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Entry tags:
night six - kill log.
Who: Killers and Matt Mattson
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 baying hounds 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 The General and his foxhounds are hot on your trail... And oddly enough, even if you do try and run, you'll feel yourself growing more and more tired with every step. It seems this wasn't a completely fair hunt from the start. ]
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 baying hounds 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 The General and his foxhounds are hot on your trail... And oddly enough, even if you do try and run, you'll feel yourself growing more and more tired with every step. It seems this wasn't a completely fair hunt from the start. ]
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[A deep breath as he gets his feelings under control, and the tremor that's been present in his voice evens out. He can hear their fragile emotional states, he can taste the blood in the air, he can sense the animals' vicious dispositions. He knows that much is true.]
[Stick's words are coming back to haunt him, now, at his potentially last moments. People you care about? Cut them loose. If you don't, you will die, and they will suffer. He can't kill them. If he doesn't die, something worse might happen to them. He'd known, sooner or later, the Generals were going to target him. He was willing to paint a target on his back - to die - if meant saving the innocent people on this island. That much hasn't changed.]
[Maybe now that's being put to the test.]
That's enough. Put your guns down; let the dogs loose if you need to - close your eyes and cover your ears.
I'll handle the rest.
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M-Matt, I...
[He doesn't know what to say. What can he say? For all his belief in everything being okay, when it comes down to it... he doesn't want to lose Matt. But he has no choice.]
We'll... handle it from here. T-thank you.
[But he's not going to close his eyes or cover his ears. He owes it to Matt to watch, if nothing else. He won't let Pochi go until Clarine's had a chance to say something, so it's up to her to give the signal.]
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[In a way, she still can't believe he'll do this for them. She cares about him too, but this seems to be going so far for them. To keep their hands clean when they've already done some terrible things...
She clutches to Erk's collar and bites back a sob, so it takes her a moment longer to talk.]
W-when...when you see the Judge... g-give her a piece of your mind...
If anyone c-can do it...it is you, Matt.
[Maybe they can put just a little hope in him, for ending this--though they'll naturally do what they can to end it on their side a well. She nods to Hinata, tearily. It's a promise. They'll handle it from here. But she's also not going to look away--not when this is their fault.]
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[But then again, those letters.... they shouldn't exist. There's no logical reason for any of things to have been written, and it's far too detailed to be a trick. Maybe they're right. Maybe their faith isn't for nothing. Maybe he should have faith in them. He'd admitted to Karen he couldn't do this alone when things were even less complicated and awful than this. All he's been doing is helping get the wrong people executed. It was sick, all of it. What can he do? What can they do? Is this the only way he can protect them?]
[His voice softens.]
Stay safe, both of you. Consider this my promise to you.
[If this was all an act he just got horribly played, but, well, he's ready. Come at him, shoe-thiefing doge bros.]
[(He'll go down fighting)]
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We won't... let you down.
[And then he crouches too, taking Matt's shoe away from Pochi and giving the dog a gentle pat.]
...Go on.
[His voice is soft, but as soon as Hinata says go, Pochi's immediately lunging forward. He's making attempts to rip at Matt's ankles and calves again, trying to hobble him and get him down to a better mauling range. No matter how Matt might try to hurt him -- even if he tries shooting him -- Pochi doesn't seem daunted for more than a handful of seconds.]
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Just like Pochi, no matter what Matt does to the dog, nothing will seem to daunt him for long or be anything he can't recover from.
Being torn apart by dogs is a terrible way to go, and Clarine bites the inside of her cheek until it bleeds.]
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[But if they watch this, they shouldn't feel too bad for him - despite being blind and sluggish and nerfed, he's still fucking badass. He uses the gun as a club rather than shooting it, backflipping to avoid the snapping jaws. When he's not clubbing he's using his fists, and it's truly impressive.]
[Even if he can't keep them down. He'll sure as hell try.]
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So he's just going to move over near Clarine, crouching beside her just so he can be near her.
In spite of the backflips, Pochi is fast, abnormally so. The next time Matt tries to use the gun as a club, Pochi's just going to latch onto his wrist and bite down with all his strength, trying to crush bone or at the very least, stagger him enough for Erk.]
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Clarine's openly crying now as well, and when Hinata crouches beside her she leans against him, frustration and sadness and guilt warring together.
She hates this. But now she knows they can't afford to lose even more than before. For Matt's sake as well.
