Aesop's POV
The game begun in a flurry. Aesop wandered around the match area as if he had never seen it before. He felt dazed, he felt like he was going to wake up soon in Joseph's arms and it could all be a horrible dream. He touched the photograph in his pocket, briefly remembering when Joseph had told him about how the cameras worked, that they captured souls. Aesop wondered that if he died with Joseph that their souls would be able to live happily together within the photograph.
His teammates made no delay in decoding. They had already finished the first cipher and there was no sight of Joseph. He hadn't done any damage or even bothered to activate his cameras. He was clearly trying to let them win. Aesop felt as if a noose was tightening around his neck with every calibration completed. He didn't know whether to try and stop his teammates or find Joseph to convince him to start playing. Or at least spend a few more minutes with him before while he still had the chance.
When the second cipher was completed the fog in Aesop's mind began to clear. He quickly became fuelled with panic, he resolved he wouldn't let Joseph die without trying to save him. He knew that he would preserve more time by disrupting the decoding of the survivors than he would trying to convince Joseph to play. Aesop
rushed towards to the nearest cipher, his feet wobbly and catching on the dirt in his panic. He eventually found Kurt and Servais decoding. Aesop quickly became filled with indignation upon seeing them work so diligently after all the matches they had previously spent making others do the hard work and berating them if they worked too slow. Aesop began slamming his fists into the cipher, purposefully ruining the pair's decoding and making sparks rain down on them. It was a silent rebellion and the pair knew exactly what Aesop was trying to say.
Kurt turned, his anger flaring,
"Stop being a child! You can't stop all of us by ruining a few calibrations. Your Hunter is as good as dead." He snapped, shoving Aesop backward into the grass.
Aesop knew there was no reasoning with them as he stared at the sky from the grass. His breathing was delayed and heavy; he willed that the sky would simply fall down on them and suffocate them all with its grey clouds rather than making him suffer this emotional torture.
A blinding light filled his eyes as Kurt and Servais finished their cipher and quickly scampered away to elsewhere in the map. Aesop let out a growl of frustration and chased after them. They looked back on Aesop as if he were a pitiful thorn in their side which only fuelled Aesops anger even further. He wished that he was strong enough to hold them back, he absently imagined himself wrestling them into rocket chairs so they couldn't win. Maybe Aesop wasn't so different from a Hunter after all.
The group eventually reached the next cipher that Eli was decoding. By the sounds of it, the cipher was just about ready to pop. Aesop made a strangled sound and threw his body towards the chugging lump of metal but he was met by the solid back of Servais who had blocked his attempt to halt their progress,
"Please!" Aesop begged, "Please don't do this!"
He sent clawing hands over Servais and towards the cipher, trying to scrape and grab anything he could to stop the cipher from completing. Eventually Eli came around the back of him and grabbed his arms, forcing Aesop to his knees with a precise blow to his legs. Eli came down heavy on Aesop, pinning his legs to the ground with his own and holding his arms tight behind his back. Kurt and Servais looked uncomfortable at his action but continued decoding as efficiently as soldiers.
Aesop yelped at the force being exerted on him but didn't stop his begging. He began to struggle against Eli, knowing from their previous confrontation that Eli was stronger than him. Still, Aesop managed to do some damage to Eli, he sunk his nails into Eli's clothed arms and cursed enough to make a Saint cry. Eventually his shoulder connected with Eli's jaw, sending him sprawled back into the grass cradling his chin. Aesop flew to his feet and bolted to the beeping cipher. However, the two men had just completed the final calibration. The floodlights covered them all in a ghostly hue that highlighted the look of pure betrayal in Aesop's face.
Defeated, Aesop retreated and began sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him. He should've known he couldn't hold off all three of them. He had wasted so much precious time, he felt as if he could feel every second tick by like sand slipping through his fingers. He had to find Joseph, he had to tell him that he loved him and formulate some sort of ridiculous, impossible plan to have them both escape alive.
He found Joseph standing idly a few metres of one of the exits. His sword was thrust into the ground beside him and he was looking up to the swirling clouds in the sky with a small card in his hand. He looked angelic, peering up into the heavens. Aesop's heart throbbed at seeing him as his paced slowed. Joseph turned towards and oncoming figure and smirked softly seeing it was Aesop, his smile filling his eyes. Joseph slowly held out his arms and let Aesop crash into him.
"What?" He mused softly, "Cat got your tongue?"
Aesop felt the tears prick his eyes again as he breathed in Joseph's scent. He felt absolutely hopeless.
