#listen. the orphanage director thing I was fine with. It’s fine to cry over someone who hurt you | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zarryscherrys · 4 years

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Here is my first imagine post.

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He had been out all day, meeting new people and old, but not once has he smiled. He was always known as the guy who smiled even if he saw a kitten. He would smile when he saw a family out and 'bout, shopping and spending time together. Sure he hadn't experienced it himself, but he's happy that others get to. He would rather die for a stranger then let the stranger die. So what was making today so different?

Well he told her something he shouldn't have. He told Y/n that he was breaking up with her and to stay away from him. His reason for that was his past came knocking at his door two nights ago. After Y/n had left his small but cute little apartment, the men or should I say gang he left came knocking back for things.

Harry had been alone since he was five. His parents and sister had died in a house fire while he was still at day care waiting for his father to pick him up, but that never happened. When the cops had come to pick him up, well he was confused to be sitting in a cop car. He had done nothing bad he said to the police. He didn't even hurt a spider, but the cops just laughed and told him he wasn't in trouble. So he asked what happened. The cops both looked at each other with a wary expression, before telling him they would tell him once they were at the station.

So when they had told Harry, well he didn't want anyone to see him cry so he ran to the closest bathroom and locked it with a bit difficulty. The cops ran after him but Harry had already locked the door. They knocked and begged for Harry to come out, but he kept yelling no in between his cries. Once the cops were able to get Harry out of the bathroom, he spent about two weeks at a family friends house, until he was taken to an orphanage. Sure he could have stayed with family, but none wanted him for the reason that both his parents had cut all ties with their family before running away together.

The actual mess started in high school when Harry needed money. Some extra cash that he could keep hidden away from the directors of the orphanage. So when his friend recommended working with him where he could get a couple hundred a month Harry took it. But he didn't understand what he gotten into. He could get out of the smuggling business for awhile, even after he left the Orphanage and got into a good college. He didn't do the drugs himself, just exported them to buyers. But once Harry had gotten out of college and into a job as an financial advisor for a well known law firm, Harry had left the smuggling business along with the 'gang' he had joined. At first they were angry, but they reluctantly let him go, but not entirely.

So now here he was at the bank, going to collect about $10,000 for them. He had said no to them but they were threatening not just his life, but also Y/N's life and he couldn't let anything happen to her. Getting to the lady behind one of the desks he asked to take out $10,000 out of his account. The lady looked at him with wide eyes because for a financial advisor, taking out $10,000 was quiet a bit. But Harry assured her that it was for a new business that his buddies were starting. Lying had always been hard for Harry but right now he had no time for hesitations. Harry could bounce back from $10,000 in about 5 months, so for 5 months he had a budget real well.

Harry arrived at his apartment to find all of them sitting on his four seater couch.

"Hello Harry my boy," Elijah, the leader as he would say, stood up. "Haven't seen you in forever."

"You saw me two days ago," Harry said trying to push Elijah off of him.

"Well it seemed to long," he said to Harry gripping his shoulders.

"Enough Elijah, no time for games," Sebastian, the oldest of them, said.

"Whatever you say old man," Elijah said trying to get a rise out of Sebastian. But Sebastian ignores it and glares at Elijah. He reluctantly sat down on the couch not wanting to get a beating from him, cause he knows he'll be out cold for a week.

"So Harry, you have it," Sebastian asked Harry calmly. Harry quickly nodded before unzipping his backpack in which the cash was stored. Harry showed the bag to Sebastian and the rest. Quickly the money was counted for and they sat in Harry's living room talking, although Harry wasn't talking much because his fear was at a all time high.

"That girl Harry," Elijah said catching Harry's attention quite quickly, "she sure is a beaut. Mind if I borrow her for a little." Harry tensed are Elijah's blunt statement. What was Elijah trying to do?

"No you can't," he said hastily.

"But come on. I mean is she great in bed?" That comment from Elijah set Harry off. Quickly Harry pounced at the man, knocking in to the ground, sending punches and punches to him. But Harry's victory was short lived as Sebastian quickly moved him off of Elijah. Elijah quick to get up, landed a few punches on Harry before he too was pulled back by Sebastian.

