Part 6 - The Necessity

- No – Igor’s imposing voice rumbled through the gang. He kept his smile while they looked at him. – I only want this little boy to keep me company.

- Why? – Both Jean and Lara screamed together.

- My deal, my rules. – They could see a little malice on Igor’s eyes. It was pretty obvious that he was enjoying all this. – Besides, it’s like what you said, sweetie, skin as white as snow and hair dark as raven feathers.

- We can’t. – Lara said after the group got their heads together again.

- I know – Jean started. – But…

- No! – Lara didn’t want to hear her.

- … We need to… - John showed his support for Jean.

- You too?! We can’t!

- Sis…

- No!

Lara was scandalized. She stepped away from her friends. She couldn’t believe on what they were proposing. She couldn’t even believe that they were accepting they propose it.

- Lara!!! – Lara was in shook when she heard Jean’s scream. The two of them stayed like that, looking at each other. They were so close, looking at each other, eyes in the eyes. Lara was completely shrunk before Jean’s intense look. Jean turned to John and Teófilo. – I’m going in. Don’t let her stop me.

Jean was so austere and authoritarian, even more than the usual, that neither John nor Teófilo could not obey her. Either way it wasn’t necessary. Lara wanted to say something, but she could see that her friends weren’t happy either. This wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity.

Jean slowly walked to Igor. The blue grass kept growing over the dead dark plain. On her hand she had a small bottle filled with the liquid to dissolve Igor’s bracelets. They had brought it from home because it wasn’t something they needed to do in the moment. The more she came closer, the more her authority mask broke. She had used all the energy she had and now it was completely over. The closer she was, the more down and broke she looked.

When she finally came near him, Jean saw that Igor was smiling, but now it was more innocent looking. Maybe it was a fraction of the real Igor or maybe it was just a prank to make that moment even more painful.

- Break this chains and you can take all the flowers you want. You can also plant them. The centre is the seed, and believe me, they grow everywhere. – Igor gigled. He was kind and happy. The thing controlling him had won, why wouldn’t it be? But all that kindness was confusing her. How could it hate them and in the end help them? Who was that thing and why did it had such weird ways of thinking and acting?

- How do I know that it works?

- Why wouldn’t it work?

- You can be tricking us...

- I can’t lie. Humans lie, and I’m will never be as horrible as a human.

- A person would never force us to do something like this.

- Typical... – Igor turned his face away. He was still smiling, but more discreetly. – Don’t fool yourself. Humans are terrible creatures. I was locked in here by humans.

- Yes, but that was...

- Different? Sure. – He wasn’t smiling anymore. He was making clear that he was feeling sorry for Jean’s naivety. – I’m not even going to talk about all I’ve witnessed across the centuries. – He faced Jean again, he raised his arms and spoke softly. – Get rid of my chains, please.

Jean couldn’t believe she just heard Igor asking please. It wasn’t weird, but in this situation was odd, almost creepy.

Jean’s fears made her arms getting on the witch domain and spill the liquid on the salt bracelets, just to end with that psychological torture. While the bracelets were melting and breaking due to the liquid, its pieces felt on the blue grass, in the same form of the same weird white liquid it were on the beginning, in between orange flowers and new borne small bushes.

- Thank you – Igor smiled again. It was the same discreet smile that didn’t calm Jean a little. She felt sick. – Take the flowers you want…

Jean got down as fast as she could to catch the flowers. “Was for this we traded our friend for? Flowers?” Jean though, unable to caught a single flower. Jean only caught Igor looking at her. She didn’t know what to do. The sharp intense way Igor’s intense grey eyes gazed upon her almost paralyzed her.

Igor was looking at her more and more calm and relaxed, while his eyes returned to their usual bright blue colour. He was back, and Jean now had to face him.