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It was a rainy day in Concordia, and while people usually stayed inside to avoid getting wet, Isaac was outside, he had an umbrella with him to keep him dry, then he adjusts his hat once he was in front of a building, he opens the door and closes his umbrella, a woman was at the front desk and smiles at him.
Woman: Hello sir, are you here to see someone?
Isaac: Yes, I'm here to see Rudy Cove, I set up a meeting with him, and I want to ensure that the meeting time is still available or if it got canceled.
Woman: Let me see………..
Then she opens a book and looks at it.
Woman: Luckily, Rudy is avaliable and ready to see you.
Isaac: Thank you, ma'am.
Then he walks down the hall, he looks at all of the name plates when he stopped at one, “rudy cove”, he checks the time on the clock and nods, he was on time to the meeting, he knew how rudy was when people were late to appointments, and would usually turn them away or scold them, he did not want to deal with that.
Isaac:’opens the door’
He slowly walks into the room, the door closes as soon as he gets in, Isaac jumps a bit, he hates it when the door closes right away.
Rudy: no need to be nervous, have a seat.
Isaac looks up, the room was very nice, almost completely dark as to represent the night, a single lamp was on, but very low, a nice desk with stuff, the most noticeable thing was the couch and the two chairs, and on one of the chairs was the therapist, rudy cove, who slowly looks up at him.
Rudy:’looks up, he had blonde hair that covered one of his eyes, his visible eye was green, he wore a dark vest with a white shirt and a black tie, perfectly tied, of course, he touches it, as if he was making sure it was perfect’
Isaac: Rudy.
Rudy: Isaac, to what do I owe the pleasure to? I assume this is for personal reasons since you had the decency to schedule a meeting.
Isaac: and show up on time.
Rudy: which i appreciate.
Isaac: You're observant as always, Rudy, though I suspect that you know this is serious if I did all of this just to see you.
Rudy: I do appreciate professionalism, but we live in different worlds, i listen to the broken minds of people, while you chase monsters.
Isaac: Sometimes the monsters are closer than you think, which is why you need to be careful out here.
Then he sits down on the other chair.
Isaac: I was doing some paperwork a few days ago when I noticed something interesting, so I had to schedule a meeting with you as soon as possible, and to ensure I got here in time if I wanted you to listen to me.
Rudy: I have no interest in your paperwork.
Isaac: you can’t really refuse this, rudy, it involves you, three of your former patients have been flagged in our missing persons database, they were brought up because one of them has been found dead in the river 2 days ago, but our coroner said that they drowned, but the state the body was in was……….odd, not right.
Rudy:’chuckles a bit’patients come to me because they are broken, Isaac, sometimes the pieces or the way they are don’t fit back together.
Isaac: rudy-
Rudy: Is it my fault if they choose to end their suffering? Or wander off into the night to end their eternal suffering?
Issac: Is that what happened?
Rudy: i’m not their-
Isaac: or did they wander into you?
The room became silent, rudy was silent, and isaac was starting to get a little nervous, he knew what Rudy was, he was a demon, a demon with obi sashes that can come out of his back, as sharp as knives, and as intelligent as rudy, but isaac knew this wasn’t the only reason he was here to see Rudy.
Isaac:’thinks’i’m worried about him…………..i’m worried about the fact that he’s blind’frowns a bit, looking at rudy’
He heard the story, how rudy had been blinded as a baby and because of it, he had been abandoned, before lilithia took him in and raised him, and now, he was in the human world, rudy was a predator trying to blend in with prey, he knew what rudy was capable of, he heard the stories from everyone, as a warning.
Isaac: I didn't come here to accuse you of the murders, Rudy, I came to warn you, I'm worried that they’ll connect the dots.
Then he takes his hat off and sighs.
Isaac: As a sin of wrath, I can sense the anger of the families, and if they find out you did it, you’ll be in danger, you’re walking on a tightrope.
Rudy: I went through more serious situations.
Isaac: Have you? You’re blind, rudy, in an area that runs on what people see or hear, and you’re vulnerable, you may have good hearing, but you also rely on your sashes, but what if you can’t use them? What if you miss a detail?
Rudy: What are you saying, Isaac?
