#chap 2 shouldn't take too long to be done

[imjustalazycat]

Chapter 1

page 22/22

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chapter 2

And here's the first chapter! I hope you're liking this so far ;; <3

if you'd like to support this comic you can join my patreon where you can already read chapter 2 that's being updated 2/3 times a week ;;

I will start posting it here when it will be fully uploaded on patreon and when I start to post there chapter 3

[fioooweeooweeeoo]

Extraordinary You

Chapter 3 - Me before you

- By Fioweeo

GENRES: slow burn cz yes??, (e2L-> frenemies2lovers),  ANGST, 18+ MINORSSS DNI for obvious reasons, may have sm*t in the next chapters, fluff- of course, we can't leave that out, there will be warnings in the next chapters if said so, HINT OF LOAK X READER !!!

A/N: FINALLY DONE WITH CHAPTER 3 yall i am so sorry if that took way too long to do because i was hella busy with doing work on the side that i didn't really have time to continue working on it, thankfully I'm on break this semester! so you'll be seeing a lot more updates and chapter 4 is in the making as we speak! hopefully you guys would be able to read this and still be interested in reading for more!!

anyways for this chapter ive introduced a few more characters, some ooc and some that aren't new to the avatar world! anyways please enjoy reading chapter 3 to Extraordinary You

Word Count: 8.3 k (chapters might be longer after chap 3 so it might take me a little long to post !

Chapter 2 - Till I Met You

Silence fills the room you're both in but you're the only one fast asleep. You're soft breathing can be heard slightly but that isn't what bothers him. The proximity of both you and Neteyam is, having to train you already was a risky move for him, now sleeping with you? He wants to go to his father and complain that it'll cause a problem but he doesn't want to. Why? Why can't he bring himself to stop this from becoming messier?

He shouldn't be bothered thinking about this, once you're healed and done with training you can go on without him and he can go back to his normal routine. Normal, funny how it's gotten to this he thinks. He drifts off to sleep with just the sound of your breathing easing him for some reason.

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His eyes peel open to his surroundings, a waterfall beside him, he stares at the bright light shining onto him, trees surrounding to cover from being too bright. But what caught his attention wasn't any movement, but a voice, a humming voice to be exact.

He stands up and follows the humming voice, the beautiful sound calling out to him. He recognizes the song, the melody and rhythm of it, the voice of it or better yet, who it is. The humming slowly starts to fade and the more it does the faster neteyam catches up to it, hoping that the humming wouldn't stop and he'll reach in time. 

He can still hear it, but it feels like he's running out of time to catch up to it, but as soon as he sees the figure humming to it, he breathes of relief, like he held onto his breathe the whole time. He watches closely and slowly creeps forward to the figure, it was a girl, a human girl to be exact.

She was singing, whilst playing with an instrument. He tries to avoid creating a sound to call the attention of the girl until he steps on a small twig, the girl gasps and turns to his direction. But as neteyam goes to look at the girls reaction, he freezes, he can't see her face, how? He takes a step back and the girl stands up and moves a step closer towards him,he moves back anxiously, his back hitting a tree behind him while looking from both sides to see if he has some sort of escape, but it was already too late as he looked at the girl who was infront of him, he face tells all signs of confusion, as he musters up to speak.

“Who are you-?” His breathing is quick, he looks at the girl from head to toe trying to recognize who it was. The faceless girl tilts her head now looking like she's the confused one, neteyam rolls his eyes and bends down to her height. 

“What do you want from me, tawtute? Hmm? Speak” the faceless girl looks around herself checking every small pocket she has and the bag around her trying to look for something until she spots it at at her right pocket of her shorts and shows it to him, she points for him to open his hand to which he does immediately, she places the object in his palm and he looks at it, its a flower, a confused look spreads across his face.

“What is this?” The girl stays silent which makes Neteyam suspicious, that is until she walks and turns away from him, curious, he follows her and calls “Wait up-!”. Somehow he felt slower in his dream. Neteyam catches up to see where she went, and as he pushes the leaves in front of him, he looks at the faceless girl who's staring at the sunset, the wind blowing softly at her and the sound of waves crashing easing her. It eases neteyam too he thinks, he thinks this place is much calmer than what's outside his dream, the faceless girl breathes out and plops down on the sand. 

He tilts his head confused but goes to her anyway, finding a spot next to her sitting cross-legged. He looks at the side where she was, as she does to him as well, the girl looks from his face back to the floor in his palm, as she sees this she grabs and flowers which instinctively makes Neteyam want to grab it back. “Hey- what is-”, she moves closer to him, kneeling trying to reach his height despite him sitting down, as she takes the top  right side of his hair and places the flower on it. Neteyam rolls his eyes and grabs the girls wrist, making her stop as she looks at him expectantly. “What are you trying to do little human?” She sighs and grabs his arm making him stand up as they run up to the water. She pointed for him to look at the water, he does so and looks at himself, seeing the flower placed on his hair nicely. She claps lightly and giggles, as if she had done such a great thing to him only for it to be placing a quite nice flower on his hair, but he sighs and chuckles softly, “Are you happy little human?” She nods and starts to move closer to the water, he grabs her arm which makes her head turn and as neteyam realises what he did he apologises and let's go of her, letting her dip her feet into it.

Despite being in a dress, she finds herself enjoying the water, she looks back at him and signs for him to come in which he wanted to but as he tries to move he hears it.- thunder, loud and roaring, he looks up to see the sky turning a darker grey but looks back at the girl who's still playing in the water, he calls out to her to which she doesn't hear, he continues to shout to call her but somehow his voice is falling faint to him and her, he tries to move but somehow feels stuck in place, the waves move stronger and pushes the girl making her fall. The lightning soon strikes and the loud thunder wakes him up-

“Yo- bro- wake up- dude-” Loak claps at Neteyams face, his eyes adjusting to the the scene before him. His brother still snapping in front of his face, he swats his hand at loak “Baby bro- what do you want?- it's like- "  " it's literally sun out bro, you've never stayed in for this long– hell! An hour? Come on- dad's been waiting- man I thought you were the golden boy-”

Neteyam gets up and groans, looking around his room to see your not here, you might have gone to Mo'ats early, probably wanting to get up early as possible before your training. He wastes not a minute getting ready, before heading out to the base for an early meeting. Most of the meeting was laying out important areas to look out for in which his dad had instructed both him and Lo'ak to keep an eye on while the rest of the war party set out on their mission, though Neteyam was fully prepared for being in the war party, he still had to look after Lo'ak since his father instructed him to “not cause a ruckus” as he calls it. As soon as the meeting was over, Jake talked to both Neteyam and Lo'ak just like before every mission to stay in line for any threat that may come while spotting. 

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I observed closely at what ingredients Mo'at had placed infront of me for the next lesson, some of these were known to help with poisonous wounds, the others were made for headaches, mild flu, and sickness, the like really. I was confused by the materials Mo'at had put in front of me but I knew they had a purpose. 

“These herbs are made to help with poisoning- as you can tell- but not only can this help from poisoning, many of these other ingredients can help with a specific poisoning, you see-” a knock was heard out of the tent, disturbing you of your lesson, moat calls out to them. A portion of the war party comes in with a member who was extremely injured, a gash running from their shoulder to their right side of their chest. Normally it would be fine, it would take weeks to heal, but this was different, a purple colour bleeding out of it as well, it was strange seeing this and you look at it with your mentor. 

“This… this looks very concerning- what happened?” “We had just raided another one of their trains but they had this new weapon that could easily tear through the skin, it makes them feel crazy- wanting nothing but to die”. It was new to you hearing about this, you felt off about something so peculiar like this happening to Na'vi though, you remembered Norm talking about this before… a variant as he called… the origins of this were from a plant species, though was not dangerous to Na'vi kind, its roots may have changed and may have caused its genetics to alter, which doesn’t add up- anyway, it was dangerous.

Your thoughts were snapped away by Mo'at asking you to help her retrieve a few more medicinal herbs, perhaps that'll help ease the pain for them she says hesitantly. As you observe, there were a lot of things that you noticed about the wound, more importantly, the size, colour and odd shape it had, you've always studied how most plants in Pandora were either medicinal or deadly, ones you should look out for and some you must avoid. You won't need the second advice because most are usually far away or in the hallelujah mountains. But perhaps there was more to this– with the way the cut looked, it must've been from the Hallelujah Mountains, the infection seemed quite similar to txumtsä'wll. The Baja tickler as the scientists mostly call it- but no one really dared to come near that plant, only various animals eat it to use as a venom for their own predators. So while you observe the wound and the liquid that had come out, you had a good feeling it was from it, but how did they extract it?

Your thoughts were soon turned into dust by Mo'ats voice asking for you to pass a paste, you knew that paste wouldn't work so you passed Mo'at a different one that would suit better. “What is this Y/N? I asked for the other one!” “Mo'at, please trust me this one will work, it will lessen the pain–” “What do you mean- you are saying the Tsahik is wrong?” “No- no- please use it- trust me-” Mo'at looked at you in confusion but decided to trust you, applying the paste to the warrior as he was in deep pain was tough, but soon the warrior had stopped whining in pain and felt at ease, Mo'at felt surprised, she had not known that would work. It was like something had awoken the warrior like it was in deep sleep, sighing in relief from the pain.

“How did you know it would work?” You face Mo'at at your right who was just as confused as you were “I- I had learnt it from studying these plants that you've created a paste out, it was easy to navigate what can help soothe it, but it may only last for just a few days, I may know where to find another ingredient to mix it together with though! It might just be the cure for it!” Mo'at nods, seemingly surprised and a little proud per say of your knowledge, but she doesn't say it. 

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As you walk out of the tent, you're met with an tall figure who you know well enough was Lo'ak– jogging up to you as you give him a lighthearted smile. He gives you a wave until he reaches you. “ ‘Sup shorty-” you elbow him at his stomach as he says  ‘ow-’ “what-! It's technically how you're built man-” “yeah- no shit sherlock! Ive been the same height since your uniltron” he rubs his side “and somehow you're attitude doesn't add up to you're height-” he murmurs “what did you say?” “What?” “You said something-” “there is a bunch of people here Y/N, your hearing things” “no I know you said something-” “you're imagining~” as soon as he starts to back away and go another direction, you chase him to which he runs quite faster than you, you both chase each other around like little children giggling, as soon as you both reach the tent for the meeting, you both enter through the flap. Lo'ak nudges you at your elbow as you give him an annoyed look, he puts his finger to his mouth silently telling you to be quiet to which you respond, mouthing him a ‘I know’, he tilts his head to the side for you to follow him in which you oblige.

Jake mostly started off with the schedule of things to be done around camp, ever since the home tree was burned down the village had to be relocated to hell's gate, which not most of his family had been fond of. Lo'ak was beside you through the meeting, though if you knew Lo'ak well enough, he gets bored in most of these meetings, which is why you're a little caught up when he whispers something to you. “I kinda wanna ditch this meeting-” “well your dad's in here- you wanna tell him that?” “I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind-” “thats a fucking lie” “oh what would you know-” “keep it down skxawng-” Jake clears his throat “Y/N. Since you'll be working on the normal training grounds with Neteyam, you'll also be with most of the trainees. You're okay with that?” “I- uhm-” Lo'ak nudges you at the shoulder which makes you glare at him “yes- ofcourse- sir.” Loak snorts when your voice cracks. “Alright, you're morning training starts in 30 minutes” as everyone leaves, you notice Neteyam who was already looking at you from afar, there's this look in his eyes in which you couldn't tell what it meant- was it anger? Was it annoyance? Was it anything that serious? Eywa, why do you overthink this much- you should really work on this better. 

But first, you should really speak with Neteyam about the training course and what you'll be doing. Neteyam walks towards where you're standing, you hope he'll start explaining to you the gist of what's to come until- “oh! Uhm hey- okay so I was going to ask if- uh- Oh-” he just walks past you, opens the flap of the tent and leaves. Did that just happen?... Did he actually ignore you- Lo'ak hisses softly “Ouch- that was rough- normally he doesn't do this to newer trainees- I guess you're the first one” you blink twice at him wondering what just happen because it all happened in just a second “Aren't you gonna train with him what're you standing here for-” “Eywa! I know what i'm doing!”.

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You follow Lo'ak who shows you to the training grounds which wasn't that far off, seeing everyone prepared and ready, you take in the different kinds of faces once you settled in as well. You look to see that it was both navi men and women in the grounds, some- you recognized as Kiris’ friends. Lea'una, Sey'nab, and Ni'fiti, most of them were pretty cool with you, well- Lea'una and Ni'fiti were pretty much good friends with you, Sey'nab on the other hand- you kinda feel this tension around her but of course most Na'vis feel that way around humans. Though Kiri was also half human, she was really close friends with her, all of them were close with her. You think it's just how she normally is when she's around humans, you can't really blame her. 

