Call of the Void

by SuperPsychedelic

Summary:

David cares for Felix much more than he knows he should.
If only Felix knew.
A deadly shadow stalks Felix from the dark.
If only David knew.

*Updates Monthly on Fridays*

When Felix’s final, most reckless attempt at escaping the fog fails, all hope of ever seeing his family again seems forever lost. His best friend David is also upset, but not for the reasons he thinks. A different, much more intense feeling has been growing inside David since they first met, but David knows all too well it is a feeling he can never act on. Unrequited love pains him to the point of torture. When David finally decides to ease the pain by distancing himself from Felix, someone far more sinister decides to take advantage of the gap— Ghostface, and Felix soon realizes that he has little say in the matter. Felix’s reality quickly spirals into an unspeakable nightmare as dark forces work to crush his will and possess his very soul. It isn’t long before David takes notice and leaps to the rescue despite not knowing what's wrong. Forced to fight for his very existence, Felix soon begins to question every aspect of it— his life, his family, his sexuality, his priorities— even the meaning of love itself.

Notes:

Hello and welcome!
If you couldn't tell by the expected chapters, this is gonna be a long one!
I pretty much have this story all planned out, but unlike the prequel, I will be writing, editing, and posting as I go. Release dates for chapters will be tenuous, but I hope to be somewhat consistent.
This is technically a sequel, so I will be pulling a lot of plot points from the first story, but reading it is not strictly necessary.

⚠️ Also, I will try to provide trigger warnings in the chapter headers for some of the more graphic sections, so if you're just here for the story, you will have the option to skip those parts. They will be notated by a ⚠️

If you would like to receive updates on new chapter releases or interact with me further (or obsess over hot men with me), follow my Tumblr @superpsychedelicdbd

Thanks, and hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: Desperate Measures | Part 1: Darkness

PART 1: DARKNESS

A thick, gold haze swirled and roiled inside the sealed globular boiling flask. The glasswork was stained a ripe, chemical brown, but the sticky mist was easily apparent within its confines. It glowed a sickly sweet shade of amber, radiant enough to read comfortably by its light. The vapor seethed from a pool of viscous orange slop in the bottom of the flask, bubbling thickly and occasionally jumping for the cork at the top as if wanting to escape the blue flame beneath. The smell of it was absolutely rank; like a rat had nested in a forgotten bouquet of lilies and died there, only to be rediscovered weeks later.

Driven by heat, the golden miasma rose and squeezed itself into a spiraling glass tube at the top. There, it quickly condensed against the glass into a matrix of tiny droplets, gleaming like a field of golden stars. The stars quickly grew and coalesced as more and more vapor cooled and clung to the inside of the winding glass tube, eventually joining into a single rivulet of fluorescence. Pulled along by gravity, it quickly wound its way down and down the spiral, until finally dripping out of the tube and reuniting with the other stars into a pool of liquid gold, cradled carefully by a waiting beaker.

The beaker was barely a quarter full at this point in the process. Only about thirty milliliters worth of distilled fluid had been collected in total if the degraded numbers on the side were to be believed. They needed at least fifty milliliters if they intended to do anything useful at all with the refined fluid. 

“Breathe Felix.”

Blinking back to awareness, Felix tore his eyes away from the distillation apparatus and did as he was told, immediately feeling the cobwebs in his mind abscond into the dark.

Claudette gave him a chiding, yet gentle smile. He felt a bit foolish, getting caught staring so intently at such a boring process he could do nothing about, but the anxiety squeezing his chest did not go away.

Self-consciously feeling the other’s eyes on his back, he turned to quickly gauge their dispositions.

He met Adam’s eyes first; glazed, but far from vacant. The fellow academic was almost certainly running the chemical equations for the serum in his head over and over again, no doubt attempting to identify any errors or details they had missed.

David stood firmly in the middle. Arms crossed. Eyes hard. Tense. The man instantly caught his gaze and threatened to keep it there if Felix wasn’t careful. He didn't intend to be drawn into another conversation admonishing his decisions, so he quickly moved on.

Dwight loitered to the side, weight centered over one locked knee, looking about as nervous as Felix felt. He stared absently at the distillation process, chewing away at his nails, unaware of his surroundings. More than likely, he was worrying about all the possible outcomes of this attempt and what it would mean for the rest of the group.

This would be their last shot after all.

He and Claudette, as well as many other survivors had read and reread Vigo’s Journal over and over again, scouring its pages for any and all insights into the serum the mysterious man had been developing. They had his entire lab, all his notes, all his projects, every scribble, and every experiment thoroughly notated, but one very crucial bit of information was missing— the final formula.

The very last page of the journal had been ripped out, and Felix was sure it held the correct process for creating a serum that would allow someone to escape the clutches of the Entity.

What had borne from that missing information was a long and tedious process of trial and error, breakthroughs, failures, speculations, theories— all of it had led them to this moment.

And now, currently sitting on the table before him, scattered about in various ancient flasks and beakers and vials, was the last of the Pustula Nectar that had been collected from the last Blight event.

And it had been acquired at great cost.

Felix shivered, not wanting to reminisce about their first attempt to gather nectar from the Pustula Plants. Nightmares still plagued him despite how hard he’d worked to dispel the memory. It made his spine crawl whenever it managed to lever its way into his mind.

He wondered how David had managed to mentally recover from the incident so quickly, despite suffering the worst of it in his opinion. For a while there, Felix had trouble even looking at David without immediately being reminded how those things…

The burn of rising bile in his throat put a stop to that mental recall, and Felix did his best to rebuild the wall that held that imagery at bay. So many areas of his mind had been partitioned away at this point that he feared one day running out of space. He supposed the correct medical terminology for that condition was insanity.

Somehow he didn't think David had that problem. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that the man had been here far longer than him and suffered far more torture than any one mind had a right to experience in a single lifetime.

Of course, every single one of the survivors had all suffered immensely, impossibly so, yet, the group had persisted. Sometimes it was difficult to keep spirits up, but the group always seemed to manage.

Felix himself had only stumbled his way into that accursed black fog what only felt like a month or so ago, yet he felt the heavy burden of trauma already beginning to suffocate him. Even now he felt his despair and desperation cresting at the lip of the overfull chalice that was his mind. Developing the serum had been the one thing mooring him to hope throughout the endless torture, and he feared for his sanity if he failed today.

David though… David was as obstinate as granite. He sneered in the face of death and raged even in the aftermath of evisceration. His death was of no consequence to him. What did concern the Mancunian, however, was the wellbeing of those he considered to be his closest friends. The gruff and stalwart man tried to be coy about it, but it was obvious that failing to protect his friends was what truly killed him. Felix saw it every time the man was late for a body block or botched a hook save. He also saw it every time David quietly sat beside him as Felix worked through his panic attacks or broke down at the sheer, overwhelming despair of it all.

It hadn’t always been like that though.

When Felix had first found his way to the campfire, it hadn’t exactly been a warm welcome. For reasons he hadn't fully understood, most of the group had avoided him at the beginning while some had been outright hostile toward him, David being the worst. The man would either completely ignore him or treat him like a stray dog, and his bulky, imposing figure had made it all the more intimidating.

It wasn’t until David himself later explained his behavior that Felix understood.

Apparently, not every doe-eyed, disoriented mortal who wandered their way into the survivor’s camp would become a permanent fixture of the group. Too often, those all too gentle souls would be taken back into the unholy dark before they could even be considered an acquaintance. David and the group had thought that Felix, being as reserved and unassuming as he was, would just be the next casualty in a revolving door of newcomers.

What they hadn’t counted on, however, was his unwavering determination to escape, and Felix had persisted against every odd and expectation.

Of course, it still stung, being treated like an outcast in such a newly horrific situation, and seemingly without reason, but Felix was no stranger to being marked as a pariah. He wore the label proudly, just as he’d done in the past, but admittedly, it would have been nice to have another shoulder to cry on other than Claudette’s.

Now though, seeing how ferociously protective David was of those closest to him, Felix could see why someone of his disposition was so selfish with his empathy. Caring so deeply for others in such an inhospitable environment had the possibility of catastrophically backfiring, and being cautious about who he cared about was as much about self-preservation than it was about having good allies.

It had ultimately taken a terrible and tragic twist of fate for David to finally warm up to him, but once he had, it was like being overshadowed by a fiercely loyal Dobermann— and he followed Felix around like one too. The man accompanied him almost everywhere; into Trials, at his desk while he worked, at the campfire, and even seemed to get a kind of separation anxiety whenever they were apart for too long. At first, it was quite nice to finally have a friend to brave the darkness with— someone who watched his back, listened to his lamentations, and supported his endeavors, but sometimes, it was a bit much. 

He’d noticed right away that David had latched onto him hard, and moreso than anyone else in the group he’d been friends with previously, and Felix suspected it had something to do with his own brush with the Entity in the Forest of Passage.

“Alright, that looks to be enough,” Claudette said, turning off the burner and rousing Felix from his contemplations. The shifting of weight and lethargic inhales from behind told him that her voice had roused them as well.

The decrepit beaker now measured just below fifty milliliters. Once the remaining vapor condensed inside the cooling spiral, there would be enough.

Claudette next reached for the extracted auric enzymes sitting nearby. They had previously separated it from the other harmful mutagenic enzymes and had left it steadily filtering in the background through various special fabrics and paper filters. She swirled the dissolved enzyme in its flask, checking for consistency and graininess. After a moment of observation, she seemed content with its appearance. She knowingly moved the glassware close enough for him to confirm her assessment. It was usually correct, but he needed to see for himself.

Sure enough, the enzyme solution was clean and faintly glowing topaz orange, just as it should be.

Felix examined the distilled nectar again. It measured exactly at fifty milliliters. He removed it from the apparatus and examined it just as closely. Like always, it was about as viscid as syrup, but this time, it was as radiantly gold as liquid sunshine.

Now came the final step; recombining the auric enzyme solution with the refined nectar in the appropriate proportions.

Claudette skillfully poured the enzyme into another beaker without it splashing at all, filling it to the line indicating twenty milliliters. It was probably the most accurate twenty milliliters she’d ever measured in her life without the help of a computer.

Felix placed his beaker on the counter next to hers, and prepared to pour the measured enzyme into the refined nectar. 

The glassware in his hand hovered precariously over the glowing liquid, ready to recombine and form a new compound.

Felix glanced one final time to his lab partner, who nodded reassuringly.

A final, steadying breath, a tilt of the wrist, and the two chemicals were now one. The mixture hissed and bubbled for only a moment before resolving itself with a brilliant aureate flash. 

What remained was liquid gold.

At least, that was what Felix hoped he had.

He reached for the stand holding the hypodermic needles and pulled one off the rack. The decrepit things seemed just as ancient as the glassware. If he had to guess, they were most likely from the early twentieth century. They were large and metallic with a wicked needle several times in diameter larger than the modern standard.

He placed the tip in the serum, pulled up on the plunger, and the syrupy substance began to pool inside the glass vial.

When they first started this project, Felix hadn’t known much about chemistry. He had a great breadth of knowledge, but his area of expertise was in architecture. Fortunately for him, there was someone in the group who was adept in the chemical sciences; Claudette. Together, they had attempted to extrapolate the process from what information of Vigo's was available, but nothing they'd made had even come close. All of it had been patently useless— detrimental even. 

The least offensive concoction had done nothing but give the user an uncomfortable, but admittedly effective, high. It gave an odd chilling effect, and everything else had been electrifyingly dazzling. Lights sparkled like gemstones and the mere act of touch made one dizzy with overstimulation. Overall it was not a useful nor pleasant experience, so the batch had been disposed of.

Other times their newly created serum would induce hallucinations, paralysis, aneurysms, and all manner of terrible side effects. One particularly potent batch had induced a massive heart attack that quickly resulted in complete cardiac arrest. Needless to say, they did not have the means to resuscitate the subject.

And how did he know all of this?

Well, it wasn’t like they had any guinea pigs running about.

However… 

Like everyone else in this realm, Felix seemed to be immortally undying and he’d been the one to spearhead this whole endeavor to begin with, so…

Who better to test it than himself?

Of course, it had taken much convincing, first of himself and then the others— much, much more convincing…

But David— his living shield, his sentient shadow— had needed the majority of it.

At first, the man had outright refused, and at one point, even threatened to obstruct the entire experiment. That hadn’t gone over well with Adam and Dwight of course, so when that didn’t work, he’d offered to try and catch crows, and on and on to no avail. He’d even offered to test the serums in Felix’s stead, but Felix refused of course.

Did he enjoy injecting strange compounds into his arm and waiting to see if he’d end up seizing on the lab floor and foaming at the mouth until brain death? Of course not, but Felix needed to be the one to test them. In the grand scheme of things, it was less wasteful and— scheiß, what if it worked?! Whoever tested it would be free and clear and he’d still be stuck here. What if he couldn’t replicate it? What if something in the compounds spontaneously changed? What if?

He just couldn’t take that chance.

Felix held the fully engorged syringe aloft and admired it once more.

It looked perfect. How could this final attempt of theirs not be the correct one? The poetry of it all was simply too great; the culmination of all their work leading to one final hail-mary moment of truth?

It had to work.

With great care, Felix lay the syringe down on the table and began to roll up his sleeve.

And just in that moment, as predictable as an overworld sunrise, David stepped forward and beseeched caution.

“Felix, maybe I should be the one ta—”

“No.”

“I’m jus’ saying, what if this one causes mutat—”

“I said no, David. Now stop.”

Finally the Brit bit his tongue and stepped back. Still, he gave the impression of a tightly coiled spring.

In the back of his mind, he knew what David was alluding to. They’d found a few grotesquely mutated… things… well, they had probably been animals at some point, but it was obvious that Vigo or whoever else had occupied the lab before them had managed to capture some test subjects to experiment with, and the results hadn’t been pretty. However, Felix was confident that these experiments had probably happened with raw nectar and not with carefully refined serum, like theirs, so he saw no reason to count mutations as a possible risk.

Especially not now.

With the quick deftness of familiarity, Felix tied the rubber tubing around his left arm, patted at the inner crook of his elbow, and quickly found his favored vein. It was a pronounced tributary of blue flowing rhythmically beneath his pallid flesh.

He aimed the hefty needle at his arm, but found it hard to keep it steady. Backing off a moment, Felix realized his heart was thrumming at a pace faster than a galloping stallion. He steadied himself and focused on taking several slow, deep breaths. It was the excitement getting to him, surely.

“I will start with fifteen CC’s since this batch had a higher concentration of auric enzymes,” he said offhandedly.

It was their standard developed procedure; fifteen for high potency tests and twenty for lower, so he might as well not have said anything at all, but saying it had made him feel a modicum more in control than he had before, so announcing it had been worthwhile.

The quavering needle had finally calmed and his tourniqueted arm was beginning to grow sore, so Felix decided to just get on with it.

A quick pinch. The needle dove true. He compressed the plunger and deposited exactly the prescribed amount into the tiny inlet, tensing as numb cold radiated up his arm and dissipated at his center.

When it was finished, he set aside the remaining serum, undid the tourniquet, and pressed a hand to the pinprick leaking gold-tinged fluid from his arm.

Swallowing thickly, Felix looked to each of his companions that he'd previously been trying to ignore. Each face watched him with varying degrees of anxiety, hope, and dread.

David appeared utterly wounded. Felix couldn't help but look away.

Thirty seconds passed.

Nothing.

A minute.

Still, he felt nothing.

The air was thick with tension.

He stared at his hands. Surely something should have happened by now? A blurring of realities as he slipped from one world to the other? A sensation of passing neatly through time and space?

One minute and thirty seconds.

The faces around him had begun to relax, some into disappointment, some into confusion, and one British one in particular… complete and utter relief. That one irked him immensely.

Felix frowned, acutely confused.

“I don’t understand, something should have—”

“Felix!” Claudette gasped.

For a moment Felix’s heart leapt with hope. Had she seen something?

She pointed at his face. “You’re bleeding!”

“What?”

He swiped at his nose and saw that his hand came away bright red. All of a sudden, everything felt terribly, terribly wrong.  

A fountain of blood erupted from his mouth and slopped thickly at his feet. His body jerked violently. Hands and knees hit the floor hard, and hot fire radiated inside all of his joints. Every muscle then seized at once, wrenching him into a contorted mess as another explosion of gold-tinged blood burst from his gullet and onto the lab floor.

A flurry of panicked voices and frantic activity surrounded him. He felt someone at his side trying to help, but could not discern them; his eyes had rolled themselves to the back of his skull and refused to reveal the horror of his reality.

He felt himself jerk again. An audible pop in his shoulder and more hot pain. Dislocated. Someone was calling to him, but he couldn’t make sense of the words. They sounded so far away and the waves were just so loud.

Waves? Yes, the ocean waves. The Indian coast. That's where he was. Hot sand between his toes and endless turquoise waters.

In the heat shimmer rising from the tepid ocean, an island resolved itself in the distance. Dyer Island. It somehow felt significant, but he couldn’t recall why. Turning back toward the sands of the tropical beach, he felt his whole being falter at what he was now seeing, or rather, who.

Christine was there— his kindred spirit and bride-to-be— walking slowly away from him. Her lily-white shawl flowed daintily in the salty breeze as she strolled amidst the waves gently lapping at the shore.

His heart raced in his chest upon seeing her, except… it didn’t. Somehow he couldn’t feel his heartbeat. No matter. Christine was just over there and all he had to do was get her attention. She'd turn and look at him and then everything would be okay.

Felix opened his mouth to call to her, but found that impossible as well. Something was wrong here.

The sky suddenly turned to an empty black, devoid of stars. A dark fog rolled in after it like a cavalry charge. Christine was still there, but steadily moving further and further away.

He wanted to run toward her, yell her name, just somehow will her to turn around! Still, he could not do any of these things.

Instead, he was falling away from her, falling endlessly into a black abyss until her flowing white shawl was a tiny dot, a tiny speck, and then… 

Nothing.

— — — 

Everywhere was blood.

On his hands, his clothes, the floor— everywhere .

Felix’s blood.

Warm and tacky on his skin.

Like everything was made from it— even the air. The thick, coppery tang of it filled his sinuses and made the world spin.

David had tried to do… do something.

He remembered immediately dropping to the floor, trying to steady the man as his body had convulsed, got him on his side to keep him from choking on all the… fuck, how had their been so much blood? It was like all the man's insides had liquefied. He’d never seen anything like that before.

He stared at his reddened fingers. Between them was the gore-coated tangle of twisted limbs and clothing that had once been Felix, now, completely still.

Someone was tugging at his elbow. He flinched, then forced himself to relax and look up at whoever was trying to help him.

Adam met his gaze, looking simultaneously disturbed and apologetic.

Not knowing what else to do, David accepted the help. With difficulty, Adam lifted him out of the pool of rapidly cooling and congealing blood he’d been kneeling in.

Felix’s blood.

This was far from the first time he’d seen it, of course; the spilling of blood was nothing new here, but this was different. Normally, there wasn't nearly this much, but also, he was usually able to do something about it or prevent it entirely; a split-second distraction, a quick blind with a flashlight, something. 

Except he had tried hadn’t he?

Every step of the way he’d tried to stop this madness, but all of his strength had meant nothing in the face of Felix’s determination to uselessly and repeatedly torture himself. He’d been skeptical from the beginning that this fucked up science experiment with that fucking nectar would never amount to anything, especially after witnessing firsthand what it could do, but his protests had been dismissed and sidestepped every step of the way.

Watching Felix maim and traumatize himself after David had so tirelessly worked to protect him had been its own special kind of torture, but never had all those horrible experiments turned out like this.

This was just… this was…. 

“What the fuck, ” he finally said, blanching at the taste of metal on his lips.

Adam mumbled his agreement.

David’s brain finally decided to recognize Claudette standing nearby, completely stunned. Her stool had tumbled to the floor, forgotten. In her hand was a section of gauze. It hovered over her mouth, trembling noticeably.

“I– I th- thought the concentration would b- be safe. I checked it twice… I let him inject h- himself, I—”

Dwight seemed to appear from nowhere to quell Claudette’s rising panic. David’s short-circuiting brain had completely removed the man from the situation, but now Dwight was finally stepping back in to take charge.

“No, no Claud, don’t put that on yourself. It’s not your fault. Felix knew the risks working with this stuff, and he's the one who made the decision to test the serum. This isn’t anyone’s fault.”

“B- but I’m the one who—”

Dwight stepped toward her with a gentle, pleading authority. “Claud stop. Please. Now look at me.”

The botanist’s eyes were glistening with moisture, ready to spill over with tears at the slightest provocation. Her gaze locked onto Dwight’s.

“This is not your fault. Okay?”

A coil of anger suddenly curled inside David’s chest. Of fucking course this was her fault. It was all of their faults. They’d all been so heavily seduced by the sliver of a possibility to escape that they’d thrown all caution and ethics to the wind— and look where that had gotten them!

David let his lips curl into a disgusted snarl but didn’t let his fury go any further than that. Blowing up at the others wouldn't solve anything. What’s done was done, and there was no remaining nectar to experiment with anyways. It was over.

Claudette finally seemed to accept Dwight’s placating excuses with a nod and let herself be ushered away by him.

Before the two got too far, Dwight turned to address him and Adam.

“You two should go take care of yourselves. We’ll talk about this later.”

And with that, the two most veteran survivors hurried off into the Forest of Passage, leaving them standing there with Felix’s mangled body. The orange embers of consumption were only just beginning to hover around the corpse, meaning the Entity was already in the process of reclaiming it. It also meant that the Entity would be spitting Felix back out soon, and that meant that David would be able to talk to the man again.

Yes, he would be talking to him.

Not yelling, not screaming…

Talking.

He pushed past Adam without a word and stormed out of the lab. Behind him, he heard the last survivor grumble markedly to himself. David could not even begin to care what the egghead thought about him.

Down the shallow incline of the small hill that the lab was sat upon, he was met with the treeline. He passed into the so-called no man’s land without hesitation, willing it to take him back to the survivor camp.

Yes, he would have some words for Felix once he got his hands on him again…

Notes:

A bit of exposition here, but I hope it was entertaining.
Leave a comment letting me know what you think!
Hope you enjoyed this first chapter. Many more to come!

Like always, constructive criticism is welcome! And if I lose you at any point during this story, I'd love to know why so I can do better in the future. Thanks, hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 2: Severed

Felix felt like he was suffocating; drowning in a warm sea of darkness. It spread out in every direction endlessly, but he knew, somehow, that there was a surface. Like a clumsy newborn, he clawed upward toward the air. Movement was difficult and slow, like the dark was weighing heavily on all his limbs, dragging him down into the gloomy depths. He fought against it, dragging himself painfully upward until finally, he broke the surface of his unconsciousness with a gasp.

“Christine?!”

More darkness.

Black fog.

Except, this darkness was not as pervasive.

There were pinpricks of light in the dark this time, and… a canopy of oak leaves, and the perpetually swollen moon. He was looking at the sky.

He turned his head and saw an endless forest. Raven-dark fog crept alongside the shins of the trees like a meandering predator. The Forest of Passage. A realm between realms where survivors rose from their graves, lost artifacts could be found, and where dark, unknowable things stalked the shadows. It was a place he had come to know well— all of them had.

A chill roved over his skin. He curled up on his side, feeling the desperation he’d tried so hard to stave off returning with a merciless ferocity.

He’d failed.

Not just himself, but everyone— including the family he’d abandoned in the overworld. Christine, and their unborn son. He’d sworn he would be there for the child no matter what, that he’d be the father he never got to have, that things would be different for his son. He’d promised damnit .

Felix pulled at his thick, blonde hair until his scalp burned with pinpricks of pain.

“GOTTVERDAMMT!”

Suddenly feeling all of the fight leave his body, Felix flopped boneless onto his back and stared at the sky again. It hadn’t changed since he’d last looked at it. It almost never did, barring one exception. 

Moisture began to gather at the corners of his eyes and run down the sides of his cheeks.

Scheiße, he’d really thought he’d had it.

When he’d first stumbled onto that lab, Felix thought it had been a sign that he didn’t belong here— that he would be the one to crack the Entity’s code and lead the survivors out of hell like Orpheus delivering his beloved Eurydice from the clutches of the underworld.

Turns out, he and Orpheus were more alike than he had ever wanted to imagine.

He’d wanted to believe he was smart. Different. That he could succeed like he had so many other times in his life, but he’d been wrong, so very wrong…

Felix thought about laying here like this forever, resigning himself to his fate, until he remembered that the Trials would go on no matter what. The Entity would call on him again eventually, no matter what he was doing… 

But what if he refused to participate? 

Well, first he imagined that the others would be very upset with him for bringing them down with him, and next, he didn’t think the Entity would tolerate it. It would probably see his noncompliance as an excuse, or perhaps, an opportunity— a chance to dispose of him.

He’d already been on that precipice once.

After the… incident, when he and David had first tried to collect the nectar, Felix had been so broken, so beaten down, that he’d mentally checked out and given up completely. 

He remembered the feeling of the Entity rooting around in his brain— how close this cosmically unimaginable being had been to his very soul. It had felt like spiders creeping and scuttling under his skin and in his skull, or a vulture picking at his flesh. The visceral invasion of his mind had almost been as bad as the pustula plants, but at the time, he hadn’t cared in the slightest. All he’d wanted was to stop existing, to stop having to feel the pain, the despair, the loss… He’d been prepared to let the Entity take him wherever it wanted, until somehow, David had stopped it. Felix never understood how or why, but he had.

David had always maintained that Felix had been the one to defy the Entity that day, but he could never gather the courage to admit that, in that moment, he’d completely given up, and David had saved him from the Entity. He feared the look of utter disappointment that would surely be directed at him if he ever admitted it.

Felix sighed. 

As much as nonexistence appealed to him, he didn’t think he could go through that again. He hated to admit it, but there was still this nonsensical, foolish hope within him despite everything he’d been through.

That damned human instinct to survive.

Another sigh, and finally, he’d garnered enough will to pull himself upright.

He still wanted to sulk alone for a while longer, but this liminal borderland was not the safest place to lay about.

Felix dragged himself to his feet and set off towards the next best place that could set his mind at ease.

— — — 

David’s skin tingled with unease.

He’d kept rubbing at it while he walked, trying to polish away the sticky, tacky layer of red that had adhered itself to his skin. Of course he ought to know better than to try— blood was not an easy thing to remove. This time though, he couldn’t help but scrub at it. Once or twice, David thought he’d seen the blood glow ever so faintly that sickening shade of orange-yellow, and then he’d imagine it somehow leaching into his skin. He didn’t think he felt sick, and he hadn’t started spontaneously bleeding from his eyes or anything, but then again, Felix had been fine for a while, hadn’t he?

He shook the intrusive thoughts from his mind and dismissed them.

The serum had to be directly injected into the bloodstream for it to do anything. A person needed to actively be a complete fucking tosser to turn himself into a goddamn blood balloon. Fucking idiot bellend. He was going to wring that arshole’s pretty little neck for making him watch that utterly horrid bullshite.

But before all that, he had to get this shit off of him, and the best place to do that was at the brook; a languidly flowing stream of water that came from nowhere and went nowhere.

David figured it had been some kind of supernatural glitch, because why the hell would the Entity ever make their pitiful existence any less miserable? Nevertheless, he didn’t want to question it too much; having clean, running water was one of the most blessed things in the entire realm, and David didn’t want to be the one who managed to get it taken away from them by complaining about it.

Finally the woods parted, and David was now entering the survivor camp. The trek felt like it had taken a bit longer than usual. Sometimes, the Forest would be a bit fickle about when it would allow someone to get where they wanted to go, and unfortunately, there was nothing the traveler could do about it. It was one of the many risks of trying to brave the fog beyond the survivor camp, but it was an inconvenience all inhabitants eventually grew tolerant of.

A few survivors were sitting around the fire-not-fire, trying to absorb its meager warmth and gabbing amongst themselves like chattering crows. He tried to keep to the edge of the clearing to avoid catching their notice, but when he saw Meg’s head perk up, he knew he’d failed immediately.

“Oh shit! I guess the experiment didn’t go so well.”

David didn’t usually mind bantering with the girl but this was not one of those times. He stalked forward along his predetermined path, intent on ignoring her.

“Yeeeep… looks like it. Man, who’d have imagined messing with that shit would backfire?”

She cackled loudly, as did Ace and Nea. The others just seemed depressed.

David grumbled to himself, feeling the anger bubbling up in his chest again, but not because Meg was out of line. No, he was mad because she was fucking right.

Fuming, he continued to storm his way past them. The stream and its babbling waters were almost within earshot. Soon, he’d be able to wash away this atrocious debacle and get back to worrying about relatively normal shit, like trying not to get chainsawed in half.

He turned the corner on the small thicket of trees that sheltered the little brook, and froze.

David made an immediate about-face, fully intending to sod off, but once again, he was caught.

“David?”

His teeth creaked under the stress of his working jaw.

Fuck it. He’d come here to get clean and that was what he was going to do.

He turned again, facing Felix head on with a deadly stare. The architect had been lazing at the water’s edge, but now sat ramrod straight, eyes wide and mouth falling open with shock.

“David, are you–?!”

“ Shut the fuck up ,” David snarled, charging past him and into the stream, which immediately turned pink.

Still making a point of ignoring the German, he waded in up to his waist and began to scrub away Felix’s blood with his hands. Pink quickly turned to red as thick, sanguine rivulets and globs of gore were carried away by the current. Finally, he dunked his head in, scrubbing at his face and hair until the water ran clear. His normally cream-colored button up was dyed a soft shade of pink and there was still some maroon colored gunk under his nails and in his cuticles, but decided he was clean enough.

He trudged out of the water and stood sopping wet before the still-shocked man sitting on the ground.

“What the fuck was that shite back there,” he said, spraying water with every emphatic syllable.

The blonde flinched, then stuttered nonsense, like he’d forgotten how to speak both English and German.

“Why the fuck did the serum turn you into a goddamn blood geyser?!”

Finally, the man seemed to find his voice. “I– I don’t.. The enzyme concentration must have been too high. I don’t—”

“ Too high was it?!” David screamed, throwing his arms out and leaning forward to emphasize his incredulity. Pink droplets flung about in every direction. Felix flinched as several landed on him. "Is that all you can fuckin say after you literally just vomited all of your organs onto me?!"

"I'm sorry, I—"

"No you're fucking not. You said you’re sorry every goddamn time this shite went bad, but you went right back at it every damn time!"

"Because it had to be done!"

“Fuck you it had to be done! You didn’t have to go and test it on yourself like an obsessed madman! There are crows and rats out there we could have used instead!”

Felix dismissively shook his head, like he was talking to a child who’d just suggested something silly, “There wasn’t enough nectar for us to just waste on tests.”

The air exploded out from David’s chest at the sheer audacity on display before him. “A waste?! So you’re just okay with dying over and over again in fucked up new ways?! Would you like for me to describe in detail what just happened to you in that lab?!”

Felix winced ever so subtly at that, but David still caught it.

“Look, it’s not like I enjoy injecting myself with untested substances!” Felix explained, clearly growing frustrated, “But I’m just as undying as everyone else here. The risk was negligible. Anyone else could have done it, but this was my project. The responsibility to test the serum was mine and mine alone.”

“Negligible?! You don’t fucking know that! For all you know, that serum could have mutated you into something like that fucking Blighted monstrosity running around out there! Or even better, the Entity might decide to just not spit you back out at all! You ever think of that?!”

Felix sighed like this serious line of questioning exhausted him, “And yet it didn’t— Why are you so bothered by this, David? Is this really so different from what happens in the Trials?”

David balked at the unexpectedly direct question. He paced and huffed but could not formulate a logical rebuttal other than ‘it just did’.

When he didn't answer, Felix continued on, “I’m sorry if I upset you, but it had to—”

“—had to be done. Yea, yea I heard you the first bloody time,” David said, flapping his hand dismissively, still pacing along the waterside.

Felix’s frown turned into a grievous glower, and David retreated as the man suddenly jumped to his feet. “Are you seriously this selfish? I was trying to get us all out of here, get us all back to the people we left behind! That I left behind! I have to get back to my family! No matter the cost, no matter how much of my own blood I have to spill, I will not abandon them! Can't you understand that?!"

David winced like he’d been slapped. All the anger and repudiation that he’d been harboring had suddenly been replaced by a profound hurt. It wasn’t just the accusation of his selfishness, however.

Felix had mentioned his girlfriend and kid several times before, and in several instances, David had even used them to help motivate Felix. However, as time passed, and the more he'd gotten to know the man, the more their mention had become an icy reminder that he never quite knew how to process. All he knew was that something inside him stung terribly whenever they came up. Today, it hurt like a stake driven directly into his heart, and he felt the pain welling to the surface like blood.

The only thing he could think to do was cauterize it.

“You know what?” David said with deadly calm, “This whole thing was probably just bullshite from the beginning. The nectar, the serum, all of it —and I was dumb enough to blindly follow along. You were just so deep into it, so fucking obsessed with needing to prove yourself right so bad, that you just convinced yourself the serum was the way out! Because all that suffering and sacrifice had to be for something, right? Not just from testing the serum but before that too! It had to work or else we were both… eviscerated in that fucking pit for nothing! You couldn't let it go, so you just kept dragging it out, with me and everyone else getting dragged behind you. All for what?! NOTHING!"

David realized he had gotten so close he had been practically screaming spittle in the man’s face. He took a step back. Felix’s expression had become carefully stoic but his limbs were faintly trembling with… Fear? Hatred? He couldn’t tell. 

David’s guts twisted as his brain processed what had come out of his mouth, but he maintained his ire. The words had been said and his pride wouldn’t allow him to take them back.

“Are you done?” Felix ground out.

“Yea and you don’t even have to say it. I’m out,” He said, brushing past Felix and maintaining his expressionless face with great effort.

His wet trainers squelched in the grass as he tramped away, making his exit rather undignified, but he honestly couldn’t be arsed. His mind was focused on making his exit into the endless oblivion of the forest.

He did not look back.

When the continuous murmur of the brook had finally died away to silence, David finally let his tightly held facade crumble away.

He managed to keep the pressure rising in his throat at bay, but the moisture that had been gathering in his eyes finally rolled over his cheeks. He wiped the tears away fast, like erasing their existence could take away the emotion that was welling up within him.

His chest clenched with intangible pain and guilt at what he’d said and how he’d said it. 

Why had he done that?

All he’d really wanted to do was just try to get the man to understand that watching him die horrifically like that over and over again for seemingly no reason was incredibly upsetting, but then, it hadn’t quite come out like that, had it? Instead, he’d let his emotions get the better of him. David, like the stupid, brutish hothead that he was, had gone and torn the man down after he’d, what, failed at trying to help them all escape? Failed at getting back to his family?

What the hell was wrong with him?

David sighed, starting to hate himself.

Drunk with stifled emotions, he stumbled aimlessly into the Forest, letting it take him wherever it willed.

— — —

Felix stood stock-still as David trudged away into the woods behind him, listening as his heavy footfalls dissolved into the muted bubbling of flowing water.

He waited a while longer to make sure the man had truly left, then released the tremulous breath he'd been holding onto. Feeling his heart thumping heavily against its cage, he held his hand out and saw that it was shaking. He balled it into a fist and held it against his thigh to get it to stop. Concentrating on the tranquil bubbling of the water, he took in a deep breath in an attempt to ease his nerves.

God, David hadn't spoken to him like that since before they'd become friends, and Felix had forgotten how intimidating the man could be when he wanted to.

Hand still trembling at his side and chest tight with tension, he took in another deep, steadying breath to try and calm himself again.

Felix couldn’t understand why David was so upset with him. Surely he realized what was at stake? His family was out there without him. Some pain and suffering was worth it if it meant they could escape this wretched place. He knew the serum was the way out, and those tests had to be done.

However, Felix could admit that some of the tests had certainly been grisly; that last one moreso than the others, if David’s alarming appearance had been anything to go by. He felt bad about putting David through that, undoubtedly, and could understand how he could be upset, but it hadn’t all been for nothing. David was wrong about that.

Felix sucked in another lungful of air, but only felt the tension squeezing his chest clamp down tighter.

It hadn’t all been for nothing. The Trials, that pit of horrors, the tests; all that suffering had been purposeful. He’d learned things. There was still a chance to work out an escape, there was… he could…

His pulse quickened in his ears, and he tried breathing while focusing on the sounds of the brook this time.

The nectar was gone, the serum was a bust, and now, David was gone too.

Breathe in. Hold. Focus on the water. Out.

He had nothing.

In. Out.

He was alone.

Felix suddenly found himself hyperventilating. A broken sob suddenly wrenched its way out of his chest and he faltered.

God, David was right!

His sacrifices, his work, his anguish, his self-immolation… It was all for nothing!

Less than nothing, now that David was gone. His closest friend in the fog— the man who’d been at his side every step of the way, pushing him forward through abject horrors and bottomless despondency— who’d carried him from the jaws of nonexistence… David had been there.

Until now.

Felix had pushed him away, and now, he was deservedly alone.

His failure was complete.

Felix felt the sorrow rush in on him like a flood, and his face fell into his hands. The dark waters of his mind roiled and raged, trying to drown him, but somehow, he managed to keep his head above the torrent.

He pulled his hands away and saw that they were wet. His face felt hot and grimy. He was a mess.

Pitifully, Felix dragged himself to the water’s edge. He kneeled over it, gathering the pleasantly chill water in his cupped hands and splashing it on his face. The cold seemed to instantly cauterize his emotional bleeding. He splashed more over his flushed skin until he felt refreshed, and finally scooped some of it into his mouth and gulped it down. The frigid water settled in his core, cooling his roiling anguish.

He breathed deeply with the relief of it.

By chance, he caught the barest wisp of an oddly out of place scent and he winced at the unexpected nature of it. It was flowery and sweet with the slightest hint of pungent musk that made his nose wrinkle.

He carefully eyed his moonlit surroundings, searching for whatever could have produced such a unique fragrance, but everything around him consisted only of trees and simple foliage. No flowering plants or herbs, nothing even remotely capable of producing the scent. Most of the flowers that did exist here could only be foraged deep in the woods; sweet williams, primroses, amaranth… However, most of those were only faintly fragrant or just had vague, delicate scents.

By now, the fragrance had quickly faded into transience and Felix dismissed it as a trick of his overtaxed mind. Once again, his gaze fell to the babbling waters of the brook, seeking its calm.

Instead, he found only dread.

Black fog, thick and liquid, was settling around him, beckoning him into yet another gruesome ordeal.

There would be no rest for the wicked.

Notes:

Although I am a slow, over-analyzing writer, this chapter was a bit more delayed than I would have liked. As I was working ahead, I realized I needed to do some rewrites to strengthen the emotional core of the story, but I think it was worthwhile. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think :)

Chapter 3: Hello Felix

Notes:

Posting this one a bit early because I really like it. Hope you do too.

⚠️ Spoiler trigger warnings in the end notes. ⚠️

The dilapidated halls of the hospital stretched out in every direction. The bare walls seemed to echo endlessly with the nightmares of patients long dead and gone, and the peeling paint, crumbling tile, and sagging wallpaper was like a failed attempt to hide its ghosts. The dead peeked out from beneath the curdled decorations and wailed their residual lamentations into the cold, sterile air, wishing their suffering to be more than a forgotten memory.

Cold light from old fluorescent lamps swinging overhead flickered onto the ground before Felix, erratically lighting his way. It was as if those same ghosts in the walls were trying to lead the living away from their own grisly fate. 

Apprehension settled deep in his gut as he combed the besmirched halls for one of the incongruous generators that was sure to be around one of these corners… 

This macabre maze of medical horrors was one of the most disturbing locations Felix had yet encountered in the realm. The effect it had on him never seemed to wane no matter how many times the Entity dragged him to this empty mausoleum of malpractice. The faded but near-constant scent of disinfectant underlying everything made it all the more unpleasant. It always triggered some of his worst memories visiting the doctor’s office. Of course, he now had much worse memories to replace those, but those older ones still retained their latent, troubling effect on him.

He wandered into a room with several sick beds, thankfully empty, and a broken shower that drizzled carelessly onto smashed tile. In the corner sat one of the enigmatic generators. Felix puffed out a portion of his tension and immediately set to work repairing it. The faster they could repair these, the faster he could leave this horrible place.

The motions had become second-nature at this point. Pop a gear back into place there, twist together these wires here… It left his mind free to wander.

David was really done with him, wasn’t he? His one real friend in this place was probably gone for good, all because of him. Felix had dragged him through hell and given him false hope, only to have it literally explode in a shower of blood in his face.

Thinking back, Felix couldn’t ever recall seeing him so livid before. In their next Trial together, if David decided to leave him on a hook, well, he wouldn’t be surprised.

The Brit’s harsh words echoed in his head again, about how it had all been for nothing, and Felix could see how that was true, despite how much it hurt to hear.

However, he still couldn’t agree that the serum was a farce. He’d been confident— was still confident— that it was the key to escaping this realm. Everything he'd seen and read, both in this life and the one he'd left behind, seemed to suggest this. If not, then why else would the Entity have abducted him in the first place? It made too much sense to him.

The argument hadn’t even started out like that though. David had suddenly pulled that from nowhere. Of course, maybe he’d been keeping that thought to himself until it finally came out in a furious explosion of emotion, but his initial contention had been about something else.

Felix thought about the entire conversation from the beginning. He recalled exactly what David had said to him, about how he’d been so fixated on the risks of testing the serum on himself, and the man’s face suddenly flashed in his mind— not red with fury, like he’d last seen, but distraught and pained.

A revelatory blade of sorrow suddenly lanced its way through Felix’s chest.

The last time he’d seen that expression was just before he’d stabbed himself with the syringe, and every other time he’d previously tested the serum. Every time Felix had dosed himself with whatever new poison they’d brewed that day, he’d cast a glance at David. Every time, he’d seen that same look of devastation and ignored it.

He knew how much the man cared for his wellbeing simply by how often David put his own body between him and a swinging axe. He’d known, yet he’d kept going, all the while ignoring David’s concerns and protestations for his own safety, and brushing them off as something silly and unnecessary. His fixation on the success of the serum had been so great, so myopic, he’d ignored how his actions had affected the person closest to him in the fog, until finally, he’d snapped.

When it came between everyone’s escape and putting a pound of his own flesh on the scale, Felix had done so without a second thought. To him, that sliver of a chance had made that pound of flesh worth its weight in gold. Now, however, he realized it hadn’t just been his own flesh on the scale. He’d also put David’s there, in more ways than one, and none of it had turned to gold. It was all just a bloody mess.

Felix had always thought that the ends would justify the means, but now, looking back from the end… 

There was no serum, escape was out of reach, and now, his relationship with David was destroyed.

It hadn’t been worth it.

Felix jolted at the sound of another generator jumping to life in the distance. Its tremulous awakening had reverberated through the tiled halls and jumped directly into his chest, replacing his gloom with vigilance.

Another one followed shortly after, like an echo.

Two gens down already, and his own was nearly completed.

A sense of unease began to overtake him.

Where was the killer?

Keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, Felix resumed his work. He paused every so often to more carefully examine the empty halls outside his room for signs of someone… something… watching him; a shimmer of invisibility, a looming shadow, a prowling, pigheaded monster. He knew of all manner of stalking, stealthy monsters that could be lurking the dark halls of the hospital —but what worried him was the ones he didn’t know about.

Felix took in a steadying, sterile breath of hospital air to calm himself and tried to focus on the gen.

A figure was on his left.

He screamed and lurched backward. The generator exploded with a shower of sparks, lighting up the thing's face.

“MEG! What the hell are you doing?!”

Meg grinned at him surreptitiously and guffawed. “I’m working on gens, what’re you doin’ on the floor?” She laughed again before making her way over and offering a hand to help him up.

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to give ya a heart attack, Fritz.”

He scowled, but took the offered help anyway. “It’s Felix…” he grumbled.

Meg either ignored him or didn’t hear. “C’mon help me finish this thing.”

Grimacing, Felix took another look around for any monstrosities that might have been spying on them. Seeing none, he sighed and dropped to one knee by the gen, finishing off the work he’d started.

Before long, the machine was roaring with energy and pistoning away.

He quickly moved away from the area to avoid possible notice. Meg lagged behind, with her hands in her pockets, completely unconcerned. He turned to scowl at her uncharacteristic slowness and she returned it with her own annoyed scowl.

“Relax,” she rebuked, “Obviously the killer doesn’t want to come out to play today. This one’s a freebie. Enjoy it.”

“Yeah, or it’s waiting .”

The athletic woman rolled her eyes but continued to saunter after him.

Trials such as this were certainly abnormal, but not unheard of. He’d been in one or two so far where the killer had simply never appeared. Felix didn’t pretend to know the motivations of the things that hunted them, so he couldn’t even begin to explain the phenomena, but it did make him wonder. Many of the killers were very humanoid in shape; hell, many of them had probably been human at one point. Was it so outrageous to suppose that many still had human emotions and desires? Did they sometimes grow tired of the endless bloodbath and occasionally refuse to participate?

It was yet another mystery on top of the many more that saturated this place.

Still, Felix wasn’t taking any chances. His head remained on a swivel as he traversed the wretched, crumbling halls of the labyrinthine facility.

As he scanned the area, his brain recognized something to be out of place, and he focused on it.

It was a perfectly white, perfectly neat and square sheet of paper, slightly larger than his hand. It lay inside a doorway he’d nearly passed by, perfectly contrasting its surroundings. 

He crouched to examine it, and noticed that it possessed a subtle, waxy sheen. Was this photo paper?

Little alarm bells began to go off in the back of his mind.

He caught the slick edge of the photo off the ground with his fingertips and flipped it stiffly over.

His heart stuttered heavily in its ribcage.

Felix was looking at his own face. Disheveled and speckled with dirt, the Felix in the photo stared pensively into the distance at an unseen subject. Behind him was a dilapidated brick wall and several overhanging branches of an evergreen. He could not recall this moment that someone had decided to freeze in time for eternity.

Clutching the photo tightly, he let it fall from his gaze.

Again, his heart seized in his chest.

Another one. Straight ahead.

Felix lurched to his feet and stumbled over to the little white square in the next room, his breaths coming in shallow, ragged hisses.

“Fritz?” Meg called after him.

His hand scrambled to pick up the face-down photo, laid out so innocently just for him, and again, his heart was kicked into an even more hurried pace.

This one was of two figures, photographed from a distance. They stood overlooking a cliff. Everything was stained a shade of auburn red light.

The fucking pit. The chasm of horrors that haunted his nightmares. Someone had been watching him and David that day.

“Is that a photo?”

Felix jumped and immediately hid the photo from view.

“Looks new,” Meg commented suspiciously. 

He nodded haltingly, “Someone placed them here.”

The athlete gave him a sidelong stare, wariness returning to her disposition.

“Who owns a camera here?” He asked desperately, hoping for an answer that would dispel the panic rising up his throat. It had to be another survivor, right?

Meg was glancing around them now, not answering his question. Suddenly her eyes lit up.

“There’s another one!” She said, rushing over to it.

A horrific realization suddenly hit Felix, and he scrambled after her.

“Meg, wait!”

Meg swiped it up and turned it over in her hands. She’d seen it.

As quick as he could, Felix swiped for the photo and ripped it away from her.

“What the fuck, Fritz?!”

Heart pounding, he uncrumpled the glossy picture and looked. It was of him and David climbing down into the pit, moments before the Entity had knocked them in.

He breathed a sigh of relief. 

She hadn’t seen anything.

He stuck the photo in his jacket pocket with the others and turned to face Meg again. Her arms were crossed and she seemed unamused.

“Happy?” She asked.

Felix dismissed her childish sulking and turned deadly serious, “ Who took these?”

She shifted her stance, looking uncomfortable, “I might have an idea…”

Felix’s mind lurched. “What? Who!?”

“Shh! Haven’t you noticed there hasn’t been any more gen pops in the last couple minutes?!”

The cold realization struck him like an icy dagger, and he froze.

“Just be quiet and follow me,” she said, her expression dangerous.

She turned away from him and stealthily skulked into a nearby hallway.

Not knowing what else to do, Felix stalked after her, limbs shivering with nervous tension.

His mind raced frantically with possibilities. Someone was stalking them, stalking him , and had been for quite a while. They were there watching through the lens of their camera as he and David were knocked into the pit, snapping picture after picture as they were… Fuck . It was the most terrible thing that had ever happened to him; a terrible trauma Felix had thought that only he and David had shared, but someone else had been there. Someone had documented it and now wanted him to know.

Who the fuck would do that?

As he followed Meg into yet another room full of empty, stained gurneys, that overwhelming scent of sterile disinfectant grew more intense than ever, burning his nose and stinging his eyes. He felt the urge to sneeze, but resisted, instead rubbing viciously at his nose to dispel the impulse.

Something was odd about the smell however, like something else was layered on top of it. There was the stinging disinfectant, yes, but there were also overtones of something saccharine and musky.

Confused, he did a quick visual scan for whatever might have been the culprit for the smell, but all he saw was old medical equipment, dead potted plants, and sour bedsheets.

Meg turned another corner into the next room.

Deciding it was unimportant, he gave up on his search and hurried after her. He turned the corner after Meg, and saw nothing but an empty hallway.

His stomach dropped.

“Meg?” he whispered, voice sounding weak and fragile to his own ears as it faintly bounced around the walls.

He held his breath and listened for a reply, but there was only the sound of the flickering bulb overhead and the blood rhythmically thumping in his head.

In an effort to temper his surging panic, Felix reasoned that Meg might just be waiting for him in the next room and didn’t want to make any unnecessary noise. He trod into the room he had last seen her walking towards and looked inside.

No Meg.

Anxiety steadily rising, Felix peered into several other adjacent rooms and down the nearby hallways, but found nothing except dead space, like she’d never existed at all. 

Felix’s brain lagged in its headcase. He’d only lost sight of her for a second, how could she just be gone?

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, Felix had the sudden fear of the same thing happening to him. He skittered away from the area, hoping to find someone else who had been in the Trial with him. Those gens had to have gotten done somehow, right?!

In a panic, Felix rushed through the endless hallways of the hospital, hoping for some sign that other survivors had been here —were still here, some sign of life, something . 

Eventually he found himself back at the gen where he’d started, still reliably chugging away, just as he and Meg had left it. 

A terrible thought came to him in that moment.

He was alone.

Another thought came to him as clear and horrific as the first.

That wasn’t there before.

Outside of the doorway and in the adjacent room, cloaked in shadows, was a single little white square, hanging in the air. The photo was suspended there by a thin piece of line, dangling impishly like a lure.

Every instinct he had was telling him to run.

But then the photo twisted on its string, revealing its captured secret. He could see from a dozen paces away the golden orange hues of the pustula plants that had swarmed them at the bottom of the pit. In his gut, he knew that it contained the moment of their agonizing deaths.

He felt his body take a step forward, feeling strangely compelled, like a minnow drawn to the shiny, fluttering decoy of a toothy angler fish.

His frontal lobe was screaming at him to stop, urging his hind brain that there was still a chance to escape. If he was alone, that meant that the hatch would be available to him. Another part of his brain whispered that it was already over, that the person, or thing, that had orchestrated all of this would not allow for such a simple thing to get in the way of its grand design. The only option was to approach the photograph.

His legs moved again, bringing him closer to the dangling snare.

No, he should be running! Run away from it! Isn’t it obvious this is a trap?!

Again, his legs moved on their own accord.

If it was a trap, there would be no one left to help him!

Another step.

No, it’s already over, this is the only way forward.

The picture was almost within reach. On it, he could almost make out the two figures silhouetted against all of the fiery gold. His eyes watered and nose wrinkled at the thought of it.

He extended a hand toward the picture. He had to know.

Just as his fingertips brushed the edge of the glossed sheet of white, there was a mechanical * click * sound on his left. Instinctively, he turned his gaze toward the source; an inky black pool of shadows in the corner of the tiny room.

Except… it wasn’t completely black. Something was there, pale and ovoid with several shadowy gaps. He tried to resolve the thing in the shadows into something non-threatening, like a hospital gown draped haphazardly over a chair, but his brain couldn’t make sense of it. The longer he stared at it, the more his human penchant for pareidolia took over. More and more the pale thing in the shadows began to look like a face.

It moved.

Ever so slightly it had moved, or had he imagined it? Whatever the case, he could see it clearly now, and it made his hair stand on end.

The bone-white thing was a face— ghostly and melting with empty eyes and a gaping, drooping mouth that screamed at him from the ink-black shadow in the corner. It pinned him in place with its shrieking gaze, and he could do nothing but stare back at it, afraid to even blink.

The scream lunged for him, and the shadows billowed after it.

Felix bolted.

Like a prey fleeing for its life, he tore through room after derelict room as he ran from the thing. He dared not look behind him, but he could definitely hear distinct scuffing sounds along the floor as it chased him. It felt so close, like at any moment it would reach out and scoop him up. He pushed himself to run harder until his legs burned with overexertion and little hiccups of hysteria were bubbling out of his convulsing lungs.

Heart thumping wildly in his ears, he darted sharply around a corner and sailed over a desk. A dagger of fear stabbed at him as he stumbled, but he managed to quickly recover and keep running.

If he wanted to survive, he had to break line of sight and hide. It was his only chance.

Again he veered into another room, this one almost stacked to the ceiling with excess medical equipment. It was in itself a kind of maze with the amount of junk piled here.

He decided to take a chance and chance a look behind him. His heart fluttered in repudiation at the idea —at what unspeakable horror he might see, but he needed to do it. He needed to know if it was safe to hide.

Felix turned quickly, bracing himself… and saw nothing.

He immediately took the chance to wedge himself between an overturned shelf and the wall, then froze.

The world was quiet, aside from his hammering pulse and panting breath. He slapped his hands over his nose and mouth to muffle himself, trying hard to calm his screaming lungs. Still, his sounds were leaking into the sterile air, so he closed his eyes and concentrated hard on slowing his stricken respiratory system.

Slowwww slow slow slow… please.

In.

Out.

Calm.

Finally, he no longer could hear the echoing of his breaths over the tiled floors, so he opened his eyes.

The room looked the same; still overpacked with equipment and grime.

He began to relax, becoming more comfortable with the idea that he’d actually escaped the thing that had chased him— that ghoulish apparition of a scream.

Felix shivered at the thought of it, and sucked in another lungful of stale air to dispel the mental image. There was something pungent in the breath that he’d taken, however, and his senses blanched at the taste of it.

A mental connection of familiarity made him jolt upright with awareness.

It had been hard to differentiate the scent from the strong aroma of medicine that permeated the building, but now, he recognized it. It was the same smell he’d caught the barest hint of at the waterside, the same scent he’d noticed before Meg had been taken, and he now realized he’d also smelled it back when he was face to screaming face with that thing in the shadows. He’d been so close to it that his eyes had been watering, but at the time, he’d been too petrified to recognize it.

His diaphragm seized with terror.

Now, it was here .

But where? Was it in the room with him, lurking about? Was it about to pounce on his hiding spot?

He had to know.

Swallowing down his anxiety, Felix slowly rose up on his haunches and slowly, ever so slowly, peeked his eyes over his hiding spot. He carefully watched the piles of clinical garbage for the white face, for any kind of movement, but it was difficult to parse a moving shadow from a static one. He watched for a while longer, still smelling that pungent, musky aroma but not seeing the thing that had accompanied it earlier.

Had he been mistaken? Was he just correlating several completely unrelated occurrences?

Felix sighed and sat back down.

His bloodcurdling scream caught in his throat.

The thing was right in front of him. The melting moan, empty and black, encircled by deathly white, was close enough for him to reach out and touch. The shadow it sat upon flowed and intermingled fluidly with the ambient darkness. That pungent musk he had been smelling was as caustic as ever, but Felix dared not react in the slightest, not even to wrinkle his nose.

