( EXECUTION - WEEK 3 )

[abhoth]

Unlike the previous day, those who are asleep past 8:00 AM will experience no pain as they're roused awake. Instead, they're pulled from their sleep peacefully, almost as if enveloped in a mother's loving embrace. A comfortable warmth spreads through their body as they open their eyes, finding themselves free of any grogginess or disorientation. Similarly, those who woke up early or were unable to sleep at all will find themselves alert and ready to take on the day. Considering what is about to transpire, however... no one would be blamed for wishing they could stay asleep. "Good morning. My staff and I hope you were able to sleep well. As promised, an execution will take place on this fine day. Please make your way to the Dining Hall. A member of our distinguished staff will be waiting for you with a summary of last night's results." Just like the previous day, residents who do not make their way to the Dining Hall before 8:15 AM will be forcibly escorted out of their rooms (or wherever else they may be). True to Craftly's words, one of the faceless men will be waiting in the Dining Hall while all the current survivors gather. Once everyone is there, with the exception of Mira, the staff member will slip a transparency into the projector, switching the device on to reveal what appears to be a telegram. VICTIM STOP MARTY MIKALSKI STOP THE BOOTLEGGER STOP VICTIM STOP RACHEL CLAUDIUS STOP THE ATHLETE STOP MAJORITY VOTE STOP MIRA STOP THE GHOST STOP EXECUTIONER STOP JAKE ENGLISH STOP INNSMOUTH MOTEL & CO ( quick navigation ) ic rulebook | locations | statuses | room assignments private conversations | ic profiles | graveyard | full navigation

Comments

[perceptions]

[...Good grief. What a pain. None of the executioners would have been the "right" choice for this, but Jake isn't quite as brave as she thought.]

Curved. [She chokes out from the chains, and then half-turns her head toward where Craftly and the faceless men are. However she doesn't get far and her head lobs back painfully straight-ahead to where Jake is.] Look, Jake, if you -- hesitate, they're going to... make it worse on you.

[potentite]

[God. Right. Mira's right. There definitely seems to be something awaiting a failed executioner and he doesn't want to find out what it is. And if he's punished further, that will just make it harder on everyone. He refuses to factor how he's feeling into this right now when the last thing he can deal with on a good day are his own emotions. Just do what's best for everyone else. Just do something, fuck. Jake nods and grabs the curved blade and comes towards her.]

I know. I know, and— Just, tell me the quickest way before I start. Um, Locations. I know you can barely talk, so I just— Shortest answer is fine.

[Fuck. His grip tightens on the blade.]

Let me make it as quick for you as I can.

[perceptions]

L...Liar. You -- You want it fast... for your sake too.

[She doesn't understand the concept of sympathy. Of pity, or empathy in general. So when Jake tells her that he wants it make it quick for her, she can only think he's lying. Who would feel sympathy for a serial killer like herself? Only a deranged person would even think to do so. Jake is not deranged, so he is just a liar.]

Abdomen. Two cuts...below the-- button. Deep cuts.

[potentite]

[It stings but he nods, taking a shaky breath. It's not like she's wrong. He wants it over, too. But he doesn't want her to suffer, either, especially not because of someone like him bumbling through her execution, fucking it up worse and forcing her already drawn out pain to go on and on and every second she's talking and breathing right now she's already going through too much. God. Just— fuck.

Jake gets rid of one of his crutches. It's just too much of a burden to try to do this right with one arm a little limited. He leans on the other and pushes her shirt up a little to make sure he aims true.]

If you can still, um, focus once I start, any directions will be appreciated but... if you can't, I'll just... [God he hasn't even started and he feels like he'll throw up just from nerves but he keeps going.] I've seen movies, you know?

[God that's so lame. Why did he say that? Movies are nothing like real life. He knows that. Spending years pretending they were just made real life more of a mess. This is real. This is real. He can't forget that.

Jake stabs the curved blade in and gives all his focus to making the cuts quick and clean, like it's meat, like it's nothing, because Mira deserves at least that much even as the blood spills out.]

