Sinner's Game

8 - Pain

Jim

A couple of minutes later and out of breath, Jim and Anna reached the meeting spot. Right as they stopped running, they heard rapidly approaching footsteps. Jim held up his scissors, made himself ready to attack in case of an emergency.

Hendrick almost ran into Jim's scissors as he turned the corner. He appeared to be out of breath as well, his eyes quickly darting from side to side.

"Hendrick, where is Jack?" Anna asked.

Hendrick looked at his own trembling hands, the toy-gun still gripped tight. He let go of it as it fell to the floor. "I-I... Jack... he's..."

"What happened?" Jim interrupted. He had a feeling that this dream was slowly evolving into something else. He also didn't feel like fooling around anymore. This just wasn't funny.

"The shot... it didn't kill the Doll-Maker. It survived and got Jack. I didn't want this to happen, I swear." A deep despair could be heard in Hendrick's shaky and somewhat distant voice.

Anna moved over to Hendrick, embraced him. A quiet sobbing was audible. Jim didn't feel like hearing any of that bullshit.

"Y-You mentioned that it captures its prey a couple of days before it kills them. We can still go back and save him, right."

"No... without the gun, we have no chance against it. It won't fall for the same trick again so we can't lure it away... also..." Hendrick hesitated, as if he tried to find the right words.

Jim pressed, asked, "Also? Focus, we have no time."

"We need to go now."

"No! If you don't go, I go alone," Jim said.

"I saw him get impaled by one of its legs. He is dead, Jim."

"..."

Anna let go of Hendrick's embrace. She just stood there, as if to figure out what to say. She moved her hand towards her hair, but stopped herself before readjusting anything. "Hendrick is right, we need to go now."

Jim clenched his teeth, pushed Hendrick. "What the fuck did you do? Why did you let him die?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"You fucking idiot! This is all your fault."

Jim felt emotions inside of him he couldn't quite put anywhere. This was all way too fucked up for comfort. The picture of what he had seen inside of the hidden room flashed inside of his inner eye once again. "Do you have any idea what this thing will do to him?"

Hendrick had wiped away his tears, seemed to be more calm now, "See who's talking, mister joke around. If you wouldn't have fooled around all the time, maybe he would still be alive now."

"What?" Jim stepped forward, but someone stepped in between him and Hendrick. It was Anna.

"You two, stop! We don't have the time for this now. I got caught, it is my fault he is dead."

"Anna..." Jim said.

"It is. And I will take responsibility for it, but we have to leave first. This place isn't safe."

Jim's mind snapped back to the present he had seen once again.

The blonde hair it had... he thought. Just like hers.

Hendrick stared at Jim for a moment longer, then turned away. "Follow me," he said. "I'll show you the way out of here. The portal to the second stage is around 2 minutes away. Let's hurry."