ML C9, P2- "Just A Scratch"

"Just A Scratch" is the second Part of "Miracula Luxia" 's ninth Chapter- "King Of Hearts". It was released on 21.04.2020.
== Plot ==
The problems for the city of Formello continue as its former leader- Samuel Blake reanimates and rises from his grave, mindlessly attacking any living being he sees with his milky eyes.
Fortunately, he is put down for good. Sadly, he doesn't go without dealing some serious damage first.
Damage that could possibly be irreversible for a certain hero.
However, there is still hope for the hero to survive. A small spark of hope still shines bright and illuminates the darkness, burning bright like a candle.
WIll this spark be enough to make a difference? Or will it burn out, erasing all hope for the citizens of Formello?
== Story ==
"Mr. Blake?!"- Commander Jones says, shocked to see his friend turned into an undead being.
The undead man doesn't answer. Instead, he mindlessly shambles forward, seeking a person to attack and bite.
"Dear god... "- Barin mumbles.
Jared is unable to say anything. He just stands there, his weapon drawn, unable to put down his former friend.
However, Annie does not stay quiet. She turns to Barin.
"Barin, what is this?!"- She yells at him- "You told us that he didn't reanimate!"
Barin shakes his head in disbelief.
"I-I'm so sorry. I didn't know!"- He says- "When we buried him, he... he seemed normal."
John points his weapon at him.
"Tell us all the details!"- He yells.
Barin nods and looks back at Samuel.
"He... nobody else noticed it, save for me."- He begins- "His skin was slowly going gray. His body was going colder and colder with each passing hour. I tried to warn everyone, but they just... just told me to shrug it off."
"I wanted to put him down, but they didn't let me. I'm so sorry!"
Meanwhile, an undead Samuel slowly shambles towards a distracted Jared.
"Stay away from him!"- Annie yells, draws her sword and swings it at the undead man.
However, this proves to be futile. She strikes him in the chest, stomach, leg, but... it just doesn't work.
Yes, it does slow him down for a while, but it does not kill him. The undead man simply stands up after the last blow and continues attacking.
"He... he's not dead?!"- Annie questions the fact that he hasn't fallen- "Impossible!"
"Wait, Annie."- John says- "Stand back. Let me try!"
Annie complies and stands back while John strikes as fast as he can at the undead Samuel.
However, his blows also prove to be ineffective as the undead man rises soon after the last one.
"How?"- He says, unable to comprehend the fact that undead cannot die easily.
Everyone watches silently as the undead tries to shamble towards Jared once again.
However, Annie does not stop trying to protect her friend. She stands in the undead man's way and closes her eyes.
"Fine!"- She says- "You want to hurt someone. Hurt me, then!"
"Just... just leave my friend alone. He hasn't done anything to you!"
John is shocked by Annie's sacrifice.
"Annie, are you mad?!"- He yells at her- "He's going to kill you!"
Annie smiles.
"Doesn't matter."- She says quietly- "If it saves my friend from harm, I'm all in."
She turns back to the slowly approaching undead Samuel.
"Well?!"- She yells at him "What are you waiting for?! Come on!"
She closes her eyes once again.
Everyone silently watches as the undead is about to attack her. Nobody is able to stop her and pull her away.
Nobody around her, anyway.
However, a person behind her is unable to comprehend the fact that he's going to lose his friend.
Jared snaps back to reality when he realizes what is about to happen.
Just as the undead man is about to bite Annie's neck, our hero steps forward.
"ANNIE! NO!"- He yells and swiftly pushes her away.
Everyone watches in horror as the undead man directs his bite towards our hero.
And then, in just a moment, it happens.
The creature sinks its teeth into Jared's arm.
He doesn't react to that. He doesn't scream or beg his friends to save him. He simply accepts his inevitable fate, closing his eyes, not wanting to be weak in his last moments.
Nobody is able to save him from the bite. They just watch as he is bitten by the undead man.
However, Annie quickly stands up and pulls out a dagger from her pocket.
"I SAID STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"- She screams and plunges the small weapon into Samuel's skull.
The undead man falls over.
No more attempts to get up.
No movement.
Nothing.
The undead Samuel Blake is finally put to rest by Annie.
However, the damage that he has done still remains. Jared opens his eyes and stares at the bite on his arm.
As everyone watches it in horror, he decides to ignore it. He simply pulls his sleeve down.
"It's just a scratch. Don't worry."- He says.
"Just a scratch?!"- John says- "Buddy, we don't know what the bite could do to you and you say that it's just a scratch?!"
"Calm down, John."- Annie tells him- "Maybe Jared's right. Maybe it is just a scratch."
John angrily looks at her.