As soon as everyone had been seated neteyam soon announces the newest trainees in the course, “I'd like to announce the newer trainees who will be joining us from today and onward, that is- Ney'lan, Korukt, Yía , Zora, and… Y/N…” Everyone soon claps to the newly announced members. 

Everyone moves on to the next course tp train in, as soon as you stood up, two navi girls up come up behind you, startling you a bit, “GAAH- oh- it's you guys-!” “sorry! Didn't mean to scare you there Y/N-!” “would've been funny though” “Lea'una.” “what! I'm kidding, eywa- Ni'fiti you can't even take a joke-” “to be fair I'm atleast 3 to 4 feet shorter than most of you guys so i would've laughed as well buuut anyways! It has been quite some time since I've seen you guys!” “Us too! Hey I mean atleast you've gotten some height on there, you look amazing” Lea'una pats your head, you honestly feel like they're your older sister sometimes, they treat you more kindly than the rest of the Omaticaya People, but you're thankful to have a small circle of your own. “Since when were you taking training for this, its been awhile since a tawtute has done it. Well- our Olo'eyktan technically was a tawtute, and atleast he looked more like us..” You hear the comment from behind Ni'fiti and Lea'una, you face contorts into confusion until you realise who it was, somehow you expected this yet you were still surprised, Sey'nab approaches the two girls who were in front of you “I think it would be best to stay in our training areas so we wouldn't be distracted, hmm?” Lea'una looks at Sey'nab then to Ni'fiti who also gives her an awkward look “Well we were just making conversation with one of Kiris’ human friends! You remember her- Y/N! When we used to play with her long ago when we were little-” “And do you think we are still kids? We are much old enough to be doing our duties and responsibilities than to… do things such as this” “Excuse me?..” it was your turn to answer now “you may or may not understand but most of us have roles that we must follow in this clan, unlike us, we already have a place among the people” Your heart sinks, you've faced the truth a couple of times, you already knew humans do not belong or were capable of being one of the people. They didn't believe such beings were trusted to have a place after everything. Yet you still feel ashamed for somehow showing up. “I think you all should go ahead..! It was nice catching up with the both of you, I think i should go ahead as well” “But Y/N-” Ni'fiti turns to you as you were walking back to leave “We can always talk another time Ni'fiti-! I think i should start with my first session- i gotta go!” You soon turned and run to leave, while Ni'fiti and Lea'una look back to Sey'nab, cold stare laid upon you as you run. 

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You run and run but you don't know which part of the training area you go to- you realise then that you've made it too far. You look around your surroundings wondering where to go next, you feel your heartbeat racing and pounding, your watch alarming you because of the intense rate of your heart speeding, you feel yourself panicking, you've had a weak heart since you were a child, you've been told that you were also in a type of cryo pod built for you because you were born a little to early, having being in that cryo pod it had taken a few years (around 5 to specific) after the war for you to be fully capable of living in Pandora, it was a miracle, the scientists were glad either way.

So having that said you were pretty much on some meds for most of your life, just so that you wouldn't have complications, Norm has built a small watch for you to track your heart rate and you med schedule (thank you for that Norm), the scientists that managed to stay in Pandora from the kindness of the people were always helping you left and right, because being a child with complications in an entirely different planet not common for your kind is tough, though upon discovering your ability to stay alive in Pandora air, it was a shock, a surprise most scientist wanted to into more, but as you were a child, it wasn't the right choice, well, Lara had made a decision that no one would put experiments on you because it was wrong. So it's really the reason why you were kept in the lab for so long. Well until now.

Now being in this situation perhaps wasn't a good start, but as you were looking around frantically you felt yourself passing out and falling backwards to the ground until an arm scoops your waist, despite your heart rate telling you that you were indeed about to pass out, you felt yourself calm in relief when a Na'vi man saves you from it. But as you realise that it was one you did not infact recognize, you stood up and push him back- “i- who are you-? Did you follow me here? What do you want from m-” “Woah woah woah- hey- relax..? Okay?... you seemed to have something going on just a few seconds ago I mean-” “No I wasn't-” “You sure did. Like you were going all like-” “Okay okay fine I was- I was having a panic attack- alright? That's what happened-” you take a few in and outs to calm yourself as the Na'vi man continued to look at you “What?..”  “You don't look good-”  you scoff, what's with this guy? First it was with Sey'nab and now a random Na'vi guy just pops out of nowhere like a douche “you think?? I was this close to passing out and that's your take?-” you sit on the ground with your knees pressed against your chest, waiting for the guy leave but he just stands there, looking at you in a pitying way “aren't you gonna leave? What're you still doing here-”  “I'm sorry.”  “What?...”  “I was pretty rude for saying that- and uhh I just thought that- well- I mean I didn't really think- most of uhh- my thoughts just come out of my mouth… ngaru lu fpom srak?”  “I'm okay… I guess…”  there's a small gap if silence until he starts shifting closer to you sitting infront with his knees bent and his arms on it. “As you can tell I am not from here” he laughs softly, a hand coming to his scalp brushing it, “Y/N. If you're wondering” “Aonung. Neteyam's friend and also a teacher in this training course… I too am not from here as well, I've only decided to come here recently because my father and I wanted to be of help” you noticed he was a different colour, a different shade than most of the people here, a teal-green colour, you feel yourself thinking too much about it, you snort “youre from a different clan? Didn't know he had friends..” you say grumbling to which he hears and laughs it off  “oh- eywa- you heard that?.. shit I'm sorry that- just came out of me-”  “Yeah it's okay- it's fine, I get it, he's like that a lot of the times, it's like-” “you're talking to a brick wall” you both say in unison, catching each other off guard for a moment until you both burst in laughter. “I guess we both thought of the same thing, ay?”  “I'm not the only one then” you both continue to laugh for a but until Aonung speaks up again “trust me, he's a good guy, he's a funnier guy in real life, besides all the responsibilities he has, he's not as bad as you think he may be”  “I'm gonna have to pray for that, I feel like it's just me who he doesn't want to get a long with”  “What do you mean i thought-” Aonung pauses as he realises, soon falling silent “You thought what?..”  “I thought he wanted to train you perhaps” he states, but you aren't sure if that was true, you shrug it off anyway. 

To say that you've actually created a friend without any form of connections from others, can be a little surprising considering it is a Na'vi that you've befriended. But you didn't want to comment too much on it, safe to say you both had a few things in common, he likes to sing a lot, although he's a warrior he has a passion for artistry, he doesn't hate having to be a warrior, he chooses to be one because he wants to help the people. He's talked about learning more from the humans, which surprised you, Lo'ak is understandable because his father was a human before. But hearing it from a Na'vi was quite interesting to note, “Trust me, if you want to learn more about tech and stuff I'll save you the boring shit and say its not really that cool to look at, there's laptops though but they're kinda boring” Aonung laughs “ ‘m not talking about the gizmos you people create, I mean human experiences, you learn about so many things and say it so… intensely”  “intricately?”  “I do not know what that means” it's you who laughs this time “I mean like in a interesting way that sounds fascinating”  “you can put it that way, but I like me idea better” you giggle and snort like a child and you gasp from what you did “oh my god… sorry that just-” he laughs rolling over  “What was that?!” “I don't know! It just happens! Everyone does it!”  “I'm pretty sure by everyone it translates to yourself”  “shut up!”  “for all I know it could just be you!”  

It continued on for about a few minutes until you both had decided that it was best to return to the training courses. You had finally found a way to the grounds seeing that everybody was training already, that is until you see Neteyam standing there eyeing out on everybody but as if he was trying to look for a certain person, obviously that being you. So when you caught his eye, you felt a little shaken because you realised you had been atleast 5 minutes late when he and specifically asked you to come early, too caught up on your moment doing so. 

Neteyam stood there, arms crossed, his eyes looking at you coldly as he made contact with them, look down to the spot in front of him then back at you, signalling for you to go there “I guess I gotta go- it was nice having a good friend to talk to now, even if we just met” “a friend?” “I- I mean if you don't want that It'll be just fine-” “no- no- I think of you as a friend too- Y/N…” you both smile at each other until neteyam clears his throat.

“Oel ngati kameie, brother” “Oel ngati kameie, ‘eylan” Neteyam says in turn, you do the same to him to which he does the same to you but he doesn't really greet with any words, you convince yourself that this is just the start of an unbearable month. “So you are to be training her today, yes?” “Of course, it is a responsibility that I am now handling once again, so much so that this responsibility, took a part of her time to do more important things perhaps.” “Ay- it is not her fault brother, I was partly the reason she was late- I was getting know her-” “there can be another time for that don't you think-”  Neteyam stares a little hardly at Aonung which he in turn does the same to him, only it was a silent communication on both ends “maybe if you were around her more then she wouldn't be so late isn't that so-” “you should go continue with your students maybe, you have time for chitchats later” Aonung then looks to you at his side and silently nods and mouths a goodluck to you, a little unease by it.

“come.” “Oh- okay-” you both head to another area of the training course, you notice in this part that it was the area where most pa'li were in “You're first training will be learning how to ride the pa'li, it'll  be best to start of small since it is your first” you take the part of your hair to reveal your kuru, surprisingly, since you were “born different” you had the ability to have this certain aspect of a Na'vi, though you did not have the overall height and maybe some of the facial features a Na'vi would have, you had this.

“Are you ready?” You breathe in and out softly  “I'm ready..”. You whine and reach as much as you can but it was too high, you try to look for other way to get on up on the pa'li but most of them failed, “uhm- can you move down please…” the pa'li just stands there and snorts. You sigh out of breathe feeling like you wanted to give up, but not a minute later you here a small laughter coming from behind, a small giggle as you turn around to see who it was, was he really just standing there the whole time laughing? “Can I please have some help?”  “I thought it was best that you would learn on your own”  “please, you just wanted to see me struggle” you mumble looking away for a split second “what was that?” “nothing”.

He breathes out a huff of air, going to you swiftly, placing his hands around your waist easily lifting you up, you gasp softly as the motion was really quick, sat atop the pa'li and saddled yourself to be ready. “What do I do now?”  “Connect your kuru to the pa'li, from there you'll be able to feel her through tsaheylu, the bond that seals between you and the pali, I want you to feel her, feel her breathe, feel her heart, feel her strong legs” you nod as you close your eyes and settle in the feeling, it was a little comforting feel her heartbeat match yours, to feel her breathe the same way you do, you open your eyes to then find Neteyam's hand on top of yours, you heart skipped a beat from the touch, it was warm yet comforting, his hands tracing the back of your hand guiding them to caress the pa'li, you look from where his hand was to his forearm then leading to his bicep which had a band wrapped around it, it was woven delicately which was obvious, but you were to stricken by his biceps, biceps that looked like they could- Stop! You looked even higher to his shoulders, it was broad and had looked to be much more muscular than any other Na'vi, thanks to his father's human genes you note, you look a little more higher till you reach his face, eyes already looking straight at you, yet it looks like he also too stricken by… you… a heat creeps up your face, his stare was enticing, but you couldn't think that!? He's your mentor, are you crazy? You shouldn't think those things about your mentor! God, Y/N get your head out of the gutter-

Neteyam clears his throat as you then look at another direction “Use your mind and where you want her to go and speak it.” He cocks his head to the side and moves back. This is easy… no big deal… just have have use your head and start moving. “move forward” as soon as you speak, the pa'li moves forward immediately, causing you to almost fall, but you hold on to her side. As you hold on to her comfortably, you rescg near a riverside, you were mesmerised by the scenery that you had realise Neteyam had been calling you back, you ask her to stop on her tracks, but as soon as this happens she abruptly halts sending you to the water with a yelp.

You land on the shallow part of the water thankfully making you land on your butt. Yet you were soaked from the land on the water, your hair was wet and so were you clothes, you stand up to see a few Na'vi looking at your direction until you spot Ni'fiti and Lea'una who come to see if you were alright “Are you alright?!...”, Neteyam sprints up to get to you. “I was calling for you- did you not hear me?”  “Sorry- I thought that worked i-” “you must focus on the specific directions you ask her to go to, you do not just say move forward-” people were now whispering and talking, some giggling around him, and notice you were shivering from the cold, “did you get hurt-”  “no- I'm fine, I just need new clothes…” Neteyam then takes something from the satchel of his pa'li, taking his shawl out to wrap around you, making it look bigger on you since he's at least twice your height. “Let's go to my hut first, I think kiri has an extra loincloth for you…” he takes your hand and soon brings you up to his pa'li and asks it to head to his hut.

—————————♡———————–––

You soon reach his families hut, kiri and neytiri were both inside weaving baskets for the upcoming season until they both see you two come inside. You were soaking wet whcih made Neytiri and Kiri wonder what had happened, “Did something happen, why are you wet??” “Let us get you some new clothes- you must be cold..” Neytiri stands to fetch some new loincloth for you while kiri brings you near the campfire to dry yourself. “Woah What happened to you, shorty?” Loak barges in the hut due to it being close to nightfall, he looks at you as laughs softly while you give him a glare “Where is your father, Lo'ak? It is already nightfall-” she goes to you and brings a few clothes as you thanked her, you try to remove your clothes when kiri clears her throat and eyes looking from Lo'ak to you, while Lo'ak who was standing there a little oblivious to what was gonna happen, he looks around a little bit confused and points to himself, Neteyam wants to facepalm himself because of Lo'ak “Yes you- come on-” Neteyam drags Lo'ak out with him. 

