Hunting
The trip remained mostly uneventful. Jaune kept following Morgan mostly in silence until they finally reached his outpost. Morgan immediately climbed up the latter to a large platform positioned next to a tree while Jaune stayed on the ground.
He took his phone back out of his pocket and looked over the unread messages Ruby had sent him. He wondered how he was actually receiving these messages when his phone was still indicating that it had no signal.
Jaune took a look through the first of a series of messages that had been sent to him since he turned off his phone. He still had no idea how it randomly came to life on him, but that one detail was quickly forgotten about as he started reading these rather strange messages. The further he read, the more difficult it became for him to believe that Ruby was the one who wrote them.
The first one was simple. A response he expected to come across.
"Don't tell me you've actually fallen for it! She's dead! Where are you!?"
The next message was a bit on the odd side.
"Oh, I get it, now..."
Jaune scrolled through the messages. Only four of them were texts. The others appeared to all be pictures she had sent to him for whatever reason.
Aside from being a bit more aggressive than usual, Jaune had no reason to believe it was not her until he started reading further down this chain of texts.
"You're gonna fuck the body, aren't you?"
Jaune blinked in confusion. He attempted to refocus his attention on the message and read over it once again just to make sure his eyes were not playing tricks on him. Surely enough, the contents of the text did not change. He scrolled down even further.
"That's why you don't want us around. You want some alone time with Pyrrha's chard corpse."
In silence, Jaune viewed the next message in this long, disturbing chain. It was a picture. The first of many. He opened the file to see his teammates Lie Ren and Nora standing in what looked like a dark boiler room. Ruby's cheerful face covered up most of the screen.
The next couple of images were the exact same thing over and over again. It was only until he got a little further in that long chain of messages did the picture begin to change. It was subtle. Jaune only noticed it after staring at the image for a little while. The same scene was being depicted but the lighting had changed. There were a few more shadows than he had seen previously.
This continued on until, once again, he found another image where the lighting had been altered again. This time, the picture was looking rather dark but everyone's postures, positioning, and expressions all stayed the same.
The only other time he noticed a change in this repetitive image was on the very last message he had received from Ruby. This time, the picture was the exact same. No surprise there. However, Jaune could not help but notice the more drastic change in lighting. The only light involved with this scene was an extremely dim lamp shining down like a spotlight over them.
Eerie shadows were cast over their faces. He almost did not recognize them. At first, Jaune did not even notice the changes in their expression. Throughout all of the prior images, they had been smiling as if nothing was wrong. A detail that creeped Jaune out given how genuine and serene they looked despite all that was going on. In this photo, however, they stared him down with predatory grins. He could see their teeth lining those enormously wide smiles.
Jaune tried to see if he could spot any other changes in this strange image but there were none that he could identify. He lowered his phone and looked out into the woods beyond. He was so absorbed into that strange experience that he failed to notice the shift in lighting that had gone on around him.
He looked up to the deer stand and guessed that Morgan had turned on a lantern or large light of some sort that was able to illuminate the surrounding area. Jaune also noticed a large black spider dangling from a web just above his head.
With a flinch, Jaune immediately stepped out of the way and over to the ladder. He placed his phone back in his pocket, knowing that while there was definitely something going on with it, he would be unable to solve it.
Jaune cautiously moved up the old creaky ladder and reached the platform above where Morgan was already relaxing on a chair up ahead. Conveniently, there was another seat available to Morgan's right.
The knight hoisted himself up and approached the chair. He felt far more comfortable once he was sitting down. The platform was a bit off. A lot of the wooden planks moved ever so slightly under his feet which did not fill him with confidence about being up here.
"Oh, so you are still alive," Morgan abruptly remarked in a hushed tone. "And here I thought you'd been dragged off by some creature of the night. Never to be seen again. Not like it hasn't happened before, ya know."
"Do you have to start saying stuff like that now of all times," Jaune snarled back. "At least have the decency to wait until we get back to the apartments."
"Keep your voice down," Morgan snapped. "You'll give away our position."
Jaune pointed to the lantern that hung from a branch just overhead. "What are you talking about," he stated in a whisper. "That light is gonna scare them off long before my voice will!"
"I left it on so you wouldn't fall on that thick noggin of yours when you'd try climbing up here," Morgan argued. "Then again, with the way you've been acting, I'd say you're no stranger to brain damage."
"At least I'm not at risk of breaking my hip every time a gust of wind comes rushing through these trees," Jaune snapped back with the first means of insulting his skeletal companion that popped into his head.
Morgan shook his skull. He was almost disappointed by the young man's lousy attempt at firing back. Instead of dignifying Jaune with a response, he changed the subject entirely. Morgan reached for a particularly shiny object sitting on a small side table to his left. It sat next to a row of spare bullets and a pair of rusty gutting knives.
