broken heart-strings (seer x embalmer, +more ships apparently)

ten

I exited the room quickly, shutting the door carefully behind me. Eli, the boy I'd never get over, was sleeping in my bed, right at dinner time. Great... now I have to face everyone else at dinner by myself, without the comfort of Eli.

It's not like Eli would really want to help me out anyways. 

My shoulders slumped in defeat, as I made my way down the hallways and stairs. As I passed the now locked basement door, my stomach turned, the idea of food not sitting as well as I previously thought. A sigh just escaped, my feet shuffling into the crowded dining hall. 

Lots of people glanced at me, but never gave enough attention to actually stay looking, they all started back with their prior conversations, except for Emily. The girl quickly skipped up to me, obvious worry laced into her smiling face. I just grimaced.

"Hiya, doll! How's it going? You came out of your room!" she chirped, placing her hand on my shoulder, like it belonged there. I just smiled at her gently. 

"Yeah. I feel better now." 

"Where's Eli?"

 "He's asleep."

She just nodded, before practiacally dragging me to a seat at the table. I never eat with the people here, so being dragged to sit at the same table Joseph is made my body ache. 

There are four different types of people at dinner, and two tables:

Table 1: All hunters except Wu Chang, Joseph, and Robbie. 

Table 2: Joseph, Robbie, Emily, Kreacher, Kurt Frank(explorer), Martha(coordinator), Tracy, William(forward), Kevin(cowboy), and Margaretha(female dancer).

Everyone else sits in the living room to eat, except for me, Eli, and Naib. We usually go to our rooms to eat, or we just eat together outside. Emma is usually working in her garden around dinner time, so she couldn't save me from Emily throwing me into the chair right beside Joseph.

I sat uncomfortably, watching as they all ate and laughed. My eyes glanced at Joseph; his face was beaten, his bottom lip stained purple. I almost stood to go get food, so I could just run upstairs with it, but Emily quickly said she would get stuff for me, and basically forced me to stay seated.

Most people went to get food, which left Joseph, Robbie, and I at the table; that little bitch with the sack on his head really never sat right with me. I just sighed quietly, trying not to really alert the other two silent members into questioning me.

"Ha... you really got me in some real trouble, Sunshine..." a croaky voice said gently, forcing on a rough headache. I shivered at his voice, remembering exactly what he did to me. Or what he didn't do.

The exit gate was open, and the other two quickly made their way out, leaving me and my faintly growing heartbeat... and Eli. He was somewhere in the map, and when I heard the sound of a hunter grunting to break a pallet, my legs started pumping faster than ever before. 

Everything hurt, my lungs struggling to keep up, as I ran towards the sound. An equal mix of panic and relief shot through my veins when I saw Eli standing there in the cold. Our hearts were beating heavily now, and Joseph was approaching quickly, a few pallets blocking him off.

Quick flashbacks of him trying to bite my neck behind that wall earlier in the match flew through my mind like flashes, my hands on Eli's shoulders in a matter of seconds. 

There were soft flakes of snow sitting on his long eyelashes, his blindfold slid down to his neck for some unknown reason. My hands shook his shoulders quickly, but the dazed boy just stood there. 

I started screaming, when Joseph kept getting closer. The tears started flowing in fear of what he'd do to Eli. My body isn't important. Eli had to get out of there. 

"Eli, please! Get out of here! Eli, now! You must leave right now! Please just go!"

He wasn't moving, but the glassy glaze was ridding off his eyes. His hand reached up to rub his eyes, as I attempted to drag him towards the open exit gate. 

We were getting closer, but when Joseph broke the last pallet between us, I screamed out a word that basically saved us all... but myself.

"DUMBASS!"

Eli looked up, wiping his misty eyes. he looked shocked at what he saw, but I just kept trying to push him farther along. He didn't move, just looked at me with wide eyes, like our beating hearts were just nothing. 

God... why am I acting like this? I never really cared what happened to me, and this is just a match. But... Eli... has to make it ou-

"THE GATES ARE OPEN! YOU IDIOT! RUN!" 

My broken voice cut through the air, but Eli immediately took off for the exit gate. Something was wrong though, because he held a look of full regret the entire time. As soon as Eli passed the exit gate, signalling he made it, red light filled my vision.

My back went flush against the wall behind me, my eyes closed tightly and my body pressed as tightly together as possible in my standing position. A small chuckle filled my ears, bright red light burning my skin.

"So, you aren't even going to run. You decided to save that little Eli kid, huh?  That was a mighty brave move, Embalmer, especially with you knowing..." Joseph's words got slow and cold, as he pressed his body to mine and his lips brushed my neck. I shuddered. "exactly what i want from you..."

Hot breath pressed to my skin, sticky liquid being forced to the sensitive area on my neck with a certain horrid person's lips. 

You can take it. Do it for Eli. Do it for Eli. Do it for Eli. You'll be okay.

I shuddered, pulling away as far as possible, when I saw that he'd pushed me to the edge of the wall and I could probably run to the exit gate. everything in my body burned, but I took my chance and ran around the corner of the wall and just kept going.

I've always been a good kiter, and the others knew that, so it was no doubt that I took the longer way with more pallets to get to the exit. Something was quite wrong though. One wrong jump over a ledge and turn in the wrong direction, and I plummeted down into the basement. 

Pain surged through my joints, but I got up and began to blindly run and fall down the stairs. 

Stars exploded in my eyes, as Joseph came down to the basement, profanities spilling from his lips. Joseph took out his sword as if he was going to hit me and put the match over with, but the taller boy flipped it around in his hands and did something so much worse. 

The hilt of his sword smacked against my face with enough force to knock me down and against the wall. Everything hurt; it burned. Hot, sticky liquid flew down the front of my face, my eyes clenched closed tightly. I bit my bleeding lip even harder, trying to repress the pain, but it only caused a violent scream to escape my mouth. 

Another hit came to my side, knocking me onto my hands and knees. Blood coughed up from the depths of my stomach, multiple new wounds developing onto my skin. everything hurt so much as my world faded into red and black.

------------

"Yeah.. I'm sorry about that."