“Don't touch me!”
The child stopped immediately; he put a distance from his trembling mother, who looked at him with wide eyes in fear.
The child silently stared, respecting his mother’s wish to stay away.
“I know...” The mother took a step back. “I really know... I know it's not your fault...” She covered her mouth to stifle her cries. “I really don't hate you... Please believe me... I love you, Davante...” She hiccupped, “but I know you are... he... He is looking!! I know he can look at me from your eyes!!!” She started trembling more. “A son like you… I don't need someone like you!!”
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 9
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“May I ask...” Davante sighed, blinking sleepily. “Why did you drag me to your room in the middle of the night?” He looked at the man who was strangely facing the door. Narrowing his eyes suspiciously when he heard a click, ‘...Did he just lock the door?’
Alvis took a deep breath before turning back to Davante, who stood still in the middle of the dark room; moonlight pushed through the window to slightly light the room at night.
“I'm sorry, but we need to talk. Right now.” Alvis sighed and walked to grab a desk chair, turning it around to invite the teen, “I have a feeling you'll fall asleep if you sit on the bed, so… sit down, please.”
Davante stared blankly but was too sleep-deprived to ask questions, so he did as told without much protest. Once he sat down comfortably and hugged his knees, he faced Alvis, who sat stiffly on the bed with his head down, “So?”
And the man didn’t hold back as he burst out immediately at the other’s demand, “THAT person... is he really your father? Kaven Fixsen? How can this and that be the same person?! I DON'T know that guy!! Not my friend! His doppelganger or whatever, but I REFUSE TO SAY HE IS KAVEN FIXSEN!!”
“...I think it's my fault…” Davante answered uncertainly as he looked to the floor.
Alvis sighed and looked tiredly at the boy, changing his position to face the teen properly, “Is this about how he blamed you for your mother's death?”
Davante remained silent for a while before talking again. “Maybe even before her death... he was indeed the only one who tried to treat me like any other child, but then I think he started to believe that I am truly abnormal…"
“I assure you, he actually loved you, and he wasn't just trying to treat you like any normal kid, Davante,” Alvis sighed again and ruffled his hair messily. “But now... no matter what I say, he insists that you are the one who killed his wife... no matter how I look at it, it just doesn't make sense to me! How much he hates you for something he doesn't even know, and he's blaming a CHILD! Not to mention that... creepy smile...”
Davante blinked; he widened his eyes slightly, “…did you really tell him everything?”
Alvis looked pointedly at the other as if the question offended him. “What? You didn't believe me when I said so?”
“Honestly…I didn't..." He paused, expecting the offended ‘Hey’ from the other as he looked down to continue, “But I didn't care to be honest...”
Alvis frowned and demanded, “Why didn't you want me to talk to him?”
Davante averted his eyes and kept looking down as he contemplated something.
“Davante... did you... Did you know that he wouldn't believe me? Even if I told him everything? Did you know he would still hate you?” Alvis pressed on, demanding for the first time to receive answers from the reserved teen.
Davante looked coldly at the floor that seemed equally cold and still as a memory flashed in his mind, “He looked so joyous...”
“What...?” Alvis furrowed his eyebrows, seemingly confused and taken aback.
“He seemed very excited to get rid of me... that day when you ran away...” the teen calmly said, looking at nothing as he remembered the look on his father that day, a grin too wide that looked too sinister and foreign on his delicate features, getting closer to his face as his father grabbed his cheeks and widened his eyes like a lunatic, “He smiled at me... as if he was waiting for me to do something terrible all along...” He kept looking at the floor, unaware of the look of horror from the assistant the more he listened, “He detests me... I knew there was no way for him to change even if he knew the truth... I didn't want to say anything… I thought I'd stay quiet until you decide to tell him yourself, or that was the case at first…” he took some time to collect his thoughts. “That day, when he came back home... I didn't expect him to accuse me straightway… I got scared. I tried to explain everything to him...”
Alvis looked down, unable to look at the teen whom he had betrayed, even though Davante wasn’t looking at him and didn’t seem to care, but the truth was out and clear to his face; he ran away and helped push the blame on the child and the trauma he had to go through, “That's totally normal for a child to be scared in that situation…”
“I wasn't scared of what happened to my mother.”
Alvis again looked back at Davante in shock.