Kiri sighs and chuckles a little bit “boys… anyways how was training? I'm guessing it was probably the reason you are wet” you laugh a bit, looking down at yourself as you remove the top kiri gave you as a gift and set it aside to dry now now it got wet, and had to change both of your undergarments, luckily they had some spare tops that kiri had used as a child and it fitted you perfectly. Your tewng was changed as well but this one was shorter than the last one because it was kiris old tewng, they were clean but they couldn't find use for it since kiri had grown out of it very quickly. As soon as Jake had returned for whatever meeting there was left with the war party everyone sat for dinner to wrap up the day. You stood up helping Neytiri with fixing dinner and some leftovers, as a thank you for borrowing the clothes you were currently wearing. You bid all of them goodnight taking your leave from there. 

—————————♡———————–––

You went out of the hut to return to none other than the home of your mentor which more so felt like a jail cell because being in the same room as him felt irksome, but just as you take a few steps closer to the hut your hand was yanked and you yelp in surprise. You felt a gust of wind as you were sort of being dragged by a very certain Na'vi man, you called out his name but he shushes you, still dragging you as you both run to another part of the camp, you try to look around if you would recognize which area you were in order to go back but you were soon come to halt. But since you were being dragged here, you felt your balance falter and you felt yourself almost meet the ground when he catches you immediately grabbing your waist.

“Woah- sorry my bad- didn't know I was pulling you too hard”  “Jesus christ- Lo'ak! Are you insane!? You fuckin’ scared the living shit out of me!” you shouted at him but in a whisper, immediately withdrawing your hand from his hold as you stood up properly “and it's night why did you-...” you sentence was cut off when Lo'ak places his hand on your mouth and grabs the back of your head  “Shhh-shh- shut up- okay- listen-..” you wait and look around as he finally let's go of your mouth and finally says something back “Hear that? That's the sound of me not giving a fuck-” you hit him at his shoulder “Ah!- dude I'm kidding alright” he laughs as you roll your eyes “that's not funny- why did you bring me here? I thought you were some recom or something-” “Okay look I was just playing with you alrigh-” he was about to hold your hand when you suddenly withdrew it  “Don't touch me…”  “Hey tanhi… are you okay?-” “I'm fine..”  , you wrapped your arms around yourself feeling a little scared, you actually thought you were getting kidnapped as well you look away from him to the side trying not to look at his face “Well?... if it'd not important why am i here then-”  “tanhi what happened?”  “Nothing happened”  “I know something happened”  “I don't know what your talking about” “Y/N.” you look at him as he says your name firmly “Peng oe 'upe lu kemwiä?...” (tell me what's wrong) “Tsal's hìno-” (It's fine)  “You're lying”  you stood silent as he takes your hand and guides you to a small lake, where a wooden log sits by it, he sits on it first before he tells you to come and sit with him, you stand there still trying to not look at him, he sighs looking down then up to then pulling you to sit down. You try to protest but suddenly he lays his head on your lap and adjusts himself on the log for comfort. “Lo'ak I'm not gonna- what are you doing?”  “Shhh Shh Just chillin’ here” he closes his eyes acting as if he's sleeping “if you think this is gonna do anything to make me talk then your absolutely wrong”  he opens his eyes and looks at you and raises a brow, you still don't respond but he slowly takes your hand and rubs the top of it, placing it on top of his chest  “peng oe” you sigh finally relenting to his wishes.

“I got… embarrassed alright, I was talking with you know, Lea'una and Ni'fiti- having a good conversation when suddenly the ‘oh but elegant and brave, sweet and determined Sey'nab has come to the rescue!’ suddenly showed up out of nowhere and was just going at me and-”  suddenly you hear snoring down to your lap as Lo'ak fell asleep quite immediately “oh real mature Lo'ak!” Lo'ak bursts out laughing from your reaction as you try to get him off you “okay okay I was just  teasing you alright- I'm sorry- I hate seeing that sour look on you and thought that you need a little something to cheer you up-” you soon start to burst out laughing as you then hit him on the shoulder making him swear “ow what the fuck!-”  “You're such a jerk-”  “and this jerk made you laugh today alright, now relax- it's just your first week here and you seem like you're having it rough“ "because I am?”  “Because you think it is, you're letting that happen because you think that way-”  you sigh , thinking about his words and agreeing with him. “I don't know… I just feel like… there's a lot of things going on my mind still, like- I feel confused, like I don't know what I'm doing at this point”  “then don't” “What?...” “you heard me, don't think about it”  “like it's gonna solve anything”  “look- I'm saying this because you've got a bunch of weird shit going on recently and it seems to me like you can't focus on the important things right now”  “But aren't they important too?”  “Yeah, they are, it isn't like they aren't- but all I'm saying- is you should take it one step at a time, you're gonna give yourself a burn out if you don't” you carefully listen and keep that sentence in your head for a bit, making you think differently.

“By the way you don't really need to explain it to me cuz I was there, I just didn't wanna mention it”  “asshole”  “Yeah yeah, i reserve it for you” “Shut up-” you both laugh for a quite a bit until you hear a you're name being called at the left from a different voice. Lo'ak rises up as you both see Neteyam standing there eyeing you both, Lo'ak grumbles and sighs. “What are you doing?”  “I-”  “I thought you were at the hut already, I was waiting for you to come-” “I'm sorry I just- I was talking to-”  “hut? You're sleeping with him?”  “Dad said so” neteyam says firmly making them both look at each other for just a moment “why are you with him?” “We were just hanging out-” “Yeah Neteyam, we were just hanging out, no biggie-”  “Loak-”  “relax, he's probably just worried you might've been kidnapped or whatever”  “yes- I was worried actually”  “see?”  “It is already late, let's go” “well I was just talking to Lo'ak and-” he looks back at you with with small stare, which was an obvious sign for you to go. You look back to Lo'ak who gives you a smile, “we can talk about it tomorrow?” he says as he tilts his head to the side You smile back at him, you stand up and do your handshake that you, spider, and kiri all made up when you were younger.

“We don't have all day” you look to neteyam who looks annoyed as always, you walk going closer to him, then looking at him for a little bit then walking past him to the direction of the hut, Neteyam looks back at you then to Lo'ak who gives him a blank stare, he stands up and walks to Neteyam's side, going to the same direction of the hut but he pauses to say something. “Do you plan on doing anything?”  “What?”  “You heard me, I asked if you planned on doing anything”  “i won't do-” “you won't or you can't?”  “Why are you asking me this?”  “Because I care for her” Neteyam stays silent for a moment  “Do you think i wanted this to happen?”  “Maybe, maybe you hoped something like this would happen, and it did, you just don't know what to do about it”  neteyam looks at his side and gives Lo'ak a confused look, Lo'ak then looks back to neteyam “Do or don't do anything, but I'll still be there for her if anything happens, I hope you know that” he pats Neteyam's shoulder and leaves, as he reels in on the last thing he said.

Walking into his hut, he sees you lying down facing the wall with your blanket covering you. He didn't know if you were really sleeping, he knows it's hard for you to force yourself to sleep when things happen. But he doesn't know what he should do, he wants to do something but he can't. He goes to his mat laying down, when he hears it, it was soft but he heard it immediately, small sniffles and little coughs, he turn over and sees you still coughing, he curses himself realising that falling into the water must've made you sick, of course it took awhile to get to his family's hut but he didn't think it would catch you a cold sooner. You were shaking and shivering, even if it wasn't cold in the hut, you felt so uncomfortable in your sleep and Neteyam can see that. But he doesn't want to do anything, you'll be better in the morning perhaps, it's just a small cold, he's done it before without any help, just some drinks that would help his gut and that was that. But you weren't him, he knew that, and what's worse is that you're half human, one with a weaker heart he notes, he sits up and looks at you, you were still asleep but you didn't look comfortable sleeping in that state. He knows he'd have to do something, if his dad notices you weren't feeling good he'd be in trouble, but he knows that not the real reason why he's helping you, he stands to go to his table and reach for the herbs Mo'at insisted he'd keep whenever he didn't feel well, he mixed the herbs and crushed them, taking his flask which had water in it to mix with the herbs for you to drink, when he hears it, a small beeping noise, the one he recognizes was for your heart, it starts of as smalls beeps but soon turns into rapid beeping. “Shit.” He immediately drops the bowl and runs over to you, breathing heavily as your hand holds your chest. He carries you slightly trying to get you to wake up calling out your name softly, “come on- please- wake up-” he puts his ear near your chest to see if your heartbeat is still quick. He slaps your face softly trying to get you to wake up, which you finally wake up to, he sees your eyes peeling open “hey- hey- breathe for me alright? Deep breathes okay, breathe with me” he tries to get your breathing to normal making you follow his breathing as well, he places your hands on his chest where his heart was. You look at him with slanted eyes, he clutches your other hand to keep you fully awake.

“Stay with me- please.” You breathe in and out slowly, your heart rate finally slowing down, you look at him, his eyes so full of worry, but he then realises you're fully awake and sighs in relief, you didn't want anyone to see you like this, not in your most vulnerable moment, “I'm sorry…” you breathe out heavily  “what?.. No- don't-” he sighs “don't be sorry- its fine, alright?” He helps you sit up, to be able to breathe properly, he stands to get the drink wh made for you earlier for you to drink, it was a little spicy but it helped you feel better, “I- uhm- I have a really, weak heart, and in some cases, I'd deal with things like this, it happens when in really scared or stressed and sometimes even both…” you don't really have to tell him he thinks, he obviously knows this about you, but he doesn't say anything  “but I can still help, I- I can still fight. This doesn't make me any weaker”  he nods and sits across from you “I know, it's okay…”  you look at him wanting to ask him something but you swallow it down feeling a little dumb for thinking about it. “If you want to say something, I'll be fine with it-” you look at him with a confused face “I just take time in learning some things, and I'm sorry if it's too much for you, but all I need is just- some help”  “like a motivation?”  “Well- something like that- but like I guess- encouragement?...” he laughs a little, a first for you since its a surprised that someone like him can laugh, but you don't think much of it. “Sorry- I did not mean to-”  “Yeah I know I know it's alright, I probably sound ridiculous anyway-”  “no no it isn't that- it is just- you are new to this after all, and I should've known better and understood that you were different”  you nod and smile a little bit from his understanding.

“Do you-”

“I am willing to-”

“Oh sorry you go first”

“Sorry you can go first”

You both laugh a bit “I am willing to compromise in another way so you'll be able to learn”  “I think so too…. How bout’ if you teach me and train me, I'll do the same and let you learn more about me and my life?”  “Really?”  “That's the best can think of so far- actually, that way we can understand each other more..?”  He stays silent for a moment contemplating on what to do “Unless it isn't what you want then we can just do other things instead-” “I like that idea, I think if we both learn from each others lives since we are different from one another then, it would be good for the both of us?”  “It's a deal then”  you stick out your hand in front of him, his lips turn into a sly smirk, taking your hand immediately and shaking it, there's no turning back from this he thought.

You lay back down to finally get a good ret from today’s events, finally having your body relax after hours being under the sun was something worth achieving after each day you think to yourself. “Goodnight I guess?....” you chuckle at your own sentence “sleep well” he responded back, you then turn to your side facing the wall letting your thoughts drift away…

“what am I gonna do with you…?” Neteyam whispers to himself before finally sleeping as well…

Tags : Tags : @glimmering-darling-dolly @teyamsatan @yumimak

Lmk if yall want to be tagged under this post !!! reblog, sharing, and liking this post would be super duper helpful and motivates me to write more for you guys!

[js589]

Another day, another installment of Everything I'll Never Say! Dear Lockwood is starting to realize that there is actually quite a lot he should say.

