บท 35: The Puppeteers' Showdown
Ru slowly approached the old stretcher and looked at Jenna. He asked, his voice shaking, "How did you even get here?"
She had a strange look on her face, she looked as if she was asleep, but her eyes were open and staring into a deep void.
Ru looked at the spot Jenna was staring at and saw a ring of smoke glowing faintly purple. The smoke swirled around like a snake trying to bite its tail. Not only that, it also emitted an ominous energy.
He grabbed the stretcher with determination. The only thing on his mind was to rescue Jenna before she turned into a demon. As he started to pull, he stepped on something squishy.
"Ew!"
Shortly after, he hissed, "Crap!"
The red, cold, thick liquid was climbing rapidly from his foot to his ankle.
He was on the verge of death from fear, but he had no intention of giving up. He clenched his teeth and pushed the stretcher as hard as he could. The rusted tires seemed to swear not to move forward. But despite the blood that had partially glued his foot to the ground and was quickly climbing up his leg, Ru gave his weight to the stretcher and was able to move with it.
The red substance he described as blood had reached his knee. It solidified so fast that Ru could not bend his knee. Still, he was close to the exit.
"Hang on, Jenna! We'll get out together," he shouted.
The door began to creak loudly as it closed, but Ru was ready to break it down with the stretcher.
"Argh!"
The old stretcher, which Ru pushed to the limit of his strength, hit the iron door at the last moment, preventing it from closing and opening it wide.
He managed to get out into the corridor with the stretcher. Meanwhile, the liquid had reached his waist and splashed on his other leg. But Ru didn't stop. He kept pushing, dragging his foot.
"We're almost there, we're getting out of this game," he said to Jenna. His words were more for his reassurance than for her, and he was successful.
The wheels of the stretcher appeared to be free of rust. And Ru felt as if the weight of the stretcher had become a little lighter. When he thought about it: The burden was much lighter.
Ru looked worriedly at Jenna. He should have been looking at the girl, not the man in the pink cat mask and the red hoodie.
"Fuck," he yelled. He abruptly let go of the speeding stretcher. His legs turned to stone, and he lost his balance and fell to the floor.
On the blue marble floor, Ru lay face down. He straightened his torso with the strength of his palms. He tried to crawl forward on his hands. Until he saw elegant shoes with pointed toes.
"Shit," it was a hiss that escaped Ru's lips. He immediately looked up. The Psycho Maniac was there, standing over him.
"Draw the genie's seal, Donatella. This is your last chance," the man with the red hood said.
"If I knew what that seal looked like, believe me, I would draw it right now to get rid of you," Ru said, trying to get up.
"You can fool yourself, but you can't fool me, I know you have the seal," the man with the red hood said and slowly sank to the ground. His eyes behind the mask glowed in shades of pink and his look seemed somehow joyful to Ru.
"Maybe your sorcerer is a liar, deceiving you. How do you know he's not, Mr. Funny Demon?" said Ru, surprised by self-composure.
"I'm not a demon, I'm a painter," said the man with the red hood.
"What does that have to do with anything," Ru asked. Inwardly, he sneered, 'Seriously, I'm being chased by a painter?' "This is absurd," he stated firmly.
A pleasant male voice whispered, "What's absurd?"
"That he is a painter," Ru said, not even knowing to whom he was responding. He was still looking at the enchanting eyes behind the cat mask.
The same whisper asked, a little louder, "Who is he, Lirui?"
"Pardon me, he's a painter vampire," Ru said.
"Yes, I'm a vampire but a painter vampire," the man with the red hood said.
"Who is Painter Vampire?" a voice asked.
"I'm the one, baby," the man with the red hood replied.
"So you hear him too," Ru said skeptically.
"Mamma Mia! His beautiful voice just moves me!" said the man, the pink glow in his eyes increasing.
"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Ru said, rolling his eyes.
The man in the red hood suddenly took action. He stood up, grabbed Ru's hair, and lifted him, his grip tight and powerful. "Forget about him. Just talk to me," he snapped, his voice filled with urgency and threat.
"Let go of me, you're hurting me," Ru said and tried to punch him in the face.
"Lirui, you're just in a room," the voice said, getting weaker.
"What?" asked Ru, struggling to move his legs.
Suddenly, the red-hooded man let go of him. Thus, Ru fell to the ground once more.
"Draw the seal or I'll hurt you, Donatella," the red-hooded man said in a threatening tone.