“You must have felt something strange from me, too, right?” Davante rested his head back on the chair with closed eyes, “It's true, I'm not normal... what everyone says about me, it's true…”
“No, I don't think you are—”
“I knew things were going to end like that. I knew she was going to kill herself, and for you to try to stop her.” he paused before he said in a calmer tone, “I just... knew.”
Alvis stared silently and was hesitant about what to say next, “So... if you weren't scared of what happened... then...”
“His smile...” recalling the crazy smile again and again in his head, it felt like he was reliving the moment as he physically felt the coldness he felt from then, “That was the first time I got scared of someone… I didn't know my father as you did, but maybe you're right…” Davante relaxed his cold cheek lazily on the back of his hand as he reminisced the time when his father used to give him too much attention and play with him even though his child was incapable of showing any reactions like any other toddler, “Perhaps something happened to him... though I don't know how or when.”
It hurt to ask, but Alvis had to because the teen he was looking at looked like a broken mess, and the only way to survive was to suppress his deep inner fears, and the only way for him to let it out was if someone asked and he needed to answer, “Are you still scared?”
Davante didn't answer immediately, “I don't know...” He stared at Alvis for a while.
Alvis averted his eyes and hesitantly asked the other, dreading the obvious answer, “Do you hate me... for running away...?”
Silence...
Alvis chuckled dejectedly, voice shaking a bit, “Obviously...”
“Maybe at first,” Davante answered calmly later; Alvis looked back at him with glistening eyes in the dark, “I wasn't in my right mind in that room, so I blamed you for what I went through… I hated you... Or rather, I think at that moment, I just hated everyone...”
Noticing the distant look in the teen’s icy eyes, Alvis couldn’t help but ask, “‘That room’...?”
Davante paused, mouth open as he froze for a moment before swinging the chair back and forth, causing multiple loud creaks to fill the silent room, “But then, I decided I should forget about you. I thought I would never see you again anyway.”
‘Ah, the wrong question, alright...’ Alvis thought and kept quiet, waiting for the other as it looked like there was more. He was just happy the teen was talking more than usual now.
“When we met again... I guess what annoyed me was that you didn't want to save me, you just wanted to save yourself...” he paused, then looked at Alvis, who stared wide-eyed back at him at the new knowledge he was receiving, “Still, when I realized that we know nothing about each other... I just... I think it's unfair of me to be angry at you or hate you for that matter... you didn't deserve to be treated so coldly as I did the first day and force you to feel guilty… I'm sorry.”
Alvis was speechless.
“So... no. I don't hate you… Alvis,” Davante tilted his head a bit to the side and offered a small smile, “And you're not a murderer for what happened to my mother. She wanted to commit suicide, and you tried to save her, that's all.”
Alvis gulped and held back the tears about falling down his cheeks at any moment, lowering his head. “I'm... wow...” at a loss of how to express his relief, he raised his head back as he smiled at Davante, a lighthearted smile, “I suddenly feel so much lighter..."
Davante averted his eyes away from the man’s genuine smile as he felt overwhelmed for some reason; he wasn’t sure why. “...good to know.”
“Ah, then...” the man quickly regained his composure and felt more comfortable voicing his questions, “Was it true what your mother said about Kaven back then?”
Davante stared at the ceiling as he leaned back on the chair, “Not really. Yes, she definitely sensed something from my father. She started to get scared whenever he was around, but that wasn't why she wanted to leave me with you. I think there's more to the matter than that,” he blinked as he added, “She said she loves me, she wanted me to believe her, so I did... because if she truly hated me, I am sure it would have been easier for her to kill me or throw me somewhere and run away.”
Smiling uncomfortably, “Don't... talk like it's normal for her to do so...”
Davante looked back to the floor as he recalled something else, “She was scared of me. I don't really know why... but I only remember her saying… 'Baldrick is watching me from your eyes.'”
Alvis jumped up from the bed suddenly with wide eyes; he almost looked scared and alarmed himself.
Davante looked slightly up at the seething man, forcing his body to stay calm. “Alvis...?”
Shakin, Alvis almost growled as he asked and looked visibly raged, “Do you know who Baldrick is?”
Davante blinked, confused, quietly expecting to be accused of something he wasn’t aware of and was getting ready for it as he honestly and calmly answered, “No... I've only heard his name from my mother.”
