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EMPTY EYE SOCKETS CHAPTER 7
"Whatever, we have to free all the trapped souls here and take them to safety."
Domino froze when he heard that voice. Not because he was surprised to notice there was someone, but because he knew exactly who that voice belonged to.
Manny.
About time for the idiot to get here, he thought to himself. It was already a year since he had taken Meche with him, hoping to lure his old nemesis in his trap. And what had that fool done?
Wasted the time of them all by sailing around the sea when he could have come there!
Hector LeMans had told him to find Manny and get rid of him as soon as possible so that he wouldn't cause any other harm. But Domino didn't want to do that -- at least not yet -- he had waited for the man a whole year and it was not going to be for nothing.
He had worked a lot for it and would most certainly have his share of fun. Hector would never find out that his order hadn't been correctly carried out; there was no one there who could tell it to him.
Domino snorted at himself and straightened his green suit. It would do good for Manny to even once see someone with style. With calm, self-confident steps he walked in the middle of Manny and Meche's conversation and truly enjoyed the duo's surprised expressions.
"So you finally bothered to come, kid. I hope the trip was pleasant," he said cheerfully and was sure that had Manny still had brows he would have been frowning like no tomorrow.
"Domino," he said darkly and Domino chuckled. He knew Manny had never liked him and he returned those feelings, but had never showed it like that.
"Yeah, that's my name. I see you've learned it by now," he stated. He noticed how carefully Meche followed everything, but didn't think about it twice. The woman was useless after all; she was just bait for Manny.
A pretty lousy one if it took a year for him to arrive.
"What do you want from these people? They have done nothing wrong," Manny said strictly and Domino laughed. Had he heard right?
"And when have you started to care about others? If I remember correctly you were a very self-centred person," he stated in amuse.
"Weren't we all? But now I am wiser and know that whatever you do with Hector is wrong."
"And you're the one who'll stop us?"
Manny shrugged.
"If no one else does it," he said and Domino shook his head almost managing to look sad.
"You know Manny, once I actually believed I could have made you understand, but now I realise I was wrong. You have no idea how to survive in this world, and I won't even try to make you see the truth anymore," he said.
"I don't know what you've told yourself to make yourself believe in this, but sooner or later it will all crash down," Manny said starting to sound frustrated. Domino took a look around.
"I don't understand your logic. I am the one in power and I have this place. And what about you? You have nothing," he said.
"Gee, a deserted island in the middle of no where has always been my biggest dream. Oh, I wish I had one too," Manny stated sarcastically.
Domino chuckled.
"Maybe you will. It depends on you and how well you behave. If you are a nice boy I might make you lead this operation once I'm gone. Which will be soon," he said.
"You dream Dom. I doubt Hector would have put you here if he didn't want to get rid of you. Your ego is too big, even for him," Manny stated and heard how Meche drew a deep breath behind him. It told of that Domino held the place in his iron fist and that just made Manny angrier. Meche was too good for a place like that!
"You are hopeless," Domino said shrugging Manny's insult off. He drew a gun from his pocket and pointed it at his former colleague.
"Hey Dom, I thought you trusted your own fists more than guns," Manny pointed out, but Domino wasn't on the joking mood anymore.
"Then you didn't know me. Now shut up and move. You have a lot to do if you want to catch the others," he said harshly and gestured Manny to walk in the elevator. He gave Meche a quick glance.
"And you, this is no coffee break. There's still paper work to do," he said and then he went down with Manny. Meche shook her head in worry and hoped that Manny would have never come; now he was in the same trouble than she was.
---
Domino led Manny down and the man found himself in the bottom of the sea again.
Great, just when I was starting to get dry, he thought to himself and looked around to get an idea of what kind of place it really was.
"What are you doing here, Dom?" he asked deciding to get into the business. The more he knew, the better would his escape plan be.
Domino shrugged.
"Quite a place isn't it?" he asked proudly and looked like it actually was something important. And yet Manny thought it looked nothing but a small factory where some of the robbed souls were abandoned. In his ear holes it didn't sound anything that you could have been proud of.
"Sure, if you like water and loneliness," he admitted. Domino hadn't answered his question, but he thought he could make the man reveal anything if the conversation just lasted long enough. Domino loved bragging and if Manny put his words right he'd find out everything the man knew.
Maybe even things he didn't want to find out.
He already opened his mouth to ask something, but then he noticed they were there. Manny looked around and realised that Meche had been right. The souls laboured there like slaves. Domino had brought him to a small mine where souls were digging the sea bottom in hopes of finding glowing coral. He recognised a few souls that had been in the submarine, but he wasn't interested in them.
