He waited for Slander and Grievance a short walk away from the castle. Jayden had texted him beforehand (using Mort's phone) to say they were close and Garnet had texted back with where he wanted to meet them. He tapped his foot impatiently, then checked the time on his phone and sidestepped. A dagger embedded itself where his left foot had been just a second before. There was a curse from above and the man in the kilt laughed good-naturedly. "I don't get what everybody has against me wearing crocs!"
Mortis and Jayden dropped before him. "They're ugly?" the bald man offered.
Mortis nodded in agreement. "The names as well. Also they're still ugly." He bent down to retrieve his knife. Shrugging, Garnet led his friends back to the castle, sneaking them in.
They were arguing in whispers behind him as he led them down the hall, trying to find Vex. "He's normally in his room or B-J's room or in the dining hall now...he doesn't really have a routine. Trust me, I know. I've spent like a week observing this sucker." Gar was pretty certain they were arguing about who would get to disembowel the target.
Dexter himself was sitting in the dining hall, discussing the idea of being best man with Ravel over the phone. After asking several times if he could help plan and being refused each time, he went back to the question of having any future children.
"No, Dexter, I don't think we plan to have any children."
"But you have to!"
"No. No I don't."
"You're going to sleep with her anyway...name the first born after me?"
"Maybe not the first born..."
"Have two children. Baby Dexter can have an older brother or sister."
"What if they're both girls?"
"Have another. If you have five and they're all girls, name the fifth Dextra."
"...You're very complicated..."
"I have my requests set out to you, Erskine. I hope to meet little Dex in a few years."
"For the record, it's unlikely I'll have any kids, very much a massive no that I'll have five."
Dexter laughed. That was when the door opened. He glanced over briefly and returned his eyes to the table top. "Think it over a bit more. Trust me. One kid can't hurt, right? Look, sorry, I have to go. Some people who want me dead just walked in."
"Some people who want you-...Dexter?!" The Adept cut off the connection and shoved his phone into his pocket. He slowly got to his feet and faced Mortis, Garnet and the man with dark skin. For the tome being, the third man posed the biggest danger. Vex had never faced this third man, but he knew he was capable of defeating just Mortis and Garnet. The three of them tried to fan out and encircle him, but as the two with hair approached, he sent two blasts at them. He grinned as Garnet burrowed away and Mortis shadow-walked. They would probably come up behind him, but the question was which behind? Would they anticipate him turning? He broke off from this train of thought as a sharp pain came shooting up from his leg. He looked down and saw a hoard of spiders swarming his ankles. He kicked at them, blasting their numbers and pausing just to send another blast towards the black man as he charged. The man was hit square in the chest and lost his balance.
"Fuck!" the blonde man suddenly shrieked as the knife blade was thrust between his ribs. Mortis laughed.
"Thanks for the distraction, Jay."
The man on the floor gave a nod and a salute before rolling over to pick himself up again. Vex staggered back, carefully trying to twist Grievance's hand off the knife. A garrote came round from behind, pulled taut around his neck. He pulled his hand away from the knife, one hand trying to pull the wire away so he could breathe, the other reaching back to aim another blast at the person choking him, who he assumed was Dorado. It was hard to keep his arms there when Mortis was twisting that knife. It was scraping bits out of his ribs now, he was sure of it. If the wire garrote wasn't where it was, he might have been screaming. As it was, he was just gurgling. The third man had wrenched his arm so that he was no longer aiming at Dorado. He tried to pull back, but the man appeared more muscular than him and he was feeling weaker by the second. The knife was wrenched from his torso and he slammed his head back. He didn't hit anything. Dorado seemed to be considerably shorter than him. Damn. The wire had moved though, so maybe Dorado had ducked. He could taste blood now and Mortis was circling him. He could see him pacing through tears now forming in his eyes as he struggled in vain against the garrote, trying to bend over to unbalance the shorter man. This time it actually worked. Garnet yelped as he was thrown over Vex's head. Blessing his good fortune, he staggered back, gasping like a fish out of water.
