"Where am I?" Ruby asked again.
"Welcome to the hunter's dream," the old man said. "This will be your new home - for now. I am Gehrman-"
"What dream?!" Ruby interrupted. Her face contorted with frustration and distress. The skin on her cheeks and ears went red just like her eyelids had done when she was crying. Her chest expanded and deflated rapidly. She was hyperventilating again. Her mind was in a frenzy of negative thoughts and emotions. She would be a beacon for Grimm with the mental state she was in. Luckily for her, Grimm only resided on Remnant.
This is Remnant, Ruby thought to herself. She wanted to believe herself. She knew she was lying.
"The hunter's dream," the old man said again, "of course." His chapped and peeling lips pressed into a flat smile. "I'm a friend to you hunters," he continued. He placed a wrinkled hand on a wheel holding up his chair and push back on it. The wheel slowly rolled and slightly turned his chair, so their shoulders were square to each other. He tilted his head upwards to see Ruby better. His eyes peeked from under the brim of his hat as they scanned her. She was young, yes, a kid indeed. But there had been others like her to awake in the dream many times before. Some were even elderly like Gehrman himself, but every one of them had gotten the same introduction and job.
Ruby's trembling frown turned into a pout and felt the tears running again. Gehrman's smile slightly faltered but persisted in the end. Many times before he had seen new hunters break down and cry. Some refused to move at all and stayed within the old building, practically living in it as Gehrman had. They were gone now, and none of it mattered. Now Ruby was here to carry on the hunter's duty.
Gehrman said, placing both of his hands on a cane he had between his knees, that only know Ruby noticed, "I see you're in a fine haze about now, but don't think too hard about this." His smile turned into a toothy grin. "Just go out and kill a few beasts."
Beasts? The only one here is you, Ruby wanted to say, but she couldn't, whatever word that failed to come out of her throat was broken down into sobs. She took a step back, staring at Gehrman as if he was a madman. He was a madman. Living here took a toll on his mind. It would surely take one on her mentality too if she stuck around this place. Ruby stepped back and fell. She sat on the floor with her legs crossed as the salty tears stopped flowing and her breathing steadied. She wiped her face with the cuff of her dirtied sleeve.
"Have you gathered yourself?" Gehrman asked as sweetly as an old man could. Ruby only exhaled. "Good," Gehrman said, "Now awake back in Yharnam to begin your hunt. It's for your own good. Oh-" Gehrman interrupted himself. He placed a foot on the wooden floor of the cabin. Not a foot, Ruby realized as she looked, but instead a wooden peg. He was missing a foot and had a prosthetic to replace it. He tapped the wood stub twice against the floor. How could he move his legs while he was in a wheelchair? Why was he in a wheelchair if he could move his legs? In response to his taps, two grey homunculi, both about knee-height, limped out from behind Gehrman's chair, dragging one object each with them. She recognized them as the ones that found her in the clinic.
One had a gun in its arms. It was a pistol. The handle was wrapped in cloth. The wood frame held a large cylindrical barrel that flared at the muzzle. The receiver was big, intended for bullets of a larger calibre. The other dragged a large axe. The blade was shaped in a half-moon and was about as wide as a dinner platter. The handle was about as long as half of her arm span and curved off. Both were big in comparison to Ruby. Her hands were tiny. There was no way she would be able to wield these two properly. (Especially at the same time.)
"A gift," Gehrman beamed. "Unless you'd like to slay beasts with your bare hands." Gehrman chuckled.
A tad discouraged by the ugly complexion of both humanoid creatures, Ruby accepted the weapons given to her. She took them and held them - pistol in the left hand and axe in the right. The two weapons were surprisingly light. She had half expected to be lifting heavy weights.
"Word of advice," said Gehrman, "they work best in tandem."
