Chapter 15: Chapter 14- Roast

"The duffel bag? It's my duffel bag," Haunting said with a confused stare.

"No, it's not."

The duffel bag was between Haunting and me.

"Look, Mari, I'll prove it to you," she said, pulling it closer. "I have some of my ghost-hunting gear," she said as she opened it up. She put her hand in. "Like my infra-red camera--"

And there it was. She had gone quiet. She pulled out her hand and stared, shocked at the stack of cash in her hand. She looked at me, looking like she was about to cry.

"This isn't my bag, Mari."

"I know."

"My camera was really expensive and tricked out with limited edition stickers."

"I really don't think you'll need to worry about that."

"Who is this money for, Mari?"

"It was Kaz's money."

"Oh no! Is that why he was yelling? I thought someone was yelling!" She put it back in the bag quickly. "I'll return this to him."

"Right, this is what I wanted to speak about. You won't have to do that."

"I... won't? Why?" She looked in the bag again. "There's a lot of money in here, Mari."

"There's probably close to a million."

Her eyes went wide. "A million... holy crap. Was Kaz rich?"

"Nah, he was a bottom-feeder."

"I need to return this."

"You really don't."

"Why not?"

"Because Kaz is dead."

"Kaz is dead?"

"Super dead."

"Kaz is dead..."

I pointed at the eldritch deer. "That thing did it."

"Oh my god," she replied, pale.

"Squished him with its human feet, probably."

We looked over, and it wiggled its toes.

"It... killed Kaz... Stomped him to death," Haunting said, looking like she was hundreds of miles away.

"Yup, it brought him down and finished him off."

The deer spread its legs, revealing its slit again. A hand came out from the hole and pointed at me. I narrowed my eyes at it.

"Ahem," I said. "Kaz died. I was running when I heard his final screams."

"O-Oh..." Haunting said, turning her gaze to her feet.

"That's why you should keep the money. It has no owner."

"Would... would that really be okay?"

"Do recall that we might very well be trapped in this area for some time. You may not get to use that money for a long time. Still, I think that money would better serve you than it would Kaz." I smiled. "You know what? I feel like Kaz would be happy that the money helped such an upstanding young lady like yourself.

"Hmm..." She nodded at me. "You know, a million is a lot... But no one would be upset if I just took ten thousand or twenty thousand, right?"

"If you need to ease yourself into it, then yeah, go for it."

"Maybe we should share it with the rest of the bus?"

"Let's slow down there."

My warning flags were raised. Letting people know about such life-changing money--even in a situation where they cannot use it--could lead to erratic, desperate behavior.

 

The scenarios unfolded in my mind.

Scenario A:

We tell the people about the money. First, we would need to decide why it would be the bus's folks and not the whole village. If we could divide the money among everyone, it would ensure everyone gets a fair and much smaller amount. But again, why? All context clues pointed to us being trapped here. Money only had value if one could escape. The village's people might also be in a position where they would refuse the money because they knew the truth of their predicament. 

Scenario A-2: 

Let's set aside the issue of the villagers. The money is handed out to the twenty on the bus. There would be $50,000 for everyone if there was a total of a million in the bag. What are the chances that the older tourists question the younger tourists getting an even share money?

"They don't know what to do with it," could be an extremely asinine thing that would be said. Matters were made worse by the fact that some of the children seemed like the irresponsible sort, though I would argue there were irresponsible adults among them. 

Even worst would be if some started playing the blame game.

"Susy can't get any money because she caused this."

"Haunting can't get any money because she led to Kaz's death."

Unless there was a bus full of Buddhas, it was extremely likely that someone would say this.

Scenario A results:

Either everyone accepts the money and moves on with their lives, or we unwittingly instigate massive division. Division was more likely, in my opinion, especially after such a fresh disaster.

Scenario B:

We don't tell anyone, and Haunting pockets it. All she would need to do is hide its existence from everyone else. That could be done easily since I was 100% sure that slimy Kaz had not told anyone about the money. Heck, if she wanted to, she could ditch the bag in the woods and just not kick a fuss up about it.

The worst thing that could happen is if someone finds out that she had pocketed it. Many questions would be asked.

"Why didn't you tell us? Did you kill Kaz to get his money? Oh no, poor Kaz."

Bah, I got bothered thinking about it. In the worst case, she gets strung up for being a thief, and I join her for being an accomplice... That said, I really felt like that one was unlikely as long as Haunting was smart.

In the end, Scenario A causes problems immediately, while Scenario B has a chance of causing problems later. I could protect Haunting in most scenarios, but the more time I had to stock up on Vengeance, the better I could protect her from the fallout.

 

"Haunting, I believe that telling others could be dangerous and could invite significant strife into your group."

"Really?"