The thing tilted its head like an inquisitive cat.

“Hello Felix.”

It… It had spoken to him. It said his name. He hadn’t imagined that, had he? It had plainly spoken words aloud like a human, and it knew his name.

The face tilted back the other way, “So pleased to finally meet you.”

Felix blinked, and his cortisol-soaked brain stuttered to functionality again like a backfiring engine.

The velvet-smooth yet sonorous voice that had so clearly and concisely enunciated the word ‘pleased’ was indeed human, and the longer that Felix stared at the figure before him, the less his hysteria-clouded mind saw a shadowy, ghoulish monster, and the more human it became. The melting, moaning scream that had so completely terrified him earlier… He now recognized it to be a simple plastic mask, albeit an incredibly disturbing one. That billowing shadow he had seen trailing behind was, in fact, a large, black cloak. From this close, he could see that the garb possessed some tactical accessories, like leather straps, protective padding… and a leather sheath that held a knife.

This… man… was not the unknowable monstrosity he thought he’d been running from earlier, and unless there was something unfathomable under that getup, he seemed as human as any other survivor. However, it was undeniably obvious that the man was dangerous . All those things had happened; the others had disappeared without a trace, he’d been easily tracked and stalked throughout the hospital, and he’d been snuck up on without ever seeing him approach. 

No doubt in his mind, the person before him was a killer, as deadly and deranged as the rest of them.

Realizing this, Felix’s hackles raised again as he waited to see what this killer planned on doing with him now that he was cornered. He’d obviously orchestrated this whole ordeal to terrify and manipulate him into this position, but now what?

The ghostly mask inclined toward him, and Felix couldn’t stop himself from wincing.

The killer chuckled darkly, “Oh don’t be afraid,” he said in a husky baritone, muffled by its plastic cocoon, “I wouldn’t dare hurt you Felix.”

Felix's face scrunched with uneasy confusion. He highly doubted that claim, but there wasn’t anything he could do if it was a lie.

“I guess you could say I’m a bit of a fan,” the ghostly figure continued, serene, yet somewhat coy.

The killer’s hand shifted toward his belt and Felix shrank back yet again, expecting a flash of steel and a knife in his gut, but no such thing happened. The voice behind the mask tsked in disappointment.

“No need to be so jumpy. I already told you I wasn’t going to hurt you, didn’t I? Don’t you trust me Felix?”

There wasn’t a time or place in heaven nor hell that Felix would ever trust an obvious murderer, especially someone dressed like this , but he feared what would happen if he didn’t play into the killer's expectations. He gave a curt nod.

“That’s good,” the cloaked killer said, reaching into a pocket at his side, “I just wanted to show you…”

A glossy white square was slowly pulled from beneath the black fabric. Felix felt his stomach flip. The pictures. He'd been the one taking them, watching through his lens as Felix had suffered, and now he was going to show him the last one. 

The one thing he'd been spared from during that whole ordeal in the pit was that he'd never had to directly observe what had been done to his body. He'd only known how it had felt and had been spared the knowledge of the visuals. But now…

No, please…

The photo was turned and held before him for easy viewing.

He sucked in a tremulous, stinging breath as reality fell out from under him. 

It was a closeup of his body at the bottom of the pit. In it, his flesh was horribly distended and contorted by the numerous pustula tendrils that had forced their way down his gullet and every other orifice that he’d possessed. His overstretched, perforated skin, pale and translucent, practically weeped golden blood. His distorted expression in the photo was one of complete mental overload.

“You’re quite the picturesque subject,” the muffled voice breathed. 

Felix felt his mental partitions crumple like wet cardboard. All of it was, again, real and before him. 

The terrible pain, choking and writhing, those things filling and squirming down his throat, forcing and worming their way into the deepest recesses of his body. Viscous fluid flooding his esophagus and erupting from his nose and mouth, barely able to suck air into his lungs. Suffocating, drowning for hours on an endless flood of golden nectar.

David, barely a meter away, the tendrils effectively raping him, swarming, invading him; belly impossibly swollen and pregnant with squirming tendrils and glowing nectar.

Darkness slowly closing in as his body weakened, his lungs filled with fluid, and his mind broke in a disorienting haze.

When the darkness had finally come, it had been a relief. Warm and peaceful. The most blissful thing he’d ever experienced.

Then he’d come back.

Never before or since had he wished for nonexistence as badly than in those moments of rebirth.

“Mind if I get a selfie?”

Felix winced as the present came back into focus. His muscles twitched with the latent specter of trauma. The world felt confusing, foggy, and he struggled to make sense of it.

He felt a warm, dark presence looming close on his left.

“Say cheese. ”

Felix blinked, and looked up to see a small, rectangular camera being held over him by an arm clad in black.

A blinding flash.

Again the world was lost to him, replaced by cold white.

“Thanks babe.”

His stomach churned with creeping unease at the endearment. Warning sirens echoed at the back of his dazed mind.

Eventually, as his eyes readjusted to the darkness of the room, Felix noticed that the presence at his left had not moved away. Instead, it remained close— so close that Felix could hear breathing almost directly by his ear. Very distinctly through the plastic shell, Felix could hear him inhaling deeply through his nose, and then exhaling in long, drawn out sighs from his mouth. It was almost like… like he was taking in Felix’s scent, tasting it, savoring it, and developing a mental record of it.

Despite his decision to keep still, Felix couldn’t help but shudder deeply at the mere concept.

The killer seemed to take notice and backed away with a ghoulish snigger. Like a spider withdrawing to the center of its web, he reclaimed his spot directly in front of Felix, and continued to stare at him with that drooping, moaning mask, still far too close. Tassels of thin black fabric extruding from his cloak floated oddly in the air around him like tentacles poised to strike.

The back of Felix’s head pressed hard against the overturned shelf behind him.

“Well, I guess I’d better develop these,” the killer said in a much too matter-of-fact manner. He shook his portable film camera between them as if to prove he was going to do so.

With a billow of black fabric, and a miniature heart-attack, the killer retreated from his little hiding spot and to the nearby doorway. He lingered there, staring fixedly at the survivor for another uncomfortable length of time.

“I’ll be seeing you Felix,” he said darkly. Not just a statement— a promise.

The cloaked killer impishly inclined his head, and Felix could have sworn he’d winked at him beneath that mask. 

And then he was gone.

Felix waited at least thirty more seconds after the killer had left before he decided to start having his panic attack. It’d been a while since his last one, but this seemed as appropriate a time as any to pick things back up.

Sitting there in his little corner for what could have been hours, Felix tried desperately to work through the attack, but the sterile air burned and suffocated his working lungs. He gasped desperately at it, trying to take in enough oxygen to satiate his racing heart that was threatening to burst out of his ribcage, but he just couldn’t breathe fast enough. He felt like he was dying— choking to death on his panic.

He needed to think of something calming or else he’d pass out and then that killer could possibly come back and… !

No stop! Calm!

Gasping for breath, Felix’s first instinct was to focus on a memory of Christine, something happy and calming, but he was having trouble focusing. The memories kept slipping away from him like ashes through his fingers.

His head was beginning to feel light and airy, like it could drift away from his body at any moment.

Without being prompted, his mind recalled another time when he had been sitting in the lab. He had been suffering from a panic attack then too, but back then, David had been there. He’d been close at his side, wide hand roving supportively over his back, and whispering soothing encouragement.

It hadn’t taken very long at all for him to calm down back then, and now, Felix could already feel his heartbeat start to slow. His breaths were coming slower and deeper as well, and the world was finally starting to come back into focus. His mind restarted itself in fits and spurts.

As Felix felt the last of his panic draining away, he found that it had been replaced by a gnawing, confusing sorrow.

He wasn’t sure why his brain had defaulted to a memory of David. Perhaps it had just been the most recent or readily available, or worse— he was already starting to lose his memories of Christine, but whatever the reason had been, he was grateful for it. He supposed there was just something about the man that made him feel safe and at ease… or at least there had been. That had been his own doing.

Felix decided in that instant that he had to find David and apologize. For all of it.

But first, he had to find his way out of this maze.

A stab of anxiety dug into his back at the thought of that white-masked killer still prowling somewhere amongst the halls, shadowing his every move. He wondered if that demented stalker was finished with him or if he intended on playing with his prey a bit longer.

A layer of gooseflesh prickled over his skin at the thought of having to come face to face with that screaming mask and slithering voice once again.

He didn’t have a choice. He had to at least try to get out of here.

Once he had climbed awkwardly to his feet and shaken the fatigue and nerves from his legs that had turned them to jello, Felix set about scrupulously navigating the cadaverous hospital halls, keeping a close eye on any and all corners obscured by shadow. Every new room, he half expected to see a fleeting glimpse of white or the wisp of noxious musk, but there was no more sign of the killer.

Finally, in an empty waiting room, Felix found his exodus. He must have walked by it several times already and never saw it.

Before him was the hatch, closed and tightly locked. Placed deliberately next to it was a skeleton key, shining faintly iridescent in the gloom.

His stomach slowly rolled over and over in his depths and he grimaced. Despite himself, he deftly swiped the key off the ground and jammed it in the lock. The hatch popped open and yawned at him with a bellow of musty air.

Felix stole one more glance at the dead ward, feeling doubtful. He was still in disbelief the killer was just letting him leave like this, and a part of him suspected a trap. One more time, he looked carefully around himself. There were only forgotten memories, and now some newly minted ones, peering at him from beneath the sagging wallpaper.

He jumped into the safety of the swirling black fog, wondering what had happened to the survivors he was leaving behind.

Notes:

⚠️ [Warning: Brief mentions of tentacle rape near the end when Ghostface shows Felix the photo] ⚠️

The Florida Man appears.
I always love hearing your thoughts and reactions to the story, good or bad, so be sure to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!

Chapter 4: Breakthrough

In the endless, soundless Forest of Passage, a lone, incongruous discrepancy jutted out from a sea of green like a festering splinter. The monolithic water tower, spotted with lesions of orange rust gnawing away at its frame, overlooked the living ocean that surrounded it like an ancient sentinel from a bygone era.

David sat atop the disintegrating tower and stared into the shadowy horizon. Sometimes he thought he could make out silhouettes of landmarks in the distant whirling fog, like towers, hills, or other structures, but they always seemed to disappear as quickly as they resolved.

He’d discovered this place a long time ago while wandering the forest. Realizing that it would make for a decent and somewhat safe getaway from the campfire, David decided to keep it to himself. He tended to find himself here whenever the Trials were harder on him than usual or if he needed to be alone, but recently, he hadn’t had much need of it. When he and Felix had become friends, he’d all but replaced his secret refuge with the lab where Felix tended to work.

He hadn’t felt the need to be alone until now.

Now, more than ever, David was thankful for its existence. It was a good place to think— especially about how terrible of a person he was.

David just couldn’t seem to help himself when it came to tearing other people down. He’d done it with the newbies, he’d done it to Felix when he’d first arrived, and now he was doing it again. He could never seem to say what he actually meant, and instead, always went for the nuclear option.

Felix hadn’t deserved that, especially after the gut punch of losing their one potential means of escape. David knew the man was almost certainly bearing the entire weight of that failure on his shoulders, and he’d just kicked him while he was down.

His memory flitted to images of Felix laying like a corpse on the forest floor, catatonic with hopelessness and surrounded by carrion crows. A chill crawled down his spine. Even though that incident had been a unique occurance, it had made David paranoid when it came to Felix and the resilience of his hope. He feared that one day the Entity would come back to finish the job, and for a time, it had made him hover over the man like a helicopter parent. Eventually he grew to trust Felix the twentieth time he said he was fine, but it had taken a while. He knew firsthand how easy it was to drive away someone’s hope, and he didn’t intend to be the cause of that again. At least, he hadn’t meant to…

David sighed thinking back on his last words to Felix and feeling the guilt curdle in his stomach. He hadn’t really meant most of it, but he knew the real reason why he’d said those things.

When the serum had failed for the final time, a darkly selfish part of him had been glad. 

Yes, glad.

He knew it was a terrible admission, a terrible thing to feel, and it tore at him like a vulture stripping away fetid flesh… but it was true.

After David had ripped Felix away from the Entity’s clutches in the Forest of Passage, he’d resolved to look after the man. David had told himself he was just making sure Felix was safe, and that was why he was spending so much time with him.

At first he thought his sentiments toward Felix stemmed from some sense of accountability or pity, what with the way he always seemed so downtrodden. David hadn’t liked seeing him like that so he’d often offer some words of assurance or comfort, and Felix would look at him in that awfully endearing way that made his chest inexplicably tight.

After that, it had been other things, like the way Felix’s face beamed when he made a new discovery, or whenever David accidentally held his gaze for too long, the way Felix would give that shy, polite smile before turning away— and that laugh — like a chorus of golden bells. Hearing it made his heart sing, and David would make an effort to make Felix laugh as often as he could despite the darkness that surrounded them.

David quickly found that simply being in the man’s presence was gratifying in a way that no amount of scrupulous flings would ever come close to.

Yet, his heart yearned for more.

It yearned to be closer to Felix in a way that David knew wasn't possible. Sometimes it hurt being around the man knowing it would never amount to anything more, but David couldn't help it. He was drawn to Felix’s inviting warmth and beaming presence like he was the only light in miles of empty darkness. Seeing it had changed him, and going back to wandering in that emptiness seemed impossible.

Then, the tests with the serum had started, as if the Trials weren't bad enough.

He had to just stand there and watch as Felix maimed himself over and over. Despite all his pleading propositions to get him to stop, he’d watched as Felix’s demeanor had slowly waned and his brightness was slowly smothered with every brutal, failed experiment. It was obvious in his steadily darkening circles and the listless graying of his usual bright blue eyes, that the serum was killing him in more ways than one. David wanted nothing more than to rip that syringe out of Felix’s hand and stab it in himself to spare the man from at least one gruesome death.

However, David knew that Felix would be furious if he interfered in any way. No, Felix had wanted to torture himself. He’d said so himself. According to him, it had to be done. Over and over again.

The experiments had definitely been bad, no doubt about that, but they hadn’t been the worst part. Not really. 

The worst part was knowing that any one of those tests could have been successful, and then Felix would be gone forever. 

Standing there for each experiment, thinking to himself that this could be the final time he’d ever see Felix again was debilitating. It was worse knowing just how badly Felix wanted to escape. He wanted to return to his life in the overworld so much, he was willing to repeatedly and obsessively torture himself to do it.

That was how much Felix wanted to leave behind everything here.

Including David.

And that made him hate himself more than anything else.

David felt his hand twitch like it wanted to hold a pint, and for the first time in a long time he felt the incredible urge to drink himself into a stupor. Whether by blessing or curse, alcohol was basically nonexistent here, so he settled for staring fixedly into the distance.

David's own life in the overworld was nothing he was very eager to get back to. It had all been a constant blur of dive bars, fistfights, shake downs, and disappointment from everyone that still claimed to know him. He was sure that no one would care if he’d suddenly turned back up one day, not even Tristan, who’d moved on long ago.

Felix, on the other hand, was a successful, award-winning architect with a good life, a loving girlfriend that probably missed him terribly, and even had a new son on the way. His life sounded disgustingly perfect; like something out of a sitcom, and he couldn’t really blame him for wanting to get back to it.

The difference between them was laughable, and David wondered just how Felix had ever ended up being friends with him to begin with. Between Felix’s overworld life and him, David's dog in this fight was one-legged and perpetually drunk. There was no contest here.

What fucking right did he have, wishing Felix to stay with him here in this hell? What the fuck kind of person was he, wishing to deprive a man of his family for his own selfish reasons, especially when he knew goddamn well how unrealistic they were?

Well, in the end, he’d gotten what he'd wanted, hadn’t he? 

David’s fingers raced and tore through his short hair, and the guilt ate away at him like acid.

His own harsh words echoed back at him— the words he hadn’t meant. 

Felix surely hated him now, and probably never wanted to see his ugly mug ever again other than to tell him off.

It was probably for the best.

David didn’t think he could face him again anyways, no matter how much he’d previously enjoyed his company. That had been before, when he’d been dreamily naive. He’d deluded himself, thinking for even one second that he’d ever had a chance at being with someone like Felix. 

David decided things would be better if he just completely cut off contact from the man. It would be like amputating a septic limb. Any relationship they could possibly have would just be poisoned by his selfish wants, and Felix was too determined not to find his way out eventually, David knew that much. It would be better if he could condition himself to the man’s absence instead of stringing himself along and holding Felix back from where he belonged.

This was the only moral play he could make, and it would be for the best.

David would convince himself of this, and eventually, that bitter sting in his chest and at the corners of his eyes would go away.

His existence depended on it.

— — — 

Dark green leaves drifted lazily around Felix as he plodded along the infinite, pathless Forest of Passage. His arms were clasped tightly over his elbows, trying desperately to keep the gooseflesh on his arms from spreading over his entire body.

The unnatural, empty silence of the woodland kept him on a knife’s edge, and he struggled to stop his mind from drifting to darker places— like that rotting carcass of a hospital.

He shivered violently, and the phantom memory of a sweetly pungent musk made his nose wrinkle in a Pavlovian fashion. He picked up his pace, remembering that same scent at the brook. That stalker had been there then and he could easily be following him now. The Forest of Passage was fair game for killers and survivors both.

Felix wondered just how long the killer had been stalking him and snapping away with his camera without his notice. Since the pit? Since he first arrived here? It was impossible to know.

His hand absentmindedly drifted to his coat pocket, wishing to feel the smooth, stiff paper of the photos— and he gasped.

They were gone.

Anxiety gripping his throat, he quickly searched his other pockets, wondering if he’d somehow misplaced them, but found nothing. The memory was as clear as crystal; he’d specifically put the photos he’d picked up in his right pocket.

When had he lost them? When he'd been running for his life? Sometime when he'd been cornered by that freak? Or had the Entity taken them when he'd jumped through the hatch?

There was a crash of branches overhead and Felix nearly leapt off the ground. A black shadow squawked and hurried away into the canopy with a flurry of feathers, and he cursed quietly at the bird for jolting his already frayed nerves. 

Not knowing how he'd lost the photos was highly concerning, but Felix supposed it was better than having the others accidentally find them and start asking questions.

He allowed the lost pictures to fall from his mind and hurried towards that ring of impervious safety that was the campsite, keeping a watchful eye on the darkness that surrounded him.

Eventually, the light of the campfire came into few and Felix let loose a sigh of relief. Only a little farther.

Feeling the shadows of the forest encroaching on him, he decided to jog the rest of the way— but not run. There was nothing to run from, so obviously he didn’t need to run. Despite how much he wanted to bolt to the safety of the fire. It wasn’t necessary… 

Felix broke the treeline somewhere between a steady jog and a harried sprint with a gasp of relief. He was safe. Nothing could get him here.

The German took in a few more calming breaths for good measure and turned his gaze toward the others sitting around the fire who immediately took notice of him. Felix recognized Claudette, Dwight, Jake, Tapp, and a few others. One absence in particular was incredibly obvious to Felix, and his heart clenched reflexively in his chest. He still needed to make his apology.

He’d also hoped to find Meg here so he could ask her about the last Trial, but there was no sign of her. He told himself that she'd show eventually.

Dwight stood and waved him over.

Felix grimaced, not feeling particularly giddy about talking logistics with the leader at the moment. His nerves still felt like exposed electrodes.

“Hey Felix,” Dwight greeted with a sympathetic smile, “Hope you’re doing okay after, well, you know.”

For a moment Felix thought that man was referring to his last Trial, and the hair stood out over his skin, but he quickly realized that that wasn’t what Dwight was referring to. He was talking about the serum. At this turn, Felix felt his shoulders sag at the morbid reminder of his failure.

“I suppose I’m as well as I could be,” he responded drearily.

Claudette shifted uncomfortably at Dwight’s side, her sullen expression fixated on the dancing flames.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” she said, rubbing her arms, “I should have checked the mixture again or—”

Felix shook his head dismissively, but a sad sigh still escaped him, “It’s okay. We couldn’t have known.”

That wasn’t entirely true, and Claudette seemed to pick up on this. Nevertheless, the empathic woman accepted his forgiveness.

Dwight smiled at them both sadly, then nodded, obviously wanting to move on. “Sorry if I’m bringing this up too soon, but I’m guessing the serum is done for?”

Feeling a bit vexed being asked something so obvious, Felix let his expression drop, but nodded. “Yes. Unless another Blight event comes along, we can’t make any more serum.”

The veteran survivor nodded thoughtfully, “What about your blueprints?”

Felix sighed again, feeling his irritation rising, “The literature is insufficient. I could only ever manipulate the hatch and the basement.”

Disappointment seeped into Dwight’s grimace, “There has to be something else, right? That lab is full of documentation. Maybe we missed something?”

“Maybe, but I highly doubt it. All of us scoured that lab from top to bottom.”

Dwight's hand drifted to his mouth to chew at his nails as he thought things over. Felix thought it was an improper habit for someone who called himself a leader, but more than that, it was immensely disgusting considering the perpetual state of grime on all of their hands. He resisted the urge to scowl.

“I think we should look it over one more time,” Dwight finally said, “Just to make sure.”

Felix sighed his exasperation, “It’s going to be a waste of time. I’ve read every single document in that place multiple times.”

Claudette jumped in, her voice apologetic, “Felix, I know you’re probably feeling discouraged right now, but shouldn’t we exhaust all our options before we give up? Isn’t it worth one more look?”

The woman’s kind, pleading expression immediately caused a deep guilt to settle in his chest, and he relented. He wondered how that level of kindly persuasion hadn’t been weaponized against the killers by now.

“Fine,” he said, trying to maintain his reticence.

The three of them set out immediately from the campfire. Any one of them or all three could be taken into a Trial at any moment and interrupt their mission, so the sooner they could set off the better. Besides, it wasn’t like they had anything better to do.

Felix felt a bit better about traveling the Forest of Passage with companions, but was still on edge. He kept his head on a swivel and trailed behind to keep a watchful eye over the two as they chatted. Felix was intent on not having them disappear before his eyes.

Unconcerned, the veteran survivors strolled side by side, completely engrossed in their quiet conversation.

Felix wondered to himself how the two weren’t a couple, as close as they seemingly were.

He suddenly remembered he’d actually asked this exact question to David what felt like ages ago. He and David had somehow ended up gossiping like elderly women about the other survivors and Felix just had to ask about Claud and Dwight. David had smirked mischievously and simply stated ‘Dwight’s not the type.’ The man hadn’t elaborated any further than that, no matter how hard he’d pressed, but Felix could guess what he’d meant.

He found himself smiling at the memory, then immediately grew mournful. He still had to apologize to David and fervently hoped the man would be accepting of it.

Claudette, the empath that she was, immediately took notice of his maudlin.

“You doing okay back there?” She asked with an easy smile.

“Em, yes I suppose so,” he lied. However, that reminded him of another very important question, and he supposed now would be as good a time as any to ask.

“Well, actually, could I talk to you for a minute?”

Claudette nodded and fell back. Dwight eyed them questioningly but continued on at a respectable distance.

She smiled kindly at him, ready to listen.

He struggled to even begin. “Claudette, do you know of a err… certain killer? I recently encountered him in a Trial and he uh, well… he wears this black cloak, has a white, screaming mask, and I think he might also carry a camera?”

Her smile dropped the more he described, until she was looking at the ground.

“He calls himself Ghostface.”

Fitting , Felix thought, and waited anxiously for her to continue.

“Most of the time, we never see him until it’s too late. He’s extremely deadly and… you said you encountered him in a Trial?”

Felix nodded, frown deepening.

“Good. He’s one of the killers who likes to prowl around camp outside of the Trials… pick us off for fun… But he hasn’t really been doing that for a while now as far as we know. Hopefully it stays that way.”

He swallowed the knot that was building in his throat. “And the camera?”

Claudette seemed to visibly squirm. “He… likes to ‘archive’ his work. I think he just keeps them for himself, because no one’s ever seen an actual photo.”

That gave Felix pause. His heart kicked against his ribcage for several beats before calming back down.

“If you encounter him again, just try to be careful. He can be… eccentric… for a killer that is,” she said, making an effort to smile again, “Is there anything else you wanted to know?”

For a moment, he considered telling her what had happened, but thought better of it. Talking about the photos meant talking about the pit, and he didn’t want anyone else to know about what had happened there.

“No, thank you Claudette. Hopefully, I’ll be more prepared next time.”

The botanist nodded, her smile returning to its full warmth.

Finally, they were now coming upon the lab. The half-destroyed brick structure peeked through the trees from atop the small hill it was perched on top of. The exposed inner walls were dark and lacked the usual lantern light that signified occupation.

A short, uphill trek later, and the three were entering the makeshift lab.

“Looks like Adam tried to clean up a bit,” Dwight commented, lighting up several of the kerosene lanterns as he entered.

The glassware they’d been working with had been cleaned and put away, the documents were stacked, and things looked to mostly be in order… except for the very large, dark stain on the hardwood floor that still smelled thickly of iron from across the room.

Felix felt the creases in his face deepen the longer he stared at it. The puddle of maroon was far larger in circumference than a person, even if they were to lay splayed out on the floor. The mental image of David covered nearly head to toe in his blood wormed its way into his mind. He couldn’t remember much of what had transpired; it had all happened so fast. He wondered just how and why so much blood had ended up outside of his body. It almost looked like more blood had been on the floor than what was physically possible, and he began to imagine just how— 

“Felix? You ready to start looking?” Claudette inquired, looking concerned.

Felix shook the thoughts from his head and nodded. He needed to focus on the present task at hand.

It took the three of them what felt like hours just reading through everything. Some of these pieces Felix had read dozens of times, especially ones concerning the serum, and he found it incredibly exhausting considering they were now irrelevant. When Dwight grew bored of reading, the leader took to scouring the many nooks and crannies of the old lab, even going so far as prying up loose floorboards to look for secret stashes of knowledge. Felix doubted he would find anything and the sounds were increasingly pulling his attention away from the tedious texts he was trying to comprehend. Fortunately, when Dwight gave up, he decided he would put the boards back later, and returned to reading.

It wasn’t much later that an ominous black fog rolled into the small scientific sanctuary and they all froze.

It was here to take one or more of them to a Trial.

A spiny chill bristled at the back of Felix’s neck at the thought of encountering the Ghostface killer again. He knew the chances of encountering the same killer twice in a row was low, but he prayed to whatever or whoever was listening that it wouldn’t be him this time… 

Dwight’s face fell as the murk hugged his legs, and Felix breathed a silent sigh of relief. The survivor quickly dropped the materials he had been holding and took a step back.

He looked at each of them with dismay, “Guess we’ll catch up later.”

The obscuring fog swallowed him up and collapsed, leaving nothing but air where the man had been standing. Stray misty tendrils quickly raced back into the perpetual night, leaving Claudette and Felix alone together in the lab.

They exchanged strained glances.

Felix got up to take Dwight’s stack of journals and returned to his desk, and they resumed reading without a word.

Four documents later, Claudette rose from her seat and wandered toward the door.

“You’re done with your pile?”

She nodded apologetically, and Felix felt the acrid tang of disappointment on his tongue. He’d known the chances of finding anything new had been low, but a small part of him had been hopeful of finding some sort of lead— something for him to move toward.

But there had been nothing.

Felix tried to keep his bitterness from rising to the surface, but of course, he couldn’t hide anything from Claudette.

“I’m sorry Felix,” she said, sighing sadly, “I know how much you wanted to get back to your family.”

Felix nodded curtly, trying to maintain his mask of stoicism.

“It’ll be okay,” she added, “We can always try again whenever the Blight comes back, okay?” 

Claudette, ever so hopeful, smiled one last time before making her exit, “See you later, Felix.”

Then he was alone.

He sighed and thumbed through the stack of leatherbound journals and yellowing parchment. He’d read everything here at least a dozen times and practically knew them by heart. Near the bottom, he noticed one in particular that was a hundred times more familiar to him. He pulled the journal out and stared at the elegant letter ‘V’ inked in cursive on its cover.

Felix let the worn thing fall open before him and flipped carelessly through its pages full of formulas and annotated diagrams until he finally landed on the last one. The frayed edges of the sheet that had been so closely shorn to the binding taunted him to no end. Everything had been right here , but Vigo, that selfish bastard, had taken it with him and left everyone else to their fate.

Felix cursed, and in a fit of rage and resentment, flung the journal across the room. It crashed into a repurposed antique cupboard sitting idly against the remains of a half-plastered wall. The glass doors shuddered in warning and a few glowing vials sitting inside fell over.

He immediately recognized them to be the leftover vials of serum from his previous experiments and a jolt of anxiety shot through him.

He’d been toying with an idea as of late, one that had been brewing in the back of his mind, but even he cringed at the thought. Felix reasoned that, if the concentration had been too high last time, then what would happen if he just took a smaller dose?

The logical part of his brain told him that this time, the serum would probably just make him vomit up his lungs instead of his entire circulatory system. His gaze drifted toward the massive maroon stain beneath him, and he grimaced.

But what if it didn’t?

Felix steadily rose from his desk, eyes fixating on the tubes of glowing serum.

What if it worked?

He found himself standing before the cupboard, peering through its clouded glass at the half-full ampoule labeled 'C-23'.

What if his escape was just sitting there in that vial?

He yanked the little doors open, grabbed both the gold vial and a nearby syringe, and stuck the needle into the ampoule. He loaded it with five CC's and placed the vial gently back in its holding rack.

Feeling a sense of Deja Vu, Felix lifted the syringe before his eyes and stared at the golden liquid, once again mesmerized by its radiance. He clenched his left hand into a fist several times to get his blood moving and aimed the metal needle at the pronounced vein in the crook of his elbow— then paused.

There was an instinctive need to look up and find the face of a person he knew wasn't there, but his mind supplied it to him anyways.

Disappointment. Hurt.

David's expression was as clear in his mind as all the previous times the man had actually been standing here in this very room. What would David think if he were to find yet another maroon stain here on the floor?

Felix sighed at let the syringe fall away from his arm.

In his heart, he knew the chances of the serum working properly simply because he took a lower dose was practically nonexistent. Claudette had made it quite clear to him that pharmaceutical compounds rarely worked like that. He knew this, yet he’d ignored the inconvenient facts for the sake of blind hope.

Like how he’d ignored David.

He had to stop. He had to stop all of it. His mindless pursuit was destroying him and everyone around him.

Ashamed with himself, Felix’s gaze drifted toward the floor— and stopped.

Something about the cupboard was off. A small, rectangular section of the richly dark, ornately carved wood was indented, clearly out of alignment with the rest of the pattern.

Felix felt his heart kick against his ribcage.

Throwing the journal must have dislodged a secret drawer from its camouflage.

Tossing the syringe back into the cupboard and trying to keep his breathing steady, Felix smoothed his fingers over the drawer, feeling for any kind of notch or loose ornamentation that could act as a button or knob, but nothing felt out of place. Thinking carefully, Felix felt all around the wood embellishing of the cupboard, until finally, he felt a small button on the side, hidden away under a lip of wood.

He pressed it.

Felix’s breath caught in his throat as the edge of the drawer popped out. Heart beating wildly, he pulled the small wooden drawer from the confines of the cabinet and peered down.

Inside, cushioned by soft, blue velvet, was a black, equiangular pentagon, barely larger than his palm. The edges, thinly lined with gold, stepped primly toward the center until both sides met.

With great care, Felix dipped a hand under the shape and found it cool and smooth to the touch, like black marble. It was only about half a centimeter thick. There were no identifying marks or symbols.

A sense of confusion began to overtake him.

The thing seemed to be little more than a polished wafer of rock. Why would someone go to the trouble of hiding it so thoroughly?

He sighed and reexamined the drawer, noticing that the blue fabric lining only seemed to be draped over the bottom. The edges were loose. It wasn't upholstered.

Feeling excitement grab him again, Felix pulled up on the blue velvet and found a small, leatherbound book seated in the base of the drawer. Its cover was scrawled with odd symbols he’d never seen before.

“Heilige scheiße…”

Hands shaking, Felix gingerly lifted the book out of its cache, and hurried both it and the black pentagon over to his desk. He carefully opened it to the first several pages, and immediately noticed that much of the lettering was in English— except the words were complete nonsense, almost like they were scrambled. Felix suspected that they were somehow encoded. Cryptography was not something he knew much about, so he decided to just focus on the symbols and sketches for now.

Flipping through more of the book, he came across several symbols that were not dissimilar to the summoning glyphs he’d utilized in his blueprints for the hatch. He also found several very interesting sketches that showed the black pentagon with five more unique symbols placed around its edges. He wondered if they somehow appeared on its face or if they had to be placed there.

He found it all to be incredibly mystifying, but most of all, Felix could feel the embers of hope once again burning at his center. He knew not one thing about this dark, palm-sized pentagon, but he could feel in his marrow that it held enormous potential.

A part of him wanted to directly extrapolate that potential to an escape from the clutches of the Entity, but this time, Felix would manage his expectations. He’d already made that mistake with the serum.

Throwing all of his hope into one long shot was not a healthy way to approach things, and this time, he would make an effort to avoid getting too emotionally invested too soon, and yet…

As Felix cradled the smooth, dark little shape carefully in his palms, visions of Germany and the warm, brightly shining sun overhead clouded his vision, and Felix could practically taste the sweet summer air of home already.

As quickly as they had been kindled, the embers of his hope were snuffed out like a wayward brush fire and replaced by creeping, slinking dread.

Hairs standing on end, Felix whirled around and saw black fog seeping over the floor and around his ankles.

He cursed and clambered back over to the cupboard with his precious prizes. He quickly wrapped the book in the velvet and placed it carefully back in its place with the pentagon on top. Just as his vision was lost to the darkness, Felix slammed the drawer back into its hidden place.

As he lost all sense of spatial awareness in the black, Felix reasoned that he would disclose the existence of the artifact to the others once he had thoroughly examined the book. The last thing he needed was someone breaking the thing— or god forbid— accidentally using it to escape without him.

Deep, sinister chittering echoed in the endless emptiness, and Felix shivered at the Entity’s great hunger.

He prayed the coming Trial would be as quick and painless as possible.

Notes:

The plot thickens.

I've decided to start up a Tumblr!
This way, if you'd like to message me, ask me questions, share stuff, etc. you can do so there. I still highly appreciate comments and kudos though, so don't forget to leave those as well!
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Thanks!

Chapter 5: Getting Acquainted

Old conifers swayed and moaned overhead from a false gust of wind. Fresh pine needles fell into Felix’s backswept hair and on his shoulders. They gave off a pleasantly fresh smell, but he wiped them to the ground all the same.

From a natural sidepath sheltered by foliage, Felix looked up through the trees at a doleful, deteriorating warehouse. Nearly every pane of glass was shattered, the brick façade was crumbling, and entire sheets of corrugated metal roofing were missing. A single lamp weakly lit the two rusted roll up doors at the front.

Despite it being a strictly utilitarian building meant only for industrial storage, Felix’s internal architect mourned for its sad state of decay. Someone out there had designed this building to fulfill a very specific function, and now it was here, acting as a set piece for the most unmitigated display of homicidal spectacle in all of known and unknown existence.

Now, to play his part.

With a steadying breath, Felix pushed himself toward the entrance, knowing there to be a generator sitting inside. Conspicuous structures such as this always seemed to have at least one.

Tramping down the overgrown wild grasses crowding around the building, Felix cast a wary glance over his moonlight-frosted surroundings as he approached the roll-down steel doors. There had been no clues as to which monster would be hunting him this round, so he remained vigilant— especially so for any pale, shrieking faces in the shadows.

Both of the rusty shutter doors were rolled closed, but one appeared to be stuck open a few centimeters. Throwing one last glance at the silent woods behind him, he crouched, stuck his fingers underneath, and pulled up. The steel door rattled and squeaked in protest, but did not budge.

Felix winced and backed off, not wanting to draw anymore attention to himself.

He circled around the side of the building a few meters and noticed a small window that had been completely busted in. Not even the frame remained. He decided it would make for a fine impromptu entryway.

With a practiced, stealthy agility he could have only dreamed of in his previous life, Felix vaulted through the window and into the warehouse. He was immediately surrounded by columns of shelves stacked to the ceiling with wooden crates, old machine parts, and other random components caked with rust. Corroded cargo hooks drifted overhead like nooses. They swayed haphazardly in the thick bands of silver light filtering through the second story grid windows.

The sounds of cranking gears and clinking metal echoed quietly throughout the warehouse. It was difficult to tell exactly where the source of the sounds originated from in the cavernous building, but Felix thought it safe to assume they were coming from the center.

As he began his trek towards the mechanical sounds, he passed a tarnishing tin sign that reminded workers to stay alert around heavy machinery. A minimalist illustration of a person being crushed by a falling object was in the center of a red pentagon. Felix grimaced at the morbid image, but continued to stare at the sign, specifically at the simple, five-sided polygon outlining the graphic.

The pentagon. 

His mind couldn’t help but go there; how could it not? The mysterious artifact that he’d found, hidden away so carefully so as not to be discovered, was unlike anything he’d yet seen in this place— and he’d been the one to discover it. Whatever power it possessed now belonged to him, and all he had to do was work out how to operate it. But what exactly did it do? In this realm, the potentiality of that little black polygon was literally endless . It could do anything he could possibly imagine; summoning objects, creating portals, traveling dimensions… or even control the Entity itself. Some of those glyphs he’d seen in the book had been familiar though. He recalled glossing over them in several other documents detailing the— 

A particularly loud clang from the center of the warehouse jolted him from his speculative stupor, and Felix silently cursed at his negligence. Daydreaming like that in a Trial was incredibly deadly and he was lucky he’d gotten away with it. A mistake like that would almost always invite immense pain and misery— not just on himself, but everyone else in the Trial with him.

Turning away from the antique sign, he sharpened his focus and dispelled all distractions from his mind. The black pentagon could wait.

A short stroll later along the columns of vintage scrap, Felix found himself in a corner of the warehouse. It was devoid of shelving and much more open, aside from the odd stack of crates. In the center was a generator and the origin of the mechanical clangs. He could see the top of someone’s gray beanie angled down at the generator’s innards but not much else.

Not wanting to spook his teammate, Felix cleared his throat to alert the other to his presence.

Nea’s head shot up.

“ Skitstövel! ” She whisper-yelled at him, “You trying to make me explode this gen?!”

Felix had been around enough Swedish contractors to know her exclamation meant nothing nice. Nevertheless, he apologized and made his way to the surly woman’s side to work on the generator alongside her.

“Nevermind that,” She huffed, “Just hurry up and finish this before you get me killed. Hate not knowing what kind of butcher we’re up against…”

Felix felt his throat tighten, “You mean you don’t know who it is yet?”

“ Nej , and I don’t intend on finding out while in this death trap, so shut up and work.”

Felix drew his lips into a tight line and turned his attention to the broken machine in front of him.

It couldn’t be Ghostface again, right? The same killer twice in a row almost never happened. It had to be some other kind of quiet killer like the Wraith or Pig…  

Despite himself, Felix cast a glance on the broken window panes around them, searching for a face looking in at them through the shattered glass, but saw nothing. Uneasily, he turned his attention back to his repairs. A minute or two later, the generator came to working order with a juddering snarl that reverberated throughout the building like the inside of an empty cathedral.

Nea began to stalk away from the noisy machine, and Felix quickly fell into step behind her.

“There’s a way out over here,” she mumbled.

As he inhaled for a sigh, Felix's nose caught the slightest scent of something pungent and his blood turned to ice.

He opened his mouth to scream in warning at Nea, but it was quickly filled with the taste of tangy leather. His scream was completely muffled.

There was a pressure over his chest, and suddenly, his feet were no longer on solid ground. He felt himself being hoisted away from the floor, and Felix thrashed at the air in a confused panic. He tried to scream again, but his voice was completely stifled by whatever was clamped over his mouth. His hands flew to the thing over his face, frantically scrambling to break free of it and call for help, but failed to make it budge even an inch.

Nea continued to walk away, wholly oblivious as he was bodily carried away right behind her. He continued to squirm and fight to break free, but whatever held him seemed unbreakable. 

Just as Nea seemed to notice his absence, he was pulled around a corner, well away from her line of sight.

“Felix?” she called.

He squirmed and fought harder in the hold, desperate to be seen, until the glinting steel of a wicked blade was suddenly in his vision. Every muscle fiber in his body tensed. In the shining clean blade’s reflection was a white smudge. His heart picked up to an even wilder pace.

“Ugh, be that way then! I’m out!”

The sound of her footsteps waned as she moved further away, and Felix renewed his desperate struggles despite the knife in his face in a last ditch effort to get her attention.

Whatever was holding him didn’t seem to like that.

As if he weighed nothing, Felix was effortlessly manhandled toward a stray rectangular column and shoved against it, and the force of the impact completely winded him. Somehow, he’d managed to turn his head at the last moment to avoid smashing his nose, and he desperately used it to suck air into his aching lungs.

He could see from the corner of his vision a dark figure at his back. The body close behind pinned him securely against the concrete pillar, completely engulfing him to the point of spooning. His chest was so tightly compressed he could barely breathe, and the suffocating, spicy odor burning his lungs made it no easier.

“ Shhhh…” A voice hissed, so close to his ear he could feel its moist heat. It was accompanied by a sharp, stinging pressure digging into the flesh of his lower back.

His back arched as it cringed away from the painful pressure. He wanted nothing more than to scream, but the only sound that came through was a muzzled moan.

“Ah… What’re the chances, meeting like this again? It's almost like it was meant to be…” 

Despite the deafening heartbeat pounding in his ears, that velvet baritone voice was unmistakable.

Somehow, Ghostface pressed even closer, squeezing him tightly against the dusty slab of concrete before him. Rough fabric nuzzled against his head and scratched the back of his neck. Felix squirmed desperately in the hold, succumbing to the sheer panic of the all-encompassing, constricting embrace and the dizzying lack of oxygen. The air he did manage to suck in through his nose made his head swim. 

A distant memory suddenly encroached on his mind, one in which he had nearly been cheated out of his payment for a design. The client had immediately seemed sleazy to him. More than anything else, he remembered the cloud of noxious fumes that had followed the man everywhere, solely attributable to his selected brand of cologne. Felix realized that the killer’s spicy musk currently sterilizing the inside of his lungs smelled almost exactly like it. He’d only just now realized it because the hospital’s permeating odor of disinfectant had effectively masked the scent— not that it really mattered at the moment.

A biting pain brought his drifting mind back into the present. It drove into his back, right at the base of his spine. His body tensed tighter than a coiled spring in response. A thin, languishing whimper grated in his throat.

“I know I said I wouldn't hurt you before, but that depends… Are you going to scream?” The voice slithered at his back, reverberating directly into his chest.

Felix could only squeak his oxygen-deprived incredulity through the leather clamped tightly over his mouth. The cold steel sticking into his spine twisted to emphasize the wielder’s meaning, and Felix whined desperately. His mind was a wild haze of fear, but the threat of paralysis wasn’t lost on him.

The velvet voice chuckled warmly in his ear, amused. “That’s a good boy.”

As the leather gloved hand slowly slid away from his lips, it took everything in Felix to suppress the outright hysteria that was pushing a scream up his throat. Instead, he swallowed it down and sucked in breath after stinging breath of musk-tinged air. His hands gripped hard at the cold, concrete pillar, afraid of accidentally retaliating against his captor and invoking a response.

The killer’s hand drifted down into the collar of his shirt. Leather-encased fingers delicately grazed over the column of his stubbled throat, and Felix’s frantic breaths hitched. He braced for the moment the hand would clamp down over his airways and choke the life out of him.

“Tell me Felix, what makes you so special?"

Felix winced, the unexpected question dredging up something from the back of his mind, but from where, he couldn’t recall. He wasn’t sure if the killer wanted an answer or not, but erred on the side of staying as quiet and still as possible, like a camouflaged fawn. If he didn’t react, then the predator would have no reason to pounce. Becoming motionless, he tried to swallow down his fear. His jumping Adam's apple grazed the soft, well-worn leather of the gloved hand still lingering casually around his throat.

“Is it your perfect hair? The pretty face?”

Dancing fingers drifted further down his chest, roving thoughtfully over his pectoral, then each ridge of the taut abdominal muscles beneath the thin fabric of his dress shirt. An involuntary chill rippled through his body. Why was he touching him like this?!

The hand stopped at his hip. Fingertips pressed hard into the divot between his flank and lower abdomen— far too close to other, more important, things, and his mind screamed in repudiation.

“Your… physique ?” The killer sneered, brutally squeezing the tender flesh there, and Felix barely choked down on his pleading scream for mercy, that blade at his back at the forefront of his mind. Instead, he bit down hard on his lower lip and hissed quietly, pressing his forehead against the cool, dusty concrete of the pillar.

The bruising pain made him involuntarily squirm, and in response, the sharp steel at his back bit deeper, dragging a pitiful whine of distress from his lips. His mind was a frantic haze of confusion, curses, and pleas for mercy he dare not speak aloud.

“Or maybe you just know things? Why else would you willingly descend into a pit full of those nasty little fuckers? Couldn’t have only been for a good time, hm?”

Overwhelmed by the situation, his mind instantly deflected away the reminder, but his body still shuddered at the mere suggestion.

He felt something hot and wet gathering in the small of his back and sticking his shirt to his skin.

“C’mon, what was it Felix?” His jaw was gripped with a malicious ferocity and shaken hard enough to rattle his teeth. “Use that pretty little mouth of yours.”

His head was spinning, but Felix could still feel the intense gaze of those hollow eyes set in white from the corner of his eye. His mind fizzed. Did he actually want him to speak?

“I– I– ” He struggled to dredge a single word from his seizing lungs. The crushing pressure over his back, the hot breath on his neck, the hand squeezing his hip, the knife at his spine— it was too much.

A generator rumbled to life in the far distance and he flinched. Ghostface didn’t seem to notice nor care. Instead, the killer’s heavy, purring breaths hovered nearer to his ear, resonating within their plastic enclosure. The hand on his hip squeezed again.

Felix gulped down a yelp and tried to make his vocal chords do their job, “Th– the serum!”

“Oh? And what was this serum for?”

“E– Escape!”

The killer growled, low and rumbling against his back. It reverberated through his lungs and out into his panting breaths.

“How… interesting. You must really want to leave. I can’t quite relate. I rather like it here, especially now…” The killer chuckled darkly.

The leather glove roamed back up his chest to once again rest over his working throat, his growing stubble catching and scratching on the leather. Fingertips lingered over the thready pulse just under his jaw, feeling his blood rush percussively under his skin. Felix closed his eyes at the unwanted touch and a dull quiver lumbered through him in response. His body had seemingly resigned itself to his predicament, but his overwhelmed mind could barely sort through his situation enough to make sense of what Ghostface was saying.

“Obviously must not have worked by the way you’ve been moping around lately. Lucky me,” Ghostface chuckled again, pleased with himself, “Now, hold still…” 

God, this was it.

Despite his completely frayed nerves, Felix’s body somehow tensed even more than it already was.

The warm, enveloping pressure against his back lessened and finally moved away, but the piercing pain at his spine remained sharply present.

“That’s it…” The voice cooed, a bit further behind him this time.

Felix screwed his eyes shut and held his breath. His fingers strained under their tight grip on the concrete pillar as he waited for the killing blow.

The pointed pressure of the blade sluggishly receded from his lower back until it too disappeared entirely. Hot pain throbbed in its absence, and another bead of liquid ran down the bristling, sticky flesh of his lumbar and stuck to his damp shirt. Felix’s teeth grit hard, waiting for the blade to come back down on his exposed back. His hackles tingled with anticipation.

An eternity passed in silence.

His legs ached and trembled with stress, crying out for relief. He knew he couldn’t just stand here like this forever.

Eventually, he resolved to take a chance. Trembling unsteadily, he cracked open a single eye. He knew that if he turned around to find that Ghostface was still there, he’d be dead.

Increment by perilous increment, he turned his head to look further behind him, centimeter by centimeter, until the full view of the warehouse was in sight.

Empty.

The strength in his legs suddenly gave way and Felix crumpled to the ground against the pillar, lower back smarting sharply at the impact. His heart pounded fiercely against his sternum like it wanted to break free from his ribcage and flee into the night. His breaths were harsh and ragged as they sucked in the cold, musty air of the warehouse, now blessedly free of the acrid aroma that had saturated it only moments ago. Surging panic nearly seized him, but this time, he managed to clamp down on it before he was completely overwhelmed.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep and long for several minutes, until his heart no longer wanted to escape him.

When he opened his eyes again, they immediately flit to something deliberately set on the ground before him. His panic-stricken mind had completely overlooked it.

It was a medkit, but more important was what lay atop the medkit; another photo, face down, with its corners perfectly aligned with the metal box below. A message was inked on the back.

The heart he had just worked so hard on slowing stuttered back to an insistent thrum.

His head whirled around at the warehouse around him, briefly wondering if the killer had truly left him alone. He saw no screaming white faces peering at him through the shelves or around any corners, but that didn’t mean Ghostface wasn’t still here. The amount of hiding spots that existed between the endless corridors of shelving and boxes surrounding him overwhelmed his mind with paranoia, to the point that it shied away from the endless possibilities of imminent threats. If Ghostface was still hiding in here and watching him, there was nothing he could do about it. All he could do was accept the possibility and move forward.

Despite the dread sitting painfully in his throat, Felix got to his knees and shuffled over to the ‘gift’ that had been left for him.

With trembling fingers, he lifted the stiff square of paper off the medkit, and immediately noticed that it smelled faintly fragrant. The scent was floral and richly sweet— nothing like the heavy musk that followed the killer around. This smelled more like… perfume.

Felix shook his head, trying to brush the implications away to the back of his mind.

He sat back against the pillar with a wince, and braced himself to read the words on the back of the photo scrawled in a playful yet elegant cursive.

Looking forward to getting to know you Felix, inside and out.
❤ Danny

His stomach did a flip and dived into the darkest depths of his being. Just thinking of all the possible ways those words could be interpreted was making him physically ill, but what most set his teeth on edge was the willful signature notated by a whimsical little heart.

Was that his actual, real name? Why would a killer willfully give him his name? People only gave out their names when they intended to become fully acquainted with someone. Was that what had just happened? Had the killer just fully acquainted himself with Felix? Somehow he doubted that would be the end of it… 

Felix absently shook his head. His mind was brimming with questions and none of the possible answers he could think of eased his anxiety in the slightest.

Swallowing thickly, he looked again at the fragrant paper in his hand, remembering that there should be a picture on the other side of the note.

Steeling himself, Felix turned the photo over.

Like he suspected, he was once again looking at his own face.

In the photo, he was frowning pensively at something in the distance with rivulets of water strewn over his face and hair. The droplets that clung to the stray blonde strands hanging in his eyes shone like diamonds in the silver moonlight backlighting him. He was almost certain this had been taken at the stream the moment he’d caught wind of that scent for the first time. Distantly, Felix wondered how much of the argument with David the killer had seen.

He looked at the photo again, and the furrows in his expression deepened. There was no denying that the image was shot with great care for aesthetics. If not for the context, he may have even praised the photo as exceptionally artful, dare he say, picturesque . 

Tasting burning bile at the back of his throat, Felix shivered and set the photo to the side.

His eyes fixated on the medkit that had been placed on the ground before him, and he wrapped his arms protectively around his knees, trying to ignore the twinge of pain in his lower back.

Every other killer in the realm had seemed single-minded in their mission to slaughter him and the other poor souls trapped here, but Ghostface was different . He seemed genuinely delighted by his situation here. With Felix, he seemed almost.. fixated on him in particular— unless the others were hiding the fact that Ghostface was doing this to them as well, but somehow, he doubted it. They would have warned him. Claudette almost certainly would have said something.

No, Ghostface seemed to sincerely enjoy tormenting him specifically, like a cat batting around an injured mouse, only… 

The way he had touched him… The way those leather-gloved hands had roamed over his body, the words the killer had used, and how suffocatingly close he’d been…

A dizzying spell of nausea boiled his stomach and burned his throat. His skin crawled in violent waves like a marching legion of fire ants. 

No… No, it had to all just be for theatrics— just to mess with his head. Surely the killer didn’t actually want to… No, the Entity wouldn’t allow for that, right? He hadn’t heard of that happening to anyone here. This had to all just be a ploy to get inside his head so he’d be sitting here useless… But then what about the photos? The questions he’d asked? Why was he— 

His body jolted at a distant, high-pitched scream.

Feeling the dread seeping into his bones, he swallowed thickly and squeezed his eyes shut.

“ Scheiße. ”

He released another faltering breath, thick with anxiety, and looked at the photo sitting on the ground next to him. His own face stared back. The air was becoming saturated with the dulcet, flowery notes of the perfume.

Stomach roiling, Felix swiped the photo off the ground and stuffed it inside an engine block sitting on the shelf beside him. He sat back down and pressed his back against the column behind him, focusing on the pain flaring in his spine.

Ghostface didn’t actually intend on… doing that. He was just messing with him. He had to be. It hadn’t actually meant anything like that. If he did, he would have done it already; he’d just had the perfect opportunity. The killer was just trying to psych him out so he’d sit here reeling with fear.

He flinched as another scream faintly floated through the forest and bounced around the inside of the cavernous warehouse. Mind racing, his hands went to pull at his hair and he curled into a tremulous little ball. They were dying because of him, because of how pathetic he was being right now. He was giving Ghostface exactly what he wanted by staying here curled up on the floor.

No. He wouldn’t be manipulated like this. He wasn’t going to sit here and let Ghostface freely butcher the rest of his team while he cowered here in this warehouse because he’d been threatened a little bit. That’s all it had been— a manipulative ploy. Nothing more.

Taking in several deep, steadying breaths, Felix finally managed to get a handle on his fear. It was still there, churning his guts, but his need to prove his resilience to himself was overriding it.

He climbed awkwardly to his feet and winced at the twinge of pain in his back that he was doing a poor job of ignoring. He glanced down at the red box sat before him and scowled, but still swiped it up from the ground.

Despite his struggling gait, it took almost no time at all for him to find his way out of the derelict warehouse and back into the silent forest. He spent a much longer time searching for the other survivors, but never found any sign of them. Not a body, not blood, nothing. He hadn’t even heard or felt that rumbling boom and accompanying pressure wave of the Entity accepting a sacrifice.

What he did find though was the hatch, wide-open and welcoming.

He was too late.

Standing over the dark abyss, he grimaced and closed his eyes in silent eulogy. How long had he been sitting there cowering in that warehouse?

Long enough for Ghostface to slaughter the others.

They were dead because of him, and he was allowed to go free. Again. Why?

Deep down, he knew exactly why, but his mind simply could not accept it. Not knowing the motive was more acceptable.

Felix jumped into the safety of the hatch, thoughts churning with anxiety and cognitive dissonance.

Notes:

Thank you to everyone leaving comments and kudos. They really make my day!

Chapter 6: Drifting

Notes:

I decided to split up chapter 5 for the sake of flow, so now the second half is here.
Also you may have noticed the change in expected chapter length; it turns out I'm bad at estimating that kind of thing, so expect it to change again lmao.

By the auburn light of the red moon, David strut confidently through the forest on his way back to the campfire, smiling deviously as Nea recounted exactly how many times she’d burned the Wraith out of his invisibility with her flashlight.

“I could have sworn there were flames in his eyes, he was so mad!”

He laughed boisterously along with her. 

Despite how the blood moon cast their surroundings in a ghoulish, eerie aspect, David was in an exceptional mood.

He’d recently had a string of painful deaths against the latest addition to the Trials, which was a wild frenzied thing that dripped with golden goop, but escaping from the Wraith in the last Trial had been so trivial in comparison, David couldn’t help but feel like he was soaring over the fog. Like he was King again.

It always felt good, putting those fuckers in their place.

As they approached the treeline leading to the campfire, their laughs died away, and a new sound took hold of the quiet— some sort of commotion or argument.