"We can't just leave him like that! We need to treat the injury, fast!"
Barin is not on the same page, though.
"It's too late for him."- He says fearfully- "We... we need to put him out of his misery, so he doesn't suffer."
Something in the last words infuriates John. He quickly turns to Barin and grabs him by the neck.
"It's your fault!"- He yells at him- "If you didn't tell us sooner, this wouldn't have happened!"
He punches him in the face.
"You worthless fool!"
Barin begins to cry. Tears roll down from his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, John! I really am! But I... I wanted to put him down myself. I was going to do that, I swear! I just... just waited for the perfect moment!"
"This wasn't meant to happen!"
John smirks.
"You were going to put him down, eh?! Well how about I put you down right now, you worm?!"
Having said that, he tightens his grip around Barin's neck and begins to choke him.
"John, stop!"- Commander Jones yells at him- "For the love of God, please stop!"
Annie tries to get John off of Barin, but to no avail.
"I will kill you!"- John yells at the struggling man- "I will kill you, you hear me?!"
Barin is unable to say anything. His eyes begin to roll back into his head.
He is going to die soon.
In the distance, Annie sees a terrified Aimee watching the whole process.
Aimee is the younger sister of Barin and one of the few remaining priests of Formello while also being its youngest.
However, even she is unable to stop an angry John from choking her brother. She just watches silently, praying that he doesn't lash out at her as well.
"Aimee, what are you doing?!"- Annie yells- "Come here and help me save your brother!"
It's at the moment when Aimee realizes that her friend needs help that she finally decides to help.
She joins Annie in trying to pull John off of a dying Barin.
However, John doesn't show any signs of stopping.
"Stay back, you two!"- He yells and pushes them down without a second thought.
Barin is almost dead. He falls limp as John continues to tearfully choke him, unable to defend himself against him.
"Die, you scum!"- John yells- "Die!"
Lethal quickly leaves the city hall and looks at what everyone is watching.
"What is going on here... ?"- He says and approaches the two men.
"John Vincent Braveheart The Second, stop right this instant, you hear me?!"- He yells at him.
However, John does not stop.
This prompts Lethal to pull out a hammer from his pack.
"I said stop!"- He yells and bashes his hammer into John's skull, saving Barin.
Aimee quickly stands up and holds her brother in her arms.
"Brother!"- She says- "Please! Please, don't leave me! I beg you!"
Barin smiles.
"I won't, si... sister. I'm right here."- He says.
Everyone watches in shock as an angry Lethal pulls a barely conscious John up.
"What has gotten into you, you foolish young man?!"- He yells at him- "Barin is a loyal protector of Paris! He would never hurt any of his friends. What has he done to you?"
"He didn't put... undead Samuel down."- John says weakly- "Jared was... bitten by... him."
"I said what has he done to you?!"- Lethal repeats angrily- "Jared will be fine! As for you, you were about to choke an innocent man to death! The man has a sister, for goodness sake!"
"Don't you have any remorse, John? Killing the bigger brother of a defenseless girl and leaving her to fend off for herself?"
He turns to Aimee.
"Sweetie, would you like to say something to him?"
Aimee sighs.
"I don't want to be the hand who judges this man. I'll let the good Lord judge him instead."
"Farewell."- She says and leaves with her barely conscious brother.
However, she stops and turns to Jared.
"Jared, come with me. I want to check your... scratch."- She says.
Jared nods and goes to the church with Aimee and Barin.
Lethal releases John and slaps him on the face.
"Let that be a lesson to you."- He says and leaves.
The crowd of people disperses. Only a few people remain, watching John angrily as he slowly scampers away, ashamed of what just happened.
Meanwhile, Aimee motions for Jared to sit on a chair.
"Reveal your bite."- She says- "I want to see it."
Jared nods and rolls his sleeve up, revealing the fresh wound.
Aimee watches it for a few minutes and nods.
"Just what I expected."- She says- "This is a bite wound. It is not uncommon for all undead to try to bite you."
"What worries me the most is the fact that those wounds might infect the bitten person and kill them soon after they are bitten."
Jared yelps.
"Is... is there a way to stop the infection?"- He says.
Aimee shrugs.
"Can't tell. The only way we can know whether it will kill you or not is by letting you stay at your house and seeing if the infection will take you down."
Jared nods.
"Alright, I'm ready."- He says- "If I have to die, that's fine. The world still has a lot of heroes to protect it."
"Don't say that!"- Aimee scolds him- "There are still people here you need to protect! What about your grandpa? Annie? J-John? The other residents of Avernum?"
"They still need you, Jared. You can't just leave them alone and afraid!"
Jared sighs.
