“Will a hand be enough?” Aspen went down onto a crouch in front of the Deer, prodding at him.
The first few dark patches – signs of beginning livor mortis – were appearing. River quickly calculated.
It hadn’t been long since Deer died, but it would take around 12 hours until his blood would become fixed. They were currently at the end of the running round and River planned to create the trail sometime halfway into the next, so there should be no issue with time.
“Hand is fine. It just needs to smear, anyway.”
“I’ll hold on to it until the reset and then put it into the safe-room. It should be easily accessible for you there.”
Aspen got to work, smiling at the hummed reply he got. He started right at the wrist – he couldn’t exactly saw through bone with a scalpel, and even just the tendons would be an incredible hassle to cut through.
“Sorry for the uncomfortable sound effects.”
“No. It’s okay.” As River spoke, he ended up yawning. He narrowed his eyes at the night sky, finding the situation quite relaxed rather than uncomfortable.
Not that the sounds were nice, he simply found it soothing to have a minute where he could stand around and daze while Aspen was nearby, busying himself.
“As soon as the reset is done, I’ll run outside and get the keys for the third floor. I have to get upstairs and find a chance to mess with the meds that would make our patient fall asleep.”
“Got it. I’ll come along.”
This reset had everyone tense for completely different reasons.
River checked the grandfather clock to ensure that this was indeed the last try before leaving immediately.
Aspen joined a bit later – River had heard Honey and the guys shout as they noticed Aspen carrying a severed hand, but he knew the man could take care of himself.
They were back together by the time River got the key. It was unclear where exactly Honey and the guys had gone, but only Amber rushed along.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ca atlr qblca rtf vfrfgnfr ab regnlnf atlr ujwf obg tfg bearajcvlcu vfugff bo rfio-mbcagbi”, Crqfc jevlyis mbwwfcafv bc tfg. “Valii tfiqlcu fnfc joafg jii atlr. Tbe tjnf ab ulnf tfg sbeg gfrqfma obg atja.”
“P’v rjs rtf klii ifjnf atlr qijmf klat j agjewj, yea sfr. Qf rtbeiv klc atlr ujwf jcv wjxf la bea jilnf.”
Amber forced a trembling smile. Only her eyes betrayed the bad state she was in, as well as her clenched jaw. She was holding on with the determination of a drowning woman seeing land in sight. The moment she was outside she was bound to break down, but for now staying alive was her top priority.
“This is nothing but a game”, River said to her as they entered the hallways of the third floor. Amber flinched at the sight in front of her.
In the grayscale world, River blended in perfectly. Something about the fierce flicker in his eyes and the way the shallow lighting drew around the edges of his silhouette from behind…
…Made him look like he belonged here.
“Yes”, Amber croaked.
Maybe it was a game, but it was not her game to play. She could only latch onto someone who knew how to play and hope to be carried to survival.
“You two watch over the nurses for a moment. I’ll find some placebo to exchange the pills with but I want to know if they have prepared them already.”
There was a limited timeframe for River to freely enter the treatment rooms which were currently being used. Only when the nurses were gone was he allowed to enter and… interestingly enough, the shadows of the patients tied to the beds inside the treatment rooms did not react even after he made a noise.
With River being accepted as part of the setting around the patients – a mere hallucination of someone who had lost their mind, not an intruder – he could search through the medicine cabinets easily.
And the game was, after all, not too unkind. Even someone with no medical knowledge would be able to find the boxes of pills that were labeled to act as painkillers.
As long as it wasn’t poisonous and didn’t make the patient fall asleep, it was perfect.
“The nurses are preparing trays!”
Aspen’s shout had River hurry up and take out several pills. They wouldn’t know which exact tray would be delivered to whom, so they’d have to exchange all of them. Not that it mattered, the patients up here were so scared that even if they were awake, they’d not cause a hassle.
“Okay. Got it.”
All three released some of their tension through a long exhale when the exchange was done. River started rolling his shoulders, eyes glued to the moving nurses.
“Amber, do you think you can enter the room with the patient and check if everything works out? Aspen and I will go get the hand.”