What's that supposed to mean? Ruby took a step back, having a few test swings with the axe. It swung beautifully. The handling was easy if you'd wanted to hack at an enemy continuously. The gun didn't have any sights to aim down; she figured it was more of a close quarters weapon. She was half tempted at turning the gifts on their giver, thinking how easy it would be to slice Gehrman into two. What if he was her only way out of this dream though? Maybe she'll save that option for a last resort.
While she swung again and again, an argument with herself brewed in her mind. Should she listen and partake in this hunt? Or stay here with Gehrman and the doll she had laid eyes on before coming in?
"When will I get to go home?" Ruby asked with desperation in her eyes. She didn't look at the old man. Instead, she inspected the axe closer, examining her sad reflection on the blade.
"In time, dear. For now, you have a duty."
"I want to go home now." Ruby hadn't realized that the end of her demand turned out more venomous than intended. She couldn't help it. Her voice was going with all the sobbing she had done before.
"I'm afraid you can't," Gehrman replied, noticeably growing annoyed, "the hunt awaits."
The hunt. The Hunt. This event that Gehrman speaks of. Most likely the slaying of the monsters that resided in Yharnam, like the one she saw - was torn to bits by - in the clinic. She made the connection of what she had to do to what she did back in Remnant. Kill monsters that is. These beasts couldn't be too different from the creatures of Grimm. She had been a hunter already, anyway. She trained in a school to do this. Maybe this nightmare was a reflection of what she chose to be in life. Ruby hoped that was the case.
"I'll do it." Ruby declared with a depressed tone in her fading voice. "But I want answers when I see you again." Even while she said this to her feet and the floor, she could feel a sick smile etch into Gehrman's face.
"The tombstones outside will guide you back to Yharnam," Gehrman instructed, "all you need is to close your eyes and place your hand on the lantern, and you'll be where you're needed. It's the same for coming back - in case you need a rest."
Ruby silently nodded. She backed out of the house and looked at the row of graves lining the stone stairs. One, the one at the bottom of the stairs, had a lantern in front of it, lit with a soft purple flame flickering behind the glass caging it. She stepped down each marble step. Looming dread was pulling at her heart. She'd be in hell without her teammates to support her in any way.
She knelt in front of the lantern and the tombstone and peered into the flame. She did as she had been told, closing her eyes and touching the lantern with the hand she clutched her pistol in.
At first, she felt nothing. Ruby shut her eyes tighter, then felt a sudden change in atmosphere. The air around her was dirtier, as she could feel particles of dust enter through her nostrils. There was a faint echo of crunching and a horrible squelching noise. Heavy breathing could be heard in between the sequences of masticating and loud swallowing.
Ruby opened her eyes and saw cabinets of medicine and hospital beds and stands and wheeled treys. She was back in the dark clinic, kneeling. The girl stood and took a deep breath. It was just like fighting a beowolf, she thought to herself. She stood and walked down the long, dim room, minding her feet as she slowly went. A light came into view, and so did the beast. It was still feeding as if it hadn't been disturbed before, and Ruby didn't see her corpse. She thought this was peculiar. She had died there, yes, and taken to the dream in which Gehrman lived. Everything, she saw, was the same. There had been no tables knocked over or bloodstains where she had been eaten. She was never in the place before; it seemed.
Ruby raised the old pistol and aligned the muzzle with the beast's rear. It was facing away from her, eating corpses of what was likely sick patients and nurses. It was an obstacle blocking the doorway out of here, and Ruby would soon overcome it. She cocked the hammer back and squeezed the trigger. The pin struck the hind of the bullet, and it fired. The gun kicked, quite painfully, and almost sprained her wrist. She blinked and flinched as fire forced the silver projectile out of the barrel and buried it in the beast's thigh.
It barely reacted to being shot. It bled, but it only seemed like it had gotten angry. It craned its head and stared at Ruby with shining eyes. Its fanged teeth, stained and dripping with blood, were bared, ready to tear into Ruby like it had done the first time.