Everyone immediately noticed their arrival and stopped working to see what was going on. Their expressions showed despise towards Domino, but no one was stupid enough to say anything.
Domino poked him with his gun.
"This is your new job, Cal. Quite an improvement compared to your old office," he stated and forced Manny to move again. They walked across the mine and Manny continuously kept an eye hole at the surroundings to find Glottis and Carla.
Then he noticed the woman from the corner of his eye hole and stopped.
"I guess I could start digging here," he stated innocently.
"Go ahead, I don't care where you spend your eternity," Domino said and whacked Manny so that he fell on his knees. There was a free pick nearby and he caught it turning to face Domino.
"Try to do this job better than your previous one," the man told him and to Manny's surprise he turned around and left. He glared after Domino for a while and then took a better look around.
No guards? Domino really had to trust his authority if he let everyone walk around as they pleased.
"You know, we could all just leave," he stated to a man who was whacking the heck out of the sea bottom next to him. He stopped his work and glanced at Manny as if he was really stupid.
"So we could, but where to go? Even if we got out of here the monsters would be waiting for us outside," he said.
"We could take some coral with us. Monsters are afraid of light," Manny replied. The man thought about it for a while.
"Only some of them. That cursed octopus for an example; it just loves light. It would catch us in no time and that would be nasty for all of us, especially the one who came up with the idea of escaping," he said.
Manny shrugged.
"Maybe so. You know, I go and think this over and I'll tell you once I come up with something," he promised making the man snort.
"You do that," he stated in amusement and concentrated on his work again. Manny decided that at that point it was probably a good idea to go and see how his friends were doing. He walked to Carla.
"Manny!" Carla exclaimed before the man managed to say anything and jumped on her feet. "Where on Earth have you been?" she continued not sounding very worried.
"I met some old friends. Still as arrogant as ever. But I also found -- " Manny started cutting off his sentence before he managed to say Meche's name. He knew Carla would just throw a fit and he didn't want to hurt her.
But Carla wasn't stupid. She gave Manny a suspicious glance and placed her hands on her hips.
"What did you find?" she asked. Manny rubbed the back of his skull. Here we go...
"Meche," he replied quickly and found out that he hadn't been quite right when he had tried to guess what Carla's reaction would be. At first the woman was silent, and then she clenched her fists and glared at him looking really mad.
"I see," she said quietly. Manny watched her in surprise, that's all? No screaming, raging or crying? Carla was a pretty calm woman, but when she snapped nothing could stop her.
"Good that you take it this well," the man stated in relief and then hoped he had said nothing.
"Well, why aren't you with her at the very moment?" Carla asked poisonously.
"Because Domino brought me here!" Manny knew that wasn’t exactly the best thing to say, but it was the truth.
Carla snorted.
"You probably left me and Glottis so that you could run straight into her arms!" she snapped and turned her back at him. Manny sighed and tried to grab her shoulder, but Carla shook his hand away.
"Don't touch me! Save it for that wrenched slut!" she said and Manny glanced around himself.
"Carla, you are making a scene," he whispered.
"I don't care! Go away Manuel, I am tired of your presence," she said and Manny gave up with a sigh.
"Fine then. Tell me when my company is welcome," he said and decided to start searching for Glottis. Carla just snorted and it reminded Manny of how they had departed in Rubacava. It had been both amusing and... he didn't know.
Manny glanced at the sulking Carla once more before turning around and walking away where he thought he had seen Glottis. The demon was much stronger than five souls combined, so the work was very easy for him and he even seemed to enjoy it.
"Having fun?" Manny asked when he arrived and the demon stopped working.
"Manny! You came back already? Where were you?" he asked happily. It was still a mystery for Manny how the demon managed to be so cheerful and enthusiastic all the time. Maybe it was because Glottis was thousands of years old.
"Believe it or not, but I found Meche. And Domino. Meche seems to be okay and Domino hasn't changed either, if not for worse," he said.
Glottis flapped his ears and nodded.
"That is good, really good. But Manny, now that we've found Miss Colomar, what will we do next?" he wanted to know.
"I don't know Glottis, but we have to get away from here and save all these souls. The game Domino plays here is wrong and I am not going to let him continue it," Manny said and surprised himself with his own determination.
"True, but in the meantime I could probably dig this rock, right? I saw some really interesting drills on our way here," Glottis said concentrating on his work again. Manny watched for a while not really growing interested. He started working too so that he wouldn't look suspicious and really tried to come up with something.
Firstly, their situation was pretty nasty. They had light, but they wouldn't get very far if they escaped. Domino's ugly pet would catch them and then it'd just be worse.
No, they had to find another way to escape.
"Hey, Glottis, do you think you could make the submarine work without the octopus?" he asked suddenly and the demon lifted his eyes from the work. He thought about it a while.
