Leave The Monster Alone

"So, your real body was in this world as well. Were you just not aware or did you not want to tell me?" En asks a question out of the blue and Mark jumps up in sudden fright. She had forgotten that the other had even been there.

"I didn't even know myself until today. It was a surprise when I woke up to find Rao at the corner of my vision. I am still trying to adjust to this arrangement." And make sense of it all. It still did not feel real and the feeling of wrong was still there, strong as ever. En hummed in reply. Mark was not sure if En believed him or not.

"Let's go home now. Will get more chances to talk about all this later." Mark agreed and bid the other side farewell. Now it was him and Rao again. Mark had a feeling that the other side did not like him being with Rao, but they did nothing to stop him from going back with Rao.

In the end, they did decide to let them both go but not before they had bugged their personal belongings. Mark was not sure why he knew this fact but he seemed to be the only one who had realised what had happened. Rao looked fully unaware of everything, as always. Mark was not sure why he knew this fact, but he did know that the other had not caught the bugs yet.

"Do you need to get yourself cleaned up before going home? It is not exactly safe to go back right now" Mark did not know why he spoke those words, but they had a special meaning for the other. His relaxed posture stiffened before he forced himself to relax again. However, unlike before his eyes were much guarded and there was a calculating glare inside them.

"I do want to get cleaned up when we get home but I would need a lot of supplies first. There is nothing available inside the house right now but I left it should have expired by now." Mark had a feeling it was more than the groceries others were talking about and he chose not to interfere in the affairs of the other. It was not between him and  Liam, but Rao and Liam now. Mark was still not sure which side he would end up on if they both fought but she didn't know that he had a responsibility toward Rao.

The elder led him toward a fancy looking shop but they did not enter it as he had expected. Instead, the two could turn and enter the alley at the store's side. There was a static noise there which caused tension to drop out from Rao's shoulders. He looked much more relaxed than before and looked at Mark with a pair of calm eyes. There was no hesitation in his eyes as he asked for the next question to be answered.

"How many bugs do we have on us? When did they put them on us? How much did you notice?" Mark board did not show the day for the topic that should talk about in the open but he did it to feel safe with the other. If Rao led them to this alley, then the chances of it being safe were highly likely. As such, he could make use of this space to tell the other what he had observed in over the world.

"I don't know the exact timings, but it had been somewhere around when we were leaving. There was no physical touch so I think it's a microscopic bug. Any ideas on what to do next?" The other did not look concerned at his words, but his eyes did narrow when Mark told him those details.

"Let's keep the bug on for now. I interfere with their frequency once we get home. Act normal till now and do not give any indication that you know we have been bugged" Mark could only nod and follow others advice. He had never been in this situation before so he did not know how to face it. Fighting monsters? She could do that all day. Human diplomacy and politics? He did not want to be a part of that.

When Rao had talked about home, Mark thought he meant a decently sized house with 3 bedrooms, not whatever this was. The home, or rather, the estate they had been led to Har ground spanning miles and miles. They were at the boundary of the property and the home could only be seen in the distance as a small dot. And even then, one could see how lavish it was.

"Open up the gates. It's just me and Mark." There was a small buzzer at the side of the main door which was pressed by Roa and the doors opened to allow them access inside. There was a small scanner they had to pass through to get inside and Mark felt afraid that he would not be recognised by the scanner. He froze as soon as he stepped in front of the scanner.

"Welcome back masters. Have a nice stay" the robotic voice called back to them and they were able to pass without any problem. The scanner had recognised Mark as well as Rao. The other had not been telling a lie, not that something this elaborate ever is a lie without anything to gain from it.

Mark could feel the eyes of the human staff gauging him up. He was not sure why he was being looked at like that, but all he knew was that he did not like it. Rao looked tense as well and Mark saw all the eyes take in the older one as he passed through the house. It was not him they were afraid of, but they were watching the older one.

"They look rather scared of you. What did you do to make them afraid of you?" Mark could not help but question the other. Rao had been nothing but civil and polite the whole time he had known him. This quietness and fear look rather out of place in the whole situation but Mark could not say anything right now. It was not like he knew the other inside out so he could not make assumptions based on appearances alone.

"I lost my temper a few nights ago and problems arose as a result. Don't worry, they want to cause you any trouble" the others seemed like he wanted to drop this topic as soon as possible so Mark allowed him to do that. He did not want to talk about this any further as well. And just as he had predicted, no one spoke of this ever again.

Mark was led to a long hallway to the other side where only two rooms existed. Somehow, Mark knew the one on the left was his while the right one was not to be entered by him at all costs. He was not sure why or how he knew that, he just felt that it was dangerous to enter the wrong room in this house.

Rao moved to the right door as soon as he had arrived and opened only a small part of it to retrieve the key from inside. He handed the key over to Mark and waited for him to take it. Tension seemed to leave his shoulders as soon as Mark took the key away from him.

"Finally, this is something I have been meaning to do for a long time now but I never got the chance. From the time you decided to help me out, I swore I would return this key to you one day" Mark was not sure what had happened to them in the past. His memory was jumbled and all over the place which made it very difficult for him to know anything about what was happening. Not that he had a lot of memories about this topic, but he seems to be remembering some of them as more and more time passed.

Mark had to assume that the other party was telling the truth now. There was too much evidence in favour of Rao's speaking for it to not be true. So this was who Mark had been before he had gone into the game. He just hoped that the room would provide him with much more information than the world had.

"Let us meet in time for breakfast. Also, make sure you lock your room and stay vigilant when you are in this house because there are a lot of backstabbers here" Mark understood the tense feeling he was getting at the breakfast table because he had felt eyes on his back and they had not been the friendly kind either. He nodded back to the other to show his gratitude before he closed his door and bolted the door shut. Achieve it to the curtains back to look at the view outside before he sensed danger and close the one again.. He could officially say that he did not like this house.