Dead By Roselight
Chapter 8: Heiress' Escape
A couple of hours earlier in the carnival. Around the time Yang and Victoria had escaped.
Weiss was running as fast as she could, hoping to get away from the sadistic killer that was after her. Because she couldn't use her Aura, she wasn't as fast as she should be. Not to mention, her stamina wasn't as great anymore either. The heiress would need to find a way to lose her pursuer or she would share the same fate as Nora and Ren.
Suddenly, a bottle flew over Weiss' head and shattered in front of her. Luckily for the white-haired girl, she immediately recognized what type of threat was ahead of her. She quickly covered her nose and mouth and held her breath, hoping to avoid breathing in any of the gas that had broken out of the bottle. Deciding not to take any risks, Weiss ran away from the cloud of gas, knowing that the poison could possibly get into her system even if she didn't breathe it in.
However, turning around meant that she would get in the range of The Clown, who had managed to catch up to her. The heiress barely managed to duck under the killer's attack, before continuing her desperate attempt to escape.
'So this guy even has some throwing weapons? This is bad,' Weiss thought to herself while running. 'This is going to make it harder for me to get away from him. Not to mention, even if I manage to find a place to hide, he might just throw those bottles around in order to smoke me out.'
The white-haired girl continued to run, until she found something. There was a lone metal locker that was put up against one of the stands. Although it was a risky gamble, Weiss opened it and hid inside it. Even if she knew that the killer could find her location simply by throwing one of his bottles of poison nearby, the white-haired girl was so out of breath that she couldn't run anymore. All she could do was go into hiding and hope that she wouldn't be found.
There were small openings in the door of the locker, which allowed Weiss to see what was happening outside. Just as she had feared, she soon saw The Clown come into view. The killer stopped and looked around, as if searching for clues to his prey's whereabouts. All the heiress could do was pray that she wouldn't get found out.
After what felt like an eternity to Weiss, The Clown seemed to finally move and actually walked away from her hideout. The white-haired girl was about to let out a sigh of relief, but unfortunately her hopes of having escaped were crushed by a bottle getting thrown on the ground in front of her hiding place. As the poisonous gas burst from the shattered bottle, Weiss quickly dashed out from the locker in the hopes of getting away from the gas. However, the poison managed to get into her, causing her to start coughing violently, along with weakening her body and putting her consciousness in a haze.
The sudden sound of sadistic laughter from behind told the heiress that her pursuer was coming after her. In her desperate haze, Weiss made her way into one of the stands and fell to the ground, forcing her to crawl away from her pursuer. The Clown was soon looming over her with a sadistic smile on his face, overjoyed by the fact that he had finally caught up to his prey. The killer himself wasn't affected by his poison, allowing him to go after Weiss with nothing obstructing him. It seemed like the heiress would meet her end, as The Clown raised up his knife for a strike.
Just when Weiss was certain that she was going to die, someone came to her rescue. From the other side of the stand she and the killer were in, someone ram themselves against the back of the stand, causing the shelves of prizes to fall over The Clown. Before the white-haired girl was able to realize what had happened, someone suddenly grabbed the back of her jacket and started to drag her away from the killer.
''If you can run, now would be a good time to do so!'' a man yelled at Weiss, causing her to look up. It was a young man in his early 20's with short black hair. He was wearing a black jacket over a white shirt, with black pants and shoes. But the one thing about him that stood out the most was his face, which had a gloomy expression. It was like this man had never smiled in his entire life. ''Now is not the time to staring at people! Get up and start moving!''
''She can't move because of The Clown's poison, Bruce!'' another man yelled. He seemed to be the same age as the one named Bruce, but he seemed like the complete opposite of the gloomy guy. This man's face was nowhere near as unfriendly as his companion's and he seemed to be rather friendly. He had short brown hair that was swept back and a rather muscular build. He was wearing a blue T-shirt, brown pants and red sneakers. ''There's no way that she can move after taking in some of that stuff! We're going to need to carry her!''
''Hmph! I knew this was going to be nothing but trouble, Clark!'' Bruce said in a frustrated tone. ''Not only do we have a killer after us now, but we're also going to be carrying her around, which will slow us down!''
''Oh, quit whining for once in your life and do something nice for a change!'' Clark said in response to his companions complaints, as he went to pick up Weiss. ''Sorry about this, miss, but we are in quite the hurry!''
