His Spring Symphony

Chapter Forty Three: Empathy

HUNTER

     Her scream made him turned away.

     Hunter turned before he got a clear view of what was happening on the screen. He turned to the sight of Nijiiro; his mouth hung open, and there was fury in his eyes. It was enough sign for him not to look. It would be a lot of rages if he had.

    Her screams gradually stopped, replaced with whimpers. "Does it hurt, love?" the slicing sound of a small knife, and it dug deeper, he hated that he was aware of that. "Please... Samuel..." she begged. "I'm not Samuel!" Ash's voice was flat and Haru shrieked, "And why can't I stab here? Is there a baby?" His voice was mocking. She screamed again.

Baby?

    Hunter turned back.

    He stabbed her on the side, his knuckle pressed deeply on her shirt. Her clothes were torn and had mops of red; near her chest, her belly, and her face.

   Ash turned to the camera and looked directly at Hunter. He smiled. "Find me." the same moment when the locator finally beeped with an answer.

    His head turned slightly and look at the answer but his eyes never left Haru.

   She looked terrible and everything in Hunter's body burned with anger.

     "Our last game; find me."

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    He didn't wear any vest. In fact, they went in a hurry, and Hunter gave his to Nijiiro. "No." the boy declined at first but Hunter shoved it to him anyways. If the chance of survival was being compared, Hunter definitely surpassed Nijiiro.

    "You want to follow me, right?" Nijiiro reluctantly nodded. "Then, do what I said." He sounded harsher than he intended. But Hunter had no time to say sorry. He was tired and barely recover from his physical wounds. And he was pissed; at himself and at Ash.

       The jeep that drove them was unprotected and lacked any sound proof. Only three of them were on the way to the location. It was late at night in Brooklyn, too late. There were still many cars, drunkards and traffic lights they couldn't avoid. They have five minutes left before Ash went online again and God knows what he would do to her at that time.

     "Kevin, can you drive faster?" It was more to a demand than a question. For the most parts since the second stream, Hunter was pissed at everything that his eyes gazed upon on. To Luca, who stopped him earlier before he got into the car, to Ray who volunteered few of policeman to help him; both were gifted by Hunter's death glare. Both too, Hunter abandon, bringing the shitty jeep and the locator with him. "If you want to wait for the second stream, go ahead. I'm going and I don't care if I'm the only one who does." He warmed everyone in the room and left. Nijiiro tagged behind.

     From the mansion, it was mere 10 minutes to the location they tracked him. There was an abandon one floor cemented ground near the bay area, used as morning fish market years ago, but it was abandoned went the business went bad.

     He couldn't believe that Ash was this close.

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HARU

      She wasn't sitting on a chair anymore. Her body felt light like she was floating on water. She couldn't feel her legs. Haru opened her eyes.