Part 3, Part 5

TAPE 1, SIDE 2, PART 2

[click] Well, George and Holly still think I'm an idiot, but I'm a correct idiot, so I'll take it. I just need to find the perfect job. It needs to be one that I couldn't refuse, of course, but more than that, it needs to be one you can't refuse, either. It needs to be a job that needs us. Both of us. It needs to be a job that needs you. [brief pause] [sigh] God, I hope this works. I don't—I mean, I do want you back. Here. With me. And George and Holly. At least, I want you back in my—our lives. But the only way that'll happen is if it's your choice. And the best way to do that is to show you that… that I trust you. That even if I don't understand how your Talent works and even though what you can do and the way you do it terrifies me. [brief laugh] I thought I was fearless, and then you showed up. And as much as I know you'll say there are things that scare you, honestly, I think you have me beat. From what I see in the papers, maybe that isn't as bad a thing as I thought. I did look into that collapsed house case. There wasn't anything you could have done differently; not without leaving someone else to die. I know you wouldn't do that. I still think you're safest here, with people who understand you. People you—hopefully—still trust. You can't use your Talent to its fullest with other teams, I'd wager. But we know about your abilities. And the Skull. Hope he's doing well, no matter what he thinks about me. Not like he ever had a favorable opinion of me to begin with, after all. He's not my first choice for company, either, but you're not alone with him around. Whatever else I may have said or thought, none of it was that you deserve to be alone. I know far too much about being alone. [long pause] Anyway, I need to find a case. Holly's been doing some looking, but—as much as it pains me to admit—we've got nothing worth your involvement right now. Maybe you're stealing cases from us. [awkward chuckle] We got desperate and had to resort to glorified pest control a few weeks back. Turns out gassing the rat colony living in one's cellar results in the new problem of dozens of rat ghosts. I mean, we could have told the old man that, but he's certainly older than the Problem and hadn't known. DEPRAC apparently had better things to do than salt the place, and really, for the job it paid well. Old chap said his grandkids wouldn't come over because they could hear the "infernal" scratching, and whatever he had to pay would be worth it. George said he was glad he couldn't hear it all because even what he could hear would drive him mad. I wonder what you would've thought. I wonder that a lot. [sigh] [muffled] God, I miss talking with you, Lucy. I mean, I talk with Holly and George, but it's just… it's not the same. Maybe—almost certainly—I give them too little credit, but I don't feel like I can tell them about everything the way I want to with you. More like I don't want to. And I know I wasn't good at not saying things I shouldn't, and when it comes to things I should say… [sigh] [long pause] Lucy, I… [muffled sigh, footsteps] [distant] God, what a pathetic idiot. Can't even say it when she's not here. [footsteps continue] What would I do anyway; show up on her doorstep on bended knee? Tell you exactly how I feel and how stupid I've been? Beg you to come back? Promise whatever you want? [weary sigh] No; I'm going to do this right. I'll get the business out of the way first. You deserve that. And then maybe— [unintelligible shouting from downstairs] [sigh] Well, business is business, I guess. [calling away from recorder] I'll be down in a minute! [fading footsteps] [silence] [click]

END OF TAPE 1

[lincolndjarin]

ro's very reasonable 2023 wrap up schedule.

hi lovelies!! (figured out how to do a color gradient, took me weeks, i'm fucking thrilled, expect more of that nonsense in this post lol)

it's mid november and as the year comes to a close i'd like to wrap up a lot of stuff so here's the plan :

NOV 12 : BKS 26 : crucifixion (currently being edited will be out by tonight.)

NOV 12-19 : BKS 27 : the apostate (will be released at some point here, it's gonna be on the shorter side so it shouldn't take too long

NOV 25 : Oh Honey, Chapter Four : painting the roses red (another long chap, gonna need some time to get this one out so at the latest it will be out on the 25th!!)

The First Week of December will be my 1,000 follower celebration, I'm going to be doing a week of Best Kept Secret content leading up to the final BKS chapter !! (this will include the release of my 500 follower celebration whoops)

Best Kept Secret Week :

DEC 1 : BKS 28 : a place for us (the technical final chapter of BKS)

DEC 2 : BKS Q&A (gonna ask for questions at some point here i'll make a post and answer any final questions about bks!!)

DEC 3 : Bound in Beskar - 500 follower celebration (a one off based on the book princess reads in bks)

DEC 4 : BKS what ifs (it's 8 days of stuff they can't all be hits. tbh i needed a day filler and i've got a lot of alternative story lines in bks so fuck it, i'll talk about those here)

DEC 5 : Best Kept Secret Art!! (i commissioned three artists to illustrate some of my favorite scenes bc i'm a sap so i will be posting all of that on this day and i'm so excited for y'all to see it!! they're wonderful artists and they've done wonderful work so far <3)

DEC 6 : Secrets Best Kept - 1,000 follower celebration (a one off where Din Djarin is the new reluctant ruler of Mandalore, a tutor is hired to help him during his early days as a ruler to learn proper etiquette for royalty)

DEC 7 : A love letter to Best Kept Secret. (pretty much just gonna be one last corny post to thank everyone for reading)

DEC 8 : BKS 29 : the best kept secret (epilogue) (corny ass name ik, anyhow, this will be it!! this will be the last main update of best kept secret!!)

DEC 16 : Oh Honey, Chapter Five : a very merry unbirthday (this will be the last chapter of oh honey!! i've always intended for this to be a short form story so it will be wrapped up at the latest by the 16th!!)

DEC 24 : Best Kept Christmas (gonna sneak one last good bye to bks in at the end of the month with a christmas special lol)

and then i will be taking the last week of december to write my next fics! rest!

so yeah lol, my goal is to wrap up all ongoing fics this year but but but if you made it this far (i love you *mwah*) here's some of the fics coming in 2024!! i won't be starting anything new this year but next year i've got big plans >:)

Then & Now (probs gonna change that title) - this will be my main fic for a bit, i've been itching to start this for so so long, f!reader x joel. definitely gonna be more on the angsty side

i'm participating in pmamc 2024 so there will be an Oberyn one off in January!!

Andromeda - this is gonna be my next din x reader !! i don't have much other than the base idea but im gonna keep that a surprise haha

And plenty of other stuff i'll figure out lol

[reddogf13]

Outlast 2: Deliverance CH 1

Summery: Memories flash across Blake's mind of that torturous night. Before he realizes it he wakes to a different end. Everyone's alive in Temple Gate, but not for long. Just after the miracle of having Lynn back, she is brutally killed. Blake, unable to take anymore, is filled with an uncontrollable fury for the one who caused all of this, Knoth. On the remaining hour of this horrifying night he succeeds in killing the cult's precious prophet. But what then of Temple Gate? And what will happen after Blake decides to take over? Fixing the wrongs done and bringing the godforsaken town to deliverance.

on A03 as well

Status: Incomplete

Rated: M - Dead Dove Do Not Eat This takes place in the Outlast 2 universe after all, Blood and Gore, Child abuse, Sexual abuse of children & adults, Child killings, religious trauma, Torture and abuse both physical and mental.

Previous chap: None

Next chap: CH 2: Purgatory

Then I looked and behold a pale horse. Sitting upon it was the rider named-

~Ch:1 Death~

Memories shot through Blake's mind quick as lightning. Their helicopter crashing, Marta chasing him, Knoth’s voice over the radio, light of the full moon, Val taking Lynn away. White flashes brought him to the school. A pounding pain in his head paired by a sharp ringing cracked the vision. Another wave of flashes shot by of Val lit up by her torch, Marta dying by a pole, Lynn's last dying breath, the child bundled in his arms. Blake felt an unfamiliar rage stir inside of him. It's not fair. Bodies filled the streets after a mass suicide. It's not fair. Knoth's death, far too quick for what he’d done. It's not fair. The sun engulfed by an eternal flame and ... Jess? Sitting with her to pray before their final moments. Refusing to let each other go. No, this can't be it. A nagging feeling told him something was wrong. He looked up from his prayers to meet Jess eye to eye, pulling his hands away from hers, to whisper. “I shouldn't be here.” Heart pounding that she'd hate him for the rejection, or worse she'd cry and beg asking why.

She gave a soft, reassuring, smile. Head dipping in agreement. “You're not.” On those last words, he no longer was, thrown into a suffocating black beneath him.

“Blake.” A voice pulled him from the depths. “Blake! ... Blake!”

His eyes were open, but it took a moment to focus away the darkness. Lifting his head he was confused about what had happened. He was laying face down in the dirt when he lifted himself up. Something warm dripped off his face to stain the dirt beneath him. Rumbles of the earth threatened to knock him back down if it weren't for who was helping him up.

“Blake, thank God! I thought you were dead!”

“What?” Struggling on his feet he concentrated on who was at his side. “… Lynn?” His heart suffocated under the flood of emotion. “You're not- what happened?” Tears stung his eyes as he pulled her into a hug. “I-I thought- I saw-” He didn't believe she was really there until he felt her pounding heart still full of life.

She returned his hug, sniffling from crying herself. “A fucking rock fell on you're head! I thought you were dead.”

His hand felt around a throbbing pain atop his skull. Brought down to see his fresh blood coating it. There was no time to worry when Lynn cried out in pain. A rumble from the surrounding heretic mines threatened to bring it all down. What flashing nightmares he had a moment ago were soon forgotten for the present. Remembering his goal to get out of the mines.

Blake hurried from the maw of that open cave after saving Lynn. Between the falling rocks, Knoth's men and the heretics killing each other he didn't think they'd make it out. Looking toward the lowering moon with the morning having yet to come. Thunder and lightning flashed across the sky as a storm thrashed the branches of towering trees. Was this it? The end? Couldn't something stop all of this? Blake had to shove these thoughts away. After all he'd been through he had to make sure Lynn, and his soon to be child, were safe.

His heart leapt into his throat at every agonizing contraction Lynn suffered. “Something's wrong. It hurts.” She warned through the pain.

Wishing he could help in some way his comforting words felt like a band aid that wouldn't stick. One stumble ended their journey from reaching any sanctuary. Stuck in the middle of a dark forest up on the mountain.

Lynn couldn't move, he knew it and was fully ready to help her through the process out in the open. “Hey, it's okay. I'm here, I'm not leaving.” holding her hand that painfully gripped his. Surrounded by darkness that not even the moon could cut through. Towering pines made sure of that. Then came the last thing he ever wanted to see. His wishes for the warmth of a fire no longer wanted. Shifting torches lighting them up belonging to a group of Knoth's men come to finish the job.

“There they are! Grab her!” One shouted.

Blake didn't have the chance to react when they were yanked apart again. “No! Let her go!” He cried. “It's just a baby! There is no Antichrist! He lied!” He shouted between thrashes to escape their grips. A few punches to his face left him barely conscious in the mud. Blurred vision slow to focus on what was in front of him. Then he saw it, the first blow of a knife. He saw Lynn letting out a scream, but he heard nothing. Then another blow followed by chops until they could rip her apart. All the while he saw their smiling faces laughing. Waving pieces of her in the air like a sports souvenir just caught in the stands. What he saw all blurred together after that. Sensations around him, including the pain he felt, were gone. His body stayed behind, but his soul went off elsewhere. Watching more of his wife ripped apart to decorate the rocks. Organs strung across tree branches. When they finally figured her dead enough, half left while the remaining moved toward Blake next.

Soul slamming back into his body for an emergency panic. Thrashing around as a desperate wild animal about to be killed. All the slashes he got from accidentally slamming into their knives went ignored. Crashing back into the ground he knocked down the ones holding him. Ripping free of their grip to blindly flee into the dark forest. He ran and ran, until he was alone. Sure he had blacked out at one point in his panic. When his mind caught up with the rest of him it couldn't cope. It demanded he head back, Lynn was alive, he didn't fail. What he saw though couldn't be denied. Their disgusting hands reached into her sliced stomach to rip out her organs. Or the thwack of a machete to take her arm. Their laughing faces cheering each other over her brutal death.

No! He shouted in his mind then repeated aloud. “No!” He dropped to his knees as tears poured uncontrollably from his eyes. “No!” He repeated with a slam of his fist into the dirt. “S-she's gotta be- not like Jessica No, no! I have to go back, they grabbed her- she's not- she's not-” sobbing further toward the ground. Everything in him left to leave behind a hollow shell in its place. Slamming his fists repeatedly into the ground. When his eyes dried something else replaced the agony. “Why?” He cried to the sky. “Why?!” He said through grit teeth. “Why?!” Roaring up at the heavens. “They didn't deserve-'' Attention locked onto lights of a town off in the distance, Temple Gate. It was him! He caused everything! His entire journey since the crash flashed before his eyes. When he first saw that vile priest Knoth. his orders to have them both killed. Lynn taken away by Val. Chased through town by Marta. Chased through another part by Laird and Nick. Through the cave of heretics only to fail because of him and the men he sent. Unlike Lynn that bastard was still alive and happy. He imagined the evil priest's voice laughing with glee upon hearing the news. He didn't deserve the peace of mind that he won. After everything, Blake couldn't allow that.

Something shot into his hollow heart. His shivering sobbing body stopped it all to turn still. He had a new goal and this time he wouldn't fail. He stood up to walk between the trees directly toward Temple Gate while his pounding heart pulsed in his head. The surrounding night turned everything red to him. hours of travel melted away to be more of a brief passing. The priest's voice announcing over the radios fueled the fire raging inside. His blood felt it would boil his own skin off.

“Gather at the grand hall. For we celebrate tonight after having defeated the arch fiend my children! Val tried and failed with his heretics to help birth evil, but they too have fallen with their master! The lord prevails! We prevail! Celebrate with drink and food! Thank the lord for guidin' us true! The apocalypse will not be coming upon this day and we are finally free of our sufferin'.”

