Nortemma Oneshots

The Rescue

Emma's POV:

This is not a good day.

First of all, my flowers wilted today because of the freezing weather. I tried everything to keep them alive! I even made a request to the owner of the manor to buy a couple of 6-foot heating lamps I could place around my garden. The heat from the lights would keep the plants warm in the dead of night.

However, they denied my request, saying that it's "too expensive" to buy heat lamps. Right, and hosting 4 vs 1 matches in gigantic arenas, equipped with 5 cipher machines and two metal exit gates with keypads specifically coded to stay locked until the last cipher machine is finished, is so cheap.

To make matters worse, as I'm currently mourning the loss of my beautiful plants, I had received a letter today, calling me to be one of the 4 survivors to compete in today's match.

I've competed in hundreds of matches, and I've played against every hunter at least 8 times. To put it simply, I'm an old pro. It even says in my skills notes that I'm a "veteran," meaning I have more experience than other survivors.

You might be wondering why I'm so worked up about today's match. It's not the match itself that I'm worried about.

It's the hunter.

Jack the Ripper.

Jack was a well-known stalker of women before he became a hunter. Even though he's stuck in the manor, that doesn't mean his old habits have died in the slightest.

All of the female survivors dread playing against The Ripper. He's known to do some pretty perverted things to the girls he manages to catch. Demi, the beloved barmaid, is still quite scarred from an incident with Jack that occurred about 2 months ago, and she still hates talking about it. She's very lucky that Kevin was there to rescue her before things could escalate too much.

As I make my way to the waiting room, I re-read the letter to see who my teammates would be today.

I'll be playing with the Magician, the Thief, and the Prospector.

Norton.

Norton is my best friend and boyfriend, and I'm very glad that he'll be competing with me today. Since we're both kiters, we work very well together as a team. One time, I overheard the Geisha talking about how powerful Norton and I are when we work together. I remember she called us a "unit," embarrassingly hiding her face with her fan as she said so. I giggle softly just thinking about it.

I open the door to the waiting room and take a seat in one of the 4 chairs at the table. There's always pieces of complimentary bread set out on plates, but no one ever eats them. It would be unfortunate to get a stomach ache in the middle of escaping the hunter's wrath.

I suppose I'm a bit early, since no one's here yet, so I assume I have some time to mentally prepare myself for today's match. However, that thought dies when I hear a door open, meaning someone else is entering the waiting room. But it isn't from the door the survivors enter through.

It's the hunter's door, and to my dismay, Jack lumbers through and turns his mask slightly towards the survivor table.

I freeze in fear.

I'm alone in the waiting room with Jack the Ripper. No no no no no no-

As soon as Jack notices me, (the only other person in the room) his unsettling mask turns directly towards me, tilting slightly. I can almost feel his maniacal grin under his mask burning a hole into my soul.

"My my~ if it isn't miss Emma Woods. I'll be more than happy to compete against the little Gardener." His voice is deep and menacing, and he speaks slowly, probably just to intimidate me even more.