Becoming a Monster

Chapter 23 Who Decides Whatʼs Normal?

Noah proceeded to walk to the door. Henry subconsciously moved out of his way and was about to follow him. But something was missing and he didnʼt know what it was. Not long after, he heard someone crying softly, but the sound was muffled, like the sound was being covered up by something.

His eyes shifted towards the noise. He saw a lone silhouette of the girl before on her knees, crying in the palms of her hands that covered her face. The scene surprised him, the image 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 women, he felt the need to speak out to him. How could he ignore her? If he could hear her then Noah should be able to as well.

”Umm…what about her?” He gestured to Isabelle after getting Noahʼs attention. Surprisingly, he didnʼt see the expression he thought Noah would have. He wasnʼt confused or worried at all, he was annoyed?

Henry had to squint his eyes to make sure he was seeing his face properly. If he had waited a little longer than he wouldnʼt have had to overthink anything since Noah clearly made known how he felt about the situation.

”If I didnʼt know any better, I wouldʼve believed that crying was a famous trend. I swear…she had just ran out of tears not even an hour ago, just great…” Henry was able to faintly catch what Noah was saying while he muttered to himself out loud. The astonishment could clearly be seen on Henryʼs face. Not only did Noah not care about the girlʼs feelings, but it appeared that he knew about her sadness for a while now.

He looked onward in bewilderment while Noah approached the girl. It was a few seconds later when his mind connected Noahʼs annoyed expression to him making his way to her. He felt that maybe they had an abusive relationship, but he wasnʼt brave enough to speak up like last time. So he decided to watch but he couldnʼt help but be apprehensive regarding the situation.

He saw Noah extending his arm towards her, he wanted to quickly approach them, yet he became relieved he didnʼt.

When Noah approached Isabelle, he noted her dirtied appearance. The girl had it rough and lost someone she supposedly loved. But! She decided she still wanted to be saved even when she had the chance to die with her ʼsoul mateʼ. 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 participate in helping her get all of her tears out of her system.

Although on the other hand, if she was gonna just cry and then wallow in pity after 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 on her feet. It didnʼt go as planned, he already expected her to resist him which she did initially. It was when she became aware of who it was that inspired the change. Her mood turned sour and she yanked her hands away from him. The images of Derrickʼs half eaten corpse landing against her replayed in her mind repeatedly during the time she spent crying. She felt immense guilt for not being able to do anything to prevent it and even more leaving his side.

But as soon as she saw Noah, her mind found a way to rid itself of her emotional burden. He left her when Derrick fell, he didnʼt bother to even attempt to help them which made her upset at this moment. Then she remembered the fact that he was able to ʼeasilyʼ save her from the clutches of the bird. Her mind was beginning to go hysterical, it turned from ʼItʼs my fault Derrick diedʼ to ʼThe bird took him away from meʼ then it unreasonably morphed to ʼHe left us there to die, he killed Derrick!”

Slap!

A crisp sound of her face slapping Noah was clearly heard by everyone in the room. The lone watcher, Henry, was stricken by surprise to the unexpected response, but his eyes held a hint of satisfaction seeing her retaliate against her ʼabuserʼ. Even though he was confused, the most confused of all was Noah himself. In his 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 ʼkindʼ enough to help her to her feet.

Holding his face that was only slightly red due to his increased constitution, he blankly stared into Isabelleʼs tear filled eyes brimming with animosity towards him. He barely felt any pain but was genuinely confused about her actions. He was about to question her but soon his own expression changed drastically.

Because he didnʼt 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 grief and frustrations. It also gave her a sense of fulfillment, being the aggressor and oppressor was liberating! Her body reacted before her brain perceived what was going on, she was preparing to hit him again!

Smack!*

Another sound was heard just like before, but this time not only was the sounder louder but there was another source of noise. An object of a heavier size slammed into a nearby table before landing on the floor.