When the radios went quiet it did not calm the man approaching the large building sitting atop a hill. Striding up behind the wall of a crowd watching that demon of a priest praise his flock. Marta standing tall, as always, beside him on the stoop of a grand building. A bonfire set in the middle of them all with Knoth standing closest. His words distorted in Blake's mind, focusing back only when he saw Lynn's head in his hands. Blake's steps halted at the sight of her head raised high.

“And here is the proof my children! Good riddance to the whore of Satan!” Knoth's words rang clear before he tossed her head into the fire. His gathered crowd cheered wildly as any rabid fan would.

All but one whose stare would kill if it could. His body moving on its own through the cheering crowd, who stopped upon seeing the Devil himself parting them. Blake's furious voice echoed back to him. “Knoth!”

“Oh, still here after your failure outsider?” Knoth chuckled. “Do you see now, O Devil, that only the lord reigns here! As we stay on this earth, we will continue to be his most faith-”

“Shut up!” Blake commanded. He was so tired of hearing everyone insult him. Calling Lynn nothing but Satan's whore. Calling him an outsider, demon and whatever else. Out of spite he gave himself an opposite title. “I'm an angel sent down from the lord himself, for you.” Despite the roaring fury in his voice it only made Knoth laugh.

“What a fool! Accept your defeat and go back to the pits of hell.” He spat back. “Come my children, let us gather inside for celebration.” His voice joyfully announced to the crowd. Turning shortly to Marta at his side. “Tie up this loose end my dear.” Gesturing her to go as the crowd entered.

Now it was only her and Blake standing before the glowing flames of the fire. Blustering winds having died down, but not the storm shooting lightning across the sky. Each flash having Blake twitch in expecting the flash of white to stay. Blake stared up at the towering women dressed in all ragged black robes. Someone he was once so terrified of could no longer freeze his burning heart. “Marta,” Voice as soft spoken as death, he commanded. “Get out of my way.”

She threatened with a raise of that mighty black pickaxe of hers. “You'll die the same way that Devil's whore did.” Slamming it down to barely miss Blake who leapt away.

Unlike the other times, he wasn't going to run. He had to get inside that building, right now. Dodging another blow from Marta slamming her pick. Rocketing loose chunks of dirt up into the air. Blake knew he couldn't fulfill his goal with Marta chasing him. He had to get rid of her somehow. In this moment it seemed only one could help him with that.

“God wants your blood!” Another swipe of the pick almost slammed into Blake's head.

Close enough he heard the weapon cut the air. What use is it? Where's God been this entire time? They didn't help Lynn or Jess. Dodging more and more weighed down his broken body.

“Take your penance!”

“Why'd they have to die Marta?!”

“They all must die for their sins. Heretics against God and his prophet will fall.”

“They didn't have to! Don't you see that somethings wrong?! Knoth's brought suffering on every living thing around him.”

“He is the lord's most precious prophet. Who leads us from evil.”

“What's more evil than what he's done? What God asks for children to be slain?”

“Be silent, wretch. They had to fall as soldiers to prevent the archfiends arrival. All faithful will obey the Lord's command.”

“Did they? God couldn't have done something? God couldn't have stopped it and saved those kids? Is Knoth saying that the Devil is stronger than the Lord? Is God not that powerful?” His words had her hesitate, glare softening for a mere moment.

Hardening right back followed by a reaffirming verse. “Lord, restore strength to my body so that I may serve you now and forever. Knoth follows the lord's command as do I. Take your penance!” She furiously struck again.

Blake couldn't keep it up anymore. His lungs tightening on the lack of air. Left standing steadfast when Marta approached closer for one rising hit. Out of desperation he asked for a single favor. God, let me last long enough to kill Knoth. I don't care if I die, just give me enough strength to do it. He waited, watching the risen weapon for its strike. He felt he was not to move, but would know when he should.

A verse spoken in hate by her risen blade. “In the shadow of your wings. Protect us and bare us up.” Swinging down. Within the time it cut the air he took a single step forward. Blade having barely missed his body with its handle slamming painfully atop his shoulder. Knocked down to one knee. Both were stunned still at what he'd done. Without giving her a chance to recover he gripped the handle tightly. Using his whole body he shoved back toward the blade. Marta's fierce weapon slipped free from her grasp in an instant.

Heaving that hefty metal pick he rose to his feet in a strong swing. Delivering a harsh blow to Marta's legs. Falling the tall women with a hear-able snap. He caught his breath after the shock of it all wore off. It felt like it was in slow motion, but it all happened within seconds. Marta herself was still getting over what happened that she tried to mistakenly rise. Shouting out in pain when one of her legs collapsed under her. He could have finished her, but she wasn't the one he wanted. A mere obstacle and now that she wasn't getting up he stepped forward toward his true goal. Marta's cursing voice toward him drowned out by the thunder above. He stepped into the dark building he saw everyone else go into. Knoth's preaching voice muffled long down the black hall. Most of Blake's guiding light provided by Marta's still burning incense locked into the picks top.

When he reached the end of the hall he saw Knoth standing on a stage the door led onto. His precious flock seated at the many tables further away. Uncaring about their presence, Blake stepped through with a dip down of the tall weapon. Its glowing top noting everyone inside of his arrival, or perhaps mistaken for someone else's.

“Ah, my dear Marta, another sinner has fallen to your righteous wrath, I assume?” Knoth warmly greeted. A flash of lightning revealed who it truly was before him. Knoth's smiling expression fell from his face. “... Where's Marta?”

“She fell, Knoth.” Blake informed as he stepped closer. “And she's not getting back up.” What spark of fear he saw in Knoth's eyes livened Blake's own spirit.

Knoth looked to all those seated, commanding the room to. “Get up and grab him!”

Blake glanced at the angry mob running at him. Looking back at hearing a door shut in front, he saw Knoth gone from his sight, but it wouldn't stay that way. Blake fled for the end of the stage using his new weapon to smash the door down with a single blow. Hesitating at the sight of a hall with many doors. A flash of lightning lit up the hall showed light muddy tracks. Angry that the coward ran he bolted down the hall in tracking the trail. Ignoring the angry mob following along with his burning lungs. Refusing to drop the solid weapon slowing him now. He'd need it to finish Knoth at the end of the line.

Eventually he saw that fat priest wheezing, just like he was, as he fled for his life. Losing sight momentarily when a door was slammed in his face. He bashed it down like the other to shove himself through. Stopped by a line of crazy followers while he saw Knoth escaping outside through a pair of double doors. Blake gripped his weapon in readying to fight past. Another flash of lightning letting him see a better way. A window, he rushed to smash through with little care about how badly it sliced him. Fighting through an entanglement of ragged curtains upon landing. Shredding chunks off as he looked for Knoth. Locking onto his fat figure fleeing between townhouses. Taking a deep breath Blake rose back into his chase. Rushed when he heard Knoth calling for more followers to save him. He didn't want to deal with more insane cultists.

To Knoth's great horror, anybody who stepped out immediately fled back in. “Marta!” “It's Marta!” “She's coming!” At the sight of Marta's red glowing pick approaching. They weren't willing to chance her wrath while Knoth was calling for help no matter the reason.

“Come out you idiots! It's not her! It's a trick of the Devil! Don't you hear me?!” He shouted, but couldn't stay a moment longer as Blake came too close. Chased all the way to a large church building with its own bell tower. The great prophet blocked the double doors in vain when he saw the massive blade bash right though. Weakening with every hit, Knoth panicked and grabbed a nearby burning lamp. Smashing it to start a fire in front of the door. Assuming that would hold Blake back, but even that couldn't. Blake smashed his way through the burning doors. Stopping to rip more of the, now burning, curtains free from his body. Glaring at Knoth the entire time he fled toward and up the bell tower staircase.

Annoyed he'd have to follow him up, but Blake knew the chase would soon end. Free of the fire he chased up the winding metal staircase. Fighting on passing out after everything. Lugging the huge weapon up the steps coming to a halt all because of a single door. He wheezed as he raised the weapon to bash it down. When the pick slammed into it, it weakly chipped a piece away. Blake lacked the strength to swing as strongly as he did the other times. Trying again, but with his foot to bash the door. Struggling now to stay up on his feet. Head spinning from lack of air he leaned against the door.

Knoth on the other side atop the roof laughed as he caught his breath. Watching the door be hit repeatedly without a hint of damage. Looking out to a gathered crowd below he scolded them all. “Look what you've done. We ended the birth of the Antichrist, but now the Devil himself skulks our town! Hunting one of God's prophets with the fury of hell, but see that I have bested him. As the lord does, I forgive you all as you are only human.” His voice went quiet as he saw Marta arrive at the edge of the crowd. Limping on a broken ankle to the front. “Marta! How could you have let this happen?!” Turning his wrath upon her. “You let that rotten sinner take your holy blade. Stupid women! But what did I expect? I'll give you a chance to make this right. For all of you to make this right. Firstly, get me down from this cursed building!”

Blake could hear Knoth's commands from inside. So close yet so far. Tears threatening to fall from his face. I failed. He wheezed and sobbed then glared at the door. Slamming his fist against it repeatedly until his knuckles were split. No! His thoughts roared at him to reach Knoth and he had to hurry. The longer he stood around the closer Knoth came to being saved or for Blake himself to be killed by an angry mob. Flying down the stairs he was stopped by the fire raging at its bottom. Forced to go back up and onto the ceiling rafters he looked down at the massive growing fire engulfing the whole floor below. Head whipping around he found a rope to quickly tie around the pick's top. With the fire encroaching so high he lowered the pick enough to catch fire. Using the blazing end he examined the boards making up the roof.

Knoth was looking over the roof edge watching his people form rickety scaffolding to get him down. “When I'm down I ask you again to go and kill the outsider. Don't fail me this time.” Startled by the sound of loud smashing. Boards below splintered to bits with the upper metal screeching from being shoved clear. The orange light of the fire below beamed out the opening Blake hastily made. Rising between flying embers to face the terrified priest. Knoth lost his voice at the menacing presence approaching him. Fabric draped over Blake still lightly burning at its edges. Ashes coated his skin to turn it pale white. The metal blade twisted in his hunt, shoved free from its nailed ties to stretch mainly off one side. Dented down into a long curve.

“No more running. What are you going to do now, Knoth?” Blake shouted as he walked along the slippery metal roof. The both of them lit up by flashes of lightning above the clouds. Booming thunder rattled their bones to the core.

The other nervously looked around. His only help stuck down below searching for materials to build the scaffolding higher. Marta herself watched anxiously among the crowd, powerless. He faced Blake to start one of his lecturing gospels. “My son, you can be saved from the influence of evil. Don't listen to the dark voice of-”

“Shut up!” Blake ordered. “How fucking dare you! You're one to talk about what's evil. Look at what you've done to all these people. You raped their daughters and their wives and killed your own kids for something not even real! You infected all of them with diseases that you have! Protected by God, ha! “Study aids'', ha! That's antibiotics that you use to stay healthy. Does anyone else in your flock know you could've helped the scald any time?” Blake began to rant.

“They're diseased of the soul! I do not control-”

“Shut up!” A boom of thunder almost scared Knoth off the roof's edge. “Don't you dare talk over me! You've been choking down those meds for years knowing you're riddled with disease! You took everything from your poor followers! And what do they get? Abuse, dying in ditches, or dying of disease forgotten in the pits of this hell town. Should we name the rest of your sins? Murder, torture, lies, bearing false witness, speaking supposedly for God. What God wanted this?” Gesturing out to the rotting town around them. “Some holy man, doesn't bother caring for his people. You say you can talk to God? Then go on! Pray to him and ask him to stop me. Because he's the only one who can stop me from killing you now!”

Challenged in front of all his people, Knoth doubled down. “I will! The lord knows that I am faithful! He will answer all of his true children. O God,-” he raised his hands. “I beg you to answer my prayer delivered from the deepest depths of my soul. To vanquish this evil from your holy land that you gifted us. Strike down this devil. Deliver your righteous holy vengeance upon him. I know you will smite the wicked from-”

There was a crackling before a flash of white blinded Blake. All he could hear was a long high pitch. Fear gripped his heart that he would see himself back at the school. No! Not now! He thought, staring into the blinding light until the sensations of the world returned to him. He first felt rain beating down onto his back. Hearing the tapping of it across the roof his eyes could see again past the large purple spots blocking his vision. He was crumpled down with the pick held close across his back. A boom of thunder shook him to rise. Gazing toward the front where Knoth once stood, he saw his smoldering form laying down. Glancing back at the crowd they were slack jawed at what they had witnessed. Not a whisper spoken between them. Moving forward, Blake went to peer down at what lay before him.

Knoth wheezing and sputtering after a giant hole was shocked into his chest. His flesh burnt down to expose the ribs. Metal crosses fused to his body and their chains leaving branded marks. Smoke flowed off his burnt body almost causing the other to gag. Blake stood in waiting for the evil priest to die a slow death. He certainly wasn't getting a quick merciful death from him.

