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Naib let out a groan when he checked the time. It was seven in the morning, but he had a match in half an hour, so he had to get up. Reluctantly, he rolled off the bed, and he made his way to have a quick shower. Stupid manor and stupid matches. He could’ve sworn that the Owner was purposely throwing him in matches so early in the morning because he knew that he wasn’t an early bird. Well, whatever. At least he had the evening all to himself later on.
He wore his usual green hoodie, tied his hair into a low ponytail and hid it underneath his hood. He couldn’t help but yawn as he stepped out of his room, and he was surprised when he found the familiar navy robe passing right in front of him.
“Oh, good morning, Naib,” Eli greeted, a small smile on his face. He was holding Brooke in his hands, and Naib noticed how the owl was sleeping in his hold. “Do you have a match today?”
“Yeah,” Naib answered, and his eyes flickered to Brooke. Gently, he stroked her head, only to receive a slight twitch from the owl. “Seven-thirty. Do you have a match too?”
“Mhm.” Eli nodded his head. “We’re on the same team.”
“Nice.”
The two of them made their way to the waiting area. Naib had never said this out loud, but he loved having matches with Eli. He was a good player, always sending owls at the right time. Even if he didn’t play very well, he still liked having him on the team. The seer was always so encouraging, never getting angry even when his teammates made the stupidest mistakes. Naib always wondered how the man was always so calm, even though the games could be frustrating and intense.
They almost reached the waiting area, when they bumped into Freddy. God, the lawyer was one of the most dislikable survivors in the manor. He was selfish, always putting himself above others. If he had to describe him through comparison, he would say that Freddy Riley was the exact opposite of Eli Clark. The man would always blame everyone whenever they lose, or even when they got a draw. He was never grateful with anything. The only thing important to him was that he had to escape.
But Freddy wasn’t what had gotten Naib’s attention, no. What distracted Naib was the sudden shift in Eli’s facial expression. The seer had been smiling while they were walking, but the moment he spotted the lawyer, it was as if a switch inside of him flipped.
“Well, if it isn’t the mercenary and the seer,” Freddy sneered. The added tone of disgust when he mentioned Eli’s title did not go unnoticed by Naib. “If any of you mess up, don’t even expect me to rescue you from the chair.”
As Freddy was walking away, Naib had taken a step forward to give the lawyer a piece of his mind (aka his fist), but Eli had stopped him before he could do anything.
“He’s not worth the time, Naib,” Eli said, his voice low. Brooke was already stirring from her sleep, her eye blinking slowly.
“What was that all about?” Naib asked, his head tilted to the direction Freddy had gone. Subconsciously, his hands curled into fists. “It’s only seven in the morning, and that bastard is already trying to pick a fight. Can’t believe he’s on our team.”
“Yes,” Eli said, his voice devoid of emotion. He started walking towards the waiting area. “How unfortunate of us.”
Naib’s brows were furrowed as he watched the seer. The man was acting quite... unusual. He did notice how Eli seemed less cheery earlier. Usually, no matter how early the matches were for him, there was always this positive smile on his face. He wondered if something happened. He wanted to ask, but he was afraid that he might end up being nosy. Maybe he should just wait for the seer to open up? Even though the chances of him doing that were slim, he knew that Eli would tell him anything if it was bothering him too much.
They arrived at the waiting area right before the match starts. Thankfully, Freddy didn’t say anything further, so the whole team wasn’t left in a sour mood. They were all teleported to the map Moonlit River Park, and Naib grunted at the sight of the camera next to him.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The camera world was activated right after he hid himself, so he started decoding. His fingers trembled a little as he moved them against the cipher machine, but he forced himself to focus. It was bad enough that he decodes slower than the rest of the team. The least he could do was not fail any of the calibrations.
Martha was the first to get chased, and he waited for the sound of her getting incapacitated. It wasn’t like he was hoping for her to get downed so early, but he wanted to do anything other than decoding. His foot tapped impatiently as he was almost done with his cipher. Just as he reached eighty percent, the mirror world ended, and it erased half of his decoding progress.
