116: Knives in the Dark, Part Five

Knives in the Dark, Part Five

The self-proclaimed serial killer leaned back against the bench, tilting her head and putting forth an amused look as Neve struggled to compose herself. 

She wasn't expecting the boss of this floor to be out here, relaxing like this. 

"That move you pulled at the end was by no means bad, but I do hope you have more up your sleeve than just that. Or, are you planning on having that half-snake woman do most of the work?" 

[... She's not going to fight me here,] Neve thought, glancing at the map to make sure that the boss marker was still in the same place. [And, I doubt she's gonna say anything that I could use against her. So, there's not really a point in standing here and letting this lady get in my head, is it?] 

Making a decision then and there, Neve spun on her heel and turned to walk away. 

But before she could even take a single step, an arm wrapped around her shoulders, keeping her where she stood. 

She froze. 

With her lips hovering so close to her left ear that it sent shivers down her spine, Lia said: 

"Come on, aren't fights to the death better when both parties know each other a little? Why don't we sit down and talk." 

"I have nothing to talk to you about," Neve replied, trying hard not to show the tension in her body. 

"Really? Because there's so much I want to ask about!" She went in front of Neve then, blocking her way. "Your interests, your tastes, your hobbies, your goals, your dreams. I would like to know about it all!" 

Neve couldn't contain her confusion. It spilled out from her lips in the form of one simple question.

"Why?"

Gently, Lia placed her hands on Neve's cheeks then, drawing so close Neve was afraid she might kiss her again. 

"So I know exactly what I'm taking away from you as your life ends." Lia let go of the healer and Neve quickly took two steps back. "It's in that moment, as a person's aspirations are forever halted, as their heart stops beating permanently, that true beauty is created."

"What the hell are you talking about? You're insane." 

She giggled, shaking her head. 

The woman spread her arms wide, a murderous grin plastered onto her face. 

"Am I?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yes." 

"Neve~" She said, covering that word in a warm blanket made of affection like she enjoyed saying that name. "Look around us! Look at what has become of this world, thanks to the influence of otherworldly beings that seem to agree with me. Wouldn't you say that the evidence that I'm right is surrounding us as we speak?" 

At that moment, Neve did something she never thought she'd do, purely so that she could argue against this lunacy. 

She actually defended the Forces That Be. 

"The Unity Trials aren't about murdering each other. That's just a byproduct of how bad their design is, not part of the intent." 

"You genuinely think so?" Lia asked, walking up and removing the space between them that Neve had created earlier. "I may not be a player anymore, but I still recall a few details. The player-killing bonus, the activity points quota, the ability to pry everything another player has ever worked for from their cold, dead hands. I remember it all too well, hehe." 

"That's..." Neve swallowed, feeling smaller all of a sudden, when faced with this woman's overwhelming bloodlust. Wrapping her hands around her weapons a little more tightly, she was unable to put thoughts together as well as she usually did. "That's not..." 

"Think about it," Lia told her. "Why would I be allowed to do all of this if that wasn't the point?" 

She had a hard time rejecting that notion. 

Mainly, because she'd just spent the entirety of the last year arguing the same thing. That the Forces That Be are just sadistic freaks who really want to see humans slaughter one another. 

Only, she'd argued that position from a place of resentment. That she hated the Forces That Be and the Unity Trials, and that she wished things weren't like that. Lia, on the other hand, was arguing from a place of appreciation. She was thankful for all of that. 

It was odd, seeing all of the arguments she'd made internally in the past be presented to her, but framed in an entirely different way. One she hated and wished wasn't true. 

But, it probably was. Tamira had said it herself, after all. 

Entertainment. That was what the Forces That Be gained from all of this. That was what they'd get in exchange for granting all of these different worlds and species the power that they'd been given. 

"Besides, aren't you looking forward to it?" 

Neve froze. 

"What?" 

"I've annoyed you a fair bit, haven't I? I stabbed you... Hurt you..." She smiled, her yellow, pupilless eyes drawing Neve into them. "Aren't you looking forward to hurting me in return?" 

Her words shook Neve to her core. 

Not because she was correct about looking forward to killing Lia, but...

... Because she was indirectly correct about something else. How badly Neve wanted to end Thomas and his group. 

"Maybe the loneliness really has gotten to me," Lia said, her tone turning soft all of a sudden. "But, I am rather attracted to you, you know? Because I see it," she giggled. "I see it in your strange, dotted, blue eyes. There is a little bit of me in there. You just..." 

She stepped closer.

"Haven't fully..." 

She placed her hands on Neve's cheeks once more. 

"... given in to it." 

As Neve had feared she'd do earlier, the lady crashed her lips against Neve's. 

Only for a second, though, before pulling away with that same bloodthirsty grin on her face. 

As soon as she did, Lia put a little bit of her agility on display by crouching down and then leaping into the air, making it all the way to the roof of the building behind her and disappearing from Neve's view. 

Neve reached up and put a hand over her own chest. Her heart was beating terribly fast. The lips Lia had touched just a moment ago felt like they were on fire. 

[Whatever,] she told herself. [Whatever, whatever, whatever. Fuck all that fake philosophical bullshit. Just stay focused, clear this floor, and keep going. That's all you can do.] 

---

{Charlotte} 

Time stretched on, and on, as Charlotte waited for those healers, along with Jack's family. They weren't coming. The journalist sat next to her friend, waiting patiently for the healers t get here, confident that in a few days, this would be something she and her friend would joke about. "That one time Jack got shot in the chest by some random archer." That was all this would be. 

She was wrong.

Jack didn't make it. 

The strange poison ended his life just seconds before the healers had come back to his room with their curing potions in hand. 

And Charlotte had just spent the last couple of hours crying, as she laid in bed back home. 

Blowing her nose into a tissue, she crumpled it up and tossed it next to the last two she'd used. Those few hours, however, were all the time she'd let herself sob for. Taking deep breaths, she got up and walked over to her phone. 

It was time to act. 

Going into her inventory, she opened the note from before. 

[Yesenia, huh? The person that poison was named after.] She thought, glaring at the letters hovering in the air. [Let's see what you have to say.]  2

After pacing around her home ever since she saw Jack pass, she'd been contemplating what exactly she could do to find out who was behind what happened to him. 

If it was the Hidden Blade Guild that did it, well, that just meant that now, things were that much more personal, as she tried to uncover more information about them. And this was the best way in which she could think to do that. 

A blanket of moonlight wrapped around her shoulders, pouring in from the windows, as she sat at the edge of her bed.

Cold and angry, with hands shaking from rage, she typed this woman's number into a burner phone she'd bought off the World Shop. 

Ring, ring, ring.

Charlotte waited. Tapping her index finger against the bed, she waited and waited. 

Until someone picked up the call. 

"He-" 

Before Charlotte could even get a word out, though, a woman whispered: 

"Starlight Stadium. 12am. Tomorrow," was all she said before she hung up the phone. 

Charlotte just stared at her phone for a while, biting the insides of her cheeks. 

She had a time and a place. 

It wasn't much, but it was enough. 

[Jack...] Charlotte thought, wiping a tear away before it could fall from her eye. [I'll get to the bottom of this. I promise.] 

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