"I know," Joseph whispered softly, "I know, my love" he pressed a kiss to the top of Aesop's head and drew soothing circles on his back.
In truth, Aesop thought that he couldn't never understand what he felt and he the same of Joseph. How could the stars be so cruel in ending such a beautiful, unclouded love prematurely. Aesop's heart was being ripped out. He held Joseph's waist and squeezed, hoping that he could simply freeze this moment like Joseph's photographs and live there forever.
The two were able to spill all their feelings into those too short minutes. Aesop thought he would be proclaiming his love for Joseph for many more moons and here he was saying it for the final time. Joseph also showed Aesop the card he was holding, it was from the loathsome Host, explaining why Joseph vaguely remembered being injected with something when he arrived at the manor. Supposedly, they were injected with some sort of chip that would simply cause their bodies to die upon activation. It would be immediate and painless, Joseph confessed he somewhat took comfort in that. Aesop was sickened upon reading it, to reduce such a significant death to something so 'simple'. He thought it was a grotesque and twisted way of dying, as if Joseph were some animal to be put down. Of course, Aesop kept these opinions to himself, but he let his anger brew in him like venom.
"Are you sure you can't win the match?" He asked softly, stubbornly. Aesop wasn't going to let the Host kill Joseph like an insignificant insect. A small light ignited in his eyes as an idea grew, "What if you caught the rest of them?" He asked feverishly, "I could escape through the dungeon and you would still win, we could both escape!" He proclaimed, squeezing Joseph's hands in his own.
Joseph shook his head gently but he looked as if he was considering the plan in his head, turning it over in his mind and scrutinising it. Aesop had found a loophole. They had a possibility of escaping together. Slowly, Joseph reached for his sword and opened his mouth to speak.
The alarms suddenly started blaring, the other survivors had completed the last cipher and were free to unlock the gates. Aesop felt immense dread flow throughout his veins, their time was up. There was no time for Joseph to catch and chair all the survivors now. Aesop saw the group running towards the nearby gate. They were far away enough to be cautious but it didn't stop Servais from hurriedly punching the code into the exit gate. Aesop stared back at them, Eli stood tall and held his gaze, obviously satisfied that they had won.
The alarms rang like summons of death in Aesop's ears. He turned to look at Joseph, his mouth agape in absolute horror. Joseph wore a bitter smile as he looked back upon his love,
"This life was but a frightened nanosecond of the time we have together. In another life, we will be able to spend it together in earnest." He promised, taking Aesop's hands and kissing them gently, he then slid the small stone ring he had made from his finger and pressed it in Aesop's hand. Aesop looked down half in shock at the weight in his hand, the black material a match of the ring on his own finger.
"I love you, now go."
Joseph urged, dropping Aesop's hands and waiting to watch him escape for safety.
Aesop shook his head, he could hear the exit doors scraping open but didn't turn to look. He wasn't going. Even when he heard Kurt and Servais whooping and cheering as they headed through the exit, he didn't turn, he wasn't going.
Tears began to fall in fat droplets down his cheeks and on his shirt. He clung to Joseph, screaming protests he couldn't hear through the ringing noise in his ears.
Aesop felt someone grab his arms from behind and begin to pull. Joseph gently nodded to whoever was pulling and then looked to Aesop with eyes full of sadness and love as he began to be tugged away to the gate,
"No! I'm not going- let go of me- let go of me!" He screamed, his throat aching at the exertion, "Joseph! P-Please Joseph, I need you! Don't leave me! Please!" He begged but Joseph's legs stayed rooted to the spot.
By this time, Eli had managed to manhandle Aesop to the gate despite his violent struggling and blows. Aesop watched through tear blurred eyes as Joseph called,
"I love you, Aesop."
As the metal doors of the exit began to close. Aesop was still screaming as they did, he wished he was stronger to fight off Eli and get back to Joseph. He wished he was smarter to think of a plan sooner and save the both of them. He wished he didn't have to play this appalling game in the first place so he and Joseph would have a chance of a normal life. But he wasn't. He wasn't any of those things and now he would have to live the rest of his life missing half of his soul.
Aesop watched through the slither of space in the exit door as Joseph's smiling face suddenly went slack and he fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. Aesop's felt as if all the oxygen had been stolen from the air around him. He barely registered his own screaming as Eli dragged him away into their victory, their freedom. Aesop continued to beg to let him go back, that Joseph was hurt and needed his help, that he wasn't gone already and they needed to leave together. He wasn't even sure who he was pleading with, Eli, the Host, some merciful god?
The metal doors final sealed shut with a sigh.
Aesop had won his final game.