The girl's eyes widened. She shot it, shouldn't it be mortally wounded at least? Instead, it completely shrugged it off and found a new meal. She had no other bullets, just the one in the receiver. The beast shifted its wolf body (which also had some human characteristics in its figure, Ruby noticed) toward the young huntress. It growled from its throat and opened its mouth further.
Ruby tightened her hand around the iron grip of the axe and raised it back above her right shoulder. The lycanthrope stepped back. The flexing muscles made its bullet wound bleed further. Its whole body tilted shifted its weight onto its hind legs. Ruby recognized these actions like it was a beowolf ready to attack. Ruby furrowed her eyebrows together and pressed her feet firmly onto the floor and bent her knees.
It lunged forward, swiping a claw sideways at Ruby. Ruby dodged, taking a quick step aside and brought the axe down. The axe head buried itself in the beast's shoulder, and the hideous creature howled in pain as it did so. Ruby unlodged her weapon from the beast's shattered bone and sliced flesh. The beast swung again, and Ruby grunted and jumped back, nearly stumbling over a bed. While the beast was regaining its composure, Ruby lunged and chopped the wolf again, this time, hewing into its neck. It was pinned under her axe, so Ruby finished it with one more strike, lopping off the monster's head. She howled in a bloody rage as she did so.
Her first beast - slain.
She steadied her gasping and caught her breath. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and damp patches formed on her clothes under her pits and on her back. She was physically drained after that short clash, but she managed. Not having her aura was going to affect her way of combat. The headless beast lay, dead and bleeding. She even chopped it again to make sure it was dead. It was.
Ruby, huffing, stepped over the hairy corpse and through the doorway that was once guarded. She left a trail of bloody shoe prints as she approached a new set of stairs, this time, one that led outside. She climbed them, and past a pair of doors already opened; she was met with a cool summer's evening and a scent of burning wood and fur.
She was in a courtyard now — a relatively small one, with gravestones lining the path to a gate. Ruby coughed at the sudden change of atmosphere. She'd rather breathe in the dust in the clinic than constantly smell the beastly scent of the air.
Approaching the barred gate, she saw a great bridge behind it, far off in the distance over a valley. She pushed open the heavy gate, having to use all the strength she could muster in her small body. Once she was out of the clinic courtyard, she gazed upon stone buildings stacked upon one another. The pointed roofs of distant buildings resemble spears poking out of the ground. Around her were abandoned carriages littered on the street, as well as iron sarcophagi chained, so the dead don't come out walking. A metal fence lined the edge of the street she was on so no one would fall into the valley below.
Ruby imagined how this great city expanded so fast, resulting in its crowded-looking state. She had heard of cities like this back on Remnant. Towns built in walls so no Grimm would wander in. But those towns would grow more substantial, and settlements can only expand so much before bulging out of its confines. Eventually, they'd be built on top of itself. That's how she imagined this city, Yharnam, came to be.
Ruby swallowed the rising lump in her throat and stepped out of the courtyard, lugging her oversized weapons below her slumped shoulders. Walking up the inclining street with a rotting horse, to which she held her breath near, Ruby noticed several gleams on the ground near a man's unmoving corpse. Bullets, she figured, since they were scattered around a rifle laying just next to the body. Ruby knelt and placed her weapons down. She picked the silver bullets from the ground and the man's pockets and placed them in her own. Looting a corpse and disrespecting the dead was against her beliefs, and she was disgusted with herself as she did, but she needed them more than he did.
She carried on after reloading her pistol. The road forked, the right trail was gated and led further into the city. Two continuous lines of parallel walls lined the street. This way unnerved her. She wished for someone to be there with her. Anyone. She missed them all. Her team, her family and friends. Hell, she even missed Torchwick. Being trapped in this city would be the tiniest bit better if Roman was there. (Though not by a lot, she presumed.)