David cast a questioning glance at his Swedish companion, who only shrugged in return. Curiosity piqued, they both picked up their pace.

An odd scene appeared before them as they entered the survivor camp.

That new blonde survivor, looking as pretentious as ever, seemed to be getting really worked up about something concerning the eggheads of the group.

David's brow arched high, honestly surprised the man was still around. David had quickly pegged him as the quiet, stuck-up, loner type, who seemed to spend most of his time wandering the forest or sitting quietly by himself staring at nothing. He also seemed to walk around with this air of quiet superiority about him that irked David to no end. A Bambi like him had no business acting like he did.

His type didn’t tend to stick around longer than a few Trials before being scooped back up by the Entity, and David was sure the prick would be gone by now. If he’d put money down on how long he thought he’d last, he would have lost it all by now.

Looking on the verge of tears, the survivor’s arms moved wildly in all different directions as he attempted to explain or convince them of something in that grating accent. In defiance of the laws of physics, his sweptback hair managed to maintain its perfectly groomed shape, and for some reason, that also made David irrationally angry. In fact, most things about the survivor— from his chic, tailored suit, to his pretty face, to those dazzling white teeth— also pissed him off. He had no right being that… good-looking — especially not in this place.

Dwight, who seemed to be the target of the whole spiel, was looking doubtful.

“I’m telling you, the serum that’s described in the journal, I’ve seen it before! In the real world! We need to go out there and gather that nectar so we can—”

“Slow down, slow down!” Dwight pleaded, “Start from the beginning, you’re not making any sense.”

“Oi, what’s all this about?” David asked, barging into the conversation.

“Felix seems to have discovered something,” said Adam, who stood to the side, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.

“Start over Felix,” said Dwight.

David had honestly forgotten the survivor’s name, and was glad someone else had mentioned it. It would have been a bad look if he’d been put on the spot, faffing about trying to refer to the man in a generic way.

Felix took in a deep breath and began again, this time more succinctly.

“I found a laboratory in the woods. It’s filled with manuscripts and equipment and all sorts of things we can use— but more importantly, I found a journal belonging to a man named Vigo. He talks about this serum he developed using the nectar from those golden flowers scattered around out there.” Felix’s expression turned almost manic. “This serum— he used it to escape !”

“Now that’s some bloody bullshite if I’ve ever heard any!”

“David, stop! Let him finish,” Dwight warned.

David responded with a scoff. Felix stared back at him with a hard look. David rolled his eyes in response.

Felix continued, “I wasn’t able to finish reading it before I was taken into a Trial, but I know it’s true because I’ve seen this serum before, back in the real world. I think it’s why I was brought here. If what you all say is true of this Blight infestation, then we don’t have much time. We have to gather as much nectar as we can!”

Dwight shifted his weight, considering their newest survivor, “Sounds like there’s no time to waste then.”

David balked.

Wait, Dwight just took him at his word? Just like that?

“You should probably show us all this lab first, then we can talk about collecting the nectar.”

“I’ll come too,” Claudette interjected, “This sounds like my area of expertise.”

She and Dwight both smiled at each other and turned back toward Felix, who was now looking more determined than ever.

“Lead the way Felix,” Dwight said.

David gaped in disbelief, “Dwight, hold up a minute!”

Catching David’s eye, the veteran survivor waved the others on and moved over to him.

“Dwight, you can’t be serious about this. It’s obviously a waste of time. Shouldn’t we be discussing how to beat that new monster running around there? That thing’s killing us all faster than we can get a single genny done.”

Nea nodded next to him in agreement, “Yea, Dwight, it’s been pretty rough out there. Shouldn’t we be strategizing?”

Dwight sighed, and David could see one of the man’s long, placating excuses coming in hot.

“I hear you guys, but we also need to be thinking about long term possibilities. There’s always going to be some new kind of killer or environment or some other new pitfall we have to navigate as a team. We can keep doing that for eternity. But a chance to escape? I think that’s worth taking some time to look into, however small the chance might be.”

David shook his head, “Mate, you know as well as I do there ain’t no bloody escape. We’ve looked. We’ve tried . It’s not worth putting our energy and hope into and getting all worked up about it for nothing.”

Dwight didn’t immediately answer him. Instead, the man continued to look him over, almost thoughtfully, to the point where David was squirming rather uncomfortably on his feet.

“David, I want you to do me a favor,” he finally said, and David’s internal alarm bells began to sound off. “When we come back, I want you to accompany Felix to wherever he wants to go and help him get his nectar.”

“Wot?! Ya fookin serious mate?! Ya can’t be—”

“I am serious! You’re going to help him with whatever he needs and make sure he gets back safe with the—”

“Fookin shite arse—”

“— with the nectar, alright?!”

David stared darkly back at the man.

“It’s obvious you need something like this. You’ll thank me later.”

David scoffed dramatically, almost bordering on childish, “Thought we was mates…”

And with that, Dwight followed after the group going to the lab, leaving David to stew in his ire.

… 

David awoke with a gasp, choking on the latent pain of the Entity’s talons piercing his chest. He sat bolt upright, trying to claw some sense of himself back from the darkness of disembodiment. Slowly, the silent, shadowy forest of the present came into focus, and the phantom apparitions of the past faded back into memory.

He sat up and gulped thickly, throat sticking painfully and as dry as a tumbleweed. There was a deep, disturbing feeling of hollowness in his chest, and he clutched at the aching emptiness uselessly.

Coming back from the dead was never a pleasant process, but it had been a long while since the disorientation had been this bad. Usually, it correlated with his emotional state beforehand, and the previous Trial had been nothing short of a complete disaster. He’d never been so incompetently useless, and he was sure Dwight would be questioning him about it later.

The death dream though… that had been particularly vivid. 

Dreams or hallucinations in a disembodied death state weren’t exactly unheard of, but the fact that it was a memory, specifically one of Felix, made it noteworthy.

David sighed.

Not even in death was his mind able to free itself of Felix. How could he expect to manage such a thing while he was lucid and whole?

A part of him wished he could go back to that brash, uncaring version of himself who’d been so quick to write Felix off. Things had been so much simpler back then… but they’d also been dull and dark. Before, it had sometimes been difficult coming up with reasons to carry on. Sure, he’d had the others to care for and protect, but once he’d gotten to know Felix, with him it was… different. Purposeful. He wanted to spend all his time around the man— wanted to protect him and care for him, but he knew now that trying would only end up hurting them both.

He couldn’t do it anymore. The only way forward was to forget.

Sighing deeply once more, David dragged himself up from the ground and swayed unsteadily. The forest spun around him for a few moments, but he managed to plant his feet solidly beneath him. Eventually, the ground settled into a flat plane.

For a moment, he thought about just going back to his secret refuge in the forest, but then again, it had been a while since he’d last visited the camp. Considering his most recent performance as a survivor, it would probably be prudent of him to pick up one of his good medkits or a flashlight for the next Trial so he’d have more of a fighting chance. Then again, there was a chance he’d run into Dwight… or Felix.

David grumbled, weighing his options and silently debating with himself.

There was a flutter of feathers in the canopy overhead, breaking the silence. The unexpected noise made him jump involuntarily. David scowled and glared up at the glassy eyed crow. 

It side-eyed him pointedly and cawed.

“The bloody ‘ell do you want?”

It cawed at him again, this time a bit harsher.

David hissed through his teeth, “Fine, I’m goin’ I’m goin’… hate this fuckin’ forest anyways…”

With one final, warbling squawk aimed at his back, David set out into the labyrinthian woodland, internally directing it to take him to the survivor camp.

He figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least have a look.

One long, plodding trek later, and in the distance appeared that familiar orange light that danced and blinked between the trees. His heart leapt with anxiety at the prospect, and the closer he got to the treeline, the harder it thumped against his sternum.

Finally, he stopped just short of the clearing behind a large oak— close enough to observe, but far enough to avoid notice.

There were only a few survivors huddled around the campfire. Jake leaned his back against the log, head bowed, and Adam sat silently staring at the flames. Kate lightly strummed at her guitar, humming softly to herself.

Feeling the calm of the scene ebb into his body, David almost stepped out of his hiding spot toward the campfire, but happened to notice a little mound of cloth a few meters behind the lounging survivors. David only had to stare at it a second longer before noticing the golden blonde locks of hair flowing like water from beneath the blanket.

Felix was curled up in a pile of blankets, sleeping peacefully.

His heart wrenched at the realization. Like the moon to the Earth, he immediately felt drawn into the man’s orbit. He was nearly overwhelmed by an instinctual need to sit by Felix and keep vigil over him while he slept. He wanted to sit quietly next to him, gently brushing away the golden strands that would fall into his lax face. That way, he would be able to easily watch for any hints of distress that would signal the nightmares that so commonly plagued the man. He’d gingerly prod him awake and… 

No. Stop.

It wasn’t possible. He had to stop.

All of a sudden, that empty, aching hollowness in his chest had returned, burning deeper every second he spent staring at the little bundle of blankets gently rising and falling in the firelight.

Coming here had been a mistake.

David finally tore his gaze away from the campfire, and that smoldering hollow in his chest finally lessened, but only by the barest hint.

He stalked silently back into the woods and back into his self-imposed exile, wondering if this hollow, empty pain would ever go away.

Chapter 7: Echoes

Notes:

Little change of pace here. Yes this entire chapter was inspired by a single line of flavor text on a cosmetic 😆

Felix pulled up the sleeve of his overcoat and checked his watch for the twentieth time. From his seat on the bench in front of the restaurant, he looked up and down the side street for what must have been the fiftieth time. Another streetcar turned the corner, lighting up the black, rain-glossed pavement as it passed him by.

Again, he checked his watch. Still 7:46pm. It had been difficult to discern exactly when the sun had set due to the earlier rain, but now, the clouds had broken and glowed a spectral blue hue that was accentuated by the burnt orange of civilization's sodium-vapor lamp lights. The few stars he could see speckled the scene with pinpricks of white.

He caught his leg bouncing, the treacherous thing, and immediately made it stop.

There was no reason to be this nervous. He was still fifteen minutes early. He’d told himself the same ten minutes ago when he’d been twenty-five minutes early, but it hadn’t helped.

Felix sighed and let his head fall into his hands, careful to avoid messing up his painstakingly styled hair.

This whole plan was a mistake. He should have just gone with a regular, down-to-earth first date instead of this oddball scheme of subversion. Most of all, he never should have let Lauren bully him into asking out her friend in the first place.

Felix had always been the odd one out at the office— the one guy who never had a partner to bring with him to all the workplace get-togethers. It was also awkward whenever his clients would invite him to a football match or some other social event and he didn’t have someone to bring along. It was the one crack in his suave, debonaire persona that he’d crafted to help him navigate the business side of his artform.

It hadn’t been for lack of trying, though.

In the past, he’d tried dating several women, but things had never gone well for him. Felix was of the philosophy that a potential partner should like him for who he really was, so he’d go on the date as his normal, bookish, down-to-earth self. Most women never seemed to be interested and the same could be said of himself by the end of the night. With other dates, however, there was sometimes this underlying shadow of insincerity beneath those pearly whites and batting eyelashes. Felix wasn’t exactly famous, but he also wasn’t a nobody, especially when it came to his family’s reputation. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was obvious when people were fishing for wealth and affluence. Fortunately, he could always tell when someone was smiling through their teeth at him.

Perhaps he’d just been dating the wrong people or maybe he’d just been presenting himself wrong, but at some point, he’d decided to just throw in the towel. He preferred to spend his time working, sketching, or studying anyways.

Being alone had worked out for him up until this point, if not a bit isolating, but he never really minded it all that much— that was until his friends and colleagues had started to question him about it. How could a man as refined and successful as himself be alone? What kind of handsome gentleman doesn’t have a darling lady hanging off his arm?

In the end, after much pestering from his colleague and a phone number shoved in his face, he’d managed to convince himself that maybe he really did need a girlfriend to complete the picture.

And if that were true, should he really be presenting himself as his regular old, boring, introspective self?

Not if he wanted to impress.

Another streetcar sped by him on the rain soaked road, splashing through puddles as it hurried along its route.

He checked his watch again; 7:54pm. Inside the time frame a punctual person might show up.

He looked both ways down the sidewalk and across the street. Lauren had said she would be tall and blonde, like him— obviously a perfect match.

Felix belatedly rolled his eyes and rubbed his chilled hands together. Spring was slowly doddering its way to Leipzig. It honestly couldn’t come fast enough in his opinion. He was sick of snow, ice, and rain. He’d entertained the idea of fleeing somewhere south for a while, like Italy, but things had just been so busy at his firm. It was difficult to get away for any period; even this little date was going to put stress on his deadlines.

“Hello?”

His head immediately shot up. Bright blue eyes stared back into his.

“Are you… Felix?”

He gaped stupidly up at the tall, blonde woman before him, tightly gripping her pocketbook and looking uncertain. Cascading golden locks framed her striking features. Her pert nose and rounded cheeks were flushed a rosy red from the chilly, mid-March air. She clasped together the collar a thick, royal-blue wool coat that draped over her hosiery-encased knees and obscured her dress. She looked cold.

Despite this, she was beautiful. 

An arrow of doubt launched from the back of his mind, sailed through his being, and buried itself in his chest. His heart seized with panic. Did he really want to go on this date as fake Felix? Did he really intend on play-acting his way through this whole date as his charismatic business persona? Should he just scrap this whole plan and go as his regular old self?

Well, he was already wearing his old team shirt… If he was still this indecisive, he probably should have stared at his mirror a lot longer…

Feeling the pressure of her uncertain gaze, he met her eyes again and made a knee-jerk decision. Felix blinked and jumped to his feet. The mask effortlessly slipped into place, like a well-worn lambskin glove.

“I— Yes! I’m so sorry I didn’t properly greet you. You must be Christine!"

Expression immediately brightening, she offered her hand in greeting, “Yes, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

He took it gently and bowed his head in a demure, respectable fashion and she smiled politely back, returning the gesture.

“Lauren’s told me so much about you!”

“Oh lord, I hope not,” he fired back with a toothy grin.

She giggled coyly, “Don’t worry, it was mostly good things.”

“I knew I could trust Lauren. I don’t know what I’d do if it ever got out that I collected bootlegged Russian Beanie Babies— oh shit!”

She laughed again at his feigned horror, “Alright Mr. Funny Man, what’s the plan for tonight? I’m starving!”

He spun on his heel and started for the restaurant behind him, “Oh, just this place right here.”

“Uhh… it looks closed.”

“Hm? Really?” Exaggerating his confusion, he took a long look at the sign on the door, squinting and leaning in closer to read it, “Closed on Tuesdays. Huh. I guess it is closed.”

He turned back to Christine, who was now looking pointedly leery.

“Looks like we’ll just have to go with my backup plan.”

“Oh really now?” she said with a hint of an amused smile.

Christine appeared to be forgiving of his antics and still was along for the ride. Good.

“Yep. Just around the corner.”

They walked for a while down the mildly populated sidewalk, past several boutiques, a candy shop, and a breakfast cafe before finally stopping in front of an exceptionally garish storefront. Cool as a cucumber, he planted himself in front of the building and basked in the blinding fluorescent lights. The huge sign painted the entire rain-glossed street in electric blue, reading: MIDNIGHT BOWLING.

“ Bowling?! Are you serious?! ”

A little bolt of fear coursed through him. He let his mask of confidence drop momentarily to gauge her reaction from the corner of his eye. If he’d misjudged her character from what Lauren had told him, his actual backup plan was a very nice French restaurant around the corner he’d made reservations for days ago. He could play this off as another cheeky joke, and later— 

“Oh my god! I haven’t been bowling in ages! My Dad used to take me all the time!” She laughed with ecstatic glee, like she was a little girl again, and Felix knew he’d had it right the first time.

The mask slipped back on and he smiled coolly, “Oh, so you are well-versed in the high art of bowling?”

She giggled again, and arched a provocative brow, “You could say I know a thing or two.”

“Color me intrigued,” he said, matching her expression.

Without further delay, they entered the kitschy establishment. Christine practically pranced her way in. The inside was even gaudier than the outside, boasting some psychedelic artwork of stars and planets glowing under an array of ultraviolet lights. The sultry aroma of sweat and greasy food hung heavy in the air.

They rented a lane, ordered some currywurst and two Hefeweizen beers, but decided to skip the shoe rentals. Felix was already wearing his own pair of semi brogues that would be appropriate to bowl in, while Christine decided that she’d just slip out of her heels.

When Felix finally shed his overcoat and revealed the green and black pinstriped uniform from his old workplace bowling team, Christine gasped. He completed the look with some vintage brown shades that he quickly snapped onto his face, and a cheeky ‘blue steel’ modeling pose.

She laughed again, completely enthralled by his performance, “ Oh my god , you were on a team?”

“Yep. Me and some co-workers before I decided to start the firm with Lauren.”

“You guys win any tournaments?”

“Ehhh, I cannot confirm nor deny—”

She laughed again.

“—Hey, we got pretty close a couple times. I was a force to be reckoned with back in the day, but I’m probably a bit rusty, so go easy on me, okay?” he said, picking up a ball and swinging it experimentally.

She picked up her own ball, her little black dress hugging her slender body tightly as she did so, and sidled up next to him, “Ooh not a chance. I was taught to never ease up on a guy— especially if I liked him. In fact, I’m pretty sure I might end up making you cry by the end of this. You think you’re ready for that?”

He met her seductive gaze behind his obscuring shades with his own intrigued arch of his brow, but felt only the slightest inkling of diffuse interest in his lower belly.

“Oh, I very much look forward to your attempt, Ms. Müller.”

Quite the thespian was he.

In all honesty, Felix did not care for bowling. He’d been unwillingly recruited to the team because they’d needed a fourth, and he was seen as the cool, approachable guy that was up for anything. He’d treated the sport just like any other skill in his life and learned it as best as he could, but every time the team practiced, he wished he was sitting at his drafting board or reading a book. The price of pretense. At the very least, all the practice made him good enough to impress people, like his date.

To his surprise, although he probably should have expected it, Christine turned out to be quite good. Felix admittedly had a hard time keeping up with her despite his skills and experience. Eventually, with the help from a few more sips of his beer, he was able to shake off the rust and managed a few strikes in row— enough to pull ahead. On his very last throw though, he choked. 

Just before his ball sailed into the pins, it veered off course into the gutter and he lamented dramatically. Christine lightheartedly taunted him with a confident smirk and sent her ball home for the strike and the win.

She cheered in exuberant victory over him while he sat and pouted with an amused grin curling his lips. He’d hoped to impress his date with his skills, but in the end, he’d actually become the impressed one.

“Damn, I think I might actually cry. You’re so good it’s spooky. Where’d you learn?”

With a practiced elegance, Christine slid into the small circular booth opposite him, puffing with relief after a well-fought victory.

“Like I said, mostly my Dad. He taught me most of the basics.” Her expression turned wistful. “Before his business took off, he uh.. worked as a janitor at a bowling alley for his second job. He’d pick me up from school and I basically got the run of the place while he worked his shift. Not much to do except learn to bowl.”

Felix nodded as he listened, sincerely sympathetic, “Sounds like a hard childhood.”

She shrugged and took a sip of her beer, “Eh, it wasn’t so bad. I got to see him all the time and we had fun. He worked really hard to get us into a better situation and by the time I was in high school, we were pretty well off.”

“Single parent?”

Christine nodded again, “Mother left a year after I was born. We still don’t know where she went.”

Feeling somewhat off-kilter by her openness and vulnerability, Felix decided it was only fair to try and connect with her by airing some of his own old wounds.

“I can sort of relate. I lost my father when I was a teenager. It was.. I still don’t really understand what happened to him. I– er…”

She watched him thoughtfully, waiting for him to continue with warm pity in her eyes, but he could not. The words that would make him shed his armor were stuck firmly in his throat.

Her eyes suddenly lit up with awareness, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get us on this tangent. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It’s not exactly first date conversation material,” she said, giving a good-natured smile.

Feeling how his mask had slipped, Felix tried to reorient himself to that smooth, unbothered caricature of himself, but found it impossible. His heart fluttered in his throat as the panic began to take hold.

He forced a pleasant smile and met her gaze, “I’m sorry, I– I’ll be right back.”

“What?” Her manicured eyebrows shot up to her hairline, the surprise obvious on her face.

His hands went up like a shield, attempting to placate, “It’s okay I just— I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.”

He tried to smile one more time at her, but knew it looked uncanny. He turned and fled to the men’s restroom, leaving his beautiful, but very confused and worried date alone at their table.

Busting through the swinging door and nearly running over another alarmed patron, Felix lurched over to the last sink. His breaths were coming faster now. Fumbling for the knobs, he turned on the sink and splashed water over his face, trying to get a handle on his surging anxiety.

What the hell just happened? Did he really just run away from her like a spooked deer?

He bit down on his lip and gripped the counter hard enough for the blood to leave his fingertips.

His father.

He hadn’t realized that simply talking about him would be such a pitfall. It was a part of his life he’d packed away and buried deep— deep enough where he wouldn’t ever have to think about again. It’d just been something he’d done without realizing after his mother had passed. When her heart had finally given out, there had been nothing else to remind him of his father except the estate he never visited. When he’d buried her, he’d buried the memory of him along with her.

It’d just been so long since he’d last thought about it, he hadn’t realized that digging it up again would be so painful. He’d let it fester, like a rotting splinter that had healed over, but what else could he do? Casually tell a therapist that his father had been abducted by some unfathomable fucking shadow thing that he and his ancient secret society had been fighting for centuries? Sure fucking thing.

He’d tried to convince himself many times that what had taken his father hadn’t been supernatural; that there was a perfectly logical, perfectly natural explanation for what had happened down there below that rotting internment camp, but he could never seem to reconcile those theories with what he had seen… dark, insectoid claws and living black fog, as black and liquid as crude oil. There was no cave in, there was no floor collapse, there had been no hidden trap doors, and his father and the other parents never had a motive to abandon their families. Nothing made sense, and nothing ever would. 

It was foolish of him to think he’d managed to get over it by now. More than he realized, his father was yet another part of his true self that he’d worked so hard to suppress for all these years— another crack in the mask— another part of his psyche that he’d hidden away, even from himself.

Felix sighed.

What was he even doing here? Why was he trying to pawn himself off to this woman like a counterfeit Rolex? What was the point?

He stared at the other Felix in the mirror. He looked damp and doleful, like a wet cat.

He’d run away from Christine because his facade had shattered; because his vulnerable, anxiety-ridden innards had been exposed to the light, and he’d been afraid of what she might see… 

On the other hand, would it really be so bad?

Yes.

Felix shivered, but tried to seriously examine the possibility again.

Okay, would it be the end of the world if he tried to connect with Christine as his authentic self? Certainly not on the subject of supernatural fogs or secret societies. Neither on the subject of fathers, he didn’t think he was ready for even that, but moreso about things he was actually passionate about? Maybe she’d be open to getting to know the real him?

What would be the harm in trying?

He drew in a long breath and held it, letting his lungs absorb all the latent oxygen that they could, and then puffed it out. Adamantly, Felix peered into the hollowed out eyes of that downtrodden, mirror-world version of himself, and spoke directly to him.

"Just act natural and stop pretending. Be yourself. You’ll be okay. You deserve someone who likes you for you.”

The mirror Felix seemed to perk up at this. He stood tall and even seemed more resolute.

With a curt nod to his reflection, and a renewed sense of self, Felix strolled out of the restroom and back to the woman he had abandoned.

As he approached the table, Christine caught sight of him, her face still creased with worry. She’d apparently been holding her breath, because the next thing she did was quickly puff it all out.

“Phew, I thought you’d run away on me! I’m so sorry about the thing I brought up, I didn’t realize—”

“No, no, it’s okay, you couldn’t have known,” he assured her with a shake of his head, smiling kindly at her, “Actually, I don’t think I knew either.”

She gave a tight, apologetic smile as he reclaimed the spot across from her, “It’s okay. Everyone has their scars, visible or not. It’s what makes us human. We can talk about something else though. How about you start us off this time?”

Letting him pick the subject to avoid stumbling over any more of his emotional landmines? How conscientious of her.

He mentally balked at his own reaction and chided himself. She was just trying to be accommodating and empathetic. There was obviously no ill-will.

Letting down his defenses, Felix took a moment to think on his interests. His real interests.

“Oh! I just finished a book by Otfried Höffe. Critique of Freedom. It was a very interesting philosophical exploration of the concept of freedom and its influence on our modern society. I’m not sure I agree with everything he says, but he certainly gave me a lot to think about. Do you read at all?”

Her eyes were a bit wider than before, “Oh uhhh,” she chuckled apologetically, “I actually haven’t read a book since I finished my degree. Guess it’s just hard for me to sit still and read quietly when I know I could be out with my friends. Ever visit any of the clubs around here? I hear Sky Club is pretty good.”

He shifted in his seat and shrugged, “Eh, sometimes, when my colleagues want to get out.”

That was mostly true. He only went out with his friends when he needed to get drunk.

She clicked her tongue, “I get it, Mr. Big Shot Architect is a very busy man. No time to waste on partying. What other things are you into?”

Felix thought about his choice with a bit more care, “Uhh.. Oh! Do you travel much? I visited Seoul for the New Year. Great food. Amazing architecture. So unique and innovative! I probably spent more time looking up than in front of me!” he said, smiling warmly at the memory.

Christine shrugged. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes, “I’ve been around the continent a bit, mostly for work— never very far East though. I have a difficult time getting used to the food outside of my little bubble. I’ve gotten lunch from the same restaurant twice a week for the past year, if that tells you anything.” She chuckled again.

As Felix listened to her speak, he felt himself begin to list. Traveling the world, exploring new places, trying new foods… It was something he was quite passionate about. Learning about the world beyond his home had been a central part of his life since he was a small child. His parents had brought him along everywhere they went, and he’d grown to appreciate the uniqueness and insights of every culture he visited. It was an inclination he’d taken into his adulthood, and now made an effort to go abroad as often as he could; almost like it was his responsibility to experience as much of the world as possible. Felix couldn’t understand why someone would want to stay in one place, eat the same food, and have the same experiences all their life.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Huh?” He jolted to attention.

“You kinda zoned out there for a second. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Oh sorry, yes I'm fine.”

She looked him up and down with a skeptical eye, “You sure? You seem a bit.. off since you came back.”

Felix breathed wearily. Of course he was acting differently— he’d taken off the mask. To her, though, it seemed like something was suddenly wrong with him. It was his own fault, really; this was the result of introducing himself as his fake persona.

Watching Christine’s face, muddled with concern and uncertainty, Felix couldn’t help but partially slip the mask back on, just to test her reaction.

“Hey, do you like football? What’s your favorite team?”

Christine immediately latched on to that, and went into an extended diatribe about Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich and the merits of each team, as well as their likelihood of making it to the Champion’s League. All of this he pretended to listen to with great interest, occasionally interjecting with his own rehearsed lines pertaining to Germany’s top teams. He knew just enough to keep up appearances.

Her interest in him seemingly reignited, the conversation quickly deviated toward his work. He gave her the abridged version, knowing she probably wasn’t the type to appreciate how he managed to tastefully incorporate Victorian design elements into modern Parametricist Architecture. He thought about bringing up another subject that they might both share an interest in, like art history, but somehow, he doubted she would have anything to add to the conversation.

Christine then veered into talking about her own line of work— marketing and accounting for her father’s business, and how she was currently trying to break into the modeling business. It was proving difficult, but she was having some small successes and was anticipating a bigger break soon.

At some point though, Felix lost track of the conversation, if you could call it that, and found himself nodding along and sipping beer as she talked. An indeterminate amount of sips later, Felix had knocked the mug back and was dismayed to find the bottom of his glass. He stared at it longingly, becoming slowly aware that his mind was now pleasantly fuzzed.

He looked up from the dregs of foam sitting in the bottom of his glass, and realized she was staring at him expectantly, waiting for his response. The confusion took a moment longer than usual to clear from his mind.

“Huh?” 

“I asked if you were ready,” she said, smiling deviously.

“Uhh, sure,” he said, smearing a dopey grin over his face.

She giggled then smiled, her eyes hooded, “Alright then, Mr. Felix Richter— What makes you so special?”

A tiny jolt of unease passed over him but died away as quickly as it had come. It was a quirky question, but innocent enough. There was no reason to feel anxious about it.

He chuckled warily, “Now what could you mean by that, Ms. Müller?”

Christine eyed him with a mild, amused reproach, the corner of her lip curling up, “I ask the same question to all my dates. It's a sort of litmus test to help me decide whether or not I wanna take you home with me tonight.”

At that, her brow raised suggestively, and like an actor playing his part, Felix automatically matched it with a provocative look of his own. The alcohol was doing a fine job of making the shift back into his act all the more effortless.

He opened his mouth, on the verge of answering without thought, but paused.

This was a crucial juncture for him.

What did he actually want to do here?

Christine seemed like a nice enough person. She’d shown real concern during his moment of weakness and was considerate of the thing that had upset him. He knew for a fact that not all women would have responded to him in that way. If anything, they might have even become indignant. He found himself now appreciating this detail about her that he’d earlier overlooked.

On the other hand, they had precious few things in common. She was exceptionally social and outgoing, while he was introverted and introspective. However, she would be an excellent match for the version of himself that was social and outgoing. Christine and that man would match up like a pair of socks— the perfect companion for the high-class, debonair businessman.

But was that what he really wanted? Did he want to be with someone who would never be able to truly understand him? Felix thought about the kind of person who would be able to grasp the full picture; to stare into the abyss that was his inner world and comprehend it fully. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what that person might look like. There were just so many things, dark and terrible things, that had latched onto his life like blood-sucking leeches, stealing away his joy for life. Those things he could never safely discuss with other people. So many things that had stained his existence… 

Things that made him special.

What did that even mean?

Felix thought about his success in the world of architecture, how he’d designed unique buildings around the world unlike anything anyone had ever seen. He thought about the many prestigious awards sitting in the storage closet of his office, most of which he’d earned before his mid-twenties. He thought about his family estate in Coburg, sitting unoccupied since his mother died of heart failure eight years ago, and which he was paying to upkeep instead of selling. He thought about the secret society his parents had belonged to and their secret meeting on Dyer Island. He thought about the inexplicable way in which his father had disappeared before his very eyes as a teenager, and his frantic search for any information to make sense of it. Finally, he thought about the point at which he’d finally convinced himself that some things in this world could never be explained, and his nightmares had finally stopped.

He stared back at Christine, thinking of all of these broken puzzle pieces of his life that refused to fit together, of which he hadn’t ever managed to assemble into the complete person known as ‘Felix Richter’. He realized that there was not a person in the world that would ever be able to make sense of the puzzle, let alone piece it together. 

That person did not exist, and it was time for him to stop looking for them.

Felix smiled wryly, and gave Christine the subversive, self-deprecating answer he knew she was looking for.

“Absolutely nothing.”

…

Felix stirred hazily from his slumber, steeping in the warmth of old memories and the vague recollection of another body wrapped around his own in the mellow blackness of night.

His ears tingled with the reverberation of a plucked guitar string, and his nose scrunched with the faint, but pungent smell of charred wood. The sound of a crackling fire filled the background.

This input from his senses didn’t match with where he thought he was.

Felix shot upright.

For a moment, the scene before him didn’t make sense in his mind, and he whirled from the disorientation, but slowly, his true reality came back into focus.

Kate was strumming softly at her guitar. Jake looked carefully back at him. The eternal, ethereal fire. The survivor camp. The Entity.

The dream faded back into the recesses of his mind.

He looked down at the abundance of tattered blankets he was wrapped in and began to recall how he’d ended up here.

After escaping the Trial— and his latest encounter with that killer— Felix had made a frantic blitz back to the safety of the campfire. The others had been caught off guard by his panic and had asked him what was wrong, but he couldn’t manage to articulate anything. He feared what they would say when he told them about how he’d done nothing and let the others die. Instead of pressing him, Kate noticed the pool of red soaking the clothes at his back and without a word, guided him over to the fire to sit.  Using the medkit he’d brought back with him, Adam had made quick work of the injury, which turned out to be rather shallow.

Only then had the exhaustion hit him. 

Kate and the others had taken notice of the way his head had nodded in warning of imminent slumber, and so had brought out their stockpile of old, tattered quilts and blankets and ushered him underneath the pile. Whether his weariness had come about from the stress of his recent existence or the unusually long period of time since his most recent reincarnation, he’d easily fallen into the respite of slumber all the same. It had been blessedly free of his usual harrowing nightmares, but the dream had been equally as painful, if not more.

In the beginning, his relationship with Christine had been primarily for his own social benefit, but over time, he’d steadily grown to care deeply for her— especially when his child had come into the picture. To say otherwise would be a treacherous falsity; he loved his family more than anything.

Back then though, that first date had been nothing but a pitiful performance— a charade that had somehow led to something more meaningful in spite of his emotional fumbling. It wasn’t something he liked to reminisce on, so he’d squirreled the memory away to the back of his mind to gather dust; only for it to resurface at a time like this.

He guessed that it had something to do with the odd question that Ghostface had posed to him, and his subconscious had simply connected the dots.

Felix felt his muscles involuntarily shudder. He nestled back into his warm cocoon of blankets and felt a modicum more at ease.

Another improvisational chord resonated the air.

He still couldn’t understand the question in either context; it was so vague as to be meaningless. Sure, there was plenty about him that was unique, extraordinary even, but special? What did that even mean?

Felix sighed and snuggled further into the soft warmth, letting the distressing thoughts be carried away by the floating chords of Kate’s guitar. He couldn’t recall feeling more at ease in recent memory than he was in this moment. It was amazing how something as simple as a pile of fabric could have such an effect on someone’s emotional state.

Before long, Felix’s mind was again becoming hazy with the warm fog of sleep.

Right before he drifted off though, a pang of anxiety suddenly dragged him away from the peace of unconsciousness. Groggily, he cracked open one eye and saw a wispy tendril of black fog. He jerked upright to see that, yes, the Entity was yet again calling him into a Trial, and his heart sank.

A feeble whimper escaped him at the mere possibility of having to face the same killer again , and he felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. Ghostface had escalated things to a disturbing degree last time, and he couldn’t even begin to speculate what he’d do the next time they met. His mind refused to go there.

“Good luck Felix.”

The others had apparently taken notice of his distress, and were now watching him with sympathy in their eyes as the fog coiled around him. The voice had been Kate’s. She gave a weak smile, like she wanted to reassure him that things would be okay, but knew it would only be a lie.

Trying to suppress how his limbs trembled, Felix tightly wrapped his arms around himself and shut his eyes, waiting for the inescapable mist to deliver him to his fate. The sounds of the fire were replaced with a deafening, muffled silence, as if cotton balls had been stuffed into his ears. He heard nothing except the rhythmic rush of blood in his head and the distant clicks and chirps that plucked at the air around him. It always felt like something was out there, surreptitiously lurking in the ocean of murk and waiting for its moment to pounce.

Felix only opened his eyes when his sense of hearing returned.

He was in a junkyard. An odd green haze hung like a miasma in the gloomy sky. Next to him was a tower of crushed cars that creaked and groaned in warning. 

Trying desperately to keep his anxiety at bay, Felix got to his feet and peered cautiously towards the center of the hunting grounds that happened to be the entrance of a defunct gas station. His eyes scanned the scene carefully for any hint of movement— any sort of fleeting shadow that could possibly indicate the killer he so desperately prayed was not in this Trial with him.

From nowhere, the Nurse blinked into existence in the middle of the field and let loose a haunting screech, and he nearly collapsed with relief.

Never before in his life did Felix ever think he would be this happy to see a murderer so intent on killing him.

Notes:

Fun fact: Felix’s girlfriend is only ever mentioned once in his whole lore, hmmm 🤔

Flashback ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated, but I was really liking the insights it was giving me into Felix’s character. It's all very purposeful, but sorry if it was boring 😅. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming in the next chapter!

Chapter 8: Furtive Chase

Notes:

⚠️ Spoiler trigger warnings in the end notes⚠️

“NO!”

David lunged forward, reaching desperately for the hand that had just barely slipped his grasp. Their fingertips had just barely brushed. He reached forward again into the wide open, hellish maw, trying to catch the hand falling away from his, but it was too late. The gaping, glowing jaws in the earth had already swallowed him up.

Felix was gone, and he wasn’t ever coming back.

David suddenly felt like he’d been lanced by a sharp, shadowy darkness. An agonizing, abyssal pain bloomed in his chest. It reached down into his depths, into his very core, and closed around him like a strangling fist, snuffing out the smoldering embers of his soul. Left in its place was a great, gaping hollow of grief; endlessly empty, overwhelming, and black. The hollow began to expand, eating away at his being and threatening to swallow him whole.

Felix was gone.

In a horrified shock, David stared into the empty pit in the earth, hand still outstretched toward nothing, feeling the depthless, dark pit at his center grow even wider.

He was gone!

“FELIX!!”

Feeling hot tears of grief pricking at his eyes, David collapsed to the ground, but suddenly felt himself lurch forward. He fumbled for the ledge to steady himself, but found no purchase in the loose scree and liquid soil. He slid further over the edge and towards that endless chasm.

The abyss had taken Felix, and now it was trying to take him as well.

Again, he grasped for the nearby ledge, trying desperately to arrest his fall, but this time, his hand failed to come into contact with anything, almost like it didn’t even exist. His body lurched forward into empty air.

… 

David gasped into wakefulness like a drowning man breaking through the skin of a frosted lake.

Instead of a fiery gaping abyss, he was met with an ocean of green. He blinked furiously, trying to recover his mental faculties from the fog of his nightmare to make sense of his situation.

Again, his sense of balance faltered, and David flailed, trying to stop himself from diving headfirst into the dark green sea. With a metallic clang and a burst of pain, his hand managed to make contact with something solid. He clutched at it like a lifeline, and his slide into oblivion was halted.

David sucked in a breath and blinked hard, finally realizing the great, green sea below him was the forest canopy.

He knew exactly where he was now.

A bead of sweat rolled off the tip of his nose and fell into the void below. Gingerly, he edged himself away from the open air and back onto the rusty catwalk of the water tower he was dangling from. When it was safe enough to do so, David rolled himself away from the ledge and splayed out onto the steel grating of the platform, staring unseeing into the empty sky.

He suddenly felt like all the air had been snatched from his lungs, and he immediately started working to take it back with great, gluttonous gulps. The taste of salt was prominent on his lips. He realized his skin was damp with a layer of cold sweat, and his clothes were completely soaked through.

Still gasping for breath, David squeezed his eyes shut but immediately regretted it. The last image of his nightmare appeared prominently in his mind; Felix reaching out desperately toward him as he fell screaming into the chasm that had opened up beneath him, disappearing into its glowing depths as insectoid talons clawed at him from below. He’d had a chance to catch him, but he’d been too slow. Felix had been lost to him forever.

David cursed. His hands slapped over his face and pressed harshly into the furrows of his scowl.

No he wasn’t. Felix was perfectly fine. He’d last seen him sleeping peacefully by the fire. For all David knew, he was still there, completely content with his absence. He was probably happier than he’d ever been without him around, diligently toiling away on his next escape plan.

The nightmare though… He couldn’t get it out of his head. It’d been so vividly terrifying. He’d already failed to catch Felix once before, and now he’d been forced to relive it. Somehow though, this had been much, much worse.

The dream had been false, a product of his tumultuous state of mind, but the grief he’d felt had been all too real, as if he really had lost Felix forever. Even now, he could still feel the umbra of that aching, depthless hollow of loss deep at his core, teasing and prodding like a predator testing his defenses.

He dragged in a long, tremulous breath. The exhale turned into a deep sigh.

Surely, Felix had to be fine without him, right? He was doing the right thing by keeping his distance, and Felix probably didn’t even want to see him anyways. Although he couldn’t keep as close of an eye on him anymore, he was confident Felix knew how to manage himself in the fog by now. He would be able to take care of himself. It wasn’t like the Entity could just open a rift in the earth and swallow him up whenever it wanted like in his dream. The Entity had limitations and rules— not that he really understood what those were, but he still had a vague sense of them. Felix would be fine.

A cold chill wracked his body. His sweat-soaked clothes clung uncomfortably to his skin, growing steadily colder in the breezy, open air with each passing moment. His nerves twitched with the lingering specter of extreme stress.

Feeling rattled, cold, and grimy, David decided that he needed to clean himself up and calm down. A visit to the brook would surely work wonders on his mental state.

Being mindful of the ledge this time, David unsteadily picked himself up and trudged over to the ladder to make his slow descent into the green sea, hoping to find some solitary tranquility at the stream.

— — — 

Felix was floating.

Dull, tepid darkness surrounded him, and he drifted freely through it without care and without sensation. His vision drew upwards and fixated on something far in the distance; a figure in white suspended in an empty void, slowly moving away from him. He recognized it to be Christine once again, dressed in her white shawl, unhurriedly walking along a nonexistent beach.

He reached out to her, feeling a vague, disembodied sense of sorrow, but she took no notice of him and only continued to move further and further away.

Felix felt himself being pulled, almost dragged, in the opposite direction, and the vision of Christine quickly faded into the black. Faster and faster, he felt himself being dragged through the thick ocean of darkness, until finally, he broke the surface.

Felix jolted awake.

The forest canopy spun around the moon for a moment before settling into quiet stillness. Shaking off the momentary disorientation, he pulled himself upright and lingered there on the forest floor, feeling a nebulous vacuity in the center of his chest. Despite that, he felt oddly renewed and invigorated.

He’d been sacrificed relatively quickly by the Nurse in the last Trial, hence the latent feeling that some part of himself had been carved from the core of his very being, but for the most part, he felt relatively fine. Of course, there had been blood and pain, but the Trial had been normal; no sinister stalking, no unwanted touches, and no whispering in his ear. Only cold, unfeeling bloodshed. He would endure the Nurse’s bonesaw over Ghostface’s harassment any day.

He breathed a small sigh of relief from the brief, albeit bloody respite, and climbed to his feet.

Staring at the dark, empty forest before him, that brief sense of ease was quickly chased away and replaced with creeping, sinking dread.

He still had to get back to the campsite.

Swallowing thickly, he took a quick survey of his surroundings, but found them to be devoid of life. Not even a single crow spied at him from the deathly still branches overhead. Once more, he stared fixedly into the shadowy depths of the forest, black fog curling along the ground, and pressed himself forward.

The woodland seemed almost dead with how silent it was. It wasn’t exactly buzzing with natural activity on a regular basis, but for some reason, it seemed more like he was walking through a frozen graveyard. The cold, white moonlight that dusted his surroundings only added to the effect.

With only the sound of his footsteps to accompany him, Felix propelled himself further into the liminal, transitory borderland, his anxiety steadily rising the longer it failed to deliver him to his desired destination. He looked up and saw that the moon had drastically altered its position, although he knew for a fact he had not changed course.

The Forest of Passage did not appear to be cooperating with him at the moment, of all possible moments.

Heart rapping insistently against his sternum, Felix picked up his pace, desperately wishing for that orange light to appear on the horizon.

Feeling a gnawing sensation of unease, he quickly threw his gaze around to check his surroundings only to nearly trip over himself at the sight of a fleeting shadow. Catching himself, Felix quickly planted his feet and stared at the tree. He thought he’d seen something dark slip behind it.

Had it been a crow? He didn’t think he’d heard any fluttering wings or warbling squawks. Maybe it had just been a trick of the moonlight? At any rate, nothing about the tree seemed out of place now that he was looking at it, but he wasn’t about to trust it. Mouth dry, and breaths coming unsteadily, Felix slowly backed away from where he’d seen the shadow, only turning forward when he’d reached a comfortable distance away from it.

Again, he hurried along the pathless forest, his breaths quickening from both the increased exertion and his rising apprehension. Fallen, desiccated leaves and other natural detritus crunched softly beneath his shoes, except, something about the sound was off— like there was an echo some distance behind him.

He knew that couldn’t be possible; sound didn’t bounce around like that in the forest.

Felix skidded to a stop and spun around.

Only empty darkness and swirling fog greeted him. Oaks, maples, and spruce stood stoically around him like statues, unconcerned with his existence.

Something— someone — had to be following him. That echo had almost certainly been a second set of footsteps.

Bristling with tension, Felix stood stock-still, waiting to see if the stalker would eventually reveal itself or inadvertently make a sound. However, if the culprit was who he thought it was… he knew for a fact no warning would come before he descended upon Felix. It would be like an owl snatching a mouse from the forest floor and carrying it into oblivion without it ever realizing what had happened.

The longer Felix stood there, the tighter that squeezing dread clamped down around his throat. All around him were creeping shadows and obscuring mist. Dark places where that killer could easily be hiding and watching him; waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. He could be hiding anywhere .

Felix could barely breathe. He couldn’t take this .

He spun around and bolted.

This fucking forest. He had to get out of here and get to the campsite. Where was it?!

Feet pounding against the ground, Felix sprinted towards where he felt the other survivors might be, just so long as it was away from this place. However, as he ran, he swore he could hear a second set of feet buffeting the ground just behind him, easily keeping up with his frantic pace. He pushed himself harder, feeling like the owl’s talons were descending on him— on the verge of plucking him from terra firma. He could practically feel the knife-like claws prodding at his back.

The need to glimpse the amorphous thing at his back grew too great. He needed to see it.

Felix glanced behind him and immediately stumbled. The ground rushed up to meet his face. He tumbled in the dirt several times before finally rolling to a stop on his back. Panting and wheezing, he whirled around, looking for the shadow that had been chasing him, but saw nothing.

He was alone, and probably had been from the start.

Felix puffed out his breath with force, and let his head drop back into the soft grass. He suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed with himself. Somehow, he’d managed to work himself into a panicked frenzy, and was thankful there had been no one to witness his hysterics. The paranoia was getting to him.

Was encountering a killer in the Forest even possible? He’d never even seen one outside of the Trials before. Sure, he’d heard stories and rumors from a few of the others, but how many of those had been tall tales or cruel jests told by some of the meaner survivors for the sole reason of scaring him? It wouldn't be the first time. What actual reason did he have to be afraid in the Forest of Passage?

A rough croak from overhead drew his attention.

The crow was as big as an overweight house cat, and it stared down at him from its perch like one too. Its body moved in stuttering, halting lurches as it spied him, as if suffering from a lively case of rigor mortis. It twisted its head to eye him with each of the little glass beads set in its skull, first the right one, quickly followed by the left, then continued to stare at him with one dark eye, silent and unmoving.

Feeling unease grip him again, Felix climbed back to his feet, wincing at his new aches and pains. He looked up at the bird again. It did not move. It only stared at him with that same unblinking, beady eye.

Feeling the Entity’s dark presence looming over him, Felix broke eye contact with the bird and quickly set off for the survivor camp.

Even if there were no killers here, the Forest was not a safe place to be. There were still threats that lurked in the fog; unknown unknowns that could not even be imagined by the human psyche. Not even the Forest itself was as dead as it seemed. He’d heard stories of survivors being plucked from existence, right before another’s eyes, for no discernable reason. The Forest and the fog could no doubt be dangerous but most of the time it was indifferent to their existence. The only true safety was in the light of the campfire. Of course, he couldn't confirm any of this himself, but it was better to be cautious than not.

Despite his speculations, the anxiety slowly drained the more distance he put between himself and the spying eyes of the rigor mortis crow. Eventually, he felt enough at ease to let out the rest of his nerves with a final, deep breath, instantly feeling better. Even if there were killers in the Forest, the chances of coming across one in this labyrinth were probably immense.

Quietly, he laughed at himself, feeling a bit silly that he’d sprinted through the forest in a panic, basically running away from his own shadow.

“What’s so funny?”

Felix whirled. His heart lurched.

A mere half-dozen paces away, Ghostface leaned easily against the old oak he’d passed only moments ago. The drooping, corpse-white mask quirked inquisitively at him, as if to emphasize the question he’d asked, but Felix had already forgotten what it was. His mind was a blank, static fuzz as he stared in horror at his nightmare summoned directly into his presence. He wanted to run, but his legs were rooted firmly to the ground.

“Been waiting all day for you to turn back up, honey. Just the two of us now. No Trial to worry about. No pathetic survivors to kill. Just you, me… and time.”

Ghostface pushed himself away from the tree and stepped smoothly forward. The floating tassels sprouting from his cloak drifted after him like a wake.

Felix stumbled backward in response, limbs weak and clumsy.

A thought floated through his vacuous mind like a piece of fluttering paper in the wind, and he managed to briefly catch it— If Ghostface’s motive for tormenting him in the Trials had strictly been to disable him so that the rest of his team would be easy prey… then what purpose would he have to be here?

Absolutely none, unless Felix's theory had been completely wrong. If that were the case, then that left only one singular reason for Ghostface to be here now…

Him.

Hairs standing on end and mouth going desert-dry, Felix swallowed thickly and took another faltering step backward.

Ghostface cocked his head. “Don’t run. I promise I’ll catch you,” he threatened, voice dark and husky.

His heart thumped hard against its cage in response. Breaths quickening, he caught wind of the killer’s all-too-familiar spicy musk. It gathered in the air around him, clinging tightly to his person like an embrace. His eyes began to water.

The killer stepped toward him again.

Felix took two more back.

The screaming mask inclined forward, glaring pointedly at him, “I said don’t run.”

Every muscle in Felix’s body was coiled tighter than the cables of a suspension bridge, and ready to snap at the slightest breeze. Eyes locked onto the stalking predator before him, breaths coming shallow and rapid, he silently weighed his limited options, whittling each of them down until only one remained.

The killer edged forward.

He ran.

As hard and fast as he could move his legs, Felix ran. Moments later, he was eating grass and grit.

Face buried in damp earth and bitter vegetation, he gasped desperately for the oxygen that had been punched from his lungs. A heavy weight fell onto his back, shoving the air from his chest again. Gasping, he squirmed like a wriggling fish as he tried to slither his way out from beneath the body on top of him, grabbing and clawing at the ground for leverage. His arms were suddenly yanked back down to his sides, and he cried out as more weight pressed painfully down on his forearms, trapping them tightly against his body. He kicked out at the ground, trying to propel himself out from under the surprisingly heavy weight above him, but barely moved forward at all.

His scalp lit up with searing pain, and he yelped as his head was yanked backwards. A cold, stinging line bloomed across his throat and he instinctively froze. The touch of a blade was as unmistakable to him now as the defunct watch on his wrist.

“You made me run,” the voice from behind grated, its muffled breathing slightly elevated, “Although I suppose I can’t be too upset. I do enjoy the occasional game of hard-to-get.”

The blade retreated sluggishly from his throat, the steel singing as it grazed over his stubbled skin. A tingling furrow was left in its wake. The air licked hot, stinging stripes over it for every shallow, tremulous breath he stole away from the atmosphere.

Only after the knife had gone did Felix wonder if he should have thrust himself on it.

His scalp reignited with pain once more as his head was thrust forward into the grass. Its earthy, sweet smell was barely noticeable over the overwhelming, chemical stench of the killer’s cologne. He gasped in shock as the collar of his suit jacket was yanked forcefully down over his back, further bracketing his arms in the hold. His heart ratcheted up its pace several times over as his mind raced through the horrific possibilities of what this could lead to.

The seal on his voice finally broke.

“No! WAIT! STOP! Don’t do this!! ” he shrieked breathlessly, renewing his efforts to squirm away.

The killer draped himself over his back, his shadowy cloak almost completely enveloping Felix as he was pressed further into the ground. The weight shifted so that his arms were more securely trapped between the killer's legs and his own body. The nerves in his compressed limbs tingled from the poor circulation.

“Shh sh sh shhhh… Be very quiet, very still, and very good for me, and then maybe… I’ll let you go. Okay?”

Felix had stopped squirming, but his breaths were coming faster than ever. He remained silently dubious of the proposition.

“Otherwise…”

A pointed pressure edged threateningly into his ribs. He gasped sharply as his body arched away from the piercing pain.

“I know exactly where to stab without killing you.”

A violent shiver rolled up his spine at the dark, snarling threat, and the words spilled out of Felix in stuttering, breathy whimpers.

“Okay, okay! But please don’t!.. Just don’t do… that! Please.”

He couldn’t say it, that dark, unspeakable thing lurking at the back of his mind. Speaking it aloud would make it a possibility.

“Dooo… what, exactly?” Ghostface said surreptitiously, the snide grin blatant in his tone.

“Just d– don’t… don’t hurt me.” That was as close to the allusion as he was willing to get, and he hoped the killer could infer his meaning, that was, if he even cared at all. 

His face was shoved forward into the grass again, and the knife disappeared from his ribs. A dull, radiating pain was left in its place.

“Then do as I say, and don’t move.”

Reluctantly, Felix obeyed, pressing his forehead into the fragrant, herbaceous foliage as he tried to suppress how his body trembled with nervous tension. He picked out the scent of the forest over the musk of the cologne, concentrating on it as his skin bristled with anticipatory dread.

Above him came the sound of shifting cloth and scraping plastic, and suddenly, the killer's breaths were clearly audible.

Did he just remove his mask?!

Felix’s head remained glued to the ground, but his gaze drifted to the corner of his eye, wondering if he could somehow steal a glance at the killer’s face. A brief jolt of fear coursed through him. What if he wasn’t even human? What if he didn’t even have a face?

The killer’s overwhelming presence hovered close behind. Hot, heavy breaths puffed over the peach fuzz coating the back of his neck. Another chill rippled through him, but he forced himself to remain fixated in place. Something soft prodded at the scruff of his neck, and Felix tensed. The killer hummed groggily in his ear, pressing his unmasked, seemingly quite human nose into his hair, and gently, almost lovingly, nuzzled his nape. Ghostface breathed in deep, seeming to savor his natural scent, and puffed it back out in a warm breeze over his skin. It immediately pimpled over with gooseflesh. Felix shivered again, heart thrumming and mind swimming from both the caustic cologne and the surreal closeness.

A warm, wet stripe dragged up the back of his neck and Felix lurched with a panicked gasp.

With violent ferocity, his hair was gripped tight and his face was thrust forward into the ground once more. The biting, pointed pressure was pushing into his ribs again, threatening to make its acquaintance with his internal organs. Felix tensed hard, breaths coming fast and frantic as he braced himself for the consequences of his outburst, but nothing more seemed to come.

Instead, Ghostface leaned back in, resuming his prodding and nuzzling, but with Felix’s eyeline now securely directed away from his face. Again, the killer’s tongue lathed languidly over his skin, and again Felix cringed. The fist in his hair gripped painfully tighter and the blade at his side prodded in warning. His breathing hitched, and he froze up once more. Only when he began to relax did the fist lessen its grip and the knife retreat from his flesh— but only by the barest amount. The pressure was still inarguably present; cold and threatening.

The tongue darted out over his shivering skin again, but this time, Felix clamped down on his instinctive need to cringe away, even as the dripping muscle curled possessively over the shell of his ear and coated it with saliva. Instead, he grit his teeth, screwed his eyes shut, and focused on quelling the waves of nausea rolling over him like tidal surges.

That tongue roved over his ear again, this time accompanied by a ridge of enamel that scraped after it. An assailing cavalcade of lips, tongue, and grazing teeth quickly followed up after the initial assault, and Felix forced his mind to go blank and numb. He imagined himself somewhere else; somewhere calm and peaceful like beside the fire wrapped in blankets, or at the lab, sitting and talking with David for hours on end.

He hadn’t seen David in so long… Where had he gone? Why couldn’t he save him from this situation like he’d done so many other times in the past?

Because you pushed him away.

Felix felt his heart shrivel in his chest.

That was right. He had done that. He’d driven away the one person that had really cared about him for some stupid serum that was doomed to fail, and this was the result. This was his own fault.

A sudden gnash of teeth at his earlobe made him jump back into the present. 

