Bernkastel had - mercifully - disappeared, presumably to pursue whimsical whims of her own. Which left Will alone with the Blue Witch. Will had manged to get back to his seat and pull the stake out of his chest, but the wound in his heart had not healed. It was all so deliciously corny, it annoyed him, and it annoyed him that he was annoyed.

What ticked him off the most was that she didn't have that smile on her face.

She had been watching the game with him, saying nothing, her eyes downcast. The game had went on and on without so much as a peep from her, and at the point where Rosa and Krauss had found their (supposed)safe haven, Will found he had to say something.

'You heard everything just now, right?' he said.

The Blue Witch started a little, and then nodded quickly. She was like a child. Will sighed and stood up.

'So you heard me...calling you these things.'

Another quick series of nods.

'Yeah, well...' Truth be told, Will didn't have a clue what to say to her. To his surprise, she said it for him.

'You don't think I exist?'

'Well, that's not exactly - 'Will paused. 'Well, no.'

'So you want to kill me.'

'I wouldn't put it that way.'

'If you want to kill me, you should do it,' she said, choking up a little. 'I won't stop you.'

Will tried to think of something, anything to say, but could not. Anything he could say to comfort her were nothing but a packet of blatant lies. If there was one thing Will hated, it was lies. He paced around erratically around the table before finally sitting down again. He resumed the game.

Rudolf put the kettle on the stove, and flicked on the switch. '...Alright, black coffee coming up.'

'Thanks,' Hideyoshi said.

'Shut up.'

They both sat on the dining table across from each other, listening the to kettle bubble.

'You know, this kitchen isn't exactly what I'd call safe,' Rudolf said. 'There's windows from all sides, a staircase, and two doors. We're smack bang in a middle of a potential ambush.'

'But the coffee's going to be good.'

'Yeah,' Rudolf said, chuckling. 'The coffee's going to shine like the morning star. I just hope I don't get shot before I finish it.'

'Heh,' Hideyoshi got up from the table and strode over to the window. 'Even if we do manage to get through this...I don't know what I'll do.'

'Well, I know what I'll do.'

Hideyoshi looked at him. 'What?'

'I'd buy a house in the Carribean and stay it in forever. Maybe go for a little swim once in a while, but not too far.'

'That sounds nice.'

'It does. I could persuade Battler to come alone, if he's still willing. And if he's still alive,' Rudolf stared at the ceiling. 'I wonder how all of them are doing. Hope they aren't dead.'

'I hope so too, yeah.'

The kettle started whistling. Rudolf got up and switched stove up. He started filling the cups with warm, creamy coffee.

'Rudolf,' Hideyoshi's voice came high, alert. Rudolph put down the kettle at once.

'What is it?'

'There's someone standing outside,' Hideyoshi said, squinting into the darkness from the window.

'What! Who?'

'I...don't know...it's too dark...he or she's holding something - '

'Hideyoshi, get away from the window - '

Hideyoshi ducked just in time. A thundering gunshot, piercing through the storm, shattered the glass and flew past Rudolf's head. Rudolf immediately dropped the coffee and threw himself to the ground. Rain and wind howled through the open window, turning the kitchen into a battleground.

'What the fuck!' he shouted. 'Hideyoshi, stay down, dammit!'

'I'm staying down!'

Keeping his body arced low, Rudolf crawled towards Hideyoshi near the broken window. 'Shit. Bastard's got us pinned down.'

'That sounds bad.'

Rudolf, balancing himself on one foot, pivoted himself to the wall directly beside the window. He took a quick look outside.

He saw a shadowy figure, erect in the rain, pointing a gun. The muzzle flashed, and Rudolf whipped his head back just as the bullet chewed off several chunks of plaster near his cheek.

'Shit,' Rudolf said. 'We're fucked now, buddy.'

'We can just hide here - '

'No,' Rudolf shook his head. 'Bastard's going to come in through the door, keeping us from moving through the window. And when he starts shooting in the kitchen, we're finished. Like rats trapped in a barrel.'

'So it's not looking good.'

'Fuck it's not,' Rudolf swallowed hard, willing all his forty year-old survival instincts to guide his thoughts. 'Okay. Here's our best chance. We crawl through the back door, and escape out there.'

'But won't that take a long time?'

