Fate (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 32

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"Are you even aware that the thing you did is actually a matter of life and death to someone?!"

Jack pressed his fingers on his forehead. Naib's words are still playing inside his head, driving him into a state where any distraction does nothing to snap him out of the trance he is in.

He placed one hand on his scar and the other on his cheeks, sensing every anger and the feeling of despair he had dealt and came into contact with.

Leaning his head on one of the windows, he let out a huge sigh as tears flowed down his eyes.

***
Naib. It was Naib.

The green-hoodied Mercenary was there, standing before his door, the look on his face showing more than enough details to let the Ripper know that the former is definitely not here to give him a heads-up that his memories are back and that he is ready to reminisce them.

Jack bit his lip as he froze. The one he had been waiting for years to see is finally there. He had missed everything about Naib. The way the brown-haired Mercenary would comfort him in his lowest moments. The way Naib would try to initiate conversations with him despite how socially awkward the Mercenary is. He wanted it all.

However, his hopes of having Naib come back to him had gone into ashes.

The moment the wooden door creaked open, the Mercenary barged in and had his hands on the sitting Ripper's shirt.

"Naib, hey... you came back... I-"

The Ripper did not manage to finish his words as a loud slap was delivered from the Mercenary's hands to his cheeks. Right in the spot next to the scar.

"Fuck you! Fuck you and your dumbness!!!!!"

Naib yelled the words out in a very raged  manner that his breathing had changed from normal and easy to heavy and ragged.

"Aesop." The Mercenary said, stopping to catch his breath after all that yelling.
"What. Have. You. Fucking. Done. To. Him."

The Ripper said nothing, the burning feeling on his cheeks still going strong. It was pretty obvious that the Mercenary is aware of whatever he had done to the Embalmer during that Red Church match. He was one of those who spectated. He had watched how it all happened before his very eyes, despite the fact that he did not happen to witness it all directly.

"What did you do to him?!"

Nothing.

It was when the Ripper's cheeks was met with another slap, this time being so hard that the Ripper's eyesight blurred.

"Are you out of your mind?! Are you even aware that what you did is actually a matter of life and death to him?!"

Jack stared at the floor, beads of sweat covering every inch of him.

"That could've killed him!"

If the Ripper were to be honest, none of Naib's concerns on Aesop had gotten into him. However, the Mercenary's words before he slammed the door on him made him feel like his heart had been stomped.

"All those years I had waited for you, and this is what you gave me in return?"

JOSEPH
I hate the fact that I have to wait.

Don't get me wrong. I know everyone needs time, with the duration depending on whatever they are doing.

But this...?

The words Emily had always said to me just don't mean anything to me anymore at this point.

He will wake up soon. He will be back to seeing the sunlight as what he had always been in no time. He will recover real soon.

But nothing has changed, even with the number of counts those words had escaped the Doctor's lips. Everyday is still the same.

Starting and ending the day in the ER with the sight of Aesop being hooked up to breathing tubes and me bawling my eyes out by his side. And it goes like that without any new changes.

I was about to start the same cycle again for today when I heard someone calling my name.

"Joseph."

I turned around to see Michiko walking towards me. It was the moment I realized that there is a white gauze right in the spot where her left cheek is supposed to be.

My mind instantly went back to the time Jack went all ballistic and slapped her square in the face. She must have gotten that from his slaps.

What a violent human being.

"Hey there, Michiko...." I said, my throat feeling sore. I seriously cannot remember my last time having a drink. Ever since that happened, I had freaked out too much that I barely concern myself as much.

It is a repetition of what had happened to Claude years back.

"How is the Embalmer doing? Is he fine now" The Geisha asked, having her one hand on my shoulder as I made my way out of the Hunters' Manor.

I swallowed, holding back the taste of bile that rose in the back of my throat.
I wish I could say that.

Michiko must have caught the look on my face now that she is sighing, the look of concern palpable from her eyes.

"He's not showing any changes, is it?"

I nodded at her, the urge to cry making its way to my heart.

"He is nowhere near waking up.... and every single time I get there I hear nothing but the sound of his short and raspy breaths beneath that oxygen mask....."

I let out a loud sigh as I said those words.

That was when I noticed two figures walking all the way to the ER.

I was unable to make out the details of who and whom, but from what my peripheral vision managed to picture, it was the figure of someone tall and that of someone in a green hoodie.

I blinked, my mind barely able to process what is going on.

It cannot be Jack and Naib, right?

I was still trying to comprehend what is happening before I heard loud yells coming from where the ER is.

This is not gonna be good.

3rd PERSON POV
"You see. See what you had done to him. My best friend! I know you are a hunter during matches and you are one of Oletus' officials but what you had committed here is unacceptable! Inhumane!"

Naib was still lashing all his anger on Jack despite it being the second time today.

In usual occassions Jack would go into his 'silent but deadly' phase and shut Naib down, but as for now every of the Ripper's mind had gone blank, having two different things going on inside it.

Naib pointed at the Embalmer, right at his chest. Emily had readressed it earlier today, in which the Mercenary happened to witness it.

"His scratches aren't something you call simple, Jack. They are in the form of angry red lines and are totally at risk of infection!"

To no one's awareness, Aesop's fingers moved slightly.

"You made him go that way. You wounded him. You strained him! I've had enough with you, Jack! I'm not changing my verdict on you!"

Little did they know, that right in the middle of their quarrelings,
The unconscious Embalmer finally opened his eyes, having totally aware of every single word being said.