“You- ” Knoth hacked and wheezed through his limited breaths. twitching in agony in his struggle. “Why, … God?” Were his last words before he let out a wheezed death rattle.

What little life there was in his eyes shortly left and Blake knew his task was complete. Not wanting to look at Knoth any longer he flipped the pick over to wedge underneath his still steaming corpse. Gathering the energy for one last shove to send the large body crashing down though the weak scaffolding. Body impaled on some of the sturdier sections. Soon after landing, his flock swarmed the body to check if he was still alive. Marta shoved to the front to check for herself. Grabbing some standing near to yell commands of “Find medical supplies!”

Blake himself stayed on the roof, exhausted yet his spirit felt ten times lighter. Managing to do something good. He sat down, iron weapon used to keep himself propped up. Rain downpouring heavier than before to make a wall of white not far before him. Fire once threatening to devour him along with the whole building was doused to waft off a cloud of smoke. That blown away by winds roaring up into a hurricane across Temple Gate. Those down below trying to tend to Knoth, as if he was alive, scared away by chunks ripped off of buildings. Trees cracking off branches or the very trunk themselves snapping in two to smash what was below.

The concern Blake would have had was nonexistent. Enjoying the view he had of Temple Gate scattering to hide within their ramshackle buildings. Marta stayed as the only one remaining to help her fallen leader in vain. Between all the chaos Blake felt a warmth at his side. When he looked he saw the rising sun just peeking between the storm clouds. A blinding gold disk surrounded by a halo of red among the dark storm clouds. An ever growing blinding light expanded from its center to engulf everything before it. Comforted, he closed his eyes and fell asleep upon the burnt church. Not questioning nor asking if he would wake again.

________

And hell followed with him. ---------------------- author note:

howdy, been working on this a long time its almost become therapeutic in a building up instead of tearing down kind of way. and a way to practice formatting for original novels I'm working on. it's not complete, but many chapters are set for release. every 3 days a chapter will release until i run out. you can safely assume everything in the original game happened with only the very end of after escaping the mines being swept away. i don't care for the comics, so they've been ignored through this. if there's any important details I'll just add them into the story instead of in some strange off shoot (like redbarrels did, ugh.). when the story is complete I'll release a PDF version and maybe even a print i will make no profit off of. any price tag will just cover the printing process. i hope you enjoy reading this, i worry its long length will have it go ignored, please comment. =]

[reddogf13]

Outlast 2: Deliverance CH 8

Also on A03

Status: Incomplete

Rated: M - Dead Dove Do Not Eat This takes place in the Outlast 2 universe after all.

Previous chap: CH: 7 Badlands

Next chap: CH: 9 Uhtceare

________________

~Ch: 8 Kings men~

After hours of hard searching he was satisfied that everyone was taken care of. Leaving the quarantine he was greeted by Marta waiting alongside a small group. Those looking for family in the hopes they survived long enough alongside volunteers to care for the ill. Joyed to see a team willing since he wasn't going to force people to do it. Forcing would only fester contempt to those taken care of. A fleck of gold on the forest edge let Blake know that Val was still there waiting for him as the rest were. Moving the ill along he eventually saw her leave.

Marta spoke up about her on their way to the new quarantine. “He's been standing out there since you went in. I worry he aims to have your head if given the chance. Should we pick them off before they become trouble?”

“I'm not going to hunt people down because of fear for what they may do.” Can't say much for that when I'm too afraid to go after them. “I don't even know what Val wants. If she wanted to take over Temple Gate I would think she'd have tried earlier. You're more of a block to that then I am.”

“I trust that even he would fear the Angel of Death. Yet, to be the one to strike down such an angel would earn a mighty title. Should we really wait 'till the day they strike? Everyday they settle themselves deeper into those mountains. Festering up there like ticks feasting on our blood. It'll be harder to pry them out when we finally do act.”

Calming himself from getting too sick by the conversation he took some deep breaths. “How about we train the guard to be better prepared for that day? What have you started them on so far?”

“Basics they've learned, tracking trails for the capture. Aggravatingly slow to handle the threat by the time they do catch up. they keep goin' in circles on how to restrain them. Different from the usual process of making them unconscious entirely first.”

“What tools do they have?”

“Rope, but not much. Weapons by way of various blades. Flashlights.”

“Any zip ties?”

“Haven't seen those in years.”

“Could make catchers loops. They're easy to make off what we got. A piece of hollowed pole and some dull wire.”

“Mm, another matter is where to place them after. Should we use one of the old spaces?”

“No, those shouldn't be used. We need one large single space that we can add onto. Put in some more plumbing to make better cells.”

“We used to have a basement for storage before it collapsed years ago. Fix the structure and you'll have a convertible space.” Gesturing her staff toward a short square building out in the distance.

“That could work, can you show me?” Following Marta to the double doors of the building. Opening them to a large set of stone stairs downward to the start of a large area. Blocked as Marta said with a caved in roof and many rotten beams threatening to collapse if they haven't already. Seems like the best we got. Separate the place with cells and a front area to act as a buffer in case things go wrong. “Is there another entrance or is this the only one?”

“Only one.”

“Good, we won't have to block another. One way in for the jail is best. I'll ask Liam to work on it. Capture loops I'll make myself after everything else is handled.”

“And Val? If he's caught within the walls of Temple Gate, planning your execution. Then what?”

“If she's caught, send her to jail. I'll either interrogate her or decide right then and there what's to be done.” Correcting something he noticed everyone did in Temple Gate at the mention of Val's gender.

“She? But Val's not-”

“No, but yes.” Trying to keep this as easy an explanation to someone not used to being open. “Maybe not in body, but that's who she is in soul. I won't fight what her soul says is true. Long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then there's no reason to deny what she knows is her true self.” He wasn't sure if he liked using souls as a part of it, but it was a simple start to open the door.

Marta did a sort of eye roll, but didn't argue. “As the angel says. If we capture her we'll bring her to jail and send you news of such then. What about any other Voltaire?”

“Hold them until I get there for interrogation. Unless it's a large group, then bring them to jail.”

All those Blake could save were safely migrated to the new quarantine. Mathew having done well with the tasks given to him. Passing out a bottle to everyone with only a couple of handfuls left over. Using a whole heap of other medical supplies him and Blake cleaned everyone before carefully re-wrapping them. Covered in fresh clean gauze surrounded by the sterile smell of cleaner or alcohol. Each given a simple mat bed, not as fancy as a hospital bed, but would have to do. Blake overlooked their grand handy work while Mathew spent time talking with his mother. The medicine wouldn't fix the damage done to her, but it would buy some time. There were groups of similar on the edge of death, but Blake saw they had enough life to help them out of the pit as much as he could. Their likelihood of fully rejoining Temple Gate wouldn't be possible. They'd be released from quarantine, but they would need full time care and couldn't work. Another thing atop his plate of planning. When everyone was settled he called their attention for the dreaded assembly of awkward sex ED. Explaining what they had, how it was passed and all the basics they should have gotten in an average middle school. Doing his best to answer the strange questions at the end. Hating that he'd have to repeat this for the rest of Temple Gate. He scrubbed himself down all over in a strict cleaning regime. Strong soap smelling heavily of citrus fruits. Then with alcohol before leaving quarantine. Instructing everyone else to scrub with soaps often as possible. Any leaving of quarantine could only be done by the medics, who had to do a thorough scrub down like him.

Pulling his chain mail off he looked over the damage done. Sections disconnected from the many arrows embedded into it. Having gotten the bolts free and the rest from the shooter he took the whole crossbow kit to John. Hiking up the mountain trail naturally developed from foot traffic.

Handing it off to be used for long range hunting. John highly praised Blake for it. “This will be perfect for deer if we come across any.”

“Glad you like it. Know how to use it?”

“Oh yeah, used to be a few in circulation. You can guess what happened to them. Laird and Nick were the last to have one. They even knew how to make 'em.”

“Guess that's why he never ran out of bolts, heh. I plan to have that meeting I meant to give earlier. Gather people at the grand hall on your way there.”

“Of course… Sir, I want to thank you for what you've done. For my family, my wife especially. Didn't think I'd ever see her after she was sent away. Or if I did, I'd be leaving my son behind.”

He smiled. “It's fine. Be happy and don't worry about it.” Waving goodbye back down the mountain trail.

Blake headed to Liam next about converting the basement after the houses were all fixed. Given permission to gather whatever wood he needed. As for the jail cells, metal bars were to be recycled from the cages Knoth used. Walls created from layering concrete and brick. Walls doubled up with doors if any escape attempts were made. A whole working set for plumbing to be installed. The whole power supply was independent from civilization. Their pipes connected to a massive underground well that naturally refilled come warm spring.

I really need to get on giving out those lord titles. Dragging his feet to the grand hall for the second sex ED class. It felt incredibly long and agonizing telling a bunch of adults this. Fleeing at the first chance he got when the older members filled in for answering the questions. At least not everyone was clueless about the sex life. Inside his room he carved out a few round disks from a white branch he had on the side. Sorting through who was dubbed a lord over what. Aiming this to be more official in some way he carved out a set of badges for each main category. Farming had the silhouette of a recessed bulls head with a carved stalk of wheat over it. Hunting had a bucks head with a berry branch similar to the farmers layered carving. town needs had a hammer surrounded by a carved ring of rope at its edge. health was the classic cross surrounded by a ring of carved olive branches. And guard he based off the classic sheriff star from old western movies he used to watch. Decorated with carved on fake stitch embroidery to simulate threaded leather. Taking time to loop a little wire over to thread each badge onto a chain. Inspecting the two inch disks for anything else to be added.

In hand he gathered up the people to be dubbed. Easy to gather everyone again after they stuck around since the last meeting. Ducking away from more sex questions being asked. Motioning everyone to sit back down while a select few stood on stage. At the podium he awkwardly started his announcement. After so many he still wasn't used to doing them. “Okay, I'm happy to see how far we've gotten. Places rebuilt, farms up and working again and people happy. Since things are growing so large to manage I decided to name a few lords under me. They will manage each sector I put them over and I trust them to make decisions without running to me every time. They will update me when there are large decisions needed. They will help with any issues they have and pass them up to me if serious enough. They'll be wearing one of these, so you know who each one is. They won't get any special treatment. They'll eat and live the same as everyone else.” Lifting up the dangling badges. “First is Marta, in charge of the guard to protect the town from inside and outer threats. James, in charge of farming to managing food stock and storage. John, in charge of hunting and foraging the surrounding land. Liam, for town needs. He will be building what we need or fixing what we have. Along with delivering major supplies from one end of town to the other. And finally Mathew, for health. He will run the hospital, care for the sick, distribute any future meds and keep track of any illness spreading.” Mathew wanted to be a lord and Blake felt he fit it best. He knew the young man wouldn't leave his mothers side needing permanent care. May as well make him in charge of the job to be nearby round the clock. Seeing him beam over the badge warmed Blake's heart that he made the right decision. Dismissing everyone except for the lords to give a meet up schedule. Every few days they'd meet to discuss things that were noteworthy, but could come to him anytime if they wanted.

For the next few weeks nothing much noteworthy happened. Houses were rebuilt from the rot to create nice fresh rows. The basement structure had its framing redone to make a safe inner space. Cells would be constructed later. Mathew was taking his position seriously by constantly giving updates from quarantine. Notifying Blake when they needed more medical supplies or cleaner to keep things sterilized. Updates that the ill were gaining weight after being put on a proper diet. Their sores were leaving alongside the rashes covering them. Major scarring was left over and most likely wouldn't leave for years. Taking up to covering themselves to hide the noticeable marks.

Marta's guard had been improving since being given the capture loops. Hunting down practice volunteers took less time each round. After seeing Blake's chainmail had survived multiple crossbow bolts they asked for a set themselves. To save time making six sets he taught them how to make it themselves on the side. Improved upon by braces of spare wood they collected from Liam and tanned hides John had set. Their new layered suits could protect from anything sharp for the most part. A cross bolt or two if that ever happened. Farms were flourishing through multiple crops Blake aimed to have harvested before the approaching winter. A huge chunk of the harvest would be picked for long time preservation. A selection of meat smoked and dried into batches of jerky. Stored away in jars in a fixed up barn. Numbers were recorded for Blake to copy down into a notebook. A breakdown of medical supplies used, food eaten, and how much money was flowing out of Temple Gate to get its footing. Worrying over the major amounts of cash they were bleeding. All necessary, but the money would run out eventually. And then what? The question haunted him in his dreams. Always delivered by Lynn, who was mutilated differently each time. Asking what he was still doing in Temple Gate. No matter the answer he yelled she refused to accept them. Stabbing him with insults of wanting her death. Keeping all the killers alive after all that they did. Gifting mercy on those who deserved an equally tortuous death that would come back to bite him.

