Day Eightteen
It was morning again. Anthony contacted Vincent to visit him in the dead end together with Gerald, to discuss the situation. His mouth didn't return by that point.
Gerald sat on the ground, leaning at the nearby wall, while Anthony was leaning at the wall opposite to him. They hoped that Vincent was going to show up, as a Freedom Seeker could find them at any time. Anthony kept watching, while Gerald was sunken into his own thoughts.
It was all his own fault.
Then, Anthony could finally spot the villain in the tuxedo with the Gatling gun walking towards them. „Hello, Vincent. Sorry that I couldn't be more obvious.“
„From what I've got, you're calling me because Gerald lost his voice?“
„It's worse. Way worse.“
He pointed at Gerald sitting on the ground, as he looked up, revealing his missing mouth. Vincent was clearly freaked out by this.
„H-How did that happen?“, he asked in panic. „Has it something to do with that Helena?“
„We have absolutely no idea in that regard“, Anthony replied. „All we can gather is that Gerald must not be seen by anybody, or we're in big trouble.“
„You're talking about „them“, aren't you?“, Vincent asked.
„Of course I do! When they know that he's unable to leave, they are going to hunt him as long as they have that opportunity! Not to mention that he isn't able to eat or drink while being in this condition...“
„Have you tried cutting a hole where his mouth is supposed to be?“
Gerald, as hearing this, slowly backed away from him.
„...you can't be bloody serious.“
„How can you know if you haven't tried?“
„Because then he would be at least able to make some sounds! Right now, he's completely mute!“
Vincent sighed. „And what should we do now?“
„We need to find a safe hiding place for him. Have you got what I asked you for?“
Reaching out in his jacket, he drew a scarf out of it. „Do you mean this?“
„Perfect. Give it to Gerald so he can hide his face.“
After he handed the scarf over and Gerald made the downer half of his face not visible for the public, the three of them left the dead end, having no other choice than wandering around.
„So, do you have the slighest idea where to go with him?“, Vincent asked.
„Not at all. Even though the city is huge, there aren't many places where you can hide something properly.“
„You can't mean that, Anthony. There needs to be some place to do so.“
„Hey, don't ask me, Gerald created this world! He designed this place!“
That made Gerald punch Anthony's arm.
„Ouch! That was completely unnessecary!“, Anthony yelled at him.
But Gerald seemed to be pretty satisfied by that.
„Well, we do have another choice...“, Vincent wondered.
„Oh, and that would be?“
„Getting rid of them, of course.“
Anthony stared at him for a while in disbelief.
„You just want to use your Gatling gun perperly, don't you?“
„Hey, the only time I've actually pulled the trigger at that thing was when Helena visited Frank's place! And that didn't even scratch her!“
„We can't solve this problem by violence, Vincent“, Anthony defended his point. „Who knows how many people are part of that group by now? We can't risk an attack!“
As Vincent and Anthony continued their argument, Gerald started to feel it again. He knew that something was going to approach them. He pulled at Anthony's jacket.
„What is it, Gerald?“
The author pointed at where his mouth once was.
„Do you think your mouth comes?“, Anthony asked.
Gerald shook his head heavily and started to act as if he was strangling himself.
Vincent and Anthony looked confused on him. „Something with your throat, maybe?“, Vincent asked, even though he was sure that it couldn't be it.
Gerald hit his head with his hand, before having a brilliant idea and having a smug look on his face, with his head tilted. If they didn't guess it now, he was lost.
„Helena?“, Anthony wondered, before finally realising what he meant all the time. „Dammit, I'm stupid sometimes.“
And as he uttered these words, somebody jumped from a building at the three, aiming at the man with the scarf.
„This is such a bad timing“, Vincent said to himself, as he grabbed his Gatling. „Make sure that he doesn't get close enough to his head“, he told Anthony.
„Got it. Come on, Gerald, let's go!“
The two ran away, as Vincent thrusted his Gatling right into the attacker's stomach, making him fly into the building at the opposite side of the street. „Man, these guys just love to be aggressive, don't they?“
Anthony and Gerald tried to gain distance, running down the street. Why did they have to reappear now? It's like somebody knew what they were doing all the time and decided to pull a worst case scenario.
