Chapter 70

The five landed in unison down the well, the water splashing loudly as they hit the ground. Jaye made a sound of distaste at getting cold water in his boots, grimacing at the discomforting wooden support pillars that lined the edges of the water canal. Not spotting the bright blue glow of the relic, Ruby exchanged a worried glance with Jaye as she switched on her torch.

'Maybe the current carried it away.' Yang suggested, and the group trudged ahead down the waterway. They marched conspicuously down the inky black tunnels, Jaye's grip tightening on his sword as they continued into the unknown, and he felt more and more uneasy by the second.

'Oh come on, where is it?' Ruby grumbled in frustration, and Blake shrugged lazily.

'Turn off your lights and just look for the glow?' She suggested, and Ruby drew her weapon. They continued down the path for a few tense moments, before Blake broke the silence.

'There.' She said, her night vision coming in handy once more as she detected the faintest trace of light coming from a bend ahead. Ruby's face lit up (the brightest thing in the dark) as she surged forwards for the item. Jaye shot out a hand to stop her, but too late she'd run out of his reach and around the corner. Spotting the pulsing glow in the corner of her eye, Ruby surged forwards to it.

'Guys! I-!' Her shout was cut off as she caught sight of the mass before her, their glowing red eyes distinct in the dark. Crudely human shaped, limbs bent at weird angles and their masks shaped in no coincidence like skulls, the creatures turned their gazes to the small girl clutching the object of their interest. Ruby screamed as she stumbled backwards, finally finding her legs beneath her and summoning the strength to run.

'Ruby!' Yang shouted, as if woken from her state of slumber, and the group surged forward in the darkness to meet the pulsing glow that could only be Ruby and the lamp. The creatures staggered their way around the corner, thankfully incapable of traveling any faster than that, and the girl fired off a few desperate shots at the group. They hit home, the high caliber rounds doing little damage to the bunch as they continued to advance, and Jaye was suddenly struck with a feeling of dread as their mouths opened wider.

The Grimm's screams reverberated around the canal for a brief moment, before Jaye's ears rang with a high-pitched whine as his whole body went numb. He just barely managed to keep his body upright, his arms feeling like lead.

'What is this?!' Yang choked out, trying in vain to raise herself upright.

'My weapon feels…heavy.' Blake panted, hands shaking with effort as she attempted to raise her blade to the oncoming horde. Jaye yanked the pistol out from behind his back, firing a few desperate shots at the crowd of Grimm before them.

'Run!' Maria's unmistakable voice rang out from behind them. 'Now!'

Without needing more prompting, the group turned heel on the Grimm and charged down the waterway. Seeing the light of the well entrance ahead, they ran for it as fast as they could before a second shriek hit them like a pile of bricks. This time Jaye dropped to his knees mid-stride, coughing water out of his face as he dragged himself back to his feet.

'This way!' Ruby yelled, turning a corner into a longer passageway. The group following closely behind, they ran as fast as their leaden legs could carry them, passing by branching passages as they tried to outrun the horde. On either side, the branches poured out more of the Grimm as they continued to chase them, drawn by the light of the lamp, and Jaye had never been more terrified in his life. As they turned the corner, he felt a spark of hope as he spotted what was clearly the bottom of the wine cellar they'd found in the house earlier, before swearing in horror as the Grimm once more appeared as they turned. They charged for the stairs, falling to their knees as the terrible shriek rang out once again. Jaye seethed as he fought the weight that was plastered across his back, fighting his way to his feet with a lot of swearing. Grabbing ahold of the banister, Maria yelled back at the group.

'An exit!' She screamed, gesturing as hard as she could to the girls as they tried in vain to fight against the effects of the horde. Ruby crawled her way forwards to Weiss, placing her shoulder underneath the girl to try to pull her to her feet. The clattering of metal on stone shook the room as Gambol Shroud fell to the floor, and Blake's eyes went slack as she collapsed to the floor. Far too close to the fiends, she'd completely lost the will to do anything, and suddenly the bodies all made sense to Jaye. Ruby struggled to keep herself off the floor.

'Blake, get up!' She coughed, her breathing ragged, but the girl remained still, her eyes blank as the darkness as the creatures closed in on her. With the last of his strength, Jaye forced himself to his feet with a scream, running for the faunus girl draped across the floor. He seized her by the arm as the creatures shrieked at him, his legs failing him as he attempted to drag her away from them. Realizing his legs were no longer working, Jaye pulled the girl into his chest, shielding her with his body as the shimmering hands reached for their throats. He continued to drag them away with his free arm, collapsing under the weight of them both as he locked eyes with the red-clad girl crawling towards him. Ruby's hand outstretched, she watched helplessly as the long fingers descended to the two.

'BLAKE!' She screamed, a bright flash filling the room and blinding them for a moment as the Grimm shrieked once more. Only this time, it was a shriek of pain. As if the air had been lifted, Blake gasped for air as her body found the will to breathe again, and Jaye finally found the strength in his legs to move. Ignoring all else, he bundled the faunus girl under his arm as he charged for the staircase ahead of them. Weiss ran up the stairs, pounding at the metal doors above them as they refused to open.

