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Zaroff retired to his room after Rainsford leaped into the sea. It had been a long day chasing Rainsford around the island. Though it had been easy to track him, the journey still left him tired.
When he got to his chambers he took his coat off and laid it on the chair, he then took his hunting boots off and settled into bed. As he was turning to roll over he heard a crunching sound beneath him. He quickly sat up and ran his hand across the bed. He felt the thin, crispy texture of paper and turned the lamp on beside his bed.
It was a note, somehow Rainsford snuck into his room and left a note. It said:
Zaroff, if you're reading this it means I'm dead.
Though that does not make you the better hunter.
Hunting is about mercy, weakness, empathy, and humanity. You have none of these.
You are not the hunter, you are the prey. The prey to corruption, addiction, and murder.
If you are reading this it means you have lost once again and I have died knowing I gave it my all and won.
Spend the rest of your life in misery.
-Sanger Rainsford
Zaroff paused for a second, mulling over Rainsford's words. Was it true? Had he truly lost?
Zaroff continued to question Rainsford's words days after. He thought about the note every waking second. He became distraught and confused. No longer knowing the difference between fantasy and reality.
It eventually became so bad that he no longer when outside his house. Believing he no longer had a reason to live. He holed up in his room and refused to do anything other than lay in bed or gaze out of the window wondering where he went wrong.
Over the course of time Zaroff withered away and died, leaving the island to grow and develop into an ecosystem of tropical animals and reptiles.
Many years after police visited the island in search of evidence for a case full of victims missing at sea. They discovered what truly went on and found Rainsford's body at the bottom of the sea, body in ruins after landing on jagged rocks.