Isaac: i’m saying………….i’m saying that lilithia is worried, and she should be worried, she cares about you, she sees you as family, as a brother in all but blood, she raised you when you were a baby, and if she knew the kind of danger you were putting yourself in, if she knew how exposed you truly were………….
He knew that lilithia was around, and even though rudy had killed thousands, lilithia was still worried about him.
Rudy:’slams his hand on his desk, he was shaking with rage’don’t you dare, isaac! Don’t you dare pity me!
Isaac: I'm not pitying you, Rudy, I'm being realistic.
Rudy: realistic? You think just because I can't see like everyone else, I can't thrive in it? You think I can't survive in a world I've known for years? Do you think because I'm blind, I'm weak? Are you calling me weak, Isaac?
Isaac: I'm worried you could get yourself in a dangerous situation if you aren’t careful, rudy, or if people knew you were blind, lilithia-
Rudy: lilithia is not here right now! I don’t need her to hold my hand like I'm a child! And I don't need you to do it either! I don’t need one of wrath’s bastards to tell me how to thrive in a world I've survived in since before you were born!
Then he stands up and leans close to Isaac.
Rudy: When you look at me, all you see is the demon who’s blind, you see my disability, you see the disadvantage I have against this world, you see a blind demon who is playing dress up with a human disguise.
Then he slams his hand against the chair’s armrest.
Rudy: You see a liability.
Isaac:’frowns a bit’i see a friend who is going to invite disaster to his front door, trust me, Rudy, I've seen what humans are capable of doing to their own kind, and I don't want you to get hurt, especially with lilithia here.
Rudy: no……….
Then he sits down and tilts his head to the right.
Rudy: All you see is a demon too stupid to hunt.
Isaac goes silent, he knew Rudy's appetite, he knew that he didn’t just consume human flesh, he also consumed intelligence, he only ate people he deemed to be smart enough, he said he could taste it, he could feel how their mind worked, Isaac didn’t question it, it just meant that Rudy was more picky with his meals.
Isaac: I know what you’re capable of, Rudy, I've heard of your work, I've even seen it, and I've seen the aftermath.
Rudy:’grins a bit’have you? I doubt you can even understand it, I doubt you can comprehend my own intelligence.
Then he stands up and walks towards a window, he knew where it was by muscle memory, he touches one of the curtains.
Isaac:’looks at him’
Rudy: You think I'm struggling to find a decent meal? You think I can barely get by on my appetite for intelligent humans?
Isaac: I think you’re taking too many risks just to get a meal.
Rudy:’chuckles and holds onto the curtains’let me tell you something, Isaac, let me tell you about some of my “patients”.
Then he turns to look at Isaac, his visible eye looking at him, grinning, showing his fangs that have become visible.
Rudy: the one you found by the river? That’s professor albridge, a man who found a way to help people teach other people different languages, he knew 7 languages himself, his mind was to ensure that people could learn the languages, but I didn't just kill him, Isaac, not right away, at least.
Isaac: Rudy………..
Rudy: he came to be for therapy, he was depressed, he felt lost and losing his focus, i helped him find him, i helped him find new ways to help, i pushed him to new limits, and it made him even more intelligent than he had ever been.
Isaac:.........
Rudy: I prepared him.
Isaac: you………..prepared him?
Rudy: like how you prepare a meal, preparation is everything, and i love the process, isaac, you should appreciate this aspect, you should know that i don’t just eat, i cultivate, i grow my meal, i take the minds of people who can grow, whether they are dull or fractured, deemed to broken to do anything useful……….
Then he laughs and runs a hand through his hair.
Rudy: I turn them into someone people will appreciate, someone they’ll need, and when they are at the peak of their career, when they believe they have found their purpose, when they have found true happiness when they were in a dark moment…….that is when i deem them to be good enough to be consumed.
Isaac:’eyes widened’
Rudy: But the begging………..it’s the finest seasoning that can make them taste really good, it’s when they realize i only saw them as good, when they realize what will happen to them, do you know what they try to do?
Isaac: What do they try to do?
Rudy: they try to bring up old memories, good memories, when i made them feel better, they tried to think using my human persona, the therapist, to save them, they don’t see me as the demon who will eat them………
Then he grins at Isaac, looking like a true demon.
Rudy: It is just exquisite, to hear them plead with the mind I had helped grow, using the words I helped them find.
