A/N: There are a couple of things I need to address here. One being my terrible English. Honestly. I just reread what I had written so far and couldn't hold back cringing several times. I'm both sorry for that and my sudden disappearance. Which brings me to the next issue. I have the tendency to 'abandon' (but come back to after some time) fics. I've taken to writing out the entire fic before posting it, so if I find inspiration for another story in this fandom. I'm writing the entire thing first lol This one, however, is not completely finished. But I'm getting there ;)
A special thanks for my reviewers, Dr. Serpico and Asesina!
An extra long chapter for my patient readers. Enjoy!
By the time Jake got back from the kitchen, Will lay awake and shivering, seeking all the warmth the thin blankets and the fire had to offer. He was huddled in on himself and alive. Which was all Jake cared for at the moment. The fire cast an interesting glow on the awfully domestic scene, creating an alternate reality of coziness. Its illusions were easily broken by the severity of the situation though.
"I couldn't find much. It's frozen so it should still be edible." Jake said holding up a pot of beans in tomato sauce. Will nearly laughed at the irony. Here he lay, practically dying -depending on how serious his unfortunate predicament actually was- and Jake came back with beans. If he could, he would have hit him over the head with his pot of beans, but they had nothing else to eat so he kept to himself while Jake fueled the fire so he could start defrosting their food.
"It's getting colder." Will said. His eyes were focused on the fire, trying to figure out why he couldn't feel it anymore. He was half tempted to reach out and feel it, but the welcome hand on his forehead stopped him. He hadn't even registered its presence until he felt its increasing pressure.
"You're burning up." Jacob noted solemnly. He knew how to be ill, not how to help someone else who was. He left the beans to warm up while he returned to the kitchen, using all the help the cottage had to offer. So far, it was going fairly well for them, Jake observed halfheartedly. He scanned the small kitchen, opening cabinets and even breaking some doors, their hinges breaking under the pressure of the freezing cold and the sudden force of usage.
He found a cloth, stiff from the cold but useful all the same. Now he had to find running water. He thought about the water they had on their horses, though it would be frozen by now. He sought through the kitchen once more, opening various compartments until he found a few bottles of vodka. Jake smiled sadly at the well-hidden stack. He imagined a husband and his wife living here, the husband sneaking in a few bottles every once in a while. As he took one with him he was satisfied to note that it wasn't frozen. "Apparently, you are," He paused as he thought of a word, "unfreezable." He said with a grimace. He should come up with another word someday, perhaps even write his very own *dictionary. Wilhelm would want to help, Jake supposed or rather hoped. He walked back into the living room and sat down before the fire and his brother who was dozing off. Jacob stirred the beans, pleased to see the steam rising out of the pot.
"How hard can it be?" Will asked suddenly.
"What?" Jake asked genuinely confused.
"Saving all." Will sighed deeply. If Jake wasn't on high alert, he would have looked at his brother and tried to imagine his half lidded eyes were the result of contentment after another job well done rather than an incurable illness. When Jacob allowed the words of his brother to sink in, he laughed more to emphasize his disbelief. "Seriously," Wilhelm started. He opened his eyes a little more and looked with bright blue eyes towards dimming brown ones, burdened by the weight of caring for the both of them. Something he had no experience in.
"Let's start with one person at a time." He said moving briskly about. He didn't know whether to focus on his brother, their food, or the vodka. He decided to go for the vodka and uncapped it, struggling for a moment before clumsily pouring a bit onto the frozen cloth. It went slack in his hand, but it was still cold to the touch. "I'm going to lay this on your forehead. I know it smells." But at least you would stay awake so I won't have to worry about you dying all of a sudden. Jacob added to himself. The smell was strong, but if it cooled down the furnace that was Wilhelm's rising fever, the stank was well worth it.
"I actually like the smell." Will told him. Jake scoffed at his remark. Only his brother, he concluded.
"I was thinking about writing a dictionary." Jake told him as he laid the cloth on Will's forehead. He turned his attention back towards the beans, wondering if they were ready or not.
"Really? With our misplaced luck we'll end up dead, your dictionary ending with the word "fruit". No one will buy half a book." Jake looked crestfallen. He had hoped to get at least a bit of a positive reaction, not this. On a side note, Jake was relieved for Will's more coherent state of mind.
