Frank couldn't breathe and took a seat in a nearby chair. Memories of Jasmine began to flood back: her laughter, her smile, her uplifting spirit—everything. The voice of the warden over the phone echoed in his ears.
"Mr. Gunn, I regret to inform you Dr. Gunn has-"
He tried to keep his expression calm, but inside he was a wreck.
This was too much, too cruel. He couldn't do this.
Frank prepared to let everyone know he wouldn't be joining them. He wasn't ready for this; he didn't know if he ever would be.
As he opened his mouth to speak, a warning appeared in front of him.
[Oathkeeper SPEX: Breaking a promise will result in the death of the user when the promise becomes irreparable. Countdown: 2 minutes.]
Frank stared at the screen blankly.
So agreeing to go was considered a promise? How cruel could it be? He was going to be forced to save the man who took his family from him?
His fingers dug into his legs almost hard enough to draw blood. What was with this situation? Even with his luck stat of zero, this just wasn't fair.
"Damn it..." he muttered, a sense of helplessness overtaking him.
Arlo continued, outlining the details of the mission.
"We'll be sending scouts first; they will help us understand the situation. The group we're deploying will consist of-"
"I-" Frank tried to speak, but he was interrupted by another pop-up from the system, reminding him he wasn't allowed to withdraw.
Tears started to form at the sides of his eyes. He suddenly stood up with his head down, hiding his expression.
"Let me know when it's time to head out," he stated emotionlessly, leaving the room before anyone had a chance to reply.
"Frank!" Elara called out, following him immediately. Something was wrong—terribly so. She had never seen him act like this before. Frank noticed he was being followed, and his pace subtly quickened, but Elara wasn't going to let him get away so easily.
"Frank! What's going on? Talk to me!" she pressed with a mix of concern and frustration.
He kept moving, not even bothering to turn around. "It's nothing, Elara, go back to the debriefing."
"No, it's clearly not nothing!" she shot back, "It's not like you to just walk out without all the details, is this about Ravenswood?
"I just can't-"
"Can't what?" she pressed, picking up speed. "Whatever it is, you know we are here for you. I am here for you. How can I help if you won't tell me what's wrong?"
"Help?" He stopped abruptly, catching her off guard. "You think you can help? This isn't some monster; this isn't a mission; this is my business, so leave it alone!"
She was surprised for a moment but quickly regained her composure. "Who asked about a mission? Who asked about a monster? What makes you think I can't hel-"
"What can you do?!" Frank snapped, almost causing Elara to fall to the floor. "So what? You're here for me? You have my back? Either way, thanks to some fucked-up, sadistic twist of fate, I'm going to have to save that piece of shit! He took everything from me, and now I'm just supposed to save his life with a smile on my face?"
Frank paused for a moment, realizing he had said too much. Still, now that he had gone this far, there was no point in stopping now. Letting out his frustration, he continued.
"I know my luck! There's no way this "Apocalypse" killed him! He's alive, and he's alive because this piece-of-shit world knows it will make me suffer! And thanks to this stupid "Oathkeeper" skill, I'm going to have to help him stay that way!" He emphasized his last point with a full-force punch into a nearby wall, creating large cracks in the concrete and drawing blood from his fingers.
Seeing him injured, she felt a knot in her throat. "Frank, please, I don't know what you're saying! Help me understand; I'm begging you." Elara's eyes were misty. The man in front of her was clearly grieving, and he wouldn't even tell her why.
Frank glanced at Elara briefly, and his shoulders slumped in surrender; he was being cruel to her, and it wasn't her fault. Besides, he had already said too much. There was no stopping it now. The feelings were coming back, and he couldn't keep them from escaping.
Unable to face her, he rested his forehead against the now broken wall, before starting from the beginning.
"She... she was my everything," he began, before he reminisced about Jasmine.
He told her about their childhood, and how they used to play together as children.
He told her about their adolescence, and how they had fallen in love over time.
He told her about Jasmine's dreams, and the wonder she instilled in his restful spirit.
He told her about their simple wedding, and the life they had built together thereafter.
He told her about the happiness on Jasmine and his faces as she held Ana for the first time.
He told her everything, speaking into existence the feelings that were in his heart.
Barely holding it together, he continued. "Jasmine believed in second chances; it's why she became a criminal psychologist. Her passion for helping people was intense, and because of that, she was one of the best."
"As you can imagine, she got promoted quickly, eventually being assigned to Ravenswood Penitentiary."
"The better she became, the worse the criminals she dealt with were. But even still, she never gave up on them, always trying to bring them back into the light."
"John was one such case. He was a convicted serial killer, one of the worst cases the police had ever seen. Even in prison, he had a habit of trying to kill his bunk-mates. Her job was simple: to try and get him to stop killing his fellow inmates."
"I-I remember how she talked about him—her greatest achievement, she called him. Somebody as vile as him was actually healing, and it was thanks to her. He was less violent, less impulsive, and actually seemed to start caring about the people around him. Shortly before she went on maternity leave, she had even asked the guards to remove his restraints. She didn't want him to be treated like an animal anymore..."
Elara kept quiet, letting Frank tell his story. Jasmine seemed like a wonderful woman, and she could tell Frank knew this. Comparing herself to Jasmine, she couldn't help but feel she came up short.
"Jasmine was gone for six months,' Frank continued. 'That was all the time she had with Ana before heading back to work. You should have seen her face; she was so excited to be returning. "Off to make the world a better place, one broken soul at a time!" she used to say."
That fateful phone call kept repeating in Frank's mind, haunting him with John's name. They had never shown him any pictures, but he could still imagine that animal's silhouette staring at him with a mocking grin.
He fell to his knees, and despite his best efforts, the tears broke through, not showing any signs of stopping.
Elara knelt down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. She didn't know what else to do, so she kept silent and comforted him the best she could.
"S-she didn't even last a day. I-I got the call around noon," Frank's tears turned into crying. There was no wailing or screaming, just silent grieving. It was the kind of crying that was forced upon you despite your best efforts.
"Th-they told me there was an incident. John was different that day. He didn't say anything to Jasmine when he walked in, and when she tried to ask him what was wrong, he stabbed her, right in the neck." Frank's already kneeling frame crumpled to the floor as his sobs intensified.
"She had trusted him! Treated him like a human! She gave him a second chance and what did he do with it?! He carved his toothbrush into a shiv and killed her with it! Why? Why?! All she ever did was try to help him, and he killed her like cattle! And now, I have to save him?! I have to be his knight in shining armor?! He took my everything from me!"
As he spoke, memories of that night came flooding back. How he had spent the rest of the evening clinging to Ana desperately, inconsolable. She had been too young to know what was going on, but seeing her father in such a state made her cry as well. They stayed like that until several hours later when his parents found them.
"Jasmine was so full of life, so full of optimism, and in an instant, she was just... gone." Frank's tears weren't showing any sign of stopping, and he buried his face in his arms, sitting on the floor motionless.
Elara didn't know what to say: she had no idea the pain he had been experiencing.
He always had seemed so strong, so domineering, like an immovable object. But just the mention of a name, no, a place had left him in such a state. She couldn't imagine how he was feeling, she didn't need to. All she knew was she cared about him, and he needed her.
Overwhelmed, she did the only thing she could think of and wrapped her arms around him.
Holding him close until he had no more tears left to cry.