The Poison in our Veins, Part II

Beaten.

Xess finds himself on the floor after hitting the wall at an extraordinary speed. He immediately feels his blood boil, as he did not expect Mayu to hit him at all.

(("What the hell is her deal? I was sent flying like an insect")) Xess thinks as he struggles to get up.

As for Mayu, she approaches Xess glaring down at him with a disgusted look, showing a clear sign that her attack has not helped her calm down. "What? Did that tickle, you prick?" she speaks with a menacing voice while Xess spits blood trying to get up, "Where's that cocky attitude now, huh?" she taunts him with an ironic tone while she immediately launches a kick aimed to his stomach.

"Mayu! What's the point?" yells Cross in an attempt to calm her down. She does not listen.

When Mayu is about to hit Xess, he stops the kick with one hand forcing her to retreat the leg.

"You think you can just beat me up and I'm supposed to just take it?" says an annoyed Xess as he stands up wiping the blood from his mouth with his wrist.

"I can pretty much guess what you're mad about, but you should li—," before Xess could even finish his sentence, Mayu throws another right hand to Xess's stomach with a very aggressive look. Xess evades it and immediately throws a right hand of his own at Mayu's face. He connects cleanly, but, unlike the shot he received, his strike simply forces Mayu's face to turn a bit. Both Xess and Cross are surprised as Mayu slowly turns back to face Xess once again.

With a terrifying calm, Mayu glares back with the exact same aggression. A perplexed yet still irritated Xess thinks as he stares at the black-haired girl.

(("I can't tell if this actually did anything at all."))

Xess has no idea what to do next. Cross is frozen waiting for Mayu's reaction. The strike does seem to have had some effect, though, as some blood appears on top of Mayu's left eye. Then, she finally speaks, this time with lower tone.

"You too, huh?"

"What...?" a confused Xess replies by instinct.

"Remember this: I will kill you one day, Xess. Your actions forced me to take part in this freak show without my consent. The second you are in my cluster I will make sure I sacrifice you" she says with a deadly look to her face, paying no attention to the drop of blood falling down the side of her face.

"Is that right? You know what? The sentiment I can understand. Fair enough. But the next time you even attempt to attack me like this again, you have my word you are going to wish you had been a sacrifice," an angry Xess answers matches Mayu's tone of voice, "I did... what I did..."

Mayu glares back as she seems to listen.

"... And I am going to tell you what I told him," says Xess while pointing at Cross "you better focus on surviving this 'freak show' if you are ever going to hear me explain myself. When you do, then you might understand without me having to explain it. Until then... if you are not helping then fuck off."

Both Cross and Mayu listen as the latter keeps her violent glare.

"I don't give a damn if everyone is pissed at me," says Xess with a defiant tone. He finishes his comment with one final phrase. One he has told himself over and over as soon as all of this began, "I will survive."

Mayu does not reply to him. Small drops of blood fall on the ground from the side of her face. The look on her face suggests she is about to attack Xess at any moment. Nevertheless, the girl simply walks away towards the bedrooms while she can be seen wiping out the blood from her head , disappears into the hallway.

After a brief silence, Xess calms down and asks Cross while gently grabbing the hand he used to hit Mayu, "Say... that knock you have on your face, why was it?" Cross does not respond to Xess. He turns to look at Cross and notices him still looking down at the hallway where Mayu headed into. After waiting a few seconds, he asks again.

"Cross, you heard me?"

"What? Oh, no I wasn't listening" replies Cross as if he had been daydreaming.

"Why'd she hit you too?" asks Xess as he continues to examine his hand.

"Yeah, well..." Cross replies as if not wanting to answer and looking away towards the forest entrance. Xess, however, does not say anything to force an answer out of him.

"We were on the same cluster, she and I. A cluster of 6 like most were. Most of us got along, we had a very positive guy in Jeremiah. Rebecca and Kai were a little timid, but we got to know each other a little bit. They're nice; their stress for this situation notwithstanding. Sid was extremely quiet. Didn't speak to him at all."

Xess starts to pay more attention to Cross as speaks with a gloomy voice.

"And then there was her," says Cross as his eyes widen as she mentions her, "I don't know what it was, but she just had this giant, invisible wall around her. She felt so filled with... rage and sadness... To me it felt like I had never seen anything like it. Some of us tried but it was impossible to establish any sort of conversation with her."

Xess approaches Cross as he listens. He is tweaking his wrist around as if trying to fend off some sort of pain.

"When I approached Reese, I did it on my own. Did not consult anyone in my cluster. And when you killed him, well... she got so pissed I let you do it."

"So, another one on me, huh?" says Xess with an ironic tone.