''What the-!? Wait a second! What do you think you're-!?'' Weiss cried out in embarrassment from getting suddenly carried by an unknown man. She quickly stopped her complaints, however, as she saw that The Clown was making his way from underneath the shelves of carnival prizes that was dropped on him. ''Actually, never mind. Just please get me out of here.''
''Got that!'' the man carrying the heiress responded with a big smile.
The group of three was quickly making it's way away from the killer. In fact, it seemed like thanks to what Weiss' saviors did to The Clown, they had managed to shake off the killer.
''Hey, Clark. I haven't heard the second siren's sound yet,'' Bruce suddenly told his companion. ''Do you think Ellis might have betrayed us? He didn't exactly seem all that thrilled to be working with us.''
''Bruce, you really need to work on that attitude of yours,'' Clark replied with a frown. ''Besides, we all agreed on the plan. There's no reason for him to betray us.''
''You're too naive. There's a perfect reason for him to do that. The other gate is open and since we have been distracting The Clown, he could easily make his way there and escape without us. After all, he is a-''
''Excuse me, but would one of you tell me what's going on!?'' Weiss suddenly yelled, angered that she was being left out of the conversation. ''Just what is going on here!? And who are you people!?''
''Well, other than being your knights in shining armor, we are survivors in this world, like you,'' Clark answered with a smile. ''As to what is going on, we are currently making our way to the second gate, which is the other way to escape from this place. We are currently hoping that one of our comrades is there, ready to open it for us.''
''Why don't we just use the gate that is already opened?'' the heiress asked. ''I was just there and it looks like we could use it to get out of here.''
''Because it's the most likely place for The Clown to be waiting for us in ambush,'' Bruce answered. ''After the first gate opened, a lot of people are going to be heading there in the hopes of escaping. The Clown knows this and will be waiting for people to go there, so he can catch at least some of them. However, this leads the second gate unguarded, allowing us to go there with practically no risk of running into the killer.''
''Okay, I think I can understand the logic behind that, but why are you two here?'' Weiss asked. ''Shouldn't the two of you be at the second gate with your comrade so that you can all escape together?''
''While it's very likely that The Clown is going to be waiting at the gate that has been opened, it's not completely certain. There is a chance that he'll go looking for survivors around the area,'' Clark explained. ''In order to prevent him from going to the second gate and preventing our escape, the rest of our group would go around and look for the killer. If it seemed like he would get anywhere near the second gate, we would distract him and lead him away from there. At least, that was the plan, except we saw that you were in trouble.''
''I'm sorry,'' the white-haired girl apologized, ashamed that she had almost gotten caught and was now possibly causing trouble for her saviors. ''I didn't know what to do. I thought I could hide from him.''
''Hey, no need to be like that!'' the brown-haired man said in an attempt to cheer up Weiss. ''This is one messed up place we've gotten ourselves into. I doubt there's anyone who fully knows what to do around here.''
The heiress smiled at her rescuer's comforting words. It reminded her a bit of the good old days of team RWBY. Back when her partner was still around.
The three survivors suddenly heard the sound of a siren, signaling that the second gate was being opened. Their faces brightened up a bit, as their hope of escaping this nightmarish carnival seemed to become a reality.
''That's our signal to hurry up!'' Clark said with a hint of happiness in his voice. ''I just hope the other two made it there safely.''
It didn't take long for the group to reach the gate. As they were getting closer to it, a young woman with long black hair joined their group. She seemed to be the same age as Weiss' saviors and she was wearing a dark purple jacket with a white skirt and black shoes.
''I see you guys didn't get caught!'' the new addition to the group called out. ''Who is the girl? Did you decide to get a younger girlfriend, Clark?''
''Awww, come on, Lois! You know that you're the only one for me!'' Clark responded. ''We just saved her from getting killed by The Clown! I'm sure she'll be a good addition to our group!''
Before anyone could continue the conversation, the sound of glass breaking caused everyone in the group to look behind them. Apparently, The Clown had heard the sound of the siren and had managed to catch up to them. He was now desperately throwing his bottles at them, hoping to hit at least one of the survivors.
''Shit! We need to hurry or he'll catch us!'' Weiss yelled, afraid that she might get caught this time.
''No worries, miss! We've done this before!'' Clark said in a reassuring and picked up his pace with his two comrades. Soon the group was out of the gate and safe from the killer.