Alvis stared into Davante's eyes, fists still slightly trembling and clenched.
“...are you okay?” Davante stared at the other cautiously.
Alvis slowly brought himself to calm down, shaking his head lightly. “Yeah... sorry, it's nothing...” rubbing the back of his neck as he looked to the side with a long sigh, “You must be tired... sorry for forcing this conversation on you, but I... we needed it, both of us,” he looked back at Davante with a gentle smile, "I…” reaching his hand to the other, pausing a short moment before proceeding, patting the teen’s silky black hair as he fondly announced, “I will still look after you, Davante.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Davante remained silent as he kept looking down, unsure what to say or feel. Alvis seemed to understand, however, as he put some distance between them and calmly pulled out his phone to check something before pushing it into his pocket and moving to the door.
“Alright, so! I don't think it's safe for you to go back alone now, so I asked someone I trust to send you back to your room.” Alvis said with an excited smile as he unlocked the door.
Davante stood up and trailed behind, “There is no need...” He stopped when Alvis opened the door to reveal a guy with an eye patch covering his right eye. The guy noticed Davante and smiled brightly, making the teen want to step away from him.
“Oh, you're done? Hello!” the guy waved happily at him with his phone in his other hand.
Davante didn’t bother to wave back, looking at the two big balls of bright energy grinning happily and innocently in his direction.
Alvis gave him a thumbs up as he confidently said, “Don't worry, you can trust him!”
Davante stared back at the guy a little more before he pushed through between them and walked out of the room, ignoring how small he felt with their longer and bigger build, “Alright, good night then.”
“Ah, wait—” Alvis called out to the retreating teen as he wasn’t finished with the introduction yet.
The guy immediately set to follow Davante, whispering to Alvis as he passed by with a smile, “Elois got his memories back.”
Alvis stilled in place at the doorway with wide eyes, but before he could ask, the other was already running after Davante, and he was left alone with the unexpected news, “What… you can't just leave after… huh…? Huh…?”
.
.
“Well then, here we are, Dante!” the eye-patched guy said, smiling wide at Davante as he gestured with both hands to the door, standing in front of Davante's and Elois's shared room.
Davante wasn’t sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he could see sparkling light coming from the bright person in front of him, “Thanks...”
The guy innocently pointed his finger to himself while rubbing his other hand on the back of his head, “Ah, right! I haven't introduced myself yet- Owin!”
Davante only stared intently at Owin, inspecting with his eyes and forgetting to answer the other. Staring at the color of his very short hair and his visible eye, his face, and features in general, ‘His hair's very much like Elois'... and the eyes same as Alvis'…’ imagining all three faces together in his mind, ‘...they all have something similar...’ he blinked as it clicked to him, ‘Oh... I see…’
Owin smiled confusedly at the other, not bothering the staring much before he kindly asked the teen, who seemed to be thinking of something as he looked down, “Is Elois taking good care of you?”
“Hm? Ah…” Davante turned to face Owin, pulled back from his thoughts, “Yes, I think?” ‘Almost like a mother…’ he secretly added, recalling how his roommate always took the role of taking care of his sleep schedule and making sure to remind him to eat his meals, going as far as threatening him with his sharp eyes as he emphasized on eating the meals he brings for him every day.
“Sorry to ask this of you, but… please take care of him, too.” Said Owin in an almost hushed tone as he smiled calmly with his eye closed, not noticing the unreadable look the teen had as he hadn’t said anything and just stared. The grin came back instantly, and Owin turned around to wave at Davante while skipping away in the hallway, “Sleep tight!”
Davante silently looked at Owin’s retreating figure before turning to the door and quietly opening it. Once inside, Davante noticed Elois asleep on his own bed. ‘Oh, he's back…’ He walked to his bed and was about to lie down but stopped when he noticed the bandages on his roommate's right arm. He carefully inspected the injuries with his eyes, then looked at Elois's sleeping face. ‘Where did all these wounds come from...? He looks so worn out...’
He slowly lay down in bed and brought the covers around him to dive into the comfort and warmth of the bed. He was tired; he wanted to sleep, but he only stared at the balcony window facing him from a distance and thought of what Alvis had told him.
“I don't know that person!”
‘That's right... my father has changed at some point... I've always thought that was because he gave up on me and believed I wasn't a normal child...’
Staying still and blinking sleepily in thought.