The left path led to a dead end a short walk down. This way had something the other one didn't, though: a person, standing and staring off into the valley. She perked up upon laying eyes on him, somewhat out of fear and somewhat out of surprise. Another hunter, Ruby thought, or at least a citizen partaking in this hunt. He was dressed like she was, in dirty clothes, but he wore a black coat and hat. He held a torch in one hand, holding it above his head, and an axe in the other. His axe wasn't like hers, it was smaller, meant for cutting logs for the fire. Or at least she thought. The head was unusually large for a wood-splitting axe.
Ruby tread lightly as she approached him past another unmoving carriage. He just stood there, in front of the fence, staring into the valley and at the other section of the city across the steep drop. She held her pistol in a way where she was ready to gun him down if he was a threat. She stepped closer and called Hello! His hatted head jerk and faced Ruby, startling the girl. The man's face was what she could describe as a mix between beast and man. His face was hairy, not a beard and 'stache type of hairy. It was a type of hairy like he was a werewolf and stopped mid-transformation. His eyes, yellowed and with torn irises, glared daggers into Ruby's soul. She had gasped once she saw his face. He shouted, screamed at her, "Beast!"
Her? Was she the beast? Ruby wanted to turn around to check if there was another lycanthrope behind her. She repressed the feeling inside her that she was being called a beast. No, that can't be. Ruby was just a girl, still in school.
"What?" Ruby asked, timidly. He began shuffling toward her, dragging his own axe behind him. He had his teeth, chipped and rotting, bared as he advanced on her. He was deranged, as told by his twitchy and unsteady eyes. "Hey!" she exclaimed as she dodged a downward strike against her. The tip of his axe blade dented as it made hard contact with the brick road.
"You plague-ridden rat!" he roared, thrusting the burning head of his torch at Ruby's chest, which she managed to dodge by stepping back again.
"Stop!" Ruby pleaded, "I'm a hunter!" she tried to reason, to no avail. He was dead set on killing her. Ruby was a warrior. She specialized in killing things, as her mother and father and uncle did. She was taught to kill Grimm, and beasts on this occasion, but another person? No, not another person, he was going mad. Maybe even turning into a beast himself. Gods, is this how they're made?
The man tried chopping at Ruby again. She reacted just in time, shooting the man in the chest and staggering him. There was a massive hole in his torso, under his heart. He had gasped and struggled to make any sound as he dropped onto his knees and unhanded his axe. The next decision Ruby made was a split-second one. She took a turn at attacking him. She didn't mean to, it was just out of reflex. Gehrman's words echoed in her mind. They work best in tandem. Ruby knew what he meant now.
The axe had dug itself halfway down his body, almost splitting the madman in two. His head was on one shoulder and his other was disconnected with the other. Ruby realized what she did; she had killed him. As the man slumped back, dead, the young girl let go of her weapon's handle and dropped the pistol. She covered her mouth with both hands, containing her urge to throw up and swallowing her puke.
Her heart raced and the panic set in again. He's dead! I killed him! She screamed in her head. But it was in my own defence! Plus, he was crazy! It was him or me!
Tears flowed down her cheeks again. Sobs escaped from between her teeth as she shut her eyes so she couldn't see what she had done. She held her stomach and bent over. I feel sick.
She dried her face and stifled her cries. She had to do it for her own safety. She looked over at his corpse in a bloody pool on the street under the evening sun. The axe handle was sticking up like a slanted flagpole in the ground. Ruby grabbed hold of it with both hands and tugged. It was stuck good. She heaved with her legs. Her head was facing towards the valley so she wouldn't witness herself defile this corpse. She tried remembering the good things, like how her sister once beat up a few bullies while she was in first grade, or how her mother, Summer, baked her favourite types of cookies. Those thoughts only made her miss home even more.
Like the axe handle had given in to the pressure and broke, Ruby was tossed back and had landed on her butt. She looked and saw that the axe handle had not broke, but instead extended. It was long now, longer than her entire height. It looked like Crescent Rose but with a stubby blade. She could wield it more effectively now, she thought. She gave it another try to pull her axe free. She had to step on his body to get better leverage. She didn't like one bit of it, but eventually, she got it free.
Finally.
