Page 45 of Curse of Immortality
Charles Fuji was not a man of mercy. When he sought out revenge he turned into a terrifying snake. Not a snake of great size that would slowly choke you to death. No, he preferred the shape of the black king cobra, which was quick, agile, and impossible to escape or plead with. He would set his fangs into his victims and transfer a venom into their bloodstreams that gave them a fate much crueler than death.
His venom didn’t kill his victims. Instead, it destroyed the essence of the person, taking every memory and ambition they ever had. The attack left the person unattached to their soul and always in search of something to fill the large void inside them that they could not understand. It was particularly satisfying to him to see these powerful traitors regress in intelligence and end up with the mental ability of a small child. All their previous grandness became irrelevant as they couldn’t remember their life from before the time they were bitten. He left them broken, and with a feeling of having lost the connection to their most valuable possession –their soul.
It seemed to be a pattern with his victims that their desperate attempts to regain what they had lost resulted in them hoarding everything possible. That’s why he had given them the name Gleaners. They collected anything and everything they could – from objects to gossip, to things that others considered trash.
Humans often interacted with Gleaners and mistook their condition for a form of madness. Never did they suspect that their suspicion and aggression toward those trying to take away their things was a result of a particularly venomous bite.
Charles had lost count of how many thousand Faders and Gleaners he had created. While keeping a watchful eye on his Faders, he didn’t spend any time on the Gleaners. He made sure his Faders visited each one a few times a year. Mostly to remind them which fate awaited if they ever crossed him.
His Faders reported that Gleaners lived in homes where one could no longer see the walls because they were covered in junk while others lived in tents on the streets, and some were locked up in madhouses.
To humans, Gleaners appeared insane with their large, intense eyes that were always red as if they were drugged and the way they mumbled meaningless things repeatedly.
The worst part of the fate of a Gleaner was that each night when they fell asleep, they were cursed with dreams of who they had once been and who they’d once loved only for the cobra to haunt them down each night in their nightmares and kill them.
Gleaners always woke from their nightly terror screaming with sweat dripping from their bodies. For mere moments after they woke, they remembered who they’d been. In hopes that they would be able to remember the dreams and who they truly were, they repeated meaningful phrases or wrote them down until their memories were wiped clean once again. As if a part of their mind wanted them to remember, they would mumble the phrases and words they’d spoken when they’d awakened, and they repeated these words relentlessly – sometimes mumbling, sometimes shouting. The fate of a Gleaner was crueler and much more painful than death. Every Fader feared that the Cobra would one day set his fangs into them.
Maeve, however, had no idea of the snake pit she would be entering when she arrived at his house.
Chapter 18
Quiet Mouse in the Snake Pit
Standing on a quiet street in London, Maeve looked up and down to be sure no one saw her. The façade of the large house was presentable but didn’t reveal that the richest man in the world lived there.
She was aware of Zosia’s words that the last Earthen given the task to kill this man had failed. But Maeve wasn’t here to kill him. In fact, she had no intention of complying with any of Zosia’s instructions ever again.
She was here because she wanted to be as great a threat to Zosia as he was. It was still a bit of a mystery to her what he had done to earn Zosia’s attention, but in her eyes, her enemy’s enemy was a potential ally. When Zosia gave Maeve incredible powers and immortality, she never imagined that Maeve would use them against her, but Maeve was done being taken advantage of. From now on she would be the one making the rules and taking what she wanted.
The Cobra might be dangerous for a normal Earthen or human, but with Zosia’s secret weapon in her blood, Maeve felt invincible and was certain that he couldn’t hurt her.
Maeve’s life had changed drastically since she’d turned twenty-four and so had her personality. Some people crumbled after emotional injury, but she had become cold and cynical. It wasn’t like she had any other choice now that Zosia had tricked her into taking the crystal.
Though Maeve hated humans with all her heart, she hated Zosia more. If it weren’t for her indifference, Maeve’s aunt would still be alive.
A few days ago, Maeve had attempted to talk to Charles Fuji, but his zealous butler had turned her away without hearing her out. She had been tempted to kill him on the spot and force her way into the house, but there had been people in the street that day.
This time she returned in a fashionable gown with her hair neatly arranged. She was an intelligent woman, and it hadn’t been difficult for her to steal money.
As she knocked on the large white front door once again, she hoped it wouldn’t be answered by the same butler who had turned her away the last time she was here. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on her side.
The middle-aged man had a stiff upper lip and greeted her with formality but at least he was kinder now that she looked like a proper lady.
“Yes, may I help you?” His gaze roamed the street as he looked for her carriage and escort.
“I’m here to see the master of the house.”
It took him a minute to realize that her red hair color and burning eyes were the same as those of the peasant he had dismissed a few days ago.
“I don’t know where you managed to steal such a fine gown, but thievery is not a valuable trait in a young lady,” the butler said with his nose in the air.
“I did not steal it, I bought it,” Maeve insisted, and in a way she was right; she did not steal the dress, only the money to buy it. “Now please take me to your lord.”
It infuriated Maeve to see the butler raise his eyebrow and look down at her.
“I’m afraid the lord does not have time. Good day,” he said and closed the door in Maeve’s face.
Huffing through her nostrils, she turned around and walked down the stairs determined to find another way in.
