THE HUNTMAN

Chapter 15 : Maelan

I took micro-naps all day yesterday, falling asleep in an armchair in front of a princess's bed was never a dream but it was very pleasant. But she woke me up by pressing my finger in the middle of the night, I screamed like a baby.
She pointed the finger at Janice Evilhunter who told me to drag a body into the basement. The man I had to tow was the one I saw on April. The gunshot I heard wasn't a dream, he has a huge hole in the middle of his chest.
She's the horrible old head witch who looked after the young brunette during our escaClovis at the swimming pool they use as a fake commune. Bodies pile up in the hole while she interrogates him. They all try to make her talk, she doesn't particularly like to talk.
When I emerge from the hallway, she rolls her eyes and bites her nails, the Mother heads towards her room while I grab the book in which she engraves what crosses her mind. I flip through the pages of the novel, they say she needs to pull herself together but she looks as exhilarated and disconcerting as before.
" I'm delighted not to see my face in this notebook...I didn't say anything. I related, I'm one hundred percent gay, no doubt. I want to fucking vomit but how do you know about my mole?"
" We're learning about traitors, do you want to see what I planned to do to you again?"
The tone of his voice is more delicate, a glimmer of life in his eyes makes me think of the one I saw in Otker's eyes after they made love.
"You are not the same as before."
" The other needs to sleep sometimes. I got a summary of the day but it's only an overview. What happened ?"
" Nothing, go back to sleep, it's a quarter past three in the morning."
" Do you prefer to see the other? I'm not sure she'll be as calm as me."
"Either one, it's just a job, I get paid to watch you."
"I thought you liked me, you saved me when Nate strangled me."
"I loved seeing Otker happy and you made him happy. I understood that he was in love with you more than me so I took this job to distance myself."
" You will cry ? You want me to call an ambulance for your broken heart." She scoffs as her pupils become tiny, everyone loves us except shits like you. "You signed a paper that allowed us to sleep with him. You are at fault, you little traitorous bitch."
The nastiest April made her way to free the more or less nice April. She stands still in front of me, her index finger caresses my chin while her other hand sneaks towards my pants. She brushes against my cock then squeezes my balls in her hands, the air blocks in my lungs as she closes the vise on my testicles. I hold back my cry so as not to alert the others. I feel like they're going to explode, a new sensation paralyzes me as I lean against the wall to keep from falling apples.
" Fragile, little baby." she giggles
Her hand releases the pressure as she licks my jaw. She then moves to the window, kneels and whistles when a bird breaks its neck on the window, creating a crack in it. She flicks the broken pane, carefully grabs the dead animal and caresses it. Blood flows between her fingers as she places a kiss on the raven's beak. She puts it in a box and then touches my hand with the blood just before I roll my eyes.
When I come back to my senses, I see April on the bed cuddling a crow and Soléne next to the bed with a young dark-skinned woman in a barely-there outfit. Am I dead?
" No, you're not dead. She temporarily bound you to us with dead raven blood. Within twenty minutes the effects will have worn off."
"Why am I here? Why can't I leave?"
Soléne sighs and bangs her head against the wall.
" For the hundredth time, you are dead. You passed the weapon to the left. You passed from life to death. You have given up the ghost. You ate the dandelions by the root. You succumbed to your injuries. You have left the world of the living. Okay?"
"Why am I here? Why can't I leave?" Repeats the young woman
" Is there a silent mode on ghosts? Because I need to not hear it anymore. In three hours, she kept asking the same questions. Stop the sarcasm, April, it's as annoying as she is."
She didn't say anything.
" No, in fact she didn't say anything but she thinks quite strongly like you and it's unbearable. I'm fed up with this madhouse, I was in the realm of the dead, why are I being punished like that? Fuck you April, this pisses me off."
She walks through the bedroom door and appears again next to the bed. She hits the wall with her head then tears out her hair while screaming.
" What shit!"
"Why am I here? Why can't I leave?"
" I ask myself the same question, Zola! Shut your mouth, please."
"Why did she pull me here?"
" Because the exit hurts. What do you want me to know about it? I just know she enjoys trapping you here where you can't do anything while she can do whatever she wants."
With that, April comes over to me and presses her disgusting mouth to mine. I close my eyes, I don't want to see her face as she kisses me. When his lips move away from mine, I'm in the middle of a dark corridor, full of dust and the checkerboard floor reminds me of the orphanage.