"Don't go wandering off on me now," the killer chuckled, low and husky.

Felix withered with humiliation. Never in a million years would he have ever imagined himself forced into such a degrading position— not even in this otherworldly purgatory. 

The fist in his hair pulled his head slightly to the side, further exposing his neck to the open air. The roving mouth quickly descended upon him, the killer’s scruff grating harshly against his sensitive skin as he sucked and mouthed the divot in his collarbone. Felix couldn’t help but squirm and whimper with growing mortification and discomfort as the assault on his flesh escalated, but Ghostface didn’t seem to take any more notice of his struggles. He was fully engrossed in his work.

The killer shifted his weight over him then, angling his hips in such a way as to make the prominent hardness beneath his pants very obvious. Ghostface ground his hips harshly against the curve of his ass, and Felix’s lungs seized at the blatant, unrestrained shock of it. Any remaining doubts he was holding onto about the killer's motivations flew away in an instant.

Like a starving wolf, the killer growled and licked another long, wet strip up his neck. The hot, panting mouth latched onto the pulse beating wildly under his jaw, tongue caressing and tasting it like he wanted to swallow it whole. All the while, that hard, growing prominence continued to prod and grind demandingly against the seat of his pants.

The claustrophobia, the stress, the perversion of his body; all of it at once was reaching its final crescendo and overloading his mind. The rising swells of panic that had been flooding over him were reaching their peak and pulling him under. His head swam as his breathing steered further and further into hyperventilation. He was drowning.

When that lurid voice in his ear moaned loud and obscene into the crook of his neck along with that pronounced stiffness dragging low across his back, Felix finally reached his breaking point. He caught his seizing breath long enough to spit out some semblance of a plea.

“Stop! Please! I can't— AGH!!”

A hot circlet of pain blossomed over his neck, and Felix shrieked at the outright shock of it. A multitude of sharp indentations from a dozen or so teeth sunk deep into his throat. On instinct, he jerked to get away from the pain, but the crushing bite held firm. Hot wetness dribbled down his front and wet his shirt. His hair was yanked taut to lock him in place, and he screamed again as his flesh was gnawed and lacerated further. The killer moaned. Felix sobbed.

With a shared gasp, the killer’s jaws finally unlatched from his throat, and Felix collapsed with a broken whimper. Ghostface buried his face deep into the crook of his bleeding neck, holding him tight as the pelvic thrusts grew in speed and intensity. The scalding breaths against his skin grew heavy and labored with arousal.

Tears of anguish welling in his eyes, Felix struggled and writhed like a panicking animal, desperate to free himself of the suffocating hold and the increasingly intense flare of hot pain radiating from his neck. The killer only held him tighter, as if he could fuse himself to Felix’s body through friction alone.

On the precipice of his release, panting and grinding in a frenzied haste, Ghostface hissed dark and lurid vulgarities into his ear.

“What did it feel like having all those fucking tendrils completely fill every single one of your fucking holes? Fuck , I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve jacked off just thinking about you like that. So fucking full you’re bursting at the seams. If those things were still around, I’d throw you in just so I could see it again! Fuck! ”

The killer’s body shivered around him, and Felix snapped.

Losing any and all semblance of control, Felix fought and twisted violently in the hold, joints and muscles screaming in repudiation. Finally, he managed to wrench one of his arms free with a pained, distraught cry, and he used it to claw at the cloaked arm wrapped tightly around him.

“ LASS MICH GEHEN!! ” he screamed, voice fracturing.

With a gulping gasp, he wrenched himself forward again, and was amazed to find that he’d somehow broken free of the hold. He felt the pressure over his back lessen by the faintest degree, and his heart leapt at the relief of it. His nails dug into the soft, loamy leaf litter of the forest floor as he pulled himself toward blessed freedom.

A ring of pressure suddenly clamped down around his neck, hard, and he choked. He tried to breathe in, but couldn’t.

Behind him, the killer grunted with effort, “Fucking lunatic, calm down."

His free hand flew to grasp at whatever was squeezing his throat, and pawed frantically at the leather-gloved hands cinching his airway shut. They were as solid and tight as a steel noose. His mouth gaped uselessly at the abundance of air around him, and his eyes bulged like they were about to burst. His vision began to disappear into dark, blotchy voids. Chest burning with fire, his body jerked and his seizing lungs rattled in a last ditch effort to pull in any stray wisp of life-giving oxygen, but no relief came.

Suddenly, he felt very tired and heavy, like his limbs had turned into blocks of concrete. His eyelids were trying to roll themselves shut, but he continually forced them back open, desperate to cling to the final dregs of his consciousness.

If he fell asleep, the killer could take him anywhere or do anything he wanted to him, and Felix wouldn’t even know it.

“C’mon baby, let go. I promise I’ll be nice when the lights go out,” the sultry, velvety voice grumbled, sounding far in the distance.

A final, gurgling whine hissed its way from deep within his spasming chest, and at long last, his body surrendered. His final cogitation was some vague, indistinct sense of horror, before the darkness rushed in on him like a torrent, smothering the last of his consciousness. 

Notes:

⚠️ Warnings: non-con frottage, biting, licking, choking, Ghostface being generally gross.

I guess I’m leaving you all on a cliff hanger here, whoops. 😬

Next chapter is shorter, so I’ll try to have that one out a bit earlier than usual. I’ll try to aim for one week instead of the usual two. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 9: Furtive Threats

On the surface of the placid, glass-like water reflecting the oranges and yellows of the setting sun, an evening cranefly drifted lazily down toward the water and landed between two water lilies. It balanced itself on the surface tension expertly, like a seasoned tightrope walker. Moments later, a scaly, orange and white fish with black splotches mouthed at it from below and the fly was gone.

Not the safest place to relax, at least for a fly. It probably should have sat up here with him.

Smiling smugly, Felix threw another handful of kibble into the pond. The surface erupted with hungry mouths and splashing tails, and in a matter of seconds, the fifteen or so koi had devoured their snack. The water juddered and undulated with the aftershocks, and the peaks of the waves caught the last remaining dregs of golden light from the setting sun. The pond was set ablaze with a fiery glow.

A large, copper-colored koi lumbered nearer toward the bench where Felix sat, and he recognized it to be his Chagoi, one of his favorites. The way its scales glittered reminded him of a tiger’s eye gemstone. It was absolutely beautiful.

Grabbing another handful of kibble, Felix kneeled close to the water’s edge and extended his hand close to the surface. The Chagoi immediately took notice and jetted over to him. As he lowered his hand into the water and revealed the kibble, the fish nearly leapt out of the water to gobble up the food as quickly as physically possible. He couldn’t help but laugh at its eager goofiness and the ticklish feeling of it nibbling at his fingers.

“Felix! There you are!”

Felix’s joy immediately withered away at the sound of her voice. He’d hoped to have at least a half hour of peace.

“Everyone’s wondering where you went! I can’t be the only one playing host, and your associates want to— Ah! Are you kneeling on the ground in your nice suit?”

Rising to his feet to face Christine, he sighed and brushed his hands off on his slacks, “I thought you liked playing host, dear?”

She made a noise of distress as she watched him do this, then folded her arms across her bright pink cocktail dress. Her face scrunched into a troubled frown.

“I don’t mind hosting, Felix, but this is your award party. Not mine. You just disappeared and left me alone with all your business partners. All of a sudden, people started asking me where you went, and now there’s no one up there hosting because I had to search the grounds to find you.”

Felix’s shoulders sagged and his body listed. He knew it wasn’t fair to Christine to leave the party like he had, but his social battery was running on fumes at this point. The soirees, events, and meetings had been coming at him nonstop for several days now, and he’d been desperate for a quiet moment to himself. The amount of energy it took to keep up the charming, self-assured facade for this long was immense.

Christine sighed and her posture relented, “I know you’re tired honey, but you can’t just sneak off like this when we’ve invited over all these people. It’s embarrassing.”

Felix nodded, trying to maintain a neutral expression and struggling to suppress the weariness in his posture. He was indeed tired, but not in the way she thought he was.

Shifting on her feet, Christine seemed to consider him for a long moment and then sighed once more, “Five minutes, and then you come back inside, okay? Don't go wandering off on me again; I don’t want to have to search for you a second time.”

Felix mechanically nodded again.

She half-turned to leave, but paused to give him one last pointed look, “And clean your pants…”

And with that, Christine spun on her heel, and the loose strands of her styled bun flipped around after her. He watched the blonde curls bounce as she clicked away from him and back up toward the house that emanated muffled, musical melodies.

He turned and saw that the sun had fully set beneath the hills on the horizon while she’d been talking. The sky now glowed a bruised purple.

At the very least, Christine had enough prescience to give him a moment of quietude when he needed it. For all his masquerading and flaunting over the three or four months they’d been together now, she could still somehow understand that he needed a moment to himself from time to time. Although Christine tried to be accommodating whenever he was ‘tired’ like this, he was fairly certain she didn’t fully understand why, but he couldn’t exactly blame her for that. He had more or less kept up his act whenever they were together.

Sighing, Felix sat back down on his bench and resumed watching his fish. The amber Chagoi still swam close by, waiting patiently for more food and attention.

Felix smiled sadly.

“Sorry friend, no more for tonight. The aristocracy awaits.”

Instead of getting up and doing what he was supposed to, he watched the koi swim in circles a while longer.

“Must be nice, having nothing to do but eat and swim all day. Never need to keep up appearances or act like you’re someone else… Only ever need to be a fish.”

A passing white koi gobbled up another unfortunate crane fly that had dared to land on the water, leaving nothing but a patch of bubbles in its place.

Felix’s unfocused gaze drifted from the pond to the ground between his feet.

Why did he have to feel like this? Was he really so ungrateful for his luxurious life? This was what he was supposed to do— what his parents had wanted him to have, what many could only dare to hope for… 

Then why did it all feel so empty?

Felix sighed, rising to his feet and straightening his suit jacket. He’d delayed as long as he could.

As he trudged away from the pond and back up to his home, Felix instantly metamorphosed into the man he wished he could permanently be— that suave, debonair gentleman that charmed all the ladies, impressed all the men, and who was worthy of being referred to as ‘Germany’s Premier Visionary,’ as the magazines had taken to calling him. The real Felix lay dormant once more, awaiting the quiet tranquility of solitude.

…

Felix jolted awake with a choking gasp. He sucked in a lungful of stinging oxygen, but quickly coughed it all back out in a multitude of heaving, rib-rattling hacks.

His throat burned like he’d swallowed hot coals.

Suddenly remembering the last thing that had happened to him when he’d been awake, Felix whirled around himself. His vision was bleary and speckled with a blizzard of black dots, but he could quickly tell that he was alone in the forest. From that knowledge alone, his body nearly went limp with relief. He hadn’t the faintest clue as to why he’d been left in the same place, and didn’t intend on questioning it.

He turned his head back, and winced when his neck twinged sharply with pain. Gingerly, he brushed the tips of his fingers over the area, and recoiled when it ignited into a pulsing, white-hot nova of agony. The wound was bad.

Whimpering weakly at his new collection of bruises and traumas, he sat up on his elbows and took full stock of his body. The front of his shirt was blotted with dried blood, and… the majority of his shirt buttons were undone. His vest was completely unzipped and his white undershirt was untucked and hiked up high over his stomach.

A sickening swell of nausea began to build in the hollow of his throat.

Had that happened during his frantic scramble to escape? Or had it happened… after?

Trying to keep his stomach from turning itself inside out, Felix did a quick mental appraisal of his body, subtly flexing and testing various parts of himself for any dubious aches or pains that could possibly indicate… abuse. However, he ultimately could not tell whether or not Ghostface had done anything more to him when he’d been unconscious; his whole body felt like one giant bruise. At the very least, he didn’t feel like he’d been mistreated anymore than he already had been, but he couldn't know anything for sure.

Felix groggily shook his head, dispelling the disturbing digression from his mind. He was still vulnerable out here and couldn't afford to waste time on possibilities. He had to focus on getting back to safety.

With a gnashing grimace and several halting staggers, Felix forced himself to his feet. Breathless, he analyzed his homogenous surroundings, trying to determine the best direction to blindly venture into.

A deafening snap, as loud and sharp as a gunshot, jolted his already heaving heart into a frenzied pace, and he spun around to face the sound. Only obstinate trees and proud grasses presented themselves, unfazed by the disturbance. Slowly, he began to back away from where he thought the noise had originated from, watching carefully for any hint of movement.

A wisp of that unmistakable chemical scent tickled his nose. 

His stomach dropped.

He’s still HERE.

Without waiting even a second longer to confirm if the owl was gliding through the trees to snatch up its prey, Felix turned and bolted away into the forest. His entire body was screaming at him to ease up, but he pushed it forward, hellbent on escaping the clutches of that deadly shadow. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up his pace for long though.

He needed to reach the campfire. He needed to tell someone what was happening. He needed someone to protect him. He needed HELP .

Felix let himself be shepherded through the forest by this vague but intense need deep at his core. Somewhere in the distance before him was refuge, and it pulled him forward, even as the shadows snapped at his heels.

A treeline appeared on the horizon, and his heart leapt with hope. 

He pushed himself further, faster and faster, and the line of safety grew closer and closer.

Almost stumbling onto his face, Felix finally broke into the clearing with a gasp. He came to a staggering halt, bending over his knees as he tried to catch his shaking breath.

“Felix?!”

He jerked upright, and finally took notice of where he’d ended up. Instead of the campfire, he found himself at the brook. Gaping at him in shock from a dozen or so paces away was David, shirtless and kneeling over the water with a dripping rag in hand. His damp skin glistened in the silver moonlight, accentuating his very pronounced musculature. Jeans hung loose around his hips, revealing the beginning tufts of hair on his lower belly that trailed into the confines of his pants.

Despite everything, something within him stirred, and Felix felt his face flush with heat. He grew momentarily bewildered with himself; he hadn’t felt that way about another man’s body since maybe his Uni days, and certainly not David’s— except of course, until now, when it was nearly on full display. He’d known the man was built, but hadn’t ever given it much thought.

“Felix, are you okay?!” David hopped to his feet and began to cautiously approach him, eyes wide with alarm.

Felix swallowed and shook the confusing thoughts away for later processing. He had a much bigger issue to deal with at the moment. His problem with Ghostface had escalated into something terrifyingly insidious, and— this he could no longer deny— sexual . Despite how he’d cast David aside and ignored his grievances for the sake of his selfish pursuits, despite how he’d pushed David away until he’d finally snapped in a fit of rage, Felix knew that David would protect him if he needed it.

“No! I need your help. Out there, there’s—” he said, wincing at the damaged quality of his voice as he quickly closed the distance between them— and froze.

David blinked in confusion, “Felix, what? What is it?”

From a nearby bush situated just behind David, a shadow emerged and rose up behind him. The drooping, screaming face, as pale as the moon, hovered just over the man’s shoulder. A gleaming blade poised high overhead, ready to plunge into his exposed flesh at any moment. A single gloved finger drifted up to the mask’s face and pressed over its mouth, politely imploring his silence.

Felix nearly choked on the air that had become ensnared in his lungs, and David frowned in consternation. The Brit’s nose wrinkled in discomfort, obviously detecting the killer’s pervasive musk. David next seemed to take notice of how Felix’s gaze drifted off toward somewhere behind him, and turned to follow it.

To Felix’s complete and utter horror, Ghostface expertly dodged the man’s line of sight, swaying and dipping in total silence as David looked behind himself over each shoulder. He muttered some question about a ‘bloody smell’, before directing his attention back onto Felix.

“Felix, what’s wrong? Please say something,” he said entreatingly.

Felix could only gape stupidly back at him. Again, the killer made a ‘hush’ motion at him and raised the knife over David’s back once more.

With great difficulty, Felix swallowed the knot in his throat and tried to drag his voice back from his pilfered lungs.

“I– The…”

He couldn’t even remember how to pronounce words, let alone select the ones he actually needed.

Ghostface cocked his head. The blade rose higher and locked threateningly into place like a guillotine about to drop.

David stared at him patiently, his endless brown eyes searching his face, desperately seeking the source of his distress.

Finally, the words spilled out of him before he could even process what he was saying.

“I– Nothing, I guess.”

David’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline, “Nothing?”

The white mask canted in interest behind him.

“Y– yes. I thought something was in the forest with me, but I think I was just working myself up over nothing,” he ground out, voice rough and painful.

David eyed him for a long moment, obviously skeptical. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Ghostface lingered after him, blade still hovering over his back. The Brit took hold of Felix’s shirt collar and gently pulled it away from his injured neck.

“Then what the bloody hell’s this?!”

Felix hissed and shrank away as the ring of mangled flesh throbbed in warning.

“It’s nothing.”

“The fuck you mean it’s nothing?! It looks like someone took a bloody chunk out of you!” David said, his voice shrill with poorly contained hysteria, “You have a bad run in with the Hag or somethin’?”

Ghostface straightened at that and aimed his mask at Felix, staring pointedly as he waited for his response.

“Y– yes. She caught me at the exit gate, but I managed to slip away.”

At that, the killer seemed to be satisfied with his performance, and retreated from David’s back. He slipped easily back into a shadowy thicket of brush, and disappeared without a sound like a literal phantom. Felix could only stare in disbelief.

David’s sudden curse brought him back from his spellbound trance, and he jumped.

“Ah, sorry mate… Don’t know how the hell you managed to break away from that bitch, but let’s get you fixed up,” he said, gently taking him by the elbow and pulling him toward the water.

Felix allowed himself to be moved, suddenly feeling very weak and dazed. David kneeled with him at the waterside, and placed the damp cloth into his hand.

“Here. Try to clean it as best you can. I’ll go grab a medkit,” the Brit said, voice tight and brow deeply furrowed as he climbed back to his feet.

A flicker of fear shot through him at the thought of being left alone. He spun around and caught the man’s arm to stop him from leaving.

“No wait!”

David stumbled backward and stared down at him in questioning alarm. Felix realized he had to be careful here. If he let on how panicked he truly was, David would quickly realize that something was still wrong, and then… 

Felix fumbled for his words, “I– I just.. I don’t want to be alone right now.”

David kneeled back down. His eyes were hard with concern and sympathy as he covered Felix’s desperately clutching hand with his own.

“Hey, it’ll be okay. You’re safe now, but we really need to patch that up. I’ll only be gone a minute, okay? Just stay roight here,” David said, rising to his feet again and delicately pulling Felix’s fingers away from his arm.

What else could he say without alerting David to the threat at hand?

The Brit gave one final, encouraging but strained smile, before turning and jogging hurriedly away toward the campfire.

Heartbeat thrumming in his ears, Felix’s gaze immediately set upon the shadowy copse he’d last seen the killer slink away into. Moments later, as if summoned by the thought, that pale, moaning face materialized out of the darkness. The rest of him quickly followed suit, oiling out into the moonlight in a furtive crouch. The killer stalked toward him, like a silent, prowling wolf, and the closer he approached, the more Felix’s body trembled with terror. He dared not move.

Closer and closer the killer slid towards him, until finally stopping only a meter or so away in a nimble crouch. He stared at him with that wailing, moon-white mask for a long, protracted moment.

“I don’t have to tell you what will happen if he catches on, do I?”

His breath had been stolen away, so Felix haltingly shook his head, feeling like a broken puppet.

“Good. You even hint at it, and I’ll know. Understood?”

Felix’s broken puppet head jerked again on his shoulders, this time in the affirmative.

The killer chuckled, “Of course you do.” He began to back away but paused. “I’ll be watching you Felix.”

And with that, Ghostface melted back into the shadows, leaving only a cloud of acrid musk in his wake. Felix continued to stare at the place where the killer had slipped away from his sight, trying to make out any lingering outline to let him know if he was still there, watching him from the shadows, but saw no indication that the killer had even been there at all.

All at once, the reality of his situation came down on him like an executioner’s axe.

If he told David or anyone else that Ghostface was harassing him, they would surely become the target of the killer’s unbridled sadism. If Felix had been on the receiving end of Ghostface’s affections, he shuddered to think what it would mean to suffer his wrath. He didn’t think he’d be able to live with himself if he brought that punishment down on David, or anyone else for that matter— and what would it even accomplish? Even if he tried to stay at the campfire, all Ghostface had to do was wait for him to be taken into a Trial and intercept him during or after.

However, if he stayed quiet , then the only one who would have to suffer was him, and him alone.

Felix clenched his fist tight around the washcloth, feeling tears prick the corners of his eyes.

His fate was sealed.

Notes:

Thank you again to everyone leaving comments and kudos, and just reading my story! <3

Chapter 10: No Matter What

Notes:

Sorry for the wait! I've been very distracted lately by a great many things, including the anniversary event, but in return, have an extra long chapter with lots of feels! Enjoy!

Shit.

David knew it had been unrealistic, thinking that he’d be able to avoid Felix forever. He’d been somewhat prepared for the possibility of running into him again at some point. In his head, he’d imagined their reunion to go something along the lines of hard glares and clipped, single-syllable words.

Certainly nothing like this.

He’d been quietly lounging at the waterside, trying to wash away the latent effects of his nightmare and in the final stages of convincing himself that Felix would really be okay without him. That was, until, the man himself had burst from the forest with his neck partially torn open and blue eyes as wide as the ocean.

The second he saw Felix in that ghoulish, mangled state, David knew he’d made a mistake. He’d left Felix alone to fend for himself, and this was the result.

This was his fault.

Shit.

Of course, David wasn’t stupid— he knew damn well what kind of hazards plagued them all in the Trials— but it had been careless and naive of him to think that Felix would just be happily hopping and skipping his way through the fog without him. The man wasn’t a clueless Bambi anymore, but that didn’t mean he was exempt from the gruesome traumas and horrors of their existence.

A part of him knew he shouldn’t feel this upset about Felix getting hurt— injury and death was an everyday part of their reality after all— but it hadn’t stopped him from going into a heart-pounding panic seeing Felix in that state. The final images of his nightmare hadn’t helped. Even now, David could still feel that phantom grief at his core, even though he’d been talking with Felix only moments ago. Maybe the man wasn’t at imminent risk of being taken by the Entity, but he wasn’t fine either. That much was obvious.

David was responsible for letting this happen to Felix, but now, he was going to fix it.

Brazenly, David tramped through the circular clearing of the survivor camp, ignoring the raised eyebrows and furtive glances as he made a beeline for the communal supply cache.

“Oye! Chavón!” Ace laughed, “You about to put on a show for us?”

Confusion overtook him for a moment before remembering that he still lacked clothing on his upper half.

He snarled sharply in response, “Fuck off Visconti! Don't have time for yer bullshite right now!”

Ignoring the following whoops and laughs, David crashed to his knees in front of the wooden supply chest and threw the lid open. He grabbed the first medkit he laid eyes on and popped the lid open to check its contents. A quick glance told him it had everything he needed, so he jumped back to his feet and began to retrace his steps at a jog, not even bothering to close the lid.

“Oh c’mon, I’m sure Fairfield over there would appreciate it very much.”

David glanced back toward the circle of survivors with a scornful rictus, and flipped the Argentinian the bird.

Ace and the rest of his clique laughed obnoxiously. Dwight was straight backed and turning a very bright shade of scarlet red.

“Ah, you’re no fun anymore King,” Nea called at his back as the laughter receded into the background.

Not so very long ago, David might have been one of those survivors sitting on that log and laughing at someone else’s expense without a care in the world. Now though, he didn’t think he could be one of those jaded shitheads even if he tried. Things had changed. He’d changed.

Maybe someday a couple of them would eventually realize there was more to existence than mere survival, but he knew it would take a lot. He damn well knew from experience. Maybe Nea or Meg would eventually turn around, but he doubted someone like Ace would ever change. A man like that was always looking for an angle— always looking to get one over on someone else. Always in it for himself.

But none of that was important right now. The one he cared for most needed his help, and David would be there for him— everything else be damned.

Turning the corner on the thicket that sheltered the babbling brook, David once again had Felix in his sights. He looked small and hunched in on himself as he kneeled over the water, and David felt an immediate pang of guilt-ridden anguish upon seeing him like that.

He’d let this happen.

The blonde visibly jolted when he finally took notice of his presence, and David internally berated himself for causing the man additional stress.

He couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen Felix this jumpy. From the look of the injury alone, he imagined the confrontation with the Hag must have been especially harrowing for it to have had this much of a lasting effect on him.

“Here we go,” David said, trying to maintain a visage of calm as he kneeled next to Felix and popped open the red box. “You clean yourself up yet?”

Felix looked down at the rag in his hand, seeming to take notice of it for the first time. It looked bone dry.

“I… N– No…”

The man looked completely out of it.

David sighed sadly, heart twisting with remorse, “That’s okay. Here, lemme see that.”

After a long moment, Felix finally seemed to process what he’d been asked and placed the rag in his open palm. David quickly dunked it back into the chilled waters of the stream, and brought it before him.

“Alright, c’mere. Turn this way.”

David waited for Felix to turn himself, but when that didn’t happen, he felt a gnawing worry rise up in his breast. Felix seemed to be staring into the distance, eyes roving over nothing.

Brow furrowing, David gently prodded the German’s shoulder until he started to move on his own, thankfully. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder at the cause of Felix’s troubling, zombie-like demeanor. Had his last Trial really been that bad?

He didn't know, because he hadn't been there… 

With Felix now facing him, David was able to take in the full state of the man.

Felix was completely disheveled. His shirt was half-undone, his usually perfect hair looked like he’d been rolling around on the ground, and his suit was caked with dirt and mud. Blood, both old and new, soaked the man’s front, turning his light blue dress shirt a dark purple. His skin, or what was visible of it through all the blood, was mottled with a multitude of angry red marks and burst blood vessels alongside the main horrorshow that was the grisly gouge in his throat.

All-in-all, he was a heartbreaking mess— and where the hell had David been? Sulking and hiding like a child. He quickly quashed his rising emotions for the sake of the person before him. At the very least, he was here now.

Taking hold of the shirt collar, David gently began to peel it away from the wound. Felix’s eyes immediately brightened with awareness. He hissed sharply at the new pain. David grimaced alongside Felix, hating that he was the cause of his anguish, but knowing it needed to be done.

A fresh, oozing rivulet of maroon began to seep from a reopened section of the wound, and David immediately set his damp cloth against it. Felix tensed hard and bit down on his lower lip, obviously trying to keep himself from pulling away. The two sat in a strained silence.

David’s nose twitched at a faint waft of some kind of fragrance or cologne that smelled unpleasantly pungent and chemical, like an echo of the same out of place scent he’d picked up on Felix earlier. It wasn’t completely surprising, seeing as how close they were sitting next to each other, but he did wonder how Felix managed to get his hands on something like that. What was even more puzzling was why he was even wearing something like that in the first place. He would have expected Ace to pick up something like that— not Felix. The cologne didn’t suit him in the slightest.

However odd it was, David ultimately decided not to comment on it. The inconsistency wasn’t important enough to bring up, especially now.

Instead, David briefly considered striking up a conversation about something innocuous to keep Felix’s mind off of whatever was bothering him, but couldn’t really think of anything to say. He didn’t know what Felix had been doing in his absence other than getting brutally mauled. David wished to curse his own negligence again, but not in Felix’s presence.

After a minute or so of putting pressure on the wound, he lifted up the edge of the cloth and saw that it had finally coagulated again, so he pulled it away and dunked it back into the stream. He spent several more minutes just cleaning up the surrounding area, which was caked in layers of gelatinous scarlets and mottled, scaly browns, but little by little, the full extent of the damage was slowly being revealed.

He passed the soiled rag over the circular gouge one last time, just to be sure of what he was looking at. David’s brow furrowed deeper the longer he stared at it.

He’d seen Hag bites— a million Hag bites. Hell, half of those had probably been on his own body, but this… 

This did not look like a Hag bite.

The Hag’s hungry maw was basically a steel trap lined with shards of glass. A bite from a mouth like that tended to strip flesh from bone, leaving a deep, bloody gulf where fat and muscle had previously existed. Even a glancing graze or exploratory nibble tended to do massive damage. This bite, however, looked much less traumatic in comparison. The edges were ragged and torn, as if Felix had pulled away like he’d said, but the indentations were relatively shallow and consistent. This bite looked… human.

David’s eyes flicked up to Felix’s face, and their gazes met for a brief moment. Felix quickly looked away again, expression carefully blank.

“You said the Hag did this?” David asked, watching as the man visibly tensed at the question.

“Yes, she caught me for a moment, but I slipped away,” he repeated in that harsh, sandpapery voice, looking oddly strained.

David watched Felix’s face for a moment longer, thinking about pressing him for more information, but ultimately decided to let it go; Felix didn’t need that right now. Maybe he hadn’t been attacked by the Hag, but there were plenty of other killers who could have done this for whatever fucked up reason— the Hag wasn’t even the only cannibal killer in the realm. If Felix felt the need to tell him what really happened, he figured the man would do so in his own time. For now, David would just focus his efforts on patching him up and fixing the damage his absence had caused.

Felix numbly watched him from the corner of his eye as he immersed the soiled washcloth in the stream one more time, squeezing and lathering it as best he could before bringing it back out and wringing it dry. David next reached into the medkit for the bottle of antiseptic. Felix’s face crumpled with disdain upon seeing it.

“Soz mate, but you really don’t want that gettin’ infected,” he said, matching the man’s grimace with his own. There was an unspoken provision there— if he even lived long enough for it to get infected— but David wasn’t about to let that be a possibility if he could help it. At any rate, it was better to take the precaution than risk a great deal of unnecessary pain later.

The German sighed and turned away, allowing David access.

The air was filled with noxious sterility as he splashed the antiseptic onto the cloth. He brought it near the circlet of torn skin and hesitated.

“Ready?”

Felix’s brow furrowed and his jaw tightened, but he nodded nonetheless. He maintained his avoidant, forward gaze and braced.

The rag met the wound and— 

“SCHEISSSSSE!”

David cringed at Felix’s sharp, hissing curse and cleaned the wound as quick as he could, blotting and dabbing away with precision until the antiseptic was sufficiently applied. Finally, he tossed the rag aside, and Felix puffed out his relief, the tension visibly leaving his body. David finished off his work by taping down a large sterile pad over the area with care, and leaned back to survey his work. He looked a good deal better than he had, but David couldn’t help but feel like the bandage was simply hiding the damage rather than healing it.

“There. You’re all sorted,” he said, despite his dreary thoughts, “Unless there’s something else?”

“No, I’m fine now. Thank you,” Felix said, buttoning his shirt back up and looking up at him with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

David nodded and smiled weakly back, wondering if the reason for Felix’s strained, dispirited mood was simply due to his latest traumatic encounter or perhaps… something to do with their last conversation.

A sharp pang of guilt suddenly rippled through him. The last words he’d screamed into Felix’s face before he’d left him replayed in his mind. He’d said terrible, awful things. No doubt, Felix was thinking that he was still furious with him, thinking that he’d really meant it. The man probably even thought that David had abandoned him because of what had happened… but in a way, he had. He’d thought that keeping his distance from Felix would fix his problems, but all it had done was make things worse and had even led to Felix getting hurt. David and all of his selfish fucking feelings had caused this.

An awkward silence took hold, full of avoidant glances and fidgeting hands.

“Could we go back to the campfire?” Felix suddenly asked, glancing at him before his eyes went back to scanning the surrounding woodland.

“Eh, it’s a tad crowded over there right now,” he said with an apologetic grimace, “Ace and all his groupies are there as well— probs wouldn’t be very welcoming.”

Neither would it be very private for the apology David was now forming in his head.

Felix seemed to consider his dissuasion for a very long moment. 

“Okay, we’ll stay here then,” he finally said, gathering his knees up into his arms as his gaze returned to somewhere in the distance.

David let the moment breathe a while longer, allowing the calming sounds of bubbling water to fill the silence. 

As he watched Felix, sitting there with his back to him, looking so small and closed off, a nervous tension began to slowly build in the pit of his stomach. 

What if Felix didn’t forgive him? What if he resented David for abandoning him? What if he simply didn’t want him around anymore?

It had been incredibly hard trying to exist without Felix all this time, like trying to hack off his own limb but still being pained by its phantom. David wasn’t sure he could do that again.

Now though, with the possibility of losing their friendship for good, all because of what he’d done… it filled him with terror. He’d tried to amputate away their relationship and failed, but now, Felix was the one holding the blade. It would ultimately be his decision to either finish hacking off the limb or try to reattach it.

At the very least, he had to try.

David spent a long while wringing his hands and looking at nothing in particular before finally dredging up the courage to break the silence again. 

“Felix… about the last time we spoke…”

The German turned to meet his eyes. He seemed weary, but focused, so David continued.

“I shouldn’t have said all those things that I did— I didn’t even really mean it, not even when it was comin’ out me mouth. I was just…” David took in a sharp breath and puffed it back out, trying to fight off the anxiety that would prevent him from saying the things he needed to say. “I was just really upset with how things were going with the serum— what it was doing to you. It was really hard for me to just stand there and—”

“David,” Felix interjected, shaking his head, “Hold on, I—”

“No stop , let me get this out, okay?”

At the very least, he needed to apologize for his actions.

After a moment of visible internal struggle, Felix relinquished with a sigh, watching him with an uncomfortable stiffness.

David puffed out his tension again and resumed, “It was really hard for me to watch you do that to yourself, especially when there was a chance for some crazy fucking side effect or mutation you wouldn’t be able to come back from,” he said, purposefully leaving out the additional part about the serum actually working and him never seeing Felix again. Somehow, he didn’t think the man would appreciate that. 

“I hated the serum and what it was doing to you because…” David puffed again.

What he next had to say hadn’t ever been said aloud; it was merely this vague, mutual understanding between the two of them. Admitting it now, though, in the face of rejection, was terrifying.

“Because I care for you, Felix… a lot. Now though, I realize that you were right. I was being selfish by only worrying about you, while you were being selfless by putting yourself at risk for everyone else. Getting everyone out of this fucking place outweighs any opinions or objections I could have about how you went about it, especially when I knew how much it meant to you.”

Huffing out his breath one last time, David looked directly into Felix’s hard eyes, holding them intently with his own. He needed to emphasize his sincerity. “So I guess the gist of it is this; I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time about the serum. I was completely out of line, trying to stop you from working on it and yelling at you like I did. I’m sorry. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I won't blame you if you don’t accept my apology.”

David continued to hold Felix’s gaze, searching his eyes for some sort of reaction as they both sat in silence, but as the seconds ticked by, David’s anxiety steadily grew. He thought he’d been somewhat prepared in the event that Felix would rightfully reject his apology, to reject their friendship, but he didn’t think it would actually happen. 

However, the longer Felix stared at him, the more likely that seemed to be the case, and the more his insides began to twist. The thing he feared most, losing Felix, was happening, and it made his guts churn with a grief he could barely even fathom— worse even than the phantom grief of his nightmare.

Felix straightened, looking at him with an air of subtle acuity— and here it was. The rejection. It was over. Felix was going to—

“No.”

David blinked.

“N– no?”

“No, David,” Felix said, sharp blue eyes becoming tepid with melancholy, “I’m the one who should be apologizing.”

David blinked again, trying to orient himself to this new reality he had not accounted for.

Felix sighed and turned away, “You were right to be upset with me. I took it too far.”

“Felix, no, that’s not—”

Felix’s head whipped back around. His embittered glare alone was enough to make David’s mouth snap shut.

“I let you prattle on about your own bullshit shortcomings, and now you’re going to do the same for me. Okay?”

David nodded haltingly, still stunned into silence. He didn’t think Felix was at fault in all this, but would afford him the same respectful silence that he had.

Felix again turned away and continued, fighting the harsh quality of his still-damaged voice, “I shouldn’t have gone about testing the serum like I did. It was dangerous and foolish and… selfish of me.”

David couldn’t help but let his head cant in confusion at that. He could admit that those tests had been horrific, akin to torture just watching them, but how had it been selfish? Felix noticed his reaction and glanced back at him, his face full of shame and sadness. David still couldn’t fathom why.

“You were wrong about a lot of things in your apology, but there was one thing in particular that was completely false; I wasn’t doing it for everyone else. I was doing it for me. I was so focused on getting out of here and back to my life, that I didn’t even think about if the serum would even work for everyone else. If it did, well, it was just going to be another ego-boosting accolade… another trophy in the closet … I was going to get out, and nothing was going to stand in my way. Not the Entity, not the others… not even you…”

A hurtful twinge pricked at his heart, but David maintained his reticence.

“You know I’ve never failed at anything before I was brought here, right?” Felix said as he glanced back again, expression tight with gathering emotion.

David slowly shook his head, feeling the second-hand sadness gathering into a tight knot at his center.

The German hugged his knees closer to his chest, “I justified everything I was doing because I’d convinced myself that I could make it work— that there was no possible way for me to fail. I was so consumed by hubris and blind hope, that I even turned a blind eye on how it was affecting you, David.”

Again, Felix met his gaze, but this time continued to hold it. His eyes were as hard as gemstones and shining with moisture. The bandage jumped as he swallowed the building knot in his throat.

“I knew how much you cared, and how distraught I was making you, but I ignored you and just kept going . I felt like if I didn’t, then it would all be pointless— but it was all pointless from the very start. Everything that’s happened to us, to you, has been because of me. ”

Felix quickly wiped at his face and tore his gaze away. “I’m so sorry, David,” he rasped, holding himself tighter and staring at the ground, shoulders faintly trembling. “You’ve done so much for me, and all I’ve done is throw it back in your face. I don’t deserve your loyalty or your friendship. I’m…” His quavering voice hitched then, and words finally failed him. His entire body dissolved into a silent mess of shuddering twitches and tremors.

David stared in absolute wonder at the man before him, heart filling with such wistful fondness and sorrowful warmth, that it threatened to spill out of him in a terrifying show of emotion.

Unable to stand by and watch Felix in that state any longer, David lunged forward and threw his arms around the distraught man, gathering him up in a firm but gentle embrace.

Felix made a small, gasping sound of surprise. He hesitated for only a moment before fully turning into David’s arms and returning the hug in a desperate, clutching hold. David felt the smaller man press his head into his bare shoulder and then shudder deeply against his body. Next came the suppressed, hitching sobs and quiet sniffles as Felix finally began to release the emotion he had been so hellbent on keeping inside. David held him even closer, fighting his own emotions as they threatened to overflow and overwhelm him. 

In that moment, holding the person he cared for most, closer than he ever had before, David wanted nothing more than to tell Felix that he loved him more than anything, no matter what.

And very nearly did.

But before the words could slip out, he managed to catch them and quickly stuff them back down his throat.

He couldn't say that.

He would never be able to say that. Felix already had someone like that in his life. She was out there waiting for him, and would tell him such things the day he returned to her.

All of a sudden, that affectionate warmth that had bloomed so fiercely in his breast ebbed and dwindled into a wispy, flickering flame. A painful, yearning sorrow rushed in to fill the void.

This was why he’d decided to keep his distance in the first place— why he’d run away.

Being so close yet so far beyond the thing he wanted most hurt more than anything the killers could ever do to his body. It was like straying too close to a blazing, white-hot star. Whenever he carelessly drifted too close, like now, and felt the searing sting of unattainable wants… it almost made him want to reconsider keeping his distance… almost. But David knew better now. He could say with certainty that the pain of that empty, aching hollow of grief and loneliness was infinitely worse than the smoldering sorrow he felt at the moment. Leaving Felix to fend for himself again was out of the question anyways— he’d die a thousand deaths before allowing him to be hurt again.

Being close enough for the light to blister his skin was better than freezing to death in the lifeless depths of the cold void… but was it possible for him to exist somewhere in between? Could he stay close to Felix without accidentally crossing that painful perimeter?

David wasn’t even really sure how he would even go about accomplishing that. It was almost inevitable that he would end up getting burned again at some point— Felix would almost certainly hurt him again in the future without even realizing it— but it would just have to be the price he’d pay to continue being friends with him.

David might never be able to be close with Felix in the way he wanted, but maybe he could just be nearby? Maybe he could just be… here .

He would never be able to hold Felix like this whenever he wanted to, or peck him on the cheek, or brush the hair out of his eyes, or tell him that he loved him. He could never have what he truly wanted… but maybe, instead, he could be what Felix needed. 

David could be there for Felix in whatever way was required of him, no matter what.

That was how he could love Felix.

As David held the person he loved most close against his body, listening to his quiet sobs and feeling the increasing dampness against the bare skin of his shoulder, that painful longing in his chest began to ebb away until it was a dull ache. In its place, a sense of resolution and renewed purpose welled from within, and the tears that he'd been fighting so hard to stifle finally began to stream down his face.

He pressed his cheek against Felix’s mussed hair and smiled. 

He may not be able to tell Felix that he loved him, but he could still give him the comfort that he needed in this moment.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered, running a comforting hand gently down the man's back, “I'm here now and I’m not going anywhere.”

“But.. why? ” Felix said, his muffled voice wispy and wavering with misery, “After everything I did…”

“Oi, none o’ that now. You’re my friend and I care about you, so I’m gonna be here for you no matter what.”

“I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve your friendship .” That last word broke apart into a hitching sob.

“Hey, listen to me,” he held Felix at arms length so he could look directly into that sad, pitiable face, flushed red and striped with shining tear-tracks, “If there’s anyone here who doesn’t deserve this friendship, it’s me.”

Felix shook his head, uncomprehending and disbelieving.

David pressed onward, even as he failed to blink away the tears blurring his own eyes. Felix needed to understand his immeasurable worth.

“When we first met, I was a roight bloody bastard who was just existing from one Trial to the next for who fuckin’ knows why. Then you come along, all quiet strength, and so goddamned determined… and it made me mad, because you had that, and I didn’t. And on top of that, after all the shit I put you through, you still treated me well for some fuckin’ reason… and that made me livid .

“But the more time I spent with you, and the more I got to know you… the more I started to see that things weren’t as hopeless as they seemed— that there was a real reason to keep going. You made me see hope for the first time since I’ve been here, Felix. You did that for me, and now I’m better for it. You made me a better person.”

“But… the serum…” Felix rasped, almost inaudible.

David shook his head, “No, forget the serum. That’s not what I’m talking about. You: Felix Richter, made me see hope. Not some bloody serum, not some blueprint or whatever other nonsense— you . Even if nothing you ever come up with is successful, even if we never get out of here, the fact that you’re here and still trying… that’s what gives me hope. You."

Early in their friendship, it had been like that. David had been drawn into Felix’s unwavering, hopeful determination, but now, it was more than that. What he wanted to go on to say, but couldn’t, was that Felix himself had become the reason for his continued existence— his reason to keep pushing forward. Maybe there was an escape somewhere out there, but that didn’t matter to him now as much as the man before him did. He hoped Felix would at least understand that much.

Felix’s gaze drifted downwards, still looking doubtful, “I’ve done nothing but fail and push you away.”

David’s heart twisted at that, but he continued to press forward, “No you didn’t. I’m here now aren’t I? And now you’re stuck with me because I’m a roight stupid bastard who’s gonna keep being your friend no matter what, you understand me?”

Felix puffed out something that was between a laugh and a sob, and David was relieved to finally see a smile tug at the corners of his quivering lips. More fat droplets began to gather on his lashes and roll down his cheeks, and David could see the man was on the verge of breaking down again.

“C’mere,” he said and pulled Felix back into another hug.

They stayed like that for a long while. David quietly held and comforted Felix until the shuddering sobs and hitching breaths ebbed away into quiet, steady breathing.  Eventually, Felix pulled away, and David let him, albeit a bit reluctantly. He’d been reveling in the closeness of the other a little too much considering the circumstances.

The blonde sniffled and quickly wiped the tears from his flushed face, almost like he’d suddenly become coy about the whole thing. David couldn’t help but find that stunningly endearing in the most heartwarming of ways.

That warm fondness bloomed in his chest once again.

“I apologize,” Felix said, voice hoarse and looking like he wanted to hide away, “I didn’t mean to become so emotional. I just…”

“It’s no mither. You obviously needed it, so don’t fret over it, alroight?” David said seriously.

Felix nodded, apologetic and sheepish as he wiped at his face again.

David retrieved the cloth he’d discarded earlier, still smelling faintly of antiseptic, and dunked it into the stream. He let the cold water run over it for a while before handing it to Felix, who accepted it gratefully and used it to cool his flushed and begrimed cheeks.

“I meant it when I said I was sorry for what I did,” David said. Felix looked immediately reproachful at that, but David’s hand shot up to cut off his rebuke. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that and said the things that I did. Weren’t right of me. Also shouldn’t have left you alone…” he said, eyes drifting to the bandage on his throat as another wave of guilt washed over him.

Felix’s lips drew into a thin but sincere line. He nodded, looking somewhat grave.

David matched the expression for a moment, then let it go. He no longer wanted to dwell on things that would upset Felix further.

“I’m also sorry you didn’t have a more absorbent shoulder to cry on,” he said with a surreptitious smirk, looking over the mess of fluids now coating said shoulder.

All the air in Felix’s lungs puffed out of him with force, expelling that graven expression from existence. His face turned a shade brighter red as a shy grin spread over his features.

“It’s okay. It was very much acceptable.”

David smiled warmly back, relieved to see that the man was finally moving on from his emotional turmoil.

With an impish, questioning brow, Felix offered him back the damp cloth and David laughed.

“Probably going to have to throw this thing away,” he said with a smile, but took it anyway. He quickly dunked it into the stream and began to wipe at his shoulder. “You sure you’re okay now?” he said, becoming serious once more.

Felix sniffed but nodded, absentmindedly combing his hand through his hair as he tried to get it to lay back down into its usual position. However, on one particular pass, the man paused, and his expression morphed into a confused frown. He combed his fingers over a singular spot several more times before catching it between his fingers; one small section of his hair was much shorter than the rest.

“Uhhh, I guess your close shave with the Hag was closer than you thought,” David said with a joking chuckle.

Felix, however, did not laugh.

Instead, the color seemed to drain from his face, and he began to glance at the woods around them as if searching for something.

“Felix?”

David began to wonder if he should have pushed harder for more details on his last Trial.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Felix looked directly into his eyes then, his steely blues looking more grievous than they ever had. His jaw worked like it was chewing on a set of unspoken words. As if ready to release the sentence he’d prepared, his lips parted, but no sound came out, like the words had become stuck on the tip of his tongue.

Patiently, David waited for Felix to reveal what was troubling him, but the man only continued to languish in that precarious, muted state.

He would have prodded Felix to come out with it, if his eye hadn’t caught a tendril of dark fog slinking towards them from the shadows of the forest.

“Shit.”

The two quickly turned to see the ominous darkness closing in on their position. They watched it in silent apprehension.

Felix had only just returned from a Trial. It couldn’t be here to take him again, could it? He knew the Entity tended to make him participate more often than the others, but Felix hadn’t even completely recovered from the last one.

As if to prove him wrong, the tenebrous mist began to gather around the blonde, and only him. Felix looked helplessly back at him.

“ Shit ,” David said, “Should’ve grabbed a Binding Shroud when I was at the campsite.” It would have at least allowed him to enter the Trial alongside Felix so he could help him make it through. Already, David was breaking the promise he’d made to Felix and himself. “I’m sorry.”

His hands flexed uselessly in his lap, wanting to grab hold of the man to keep him from being taken away, but David knew it was pointless to even try. All he could do was stare back into Felix’s eyes, apologetic and anguished as the fog coiled around his body.

“It’s okay,” said Felix, but his expression didn’t match the words.

“I’ll come find you afterward, aright?”

David tried to convey as much encouragement and confidence as he could in his expression and instill it in the man across from him, but Felix looked on the verge of jumping out of his own skin. He desperately wanted to believe the German would be okay without him in this next Trial, but inside, his heart was screaming at him. He couldn't in good faith believe that Felix would be okay, but he would have to, if only for his own sanity.

They held each other’s gaze until that black mist obscured those steely, dismayed eyes from view, and then devoured him completely. The man that had been sitting before him moments ago was now a shadowy, swirling mass that only vaguely resembled his shape. David let his hand drift forward and slip into the oily-black fog, somehow expecting to feel soft clothing or warm skin, but felt only breezy, empty cold. Shortly after, the mist collapsed, leaving nothing but air in his friend’s stead. The fog quickly retreated back into the shadows, leaving David alone at the waterside, staring at a patch of flattened grass.

David continued to fixate on the empty spot, feeling the creases in his face deepen into a pained grimace. He hissed a curse at himself and jumped to his feet, snatching up the shirt and jacket he’d discarded earlier and throwing them over his head as he made his way back to the campfire.

He grabbed another medkit from the group stockpile, ignoring Ace’s chastising remarks for plundering yet another item from the supply box he’d worked so hard on filling for them, and started off into the Forest of Passage.

If he couldn’t go into the Trial with Felix, he’d at least try to meet him afterward.

Notes:

Man, I love me that delicious, delectable, dramatic irony. Just *chef’s kiss*
This one took a long time to work out, but I think I’m happy with how things turned out. Also, I think this might be the most emotionally complicated thing I’ve ever written.😵
Next chapter is also very long, so expect at least three weeks for that one as well. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 11: Shattered

Notes:

⚠️ From here on out is where things will start to become very, very graphic and dark. I have bracketed the explicit section in this chapter with warning labels, so if that is something you do not wish to read, it can easily be skipped over. Relevant warnings and a brief summary of the section is in the end notes.⚠️

Felix peered through the clouded glass of the window pane at the abandoned police cruiser in the middle of the street. Red light, then blue, endlessly swept over the broken barricades and derelict vehicles scattered about the asphalt.

His stomach churned at the great, wide-open space between the generator-less home he was hiding in, and the main house on the opposite side he needed to reach. Getting to a generator as fast as possible was his greatest priority, but anyone— any thing — would easily be able to spot him in that exposed, barren plain if he crossed it. The still silence of that empty void made his hair stand on end.

More than anything though, he wished he could ignore the sinking dread settling in the pit of his stomach, but, deep down, he knew that terrible feeling was telling him, no screaming at him, that this Trial he was currently trapped in was with him . Of course, there was no evidence to suggest this, other than the eerie stillness of the hunting grounds and the possibly unrelated, but chilling fact that a chunk of his hair was missing, but somehow, he just knew . Paradoxically, Felix also desperately wished to convince himself that what he was currently feeling was fallacious— illogical hysteria— but he couldn’t deny that the sickening, dizzying nausea currently churning his guts felt like a dire warning from his deepest recesses.

He wanted nothing more than to hide away in this dilapidated, derelict corpse of a domicile until another one of his teammates were found or he had proof that the killer wasn’t him , but he knew that would be wrong. It would be unfair to his teammates and counterintuitive to his escape. If he really wanted out of this Trial, the fastest way was to repair the generators, and not hide like a coward like he was currently doing. He should be out there, scouring the other homes… and yet…

Felix puffed out his breath with force. He slid to the carpeted floor, letting his head lean against the plush arm of the couch beside him. He winced at a dull wave of pain that radiated from his neck.

A momentary, phantom flash of teeth and tongue on his skin crashed through his mind, and his body was wracked with violent shudders. Instantly, he pulled himself out of the flashback and shoved the still-fresh memory back into the overstuffed recesses of his brain where it could rot forever.

With a soft, disheartened whimper, he situated himself a bit more comfortably to avoid putting stress on the healing injury, and let his head rest against the soft fabric of the couch. The horrible things in his brain screeching for his attention eventually quieted into a muted roar.

God, he was so tired. 

All he wanted to do was sleep— to slip away into that tepid sea of thoughtlessness and escape from existence. So much had happened, and he barely had the mental energy to process any of it, including what had happened between him and David at the brook.

David… 

He’d wanted to tell him so badly what was happening, wished desperately for his help and protection— especially when the Brit had kept asking, over and over again, if he was okay.

Felix had wanted nothing more than to scream that ‘No! Nothing was okay!!’ but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. No matter how long David patiently waited for him to speak, knowing that something was still amiss and searching his very soul with those unending brown eyes… he couldn’t do it. All Felix could think about was that gleaming blade hovering over David’s shoulder.

The thought of what Ghostface might do to David— might do to the both of them if he told… Felix couldn’t let that happen.

The survivors barely had any power here as it was. There was no point in invoking the killer’s wrath, when no one, not even someone as strong as David, would be able to prevent Ghostface from getting his hands on him again if he really wanted to. Better to minimize the suffering to himself, despite how the mere thought of it made his skin crawl.

At the very least, he was glad that David still wanted to be friends with him, despite everything he’d done to trash their friendship. He still couldn’t quite comprehend why the Brit cared about him so much, even after Felix had listened to the man pour his heart out like he had.

Felix was all too aware how hard that must have been for someone like David, who was usually so brusque and implacable, especially when it came to his emotions. David always seemed very flippant toward everyone else, rarely sharing any of his emotions, other than anger or brash overconfidence of course— but not with Felix. It was obvious the man cared for him much more than Felix had initially presumed. Almost, in his opinion, to a fault. ‘No matter what,’ he’d said.

Felix felt his face begin to heat.

He honestly couldn’t believe they’d gotten so emotionally intimate like they had. Not even with Christine had Felix ever let himself be so vulnerable. Maybe it was just the result of the extreme stress tearing down his emotional walls, but once David had hugged him… all of his defenses had completely crumbled away. Even with the Brit half-dressed and holding him so inextricably close as he cried, in that moment, it hadn’t felt awkward in the slightest— quite the opposite, in fact. In David’s embrace, he’d felt nothing but all-encompassing comfort and serene peace for the first time in a very long time.

Felix’s cheeks burned a bit hotter.

Even so, after he’d eventually calmed down from his unflattering emotional breakdown and recovered enough presence of mind to take stock of the other man, he was immediately reminded that; yes, David’s musculature was not at all unpleasant to look at. In fact, he might have even found it quite appealing.

But did that mean that he’d felt actual attraction toward David?

When Felix had been a much younger man, he’d never felt confined by a person’s gender when it came to whether or not he found them attractive. However, he’d quickly realized that most of his peers didn’t exactly share the same opinion. It had been yet another thing he’d learned to keep to himself— not that he’d ever been very willing to share many things about himself to begin with. When he’d grown older and found himself in the more open and accepting environment of University, he’d eventually found the courage to explore that other part of himself, but never delved into anything more serious than some subtle intimacy and a kiss or two. It wasn’t that he hadn’t enjoyed those encounters with other men, but Felix quickly found that road to be a precarious one when it came to how he needed to present himself in society. Women were an equally attractive— and much less complicated— option for him.

After many years and several girlfriends, Felix had decided that what he’d felt had simply been a passing phase— a dalliance, and all of his relationships, however brief and inconsequential, had since been with women. He was unquestionably, wholeheartedly happy with Christine and hadn’t needed to contend with those type of thoughts in almost a decade.

And then he’d seen David without his shirt on.

Although, if he was being fair to himself, he wasn't exactly in the best state of mind. Even now, he still felt like he was reeling from what Ghostface had done to him in the Forest. It was entirely possible that his body had simply reacted poorly to the extreme stress of the situation; people could act and say all kinds of odd things under pressure. But even after the initial shock and emotion had worn off and they'd been sitting there together in amiable tranquility…  

Maybe he’d just been conflating the appreciative fondness he’d been feeling for the man with physical attraction? Maybe some wires in his brain had gotten crossed somehow, or he’d experienced some kind of mental glitch from being in this horrific environment for too long? He didn’t actually feel that way about David, did he? They were close, but not that close, and Felix was fairly certain someone like David didn’t view their relationship in any way other than platonic; the man just didn’t seem like the type.

And besides, even if what he’d felt for David had been real, Felix already had a responsibility to someone else. Christine was out there, alone, and carrying his child… or had she already given birth by now? When he’d been taken, she was already quite far along. The due date had only been a handful of weeks away, and Felix already felt like he’d spent an eternity in this miserable place.

Had he already missed his son's birth? Would he ever get to see his child at all?