‘If I wasn't the cause of his change... then what was...?’
He recalled what he learned from Juli on their way to the Academy together.
“Rumors say that the principal had someone from his family who was influenced by that flower…”
‘Was that 'someone' me? Or my mother...?’
An image of his father suddenly came to his mind.
Young Kaven was standing and warmly smiling down at him, holding his hands out to carry Davante in his arms. “Davante, time to go home~”
‘Ah... that day... we went to the forest for the first time to look at the red flower... my father was so enthusiastic... It was... that time when I noticed that girl there, alone... She was alone and scared… where exactly... did I see her? Somewhere… dark and…’
‘…and…’
Then suddenly, the image got distorted somehow, and it was hard to see clearly; something dark and long, smiling creepy faces… all reaching their long hands and fingers out and behind his oblivious father.
Gasp—
Davante snapped his eyes open. He was met with the ceiling of his shared room with Elois. He tried to breathe calmly; he noticed he was covered in sweat, and the room wasn't dark anymore. He didn’t have to look at the balcony to his side to know what time it was, ‘Morning already...’
Getting up in a sitting position as he wiped his sweaty face with the back of his hand, ‘When did I even sleep? So that was a dream...?’
Still panting, wiping the back of his neck as he recalled the dream, or was it really a dream, he doubted. He noticed then that he was alone in the room; Elois's bed was empty. ‘Ah… so he went to class…’ he turned to look at his bag beside his bed, resting on the small bedside table with the diary poking out a bit, “Then… this is my chance…”
.
.
“Huh? What happened?”
Elois put his bag on the desk in front of him and sat on his seat beside Javi, who eyed his injuries and looked stunned, “What? It's not the first time I’ve gotten in a fight with someone, right?” he pulled his earphones and connected them to his phone, ready to isolate himself from everyone in the class with a piece of good music.
“Are you telling me that someone managed to lay a finger on you? Why do I find that so hard to believe?” Javi stared intently at his friend, who ignored him and put the earphones on. Javi sighed and rested his chin on his palm. “Yeah, okay, I'll believe you even though I don't.”
Elois glanced at Javi from the side of his eye and returned to his music. Both remained just like that until the teacher arrived with a bunch of papers and books; as usual, he threw all his things on the desk with a huff. The grumpy teacher raised his head to look at the students awaiting the day’s lecture, “Okay, guys! We have a new student today, so welcome him properly,” he turned his head to the door. “Come introduce yourself, and make it quick, please.”
Javi slowly raised his chin from his palm and tried to hide the shocked look on his face but failed miserably; Elois on his right noticed his reaction once the new student with black and red hair casually walked into the classroom.
“I'm Ellmer Reinhart. Very nice to meet you all.” the new student, Ellmer, said with a kind smile. Some students nodded, and some remained silent, looking bored already. Then, Ellmer pointedly glanced in their direction; it was quick, and maybe no one noticed, but Elois did. He also noticed how Javi tensed when Ellmer’s crimson eyes fell on them. Elois furrowed his eyebrows at his friend and whispered to him, “You know him?”
Javi kept his gaze on the new student, who took his time walking to his seat and casually starting light conversations with some students. He tried to ignore the other’s presence as he grumbled an answer, “…not really…”
Elois raised an eyebrow at his friend. He then shrugged and tried to focus on the lecture as he removed one earphone.
“More importantly,”
Elois paused his hand, letting Javi know that he was listening.
“Is Dante in his class now?”
Elois let the earphone rest hanging by his left shoulder as he indifferently answered, “Maybe, he was still asleep when I left.”
Javi instantly pushed his face close and loudly whispered, causing the other to flinch away from him with a frown, “You didn't wake him up? You just left him sleeping alone in the room?! DID YOU AT LEAST LOCK THE DOOR?!”
“You talk like I did something terrible. What’s with you today?!”
Javi seemed to think for a moment, contemplating something. He then moved to gather his notes and everything from his desk, standing abruptly and pulling the other by the elbow to stand up with him, “We need to go.”
“Huh? Where to?”
“Just come!”
“Hey! Wait—”
“These two again…” grumbled the instructor as he frowned with his face to the board, listening to the usual source of disturbance in the class as loud steps moved to the door and slammed after. Thankful for the quietness and peace after as he proceeded with the lesson, uncaring.