"Who says we won't finish it. We won't die at the same time." Jake tried to defend his cause. Will's wane smile went unnoticed, but it didn't falter when he replied,
"Picture this, if we do this and I die," He said calmly before continuing, "and you continue to write, who says you won't die four years later? Will you be able to write every word in existence in four years?" Will asked. "Beans, brother." He muttered, closing his eyes momentarily. He was exhausted, it was obvious, but Jake didn't want him to sleep yet. He might never wake up. Time was grinning down at them with malice, death right beside it with a patient and welcoming smile. Jake took the pot off the fire and poured half of the beans back in the can. He picked up a fork he had found earlier and forced it between his brothers icy fingers. He waited for him to hold it on his own, but the hand stayed frozen in place.
"Will." Jake called out. Wilhelm's eyes opened, but his hand stayed slack. His expression told it all. The confusion settled deep into his eyes at his name being called so sternly explained more than Jake could handle. Will couldn't feel the fork in his hand. The inox object clattered to the wooden floor causing an echo to travel the spacious room. "Move your hand." Jacob commanded quietly. He held his breath, studying his brother's face. It changed from confusion to realization and eventually horror.
"What's happening?" He asked. His breath was coming out short and shaky. When had this happened? Jake held his head. This was it, he thought. There was no way out of this. Was their happily ever after a sorrowful death forever and after? Likely. "This is normal." Will tried to comfort them both even though he was failing, despite the empty words filled with faux hope Jake smiled. Perhaps he should allow his brother to sleep, end this as quickly as possible.
No. He wouldn't let that happen. They were both going to get out of there alive and healthy, thank you very much.
"I'm going to fix this. Stay awake." Jake said determined. He got up, the beans forgotten. He stared into nothingness, allowing his mind to wander back towards the stable they had stayed in the night before. "Demon of death, I call upon you." He called out. To those standing a bit further away, Jake might have seemed brave and fearless, but if they looked carefully, they could have seen the frightened glint flickering through his eyes. He kept his gaze towards the wall. Unwavering. Wilhelm was staring at him wearily.
"Have you gone off your rocker?" Will asked in a hushed whisper. Why would one call out to a demon of all beings? Not to mention the 'death' part.
"Probably." Was Jacob's only answer. He was right out terrified by the creature that was probably enjoying its work. Jacob winced knowing it was probably swimming in a pool of self-satisfactory.
A high pitched screech alerted both brothers of the vile presence that was the demon.
"You did this." Jake accused. He pointed towards his brother. He was answered by another screech before the sound turned almost painful to listen to. It's high frequency bore through his eardrums like knifes. Poking and stabbing like folly laughter would sound disturbing. Jake had to correct himself there though, this incessant screeching was even beyond disturbing.
"You don't have the right." Jake heard his brother state from behind him. He had to reconsider his conclusion on who was more insane. "Is this what you did to the town's people? You made them ill?" Will asked. The demon was closing in now, taking awfully slow but huge steps. It made lower pitched sounds now, almost whining. Its hand reached out to Jake who stood petrified and could only watch in morbid fascination as the mangled hand drew nearer.
"Lonely." It whispered hoarsely. Jake almost missed the word if he hadn't been standing so close to it. "Death." Terrifying. Was the only thing Jacob could think of. When the demon's hand nearly touched his chest, Jacob found the strength to move. He ducked quickly, grabbing for the fork he had dropped earlier. In a seemingly effortless move he plunged it into one of the blackened eye sockets. It started screaming and backed off a few steps, tearing out the fork from its now sightless eye.
"You made it angry." Will noted, sounding only half interested. Jake merely had time to register the sleepiness of his brother's voice, his words never getting through to him before the demon threw the fork back at Jake. Time was either on their side or it was enjoying the show. In any case, Jake was feeling exceptionally lucky that the demon's aim was terribly off. The fork missed him by a meter if not more. Jacob resisted the urge to laugh, knowing the demon had been aiming at him.
"Please." Jake held up his hands, stumbling back clumsily. He crouched down next to Will, who hadn't moved an inch. "We have done you no harm, let us go." Jake pleaded. He knew that any chance they might have had, had probably flown off together with the fork the moment it touched the demon. No harm done. Jake thought sarcastically, internally scolding himself for his imprudent actions.
"You." The demon pointed at both brothers, its hand hovering in the air seemingly pointing in between them. "mean." It said. The strangely disappointed tone made Jake question whether the creature had intentionally missed him. Was it trying to make friends, thinking touch would be the only way to seal friendship? That was too absurd, Jake concluded and shook the notion away altogether. Will got ill after the demon touched him, Jake reminded himself. But why was it standing there, waiting for something to happen? It was staring at them, its head tilted in obvious confusion.
"Mean? We?" Jake snorted, unsure of how to proceed. "Look," Jake adjusted his glasses flimsily before holding out a hand in a 'wait' gesture. "tell us what you want." He told Ryuga who just stood there soundlessly.
