Time for chapter 10. This one is almost as long as the previous chapter. This one is called "Checkmate". This is a very interesting chapter. This one contains 2 monologues from Nathan, you find out what happened between him and the mortician's daughter, and there is a pretty neat plot twist at the end. I hope you enjoy it.
Checkmate[]
After arriving back in Yharnam from the fishing hamlet, I immediately limped myself all the way to the hospital. I got it fixed, free of charge for some reason, and was out of there in less than an hour.
I decided to go visit Djura at his place in Old Yharnam, since I didn’t really have anything better to do with my time. He was at the same place where I had first met him, in the Old Yharnam chapel. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, since he didn’t notice me until I approached him and cleared my throat.
“Sakharine!” he randomly yelled. “Sorry, I was thinking about something.”
“It’s fine, Djura”, I responded. “I sometimes get lost in my thoughts too.” I sat down next to him.
“Today, October 4th, is always a rough day for me”, he said.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“It’s the anniversary of when Mark’s mother died”, he responded in a somber tone. “That was the worst day of my life.”
“‘Mark’s mother’? Why not call her your wife?” I asked.
“She and I weren’t married”, he answered.
“Oh, I see”, I said. “How long ago was that?” I asked.
“12 years ago”, he said. “Mark was 16, she was 34, and I was 38. She was very ill, and refused to get treatment.”
“Damn”, I said. “Losing a loved one is a hard thing.”
“Indeed it is. Have you lost anyone close to you?” he asked.
“I lost both of my parents when I was 15”, I answered. “The year before that, I was kicked out of school due to repeated bad behavior. My parents told me that if I wanted to continue living with them, I would have to contribute to the rent. I went around town, and was eventually approached by a one-eyed man with the biggest beard I’ve ever seen. He asked me if I was interested in doing a job with him. He probably thought that I was older than 14 because I had almost reached my adult height by that point. But anyway, he asked me if I wanted to make some money, I said yes, so we went aboard a ship, and that is when my many criminal misdeeds started. If you want to know more about that, I can tell you another time. Anyway, about a year later, I had been at home again for a few weeks, having made some money, and a friend and I went out hunting. When I returned home, this horrible creature with a large tentacle on its head had murdered both of my parents. It tried to flee, so my friend and I chased after it. We eventually caught up to it, it killed my friend, and I killed it. I put a gun to its head, and blew its brains out. Unfortunately, that experience is… part of the reason why I wear this mask, though I didn’t start wearing it until 4 years later.”
“Good lord”, he said. “That’s a sad story. You should work on trying not to ramble, though.”
“Yeah”, I said. “I’ve gotten that quite a bit. Jason has brought that up many times since we met 6 years ago.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but would you mind telling me why you had to go on that journey to the dungeon with me?” he asked. “I’m curious, but it’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.”
I sighed. “If I do tell you, will you promise not to tell anyone? Not even Jason knows exactly what happened.”
“You have my word”, he promised.
“I might ramble a bit here, but I need to give you all of the details”, I said. “It was about a year ago. I had been wearing my mask for about 6 years by that point. One day, I was walking through the street, and I turned my head, and I saw this absolutely gorgeous blonde girl. I went to try to talk to her, and she seemed nervous at first, but when I opened my mouth to speak to her, she immediately calmed down at the sound of my voice. She and I talked for a little bit, and when she had to go, I asked her where I could go to find her in the future. She didn’t tell me, so I started following her. I followed her to the funeral home, but before she went inside, she noticed me. She was understandably creeped out. When she confronted me about it, I told her that I thought she was pretty, and would like to get to know her in the future. She thanked me, and told me that she was the mortician’s daughter. She then asked me if she could see my face, and I politely declined. We went our separate ways, and the next time we saw each other, I asked how old she was, and she told me that she was 19. About 2 or so months after that, I went to where she lived, went outside her window, and whispered out her name. She heard me, and let me in. I showed her my face, and we started making out. A few seconds later, I picked her up, and threw her onto the bed. Not long after that, her father came into the room, saw me, ran to get a shotgun, and tried to shoot me. A few days later, I went to the church that he goes to to speak to him, and he told me that his daughter had lied to me about her age, and that she was only 17 at the time. He then said that if I got him 1,000 dollars in the next year, then he would not have me arrested for pedophila. Jason found out about it somewhere, but he never mentioned that he knew until the day you and I met. I paid my debt to him that day I got back, and now he and I are no longer on bad terms. And that’s pretty much it.”