"Guys ENOUGH." Sebastian said to the two heaving men. Both looked at each other as if one another were the devil.

"He shouldn't have made those comments," Harry said wiping off some blood that spilt from a cut on his cheek.

"Well he shouldn't have reacted that way," Elijah said in a manner only a child would. Blaming someone else for their mistake.

"Elijah just shut up, and Harry thanks for the money. We'll be in contact and if you ever want something just call us," Sebastian nodded at Harry before dragging Elijah and the other three who came with him and left Harry. Harry still on the floor, slowly and painful for up before going to the kitchen to get a first aid kit. Harry cleaning up his mess was interrupted by a knock on his door. Did they leave something?

Harry opened the door to see someone he thought wouldn't ever step foot in his apartment but again.

"Y/n what are doing here," he said opening the door a bit wider so she could step in.

"I just really needed to talk to you, but now what happened to your face," Y/n said reaching over to inspect the wound that Harry had gotten.

"Stuff happened," he shrugged her off going back to the kitchen.

"Go sit at the table, I'll help you." Luckily Y/n was a practicing doctor so she could easily fix him up. As she sat infront of Harry, cleaning up the wounds that Elijah gave him, Y/n and Harry stayed quiet. She quietly cleaning him up and him quietly staring at her. He missed her like hell. Sure it was two days but those two days were the worst.

"Mind telling me what happened," Y/n said standing up to go to the kitchen to clean up the equipment she used.

"Fell," he said trying to get rid of her because god knows that they could come back.

"Harry it doesn't look like you fell."

"Well I did."

"You have a busted cheek and lip. I know a fight wound when I see one." D*nm was she good Harry thought.

"It was a tiny fight," Harry said giving up lying to her.

"Why would you get in a fight?"

"Because I did," he said walking into the kitchen she was still in, "and you can leave now."

"Harry why are you being like that?" Y/n was confused because even before they dated he was nice to her all the time and others.

"Because I can," Harry was slowly losing patience with Y/n.

"I just wanted to know," Y/n said raising her voice a bit.

"WELL YOU DONT NEED TO KNOW." Y/n was caught off guard by his tone because well she had never heard Harry scream like that and out of anger. Even Harry was a bit stunned at himself because he just yelled at the girl he loves truly.

"What happened to you Harry. First you break up with me out of the blue now it's like you turned into someone else, and frankly I hate it," Y/n said her voice cracking a bit as she tried to hold in her tears.

"Listen Y/n, things happened. And I'm fine okay. So you don't need to care anymore cause I'm not your boyfriend and your not my girlfriend so you can leave." Everything that came out of Harry's mouth was bs. He's really not fine and he really needed Y/n to care and not leave.

"Fine I'll leave," she said quickly grabbing her stuff before heading to the door. "Oh and I'm sorry for caring about you and loving you," she said muttering the last two words. She stepped out of the apartment closing the door behind her.

As she heard the clicking of the door she let her tears pour out silently.

Harry heard the door shut and slowly he sank to the ground letting his feelings out. The anger he felt towards him self, and the pain he felt for letting her go.

A/n: First imagine on tumblr. Hope whoever read it enjoyed it. More to come.

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giftfromthesleepprincess · 5 years

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Chapter 4–The Widow, the Medicine, and the Poison; Scene 3

Gift from the Princess Who Brought Sleep, pages 139-153

If you traced back the roots of those who ran pharmacies in Elphegort, you would find in most cases that they traced back to people called “shamans”. It was said that many of those shamans had been devotees of the great earth god Held, and that embroidered in the robes they wore was a great tree insignia modeled off of Held’s form.

The original owner of the La Bula pharmacy had apparently been one such shaman, and in the corner of the shop hung a tapestry that depicted said tree insignia.

“Shamans and chemists--the name might have changed, but what we do isn’t all that different,” murmured the owner of the pharmacy, Egmont. “What is different is that I have to join the union to get a merchant’s license, and pay taxes. …Ah, and I guess there’s also restrictions on the sale of poisons.”

Hanne asked what restrictions in particular.

