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"BISHOP! BISHOP WHERE ARE you?!" A voice called out while I was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. I turned the stove off and went to the living room where I saw Dr. Giovanni. He must have just arrived since he looked terrible, but at the same time, there was this unpleasant excitement written all over his face.

     "There you are, my white horse," Dr. Giovanni says, walking toward me and grabbing my shoulders before kissing me on the cheek. "You did an amazing job last night. Just absolutely amazing," he then adds as he rushes towards a radio to turn it on.

     After a couple of minutes, news from last night started playing.

     "What was supposed to be a party of the century turned into the biggest scandal of the year when big names such as Ludwig Vanderbilt, Claudio Romano, and Nicholas Windhelm–only to name a few–were involved in a poisoning accident by an unknown substance. The St. Camillus de Lellis Hospital revealed that the reaction most likely originated from the food they have taken that night. The police are still looking further into this matter, as some of these big names are ready to take this incident to the court. Now people are wondering, is this really an accident, or has the town's haunted legend finally returned?"

     Dr. Giovanni turns the radio off as he looks back at me with a sadistic grin. He looked so pleased that it almost made the hair on my skin stand. "Isn't this wonderful? Not only did our poison work, but the townspeople are already suspecting that the Plague Doctor is back. Our plan is working!"

     I didn't entirely understand what he was talking about, but after hearing the news on the radio just now, I could gather enough to know the situation. I don't usually watch over Bishop's every move, but I come out when I feel that he's in danger or when he's going to encounter something that might trigger his trauma. I'm the only thing that's protecting him.

     Unfortunately, whenever Bishop is with this doctor, I don't sense any danger, just complete anger. Bishop doesn't see him as some sort of threat, which is why I don't intervene with this man, but instead, he sees him as someone he can benefit from, and that's where the problem starts.

     The idea that this doctor is helping him is what's making Bishop hold on to him. It's what's making him endure his time with someone so evil.

     "You really got tangled with such a dangerous man," I thought to myself as I stare at the doctor who was removing his necktie. He then sat on the sofa and looked back at me when he realized I still haven't said a thing. "What's with the face? We should be celebrating!" He says, but I still didn't respond to him.

     The mad doctor continues to stare at me from head to toe, but after a while, the excited smile on his face turns into a frown. The fact that he notices my change is frightening.

     "You're not Bishop," he says, and Dr. Giovanni sat straight, his posture indicating that he was not happy about this. "Those eyes...those protective eyes...I can only guess that you're Alice."

     "You seem to know me so well," I say, and the doctor chuckles, pulling his necktie off before unbuttoning his shirt.

     "Of course. You're my patient after all," he says with a confident tone, staring back at me with his observant eyes. He doesn't try to provoke me, nor does he try to say anything that would make me react. He just stares at me, waiting for me to say something that he'll eventually use against me. Unfortunately for him, he didn't need to do anything because I already knew exactly what to say the moment I saw his face.

     "A patient," I repeated with a chuckle, hoping he'd realize how stupid that sounded. "Do you really know your patient, doctor Giovanni? Do you know who Bishop is? Do you really know who Bishop Lancaster is?"

     The question made him raise his eyebrow, and for a quick second, he thought about my question but he doesn't answer me at all. Instead, he stood from his seat and approached me, "Where's Bishop? Why are you out instead of him?" He finally asks.

     "He's resting," I answered, and the doctor instantly notices the lie because he aggressively grabs my cheeks, catching me off guard. When did he start acting so violent? Did he ever lay a finger on us before, or has he always been like this but none of us noticed it?

     "Where is he?" He asks with a lower voice this time.

     "Let go," I commanded, not showing an ounce of fear. "If you don't you'll never see him again." I then threaten.

     Doctor Giovanni angrily stares at me, but he eventually lets me go. I touched my aching cheeks and glared at him. I wanted to throw a punch at him, but I took a deep breath and tried my best to calm down. Acting hostile around him won't do us any good. I have to think rationally when I'm around this doctor now.

     "Bishop found something out that he shouldn't have. I'm only trying to make him forget, so give me some time. I'll let him out soon," I explained, and for a second I thought that the doctor was going to force me to explain further, but surprisingly enough, he doesn't.

