Trailing behind the maid, Nathaniel was the second to witness the grotesque tableau.
Anna lay sprawled across the bed, her stomach brutally torn open, revealing a gory display of viscera. Blood trickled steadily from her neck, and both her eyes had been desecrated, each slashed with a precise X-shaped incision. Her once beautiful features were now a grotesque collage of mangled flesh, contorted and bound as if twisted by cruel hands.
Rory stepped into view and let out a jagged laugh. "Told ya, kid! We're screwed. All of us! Utterly, hopelessly doomed! So damned ruined!"
The laugh echoed unnaturally, but Nathan could hear the tremble beneath it. Fear, raw and trembling. Rory was terrified, no question about it. The laughter was just a pitiful veil, a desperate attempt to bury the rising dread within.
Nathaniel turned away abruptly, the horror too overwhelming to endure. He stumbled down the hallway, shoulders tense, fists clenched.
On his way out, he brushed against Subaru, barely noticing the contact.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Subaru asked, concern flooding his voice.
"Huh?... I-I think so..."
But Nathan wasn't sure, not in the slightest. If he wasn't alright, he couldn't even begin to define what exactly was wrong.
Was it Anna's ravaged corpse? Or something else? Something far deeper gnawed at the pit of his stomach.
He leaned against the wall, attempting to steady his thoughts. Meanwhile, the others gathered in the room, silently bearing witness to Anna's defiled body.
And then, it clicked.
No, he wasn't fine. Not even remotely. In fact, "terrified" was too soft a word for what gripped him now.
Nathaniel Lockwood had just realized: he could be next.
Moments ago, Anna had been alive, breathing the same air they all did. And now, just minutes later she was a mangled shell.
What the hell was this place?
No one told him it would be like this.
Death.
Death.
Death.
Death!
His thoughts spiralled out of control. He could die. Right here. Right now.
That's why Rory laughed. That strange, broken laughter made perfect sense now.
His body failed to keep up with the chaos storming through his mind, and before he knew it, he dropped to his knees and vomited violently onto the floor, retching out bile and fear.
"H-Hey! Kid, what's wrong?!"
Subaru rushed to him, abandoning the dreadful scene to aid him.
"I-I... I don't feel good," Nathan muttered weakly before collapsing into Subaru's arms, consciousness slipping away.
---
Nathan jolted upright in bed, breathing hard. His hands gripped the sheets as he tried to arrange the thoughts tumbling around in his head.
Anna was dead.
He had finally wrapped his head around that truth, well, somewhat. He could think about it now without instantly unravelling.
"You're awake! Thank God!" Subaru entered the quiet room, relief washing over his face upon seeing Nathan awake.
Nathan couldn't help but frown. They had left him alone? After what had happened to Anna?
What logic led them to believe that was a good idea?
"Why are you staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?" Subaru asked, stepping closer.
Yeah. A splash of idiocy. But Nathan kept the thought to himself.
"Nothing. What about..." He hesitated, the name weighed heavily on his tongue. "...Anna? What happened to her?"
Subaru's expression twisted, grief, uncertainty, and something else. Hesitation, maybe. Or was it fear?
"The villagers... They're moving her body. Preparing her for burial."
"What?!" Nathan's voice thundered as he shot out of bed and darted from the room.
Have they all lost their minds? Was this a collective lapse in reason?
Bury her? Without a proper investigation?
He stormed into the room, halting them just before they could proceed with the burial.
"STOP!"
Thank the stars, he arrived just in time. The scene remained untouched.
"Fatso! What's your deal? Let them do their job already. The body's gonna rot and stink up the place!" Rory sneered from the corner.
'And you're just standing there like an idiot instead of preserving the crime scene,' Nathan wanted to scream. But he said nothing. He moved past Rory, ignoring him entirely.
That act alone was enough to push Rory's temper to the edge. His knuckles whitened as his fists clenched tightly. One more word and he would've exploded.
"Chief Tullus," Nathan called, approaching the village head. "Tell us the truth, affirm we're all thinking..."
The old man glanced at the mutilated corpse, then returned Nathan's gaze with grave finality. "Yes... Yes, it is."
A crushing silence fell across the room. Even the air seemed heavier.
"The stomach's been cut open. Her face marked. And..." Tullus's voice wavered. "...Her heart is missing."
That sealed it. The markings were unmistakable. This was the work of the Whispering Wake.
A nightmare. A shadow that had plagued Oakheart for four long years.
Anna Paula, one of their own, was now another casualty of that unspeakable curse.
This changed everything. Their foreign status, their role as tutorial participants, none of that offered protection anymore.
Nathan's mind reeled. The second clause of their quest failure conditions flashed in his memory.
ii). Slim chances of survival.
What a lie. Survival wasn't slim, it was laughable. Death was practically a certainty.
"Chief," Nathan called again, his tone resolute. "Clear this room. No one enters unless I authorize them."
"What?! Are you insane?" Rory snapped. "Leave her body like this? What kind of monster are you?!"
"Chief. Please. Can you do that?" Nathan repeated, never taking his eyes off Tullus, completely ignoring Rory.
"You seriously ignoring me right now?!"
"I said, CAN YOU?!" Nathan's voice boomed through the room with icy determination.
"Son of a-!" Rory cursed, charging forward. He grabbed Nathan by the shoulder and spun him around. "What did I say about—
And then, he froze.
Nathan's gaze met his, and the fire in Rory's chest instantly turned to ice.
There was something in Nathan's eyes now. A presence. A force.
Rory couldn't hold the stare. He turned away instinctively, retreating from the intensity radiating off the other boy.
For the first time, Rory stepped back.
Nathaniel Lockwood's eyes had awakened. Call it an instinct to survive, a primal urge that demanded control and understanding. Whatever it took, however much it cost, survival became a mandate.