Bloody Memory

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mwahahaha long time no see :D
at last... i decide to add this chapter
but maybe after read it, all of you will want to kill me so much, because i left the ending with a cliffy hahaha XD
'til we meet next time...

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Epilogue

Jamie doubled over as Allan was plunged into the shallow river next to their campground. He was soaked wet, grunting and pouting, with salmons all over his body.
“Hey! This isn’t funny!” he wailed. Jamie only laughed more until his tears streamed down his cheek.
“Hahaha, that’s very—very funny, Allan! Hahaha!” he laughed and laughed hysterically.
“Oh yeah? Let’s see that you still can talk like that when you’re in the same place like me. Come here, brat!” Allan playfully menaced.
“Eeps!!” Jamie screamed while running away avoiding Allan’s grip; though he failed miserably. He was now thrown into the river as well, much to Allan satisfaction.
Scarlet smirked; amused as he watched the two practically soaking each other. He sat on the corner of the camp, under the willow tree, covered by its shadow. The sun shone brightly and hotly today, marking one of the hottest summer days of the year. He sighed; if it wasn’t for Jamie, he truly didn’t want to leave his cool, cozy hideout at PHANTOM HQ just for camping. Well, he had promised Jamie that he would join them on camping trip anyway.
“Looks like you enjoy yourself,” Arthur quipped while sitting beside him. He smoked his favorite cigarette; while keeping his eyes towards his subordinate and the human boy playing in the river.
“Yes, I do,” he retorted loftily. “It seems you do, too, old man.”
The captain glared at him though jokingly; and mumbled, “I’m not that old, brat.”
Scarlet stifled his laughter; surely Arthur had been so sensitive about his age. He spread his gaze towards Sarah and Emily who were busy preparing for their lunch. Frank and Tyler were chopping firewood nearby. Tyler’s leg had gotten better after two weeks being bed-rested. And, like Vermillion had prophesied before, Tyler met his fate: a gorgeous woman in the form of his therapist; when he had his therapy in hospital. And, boy, how much Tyler now had fallen in love with her!
“Peace is good,” the crimson haired vampire muttered. Arthur tilted his head to look at him, smiling widely.
“Agreed,” he replied while exhaling the smoke out his nostril.
Scarlet spoke next without truly looking at him, “Azure asked about you.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. He said if you want to join the troop, you’re very welcomed.”
Arthur inhaled an amount of smoke in one breath. “And my answer is the same; I want to rethink about it. I just want to settle down and live my life peacefully.”
“No problem. It’s just an offering anyway.”
An awkward silence lingered them; before Arthur finally spoke again,
“Tell Azure, I will comply with his offering within next year.”
Scarlet shrugged nonchalantly and reached for his cell. “Tell him by yourself.”
Arthur quickly looked at him and choked. “Wha—?!”
For his dismay, Scarlet had already contacted the ‘call’ button. He listened for a while before greeted the person on the other line; and finally shoved his cell to Arthur. “Here. Speak by yourself.”
Arthur gaped; but quickly recovered and received the phone. He disposed his cigarette and after clearing his throat, he rasped, “Wilkins speaking.”
The voice on the other side was incredibly smooth, rather cold, and sounded diplomatic when greeting him. [Long time no see nor hear about you, Arthur.]
“Well, I’m here now, Azure. Scarlet said that you gave me an offering for rejoining the troop.”
[True. And I really hope you do, Arthur.]
“I just want to live my life peacefully, Azure.”
Silence. […It’s your choice. I won’t force you. You’re still very welcomed here, Arthur. I just want you to know that.]
Arthur smiled genuinely. “I know. Thank you, Azure.”
Another silence, but the captain knew that Azure might also smile like him.
[…Very well. It’s nice to speak with you again, Arthur.]
“Me too, Azure.” The phone was dismissed.
Arthur gave the cell back to Scarlet who watched him intently, not to mention curiously, while he was phoning.
“Well?”
“Well? What well?”
“You join or not?”
“You know my answer.”
Scarlet was humphed grumpily. “Too bad.”
Arthur snickered. “Do you miss me so much?”
Scarlet looked at him imperiously. “Why should I? I’m fine even if you’re or aren’t there.”
Arthur scoffed and lit another cigarette; his last one. But Scarlet had snatched the thing away.
“No more cigarette, old man; you’re just speeding your own funeral.”
“Whatever. Give my cigarette back.”
“Nope.”
Arthur grumbled and began trying to catch the young vampire. Scarlet smirked and ran away from him, avoiding his grasp in mocking way every time he got closer. Fortunately, he had his sun block on or else he would surely get serious inflammations being exposed to sunlight that much.
“You’ll never be able to catch me, old man.”
“I will; and like I’ve said before, over and over… I’m not that old! Now, give me back my cigarette!” he yelled, annoyed; while Scarlet laughed out loud and ran towards Jamie and Allan who were barely drying themselves after their soaking time.
“Whoa! Be careful, Scarlet!” Allan warned, afraid that the crimson haired vampire would collide with him and Jamie. And surely he did.
“Oops, sorry.” He giggled when he saw both Jamie and Allan fell back to the river with loud splash. “No intention to run onto both of you.”