“What the–” A vein popped through his forehead. This was exactly one of the reasons why he hated going against Joseph so much. He was about to kick his foot at the damn machine, when he felt his heart beat.
‘The Hunter has changed target! Beware!’
“Thank god,” he muttered under his breath, looking around to see where the Photographer was coming from. He could see him approaching from the distance, and he immediately used one of his elbow pads to avoid an early hit.
He knew that he shouldn’t hope too much for the hunter to chase him for the rest of the game, especially since hunters tend to leave him alone, but when he noticed how Joseph wasn’t going away, he couldn’t help but grin as he felt the adrenaline pump in his veins.
He would question the hunter later. Right now, he wanted to kite.
He dropped pallets, rode the roller coaster, used two of his elbow pads, and even did a pallet stun on Joseph. It was exciting being able to run around like this. The next thing he knew, there was only one cipher left, and his brows furrowed when he realised that the Photographer had been chasing him for the entire match without using his camera.
“Uh, Joseph?” he called, dropping a pallet before the hunter could hit him. “This is kinda unlike you.”
Joseph only hummed, standing at the other side of the pallet. “Indeed.”
“Are you even taking this match seriously?”
“Oui.”
“Liar,” Naib said, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood at the other side. “If you’re really taking this seriously, you won’t be chasing me.”
Another hum escaped from the Photographer, and Naib watched as the hunter destroyed the pallet into bits. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, before Joseph poked him with his sword.
“Ow–?” Naib’s eyes widened when he realised that it actually did damage to his health. “Hey! That’s playing dirty.”
Joseph chuckled, though there was a playful smile on his face. “Then you better start running, Mercenary.”
Naib activated his elbow pads, quickly dashing away from the hunter. “Oh, I see how it is.”
The two of them continued with their little tag game, and Naib soon found out that the direction he was running was towards the last cipher that was being worked on. He knew that Joseph was only putting half-hearted effort in this game, but he didn’t want to take the risk for his teammates. He was about to turn into another direction, when he stopped upon the commotion in front of him.
“How stupid can you be?!” Freddy yelled, pointing his index finger directly towards Eli’s face. The seer just stood there when the lawyer moved dangerously close. “First you got terrorshock, then you keep failing calibrations.” He started poking at Eli’s forehead. Roughly. “Do you even have a brain in there?”
Naib could only see red as he started marching towards the two of them. How dare he treated Eli like that? Just because the seer did some mistakes, that didn’t give him the right to act all aggressive to him. All of this was just a game, and it wasn’t like Joseph took the match seriously to begin with. He already had his hands clenched, really preparing to send his fist flying at the lawyer’s face for real this time. However, just as he was about to get close, that was when Eli suddenly grabbed the lawyer’s wrist, yanking it down and causing his bones to make some kind of weird noise.
This caused Naib to make an abrupt halt. Did Eli really just–
“Touch me again,” Eli said, his voice low. Freddy let out a squeak when his bones started emitting sounds again, “And I promise your fortune won’t be a good one the next time I look into it.”
Everything fell into an uncomfortable silence, with only the faint beeps of the cipher audible. No one dared to make a move, not even Freddy, even though he was the one who started the commotion in the first place. And now that everything had come to a standstill, it was only then Naib realised that Martha was here too. She most likely had heard the ruckus and came from the two-storey building, seeing how she had stopped halfway at the small entryway. Her mouth was already open to ask what was going on, but none of the words seemed to come out.
In all honesty, no one had the courage to break the silence.
The only one who didn’t look fazed by Eli’s behaviour was Brooke. She merely ruffled her feathers, before she nestled on Eli’s shoulder. Her eye was closing too—obviously planning to fall asleep again—as if what had happened was definitely not out of the norm. Eli started moving, walking towards Martha’s direction. The coordinator quickly got out of his way, bowed her head slightly to avoid meeting his gaze, though she kept an eye on him once he had entered the building.
The moment Eli was out of their sight, that was when they released the breaths they didn’t realise they had been holding. Including Joseph.
“Okay, what the hell was that?” Martha asked, looking back and forth between Freddy and the direction Eli had gone. “Did you seriously piss off the Eli Clark?”
