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10.57% Becoming a Monster / Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Who decides what's Normal?

Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Who decides what's Normal?

His eyes shifted towards the noise. He saw a lone silhouette of the girl from before on her knees, crying into the palms of her hands. The scene surprised him; the image of a damaged and vulnerable woman gave him the urge to comfort her and take on all of her pain.

Then reality hit him. He remembered who she came with. He took a glimpse towards Noah, who seemed oblivious to the saddened cries. He felt the need to address him. How could he ignore her? If he could hear her, then he was sure Noah should be able to as well. He tried to hold his tongue, yet his empathy led him to speak before becoming aware of it.

"Umm…what about her?" He gestured to Isabelle, getting Noah's attention. Surprisingly, he didn't see the expression he thought Noah would have. He wasn't confused or worried at all; he was annoyed?

Henry had to squint his eyes to reaffirm he was seeing Noah's face properly. If he had waited a little longer, he wouldn't have had to overthink anything since Noah clearly made his stance on the situation known. 

"If I didn't know any better, I would've believed that crying was a universal trend. I swear…she had just run out of tears not even an hour ago, just great…" Henry was able to faintly catch what Noah was muttering to himself. The astonishment could clearly be seen on Henry's face. Not only did Noah seem indifferent to the girl's feelings, but it also appeared that he knew about her sadness for a while now, and this wasn't the first time she cried.

He looked onward in bewilderment while Noah approached the girl. It was a few seconds later when his mind connected Noah's annoyed expression to him making his way to her. He felt that maybe they had an abusive relationship. Unlike before, he wasn't brave enough to speak out again lest he inspire Noah's wrath. Although he was too fearful to watch, he still forced himself to apprehensively observe how Noah would handle the situation.

He saw Noah extending his arm towards her. Fearing that the abuse was going to transpire in front of his eyes, he had the thought of intercepting him, yet Noah's following action made him relieved he didn't.

As Noah approached Isabelle, he noted her dirtied appearance. The girl had it rough and lost someone she supposedly loved. Yet, despite her suffering, she still chose to be saved, even when she had the chance to die with her 'soul mate'. How will sitting here grieving help? Will that help her get over the situation faster? If so, then he was all for her crying. He would willingly participate in helping her get all of her tears out of her system if that would help her move on and finally fulfill her end of their deal.

Although, on the other hand, if she was going to just cry and then wallow in pity afterward, then she needs to at least tend to her part of the deal. Not wanting to wait for her to finish crying and not wanting to spend the time trying to placate her, he decided to lift her to her feet.

His 'kind' gesture didn't go as planned. Noah already expected her to resist, which she did initially. It was when she became aware of who it was that inspired the change.

Her mood turned sour at his presence while simultaneously yanking her hands away from his grasp. The images of Derrick's half-eaten corpse landing against her repeatedly replayed in her mind during the time she spent crying. She felt immense guilt for not being able to do anything to prevent it and even more so for leaving his side.

But as soon as her eyes gazed upon Noah, her mind found a way to rid itself of her emotional burden. When Derrick fell, it was Noah who left her. Their life was in danger, and yet the devil disguised as a human never bothered to give them aid, nor was there any hesitation in doing so. Her anger continued to pick apart Noah's errors and selfishness. That's when she remembered the fact that he was able to "easily" save her from the bird's clutches.

As her mind struggled to pull the blame away from herself, her emotional dilemma was causing her state of mind to corrupt. It turned from 'It's my fault Derrick died' to 'the bird took him away from me'. Then it unreasonably morphed to 'he left us there to die, 'he' killed Derrick!'

Slap! 

A crisp sound of her small, shaky hands slapping across Noah's cheek sounded strongly in the room. The lone watcher, Henry, was stricken by surprise at the unexpected response. That sense of surprise in his eyes held a hint of smug satisfaction, seeing her retaliate against her 'abuser'. Even though he was confused, the most confused of all was Noah himself. In Noah's mind, he did everything right by her; he spared Derrick for her, saved her from the vulture, just recently saved her from the mutated dog, AND he was being "kind" enough to help her to her feet.

Holding his face, which was only slightly red due to his increased constitution, he blankly stared into Isabelle's tear-filled eyes brimming with animosity towards him. He barely felt any pain but was genuinely confused about her actions. His curiosity outweighed what little anger he had, he was about to question her, however, his own expression changed dramatically with what followed next.

Because he didn't do anything against her, Isabelle felt that even he knew that what she did was justified. But at the same time, hitting him helped release so much of her pent-up grief and frustrations. It gave her a sense of fulfillment; being the aggressor and oppressor was liberating! Her body reacted before her brain perceived what was going on; her hand that she used to do the deed was rising once more, she was preparing to hit him again!

Smack! Another sound was heard just like before, this time not only was the sound louder than before, the noise was followed by another source of sound that was different from its earlier counterpart. An object of a heavier size slammed into a nearby table before crashing onto the floor.

Everything that transpired in that one moment was all caught by the lonesome spectator who now wanted nothing else to do with the two in the room. He thought this would be the time for Isabelle to stand up to her oppressor, just that action alone instilled him with renewed vigor since he too was a victim of it. In the end reality proved to spite him once again. He watched as she attempted to slap Noah once more, the same satisfying scene didn't play out like he expected. It happened so suddenly; Noah responded just in kind and slapped her with enough force to send her crashing.

At this point, he wished he could leave the room. Though wanted to help her, he pictured himself being slapped just like her. He nervously held his cheek before taking another step back; you can never be too careful.

