(TW: Blood)
Joseph's POV
The morning of the 2v8 was painfully slow.
Joseph was full of energy, not because he'd slept particularly well but purely off of the fact that it was likely he'd see Aesop. Out of 24 survivors, 8 were in the game. That gave Joseph an unreliable 33% percent chance of seeing Aesop. However, he didn't panic. He knew he'd be there, he just felt it in his bones.
He paced up and down his room. He paced in the hall as he waited for Jack. He'd scoffed down barely enough food to count as breakfast, whereas the other hunters took their time and came to eat when they felt like it.
Not only did Joseph hurry himself but he also pestered Jack to hurry up too. Jack showed annoyance but didn't snap at Joseph, he believed that Joseph was simply eager to redeem himself in the hunters' eyes.
Joseph ended up dragging Jack into the game lobby ten minutes until they were due to meet. Jack didn't seem to have a problem with it but he was suspicious to why Joseph kept looking back around the curtain over and over like he was expecting something to creep up on them.
"They're not going to be here for a while, Joseph" Jack reminded "You brought us here ten minutes early."
Jack's voice held a tad of annoyance in it but Joseph simply shook his head and kept his eyes on the survivor's table, his hand running over the paper of the letter tenderly. Similarly to the way he used to stroke Aesop's hair when he came back injured after a long day.
Joseph's heart ached for Aesop. He didn't know when it started, he couldn't pinpoint an exact moment. It was steady, like wading into the ocean. Joseph could only tell how he felt by the time he was up to his neck. The more Joseph thought about the ocean the more his heart ached. It reminded him of Aesop so much, the way he could overwhelm Joseph with himself. Almost like he was drowning in Aesop. However, he could recede just as fast, leaving Joseph alone and exposed.
The other part of the ocean was his twin brother. He loved the ocean, they loved the ocean. There was a bitter sweetness about it after he died and his family crossed the English Channel from France to England without him. Joseph knew that his brother would've loved the water to be his final resting place but his parents would never agreed to burying his body there.
Thinking back, that's when Joseph started getting into photography and art. He'd never tell Aesop how the cameras really worked. He was scared he'd hate it and feel violated for how it works. When he'd told his closest friends all those years ago, the few people he trusted with his life that his cameras captured souls, they didn't believe him. When he proved it they suddenly turned on him, sending the whole town into panic and coming to hunt him and his family down for dead. That was the worst betrayal Joseph ever felt. It only got worse from there, his family disowned him. He lost nearly everything but then one last chance came by letter. The Host of the Manor said he knew how to bring his brother back as long as he played a 'game' at his manor. Of course, Joseph snatched up the opportunity like a starved lion. He didn't hesitate to go to the manor, nor realising what the game was not that he wasn't allowed to leave.
And now he was here.
The survivors finally filed in. Joseph's sight was like a laser, staring into the faces of the survivors. Of course, Joseph knew he was spoiling half of the game by ruining the mystery but the survivors were already here and it wasn't like they could change to better suit people who could combat Joseph better.
Finally, after all this time, Joseph made eye contact with Aesop, whose eyes widened and sheer dread radiated off of him. Joseph couldn't care anymore, just seeing him was enough. Joseph's only objective for his match was to get the letter to Aesop. It didn't matter if they won or not after that.
Joseph vaguely ran his eyes over who else was playing in the game but it was like speaking to deaf ears. Joseph was only interested in Aesop.
The game soon started and Joseph was practically running around the Lakeside Village. He hit survivors that appeared in front of him but didn't pay them any attention after that. He was knocking survivors left right and centre, leaving Jack to put his trail of bodies in rocket chairs. He heard whispers from both survivors and Jack that something had changed in him for his match, that he was a killing machine. It was ironic that all of it was fuelled off of feelings. Joseph doubted the survivors would notice that his eyes were practically drowning in his own unrequited love.
The survivors had finished two ciphers and Jack had sent three of them back in rocket chairs.