A generator rumbled to working order in the distance.

Felix sucked in a breath. He wished he could just sit here and process all of these complicated thoughts, but he’d already delayed far too long. If he wanted any chance at all at escaping this Trial, he had to focus his remaining energy on powering those gates.

Rising into an unsteady crouch, Felix again peered out the front window and over the abandoned street. It looked the same as it had several minutes ago, with no signs of life from neither survivor nor killer.

Steeling himself with a deep breath of musty air, Felix rose to his full height and trod to the front doorway. He paused for one last long moment to scan the appropriated section of American suburbia for any threats, and then quickly slunk to the cover of an overgrown hedge adjacent the sidewalk.

The street still appeared to be abandoned, but he knew that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He glanced between all the windows of the houses that he could see, but saw nothing suspicious peering out of them. No shadowy figures or white masks.

Felix shivered. He couldn’t think about that right now. As long as he remained alert and frequently checked his surroundings, he could avoid getting ambushed if this Trial really was with him .

Red and blue light cyclically washing over him, he quickly scampered from vehicle to abandoned vehicle, using them as cover as he made his way across the open expanse of asphalt toward the gray two-story in the center. Hunched behind an old, grimey station wagon hailing from the late seventies, Felix surreptitiously scanned the silent neighborhood one last time before making his final dash across the street and toward the safety of the house.

Before he could slip inside, though, his eye caught something out of place in a nearby pile of Autumn leaf litter. It was half-obscured by shriveled, papery foliage, but inside was something clearly bright-white and glossy.

His stomach dropped.

No… it couldn’t be… 

His mouth became a parched, arid cavern. Breaths shallow and wispy, he haltingly approached the unnatural white blemish nestled within the desiccated leafage. His head whipped around to check his surroundings, still seemingly empty, before kneeling next to the anomaly.

He brushed aside the arid detritus to reveal a shiny square of frost-white paper. A violent chill crawled up his spine and settled into a cold, leaden weight in his breast.

He hadn’t wanted to believe his gut feeling, what he'd already known at his core, but now he could no longer deny it…

He swallowed the dry knot sitting in his damaged throat with a pained wince, caught the photo between his fingers, and flipped it over. His breath stalled.

The photo was of him, lying unconscious on the forest floor with blood staining his front. His dress shirt was completely undone and his white undershirt was pulled up high on his chest, leaving his torso very exposed.

His chest tightened and the air hissed out of him, unsteady and tremulous. He shoved the photo in his pocket— and realized that there were more . Tucked away in the pile of leaves were more voids filled with colorless white. 

His hand dove in and pulled out another square. This time he turned it over without fanfare.

This photo was similar to the first, only in this one, his pants were set much lower, revealing the curving furrows of his hips and a majority of his lower belly, while barely concealing his most private extremity. A black-clad hand clutched tightly at his thigh in the lower corner of the photo as it pulled at the fabric— as if there had been any doubt as to who had been enacting such perversions.

This one too he shoved into his pocket and pulled the next from the pile with fumbling fingers.

A close up of his lax, oblivious expression. That same gloved hand was palming the side of his cheek. A thumb was in his open mouth, pressing down on his tongue enough for the camera to see down his throat. A splotchy part of the photo was darker than the rest, as if stained by an accidental splash of moisture.

Tasting acrid bile at the back of his throat, Felix hissed a shaking curse and shoved the photo in his pocket beside the others. He quickly searched the leaf pile for the rest of the photos, making an effort not to mentally process what was on them.

However, a steadily growing a part of him wanted to know exactly what the fuck had been done to his body when he’d been incapacitated— to know exactly how much he’d been violated without his knowledge.

A pang of anger suddenly resonated within his heart. This fucking freak had no right doing this to him, taking advantage and tormenting him like this… And now, yet again, he was being forced into another Trial with the psycho… 

Felix was sure the chances of being in so many Trials with a single killer couldn’t be due to pure chance. Somehow, Ghostface had to be manipulating the chances of encountering Felix, or worse… the Entity itself was deliberately placing them together.

The implications of that second option were beyond malicious; something darker and more evil than he could even fathom… so Felix didn’t even try.

He had to get out of here.

Anxious to begin work on his escape, he climbed to his feet into a hunched readiness and took quick stock of his surroundings. There were no suspicious shadows in his immediate area that he could make out, but his eyes did set upon something else on the ground part way between him and the small, sky-blue house adjacent to the main one— another photo.

Felix hissed a quiet curse, and glanced around himself again. Surely, the killer had to be watching him react to this little scene he had set up for him; a little trail of lewd photos leading him exactly where he wanted him— just like in the hospital.

He wanted to spin around and walk the other way… but what if another survivor found it? What would they think of them? Of him ? Worse yet, what would Ghostface do if they figured out what was really happening in them? The killer hadn't specifically mentioned that case, but Felix could infer he wouldn't want any of them to know either. 

Bottom line; the possibility of another survivor seeing these pictures was out of the question.

The photo was in a relatively open area… He’d be able to quickly grab it without opening himself up to an ambush if the killer was really stalking him right now.

Head on a swivel, he scurried over to the picture and swiped it up. He caught a glimpse of a wide expanse of exposed skin in the image before quickly stuffing it in his pocket. He rose to leave again, but saw yet another photo carelessly left on a stack of cardboard boxes just inside the open garage door of the blue, single-story home. This one too would be highly visible if someone just happened to be walking by.

Cursing silently to himself, Felix took a wide approach angle on the open door, making sure he had a good view of the corners in case Ghostface was waiting for him there. He stole one final glance around himself before approaching the photo and quickly snatching it up.

He made to leave immediately but stopped. A noise echoed up from the garage basement stairs. Felix froze in place, staring at the now-silent open doorway. It had sounded like something down there had shifted.

He watched the empty doorway a while longer, scarcely breathing as he listened. A long moment passed in silence, but no more sound came from the depths of the basement. He allowed his breath to slowly seep out of him and straightened.

A sudden sharp pressure on his kidneys. He yelped in shock, but the sound was quickly cut off by leather clasped tightly over his mouth. He arched instinctively away from the pain. His hands flew to the glove clamped securely on his face, screaming uselessly into the leather that tasted like metal.

No, no, NO! Not again!!

In a wild panic, Felix squirmed and fought against the body behind him as it maneuvered him further into the garage and toward the basement stairs— the gateway to the underworld, and his ultimate fate.

NO!

The world suddenly did a one-eighty, and now he was being dragged backwards through the door leading to the basement. He grabbed frantically at the door frame with one hand to stop himself from descending into that dark cellar, but his fingers were easily pulled away by the killer's greater strength. His legs did little to obstruct his journey as they uselessly smacked against the flimsy wooden boards.

The surface world slipped completely from his view. It was replaced with a cold, dank space with exposed beams, dangling fiberglass insulation, crumbling, leaded paint the color of dead skin, and air that tasted like black mold.

Ghostface stopped at the base of the stairs. The painful pressure at his back disappeared. A hand was suddenly digging around in his pocket. Felix continued to claw at the glove pressed firmly over his face, desperate to find an opening and escape the hold.

The photos he’d stashed away were suddenly brought before his eyes and splayed before him in a paper fan of violation.

“Ah, thank you for bringing these back to me. Such a good little golden retriever,” the voice said, languid and sonorous as it wormed its way into his ear, “I missed looking at these. Aren’t they great?”

He spread the fan out a bit, exposing one image in particular located in the middle of the pack. This one was centered on his face. His expression was relaxed and untroubled as several dark fingers dived deep into his open gullet.

Felix squirmed and whimpered his despondency from beneath the leather glove, stomach churning with sickening nausea. What else had this sick freak done to his unconscious body? What was he going to do to him now?!

“Don’t worry, I played nice like I said; I only looked and didn’t touch… well, much. I have to admit, it was incredibly tempting, watching you just laying there and so, so vulnerable… but it’s never quite as fun without a reaction— that’s the best part after all. And unfortunately, that's what's missing from all these gorgeous pictures.”

The lurid photos suddenly dropped from his view, and the killer shifted as if stashing them somewhere on his person.

“But who needs pictures when I have the real thing right here, awake and lucid?” the killer purred, and Felix suddenly felt the feather light touch of the killer's hand running up his thigh. His free hand shot out to grab it, trying to stop it from moving any further, but he couldn't manage to get a proper grip. Nervous wimpers slipped out of him with growing frequency as that hand roamed higher, his body squirming more the higher it went. The hand drifted to his backside and suddenly grabbed a firm handful of his ass. Felix’s mind lurched with shock. He writhed frantically, trying to get away from the offending touch and begging for mercy through the leather that turned his words to a muffled mush. He couldn’t do this, he couldn’t!

Ghostface’s amused chuckle reverberated in his plastic mask, “But first I need to make a few things clear.”

Faster than he could process, the killer was suddenly in front of him. Hot pain exploded from the back of his skull. The world grayed and blurred. A shrill whine pierced his eardrums and drilled into his brain.

After a long moment, things slowly began to come back into focus, like the fact that it was now very difficult to breathe. His hands immediately flew to his neck, fumbling at it until finally discovering a hand clamped firmly around his throat with its thumb pressing down on his trachea.

Forcing his blurred vision back into focus, he found that pale, wailing mask hovering dangerously close. He tried sucking in a breath, but immediately choked on it. The panic from his failure to inflate his lungs made his heart ratchet up to a dangerous pace.

The mask before him cocked to the side, as if observing a pinned insect, and the pressure on his windpipe eased by the slightest amount.

Felix tried gasping for air, but found that he could only sip at it with shallow, rasping whines.

“I’m not convinced you were listening earlier, so just so we understand each other; if anyone finds out about our little fling here, for any reason at all, I’ll gut them alive and feed them their entrails. Then, I’ll feed them to you. Got it? ”

Ghostface thrust him back against the wall for emphasis, and his vision blurred again, skull ringing like a bell. His already injured throat strained desperately against the thumb pressing down on it, the bite wound flaring with pain beneath the padded bandage. The tips of his toes kicked out uselessly against the concrete floor, failing to find support as he pulled and yanked at the killer’s arm.

“That goes double for that fucking meathead . I saw the look on your face when you two were gettin’ all handsy and playing kissy-face back there. You wanted to tell that dipshit about me so bad , even after my warning.”

Felix shook his head in the hold, wishing he could say it hadn’t been like that— that his relationship with David wasn’t like that — as if it was the most important thing.

“Words don’t even begin to express the things I would do to the both of you if your brain fell out of your skull one day and you stupidly decided to tell him. If that ever happens, I’ll make you both wish you were permanently dead. Say you understand.”

The back of his head crashed into the wall again, and Felix gagged as the world flashed. The pressure over his trachea eased again, and oxygen finally began to seep its way into his lungs. 

Felix gasped at the air and finally rasped out a weak, “ Yes! ”

The killer stared silently at him from beneath the mask, watching Felix languish in his hold as he wheezed and struggled for tiny sips of air. The long seconds were filled with nothing but the sounds of his choking echoing off the empty walls, stretching into an eternity. 

“I don’t think I believe you. Make me believe you.”

His slowing, stuttering mind worked painfully through what the killer actually meant by that— what he really wanted from him. The killer wanted him to grovel. He wanted appeasement. Submission.

Felix sucked in a shallow, stinging breath that barely filled his lungs, “I u– understand, G– Ghostface, please .”

The killer cocked his head curiously at him, then tsk’ed in disappointment. The pressure on his trachea remained constant.

“C’mon, Ghostface is my professional title. We know each other better than that…”

The world was going blurry and his eyelids were trying to force themselves closed, but still, he clawed for lucidity in the agony of suffocation. He knew the killer’s name— his real name. It had been bestowed on him like a thoughtful gift or prized treasure, but he’d immediately thrown it to the back of his mind and quarantined it like toxic waste. It had just been too personal . Being on a first name basis with the killer of his nightmares, even in his own mind, felt like crossing a line.

But now, he needed that name.

As his brain began to slip beneath the waves of his consciousness, the name rose to the surface. His lungs heaved.

“ I understand… D– Danny… ”

“There it is.”

The pressure on his throat disappeared and Felix dropped to the ground like dead weight. It took a moment for his brain to realize his airways were now unobstructed, but when it did, Felix immediately began to cough and gasp hoarsely at the cologne-tinged air around him. His vision became speckled with a whirlwind of fuzzy dots as the air filled and stung his burning lungs.

When he finally felt like he was no longer suffocating, he turned his gaze back on the greater threat, who was now looming over him. The white mask screamed in silence down at him, then slowly angled to the side.

“Well, isn’t this a bit compromising,” he purred, tone slipping back into that dark, velvet melody, “I think we can make use of this situation.”

The killer impudently stepped between his splayed legs and nudged them aside, much too close for comfort. A black gloved hand reached for his face. Felix instinctively lurched to the side, crashing into several deteriorating cardboard boxes stacked against the wall, and spilling their innards all over the floor.

Despite the unfocused world bobbing and swaying before him, he could easily make out the pale mask glaring down at him. Breathless and heart pounding, he crawled backwards over the pile of junk, desperate for any kind of space between himself and the killer, who only continued to observe, hand still frozen in its outstretched position. Felix dragged himself backward toward the open doorway behind him, into another section of the grimy, water-damaged basement.

Ghostface strolled lazily after him.

Felix’s mind raced. He couldn’t let this happen again. Surely there was something he could say or do to distract him? Maybe one of the other survivors in the Trial would eventually find them down here and interrupt them? He feared what Ghostface would do in that situation, but surely it was better than the alternative.

“Why are you doing this?” he rasped, cringing at how weak and fragile his own voice sounded as he continued to pull himself away from the approaching killer.

Ghostface cocked his head almost exactly like one of those oversized, spying crows, “Why do you wear that watch on your wrist?”

Felix hesitated, momentarily struck by the apparent non-sequitur. He resisted the urge to glance down at his wrist.

“We all want to possess pretty things, don’t we?”

Felix nearly choked on the sudden lump that had appeared in his throat. He swallowed it with great difficulty and forced himself to press on despite his mortification. “Is.. is that what I am to you?” He felt short of breath.

Instead of answering, the killer placed his boot heavily between his legs, and Felix scrambled quickly away from it.

Gulping down his fear, he tried another line of questioning, “The Entity is just letting you do this? Why only now? Why—”

“It’s honestly adorable how clueless you are.”

Felix blinked hard, staring dumbly up at the killer.

“You don’t think I see the gears turning behind those bright, baby blues of yours? You’re obviously trying to delay, hoping for someone to come along, hoping for some kind of magical intervention.”

Ghostface stepped between his legs once more and crouched to meet his eyes. The empty black pits threatened to swallow him whole. Felix couldn’t move.

“But I wouldn’t worry about that; the others won’t be bothering us anytime soon.”

A pregnant pause, filled with his unsteady breaths, and then a dark hand lunged for him. Felix yelped as his scalp lit up with pain. Teeth gritting hard, he fumbled at the fist in his hair as he was dragged backward through the doorway he had been aiming for.

His back met with something solid. All the air was forced painfully from his lungs and he gasped to take it back. Legs kicking out at the floor, he continually pulled and clawed at the hand buried in his hair, attempting to lessen the pain. The killer only gripped tighter, until tears were pricking the corners of his eyes.

Through the pain, Felix squinted up at the killer, and felt a pang of fear when he saw his other hand reaching for his neck. He braced for that terrible feeling of his airways cinching shut once again, but instead felt a prodding at the bandage over his throat. A finger levered its way underneath the tape, then harshly ripped it away from his skin. He yelped at the sudden stinging pain, and caught a glimpse of the bandage being tossed somewhere to the floor. The gloved hand immediately went to stroke over the half-healed wound, and Felix hissed as his damaged flesh throbbed. Despite the softness of the leather, the touch still burned like a collection of wasp stings. It dragged over every raised indentation with a possessive appreciation that burned.

“Don’t cover this again.”

The hand retreated and Felix puffed at the brief respite.

Next came the sound of shifting fabric and clicking buttons, and Felix’s eyes shot back onto the killer, who was now fiddling with his pants beneath his cloak.

Felix’s heart stuttered. He jerked to get away, but only succeeded in reigniting the stinging pain throughout his scalp. The killer held him firmly in place against the wall.

⚠️

The black cloak shifted to the side, and the killer’s penis suddenly bounced into view, the tip already pearling with precum and looking painfully erect as it bobbed threateningly at his eyeline.

A hysteric squeak bubbled up his throat. He could barely comprehend that this was happening.

“No, no, wait! I can’t, I—” He gasped breathlessly, searching desperately for weaknesses in the grip holding his hair. 

He gulped down his panic again, watching as the cock in his face twitched eagerly.

“Please, Ghost—”

He saw the killer’s head incline in warning from the corner of his vision.

“ D– Danny , please d– don’t do this, I’ve never…” the words died on his tongue as the killer’s genitalia drifted closer. He turned his head away to avoid it, trembling lips tightly sealed. Already, he could smell the malodorous musk of the thing intermingling with the spice of the cologne.

“Never sucked a dick before?”

Felix made a small, mortified sound of denial that came out like a weak whimper.

“That’s okay, I already know how well you’d be able to take me. I’ve seen you.”

Eyes wide, Felix glanced up at the killer, disturbed and confused.

“The Pustula Plants. I’ve never seen someone’s throat filled and stretched open so much before. You took so many of those things… I know you can take me just fine.”

Felix’s world seized and the stuffy, dank basement suddenly fell away. Surrounding him were golden, glowing Pustula Plants. Dark, spiny tendrils wrapped around and around his body, tangling him in their web and rendering him completely immobile. Air humid and thick with putrid, stinking rot. Something prodding at his lips and— 

“NO!”

He thrust his hands forward and hit something solid. He pressed against it hard, trying to keep the tendril from invading him again. Not again!

A voice growled above him, and the back of his head exploded with hot, radiating pain. His vision burst into a blizzard of stars and his body went limp. His throbbing skull rolled limply on his shoulders as he tried to make sense of the blurry, gray world around him.

Soft fingers brushed over his cheek and combed into his hair. The touch was the only gentle and comforting thing he could make sense of in his current existence of pain and confusion, and so he leaned blindly into it— anything to stop that deafening, screeching whine that was drilling into the back of his pulsating skull.

“There we go, much better,” the disembodied voice echoed above him, “Now, open wide...”

The soft fingers pulled on his bottom lip, and his mouth fell open with a dazed moan. They prodded a bit at his tongue, wicking away its moisture and leaving a tangy, coppery taste in its place. The fingers left, and Felix’s head lolled on its stem once again. The hand returned to steady him, gently palming his cheek. Something else poked in between his lips, much thicker and larger than fingers. The second it touched his tongue, he nearly retched at the foul, salty taste of it. The hand cradling his head goaded him forward, and he gagged as the large intrusion hit the back of his throat.

Tendrils squirming and squeezing their way down his esophagus. Viscous, sappy fluid filling his stomach and lungs. An endless cycle of drowning, suffocation, lucidity, and misery.

Felix whirled his head away, coughing and heaving as he tried to keep the shadows at bay and regain some sense of his reality. Shielding himself from assault, Felix heaved and blinked furiously, trying to force the fuzzy, gloomy world back into focus. He wasn’t in the Pit, he wasn’t — but he wasn’t safe either.

The bundle of nerves on his scalp lit up once again, and Felix was forced upright and back into position against the wall. The sharpness of the pain snapped him further into the present but everything still looked like one giant smear. All he could make out was a dark shadow looming over him— Ghostface — and a flesh-colored blob in his face.

The shadow closed in on him.

Fingers prodded between his lips, and Felix snapped his mouth shut. He blindly pushed his arms out against the body in front of him, trying to hold the darkness at bay. His labored exertions hissed out from between his clenched teeth. 

The killer snarled in frustration.

His left wrist was suddenly snatched up and pulled painfully taut. Felix resisted the urge to open-mouth scream, instead snarling tightly through his teeth.

The fist left his hair, finally giving his abused scalp some much needed reprieve, but now fiercely took hold of his jaw and squeezed— hard.

“Cmon, I need this…”

Felix groaned and squirmed with miserable effort as his mandibular muscles were crushed beneath the bruising force of the killer’s digits. That blurry blob of hard, veiny flesh suddenly pressed up against his teeth and slipped over his gums, scalding hot and quivering against his face as it demanded entrance into his warm, moist orifice. The dank, stinking musk of it bled through the cologne and blasted his nostrils like a firestorm. Hot tears pricked his eyes as his heart thumped laboriously against the desperate panic squeezing his chest.

Felix felt his jaw creak and twinge with sharp pain. It gave slightly, but not enough to allow entry. Blood thundering insistently in his ears, Felix grasped blindly at the gloved hand holding his jaw with his own free hand, hearing himself hiccup and whimper in distress as he pulled at the crushing fingers, attempting to lessen the pressure on his rapidly tiring facial muscles. Ghostface still wasn’t letting up, so next he tried kicking out at the killer's legs, feeling a small sense of victory when a particularly hard impact elicited an exasperated grunt from the cloaked killer.

That feeling was quickly dashed when his left wrist was twisted painfully. Felix shrieked through his teeth, but still held on. The hot flesh prodded into his cheek, and Felix caught a powerful hint of something that tasted salty and bitter.

The killer hissed something unintelligible inside the plastic mask, and then— 

SNAP

The sharp, whip-crack of a sound resonated throughout the room. The pain raced up his arm like an electric shock.

Felix screamed, and then gagged, his mouth suddenly filled with foul, throbbing flesh. He quickly tried to turn away, but was held firm by a thumb hooked into his jaw and another in his hair that pulled tightly at his scalp once again. Felix’s hands instinctively shot up to push the killer's hips away from him, but a sharp, stabbing pain of agony in his left wrist quickly repelled him. Tears welling in his eyes, Felix moaned with muffled misery around the killer's cock filling his mouth, and Ghostface shivered, letting out a moan of his own.

“Oh, yessss. ”

He retched grotesquely around the thick, vile-tasting intrusion as it slid further toward the back of his throat. Panic squeezed his chest as his air was increasingly cut off. 

Pressing his broken wrist to his chest to keep the fractured bones from grinding together, Felix used his good arm to push and beat at the killer’s hips, trying desperately to get him to back off, but Ghostface barely seemed to notice. The killer pulled back barely enough to allow Felix to gasp for air before yanking his head back onto his dick, triggering his gag reflex and making his throat spasm around the bulbous head. Hot tears poured from his eyes. Snot oozed from his nostrils and over his lips. All of it mixed and intermingled with the drool cascading down his neck.

Felix’s hand flailed to the organ itself, only managing to grasp it for a split second before being snatched away. His head was forced back against the wall, angled up enough to see a blurry white blob looming over him. His right wrist strained under the pressure of the killer’s grasp.

“You want me to snap this one too?”

Felix gurgled wretchedly around the hot flesh in his mouth, chest filling with humiliation and agonized despair as he realized there was nothing else he could do except endure. Heart wrenching, Felix let his arm dangle in the killer’s hold with a defeated whimper. The sour, salty member twitched on his recoiling tongue.

Ghostface promptly let his hand drop and went back to fisting his golden hair. Felix's trembling hand fell to the killer's cloak and clutched at it, if for no other reason than to brace himself for imminent violation. Despite the visceral sensations of his plight, Felix felt like he was barely anchored to reality, like his conscious mind would float away at any moment.

Ghostface yanked his head back onto his cock, and Felix retched loudly as the tip hit the back of his soft palate. His body heaved as it tried to repel the thing dipping into his esophagus. Watery saliva spilled over his chin and soaked his front. Visions of wriggling, dripping tendrils squeezing their way down his throat flashed before his eyes. He retched and instinctively pulled back yet again, but to no avail. His heart pounded hard in his ears, in as much of a hysterical panic as he was himself.

The killer grumbled, “Vomit and I’ll make you deepthroat my knife. Breath through your nose, pull your teeth back, and relax your fucking throat. I know you can take this…”

Felix clutched hard at the killer’s leg and pressed his broken wrist firmly to his chest until it started throbbing again. 

Danny was right; he did know how to endure something like this. God help him, deep down, he knew . In the Pit, once he’d given in, the Pustula Plants had kept him alive and breathing as they invaded him for as long as they could— beyond what he even thought possible. What he didn’t know was if he could force himself to go there again mentally— to fully accept the thing invading his body for the sake of his own survival. The last time had nearly broken him.

Ghostfast pressed forward, and Felix’s throat seized as it tried to prevent the intrusion from going any further. He gagged again. More saliva poured from the corners of his mouth. His guts heaved, nearly spewing the contents of his stomach everywhere. The killer growled threateningly above him.

He didn’t have a choice. He had to accept Danny or else he’d either suffocate or choke on steel.

Mind screaming and skin crawling in horrific repudiation, Felix finally let the paper-thin wall holding back his memories of the Pit fall away. His jaw fell wide open and he let his throat relax. Immediately, the hard flesh moved forward. He nearly gagged again, but managed to suppress it, focusing fully on taking, slow, shallow breaths through his nose and letting his mind go blank as the cock– tendril slipped its way down his throat. 

A moan from above echoed in his ears but he tuned it out. A hand pressed against the back of his head, pushing him forward until his nose and chin met with the killer’s irritating, wiry pubic hairs. The tip of the dripping tendril –penis forced its way further inside him until it met with some resistance. Again he allowed his throat to relax and open a bit more, swallowing down the intrusion instead of fighting it.

And then, something deep within his throat gave way, and the bulbous head popped inside of the tight recesses of his esophagus, completely cutting off his air. The hands pressed even harder against the back of his head, until his face was uncomfortably smashed up against the killer's pelvis. Another lurid groan, and the hard flesh twitched within the tight, warm, wet sleeve of his throat.

“Oh fuck , I knew you’d be good at this.”

The voice sounded very far away, the words barely processing in his mind.

When his lungs had only just started to burn in that now-familiar way, Danny pulled back just enough for Felix to catch a breath and then immediately dived back in. Obediently, Felix held his throat open as the plant— Danny — thoroughly fucked it like an inanimate fleshlight. He mentally checked himself out of the situation, floating in a numb haze until that burn in his chest returned and he reminded himself to take a breath whenever the tendril– cock pulled out far enough to allow it.

He somewhat came out of his stupor when soft, leathery hands wrapped tightly around his throat. There was a moment of panic where he thought he would be choked again, but realized the pressure was only very slight. It was not enough to completely cut off his breathing, but was still firm. The hand squeezed the area where the cock– tendril was bulging out his throat, accentuating the disturbing sensation as it popped in and out his esophagus.

“God, I love feeling myself inside you, baby. You’re so fucking amazing .”

The sordid, moaning voice, husky and breathless with arousal brought him further out of his numb trance. Momentarily, he lost his concentration, and his throat convulsed. 

Ghostface gasped and held him in place, buried deep inside his body, “Oh fuck , do that again!”

Nose buried in the ticklish, stinking hair of the killer’s groin, Felix felt his chest clench, not from the oxygen deprivation, but rather, from a deep overwhelming shame. How had his reality come to this? Violated and used like a plaything for this unhinged psychopath’s sick pleasure… 

In an attempt to lessen the repetitive impacts on his body, Felix shifted into a more comfortable position… and realized that there was a pronounced stiffness in his own pants. His chest squeezed tight around his heart.

He wanted to tell himself that it was natural, that he could be hard for any number of reasons right now, but in the darkest part of his mind, Felix couldn’t help but listen to that little voice telling him otherwise— that somehow, deep down, he was enjoying this, and his body wanted to choke on cock, wanted to be debased like this.

Another hot wave of shame washed over him, and in that moment, Felix felt more disgusted with himself than with anything else that was currently happening to him.

The tears brimming in his eyes flooded over his flushed cheeks in fresh new waves, and his chest hitched with a muffled, gagged sob. The killer moaned over him again and began to thrust into his compressed throat with short, sharp little jabs, continually penetrating that tight space deep inside his gullet with the tip of his cock. Felix could no longer manage to steal away any quick breaths between thrusts, so he simply endured as Ghostface fucked open his esophagus.

The hands around his neck clamped down harder, squeezing around the intrusion from the outside as it thrust deeper into him over and over, faster and faster. With his one good hand, he braced himself as best as he could against the killer’s furiously gyrating hips. His lungs were beginning to burn again.

The end of this torture had to be coming soon, it had to be.

The thrusts grew harsher, more insistent, and the killer’s breathing became heavy and labored. Still, he showed no signs of stopping.

Felix’s body instinctively convulsed as it tried to force him to breathe, but Felix held back. The killer groaned again at the pulse of pleasure the spasm had given him and pressed even deeper, his hands so tightly wrapped around his throat, Felix could feel the bruises forming under his skin.

Again his body seized against his will, seemingly to the killer’s continued pleasure. Panic rising in his breast, Felix clawed with his good hand at the killer's pants, desperately attempting to convey his distress as his vision grayed and blurred from lack of oxygen once again, but Danny still did not let up.

Finally, his body forced an attempt at a breath, only to find a gross obstruction that found its way into his breathing tube. Felix immediately choked and heaved as his trachea was penetrated. His body squirmed and writhed in a blind panic, but Ghostface held him firmly in his grasp, oblivious to his anguish and consumed by his own quest for pleasure. The tendril –cock plunged into his trachea several more times before he finally managed to close it off and redirect it back into the correct tube. At this point, however, Felix couldn’t stop himself from continually convulsing and gagging around the hard flesh lodged deep in his throat.

That seemed to finally send Danny over the edge.

With an obscene moan, the killer pulled Felix onto his dick as far as he could and held him there. The scrotum on his tongue pulsated in time with the hard flesh buried deep in his esophagus, depositing rope after rope of viscous seed– nectar down his gullet. Fisting the dark fabric of the killer's pants in a deathgrip, Felix waited for it to end as darkness invaded his vision and his body spasmed, desperate for the fresh air it so urgently needed.

“Yeah baby, milk me dry…”

Distantly, Felix thought he could hear a series of mechanical clicks somewhere in the vague fog of his existence, but could not place neither their meaning nor origin.

Just as Felix felt himself begin to slip away, his airway was suddenly open, and he jerked back to awareness with a deep, rasping breath. He coughed violently between gasps of air as his body attempted to dislodge the thick ejaculate sticking to the inside of his throat until he was on the brink of passing out again, but only a small, acrid lump came up. He gulped the rest down.

His head was suddenly yanked upwards by the scruff of his neck. A blurry white mask stared down at him, seeming to sway and divide before his eyes. The cock that had been buried in his throat moments ago now hovered over his face. The dark, gloved hand stroked it furiously up and down. A thin, gossamer strand of opaque, pearly white connected his mouth to the dripping cock head, jostling and swaying with every movement.

“Your face looks so beautiful like that, all flushed and tear-stained. I have one more thing to add that would make it perfect.”

The killer grunted, and Felix flinched as several thick globs of semen landed on his face—  a final, parting gift that stole away the last of his dignity.

⚠️

“There, now that’s photo-worthy.”

As Ghostface reached into his cloak and brought out his compact camera, Felix’s heart shriveled into a hollow void. More hot tears rolled off his lashes and down his cheeks as he was forced to stare up into that voyeuristic lens as it captured one of the most dehumanizing, degrading moments of his existence— now, forever immortalized in film.

*click*

Flash.

*click*

Flash.

*click*

Flash.

The hand shifted from his hair to his jaw. Felix nearly crumpled in on himself, but the killer managed to keep him steady. A thumb wedged itself between his teeth and held open his bruised mouth.

*click*

Flash.

*click*

Flash.

*click*

Flash.

Finally, the camera was unceremoniously put away.

Fingers tenderly brushed over his face and through his hair. Felix’s stomach churned, feeling a deep revulsion that ran into his very core. The colorless, empty-eyed mask drifted into his field of view.

“I knew the moment I saw you that you were something special… Never could I have imagined how incredibly right I was. It’s a shame…”

The killer trailed off, letting the thought dangle freely in the air.

Felix’s shallow wheezing filled the empty void. Swaying unsteadily, he stared blankly and deliberately through his tormentor.

Featherlight fingertips drifted down his face, momentarily catching his bottom lip and brushing over it before letting it bounce back into place. The hand finally fell to the wayside and away from him.

Finally free from any hold, Felix slumped against the wall, limp and listless. 

The killer rose to his feet and moved away.

Felix didn’t care to look up at him, only waiting for the moment he would leave his presence.

“Hey.”

He jolted as much as he was physically able, and his eyes instantly locked onto the shadow staring at him from the doorway, as if the word had been a strict order instead of a casual interjection.

“Remember what we talked about.”

A beat of strained silence. His eyes remained locked onto the empty, black sockets of the mask, drilling deep into his very soul.

“Until next time, Felix.”

A pang of caustic dread lanced through him and he flinched. 

Next time…

Finally, finally, the killer turned away, and with a surge of black fabric, was finally gone from his presence.

At last, he was alone in the dark, damp basement, weakly lit by a single, wavering bulb. The scent of sweat, sex, and spicy cologne was quickly fading and mixing into the background musk of the old, abandoned home. Wheezing, rasping breaths echoed faintly off of the flaking walls. 

His muscles twitched. 

Slowly, steadily, sensation began to make its way back to him. His entire body was shaking. Each and every breath singed his throat and lungs, as if the air was saturated with sulfuric acid.

His facial muscles twitched. His skin felt tight, like it was covered by a thin film. Immediately, he remembered why. His face was coated in a rapidly drying crust of snot, saliva, tears, and… other things.

Feeling himself shake harder, he rubbed his sleeve over his face with his good arm. It took him several attempts due to his limbs being so unsteady, but eventually he was able to mostly clean it.

He sat back and swallowed the painfully dry knot in his bruised throat, only to recoil at the immense pain and distant reminder that he had swallowed something else only moments ago… 

What had occurred flooded back over him, the sensations, the tastes, smells, feelings… everything he’d done— had been done to him. His stomach churned and twisted with disgust and revulsion, not only for what had happened to him but directly for himself. He was disgusting, tainted, fucked up, and that shit was still sitting in his stomach.

Bile bubbled in the hollow of his throat and he went dizzy with nausea. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, his body was doubled over and heaving its innards all over the floor. His back wrenched painfully as the contents of his stomach were forced up his stinging gullet and out of his system, over and over again until nothing but air was coming up.

When the paroxysms finally stopped, Felix fell back against the wall, exhausted and trembling anew.

The mess he’d created consisted mostly of acrid, yellow bile and watery saliva, but there were also several globs of white scattered about the puddle.

He dry heaved again before finally turning away, shuddering as another wave of revulsion washed over him. Feeling his body dissolve into uncontrollable tremors, and with fresh tears in his eyes, Felix huddled in on himself, barely holding on as the whispering darkness closed in on him. The terrible horror of it all threatened to crush his very soul.

There, in the darkness of that damp, purgatorial basement, Felix remained, shivering and shedding silent tears until the pocket dimension eventually collapsed in on itself. His disembodied soul, now rich with emotion, was promptly snatched up by the Entity and reaped of its essence. What remained was sent back to the horrors of bodily existence, ready to absorb more of that delectable, ruinous misery.

Notes:

⚠️Graphic descriptions of oral rape and traumatic deepthroating. Felix has vivid flashbacks to the Pit. Past and present traumatic events blend together.⚠️

Chapter 12: All Ears

“Fookin shite .”

David hissed, passing yet another slanted birch tree. He could’ve sworn he’d already passed this exact same tree three times since he’d entered the Forest of Passage. It certainly wasn’t a good sign. What was worse, he’d been purposefully searching the labyrinthian woodland for Felix for what felt like hours, but there was still no sign nor vague sense of him.

Usually, whenever he was wandering the Forest in search of something, he would eventually gain a vague notion or internal feeling representative of what he was looking for in the center of his breast. The feeling would pull on him and lead him through the mist, like following the fleeting glow of a meandering firefly in the dark, and all he had to do was quiet his mind and follow it.

Different things conjured different feelings. The water tower mostly felt like quiet solitude, but with an air of foreboding; like a monument without a plaque to indicate its purpose. The campfire felt like home— if that home had thirteen or so bickering children— and Felix felt like… Warmth. Light. Comfort. Like a long embrace on a chilly, rainy day.

But David couldn’t sense Felix at all right now.

The method didn’t always work for various reasons, and the current moment seemed to be one of those times. 

The possible reasons were many. Sometimes the Forest didn’t want him to find what he was looking for, or the person or thing itself simply didn’t want to be found. He felt like it was long past time for the man to have been deposited back into the Forest after his Trial, even if he’d been sacrificed, but it was entirely possible that Felix didn’t want to be found after his Trial. The man had done something similar after what had happened with the Pustula Plants. If something on that level had happened again… David didn’t even want to imagine such things, especially with Felix in the state he’d last seen him in.

He hoped— no, prayed — the reason was something much less innocuous, like the Forest itself.

David puffed out his nervous frustration and squeezed the handle of his medkit until the material squeaked in protest.

He contemplated calling out into the Forest directly, despite how risky and unproductive he knew it would be, but David was tired of wandering this fucking funhouse of endless foliage.

A corroded, croaking caw drew his attention from nearby.

He looked up and saw a fat crow staring down at him from the lowest branch of the leaning birch tree. It ruffled its silky, shining feathers and croaked at him once again.

“Fucking…”

Feeling the flames of rising anger licking at his insides, David scrounged about the grass until his fingers curled around a small, palm-sized stone.

“Fook off ya peekin’ twit!” he snarled and threw the rock as hard as he could at the bird.

It missed, and instead, hit the branch directly next to it. Still, it was enough to spook the crow into flying away.

He huffed and casually thumbed his nose, feeling a bit better after that small but satisfying victory. He was done with the Entity’s bullshit.

David resumed his arduous slog through the misty Forest, waiting to feel any hint of that wavering warmth.

After a mere handful of steps however, something out of sorts pricked the tips of his ears, and he froze. Eyes narrowing, he carefully scanned the endless woodland around him, scarcely breathing as he listened for that out of place wisp of sound he thought he'd heard somewhere in the distance.

And there it was again— airy and muffled by the forest canopy, but that noise had almost certainly sounded like a voice.

Felix?!

Feeling hope rise in his heart, his first instinct was to call out in reply to the voice, but quickly stopped himself. He knew better than that. He wasn't even sure if the voice was real, much less if it belonged to the man he was searching for.

David still couldn’t feel even a hint of that embracing warmth that signified the German's presence, but even so, there was still a possibility that it was him.

Feeling the threads of hope tug insistently on his doubt, David propelled himself toward the voice.

Again, the voice tickled his ears, like a whispering breeze. Very distinctly, he could make out a masculine quality to the voice calling out into the endless forest.

His heart thudded heavily against his sternum for a beat or two, driving that fervent hopefulness to the forefront of his mind. It had to be him.

David picked up his pace once again, hurrying toward that voice somewhere in the distance.

“Hello!!”

David couldn’t tolerate staying silent any longer, “Felix!”

“Hello?! Is someone out there?!”

David skidded to a stop in the slippery leaf litter.

That didn’t sound like Felix.

“I’m over here! Please help!”

But it did sound like someone who had no clue about where they were or what kind of danger they were in.

David cursed venomously.

Somehow, instead of finding Felix, he’d stumbled upon a fucking Bambi, fresh as a newborn and already screaming their way through the Forest of Passage like a toddler. This was the last fucking thing he wanted to deal with right now, but Dwight had made it very clear that it was imperative to help newcomers as quickly as possible when they were found. That way, the chances of them falling through the cracks and getting snapped back up by the Entity could be drastically decreased. As much as he hated it, this Bambi was now his responsibility.

Sighing, David resumed his trek toward the newly lost soul who continued to yell their head off.

“Hello?! Where are you?! I can’t hear you anymore!”

The voice was much closer now, so David picked up his pace to try and meet up with the man before something else took notice of the commotion. A figure began to materialize from the fog in the distance and David immediately took action.

“Oi! Shut your gob!”

The figure spun around to face him, and David quickly closed the distance.

“Oh, thank god! I’ve been wandering this forest for hours! I don’t—”

“I said shut yer damn gob you bloody git!” he spat harshly.

The other man’s mouth finally snapped shut.

Finally, David was close enough to fully take in the new survivor’s appearance, who was now looking at him with wide, wondering eyes. Already, the man seemed exceedingly haggard— like he’d been awake and wandering the forest for days instead of hours. A substantial scruff clung to his neck. His soiled white dress shirt was stained with sweat, the color looking several shades darker than it was probably meant to be. The cheap, pine-tar scented aftershave he could smell on the man did nothing to hide his damp musk. Dark purple bags hung around his eyes, drastically contrasting the pallor of his pale skin and making the sharpness of his features that much more prominent. He also seemed a tad gaunt, what with his cheeks being slightly sunken in, but it didn’t take away from his overall appealing yet painfully average appearance. The dark brown hair wasn’t doing him any favors either, especially with it as wild and unkempt as it currently was.

Overall, the impression David got from the man was ‘human scarecrow’ but only if said scarecrow had been set up in a corporate office space to scare the new-hires.

“Uhh, sorry, but do you know where we are?”

David pointedly eyed the man up and down for a while before turning and walking away without fanfare. It wasn’t necessarily the Bambi’s fault for interrupting his very important search for Felix, but that didn’t mean he still wasn’t going to hold it against him.

“Hey, wait up!”

David spun around to face the man, who nearly crashed into him, “Are you bloody deaf? I said shut up!”

“Uhh, okay,” the human scarecrow whispered, looking hopelessly confused, “Can I ask why?”

“There are things in this Forest you’d rather not meet, mate. Trust me.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up in alarm, “You mean like bears and panthers?”

David glared at him for a very long moment, “No. Now c’mon.”

The Bambi hesitated for only a moment before deciding to hurry after his only lifeline in the endless expanse of forest. They walked in exquisite silence for no more than a minute before the man started talking again.

David clenched his jaw so hard, he could have sworn he’d cracked a filling.

“So uh, what should I call you?” the Bambi asked, voice low and careful, “Figure if we’re traveling together, we should at least know each other’s names.”

David grumbled to himself for a while, but eventually spat out his own name.

“David? Well, thank you for saving my life I guess. I don’t even know how long I’ve been out here at this point— probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer without food or water. It’s odd though, I don’t really feel that hungry or thirsty… Shit, I’m not dying am I? Does that mean I’m dying?!”

David puffed churlishly, “No mate, you’re not bloody dying…” 

The Bambi sighed with relief, “Oh good… Oh, I guess I should give you my name too, huh?”

“ Don’t bloody care, ” David hissed under his breath.

“Huh? What's that? Oh, well anyways, my name’s…”

The man suddenly trailed off, along with the sound of his footsteps. David immediately took notice, and turned to see the man standing there with a deeply troubled expression on his face.

“I.. I can’t remember my name…”

David’s brow reflexively bobbed to his hairline. It wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary for new arrivals to temporarily forget some things about their previous life. When David had first stumbled into the fog, for the longest time, he hadn’t been able to remember several large chunks of his childhood along with a great many things relating to his parents. But eventually, those pieces had come back to him. 

A name though? He could imagine that to be quite upsetting.

David sighed. Some of his vitriol fell away, and a bit of empathy slipped in to replace it.

“Ah… sorry to hear that mate. I’m sure it’ll come back to ya eventually,” he said, shifting on his feet, “But I'm sure forgetting your own name’s probably not the only odd thing that's happened to ya since you got here, innit?”

The man shook his head, looking deeply unsettled.

“We’ll get you up to speed on everything eventually, but first we’ve got to get back to the campsite. S’not safe here,” he said, motioning for them to carry on.

After a long moment, the new, bedraggled survivor seemed to accept this new promise of information and jaunted back to David’s side. The two promptly resumed their journey, but again, the silence did not last. David’s eyes rolled at the overly chatty nature of this new survivor, but by this point, his anger had more or less simmered out.

The Bambi sighed dejectedly, “Man, how did I even end up here? One second I’m investigating a construction site, walking down this weird corridor, and the next I’m in this creepy forest! How does that happen?!”

David chuckled, “Eh, I know what you mean. It’s the sort of thing that makes you think you’ve completely lost the plot, innit?” He looked back at the man, who nodded haltingly. “You sound American… I think you lot have a saying that’d sum up this whole situation right proper, and, well… you’re not in Kansas anymore lad.”

“Ahhh shit… I can’t believe this,” the man lamented, head hanging dejectedly.

Something about his tone of voice sounded a bit off, however. David couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly about it had bothered him, but it had been noticeable.

The moment passed into a deafening silence, filled only by the rhythmic crunching of crozzled detritus underfoot. The pale man beside him seemed to go into silent stupor. It was almost as if David were suddenly walking next to a corpse.

David cleared his throat, “So uh, you said you were investigating a construction site?”

The corpse-scarecrow jolted back to life. David himself nearly jumped as well.

“Oh yeah! It’s weird actually; I was investigating the disappearance of a friend of mine. He was an architect who went missing under mysterious circumstances.”

David immediately perked up at that, “You can’t be talking about Felix Richter, right?”

The man’s eyes widened in surprise, “I am actually! He’s here?!”

“Yea, been here for quite a while actually. Crazy coincidence that is,” David said, astonished at this new turn.

“Holy shit!” the man exclaimed, but just as suddenly as his excitement had come on, all of it promptly drained away. The survivor wilted. “Guess I found out what happened to him, huh?”

David gave the man a quick, apologetic look, but nothing more. He wanted to keep the conversation moving now that he had a reason to be invested in it. “So you knew Felix? How long has he been gone? How’d you know him?”

“Oh, uhhmm… well I’d say it's been several months now, everyone’s quite worried…”

That wasn’t very far off from his own estimates, although he knew Felix would want a more specific number. “And how’d you two meet?”

“I interviewed him for a puff piece for the newspaper I worked for— slow news week,” he shrugged as if to say ‘what can you do.’

David’s brow arched high at that. He wondered what business a random American journalist would have with a German Architect of all people. Certainly off the cuff. “So you’re a journalist?”

“Yea. Me and Felix hit it off right after the interview. I guess it helped that he was so fluent in English.”

David nodded thoughtfully. He would have inquired further on how exactly they'd 'hit it off' if the man hadn't interjected again.

“So how is he? Good I hope?”

David grunted and began to nod, but stopped himself. That wasn’t true. “Eh, he’s been better. Life can be cruel down here, and things have been pretty hard on him lately— don’t help that he’s been missing his family as well. Being separated from them makes him… distraught.” And David certainly hadn’t been very helpful on that front as of late… 

The nameless survivor seemed to absorb this information with a quiet, contemplative complacency, “I can’t even imagine how he feels. I know he loved them very much.”

David sighed, “Yeah, I’m sure his girl is worried out of her mind by now… How is Christine anyways? You were in contact with her, yea?” He knew for a fact that this was something Felix desperately wished to know, even if it did somewhat pain David to ask about her.

“Oh yes!” The man said, perking up again before swinging back into a dreary sadness— it was almost like watching a metronome, the way his mood seemed to shift back and forth so rapidly. “Well, the last time I spoke with her, she was quite worried and depressed and very upset with how the search was going. Nothing was turning up. No leads at all. But she knew I was an investigative journalist, so she asked if I couldn’t look for him. Maybe I could see something the authorities couldn’t, you know?”

“Uh huh…”

“So, I traced him all the way back to his latest work site, and, well, I guess you can see how that went, but I was right! My instincts were dead-on as always! My boss had a habit of doubting me when it came to my insights on certain types of stories, but eventually, he came to regret that view and see my way for what it was— the right way.”

“But Christine, is she—”

“Shit, I still can’t believe I actually found him! Most everyone had given up! So where is Felix anyways? Even before the disappearance, I hadn’t talked to him in a while, and I’d love to catch up and see what’s been going on with him all this time!”

David stopped suddenly and flipped around to face the chattering newcomer, who again, almost ran into him. Eyes narrowed in irritation, David stared at the new survivor until he squirmed with discomfort. He used that same time to put a damper on his smoldering hostility before speaking again. He’d made a personal resolution to refrain from verbally berating any more newcomers— no matter how irritating they were. He wasn’t about to abandon that sentiment on the first survivor they’d found since Felix.

“Listen here,” David said in a carefully controlled yet dangerous tone, “I can appreciate the fact that you have outside information that would be very helpful to us all, but let’s get one thing straight here— this ain’t a goddamn summer camp, and we ain’t here to roast marshmallows or sing songs or reminisce about trivial shit, aright? It’s fucking life and death out here. You wanna know how many times I’ve had my kidneys ripped out of my back? Hm?”

The man stood stock-still, watching David with a discordant air of frigid reticence. He shrugged, inclining his head noncommittally.

“Don’t know, because I’ve lost track,” David said, straightening.

The Bambi’s eyes widened.

“Now look, I don’t care if you’re Felix’s best friend in the whole wide world or the bloody fuckin’ Queen at this point. What you’re not gonna do is go waltzin’ up to him first chance you get and babble on about your personal life and other shit that don’t matter, aright? He’s been havin’ a poor time of it already, and the last thing he needs is some scrawny bellend stressing him out even more. You get me?”

The man nodded, eyes still wide. His disposition remained carefully taciturn.

David folded his bulky arms across his chest, “Now, this time, gimme a straight answer without all the extra yammering: How is Christine?”

The Bambi shifted on his feet, obviously unhappy about being treated like a child with the way his eyes seemed to be throwing daggers at him. Still, the man took a moment to formulate an appropriate answer, “Eh, not well, like I said. She was still holding out hope for him though, even after all this time.”

“And the kid?”

The man took another, much longer moment to construct an answer, “Healthy and happy— as far as I could tell at least.”

David nodded solemnly. He’d already assumed Felix’s child would have come into the world by now after so much time had passed. But now, knowing it to be a cold, hard fact… he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. So he didn’t.

Instead, he gave a curt nod and turned around, ignoring the puzzled look on the other man’s face as he resumed the journey back toward the survivor camp. After a brief moment of audible hesitation, his companion followed suit.

The silence lasted a bit longer this time.

“You seem pretty protective of him,” the man noted.

“Hm?”

“Felix.”

“Oh,” David remarked, “Yea, well, someone’s gotta be…”

“You mean other people here don’t look out for him?”

David’s breath hissed between his teeth, “Not as much as I’d personally like, considering he’s still pretty new. Most are too concerned with their own self interest to even bother checking up on other people. Honestly makes me dead miffed how selfish some of them can be. We’d all be better off if we weren't so disjointed…”

Ace and his group immediately came to mind, but in all honesty, all of them could be more involved with the cohesion of the group. These days, it seemed like most people stuck to their own little cliques or simply kept to themselves. However much he disliked it, though, David couldn’t say he’d contributed much toward the unification of the survivors in the past or even now; Felix had taken up most of his attention.

“Well, at the very least, it’s good to hear that someone like you has been keeping an eye on him for me all this time,” the man said with a toothy smile.

David grumbled vaguely, unsure of what to make of that statement. He was having a hard time trying to pin down exactly what kind of friend this man had been to Felix.

“So, uh… has anyone ever gotten out of here? Wherever ‘here’ is?”

“Eh, no,” he mumbled after a moment of consideration, “We’ve tried several things over the years, but every lead we’ve come across has always ended up being a dead end, ‘specially the last one…”

“Last one?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, “This bloody serum thing… was Felix’s idea actually, but it turned out to be a bloody disaster— literally. It ended up being nothing— same as everything else we’ve tried. I’m just glad we don’t have to deal with it any more— was some nasty shite.”

“So, no other prospects?”

“Nah… Far as I can tell, we ain’t gettin’ out anytime soon.”

“Ah hell… ”

Again, the tone of the man’s voice sounded off. This time though, he could make out an air of suppression. He sounded almost… insincere. David glanced back at the man trailing on his left. His expression was bleak and cast toward the ground, but also oddly taut. Controlled. He chewed the inside of his cheek as if in concentration instead of deep thought.

David watched him for a while longer, growing increasingly puzzled by the man’s odd behavior. 

“Why? You leave your family behind as well?” David prodded experimentally.

The Bambi’s head surged upward, as if he’d jolted awake, “Oh! No, not really. Not much time for one when you’re constantly traveling the world for work. I don’t mind it though.”

“Uh huh,” David said, letting this piece of information slot into the full picture he was building of this character, “I suppose I can understand that. I don’t—”

“So you and Felix, is it fair to say you’re pretty good friends? Seems that way from the sound of things.”

“Uhhh, yeahhh,” David droned, somewhat taken aback by the sudden interjection, “We’re friends.”

The other man smiled wolfishly, “So how’d that happen if you don’t mind me asking? Big gruff British dude like you and a quiet, artistic guy like him? Doesn’t seem like that would work.”

David paused, shooting the man a dubious, appraising look, “Am I being interviewed right now?”

The journalist shrugged, “Hard habit to break I guess,” he said, offering an apologetic grin.

The Brit shook his head, feeling his irritation with the man rising once again, but humored his question nonetheless, “Well we weren’t friends at first, so you’d be right to think that. We had to go through some pretty horrid shite before we could understand each other,” he sighed, “Sometimes though, I feel like I still don’t understand him…”

David felt like he’d been struggling with that from the moment that Felix had appeared in the fog. With Felix, there’d eventually come a point where David would think he’d had the man all figured out, and then suddenly, Felix would reveal something about himself that completely changed the way he saw him. Those moments had been continually drawing him in, bringing him further into the man’s sphere of influence to the point where he could no longer resist its pull. Back at the stream though… it was obvious that Felix had been struggling a great deal, and David didn’t know why. Whatever it was, the man obviously hadn’t wanted to tell him about it. Whatever subsequent revelation he was due to have about Felix… this time, it scared him.

“Well, he’s a complicated guy— always seems like he’s got a lot going on up there,” the journalist said, rapping against his own temple.

“Yea I s’pose…” The image of Felix’s bereft blue eyes staring back at him just before they were swallowed by black popped into his mind and lingered there like a haunting specter.

“So, uh… Where is Felix anyways? At this campsite we’re heading toward?”

David sighed morosely, “Actually, that was the reason I was out here in the first place. I was trying to find him because… I felt like something was wrong. I was going to find him and help him… but instead I found you ,” David couldn’t help but shoot the man a pointed glare.

The man grimaced, “Oh… well… if you want I could help you look for him? I wouldn’t mind it,” he said, face growing kind.

David puffed dispassionately, but still considered the offer. He stopped in his tracks and went still, willing his body and mind to become calm despite everything to the contrary. Layer by layer, David peeled away the anxiety, tension, and stress, and let it drain from his being. In turn, he allowed the endless expanse of the Forest to impress itself upon him and wash over his mind. In the churn of emotion and sensation rolling over him, he searched for one very specific feeling in particular, the only one that mattered… but it never came.

He still could not sense Felix at all.

David sucked in a breath as he came back to himself and let his posture fall. “No… I don’t think we’d be able to find him anyways… Besides, we really need to get you to the campsite,” he said and started to walk again. “Felix’ll turn up eventually…”

He had to…

After a moment, his own rhythmic crunching of leaves and detritus was joined by the second. The two walked on in somber silence for a while, but not long.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get in the way of your search. I didn’t realize something was wrong,” the journalist said.

David sighed again, “Nah, it ain’t your fault mate. You don’t even know what’s going on here.”

“I know… Doesn’t mean I don’t understand though. It’s obvious you’re worried about him; I’ve been feeling the same way for the past several months now.”

David nodded in dreary agreement, “Yea… except… Felix has been right in front of me all this time, and I feel like I haven’t been able to help him at all— shite, I’ve probably just been making things worse ,” David growled, hands streaming through his hair. “I try to be there for him, but… sometimes I feel like he’s slipping away from me bit by bit and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Nothing I can say to make him understand— make him realize that I… that he’s… needed.”

A beat passed.

“Sounds like you really care for him…” the man said, tone almost completely flat.

