Mission 6: Throughout the night [Archive]

Neko Koneko

August 5th, 2009, 09:20 pm

[Completed by Mazeppa]

Alright, so this is my first mission in forever, I haven't had a great day, and this is a pretty boring story so bare with my first attempt and it's boredom. XD

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Jacques sent out to find Octavien. He left his sister behind to protect their mother from any attacks. When Octavien ran off a few years before, he ran towards Bieritin (northeast from Hielos). There is a mysterious pathway between the towns, and many people have gotten lost on the way between, but eventually find their way. Recently, however, many people have left and have not been seen again.

Jacques was walking in the woods and noticed how dim and dark it was, even though it was during the day. It got extremely dark and figured it was night. He stopped and set up a tent to sleep for the night.

When Jacques woke up the next morning, the trees around him were much more sparse, as if almost the trees dissipated when he was sleeping. He noticed a large inn at the middle of this sparsely 'treed' plain. His travels left him confused, so he headed towards the inn to find out some information.

He arrived. The building stood three-stories tall, decorated in an almost “Western” style. People were inside, the sunlight shined brightly through the rooms. The people inside looked normal, but they all seemed very tired, dumbfounded and frustrated.

“Hey there, buck-o!” a strange man said to Jacques.

”Why, hello there, sir.”

“Welcome to the ranch! We've been getting a lot of folk to this here residence.”

”Yeah, it certainly seems like a lot of people have come here. How did everyone get here, anyway?”

“It's kind of strange, actually.”

”Tell me about it; I was traveling and I decided to rest for the night. When I woke up, I saw this field and the inn at the center of it. How did everyone else get here?”

“That's the common story, son. Others have shown up after they were captured by some thing and woke up the same way you did. They often had some belongings stolen, such as money or any food on them, so consider yourself lucky you woke up with everything still on you.”

”Hmm, I guess I am lucky then! Say, could I ask you your name? Mine is Jacques Devereaux, from Hielos.”

“My name is Charlie Draknett. I am the owner of this here ranch. I have grown tired of having so many people stay. It seems people keep showing up in my place here, and many of the same people keep returning, so it never circulates.”

”Well, do you mind if I stay for just a little while? I don't want to bother you, but I need to rest for a while.”

“Sure thing, kid, don't worry about it!”

Jacques mingled with people and asked how they got there. Most people said they laid down for the night and woke up the same way he did. Some others had left the day after they arrived and got ambushed by something, and ended up back at the ranch. The strange thing was that some people left, camped out and woke up back at the field where the inn is at. How do people keep ending back up here? There must be some explanation...

“Attention everybody!!” Charlie said, “Attention, attention!! Besides myself, many other people have been angered how they keep ending up at the inn. I would like to know myself, but something or someone is obviously bringing people back here. Now my ranch has been it's fullest in weeks; the rooms are filled, food is scarce, people are sleeping and hanging around on the floor-- something has to be done! I am awarding whoever finds out what's going on a nice prize of GP!”

People shouted loudly and were getting into their groups to talk things out. The packs of people were talking about searching the woods for clues of some sort, and were interested in this thing that seems to capture them and loose consciousness. Jacques kept to himself, until a man pulled on his coat.

“Please, sir! You look big and strong, please help up me with this task! That would make us a group of two, so that'll make distributing the money easily...Oh, and by the way, my name is Claude.”

”Sure, why not? You seem pretty motivated to get to the bottom of this; the name's Jacques.”

Claude and Jacques started talking about when they were going out. It seemed many people decided to go at the same time, dusk. Jacques noticed a mysterious man in dark clothing popping in and out of the groups. Jacques dismissed him as an outcast looking for a group to join.

When dusk came, Jacques and Claude, as well as many others, went out to search for clues of some sort. While walking, Jacques loaded up his gun, and Claude made sure his daggers were ready for usage.

”Claude, how did you get here?”

“I was captured by that thing. I never saw it coming. It looked like a figure in long robes-- I couldn't make out a figure, but it was really strong.”