“Hey, he was the one who started it!” Freddy said. But the slight falter in his voice was an indication that he didn’t mean his sentence entirely. “If only he hadn’t gotten terrorshocked in that match, I wouldn’t be mad about it! And he kited fifteen seconds too!”
“Still, that doesn’t give you the right to talk to him like that!” Martha shouted. She placed her hands over her hips while her eyes narrowed. “Did he do a redemption kite after that?”
Naib crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for Freddy’s answer. Knowing that Eli could always do a redemption kite even after he got incapacitated early, he was sure that Eli could carry the whole match after that.
But with the way Freddy was refusing to meet any of their stares, it was obvious that it didn’t happen. “No one came to rescue him.”
Martha let out a disbelieving scoff. “Are you serious?” She took a step closer, poking Freddy’s chest with her index finger. “You let him die when he could use his owl?”
“Who would want to rescue someone who kited only fifteen seconds?” Freddy snapped. “Cipher rush was more important!”
“Yeah, and let the person who can do a redemption kite die.” Martha’s gun had been in her holster, but somehow, it was in her hand now. And she was waving it dangerously close to Freddy’s face. “I bet he was in a team with you, Kreacher and Servais, that’s why nobody came to rescue. Any sane survivor would rescue him, knowing how well he kites.”
Freddy subconsciously took a step back, fully aware that Martha’s gun was out of the holster. “You say that with Fiona, and yet you saw it yourself how badly she kited in that one match.”
“Hey,” Martha said, her eyes darkening. “I never said everyone can kite all the time, right? Everyone has their bad days too.”
“Well then the seer shouldn’t have had his bad day at that exact time, because it was my promotion match!”
In one swift motion, a gun was pressed to Freddy’s forehead. There was a slight click, and it made the lawyer gulp. “I don’t care if it was your promotion match. If you had rescued him, he probably could’ve kited, and you could’ve gotten a draw or a win.” A bead of sweat rolled from Freddy’s forehead as he took in a deep breath. “Now tell me, did all three of you treat him like how you treated Tracy back then? Spamming ‘thank you’ until he got blasted back to the manor?”
Freddy swallowed the lump in his throat. There was a time where Tracy got matched with him, Kreacher and Servais. She came back bawling from that match, telling William how badly she performed and that she was a terrible player. Martha so happened to be at the scene, and with her ways of getting information out of people, it was easy for her to find out what really happened in that match.
She turned furious right after that.
Martha might be one of the youngest survivors, but she was really the one person you don’t want to misuse ‘thank you’ with. She despised people who ruin others’ self-confidence. She had always been a team player, kinda like Eli. However, she does give out scoldings when it was necessary.
And when she found out what the trio had done to Tracy, let’s just say; Kreacher, Freddy and Servais couldn’t play any matches for the whole week after that because they were sent to the infirmary.
If Freddy wanted to lie right now, he couldn’t. Another thing about Martha was that she could tell when someone was lying. Therefore, the slight nod coming from him was all it took for her to lunge at him. Naib would try to stop her, but he felt like the lawyer deserved it. So it left with Joseph having to hold the coordinator down before she really ended up making a hole at the centre of Freddy’s forehead.
:::::
The communicator was awfully silent despite Freddy getting chaired. Usually, when the lawyer was chaired, he would always pull out that ‘thank you’ since he had nothing better to do while sitting on it. This time, however, he probably found it a blessing to be chaired, since he wasn’t pinging anything. Joseph had decided to chair him earlier in order to send him back to the manor as soon as possible. It was better that way. Martha was obviously not going to rescue him—she was just sending messages of her decoding progress right now—and that would prevent anyone from receiving any more injuries.
Meanwhile, Naib had decided to look for Eli. After the seer had stormed off, there wasn’t a single message sent by him through the communicator, so he couldn’t tell where he was at the moment. Surprisingly, Joseph wanted to help him and searched in the opposite direction. He was busy looking around the area near the third stop of the roller coaster, when Joseph came back with a triumph smile on his face.
“I used my card and detected a survivor in that direction,” Joseph said, pointing towards the tent in the distance. He then twirled said card with his fingers. “He’s most likely in the tent.”