Egmont showed her a notebook he had on hand. “When buying poisonous substances, you always have to record your name and status in this ledger. If you write a false name, that alone could subject you to penal regulations. And then, I can’t sell them to people who aren’t of age or prostitutes.”

“What kind of people have been buying poison lately?”

“Like it says there, almost all of them have been hunters. They use them to make traps and poisoned arrows to catch game with. And then there’s farmers with livestock. Sometimes they buy them to help put down animals that have gotten afflicted with particularly nasty ailments.”

“What about doctors?”

“Like Dr. Felix? Of course he buys some. For use in his research, or to euthanize hopeless patients. But there’s no records of him making any purchases for close to a year...And now he’s fallen ill himself. Sounds like the doctor might need to practice his own trade--though I hope he’s able to make a full recovery all the same. If he dies off then my business’ll be at risk.”

Egmont sighed. It seemed only natural that a pharmacy’s biggest client would be doctors. Losing Marx, the only doctor in town, would have a huge influence on him.

“I was wanting to ask you if Dr. Felix’s daughter buys medicine here too.”

“You mean little Margarita? Yeah, she buys from here all the time. Naturally her business is appreciated, but…” Egmont said, and then sighed again.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Nah, it’s just that she doesn’t buy medicine, she buys ingredients. She says she mixes them up herself. Even though she could do just fine purchasing the finished product without going out of her way like that...No matter how many times I tell her that, she won’t listen.”

“Can someone who’s not a chemist even mix up drugs in the first place?”

“She has a medical license for the time being. There’s no problem with her mixing up drugs in itself. It’s not a crime as long as she doesn’t sell what she makes to anyone else. Under Elphegort’s laws, anyway. I’ve heard things are a bit stricter in Beelzenia.”

So that meant it was legal to make medicines for use among friends and family like Margarita did.

“Why does she mix up the drugs herself?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. …Well, it’s not like I can’t think of a single reason.”

“Which would be?”

“…This is just a guess, but… It might be that she wants to cure her illness,” Egmont said quietly.

“Her illness?”

“Yeah, well, she can’t sleep, right? I think she’s trying to make a medicine that will cure that—something that will make her able to sleep. There are a lot of things with that purpose in the ingredients she buys.”

“Such as…the Greeonion Plateau Rose?”

Hanne put forward the name of the flower that the mayor had showed her in Calgaround.

But Egmont shook his head in surprise. “That’s not a sleeping drought so much as a poison! I can’t sell that to miss Margarita. She’s still just sixteen. I said it before, but I can’t sell poison to someone who isn’t of age. I don’t even deal in valuable goods like the Greeonio Plateau Rose in the first place.”

“Is there anywhere else in Toragay where one could buy it?”

“Nope,” Egmont flatly replied. “This is the only pharmacy in Toragay. If you really want a Greeonion Plateau Rose…Hmm, there might be some in Aceid.”

“…I heard that a woman calling herself a ‘sorceress’ had been coming and going in Toragay lately. Has there been any talk of her selling or giving drugs or poisons to anyone?”

“Sorceress…Ah, yeah there was someone like that here. Some creepy woman wearing a hood in the middle of the day. She was some associate of Marquis Blankenheim, so no one said anything. I was real shocked when the world police said she was some terrible criminal, after the marquis died—Or rather, it actually made a lot of sense. The marquis might have been murdered by her, actually. …Er, the conversation’s gotten a bit away from me. Drugs and poison? I haven’t heard anything about that. If there was I wouldn’t have stayed quiet about it.”

“Has she been seen hanging around anywhere other than the marquis’ ho—”

“What? Are you looking for this woman? People stopped seeing her a long time ago, so I’m pretty sure she’s gotten out of town. As for hanging around anywhere...Actually, now that you mention it…”

It sounded like Egmont had remembered something.

He spin his index finger in a winding gesture next to his head, as though to trace back his memory, and then after a moment of thought he replied, “I did see her walking with Margarita once. They said they were going to the charity institute. But that was several months ago.”

“The charity institute…Got it. Thank you very much.”

