Contractor: Chapter - 20

Hit and a miss.

I won’t deny that A Tale of Two Cities took my mind off of the stress of my situation. It was nice to immerse myself in someone else’s drama, to be able to experience something and not have the weight on my shoulders. The best part, however, was that there was an end. Things were resolved. Unlike my own little story, the book had a solution that had been planned out from the very beginning. The parts fit together, the chaos turned out to be organized and even the tragedy seemed to feel right.

There was one thing that didn’t seem to fit in the book though. On the back of the last page there was a handwritten note in elegant cursive script. 

Death had said that he had known Dickens after becoming a contractor, at least that’s what he had led me to believe. It didn’t sound odd that he had been married before dying, but an engagement afterward sounded absurd. From what I had seen so far, contractors were incapable of showing more complicated human traits or emotions other than greed and disapproval. It was inconceivable that any of them could truly love anyone other than themselves, let alone consider marriage. Unless they could gain something from it.

“Hey. Al. I’m bored.” Hope had burst in without knocking and sat down on the floor next to me. I’d been sitting up against the wall while reading for what had probably been around six hours.

“I’m busy.” I had been afraid that I would eventually turn into Hope’s go to method of alleviating boredom. She hadn’t paid me a visit since we had written Just Business, which had been a while ago. I also still had the pendant from the party burning a guilty hole in my pocket and no idea what to do with it.

“Really, is… A Tale of Two Cities, more important than the needs of a beautiful woman?” It was pointless not to compliment her if she was just going to do it herself.

“Overcoming boredom isn’t exactly a need.” I sighed. “It’s more of a luxury really.”

“Wrong answer.” She took the book out of my hands and put it down on the floor on her other side. “Talk to me.”

“Have you ever read that book?”

“Dad practically forced it on me, said it was one of the best books ever written. It was decent.” She sighed, a literary discussion didn’t appear to be lifting the boredom from her mind.

“That particular book though?”

“Yeah, dad only has the one copy.”

“What about the very last page?” Hope groaned and picked up the book, flipping to the last page.

“It’s blank.”

“On the back of it.” I turned the page over for her and tapped the note with my finger. “Charles Dickens signed it for him, informally no less”

“So? They were friends back in the day, it’s just a note.”

“Who’s Eleanor?”

“She is none of your business.” I recognized the look on her face, the one that turned up when she was avoiding telling me the truth. Now that I’d openly admitted to tricking information out of her, I had expected as much. I still had a card to play though.

“Really?”

“Really.” She sounded set on denying me the information I desired. She was about to learn something about me; I'm good at getting what I want.

“So if I ask someone else, they’ll say the same thing?” She just looked at me blankly as I got up and walked over to the door.

I pulled the door open to the familiar sight of Amy’s room.

“Amy, it’s Albert, please don’t try to kill me.” I called in as I stuck my head in and looked around the room. The room looked empty. “Amy?”

“What do you want?” She’d somehow gotten right in front of me in the time it had taken me to blink.

“You were waiting right next to the door weren’t you.”

“What do you want?” She was more forceful now, moving in closer and forcing me to back up into my own room.

“I just wanted to give you a chance to annoy Hope without consequences.” She walked past me and closed the door behind her.

“You’re kidding me, right?” She laughed, like it was impossible. “Without consequences?”

“With. Out. Consequences.” I hummed as I rocked back on my feet.

I was a little off balance, so I stumbled a bit when Amy pushed past me into my room. The two girls stared at each other. It would have felt uncomfortable if I weren’t in control of the situation. It almost made me laugh.

“Amy, who’s Eleanor?”

“Eleanor?” Amy broke eye contact and looked at me confused.

“Eleanor... She was going to marry Al… Death a while ago.” I assumed it never actually happened, otherwise Hope would have no problem talking about her. “Hope won’t tell me, says it’s none of my business.”

“Oh, her.” A sudden look of realization came across her face. “I don’t see why she won’t say anything, Eleanor was a kind and beautiful woman. Hope practically worshiped her.”

“Don’t say anything else.” Hope ordered. Amy’s mouth locked shut and she rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be mad just because she thought we were monsters when she figured out what we really were.” Amy started to sing instead of talk. I was surprised to learn that Amy had kind of a hoarse, almost masculine singing voice. Still, it made me laugh that it was that easy to overcome an order from Hope.

“You’re sore because she stopped liking you when she figured out you were dead?” I actually laughed at that. Amy must have been working around orders for hundreds of years, her response was hardly even hindered.

“I didn’t want to talk about her out of respect.” Hope growled. “She was a good woman, and she didn’t deserve getting dragged through the mud by our family.” I hadn’t expected that answer and I regretted forcing it out of her, let alone laughing. I felt like garbage for laughing.

“I’m sorry.”

“Slap him, Amy.” Amy walked over to me and slapped me across the face without a hint of conflict. It didn’t hurt, but I was still ashamed.

“Thank you.” I nodded in agreement. "I deserved that."

“You did.” Amy agreed, still singing.

“I still want to know about her though.”

“There isn’t much to know, dad was infatuated. They courted, they were a popular couple so naturally people suggested they marry. Eleanor didn’t understand dad’s hesitation and forced him to tell her the truth. He made her a contractor, he couldn't tell her everything otherwise, and that's exactly what he wanted to do. He told her everything.”

“He had to kill her...” I muttered. It was a disturbing idea. I couldn’t think any farther than the shock of the statement let me.

“It really only made dad more comfortable with their marriage, but she wanted nothing from him by then. She ran off and they found her body down river a month later.”

“That’s depressing.”

“That’s life for us.” Hope sighed. “I didn’t talk to dad for years after that.”