night six - kill log.

[foxhounds]

Who: Killers and Rena Ryuugu
When: The sixth night
Where: The jungles of Ship-Trap Island

[ It's the dead of night when you first hear it. It's the distinct sound of a baying hound barking nearby. This must be the Hunt that you were warned of, and though it seems impossible, they sound very close. You can try and run, but it's hot on your trail. ]

Comments

[believesin]

[Rena has only been dozing, of course--how much sleep has she even gotten recently? Not much. Not enough. Not enough, but there are so many people out there waiting for her. Untrustworthy. Dangerous. Filling her body up with horrible things and she scratches and scratches but she can't get them out.

But that's a problem for later. Right now, she can hear a dog, and that's very dangerous. For the moment, she's in a tree with thick foliage to hide her, and she can hop between a few others, but she doesn't want to move quite yet.

She's set up countless vines, see--not tripwires. Low enough to the ground to walk on. Low enough for someone to step on and tug so they pull at the edges where Rena has tied small bits of wood and inedible, hard nuts. It will give her a direction and a better sense of their distance, which is what she wants.

She's terrified and with each rapid beat of her heart more insects are pressing through her veins, but she has to focus on this first.]

[foxhunts]

[ The baying grows closer, because the dog's nose is sharp. She'll hear it coming before she sees it, because its feet pound loudly against the ground as it approaches.

The tripwires are set off as it runs, but it's hardly slowed. Eventually, it'll get close enough for Rena to get a look at it. Its eyes glow with a sickly blue-green, and all its skin and flesh is mottled a grotesque grey, as if it were some kind of spectre.

She had also better move, because as it approaches the tree, it leaps, and it's clear that this is a dog that's going to be able to scale this tree. ]

[believesin]

[Rena pitches a rock--it's heavy, but she did have to carry it up the tree--at the point between the glowing eyes before she leaps to another tree. It doesn't look like a dog, really; it look like what she's imagined and dreamed up, except perhaps smaller, so while the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end she manages not to make noise. It looks like a ghost. Will the rock even strike it?

She should never have left Hinamizawa for even a second. This is her punishment. Still, she'll fight as long as she can.]

[foxhunts]

[ The rock connects, and the dog's pursuit is slowed, but unfortunately, the Hunt is never stacked for people to win. As the dog falls, there's a chilling sound of claws scraping against bark. The one had been more of a focus, but the dogs hunt together.

The dog that's made it up the tree lunges, and it bites deep and hard into her leg. ]

[believesin]

[Rena screams, now--it hurts--and watches the bloody maggots (they're not really there, but Rena can see them, Rena can see them) squirm and writhe as they pour out of her. Her balance falters, and she tumbles back, pressed against the trunk of the tree where two branches come together and hold her there, but while the dog is busy with her leg she plunges the steak knife she stole into its neck. She'll block another bite with her other hand if she has to, but she wants that dog to bleed, it has to, she's being punished, she needs to prove her worth, even if she's not forgiven she won't stop, it has to bleed, it has to it has to--]

[foxhunts]

[ The dog doesn't even flinch, because it's debatable as to whether it's even alive or not. It tears at her leg, but once the knife plunges into its neck, it moves.

It releases her leg, but it's only to lunge at her throat instead. Powerful jaws close around her neck and tear into that too. ]

[believesin]

[Rena's scream, this time, isn't a scream so much as a wet, slick gurgle. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, there are maggots everywhere, she's choking on them. She thrashes sloppily, trying with only disjointed awareness to tear the dog's throat out with her knife, but her movements are uncoordinated and rapidly weakening as her vision greys out, her ears ring, and consciousness vanishes.

It was too much to hope that Oyashiro-sama would forgive her a second time.]