163 Do Not Struggle (2/2)

Alberto would never let himself fall into a hopeless situation. A man who planned for the future must always have an escape plan. Including now. There were many luxurious offices and rooms in the asylum, but he had picked this one room because there was an escape route!

”Come on, hurry up, hurry…” He urged his men to push his wheelchair faster past the secret door, forging into the darkness along the icy damp walls.

At times like this, he could no longer worry about Lorenzo, who was commanding at the front line. Anyway, Lorenzo still had two brothers who would be much more successful than Lorenzo after they matured.

As they escaped quickly, he heaved violently with fear, but he could not help but smile happily. But soon his smile froze. At the end of the passage, at the only exit, stood a burly figure that almost took up the entire passage. The figure seemed to have waited for a long time here. When it noticed Alberto approaching, the broken horse mask revealed a ferocious smile.

”The Butch…Butcher?” Alberto yelped and shook his head, ”No, it’s impossible, Yellow Foot should have…”

”Yellow Foot?” The butcher sneered and tossed down a spherical thing. ”Are you talking about that dark musician?”

Alberto lowered his head dully, and looked at what the Butcher was holding in his arms—an insect-like head with six compound eyes. It felt heavy, like holding an iron ball. No flesh could be seen. But one could vaguely see the original distorted features on that broken face.

”I’ve never met such a weak dark musician.” In the flickering firelight, the Butcher’s charred bones could be seen. He twisted his neck, producing cracking sounds. His chest had decayed, revealing white bones. A large heart beat firmly behind the white ribs. Caged by the ribs, an inhuman purple-black heart slowly opened an eye. It glanced at Alberto coldly and then shut again, as if there was nothing interesting. It went back to sleep.

That man behind Alberto could not stand the strange stare. He broke down and ran away, screaming. The next second, he was pierced through by a giant bone saw, lifted up and nailed high up on the wall.

”You’re next.” The butcher walked forward.

Alberto screamed and hurriedly spun the wheelchair backward, trying to escape. But the wheelchair overturned in the chaos. He fell down onto the ground, and quickly climbed up again, crawling backwards with both his hands and feet. Under the terrifying shadow of death, he moved quickly. Like a worm writhing on the ground, he tried to escape back the way he came.

The butcher followed behind him. When he passed the corpse he had crucified, he pulled the bone-saw out and put it behind him. He tried to slow his pace down, but he still caught up with Alberto when the old man reached his supposed safe house.

It was still so quiet and peaceful here. Pinewood burned in the fireplace, exuding a fragrance that calmed the mind. But when Alberto fled here, he stopped, not for recalling this warmth, but bout of despair. The only exit in the room had been sealed as per his order. He cried out in despair. Crawling all over, he tried to hide from the huge figure, but he was pinned to the ground by the butcher’s foot.

He blubbered nonsense, like ”I still have a family,” like ”I can give you a lot of money,” like ”the Shaman’s era has passed, come with me to the parliament, you’re so strong, you’ll definitely get a higher position than me.” Or, recalling the past, he asked the Butcher, ”Don’t you remember me? I hired you before, we worked together so well before…”

”Do not struggle,” the Butcher interrupted him.

”What?” Alberto froze.

”I said, do not struggle,” the Butcher said softly. ”It annoys me and it’s useless.” He picked Alberto up with one hand and gripped the frail neck, his fingers tightening slowly. His voice was cold and calm. ”My employer said that since you’re a part of downtown, he wants me to try and leave you a whole body. So, you can't die in a faster way. I’m really sorry.”

”Sh…Shaman...” Alberto squeezed the last syllable from his throat painfully. He clawed the Butcher's hands and mask, struggling in the slow process of suffocation. His eyes closed slowly, his body twitched and finally stopped.

But the Butcher still stayed in his position. One second, two seconds, three seconds passed… The still body suddenly began twitching and the tightly closed eyes flew open in fury, glaring at the killer before him viciously. He used his last strength to kick him.

In the end, his face turned purple. After a violent twitch, his body stiffened completely. After the long ordeal and planning, death finally came. That was vicious even in death, the eyes reflected the burning flames outside the window. He was the first one.