ASTURIAN ISLAND
19.02.8462 - 8:45 PM
While the helpers took a break during the orchestra's performance, Talis was inside a van and carefully opened a suitcase of clothing to generate as little noise as possible. He got up, checking through the windows of the van if there was no one around, then he started to take off his uniform and put on the clothes he had taken from the suitcase: totally black clothes. Sweating from the speed with which he'd changed his clothes, he got out of the van, leaving the door open and out through the garage, turning right around the Asturian Manor, avoiding the kitchen door. He took advantage of the walk in the cool night to wipe the sweat off his forehead and make sure everything was in order.
The doors to the Ballroom were ajar, as was the custom at the manor's events, allowing guests to come and go as they pleased. Talis entered the empty Ballroom and quickly made his way to the staircase. He planned to enter through the library and head up the side stairs in the West Wing, but since the Ballroom was clear, he could buy time by going straight up the main staircase, and if necessary, he would return via the side stairs in the West Wing at the end of the performance.
Talis quickly climbed to the fourth floor of the Manor and entered the main corridor of the West Wing, following all the way to the end to access the side corridor of that same Wing. He had studied the layout of the Asturian Manor and knew by heart the path he should take. He had never been to the Asturian Island, much less to the Asturian Manor, and he was astonished by the gigantic size of the place. When studying the plants, he had not understood the actual size of the Manor. He arrived at the last atrium out of breath, whether it was apprehension or the speed with which he had crossed the corridors. He could feel his heart pounding as he finally saw the door he was supposed to enter. So far, everything was working out. He walked around the Atrium and opened the door, slipping into Jean's room.
Inside the Music Hall of the Asturian Manor, everyone paid close attention to the performance. Mila leaned into Scarlet's ear and whispered:
"Have you ever thought that some things are so wonderful that they must transcend the barrier of universes and exist in different realities?"
"Oh my, what have you been smoking?" Scarlet replied softly.
"I mean..."
"Shii, tell me later," Scarlet interrupted Mila, placing her hand on the girl's thigh.
Three floors above, Talis was carefully closing the curtains in Jean's room, and after making sure the room was adequately sealed, he turned on his MC's flashlight and began to search the entire room. He lifted the mattress off the bed, removed the sheets, opened all the desk drawers, checked all the wooden floorboards, trying to find any loose ones. He went to the bathroom, opened all the cabinets, and took out all the beauty products, creams, soaps, towels, and makeup kits. Without success, he returned to the bedroom and headed for a second door on the wall, accessing Jean's closet. That's where he spent the most time. He opened every box that existed, rummaged through every outfit he found and checked the inside of every shoe, sneaker, sneaker, heel, slipper, and boot. Talis continued to sweat and his anxiety increased by the minute. He left the Closet in frustration and made his way to the door on the left side of the desk. He entered the completely empty room, and his curiosity increased. He groped all over the walls and all the floorboards, unable to discover the shelves hidden in the vertical drawers on the floor.
Talis lay down on the living room floor, confident that there would be something he was looking for, starting to punch the wood and identifying the hollow sound coming from some of the beams: it was there! His heart racing with happiness, he began to run his nails between the gaps in the clubs when he heard Jean's bedroom door open.
Talis immediately turned off his MC's flashlight and stood motionless on the floor, trying to hold his breath as he heard someone's footsteps entering the room. He noticed that the footsteps receded. Probably whoever had entered the room was heading towards the bathroom across the room.
The boy started to get up, trying not to make any noise; first, he got down on his knees, and then he began to get up, but when he started to raise his torso slowly, he ended up unbalanced and changed the position of his right leg so as not to lose his balance, when he did, the noise of one of the loose clubs echoed through the completely empty room. Talis's entire body froze, and he tried to remain still, listening for footsteps inside the room, but no sound came in. 'Did the person hear me?' 'Did they go into the bathroom?' he asked himself. Talis remained motionless, trying unsuccessfully to hear the sounds coming from the room. He was starting to get more relieved at the absence of sound when the door to Jean's secret library was flung open.