They only glared at him with desperately stares. Scarlet practically snickered at them.
Yelling victoriously, Arthur suddenly grabbed Scarlet’ shoulders from behind. “I catch you! My cigarette! Now!”
Scarlet inwardly surprised when Arthur used his distraction towards Jamie and Allan as a chance to get back his thing. But he quickly regained his composure and swiftly thought for solution; he threw the cigarette to the middle of the river. Seeing this, Arthur groaned exasperatedly.
“Man! Why do you have to do that?! That was my last one!” he practically howled.
Scarlet laughed watching his exaggeratedly behavior. He was standing behind Jamie, unintentionally using the boy as a shield against the captain.
“Well, like I used to say over and over; smoking isn’t good for you and others around you. It will eventually shorten your wit and life.” He stated matter-of-factly.
Arthur scowled at him and muttered something unintelligibly, then proceeded to walk up to Sarah and Emily; who were watching them amusedly and laughed along Tyler and Frank from their spot. He gladly received a small towel from Sarah and wiped the wetness around his face and shoulders from the splashes he formerly got from Scarlet.
“Since when you’re being so, critical; if not skeptical and sarcastic?” he growled.
Scarlet only snickered and suddenly lingered his arms around Jamie’s waist. He managed to lift the boy from the river while Jamie was squeaking in surprise realizing his body being lifted with sudden motion.
“Scarlet! What—?!”
“Lifting you from the water so you can dry yourself and have your lunch.” He retorted nonchalantly and got up from the river himself. Allan chuckled beside him as he also walked up.
Lunch was consisted of many varieties of foods both Sarah and Emily had brought and prepared before; salmon’s grilled chunks, ham sandwich, beef burger, orange juices, coffee, etc. Everyone in their group filled their plates fully of their preferred foods, even Scarlet did too. He also prepared a bottle of fresh blood alongside his meal.
“So…” the crimson haired vampire quirked suddenly while gulping his blood drink; making every head turning at him in question. “Allan, Tyler, Sarah, how about your progress?”
The three persons aforementioned just stared at him, dumbfounded.
“What progress?” Tyler asked curiously.
Scarlet chortled softly and waved his hand in dismissive way. “I mean your love life, you twig.”
Their faces reddened instantly; even Tyler did despite his black skin; and blurted out in unison towards the suddenly annoying vampire youth, “What the hell?!!”
The rest of the group laughed out loud, though Arthur only smirked in much uncomfortably way.
“I mean…” Scarlet piped in the middle of his laughter, “All of you are now smelled of lovey-dovey thingy, for heaven’ sake! My nose almost can’t bear them.”
Arthur snorted indignantly. “Liar. You mean that now you’re just being so snuffy around somebody else’s business.”
Scarlet raised his brows towards the older man and had to choke his own snicker. Arthur was somehow blushing, almost from the tip of his ears and entire face, down to his visible neck.
“Oooh, you’re blushing, ol’ man; I can see that.” He cooed mockingly, absolutely enjoying his teasing towards the captain who got reddening more from his remarks. “Why? Are you feeling the same lovey-dovey thingy too as your three subordinates? Or… if I’m not mistaken, you’re somehow twined with one of them. Your smells are the same ones.”
Arthur snapped his head towards Scarlet and practically glared at him. The vampire teen only chuckled teasingly.
“My nose doesn’t get wrong.” He tipped his nose repeatedly and smiled.
Both Allan and Tyler was humphed, while Sarah suddenly busied herself with her leftover sandwich. Scarlet continued his ‘torture’.
“Come on, guys. Spill it out.”
Tyler went first.
“Well, all of you have already known that I had to be bed-rested after I broke my leg at that time. Well, I met my therapist one day and… fell for her, somehow…” he trailed off.
Scarlet smirked coyly hearing the dreamy voice of Tyler. He turned his attention towards Allan and asked innocently, “What about you, Allan?”
The bulky cop almost jumped when he was confronted by the question, but he swiftly replied, “Well, I met a very interesting woman during my routine jogging last week and now I’m dating her …in healthy daily basis.”
They laughed hearing Allan’s weird reply and all heads now turned towards Sarah.
“Well, Sarah dear, how about you?” Emily surprised everyone by cutting off Scarlet’ self host-performing and asked the suddenly shy policewoman. Sarah jerked her head upward hearing the older woman question and widened her eyes towards her.
“Wha—what? How about me, what?” she stuttered, successfully blushing. She glanced towards her captain as if asking for any help; but when she realized she was all alone, she looked back at Emily and the others warily.
Emily patted her shoulder gently and chortled.
“Oh, honey, don’t be shy towards us. We’re like family, right?” She winked at Scarlet who smiled widely at her.
Sarah got redder several degrees of shades and lowered her head. She whispered something and Emily had to get closer to her in order to hear it.
“What, dear? I can’t hear you clearly; speak louder, honey!” she chirped in singsong when Sarah only managed to raise her voice a bit above a whisper.
“I. AM. WITH. ARTHUR. NOW!” Sarah practically yelled, each word was punctuated clearly; and cupped her face with her hands afterward, blushing furiously.