Isaac you’re like a cat playing with a mouse before they kill it, before they bite down and end it’s life.
Rudy: I prefer to call it art, and I'm far from done.
Then he opens the window, even if he couldn’t see the outside, he had to look like a normal human being.
Rudy: Do you know who is on my schedule for next week?
Isaac: no.
Rudy: councilman vane.
Isaac: What?
Rudy: I see you have heard of him, he’s a man with plenty of political influence, but his mind is cluttered with greed and paranoia.
Isaac: he did seem to be paranoid since the incident where the stock market crashed, so i don’t blame him.
Rudy: exactly, and i will help him focus, i will help him sleep at night again, i will help him feel free again, and most importantly, i will help him see the patterns in his enemies, ones that still use his fear and paranoia to their advantage, and i will make him brilliant, Isaac, and once I do, I will make him mine to consume.
Isaac: What about the others?
Rudy: Well, one of them is a music composer.
Isaac: a music composer?
Rudy: yes, and she’s currently suffering from writer's block, and i will cure her from it, I will draw out the music that has trapped her in that state, i will help her make beautiful music again, she will be able to write down what she’s missing.
Isaac: rudy-
Rudy:’holds his hand up at rudy, shutting him up’and when she writes it down, i wonder if she’ll taste like good music.
Isaac: You're insane.
Rudy: i’m a creative man, isaac, i love to prepare my meals before I eat them, it is the only way to ensure the flavor is perfect, to ensure i remain intelligent, a dull mind has no flavor, it taste like nothing, but a mind full of intelligence, a mind that has been pushed to its limit, now that is a delicacy.
Isaac only blinked before Rudy was by his side, a hand on his shoulder, his nails digging into his suit.
Rudy: i know you’re worried about me because i’m blind, you’re worried because i’m alone, but you should know by know that i’m never alone, i have my y sashes with me, and they see what I can’t, they feel the area, they feel what i can’t see, they warn me, they help me stay safe from the dangers i can’t see.
Then he lets go of Isaac's shoulder.
Isaac:’rubs his shoulder’
Rudy: I don't need your pity, Isaac, I don't need big sis Lilithia's protection all the time, you should know by now I'm not a child, I haven't been a child in hundreds of years, you should know I am a master of my craft.
Isaac:.............you say you are prepared, but the police are closing in, and while they don't know it's you,they are still looking for someone, and if they find you…
Rudy:’scoffs and crosses his arms’then let them look, they're not intelligent enough to be worth eating anyway, they’re just cattle, and i do not fear cattle with such low intelligence, and i don’t even know who is there that i can eat.
Isaac: It's not just the police I'm talking about, I'm also talking about consequences, about what will happen when you slip, and what Lilithia will do if she has to come get you out of a cell, or worse, from the morgue………..
Rudy:’frowns a bit, but shakes his head’she trusts me.
Isaac: Does she? Does she even know you’re helping and hunting down your own patients? And does she know you are leaving a trail of missing persons that leads directly to your doorstep? She’s the best officer around, how do you think she’ll feel when she finds out that trail will lead you to getting arrested?
Rudy: She knows what I have to do to survive.
Isaac: she knows you’re her brother, and she would want you safe, she wouldn’t want you to be in danger.
Rudy:..............
Isaac: rudy-
Rudy: i am safe, i’m in control, i’m the hunter, not the prey, and i don’t need you to save me like i’m a damsel in distress, right now, i am rudy cove, i’m a therapist, and i’m the demon who eats intelligence, and I am very good at what I do, I haven't been caught in hundreds of years, after all, what makes you think i’ll get caught now?
Then he looks at Isaac, tilting his head again.
Rudy: Now, if you don't mind, I have another session to prepare for, and the last time I checked, you are not my patient.
Isaac:’sighs a bit’hope you're right, Rudy, about not getting right, i would hate to see you get hurt because of this.
Rudy:.............’turns to the window, his posture perfect as always, he made himself the image of perfection’
Isaac:’walks to the door’goodbye, rudy.
Rudy: goodbye, isaac.
Then Isaac steps out of the room and into the hallway, he closes the door softly behind him, then he stands in the dim hallway, then checks the time, he still had some work to do, he could deal with Rudy later.
Isaac:’thinks’stay safe, Rudy, for Lilithia's sake.