"Very well. Let's... let us just get along with this."
Jared gets back into his house and lays on his bed.
He wants to sleep, but his senses tell him to stop.
He looks at his bite.
"So this is what I had to go through, hmph?"- He says to himself- "This is what happens to true heroes. They live to protect, but they die for those that they have to protect, sooner or later."
"But it didn't want to die this way... "
He continues staring at his bite wound.
"I always thought that I would die in a more noble way. Fighting enemies in battle, getting shot in the heart by an arrow. Or maybe getting stabbed... "
"To be honest, every other death would be more acceptable than this one."
He sighs and closes his eyes.
In the middle of the night, he wakes up coughing at stares at his wound.
He notices that it is bleeding.
"Is this caused by... the bite?"- He wonders to himself.
He continues to cough and notices that his skin is slowly turning gray.
"Am I going to become... like Samuel?"
He shakes his head angrily.
"No. No, I mustn't think about that. Aimee is right, I am going to make it, for the sake of everyone I have to protect."
"I won't die! I won't! I won't! I won't!"
Repeating the same words over and over in his mind, he closes his eyes, undisturbed by his severe coughing.
In the morning, everyone watches Jared's house sadly.
"Should we take him out now?"- Annie asks Lethal.
The man shakes his head.
"Not yet."- He says- "Let's give him a few more minutes. Maybe he'll survive."
"Or, at least, I hope that he does."
However, this doesn't happen. Nobody leaves the house, human or undead.
Everyone immediately assumes that Jared has died.
"Poor Jared."- John says- "He... he didn't deserve this. Not at all."
He turns to Barin.
"Barin, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for yesterday, brother."
Barin smiles and pats John on the shoulder.
"John, you're my brother in arms. Of course I will forgive you! I... I know that you were angry, but you just didn't have to show it that way."
"Please don't do that again."
John nods tearfully.
"I know. And I'm sorry for that."- He says and the two watch sadly as Annie and Aimee slowly approach the house to take Jared out.
However, just as they're about to open the door, it creaks open. A boy leaves the house.
Jared yawns happily stare at him.
"Ahh. Good morning everyone."- He says.
He notices that they're still staring at him.
"Why is everyone watching me?"- He says and rubs his eyes- "Do I look that bad?"
Annie smiles and hugs him.
"Oh, I guess I don't look that bad."- He says and smiles.
Aimee approaches him and looks at his arm.
"Jared?"- She says- "What happened? What... happened to your bite?"
"What bite?"- Jared says, confused- "I don't know what you are talking about, Aimee."
Aimee is surprised, to say at the very least.
"John."- She says- "Can you please check out his arm? His bite?"
John nods.
"You got it."- He responds and lifts Jared's sleeve to see the wound.
Moments later, he looks back at Aimee, confused by something.
"What is it, John?"- She asks him- "There's a bite there, right?"
John shakes his head.
"There... there's no bite."- He says, barely believing what he just said.
Everyone is amazed by this.
They watch as Jared checks his arm.
"Oh, the bite."- He says- "I remember now."
He looks at the spot where it's supposed to be. However, nothing is there.
"Hm. It must have healed."- He mumbles.
"Impossible."- Aimee says- "From what I've seen in those zombie movies, when you get bitten, you die. This... this should not be physically possible, for the wound to, to... "
Jared smiles.
"Well, it seems like my body has just defied common sense."- He says- "My desire to protect everyone until my dying breath has kept me alive."
Everyone watches happily as Jared and Annie embrace.
"I'm so happy, Jared."- She says- "I'm so happy that you're alive."
Jared smiles.
"I would never leave you to struggle alone, Annie."- He says- "I will always be here for you."
However, this sweet moment is interrupted when a soldier quickly approaches Jared, getting his attention.
"What is it soldier?"- Jared asks him.
The soldier takes a moment to calm himself.
"Take your time."- Annie says.
Eventually, he looks at them, fear still dancing in his eyes.
"It's Farrar, sir!"- He says- "Farrar is at the gates! And he's asking for you!"
Annie gasps.
"Jared, what... what are you going to do?"- She asks her friend.
He sighs.
"If he wants to meet me, so it be. I won't back down from meeting my worst enemy."
"I will go at the gates and see what he has to say."
Annie nods and hugs her friend once again.
"Please be careful."- She tells him.
He nods and approaches the southern gates of Formello, escorted by two guards.
"Let's see what this fool has to say."- Jared says to himself as he gets closer and sees Farrar.
"Hello, Jared."- Farrar says and smiles as Jared coldly stares at him.
== Trivia ==
* The words "his senses tell him to stop" are a reference to the lyrics of a song by Alice Cooper- "Poison".