Talis tried to see who had opened the door, but it was too dark, and he could see only a silhouette. Before he could do anything, a sphere of blue energy hit him right in the middle of his stomach. He was thrown to the back of the room and fell unable to breathe, trying to fight back the spell, but was blocked by the other being. With great difficulty, Talis got up, leaning against the wall. The killer remained at the door. Talis tried again to perform a spell to drive the killer away but it was blocked with a simple wave of a hand.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to do my job, trying to understand what's going on with Jean," Talis started to speak.
The killer then began to approach Talis, who noticed something in the killers' hand.
"No!" He yelled. "Stop!"
With a few steps, the killer came close to Talis, who was cowering against the wall. The boy felt a sharp pain in his abdomen when a huge knife entered his body. He screamed and fell to the ground, using one hand to hold the wound and the other to protect his face.
"Help!" He screamed.
The killer remained standing beside Talis, just watching the boy squirm on the ground. Talis began to crawl towards the door, and the killer remained still, just watching the boy's struggle against death. When more than half of Talis's body was out of the small library, already in the bedroom, the killer crouched on the floor and thrust the knife as deep as they could into Talis' thigh, who roared again in pain.
Talis felt that he was already losing his senses, the pain was sharp, and he felt the blood running down his fingers. Even so, he continued to crawl through the room to the exit door. He realized that the killer was watching him in a sadistic way, and he asked himself the reason for all that. The pain in his right leg and abdomen was so excruciating that he didn't even notice when two of his nails were completely ripped out in his effort to crawl across the room. Talis started to look around, looking for something to lean on, but there was no furniture between the secret library and the room's exit door.
The boy's despair only increased as the killer dressed in black began to follow him step by step. When Talis finally reached the door, he tried to sit up, leaning his body against the double doors and then reaching his arm up to the doorknob. Using all the strength he had left, he pulled his body upward. Talis opened the door and couldn't help looking back to see who was attacking him. He watched the killer fully dressed in black, with tall boots and a huge hunting knife in his hand, the face covered with something magical and constantly changing shape, like a sequence of distorted faces with wide mouths and wide eyes.
As he faced the killer, Talis screamed again. His cry echoed to the lower floors through the Atrium in front of the room. The boy staggered to the Atrium railing and limped along, trying to drag his blood-soaked right leg. With each shaky step Talis took, the killer followed soothingly behind.
"Someone help me! Help!" Shouted the boy.
From inside the music room, the exuberant end of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto number 2 drowned out Talis' screams.
Talis could see the assassin raising the knife again and delivering another hard blow to his upper back. The boy leaned on the banister, screaming in pain. He stared at the wide opening of the Atrium and the height of more than twenty meters to the ground on the first floor. He continued along the Atrium towards the side corridor, being closely followed by the killer. The victim strolled down the aisle. He no longer had the strength to scream and just moaned in pain, felt the taste of blood rising in his throat, and noticed that he was drooling blood.
The boy again tried to gather air in his lungs and screamed again when he reached the Greater Atrium, a scream that finally reached the Music Hall. He leaned over the railing. He could only imagine that the hallway connected to the Music Hall ended in the room that housed the Atrium on the first floor. From that location, guests would surely hear his screams, and he would have a chance to survive. Before he could scream again, Talis was stabbed again on his left arm.
The killer chasing the boy seemed to have lost their temper or was simply waiting for Talis to get to that point to finally complete their act. The assassin launched into a series of blows against the boy, who couldn't resist and fell to the stone floor of the atrium. Talis could no longer breathe and had no control over his movements; he felt a series of spasms throughout his body. His hot blood was running down all over the place. At that moment, Talis wanted only one thing: a quick death.
The killer crouched beside Talis and lifted the boy's bloodied body, stepping it over the Atrium stone banister and holding him only by the feet. The boy's body was hanging in the gap that connected the other floors of the manor, his blood running and falling on the lower railings and floors, quickly leaving his body like a freshly slaughtered animal.
Talis could feel the strength of the killer holding his ankle and his own hot blood running down all over his face and falling through the gap dimly lit by a few candles placed on the stone walls. He watched a pool of blood begin to form on the floor several meters below and felt his life slipping away through those dark red drops.