Realizing how tense he was, David let his shoulders drop and unclenched his fists with a puff of air. “I… suppose I do… but it’s not like there’s much else to care about here. All we’ve got is each other, you know?” he added, attempting to downplay what he’d inadvertently inferred.

Feeling that he’d exposed himself, David glanced back toward the man to gauge his reaction. As he turned, from the corner of his eye, David could have sworn he’d seen the man glaring at him with the darkest, most virulent grimace he’d ever seen on a survivor. When his eyes fully fell on the man, however, his face had gone back to that thoughtful, kindly expression he’d been sporting only a moment ago.

Bewildered, David stopped and stared at the man’s face for a long time, which was now growing increasingly quizzical.

“Everything okay?”

David jerked back to himself. Maybe he’d imagined it? Sometimes, the shadows cast by the moon through the Forest canopy could play tricks on the mind… It had probably just been a trick of the light… 

“Uh, yeah sorry… Me head went a bit sidetracked there.”

“Oh… okay,” the man said, watching him carefully.

The two resumed walking in silence. A growing sense of discomfort began to build in his core. He now paid close attention to the cadence and distance of the man’s footfalls at his back.

“You know, I can imagine what you’re feeling right now,” the man said suddenly, “What’s it’s like to be afraid you might lose someone you… care for .”

David grunted noncommittally, not feeling particularly comfortable about discussing his feelings for Felix with someone he just met— or anyone else for that matter. He’d already said too much.

“I know him quite well, so I completely understand why you like him so much. He’s definitely something special , isn’t he?”

A low, rumbling wave of apprehension welled within David’s breast. That was… one way of putting it.

David looked up and saw the beginnings of a soft orange glow between the trees in the distance. Almost there, and on the verge of being rid of this… character.

“I couldn’t imagine what I’d do if I found out something bad had happened to him. I’d just be so utterly devastated! ” the man said, as an uncanny, giggling whimper bubbled out of his chest and quickly fizzled out.

A chill raced up his spine. David stopped in his tracks and turned back around to face the man, who stood there looking a bit too innocent and confused. It had almost sounded like he’d been grinning when he’d said that— like he’d covered up an accidental laugh with some poor attempt at crying.

“You trying to say something, mate? ” David said, upper lip curling into a snarl.

“What? No! I’m just saying I’m worried about him too!” he said, the corners of his lips pulling down into a deliberate, concerned frown.

His fists tightened. “Then why the fuck did you say it like that?!”

"Like what?" The man's befuddled expression looked to be on the verge of cracking into a grin.

David growled and loomed over the other man as best he could. He wanted to grab hold of his shirt collar and shake the ever-loving shit out of him, but just barely managed to stop himself. “Who the fuck are you— really? ”

The man looked hurt, “I told you, I’m Felix’s friend!”

David’s eyes narrowed as he looked the human scarecrow up and down, “Why the fuck would he be friends with an American journalist? How do you actually know him? Wait a minute…” David’s eyes narrowed in thought, “Are you some kind of paparazzi?”

The man shifted on his feet and shrugged sheepishly, his grin a bit too wide for his face.

David spun around with a hiss and stormed off toward the survivor camp on the horizon.

Fucking lowlife scumbag. It made perfect sense now. The guy seemed to know a lot of generic information about Felix but no specifics. He was also overly eager to hear all the information and gossip about him, but hadn’t given anything of substance back. Then there was his overall appearance and attitude toward this whole situation; performative and disconnected. No way in hell Felix was actually friends with this guy. He probably hadn’t even interacted with Christine.

David knew that Felix was well-known in his field, so why wouldn’t he have at least one or two parasites following him around— especially so when there was drama about his disappearance. Somehow though, one of them had followed in Felix’s footsteps right into the jaws of the Entity, and now they had to deal with it. Fucking perfect.

“Hey wait! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to upset you!” the man said, running to catch up, “Old habits die hard! I’m stressed out by this whole thing, so I just fall back on what I know! It’s weird out here, okay?!”

“I don’t bloody care no more you fuckin’ parasite! If we weren’t almost there, I probably woulda knocked your lights out and left you to rot by now!”

“Hey, we still got some time! Why don’t you come over here and do it right now if I’m such a threat ? Or are you too much of a fucking pussy to do what needs to be done?!”

David chuffed, but didn’t respond to his goading. The guy was just spewing hot air because he’d been found out, and he wasn’t going to fall for it. It would hardly be a fair fight anyways; the parasitic scarecrow was a mangy pipsqueak compared to his own carefully cultivated bulk. If he did end up trying anything dodgy however, David was fairly certain he’d be able to handle it— which was his usual job around the campsite anyways.

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but in all honesty, David wouldn’t have minded if it did.

“Hey. Hey! I’m talking to you motherfucker!” the man called from a ways behind him.

David pressed onward without him toward the flickering orange glow of the fire. The ring of trees outlining their protective bubble of safety lay only a couple of meters away. He was done with this whole situation. The others could deal with this bullshit.

“ You love him, don’t you? ”

David stopped. His heart skipped a beat.

The man laughed long and hard. It was full of spite and cruel amusement. “ I knew it . You think you hide it so well, but it’s so obscenely obvious ,” he hissed. His voice had completely transformed into something disturbingly sinister yet richly smooth in the most unnerving of ways.

David’s hair stood out over his skin.

“ I’d vomit if I wasn’t so fucking offended for him; being drooled over by such a braindead animal must be exhausting. ”

The snarling voice had creeped closer, even though it hadn’t been preceded by any approaching footsteps.

“ If I were you, I’d think twice about sticking my dick in things that don’t belong to me, especially a sad little lost cause like him.”

David bristled like an agitated lion. The hissing voice continued in its slithering approach.

“If anything, you’d just end up pushing him over that ledge, and it’ll be the one he’ll never be able to come back from.”

With a thunderous roar, David spun around, fists raised and ready to smash in this fucker’s face— and blinked hard.

No one was there.

David blinked again. His head whipped around as he scanned his surroundings, trying to make sense of the empty woodland before him.

The voice had practically been right behind him . Where had he gone?

David took several unsteady steps forward, as if a new perspective on his surroundings would somehow enlighten him. Slowly, he let out a breath that he hadn’t remembered taking in. It came out with an audible, uncertain shudder. His fists remained clenched.

Had that guy even been real? He’d seemed real enough. The words he’d spoken had certainly sounded real, despite how hateful and wrong they were— he could never hurt Felix like that. The Entity’s periodic hallucinations were never that convincingly life-like, or so pointedly spiteful, for that matter; that had almost certainly been a real, honest-to-god, living human being.

So then who the fuck was that?

As David mulled over the words the man had said, his jaw clenched until his teeth were grinding. His hand squeezed the plastic handle of the medkit until it squealed.

Whoever that guy was, parasitic paparazzi or no, he was wrong .

All this time, David had been trying his damndest to help Felix, not hurt him… at least, not on purpose. He’d made mistakes for sure, but Felix had forgiven him. Things between them were okay now. But… if that were true, then why had Felix lied to him? Why had he hesitated to talk? Could the reason for Felix’s silence really have been because of… him?

No, David would know it if his actions were somehow hurting Felix… He’d know it…

Squirming on his feet, David glanced behind him and through the trees bordering the campfire that was sparsely populated with oblivious, carefree survivors, and then back at the great, labyrinthian expanse before him.

True or not, Felix still needed his help. He’d made a promise, and he would not rest until his friend was safely in his presence.

Bristling with tension and uncertainty, David forged ahead into the Forest once more, half-dreading, half-hoping he would encounter that contemptuous character again— if only to beat him senseless.

That was, until, a swarm of dark fog flooded in from the shadows and gathered round his legs. David cursed the Entity until his mouth was filled with suffocating dark mist, and then he was whisked away into a Trial.

The Forest of Passage was silent once more.

Notes:

Would love to hear everyone’s opinion on this chapter! Reminder that constructive criticism is always welcome!

Chapter 13: Heartstrings

Felix’s charcoal pencil hovered over the blank, unmarred parchment of the leatherbound journal. It drifted down toward the page and dangled overhead, uncertain and pensive as it considered the infinite expanse of white, before retreating from the page.

Felix gripped the edge of his appropriated sketchbook a bit harder than necessary, frowning deeply at the empty, lifeless void. In the background, Kate plucked quietly away at her guitar, trying to find a new melody hidden somewhere in the silver-steel strings. Adam sat with his back against a log a short ways away, entirely consumed by the otherworldly book he’d borrowed from the laboratory, the lettering on its spine incomprehensible.

Gripping his pencil a bit tighter, Felix breathed deep and aimed it at the page once again. Again, the charcoal tip paused just before it met the paper, trembling faintly in the air. He wasn’t even sure what kind of mark he wanted to make or what he even intended on drawing. It had to be something though— anything. He just had to make a decision on what to draw and start. Just put the pencil to the paper and move it around.

Gradually, he forced the black point toward the paper, closer than it had been since he’d sat down. More and more, the tip began to wobble. At the back of his mind, an insidious shadow began to softly scratch from behind a wall of his own making, slow and steady, inviting his attention.

Felix puffed out his breath and drew back before he could make a mess of the precious paper. He sat back and stared again at the blank page. The steel strings sang quietly and inoffensively in the background. The shadow continued to scratch and pick away at the wall like a scab, increasingly irritating and unnerving.

Adam suddenly let out an aggravated grunt. Felix jumped, his mask of calm nearly falling away. His eyes immediately set upon the other man to see if it was directed at him.

“Man, I think I bit off more than I can chew with this one. Half of these words don’t even exist in the English language… at least in our version of English. I think I’m going to get a different book,” Adam said, rising to his feet with the old text under his arm, “Hopefully one with actual context…”

“You want one of us to go with you?” Kate offered.

Felix’s heart skipped a beat.

“No, I’ll be fine. Thank you though.” 

A silent sigh of relief. His heart calmed.

Kate nodded and was about to go back to picking away at her guitar, but seemed to remember something.

“Hey, shouldn’t Yui be back by now?”

Adam stopped. His brow furrowed. “Erm, no. She’s off doing her own thing.”

“Oh… Didn’t she, well… die before me?”

Adam threw a furtive glance at Felix before redirecting his attention back on Kate. The creases in his brow deepened. “No. We actually managed to get her out. You were the only one that died.”

“Oh…” Kate said, looking perturbed, “I guess the Trials run together sometimes.”

Adam gave her a sympathetic look, “Yea, I guess it can feel that way sometimes, huh?”

The musician looked down at her guitar and nodded solemnly.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air for another moment, before Adam bid them both an ungraceful farewell and set off for the workshop, leaving the two alone at the fire. Kate resumed her improvisational tinkering.

Felix breathed an unwieldy sigh and directed his attention back on his sketchbook, the page before him still empty and sterile. The front half of the book was filled with sketches and drawings; mostly of buildings, some of people, although those were of lesser quality in his opinion. He’d only recently taken to drawing something other than inanimate structures. But, it didn’t matter what ended up on this page, as long as it was something , anything . As long as his hand was moving and his mind was working, he could keep the darkness from seeping to the forefront of his mind.

Maybe he could try to draw Christine again? He’d seen her when he’d been in the black abyss, still refusing to turn and look at him. No matter how hard he’d tried to call out to her like he had on the beach that day, his voice never seemed to carry in that realm of death. It was as if he was forbidden from ever fully completing the memory and seeing her smile warmly back at him, at least, that's how he remembered it happening— it was difficult keeping his nightmares and memories straight at times. All he really wanted though was to see her face so he could more clearly remember what it had looked like. With every passing day, Felix noticed that it was becoming more and more difficult to recall the finer details of her appearance. Drawing her every so often helped him to remember, but he still felt like his mental image of her was deteriorating.

The charcoal closed in on the paper and paused again, hovering tremulously.

What would she think of him now? If she knew what he’d done, would she see him as… Unworthy? Lesser? Damaged? Would she even still want to be with him? Felix wanted to believe that she wouldn’t do that, that the mother of his child would stick by him no matter what… but… he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what her reaction might be if he ever told her such a thing…

The pencil wavered in the open air, incomparably small in comparison to the endless, white plane. The longer it hung there, the more it began to shake. The scratching had now become a clawing; insistent and shrill.

He’d spent a long time on that forest floor. Even as the alarm bells in the back of mind had urged him to run for safety, he just hadn’t been able to bring himself to move. Only after his body had stopped shaking so bad and the recollections had ceased to be so sickeningly vivid had he been able to pick himself back up.

On that excruciatingly long and tortuous walk back to the campsite, he’d told himself that drawing in this sketchbook would be enough to calm the horrific depravity inundating his mind, constantly reminding him of every detail, every sensation, every feeling of self-hatred… He’d convinced himself that he’d be able to numb his floundering mind with creativity like an opiate— but he couldn't even start . His hand never grew still enough for him to confidently make a smooth, straight line, and the mere thought of ruining the flawless, precious parchment the second he put his pencil to the paper— to infect it with his trauma— made it impossible to even begin. Any art of his, especially of Christine, didn’t deserve to be borne of such atrocity.

This previously blank journal he'd found in the laboratory had been a godsend throughout his time here. Between the bloodshed, the heartache, and the trauma, he’d sketched in this book in the quiet moments to keep the dark thoughts at bay. But now, what good was this damn book if he couldn't even bring himself to put the pencil to the paper?

With a sharp, hissing breath, Felix slapped the charcoal against the log he was sat upon, nearly breaking it in half. His book fell closed at his feet as his head fell into his shaking hands and grabbed fistfuls of his hair. He pulled at it until his scalp burned.

Across the fire from him, Kate paused between two guitar chords a bit longer than usual. He knew she'd taken notice of him, but he had no intention of meeting her eyes. His mask of calm had slipped, and showing his face would suggest far too much about his current state of mind.

Trying to slip back into that visage of unbothered calm, Felix took in a long, protracted breath, but it too came out shaking and unsteady.

David had said he'd tried to meet him afterward, but Felix was thankful he hadn't managed to find him. Even now, he wasn't sure if he wanted to see David. He felt too unhinged from reality— from himself. Without a doubt, David would see right through his flimsy mask and unknowingly put himself at risk.

Thankfully, at the very least, Felix didn’t have to contend with any physical mementos. He never could have shown up to the campfire in that state. People would have only asked questions, and David almost certainly would have flown off the handle. It was easier to just… start over.

A part of himself— albeit, perhaps, a naive or deluded part of himself— had hoped that by allowing the Entity to take him into that dark abyss of death, he would be able to leave behind a minutiae of what had happened in that basement. A new body surely would have helped him to move beyond it, maybe even forget it?

But he had almost certainly been deluding himself. His mind hadn’t been wiped upon his rebirth after the Pustula Plants, so why in the hell would it happen here and now?

Even though he didn’t have to bear the heavy weight of those terrible, painful, physical reminders, the memories, sensations, and emotions all firmly remained, sticking in his mind like a crown of double-barbed thorns. He wished he could somehow flip it around— just deal with the painful mutilation of his body rather than… this. Being disemboweled by a chainsaw was easier to deal with than this .

Finally, the shadows clawing and screeching at the corners of his mind broke through.

Yea baby, milk me dry…

Felix silently heaved and gripped his hair tighter. Curling in on himself, he concentrated on forcing the cold reverberations of his recollection back into the confines of his mind, back behind the wall, all without alerting Kate to his distress. He just had to bury it deep enough to keep it from resurfacing— wipe it from his brain so that consciousness could be viable again.

Even as he commanded his mind to do this, Felix couldn’t help but feel flashes of hands around his neck, salt on his tongue, and pressure in his throat. His eyes began to burn with gathering moisture as the muscles in his neck tightened and constricted with barely contained turmoil.

The anguish continued to seep into his bones, unbidden and unabated, as the growing darkness lurking at the back of his mind began to crawl forth from its lair, whispering, beckoning him into the abyss.

Until next time, Felix…

God , just the thought of seeing that black fog creeping toward him again was already sending him over the edge and into a violent sea of hysteria. If he thought it would do anything at all, Felix wouldn’t hesitate to get on his knees and beg the Entity to pass him over, because he couldn’t do it again. He can’t do it again. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t.

Fuck, he couldn’t breathe…

Slowly, gently, out of the background roar of his torment, a tender melody rose above the sound of his racing heart. Slow and deliberate, the silvery, plucked chords plodded through the forest with noble purpose.

Felix grabbed onto it like a lifeline, desperately holding on as the waves of his anguish crashed over him.

Over this simple, yet rich melody, came Kate’s voice. It was strong yet soothing in its subtle vibrato.

“ In the shadows of the dusk, I wander aimlessly,
A soul lost in the fog, stripped of agency,
Longing for a light, a guide through endless night,
To bring me home again, the only place that’s right. ”

The guitar swelled into a brighter key signature and a more heartfelt rhythm. Kate strummed a swelling series of warm, rich chords as the chorus rang out into the night, echoing and complimenting her strong, steadfast voice.

“ Through the fog, I'll carry on, defying apathy,
The echoes of my memories, keep my sanity,
Though my heart is heavy, I’ll never stop to see,
The faces of my loved ones, and the place I used to be.

“ The stars above me weep, tears falling from the sky,
As I tread this weary path, wondering how and why,
Yet a flicker of hope remains, like a candle in the rain,
I'll carry on and find my way, through joy, or tears, or pain.

“ Through the fog, I'll carry on, defying apathy,
The echoes of my memories, keep my sanity,
Though my heart is heavy, I’ll never stop to see,
The faces of my loved ones, and the place I used to be. ”

Gasping one final time, Felix felt that his heart and breathing had finally slowed to a manageable pace. Hands falling back into his lap as his anguish abated, he decided to finally look up and watch Kate. She stared unseeing into the distance, completely engrossed in her musical trance.

Her melody calmed again into something quiet and solemn. As she gently plucked the notes from the strings, Kate’s voice went quiet and wisplike, as if it was on the verge of floating away on the rising embers of the fire. Felix felt as though he would drift away with it.

“ The road is filled with sorrow, and loneliness creeps in,
But in my heart, I keep the faith, that one day we will win,
Until that time, I'll stay the course and keep my hope alive,
And pray the coming day, at my home, I will arrive. ”

Slowly, the music gained in intensity again, the melody reinvigorated. Kate’s fingers danced up and down the frets of her guitar. Her blonde curls rolled like waves as her body swayed from side to side.

“ Through the valleys and the storms, I'll walk this path unknown,
With every step, my soul grows weary, yet I'm not alone,
For in my heart's embrace, the memories will sustain,
Until I find my way back home, and feel that love again. ”

As Kate prepared to go back into the chorus, the steel strings swelled again with fervent arpeggiation that was punctuated by a whirlwind of powerful, harmonious chords.

“ Through the mist, I'll carry on, defying apathy,
The echoes of my memories, keep my sanity,
Though my heart is heavy, I’ll never stop to see,
The faces of my loved ones, and the place I used to be.”

Again, the music calmed and quieted, down and down, until the barest hint of the melody that had seen them through the song remained intact. 

“ So, I’ll push through, heart close to you, as I face relentless Trials,
Believing in the day when I'll see familiar smiles,
With friends at my side, and hope as my guide, I’ll fight on endlessly,
Till the day I'm back with you, in the place I used to be. ”

The final note hung in the air like an unshakable resolution, slowly fading, but with the promise that it would return again one day to fulfill the dream they all held within their hearts. Salvation existed somewhere at the end of this long and terrible road— they all just had to be strong and make it there… 

Kate’s hand dropped when the echoing note ended, and her eyes finally met his. 

Felix jolted back to himself. He instinctively looked away from her and into the dancing yellow flames between them. Feeling her expectant gaze, he managed to stammer out something meaningful. 

“I… that was a beautiful song… You wrote that?”

He glanced up to see Kate smiling warmly back at him, eyes filled with kindness and sympathy. 

“Yes, it’s something I’ve been working on for a long time. I reckoned we could all use a song we could relate to— something that might actually help when folk are feeling low. It’s not quite finished, but… I don’t mind an early debut if it helps someone in need.”

Felix felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I– I’m sorry I didn’t mean to trouble you with my distress, I—”

“No, no, it’s okay honey. It’s perfectly natural to feel that way from time to time, but you never gotta suffer alone, okay? Especially when I know there’s something I can do to help.”

Felix swallowed thickly and nodded, still feeling somewhat abashed.

Kate nodded back, “So is there anything you want to talk about?

Felix squirmed in his seat, clutching at his pants. His heart kicked against his ribcage to a heightened pace once again. His gaze instinctively flicked over the Forest and then back on the fire.

He couldn’t go there. Ever.

“It don’t gotta be about whatever was bothering ya,” she added, setting her guitar to the side, “We can talk about anything, really, if it’ll take your mind off it.”

He glanced back up at her and nodded gratefully. His heart calmed. A long moment passed between them as Felix struggled to find any sort of conversation topic. His hands began to wring.

“You wanna know who I was thinking about when I wrote that song?” she asked.

Felix stopped his fidgeting and gave her his full attention.

“Well, for the most part, I was thinking of my family— my Mom mostly. She always supported me and my music.” Her gaze fell onto the flames, “But I reckon I was really thinking about someone else— someone I met when I was still a one-woman show playing in roadside bars across the country. There was this one little ramshackle place just outside of a cowtown. Had a decent showing, and some people even recognized me. After my show, this country boy asked if he could sit with me at the bar, and we just… talked. About everything. For a guy who’s been working on cattle farms all his life, he sure did know a lot about… life.

“When the bar owners finally kicked us out, he asked when he’d be able to see me again. I was touring my way to Nashville and I had a schedule to keep, so I said ‘yes, if you come to the next show I play here. Maybe I’ll even take you with me.’ He got on his horse, I got back in my truck. We said our flirtatious goodbyes… but I never did see him again.”

Kate was silent for a while, staring into the flames as memories reflected in her eyes. Felix watched her closely and waited. The woman’s strong-as-steel positivity that he’d been sure was indestructible began to fall away before his eyes.

“I think I was more in love with my music back then than anything else,” she continued, “Once I finally got to Nashville, my career took off, and I kinda just got caught up in the unstoppable whirlwind of it all. Never forgot about him though. I told myself I’d go back one day… but I never did. There was always the next concert, always the next city… but never that little, backwater cowtown in Pennsylvania where music like mine comes from.”

Finally, her bright blue eyes met his, and the melancholy evaporated away like ice in the sun.

“So you know what the first thing I’m going to do is when I get out of here? —Well, second probably. The first thing I’m going to do is find my Mom, no doubt about that, but the second thing I’m going to do is drive back out to that little town and find that country boy I met all those years ago. Worst thing you can have in this life is regrets, especially when it comes to other people. I don’t know what you believe, but sometimes, I feel like the Universe, or God, or whatever, puts certain people in your path that can change your life— that can make you the best version of yourself. But only if you follow through on it. You know what I mean?” 

Her soft, maudlin eyes searched his own, hoping for some sort of validation.

Felix cast his gaze back into the fire, clutching absently at the fabric of his pants once again. He wasn’t sure if he could agree with her. For him, it seemed like the universe tended to take those people away from him rather than put them in his path. He’d met plenty of people throughout his life that had helped him greatly, but Felix couldn’t say any of them had impacted his life as much as she was suggesting other than his father of course. In terms of his romantic life, Christine was a good partner, but he wasn’t entirely sure she was what Kate was describing.

“Are you referring to a soul mate?” he inquired.

Kate hummed thoughtfully, “Maybe, but I don’t think it always has to be romantic. Sometimes, certain people just fit together like puzzle pieces; they fill in each other’s gaps and form something stronger and more meaningful than if they were alone. And, well… I guess that kinda sounds like love, don’t it? If that ain’t love, then I don’t know what is,” she said, smiling brightly. 

Felix felt his heart clench oddly. Did something like that really exist? Maybe somewhere in Kate’s world it did, but for him? He didn’t think so. In his overworld life, Felix had never been able to confide in Christine— or in anyone really— the darkness that lurked in his past and within his mind. Normal people couldn’t even begin to contend with that sort of thing. Hell, most people struggled to relate to him even on even simple topics. Philosophical discussions were completely foreign to Christine, but at the very least, she was kind and understanding, and they made a pretty good team. That was enough for love, wasn’t it?

“Hey, you’re married aren’t you? Is she your companion puzzle piece?” Kate asked, smiling earnestly.

“Eh, well… we’re not married yet. She was still my girlfriend when I was… taken,” he said, purposefully dodging the second half of that question. “We were going to after our son was born.”

Kate’s eyes lit up with delight, then turned suddenly mournful, “Oh, I’m sorry. That must be really hard.”

Felix nodded pensively.

“I reckon that explains why you’ve been so busy trying to find a way out since you got here.”

He nodded again. Between the Trials, the blueprints, and the serum, he’d barely made any effort at all to get to know the others, aside from David of course. This was the longest non-scientific discussion he’d had with anyone else in the group. Not making an effort to befriend any of the others had perhaps been an imprudent oversight on his part… Maybe, he could have even avoided this whole mess to begin with.

“I heard a rumor from some of the others a while ago…” Kate said, her posture translating into something more furtive, “Is it true that the escape plan you were working on… failed?”

Felix sighed, dismayed at yet another reminder of his failure, but still answered her honestly. “Yes, all of our attempts at a serum failed. We have no more nectar to experiment with— at least, not until the Blight returns, but who knows when that will be.”

Kate nodded, the disappointment plain on her face, “And there’s nothing else we can do? No other alternatives to explore?”

Felix shook his head, but then paused, feeling some recollection rising to the forefront of his mind.

That pentagonal artifact he’d found.

His mind had been so utterly preoccupied by… stress, that he'd nearly forgotten about it. Their potential escape was still sitting in that secret little drawer back in the workshop, unknown to all but himself. He’d had every intention of going back and examining it at the next earliest opportunity, but now… Traveling the Forest in any fashion at all was an impossibility for him. The prospect of escaping this life and its horrors was more tantalizing than it had ever been before, but Felix wasn't sure how or when he’d be able to safely get his hands on the thing without risking yet another… encounter. Even if he sent someone in his stead, there was still the possibility of Ghostface somehow finding out about it and swiping it for himself. It was just too risky.

Right now, for all intents and purposes, the lab might as well be on Mars.

At any rate, he still had no idea what the thing even did. It could just be a fancy paperweight for all he knew— certainly not something to risk mind and body over if that were the case. With all that in mind, it was probably wise to not get anyone’s hopes up at the moment— including his own.

Felix shook his head again, this time with confidence.

Kate’s face fell, but only for a moment.

“Well, I suppose that just means you haven’t found it yet. You’ve already brought so many new ideas with you; I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we’re all walking out of here and back home,” she said, face beaming like the sun.

However, Felix could not feel the warmth of her smile. He’d already failed so many times… and his one and only prospect lay sitting in a drawer beyond his reach. How could he possibly help any of them at all when he couldn’t even help himself? How could Kate have so much faith in him despite everything?

Resisting the urge to hug his knees against his body, Felix rubbed his restless hands over his thighs and stared back into the fire, avoiding her gaze.

“You don’t agree with that?”

His eyes snapped back onto Kate, taken aback at by such a direct remark, but quickly averted them again. The burning shame of his defeatism was excruciating under the unbearable radiance of her kindly gaze.

How could he agree with that? How could Kate have so much blind hope in a place like this while he was barely hanging by a thread? It was paradoxical, but somehow, she was able to persevere and even thrive in this infinite hell. How was that possible?

“Kate?” he asked, voice wavering and gaze still averted.

“Yes?”

“How do you do it?”

“...Do what?”

“How… how do you stay so positive?” Felix asked, finally meeting her eyes. He hoped his own were clear, despite the inner anguish he knew they would reveal to her.

The musician straightened, expression going somber and thoughtful as it fell back on the flames.

That… wasn’t exactly the reaction he’d been hoping for.

“Well, I… suppose I just keep my mind on my home and my family— just like in my song. I believe with all my heart that I’m going to see them again one day. No force in the universe is going to get in the way of that,” she said resolutely.

Felix avoided her eyes again, hands wringing, “Yeah, but… how do you deal with all the… trauma. How do you keep it from getting to you?”

There had to be a way…

Kate squirmed furtively in her seat, looking somewhat lost. Her face scrunched in thought.

“Well… playing my guitar and writing songs definitely helps keep my mind off it. Talking too— like what we’ve been doing,” she said, smiling again. “And finally, I suppose talking through whatever’s bothering me with someone who’s willing to listen can help a lot. Just knowing you’re not alone is sometimes all it takes to push through.”

Felix bit his lip and nodded stoically, despite how his ribcage seemed to want to cave in on itself and crush his heart.

He didn’t know what he’d expected to hear. Maybe some kind of magic trick to help him endure the crushing torment? But of course, there was none. No quick fix. No opiate. Again, he’d been deluding himself…

Felix watched the lukewarm flames jump before his eyes, feeling lulled into a numb trance by their silent, hypnotic dancing.

For his first few days in the fog, Felix hadn’t been sure if he would ever be able to adapt to this new cycle of agonizing anticipation, pain, and death. He’d thought his mind would collapse in on itself when it all became too much. Very nearly, it had, but David had been there to force him back to his feet and urge him forward. The others had too in their day to day existence, although not quite so adamantly. Things were bad here, but he’d never had to face the torment alone. He’d also had his projects and the prospect of escape fueling his determination.

But now… he had none of that. This time, there was no camaraderie. No shared plight. He was alone— forced to suffer in silence.

Could he really adapt to this new, horrifying existence? If it were possible, he didn’t know how.

A heartstopping scream suddenly echoed out of the forest and split the silence in two.

Felix and Kate sat bolt upright. The two sat unmoving like carved statues, listening to the now still night air.

Kate looked over at him, wide-eyed, “What was—”

Another scream, this one even more anguished than the first. The voice sounded male.

Felix shivered. The hair stood out over his skin.

Kate looked suddenly stricken, “You don’t think that’s Adam do you?”

He gaped stupidly at her, then shook his head, completely flummoxed.

Enough time had passed for Adam to have traveled far beyond the outer limits of the campfire. By now, the survivor should have been well within the transient realm of the Forest of Passage and beyond their detection. Unless… he’d been intercepted.

Felix had avoided thinking about it too much for the sake of his own sanity, but it was almost a complete certainty that Danny was watching him from the Forest whenever he was at the campsite. Could he have really attacked Adam on his way to the lab? It wasn’t beyond imagination…

Another scream reverberated through the Forest, and Felix jolted again.

This time, it had almost certainly sounded like a call for help.

Kate jumped to her feet. “We have to help him!” she said, and took off toward the treeline.

Felix blinked hard, utterly stupefied by her abrupt departure. His heart kicked hard against his sternum for a beat, as if to spur him forward. He scrambled to his feet and took off after her.

“Kate, wait!”

The musician continued to barrel toward the trees, boots kicking up clumps of sod and detritus in her wake.

A pang of fear stuck him hard. She couldn’t go out there!

“KATE, STOP! HALTEN!!”

She skidded to a stop just before the Forest, and Felix gasped with relief. He quickly closed the distance.

“We have to find him, he could be dying!”

Felix came to a staggering halt beside her, tempering his frayed nerves with a puff of frazzled air. “If he is, then there’s nothing we can do about it! We’d just be putting our own selves at risk!”

Kate’s face scrunched with indignant disdain, “I ain’t just gonna stand by because it might be dangerous. If I can help him, I will— with or without you!”

And with that, the musician darted into the forest, easily avoiding his swooping grab.

“ Kate!! ”

Within seconds, the woman was swallowed by the darkness, leaving him dumbstruck and alone at the edge of the campsite, staring into the shadows. He tried to see where she’d gone, but no matter how much he ducked and dipped, Felix could not make out her figure.

“ Scheiße!! ”

Swallowing thickly, he stared down at his feet in parallel with the trunks of the boundary trees. A single step forward would place him outside the bounds of safety and within reach of any and all malevolent proclivities— but he couldn’t just let Kate try to stop a killer on her own!

Another pang of dreadful realization jolted his heart like an electric shock. What if Adam was currently suffering the same abuse he had? What if Danny had gotten bored and decided to branch out to other survivors? Shouldn’t he try to stop that? Could he really stand by and let the same thing happen to someone else?

With two survivors, they might at least have a chance of interrupting it... Felix knew how much he’d wished someone had come across him in that basement, at least, before it had gotten bad. Then again, Danny easily managed four survivors on a regular basis. He was empowered by the Entity to inhuman levels of strength and agility. What good could he and Kate do if they even managed to find Adam other than infuriate Danny?

No, he had to find Kate and get her back to safety. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into.

Steeling himself with a series of deep breaths, Felix stood tall, and stepped beyond the invisible barrier of safety. His heartbeat immediately picked up to a deafening thrum, as if imploring him to turn around and save only himself. Instead, he ignored his shrieking instincts and soldiered forward into the same shadowy darkness that Kate had disappeared into moments ago.

“Kate?” he called, hating how fragile his voice sounded. He cleared it and tried again, this time with a bit more force. Still, there was no reply.

He stole a quick glance behind himself. The glowing rays of warm, amber firelight that beamed through the trees permitted him some tenuous reassurance. As long as he could see that light, he had somewhere to run.

Keeping a careful eye on the intensity of that orange glow, Felix ventured a bit further into the woods. He surreptitiously called for Kate again, but again, there was no reply. Instead, a crow croaked somewhere in the distance.

Could Danny have really gotten Kate already? If that were the case… then that could only mean he was next .

“Kate, please …”

Felix felt like his legs were spring loaded. If Kate didn’t show in the next couple of seconds, he was ready to— 

The woman suddenly burst from behind a bush. Felix’s heart nearly burst from his ribcage.

Her face instantly became apologetic, “Shoot, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare ya.”

He gave her a withering look as he tried to calm his thundering heart.

“Can’t find Adam nowhere, and the screamin’s stopped,” she said with a dismayed grimace.

Felix puffed out an uneasy breath, “Kate, we must go back. We’re in serious danger here and it’s too late for him.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and scanned the woods around them. “He could be suffering…”

He shook his head and extended his hand to her, “Kate, if the killer that’s in these woods is the one I think it is, then we need to move. Right. N— ”

Felix gasped and stumbled backward.

Kate’s head was ripped back. Her shriek was quickly cut off by a flash of silver across her neck. The shriek turned into a gurgling gag and Felix’s vision was filled with a misty red spray. In a blood-blind panic, he lurched away but quickly found himself flailing into a backwards freefall. He hit the ground hard and scrambled to wipe the coppery blood spatter from his face. Choking and gurgling sounds perforated the air and drilled into his ears. His senses were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the thick scent of metal.

He frantically pawed and wiped at his eyes until they were clear, and looked up. Felix was instantly petrified.

Ghostface held Kate’s head close against his body, pulling it deliberately back over his shoulder so that the second red mouth that had opened in her neck could stay agape. With every paroxysm, the two bloody mouths yawned wide and spat a spluttering, pulsating fountain of bright, arterial gore that gushed down her front and slopped thickly at his shoes. It looked like she was wearing a shiny red dress. Her graying eyes darted to the side, spying her attacker. She clawed weakly at his hands and mask, trying desperately to fight back and keep the lifeblood from leaving her body. Danny effortlessly batted her grasping hands away like bothersome flies. 

Felix’s eyes finally broke from Kate’s increasingly pale face and locked on to the empty, expressionless sockets of the white mask. The voids stared back, cold and impassive as Kate’s struggles slowed, her bloody-blonde curls bouncing and jittering with every choking, quivering death-rattle.

Finally, her blood-soaked body seized one last time before going limp and silent.

Danny let Kate flop to the ground between them with a heavy thud like a piece of discarded trash. Felix couldn’t help but flinch, despite his completely stunned state. The killer squeezed Kate’s blood from his blade and flicked it away. Those cold, black voids continued to pin him in place.

The white mask cocked crookedly.

“Well? Are you going to run or not?”

The spell finally broke. With a heaving gasp, Felix scrambled to his knees, clawing at the ground to propel himself into a frantic sprint toward that distant orange glow.

A deliriously sadistic laugh followed close behind.

Notes:

Thanks everyone again for commenting and leaving kudos. Every time I see a new one, it just feels like Christmas morning! 😄

In other news, I think I'm going to try to stick to Friday update days. It'll be around two to three weeks per update depending on how long the chapters end up being. The next one is turning into a monster, so expect to see it in three weeks unless I decide to split it up somehow (sorry about the cliffhanger btw!).

Hope ya'll enjoyed! See you in a few weeks!

Chapter 14: Thrilling Tremors Pt 1

Notes:

Decided to split this into two parts.

⚠️Only mild warnings for this one. Details in end notes.⚠️

Felix’s blood roared in his ears. His hammering heart surpassed the pace of his feet pounding against the Forest floor. His lungs heaved as he sucked in breath after stinging breath of copper-tinged oxygen over his blood-spattered lips.

That fiery wall of safety, bifurcated with dark columns of trees like the bars of a jail cell, grew steadily closer at an agonizing rate. No matter how fast he pushed himself, he felt like he was moving in slow motion, like safety was moving away from him in an unnatural, malicious way.

Another chilling, full-throated cackle reverberated in the trees around him, absolutely dripping with sadistic delight— as if the Forest itself was laughing at his fleeing panic.

His mind became a static fuzz as it descended into a delirious, instinct-driven state of flight. He gasped in another lungful of air and pushed himself harder. For a horrifying moment, his legs seemed to become entangled, and he lurched forward. Felix very nearly face-planted, but somehow managed to scramble off the ground into a recovery and launch himself into another sprint.

He looked up and saw that the wall of safety was much closer now, almost within reach! He could make it!

Chest heaving, Felix pushed his body to its limit, forcing it to cross those last dozen meters of ground between him and safety, by sheer power of will.

His leg suddenly seized with sharp pain. Felix tumbled over and over himself until his body came to a dizzying halt in the grass. The Forest canopy spun in circles around the pale, swollen moon. Remembering himself, Felix jolted to frantic alertness and searched the trees until he found that fiery line of safety. He pushed himself to his feet only to come crashing back down with a pained cry. His left thigh was burning hot and throbbing in time with every heightened beat of his heart. His leg refused to move. Lungs hitching, Felix glanced back at his leg and saw the handle of a hunting knife buried up to the hilt in his thigh, the dark navy material of his slacks turning black as it drank the blood spreading from the blade.

But there was also something else beyond his own body, emerging from the background of his vision…

Ghostface materialized from the swirling shadows of the Forest mist, sauntering toward him at a slow, deliberate pace.

Felix’s breath caught in his lungs. His head snapped back toward the line of safety that lay only a meter or so away. Fingers digging into the soft loam of the ground, Felix began to crawl as fast as he could, arms folding over and over themselves in a blur. He groaned and hiccuped with panic and pain as he dragged his useless leg behind him. Every jostle and bump jolted his mind, but he expelled the pain from his being and forced himself to concentrate entirely on making it across that barrier before the killer caught up with him.

The lethargic, easygoing rhythm of crunching plantlife at his back grew steadily closer with every passing moment, every step sounding like an explosion to his ears.

The tips of his fingers clawed into the dirt between the boundary trees, and Felix flung himself forward with a fractured cry. His upper half landed within the bubble of safety and his heart leapt. He was within the boundary, and the campsite was clearly visible now!

Sucking in another breath, Felix prepared to pull himself the rest of the way across, until a sharp, crushing pain smashed into his dragging ankle.

Felix shrieked. His body arched and twisted at the dizzying pain that radiated up his leg. Catching his breath with a shaking gulp, Felix turned to see a heavy combat boot pressing down on his ankle, threatening to snap it in two. Ghostface towered over him, his empty, wilting eyes threatening to engulf him completely in their endless, unreadable abyss.

An agonized sob bubbled up from deep within his chest and his eyes welled with anguished tears. He clutched at the ground before him, ignoring the excruciating pain in his leg as he desperately triedto drag himself over that last stretch of ground despite the boot grinding his ankle into the dirt. Fuck, please! … But Felix couldn’t manage to pull himself any further.

Crushing despair squeezed his heart, and he sobbed again. Salvation was right here, but he couldn’t do it!

Suddenly, his damaged leg was yanked painfully backward. Felix gave a strangled cry as the rest of his body followed suit. The line of trunks demarcating his safety lurched out of reach. Mindless panic gripped his thundering heart.

“No! WAIT! NO! SOMEONE HELP!! PLEASE!! ”

His injured leg was jerked again, snatching the breath from his lungs as hot, electric agony shot up his spine. The ground began to rush out from beneath him, and the tall, dark columns of trees containing that warm glow of safety began to move farther and farther away. Felix fought and clawed at the ground running under his fingers, screaming out both from the pain, and the hope that someone, anyone , would happen to hear his desperate pleas for help.

In his heart, however, Felix knew that the campsite was empty. No one was there to hear his cries, and no one would be coming to his aid.

Danny had almost certainly seen to that.

As his body was dragged further and further away, that fiery orange glow in the distance diminished and faded into the arboreal gloom until he could no longer make out even the faintest hint of it. Already exhausted and overwhelmed with despair, Felix finally went limp. His chest squeezed his heart, and his eyes burned with tears.

Danny had him again. It was going to happen again, and still, no one knew. No one could help him. They were all dead …

A sudden jolt of realization struck him. His languishing hope reignited into a blossoming blaze.

Danny might have killed Kate, but… she’d seen him as she was dying. Both of them.

When Kate eventually came back, she’d see that he hadn’t returned and would quickly realize that Danny had taken him! She’d get the others to go look for him! Danny had finally made a mistake!

His heart thumped hard against his sternum. He was terrified of what that would entail, of what state he would be in when the others would find him and finally interrupt Danny— not to mention what the killer might do when he was caught in the act.

It technically wasn’t his own fault that the others would be discovering them, but the thought of Danny’s threats coming to fruition regardless made him shudder deeply. Conversely, the prospect of not having to endure the entirety of Danny’s violent abuse this time made his heart flutter with hopeful fervor.

Whether he liked how it was happening or not, Felix’s current torment would soon be coming to an end— it was out of his hands. He was terrified and relieved all at once.

His injured leg was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Felix cried out at the sudden pain that engulfed his overwrought mind and turned his vision white. He gasped as he tried to regain some sense of himself and flopped over on his back to improve his breathing.

The world slowly came back into focus. Ghostface loomed overhead. The silently screaming, blood-flecked mask gawked at him like a predator assessing its kill. Felix’s newfound hope was immediately doused with cold, creeping fear.

He still had to contend with Danny.

Squinting through the pain, Felix’s shaking, blood-stained hand wavered between them like a flimsy shield made of straw.

“Danny, wait, please , I–” his voice faltered with a hitching gasp, “Please don’t do this again, I c– can’t handle it. It was too much last time and I’m—” again he gasped, breathless with growing panic.

The killer’s mask canted to the side, as if perplexed by his prey’s pleas. He straightened, then bowed his head, seeming to fixate on his catch. The killer’s heavy boot stepped toward him, and his heart leapt. Felix couldn’t help but push himself backwards— anything to keep some buffer of space between him and the killer, who only continued in his sluggish pursuit, the black tassels of his cloak floating after him like filaments of spiderweb on a breeze.

Felix meekly raised his hand between them again as if it could keep the killer at bay. Already, his mind and body were crawling with the phantom sensations of hands on his neck and hard flesh being forced down his throat. His reflexive heave turned into a sob.

“Danny, wait, please! I can’t do that again! It was far, far too much! Please! Bitte, erbarme dich!!” he wailed, voice thick and wavering with emotion. The killer only continued in his agonizingly slow approach.

Felix's vision began to go blurry with gathering moisture. Danny wasn’t going to listen to him. Of course he wasn’t. Why would a wolf ever stop to consider what the sheep had to say?

A low, rumbling chuckle emanated up from the killer’s chest and resonated within his mask. A cold chill raced up Felix’s spine and seized his lungs.

“You know, I came here in a bad mood, but…” an obscene groan rumbled from his chest, “You beg so, so pretty… I suppose it’s just as well, coming from such a pretty face,” he sighed, voice languid and melodious.

Blinking with tear-filled eyes, Felix felt his heart skip a beat. His breath stalled.

Ghostface suddenly surged forward. Felix yelped and fumbled backwards. The moaning mask was inches from his face.

“I’d love to see those lips begging for my cock one day…” he said, black leather fingers drifting toward his lips.

“ NEIN! ” Felix lurched backwards. His head thumped back into the grass to avoid the gloved hand. His arms instantly came up to push at the body hovering over him, and his good leg kicked out at the ground, trying to propel himself out from under the killer, who was too FUCKING CLOSE.

The killer hissed icily. He snatched one of his arms and pressed it down securely against his chest. Felix only continued to struggle in his grasp. His hitching, gasping breaths were squeaky and breathless with mind-numbing panic. He couldn’t do this again!!

“No, STOP!! PLE—”

Again, his vision went white, and he screamed, leg reigniting with excruciating, blazing fury. He sucked in a sharp, stinging lungful of oxygen and looked down to see Danny’s other hand wrapped tight around the hilt of the knife still buried in his bloodied thigh. The blade twisted ever so slightly and Felix screamed again, body arching with the pain as steel ground against bone.

“You will not fight me again,” the killer growled.

Felix squirmed and sobbed in Danny's grasp. Tears streamed down his face. The blazing pain in his leg burned even hotter.

The killer’s voice cooled, “But I’m an understanding guy. I know you’re not quite there yet, so I’ll just make things easier on the both of us.”

The pressure on the blade eased, and Felix collapsed into a limp, gasping mound. The faint, artificial scent of pine mixed with a distant, atrophied musk that drifted over his face and stung his nostrils.

The looming killer shifted his stance over him then, and from within his cloak, brought out a tightly wound coil of bright red rope.

Felix’s eyes went wide with horror, and his struggles began anew. Ghostface pressed down hard against his sternum, compressing his chest and forcing him to take much shallower, faster breaths. Felix’s panic only heightened.

The killer grumbled, but then stopped and instead began to chuckle, “Never an easy thing with you, is it?” he said, dropping the rope in the grass and balling his hand into a tight fist, “But I gotta admit; it really turns me on.”

The fist slammed into the bottom of the knife handle, and Felix’s world imploded into a white-hot supernova of pain. He almost certainly screamed, but couldn’t hear himself over the roar of blazing fury coursing through his nervous system. Nothing else existed except for that flaring nova scorching him from the inside out.

Eventually, when the all-encompassing agony subsided and some semblance of spatial awareness came back to him, Felix was confused to find his face buried in an abundance of fragrant grass and damp leaves. He tried to push himself up, but found he could not move his arms at all. Panic gripped his heart and forced his mind back to full alertness. He tried to make his arms move again, but realized that they were bound tightly together behind his back with loop after loop of enveloping constriction. No matter how much he pulled and flexed his arms, the binds remained tight, hugging close against his body. His heart rate thundered up to a dangerous pace as he realized the full gravity of his situation— of what Danny could really do to him in such a vulnerable position.

“Nylon. Best shit on the market for occasions like this. Strong as shit and just elastic enough so that no matter how much you struggle, it always goes back into its original shape— and even tighter than before. Virtually impossible to escape from. You should feel honored really; I only ever used this rope on my most special victims.”

The killer’s working hands tested the binds around his arms one more time before moving down to his flailing legs. As his hands smoothed over his body, the killer made sure to give his ass a quick little squeeze. Felix jumped and Danny chuckled. His cheeks burned hot with humiliation.

The killer easily pinned his legs in place and began to make quick work of immobilizing them.

Felix’s mind was racing. His eyes scanned the shadowy Forest around him, searching for any sign of Kate or an approaching survivor group, but saw none. He had to do something. He had to delay Danny long enough until they came for him, because they were going to come for him. He’d seen Kate run into that Forest without a second thought. She would come.

The killer tugged at his binds and made a noise of approval. Suddenly, to Felix’s surprise, he was rolled onto his back. The world rocked and swayed and his stomach lurched as the movement aggravated the blade still sticking out of his thigh and grinding against his femur. The air was suddenly punched from his lungs as a heavy weight landed on his stomach. His arms strained beneath his body. 

Mind still fizzing, Felix groggily looked up to see that Danny was now sitting on top of him, gloved hands roaming up his sides beneath his navy suit jacket. And then, like a flash of lightning, the layers of clothing shielding him from prying eyes and groping fingers were ripped asunder, one by one. The zipper on his vest split apart. The buttons of his dress shirt popped away. His white undershirt was ripped down the middle.

Felix’s floundering mind stuttered into action, “Did you do the same to Adam before you killed him?!”

Ghostface stopped mid-rip. A muffled, indignant chuff echoed from inside of his wailing mask. “God, I know you’re a blonde, but are you really that stupid?”

Felix blinked in confusion.

The killer sighed and sat upright. “AAAAGGGHHH!! HEEELLLLP!!” he screamed, feigning horror.

Felix cringed as the shrill scream pierced his ears. It sounded exactly like the scream he and Kate had chased in the Forest, only now it was right next to him. He gaped up at the killer in horrific disbelief.

Danny stopped and stared long and hard at him. Another chill raced up Felix's spine.

“You're all so fucking gullible— so ready and willing to throw yourselves into the fire like a bunch of goddamned lemmings,” he spat, fists squeezing and pulling on the lapels of Felix’s jacket, “It’s fucking pathetic how easy it is to manipulate you all, especially your shit-for-brains boyfriend.”

Felix’s eyes went wide with fear. The unfiltered words spilled out of him, “What?! What’d you do to him?!”

The killer went deathly still. The hands buried in his jacket clenched even tighter. Felix immediately realized his fatal mistake.

“ What was that? ” Danny hissed, violently jerking Felix toward him.

Felix’s heart thumped hard, “I didn’t— Th– th– that’s not what I—”

“Then what did you mean?!”

“I was j– just—”

“Just what?! Worried about your fuck buddy?! ” he bellowed, shoving Felix back against the ground.

Felix gasped desperately, “N– no! It’s not like that, I swear!”

The empty eyes drilled deep into his soul, inches from his own. Felix could feel the warm heat of the killer’s breath on his face, quivering with fury.

“We’re just friends! N– nothing more! I swear it!! ”

The mask canted slowly to the side, as if trying to open him up and pick him apart with his gaze alone. “I don’t ever want to see you with him again. You stay the fuck away from him, you hear me?” he said, jostling him once again.

Felix nodded automatically, despite the odd, wrenching pang he felt in his heart.

“You belong to me and no one else — SAY IT!”

Felix balked and shrunk in on himself, hesitating at the terrible statement. The killer’s head tilted in warning. One of his hands shot toward the knife in his flank, and Felix’s blood chilled.

“NO! I BELONG TO YOU! I BELONG TO YOU!”

The hand stopped, and then slowly retreated, “Good boy.”

The survivor crumpled, relieved to have avoided more agony, but still feeling as though something had been ripped from his soul. They were just words, but Felix couldn’t help but feel in his bones that they were much more than that.

He hoped to whatever benevolent power that existed down here that David was okay and not bleeding out in a gutter somewhere. Felix had kept his word. He hadn’t told. He’d assumed Danny would leave David alone in turn, but had he assumed too much of the killer? Would Danny really go out and torture David despite their tenuous agreement? Felix realized that it was a frighteningly real possibility. He couldn’t trust anything Danny said.

The leather gloved hands released his jacket and drifted back down his body. Felix went still and looked deliberately away. He flinched as the rest of his shirt was ripped open. A tear welled in the corner of his eye and slipped down his cheek. He tensed hard as the hands immediately set upon his exposed body, groping harshly up his sides and along every ridge of taut muscle. His stomach churned and roiled with revulsion. 

Ghostface breathed appreciatively, “Your body never fails to impress me,” he said, settling back on top of Felix’s pelvis. “So trim and absolutely rippling .” The roving hands squeezed along his stomach, thumbs pressing firmly into his pronounced abdominals. Felix squirmed in his binds, instantly sick with nausea and fervently wishing he’d never spent all that time at the gym. “It’s a shame you cover it up all the time…”

The hands accosted their way up to his pectorals, grabbing great handfuls of each mound of flesh, before giving them each a merciless squeeze. Felix whimpered quietly and squeezed his eyes shut, feeling wave after wave of sickening revulsion crash over him and flip his stomach.

Kate will come for him. She’s going to come for him. She will . David might even be with her! All he had to do was hold on…

Ghostface fondled his chest for a while, squeezing and kneading the muscles like dough. Suddenly, a pair of sharp, pinching pains made him yelp. He looked down to see dark fingers tweaking both of his nipples. Danny chuckled, and another scalding wave of humiliation rolled over him. 

“Sensitive there, huh?”

Felix grit his teeth and tensed as his buds were pinched again. The electric pain seemed to jolt throughout his entire body and end in his groin. The killer continued to rub and pull on the sensitive skin, massaging and tweaking until his body was twisting with maddening discomfort. The rope flexed easily along with his writhing body and relaxed back into place even tighter than before. He groaned at the increasingly unbearable stimulation, chest burning bright red with aching irritation.

“You like that baby?” the killer asked huskily, experimentally grinding his hips over the survivor’s crotch. Felix instantly choked on the air.

Oh god, no…

Ghostface laughed cruelly, “Oh yeah, looks like someone’s already raring to go…”

Felix again shut his eyes and fervently shook his head. God damn his fucked up body, god damn it!  

“Hm? No?” Ghostface slid further down and palmed him through his pants. Felix gasped and trembled, face blazing hot with shame. “Dunno… seems like you’re really in need of some attention here,” he cooed, voice dark with lust. “Your body’s just asking for it.”

Felix yelped as his pants were tugged down hard. They went halfway down his hips before being stopped by his belt. Danny’s hands were immediately on it, unlatching it in seconds.

Felix’s mind lurched. He couldn’t wait any longer. He had to play his ace before things went too far!

“ Aren’t you forgetting something?! ”

Danny’s hands paused in the middle of unbuttoning his pants. His silent, moaning mask looked quizzically up at him.

“Kate! She saw you! She knows you took me! She’s going to be on her way with the others this very moment! They'll be here any time now! You really want to risk them catching you in the act?!”

Felix stared intently back at the killer, barely breathing in the deafening silence. He had him dead to rites. It was over. No way would Danny risk being discovered after being so careful. He’d have to release him!

Another long moment of silence passed with the empty, hollow eyes engulfing his pale blues. The killer’s body began to tremble. Steadily, the shaking increased until Danny was practically vibrating, and then, an awful, whining hiss bubbled up out of his chest and split the air in two. The killer wrenched violently backward, sucking in a long, drawn-out breath before absolutely exploding with raucous laughter.

Felix looked on in wide-eyed horror, the terrible giggling bouncing around inside his skull.

The killer gasped for breath again, guffawing several more times as he cradled his spasming belly. “Oh my god, its fucking perfect! They never told you! Of course they didn’t!” The killer descended into another brutal cackling fit.

Felix couldn’t stand it any longer, “What?! Tell me what?!”

“Kate!” he spat between several more guttural laughs, “She doesn’t remember her deaths!”

Felix’s blood ran cold. The laughter echoed endlessly in his ears. “No… No, you’re lying!”

The killer exhaled a sharp, hissing snarl. The deathly white mask was instantly back in his face, his body completely enveloped by the killer’s cloak. Felix gagged at the sudden squeezing pressure around his throat.

“You really think I would make such a stupid fucking mistake? You really think I’m as fucking stupid as you all?!”

The hand clamped down even harder on his windpipe, and Felix wheezed. 

“NO! I DON’T MAKE MISTAKES! Every single thing that happens to you is by MY design, because I know EVERYTHING!”

Felix cringed in on himself, gagging helplessly in the increasingly crushing grip. But then suddenly, it stopped. Ghostface released him with an exasperated hiss. Felix coughed and gasped as he worked to replace the stagnant air in his lungs.

“No one’s coming to help you, because Kate wont remember a fucking thing. Shit, she probably won't even remember half of whatever stupid shit you all were talking about.” Ghostface chuffed indignantly, “God, did you really never consider why that big-tittied bimbo was so fucking happy all the goddamned time?”