[perceptions]

[She rolls her eyes a little at the "I've seen movies" shit, because she's pretty positive she told him that life isn't a movie once. Christ. She's almost tempted to just ask for access to her power, because this would be going a lot faster if she just disemboweled hers--

It's right then that her train of thought breaks, the blade stabbed and cut through her abdomen. Fuck that hurts, and her face scrunches up as she begins to violently choke - unable to even scream because of how tight her head is being held.]

A-Aagh! [She finally manages to get some proper comprehensive sound out, not daring to look down. With the way her head is positioned, she can't see Jake below her at the stomach. Still she definitely felt two cuts, so that's taken care of.] N...Now cut the center. C... Co-- Connect the cuts to-together. If... if you hit the aorta... I'll... bleed-- to death i-in seconds.

[potentite]

[It's incredible to him that she can still think, let alone talk. He wishes he could tell her that. He heard her say she's broken and she probably is, he can't deny that, and even if it's for her own sake that she's focusing and helping him, he wishes he could say something, anything, to make her realise—

Realise what? That she's not as bad as she thinks when she's a serial killer who deserves to die? Fuck, he doesn't know, he just wishes he could do something for her that wasn't literally tearing out her guts as fast as possible. It's bloody, there's blood dripping down the knife onto his hands, getting them slick, but he just grips tighter so it won't let him falter. He can't. He just has to do this.]

Got it.

[It's barely audible, clipped and bitten off before he can apologise more. She might not have heard it but he had to answer her when she's trying this hard. He uses the blade's curve to catch the skin and connect them like she said. He doesn't know where the aorta is, he wishes he did more than anything right now, but he thinks - he hopes - that he can catch it if he just cuts enough. It's a terrible way to do it but if he has the blade in her anyway, he might as well try to hook it against whatever he feels and hope.]

[perceptions]

[If she could talk before, it was only through sheer will and force. Yet once he starts cutting the middle, the cuts connecting together in a full length slice around her abdomen, that's when she can no longer say a word. The pain is unbearable, and she can faintly hear the blood flowing out from her gut and hitting the platform. What she can't see, but Jake certainly will, is the sight of her intestines beginning to fall out from her gut with the rush of blood now pouring out. Her skin begins to faintly lose color, blood draining and body going into shock.

Yet she cannot writhe. The chains don't allow it. Her body only convulses a little, going into shutdown, before her head finally bobs down as much as the chains around her neck will allow. Even if she isn't dead, she will be soon from blood loss alone.

But Jake's deed isn't done yet. He still has to quarter and decapitate her. Only now he won't get instructions anymore on what to do. No one to console or help him through the rest.]

[potentite]

[Bile rises up in his throat - he didn't dare eat before this - and settles heavy on his tongue but his mouth is snapped shut so tight he's forced to swallow it down without registering it. Her guts start to fall with the cascade of blood and he almost tries to step back, to get away, but luckily, with one crutch and one good leg, he really can't. His own body makes him stay.

There's a pause where nothing happens, save the movement of her guts and blood. Jake raises his eyes from the gore to look at her but she's not really there anymore.]

Mira...?

[If his words were soft before, this time they're no more than a twitch of his lips. What the hell was he expecting? He wanted this. He wanted to hit it right so this would happen. But his shoulders shake as his vision blurs. It's stupid and cruel and selfish to wish she could have held out a little longer. It's too much to wish he wasn't alone now. He doesn't let himself think it for more than a second before he hooks the knife in deeper and tugs to get her guts out better, wincing, before he switches to the other knife, the cleaver.]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'll hurry—

[He doesn't think she can even hear him anymore and that's good. That's good for her. She'll be gone soon. And she said she'd be fine. She was a murderer and he tries to remember that as he starts to hack at one of her arms, just below the shoulder joint, hoping it will be easiest there. He has to keep switching between the cleaver for the flesh and the saw for the bones, working at one arm, then the other, then the legs and then the head. By the time her head falls loose, he's covered in blood, exhausted from his own crying. The movement startles him but in the end, it's just like when his grandma's corpse would jump in the flames. He double checks the instructions, to make sure he did everything, to be sure he won't be punished by whatever beasts are here before he slips down to sit right there next to her corpse, staring out at the lake. Mira might be gone but Jake is definitely not all there himself.

He won't be for a while.]