She picked up her pistol and secured it under her belt and walked to the side, not daring to look at the man she had killed and defiled any longer. She just wanted to get away from this place before she broke down again. She moved off the street and onto a doorstep of a building with her, now longer, axe in her hands. She banged on the wooden door. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone in here?!" She held her breath and pressed her ear on the door. Nobody answered.
Ruby stepped back. She thought about busting a window open and climbing through. But that would attract more beasts. Or even more deranged citizens. She could try getting past the gate blocking the other street, but what if she traps herself on that side with more blood-thirsty killers?
Ruby looked around for another way. The only directions given to her were to hunt a few beasts. She didn't want to, but appealing to the old man was probably her best bet of getting out of here. Where could she find more beasts? A lever caught her eye while she was thinking. She walked by an iron coffin standing against the building she tried to get in and looked at the lever, then up. There was a ladder crawling up the building, just out of reach. A way out - a way up. Ruby held the polearm in front of her, then collapsed the axe in its more compact form. She held it over her shoulder as she pulled the lever and lowered the ladder. She climbed up with one hand, the other holding the hunter's axe, and peeked over, scanning her new surroundings.
Nobody. Only a building, a branching path and a stick holding up a lantern. A lantern! She must be on the right trail if this was put here for her. She climbed over and approached the lantern and kneeled. She touched it and it came alive with a purple flame.
Then she heard coughing coming from the house right behind the lantern. She jumped, startled, and held the axe in front of her.
"Who's there?!" she shouted at the house, at a pair of wooden doors. There was a red lantern next to a glowing window pane left of the two doors. The candle burned incense, as told by its smoky scent. The voice spoke weakly.
"Oh," it mumbled, "you must be a hunter. And… not one from around here either."
The man speaking seemed sane, Ruby thought. With her axe still at the ready, she slowly approached the barred window, listening to his calming voice. "I'm Gilbert. A fellow outsider," he introduced. A splinter of hope beamed in Ruby. She wasn't the only stranger to this dream land.
"Do you have the, uh… The dream too?" Ruby asked.
He coughed. "I'm not sure what you're on about. But I can tell you that every day in Yharnam is a nightmare. This town is cursed."
"Cursed?" Ruby asked.
"Whatever you gain from this place, it will do more harm than good. Whatever you plan on doing, you should also plan a swift exit."
Ruby had many questions; now maybe she could get some answers. "What curse is Yharnam under?" The man took a ragged breath and wheezed.
"Don't you see? Beasts roam the streets, killing anything they see. The locals do too. They've all gone mad. The hunt changes them."
"What exactly is the hunt?"
"Don't you see?" Gilbert violently hacked. "Beasts have taken over this town. And they won't leave until every one of them has been killed off."
"And what about the beasts? What are they?"
"Beats me," Gilbert said and sniffed. "Demons, I'd say. Hounds of hell called upon Yharnam." They were both silent. Only howling echoes in the air and Gilbert's coughing was heard between the two. Ruby wanted to see him, to see what was wrong with him. Opening his door, however, would probably attract beasts, and soon both of them would be eaten. And Ruby would wake up again. In the hunter's dream.
"You're hurt," Ruby said to the window.
"Doesn't matter." Gilbert wheezed. "What afflicted me is incurable, but, this town's blood bought me time."
Blood? Blood seems to be important here. Ruby had a blood transfusion in the clinic and now this ill stranger is talking about it. Maybe this blood is why the beasts are in Yharnam. They're attracted to this blood like a starving man to food.
"The blood," Ruby said, sitting with her legs crossed in front of the window. Her weapons were laid in front of her. She had remembered what the blood minister had said to her. Paleblood.
"What's Paleblood?"
There was silence on Gilbert's end. Then a scratchy sound, as if he was rubbing at his chin. "Paleblood? Never heard of it." He took a strained breath. "If its blood you're interested in, try the Healing Church. They control all knowledge on blood ministration and all varieties of blood."