Djura sat in a stunned silence for several seconds. “Goodness”, he said. “I’ve done some stupid things for a girl, but it’s never gone that far.”
“Let’s talk about something else shall we?” I asked. “Can I ask you something about Mark?”
“Sure”, he said.
“Is he good at paying back his debts?” I asked.
“Does he owe you money for something?” he asked in a concerned tone.
“Yes”, I answered. “Back at the fishing hamlet, he dared me to eat a live spider, and that if I did it, then he would give me 1,000. I did it, and he said that he didn’t expect me to actually do it, and that he doesn’t have the money.”
“He’s terrible at paying back his debts”, Djura said. “Mark is currently in debt to several people, which is why he never has any money. He’s a bit of a gambler, and not a very good one.”
Before I could respond, Mark and Derrick came in, and all seemed to be in great moods.
“Hello there”, Mark said. “How’s your leg, Sakharine?” he asked.
“It’s all fixed”, I answered.
“I wish you didn’t have to leave so fast, Sakharine”, Derrick said. “Carmilla made us some great soup. You would have loved it.”
“I’m sure that I would have”, I replied. “Where’s Jason?”
“He went home”, Mark said. “He was tired.”
“I think I’m going to go home now as well”, I announced.
“Wait a second, Sakharine”, Mark said before pulling a small piece of paper out of his pocket and giving it to me. “That’ll tell you when and where to come get the money I owe you.”
“You better keep your end of the bargain”, I said.
“I will”, he said.
I returned home, and the next week was relatively uneventful. The day before I was going to retrieve my money from Mark, I received mail from Djura that contained a letter and a red cross necklace.
Nathan Sakharine,
Mark is currently out of town right now, so I would like you to deliver this necklace to him when you visit him to retrieve your payment tomorrow. I would go myself tomorrow, but I’m also going to be leaving town for two days later today. If you do this for me, I’ll be grateful.
Thank you,
Djura
P.S. - I won’t tell anyone about where your hideout is. And please don’t ask me how I know where it is.
The next day, I put the necklace in my pocket and went to Mark’s house at the time he specified on the paper he gave me, 3:00 P.M.
When I arrived at his residence, I knocked on the door a few times. It was several minutes until he answered. When he opened the door and saw me, he looked surprised to see me.
“Sakharine, I forgot you were coming”, he said.
“Do you have my money or not?” I asked.
I heard him gulp. “No, I do not”, he said. I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was nervous.
“You gave me your word”, I said threateningly. He started backing away, and I started moving toward him until we were both inside. He then kicked me in the groin, and ran into his kitchen and grabbed a chef’s knife. I stumbled into the kitchen, and tried to de-escalate the situation. “Mark, I’m not going to hurt you. Put the knife down, and let's talk about this.”
“I don’t believe you!” he yelled as he started moving slowly towards me.
“I’m going to take off my mask”, I said. “Will that calm you down?” He didn’t respond, so I did it anyway. I unhooked the mask’s buckle on the back of my head, took the mask off, and set it on the counter. It didn’t seem to calm Mark down at all.
Before I could say anything else, Mark lunged at me with the knife. I dodged out of the way, and grabbed both of Mark’s wrists, and kicked him in the left knee. He dropped the knife, and tried to break free from my grasp. He succeeded, but I was able to grab his right arm with my right hand, then break it with my left elbow. He fell to the floor and screamed in pain. I grabbed Mark by the collar, lifted him up, grabbed a glass from the counter, and smashed it over his head. I then grabbed the knife he tried to stab me with, and stabbed him in the head 18 times, killing him in self defense.
I dropped both him and the knife to the ground, took out the necklace Djura wanted me to give Mark, threw it onto the counter, and slumped down on the floor, hyperventilating. After a few minutes, I got up, put my mask back on, and left the scene. This was only the tip of the iceberg for the things to come.
End[]
Were you expecting that? I hope not. Tell me what you think in the comments. Have a great day. There are going to be 2 more chapters in this story. The next chapter will be out on Thursday.