“Thank you,” Naib said, letting out a sigh of relief. For a moment, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to find the seer, but luckily for him, Joseph was one of the hunters that could find a nearby survivor. “I owe you one.”
“There is no need,” Joseph said, waving a hand nonchalantly in the air. He spun on his heel, heading off to the opposite direction. “I wish you good luck.”
Naib sent him an appreciative nod, before he started walking to the tent. It turned out that the seer was just hanging inside it, sitting on the stage with his knees drawn towards his chest. Brooke was on the ground next to him, pecking his arm every now and then. She noticed his arrival, and she hooted as a way of greeting him.
“Hey, Brooke,” Naib said, smiling a little. Eli now had his head raised and was looking in his direction. Naib took this moment to sit next to him, crossing his legs on the ground. “Hey.”
The corner of Eli’s lips twitched upwards, but it was faint. “Hi.”
“You okay?”
“Mhm.” The smile on Eli’s face was gone by now, replaced with a pensive look. He folded his arms over his knees before resting his head on them. “Never been better,” he added in a mumble.
Naib opened his mouth to say something, but he realised that maybe the seer wasn’t in the mood for talking. Therefore, he decided to keep quiet. He wasn’t good when it came to dealing with people’s emotions. He might end up saying something wrong, and he didn’t want to make things worse because of it.
He was about to spend the next few minutes indulging in the silence, when all of a sudden, Eli asked, “Do you ever feel like you give people so much, but when it comes to you, they never do the same?”
Naib furrowed his brows. He had an idea on what Eli was trying to say, but he needed a little bit more of clarification. “What do you mean?”
“Like, I always rescue on time,” Eli began, voice steady but it was slowly cracking. “I bring tide too. And I always send Brooke whenever someone needs help.” He laughed; dark and humourless. “But why, why is it when I’m the one who gets chaired, no one rescues me?”
Naib didn’t even know how to start. “Eli…”
“What? Is it because I didn’t kite for a minute?” Eli continued, face directed at him as if he had the answers. It was scary to see him like this. He had never sounded so angry before. “I always rescue no matter how bad someone kited. I send an owl when people ask for it, even though they only kited for like five seconds–”
“Eli–”
“–so I’m sorry that I got terrorshock! I’m sorry I thought I was able to vault that window when the hunter was meters away. If I had known White Guard had his blink ready, maybe I wouldn’t have vaulted that stupid window and got that stupid terrorshock for that stupid gam–”
“Eli!” Thankfully, that was enough to snap the seer from whatever trance he was in. The man had been shaking as if he was about to burst. It was worrying. “You have to calm down.”
Eli stiffened for a moment, before he turned completely quiet. It seemed like only now he realised what he had just said. Brooke was still next to him, though she wasn’t doing anything to comfort the seer. She only kept an eye on her master, curiosity evident on her face.
“I’m sorry,” Eli whispered, after a long silence. He placed a hand over his head, hiding more of his face under his hood. “I... I didn’t know what got into me.”
“Eli, it’s okay to be angry,” Naib said, moving himself so that he could sit across the seer. Eli looked away, refusing to meet his gaze despite his eyes being blindfolded. “You’re a human. You can be angry.”
“I know.” Eli ran a hand through his hair. He ended up pushing his hood off from his head. “But usually I don’t…” His words drifted off, and he only let out a disgruntled noise before burying his face in his hands.
Naib frowned. He hated seeing Eli like this. It was a wonder how the seer kept his composure up until now. No matter how many times his teammates threw the game after he kited for so long, no matter how many mistakes his team made, he never complained. He only encouraged them with positive words, always cheering them up right after that.
But looking at the seer now, he wondered if anyone had ever cheered him up.
Naib didn’t know where he got this courage, but without thinking, he wrapped his arms around Eli. He was never good with words, especially while consoling people, so hopefully his actions were enough to make the other feel better.
“Naib?” Eli called, finally removing his hands from his face. He looked at him questioningly. “What are you doing?”
Naib loosened his hold. “Uh... hugging you?”