“Hey hey, leaving already? While you’re here, you should buy something. You look like you’re pretty tired. It spoils your lovely features. –How about this? If you drink this syrup, it’ll blow your weariness all the way yonder to the Hellish Yard!”

“…Alright, I’ll take one.”

Hanne gave in to Egmont’s prodding and somewhat reluctantly decided to purchase his tonic.

“Thanks for the purchase! That’s 50 Ev!”

That’s expensive!

That was the same price as staying the night in a world-class inn in Aceid.

“Does this thing really work?”

“Yeah! I guarantee it! I drank it myself earlier, but it got me in a pretty big fix--chiefly the lower half of my body! Gahaha.”

Ignoring the pharmacist’s crude joke, Hanne took the bottle with the cloudy white liquid inside and left the shop.

As she headed for the charity institute, Hanne opened the lid of the suspicious drug and poured it into her mouth in lieu of lunch.

…Eugh!

Even if she didn’t have much interest in eating and drinking, that didn’t mean she had no understanding of flavor.

Bitter things were bitter, after all.

…That pharmacist better be prepared to suffer if this doesn’t do anything for me.

When she visited the charity institute, a woman with an air of kindness not unlike a divine mother came to greet her.

“Do you have some business here, ma’am?”

Since she’d been asked, Hanne decided to respond politely in kind.

“YES! I! Am! Hanne! Lorre! Of! SCHUBURG NEWSPAPER!”

“Oh my, you’re an extremely energetic one, aren’t you? A newspaper, you say…Are you writing a story on us?”

“That! Is! CORRECT!”

“Very good, you are most welcome here. Please, come in.”

“THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

--The medicine seemed to be working too well. She’d gotten more energy, but had the feeling that that carried its own problems.

Hanne tried to regain her presence of mind as much as possible, and entered the charity institute alongside the woman.

“Right now the children are having their afternoon nap. So I would appreciate it if you could try to speak as quietly as possible…”

“ALRIGHT! …I will do that.”

As the woman said, on the other side of an open door she could see several young children lying down on cots. Presumably, all of them there were orphans.

Most towns had orphanages like this in them. The majority of them were established by the Sisters of Clarith, and this charity institute was one of them.

“Of course, during its founding we received a great deal of donations from many people. The one who contributed the most was Dr. Felix. We’re forever in his debt. …Such a tragedy he’s gone the way he has—” said the woman who was, apparently, the director of the charity institute, Rita Flohn, her expression mournful.

Rita had originally been a midwife, and because of that she had known doctor Marx for a very long time.

“I helped bring Margarita into the world when she was born too. …I feel sorry for her. From the moment she was born she’s suffered such hardship, and now on top of that her father—"

“HoLD UP! …Did something happen when she was born?”

“It was rainy that day. Dr. Felix’s wife—Margarita’s mother—realized she was going into labor, and he and I were there to witness it...Everything was going along smoothly. But it was then that the unthinkable happened.”

Rita continued to speak, looking out the window and gazing at the sky.

“Lightning struck near the house. Perhaps you could call it fortunate that it didn’t hit Dr. Felix’s mansion directly. But that wasn’t the case at all for his wife. Her condition took a drastic change immediately after that lightning strike. …When the baby had somehow been given birth to, her mother was already dead. And that baby wouldn’t cry--she wasn’t breathing.”

“And by that baby—you do mean Margarita, right?”

“Yes. I had thought at the time that both the mother and child were beyond saving. I could only stand there in a stupor, holding the silent baby in my arms, Dr. Felix embracing his wife and sobbing. But then—a miracle occurred.”

This time Rita drew close to a small shrine that was nearby. There was a drawer in the shrine, and from there she pulled out a red cloth-like object.

“…Which was?” Hanne asked.

Rita wordlessly handed over the item. It wasn’t just simple cloth. When she looked closer she could see that it had something like cat fur grown thickly all over it. The fur was the same red color as the cloth.

“Somebody suddenly entered the mansion. A strange woman who wore a hooded robe and had a worn-out cat plushie on her shoulder. She silently held a hand over the baby, and then immediately left—when she did, lo and behold! The baby I had thought dead starting wailing as loud as she could!”