Pochi makes for the opening, and Erk takes advantage--it's the work of a moment for the dog to lunge upwards in a quick, vicious movement, jaws open to try to rip out Matt's throat.]
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[Pochi can get the bone - and it crunches, and the gun drops to the ground but with his other arm, he's savagely punching Erk off of him, then pounding Pochi's face with the fist and attempting to fling him to the ground. His movements are fluid and brutal - realistically he knows he has no chance of beating these things, but damn if he isn't going to give it everything he's got. He's used to fighting for his life, nearly killing himself. That was nothing new. How many times had he nearly died, only for Claire or someone else to have to patch him up?]
[This time, there isn't anyone to do that.]
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Hinata just numbly wraps an arm around Clarine's shoulders and bits his lip, flinching with almost every hit -- which is quite a lot, because it's not just Matt, it's his dog, as well. He's never seen them in action like this, and frankly, it's terrifying. All three of them are terrifying.
But he's not going to remind Clarine that she doesn't have to watch; he's pretty sure that she's watching for the same reason he is. Because someone should be there to see this.
--Even if this is Pochi being flung to the ground with a harsh whimper before springing back up to his feet again. That arm is wounded, now, and so that's where Pochi concentrates his efforts, moving behind Matt and trying to take a bite out of his leg, or his arm, or his side; anything he can reach, he's just going in and tearing now.]
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But nonetheless, they have to watch this horrifying display; there's no other option. Erk fights alongside Pochi, working with fierce, dogged determination, completely focused on tearing into Matt wherever he can get in a bite.
It's horrifying, and bloody, and gruesome, and all Clarine can do is press closer to Hinata in horror and a little bit of fear as the dogs give all that they have to try to bring Matt down, tearing at him with their teeth and bodyslamming him in an attempt to knock him down to allow them easier access to his face and throat.]
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[Why are they still here, watching? He should've knocked them out. They shouldn't have to watch this.]
[Finally, he rolls away away from the dogs long enough to snag his gun. It's loaded, of course he is, and at the back of mind, he doesn't want to do this. He doesn't want to die. He doesn't want someone to have to tell Foggy, or Karen, or Claire - that's he's gone, just as two of them expected. Just like Foggy warned him.]
[Suicide was a sin in the eyes of God, wasn't it? Not that Matt hadn't do anything but sin. And now, priestless, in this last moments, he can't confess. It doesn't matter. He wouldn't ask for forgiveness even if he could - he can only pray that these two are right to believe in their plan, that they aren't being tricked, that they can still make it out alive. That they won't be trapped in a fate worse than death.]
[A few mantears well up, unbidden. He raises the gun to his forehead, squeezing the trigger---]
[---And of course the damn thing jams.]
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The whole time, the dogs had been going for the throat. Thirty seconds for someone to die from having their throat cut, one of the other Generals had told Hinata once. Unconsciousness within seconds, but thirty seconds to die. Is it the same from having a dog rip it open? He doesn't know.
Once Matt goes for his gun, Hinata's scrambling to his feet, as if maybe he can stop this, or maybe-- he can do something. He can't stop this, though. Everyone's counting on him; Matt too, he thinks.
There's only an instant's difference between the sound of a gunshot, and the dogs taking advantage of Matt's distraction with his own pistol to descend on him. But while Matt's gun might have jammed, Hinata's doesn't, and unless Matt moves, that bullet will blow through his brain. But if he does somehow manage to foresee that and dodge, it's the dogs.
Not that Hinata knows anything about what God could want either way, at least Matt can take comfort(?) that it's not suicide.]
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The gun goes off, and she flinches, but she doesn't lift her head to look.
Hinata has it covered. She'll have to thank him for it later.]
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[But he's too far gone to move, even if he can hear the bullet going. His fight has lasted quite a while, and they hadn't been wrong about the dogs. Absurd that animals were finally the ones to do him in, and Matt has a split second of regret, thinking about what his death will do to them, and Foggy, and Claire, and Karen. Royce knew their names; to say goodbye for him if he couldn't, but Royce was dead, too. And these kids didn't have anyone else to protect them.]
[In the end, he couldn't even protect these two having to bloody their hands, or suffer. Just what the hell had he been doing here, the whole time? What did he even manage to accomplish?]
[He'd like to say something to them before he goes, but Hinata's shot rings true: he goes limp, and it's over.]
[GOOD JOB, GUYS.]