"I also needed to find this," Morgan remarked as he handed the small object to Jaune. As it shined under the light, Jaune realized that the object was a key attached to a ring. He immediately swiped it out of the skeleton's hand and examined it.
"That key will grant you access to the second floor. Of course, I'm not stupid enough to accompany you any further on your journey, Little Necromancer. The most I can tell you is to watch your back. Those who bare the other keys may not always be as cooperative as I am. Oh, and the key ring is on the house. You're welcome."
"Thank you," Jaune replied with a nod of his head. "There would've been no way I would've ever found this thing if it wasn't for your help."
Morgan stood up out of his seat and began turning a knob on the base of the lantern until the light went out. Jaune could not tell if it was the sound of creaking floorboards or Morgan's bones he was hearing.
After the lantern was off, Jaune quickly turned off his flashlight and just like that, they were plunged into darkness.
They must have sat there in silence for over an hour. The forest was unbearably quiet. Jaune would have been jumping at the sound of twigs breaking if there were any such disturbances to be heard during this time, but nothing happened.
The only sounds filling Jaune's ears was that of his own breathing. There was absolutely nothing going on at his side of the platform. He glanced over at Morgan who appeared to be pretty active at the moment.
The skeleton kept his lever-action rifle in his lap while he stared off in the distance with a pair of old binoculars that he had picked up from off the floor. Several times, Jaune almost gained the courage to ask if there was any movement up ahead, but he always kept quiet. The last thing he wanted was to be yelled at for startling some unseen animal that Morgan had his empty eye sockets on.
Jaune could not quite figure out why he was still here. He had the key. That was all that he came for in the first place. He knew that simply following the trial would take him right back to the apartments. Still, he did not dare move.
He could not muster the courage to traverse those woods alone. He kept telling himself to get over this ridiculous fear and leave but he had yet to move from that spot.
Eventually, Jaune worked up the courage to move, but not stand up. He reached back into his pocket and took out his phone. He aimed the screen away from Morgan so that the light would not disturb him.
Jaune was amazed at the fact that he had only just then thought of calling that mysterious number back to see if anyone would pick up. He navigated to his call history and selected the last entry. That same unknown number that had called his phone during the walk through the woods. He promptly dialed the number and pressed the phone against his ear.
The sound of repeated ringing was a welcome break from the oppressive silence that had befallen him for the past hour or so.
The phone kept ringing. Jaune began wondering if the person on the other end had ever heard of an answering machine. More time passed. The ringing was endless. Jaune eventually hung up after becoming bored of listening to that same tone over and over again.
Another considerable amount of time marched on by before anything happened.
Just as Jaune was about to fall asleep, something broke the silence. A loud piercing howl. It was unlike any of the wild cries he had heard before. He jolted upright and listened.
It died down all too quickly for him to tell where it was coming from. All he knew was that it happened. He turned to Morgan for answers. The skeleton sat there just as quiet as Jaune for a moment before saying anything.
"Grendel," the corpse muttered. "He must be roaming around somewhere nearby. Be on your guard, boy. Let me know if you see anything suspicious."
Jaune nodded. At that point, he was once again, fully awake.
"How much do I actually need to be looking out for here," Jaune inquired. "Aside from you, Julia, and this weird guy who I think lived on the eighth floor, I haven't met any hostiles."
"You can start by staying away from that freak, Lux," Morgan insisted firmly. "If you can avoid the eighth floor, do it. If you're not entirely opposed to leaving this place entirely, then that would be my first recommendation. Also, try to stay away from Grendel unless you want to be beaten to death. Then there's that crazy woman in the basement. Don't get me started on that undead, psychopathic broad!"
Jaune waved the skeleton away dismissively. "Spooky stuff, but I'll take my chances. I'm not totally helpless out here, ya know?"
Morgan shook his head at that comment.
"Yes, you are."
Jaune ignored his comment. He quieted down for a little while and Morgan went back to focusing on the clearing up ahead. Jaune began to wonder about Morgan's hunting. The skeleton seemed so attentive on spotting potential game.
Eventually, Jaune simply had to ask for the sake of sating his own growing curiosity on the matter.
"So what do you usually hunt for out here?"
"Deer mostly," Morgan mumbled. "Not that I'm opposed to shooting the average monster that stumbles into my sights. Although, I'd think of that as being community service more than sport."
"Monsters," asked Jaune. "Are you joking?"
Morgan shrugged. "How about you go wandering through the woods for a little while and tell me if I'm joking? We aren't alone out here, boy. In fact, we're probably being watched right now."
"Doesn't that bother you? If you're right then we could be attacked at any point."
The skeleton firmly shook his skull. He then nodded toward his rifle which had probably served Morgan long before Jaune been born.