" Jean-Patrick Frollo!" The director screams, her heels click on the floor, my heart beats faster and faster. "You're late for class."
Hell is falling on earth, what is she doing here? How did I end up at the orphanage when I was at Blake's house less than five seconds ago? April has the power to teleport? I crawl across the floor, start down the hallway, run without looking behind me as she gets closer and closer. She has always terrified me, I am in the demon's lair. I tear away the cobwebs with my head, I feel their little hairy legs on my legs, on my back and my arms. They are everywhere, they get under my clothes, bite my legs.
I get lost, I know these corridors by heart but I get lost. My vision blurs, I rub my eyes and slip into a gaping hole. I cross the depths, it gets darker and warmer. My skin sweats, the spiders disappear and I run into gravel that sinks into my face. The walls ooze, the paintings on the wall leak and lose their shine.
My head spins, my muscles tense when I stand up. I remove the stones from my face one by one, it's dark, the paints are leaking and when I turn around, it's Clovis in front of me. He stands there, his fists clenched and his eyes bloodshot. April, similar to a tarantula, wraps her eight arms around him, her crimson lipstick smeared across her neck and arms. She bites him and he moans, he has fun with her and it kills me to watch helplessly.
" Maelan, you are pitiful. I will never go out with you. You are a loser who betrayed us, you will see us happy with her while you will be alone. Even Otker doesn't want you anymore, you'll be all alone. Without friends, without lovers, without family! A lonely little orphan who will die alone and who no one will remember."
"I love you Clovis."
"I belong to you, my darling."
One of her hands wraps around my friend's throat, she runs her nose over his jugular then crunches his shoulder. My breathing accelerates, my stomach tenses, my blood freezes. A pang in my heart, lungs that struggle to inflate, my eyes sting and my soul is torn apart.
Clovis shoves me and I fall like a dead weight to the ground as horrible clowns surround me. They make fun of me, they spit on me, they stare at me with disappointment. I scream with all my might when arms pull me into the ground.
A woman with curly brown hair runs her hands through my hair and hums a child's lullaby to me. She holds me close, trying to calm me down. I stop struggling and wipe away my tears. What just happened?
" Breathe, everything is fine. JP, it's the blood of death, it's hallucinating when you've never experienced eternal sleep. You're safe, everything's okay."
" Who are you ? Why are you helping me?"
" You should calm down a little, we'll do the official introductions when you're back on your feet."
She stretches her legs, I lie down beside her, April sleeps in her bed with her deceased raven in her arms. I close my eyes for ten minutes to rest. It feels great to wake up after an event as traumatic as this nightmare I experienced. The young brunette woman is hanging a metal plate on the broken window when I open my eyes and she has gotten rid of the dead animal. I sink into the chair and rub the back of my neck.
" Who are you ?"
" Imagine me ten years younger, with extra pigtails and suspenders."
That vaguely rings a bell, Nate's sister, Ruby.
" Ruby ?"
" Bingo, I thought you didn't remember me. You have changed a lot, JP."
" It's Maelan since the trial, Jean-Patrick died in the orphanage. Why are you here ?"
" I work here, I'm the maid, my contract ends in a few months but Blake is going to extend it for the arrival of his son and I'm going to have to negotiate for child custody."
Children? Does she have children with the hunter? Nate therefore has ties to Blake thanks to his little sister. I laugh and she sticks her tongue out like a child holding her stomach.
"I thought Blake only fucked corpses."
" For your information, he sleeps there with me, Hannah, Janice and April too. He already has three children, you know. Two daughters: Pure and Sunny and one son: Light."
"How can you reproduce with him?"
" It's not me who decides, he doesn't pay for contraception, he's violent and he wants descendants. He's going to marry April and he'll give her lots of baby princes. I will be at peace and my children will be under my complete custody. In short, we don't care. How are you feeling ?"
" Like shit, I didn't really understand what happened to me."
" Unconscious April is pissed at you, she used death magic and raven blood to bring out your worst nightmares. Blake has a potion like that in the cellar, he uses it against his enemies sometimes. It was just hallucinations, it will pass. You should ask Martha to make you a coffee, she'll wake up soon and it's better to have two very active people to chaperone her."
We both ask Martha for a coffee, while I burn my lips with mine, she puts on her uniform and ties her hair into a bun. She has changed a lot over the past ten years but it must be said that my memories are vague.