Our love will end in sky

Chapter VII

Aesop's POV

I got out of our room as my spine was stinging. Why it was stinging? Well, I don't know, how your spine would react if it was wiped 10 times? As I was descending the staircase into the dining room, I was thinking about our heartless host. Through what tortures we will be dragged today? I saw Jack, Hastur, Eli, Naib wasn't there yet. Then my eyes meet Joseph's stiff posture. He didn't dare to move a flinch. I grinned to myself as I known the reason. I patted his back, making him shiver.
-Stop it, it is not funny....
-Oh, it is way more funny than you think... You are so fragile....
-I am not fragile! It is just that I am not used to bleed so much....
I grinned more as I remembered last night. He almost cut me in half with his sword as I was chasing him to clean his wounds. I finally managed to pinn him to the ground as I poured a bottle of desinfectant on him. I think he woked the whole manor with his screams.
-Anyway, I wonder what got into the cloaked guy to punish us like this. We were just wondering around... He never told us not to get there... I wonder what he is hiding....
-Joseph, you poor, inocent child. He is a psychopath. Maybe he is watching the Valentine's recordings in his free time to satisfy his lonely self, said Jack.
We heard that someone slammed a door and we immediately know that Naib was on his way.
-Good morning, sunshine, said Jack as Naib was sitting down next to him.
-'Morning, he growled.
Before Naib could stop him, Jack placed his hand on his shoulders.
-What's this..?he retreated his hand with a red liquid on it.
Blood.
-Naib Subedar, your wounds can infect, how do you pled?
-I don't fucking care about his fucking wouds, I just want to be leaved the fuck alone!
-Wow, what put you in such a bad mood?asked Eli.
Naib thrown something on the table.
A red envelope.
I was sick of red envelopes. I just wanted to throw them all in a fireplace and to watch how they burn. That seem to be a good fate for the new red envelope on the table but Joseph took it before me. He unwrapped it, cleared his throat and read it out loud:

"My dearest hunters and survivors,
As you may know, this is your last day to spend in this manor. Neither if you win nor if you lose, you will leave it permanently. Unfortunately, today I can't join you. But the games must be played as it is occurred in the timetable below. Because there are only four more survivors and three hunters, today it will be three rounds. If a survivor is eliminated in two of the rounds, he or she is eliminated permanently. If a hunter catch less than two survivors in his round, he will be eliminated, too. Good luck and best wishes,
The host"

-WHAT?THE LAST MATCH?!I shouted surprised.
-Apparently yes....... It is our last day here....., wisphered Joseph near me, apparently stunned as well by the letter.
I looked around me and saw that all of us were looking miserable. This damn game always seemed like it will never end and here we go now. Three hunters and three survivors in the dining room, staring at a letter telling them that only few will survive and the others will die. I felt how a sour taste climbed up my throat and how I was on the edge of collapsing on the floor. I looked at Joseph who was reading the letter the forth time with nearly-crying eyes. Naib was just staring absently in the distance, not even jerking out of Jack's protective and tight hug. Eli was crying, big tears running down his cheeks from his mask, with Hastur at his side, hugging him by the shoulders..
-Wel..., said Joseph with a harsh voice from retaining his tears. The first match.... hahm.... The first match starts at 9:00. The hunter is Jack. You should go and prepare yourself.....
Me,Eli and Naib set up from the table and went slowly, heads down, towards the room with the smaler long table, where we were usually starting the matches. There we met my old friend from the beginning of the game: Emma Woods. She smiled at us sadly.
-Did you find out....
-Yeah, we did, Naib cuted her out coldly.
Before I could open my mouth to build a strategy with them, as I usually did, I blacked out,waking up in the match. I took the opportunity to be alone as a chance to say some of the most interesting swears I could reach out for. After I freed myself from the bad emotions I started wondering the land of the Lake-Side Village. "This round the hunter is Jack" I thought "I must make sure that Naib doesn't do anything stupid". The match continued as usual. I managed to decode only one cipher alone. At the second one I met Eli and Emma. Eli had a troubled look but he was some sort of relaxed. Emma was smiling dreamily like usual. I couldn't understand their behavior. Naib was our friend,more or less. Yes, he was usually rude to the others and always grumpy and stuff but our friend. I particularly had a very good friendship with him, I couldn't let him endure the lose of Jack even tho he was always saying that he was a jerk and he didn't loved him. As his friend, I know better.
I was passing past the woods when I heard shouting voices coming from there. More exacly only one voice. I usually don't listen to others conversation, it is not politely at all. And I wouldn't had do it, not even then, if I didn't recognized one of the voices as Naib's. I hide as best as I could behind a tree to listen carefully to Naib's and Jack's discussion.
-JUST DO IT ALREADY! screamed Naib at Jack as he was standing still a few itches in front of him.
-I told you.... I can't.... I just can't...,responded the tall shadow.
I was surprised by Jack's tone. Instead of being arogant and cheerful, it was...calm. Calm, full of surrow and sadness but also confident. I wondered what they were talking.
-WHY? WHY COULD YOU HIT ME IN OUR FIRST MATCH, OUR SECOND ONE, BUT NOT NOW!WHEN IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TO DO IT!
A shiver of sunlight penetrated through the thick tree branches full of green leafes,lighting up Naib's face. Big drops of water were running down his cheeks. I was shocked. Naib Subedar...crying?!
-Please.....,he begged.
-No, Jack responded.
I undersood what was going on. Naib was trying to convince Jack to hunt him down, to make at leat a kill, and with another one, he could have been saved. But Jack was refusing constantly. Seeing it that his begging were no use, Naib muffeled a sob with the edge of his cloak then ran away, leaving Jack looking with sadly and dreamily after him,in the sound of the alarm going off. I expected for Jack to disappear, melting in the shadows but he just stood there, like waiting in the dead silence of the forest. At a very moment, the wind started to blow in a peculiar way. Jack turned in the direction from where the winf was blowing, with his green overcloak dancing in the blows of wind around him. It was kind of creepy. Suddenly, a shadow came out of the shelter of trees, moving quickly,approaching Jack, then passing through him. Jack collapsed unconscious on the forest floor with a deaf sound. Everything was so out of a sudden then I nearly had time to process the information. I got out stunned from the shadow of the trees, aproching Jack. He was way more pale than usual, with his eyes rolled inside his head. I have a natural talent of recognizing the death. You can show me one hundred men in the same time, ones suffering from a heart attack, some sleeping deeply, some wounded badly, some in a coma, it doesn't matter, and I can tell you certainly, from one look, for each person, if it is really dead or not. So I can tell you now, Jack The Ripper who was lying at my feet on the dusted forest floor, was one hundred percent dead.
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