Ruby stood and dusted herself off. "And where is the Healing Church?"
"Across the valley. There's the town of the Healing Church called Cathedral Ward. And further in is the-" Gilbert wheezed and hacked. His shadow in the stained window violently jerked forward. "Cathedral Ward is the old Grand Cathedral. It's said to be the source of the blood."
"How do I get there?" Ruby checked her pistol, taking an empty casing out and inserting a fresh one.
"There's the great bridge. Heads straight to the front gate. If that doesn't work, there's always the sewers. It leads to the back entrance, Oedon Chapel." Gilbert coughed.
Ruby nodded. While she had a place to go, now, she also held a sad frown on her face. She didn't want to leave the dying man alone. "I'll come back for you," the girl stoically offered.
"Ah. You needn't complain concern yourself with me," he wheezed, "I'm of little help now and I don't think I'll be around much longer."
Ruby lowered her head. His words were clear and the last thing she could offer him was silence so he could die alone. And that's what she did as she set off. The pathway she walked on led to a street, the street that was gated. She hid behind boxes and held her breath as hunting parties of mad Yharnamites and dogs patrolled the streets. She was lucky that no dogs had sniffed her out. The smoke in the air hindered their sense of smell. She quietly stalked the locals, scoping for a way without confrontation. Her sneaking eventually led to a bonfire in the centre of the street where many Yharno's were gathered around a wolf beast that had been crucified and set alight. Besides the crackling of the large flames, and the chattering, she heard a rumbling. Ruby, utilizing her small figure, crawled under a wagon and scoped the whole gathering out.
There were fifteen of them at the very least. And one dog. There was a bridge above crossing over the street, and where the crossover was, there had been a closed gate blocking the road. The gate rumbled and shook in intervals as if something was pounding on it. Something big. Maybe it was hostile. She could somehow get that gate open and sic the monster behind it on the hunting party. But how? She'd have to run if she were to get to the gate, but even then, she'd have fifteen opponents on her tail.
Ruby saw the dog pace around the fire. It had shaggy brown fur with clumps of it missing. It looked rabid. Dust, that poor thing, Ruby thought. She covered her mouth and gasped. She imagined Zwei, her own dog, in that kind of state. The citizens of Yharnam were mad, though. The hunting dog probably didn't feel anything but boredom for not sinking their teeth into a beast for so long.
She heard footsteps beside her. She looked to see more feet, about three pairs, walk past her hiding place and join up with the others. They spoke for a short bit before going to stand near the fire. Every hunter she had come across so far was zombie-like. Dead in behaviour until something caught their attention.
She stalked for awhile. She was waiting for the right moment. The more she thought about running past every single one of them, the shakier she grew from the rising adrenaline in her body. Ruby took a few deep breaths, then scrambled out of from under the carriage. She ran as fast as she could. The axe was dragging behind her and her pistol was held snugly between her belt and hip. A few times, she tried to activate her semblance, but then remembered that she was powerless in this place. Ruby heard the Yharnamites calling out as they noticed her.
"Beast!" One shouted and the rest yelled after. A few in her way swung their axes or pitchforks as they tried to stop her in her tracks. She dodged their strikes and leapt passed the burning pile of wood underneath the crucified remains. She heard the dog bark and chase after her. She panicked. If it got to her and stopped her, she'd be as good as dead and would have to wake up in the Hunter's Dream once more.
She struck the lock that was keeping the gate shut with her axe - a flimsy metal bar - and a massive figure came stumbling forward, pushing the doors open. She managed to roll to the side, out of harm's way, but the dog wasn't so lucky. From the sudden squeal that it made, she figured that the giant fell on it and crushed its hind legs. Ruby lay on her side as she watched this creature, a very muscular humanoid, get up and prodded by the Yharnamites. It grunted and swatted their weapons away and reached out to batter them with the brick it had been carrying.