Feeling his spirit shrivel away in his chest, Felix curled in on himself as much as was possible. He felt as though a giant, gaping hollow had suddenly opened up in his center, from which all of his vitality and hope had been dredged and scattered to the wind.

He didn’t want to believe it— wished desperately to not believe such an untrustworthy source— but he did. It did make sense. In all of his Trials, Kate always seemed to be the biggest liability of them all. She misremembered events, always seemed to make the same mistakes over and over again, and needed constant assistance from the others. Then there was her unwavering positivity… He hadn’t been able to understand how she was able to constantly outshine them all, but it turned out she’d had an unfair advantage all along. 

Fuck, why had no one told him? He hadn’t even realized something like that was even possible . David and the others hadn’t ever bothered to tell him, but Danny knew. A killer knew this incredibly crucial information but not him ? Why?! Did they not think he should know something like that?! Was he not important enough or trusted enough?! Was he not one of them?!

A wretched sob escaped from deep within his chest, and Felix went completely limp with despondency. His head fell back into the grass. Through blurry, tear-filled eyes, he stared up at the gloomy sky through a moon-filled gap in the canopy. 

A heavy weight laid across his chest. That pale, moaning face invaded the eternal night sky and replaced the moon. It canted and gave a muffled cluck of commiseration. Soft leather fingers gently brushed at his tears.

“Aw baby… I’m sorry they don’t care about you, but what did you expect from a bunch of selfish rats scrambling for survival? Most of those people would sooner throw you to the wolves than let you get a leg up on them. You really think someone like Visconti or Meg wouldn’t trip you up just to give themselves a better chance? Shit, they’d probably trade you for a box of rusty tools, wouldn’t they?”

His heart clenched and throat constricted as more tears streamed down the sides of his face. The truth of the words resonated deep in his core.

“It’s not just them though, is it? Dwight and all the rest of them didn’t give one shit about you until you had something they wanted. Hell, even that dipshit ‘friend’ of yours you’re so ready to dickride for hated your guts up until you were dangling freedom in his face like a piece of meat, and of course, he heeled like a dog.”

Lungs hitching, Felix weakly shook his head, trying to deny it, but the tears still cascaded over his cheeks.

It was true; the others hadn’t seemed to care, and the ones that did only seemed to put in the bare minimum effort to get to know him and bring him into the group— but Danny was wrong about David. Yes, they’d had a rocky start and still had the occasional hiccup— he didn’t know why David hadn't warned him about Kate— but he knew for a fact that the man cared about him. Contrary to Danny’s claims, the Brit had made it abundantly clear he didn’t give a shit about escaping— especially if it involved Felix putting himself at risk. Undoubtedly, David cared for him but… he seemed to be the only one.

“They don’t appreciate you baby, but I do,” Danny cooed, soft leather fingertips tracing his trembling lips, “Every.. single.. inch of you…”

Felix sobbed and shuddered deeply. He tried to turn away from the touch, but the faux tenderness pursued him no matter where he went.

“I'll give you the appreciation that you deserve… and the attention your body so desperately needs…”

Notes:

Unfortunately another cliffhanger here, sorry! 😩 Next chapter is two weeks guaranteed!

⚠️Non-con groping and bondage. Upsetting themes.⚠️

Chapter 15: Thrilling Tremors Pt 2

Notes:

⚠️ This chapter contains graphic non-con sexual content. Specific warnings in the end notes.⚠️

“I'll give you the appreciation that you deserve… and the attention your body so desperately needs,” Danny said, punctuating that last word with a lecherous thrust of his hips, grinding his very pronounced, rock-solid length against Felix’s own wilting one.

Felix’s lungs seized with a hideous sob. His stomach rolled over on itself. His quickening heart thumped heavily within his breast as his mind quickly replayed all the terrible, tortuous sensations from the last time Danny had attended to him.

Felix fervently shook his head until the tears were flying off his lashes. He writhed piteously until the ropes binding his body rubbed hot against his skin. “No, p– please don’t! I can’t d– do this again! P– please just leave me alone! Bitte!! ”

The feather-light fingertips drifting down his stubbled throat paused. A thoughtful, melodious hum rumbled in the killer’s chest, vibrating Felix’s hitching ribcage.

“Oh, sweetheart… Is this about last time?”

Felix arched his shaking body away from the suffocating closeness of the other and squeezed his eyes shut; anything to separate himself from the killer and his vacuous, perverted affections. Soft, leathery fingers gently wrapped around the architecture of his jaw and turned his face frontward again. Another despondent sob bubbled out of his chest and over his quivering lips.

The killer's tongue clicked a remorseful tut, “I’m sorry about that… I just needed you so bad last time, and you were just so wonderful and beautiful… I got carried away. I’ll make sure you feel good this time though, okay?” he said, sliding back down Felix’s body.

Again, Felix fervently shook his head. “No please, just let me go— I don’t want this! ” he whined desperately, hoping against hope to bend Danny’s newfound, if shallow, compassion to his will.

The killer made a noise of indignation as his palm once again fell upon Felix’s clothed crotch, “Don’t be ridiculous. Just give me fifteen minutes and I’ll have you begging for it, okay?”

Felix choked on air, his body arching against his binds at the firm, groping pressure on his softened groin. Again, he tried to protest, but then Danny's hand squeezed, and all of his words were cut off with a shocked gasp. But just as suddenly as it had come, though, the pressure was gone, and his hips were suddenly jostled by a quick yank. He looked down to see his now ripped-open pants and exposed boxer briefs low on his hips, along with Danny’s hand diving beneath it all.

⚠️

With a sharp hiss, Felix cringed as the smooth leather wrapped tight around his flaccid, uncut length. Cold frissons raced up and down his spine.

“Mmm, I bet you’re a grower,” Danny pondered, and began to languidly stroke him, the smoothness of the well-worn material just barely catching and dragging on the delicate skin of his member

With a mortified whimper, Felix squeezed his eyes shut and went still, trying to separate himself from his situation and from the sensations he was feeling. Everything about this made his skin crawl, made him want to throw his guts up, but the rational half of his brain stood no chance against the numbing fog of primal arousal.

He tried to keep his mind on other things to distract himself and stop his arousal in its tracks… but to his dismay, despite the pain, the fear, and the blood loss, his body was quick to respond to the attention. Slow and steady, the soft, smooth hand stroked up and down his entire length, drawing blood into his groin and fostering his growing erection. The muscles in his belly twisted and tightened with growing need, and his breath grew hot and labored as he began to succumb to the killer’s unyielding ministrations.

Another hand squeezed his hip and felt gingerly over his twitching abdominals. Cheeks flaring with heat, Felix cracked open one hazy eye and looked down to see Ghostface practically kneeling on top of him. The moon-white mask hovered close, fixated keenly on his face. The hand in his pants still tugged languidly away, slickened by his premature excretions.

“There you go baby. Look at how beautiful you are…” Danny breathed, swirling a thumb over the head of his leaking cock and extracting another choked-off gasp from his lungs. 

Felix’s head crashed back into the grass. The traitorous, molten arousal pooling in his belly continued to grow and grow, molding and tempering his body to its will and burning away any and all pain he’d been suffering. All he could do was pant and writhe breathlessly in his embracing binds. He was completely at the mercy of the electric hands pouring over his body and stoking his blazing arousal, bringing him to the precipice of that explosive release of— 

Everything stopped.

Felix choked. His eyes flew open and searched for some semblance of meaning in the confusing haze of his dangling liberation. His straining, angry-red erection stood tall and twitching in the open air, slick and shining with precum. The melting scream watched him carefully, empty sockets drinking in his visage.

Still panting, the survivor watched as one dark finger drifted toward his cock and then gently brushed up the underside.

Felix gasped and jolted at the teasing pang of stimulation. Again, his aching arousal was left unattended to, and he let slip a quiet whimper of vexation.

Ghostface slowly cocked his head. “Say pleaase… ” he sang, tone teasing and completely enthralled.

His face radiated endless heat. Felix let his head drop back with a broken whimper.

No . No way in hell was he going to beg for this— to beg for Danny to molest him to completion. No matter how unbearable or painful his arousal became, he would not . Getting off wasn’t worth giving in to this sick fuck’s game. He was not that weak!

Felix cinched his eyelids shut and went still, trying to douse his blazing arousal and bring himself down from his dizzying high.

Another feather-light touch teased his still-achingly hard cock, and again he jolted, his smoldering libido rousing back to attention. The slick, smooth hand wrapped firmly around his twitching length, but did not move. Again Felix whimpered in dismay, body squirming with frustration and discomfort.

“It’s obvious your body wants this so very, very bad. All you have to do is say one little word, and I’ll let you have it. Don’t you want to feel good?”

From nowhere, beneath his smoldering arousal, came a steadily building, fiery resolve. Felix had zero control in this situation, but in this single, tiny, insignificant aspect, he did— and he was going to keep it.

Quelling his trembling, Felix grit his teeth and hissed out a venomous retort. “Fich. Dich. ”

Ghostface remained motionless, cock still firmly in-hand.

A rumbling wave of cold, uncertain dread rolled over him, but Felix maintained his newfound determination. He held the killer’s empty, abyssal gaze with his own, trying to keep his expression as firm and defiant as he could. He would not allow Danny to possess him completely.

Gradually, the hand around his length began to squeeze.

Felix’s heart thumped hard.

The pressure continued to increase, more and more, until finally Felix broke his defiant eye contact with a pained gasp, writhing under the increasingly painful embrace.

Holy shit, would Danny really castrate him for talking back?! An image of a bursting water balloon forced itself into his mind, and his voice faltered.

“ Danny!! ” he squeaked hysterically, feeling like his dick was about to break in half.

Suddenly, the pressure eased. Felix went limp with precarious relief, but kept his eyes locked on the killer, heart thumping hard in his chest.

Danny gave a forced chuckle, “You didn’t really think I’d ruin you like that, did you?”

Felix stared back in wide-eyed fright.

He really didn’t know.

Finally, Danny fully released him, but then promptly began to tug at his pants again, pulling them further down his hips. Grasses and detritus scratched irritatingly at the exposed flesh of his backside. The heavy material piled painfully against the blade still stuck in his thigh, making him writhe and whimper with discomfort as the wound flared.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Can’t take that out just yet— would bring the fun to an end far too soon.”

Danny amended this oversight by ripping a bigger hole in the fabric. It relieved a bit of the pressure, but Felix still felt lightheaded and nauseous from it. A sickly chill spread out over his skin, and he shivered. Vaguely, he wondered how much blood he’d lost by now, and if it were anyway near what was required for him to lose consciousness and slip away into death. Unfortunately, he didn’t feel like he was anywhere near that familiar margin.

His body was jostled again, this time accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric. He looked down to see Danny tearing away a long strip of material from his pants. The killer then brought it up to his face and placed it over his eyes. Felix grimaced as the world went distressingly dark.

“No peeking…” Danny teased as his fingers tied a secure knot behind his head.

Felix’s heart rate immediately picked up, his anxiety piquing at this unsettling change in his situation. The thick material of his slacks completely blocked out whatever dim moonlight reached the forest floor.

The killer settled back down around his knees. There was more shifting of fabric and the whisper of plastic brushing against leather. Danny’s breathing was now clearly audible— he’d taken off the mask again.

Felix squirmed anxiously, feeling even more vulnerable than he had before in this new world of darkness, especially after that brief moment of instability Danny had displayed. He was terrified the killer would flip from this relatively more considerate side of himself and explode into a violent rage at the slightest provocation.

He jolted at the sudden feeling of hands on his hips, the fingertips skimming softly down his exposed inner thighs. Shivering at the delicate touch, Felix realized that the gloves were gone now too. He groaned as Danny took hold of his wilted erection and began to work him again. The exposed skin of his hand was almost as soft as the leather glove, apart from several noticeable calluses between his fingers, no doubt from wielding his blade. The protective gloves had done their job.

The other hand wandered freely over his body, massaging and groping his flesh as his arousal was coaxed back. Without anything for his eyes to focus on, the touches and sensations felt even more intense than before. The ailing cold of blood loss was quickly burned away.

The hands suddenly paused in their ministrations. Felix waited anxiously, his skin already flush with heat.

A hot, wet strip dragged up the underside of his penis, and Felix lurched.

Danny hummed a chuckle. “You taste wonderful, love. It’s almost intoxicating…”

The killer rumbled with lust and then completely engulfed his length. Felix choked out another gasp, completely overwhelmed by the unexpected, all-encompassing hot wetness.

And then Danny began to suck.

From deep within Felix’s being came the most lurid noise he’d ever heard himself make. Danny rumbled in amusement around his length, extracting yet another debased moan from deep within. Felix immediately chomped down on his lip, biting off any more sounds he could possibly make.

He didn’t have to stay too quiet though, because the air was subsequently filled with the most loud and obscene slurping and smacking sounds he’d ever heard. They were an accurate reflection of the sexual carnage being inflicted upon him, and his body reacted accordingly, absolutely reeling from whatever the hell Danny was doing to him. All Felix knew was that tongue was swirling and undulating around him and that negative pressure was sucking his fuzzed mind into the stratosphere, and a dozen other things he couldn’t even comprehend. Never in his life had he experienced anything like this.

Vaguely, over the pulsating roar of blood in his head, he felt Danny’s hands migrate around to his backside and palm both globes of his ass. They easily lifted his hips off the ground and then mercilessly squeezed. His yelp was cut off by a sordid, blissed out keen as Danny completely devoured his cock, making good use of the easier access. Between the hands pulling and kneading at the soft flesh of his rear and that filthy mouth doing god-knows-what, Felix knew he wasn’t going to last much longer. His body was being systematically dismantled by a feverish, overwhelming onslaught of stimulation, and then being subsequently molding into a mindless, moaning mess.

The muscles in his belly twitched and seized, signaling the approach of his climax. He was so close… 

And then everything stopped. Again.

Felix let loose a vulgar whine of loss, his cock aching for that damp heat and exquisite negative pressure.

The hands roamed teasingly up his trembling sides. 

Danny chuckled again. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he said, voice a bit more raspy than before.

Felix’s mind was a blank haze.

Something lapped at the head of his rigid, twitching cock, and Felix convulsed. Danny massaged tenderly over his spasming abdominals.

“Ask nicely and I might finish you off…”

Felix whimpered with distress. He wasn’t that desperate…

“N– No…”

Danny hummed with faux disappointment, “Suit yourself then…”

Hot breath puffed over his deprived, painfully hard dick, teasing the warmth it so desperately wanted, the damn thing, but then Danny moved away, leaving it ailing in the cold. Instead, the killer’s mouth moved into the crook of his inner thigh. His moistened lips latched onto the sensitive skin over the pulse of his femoral artery and began to suck that instead, the scruff on the killer’s face grating and ticklish. 

Felix couldn’t help but squirm and tremble in his binds as the killer’s mouth worked him over yet again, teething and licking over one little spot by his groin until it became an oversensitive, angry welt. All the while, those hands continued to grope at his flesh and toy with his quivering muscles, keeping him teetering on that precipice with merciless, teasing stimulation. Only when the welt turned excruciatingly painful and on the verge of becoming a blood blister did Danny finally leave it. The killer left Felix panting with relief, only to suddenly swallow down his cock for a quick, hard suck, before backing off again.

Felix nearly wailed, so ready for that molten heat blazing in his groin to finally be satiated, but Danny knew exactly when to back off and keep him tortuously suspended.

He would not beg. He would not.

Danny licked languidly from his groin to his belly. He chewed and mouthed lovingly at his flesh, eliciting yet more desperate keens and gasps from the survivor’s lips. The killer gave another obscene moan, absolutely dripping with lust.

“Fuck, I love watching you squirm and moan under me like such a needy fucking slut. Almost makes me not want to end it,” the killer mused. “Hmm… Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen by accident then, alright?”

A tight ring of pressure suddenly cinched painfully around the base of his scrotum, and Felix yelped in shock. The killer descended upon him again in a flash, taking his painful hardness back into that damp cavern and sucking him without restraint. His free hand was everywhere— tweaking his nipples, massaging his thighs, squeezing his ass— all of it culminating in one furious maelstrom of dumbfounding stimulation. That molten fire in his belly was blazing hotter than ever before, screaming for release by the killer’s hand, but physically unable to do so. 

Felix could barely believe the slew of mortifying sounds that were flying from his lips as the killer utterly ravished him. In his all-encompassing darkness, nothing existed except for that blinding, white-hot blaze of need in his belly, the pleasure gradually transmuting into pain with every passing moment.

On and on, Danny’s nonstop stimulation continued, keeping him firmly on that precipice of release with those fingers clasped like a noose around his throbbing genitals. The lascivious moans and mewls that he had been producing earlier were quickly turning into wails and shrieks as the ministrations morphed into something more akin to sexual torture. 

Scalding skin clammy and slick with sweat, Felix’s entire body was shaking like a leaf, feeling like he was about to burst or pass out if this didn’t end soon. He’d crashed through his limits and hit the upper echelon of madness.

“ Danny!! ”

The killer’s mouth retreated from his dick with an obscene pop.

“Danny… what?”

Felix hesitated, his chest heaving and entire body twitching.

He didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t handle any more of this!

“Let… let me go!” he said between panting breaths.

The killer clucked with disappointment, “That’s not the magic word, sweetheart. Wanna try again?”

Felix remained quiet, whimpering as another painful cramp rocked his body.

“Okay then,” the killer said and swallowed down his rock-hard length.

Felix gasped again as the torture resumed, arching and spasming in his binds as he wailed. Salty tears wet his blindfold and leaked down his flushed cheeks.

“ DANNY!! ”

Again, the ministrations paused. The killer released his aching dick once more but did not speak, only waited to hear that one little word that would signify his complete submission.

Felix sobbed. “ P– please… ”

The killer chuckled darkly. “Please… what?”

Another defeated sob wracked his lungs, “ Please… j– just let me come!! ”

Danny hummed in thought as he nuzzled his erection.

Felix descended into an outright blubbering mess. “ DANNY!! PLEASE LET ME COME!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! ”

With a hearty, amused guffaw, his all-powerful tormentor finally relented, “Sure thing baby.”

Finally, finally, finally, that tight ring of pressure disappeared, and Felix was free. After that, it only took two or so pumps before he was violently spasming and coming all over himself. 

His climax ended up being more painful than pleasurable. His skin was covered in warm pins and needles while his head felt like it was barely attached to his body. After being kept on the edge for so long, the relief was more akin to lancing a blister rather than an orgasm.

Danny continued to jerk him as he spurt rope after rope of thick ejaculate all over his stomach, crying out at the relief of it.

Suddenly, he felt lips close over the head of his penis. Felix keened in anguish as the mouth suckled the remaining semen from his abused, overstimulated cock. Even after his orgasm had ended and Felix had begged frantically for him to stop, Danny continued milking his dying arousal until he’d acquired every last drop of his seed.

The killer’s mouth came away with a pop, and Felix collapsed into a heaving, quivering mess.

But Danny wasn’t done with him yet.

In his dumb, blind stupor, before he could even understand what was happening, Felix’s face was grabbed, and a pair of lips surrounded by prickly scruff smashed against his own. The puffed lips latched securely onto his, and a powerful tongue forced its way deep inside his mouth.

Felix choked and writhed as a torrent of his own salty, acrid cum was pushed inside his mouth, aided by that foreign tongue licking and shoveling it back into him every time he tried to repel it out. Dizzyingly fast, the killer withdrew and the lips were replaced by a hand clamped tightly over his mouth. Fingers pinched his nose shut. Felix reeled. His tongue recoiled under the thick, bitter globs. Already, his lungs began to instinctively seize.

There was only one place for it all to go.

He swallowed hard. The slimy seed slipped down his throat. A few seconds later, he was released for his compliance. Felix coughed and heaved, trying to simultaneously catch his breath and rid his mouth of any remaining foulness. He instantly wanted to vomit.

“Fuck, that was hot, you’re so fucking hot. ”

His lips were immediately captured again, and that tongue that had so thoroughly dominated his arousal now filled his mouth and forced its way down his throat. Felix twisted and struggled to get away as much as was possible in the killer’s grasp, but Danny held him firm, devouring every single one of his protestations. He tried to wrestle him out or shake him off, even tried biting, but the killer simply overpowered him. Exhausted and demoralized, Felix relented with a muffled sob and allowed the killer to rape his mouth without any further resistance.

After a minute or so of grappling tongues and exchanging semen-tinged saliva, Danny finally pulled back with a dramatic, satisfied sigh. Felix gasped and panted, trying to quell the now-familiar disorientation of oxygen deprivation.

He felt the killer’s weight shift on top of him as he leaned back. “Ah yeah, I bet Christine never sucked you that good, huh?” he said with a dark chuckle.

Felix’s heart wrenched. His entire body cringed. He didn’t know where the hell Danny had gotten her name, but it felt so damn wrong coming out of his mouth. He had no fucking right . Felix wanted to lambaste him for it, for debasing his future wife’s name like she was some kind of harlot, but he was so tired… so completely wrung out and used up… He didn’t have the energy for it.

“Also— told you so.”

For a moment, Felix’s lagging mind circled around the statement, trying to decipher its meaning— and then he remembered. 

‘ Fifteen minutes and I’ll have you begging for it .’

Shame squeezed tight around his heart. He hadn’t wanted it. He hadn’t . He’d just wanted the torture to end… but he had indeed begged for it— just like Danny had said he would. It had felt like far longer than fifteen minutes, but he’d deliberately asked Danny to make him come like… like some sex-starved whore . Dear god, what the fuck was wrong with him?!

Felix’s lip trembled as he worked hard to contain the anguished sob trying to force its way up his throat. He didn’t want to give Danny more ammo to tear him down any further. He already felt like the killer had dissected him and left him splayed open for the world to see.

As more hot tears wet his blindfold and molded the fabric to his skin, a series of mechanical clicks and whirrs filled the air overhead.

The camera.

Felix shrunk in on himself, feeling his heart wither away in his chest under the weight of his asphyxiating shame.

“I guess it goes without saying, but it’d be real unfortunate if these pictures ever happened to find their way to your friends. I doubt they’d be very happy about you getting kinky with a killer,” Ghostfaced tsked.

The camera clicked on and on. Felix sunk in on himself even more, feeling as though his entire being would collapse in on itself. Even though he was blinded, he knew what he looked like; flushed, scarlet-red skin, peppered with lovemarks and hickeys, all generously splattered with his own cum… it didn’t look good.

“But it’s okay, it can be our little secret…” Danny cooed, fingers pawing at the mess on his stomach as the camera continued to click and whirr away.

Felix felt himself go numb and hollow as he waited for Danny to finish with him. He couldn’t decide if this was worse than the last time or not. Again, he felt utterly violated, but in a different way. Less traumatic, but more like his soul had been scooped out of his chest and dined upon. It was a different kind of cruelty. A sadistic compassion. It left him wondering if Danny actually saw him as some warm-bodied plaything, like he’d originally thought, or if the killer actually cared about him in some sick, twisted fashion? Both possibilities made him sick.

“Alright, my turn.”

Felix’s stomach dropped. His blood went cold. “W– w– what? ”

Rising bile burned his throat. He couldn’t do that again. He couldn’t.

He opened his mouth to plead with Danny not to do that to him again, to please not force his mind back to that terrible place— but then his body was flipped over. His pants and underwear were yanked down over his thighs as far as the blade there allowed it. 

Groping hands were on his ass, pulling it apart. A wet glob of saliva trickled over his entrance and was smeared by a prodding finger.

NO .

His entire system seized with panic. The exhaustion fled his body. A string of run-on pleas poured out of him. 

“No, wait! NO! Danny, wait! STOP! Don’t DO THIS! Not this! PLEASE!”

Danny grumbled from behind, “If you think you’re gonna leave me rock hard after I just so nicely sucked you off you’re sorely fucking mistaken. Don’t be such a fucking pussy. Relax— you’ll probably even like this.”

A thumb pressed inside and he gasped in shock.

From the moment he’d realized that Danny’s obsession with him had been sexually motivated, this possibility had loomed over him like a deathly shadow. He’d somehow convinced himself that things wouldn’t get this far— that this horrific transgression would never come to pass— that Danny wouldn’t want him like this . How naive and idiotic!

The thumb was replaced with two fingers, and he shrieked when they unexpectedly scissored open, painfully stretching that tiny little ring of muscle. Felix thrashed wildly in his binds, trying to somehow get away from this fresh, burning pain he’d never had to deal with before in his life— not even in this hellish realm of nightmares.

“DANNY, WAIT! Please don’t do this! I’m begging you! I can’t do something like this. I can’t do this! DANNY DON’T!! PLEASE!! I CAN’T! PleasepleasepleasebitteBITTE!”

Felix rapidly descended into a slurry of desperate sobs and nonsensical, emotional blubbering as those fingers stretched his virginal hole without mercy. Tears poured from his blindfold and his chest heaved with ugly, wailing sobs as he pleaded desperately with Danny not to take him, to not commit this ultimate violation!

The killer hissed out an exasperated snarl, and then the fingers paused in their brutal preparations. A long, drawn-out sigh came from behind.

“ Fine. ”

Felix stilled with a hitching gulp. His breath came out in tremulous, suppressed whimpers, barely able to breathe in his disbelief. Had… had he misheard him? Was Danny actually going to take pity and listen to him?

The fingers withdrew from his throbbing hole, and Felix gasped in relief at the blessed emptiness. He collapsed in the grass and felt himself begin to shake hard. The tears poured freely down his cheeks as quiet sobs wracked his body.

Danny was listening. He was really listening. Felix could barely believe it. Danny really wasn’t going to go through with it.

Felix sobbed hard at the sheer, visceral relief of it.

“ Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou…”

Danny gave a frighteningly guttural snarl as his nails gouged deep crescents into the flesh of his rear.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!!”

Felix jolted and curled in on himself as best he could, trying to appear as small and docile as possible. He could hear the killer huffing with fury over him.

Danny snarled again, “Goddamnit, you’re such a fucking TEASE!!” he bellowed, nearly clawing bloody divots into his flesh.

Felix bit down on his pained yelp, not wanting to give the killer another reason to attack him.

He felt the killer lean back, puffing and hissing with frustration. Felix lay still in the grass, trying to quiet his shaking breaths and quell his trembling as best he could. The air grew gradually more silent as the killer calmed. His own apprehension grew with every passing moment of stillness.

Felix didn’t entirely understand what was happening with Danny, but it disturbed and frightened him greatly, especially while he was so vulnerable and exposed. This unstable state the killer was in seemed almost as dangerous as his sadistic side. Not knowing what to expect of him was uniquely petrifying.

Finally, he heard and felt the killer shift. The hands were suddenly back on his ass, pulling it apart as warm spittle dribbled over his hole yet again.

Felix’s heart lurched into another panicked frenzy. “ W– wait! You said—!!”

“Calm your pretty pink pussy you crybaby bitch. I won't pop your cherry today, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna blue-ball me either.”

Felix gulped down his panic hard, trying to process the killer’s words. He wasn’t quite on the verge of bursting into tears again, but he remained anxiously vigilant. He had no idea what Danny intended on doing with him now that didn’t involve… that .

The hands clutched and squeezed harshly at his plump, rounded flesh. Anxious, uncomfortable groans echoed ones of barely contained carnal lust. More wet spittle dripped between his cheeks until they were slick and slipped easily over themselves.

He yelped in shock at a viciously hard smack on his right cheek that propagated throughout his body. It left his heart palpitating at a thunderous pace, moreso from the sudden surprise of it than anything else. The initial slap hadn’t been too painful, but the stricken skin was now quickly warming over with fiery pins and needles.

The sound of shifting cloth and clinking buttons drifted to his ears.

Felix went stock-still, heartbeat throbbing wildly in his skull, and barely breathing as he hoped to God or the Entity or whatever the hell was listening that Danny would keep his word.

Hot, bulbous flesh prodded between his cheeks. Felix whimpered breathlessly, his surging hysteria barely contained.

The hands squeezed the slippery globes of his flesh together around the hard, pulsating length until it encompassed Danny completely. The killer groaned lecherously. Felix shuddered.

Wasting no time, Danny began to thrust away between his soft flesh, his pace immediately fervent and greedy.

As the killer rocked and jolted his taut-as-a-guitar-string body, Felix maintained his anxious vigilance, hyper-aware of that sizable hardness grazing precariously against his tightly-clenched entrance. To his credit, he remained calm and quiet, even as his tender flesh bruised under the killer's exceedingly brutal grip. That obscene slapping of his sack against his rear grew in intensity along with Danny’s increasingly pornographic groans that set his teeth on edge.

Despite how terribly he was being treated, Felix was keeping his cool— anything to keep his abuser from reconsidering that terrible alternative.

But apparently, silence was not what Danny wanted from him.

“You’re too fucking quiet,” he huffed.

The hands left his battered rear. He gasped in surprise as his head was yanked up off the ground by his hair. Suddenly, two thin lines of abrasive constriction wrapped painfully tight around his throat and he choked.

The line of rope was yanked backward, and his body followed suit with a retching gag, arching along with the force strangling him. His arms strained against the tensile binds, instinctually trying to break free so they could paw at the thing wrapped around his neck. He retched again, desperate to breathe but finding it impossible to do so.

Suddenly the rope went lax, and he crashed back into the grass, coughing and spluttering.

“That’s more like it…” Danny muttered, still rutting at his backside.

The rope was pulled taut again, wrenching another choked-off, retching gag from his lungs. The abrasive material dug into his flesh as the loops cinched tight. Blood quickly pooled in his head, feeling more and more like it was about to burst. Felix seized and convulsed as he was hanged under his own weight, mouth gaping at the air like a suffocating fish. An agonizing amount of time passed as he was suspended in that precarious, languishing state, his body still being rhythmically jostled by that hard length grinding threateningly against him.

Just as he felt as though his consciousness was slipping, the ropes dropped again, and his body flopped back to the ground in a coughing, wheezing fit.

But just as the blizzard of white fuzz had cleared from the spinning darkness of his vision, the rope was pulled again.

Another minute of agonizing, torturous strangulation.

Again, he was released and allowed to catch his breath, but not for very long before he was being asphyxiated once more.

This cycle of torture continued until his lungs were searing, his throat felt like it was stripped of flesh, and every breath felt like drinking acid. He didn’t know if this was Danny’s retribution for not being able to have his way with him like he’d wanted to, but this hellish torture was almost making him regret asking for mercy!

Felix was dropped into the grass again, barely able to conceive of his existence in the blackness over his labored heartbeat rattling his skull. A wheezing string of squeaky sobs tumbled from his lips, weakly pleading with Danny to stop— that he couldn’t handle any more of this torture! But either his pleas fell on deaf ears or his voice had grown too weak, because those white-hot loops of searing agony were pulling his head back once again, melting and lacerating his swollen throat.

“Fuck, those sounds you make are so hot…” he said, viciously slapping his ass yet again.

Felix barely felt it this time. His head was feeling airy, like it was drifting away from him. Felix realized he might finally be slipping away into unconsciousness or, preferably, death. He was ready to welcome it with open arms.

His body hit the ground. Air rushed down his burning gullet and into his convulsing lungs, pulling his spirit back down from the clouds and into his ailing body.

“Ah fuck you and this teasing bullshit! You’re not making me wait any longer, I need to be inside you!”

Felix barely heard the words over the rush of blood in his ears, much less understand them before feeling a lightning strike of pain in his rear that shot up his spine and jolted him back to alertness. With a horrified wheeze, Felix realized it was actually the painful pressure of something huge pressing against his hole, slowly forcing it open. The thing pushed at his entrance again, and his entire body wrenched with panic and pain. Holy shit! Holy SHIT, he’d changed his mind!!

“ NO! STOP! ” he shrieked, voice grinding like shifting gravel.

The killer gave a throaty groan. “Don’t give me that bullshit! I can see how much you want this dick! You’ve been practically begging for it the way you’ve been squirming and moaning under me! You’re just afraid you and that pretty little virginal ass are gonna end up liking it!! ”

The killer gave a forceful thrust, and that tiny ring of muscle guarding his entrance finally gave way. Felix’s body seized. He gasped in a breathless, pained shock, feeling as though he’d been punched in the gut. Danny grunted and pushed again. That enormous, bulbous head popped inside. Felix finally caught his stolen breath, and screamed — a long, rasping, guttural scream of horrified anguish. His hole throbbed and clenched frantically around that vile intrusion, burning with a searing new pain that seemed to flip his guts inside out and set them ablaze in a way he’d never known.

Holy shit! He was being raped! He was being RAPED!!

“Oh my fucking god, you’re so tight baby! It’s so fucking good!! ”

Danny moaned lecherously. Felix wailed and writhed.

At first, Felix didn’t notice it in his awful, pain-blind haze, and neither did he see it in that confining world of darkness, but slowly, as the feeling gripped his heart, he realized what it was.

Cold dread. Dark salvation.

The Entity’s call to a Trial.

Already, he could feel that thick, icy mist gathering around his legs and making its way up his body.

Again, Felix shrieked hoarsely as Danny pushed mercilessly into him, and his voice finally shattered. The killer moaned, heady and euphoric, still seemingly oblivious to the dark fog, but not for much longer.

⚠️

The cold murk creeped up around his chest, slowly enveloping him. Felix trembled at the numbing chill.

Finally, Danny took notice.

“What?! What the fuck?! ” Danny gasped. “NO!! YOU STUPID FUCKING THING!! HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE MINE!! ” he roared, shoving him into the ground.

Felix lay still and silent, shivering with pain. The numbing, embracing cold flowed over his arms and coiled around his burning throat.

Pain lit up his thigh as the blade was suddenly grabbed. His world of darkness exploded as the knife was ripped from his flesh. It happened so fast, Felix couldn’t even begin to think about screaming. Then all of a sudden, he was being punched in the back over and over, driving away what little air remained in his lungs.

“—don’t get to take him after EVERYTHING I’VE—!!”

The cold damp swelled around his head, and everything went quiet and muffled. It was as if he’d been submerged in a sea of gloom. Insectoid clicks echoed in the distance. Deep, subsonic rumbles vibrated his aching chest. He floated in that dark sea of silence for a long while, feeling his remaining strength slowly drain out of him.

Soft blades of grass caressed his cheek. A different forest whispered overhead. Finally, Felix stirred, and was surprised to find that he could once again move his arms, but it was a struggle. His shoulders screamed from being locked into place for so long. He dragged one heavy hand up to his face and lifted the blindfold from his eyes.

Before him was a yawning, crooked entrance to an abandoned mineshaft. The deteriorating wood structure was painted with silver moonlight and framed by stout pines. A generator sat cradled in the building’s gnarled embrace, accompanied by steel carts of black coal.

With a heavy, wheezing groan, Felix attempted to push himself from the ground, but immediately gave up at the seizing pain that radiated throughout his entire body. He went still again, trying to mentally recover from it. A cold chill washed over him, sparking his already frayed nerve endings. It was oddly contrasted by warmth spreading through his clothes and over his back. Felix coughed wetly and tasted iron. Danny must have stabbed him just before he’d been taken, probably out of spite or rage. 

He shivered again, this time from the damp cold of the earth, and remembered that he was still exposed. The other survivors couldn't find him like this.

Gathering what little strength he had left, Felix grabbed hold of his shredded slacks, and pulled. He had to stop a few times to sob at the excruciating agony rolling over him, but eventually, he managed to cover himself. He collapsed back into the grass with a heaving gulp, but suddenly found that difficult as well. Sharp pain from deep in the right side of his chest made taking in a full breath impossible. Felix’s drifting mind remembered a passage from one his father’s old medical books and guessed that his lung had been punctured and was in the process of collapsing.

The rhythmic sound of grinding detritus slowly plodded from the distance and into his ears.

At first he thought it was another survivor, but as the footfalls approached, he realized just how much weight was behind them. The ground trembled beneath him as a pair of heavy boots halted directly next to him. Great, surging breaths heaved from a gigantic body looming overhead. Old, worn leather groaned and sighed. The ground shook again as the monster kneeled beside his dying body.

The behemoth rumbled the air, “What is this insult…”

A massive hand, as big as a bear’s paw, closed around both his neck and shoulder and pulled him off of the ground. Felix gave a wheezing cry as his shifting body reignited with pain. A gnarled, toothy mask of bleached bone came into view as his entire body was turned and manhandled like a doll. 

“I called you for a challenge, not a slaughter ,” the goliath killer rumbled, puffing a hot blast of humid air over Felix’s face.

Felix hung limp and trembling in the Trapper’s all-encompassing, squeezing grasp,forced to stare up into that terrible maw. A single beam of silver moonlight split through the darkness of an empty socket and revealed a single, cold, gray eye. 

The killer thumbed over his mangled throat. Felix whimpered weakly at the fresh wave of pain. The eye narrowed.

“Who did this?” 

Felix couldn’t have answered even if he’d wanted to. Instead, he just stared up into that cold, piercing eye and wheezed wetly, feeling more like a frozen corpse with every passing moment.

“Was it that gang of brats?”

Felix did not know of any gangs, and so he did not react— only wheezed quietly.

“Carter?”

Again, he did not react. He didn’t know that name.

The cold, gray eye narrowed into a slit. “… Danny? ” he hissed.

Felix winced and looked away.

The monstrous killer growled, vibrating the air. The giant paw closed around his neck, squeezing his flaring throat. Felix gave a weak, choking wheeze, his shaking hands rising up to clutch at the muscled flesh enveloping him.

“That little fucking…” The killer’s grip tightened as he descended into a collection of colorful insults and nasty slurs. “He’s out of line this time, interfering with MY hunts. I’ll wring his fucking neck .”

The Trapper climbed to his feet. Felix choked and gagged as the killer dragged him up with him.

“You see that fucking degenerate cockroach again, tell him I’m going to crush him next time I see him!” he bellowed, squeezing even tighter.

Felix wheezed as the dark, fuzzy edges of his vision closed in on him. He could feel himself slipping into it.

The Trapper continued in his earthshaking tirade against Danny, but Felix could no longer make out the words. He’d sunken deep into that dark sea of tranquil sopor.

An excruciating pain exploded from his left side and he burst to the surface with a silent scream. He looked wildly around himself, and then down to see the tip of a curved hook bursting from his chest, dripping with his blood. The Trapper was already stomping away, not bothering with a second look. Already, the Entity's spidery limbs were materializing around him, growing from nowhere with a shimmer of ghostly gold.

The eager chittering faded from his consciousness as he sunk back into the swelling dark.

When those wicked claws finally plunged into him, Felix barely felt it.

Notes:

⚠️Danny performs non-con oral on Felix, as well as torturous edging, cum force-feeding, rutting, strangulation, and brief penetrative rape.⚠️

Chapter 16: Breakdown

Notes:

Happy spooky season everyone! Hope you enjoy this chapter! :P

Felix gazed through the tinted windows of the limousine, staring up at the unending parade of classical, residential stone façades, generously adorned with opulent ornamentation. Bountiful, tangerine light from the many passing streetlamps easily held the midnight gloom at bay, allowing him unfettered, uninterrupted appreciation of the city’s iconic architecture.

His own addition to the city was centuries younger than most of these buildings, but he was hopeful his creation would fit comfortably into the architectural menagerie known as Paris for years to come. The final product was decently acceptable in his eyes, but far from what he’d originally imagined. His clients and all the other guests from tonight’s opening gala, however, had been absolutely over the moon with his design— the untrained eye almost always was.

He’d taken an dualistic approach to the design of the business center, with references to the unique stylings of Belle Époque Art Nouveau while also looking to the future in its sleek, clean modernism. The central atrium, in which the gala had been held, displayed this influence most of all, with its extensive roof of flowing glass supported by a web of slender iron rods.

The dark, swirling iron also held some personal meaning; the dark shapes were evocative of that unnatural, curling black smoke he’d seen all those years ago beneath Dyer Island— the fog that had taken his father. In this form, however, the daylight could easily shine through the outline of the dark fog, dispelling the gloom and facilitating the growth of the newly planted foliage into a beautiful interior garden— a symbolic rebirth. The significance of the design was something that only Felix himself would be privy to. This hidden detail was not unique to this one building, however; his entire body of work told a story that was invisible to all but himself.

Overall, the building itself was small in comparison to its neighbors, but his creation would nestle in comfortably among the contemporary glass towers of the business district while still standing out in its novelty.

Of course, in his opinion, it wasn’t perfect— complicated designs touched by hundreds of hands hardly ever were— but it was well enough for the people who had paid for it, and Felix supposed that was all that really mattered at the end of the day.

He took another swig from the champagne glass he’d swiped from the gala, maintaining that pleasant buzz that had kept his anxiety at bay and his mask of assurance up all night. His speech explaining his inspirations would have been impossible otherwise. The alcohol had also helped him to confidently mingle with all the suits and other imposing figures that had been in attendance, including the mayor herself.

For some reason, Christine had been significantly less energetic and talkative than her usual self, so he’d had to pull the majority of his own social weight this time. The alcohol had basically been acting as his replacement crutch all night. Now, he was using it to help him climb down from the heights of his anxiety.

He stole a glance over at Christine. She peered blankly out of the opposite window, her hands folded neatly in her elegant taffeta gown. The shiny, slate-gray fabric periodically turned a burnt orange as the city lights spilled into the cabin.

Felix turned back toward his own window. Had she even said a word since they’d left the gala? He checked his watch, noting that almost fifteen minutes had passed— they’d be back at the hotel soon. 

Again, he glanced furtively over at her, sensing that something was off, but not entirely sure what it was. Had he said something insensitive? He couldn’t recall doing so, although his memory was a bit fuzzy at the moment. Had he been ignoring her without realizing it? Things had been quite busy over the past several days preparing for this event… but she’d basically been by his side the whole time. He honestly couldn’t comprehend why she’d be like this…

“Do you love me?”

Felix nearly choked on his mouthful of champagne. He swallowed it down hard and looked over at his girlfriend in bewildered confusion. She stared blankly back at him. Her expression was cold and vacant.

“W– What?” he stammered.

Christine remained silent and statuesque. Her words repeated over again in his mind.

“O– of course! Of course I love you, darling. Why would you say that? You think I don’t?”

Her frigid expression didn’t change. She turned her gaze back on the world beyond their insulated cabin.

Felix’s heart thumped sluggishly in his chest. He leaned over the middle seat closer into her space, trying to meet her eyes and read her alarming disposition. “Love? My love, what’s wrong? What makes you think that?”

He set his glass down in the cupholder and reached for her hand. She instantly pulled it away. Felix flinched and retreated, completely stunned by this change in her demeanor. He stared dumbly at Christine, hand still hanging impotently in the air.

“Do you remember our first date? When that was?” she asked lowly, pointedly.

Felix's mind stuttered and staggered over itself, hampered by his self-induced haze of intoxication. Slowly, the memory came back to him.

The bowling alley. He vaguely remembered their walk there being cold and wet. It had been early in the year, but not cold enough for snow… similar to the time of year they were in now— March, but he couldn’t remember the exact date…

Christine turned and stared pensively back at him. Her icy blues had melted, and were now glassy with moisture. Felix gaped stupidly back at her, his mind devoid of any meaningful dialogue.

The limousine rolled to a stop.

Her bottom lip trembled. “It was a year ago yesterday ,” she said, and barrelled out of the car.

Felix blinked hard. His dawdling mind took a moment to process the event before finally catching up with the situation.

“Christine?!” he called, fumbling at his own door handle.

After several, clumsy attempts to open it, the door gave way, nearly smashed into the driver who had come to assist them out. He gave a hasty apology to the man as he stumbled out of the car, nearly faceplanting multiple times as he chased Christine into the hotel.

“Christine, wait!”

“I’ve been waiting!” she called, slate-gray fabric billowing behind her as she stamped through the lobby.

He caught up with her, but she still did not stop. “What? What do you mean? Waiting for what?!”

She spun around to face him. Felix nearly fell over backwards at the absolute acid in her expression.

“Really? Really?! ”

He cringed at her elevated tone. The few patrons loitering about in the lobby turned to look at them.

“Honey, please calm down, I don’t—”

“You didn’t ask me last month on the fourteenth, and I didn’t say anything because I assumed you were waiting for a better time. How stupid of me! Because then, you take us on a trip to Paris— Paris! — during our one year anniversary, but you still don’t ask! In fact, you completely forget about it! It’s like you don’t even care!”

“A– Ask what?!” he stuttered, hands hovering uselessly in the air, simultaneously attempting to placate her and shield himself.

She gasped in disbelief, and then suddenly looked as though she were on the verge of bursting into tears. “If I’ll marry you!!”

Felix's mouth dropped open. Her words took an extra moment to register in his brain. Proposal had never even crossed his mind. This trip was just supposed to be a routine celebration for the completion of one of his major projects, but Christine had interpreted it as much more than that.

“God, Christine, I am so sorry if I sent you the wrong message. This was just supposed to be a fun business trip for the two of us! If you want to discuss our relationship, we can do so later, back in—”

“It’s not just the trip! It’s been an entire year Felix! We’ve lived together for eight months! Do you love me enough to get married or not?!”

Again, Felix’s mouth hung open. He hadn’t been prepared to have such a serious conversation in the hotel lobby while he was half-drunk. He didn’t even have an answer to her question; marriage had literally been the furthest thing from his mind.

“Have you even thought about it?” she asked, voice going shrill with distress.

Felix stared blankly back with his mouth silently agape. He could think of no combination of words that would fix this situation.

Christine’s face slowly iced over. Her flickering eyes lacerated him like a dissecting scalpel. “Well, if you don’t know , maybe you should take some time to think it over,” she said, voice as cool and sharp as her gaze, “I’m going to bed.”

With that, his girlfriend whirled away from him and started for the elevators, her taffeta gown hissing and sneering as she charged away.

Felix stood stock-still in the center of the lobby, as lost as the last kid at a school dance. Loitering patrons side-eyed him from the waiting area and the front desk. He suddenly felt very exposed.

Wanting to escape from the situation, and not knowing what else to do with himself at this late hour, Felix wandered further into the hotel. He stumbled up the stairs and found himself at the entrance to the hotel restaurant. The interior bar was still open and mostly empty. He beelined to a vacant stool and sat down.

An hour passed.

Felix stared into the bottom of his fourth glass of Merlot, considering the remaining swill lurking down there that no sophisticated drinker would ever dare consume. He usually didn’t care all that much for wine, being about as Germanic as they come, but when in France…

He tossed the remaining booze to the back of his throat and swallowed it down. The room swam in response to the sharp movement of his head. The bright lights behind the wall of colorful bottles before him smeared into a wash of color. He struggled to set his glass back on the shifting counter, but after several very loud, clumsy attempts, he finally managed to set it down, upright and undamaged.

Distantly, Felix wondered if French beer was any good. Most likely not, but a taste of something that reminded him of home sounded quite nice at the moment.

Felix waved the bartender down and asked for a dark lager in perfect French.

The man gave him a dubious look— not for the first time tonight. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a glass of water instead, monsieur?”

Felix grumbled and shook his head. He winced as the room continued to shift and sway long after his head had stopped moving. “No, jusht the lager,” he slurred sternly, slapping several crisp bills on the counter.

The bartender frowned, then took his empty glass and the money. A moment later, he was back with a different transparent glass that was very much not a foaming glass of dark beer.

“Finish this water, monsieur, then I will bring you your drink,” he said firmly, cutting off Felix’s biting protest.

Felix sighed as the man walked off again, but still took hold of the cool glass. He pressed it to his forehead for a moment before sipping at it sparingly, lamenting at the delay in his mission to drown his brain in anesthetizing alcohol.

He didn’t want to do what Christine had asked of him. In fact, he didn’t want to think at all, but there hadn’t been much else to do while he’d been sitting here waiting to forget.

‘Do you love me?’

He sighed and took a large, unsteady gulp of his tasteless water.

Felix liked Christine and appreciated her company… but did he really want to spend the rest of his life with her? Despite all the time they’d spent together this past year, he still didn’t feel ready to take that next step. It felt too final. Too soon. For Felix, the idea of marriage had been so intangible he’d instantly dismissed the idea whenever it happened to crop up in his mind. He’d been content with the status quo, but he should have known how fleeting it would be…

The truth though… The truth was that he was afraid to commit. He was afraid to fully tie himself down to this bed that he’d made for himself— to fully bond himself to Christine, a woman that he… loved?

Felix’s mind lurched away from the sentiment. His eyes searched out the bartender again. “Aye, c’n I get thaht lager?”

The Frenchman turned. He gave his half-empty glass of water a pointed look before giving Felix the same. Felix responded with his own withering scowl.

Nevertheless, he tossed back the glass, downing the remainder of the abhorrent liquid with a few gulping swallows, and then proceeded to stare his opponent down until he relented. 

The bartender sighed, and then moved to fetch his requested drink.

Felix grumbled markedly to himself, quietly triumphant. 

A minute or so later, a tall, dark glass of foaming, fizzing beer was placed unceremoniously before him. Felix muttered a begrudging thanks before snatching the glass toward him and taking a long, deep draught of his lager. He set it down with a satisfactory sigh. As expected, the French brand wasn’t nearly as good as the ones from his homeland, but it was rich and refreshing, and would do well enough for his purposes.

The room swayed again.

Felix let his head slip into his open palm, trying to steady his vision. His eyes drifted back down to his drink and fixated on the millions of tiny amber bubbles popping and frothing like seafoam on the surface of the dark lake. Sighing, Felix let his head sink further into his supporting hand, suddenly feeling not quite as enthusiastic about the drink as he had been a minute ago.

What was he even doing? Not just here at the bar, per say, but in general? What was he doing with his life? Why was he in France? Why was he with Christine? Why did he go on his friend’s yacht twice a year just to listen to him brag? Why did he overwork and overwhelm himself with so many projects so often? Why did he have all these friends and clothes and expensive things that he didn’t even like?

A ghost of a voice, long gone from his life, whispered into the churning haze that was his mind:

‘Son, if you want people to take you seriously, you have to act like you own everything the moment you walk into a room. You can’t show weakness or anxiety like this or the world will eat you alive. You need to man up and take charge Felix, or you’ll never be successful.’

He sighed and took another long pull of his lager.

As a boy, Felix hadn’t understood or seen much purpose in his father’s lessons, but after his disappearance… passing… he’d taken many of them to heart. His father’s words had served him well over the years, even when he’d tried to bury them in the depths of his subconscious. Despite how painful it sometimes was to remember, his father’s voice had guided him through an uncertain life and had made him a stronger person— the result was a distinguished career, notoriety, and a luxurious standard of living.

But… beyond that… There weren’t many phantom phrases or old memories that could help him in situations like this— let alone help him to know how to feel. More than ever, Felix wished his father was here to guide him on what to do, tell him how to deal… but all he had were these dozens of memories directing him on how he ought to be. His father had no words for the persistent fog of melancholy hanging around his heart that ebbed and flowed with the days, yet remained a permanent fixture of his everyday existence. There was no wisdom to help him deal with the churn of his constant, roiling anxieties that he hid from the world every day. All he knew to do was to keep up the mask and numb his mind to the maelstrom whenever he had a chance.

Reminded of the drink before him, Felix took another deep draught from the glass, impatiently urging forward the moment it would be enough to stop his mind from bringing forward anymore difficult thoughts.

But alas, the onslaught continued.

From his swimming thoughts, a dangerous notion slipped to the surface: Was this what he really wanted?

His mind instantly wanted to retreat back into the numbing fog of intoxication, but this time, Felix stopped it. He redirected his attention back on the idea, forcing himself to examine it— to consider it.

What he really wanted…

At the very least, there was one thing Felix knew for certain: He loved architecture. Seeing the labyrinth that was his inner world come into existence in the form of real, tangible spaces that everyone could inhabit and experience for themselves… It was like letting the world take a stroll through his very own mind. It was unlike anything else, and Felix was as addicted to his work as he was to… well…

He grimaced at the half-full glass before him, but refrained from drinking any more of it, at least for the moment.

Everything else around his work though… his possessions, his friends, his accolades, his girlfriend… his entire life… it all felt like scaffolding. Like supportive struts surrounded by hollow, empty space. His life was just another one of his designs, carefully constructed to convey its own meaning and purpose… but not the truth.

It was all a façade.

He was a façade.

Feeling his head begin to thrum with an unpleasant ache, Felix quickly downed the rest of his beer and reveled in the resulting familiar feeling of drifting through a warm, tepid sea of amorphous, senseless placidity.

He raised the empty glass in a faux toast to no one in particular.

Hope you’re proud, Dad. 

The sardonic thought echoed again in his head, and the brief feeling of disdainful snark he’d felt withered away as his own words really sunk in.

No way in hell Janos would tolerate him like this…

Felix’s empty glass drifted back onto the counter. He stared at the dregs of foam oozing down the inside of the glass.

What if he just… stopped? 

What would happen if he quit trying to prop up his fake life and just did whatever the hell he wanted to do?... Whatever that was… Felix didn’t even really know, but regardless... 

He could just stop.

His entire life as he knew it might crumble into dust and float away on the wind, but… he could build it back up. No pretending this time. He could live his life authentically however he damned please. He could act however he wanted. Shit, he could even live in a cabin in the Alps if he wanted. Maybe… maybe he could even try to look for someone he could really share his life with— all of his life— even the bad parts. There were… what, eight billion people on the planet? There had to be someone out there for him like that…

“Felix?”

Felix’s ears perked at the familiar voice. He forced his swimming vision to turn and focus in the direction from where it came from. A beautiful, but very sad-looking pair of blonde women in casual clothes stood by his side. With great effort, Felix focused his vision further until the two women became one.

“Oh, hallo Chrishtine,” he slurred, leaning back over the bar.

“God, Felix, what are you doing? How much have you had to drink?!” she cried, and then repeated the last question in French for some reason. Her voice sounded much more shrill than it had been before in the lobby.

“Four glasses of wine and that lager there,” another man said.

Felix grumbled, having forgotten about his traitorous nemesis.

“S’fine. I’m fine, alright? I was jus’ doin’ what you told m’ to.”

“What? No Felix! I didn’t—”

“You told me ta think about it, and thaat’s what I’ve been doin— thinkin bout it.”

Christine audibly gawked, “I didn’t mean for you to drink yourself to death!”

Felix started to shake his head, but quickly realized that to be a mistake. He made an unflattering noise of indignation instead, “Pffsht, is not that much. I’ve drunken more than thish before.”

Christine made another noise of distress, “God, Felix, I didn’t mean for you to do this! I was just upset and stressed out earlier, I—” her voice broke into a sob.

“Love, jusht sit down, relax, an have a drink,” he said, fumbling at her arm to try and get her to sit, “I want to tell you shomething.” He waved at the bartender, “Ay, two more?”

Christine sat down beside him, but quickly shook her head, “No, no more drinks for either of us!”

Felix huffed, but did not protest. Instead he exchanged grimaces with the Frenchman.

Christine’s hand roamed over his back. “Felix, just come upstairs and rest. I’m sorry I gave you an ultimatum like that earlier. I was scared and didn’t know what else—”

“Chrishtine, itsh okay. I’m glad ya told me what you did, becaushe I think I’vfinally realized somethin.”

“What? Felix, I—”

“I need to start being true to m’self. I can’t live like thish anymore, pretending t’be someone m’not, so I think it’ll best if we jusht break things off. I’m not who y’think I am Chrishtine. I’m—”

“What? Felix, you’re not making any sense!”

“I’m jus sayin it’d be best fer th’both of us if we just separate. I need ta start over.”

“Felix, stop it, you don’t mean that, you’re just drunk! Just come back to the room and sleep this off. I hate when you’re like this!” she said, pulling insistently on his arm.

Felix gently rebuffed her and instead, tried to persuade her into sitting back down. “It’ll be okay Chrishtine, jus calm down, have a drink w’ me. Les talk thish out.”

