Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

“You know,” Rajan still smiled at her, “Somehow, I don’t think that’s true.”

Whilst she wanted to refute this at first, Michelle quickly realised there was no point in lying to neither herself nor the only person left alive that she even somewhat trusted.

“Everybody’s allowed to make mistakes, Michelle.” He patted her on the shoulder in comfort, “You’ve made yours and you’ve learnt from them. If I were to begrudge you for your past, all that learning which you did would be undone.” He explained his ethical stance.

“And—And what about these bandits?” Michelle further queried.

Understanding her concerns, Rajan politely affirmed, “It’s not our fight anymore. This vendetta is between the people in these walls and the ones outside of it; not us.”

“It’s not even a vendetta, Rajan. Neither side seems to have any interest in quashing the other.” Michelle noted.

“Well,” Rajan scratched his scalp awkwardly, “I think now that this lot know it’s their dead arch enemy’s group, there’s gonna be a vendetta rising up pretty quickly now.”

Michelle nodded in acknowledgment of this, but felt no guilt over the fact that, by killing Benji, she may have just brought her own group into this fight as well now.

Still sat around the same restaurant table, Elliot, Gwen, Annabelle, Mac, and Dawn were delegating over what their next move would be.

“We have to kill them! There’s no question about it!” Gwen was adamant as she passionately clenched her fists over the idea of mass murder.

“I agree,” Annabelle, having broken out of her traumatically nostalgic trance, seconded her mother, “These people are dangerous and ruthless, we’ve seen that with our own eyes. Going off of what our new friend Rajan told us, nothing has changed!”

But Elliot was looking at the situation through a much wider lens, “Cora’s group has been here for months, and not once have they even bothered to attack them,” he pointed out, “They clearly don’t want this safe zone, so why should we start conflict where none needs to be?”

“It’s not starting conflict, Elliot,” Gwen countered his argument, “It’s ending it! Our feud with The Bandits has been going on ever since my husband died—We just didn’t know it for all these years.”

“No, Gwen,” Elliot’s opinion was different to his stepmother’s, “The feud ended the moment you pushed Kyle into the sewers.”

“I agree with Elliot,” Dawn voiced her stance in a subdued tone, “It’s just unnecessary destruction that will end up in the deaths of more innocent lives,” She thought back to how unnecessary conflict was what had gotten her son killed, “Eric—Eric died because of bloodshed that didn’t need to happen.”

Nobody around the table could deny this, nor were any of them brave enough to speak against a forever grieving mother.

“I know I’m well out of my depth here,” Mac prefixed his opinion, acknowledging that he personally had no bad blood with the enemies outside, “But I don’t see any reason why we need to attack them – If they were attacking us, then sure, self-defence is a fair game – If they wanted this place, they’d have taken it in all the years that nobody has been living here for.”

“And if they find out that their martyr’s killer lives here?” Gwen asked in query about herself.

“Best keep a low profile, then.” Elliot answered his mother on Mac’s innocent behalf.

But now, Gwen became personal with him, “How can you be so forgiving?” She questioned intently.

Due to his blindness, it had taken Elliot a few seconds to realise that Gwen was asking him this question.

“Remember Steven?” Gwen prompted, “Remember how they came and stormed this place and left your friend to die? Remember how much that hurt Olivia--?”

“Don’t say that, mum.” Annabelle interrupted, for despite being on her mother’s side, she was also well aware that Elliot was feeling quite emotionally vulnerable being back in London without his old friends.

But Elliot wasn’t holding back any longer either, “…They only attacked us because of Annabelle.” Elliot briefly recapped.

A sudden and awkward silence came across the table.

“The very first thing that I remember you doing all those years ago,” Elliot tried his best to look sternly into her eyes, “Is killing two of Kyle’s bandits, one of which was his brother—Or have you forgotten that?”

Annabelle grunted, “I did that for my father.”

“No,” Elliot shook his head to deny this justification, “Gwen killed Kyle to avenge your father.”

“There’s no point in keeping track of the score!” Gwen suddenly burst out, slamming the table as she did so. “It’s not a fucking football match! They killed one of us, we killed a few of theirs’, and then a battle broke out which took plenty of lives on both sides!”

Once again, everyone fell into a silence, for this was another fact which none of them could deny.

Over in the hospital, the nurse had become the patient; Erica’s hearing was being tested by her wife.

With a blindfold covering her eyes, Erica had been asked to answer the questions which Tina would ask from different distances as she walked around the room.

“What vessel did we use to return to this place?” Tina mumbled to her within a close proximity.

“Airplane.” Gwen bluntly answered.

“Good.” Tina informed Erica as she backed further out, still circling around the room.

In a weird way, Erica was actually finding this exercise to be rather relaxing.

“What’s the name of the city we’re currently in?”

“London.”

The questions were deliberately easy, as Tina was only testing Erica’s hearing, and not her knowledge.

Tina tiptoed over into the farthest corner of the room, and mumbled, “What colour is an orange?”

Erica did not respond, nor did she even demonstrate the slightest indication that she had heard Tina mumbling.

“What colour is an orange?” She asked in a normal volume this time,