'You bet,' Rudolf gritted his teeth. 'He might just come in, see us crawling across the floor, and shoot us there. But if we can do it fast enough, we're golden. Now let's start.'

'We could just offer him a cup of coffee, though.' Hideyoshi said.

Rudolf stared at him. 'Are you serious? I don't have fucking time for your jokes.'

'Sorry - but I'm only half-joking. We could surrender to him.'

'Have you fucking gone soft in the head?'

'Listen, I read it in a book somewhere. In fights, you've got to remember, the opponent is as scared as you are.'

'Jesus Christ...'

'Even if he doesn't accept our surrender, we can reason with him. Like, offer him to a teriyaki dinner or something.'

'Are you goddamn serious?'

'It worked on Eva.'

'Eva's too soft for her own good. This psycho killed eight people - he's a cold-blooded piece of shit.'

'I'm going to talk to him.'

'Haven't you learned a single goddamn thing?' Rudolf hissed. 'This entire time, you haven't learnt a single thing?'

'Haven't you?' Hideyoshi retorted.

'Fuck you,' Rudolf said, getting down on the floor. 'You can stay here and talk to him all you want. I'm skedaddling.'

He crawled across the broken glass, feeling them sting his cuffs. He heard Hideyoshi move behind him.

'Don't do it, Hideyoshi,' he said without looking back. As he reached the cups, which had lay where they had fallen, he heard Hideyoshi stand up in full view of the window.

A gunshot. And a scream.

Rudolf twisted his head round. Hideyoshi was already falling, a bloody stream shooting from his chest.

'Hideyoshi! You fucking idiot!'

Hideyoshi crumpled onto the ground, still. Rudolf cast a look between him and the door, and crawled back to the window. Hideyoshi's chest was heaving up and down like a spring, and he was gritting in teeth. Blood spread out over his entire shirtfront.

'Hideyoshi! Oi, you fucker, can you hear me?'

Hideyoshi opened his eyes a tiny fraction. 'E...Ev...'

'Why the fuck did you do that for?' Rudolf rose up on his knees as high as he dared, and tore open Hideyoshi's jacket. The wound was a lot worse that it looked - it seemed like someone had punched through Hideyoshi's lungs.

'Fuck, you're fucked up. You idiot.'

'Eva...' Hideyoshi hacked out a few lollops of blood, before he was able to continue. 'Eva...was right...the roses...really do look...blue...'

'Hang on, Hideyoshi.' Rudolf tore off his own jacket and pressed it against the hole in Hideyoshi's chest, hard. It turned red in two seconds.

'I...I'm sorry...'

'Hideyoshi! Don't you fucking dare die on me, you idiotic piece of fu - '

He had strayed to close to the window. The second bullet arrived and tore through his body. Rudolf fell next to Hideyoshi, his arms sprawled out. He didn't feel any pain. He didn't even know where he was shot. All he knew was that his shirt was turning very warm and very wet. He couldn't move.

'Fu...' his words came out shakily. 'Fu - ck!'

He had fallen such that the only view he could see was that of the storm outside. The grey clouds were greyer than he had ever seen them. The rain poured down in torrents, slapping at his face like cold needles. He felt chilly.

Darkness was eating away at his eyes.

'No...' he struggled to turn over, and miraculously, his arm managed to twitch a few inches. He wasn't going to die here. Forty years, he had survived, and it would take more than a bullet to knock him off the race.

He moved his right arm, and an explosion of pain burst out along his shoulder. So that was where he had been hit, the shoulder. He would live, he had to. Using his one remaining arm and his legs, he dragged himself away from the window, and towards the door of freedom, leaving a bloody trail behind him. On the way, he snuck one last look back.

Hideyoshi was still lying in front of the window, exposed to the storm. His chest wasn't moving anymore.

Battler thought he heard gunshots, though he couldn't be sure. The storm drowned out everything.

The mansion's front door was lying wide open. After Genji had locked it earlier, some maniac had unlocked it again with a master key. Or perhaps Gohda had unlocked it, willing to take his chances out in the storm. But the door was open, everybody scattered, and the mansion was a mashful of entrances and exits. Just according to the culprit's fucking plan.

But Battler had solved the riddle.

He had poured over it for almost an hour, sitting in front of the portrait, feeling the Witch's smile as he worked alone in the dark. And he had finally figured out what the riddle wanted him to find.

He had to go outside.

He still had a chance at this.