"Vessel." His answer had not come from the demon. Jake looked around, endeavoring to connect the voice to the apparition his mind must have conjured up to compensate for the stress and strain he'd been dealing with. He soon found a girl standing in the far corner of the room. She was watching Jacob with big pleading eyes.
"I don't get it." Jacob told her. The demon turned towards the girl slowly while she grinned at Jacob in silent apology before turning her eyes towards his brother. Jacob followed her gaze, shaking his head all the while. "No no," He said to the girl. He watched the prone figure of his brother convey the impression of fading away from existence, but Jacob held on to the -possibly faulty- discernment of this being another dream and not some kind of incubus winning a battle he hadn't known he was battling in the first place. Though that wasn't completely true. Ryuga had introduced itself in a rather insolent way. Jacob couldn't contrivance around that, no, he had to figure this out fast. He focused back on the girl and bore his eyes into hers determinedly.
"The cursed traveler didn't find peace." The girl told him. The demon was standing by her side, watching her closely with its one good eye.
"Cursed traveler?" Jacob questioned. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He felt the pressing urge to turn around to see if Will was still alive, but he didn't dare to turn around. He wouldn't have seen him anyway. The world around him had dissolved into a less familiar place where he stood inside a tavern, the chill inside the spacious place ran bone-deep. "The one who drowned with the horse?" No that wasn't it. Jacob thought after he asked it out loud. How did it go? The cursed man who set free a demon, drowned with his horse and…no. That wasn't it. "A cursed traveler will come by, slay a horse and run into the river where he shall drown, unleashing an unseen destruction of ice." Jacob felt the need to question the choice of words though, 'unseen' was barely going to cover the icy landscape outside. He looked up from the spot he had been looking at on the floor, but both the demon and the girl were gone. He glanced around the tavern curiously before his vision started swimming suddenly. Before he knew what was happening, the tavern had morphed itself back into the small living room he and Will had 'claimed' for the time being. Wait. Will.
He quickly turned around, crouching down before he could even assess anything. Wilhelm's face had taken on a pale complexion with a hint of blue in his lips. His eyes were sunken and his chest was barely rising and falling. Jacob cursed quietly, drawing his hands up to his face nervously. As fast as his shaky hands could move, he took the vodka-stained washcloth and wetted it with some more vodka. The alcohol doesn't freeze, but it was all for good measure.
"Hold on, Will. I'm going to figure this out." So he sat down and watched over his brother while he thought, the can of beans forgotten.
Time passed by. Minutes felt like an eternity, but they were just seconds ticking and ticking in an ostensibly perpetual manner. Jacob had no way to discern what time it was, but it didn't matter. He knew when it was too late and he knew that it was not right now. It wasn't just about the town's people or Will anymore. To save all, Jacob had to save both the cursed traveler and the demon. He had figured out that much. So what now? Find the traveler? He had drowned. How was he going to reach a dead guy? Jacob shook his head at his own thoughts. He was going to talk to him the same way he talked to the demon. If ageless women, demons with rotting vessels and canned beans existed, why would ghosts be a myth? He looked down at his brother with a small smile. If their roles had been reversed, Will would have bolted out of the town the moment he'd gotten the chance if only to run from the truth that was…well…magic and the clear existence thereof rather than questioning the plausibility of said magic. As soon as his brother got better, he was going to make sure Will wasn't going to pass it off as one big hallucination. Or call it a deluded aberration his mind had spawned together while he was ill. Jacob snickered at the thought absentmindedly, he could already imagine it.
Jake placed his hand on his brother's cheek to check his temperature. It was still way too high. He sighed and extinguished the flame that was his rapidly failing good mood. He hoped the little time Will had spent sleeping was going to be enough for him. They needed to move fast and Jake wasn't going to sleep with his brother shuffling towards the edge of a cliff with no one standing by to keep watch to prevent him from toppling over.
So he did what he hoped was best and started shaking Wilhelm's shoulder in order to rouse him. It didn't have the desired effect at first, making him a little anxious which resulted in him shaking Will harder and more frantic.
"nnng." Will groaned. Jacob froze and sat back, watching his brother's face.
"We need to go." He told him quietly with his face almost pushed into Will's. Wilhelm opened his eyes wearily, but made no further move to try and get up neither did he yell at Jake to get out of his face. Which, in itself, should be a cause of serious concern. "I'm going to prepare the horses, don't fall asleep." He told him sternly. When were things going become like they used to?
TO BE CONTINUED