     "Alright, my apologies," he says with a gentle tone this time, and the respectable doctor came back like a switch. It was terrifying because he wasn't like us. He didn't have alters, but he had faces, faces that he shows to people so the situation will be in his favor.

     He definitely is a master manipulator.

     "You're cooking something, aren't you? Eat and get ready, Marcelino will arrive shortly. We'll be heading back to the manor right after," he tells me, and without looking back, he heads upstairs.

     As soon as he was gone, I touched my overly-beating chest. I wasn't afraid of him, nor was Bishop, but someone among our alters was definitely scared. Someone among us was desperately trying to run away from him and from that manor.

     But who?

     Who was the alter that met up with this doctor before this all happened?

     And how on earth did doctor Giovanni meet Mr. Lincoln?

...

I stared out of the car window in silence, dr. Giovanni sitting beside me, his expression serious while he was reading some files. Compared to his ragged appearance this morning, the doctor now looked like a proper master again. His adrenaline from all that excitement earlier was gone now too, so he was calmer and more relaxed.

     "How are Adeline and the other patients? Did anything happen while we were away," Dr. Giovanni asks the gardener, Marcelino, who was also the man who's driving us back to the Hell House.

     "Nothing serious happened master, but there's a patient that has been unresponsive since last night. He wouldn't drink the medicine we gave him either," he answers.

     "Who?"

     "Patient no. 2, Hunter."

     "Is that so?" the doctor asks. He was quiet for a while, but then he slowly turns his head to look at me. I tried to ignore him, but then a grin appears on his face, and I knew in an instant that he was planning something again. "I have an idea. Since you're not letting Bishop out yet, why not you talk to our patient on his behalf? Ask him to stop being troublesome and just drink the medicine. I think that would be easy."

     "Master, are you sure?" Marcelino asks, looking at me through the rearview mirror, probably because he doesn't fully trust me yet.

     "I think it would be fine. We've been experimenting on Hunter for almost a week now and he doesn't want to drink the medicine that will cure him. He'll die if no one tries to change his mind, and that's going to be a waste, don't you agree, Alice?" He then asks me.

     "And why on earth would I do that?" I ask back, looking at him with furrowed brows.

     "Or do you want me to ban Autumn from visiting Wednesday? Wednesday has become fond of his nana now, so what do you think she'll do if she stopped visiting her?" He says instead, and the confident smile on his face made me clench my fist in irritation.

     He knows I wouldn't be able to decline him now, so I just took a deep breath and told him, "Where is this patient you're talking about?"

     Right after my question, the three of us eventually arrived at the manor. As soon as we got out of the car, Marcelino gave me this eye cover and led me to a room on the third floor. The metal door had the number 003 written on it. Marcelino pulls out a bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocks the door for me.

     "Here's the medicine. Make sure he drinks it," he says as he hands me the pill. "I'll watch over you from out here. If anything happens, I'll get you out in one piece," he then adds while I wear the eye cover that I believe is what Bishop wears when he's in this manor.

     "How reassuring," I sarcastically say, securing the eye cover in my head so the patient inside won't be able to pull it out. I took a deep breath and was about to enter the room, but then Marcelino grabbed my arm and stopped me. I thought he was going to give me another piece of advice, but what he said was something that I did not expect from someone like him.

     "Last night at the party, I was waiting in the car and I saw Bishop," Marcelino says with a soft voice, making sure no one hears us. "Bishop went back to the mansion with that police officer, didn't he?"

     I didn't answer him because I didn't know whether or not it was a good idea for me to rat Bishop out, but then Marcelino leans closer to me and tells me, "I didn't tell the master. I told him I drove him back myself. I know he has a mission involving that officer, but make sure you don't say anything. Master Claudio doesn't like it when we do things he didn't instruct himself. If you don't want to get punished, I suggest you keep quiet."

     I was surprised that this man was concerned about such things, so I nodded my head and assured him that I wouldn't do anything that would put Bishop in danger. When he finally lets go of my arm, I pushed the door open and went inside the room.

     The room was partially dark and dull. It also had an awful smell that almost made me gag. When I went deeper, I saw a man lying in his bed, his back facing me. He doesn't acknowledge my presence, but I know that he's aware that I'm standing behind him.