Just as Rita started shouting, the sound of children grumbling became audible from inside the room. She hurriedly went towards them, and returned after calming them down.

“…Sorry, I got a little bit carried away. I believe that woman was a messenger of the gods. That the gods took pity on poor Margarita. The fact that she can’t sleep is also likely some sort of divine favor.”

“Did Miss Margarita have any abnormalities after that? …Aside from being sleepless.”

“None. She grew up rapidly and healthily, as though what happened when she was born was just a dream. At first Dr. Felix did a great deal of study towards her insomnia, but ended up giving up on it. She didn’t seem to be having any health problems, so he figured he’d leave it be.”

“Did Dr. Felix dote on Margarita?”

“She was a memento that the wife he loved left behind, so of course he did. He wanted to make her as happy as he could. There in comes the previous Marquis Blankenheim, who he already had social connections to—Lord Kaspar’s father, I mean. He would frequently visit him with Margarita along, and got Lord Kaspar and Margarita acquainted. He anticipated that the two of them would get married someday. There are people in society who say that Dr. Felix got them involved with each other for his own influence, but I don’t think so at all. I believe that to the last everything he did was for Margarita’s happiness.”

Between her idea and society’s rumors, which one was the truth? Hanne had no way to tell. In the end, that was something she’d have to ask Marx himself. On the other hand, even if he woke up and she was able to talk to him, that didn’t necessarily mean what he told her would be the truth. There wasn’t a parent alive who would be happy to admit that they’d only used their own child as a means to an end.

“Of course…I can’t say whether or not it made Margarita truly happy,” Rita murmured. Her eyes seemed to have a faint flare of anger in them. “Lord Kaspar—No, I’ll dispense with the honorifics with him. To speak bluntly, that man was the lowest of the low. Garbage. Spending all his time playing around and picking up other women every day while he had a wife like Margarita around—I’ll say it again, that bastard was utter trash.”

While ranting on she made a move as though to slam her fist on the desk in front of her, but, seeming to remember the sleeping children again, she quietly set her fist down.

It seemed that contrary to Hanne’s initial impression, she was an unexpectedly emotionally tumultuous person.

“My my…Miss Rita. Please calm down.”

While trying to pacify this overexcited woman, Hanne, who was uplifted from the medicine she’d taken, was extremely calm.

“Pitifully enough, Margarita—she’s such a softhearted girl...She became friends with one of Kaspar’s mistresses, and ended up bringing her here to this institute! Honestly, that poor dear—”

This time it looked like she’d start crying.

…What a bother this lady is.

Hanne was the slightest bit annoyed, but even so she had to keep talking to her. She wanted to ask a little bit more about that “mistress” that Margarita brought over.

“What were they doing here?”

“—Apparently she came here to help Margarita. Though it seemed to me she came along somewhat reluctantly. In the end, it was Margarita who did the cooking and served the food to the children, and the woman just left without doing anything. She was a weird one. Wearing a robe, hardly saying anything at all.”

“This woman…Was she really Lord Kaspar’s mistress?”

“Obviously! She was wearing such distasteful deep red clothes! Only a loose woman would wear something like that!”

That seemed a bit prejudiced of her. Speaking of red clothing the mayor of Calgaround had been dressed like that, but Hanne didn’t get that kind of mental image about her at all.

Putting that together with what the pharmacist had told her, the “mistress” that Margarita had brought along was undoubtedly the sorceress she’d been after.

Sorceress, huh…?

There was one thing that piqued Hanne’s interest. The “messenger of the gods” who supposedly resurrected the baby Margarita from death. Assuming Rita hadn’t been hallucinating, then that must have indeed been the work of a “sorceress”.

“Miss Rita. This mistress…Did she possibly have any resemblance to the ‘messenger of the gods’ who appeared when Margarita was born, or perhaps—”

“What are you saying!? That’s impossible! That woman and the messenger have nothing in comm…Well, maybe…she did a little…No! They were definitely different! Their features might have been a bit similar but they were definitely different people!”

“If you keep shouting like that you’ll wake up the children again.”

“That’s fine! Naptime’s almost over anyway!”

