Dream(3)

After a trying week, I was ready to put the past few days behind me as I laid to rest. Despite the promise of taking it easy, it just felt wrong to sit around being babied by my sister, and after much begging, prodding, and no small amount of help from Terra, I managed to get Saphron to at least let me clean around the place.

It was quite soothing really, the chores I mean. Now one may scoff at the idea that the banality of the daily grind may in anyway, shape or form be considered -enjoyable-, but it was a nice change of pace from the last few months. Maybe it was because I grew up with it, my sister's always did say I had great house husband qualities, but I digress. Regardless, it was, in the very literal sense, just what the doctor ordered.

And tomorrow, I'd start attending classes again, and never before have I ever thought I'd long for the academics as a bastion of normalcy in life, but after all that chaos I'd gladly take anything to anchor to at this point. Sure there were still some things to work out, but those could be dealt with at a later date.

Stretching out my sore body, I let myself fall asleep to the satisfying crackles and pops as my muscles unwound.

I knew I was in for a rude awakening when the first thing to hit me was the overwhelming stench of rot.

I barely even managed to recognize the -thing- in front of me as my old tormentor. Huge chunks of it were little more than crimson colored clumps of viscera from when I'd gone nuts, sparsely interspersed with ragged clumps of blackened fur. And the flies; Merciful Brothers, the not-beowolf was nothing more than a haven for flies and maggots, eagerly feasting on the eviscerated corpse.

Hurriedly scrambling backwards, I felt bile rise from my throat and I desperately fought to keep my dinner down.

"No…" I whimpered.

"Here again?! Why? Not again, please…" my voice rose, before my hands clamped down in my mouth, remembering the consequences of my prior outburst.

Though mercifully, this time it seemed nothing had taken note of my freakout… yet.

Irregardless, I couldn't stay for long. Staying in one place was a death sentence. Last time I did, I was torn to shreds by a beast. Besides, I still -thankfully- possessed my weapons from before, so at the very least I could defend myself. So it was, with much trepidation, I took my first steps to this strange new world I'd found myself in.

If only stayed, maybe things would be different…

The sun hung low in the sky, bathing the cobblestone streets in a dull orange light, and casting strange, long shadows from the myriad of lamps and fences. Despite all the horror this world had thrown my way, I could not help but marvel at it all.

Before me stood a city the likes of which dwarfed all that I'd ever known. It made Argus look like a mere hovel in comparison; great Gothic spires rose to the heavens, the intricate brickwork of dozens upon hundreds of Mantle-era homes and compounds honeycombed together, intersecting and interlacing to form an urban crush of such density. It was as if they built with nothing to fear; as if there were no Grimm to impede them.

It was undeniably beautiful, which only served to compound how -off- the whole place felt. So much of it looked like it'd long since gone out of maintenance; wrought iron fences bent and rusted, ancient stonework cracked and crumbled. And coffins, Brothers the coffins. Lining the walls, and stacked high in piles, It was as if there were more bodies than earth to bury them in.

And an eerie, pervasive -silence- persisted all around. It was somehow worse than everything else; a city this massive, and not a soul in sight, just the ghostly howling of the wind.

"Just, what happened here?" I asked aloud. That was the million lien question now was it? The thought stuck with me even as I crept out of the courtyard that made up the front of the clinic, (and it was indeed a clinic, a rather expansive one at that) and made my way into the streets proper.

All the while I was on my toes as I inched down the empty street, blunderbuss raised up high as a preemptive measure.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an unexpected sight. A person! My face lit up as I all but sprinted toward the man. "Hey! Sir! Can you help me, I-!?"

Whatever else I had to say died in my throat. What joy I had was quickly replaced with a mounting sense of dread. From a distance, and shadowed under the dying light of the sun he'd looked normal enough, but as I skid to a halt mere meters from him, the truth of the couldn't have been more clear. A face, while still recognizably human, was twisted and malformed, hair growing wildly, eyes glazed over and pupils crushed. His proportions were grotesquely disproportionate, arms and torso to long, legs set in semi-permanent squat. It was a human, but stretched too thin and deformed like a lump of errant clay. In one hand he held a torch, and in the other he dragged a large woodsman's axe.

"H-hey… are you, uh…"

The man, if it could even be called that anymore, tore it's blank gaze from the ground to stare directly at me. It sent chills down my spine; I didn't know eyes that dead could ever convey such primal -rage-. "You…" he snarled, grip tightening around the axe...

I barely managed to scramble back in time, not at all anticipating that the man would lunge forward with his makeshift weapon. "All your fault!"

"Wh- what are you even talking about!" I didn't want to fight this man. There was clearly something very wrong with him! No, even more than that, I just didn't want to take another's life! I choose my future specifically to avoid such a possibility! All the same, my right arm was already gripping the cleaver. "Please! I don't even know where I am!"

Either he could not hear me, or simply didn't care, as he continued to wildly, albeit clumsily, swing his axe around "Your fault! You're not welcome here!"

