Coffin & Feathers [Elisop]

Chapter 5

"What's wrong with you Clark ?"

The seer turned to the irritated voice that had just called out to him. He only recently returned from his game and was in a strangely good mood after seeing the embalmer so even the complaints of his white ponytailed friend couldn't break his enthusiasm at the moment. He simply walked past him with a bright smile on his face.

"Hey, stop ignoring me and tell me why you let all of them leave like that ? I know you well by now and you've never done this before."

"Better late than never in this case, Joseph."

"Huh ?"

Eli Clark made his way to his room on the third floor, which was right across from the one who had been on his mind recently. A hoot drew his attention and the next moment, his owl came to rest on his shoulder before rubbing its head against his cheek. He smiled and stroked the animal's head. He walked over to his window to look out the one in the other wing of the building in front of him. The embalmer was probably in his room by now.

"Why don't we pay a little visit to our new friend, Brooke ?"

The bird hooted as if to answer him. The seer let out a slight chuckle before opening the window for his companion to get out and fly to the survivor's window. There was one thing the others didn't know. If he concentrated, Eli Clark had the ability to borrow the animal's vision and see through its eyes. That was how he was able to keep up with everything that was going on in the mansion, even though he stayed in his room most of the time. So he closed his eyelids and focused his attention on Brooke Rose.

That's when he saw him.

Grey locks falling slightly in front of his face, two orbs of the same color seeming empty of any emotion and yet looking like they were thinking so many things that no words would be able to explain. His mask was still on him, probably because the game had just ended and like him, he had just returned to his room. What a strange coincidence. It didn't take long for their eyes to meet and for the embalmer to open his window to let the bird in.

"You again..."

The young man's voice was low and deep. Yet the aura it gave off was soft and comforting to the diviner's ears. The gray haired male brought his hand close to the owl to gently touch its head. Eli felt his heart miss a beat at this gesture. It wasn't the first time this kind of thing had happened and each time, a strange twinge twisted his chest. He wanted to know more about this human, without suspecting that the feeling was mutual.

He didn't really like humans, but this man, the embalmer, Aesop Carl...

He cut off contact with Brooke Rose and came to lie down on his bed, whose sheets were undone. Cleaning was not really something he cared about and his room was quite chaotic. He could still remember all the times Joseph lectured him about how he had to make something about this mess. He had never listened to him though and the room was still as dirty as ever but it didn't bother him more than that. He knew where everything was anyway.

It was not in his habits to be infatuated with a human, yet the embalmer captured his attention from the first step he made inside the manor. From that day on, he kept sending his owl to observe the young man. His heart began to beat faster when he petted Brooke Rose or sometimes told her about his misadventures and how he was feeling. This allowed him to learn a few things about the young man. For example, he always checked the condition of his brushes and other instruments after every match and had a certain tendency to have everything in order unlike him.

"This wasn't planned at all..." he muttered.

Brooke finally returned to his room and rested on his chest since he was lying on his back, the animal moving slightly due to the diviner's steady breaths. He then closed his eyes, his mind gently plunging into dreamland...

He had a dream. No, rather than a dream, it was a memory. A passage buried in his mind that he would like to forget or erase. He still remembers that moment as if it had happened yesterday. It was hot, extremely hot, drops of sweat were beading from his forehead and back, leaving a macabre shiver ruffling his hair. It was total panic, chaos. He tried to do something to calm the fire, but it was too powerful for him to put it out. 

He remembered the screams, the cries of his friends. He was the last survivor, he and his owl, Brooke Rose. All the others had perished and turned into ashes that were swept away by the wind without leaving any trace of their existence. The once lush, green forest was now a mass of calcinated trees and burned corpses. This atrocity was the work of humans. Because they feared him and his powers, for being different from them, they had destroyed everything he held dear, his family, his home.

After this fateful event, he went on a hunt for the instigators of the arson. He found them all easily and slowly... made them pay for their sin. He could still hear them begging him to spare them like mad dogs. Pathetic, he thought. All the same they were. Offer them a scrap of power and they'll use it to satisfy their own greed, threaten them and they'll immediately throw themselves at your feet without a second thought to save the miserable life that was theirs. Humans were all disgusting beings and there were no exceptions.

At least, that's what he thought.

Aesop Carl, also known as the Embalmer, seemed different right away. After watching him for a few days and listening to the discussions of the other hunters, he discovered something. When he was put in a chair, he would close his eyes, as if waiting for his time to come. He was a strange character who did not hesitate to open his arms to death and embrace it. If his life was to end there, then he would accept it. This detachment from life was what attracted Eli Clark.

He was different.

Most of the other residents avoided him or ignored him and he was mostly alone in the garden watching the yellow roses grow or in his room rearranging his things and cleaning them. Every move he made was graceful, and he had no flaws except for his introversion. In the eyes of the diviner, Aesop Carl was like him in some ways, an individual who had been tossed out of the caste and no one wanted.

To some he was frightening and gloomy, to him, he was like the moon shining in the night sky. He couldn't get enough of watching him. He was perfect. So perfect that it made him want to break him with his own hands, chain him up and keep him close to him for eternity. But would he let him ? Probably not. Well, if he started acting now, he might still have a chance. There was just one obstacle standing between him and his beloved embalmer.

"The Prospector huh..."