This was becoming too much for Henry to watch. 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. But reality hit him hard when he saw her about to slap Noah again, but the same satisfying scene didnʼt play out like he wanted. 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, he wanted to help her but then 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, well he was when he slapped her. She already hit him once for no reason and yet she was going to do it again? He didnʼt even know her!

Yet he couldnʼt maintain his anger towards her after witnessing her resort back to her crying state again while laying on the floor. He felt it was pointless to get upset, well at least it was pointless with someone as pitiful as her.

He inhaled deeply before slowing letting it out.

He was losing interest in why she did what she did, he couldnʼt understand her feelings and if hitting the person who saved your life is what a ʼnormalʼ person does then the real question is ʼwhat is normalʼ and why should he try to understand her if he doesnʼt want to be normal like them if thatʼs the result of it?

”You know, youʼve 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 but this time she didnʼt struggle to get up.

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

If slapping him before confused him then her current demeanor almost broke his brain.

ʼDid she just give up because I didnʼt let her keep hitting me? It seems that when you focus your life depending on others then you forget how to depend on yourself…sheʼs just sad…ʼ

Noah felt his mood worsened every second he stood there watching it. He definitely had some words for her, but he decided to hold them in. He didnʼt have a reason to deal with her anymore if she was gonna be like this. Receiving her healing? He would be better off waiting it out or grinding weak monsters to level up to increase his constitution. He had already noticed earlier when he was bitten in his shoulder the effect constitution had on the bodyʼs recovery. His spider is still missing part of one of its legs but it still has 7 more so that should suffice, dealing with her isnʼt worth it.

He turned around to face Henry who was prepared to run when he saw Noah turn towards him. When Noah began to walk towards him without speaking a word, Henry began to retreat in a fluster and held his hands up to protect his face.

”Wa-wait wait! Donʼt hit me! You said you wonʼt 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.

At this point Noah didnʼt want to deal with this guy either right now, everyone seemed to be a few fries short of a happy meal in the brain department. He still recalled when the kid with glasses earlier called him a weirdo, he wondered what he would say if he met these two right now.

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

”N-no! I- I wouldnʼt dare!”

”Then thereʼs your answer, now letʼs go so we can get this over with.”

ʼIʼve had enough social interactions to last me a year.ʼ Noah thought to himself before making his way past Henry and walked out the door.

Henry was affected by Noahʼs mood which made him begin 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 was still laying down. He found the current scene amusing.

ʼWhen I constantly got beaten up, where were the people worried for me? Ahhh…Maybe that was life telling me I never belonged with them…ʼ

He faced away from Henry and proceeded to go down the hall where his friend escaped to, which just happened to be towards the main lobby area. It also happened to be where you could access the second floor to the shopping section and further down to enter the cafeteria.

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

”If youʼre so worried about her then help me deal with this first. It doesnʼt look like sheʼll be going anywhere so you can go back to her later.” The suggestion was given off handedly by Noah but Henry took it seriously, his eyes, which clearly showed his inner turmoil soon reclaimed clarity. He soon recovered himself and quickly walked to close the distance with Noah, the quicker he helped him, the sooner he could go back to comfort the girl.

Noah noticed Henryʼs extra enthusiasm but he chose to ignore it, people are motivated by different things. Heʼs motivated from becoming stronger and Henry, well heʼs motivation is picking up girls, which is extremely odd to Noah considering the situation theyʼre in.

The two walked in silence while they carried on down the hallway, Noah let Henry take the lead so hopefully there wouldnʼt be any misunderstandings if he were to go in first. Though he noticed that Henry would glance back towards him every once in a while, he seemed as if he had something to say.

Noah started to feel helpless, ʼhe isnʼt gonna ask about the girl is he?ʼ. He wasnʼt in the mood to play Cupid with this guy who seemed clueless about the dangers outside. Thankfully his thoughts were proven wrong or he really wouldʼve slapped Henry, someone needed to slap some sense into him 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…”