Elois walked hurriedly as he was still being pulled by the tight grip of the other’s hand, “Hey! Seriously, what's wrong?!”
Javi let go and stopped when they were far away from the class, and took a look around him to make sure the place was empty, “Listen, yesterday I heard Ellmer talking about you and your roommate,”
“What?”
Elois furrowed his eyebrows, but Javi wasn’t done yet, “He told someone to keep an eye on you both, and he also…” turning around to face his friend, “He mentioned your roommate's name… ‘Davante’…”
Elois remained quiet at first; slowly, the look on his face changed, and his hand fell back to his side. An image of a boy with black hair facing away from him and a pot of flowers in his hands, with the pot looking big compared to his small and fragile frame, walking calmly in a beautiful small garden. It was a peaceful memory, yet haunting.
“Hey Elois, isn't Davante the one you talked about before? Your friend from 7 years ago! You said that Dante reminds you of him, so… maybe he IS Davante?” Javi waited for the other to react. But Elois looked at nothing; his eyes seemed empty and distant. “Anyway! We should go and make sure he's safe! Maybe the other person who talked to Ellmer is on his way to go do something to your roommate as we're talking now!”
“I think— He will be safe… now that I'm away from him…”
Javi turned quiet, and a long moment of silence fell on them, staring with a raised pointy eyebrow at his friend as if he had just said the stupidest thing Javi had ever heard, “HUH?” He sighed and shook his head, grabbing the other's shoulders to look him in the eye. “LISTEN HERE, ELOIS! I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR SMART HEAD TODAY, BUT THE TARGET HERE IS DAVANTE! THEY WANT TO KEEP AN EYE ON YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE HIS ROOMMATE, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!”
Elois widened his eyes blankly, “Huh- The target is him? But… why?”
Javi looked like he wanted so much to tear out his hair; he got closer to the other's face in frustration, “WHO KNOWS!! ARE YOU DONE ASKING?!!”
“Ah yeah, sorry…”
“Oh, finally!” Javi let go of the other and immediately ran into the hallway; Elois blinked and followed behind.
.
.
Davante sat on his bed with the diary in his hands. He slowly opened the book to the first page, but to his surprise, it was empty. He slightly widened his eyes at the blank page. ‘These were the two pages I read yesterday… how are they empty now?’ He looked at the other pages; none was empty like the pages he had read yesterday. ‘So, only the first two… Does he… have control over his diary?’ he quickly shrugged it off, “Let's see…”
And he started reading the rest from where he had stopped the previous day.
——I was forced into an unknown, invisible game. I do not know precisely when or in what way, and I also do not know if it was the reason why the nobles wanted me dead at the earliest opportunity.
No one noticed the changes around our world; my mother alone and I were aware of things.
I started to have the same dream repeatedly for a long while. Every time I would find myself standing in a place with nothing but mirrors all around me. Whenever I would look at any reflection in all mirrors, I would see someone unfamiliar, whom I would call my twin if not for the icy-blue eyes.
He looked calm, cold, and assertive. The silence then would abruptly break by random shrieks and cries, along with empty threats. When I look behind the source of the voices, I find a very furious yet frightened woman. She looked explicitly furious at me yet frightened by the person in the mirrors.
She tried over and over again to kill me, but the person in the mirrors stopped her every single time by simply looking directly into her eyes; no matter how long or loud she cried, he would look completely unfazed. As if mocking her in the coldest way possible.
Not long after, I came to the realization. The person in the mirrors was none other than the third game player. Davante. The only player who would defeat her and the only player whom she fears the most.
I had decided to become your ally. And for you to become the third player, I had to die to make way for you.
Our real enemy is her, and the game is but a way to cage her for as long as it can. Never let your guard down, especially when she is so close to you now. ——
‘Third… player? Me? So, does that mean… Yeolard was the second player?’ Davante was even more confused; he stared down at the words, ‘Is this about Emmie's game…?’ he lowered the diary and rested it on his lap. ‘But her game…’
He recalled the game conditions stated by none other than the playful Emmie.
“Go see the red flower and come back. If you really managed to come back, I lose; if not, you lose. Simple, right?”
Davante widened his eyes slightly at the memory. ‘Did she know I was going to be stuck in here because of that flower?’ he lowered his head a little, ‘No… Is the game really that simple? What are the real conditions…?’
