Time - (Identity V-Elisop)

Chapter 4

Aesop was in the in dining room, waiting for the match to start. Emily and Emma sat next to him, and the only person they were waiting for was Eli, who got swapped with Victor yesterday for god-knows-what reason.

Aesop wasn't expecting Eli to come in, he came in with a minute to spare and was beyond surprised when he caught his eye.

Before either of the two had time to say anything, the match started.

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One thing that hit Aesop was the cameras stationed by the ciphers. The hunter was Jospeh, The Photographer.

Before he would start decoding and helping his team, he set his coffin down in a corner surrounded by bushes and trees. Nobody would see it unless they were purposely looking for it.

He ran over to the closest cipher, glancing around to make sure the hunter wasn't in sight. The Embalmer started decoding, he got up to a quarter of the way through before he heard a feminine scream.

Emma had been hit, she was kiting the hunter but after Joseph caught up to her, he got in a hit on her.

"Focus on decoding!" He could hear the gardener scream from a distance.

He was halfway through decoding the cipher when he saw someone running up to him. The Seer, Eli Clark was running to him out of breath.

"Want to decode together?" He asked while panting.

While Aesop would usually say no, self-consciously, he didn't even notice he nodded his head.

As they started decoding together, Aesop felt happy, like nothing in the world could interrupt the two.

Before long, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ciphers were popped, and with Emma and Emily decoding separate ones, the exit gate was ready to be unlocked.

Emily ran over to exit gate and started entering the code to unlock it while Emma kept watch to make sure the hunter was nowhere to be seen.

Eli was with Aesop, opening the second exit gate while Aesop kept an eye out for the hunter. Before long both of the gates were open and all the survivors ran out.

On the way back to the manor, which was a slow walk due to the slippiness of the path, everyone was talking about how lame and short the match was.

"That was the shortest round since July" Emma moaned.

"I thought Joseph was one of the best hunters? He always won or at least got a tie," Aesop questioned.

"Yeah, usually...at least we won," Eli boasted.

The walk to the manor was nothing much, the survivors talked about the current gossip, or stuff from about the hunter's side of the manor.

When they arrived nobody really paid much attention, it was noon, 11:45 AM, so everyone had time to do what they please before the next match of the day and dinner.

Nobody did much apart from lie around all day and hang out with one another. After the other match of the day finished at 01:05 PM, Emily went to heal those who needed treatment and everyone else went to their rooms to do their own thing.

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Time ran to 06:31 PM and the sun was already setting, the downsides of winter, the days are much shorter.

Aesop was in his room, at least once a week he would take time to clean and organise his make-up box. He was cleaning his brushes and checking his products to make sure nothing was damaged or unusable. It was peaceful and calm with only the clock's ticking audible.