Mortis threw his friend off him and Garnet cursed. He hated being thrown about, he decided as he began to tunnel again. Someone walked in. Vex held out his hands, threatening to blast if he saw any sudden movement, but had to take one hand away to try and stem the flow of blood. Jayden grinned, seeing his opening and darted forward. He threw out an elbow, but Vex blocked it. This was repeated, over and over, Vex being forced back a few steps. The arm he was using as defence had been the one protecting the wound. The person who had entered started shrieking for them to stop. A fireball whizzed past the Child of the Spider's ear. It was a warning, next time his shirt would be set alight. Mortis rolled his eyes and turned to the girl at the door, jabbing Wilbur at the air. Shadows mimicked the motion, whistling towards the girl, who propelled herself up with a blast of air. The shadows chased her at the Necromancer's gentlest commands. They cut at her as she came back down, but Mortis had already realised that this was the girl Garnet had asked him not to hurt. Apparently his redheaded friend with awful dress sense had a soft spot for this girl. He stepped in her way as she went to try and help Vex, snagging her ankle and pulling her back down more violently than necessary when she tried to propel herself over him, then straddled her hips and worked on keeping her down until he could find an opening to assist Jayden.
Garnet provided that opening. He tunnelled up behind Vex and got down on all fours. As the man was forced back into him, he was knocked down onto his back. His previously white shirt was half red now. It looked pretty cool to the ginger killer. B-J was screaming for them to stop. There was no fun in that, though. He had wanted to kill that guard guy, but turned out she got to do it instead. He wanted his fun. "Mortis, can I please strike the last blow on this guy?"
Mortis froze. Vex was making no noticeable effort to get up. He was very pale and probably very weak now. "With Wilbur or your handled wire?"
"...Tough call..." As he decided, he swung a punch to Vex's face. He didn't bother looking up as Jayden lept back with a scream. B-J had set fire to his trousers. "I want to try and remove his Adam's Apple...pass me Wilbur..."
B-J grunted as the man with the ponytail forced her into the corner and kicked her. "Stay there and behave and I'll be a good little boy and not hurt you any more...well, maybe emotionally or mentally if you continue to watch." He turned. "Gar! He dead yet?"
"I think he just gurgled out his last words, yeah!"
Mortis rubbed his hands together. "Excellent." He came over, examined the disgusting lump that Garnet was still trying to cut from the victim's throat, and shook his head. "Gar, that's his entire larynx."
"It's gross..." Jayden added.
"Very educational though." Garnet mumbled. "I think I know what causes the stupid lump now..."
"Can I disembowel him now?" Slander took out a pen knife. Dorado finished cutting out the larynx and shuffled away, mumbling about needing a jar to keep it in. Slander made a 'squee' noise like a small child that had been told it could have a sweet or toy of its choice and unbuttoned the corpse's shirt. Mortis took his knife back and went back to stabbing vex between the ribs. B-J slowly edged herself back to her feet and out the door, trying to hold her tears back. She turned a corner and broke into a sprint, barrelling into her room, throwing herself onto the bed and howling out her tears.
((...Woah...Brain, what you wrote at the end there makes me sound disturbed! Or maybe it just makes Dorado and his friends sound disturbed...I found out yesterday that Dorado isn't just the name of a swordfish constellation, but also Spanish for gold/gilt...cool, huh?...I also already have a character named Gilt...Amandine, get out of this chapter note! You're already in my next chap! And now I end this message because my cat wants me to stroke her, and whenever I do, her ears give me static shocks...and if i get one when wearing earphones i hear the earphones crackle and my shift button just stopped working :/))
"Some people who want me dead just entered the room"
ReplyDeleteWell, that was an interesting way of putting it'
This was an exciting, if disgusting chapter.
And I have to read Mara's chapter before running, so byee!