"Not really. I no longer fear the creeps and freaks that reside on the property. That's all they have, you know? Fear. If you don't give them the one thing they crave then they'll never be a threat to you. If you're going to remember anything I'm saying to you now, then let that be it."
After that one instance, the howling was not heard again. Jaune was eventually able to forget about it. He initially wanted to know more about this person, or thing, Morgan referred to as 'Grendel' but he never asked for fear that his voice would give away his position to whatever made that strange sound in the first place.
The knight almost jumped out of his seat when he heard another abrupt sound, although, this one was nowhere near as intimidating as the last.
Jaune's phone suddenly dinged, informing him that he had received a text message. The screen shined from his palm as a notification popped up. That 'ding' earned him a nasty glare from Morgan, but he ignored the skeleton as the name attached to that message was enough to give him a heart attack. Jaune saw Pyrrha's name and frantically tapped his phone.
The message pulled up with only two words. "Call me."
He searched for her number in his contacts and immediately dialed it. Jaune waited in anticipation as he heard the sound of ringing on the other end of the line. His heart was pounding as it kept on ringing.
It did not take long at all for both Jaune and Morgan to hear something in the distance. Jaune lowered his phone to confirm a growing suspicion. Surely enough, he could hear the faint ringing from another phone.
He kept listening and naturally turned to his right after realizing which direction it was coming from. He could hear a phone ringing somewhere out in the woods beyond. As he scanned his surroundings, Jaune noticed Morgan abrupt lean forward and point toward a particular area in the forest.
Jaune followed his finger with his eyes until his gaze fell upon a very small blue glow shining brightly in between two trees a good distance away from the platform.
Suddenly, the ringing stopped. Jaune moved his phone back up to his ear only to hear Pyrrha's answering machine. He hung up the phone as the automated voice read off the same number he was trying to get a hold of and called again.
During this process, Jaune noticed that the blue glow faded from view.
He called her phone once more. After a second or two, that strange blue light lit up again and he heard that faint ringing not coming from his own phone but in the same direction as that light.
He had no trouble putting two and two together. Her phone was out there. Why? Jaune did not care to reason at that moment. Acting only on impulse, he darted out of his chair and headed for the ladder.
"Idiot," Morgan snarled. "Don't go down there! The hell is wrong with you!?"
Jaune ignored him, responding only by barking out an order as he climbed down to the ground.
"Just cover me! I'll be right back!"
Morgan got up and propped his rifle against the waist-high wall of planks that lined the edges of the stand. He used his free arm to shine his flashlight down into the woods and watched as Jaune sprinted ahead.
Morgan groaned at the sight of him.
"Guess it's true what they say about blonds."
The more distance Jaune cleared from Morgan's platform, the slower he started to move. His confidence left as the light from Morgan's flashlight grew fainter.
He pulled out his sword and kept moving. The phone stopped ringing and so he simply stopped his tracks, dialed it again, and resumed his search.
It only took one repeat of this process before he reached a very small clearing. He was forced to use the light from his phone to reveal what was ahead as he so brilliantly left his flashlight back at the deer stand.
Jaune got close enough to see the phone dangling in front of him. It was not propped up on anything. It was sitting there in the air somehow at the same level as his head. He moved closer. The light of his phone quickly illuminated the object that was holding it in place.
Jaune backed away in horror at the sight of a hand wrapped around it. He held back the urge to scream as he stared at the disembodied forearm that hung by a rope from a tree branch. The arm was cut just below the elbow and left to rot there. Dried blood covered the decaying flesh. Jaune saw no sign of the rest of the body.
The phone stopped ringing, but Jaune had already confirmed its location and he could see quite clearly now that it was indeed Pyrrha's phone which was sitting in the long-dead palm of that dismembered hand.
Dark theories began cropping up in his mind. He examined the arm to see if he could determine the gender of who it belonged to but it was no use. He could barely see a thing. Jaune started to panic at the thought of that arm belonging to Pyrrha.
"No," he whispered to himself. "No… Please… No..."
He thought back to the messages Ruby had sent them. Even though her caller ID came up, there was no way she sent them. It was not in his nature, that much Jaune was sure of. He tried to rationalize this situation as well.
Somebody else must have been messing with him. Luring him out here with this twisted decoy. Jaune took another look at the phone. It was the exact same model Pyrrha had. It was virtually identical to hers but there was no way for him to know for certain.
Before Jaune had time to contemplate the grim situation any further, that blood-stained phone started ringing again. The screen lit up once more with an alert informing him of the incoming call. It came from an unknown number but it did look familiar to Jaune for some reason.
Hesitantly, he took the phone from the dismembered arm and answered the call. He held the phone up to his ear but kept it a safe distance to avoid touchy any of the old blood that stained the device.