“Oh.” Eli didn’t shift out of his embrace, so that was something. Naib was starting to regret hugging him in case he found it uncomfortable. To his surprise, the seer returned his hug back. “I didn’t know you were a hugger.”
“I’m not,” Naib said. He pulled away to look at Eli’s face, and he found the seer even more confused. “I just thought it might help cheer you up.”
Eli seemed taken aback by his sentence. Nonetheless, he gave him a small smile. “Thank you. I do feel a lot better now.”
“That’s good.” Naib turned his body to the side, uncrossed his legs and let it sprawl on the ground. He supported his weight by putting his hands on the floor. “I don’t like seeing you angry.”
“That’s funny coming from someone who’s angry almost everyday,” Eli teased, leaning his back against the tent wall.
“Well, true.” Naib was easily annoyed, and he could get really grumpy at certain times. “But I like seeing your smile more, so…”
He spluttered when he realised what he had just said. Wait, did he really say that? Oh god, please tell him he didn’t just say all of that. He could tell that his cheeks had turned red, especially when they felt really warm on his face. How did he end up saying that anyway? It was usually Eli telling him all these kind of things, not the other way around.
He was sure that something had possessed him to say it. That had to be the only reason.
What made it worse was that Eli wasn’t saying anything, and it somewhat made him panic. Did he say something wrong? Were his words a little too weird? He was about to change the topic, when he noticed that the seer’s face was a bright scarlet.
Oh. Maybe his words were just that embarrassing.
“Do you really mean that?” Eli asked, almost timidly.
“Well, yeah,” Naib said, surprised that the seer would ask such a question. Did this guy ever look at himself in the mirror? “You have the prettiest smile, Eli. I think it’s contagious too, because whenever you smile, everyone else will start smiling.”
If he thought Eli’s cheeks couldn’t turn any redder, he thought wrong. Now, the seer looked like he was about to explode.
Abruptly, Naib pretended to clear his throat. He was suddenly aware of what he was saying, and he decided to add to make himself sound less odd, “Besides, you look really intimidating when you’re mad. So, uh, it’s better to see you happy.”
This made Eli snort. “Oh come on, Naib. You’re scarier when you’re angry. When you’re angry, you only talk with your fists.”
“I do not,” Naib said defensively, though inwardly he knew it was true. Kinda. Not that he would ever admit it. He crossed his arms over his chest, before he looked away. “Says the guy who almost broke Freddy’s hand.”
Eli let out an offended gasp. “I did not break Mr. Riley’s hand.”
“Yeah, right. Did you not hear his bones crack when you grabbed it? It sounded like you were trying to break it.”
Within seconds, Eli’s face paled. “H-his bones were cracking...?”
“Yeah,” Naib said slowly. “Wait. Did you not hear it at all?”
“I– I didn’t…”
Naib blinked, before he moved away. “Well shit, Eli. Remind me to never get on your bad side.”
At that very moment, the sirens blared, and the location of the exit gates were highlighted. Eli quickly scooped Brooke into his arms, earning a startled reaction from the owl, and he immediately scrambled to his feet.
“Eli?” Naib called, standing up as well. His brows knitted as he observed the seer.
“I need to apologise to Mr. Riley,” Eli said, rushing towards the exit gate. He dialled in the password as fast as he could. “I can’t believe I just–” He groaned, punching the numbers in frustration. “You were there weren’t you? Why didn’t you say anything?!”
“Hey, that guy deserved it after what he did to you,” Naib said, and he couldn’t help but feel smug at the thought of Freddy being afraid of Eli. He nodded his head approvingly to himself, unaware of the seer’s horrified look. “That’ll show him not to be rude to others.”
“Naib, that’s mean,” Eli said, his face full of remorse. He entered the gate once it was opened. “I need to ask Ms. Dyer if he’s okay.”
“Eli,” Naib grunted, watching as the seer exited the game. “This guy, I swear to god.”
He followed Eli back to the manor, tried his best to convince the seer that it wasn’t his fault and that Freddy didn’t deserve an apology. However, it turned out that he didn’t have to do any of that. Because the moment the lawyer spotted Eli trying to approach him, he ran for his dear life, as if he was being chased by a ghost.