"Now, Gracie," Kurt leaned against the cold stone wall of the basent. "When and where was the last ti you saw your friend? Seeing that he was the first thing you asked about when waking up, I’m guessing he’s pretty important to you, no?"
Gracie, who’d just finished wrapping her cloak, didn’t look at him. She looked at her hands, which were still trembling slightly despite her bravado. The infection’s effects still slightly lingered, but she ignored it.
"What day is it?" she asked dismissively.
"It’s Wednesday afternoon."
*Tsk* "Then it’s been since yesterday morning since I last saw him."
"Look, Gracie," Kurt said, stepping forward. "I’m sensing so attitude coming off you. If we’re going to work together, you need to talk. It’s important. I don’t know if you know, but the cult is almost certainly involved in this. Any information you have could be the difference between finding your friend and finding a corpse."
"I don’t need your help. I don’t need anyone’s help. I’ll rescue Austin on my own."
Kurt shook his head and sighed as his patience lowered.
"Listen, I don’t an to sound rude, but I did just save your life. That cure? The guy who made it is currently dead and I doubt there’s a secret stash under the floorboards. You owe the least bit of cooperation.
Besides, I saw the state you’re in under those bandages. You displayed them proudly enough after all – you’re a ss. You won’t make it a mile into that swamp before your stitches pop. Like it or not, you need us."
Gracie stared at him with eyes of malice. Her jaw tightened, but slowly, the tension began to leave her shoulders. She sat back down on the edge of the cot and began talking.
"We were in the forest. About three miles away from the lake. Austin... he had to go pee."
She looked up at the ceiling, a faint, lopsided smirk touching her lips. "I insisted on going with him. For safety reasons obviously. But he was adamant. He’s... he’s shy about things like that."
"Yeah, I get it," Kurt nodded. "Nobody really wants an audience for that."
"I told him fine," Gracie continued. "I let him have his stupid privacy... Except I didn’t. The forest was nice and thick, quiet too. So I used my magic to spy on him."
Suddenly, her expression shifted. A creepy, predatory smile spread across her face, and her eyes widened in a way that made even Kurt feel a bit of a chill. She then let out a soft laugh. "Hahaha... His little dick is so cute when it’s flaccid... but it’s a monster when it wakes up. Definitely a grower, that one. I could watch it for hours."
Kurt blinked. While his face remained a mask of stoic professionalism, his brain scread, ’Too much information, lady! TMI!’
Isabel, standing behind him, blushed profusely while looking intensely at a spiderweb in the corner.
"Ahem, right," Kurt said, clearing his throat. "So... you were spying. And then?"
Gracie’s smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold scowl.
"And then, I heard movent nearby. Sothing fast. I went to deal with it, thinking it was a monster. It was a man – or it looked like one. Blood-shot eyes, grey skin. When he saw , he didn’t fight. He turned and ran on all fours at inhumane speeds."
She gripped the edge of the cot. "Then I heard Austin scream. I raced back, and I saw another one of those grey bastards dragging him away. Austin’s pants were still around his ankles, and his little dick was magnificently spraying pee everywhere like a panicked fountain."
Kurt felt a snort of laughter bubble up in his throat. He caught it just in ti, however, and transford it into a serious cough. When Gracie glared at him, he looked every bit like the attentive investigator.
"... I went after them. But from nowhere, the first man tackled from out of nowhere. He tried to bite my throat but never got the chance. I killed him easily enough. Then more ca. Ten, twenty, thirty... they just kept coming out of the brush, attacking with no self-preservation. Just a bunch of mindless husks..."
She paused as a look of genuine disgust crossed her features.
"And then sothing sick happened. After I cut them down, their bodies didn’t stay dead. They cracked. Their bones contorted and morphed, their skin splitting open as they turned into those... those fucking centipede monsters.
That’s when the situation turned. They were wild and unorthodox. They move and attack from underground, they’re incredibly fast despite their massive size, and they spit so kind of acidic bile."
Isabel stepped forward and asked in a trembling voice, "How many? You said you fought them?"
"At least thirty of them. They didn’t give a chance to breathe. I struggled and eventually killed every last one of them, but by that point I was spent."
"T-Thirty of them? And what rank would you classify those creatures as?"
"A-rank. Maybe S-rank in a swarm."
"S-rank?! Just who are you?" Isabel looked at her with newfound terror.
"... I told you. My na is Gracie."
"That’s not what I–"
"So!" Kurt cut in, sensing that she wasn’t willing to share that piece of information. "So, Liam found you after the fight?"
"No. Well, sort of. After I fainted from exhaustion, and when I ca to, I was in the swamp. So grey-skinned freak had over his shoulder, carrying toward a wooden house in the distance.
That’s when I saw a shadow creeping up behind him. I’m guessing that it was this Liam you keep talking about. He was holding a massive rock, and when he got close enough, he bashed the freak’s head in with a single swing.
He then grabbed and ran like his life depended on it. Next thing I know, I wake up here, hearing voices getting closer and closer. I thought more of those freaks ca for , so I laid in wait."
"And that’s where we are now," Kurt finished. "Say, if you don’t mind asking. What were you two doing in that forest anyway? It’s a long way from the capital."
"I don’t know," Gracie shrugged. "It was Austin’s idea. He said he had sothing he needed to find. I just followed. I go where he goes."
Kurt narrowed his eye. "Is it possible Austin is involved with them? Maybe he was leading you–"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Gracie was on her feet in an instant, her face inches from Kurt’s. The murderous intent radiating from her was suffocating to all in that small space.
"Don’t you ever speak badly about Austin again! He is pure! He is innocent! If you speculate about him being a traitor again, I don’t care how many holes are in my body – I will rip your fucking heart out and feed it to you. Do you understand?"
"....."
The silence in the basent was deafening. Kurt stared her down, his one eye reflecting her fury without blinking. Behind him, Isabel was shaking as her hand hovered near her thigh.
After a mont, Kurt’s face broke into a small, easy smile. He raised both hands in a gesture of peace. "My bad. I shouldn’t have said that. Based on your story, they kidnapped him while his ’equipnt’ was out. That’s not exactly a position of power if you ask . I apologise."
Gracie nostrils flared as she huffed. She sat back down, looking away with a scowl.
"In any case, it looks like the swamp is the main destination," Kurt said in a professional tone.
"But before we head out, we have to clear this village. Specifically, the Elder. From what Liam said that old man is a ’monster’. I can’t and won’t in good conscience just leave him hanging around. And if they return from the road, we can’t have those n flanking us while we’re in the muck."
"Wait a minute." Gracie looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed. "You ntioned this before, but the cult? How can you be so sure they’re behind this?"
"Off of two simple context clues. One: The Elder spoke of a ’Brotherhood.’ That’s their favorite word for a group of lunatics. And two: The person in the swamp is a ’mysterious person in a dark hood.’ That’s practically the cult’s uniform. Although I could be wrong, the odds are in my favour of being right."
*Tsk* "Fuck..."
"What’s wrong?" Kurt asked.
"Nothing!" Gracie snapped and stood up. Her movents were stiff, but the blue liquid was doing its job. "Let’s just hurry up and kill that old man. Then I want to find the bastard in the hood. If they’ve touched a single hair on Austin’s head, I’m going to turn that swamp into a graveyard..."
"That’s the spirit. Also, if we can help it, let’s not target the other villagers. We’ll leave them to the guards when we report on what is happening here."
"Yes, Master Rossana."
"Whatever..."
"Alright. Let’s take this secret way out and catch him by surprise. Assassin style."
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