A voice spoke up before he had the chance to say 'hello.'
"Alright, Jaune. Just like we practiced."
It was that same speech he heard a thousand times before, although, this time he was absolutely certain that Pyrrha was not the one saying it. The words were spoken by an unnaturally deep voice. A sort of tone that a person would have to strain to achieve or, more realistically, use a voice changer.
The stranger spoke slowly but Jaune could hear him clearly over the sound of random static that was being picked up somewhere in between him and the person on the other end of the line. Jaune promptly turned away from the arm just so he did not have to look at it.
"Who is this," Jaune stated firmly. Of course, he received no answer.
Jaune started hearing the suspicious sound of rustling leaves the moment he turned his back. In fact, he heard it all around him. He saw shadows moving along the trees out of the corner of his eye, but he was far too focused on the phone call to care.
"Shield up. Keep your grip tight."
Before Jaune could ask that same question again, he heard a gunshot shatter the silence of the surrounding forest. Jaune felt a gust of wind against his cheek which was accompanied by what sounded like someone tearing a piece of paper right next to his ear.
Jaune turned around after he heard a loud crashing in the leaves. He stared down at a dead body. A person that had been standing directly behind him. The stranger was lying flat on their back. They stayed motionless. Not even twitching.
Suddenly, Jaune spotted anywhere between six to ten shady figures jumping out from behind various foliage and nearby trees and bolting off into the depths of the woods.
He had no chance to so much as get a look at any of them and he could only barely make out any details about the corpse at his feet. Of course, Jaune wasted no time trying to figure anything out. He immediately turned and sprinted back toward the light.
Jaune made his way back to Morgan at full speed. He did not so much as look back to see if he was being followed. Although, with the fact that Morgan had not fired another shot, Jaune assumed he was safe.
He slowed to a stop after his eyes locked with the skeleton above him. Only with Morgan in view did Jaune decide to look over his shoulder, but there was nobody in sight. Whoever or whatever those entities were, they did not show any interest in pursuing him.
"Still feeling confident, boy," Morgan called out to the knight below, almost mockingly. "Still intending on sticking around?"
Jaune turned to face the skeleton. He hesitated as he tried to focus on Morgan's question. "Yes," he exclaimed. "Who the hell were those guys? Did they follow us out here or something?"
"How should I know?"
"Let's just get outta here," Jaune pleaded. "There's no sense in staying here after that!"
Morgan abruptly tossed Jaune his flashlight. The boy barely managed to keep it from hitting the ground. A broken flashlight was not something Jaune wanted to deal with at the moment.
"Then go ahead," Morgan announced, much to Jaune's shock. "I'll be here for another couple of hours. I'm here to hunt and that's exactly what I'll continue to do. You know the way back. Just follow the trail and it will lead you straight back to the apartments. If you don't stray from the path then you should be fine. Turn your back on the trail and you'll find its all too easy to lose yourself in these woods."
"You're seriously going to stay out here!? I don't even know how many more of them were out there! It must have been ten or more of them that ran off when you shot the first one! They could come back!"
Morgan shrugged his shoulders carelessly. "A few monsters aren't going to scare me. Anyway, I know there's nothing I can say to convince you to just go home. You're too stubborn for that, so I'll part you with some advice. Watch your back out there, Little Necromancer."
"Is that it," Jaune asked in disappointment. "How about you tell me a shortcut to the top of the apartments!? Surely you've got some info on whatever these things are, right!?"
"Obvious advice, I know," Morgan proclaimed, completely ignoring Jaune's questions. "But you clearly needed to hear it since you were almost ambushed from behind. However, you'll find that more than vigilance, bravery will be your greatest ally. The road ahead is ruled by twisted creatures who've spent far too much of their life beyond the grave in this dreadful purgatory. Creature's that want to make your life miserable and strike fear into your very soul. Of course, I've already shown you that they can indeed be slain. So, just remember..."
The skeleton hesitated for a second or two before concluding his brief speech. He held his rifle up in the air as if he were just waiting for an excuse to use it. Whether it was a visual attempt to motivate Jaune or perhaps himself remained unclear.
"Show no fear in the face of evil!"
There was a particularly awkward pause before Morgan abruptly lowered his rifle and cleared his throat… Even though he did not have one.
"Well, carry on then," the skeleton dismissively stated. He then promptly shooed Jaune off with a wave of his hand before turning around and heading back in the direction of his chair. "I'm sure we'll meet again at some point. If you don't get brutally murdered, that is."
"Uh… thanks," Jaune hesitantly replied. With not much else left to do, he started off back down the same path that led him to this secluded area.
With his flashlight in one hand and Crocea Mors in the other, he cautiously walked through the forest. What laid in wait up ahead, Jaune could not say, but if past experiences were anything to go by, he would assume it to be nothing good.