“I see…At any rate, you’re positive that the two of them aren’t the same person?”

“Yes. I swear to god! …Ah, now that I think about it, that mistress did come here one other time. She was alone then.”

According to Rita, that was about three months ago.

“She asked me if there was an inn around here. As I recall…that was when…Lord…Kaspar went to Aceid with Margarita. To attend the King’s birthday celebration. Apparently that woman had come here now knowing that the Marquis and his wife were out of town. Ordinarily I might have offered for her to stay here, but I couldn’t help but loathe her. So I suggested a different inn.”

“Where would that be?”

“Uhrm, let me think...”

It was the inn that Hanne had stayed at when she first came to Toragay a month and a half ago. She’d used this inn any time she was staying in Toragay since then. The rates were alright and the lady owner wasn’t all that bad. The owner’s son was a sensible man who worked as both a coachman and a postman.

Hanne stood before that inn. She hadn’t returned to spend the night now that the day was wearing long. She was there because, unexpectedly, it was the next destination in her coverage.

A carriage drew close. The inn owner’s son was driving it. When he spotted Hanne there, he stopped the carriage and called out in a good humored tone, “Welcome back, Miss Hanne. Is your job going well?”

“So-so. Are you all done working for today?”

“Nah, I’ve still got a bit to go. I have to take some guests out to the Kihel check station.”

As he said, there were guests sitting in the luggage compartment. From the window she could see two heads. Their faces weren’t visible, but from their heights it looked like they were both children.

“I’ll be seeing you. If you have any other business for me don’t hesitate to give me a holler.”

So saying he pulled on the reigns. The carriage departed, making its way along the main road.

Hanne opened the door to the inn. It seemed the old woman who ran it was right in the middle of making dinner, and the pleasant smell of onion soup wafted to the entrance.

“Mrs. Brigitta.”

Hanne peered into the kitchen and called out the woman’s name.

Facing a pot with soup inside it, Brigitta replied without turning towards Hanne, “Welcome back. You’re early today. I’ll have dinner ready in a bit, so you should wait upstairs until then. I’ll call you down when it’s finished.”

“Ah, actually I have something I want to talk about…But you look busy, so it can wait.”

Brigitta turned around. She was making a displeased expression, but she always was. That was just her resting face.

“I don’t mind. All I have to do now is wait for it to finish cooking.”

“Oh yes? Well then, it’s about a guest who stayed her a while back…Do you know the name ‘Elluka Clockworker’?”

“I don’t recall.”

“I’d heard that a woman in red clothing wearing a hood had stayed here before…”

“—Ah, now that you mention it, I did have a guest like that. I think she stayed the night about three months ago. She used the room next to the one you have now.”

“Was there anything strange about this person?”

“No, not really. Though, she ate up all the food I gave her, and hardly said a word—Thinking on it now, she did forget something here.”

“What was it?”

“Some kind of strange liquid. I thought it was ketchup or something. But it’s been so long since then it’s probably gone bad by now.”

“Are you still storing it here?”

“I put it in our storeroom. It’s there on the left when you get in. If you want to look into it go get it yourself.”

“I will. Thank you very much.”

Hanne left the kitchen and went for the storeroom right next to it. When she looked left, there sitting on the shelf was a small glass bottle. It was filled with red liquid.

She took the bottle in hand, opened the lid, and sniffed it. It didn’t smell like it was rotten, but it had some other scent to it. It was a bit like rusted iron.

--I hope this turns out to be a clue.

It was one of the sorceress’ personal belongings. For argument’s sake, if she were able to find traces of some kind of toxin in this, then it would substantiate the idea that the sorceress had given Margarita poison.

Well then, who should I have examine this?

If she wanted to get this done in a hurry, then Egmont at the pharmacy here in town would do the job. However, if she wanted to get the job done right, then perhaps it would be best to consult a specialist in the field--Puerick Rogzé.

It was too late to go to either of them today. She would take this liquid to one of them tomorrow, and have them look over its composition.

She could hear Brigitta calling from the kitchen. Apparently dinner was ready.

Hanne didn’t fuss all that much over her meals. But it wasn’t like she wasn’t hungry either.

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