And it got even worse, as Gerald could detect another of them going to attack. This just couldn't get even worse than it already was. He pulled at Anthony's jacket again, indicating that he should be cautious.
Anthony couldn't believe it. „Another one? Are you kidding me?“
Gerald shook his head slowly.
„Dammit“, the informant uttered to himself. „What is their problem today?“
And there they were: two of them, standing there ready to get close to them. Anthony proceeded to draw a knife of his jacket and told him: „I hope your legs are working, because you gotta run away! As long as they see you, they're not going to stop! Now run!“
Gerald already set a foot back, ready for his escape, as the feeling back came rushing at him, penetrating his mind. That just couldn't be real. Why are they all appearing now? That made absolutely no sense whatsoever!
One of them grabbed him his his throat, trying to cover up his mouth with his other hand. There it happened: Now he was history.
The man asked confused: „What the hell-“ and pulled down Gerald's scarf, revealing his mouthless face. His hand was drawn away quickly, as the man shivered and backed off Gerald. „What- what- what the hell is this thing? It's like something out of a horror story!“
The man tried to make some distance by drawing himself away from Gerald only with his hands. The man's face looked terrified as he still stared on him. Could it be that his current problem solved another one? He wanted to sigh in relief, but he couldn't. Missing mouth and all that.
He turned to the other attackers to show them his obscure faces, which made them run away from him very quickly. Anthony on the other hand just stood there and looked in disbelief. Nothing that could have fitted to the situation managed to leave his mouth as he stared at where the attackers used to be.
A few minutes later, in the bar, they met with Vincent again to talk about what happened. Gerald has hidden his face behind the scarf again, just in case.
„Wait a minute... they ran away because of his face?“, Vincent asked, as he didn't believe what he just heard.
Anthony nodded. „It's like they haven't even thought of the possibility that he can't escape.“
„So that means that he's safe now, right?“
The informant shook his head. „No, he isn't.“
Vincent didn't seem to get it. „Huh? Why?“
It was midnight in the jazz club, when the Freedom Seekers had yet another meeting.
„Okay, dear fellows“, Helena started, „how did the attacks went? Or should I ask: How did they stop you today?“
One of the men came in front of her. „He played a trick on us, Helena. We doubt that we attacked the real one this time.“
Not really understanding what the man meant in the way that somebody wouldn't understand why he would eat eggs and bacon together with vanilla ice cream, she stood up and walked towards him. „Why do you think so?“
„His mouth was missing.“
What followed was Helena doing a variety of emotions: First, there was disbelief laying in her eyes. Then, she thought a little bit more about what she just heard, until finally reaching the realisation. Then she appeared to be full of joy, followed by rage, which was pretty surprising considering that she gets stoid at best even if you attack her.
„Why haven't you got him then?“, she yelled at them. „You got an opportunity we will have probably missed by now!“
„But- what are you even talking about?“
„Don't you get it?“, she explained, close to starting to be patronising. „When his mouth is gone, that means that he's stuck here because he can't use the ritual sentence to escape!“
The man now was confused and ashamed at the same time, as he tried to give her an answer. „But- but-“
„Well, it isn't that tragic if I think about it“, she calmed down. „When my assumptions are right, we are going to have this advantage for a little while longer. And now, sit back down.“
The man silently disappeared in the darkness again.
„Freedom Seekers!“ she said in an almost triumphant voice. „Tonight may finally be out last night in this cursed story! By the next morning, we are going to get Gerald and the ritual sentence into our fingers! We may finally be free and able to make our own decisions!“
The crowd cheered at that speech, while a certain detective didn't seem to react at all.
Hidden in the darkness, Frank, with a tooth pick in his mouth, thought a little bit about what he just heard. This may be his first time to act as an actual villain, though he still wasn't really sure about all of it. He knew that there was something missing that he overlooked in her answer, but he just couldn't find it, no matter how many times her words replayed in his head.
He only had one choice: He needed to get into Gerald's world to solve this mystery.