Scarlet and Jamie doubled over at Sarah’ self-embarrassing exclaim, while the others snickered and glanced meaningfully towards Arthur who was now slapping his forehead exasperatedly. Emily hugged Sarah affectionately, and literally congratulated her.
“Hahaha, I shall congratulate you, ol’ man; you got your gut to woo her after all,” Scarlet rasped while laughing quite hysterically. Arthur only glared at him.
After everything was settled down and every quirk was off, Scarlet sighed and looked at the bright, brilliant blue sky through his shelter under the shadow of the tree. He murmured softly, but it was quite audible to everyone around him.
“Everything happened like Vermillion said.”
Tyler snorted. “Well, I have to admit, he’s quite precognitive.”
“And an eerie, truly, absolutely right one, he is.” Allan added with a shudder. “He will make the best clairvoyant show if he’s allowed to do so.”
Everyone nodded in unison. The Ainsworths however just looked at the group with confusion.
A sound of ringing tone startled them. Scarlet recognized it as his ring tone and after excused himself from the others, he took his cell out from his pocket. He pushed the button ‘call’ and greeted his caller.
“Scarlet speaking.”
[Hello, Scarlet. The name is Calvin Bond; one of Fourth Division’s intelligent. I want to report something to you.]
The voice’s tone made Scarlet shivering somehow. He wondered what the content of the report was.
“Go ahead.”
[Well… you have accomplished your last mission and reported to the HQ about the death of EX’ agent; isn’t that right?]
“Uh huh…”
[Well…]
He sounded reluctant before continued with merely strained voice. […You reported that you have burnt away the ruins and the bodies inside. We were doing some investigations; and surely, using our advanced technology, it wasn’t so difficult to figure out about the victims and their IDs… but… something was amiss…]
“And what was that?!” Scarlet began to lose his temper. Why this person has to be so lame reporting this information to him?!
[…We didn’t found the body of the EX’ agent you’ve mentioned before… not even a single dust…]
Scarlet gaped at the phone; he couldn’t believe his own ears. Opal’s corpse was just… gone?!
“But—but—how?! Where—how?!!” He stammered, shocked beyond belief. That was impossible! He witnessed alongside the rest of the team, that Black Diamond, within his controlled zombie, killed Opal, jabbing his windpipe… the silver vampire gurgled his own blood to death… no… that was impossible he was alive somehow… just how…
[We also don’t know. We found nothing, not a single trace about the dead body you’ve mentioned before. We just found humans’ corpses—]
Scarlet didn’t even hear Bond’s rattling anymore. His mind twirled in chaos, trying hard to figure out about this startlingly, unexpected news. He stood still in catatonic, shocked state just for how long he didn’t even register; until Bond’s voice snapped him back to reality.
[Scarlet?! Assassin Scarlet?! Do you hear me?!]
“Ye—yes, just—just what did you say before?” he stuttered, unable to cover his dismay.
A heavy sigh was heard from the other side. [It seems the report made you shocked more than I’ve expected before; my humbly sorry. I will repeat the issue, that Lord Ivory and Lord Azure ordered every single assassin, even they who are still in mission, to stand by and meet within HQ’ atrium at the end of this week. Exceptional for both Agent Burgundy and Russet, but they will be confirmed somehow.]
Scarlet went silent, before slowly replied, “…I understand. I will be there within a day.”
[Well said. Until next time, Sir.] The phone was dismissed.
Scarlet stood still while clutching his phone near his ear. He absentmindedly pushed the ‘off-call’ button and put his phone back to his pocket. He stared to the point far away; his thought flew by. He barely felt his skin began to develop some inflammations being exposed to sunlight for so long; and he winced when the burning pain suddenly stung him.
“Ouch…” he looked at his hand’ skin; a sickeningly red inflammation had formed itself on his pale skin. He eyed the blemish blankly; not even bothered about his predicament. He slowly walked away from the rest of the group and sat alone under the other tree not so far from their camping ground.
He was drowned so deep within his thought he didn’t hear Jamie’s voice calling him over and over.
“Scarlet!” Jamie yelled once more. When he didn’t receive any respond from the other boy, he turned to look at his parents questioningly. Both Emily and Frank shrugged unknowingly. Jamie then turned his eyes towards Arthur and saw the captain had walked away towards the young vampire.
Jamie got up to trail him, but he had his arm being held. He looked at Sarah who gave him a gentle shook, and slowly he sat back, retreating; even though he felt curious about his friend’s condition.
Arthur eyed the suddenly somber vampire warily. He didn’t really pay attention during Scarlet’s phone receiving and he had no doubt that phone had to be the cause he acted drastically down like this.
“Scarlet?” he asked carefully as not wanting to startle the young vampire.
Scarlet didn’t respond to his call; he kept staring downward, absentmindedly. Arthur went to shake his shoulder, but startled when he heard Scarlet’s gravely voice.
“…He’s still alive…”
Arthur frowned. “Who?”
“…Opal…”

End… for the time being...

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cliffy eh? i like Opal very much i don't want to kill him so soon...

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