HAUNTED GARDEN: East Gate {5/5}

The redhead frowned at the urgency in what little he could hear of the girl's yelling. What kind of sick fuck would trap a beaten and bruised child like this...? The fear in her eyes, the frustration in her body language, and above all, what he heard out of her made him reach for his carving knife, drawing it out of his pouch.

It wasn't clear, but he could have sworn she said 'behind you'.

Pulling Esther away from the water's edge and a few steps away from where they were earlier on, Joakim held his weapon at the ready. Was something in the area? It was doing a damn good job staying out of sight.

"Keep your eyes peeled," he told Esther in a hushed whisper, "When shit hits the fan, get your chrysanthemum out and get out of here." Occasionally, he'd glance over to the child to see if she was alright, then back to his surroundings. Whatever was out there, Joakim would take it on, with or without his threadcutter.

Which reminded him.

This was the second time he gets caught in a shitty situation and didn't have his axe on-hand. The absurdity made Joakim chuckle to himself. 'Ja, fuck my luck.' he mused.

LINCOLN
The boy laughed carelessly at Lincoln's startled reaction as if they were having a normal conversation midday in a park. His laugh echoed off the glass walls of the conservatory. "How did you get up here?" He asked back with a wide grin. "And why are you here, dressed like that?" He said, looking up and down at Lincoln's own fashion choices. The boy stood up on the branch and his green eyes flickered to his feet to balance himself. He held his hand out like a tightrope walker, about to perform a daring stunt.

"My dad told me to dress like this today, he said I needed to look my best for mom! I'm playing hide and seek with him and my sister. I just finished closing my eyes and counting to 10! My sis is just a kid so it will be pretty easy to find her I think!” He prattled on to Lincoln cheerfully whether he was listening or not.

"Hey, whacha looking at?" He trotted playfully over to Lincoln and looked down into the same spot he was surveying. Nothing but darkness and leaves from this angle. "Hm. Boring!" He sighed and rolled his eyes before backing off.

"Hey, I know! Do you want to help my find my dad and sis? Oh and you didn't answer any of my questions! And also, I'm not suppose to talk to strangers, so I will need to know your name. And is your hair naturally green? Is that what happens when you eat too much broccoli?" He said this all very rapidly, like a dam bursting open. His questions and tone was genuine though. He seemed so happy to finally get to talk to someone.


HENG, WINONA
To the waterfall it is then!
The path led deeper into the forest and it grew no lighter. In fact, the trees passed by endlessly- they were all starting to look the same. If there was no trail to guide the pair, then it would be very easy to get lost within the repetition of the forest.

After a while, the sound of rushing water was heard. Slowly it got louder but never defying.The terrain got rougher, more stones and rocks than dirt. The trees started to thin out until it opened up to a clearing. There lies a waterfall, definitely not huge by any means. It was tiered, stacking up the rocky cliffs. Green plants and moss happily thrived around it. They were by the pool, down in the bottom of the chain, and the path curved around it. The water was shockingly clear, one could see the brown pebbly floor under it. And there was large stepping stones across the pull, for more adventurous visitors. It would have been lovely during the day.

But oddly enough, there was someone already on the stepping stones and it blended almost perfectly with the shadows of the night.
It was a big cat. Wait no. It was more than just a cat. It was definitely...a panther.
It shifted its body, the sleek muscles under its fur noticeable in the moonlight. It was tearing at something bloodied under its paw, ripping it apart with its teeth, before it suddenly looked up with yellow eyes and stared directly at Heng and Winona.

What do you do?



JOAKIM, ESTHER
The moment Joakim and Esther got back into the forest’s edge, the girl on the rock island started to shake her head furiously. She mouthed unheard words to them, trying desperately to tell them something more.
Finally that something came through to the other side.

“DON’T GO --!! HE’S IN THE FOR--T!! GET OUT OF HERE!!!!!”

Suddenly behind you, in the forest, there was a stuttered click. A cocking of a gun.

An unkempt-looking, middle-aged man stood up from a bush several yards away. He was wearing a dirty white lab coat, stained with dirt and who knows what else. He had boots on, splattered with mud and wear. His glasses catched on to what little light there was and shined at a distance in the dark before he moved to reveal vivid, green eyes behind the glass. There was a soft white thread wrapped around him for those that could see it, barely visible. Human.
With shocking ease and speed (as if he spent time practicing for this moment), he lifted up a shotgun to his shoulder and aimed.