"Not exactly," Cross chuckles, "everyone got really frightened. I felt responsible, in a way. All of a sudden you had to think of the possibility of having to kill someone you started to like. Rebecca and Kai, particularly, were absolutely terrified" says Cross with an even deeper voice of desolation.

Xess does not answer. He simply stands next to Cross who seems to explain the consequences of the first hunt. Xess does not feel that Cross is doing so to make Xess regret his actions. Simply, Cross seems to be speaking from the bottom of his heart with no filters. Alone. Sad. Traumatized...Hollowed.

"So, she hit me and took the knife I had taken from you. I heard later the target got stabbed a hundred times," says Cross.

"Damn," replies Xess while still juggling his hand slightly, "although, now that I've met her, I wouldn't put it past her."

Cross proceeds to stare at his hands for a while after his comments.

"So, you weren't there when it happened?" asks Xess.

"No, while she was stabbing her target, I was strangling mine," replies Cross, "it didn't matter how long it took me, for some reason, my target chose to never use her knife on me."

"I see" says Xess once again in a serious tone, as he finally stops moving his wrist.

"Say... why do you think that was?" asks Cross with his eyes wondering towards the forest.

Before Xesus could say anything, they feel their Tracers vibrate signaling new information had just arrived. Both promptly check their Tracer to find out what had transpired. Xess is the first to react, "It's over then...".

Cross replies back confirming Xess's thought, "So it seems... all targets have been killed."

After Cross mentions this, Xess notices a name among the successful cluster of the second hunt.

"Alexandra..."

"It seems you and I know one of the successful ones" says Cross while staring at the results on his Tracer.

"Sid, right?" asks Xess.

Cross does not answer, confirming Xess's question was accurate.

"Do you know anything about this "Dantes"?" asks Xess again, curious about the other successful hunter.

"Nope" replies Cross before asking Xess a question as well, "Say, do you mind coming with me to the hill at the forest entrance? There is something you should see."

A confused Xess does not answer.

"Last time you passed sometime after Reese, right? Mayu did as well, now that I recall" says Cross as he closes his Tracer and turns to Xess.

"I don't remember much after, so, yeah probably" replies Xess as if trying to remember.

"Okay. Come with me, then. I believe it is important" says Cross with a very serious tone as he walks towards the white door leading out to the forest. Xess follows him in a very silent walk where he is unsure as to what Cross wants to show him. Once outside the door, at the edge of the forest, the Sun is starting to set on the horizon with a breeze slightly moving the trees that stand in front. The way into the forest is a slight slope going downhill, and both Xess and Cross stand here without saying a word to each other for what it felt like several long minutes. Xess notices that Cross has not let his sight away from the downhill trees that lead into the forest. Then, Cross speaks.

"It should be any moment now" says Cross with a serious tone. Xess, rather confused, simply waits for anything to happen.

Just then, seconds after, several participants of the second hunt appear at the entrance as they head back. Suddenly it became clear what Cross wanted him to see. To this understanding, Xess eyes widen as he feels an empty sensation inside. He sees the horror the returning participants show on their faces. The absolute level of despair scattered through each and every single participant walking back is shocking to him.

"Like poison running through our veins," says Cross who portrays a similar hollow expression, "these hunts will slowly take all that makes us human away... leaving only husks behind."

One by one, the participants slowly walk past both, with the latter at a loss of words. The participants look beaten. Traumatized. Soulless. The number increases and with them the bleak aura surrounding the environment.

"A true forest of hollows," says Cross as he finishes his thought, "what could drive anyone to create such a thing?"

As Cross says these words, Xess notices Kane carrying Alexandra on his back. Alexandra seems to be unconscious and Kane has several injuries to his body. Frozen, Xess does not approach them, as he simply follows the tired Kane with his sight. As Kane passes in front, he does not look at Xess at all. What could he do? What could he say? As far as everyone is concerned, Xess's actions are the main catalyst that opened the door to all of this collective reaction.

As Kane enters the facility with Alexandra on his back, Xess stays outside with Cross. One by one, the participants continue to enter. As the influx of people starts to decrease, Cross turns to Xess who has yet to say a word. Cross examines Xess's reaction closely; nevertheless, Xess slowly turns around and goes inside the facility. Cross sees him go inside and then turns back once again to watch the rest of the participants return.

"Hmm?" Cross reacts as he notices someone carrying an unconscious participant.

"Sid..."

After watching Sid get carried inside unconscious, Cross stares at his back loosing himself in thought. Something has caught Cross's attention.

...

...

...

The next day, the third hunt begins.

Chapter 06 – The Poison in our Veins, Part II: END

to be continued...