GarrettXCorvo II: Missing heart-beat

When Corvo awakened, the sun was already high and completely covered by dark clouds. He had the feeling of have been dreaming something weird, that he couldn’t remember. He stretched and rubbed his own face, so his brain could start working. The recognized he had fallen asleep on the living room’s armchair, probably while he was reading during the night. It was the third consecutive night he didn’t rest on his bed. “Shit… I did it again”, he muttered, and finally got up.

Next he took off his coat, and realized it was lighter than he remembered. Corvo frowned and frisked it, just to find that his mechanical heart wasn’t in his inner pocket. “What the…?”, he interrupted himself, and searched again. In the coat, his pants, his belt… That was strange, because he was absolutely sure that he had it with him last night. Without giving up, Corvo started searching around the room. He did through the entire house, in fact. And he still couldn’t found it.

What he did came across when he returned to the living room, was a very dim track of black footprints on the old carpet which was covering the wood floor. They were black, thin and didn’t belong to any kind of shoes, but to some kind of soft soles.

Corvo understood he had been robbed. “Bloody Hell!”, he roared, enraged. Who did it? Who had the nerve to steal him, the Royal Protector? Corvo felt his blood boiling through his veins, his pride deeply wounded and insulted.

Then, his left had begun burning as well, and his mark brighted with a light-blue color light. The man remained still for a while, holding his breathe. The Outsiders was summmoning him, probably because he already knew about what happened. Corvo sighed, and unwillyngly seated again on the arm chair, rested his back and slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, the view had changed. He was still in the living room, somehow… but it wasn’t the same. All around seemd broken, floating in the middle of a soft illuminated void, where there wasn’t order, neither gravity. Or maybe it just had its own law of gravity and cosmic order… Who could know?

Just the Outsider. That man, if one could call him like that, was levitating in front of him. His entirely black eyes, so inhuman, were staring at him. His face showed a calm and imperturbable expression, as always. Corvo still used to feel uncomfortable in his presence.

“What happened, Corvo?”, the black eyed man asked. His gentle voice speaked coldly, like an ice block sliding down the spine.

“Someone has stolen the heart you gave me”, Corvo clenched teeth and fists. “Even if I was asleep, I don’t know how I couldn’t realize about it.”

“Your over-confidence has finally taken its toll on you, Corvo”, the Outsider curved a thin smile. The assassin glared at him for a while, but finally looked away, feeling the weight of frustration

“… I didn’t even hear him approaching. It isn’t typical of me”, Corvo finally admited, looking away.

“Well, besides your poor wounded vanity, you do have an important problem, Lord Protector”, the Outsider pointed out. His smile widened. “You won’t be able to succed on your mission without the Heart. You must recover it.”

“I already know that. But how am I supposed to find the thief?”

“I think you have skills enough to figure it out, don’t you?”, the Outsider laughed. He seemed really amused.

“He didn’t left any track that I can follow”, the man replied with dissapointment. “If I had the heart, that wouldn’t be a problem. The issue is… that I don’t have it anymore.”

“Pitty thing, huh?”, the Outsider didn’t seem worried, not even affected by the incident. “This is gonna be difficult, Lord Protector. But… maybe I could help you.”

Corvo frowned. “You won’t do it for free, will you?”

“Without question”. The strange man got closer, and faced Corvo with that sharp smile drawn on his expression. “Coincidentally, the man you must chase, does have something that I want”.

“What is it?”

“His eye”, the Outsider didn’t dive him more details. “He is known in the city as Master Thief. Apparently the title suits him well…”, he stared Corvo’s eyes. The man seethed.

“I don’t care what people call him. I just want him dead”.

“Well, you will kill him, indeed, if you take his eye. He is connected with the Primal”, the Outsider disappeared, just to reappear right behind Corvo’s back, and embraced him around the neck. His freezing voice spoke grazing the assassin’s both ear and mind: “Bring me the eye of the thief, Corvo. And I’ll forgive you this little… slip-up.” Corvo kept quiet for a while, unable to move. Although he could imagine the Outsider’s face, cruelly smiling. “I don’t like people who is careless with my toys, Corvo. You better don’t fail…”, the Outsider loughed again, vanishing in the air. “Ah, and… make sure you’re not late, Corvo. The thief always knows what time is it…”

Corvo waked up, covered in sweat and still hearing the cutting laugh of the Outsider in his head. Wait, he said “the thief always knows what time is it”…? What did it means…?

Outside the windows, the bells of the city’s clocktower started ringing. Corvo arched his eyebrows and smiled. “There you are, Master Thief…”, he whispered, and quickly took his gear, knowing where to find that little rat. And imagining one thousand ways of kill him for his daring.