16 - ONE-EYED WATCHER

About a month later.

A bald fair-skinned girl, Fabby, was carrying a small vegetable basket, and though she looked lean, her stomach was bulging more than usual. And a one-eyed man dressed in uniform was right behind her, full of smiles, as he sang the song he himself had written or so he said. He was tall and sinewy, and he reeked of alcohol.

“Wherever you go

I’m right behind you

Wherever you are

I’m not far from you

What can I do?

My heart is selfish

And it doesn’t want to be alone

So please fulfill this lover’s wish

And hold my hands

And let me walk beside you.”

Soon, Fabby delivered the vegetable basket to the storage room, then quickly reached her room, but when she was about to shut the door, the one-eyed man stopped her.

“How many more times will you shut the door in my face, Fabby?” he sounded a bit desperate. “Let me help you take care of our baby as well.”

“Bittu…” Fabby looked irritated and anxious. “I told you to never follow me in the streets!”

“Ah, that, haha, my bad… What can I do?” he was flirting with his eyebrows while speaking. “You heard my poem, didn’t you?”

“Hmph!” she swallowed her fears and feigned confidence. “If you repeat this, I’d hang myself one day.”

“No!” Bittu backed away. “No, no. Not that, please,” he worriedly pleaded. “Anything but that.” He moved back further. “I’ll keep my distance, so anything but that. Anything but that.” Then he gave a flying kiss and left.

After Bittu was no longer within earshot, Fabby shut the door, and then stood with her back against the door. Tears just wouldn’t stop coming. “Why God? Why are you doing this to me? Just why...” her back slid against the door. She collapsed on her bum and continued to sob so hard that tears clouded her eyes. The swelling pain visibly reflected in her face. “You took my mother from me. I thought I at least had my brother, but you even took him from me. Just why do you hate me so much?”

Being born beautiful was something most people desired, but it had always been the biggest thorn in her life, a curse even. Even though many eyes always look at her, she never felt this alone. Without her brother, she wasn’t sure if she could bear this lonely, heart-wrenching life much longer.

Meanwhile, Bittu was strolling through the streets nonchalantly. He was dressed in a red uniform unlike others. When an old man was passing by without bowing to him, he plucked the old man’s hat and put it on top of his own hat. When the old man begged, he just kicked him down and broke his teeth. One of the dogs tried to express pity for the old man who had occasionally fed her bits and crumbs, and Bittu cruelly beat that dog with a stick.

“You are supposed to bark at and bite the slaves, or stop thieves from entering,” Bittu yelled at the dog. “That’s your job. Understand?” The other dogs that were watching this were growling, but with a wave of his stick, he chased them away.

The other watchers in red uniforms just laughed through Bittu’s affairs.

If one asked the slaves in secret about the behavior of the watchers, they would all reply with one word: vicious.

Bittu joined the other watchers in a small tent, where they usually played cards during hot afternoons. “You look pretty worked up. What’s wrong?” they asked.

“Worked up?” Bittu raised his brows. “Are you talking about beating the old bastard? Our orders were to neither let them die nor let them live. That’s exactly what I’m doing. And I don’t need to be angry to do that.”

“Haha, that’s what makes our job exciting,” the others laughed. “We can take all of our frustration on these slaves.”

When men passed by, they ridiculed them, whereas women got harrassed. They didn’t even let go of the children and forced them to massage their arms and legs while they played cards. What’s more, even though the people were forced to spend their time serving the watchers, that still didn’t deduct any work load from what they had to usually gather per day.

If any slave dared to talk back, then the watchers went so far as to beat them and make them miss meeting their daily workload. This resulted in further severe punishment.

Though hundreds of slaves lived as a community, the watchers lived like kings. Everything from food to clothes, the slaves could only get them from watchers. So licking the watchers’ boots was a common thing for most of the slaves.

The only reason that Edgar still lived after taking one of Bittu’s eyes was because of his sister, Fabby. Even though she didn’t grow hair on her head, everyone in the village would have no problem accepting her as the most beautiful person both outside and inside. Though she didn’t talk with others all that much, the way she treated her crippled brother and how she minded her own business was more than enough to tell she was at least not poison coated with sugar.

Edgar also had a naturally bright smile and the rare shining teeth, but his skin complexion was more close to that of a commoner who had spent so much time under the sun, so naturally, people’s eyes didn’t particularly turn their eyes toward him as much as they turned toward his sister. After all, seeking after distant things was part of human nature. So, naturally, people with fair skin were automatically seen as better people, whether it be in wealth or knowledge. Nevertheless, it didn’t bother Edgar that his sister was getting more attention than him other than that he was worried what harm they would bring to her.

Currently, Bittu was enjoying the company of other watchers, while he drowned himself in cheap rum.

“Haha, Bittu. You really stepped on a fox tail. Otherwise, how would a drunk guy somehow slip into that beauty’s room at night and successfully make her pregnant?”

“Hehe, stop praising me, or I might do it again,” Bittu sniggered.

“Kekeke. But only if you can successfully reach the bed without falling midway,” a blonde guy with a heavy build said.

“What?” Bittu looked at him with a smile. “Say that again, Harley.”

“Haha, sure. But let me put it better through a saying, ‘a drunk’s wife never has to sleep alone.’”

“Pfft! Puhahaha!” everyone, including Bittu, burst out in laughter. But suddenly, Bittu broke the bottle and stabbed it in Harely’s throat.

Everyone fell silent and were in utter shock and disbelief.

“Kuuhh!” Harley’s eyes bulged out as blood poured out of his throat and sprayed on other’s faces. Despite his attempts to cling to life, he fell back, his eyes as broadly open as a dead man’s eyes.

“You want to fuck my bitch!” Bittu started kicking the dead man. “In your dreams, mother fucker!” he pointed his fingers to other watchers. “If I see you guys around her, expect the same fate!” He began beating Harley with his foot. “She’s mine. She’s only mine!”

The other watchers could only frown and dare not to speak. After all, Bittu was the head of the watchers. They could only watch as he kicked Harley for some more time. Only after he left, they breathed a bit better.

“This Bittu is as hot-tempered as ever. He didn’t even think twice before killing Harley. Our lives are probably worth the same to him.”

“If only the master wasn’t on his side, we’d have long killed this bastard and fucked Fabby up.”

“Yeah, I’ve had my eyes on that bald lass since the first day, but I never got the opportunity to fool her like I did other girls just because of her crazy younger brother and this damn Bittu. We all may be vicious, but he, the one-eyed watcher, is the brand name for it.”

“Well, we thought that Fabby’s knife-throwing younger brother would kill Bittu one day, but that prick died somewhere. Now, we can only wait.”

“Yes, we just have to wait. Sooner or later, he’ll commit a bigger mistake. And then, we’ll rule these mountains together.”

“Haha. Right.”

With smiles on their faces, the four watchers cheered their rum bottles over the dead body of Harley.

The sun had set not long ago, but the moon was up already, and the winds turned cold.

In the northern cliffs of Shushui mountain range, a human-sized bat came flying out of the dark foggy valley, and its screams and screeching noises made the rats and rabbits in the mountain tremble in fear as they looked up toward the skies. The bat crazily kept dashing through the skies in a zig-zag fashion, trying to free itself from the odd being that had grabbed its ankle for a long time.

“I’m out!” a voice echoed in heaven.