     This is patient 02, also known as Hunter. Hunter was said to have killed a mother and her child after driving home drunk. Afraid his perfect life would end, he buried the bodies in the forest and pretended as if nothing happened. He was eventually caught when the bodies were found. This was a very selfish man indeed.

     "Hello Hunter," I say, but the man still doesn't respond.

     I took a step closer and the smell got so strong that I quickly had to cover my mouth and nose. Only when I got closer did I realize that besides his bed was actually a bucket filled with his vomit.

     What on earth did they do to you?

     "I'm here to talk. If you just turn around and face me, that would be very helpful," I then say, but Hunter still didn't move. I wanted to give up and just tell doctor Giovanni that he wasn't listening to me either, but just when I was about to turn away from him, I heard Hunter say, "When will I die?"

     The question surprised me, and I honestly didn't know what to answer him so I remained silent.

     "I think I've already paid what is due," he weakly tells me. When I still didn't answer him, Hunter finally sat up from the bed. I've only got a glimpse of him once. I remember his strong structure and confident smile, but after just a couple of days, he had already gotten thinner, and his hair was longer too. Based on what dr. Giovanni said in the car earlier, it's safe to assume that he's the guinea pig used to test that poison last night.

     "That is not for me or for you to decide," I finally tell him, and Hunter looks at me, his eyes red and his mouth chapped. He looked horrible, almost zombie-like.

     "Why are you playing god?" He asks, ignoring what I just told him.

     I didn't say anything as the room became completely silent. I thought Hunter was going to ask me another question but he slowly stood from the bed instead. I stared at him as he just stood there motionless. But after a while, he suddenly started running towards me at full speed. My body stiffens, and just when he was about to reach me, he stops, making me realize that his ankles were chained. If I just moved a little closer, he would have been able to grab me.

     He stops just a meter away from me, his breath heavy. He was taller so I had to look up. His smell was foul, and his skin had rashes all over too. His teeth were also starting to rot. I would have been disgusted by how he is now, but I wasn't; I pitied him instead. The once charming businessman was now a hollow body that was desperately trying to rot away.

     "It was a mistake. I didn't mean to kill them, yet this is the extent of my punishment?" He asks, anger now present on his face. "I was just scared. I buried them because of that fear."

     "Scared?" I ask with a serious expression. Hunter was about to defend himself, but then he started coughing. He moves away from me and covered his mouth with his hand. When he removes them, I saw the blood on his palm. The doctor was right, he really was dying.

     "You're intentionally not drinking the medicine, aren't you?" I finally ask, and Hunter wipes his mouth, the blood smearing his lips and cheek. Soon after, he started laughing at my question in such a mocking way.

     His laughter echoes inside the room, and right after, he stops and tells me, "The moment I got here, death felt like heaven. You people...what makes you so different than us? Is seeing us in pain satisfying to you?"

     I didn't want to answer him, but his question somehow angered me. We aren't here because we wanted to either. We didn't want to be here.

     "This is called the Hell House. All of us here are suffering from our sins, not just you. To be honest I don't give a fuck about what happens to you at all. The experiments will either kill you or not, but know that dying isn't going to help. You're here because you made decisions that led you to where you are now so fucking suck it up," I say with strong conviction, and that finally made Hunter listen.

     He stares at me again, and after a while, he tilts his head and says, "You...you're different."

     I didn't exactly understand what he meant, and for a second I thought he realized I was a different alter, but then he proves me wrong when he walks towards the window where a view of the ocean could be found. "December 8, 1950. It's a date that I will never forget," he suddenly tells me.

     "I just got promoted at my job so my boss invited me to go to a bar to celebrate. I wanted to please him so I drank every liquor he poured into my glass. I lived a poor life, so that job was everything to me," he says, his voice low that I could barely even hear him.

     "I decided to drive home even though I shouldn't have, and at the 5th avenue, I fell asleep. It was just about 5 seconds. I blanked out for five fucking seconds—" Hunter paused and angrily hits his chest as he tries to remember such an unpleasant memory. "When I opened my eyes, there they were. I killed them in an instant," he continued.

     "Why are you telling me this?" I asked him.