Noah looked down towards Isabelle struggling on the floor; he was angry. She already hit him once without cause, and yet she had the nerve to do it again? He didn't even know her!

His anger dwindled like a dying flame, as Isabelle's slap was just a minuscule amount of fuel to ignite his frustration. However, witnessing her behavior after his own retaliation quickly extinguished any remaining resentment. She reverted back to her pitiful state, crying pathetically with lackluster emotions. If a corpse could cry, then that was exactly what Noah felt that he was seeing. He felt it to be pointless to remain upset; well, at least it was pointless with someone as pitiful as her.

He inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly in his own attempt to thwart his inner emotions.

He was losing interest in why she did what she did; he couldn't understand her feelings. And if hitting the person who saved your life is what a "normal" person does, then the real question is 'what is normal' and why should he try to understand her if he doesn't want to be normal like them if that's the result of it?

"You know, you've got a lot of nerve…" He attempted to lift her on her feet again, but when he noticed the almost lifeless look in her eyes…he let go. She once again hit the floor with a small audible cry, yet this time she made no effort to struggle or pick herself up again.

"De-Derri…ick….why…yo-you…leave…mme…" She mumbled to herself over and over.

If her previous action of slapping him had left him bewildered, her current demeanor nearly short-circuited his brain entirely.

'Did she just give up because I didn't let her keep hitting me? It seems that when you focus your life depending on others, then you forget how to depend on yourself…she's just sad…'

Noah felt his mood worsen every second he stood there watching. He definitely had some words he wanted to say to her, but he decided to hold them in. He didn't have a reason to deal with her anymore if she was going to be like this. Receiving her healing? He would be better off waiting for his injuries to heal or grinding weak monsters to level up to increase his constitution. He had already noticed earlier when he was bitten on his shoulder the effect constitution had on the body's recovery. One of his spider legs would probably still be out of commission, but seven healthy legs would more than suffice; dealing with her isn't worth it.

He turned to face Henry, who, upon their eyes meeting, was ready to flee. Having witnessed Noah's earlier abuse, Henry could only attempt to retreat in a fluster, instinctively lifting his hands to protect his face.

"Wa-wait, wait! Don't hit me! You said you won't harm me if I settle that issue for you." Henry was panicked to the point that his voice cracked while he tried to reason with Noah.

The patience Noah was desperately trying to maintain was crumbling every time he interacted with someone. He could guarantee that he desired to be rid of their presence just like they obviously felt about him; everyone seemed to be a few fries short of a happy meal in the brain department. He vividly remembered the earlier encounter with the kid in glasses who had called him a weirdo. He wondered what the kid would say if he were to meet Henry and Isabelle right now.

"Why would I hit you? Are you gonna try to slap me in the face too?" Noah's eyes narrowed as he questioned the skittish boy in front of him.

"N-no! I- I wouldn't dare!"

"Then there's your answer, now let's go so we can get this over with."

'I've had enough social interactions to last me a year,' Noah thought to himself before making his way past Henry and walking out the door.

Henry was considerably affected by Noah's mood; the lack of emotion in his tone, amplified by his bloodied appearance, made him feel reluctant to follow him unquestionably before he paused at the door.

"B-but what about…"

Noah turned around to find Henry looking back into the room where Isabelle still laid without any intention to move. He found the current scene conflicting.

'When I constantly was beaten up, where were the people worried for me? Ahhh…Maybe that was life telling me I never belonged with them…' Without noticing, a shift in his soul began to stir; his title was a lot more than he understood.

Noah turned away from Henry and walked down the hall in the direction his friend had escaped to, leading towards the main lobby. It also happened to be where you could access the second floor to the shopping section further down on the main floor to enter the cafeteria.

Henry felt especially uneasy in his current predicament. His heart wanted to check on the girl, yet his mind was constantly reminding him to not continue to get on Noah's bad side. His inner conflict continued until he heard Noah speak to him.

"If you're so worried about her, then help me deal with this first. It doesn't look like she'll be going anywhere anytime soon, so you can go back to her later." The suggestion was given offhandedly, but Henry took it seriously. His eyes, which clearly showed his inner turmoil, soon reclaimed clarity. The thought of being the girl's white knight spurred his mind to completely recover; his steps hastened just as quickly as his anxious heart. His inner monologue repeated to himself that the quicker he helped Noah, the sooner he could go back to comfort the girl.

Noah noticed Henry's extra enthusiasm, but he chose to ignore it; people are motivated by different things. He's motivated by becoming stronger, and Henry, well, his motivation is picking up girls—an odd goal in his perspective when considering the situation they're in.

The two walked in silence as they carried on down the hall. Noah stepped aside to allow Henry to take the lead, hoping there wouldn't be any misunderstandings if he were to go in first. Though he noticed that Henry would glance back his way every once in a while, his fidgeting suggested he had something to say.

The constant glances brought about an unsettling frown; the thought of what Henry was so hesitant to speak about caused Noah to feel helpless. 'He isn't gonna ask about the girl, is he?' was his initial thought. He wasn't in the mood to play Cupid with this guy who cared more about his love life than his own survival. Thankfully, his thoughts were proven wrong, or Henry's fear of being slapped would've come to fruition. A slap to the face would be considered considerate if that was really all he was worried about.

"Uh…uh, I forgot to mention earlier, but… the people in my group apparently found something… It seems you can use the gold that was dropped from those chests for it. So now…we-well, they are preventing people from staying here unless they pay them…"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Valtura Valtura

I Dont have work tomorrow so expect another chapter!

Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.

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