'They're locked!' She screamed, and Yang pushed her way past the old woman by the stairwell. Even as she ran, the horrendous shriek rang out again, and Jaye fell to his knees as the leaden weight washed over his body again. He crashed to the floor with the girl under his arm, just managing to stop her head hitting the floor as he wrapped a protective arm around her. He tried feebly to drag himself across the floor once more, feeling his consciousness leaving him, and just barely made out the old woman crawling towards them. He watched as she gathered Ruby's head into her hands, just barely registering her mouth moving as the muffled sounds made their way to his numb ears. He felt his breathing slow, as if the air was thinning, and reasoned through the haze that his body was giving up on breathing. He hardly saw the girl as she raised herself off the ground, flinching away from the silver glow that erupted once more. He felt the haze clear from his mind all of a sudden and turned his head to see the ash of what seemed to have been the Grimm floating slowly down behind him. He stared at the now empty canal incredulously, before swearing again as more began to pour around the corner. Raising her fist, Yang blasted open the doors above them and pushed through, dragging Weiss up along with her. Ignoring the seemingly endless horde behind him, Jaye wrapped an arm around the faunus girl's waist once more, bundling her under his arm and running straight up the stairs without a second thought. Scrambling into the room, the 6 alighted into the bar of the Bartleby estate, and Jaye finally had the good sense to put the faunus girl down. Collapsed against the bar counter was a red-scarfed man who'd clearly drunken himself into a stupor, and Ruby ran for her uncle.

'Uncle Qrow get up!' She yelled, and the surly man shook her off his arm.

'Hey, get off me!' He said, getting slowly up off the bar stool. 'What're you doing here?'

'We're leaving you idiot!' Maria said, stamping her walking stick against the ground. 'Come on!'

Blake and Yang shepherded the old lady out the door as Ruby supported her still drunk uncle against the bar. Weiss glanced back at the open cellar doors, an idea forming slowly in her head. She exchanged glances with the boy, who immediately realized what she was doing, and began seizing bottles off the shelves. Shattering them over the cellar doors, he nodded to the girl as she conjured a glyph, casting a wave of fire into the alcohol. It caught immediately, erupting its vicinity into flames as the Grimm continued to make their way up the cellar stairs. Weiss turned back to the bunch.

'Now we can leave.' She said, and the girls grabbed the surly man as they dragged him out of the room. Qrow struggled and swore at them as they went, catching sight of the burning Grimm just before the flames licked up in front of the door. His eyes widened in shock, barely registering as the girls pulled him outside and onto the flatbed that Oscar had patched up. Revving the engine, Yang pulled away from the estate as quickly as she could without throwing them all off the wooden trailer, with Jaye following close behind. Down the road, the house continued to burn, the flames climbing higher and higher, and Jaye sincerely hoped the forest wouldn't catch fire from that. He glanced behind him as they drove, watching the plume of smoke grow ever larger as the flames raged on.

'The Apathy. They're not strong or ferocious. They drain your will to go on.' Maria explained, hunching over at the end of the trailer watching the ground move under her feet. The rest of the group had bundled themselves up on the trailer, watching the trees go by as they trundled through the woods. Oscar had the diary sat between his legs, reading it with a mixed look of awe and horror. 'Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end. He wanted to cut costs on huntsmen protection, but in order to do that he needed everyone calm. Always.'

'Managed to get two of them away from their pack.' Oscar read, cradling the diary between his fingers. 'Hike back was miserable but got the bastards in the cellar. Wife thinks I was out sealing the waterway entrance. I'll do it tomorrow and tell her the truth once these things take the edge off everyone. I'm tired.'

'The next page proves that he did.' Maria said. 'But not before the rest of the pack followed their missing pair all the way home. My guess is they made their way beneath the estate through the water tunnels, that Bartleby sealed up the next morning.'

'Poor son of a bitch.' Jaye muttered, shaking his head as he continued to ride next to the trailer. Maria heaved a quiet sigh as she took the diary back from Oscar.

'Bartleby's plan worked.' She said. 'No one was angry or sad or scared. No one was anything.'

'And now no one's left.' The boy muttered, grip tightening on the handlebars of his bike. He stared stoically at the road ahead, revving his engine to fall back in line with Yang to provide her with some company as she drove. Maria flipped the book shut with a sigh, tossing it out over the road and into the trees. It crashed quietly into the snow, half-buried, where the next snowfall would bury it completely. Thus, ending the tale of Bartleby, and their nightmare.

Weiss cleared her throat.

'I'm…sorry for what I said. About giving up.' She said, and the trailer slowed to a halt as Yang put on the brakes. She sat up in her seat, heaving a slow sigh, raising an eyebrow at Jaye who, not expecting the sudden break in their trip, was slowed to a stop much farther ahead from them, now staring back at the group with a look of utter confusion on his face.

'Me too. We can't quit until the lamp is safe.' She said, waving at the boy ahead as he swore at them, his curses carried away by the wind. Blake shook her head from where she was seated.

'It's not your fault; it was those…things.'

'I should have known.' Maria hissed. 'The signs were all there; but I'd never seen an entire settlement withered away like that. I suppose my mind just isn't what it used to be.'

'Miss Calavera?' Ruby asked, and the woman turned her robotic eyes to the girl. 'How do you know so much about the Grimm? And in the tunnels, you knew exactly what to say to make me… to make my eyes… do that. How?'

'Well isn't it obvious girl?' The old, defenseless lady chuckled, giving the lass a wry smile. Ruby raised an eyebrow at the woman, blocking out the faint curses carried to their ears from the boy far at the front.

'I had silver eyes.'

End of chapter 70