves sent by Blakeson and I took care of it. No need for all the details."

Philip quit pestering him with questions and started cleaning up. The blood made puddles on the floor like it was raining, he didn't mind doing dirty work but this in particular made him feel like a henchman and he didn't like that.

He vowed to never be left alone with Wilfred again, this job wasn't for him. He'd seen worse but he couldn't help but gag occasionally.

"You missed a spot." Wilfred said as he was done with the thieves.

"Yes sir." Philip answered mechanically.

They drove to the streets of the lower district with two guests at the back who were still like a bunch of mannequins. They seemed so out of place that they'd forgotten how to speak. And it would be like that for a while for them.

Philip knew all the bad spots around here this was once his home after all. So he was directing him where to go. Wilfred didn't protest, he was confident that he knew every inch of Sanctauri. He didn't want to make the kid absolutely useless in the matter, so he let him lead.

They dumped them in a very dirty alleyway. They didn't even react, that's how broken mentally they were.

Philip grabbed a few beers on their way back. He had to wash away the stench of it all with alcohol, he always thought himself to be tough, but now, Wilfred had showed him his limits.

The next day, workers filed into the factory. It was of course cleaned, nothing was amiss, it was as if this wasn't a torture house just a few hours ago. Philip didn't get enough sleep, and he already had to oversee the workers. But he wasn't complaining, it was his job after all.

A call came from Sekani right that morning.

"How are things going there?"

"There were intruders last night, courtesy of Blakeson." He chose to be direct about the matter.

"Don't tell me..."

"Yes Master Waynworth, they used the kidnapping as a cover to come here and steal, possibly burn the place to the ground." He paused, to let him savour the news.

Sekani pinched his nose, he'd told Wilfred never to call him a master, they weren't slaves just employees. He'd told him so many times, that he was giving up at this point.

"Then, is the plant okay?"

"Of course, I took care of them."

"By that you mean?"

"I took care of them, Master Waynworth." That's all he was willing to say.

Sekani understood that he didn't want him implicated. Should the Blakeson's come around knocking, demanding justice, Sekani would have deniability.

"I understand Wilfred, thank you for taking care of things while I was away. Kiro got away fine by the way, you won't believe what they did to get away..."

Sekani told him the story, of how the two boys were tortured and managed to get themselves loose, killing their kidnappers.

Wilfred couldn't help but laugh. The parallels were just too great to be a coincidence. Sekani watched with great interest from the other side as he'd never seen Wilfred laugh before.

'I may have underestimated Master Kiro. Now the eyes from his father make more sense to me. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' He thought to himself.

He noticed that his master was looking at him strangely, he quickly composed himself.

"Sorry sir, I'm just surprised is all. Master Kiro is quite resourceful isn't he."

Sekani nodded in agreement.

"LJ is doing fine too by the way. We offered for her to stay at the main house but she refused, stating she was old enough and can take care of herself." Sekani smiled as he said.

"Kids... So sorry for her insolence master, she's still young. She doesn't know a lot about our world."

"Nonsense. Let her be. I'll be arriving shortly, please continue to look over our business there."

Like that he dropped the call. Which left Wilfred wondering what he ever did to deserve such a good boss that accepted his silly granddaughter wholeheartedly.