These recurring dreams had soured what mood he had. Hiding it all behind false smiles to keep everyone else up. Neglecting his sleep to stay up late doing anything else but that. He still had a few weeks until the ill would get a health check. Those cleared would be integrated soon as possible. Splitting the head count across various areas, but that could change on the day. Blake rubbed his tired face checking over the copied food numbers. He wanted to be sure everything was copied over correctly or else he could end up panicking from messed up totals. Almost accidentally marking the page from urgent banging on his door.

One of the guard shouting through the door. “Sir, we caught a Voltaire!”

Blake jumped from his chair to the door. “Show me.” Racing out behind the other. Chest tightening at the thought of who it could be. “Is it Val?” She was to be taken to the jail when caught, but that wasn't set up yet. What will I do if it is?

His guard's answer calmed him. “No, a random.” They ran up to the guards surrounding the one snagged. Looking around he wondered what they were doing here. Nothing but a bunch of rotten buildings overtaken by nature.

Marta oversaw everything until Blake arrived. “Snagged him, skulking like a fox. No weapons on him, or anything else.” She approached Blake away from the captured. Whispering the next bit. “You can’t see Val, but he's watching from the hills nearby.”

“She and thank you.”

Marta sighed. “She.” Watching him pass to part the ring of guards.

He looked over the one caught, they were thin and small. Covered in various scar marks, eyes glaring right at Blake as he was kept pinned down. Loops tight around his neck and some at his legs. Blake set his hands on his hips. “What were you doing?” Starting his interrogation. Seeing already that this wasn't going anywhere.

One guard spoke up. “Let's use him for information. He's quiet now, but we can get answers out of him by morning. When we're done we can-”

“No, we're not doing that.” Blake wasn't willing to torture answers out of him and by the others stare he wasn't giving any answers willingly. He thought of skipping them and directly asking Val. That would be a gamble in itself. If this grunt had no worth she wouldn't answer, yet he must have some. She was hiding to see what would happen. A test of Blake's spine when handling threats? A wait and see, to see what would happen and nothing more?

“We should make an example of him.”

The hard glare of the looped one immediately dropped. Their tense shoulders slumped to what was being proposed.

“What has he done?”

“Nothing, yet.”

“Could say trespassing.” Another answered.

“I'd hardly call that something. Let him go.” He waved off.

“What?! We can't let him go. We caught him skulking around to do something.”

“To do what? There's nothing on him and he's hardly anywhere he could cause trouble.” Gesturing around to the old area left untouched still. Made up mainly of dirt with a few rotten abandoned shacks in between. Far from any space being used or lived by. “Why not go directly somewhere else?”

“He could have been sent in to spy.”

“All the Voltaire used to live here. They already know where everything is. What new information could he gain?”

“Find out where you sleep. Next one will be a sent in killer.”

“I'm sure they could figure that out from a distance. I go into the grand hall and never leave like everyone else. If sending in an assassin was so easy I'm sure Knoth would have been dead ages ago.”

“We should string him up as a warning to the others.” The first guard spoke. “We let this one go and they'll push us further next time.”

Agreed by the second guard. “Set on a pyre would be seeable for miles. Even from the mountains they could-”

“No! We're not doing any of that!” Blake roared to shut the conversation down. “He's done nothing but step into an abandoned area. If someone else comes and does something then that'd be worthy of a punishment.” When they passed looks to each other Blake knew they disagreed. Marta passed him a look in asking if she should settle the dispute for him. It would have been easy, but not good for the long run. “Alright, choose what you want to do with him. I'll use that as the base for what each of your punishments will be. I know a few of you here did a lot more than trespassing. Some of you remember well what Knoth decided when he imprisoned you. How did it feel all the way until I freed you? What were your crimes that he decided were so heinous? That ceremony to free you of your sins only stays so long as you change. Do you want to decorate the town with new bodies? You still think trespassing is worth killing over?” They glanced at each other, shifting themselves to downward looks. Avoiding Blake's judging stare aimed at each of them. “Let him go.” This time the order wasn't argued. Loops slipped off before the released was shooed away. Stepped after by Marta up to the border to make sure they were chased out. Blake caught a glimpse of Val reuniting with the other before they ran off.

He had the guard spread out again while he went to sleep for the night. His actions strange consequences becoming known within a matter of days. Val had been spotted repeatedly watching Temple Gate far off in the distance. Reports from Marta kept him aware of each time and place she was spotted. Never seen at night or with any other Voltaire at any time. Marta's paranoia about it still too high; she enforced her guard shifting their routes constantly. In case Val was attempting to study that for a time to attack. Creating a bland map off guesswork Blake pinned the spots she appeared. Not finding out much from it.

While in the dining hall he spotted her from a window. Standing in one of her common spots on the horizon. They were the best spots to get a view of Temple Gate without getting too close to its edge. While avoiding being too far and high on the mountain to see people as specks. He questioned what she wanted. She should know where everything is, at least by now if not before. Does she want something? Turned toward the idea of maybe she wanted to speak with him. No, what would I say to her and what would she ask of me? Speak some crass words or drone on about joining her side? Stomach dropping as if he ate a boulder at the idea of meeting her face to face. Either stabbed by her knife or grabbed by her hands. Feeling him up again while pinned beneath her. Blocking out the idea she'd want to join him instead. No, she wouldn't want that. Shoving away any concept of how to integrate them. He'd prefer focusing on integrating the healed as that day grew closer. Only nine more days. Nervous about how well things would go. He explained everything, but people were still fearful of those recovering. Would he need to separate the groups to prevent fights? Would separating the two help or make things worse? What if everyone refused to work unless the healed were sent away. He had a duty to be their protector, to ensure they were treated fairly in Temple Gate after so long.

He rubbed away a migraine forming at the front of his skull. Hand dropping when he was approached by a group of men. One stepping forward to make a request Blake hadn't experienced before. “Sir, can you official a marriage?”

“Uh ...” I'm not a priest, but it's not like Knoth was. Guess anything goes. “Sure? When's the wedding? What do I do?”

“Don't have much weddings around here. Knoth made 'em official between the families attending in a church. Says a few words from his gospel. Nothin' else than that.”

At least it sounds easy. “I can do that. Won’t be from his book and I'll have to do it in the grand hall instead.”

“Close enough. We'll fetch the bride and groom.”

“I'll be here.” What do priests say at the altar? He pondered as the group left him. Do you take each other in sickness, health and blah blah. I now pronounce you, is that it? God, I remember it being so much longer than that. I was all over the place at my wedding though. Making sure Lynn wasn't stressed. Heh, she was doing the same. Maybe more, I was the nervous wreck through all that. Feel bad for the photographer. How many times did I ask to see the photos? Making adjustments to have Lynn look perfect. That's what happens when you're your wife's camera man. She had to lure me away from that poor guy using a tray of appetizers. Coming out of his thoughts by the group returning. Introductions passed back and forth between the families and Blake.

His pleasantry cut when he met the bride. “Claire.” Introducing herself. A girl looking far too young.

With a groom far too old. “Don.”

Blake stood frozen at what was going on. “Uh, … How old are you?”

“Sixteen.” She kept her head low, eyes scouring the floor for nothing in particular. Avoiding all the older men surrounding her. Shooting her warning looks now and again.

Refusing to support this he stated without hesitation “I'm not marrying you.”

“Why not?” Don asked. “Is it 'cause you didn't oversee the sale? We can go over the trade right now.”

“She's too young.”

“she's sixteen, old 'nough to marry.

Her own father stepped up in agreement. “She's not lookin' at anyone else, thought his offer was fair. So he should get her. Before she gets too old to have kids. 'less you actually want her, but you gotta offer more than Don.”

Blake had to grit his teeth together. “I don't support child marriages.” Holding his temper coming to a roaring boil. “Not in my book.”

“What's the problem? She has to settle down soon and I want 'er.”

“What aren't you getting?! First of all, you can't buy anyone to be your wife! Second, You can't marry until both sides are at least eighteen.”

Marta's appearance briefly paused the argument. The men waited for her to do anything. Glancing from her to Blake when nothing happened.

“Tsk, fine. We'll make our wedding set in bed. Doubt you could officialize it anyways.” Regretting his words under Marta's stare.

Blake yanked the girl away. “Like hell I'm letting that happen.” Feeling bad about needing to do it roughly, but they were ready to yank her back. Letting go after Marta stepped forward to intimidate them back.

“You gonna let her die alone? She needs a husband.”

“No she doesn't.” Growling out his frustration. “You're lucky the jails not finished yet or I'd throw you in there!”

“Jail for what?!”

The fact that Marta also seemed a little confused worried him. Reasons clicking into place. I'm not in the outside. He sighed before giving a break down. “No one has to marry anyone they don't want. If they want to be alone their whole life, that's fine. Men and women can freely make that choice on their own. You can't claim someone for any reason.”

“How else are we expected to start families? If we let them choose then nobody will get married. Worse, we'll have whores running amok with every man they seduce. Destroying households until there won't be any left.”

“Doubtful.” Blake wasn't going to let this conversation go on. “I'm telling you right now. No-ones allowed to claim anybody. You want to get married so bad? Find a girl that'd actually like you.” An impossible task for him. That I'm sure of. “What you did won't be allowed anymore while I'm in charge. I won't be letting you walk off after this either. You can help James on the field for the next few months. Rise early and leave late, removing all the rocks and weeds.”

“Why should I?! I did nothing wrong! This is how it's always been done! You can't take away-”

“Bite that tongue of yours.” Marta quieted him immediately. “You heard him. Get going before he chooses somethin' worse.”

The man glared between her and him, taking her advice to skitter off alongside the others. Blake turned to the girl, who flinched at his movement. He spoke softly to her. “You don't have to marry him. Or anyone else your father says you should. He can't sell you, I won't allow that.” She thanked him quietly, saying nothing more. He grit his teeth in anger over what happened. Switching to Marta to focus some of it. “Why didn't you say anything?”

Her brows furrowed, tapping the cane on her shoulder then giving a half shrug. “That's the way?” Her statement hinting at her confusion.

“... Well, it shouldn't. It's not allowed anymore… Knoth allowed a lot of things that I don't condone. Fathers marrying daughters was one I remember reading.”

“That was only allowed if their wife's passed first. Polygamy wasn't allowed even in marriage.”

“That's not the point… Do you support it?”

Marta's face crinkled, mumbling in whispers. “That's … how it's been. Knoth wanted the congregation to grow. A holy army ready for war when the end came. Even more so after the ranches fall with so many taken away from us. Outside law was dropped for his holy law to take full effect once Temple Gate was settled.” Sounding tired as she droned on a teaching hammered into her. “It's just always been the way, even for me back on the ranch. I owed Knoth for what he gave me.”

“Nobody can own you.”

“My body and my soul always belong to Knoth. Knoth's eye, Knoth's hound, his best beloved to name a few of my titles. Everything but the wedding ring to finalize it between me and him. He didn't want us to be, nor any other women of the flock for him. Due to his higher callin', but he finalized a few suitors he chose for me. None of 'em lasted after some great struggles.”

“… I want to make it clear you can't belong to someone because they did something for you. You don't belong to me, never will. Knoth's gone, you're free, you can say what you want.”

She froze, statue-like, breath held while watching him over the long moment. Blake thought he'd have to repeat the question. Is she looking for an answer from me first? Agree with me no matter what she really thought. Hmm, that's how it's been. Tempted to nudge her in the right direction, but it was better said straight by her.

Minutes stretched on, then she answered. “No, I'd rather see it gone.”

He lightly smiled and nodded. Turning to the girl standing quietly by. Can't let her go home. Asking Marta for suggestions. “Are there any abandoned houses nearby? Ones that aren't falling apart?”

“Few in the forest not far.”

“Good.” Addressing them both. “I'm not letting you stay near those creeps or with your dad, who showed support for that. You're moving into a new place. If you want anything from your old home, Marta will escort you there to grab what you want and escort you to your new home. They try to stop you, Marta gets to break their legs. They can't harass you either, tell me or Marta if they try.”

Her voice was quiet. “You don't have to do that. I'm expected to marry by my age.”

“I am and you shouldn't. Marry who you want when you're old enough… Ah, eighteen years old, minimum.” I'll have to do a major announcement for law changes. Back to speaking solely to Marta. “What other stuff did Knoth support? There's a lot I want to see gone. Anything you didn't like that stands out immediately?”

Her eyes widened in a short flash. gaze darting around in a rush to search for something deep in memory. Appearing to have a lot to say, but crushed under the weight of it all in a short instance.

“A lot of stuff then? We can sit down and list them.”

“If you have the time for it all.”

“I do. Help her get settled first then let's go talk at the hall.”

By afternoon, Blake ended up finding out just how much there was to toss or change. His few pieces of paper to take notes turned into its own little book with categories he marked. Many disgusting laws he outright crossed off with others, being not so bad. Needed minor twerking. Marta was a lexicon of everything Knoth ever put into place down to the very day. His laws started out reasonable such as those trained to drive could only move the heavy tractors. Turning more deluded and sickening in the more recent years. Many more were obviously “rules for thee, but not for me.” Like Knoth having many “visitors” in the bedroom without restrictions to women or men. Yet, a common villager had to find a wife to have as many children as possible. No other relationships were allowed.

