Sykopath

“It’s too damn rainy”, Oli muttered, turning down a small brick road. We were in some ancient part of the city, around the Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle, where everything was pretty close together and fairly aged. Despite being a city though, Edinburgh was so much more…rural looking than our home in Sheffield. I loved it. “How often do these people buy new wipers, I wonder?”

“Not a clue”, I said. Oli sighed and fiddled with the radio station. Before he could be content with anything, we found the house we were looking for. It was a large two story, an old bed and breakfast our aunt had willed to us. We had already agreed to reopen it once we were all settled in and had the place cleaned up. Aunt Eliza had let it fall into a miserable state of disrepair. Oli parked the car and quietly, I got out, looking up and down at the other houses and businesses that littered our street.

“Somebody bought the old Walker place huh?” called a voice. I turned as Oli unfolded himself from the car, seeing a sickly looking guy walking past on the sidewalk. His voice caught my attention because…well, he sounded like us.

“I don’t know if ‘bought’ is the word I’d use”, Oli replied. The guy smiled, his pale lips stretching into a grin under ravishing azure eyes.

“Oi, another Englishmen eh?” he beamed. “I’m Louis. Are you…?”

“Oliver and Wesley Sykes”, Oli answered. “We’re brother and sister.”

Louis waltzed up the drive way to shake our hands. “Pleasure to meet you both”, he said. “You know, the woman who owned this place, Eliza Walker, was an amazing woman. It was a small hotel you know, with the most amazing crepes. You’d think she was French-“

“She was our aunt”, I interrupted. “So we’re pretty familiar with her.”

“Are you bringing the bed and breakfast back?” Louis asked.

I glanced to Oliver. It was basically already decided but since he was the eldest, I figured I’d let him answer. “Maybe. The house needs a lot of repairs”, he said.

“I know a little bit about construction if you’d like some help?” proffered Louis.

Oli perked up as he grabbed some of our bags from the back seat. “Do you now? Would you like to come inside and maybe give us your thoughts?”

“If we get it going, maybe we can form a partnership”, I added.

Louis’s eyes flickered with interest as he looked both of us over. “That sounds fair. And I like partnerships anyway.” He nonchalantly walked over and grabbed my duffel bag from me, brushing his unnaturally cold finger tips over mine.

“Wes, get the boxes”, Oli sighed, walking up the front door. Louis waited for me politely while my brother shoved a key into the lock. Oli shoved the door open with his elbow and allowed us into a decrepit hallway.

At one point, this place could’ve been gorgeous but with Aunt Eliza’s age and her weird blood disease, she hadn’t been able to take care of it. Plus with all of her hospital bills, she could no longer afford to keep the BNB up and running which clearly hadn’t helped. A stair banister was covered in finger smudges, the floors were unkempt, wall paper was peeling, vandals had broken in and tagged some things. “Looks like you got your work cut out for you mates”, Louis hummed, gently setting my bag by the door.

“Right?” Oli asked. “Cleaning this is going to suck.”

Louis shook some water off of his denim jacket. “If you ever need help, you can call me. I work at a hardware store, around Bruce Road. I can get you some discounts.”

“That sounds nice”, I murmured, looking away from his sapphire eyes to the grungy floors. “Oli, I’m gonna…start unpacking if you’re willing to bring stuff in.”

Oli shrugged and made the universal “come on” gesture to Louis. I pulled out my wallet and counted out about a hundred quid so we’d be able to pay this stranger for being so remarkably nice. One thing I liked about Scotland already was that everyone seemed so much nicer than they were in England. I don’t know how many times we stopped for directions but every Scotsman we talked to was happy to answer us. The movers were even nice enough to unload the furniture before we arrived.

Note to self, send them a tip I thought, pushing things into the living room. Since we weren’t here to direct the movers, I didn’t expect them to put everything where it needed to be, hence why I wasn’t surprised to see Oli’s mattress and my dresser in the living room with the kitchen table. At least it was inside and dry. While the guys brought things in, I sorted out what was already there. Oli called dibs on one of the rooms upstairs so Louis helped him carry what was his.

“Oi, Wes, do you need any help?” Louis called, walking in the living room. He looked so casual, like he knew this place like the back of his hand.

He was familiar with Aunt E’s crepes, he probably spent a good bit of time here I told myself. As Oli came downstairs, I forced a smile. “I’m fine. Honest”, I told him. “Just searching through everything.”

“Well, why don’t you take a break?” suggested Louis. “There’s a pub not far from here, a block away on the Royal Mile. We can get drinks and a bite to eat.”

“This furniture needs to get upstairs”, I pointed out, gesturing to different pieces.

“Oh a bite’s not going to hurt”, whined Louis. “How’s this? We all get food, come back and finish what we can.”

“Sounds great”, exclaimed Oli before I could. “C’mon, Wes.”

“Oliver Scot, we can’t just leave this stuff here”, I protested.

“And just why not? It’ll be there when we come back. We’ll take care of it eventually.” He dangled his car keys in front of Louis. “Let’s go, mate!”

Louis snatched up Oli’s keys and shook his head. “You can’t drive on the Mile”, he laughed. “We’ll have to walk. Do you have any umbrellas?” Oli pouted while I walked to the broom closet in the hallway. We had some of those long walking-stick type of umbrellas, with the curved handle and little plastic point at the end. I gave one to the boys, since they were both taller than me it would be easier for them to share, only so Louis could take my umbrella and link arms with me. For someone who had just done so much running up and down stairs, his hands were still deathly cold.

Proudly, our new found friend led us out of the house and down the street. Louis brought us across a block and through something he called a close, something similar to an alley. We reemerged on a long cobblestone street that reached down a hill on our lefts and stretched up to a hill-top castle on our rights. “That’s Edinburgh Castle”, informed Louis. “Maybe we can go there some day.” He escorted us past street performers, a record shop, touristy stores that sold kilts, some Daoist hippie den before we finally reached a little pub.

“I have a friend who works here, Liam. He can get us free drinks”, Louis grinned, looking from me to my brother. Like the proud tour guide he was, he pushed the door open for us. “Mister and Miss Sykes, welcome to Edinburgh!”

Notes