To be frank the man before me was far less of a threat in comparison to the not-beowolf, even a novice like me could see that. And yet I still couldn't bring myself to fight back. Back then that -thing- was a monster but now… right now this was still a -person-, horribly warped but regardless! I became what I am to save lives, not take them! I did the only thing I could do then.

I ran. Or at least tried to. Problem was I was caught between a rock and a hard place; the street cut off in a dead end in front of me and a locked gate from behind. Running back to the clinic would do me no good, it would be my first night here all over again.

As I was racking my brain for a possible solution, the man came in with another overhead smash that sent me screaming backwards. Instead of hitting the wall, however I instead smashed into something hard and metallic with a resounding snap that… wasn't from my bones surprisingly. No, rather it was the sound of a metal implement coming into place.

Just then a ladder came down from… somewhere with a resounding crash that momentarily stunned both me and my attacker. I didn't even think about the implications anymore, I saw a way out and made for a mad dash towards it as my previous foe remained dumbfounded by the turn of events. By the time he seemed to realize what was going on, I was already well up my way to -relative- safety.

And in the nick of time as well. Down below the man seemed to continue his frenzy but did not pursue. Given the state of his eyes, with pupils crushed and blocking the cornea, his vision must have been terrible if not outright terminated. On the other hand, he may have simply been too consumed by bloodlust to do anything else. Unnervingly his blows were beginning to warp the -solid- iron ladder.

Much to my surprise, I found not a roof but instead more street, the city seeming to simply grow ever upwards. Exhausted from both the climb and the earlier chase, I collapsed by a window, gasping for air as I propped myself up against the wall...

"Is someone out there?"

And then nearly leapt out of my own skin at the voice seemingly coming from nowhere. Though thankfully, unlike the previous encounter this one was undoubtedly human, if a little weak. "Yes! H-hello?"

"That voice, a Hunter? No, a foreigner?!" The man's surprised exclamation was interrupted by a bout of harsh coughing. "Gods, an outsider, and out on the night of the Hunt no less. Yharnam truly has no mercy, does it?"

"Wait, wait! Yharnam? The Hunt? What are you talking about?!" I pleaded trying to get a better look at him through the barred windows, but could only make out a faint silhouette through the thick curtains. "I don't even know how I got here!"

"You don't even?... The gods are crueler than I imagined. I-I'm sorry, but I can't help you. My legs gave out long ago and the door… surely you've seen them, the beasts I mean." With each word, I could practically see the man crumple in on himself.

"You're welcome to stay though. The incense" he gestured with a rail thin arm to the lantern beside the window "it should keep the beasts from getting to close, it's scent drives them off somehow."

"I… I see" I muttered, drifting back to where I was seated a moment earlier. "I… I understand, sorry to have been a bother."

"Don't lose heart yet good Sir. If you've managed to make it to me, then at the very least you have a chance. And what's more, at least you've made a friend. The names Gilbert."

I was quiet for a moment, processing his reply. A friend huh, looking up to the window from my spot I answered "Jaune, Jaune Arc pleased to meet you Gilbert." I answered most sincerely, after all what were strangers but friends you haven't met yet, right?

"Jaune… apologies for asking, but would you perhaps have come from down south?"

"South? Uh, no sorry, like I said I'm not even sure -how- I got here." I replied more than a little bit confused by his question.

"Ah, oh well. I suppose Yharnam brings in all sorts. Well then, Jaune, let me give you a gift. It's done me some good, but someone like you could find more use of it then I." Slowly, Gilbert pushed himself upright, pulling something out from his person. A pale, thin arm reach out of the curtain, clutching a glass vial.

I reached up and took the gift, looking it over. The fluid inside was a vibrant red, and it looked like… "Blood?"

"The only good thing about Yharnam," he responded. "Blood from the healing church. Heal wounds, cure diseases… it's the reason I came here in the first place. Slowed my sickness down at least… Go on, take a drink."

I eyes his 'gift' with no small amount of concern as I went over the implications of his answer. "Healing… blood like a transfusion? But, wait no how does that work? What about blood type? Are they not worried about the possible diseases?!"

"Erm, my apologies, blood type? Transfusion? I don't quite follow." I could practically -hear- his eyebrows creasing together. My face flushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, it's just, well I guess you could call me a doctor, or well doctor-in-training would be more accurate."

"A man of medicine then? Is that why you're here?" For once, Gilbert actually sounded… hopeful, a first in this conversation.

"Not necessarily, but…" but what? People here were sick weren't they? Did I need any other reason to help? This was I trained for!

Eyeing the bottle once more, I finally brought it to my lips. It all sounded so strange, so surreal. Something like this, well to say it was a bad idea was like saying Grimm are angry. But hey? It's just a dream right? Not like any of this was supposed to make sense.

It's just a dream.

Only a dream.

Just don't worry about it, I thought as I uncorked the vial.

It's fine, it's just a dream.

Yes I live, and sorry for the sudden dry spell, school has been a killer.