He knew that Aesop preferred to decode alone but he would definitely be travelling with another survivor today since Joseph was there. Joseph was so desperate just to see him that Aesop's not trusting them to be alone together didn't even hurt. He doubted the ache in his heart could be satisfied by anything but Aesop. Unfortunately, Aesop had made the mistake of travelling with the gardener. Jack had alerted Joseph that he'd seen them briefly in the furthest left corner from the shipwreck.
Joseph was charging in the direction barely after Jack had managed to get his words out. He'd been reduced to a madman with a bruised and despairing heart. Aesop was unlucky and seemingly oblivious that every single time that diligent little gardener disabled a rocket chair, the hunter was alerted. And so, Jack and Joseph quickly found their location.
The pair of survivors scattered. Jack busied himself was knocking down the gardener whilst Joseph had the luck to be chasing Aesop. He could see in Aesop's expression that he wasn't scared but there was a lingering uneasy embarrassment in his demeanour.
As soon as Joseph was close enough, he shoved the letter into his pocket and rasped,
"Please, I'm begging you,"
With nothing but helplessness in his expression. Joseph felt so pathetic for doing all this. He'd swallowed what little pride he had left and gave it all to Aesop. Thankfully, only Aesop would ever know just how pitiful he really was.
Aesop opened his mouth to say something and the heavy weight that at been hanging in Joseph's stomach turned to butterflies of anticipation. However, Aesop was cut short when Jack shouted,
"Joseph! What are you doing?! Hit him!"
Joseph had completely forgotten that they weren't alone, that it was taboo to talk to each other, and everyone was watching. Of course, only Jack and the gardener could really see, and even then they wouldn't be able to tell they were talking but it felt like the whole world knew.
Joseph instinctively panicked. He raised his sword high above his head and brought it down with the force of an anvil. He felt his sword slice deep into Aesop's flesh and he was immediately knocked, on the ground, bleeding everywhere.
Joseph had always been so careful not to use his sword properly, to turn it on it's flat so survivors simply got the blunt force of it but he'd used the sharp of it on the one person he cared about most.
He vaguely heard Jack shout some praise before he took away the gardener to chair her. The world spun in slow montuno. Joseph fell to his knees, his skin getting soaked in Aesop's warm, sticky blood. He ripped off his tailcoat and put pressure on the deep gash in Aesop's shoulder. Joseph felt sick to his stomach and like he was just about ready to throw up his lungs.
Joseph quickly picked up the small boy who was writhing in pain underneath him and carried him to a more private hiding place. Seeing Aesop in a crying messy state tore Joseph's heart to tatters. He quickly realised he was crying too,
"Aesop- I'm sorry! I-I so sorry! I didn't want to hurt you!"
He choked out, hysterically smoothing his hair down whilst applying pressure on the wound with his coat. Joseph had an animalistic pain and panic in his eyes even though this was his fault and Aesop was the one in pain.
Joseph couldn't even begin to imagine how much pain Aesop was in. Let alone how he wasn't screaming. Aesop was only letting out strangled cries and groans of pain with his eyes squeezed shut. Joseph constantly whispered apologies and words of comfort. Eventually, he figured that getting Aesop back to the survivors manor with the doctor was for the best. At least then he could get some kind of medical attention.
He scooped Aesop up gently in his arms and carried him to a rocket chair. He tightened his coat sleeves around the wound tight then used the rest of his coat to cover the band of thorns that wrapped around the chair and held them in place, just so Aesop wouldn't have to suffer any further pain.
Joseph didn't care if he sent his jacket back to the survivor's manor, he was sure they would understand. It was an unspoken rule that hunter's wouldn't seriously injure survivors like Joseph had just done to Aesop. The point of the game was to immobilise them not maim them.
Aesop's voice was weak and fragile, like glass teetering on the edge of a cliff but Joseph managed to hear him whisper,
"I'm sorry for leaving you alone,"
Before he was sent back to the mansion.