“I’ll do it.”
The shakiness hadn’t vanished from Amber’s voice, but she hid her fear behind quivering eyelashes. It was better to stay inside the creepy small room than walk around with the ticking timebomb Aspen, especially after she had observed what had happened to Deer.
They waited until they were sure that Amber was inside and had given the confirmation that the patient had taken the pill.
Aspen and River made their way to the safe-room without hurry.
“Why did you want to come along? I could have gotten it myself.”
“Why not?” Defensive, River scratched his thumb.
“Hey, you won’t hear me complain.” Aspen laughed with a light heart. Minor things like this were putting him into an incredibly good mood. “I remember you being troubled with me being so talkative in the beginning. Have you gotten used to it? You talk more, too.”
“It’s not that I dislike talkative people. I simply hadn’t interacted with anyone who talked so much to me in a long time, so I didn’t know how to respond. Now I’m back into practice.”
“Hehe!”
Aspen skipped two steps forward, a wide grin on his face. He clasped his hands behind his back, peacefully humming to himself. River trailed after him.
“Ooookay, the next step is- …Huh?”
Aspen’s words stopped abruptly. River peered over the smaller guy’s shoulder into the room, wondering what had caused Aspen to freeze.
He immediately knew what it was – the hand was gone.
“Are you kidding me?” Aspen leaned back in shock, bumping into River’s chest. He turned his head up to face the easterner, whose light-gray eyes were darkened in thought behind the glasses. “Did… someone throw it out?”
“Honey.” It wasn’t even a question. “The two guys are too queasy to pick up a hand and they’re scared of us. Honey, on the other hand, has a stronger stomach. Not to mention she was pissed at you taking the Deer’s hand, right?”
“Yeah.” Aspen groaned. “Damnit. I didn’t think she’d do that. Fuck, we need a new piece!”
“Good thing he has another hand”, River joked dryly, already turning on his heel.
“Hand, hand, hand”, Aspen said with every step down the stairs. “Deer, deer, deer… Oh, what the fuck!”
Just like the hand, the corpse was gone. Their mouths open in shock, they stared at the dark patch of grass where once had been a body. Now all that was left was a trail.
“I’m going to kill her.” Irritation and insanity bubbled up within Aspen’s voice. “I’m going to fucking murder her.”
“Feel free.” River’s voice was a neutral monotone. At this point, even he couldn’t help but be irritated. Throwing out the hand – fine. But taking away the Deer’s whole body when it was part of their plan?
Honey was apparently determined to mess with his solutions at the last minute whenever she could. How infuriating.
Honey was no murderer, and neither was she used to dealing with corpses. Although she had managed to drag Deer away, she didn’t think about the very obvious trail that was left behind when a person was dragged over the grass like this.
They found her easily in a corner of the graveyard, digging a hole with her jaw set tight.
“We still need that”, Aspen growled ferally. A scalpel had slipped into his hand at some point, blade gleaming in the sunlight.
Honey jolted away, switching her grip on the shovel to use it as a weapon. You had to admit that the shovel made for an intimidating weapon, with its thin metal blade certainly able to cause considerable damage.
“That was a person”, Honey hissed back, eyes switching from Aspen to River and back. The easterner put his hands into his pockets, not intending to make a move.
Thanks for the chapter! It’s really hard to have to wait for next week, I’d categorize that as a cliffhanger !
I wish I could increase the updates but currently not QAQ
Ahah no worry. Writing such quality needs time. Plus, you have an irl life too, once per week with the assurance you won’t drop the novel is already good enough ! 😁
Someone is going to have a bad time. Rest in peace 🙏🕯.
The chapters have more and more this contrast with horror and cute~♡
Thank you for this successful Monday ^^!
Aspen is growing more attached, so he does start acting kind of adorable here and there :3 But I’m happy if the horror is good, ahaha~
It’s very good, to the point of getting confused when you think “Aspen is cute!” <— Hold a knife in his hand. X’) I admit my crime, I like psychopaths in fiction.
how could someone with such a sweet name be so irritating