     Hunter doesn't answer me for a while as he continued to stare at the view outside the window. When he finally made up his mind, he looked back at me, his expression now angry. "Because that isn't the end of the story yet," he then tells me.

     I watched Hunter as tears started to form in his eyes. His body trembled, and then he started coughing blood again. It would have been wise if he stopped talking, but Hunter didn't let anything stop him. It was almost as if this was his last chance. This was his last chance to finally confess everything.

     "I wanted to live a good life. My parents were poor and my father was a drunkard. I left home when I was only 15 and worked my butts off to get a job. I needed to live a good life. I had no intentions to ruin it, do you understand me? I didn't want to ruin it, do you understand!?" He shouts this time as more tears poured out of his eyes.

     "I didn't want to ruin my life. I didn't want to run away. I didn't want to kill the family that I worked so hard for. It was just a mistake, a stupid 5-second mistake," Hunter finally reveals, and my entire body freezes.

     "W-What did you just say?" I ask in disbelief even though I already had a hunch on what he meant.

     "That mother and child that I killed...they were my own. They were my wife and daughter," he tells me, and all I could do was cover my mouth in shock.

     "Since I got promoted they wanted to surprise me. They waited for me on a street near our house, on 5th avenue. It was right there...that was when I accidentally killed them. My daughter and my wife, they were in my arms as I carried them away," he says as he drops to the floor, sobbing his eyes out while blood continued to come out of his mouth.

     "I k-know...I know I was wrong. Every single day I died from that guilt. My family was gone and that job was all that was left. I couldn't let that go either, so I hid their bodies. It's what my Rebecca would have wanted. She would have wanted me to continue my life in peace." 

     I listened to every single word Hunter said, but that statement finally made me crack, so I bravely moved closer to him and slapped him with no hesitation. "It's what Rebecca would have wanted? Are you hearing yourself right now? How on earth will you know what someone wants when they're already dead?!"

     Hunter was surprised, but he doesn't retaliate. Instead, he looked away. He looked away in shame.

     "An accident? You wouldn't have buried their bodies and pretended like it never happened if you knew it was an accident. You failed as a father and a husband because you couldn't let your job go. You didn't give them the justice they deserved just because of something so pathetic," I angrily tell him.

     Hunter becomes quiet, but he lets his tears pour out of his eyes. "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm so sorry..."

     His sobs continued to echo in this dark room, and Marcelino—who had been watching us from outside—doesn't do anything and just turns a blind eye.

     I kneeled in front of Hunter and pulled something out of my pocket. It's the pill that Marcelino gave me earlier. Since Hunter has been heavily exposed to the poison, this pill would have helped cure him from it since it's the same pill doctor Giovanni drank last night. Hunter would have been better if he only drank his medicine properly.

     "Here's a pill that will save you. Drink it and you'll live, and then you'll have more time to think about what you did to your wife and daughter. If you don't drink it, then you'll eventually join them. I don't know what you think is the best decision, but know that your fate is in your hands, not mine," I say as I show him the pill.

     Hunter stares at it for a while, but he eventually took it.

     "That's all for now," I say as I finally stood up and walked towards the door.

     "What do you think Rebecca would have wanted?" Hunter asks me for the last time.

     I took a deep breath and looked over my shoulder as I said, "I told you, you'll never know what a dead person would have really wanted. You had all the opportunity when they were alive, so why waste your time asking them now?"

     Hunter doesn't say anything and I finally went out of the room. Marcelino welcomes me out and locks the door. When I looked back at him, I grabbed him by the collar and angrily said, "Never ever ask me to talk to these patients again."

     Marcelino doesn't say anything, so I pushed him off and walked away.

     I don't know why doctor Giovanni asked me to talk to Hunter. I don't know what the purpose was, or what the intention was. Did he already know the whole story of Hunter's crime? Did he think I'd pity him? I had so many questions, yet I still couldn't understand what was in that doctor's head. I didn't know what he wanted when he told me to talk to patient 03. I had no idea, but what I do know is that the very next day, the entire manor was in an uproar.

     Because only after two weeks of staying in this manor...

     Hunter didn't drink the pill that would have saved him.

     And thus concludes the first plague.

to be continued...