He recalled the skeleton pinned against the big tree, then the dream he had of his father moments ago.
‘He said he had to die… so that really was his skeleton tied to the big tree… Is the red flower the evil here, or the… tree?’
He slowly brought his hand up and brushed his hair around the side of his forehead lightly with his fingers, eyes very wide open, feeling shards of glass connecting back in his head. It was getting close, very close to something, yet he felt like something was breaking down in his head, ‘The… tree… something… there was something… I…’
A knock on the door was what startled him and stopped him from diving deeper into his disturbing thoughts. He looked toward the door that kept getting knocked at from the other side, even without a response. He heard another knock, and he hurriedly shoved the diary under his bed and stood up. He walked to the door and opened it cautiously.
.
.
Elois and Javi finally arrived at the dorms and went straight to the corridor where the room was in. Javi ran and shoved the door open immediately while shouting the fake name of their friend, but he was met with an empty room.
“You think he went to class?” Javi asked the other, both panting from running so fast from one building to another.
Elois looked to his roommate’s bed, noticing the bag beside it on the floor, “His bag is still here…”
Javi walked to the bathroom. “Maybe in the bathroom? Dante! You in there?!”
Silence.
Elois walked to the door and tried to open it a little, and it opened.
“If he were in there, we would've definitely heard some curses at us by now,” Javi said with a serious look.
Elois side-eyed him. “You provoked him enough to know that, huh?”
“Try and open it more.” Javi pointed at the door, urging the other to open the door completely.
Elois gave him a look. “You do it, then.”
“Just do it.”
“Afraid of his punch?”
“I'll punch you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Elois slowly pushed the door more and revealed the empty bathroom.
“See?” Javi raised his head proudly; he quickly frowned, “Actually, wait— this is bad…”
“Hey… “ Elois called for the other’s attention as he walked to the balcony.
Javi stopped his rambling and looked at his friend, who stared at the balcony with a frown, “Hm?”
The balcony window was open. Both of them stared at it in worry.
“Uh… I don't… think he jumped…” said a worried Javi, “…or did he?”
.
.
Emmie sat on the half-round sofa in the room with only the sunlight lighting it, facing down as she hugged her knees in silence. She sighed. “Belvedere will cause even bigger troubles if I go to the academy…” tightening her clasped hands together, she lightly called out, “Davante…”
She raised her head to the long window when she noticed a movement, startled when she witnessed the sight of a huge man in an odd position looking as if he came flying straight to crash inside the room only to collide pathetically against the weak window.
“Karl?!” she jumped in place at the familiar figure, ready to get up and help the other, when suddenly the shape of the man turned into a thin scattering of smoke and sneaked from the windowsills and easily into the room. The smoke gathered to take the form of a tall human being again, but this time a woman.
The smiling woman with weirdly long spiky dark blue hair waved unapologetically to the other in the room as she casually walked to the other half of the round sofa, “Pardon the intrusion!”
Emmie sighed as she calmed down, “um, it's fine, not like it's the first time or anything. But are you okay? Your power's weak…”
The woman flopped down on the sofa with her long legs stretched forward, “Yeah, didn't expect him to be that tough.”
Confused, “Who…?”
Karl looked down at the floor with an easy smile, “Elois Iriart,” her sharp crimson eyes looked unsure before adding, “Or should I call him Elois Feldstain now? Baldrick played a new card… he managed to get a hold of this boy whom I met when he was a kid, and now it's registered everywhere that he is the son of 'Lucas Feldstain.’”
Emmie looked down as she pondered, “He had never done that to any of his victims before…”
“Exactly, I think he smelled my blood on that boy, guess that made him interested or something,” Karl looked up to the window as she recalled her first encounter with the said kid, smiling gently at the memory, “The kid was about to die in front of me, so I gave him a little of my blood, it's not like he would turn into a vampire anyway, you know how different our blood is,” shrug, “Most importantly, apparently this boy is now in the same position as Davante in the game,” Karl looked at Emmie calmly, who looked back with a worried look, “Davante is not the only player. Elois entered the game now, but he is completely under Baldrick's control, from what I've seen. I thought I could have control over him through my blood… but no use.”
Emmie looked more anxious, “Wait… that means…”
“Yes,” Karl looked sharply back at Emmie, “He will most likely be against Davante in this cursed game.”
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The End of CH. 9