"Well, why not? I just need some time and proper tools," he decided. Manny nodded.
"Good. I believe that we've solved at least one problem," he said pleased. The main problem sill existed; how to get out? Stealing the submarine without Domino noticing it would be difficult, maybe even impossible.
On top of that they had to find Glottis time to fix the submarine. They had to keep Domino out of the picture during that, but that wouldn't be too difficult if someone got one well aimed hit at his skull. All they needed was to get the man down there again, and make someone creep behind him...
"This is useless," Manny muttered at himself letting his pessimistic nature reign. Lately he had managed to keep it in control pretty well, but now when things weren't fine he couldn't help it.
"The rock is pretty hard," a familiar voice next to him said and he lifted his gaze in surprise.
Meche.
"What are you doing here? Didn't Domino make you continue your own work?" Manny asked and the woman shrugged looking a bit guilty.
"I am allowed to have short breaks and I decided to come and see how it is going," she said. Manny pointed at the work field.
"Not very well. I'm trying to find a way to get us all out of here and give Domino what he deserves," he said.
Meche nodded.
"Could be hard, Domino has a lot of power here," she said.
"But he is alone and that makes him weak," Manny pointed out. Meche laughed shortly.
"That sounds like something Hector LeMans would say," she stated.
"You know I'd never agree with him," Manny hurried to explain making the woman sigh.
"I know, but... Once I thought that you were involved with this too. At first I hoped you'd come and save me, but then I realised how stupid I was being," she said and now she seemed to be really ashamed.
"I tried to save you. I've been looking for you all these years and now I am here. I just have to find out how to get us out. Believe me," Manny said.
"I haven't believed in anything in a long time and -- Manny, why is that woman staring at us?" Meche started, but then she saw Carla was glaring at them like she really had something against them both.
Manny rubbed the back of his head.
"She's my friend Carla and came here with me and Glottis. She is... pretty difficult at times and I think she's jealous," he said and this time it was his turn to be ashamed.
"Jealous? Why?" Meche asked in surprise, she hadn't known to expect that.
"She thinks we are in love. That I spent this time looking for you because of that," Manny explained and Meche laughed. It was the first time Manny heard Meche laughing and it made him feel better too.
"So she's your girlfriend, huh? Maybe I should have a word with her," she suggested and Manny nodded.
"That would be good," he said and right after Meche had gone he realised he hadn't told her that Carla wasn't his girlfriend.
"Hey Meche! Wait!" he shouted after her, but she either didn't hear or didn't want to.
---
That stupid ladies' man! I don't understand why I left after him, Carla thought angrily to herself and whacked pieces of stone into oblivion in her anger. She didn't care if she destroyed some coral by doing that.
That Colomar slut, why did she have to be there? Fawns on Manny like some -- the woman's thoughts were interrupted when she noticed she wasn't alone anymore. She lifted her gaze and her foul mood just got worse when she saw who had arrived.
"Mercedes Colomar, I presume?" she asked coldly. Meche nodded.
"Yes, that is me," she said.
"What do you want? If it's nothing important I suggest you'd get lost," Carla said and Meche was surprised because of her cruel behaviour. Seems this woman always says what she thinks, she thought.
"I just thought I'd come and have a word or two with you," she started carefully. Carla laughed dryly.
"Right. Well, Miss, what is it about?" she asked and the despise in her voice was really thick. Meche found herself getting frustrated, but then she remembered why Carla was on such a bad mood.
"I don't love Manny," she said getting straight into business. It was good for no one to make the conversation long and complicated.
What she said created just the reaction she had expected. Carla froze in surprise and shock and seemed to consider her words for a long while. It took some time before she even realised what she had heard.
"You don't?" she asked not sounding angry anymore. Just very confused. Meche shook her head.
"No. How could I? The time I've spent with him is less than a few hours and that is not enough to fall in love with anyone. Besides, I am more interested in someone else. Though he'll never love me," she admitted deciding to show all of her cards. She owned that to Manny.
Carla was silent for a while.
"Then there are two of us. I doubt Manny will ever like me," she stated. It was more than she had ever told anyone, the first time she admitted she cared about Manny.
But saying it didn't seem so difficult now when someone shared her fate.
Meche snorted.
"Don't be so sure," she said.
"What do you mean?" Carla wanted to know. She realised she was excited and it made her annoyed, she had no reason to drool on someone like this. It was desperate and only weak and ridiculous women let feelings control their behaviour.
"Manny asked me to talk to you when you didn't believe him. He is not interested in me," Meche explained and for some reason Carla didn't feel ridiculous anymore. Not at all.
To be continued...
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