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"Surely, you must know how irrational and greedy humans can be."

Haunting massaged her wrists. "Yeah... Everyone on the bus seemed really nice though..."

And that right there told me exactly why Haunting's judgment couldn't be trusted.

"They seemed nice, Haunting."

"Why are you helping me with this?"

I shrugged. "Because you're a nice girl that chased after a vulnerable girl with no thought about your safety. You've earned kindness, Haunting."

"I... earned it?" she replied, showing me a teary smile. She wiped her eyes and sniffled a little.

"You could also just dump the bag out here. Just say you lost it while running. That way, the bag can be someone else's problem."

"That's true..." She nodded to herself. "Yeah, that sounds good... A million dollars is too much. I don't want to get tangled up in that."

"For what it's worth, no one else seemed to react to the money, so I don't think anyone else knew about it."

"That's true..."

"One last thing, Haunting."

"What's up, Mari?"

"It's my fault that this happened. I gave you the wrong bag."

"Oh." Haunting scrunched her face and then smiled. "Well, accidents happen! And... I was still going to run after Susy... I guess I'm sorry that I didn't notice sooner. I mean, I'm the goof that ran away with a million dollars without even noticing. If I had noticed, Kaz would still be alive."

"Maybe."

Personally, I was mostly happy about how things turned out.

"So, it's okay, Mari! All we have to do is put one foot in front of the other and just try to do our best." She looked over at the deer. "Kaz fell to that thing, so... we have to live twice as hard for him."

I chuckled. "Sure."

She nodded and then sighed. "Okay... I'm feeling really exhausted now. Would you mind if I went to sleep?"

"Not at all. Given that we have this bothersome guest of ours, I'll keep watch."

"Are you sure?"

"No problem at all. I'm used to the night shift."

"Oh... okay," Haunting said with a nod. "I'll go to sleep then... I'll know what I want to do in the morning."

"Sure, Haunting."

"Okay."

I reclined against the wall and watched over Haunting. She had fallen asleep within 20 minutes. It really wasn't too much of a bother for me. Haunting was a nice girl; if she was an actual paranormal investigator, she could be an amazing resource too. Of all the people here... yeah, she and Susy would probably be the highest-priority assets. Haunting's knowledge and Susy's strange behavior--I had to safeguard these two.

I watched over her until an hour had passed and then went over to the deer.

I sat in front of it, on my side of the cave. 

"My stomach feels better," I said. "Know what that means? I recovered just enough mana to not feel the effects of mana deficiency."

The deer was silent. It just kept its toes pointed at me.

"I'm going to tell you two things. One, I've rested enough to be able to light you on fire one more time."

The deer didn't move.

"And two." I sneered at the thing. "I love hearing the way you scream."

The deer curled its human toes.

"You can't come in here, but I can 100% lob a bit of fire at you. So what'll it be, Monster? Are you going to keep messing around here and find out, or are you going to scram before I turn you into a roast?"

It "stared me down" for a few moments, but then it stood up.

"Thanks; the girls will appreciate your infected snatch being out of sight." 

Its human legs drooped, and it walked away, leaving to the left.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but then, a thought occurred to me.

"If I were to leave this cave right now... What are the odds that you would pounce at me from somewhere I couldn't see you?"

I sneered and waited for a few minutes.

"I don't have to wonder."

I covered one eye and then had a butterfly emerge from my palm. If fluttered out of the cave and flew around.

"Hmm... no sign of you so far... Oh! What does my little butterfly-eye spy?" 

My butterfly landed on the roof of the cave.

"Why, it's a stupid deer thinking it could trick me by taking a spot on top of the cave." I bobbed my head. "You're quite light on your feet. I'll give you that."

My butterfly fluttered away and returned to my hand. Butterfly reabsorbed, I got up, stretched, and sat beside Haunting.

"Long day..."

I looked over to Susy. The poor girl... The odds that a mob would come after her were non-zero. If we said the wrong thing, she'd be in trouble. On the plus side, Haunting would be more willing to cooperate with me if I warned her of the trouble Susy could face because of her behavior.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I thought back on everything that had occurred thus far.

I need to find a source of Vengeance.

That really was the foremost thought in my mind. If I didn't have Vengeance, I wouldn't be able to flutter away with butterflies. Given that my mana pool was so diminished now too...

But if I run out... Can I find a new energy source for the butterflies to function?

"Mari, Mari! Wake up!"

Huh? Wake up? But I didn't fall asleep.

I opened my eyes, and the morning light coming into the cave immediately made them hurt.

"Morning? But, I didn't--how? I was awake--"

"Mari... look. Over there!"

I noticed Haunting's trembling finger and followed it over to the center of the cave. My vision was still adjusting itself to dawn's light, but already, I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Is that... a gift box?"