River shuddered with sudden understanding.
“This is a ceremony to pass on… everything”, he said under his breath. “So that means…”
“Is everything alright? Is there something wrong with the book?” Vanessa nervously fidgeted, the wrinkles around her forehead growing deeper with her worried frown.
“Vanessa, you’re an angel. You gave us exactly what we needed.” River clapped the book shut. “I’ll have to beg you to not say a single word about this book to anyone. Don’t let anyone else know it exists, who wrote it, and what’s written inside.”
Just to be safe, he hid the book under his clothes as he quickly ran outside with Aspen. Only in the security of their room did River dare to talk.
“Body!” He was shouting, hitting his forehead. “Why am I so dumb! All of the ritual parts were passing on things, why did I think the last part was a foreign container?! The container is us! It’s the ones completing the ritual! We are the boy!”
“And the girl is the body. Okay, so far I get it. What does that tell us about who it is, though?” Aspen quickly grabbed River’s hands to stop the others from hitting himself.
“Well, who is the one gathering all the knowledge? Who puts it together? I thought that since this was a cult, there’d be some corruption and power thing going on, but that’s wrong. All of the staff here is fully immersed in the story. Including Miles. The leader gathers everything into themself, and then they hand it over to the next leader. This is a ritual to pass on the leadership of the cult through the death of the previous one!”
It formed a cycle, going on forever.
When it was time, the leader of the cult would prepare the ritual – the ritual for their own death.
The obvious hints and ritual gatherings were an invitation. It was a test to find the next suitable leader, someone who was willing to investigate and learn even in the face of danger.
The Gamblers had only said what their goal was, and that each group had one. They didn’t say that this meant both sides had a different task.
Only one person could kill Miles and become the next leader.
“Aspen, I need your help.” After putting the book below his bed’s mattress, River turned to grab Aspen’s hands into his.
The other’s eyes were full of warmth. He did not need to say a word before River already knew what he would respond. Still, the words were sweet as they wrapped around his heart. “And you will get it, always. Whatever it is – leave it to me. You have your task, and I have mine.”
“We have to act well for the rest of the day. Be stressed and nervous. Headless chickens, after all. We know nothing until the evening. Then I need you to wreak havoc.”
“What a span are we talking about?”
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.
“Zfrr fnfgsatlcu eq. Xfa atf qfbqif tfgf ab ibmx sbe jcv Cmbgc jr kfii jr Ujqsger jkjs. Ktfs klii-” Elnfg qjerfv, tlr mtfra alutafclcu. “Ktfs klii tega sbe.”
“Dea kbc’a xlii wf. C mbeqif bo tbegr, P’ii fcvegf obg sbe. Tbe cffv er ab yf jkjs ab wbnf ogffis.”
“I can’t risk one of them following me when I go for the ritual. Will you be okay?”
Aspen smiled, that cheeky smile of his that showed his canines. “I’ve not been okay for years. Now I’m okay, and I’ll be okay even if they hurt me.”
River opened his mouth, then closed it. He pulled their intertwined hands up and leaned his forehead against them.
For a moment, everything was peace and quiet.
“Thank you”, he whispered. “Losing this game…”
“Is not an option. Off to war we go, River. We will make actors of ourselves yet, you’ll see!”
“Yes.”
Although he couldn’t describe his mood as cheerful, River felt much better seeing that grin on his partner’s face.
The hours ticked away sluggishly. Most families, who shared a room, didn’t leave their floor at all, while others stayed out to form groups for security.
It was a while after dinner, but still before people would retreat to their rooms that River excused himself from Aspen and some others by saying he was feeling nauseous and wanted to lie down early.
No one could tell how loudly his heart was beating as he left behind Aspen to hide inside their room, sitting on the edge of the bed and waiting, waiting, waiting… Hoping that Aspen would do things right.
The hammering sounds at his door came about an hour later.
“What’s wrong?”
River tried his best to appear surprised at the heavily wheezing man in front of him.
“Your boyfriend-” The man swallowed heavily, then decided to just drag River along instead of explaining.
The room was half destroyed, with bookshelves toppled. There were five people attempting to pull Acorn, papyrus and Aspen away from each other, but the smallest of them all fought like a honeybadger, ferocity distorting his face.
“Don’t even think about pushing it all on me!” Aspen was howling, his voice cutting through the room. “If I go down, you go down with me!”
“Aspen!” River faked a shocked exclamation, causing others to hold him back before he could rush over. Confused, he struggled, facing them. “What’s going on!”
One of Papyrus’ punches landed right on Aspen’s face. Half a second long everything lagged, then it escalated worse as Aspen pounced forward. Angry shouts, panicked screams, and finally, several people dragged out everyone else and closed the door. Another came running with keys, trembling hands locking it up as from inside, enraged shouts demanded to be let out, the door shaking in its hinges.
River let himself hang loose in the arms of the one who had pulled him out.
“Why are you locking them up?” His voice was a whisper, his face pale not with shock but with genuine worry over Aspen, who now could not escape. Necessary it might be, but that didn’t make it any less terrible for him.
“River, your boyfriend, he… Did you know that he-” The man struggled to force out the words, which was not made easier by the violent pounding at the door in front of them.
Arms tugged and pulled again, away from it, away and into the elevator which would bring them to another floor where it was quiet.
“They were a team”, someone finally managed to reveal to River. “They… were the ones hurting everyone.”
“You’re lying.” The conviction in River’s voice didn’t have to be faked. “Or misunderstanding.”
“He admitted it himself. Stormed into the room. They were… Acorn and Papyrus, they wanted you to be the target for tonight, because they believed Aspen was related to Soot’s disappearance and so it was a sort of revenge. Aspen found out, that’s why he…”
“No. Bullshit.” River shook his head so hard that it made him dizzy. “Look at them. Okay, Papyrus is tall and scary, but he’s not a bad guy. And Acorn? Aspen? How would they ever hurt someone! You’re misunderstanding!”
There was a vigilant tension in the bodies of the people around him that relaxed with every word.
River’s eyes were tearing up. He bit his lip, refusing to acknowledge what they were saying.
“You can’t keep them locked up!”
“Look, we…” Someone else spoke up. “We would see it tomorrow, right? Let’s say they’re innocent, then by tomorrow – when we can all leave – nothing will have happened, and they too will be fine. It’s just tonight. Only a few hours, basically. That’s fine, isn’t it?”
Hesitation crept into River’s resistance.
“Go to sleep, River. When you wake up, we will let them out together.”
They all smiled.
There would be someone downstairs all night. There’d be several people, just sitting in front of the locked door and watching, and if River came to them, he would be locked in as well.
But he had no intention of doing that, for there was somewhere else he had to do.
“Just a few hours…” He repeated the words as a reassurance. “You’re… right. It’s just a few hours. You’ll see that you misunderstood.”
Someone patted his back.
River lowered his eyes to the ground, and tried not to think about how long those hours could be, what the revenge for what he had done to Soot would look like.
If the day had been sluggish, at least he had been able to calm himself by running around. Now he was waiting, even worse than before, because now every tick of the clock had him wince with phantom pain.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, he got up again.
Many things could go wrong right at this minute, but he knew that everyone would be hiding away, even if they heard a door open.
There was no staff wandering the halls as he walked up the stairs, one step at a time, through the darkness.
The seventh floor was unlocked, the door staying open just a bit, and it swung away without a sound.
There was no one in the area. Not a single guard or anyone else.
River approached the backside of the room he was in, where he had found the hidden door.
It stood tall in front of him, and thick.
But now was the time to open it.
So curious!!! The climax is getting interesting!!!