"I don't know, I can't draw what I don't know," Ru shouted. "Leave me alone," he said in a tearful voice.
The man with the red hood said solemnly, "If you do not draw the seal, I am going to kill Vaelan right in front of your very eyes."
"Vaelan isn't here," Ru said, happy that he had managed to save him.
"That's right, Lirui, there's no one here but you," the faint voice said.
"Huh?" said Ru.
"Vaelan will be my new artistic material, you shall see, Donatella," said the man in the red hood.
"It won't," said Ru, straightening up. He had moved fast enough to cause the red plaster to crack.
While the mysterious voice said, "Listen to me, Lirui," the man in the red hood sternly said to the voice: "Shut up, love!"
Ru blinked only once. After that moment, he somehow felt lighter. Like being released from the red liquid or plaster that covered him from the waist down.
"You're in a room, Lirui. Alone, in a room," said the suddenly rising voice.
Indeed, Ru found himself in a dimly lit room. The room resembled an ancient workshop. In the center of the room was the strange platform he had seen in his dream before. He was right; this platform was designed inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man sketch.
"You're alone there, Luriu. Completely alone," a voice said with authority, giving its directive firmly, "There's a door right behind you. You must open it."
Ru turned his back to the mechanism. He saw the door, with light seeping through its edges. As he was about to step towards it, a voice said, "Psst, look here."
When Ru glanced over his shoulder, he saw the Vitruvian platform and Vaelan, who had merged with it.
"No! It couldn't be," Ru shouted.
At that moment, the pool of blood rose and became three-dimensional. Ru stepped back, startled.
"Where on Vaelan's body do you think I should start cutting the flesh?" asked the bloodman with the cat mask.
"Back towards the door, Lirui. I'm behind him," a faint voice said again.
"Really?" the man with the red hood asked, still standing. He was pushing a service cart back and forth, making it creak. The cart was full of knives, nails, hammers, and chisels, and its creaking sound startled Ru.
"Never mind who's who. Let's make a Vaelan homunculus* together," said the man in the red hood.
"Let's not," Ru said.
"Close your eyes," the mysterious voice shouted again.
"Hush, love!" the red-hooded man shouted. Then he immediately turned to Ru. "I wonder where in Vaelan the little girl lives, perhaps in his brain. Where do you think, Donatella?" the red-hooded man said mockingly. He had taken a hammer and a large nail from the counter. "When I think of psychiatry, I always think of lobotomy. You may be familiar with that form of treatment because you're no less of a psychopath," the man in red said, his laughter mingled with his words.
"Lobotomy?" Ru asked. The man in red had managed to get his attention.
"Yes, lobotomy. We'll put this nail through Vaelan's eye and into his brain, about seven centimeters. So he won't dream anymore. Do you want to do it?" the man in the red hood said, holding out the nail and hammer.
"Oh, yes," Ru said with a devilish look on his face and started walking towards him.
"Really?" asked the man in the red hood.
"Yes. Give me the nail and hammer," Ru said.
"Do you hear the squeaks, Luriu? It comes from the door behind you. The door is opening," the mysterious voice said.
As Ru reached for the hammer, he saw the door. The door seemed to move and it appeared at whatever point he looked.
"Huh?"
It opened, and the light streaming through it filled Ru's eyes.
The man in the red hood immediately stepped in front of him. "Don't look there! There's a monster behind that door," he said in an eerie voice.
For some reason, the word 'monster' had always been funny to Ru since his childhood. He smiled and said, "Monster? What kind of monster?"
The man in the red hood tried to describe it with exaggerated hand gestures: "Big like this, huge. It's strange and scary, it eats people..."
Ru secretly took a knife from the service cart and asked, "It's Titan, isn't it?
"Yes, that must be it," said the man with the red hood. He immediately thought, why was he suddenly so friendly with this boy? "Why am I talking to you like that?"
"How do you talk?" asked Ru.
"I'm weirded out, I was just talking about cutting Vaelan like paper," said the man in the red hood, one hand on his chin, still thinking.
"So," Ru said, naturally.
And all of a sudden, Ru pushed the knife he had hidden into the man's stomach.
"Et tu, Brute*?" said the man in the red hood as he hunched over in pain.
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Homunculus: Small human-like beings created through magic or science.
Et tu, Brute: It's a Latin phrase that means "And you, Brutus?" or "You too, Brutus?" It was famously uttered by Julius Caesar as he was being stabbed to death by his friend Brutus. It symbolizes betrayal and disbelief.
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