The hunter gave the Count a look of pure venom.
"Are you alright?" the Count asked tentatively.
"This is all your fault! Because of you, they're going to kill me too! What are you..."
"Calm down! I'll think of..."
"You monster! You're not satisfied with killing them, are you? Yu always have to get me involved!"
"Shut up, Lukas, you're babbling. What we should do is..."
"Shut up yourself!"
"If you want to escape, we need to coordinate. We need to..."
"I don't care about escaping! Do you think I can escape? You're the vampire, dammit! You've got the powers! Why don't you just go save your own skin and leave me dead?!"
The hunter stopped his tirade, panting. To his surprise, he found the Count panting, too.
"Do you think this is easy for me?" the Count almost shouted at the hunter. "Fuck it, Lukas! The princess..."
Something seemed to have snapped within the Count. He suddenly slumped down on the floor and sat, covering his face with his hands, rocking slightly to and fro.
The hunter was unaware of how the princess died. Nobody else in town knew yet. The princess was practically banished by the castle since she left. All he knew was that she died while she was with the Count. Perhaps the Count himself killed her. He sat down opposite the Count, lost in his own scared thoughts.
After a while, the Count took deep calming breaths, secretly wiping his tears with his sleeves. This is not the time to show weakness, he thought. He needed to get the hunter out of this alive, if that's the last thing he'll do. He's ready for death but the hunter isn't.
The Count shifted his position on the floor and looked at the hunter opposite him. When the hunter noticed the Count looking at him, the hunter blushed and looked away.
"Sorry..." the hunter said gruffly. "It's just... you couldn't expect me to take this easily." His eyes took in everything within the dungeon cell.
The Count looked at him for a longer while before replying. "I understand. Nothing to apologize for. Don't worry, I'll get you out of here. There's got to be a way. You can trust me."
"Yeah," the hunter replied, but the Count knew the hunter didn't mean what he said. Already, he can see strains appearing on the hunter's face. The possibility of death was slowly dawning upon him. Upon them both.
The Count knew the extent of his magical powers. He drew it within him, and found a very small trickle left. The poison in the arrows which hit him has leached him of them. He flexed his muscles instead, and found that the poison left him with no physical strength either. Suddenly, with him in that state, the image of the hunter dead before him became stronger. More vivid. More real. He could almost...
No, he thought furiously. There is a way. There is a way! And I'll find it out soon.
While looking at the hunter, he noticed that a rather large red bump was slowly growing on the hunter's forehead. That probably came when he was shoved inside, he thought. He judged that, with the small power left in him, he could at least heal that bump, since he cannot find anything else to use that small power for. His own wounds from the arrows were too serious.
"Let me heal that," the Count finally said.
The hunter looked at him, puzzled. "This?" the hunter said, pointing at his forehead. The Count gave a nod, and the hunter gave another in reply.
The Count slowly approached the hunter, placing his hands over the hunter's forehead. The Count closed his eyes. Of all times! The Count felt guilty about touching the hunter. If the hunter was more knowledgeable, he would have known that trembling hands or blushing were not part of the healing process. The Count also took a longer time in healing it because he was having difficulty focusing his thoughts. This is the hunter, that's why, he thought.
When it was done, the Count sat beside the hunter. The hunter said nothing. After feeling his forehead and finding the bump healed, he smiled.
Luck, the Count thought. Countless times, he has asked for a moment with the hunter. And finally, it was granted to him. He wouldn't have minded them being locked up together, but they were being locked up together to die. Still, in times like these, he thought, you relish the happiness you can find.
The hunter felt uneasy about the way the Count was looking at him.
"Don't look at me that way," he told the Count.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the Count replied. He tried to look at the hunter less intently though. He failed. And he did not bother trying again.
"Why did you come here?" the Count asked suddenly.
"I wanted to see you," was the hunter's ready reply.
"Why?"
"Because they were about to kill you."
"You didn't use to care for me that much..."
"You were about to die!"
"Even so. From our previous encounters, you didn't care about what happens to me one whit."
The hunter gave no reply.
"You're hiding something, aren't you?" the Count asked.
"Let's rather not talk about this."
"What's wrong with trying to find out why you came here?"
"Don't jump into conclusions again!"
The Count was momentarily dumbfounded by this answer. "I see..." he said slowly. "Is that what you think of me? Always jumping to conclusions? And 'again'?"
The hunter said nothing.
"That man you were with in your house. Is he your...?"
"Shut up!"
"Lukas, there's nothing wrong with that! It's..."
"It isn't that..."
"Then what?"
"It's you!"
Again, the Count was stunned by this answer. "Me?" he asked the hunter confusedly. "How...?"
"I don't want to hurt you more. That's why I asked for a clean cut..."
The hunter's replies were not making much sense but if he put this and that together, then...
The Count took a deep breath and inclined himself toward the hunter. "Lukas..." he said slowly. "Do you.... like me, too?"
Silence.
"It was just a simple question," the Count added.
"Whatever gave you the idea."
"Nowhere..."
"You're jumping into conclusions again, are you?" the hunter said, shaking his head.
"Yes," the Count replied. "But am I right this time?"
The hunter closed his eyes for a second and looked down. His hands trembled. "Yes," he said, and he gave out a long breath and covered his face with his hands, just like what the Count did earlier.
The cell was so quiet the Count could hear the hunter breathing.
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