He went through them all, showing the old vs the renewed to best see his changes. Marta seemed satisfied with a lot of them while others she liked a little less so. Being apprehensive about the concept of parole instead of strictly jail time. “It's always been like that on the outside.”

“Sounds like baby sitting to me. Waste our time watchin' them before they've truly paid for what They've done. Keep 'em in jail 'till they've really learned.”

“As opposed to babysitting them in a cell?”

“Least they're in one place.”

“If they're out, you won't have to feed them all the time.”

“Mm.” She hummed out a light agreement. “When you putting this up?”

“Immediately.”

“All of it? That's a lot to chew in a day.”

“Yes. I don't want people thinking any of this is okay for a day more.” Copying things to a fresh page. “I'll make a few copies to pass out. Can't make one for everybody, 'least not right now.”

“We better make sure you ain't in grabbing distance when you talk. Lot of folks won't take the changes sitting down.”

He nodded between copying. “If things do go south...” He started. Hands turned cold for no reason he stopped writing.

“I'll be with the guard.”

“But should you?”

“You don't want me to be?”

“I don't want anyone dying. Especially not to you. If it gets bad enough-”

“I can do a lot more than kill.” Interrupting him. “I did it because those were my orders. Without those shackles holdin' me back. people will realize they got more to fear now then before.”

“I don't want people to be scared either.” Tapping the book with his pen.

“Fear keeps them in line, but that was Knoth's way. You've managed to find your own to work with. I pray you'll find a way with this too.”

“Thanks. Guess I'll pray too.” Continuing to copy he joked. “Maybe God will save my ass for the twelfth time.”

“Wouldn't hurt.”

“I might be doing this for a while. Can you tell the lords there will be another assembly today. Have them spread the word.”

“What time?”

“Let's say after dinner. I should have at least a few copy's done by then.”

She dipped her head, leaving him to his copying alone. It took him a few hours to make twelve copies of the law book before dinner. One he'd keep personally, one for Marta to keep, one for the guard to study together. As for the rest, some would be left in the hall for people to reference and others kept in case the others disappeared for any reason. Coming up was the harder part, another assembly that had Marta stand beside her guards. The other lords John, Mathew, Liam and James sat toward the front. Blake stood at the podium flicking his hand and stretching it open and closed into a fist. Copying a thick book for hours had strained it. Its sore movement provided a small distraction from his rattled nerves. Repeatedly flexing the strain away in waiting for everyone to sit before starting.

“Today I had to get involved with an issue,” He started. “One about marriage and how it's conducted around here along with the general treatment of women. A toxic black spot left over from Knoth that I need to fix right away. Along with many other laws and views he supported and left behind after his death. Many of those I will not tolerate. I should have fixed this sooner, but I'm doing it now.” He went on through the long assembly. Bringing up the new rule book and many of the big changes it stated. He expected the backlash developing further with each new law, but not the equal defense against the naysayers.

It shot off after some aggressive shouting between a few men. Some on both sides of the room stood up to face one another. “We're supposed to let women run around without husbands. Letting them be a bunch of whores?”

“What do you think they're going to do without a husband? They're women, not succubi! Let them out of the homes and work with us. We could use more hands in the fields. No point forcing a woman to cook at home when you can't bring food to it.”

“I'm not working next to some dumb bitch who can't tell a weed from a growing crop.”

James stood up and scoffed. “Boy, you couldn't tell a carrot from a tree root. Let the women decide if they wanna. If they decide not to then nothings changed now has it?”

“Why change anything at all? This is how things have always been.”

John stood up next.“And how's that been working for us? How high is our body count? Take a look around, how many women we got left? We're lucky Knoth didn't force us to kill the last of them.”

James added on. “We'd have no future at all if they all went. What Knoth created had Temple Gate dying a slow death. We got a chance to change things that I thought would never come. Weather hell comes or not, I'm not missin' this.”

Liam stood on the other side. “Sure, let's change things to help Temple Gate grow. Should make the chains tighter and keep 'em on a curfew. Escorts out of the house by their fathers or husbands only.”

Blake shot that down immediately. “Never.”

Another snapped back. “And what if the girls refuse every hand offered to them? We shrug our shoulders -oh well- and watch our town die out after forty years?”

“I rather see that then this town turn toward sex slavery!” James shouted. “You don't want it for that family angle you keep flashing.”

“Of course we want family's.” Liam stated. “It's the only way this town can keep going.”

“Keep going how exactly, through marrying kids, through birthing more babies?” Room going hush at the word. One side far calmer than the other shifting on their feet. “Look at all of you. You're terrified at the mention of them. Eventually, one's gonna arrive and you'll have to take Knoth's false words or accept them for Temple Gates' future. You dumbass's forget what kids were?”

“We ain't forget.” One spoke. “We got a plan together around that.”

Another joined. “If we lock up the girls, get 'em all pregnant, we would know which one bares the Antichrist. Then we-”

“NO!” Blake roared everyone quiet. “NEVER EVER! If I hear one more suggestion like that from someone I will kill them personally myself!”

“You won't do anything. making up all these useless rules, wastin' our time. I ain't following a one. Anyone who ain't married needs to pick a wife. When the Antichrist is found, it'll be killed, then we'll raise the rest. Get the girls married quick, start them young to keep our-”

“SHUT UP!” Kids being targeted next had him snap. Vision filled by a blur of red he attacked the man. Punching into him, clawing and thrashing across the floor. Bashing into many others between their fighting. Whole hall exploding into a riot had Marta lose him in the outbreak. Forced to start grabbing and separating everyone as her guards did the same. One pulled out a knife on James, who got a few slashes to his arms. Forced back he fell over a table, flinching in expectation of a stab to the gut. Instead he heard a shriek of pain. He opened his eyes to see Marta had snapped the attackers leg backwards at the knee. Shoving them against the wall. “Sit and don't move.” Turning to face the crowd again in yanking people away. Any attackers that challenged her wrath were dealt with aggressively. Broken limbs, jaws, physically thrown over her head into the furniture. James and John took to moving the unconscious and broken out of the way.

Even as she was clearing a chunk of the crowd, she still had no sight of Blake. Who was still beating down the man on the floor. Rage dying to exhaustion, hand numb by the strain, his death threat earlier wasn't coming as easy as he wanted it to. When he slowed the other took his chance of a bottle falling off the bar top counter. Smashing it over Blake's head who flinched from the sharp glass. A liquid fell from his head that he expected to be beer. Its red color let him know what it really was. A large pain burned across his head that he couldn't figure out before being punched off the one under him. He slammed into a roll that didn't go far. A knee slammed into his side knocking him over further. Covering his head that spun after receiving some heavy punches. Arms grabbed to be forced away for the punches to connect with his skull. Teeth clacking together he was sure he tasted blood off his bit lip. Struggling to get up with the one above straddled over his back.

Between every other person fighting he wasn't sure what he heard over him. Some strange breath then a gurgle. A warm liquid water falling onto the back of his neck. The weight of the other slumped off him onto the floor next to him. Blake sat up at the sight of the other gripping their stabbed throat. In a moment they stopped twitching to bleed out the last few drops. Blake felt across the back of his neck and saw the blood that wasn't his own. Wiping it away using his own sleeve he was disgusted by how much there was on him. Head whipping around to see who could have done it; nobody stood out to him. Standing up from the floor his appearance stunned everyone still. Being the only one soaked in blood he stood out like a glowing beacon. Dead body bled out laid by his feet as proof it wasn't his own blood spilt.

Without anyone else covered in red he couldn't pinpoint the possible killer. Everyone equally a suspect unless they gave themselves up. Zoning back from his fixation of a killer in the room he noticed everyone staring at him. Locked on in fearful awe that he did exactly as he said he would. Swallowing the taste of copper he spoke to the stilled room. “Anyone else got something to say?” Scanning the room carefully for hints of the killer rather than another debater. “No? Then get the fuck out!” Pointing toward the door.

Main parts of the crowd shuffled out straight home. Marta turned to the guard members standing nearby. “Take all those idiots to the hospital.” Pointing to the line up of those she personally injured. She stood by Blake alongside John, James, and Liam. When it was only them she looked from the corpse to Blake. “You didn't kill him.” the others squinted between Blake and her.

“How are you sure?” John asked.

“He couldn't kill anyone to save his life.”

“No, I didn't. I didn't see who did it either. Did one of you-” Each shook their heads.

“James and John were by me. Liam stayed on the stage after I threatened to break his legs.”

He glanced around, asking next. “Where's Mathew?”

“He ran out soon after the fight started.”

“Shit.” He knelt down to look closer at the body.

“Does it matter?” Liam asked. “You wanted him dead.”

“Yes, but If I'd killed him then I'd only have to worry about my own sanity. Now I have to worry about what kind of killers out there.” Ignoring all the old murders. On closer inspection of the man's neck, he saw a yellowed white piece sticking out. Plucking it out he gave the sharp hard sliver a careful wipe down. “This a porcupine quill?” Standing to show everyone the item in his palm.

Marta picked it up for a careful glance. “It's bone.”

“Bone?” Glancing at the body. “Can't have come from him.”

“No. This is a bit old based on the whitening.” Passing it back to Blake.

Snapping open a pocket he carefully placed it away. “We should find Mathew. Maybe he saw something.”

John leading the way. “I bet he ran home. I always tell him to go there if there's trouble.”

A short walk had them approaching John's house. A small white house with a short covered porch. Its outer paneling hadn't aged gracefully with rot and peeling paint making its appearance. John stepped inside, followed by everyone else to find Mathew stressed out at the dining table. “You okay?”

“I guess.”

“You should drink something.” Fetching a glass of water.

“I don't need- !” Shot up from his chair when he saw Blake still coated in blood. “What happened?!”

“Was in a fight, but someone killed the guy. You see anything?”

“N-no. I ran out soon everyone stared fightin'. Came r-right home.”

“You sure?”

Mathew nodded, taking the glass of water from his dad.

“Okay, if you remember anything. Come tell me or Marta.” Looking to the tall woman, her eyes locked into glaring down the boy. “Come on Marta.” Lightly waving her to leave. Even when she turned away her eyes stayed locked on Mathew. Broken past the doorway out of each other's sights. Blake rubbed his face then gagged at the blood smearing further. “I'm going to get cleaned. James, can you handle the body? Marta, you should patrol. In case anything else happens.” Giving out orders through his worsening exhaustion. Tired brain struggling to grasp the answers his lords gave while walking off.

Next morning he felt fresher after last night's deep scrub. Sleep however had slipped away from his grasp. Nightmares of being stalked just before being killed were the recent ones. Better than seeing that fleshy creep at the school. Trying to stay optimistic in his zoned out brain. Zoning back he took in that he was looking out the front window of the grand hall. What was I doing before?… Oh yeah. Seeing that fleck of gold on the horizon. Val, in her usual spot in the mornings.

“Sir, you doing alright?” John approached Blake, who didn't look too well.

“Yeah, brains just been buzzing with all the stuff I have to do. worrying about what's going on in here… what's out there.” Tipping his head up.

John followed his gaze, giving a hum of understanding when spotting Val. “You dealt with them before, right? What do you plan to do with them?”

He sighed. “I don't know.”

“Going to kill them?”

Dull and tired, he was open to suggestions. “Should I?” Swallowing in regret of his question. “ I… I didn't mean that.”

“Hm, most people would. Why don't you?”

“... I don't know. Willing to look away from a lot of things already? I've read a lot of notes left by people. Some from … I wasn't there, but I read what happened. The children cull, the suicides, the guilt everyone admitted too but had no one to turn too. Knoth swept it under the rug as sins or else marked them traitors for death. How much of it was them or how much of it was Knoth's crushing choke hold? Would this town have gone so crazy if someone else stepped up?”

“Like you are?”

“Maybe… I guess. I'm not a leader, I couldn't even save one person.”

“You helped all those in quarantine.”

“That's different.” Looking down at the ring on his finger.

“Ah… I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of us didn't want this to happen. We tried to make things better, help each other, while some- I can't say what they wanted. Nightmares gripped us in every waking moment. Knoth always told us it was our sins finding us and maybe it was? Could say it was us feeling guilt for all that we've done. I like to think of it as showing we still have a conscience left in us, despite everything. Some of us who committed the cruelest things wished we really hadn't… Marta was one of those and I'm sure there are others. For all those who show regret, will you forgive them?”

“Hard to say. Some of the things Knoth supported I can't ignore. I'll have to deal with those too if they start showing up again.” He sighed. “If they really do regret what they've done and change for the better. Then I have nothing to go after them for.”

“I'm willing to help and I'm sure many others are too.”

“Thanks John.”