''That took the wind out of me,'' Lois said while catching her breath. ''However, where's Ellis? Wasn't he supposed to be waiting for us around here?''
''I'm sure everything's fine. He's probably just hiding nearby. You know how jumpy he can be,'' Clark said while putting down Weiss. ''I think now's a good time to introduce ourselves to our new member.''
''I guess you're right,'' the raven-haired woman said and turned her attention towards the heiress. ''Hello. My name's Lois. The big guy is my husband, Clark, and the moody guy is Bruce. Don't let his antisocial attitude get to you. He's a pretty good guy, once you get to know him.''
Said raven-haired man simply let out a small ''Hmph!'' and turned away from the group. While Weiss was somewhat reminded of Blake by him, she wasn't sure if this would be such a friendly relationship they would have.
''A pleasure to meet you all,'' the white-haired girl said politely with a small bow. ''My name is-''
''Weiss Schnee,'' someone finished for said heiress. The group turned towards where the voice came and saw a faunus man in his early 30's walking towards them. He had short spiky red hair with two wolf ears on top. However, what shocked Weiss most was the clothes he was wearing.
This man was wearing a White Fang uniform.
''Wait, do you know her, Ellis?'' Clark asked.
''How couldn't I know?'' the faunus man said with barely contained anger. ''The Schnee family is the number one enemy of faunus everywhere! Their family has mistreated us and used us as cheap labor for years! One of you needs to give me a REALLY good reason as to why I shouldn't kill her right now!''
Weiss took a step back, afraid that Ellis would do what he threatened to do. However, she was surprised when Lois and Clark stepped in front of her in her defense.
''Listen here, Ellis. We don't know what your problem with this girl is and we probably never understand anything you've had to go through,'' Lois said while glaring at the wolf faunus. ''However, I do know that now is not the time for any of this. If we want to survive this, we are going to have to stick together and NOT kill each other. Understood?''
''Yeah, Ellis! We are going to need everyone's help here!'' Clark said, agreeing with his wife.
Seeing how his mortal enemy was being protected, Ellis growled in anger. The way he saw it, the filthy Schnee was just getting protected by other humans, who blindly followed their orders. In other words, business as usual. However, the wolf faunus was surprised when Weiss actually walked past her human shields and stood in front of him, staring him in the eyes.
''Mister Ellis, I know that my family has done a lot of... bad things, to say the least. Things that I could never ask to be forgiven,'' the heiress said. ''However, I hope you can believe me, when I say that my wish is to change all that! The crimes that my family has committed are sins that I will be ashamed of for the rest of my life! But I want to put a stop to them, so that my family name won't be seen simply as something to be detested for eternity! I'm begging you to give me a chance to hopefully making things right in the future!''
Ellis had to take a step back in surprise of Weiss' actions. He would have never expected that the Schnee heiress of all people would walk up to him and say such things. Not to mention, the look in her eyes told him that the white-haired girl was completely serious.
''I hate to break this touching moment, but we need to get going,'' Bruce suddenly said with sarcasm in his voice. ''There's no use for us to stay here. Not to mention, if we stand around here for too long, The Clown might come for us again.''
''You're just the life of the party, aren't you?'' Clark said, a bit annoyed by his friend's attitude. ''Still, you're right. We should get going.''
The group of five people quickly made their way to the forest that was nearby. Everything was going well for them so far, as there were no real dangers around them. However, the group's advance came to a sudden stop, when they heard something.
''What's that sound?'' Ellis asked while doing his best to listen. ''It almost sounds like someone's talking.''
While the rest of the group was unable to recognize what the sound was, Weiss was able to do so. In fact, her eyes went wide upon realizing just who the sound was most likely coming from.
''Is that... Pyrrha?''
Author's notes: I'm very excited to see what you guys think of this chapter. There are two reasons as to why Weiss will be followed separately from Yang. First, it allows me to bring more killers to the story, as there are essentially two groups that the story will follow. The second reason is that I kind of wanted to switch things up a bit. Out of the four members of RWBY, Weiss often has the lowest chance of survival in my stories, so I thought that I should do things a bit differently.
Also, sorry if this chapter feels like it's centered around OC's. This chapter was here to pretty much introduce the characters Weiss will be traveling with. However, they won't be the center of the story. I will focus more on Weiss and Yang from now on.
Hope you liked the chapter and will check out the next one.
Until next time.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Dead by Daylight belongs to Behaviour Interactive.