“Well there goes all subtlety.” Said the man, his startlingly calm voice not matching his disheveled appearance.

Then he fired at both of them.

((▸▸ ACTION:
Dodge. Or whatever you are going to do at this moment.
If dodge, please roll + DEX and beat the below roll. Would suggest to wait for my reply to report injuries though!
uYCGDYn5 +4 for his DEX= 7))

A game of hide and seek, eh? Considering that there really was nothing else to see, Lincoln decided to turn his attention to the child, who was pretty much shooting out his questions faster than a railgun. "Whooaaaaa," Lincoln started slowly, putting up both his hands to calm the child.

"Before you continue, I will have to answer some of those questions. One," he continued,"I got up here by jumping. Two, this," he gestured to the hoodie he was wearing, "is my style. Three, yes my hair is green, but it's because I ate lots of spinach." Lincoln couldn't help but fib at that one, winking at the boy. Maybe it would inspire the kid to eat his veggies..."The name's Lincoln..., oh," he suddenly exclaimed, "were you the one with the lantern that ran into the bushes?" it was Lincoln's turn to ask a lot of questions. "And where exactly is your dad?"

It was all somewhat overwhelming; kids in trees, disappearing lanterns, possible marijuana patches in an abandoned building. Lincoln was in no hurry to know, though. Being up in the trees, they were likely to be safe from land dwellers...unless there were snakes. But Lincoln won't mind snakes...so much.

Heng tensed, taking a sharp breath.

He slowly took out his Ji, crouching slightly, grip tightening. He licked his lips, staring at the Panther as it looked at them. It had golden eyes.

The air around them felt still for a moment, everything quiet. Was it always this quiet? Well, the waterfall was still going. Why was there a panther in New York?

"Run," he said to Winona. He didn't know who'd have to make the first move. Probably the Panther. Heng kept his eyes trained on it.

Looking over at Joakim, she could see blood. She didn't know how painful the shotgun wound was, but she didn't imagine that it could be pleasant.

The shotgun clicked as the man reloaded it -- and proceeded to aim it at her.

“Uh-uh-uh. You should stay down, girl.” He smiled while he said it, and the rush of fear that had accompanied the sight of his gun was replaced by annoyance. Anger, even. The hand that had been reaching for her chrysanthemum-filled pocket was lowered to the ground.

She gazed at the man with as impassive an expression as she could manage, raising her cut hand up to signify that she wouldn’t attempt anything (yet). She’d seen his face before, she was sure of it -- somewhere in HQ, plastered on a wall. A hunter… but also a human. He’d killed someone before, that much was positive… so why was he sparing them now?

Another glance at Joakim. If you could call that being “spared”.

… Well, the man had been waiting for them. And possibly had a use for them (he’d said as much, at any rate). So long as his plan didn't involve shooting them within the next few hours. (There were a lot of unpleasant fates that were to be avoided here, but they could be ignored, for now.)

With any luck, the others had heard the gunshot blast and would come to aid them. It might be harder for him to take on more people, gun or not. Perhaps they’d even caught him off guard -- he’d also mentioned that they’d come earlier than he had expected.

He carried the cards, here. Hopefully he'd accidentally reveal a few.

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neizcTB0+3 = 4 [She's not really expecting much, though.]·

Joakim pressed an arm over his torso as his body registered his wounds. FUCK, that hurt... The viking fought to steady his breathing, vehemently denying himself the luxury of falling to his knees. He gripped his carving knife in his free hand, snarling as he bit back the pain.

'This isn't anything new, I've had worse.' he'd mentally chant to himself. When he next lifted his gaze to the human before them, Joakim's urge to outright maul the bespectacled man was stopped only by the sharp pain that hindered every movement he made.

He'd only taken two steps forwards before he had to stop (or risk toppling over), "Back the fuck off, pikslikker...!!!" he snarled hoarsely. Despite his injuries, the viking looked determined to snap the man's neck and it didn't matter what form of disadvantage he was in.

He'd seen the man's poster in passing, but didn't seem to find it immediately important to find out who he was.

All that mattered to Joakim was that the man threatened their afterlives and he would sure as hell kill in self-defense.