They were distracted and Ruby's gamble had paid off. Relief washed over her mind. She didn't celebrate too long. She ran through the gate with a hah! and took a sharp right after running past a tree in the dead centre of a courtyard. She ran up some stairs, putting some distance between her and the fight, and up even more, unaware of the corpses she had pasted. Those stairs led up to the bridge, where she had stopped to catch her breath. She gasped, hunched over with her hands on her knees. She ran so fast that she almost puked when she stopped.
It took a few minutes to compose herself, and when she did, she looked up and saw that the bridge she stopped on was lined with statues of people holding lanterns in various poses. The second thing the Rose girl had noticed was the blood and corpses lying around. Some were beast; others were people. The beasts were slain by a person as usually, but also the Yharnam hunters too. Slash marks and bullet holes littered their clothing. Someone had been here — a skilled hunter.
She walked along the bridge, (figuring it must've led to the Cathedral Ward after seeing the statuary) scanning around the gore left behind. For someone to kill all these things, they couldn't be human. A booming screech rung into the air. Although Ruby was scared once more, she readied her weapon. It came from further down the bridge. She could also hear the grunts of a man. Then a gunshot. Ruby carefully tread along the bridge over the Yharnam valley. The aftermath of a fight came into her view. A man, draped in a tattered black cloak and hat, stood over the corpse of a hairy giant. It was a beast. A beast! That big?! How massive do these things get?
Ruby was glad that it was dead. It meant that she didn't have to fight the antlered thing. Now all she had to worry about was the guy clad in darkness. He too had an axe; it was the same as Ruby's. His back was turned to her, but she could see the silver hair he had, and the white scarf around his neck.
"Sit creature," he mumbled to the dead giant as the girl stepped closer, "may you rest in peace…"
She stepped closer, ready to hack at him without hesitation. Then he spoke directly to her. Ruby was caught off guard. He spoke calmly and with a soft chuckle, like a sane person.
"Well-well, hunter, is it?" he asked. Ruby stood silent. She dropped the axe. Another hunter, she thought. She almost broke down crying again, relieved that she wasn't the only one fighting in Yharnam. He turned to face the girl. She was easily less than a two-thirds of his height. His black, brimmed hat covered most of his bearded face, but from where Ruby was standing, she could see the wrappings covering his eyes. Blood covered his attire.
"Who are you?" Ruby sheepishly asked.
The tall man chuckled. "Where are my manners?" He gave a polite head bow to Ruby. "Gascoigne, hunting partner to Henryk," he said.
"Ruby," she replied, "Ruby Rose. Do you… know what's going on?..." This question made him chuckle as he lifted his head into the air and looked at the Yharnam rooftops.
"There is something different in the air. This hunt isn't like those before it." He walked past Ruby, to the fenced edge to look over into the valley. How did he see, she wondered. His eyes were wrapped after all. "Men leave as hunters and return as beasts. If it moves," he continued, "you can be sure it's a beast. And even if it doesn't, well, don't take any chances." Gascoigne laughed, wildly. He threw his head back as he did so. He was a maniac, Ruby made out, just like everyone else (except Gilbert the fellow outsider.)
He stood for a bit before turning off and walking down the bridge, where he had left his trail of blood and bodies.
"Wait!" Ruby called to the man, "Is this the way to Cathedral Ward?"
Gascoigne turned, but continued to walk backwards. "Yes, but the church keeps the way locked during the hunt!" he yelled back, "Better to use those damned sewers!" He turned back and continued walking. He had visibly shuddered at the word sewers. Ruby sat, resting, figuring out what to do next. She looked down at her legs. Her clothes were stained with dirt, sweat and blood. She looked at the beast that the man has slain. Humongous, like a beowolf alpha, only thrice as big.
Like a whisper in the night, she could hear Gascoigne talking to himself.
Beasts… and beasts… and beasts and beasts…
The sweet stench of blood…
Author's note: Thanks everyone, for following and favouriting! I appreciate any reviews you give me. And I apologize for any misspellings in here as I was tired while writing it.