”Watch your guard, then, this thing can't get two of us.”

Claude went on ahead, and Jacques stayed a little behind. Their plan was simple, Claude is bait and Jacques comes to the rescue and captures the thing.

….

After two and a half hours, the two decide to go back to the inn. It was getting late, and they were never going to find out what is going on. When they approached the field, they saw a large fire and smoke covering the midnight sky. The when they got closer to the fire, it was the inn that was burning like a huge fireball. How the hell did this happen!? Many people left... the inn was a safe place, but now there's nothing...

“Oh no!! This is BAAD!!” Claude screamed. He started to run towards the fire, leaving Jacques behind. The field was starting to burn, but this also meant that there was visibility when getting closer to the fire. As Claude was running, the was a strange black thing running towards him. Jacques yelled out, ”Claude!!” Jacques drew his revolver and starting running towards Claude.

The figure grabbed Claude, and Jacques started shooting at the figure. One. Two. Three. The figure dropped Claude on the ground, and had doused some kind of liquid on him. The thing then threw shards at Jacques. Jacques tried to dodge them, but was caught by two of them in his left leg-- this left him bleeding and found it difficult to move. The figure pulled a match out of his pocket and lit it. He then threw it at Claude. Jacques made a connection to what the thing doused on Claude-- it was gasoline. Claude was set on fire instantly and stood there, screaming and burning alive.

Jacques felt an urge in his heart, and felt a strength inside of him to get up. He fire two more shots at the thing's legs, and it stopped moving around. Jacques ran at him, and punched it in the stomach, and took it's robes off. It was that mysterious man lurking through the inn earlier in the day.

”Who the hell are you?”

“What the fuck does it mean to you?”

”Don't curse at me like that-- I want to know why you burned my friend over there.. it also seems that you torched the inn. I should kill you right now.”

“Go ahead, it's not like it'll go anything. The rest of my gang will just come out of the shadows and take your life.”

Jacques shot the man in his kneecap; he screamed in pain and grabbed Jacques tightly. Jacques dismissed his grapple by throwing him over his shoulder.

”Ehem.. gang?”

“Yes, a GANG.”

”Okay, stop playing stupid, this is justing getting repetitive. Why?”

“Alright, just to cut to the chase, were that kind of gang who ambushes people, takes their stuff and leaves them. But we also like to mess with them too. You see, we don't want to really hurt people, but to just get returning customers. We leave them at this inn after we take their stuff and they'll obviously come back out and try some more. Although, this wouldn't last forever. You guys had to get smart and come looking for us, and that was your mistake in the end. You let your guard down, and we burnt the place you hated and had to stay in.”

Jacques noticed the fires dimming, and more shadows coming out. He dropped the man and ran the opposite way. From which the shadows were coming from.

He ran and ran and ran... he kept running until he got into the forest. He heard a lot of rustling in the trees ahead of him. He twirled his gun a couple of times to the “Physical Code” to open up the Balle de Centre. A man jumped out at Jacques-- Jacques fired at the man, and he screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Jacques quickly reloaded his normal six-shots and continued running with all of his stamina. His leg, however, was getting worse and he started to slow down.

After, what it seemed, an hour of running, Jacques collapsed and blacked-out.

”Where am I?”

Jacques awoke on the forest floor.. Wait a second.. FOREST floor? He found it hard to stand up, due to his injury. He tore out the shards and ripped his coat then tied a wrap around his bloody wounds. He had survived the mysterious men in black, and wasn't anywhere near a field, but endless trees. He started heading in some random direction, since he did not know where he was.

After a day of walking, Jacques noticed a town through the trees. As he came closer, he noticed he had actually come back to Hielos.

Back to square one? Ah man, this isn't cool.. this isn't cool at all!

Jacques had to recover, so he just decided to go back home for right now.

He may have found out what who the mysterious men were, but that didn't explain how he fell asleep and awoke to this mayhem... but that's just the last of his worries, because those men ARE still in his way...

EDIT: Complete. I completely forgot to say that! XD