She swatted away his hand. “No! I don’t want a damn drink! I can’t! Stop this!”

“Pffsh, what d’ya mean ya can’t? Sure you can. Jusht sitdown, have a drink, an’ relaxsh,” he ground out, pulling her back down next to him.

“No!” she shrieked, “I can’t!”

“Don’t be ridiculoush. Y’ kin drink, just—”

“I can’t because I’m pregnant!” She caught the sob that bubbled out of her throat and stood there, trembling and glassy-eyed.

The whole world seemed to slow to a crawl. His lungs suddenly refused to work.

“W– what?”

“I’m pregnant!” she said again, and then gave an ugly, hitching sob. Tears began to pour over her lashes and down her cheeks.

Pregnant?

Felix fumbled for purchase at the counter and climbed to his feet. The restaurant spun around him in a swirling smear of colors and sounds. He couldn’t breathe.

“I don’t know how it happened— I’ve been on birth control for years! I only found out a couple days ago, but I was afraid to tell you until now because I didn’t know what you’d do!” Christine continued, devolving into a slew of tearful explanations and excuses. Felix couldn’t hear any of it.

Pregnant?

Felix gasped, but his lungs felt no relief. It was as if the air was suddenly devoid of oxygen, like he was being asphyxiated. His heart fluttered against his ribcage like a caged sparrow. He couldn’t breathe! He needed air!

Felix drunkenly scanned the swaying restaurant. His dividing vision fixated on the glittering city skyline through a wall of windows. A balcony.

Crashing through the bar stools around him, Felix heaved desperately, stumbling around the counter and toward the doors leading out into the fresh night air. He ignored the cacophony of frantic voices trailing after him. 

The two giant panes of glass rattled dangerously as he charged through the doors and lurched over to the iron railing. Clutching at the rail like a piece of flotsam in the open ocean, he stared down into the courtyard several stories below. The central fountain and dozens of people spun and divided into pairs before his eyes. His lungs worked desperately to take in as much of the cool night air as they could manage.

A hysteric, high-pitched voice rushed up behind him. Hands grasped at his arm and pulled him back from over the railing. His fingers remained firmly glued to the bannister, but his gelatinous legs finally gave way. Felix fell to his knees on the balcony, gasping for breath as Christine panicked alongside him.

Felix hated that she was seeing him like this. She’d never seen him have a panic attack before, let alone one this bad, but dear god…

Pregnant. She was pregnant!

Felix swallowed his breath just long enough to stammer out a very important question. “Is.. is it… mine?” he slurred between shaking breaths.

Christine choked out a strangled laugh, “Yes! Yes it’s yours! It’s yours! ”

The entire cityscape beyond the balcony seemed to shift, but this time, it wasn’t because of the alcohol. It was as if the entire world had suddenly changed and taken on new meaning.

Christine was having a child— his child.

He was going to be a father.

Another surge of crippling anxiety suddenly swept over him and seized his heart.

He couldn’t. He wasn’t ready. He didn’t know the first thing about being a father. This variable had never been in the equation! How was he supposed to do this without fucking it up?! He couldn’t! He was already screwed up, him and his fake life! All he’d end up doing was screwing up this kid as well!

“Felix? Felix, are you okay? Talk to me.”

He blinked and swallowed hard. He forced his head to turn and focused his blurred vision on Christine’s distraught face. His heart thundered in his ears.

No. He couldn’t run away from this. Christine needed him now more than ever. The child would need him— his child. Felix didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with his life anymore, but he couldn’t run away from this. He might be fucked up, but… the baby wasn’t here yet. There was still time for him to fix things before it came into the world. He didn’t have to run away to mend his broken life. This child could be his fresh start. He could remake himself into the man his family deserved— a real father, like the one that had been taken from him all those years ago.

This time though, he’d be better .

This time, things would be different. His child wouldn’t have to grow up without a father to guide him or think they weren’t good enough the way they already were. His child wouldn’t have to wonder what had happened to him or wonder about what to say or do about whatever situation that was troubling them, because Felix was going to be there.

Whatever the cost to his own subsistence, his life, his career— even his own damn happiness… Felix was going to be there for his child.

No matter what. 

Hot, stalwart resolution bloomed fiercely within his chest, and Felix felt his heart balloon with fiery resolve.

Grasping both of Christine’s shoulders, Felix shuffled on his knees to completely face his body to hers. As he stared deep into her frightened, wondering eyes, Felix slowly realized that the pace of his heart was now as slow and steady as a ticking clock’s.

This was right.

“Chrishtine… m’sorry if I’ve been making ya feel unhappy or alone t’ the point you feel like you couldn’t tell me thish. I haven’t been the greatesht partner lately— but ah’m done feelin shorry fer m’self. I have to fix thish. I gotta do right by you n’ this kid or I’ll never be able to look m’self in the face again. So… Chrishtine…” he said, shifting clumsily onto one knee. Christine kept him steady, clutching at his arms so that he wouldn’t fall over. Her face drew into a massive grin and her eyes filled with tears. “Chrishtine… will y’ marry me?”

Christine half-sobbed, half-laughed, “Yes, yes! But… you’re still so out of it… Are you sure?”

“If y’don’t believe me, I’ll ashk y’again in the morning, and I’ll keep ashkin ‘till you say yes. I’ll even go out n’ get a ring next thing t’morrow mornin. I’m gonna be here for you n’matter what— both of you. I shwear it.”

“Oh god, Felix!”

Christine crashed into him with another hitching sob and wrapped herself around him. Felix hugged her tightly back, pressing soft, sloppy kisses into her fragrant hair. Joyously, he listened as she whispered over and over again how thankful and happy she was to have him.

Feeling the pull of exhaustion, Felix gently rested his head on her shoulder, and instantly felt himself begin to drift into a comfortable, drowsy darkness. He passed out moments later, feeling happier and more sure of himself than he’d ever been.

… 

Drifting in that pleasantly warm fog of his memory, Felix clutched absently, trying to hold his love closer. Instead of feeling soft fabric and another warm, petite body, however, his fingers combed through cold loam and fibrous grasses. Instead of the heady aroma of a populous city and vanilla perfume, the sweet scent of damp earth and vegetation drifted into his nose and filled his lungs. Instead of the ever-present hum of Paris, an ocean of leaves gently rustled overhead, and a crow’s squeaky door-hinge voice chimed from somewhere in the vast expanse of the Forest.

The Forest.

Felix startled awake with a heaving gasp. Everything was a blurry, gray ocean of gloom around a spotlight of cold white. Phantom pains thrummed over his skin. His hands instantly flew around his body— his chest, leg, throat— and found them all to be unblemished and intact. He forced his head up, furiously blinking the static fuzz from his vision and looked down.

His suit, and the body within it, was as clean and whole as the day he was taken.

The phantom pains faded, and the terrible memories flooded back.

His body trussed up like an animal awaiting slaughter, battered and thoroughly abused. Hot, abrasive rope biting into his throat, strangling him of his life. Searing agony spearing into him, violating him, shooting up his spine and twisting his guts. Danny shouting and stabbing in a frenzied rage as he was whisked away by black fog. A mask of teeth and bone blasting hot air over his face.

Felix surged upwards.

Danny would want him back. He’d want to finish what he’d started— to finish… finish violating him!

In a panicked, heaving frenzy, Felix scrambled to his feet. The world tilted. His knees buckled beneath him like flimsy toothpicks. Gasping, Felix braced himself against the ground, willing the world to stop spinning and for his gelatinous legs to regain their strength.

Fuck, he had to move! Danny could be out here looking for him! He could be on his way this very moment!

Felix shut his eyes and steeled himself, gathering all his strength with heaving gulps of air before thrusting himself away from the ground. Like a newborn foal, he stumbled into a clumsy run, just barely able to keep his footing— but he was keeping it. Slowly but steadily, as the tremors and phantom traumas drained from his muscles, Felix gained speed until his pace was approaching a full sprint.

The campsite. He had to reach the campsite!

Somewhere in this gloom was safety and salvation— all he had to do was will the Forest to take him there. Just visualize that circle of safety, and that orange glow would appear between the trees. Now . Please!

A loud crash in the trees behind him.

Felix jolted, nearly screaming and tripping over himself. For a terrifying moment, he became weightless, but Felix managed to catch himself and recover. He sped off again, heart slamming against his chest and brain screaming at him to not to look back— DON’T look back, keep MOVING!

Another deafening crash, sounding even closer than the last.

A sob bubbled out of his heaving lungs. His feet flew over the Forest floor as if he were skating over a frozen lake.

The campsite. The campsite! Any moment now it would appear! He was almost there! He had to be!!

Felix gasped at a sudden recollection, and immediately began to weave his path between the trees, putting as many objects at his back as possible. He would not be taken down the same way as last time! Escape would not be stolen from him again!

Just as his legs were beginning to burn and his lungs felt like they were breathing fire, the image he’d been holding in his mind’s eye finally appeared. At first, Felix thought it might be a hallucination; he'd been so desperate to see the real thing. But as he ran closer, still braiding and stitching himself between the stalwart trunks, that warm, amber firelight grew brighter and brighter.

Realizing the sight was indeed real, Felix pushed himself to his very limits, spurred on by the promise of safety that was so tantalizingly within his reach.

Another crash in the Forest, this time almost directly behind him! He could swear the noise was joined by a flurry of footsteps pounding along the ground after him. God , he had to be right behind him!!

His surging fear forced a panicked yelp up his throat. Felix flew through the Forest like a gazelle, darting and evading the invisible predator he knew was right on his heels, but he held his perilous hysteria firmly within. His precious focus was entirely fixated upon that approaching line of dark columns holding back that luminous sanctuary— only twenty or so meters away now. All he had to do was keep pushing and not trip over himself in his panicked rush!

Meter by meter, that fiery line of refuge drew closer and closer. His feet fell over and over the earth, delivering him from darkness.

So close!

His leg seized.

Felix’s body lurched forward. He instinctively curled himself into a tight ball as he tumbled, twirling over the ground at a dizzying pace as his body bled bruising speed into the jagged ground.

Finally, after an eternity, his body came to a heavy, reeling halt.

Ignoring how his flesh thrummed and keened with fresh bruises, Felix jumped to his feet and frantically spun around, searching for that treeline in the gloom. Almost immediately he relocated it, and was about to take off into another sprint… but hesitated.

Something was different. The tree bark was lit up a bright orange-yellow, and was now surrounded by murk— the opposite of how it was supposed to look.

Felix took in his surroundings again, and slowly realized that he was already within the clearing. Not twenty meters away from him, the campfire blazed away at its center, surrounded by familiar faces.

He’d made it.

Felix gasped hard with relief and sagged over his knees to keep himself from completely collapsing.

His nose suddenly twitched. A hint of something spicy and chemical wafted through the air.

Felix immediately jolted back to frantic alertness. He stumbled away from the wall of arboreal gloom just before him. His eyes frantically searched the darkness for that ghostly white face lurking somewhere within.

Fuck, had he really been that close?! Did he really just outrun his fate by the skin of his teeth?!

Felix couldn’t see that ghostly, shadowy figure in the darkness, but he could feel him there, silently pacing along the treeline like a tiger pacing the inside of its cage. He could feel the rage and animalistic desire rolling off of the darkness and crashing over him like the waves of stinging cologne that were currently burning his eyes and searing his lungs.

His legs suddenly lost their strength, and Felix collapsed into the grass with a grievous sob. He propelled himself backward along the ground and away from the treeline, away from the thing that was so hungry for his flesh and desperate to possess his very soul.

Anguish and panic stole away his breath and his very sense of self. The horror roared inside his head and in his ears. Howling darkness burst forth from its lair deep inside his mind, whispering sweet terrors to his subconscious, inviting him into the infinite abyss.

The world became a hot, suffocating blur. Voices and figures were suddenly surrounding him. Their grasping hands were everywhere, tearing at his body, trying to hold him down! Skittering, skulking whispers morphed into vulgar, hissing screams, trying to lever their way into his skull. Everything was trying to crawl inside, push him out, nestle beneath his skin, and he could do nothing to stop it! He could do nothing to escape the horror that would violate his body and take it for itself— take his very being for its own selfish pleasure. For his pleasure. His nightmare . Neverending. Always . Writhing and suffering at his hands forevermore, and this… this was only the beginning.

This was his existence! Danny was his existence, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Felix screamed.

Notes:

If you're liking the story so far, please consider leaving a comment and letting me know! They really help keep me motivated!

Chapter 17: Empathy

Notes:

Hi! Sorry for the delay, have 10k words!

“Man did you see me back there? That diced up blue bitch never even came close. She couldn’t hit me at all! Every time she phased near me, I was just like ‘WOOP’ and danced away. What a fucking joke of a killer!”

David grunted vaguely as Meg bounded alongside him, barely listening as she ranted. He was far more preoccupied with keeping his blood on the inside of his body, rather than listening to her brag. He grunted as he squeezed the deep gash running down the length of his arm a bit tighter together, trying to stop it from oozing more blood.

“I’m not sure why the other two were having so much trouble— you were doin’ pretty good too until the end there, but man, I was pulling off some dope moves back there!”

“Probs woulda helped if ya took a damn chase er two…” David grumbled, but the girl didn’t seem to want to hear him. She only continued to dart theatrically to and fro over the Forest floor as they walked, kicking up fallen leaves as she reenacted some of her more impressive moments from the last Trial.

David only sighed and squeezed the gash his left arm a bit tighter, grimacing at the fresh pain.

If Meg had actually distracted the killer for a moment instead of running away every time she’d been seen, it might've taken some of the heat off of the other two long enough for them to recover. But instead, per usual, Meg had only been thinking of herself.

He’d done a decent job at evading the Spirit himself throughout the last Trial, especially considering how not stealthy nor agile he and his larger frame was. He’d avoided the killer while being just disruptive enough to throw off the Spirit's tracking of the others without putting himself in too much danger— but then, he’d become distracted. 

Throughout the entire Trial, David had been attempting to fight off an onslaught of intrusive thoughts and gnawing worries. They’d been threatening to capture his attention the moment he’d stepped into the Trial. He’d tried to suppress them for his own safety, but it had been a struggle trying to stop himself from imagining the worst case scenario for Felix.

For the majority of the Trial, he’d been doing a decent job at keeping the intrusive thoughts at bay, but in a crucial moment, his focus had failed him. David couldn’t even remember how or why it had happened— why that final image of Felix’s haunted, pleading eyes being swallowed by black had popped into his mind, but it had, and he’d subsequently paid the price for it.

He hadn’t heard the ethereal whooshing sound of the approaching killer until the very last moment. His negligence had resulted in the killer’s wicked-sharp sword catching him in the arm. If he hadn’t reacted at all, his entire arm could have been completely lopped off, but he’d managed to pull back at the last second, thankfully.

After that mishap, he’d somehow been able to evade and confuse the Spirit with his erratic movements long enough for Meg to get that last door open. They’d promptly left together, although he’d felt a bit undeserving of his barely preserved life.

Jake and Tapp hadn’t been nearly as lucky.

Meg had almost certainly had had an opportunity to pull at least one of them from a hook before their strength had given out, but she’d chosen to prioritize the door and her own safety instead. It irked the shit out of him, but at this point, he couldn’t really expect anything less from the athlete. Ace had taught her well, and there was nothing David could do or say to change her perspective at this point.

The girl spread her arms wide and sucked in a deep breath of the damp, fragrant Forest air. “Ah yea! Feels great finally getting a good win off like this after so many losses… Guess it helped that we actually had some competent people on the team this time instead of… well… you know,” she said, shrugging and casting a knowing smirk over at him, as if he knew who she was talking about.

He gave her a narrow look of confusion, but she’d already turned away. Sure, some survivors were more skilled than others, and others were borderline liabilities, like Kate, but it wasn’t always their fault. The team was a team after all. They were supposed to help each other out to increase their overall chances of escape, but he knew that some people didn’t see it that way…

“Just having you there without… well, anything draggin’ you down made all the difference I think,” she said with another sharp grin. “Felt just like old times!”

Half-listening, David grunted noncommittally and winced from another pang from his arm. The old times really didn’t feel that great… Finally, the girl moved on to some other superfluous topic, and David absentmindedly nodded along.

With the imminent danger long passed, his mind was now free to roam and fixate on all of the horrific speculations and imaginings that it could come up with, and David was powerless to resist. His attention was captured by terrible, theoretical spectacle.

Not knowing about Felix’s wellbeing or his whereabouts… not being there to stop whatever terrible things that could possibly be happening to him at the moment… It was making him physically ill.

David winced at another sharp pang from his arm.

—As well as bodily impaired, he supposed.

A part of himself wanted to believe that he was just overreacting— that Felix had only looked so beaten down due to a series of bad Trials caused by his absence… but deep down… inside the deepest recesses of his churning innards… something was telling him otherwise.

That feeling had sent him into the Forest of Passage alone, but David hadn’t managed to find a single shred nor sign of his friend in the endless woodland. It was as if the fog had just decided to swallow him up…

David shivered and pushed the unthinkable from his mind.

Just because he hadn’t been able to locate Felix, that didn’t mean something bad had happened to him. The man could have been beyond his detection for any number of innocuous reasons…

David puffed anxiously despite himself, struggling to believe his own lie. It could have been much easier to swallow if another, much more disturbing element hadn’t recently come into play.

He may have not been able to find Felix, but his search hadn’t been a complete failure.

He’d found… someone else.

Apart from worrying about Felix, David hadn’t been able to stop thinking about his encounter with the strange man in the Forest. Every free thought he could spare from his friend had been solely transfixed on that man and their odd, Felix-centric conversation in the Forest, which in hindsight, he now viewed as exceedingly disturbing.

David must’ve mentally run through the whole thing a dozen times by now— at least, what he could remember of it. They’d discussed quite a few things, and David had freely given a substantial amount of information about Felix because he’d been under the impression the man would be a friend despite how odd he was— a mistake that now left a churning hollow of dread in the pit of his stomach.

Eventually, but perhaps a bit too late, he’d picked up on the man’s duplicitous nature. He’d initially surmised the man was some kind of journalistic vulture for information, but now… he wasn’t sure what the hell to make of him. All David knew for sure was that the man had some prior knowledge of Felix— even before the Entity had brought him into the fog— and David had given him even more…

And for some reason at the end of their encounter, he’d become viciously spiteful— hateful even.

‘I’d think twice about sticking my dick in things that don’t belong to me…’

David shivered again.

Christ, what the fuck had he meant by such an unhinged statement? Did the guy really think David was bedding Felix?— a man with a family? And even if David was for some reason… Why would he care? Was the stranger really so concerned for Felix’s monogamy that he was willing to just come out and say something so vulgar on his behalf?

Or… had it been because of something else? Like… jealousy?

David's mind reeled.

Holy shit, was that guy like… some kind of stalker? Or maybe even a crazy ex boyfriend?!

In some ways, it seemed outrageous, considering what he knew about Felix’s life in the overworld, but adding that context into the man’s visceral reaction upon — correctly — guessing his feelings for Felix… The idea quickly began sinking its nails into his brain.

David felt an odd wave of emotion wash over him. It was his own brand of jealous, burning animosity that he really didn’t want to examine too closely, because it said a lot about him and his own relationship with Felix. The feeling bordered on rabid, possessive selfishness that David knew he had no business feeling, but he couldn’t help it. Just the mere thought— the mere possibility — that Felix had been with someone like that? If that piece of shit had managed to get closer to Felix than David ever would or could? It made David’s blood absolutely boil with resentment. He knew he shouldn’t be feeling this way about Felix’s possible past relationships, but the mere thought of him being with someone like that… and not him… David couldn’t stand it.

David hated the thought of such a loathsome possibility, but it was the only explanation he could think of that made sense. Why else would the man react to him in that way unless he also had feelings for Felix?

A venomous hiss slipped out from between his teeth, and Meg immediately took notice.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there. Someone’ll patch you up soon,” she said.

David blinked from his seething stupor and looked up. Sure enough, a faint, orange glow bled through the treeline, steadily intensifying.

As they walked, David couldn’t help but steal a glance around them, searching for any sign of that scumbag still loitering nearby. Surely, that scarecrow motherfucker couldn’t be stupid enough to show up to the campsite after spewing all the vile shit that he had… and if he was, well… David wouldn’t hesitate…

His mind shifted to another possibility, one that made his heart flutter low in his stomach: What if Felix wasn’t at the campfire? What would he do then?

He could try to quiet his mind and search out Felix’s presence again— try to see if he was at the campfire or somewhere else… Then again, the possibility of not feeling his presence anywhere again filled him with terrible dread, to the point that he immediately dismissed the idea. If Felix wasn’t there, David could at least ask around and find out anyone had seen him, surely someone had… surely .

As the orange glow grew in intensity, so did that painful, fluttering lump in his stomach that squirmed and writhed like a ball of entangled, knotted eels.

Surely he’s not gone… Surely … the last time he’d seen him, Felix had been looking much worse for wear than usual, but, despite how many pitfalls the man had stumbled into as of late, David also had to remind himself that Felix was still a strong person. He’d been through hell and clawed his way back out. If the Entity, or something… or some one was indeed targeting him… he knew for a fact that Felix wouldn’t go down without a fight.

David breathed deep, trying to calm his thundering heart as that line of trees reflecting flickering flame grew closer and closer. As he rounded the final line of towering sentries guarding their camp, finally, their home came into view.

David keenly focused on the group loitering about the fire, searching for the one head of golden hair that gleamed in the night, but at this distance, it was hard to pick any one person out from the crowd.

He picked up his pace, ignoring Meg’s protest as he pushed past her and craned his neck to get a better view of the group of survivors. He picked out Ace’s unmistakable cap, Adam’s distinctly tall and pompous form, and Yui’s lustrous leather jacket, but he still wasn’t seeing Felix anywhere.

Just as David’s heart began to crawl up into his throat, someone shifted to the side, revealing a glint of that unmistakable, shining blonde hair. He immediately saw Felix clutching tightly at a ragged wool blanket wrapped tight around his body, staring blankly into the flames.

A huge lungful of air rushed out of him, and his entire body went weak with relief. 

Felix was still here, and he was okay. He was okay.

David immediately moved with the intent to check on him, but was stopped by a gentle pressure over his chest. A dark hand pressed firmly over his heart. A pair of tawny, somber eyes stared up at him through blue-rimmed glasses.

David’s mouth opened to make Claudette get out of his way— until he noticed the woman’s expression. That look was only ever reserved for very serious, very worrisome occasions.

Claudette glanced over at the fire, then at his bleeding arm, then returned her pointed gaze back on him. “Come and sit,” she said firmly.

David scowled. His arm didn’t matter right now. He needed to see Felix. “I’ll take care of it later,” he grunted. He tried to move around her, but was stopped again.

“ No. Come and sit. I need to talk to you before you go over there.”

David’s face bloomed hot with rage. He wanted nothing more than to push past her and go directly to Felix, but that look on her face was making him hesitate. Something was wrong.

His eyes darted back over to the campfire. Felix still hadn’t noticed his presence. The man’s vacant gaze was still keenly fixated on the dancing flames. No one else in the group was even attempting to talk to him.

Claudette’s hand shifted to his uninjured arm and tugged at it gently. Her expression maintained its severity, silently imploring him to obey.

David grumbled low in his throat and finally allowed Claudette to pull him over to the communal supply box. She snatched a medkit from inside before directing him to take off his jacket and sit atop the box.

He began to comply, but a nagging, anxious curiosity caused him to hesitate, “What’s this about?”

Claudette only gestured for him to continue, that serious expression seemingly frozen on her face.

Grimacing tightly, David slipped the jacket off of his shoulder. He gingerly peeled the soiled fabric away from his skin, hissing as curdled clumps of clotted blood were torn from the ragged gash running down the length of his arm. Claudette immediately caught the fresh blood that erupted from the wound with a handful of clean gauze, pressing hard enough to make his gruff exterior momentarily flicker.

When the gauze became saturated and the flow of blood from the gash had slowed, she tossed it aside and retrieved a plastic bottle of clouded liquid with a pointed top. David barely had time to grimace before the liquid— which he now was certain was some kind of deadly acid— was unceremoniously squirted down the length of the wound.

“ Fookin’ SHITE! ” he growled, but bit back the rest of his sharp remarks upon seeing Claudette’s warning expression. David reacquired his suppressive grimace and allowed his wound to be cleaned without further complaint.

Next came the sutures. David was already familiar with receiving them without any local anesthetic, even before he’d become a permanent resident of the fog, so he sat quietly and allowed his mind to drift to other places while she worked.

It wasn’t long before he found himself looking back at the campfire— back at Felix. From this vantage point, he could only see the man’s back, but David could see that he still hadn’t moved in the slightest since he’d arrived. At this realization, David felt a low wave of unsettling apprehension rise and fall away within his breast.

“While you were gone, something happened that I think you should be aware of.”

David narrowed his hardened eyes on Claudette. She grimaced up at him through her glasses before glancing over at the campfire. Another swell of anxiety rolled over him.

“There was an… incident. With Felix.”

His heart jumped. “What?!”

“ Shh! ” she hissed quietly, eyes as pointed as her needle.

They both glanced over at the campfire, but Felix still hadn’t moved.

David grit his teeth until his jaw ached. “ What happened? ” he ground out, wincing as Claudette started on another suture.

She let out a heavy sigh. “He had some kind of… breakdown when he returned to camp. He was clearly distraught about something, but nothing he was saying made sense. He wouldn’t even let people touch him. Eventually, we got him to sit and calm down but… now he wont talk about anything. He hasn’t said a word since he sat down.”

Claudette tied off the suture and looked up at him again.

David could barely breathe, let alone respond to her.

“I won’t lie to you; all of us were pretty spooked. We don’t know if it was something out there in the woods, or a new killer, or… something else. The others are worried. They want to know if this is something the whole group needs to be concerned about or if it’s just… him,” she said, expression softening with pity. “I know you two are pretty close now, so I feel like there’s a good chance he’ll open up to you… but David…”

He felt pinned by her gaze and smothered by her words.

“We really, really need to know if there’s a new threat out there, or if Felix is just… struggling. You think you can do that for us?” Claudette asked, her expression morphing into something more pleading.

Finally, David felt like the spell she’d held over him had lifted, and her words began to sink in.

His gut had been correct. Something had happened to Felix— something terrible — and David hadn’t been there. He’d broken his promise— again .

Almost immediately, his mind jolted back to that unsettling encounter in the woods.

‘I couldn’t imagine what I’d do if I found out something bad had happened to him. I’d just be so utterly devastated ! ’

Every muscle in David’s body went rigid.

It couldn’t be a coincidence that right after the stranger had appeared that something like this had happened. Had the man somehow found his way to Felix in the woods when he was coming back from a Trial? Had he hurt him?

If that were true… if the man had hurt Felix… David didn’t know if he could forgive himself. He’d had the perfect opportunity to stop him right then and there in the Forest… but how could he have known something like this would happen?! No, he should have known! He should have realized sooner that something hadn’t been right with him, that he’d been too fixated on Felix, then none of this would have happened!

“David?”

David jolted back to himself. Claudette’s eyes observed him carefully, watching the cavalcade of emotions passing over his face. Deep concern reflected in her own eyes, but it was a different concern with a different objective. David couldn’t help but notice how she’d spoken about Felix’s situation. It was abundantly obvious that the woman was much more worried about what this meant for the group as a whole rather than Felix’s individual wellbeing, and how she intended to use his close relationship with the man to get the information she wanted out of him.

At this realization, David had the urge to snap at her for her lack of concern for Felix, but held himself back. Felix was the priority right now, not Claudette, and arguing with her right now wasn’t going to help him. David would still try to find out what had happened like she’d asked, but it would be for Felix’s sake, not hers or anyone else’s.

He forced his body to relax, and his simmering anger faded. “Y- Yea, yea I can do that,” he said, swallowing thickly.

The woman nodded and gave him a tight smile. “Thank you, David. I hope you know how much that means to everyone. Now, just let me finish patching you up and you can head over there.”

David remained deathly silent as Claudette finished her work. He barely felt the prick of her needle as it weaved through his flesh. Endless thoughts and possibilities seized his mind as he stared at the back of that blonde head of sweptback hair. The sort of things that could have possibly happened to cause such a visceral reaction… It made his blood go cold.

What the hell had happened to him?

After wrapping the final roll of gauze around his arm, Claudette gave his shoulder a gentle tap to signal that she was done with him. David promptly rose to his feet, catching himself as the world momentarily tilted. Apparently, he’d lost a bit more blood than he’d realized, but David wasn’t about to let that stop him.

He quickly composed himself and finally headed toward Felix, abandoning his ruined jacket next to the supply box. 

The less distance that separated him from his friend, the more his remaining blood seemed to rush in his ears, and the harder his heart thumped against his sternum.

What had happened for Felix to react like that? What pain had his incompetence inflicted upon the person he supposedly loved?

David stopped a short ways behind Felix, just outside his line of sight. The man remained obliviously huddled in his blanket. Ace and Meg sat together opposite him, side-eyeing them dubiously. Adam and Yui sat on their own log, murmuring quietly to each other in Japanese while throwing their own brief looks of questioning concern.

Claudette suddenly appeared beside him and silently, yet vigorously, motioned for the others to leave.

Meg gave a disgruntled look, but complied once Ace had motioned for them to depart. Adam and Yui got up without any further prompting, casting back several final glances as they wandered away. The two pairs remained firmly within the bounds of the camp’s circle of safety while still out of earshot.

Claudette gave him one last look of assurance before retreating back to the supply area to clean up the mess she’d left.

David stood silently beside Felix, suddenly at a loss. He didn’t know what he could possibly say to help him, but he had to say something . He had to help Felix.

Slowly, gradually, David eased himself into the other man’s line of sight and kneeled before him. To his surprise, Felix’s eyes immediately broke from their trance and flicked onto his. A huge myriad of emotions seemed to flash across his face all at once. Shock. Relief. Dismay. Anguish… Fear.

Felix instantly froze up, like a rabbit caught in a snare.

David’s heart thumped hard. What was Felix afraid of? Him? The stranger? Surely not him, right? David hadn’t done anything to upset him, at least, not that he knew of…

Swallowing down his doubt, David forced a gentle, unbothered smile to spread across his features, even as the man appeared to lose the ability to breathe.

“Hey Felix, how’re you doin?”

The man blinked. His eyes suddenly darted away from his own with an unsteady inhale. They tried and failed to find something else to fixate on before finally settling on the ground. His usually bright, china-blue eyes appeared a bit more dull than usual, even within the brilliant glow of the firelight.

David’s heart swelled painfully into his throat, but he maintained his composure. “You alright?”

Felix’s eyes searched over nothing for a long while before giving a halting nod— still trying to avoid his eyes— still not telling him the truth.

The warmth of his smile cooled slightly. “You sure? Cause Claudie told me somethin’ different.”

A dull, blue eye flicked over him for just a moment before returning to the ground. He pulled the blanket tighter around his body, which maintained its intense, guarded expression. 

David leaned sideways, trying to better look up into his firelit face. “She told me you had some kind of… breakdown. Is that true?”

Felix seemed to consider the question for a long while, as if deciding on whether or not he could avoid answering it. His expression wilted with guilt and shame. His head gave a meek nod.

Again, David’s heart tried to crawl up into his throat, but he swallowed it back down, if only to keep his friend more at ease. Again, he tried to meet his eyes to better gauge the man’s disposition, but again, they instantly retreated away from his invading form. This time, however, he managed to catch a glimpse of something on the inside of Felix’s blanket cocoon— or rather, the lack of something.

The last time he’d seen Felix, David had tended to a rather nasty bite-wound on his neck. He’d covered it up with a large bandage, but it was easy to see from the small glimpse he’d caught that it was no longer there. It was quite possible that it had healed enough for the bandage to become unnecessary, but David also hadn’t seen any sign of scarring or scabbing on his skin. His neck was completely unmarred, and that could only mean one thing— Felix had died at some point between then and now.

At this realization, David felt his heart squeeze markedly. Despite how much he despised such a terrible fact, it was to be expected. More important than that grisly, upsetting reality of their existence, however, were in the details of the incident itself. David couldn’t help but wonder if the bite was somehow related to what was happening now, or even with the strange man in the woods, despite the fact that the bite had happened long before he’d appeared. The simplest explanation was that a killer had indeed inflicted the bite wound, but Felix had lied about it for some reason.

All of it seemed related, since it had all happened in such close succession, but in what way or how, David couldn’t work out why. The frustrating reality was that all David had was a collection of odd occurrences and a friend who was clearly distraught. He needed more information.

David gave a quiet sigh, watching as Felix stared into the flames as if the fire would jump out at him the moment he looked away. His shoulders were drawn and hunched with blatant, barely contained distress.

David was mentally grasping at straws for his next move. Somehow, he needed to get Felix to open up and recall the thing that had sent him into a panic a short while ago, all without sending him over the edge again. In the man’s current state… that would be a challenge.

Fucking hell, he wasn’t a therapist! Sure, he’d helped the man calm down from his panic attacks before, but nothing like this! He'd never had to do something like this in all his life! Fuck’s sake, he was used to solving all of his problems with fistfights! Right now though, Felix needed help, and god help him, his stupid brute of a friend was the only one in existence who could do that.

David looked up at the man before him and breathed another unsteady, uncertain sigh. Deciding there was really no good way of leading up to it, David just decided to come out with it as gently as possible and hope for the best.

“Did somethin’ bad happen? —Something that would make you… upset like that?”

Felix’s eyes poured over the ground— anywhere but his face. The German maintained his silence.

“Did a killer do something… worse than usual?”

Ever so subtly, Felix’s body seemed to squirm within its woolen cocoon, almost as if it wanted to slip out of its own skin and skitter away. He clutched the blanket tight around his body. His jaw tightened and his head shook deliberately: No .

David watched all of this with careful consideration, eyes narrowed in thought. Felix’s reaction wasn’t entirely indicative of a lie— killers did terrible things all the time. It was possible something bad had happened in his last Trial, but hadn’t been the reason for his breakdown. A bad death had been the most likely explanation, but not the one that had been festering in David’s mind… and so, he moved on.

“Is it… the Entity? Is it messing with your head again?”

Felix seemed to consider the question for only a moment before again shaking his head.

This possibility was one David had been anxious about ever since the incident with the Pustula plants. The Entity had tried to take Felix or overwhelm him or… do something , when he’d been at his most vulnerable, but Felix had somehow managed to pull himself back from the brink. David had assumed it would almost certainly try again at some point in the future, but Felix never seemed to have a problem with the Entity again. Even now, that seemed to be the case.

David moved on to the most important question yet.

“Was there… something in the woods? Or… some one ? Maybe even someone you knew?”

David watched intently as Felix’s dulled eyes flicked briefly onto his own, but then quickly fixated back on the ground. Again, Felix gave another quick shake of his head, looking as taut and tremulous as a plucked guitar string.

David watched all of these movements with extreme vigilance, looking for any and all signs that could indicate truth or lie, but it was difficult to conclude anything other than that the man was extremely uncomfortable at the moment. Did that mean Felix knew who he was referring to? Or was he simply becoming stressed out by his questioning? Did that mean something in and of itself?

The next question was quite possibly the most terrible one yet, but it was one he had to ask… David’s jaw clenched even as he asked it.

“Was it… another survivor? Did someone—”

“David, please ,” Felix begged with a heaving gasp. His furrowed, averted eyes were glassy with moisture.

“Okay, okay, m’sorry,” David said, immediately retreating. Realizing how intense his own expression had become from asking all those terrible questions, David forced himself to relax.

Felix squeezed his eyes shut and began taking slow, deliberate breaths tinged with barely contained panic. 

Shit. He’d gone too far.

Or… he’d touched on the truth…

Either way, he couldn’t let Felix descend into another panic attack.

Gingerly, David edged himself a bit closer into the other’s space and placed a comforting hand on where he thought the man’s elbow to be. He gently rubbed his arm up and down and whispered calming consolations— just like he’d done in the past whenever Felix had become overwhelmed like this.

“Hey, it’s okay mate, it’s alright, m’sorry,” he said soothingly, “I didn’t mean to upset ya.”

Felix faintly shook his head, as if to deny the placation. He curled further in on himself, trying desperately to get a handle on his anguish.

David’s heart twisted painfully as he watched on, feeling completely and utterly ineffectual. He sucked in a deep, calming breath, trying hard to keep it from sounding like a sigh of vexation.

It was obvious that something had happened to make Felix like this, but the man just wasn’t giving him anything to go off of. How was he supposed to help if the man didn’t bloody tell him what had happened? Was it because it was just too hard to talk about? …Or was it because Felix simply did not trust him?

A sharp pang of grief suddenly stabbed at his heart.

Was that true? Had he really done something to betray Felix’s trust? Or had they simply not been as close as he’d originally thought?

David mentally snapped himself out of the thought.

No . It couldn’t be true. There was no reason for it to be. Felix had to be suffering for some other external reason. They were friends .

Feeling his heart thud lethargically within him, David carefully watched what he could see of Felix’s averted expression as the man worked to calm himself. His breaths were coming a bit slower now, but that pained grimace still completely commanded his features.

David forced the gnawing sorrow building in his center back down into his depths. He compelled his feeble smile to widen, trying to appear as unbothered as possible. He edged himself closer, then placed his other hand over Felix’s forearm. David tried looking up into the man’s face again, but his eyes were still firmly shut. At the very least, Felix did not pull away from his touch— thankfully.

“M’sorry if I upset ya mate, but I’m just trying to figure this out. I want to help ya in whatever way I can— I really, sincerely do— but I can’t do a bleedin’ thing unless I know just what it is I’m supposed to be helpin’ ya with!”

Felix sucked in one final breath, and finally opened his eyes. The unshed moisture tucked away in his tear ducts shone brilliantly as his dull blues flicked between his face and the ground, unable to hold his gaze for longer than a few seconds.

David squeezed the man’s arm a bit tighter.

“Whatever it is, you know you can tell me, roight? It don’t matter what it is, or how bad, just… please say something Felix. Whatever it is, we can work through it. If that means I need to beat the shit outta someone, I’ll pummel ‘em bloody. I’ll damn well protect ya, I promise, just… please tell me so I can help you. I’m here for you Felix— no matter what — remember?”

Felix swallowed hard, expression looking more devastated than ever before. Sad, sorrowful eyes finally gazed back into his own. “I know… It’s j– just… th– the Trials have been hard lately…” he breathed, voice weak and wavering.

David’s heart nearly tore itself in two.

That voice was so completely riddled with anguish and fear… Never before had David seen him this emotionally destroyed. Christ , why was he like this? And for fuck’s sake, why wouldn’t he tell him why?!

He searched Felix’s averted gaze once again, looking for something— any kind of explanation— but found none.

Finally, David let a pained, sorrow-filled sigh of defeat escape him. He climbed lethargically to his feet and sat directly beside his distraught friend. He could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves. David couldn’t help but wonder if it was just a symptom of his current state… or if it was a reaction to his proximity. If the source of Felix’s anguish really was David himself… then there wasn’t really a question as to why Felix wouldn’t admit the reason for his distress. The lies, the fear, the hesitancy… could it really be because of him? He didn’t want to believe it… but he had to eliminate the possibility.

“Will you at least answer me one thing?” David asked, heart twisting with terrible dread.

A single dull, blue eye flicked over to him.

David swallowed thickly. His heart squeezed. “Is it… me?”

Felix seemed to ever so subtly jolt at that. His shoulders visibly arched up to his ears. David’s heart immediately sank, fearing the worst, but then the German slowly shook his head, and a bit of his anguish died away.

“N– no, it’s not you,” he whispered, concentrating intently on the flames before them, “It’s just b– been… difficult… t– trying to cope.”

David wanted nothing more than to believe the man, but the frail tone of his voice and the timid nature of his body language just wasn’t matching up with the words that were coming out of his mouth. Nothing about this entire one-sided conversation had eased his anxieties or suspicions in the slightest. 

It was blatantly obvious that something was very, very wrong here— David still wasn’t even sure if he was the cause of it— but there was nothing he could do to amend the situation if Felix refused to tell him what was going on. All he could do was take the man at his word and maybe try to comfort him however he could. There was nothing else he could do.

David gave a great heaving sigh and tried to let his frustrations slip away with his breath. He started to put his arm around Felix, but hesitated, remembering Claudette’s words. He’d already breached that boundary, fortunately with success, but decided to ask anyway.

“Is it alright if I touch you?”

Felix’s body maintained its high-strung demeanor. After a moment of consideration, however, the man nodded, seemingly despite his own anxiety.

With a silent sigh of relief, David placed his arm over Felix’s back and gently squeezed his friend’s rigid shoulder. Even beneath the thick blanket, David could feel every one of his muscles vibrating as much as a generator rumbling along at full power. He massaged Felix’s arm reassuringly, hoping it would help him to relax. Eventually, thankfully, after a minute or so of encouragement, the man’s body finally began to release the tension it had been so desperately holding in a vice grip.

David steadily breathed out his own tension, relieved to see that Felix was still able to be at ease in his presence.

“It’s gonna be okay Felix… You’re okay… I'm here for you, and nothing’s gonna happen while I’m still breathing. I promise…” he whispered.

Within seconds, the body beside him seemed to go completely limp in his hold, and his head eased into his shoulder. The rest of his body quickly followed suit, molding completely into his muscled form with a quiet, deflating sigh. David squeezed him tight against his side, partly to keep him from falling over, but also because of the sheer, incredible relief of seeing all of that tension and anguish finally drain from Felix’s being. David’s heart ached just from the knowledge that it had even been there to begin with, but he was glad to see that Felix was finally letting it go and settling into his embrace. 

The man’s body gave one final, full-body shudder, then settled fully into his side. Basking in the warmth growing between them, David let his own head fall against the one on his shoulder, allowing his own anxiety to fade with the all-encompassing, comfortable closeness of the one he loved most.

At the very least, he was in his arms again.

The two sat silent and unmoving for a long while. David clutched Felix close against his side, listening as his breathing began to slow. When it eventually transitioned into something more akin to a light sleep, a deep, profoundly intensive grief began to overwhelm and overtake the brief peace he’d been basking in. It wrapped tight around his heart, squeezing and constricting, until his chest thrummed with raw, agonizing anguish.

What was happening to Felix? Of all the terrible things in this hellish realm, what was it that was tearing him down to such a degree? He had several  theories on his mind, but the possibilities were quite literally endless .

Never before had he felt so helpless…

Feeling the knot in his throat swell with emotion, David clutched even tighter at the quietly slumbering body nestled against his own, trying to remind himself that— at least in this moment— Felix was safe and at ease.

A figure stepped into his peripheral vision. He nearly jolted, but managed to stop himself at the last moment, reminding himself that this was a safe place. Orange firelight danced over Claudette’s grievous yet questioning features.

David couldn’t stop the exasperated sigh that rushed out of him. He purposefully fixated his gaze on the flames before him, trying to convey exactly how much he did not wish to speak with her at the moment. 

Claudette’s ability to read someone’s state of mind bordered on telepathic. He knew that she would immediately pick up on his reticence, but to his annoyance, she still pressed on.

“Anything?” she whispered.

The corner of his lip drew up into a venomous snarl. He snapped his simmering gaze back onto hers. The woman visibly flinched in surprise.

“Well shite, I’m chuffed to bits you’re so damn concerned for his state. I know how much you were just itching to know if he was about to keel over or not, so I’m sure you’d be happy to know that— no , he’s not okay, but everyone else is. Thanks for that— dunno what we’d possibly do without ya, love.”

Claudette recoiled with indignant shock, but her expression quickly morphed into genuine hurt. David tried to ignore the little pang of guilt that plucked at his heartstrings.

“David, I know that Felix is your friend and I understand how upsetting this is for you— it’s upsetting for me as well— but that doesn’t give you the right to take it out on me or anyone else,” she said, ignoring his dismissive sneer. “You know as well as I do that the group’s safety is the priority. I care about Felix just as much as you, but I have to make sure the rest of us aren’t in any danger before we focus on his wellbeing. That was all I was trying to do.”

David grumbled markedly to himself. His first thought was how there was no way in hell Claudette actually cared about Felix more than him. But his second was surprisingly tempered. Despite his attempts to maintain his outrage, David couldn’t help but concede to her logic. She was second to Dwight after all. It was her responsibility to look after the group. Shit, he knew how much she cared for others just by watching her interact with everyone on the daily— himself included. Claudette took her mother-henning very seriously. Sometimes though, as heartless as it seemed, she had to prioritize the group as a whole, rather than the one. Nevertheless, even if it didn’t make any logical sense, the fact that Felix’s worrisome state wasn’t her number one priority still irked him to an irrational degree. He would help Claudette with her mission, but he would also stick to his.

Puffing away his rage, David finally relented with a burdened nod.

Claudette’s face brightened at that, and her stance relaxed. “Thank you, I appreciate that,” she said, bowing thankfully.

He gave a mumbling, half-assed apology in return, but Claudette still accepted it with grace.

“So? What did he say?”

David grimaced then gave a long, protracted sigh. “Nothing.”

Claudette’s brow shot up. “ Nothing? ”

“Nah…” he said, giving a rueful shake of his head, “Not a damn thing.”

Her eyes drifted over the soundly sleeping man at his side. She wrapped her arms around herself then aimed her grimace at the ground, as if it might hold a different answer for her. 

“S’not all of it though…” he said darkly.

Dark brown eyes locked onto his. David stared firmly back, expression hard and grim.

“Before I got swept up into me last Trial, I met someone in the Forest— a new survivor. I initially didn’t take the bloke for much, other than him bein’ a bit daft, but the more we chatted… the more I realized somethin’ wasn’t quite right with him. You see, he knew Felix, even before the fog— er at least, that’s what he claimed. I dunno if I can really believe anything he said at all…”

“This man knew Felix on the outside?”

“Eh, maybe. Hard to say. He knew a good bit about him somehow or another, but… Claud— the shite this guy said, the way he acted… I don’t even want to repeat it, it was so fucking awful. Him sayin’ the shite he did, then this happening? It can’t be a coincidence. Fuck, maybe I coulda done something then, but I was just so utterly gobsmacked, I didn’t think t—”

“David, what are you trying to say?” Claudette interjected, shaking her head in confusion. 

“I’m sayin’ this fucker’s bad news and I’m pretty sure he has it out for Felix, aright?!” he hissed, “I don’t know if—”

A lethargic groan resonated from his side. David snapped his mouth shut. Felix stirred and shifted groggily in his sleep for a long moment before eventually settling back into their shared warmth and going still once more. David waited several long beats before he felt comfortable speaking again. This time, he kept his tone much more hushed.

“I’m not sure if that bloke’s the reason for Felix bein’ this way, but I know for a goddamn fact this fucker’s a threat, okay? He’s still out there somewhere, and—”

“You know for sure he's a threat? Did you ask him about it?” Claudette whispered, nodding at Felix. Her eyes had grown substantially wider since he’d started talking.

David grunted in frustration at her interruption. “I hinted at it to see if he’d react, but I got bugger all from him. I didn’t push it though, because I didn’t want to set him off by tellin’ him he’s got a bloody stalker after him, aright?! ”

Claudette held up her hand in defense and nodded preemptively. “You are going to ask him about it later though, right? If this is related, we need to know that sort of thing! ” she whisper-yelled back at him.

David hissed through his teeth, “You don’t think I get that?! I know you’re all up in a tizzy about everyone else but him, but Felix is my priority, aright? I’ll ask when he’s up for it— not when you or whatever other impatient twat wants to know. I don’t give a shite how bloody riled ya are, I’m not—”

“Okay, okay! ” Claudette snapped, closing her eyes and puffing a weary sigh. Her blue rimmed glasses bounced under her fingers as they rubbed the bridge of her nose. Her hand fell away with another long sigh. “Can you at least tell me what he looks like so we can keep an eye out for him?”

David nodded solemnly, “Yeah, ‘course.”

He then proceeded to give as detailed of a description of the man as he could remember. He even included things like his supposed occupation and some of his claims about his interactions with Felix— but with the added disclosure that they were most likely false. Thinking over it now, David wasn’t sure about anything the man had said during their conversation. All he knew was that the feeling he’d gotten from him was threatening — especially towards the end.

Claudette absorbed this information with impunity, silently nodding along. He knew she would commit it to memory and put it to good use. He hoped the fucker would just disappear so it wouldn’t have to come into play at all, but he wasn’t holding his breath.

“We’ll keep an eye out for him,” she said, nodding resolutely.

“Thank you,” he said, this time with genuine appreciation in his voice. Claudette now had a target to search for and destroy with her mother-henning abilities; no way in hell would that scarecrow motherfucker be able to freely sneak into the campsite now.

She gave a nod of acknowledgement and made to leave, but seemed to remember something. “Oh, before I forget—” She pulled an old, washed-out piece of fabric with a knot in the center from her back pocket and presented it to him— a Shroud of Union.

Catching his breath at the unexpected offering, David gingerly accepted the shroud and held it firmly within his grasp. The special cloth these were made from was extremely hard to come by— so much so that it was usually kept hidden away from the rest of the supplies. Claudette had fixed this one especially for the two of them, if the knot in the center of the deteriorating fabric was anything to go by. This time, if the fog came for Felix… he’d be ready for it.

David’s heart twisted. Perhaps… he’d been too quick to jump on Claudette for her apparent lack of care earlier; it was Claudette after all… He really should have known better than to think so little of her…

Working hard to keep the newly-formed lump from rising up his throat, David fixed his mouth into a tight line and gave the woman a serious, silent nod of heartfelt appreciation.

Claudette nodded and gave her own small, restrained smile in return, almost certainly overlooking the poorly concealed remorse in his stoic expression. At this point, he knew that trying to hide any sort of emotion from her was futile, but he still stubbornly tried after all this time.

Only when their difficult eye contact had broken did she finally leave him alone with Felix, who was still fast asleep in his embrace. He observed what he could see of the man’s facial expression, watching for any signs of stress or strain, but he seemed as unbothered as a sleeping infant. It was almost enough to make him forget about how contorted those very same features had been not ten minutes ago.

With a sorrowful sigh, David’s gaze drifted downward and settled back on the faded, knotted piece of fabric laying haphazardly over his palm. He couldn’t fix Felix’s problem right now, whatever it was, but at the very least, he could keep a close eye on him— it was the very least he could do.

“Aww, how precious…” said a grimy, grungy voice.

David snatched the precious cloth away into his back pocket and snapped his scowl onto Visconti. From a few paces away, the Argentinian peered down at him from over his shades. An unbearably smarmy smirk curled the corner of his scruffed lips.

David’s scowl deepened. “Don’t you and Meg have some frivolous bullshite to occupy yourselves with?” he ground out, taking a gander around the clearing. He hadn’t noticed when the others had left, but Ace and Claud seemed to be the only ones who’d bothered to stay. Now, the woman seemed distracted with their supplies, completely oblivious to the unfolding confrontation.

“Nah, I don’t have nearly the amount of energy that girl’s got. She can go scavenge all she wants, but I’m still fifty ya know? I need my leisure time,” he replied with another grimy smirk. His dark, glinting eyes centered on Felix. “So did blondie finally get his shit together? You kiss it all better?”

David’s teeth audibly strained under the force of his clenching jaw. His free hand balled itself into a fist over his thigh. If not for Felix, he would have instantly jumped to his feet to ward him off— Ace was almost certainly counting on that.

“ ¡Che! I’m just joking, I’m just joking! No need to get all excited over a harmless joke, amiguito! Just trying to brighten the mood!” he said with a chuckle, sauntering over to an adjacent log. He looked over it, but did not sit.

David maintained his murderous glower.

“Ey! I know just the thing that would cheer up your bomboncito precioso there,” Ace prattled cheerfully, reaching behind the log and pulling Kate’s guitar into the air. “How about a song?”

A low, foreboding growl worked its way up David’s throat. “Viconti…” 

“C’mon, it’ll be great, ” he drawled, giving the silvery strings a twangy, disharmonious pat. “I know a song that’ll cheer your boy right up.” Ace sat with the guitar over his knee and began to experimentally pick away at it. The notes became increasingly intrusive and discordant the more he played. “If I could just remember how it went…”

“VISCONTI.”  

There was a sharp inhale in his ear. David froze. With bated breath, he watched as Felix frowned and stirred marginally against his shoulder. Eventually, the man gave a quiet, puffing exhale before easing back into a peaceful sleep.

David shot Ace the most venomous, seething glower he could manage. He hoped it conveyed just how much of a bloody pulp the older man was going to be if he continued his antics.

Ace’s grin nearly split his face in two, “ Mierda hijo , you should be more careful— you almost woke him up there!”

David’s grimace tightened. “The bloody fuck do you want Visconti?!”

“Oh, I just wanted to see how our friend is doing after his meltdown earlier.”

“Like you’d be arsed.”

The Argentinian feigned indignant hurt. “Oh c’mon amiguito , don’t be like that. You’d be surprised how much I care— especially when it comes to dead weights dragging down the rest of my team.”

“What?” David hissed dangerously.

“Don’t play stupid. You know damn well what’s going on with him. The girls report back to me all the time, and lately, I’ve been hearing nothing but incompetence from your precious querido. Those two haven’t survived a single Trial whenever he’s involved, and shit, I’m pretty sure I haven’t either!” Ace said with an incredulous giggle, “It’s damn hard to tell sometimes, because I’m pretty sure he never sticks his snobby, rich boy nose out of a locker until everyone else is dead — that is, if he even survives past the first two minutes.”

“Tha’s a fuckin lie! He’d never do that on purpose. He’s just been having a poor time of it is all.”

“Yeah? And why do you think that is?”

David hesitated. He didn’t think Ace would put the information he had to good use, but the Argentinian needed to understand that Felix’s recent shortcomings weren’t his fault. “...There’s someone out there who’s after him. He—”

“ —Don’t even start with that evil survivor bullshit. Don’t think I didn’t hear you and Claudette talking about it just a minute ago. Estúpido cabrón, what the hell’s a survivor going to do to him that a killer can’t?! You’re just making up excuses for him!”

“The fuck are you on about Visconti?!” he hissed quietly.

Ace puffed out an incredulous laugh, “Seriously? You really don’t get it, do you?”

David waited warily for him to continue, honestly befuddled by the man’s hostility.

“Shit, what the hell happened to you amigo ? We used to have things running like clockwork around here. I was used to dying in one, maybe two out of every ten Trials… The deck was practically stacked… Then he shows up, and all of a sudden, you get all sympathetic and sensitive on us, then just completely fuck off— all for a short-lived, stupid fucking Bambi that’s barely keeping up. Whatever happened to ‘cutting out all the weaklings and the freeloaders,’ eh? Now look at you— now you’re practically letting them suckle your teat!”

“ You shut your goddamn mouth! I don’t do that shit anymore, and I’m not gonna talk to you about it! Ever!” he snarled, barely restraining the volume of his voice. “You have a problem with Felix, you leave him alone and deal with me , alright?! ”

Ace chuffed disdainfully, “The fuck do you think I’m doing pendejo? Are you dense?” He waved at the air as if to clear it, then leaned a bit closer over Kate’s guitar. “Listen— you really want to coddle the spoiled brat? Keep him around so you can jerk each other off or whatever? Fine. Can’t say I’m not disappointed in you, but fucking fine . Whatever you want. Just know that his incompetence is your problem now. No more of this die first, hide now, escape later bullshit he’s been doing to us, because you’re going to be up his ass from now on— and not in the fun way like I know you’ve been thinking about,” Visconti said with an irreverent wink. “And if you can’t do that, well… let’s just say the problem will no longer be yours to solve. You hearing what I’m saying hijo? ”

David sat silently, simmering with barely contained violence, wishing his scathing glower alone could tear the man in two.

Visconti’s dark, glinting eyes stared back at him over his shades, unfazed and confidently conceited as he waited for a response.

On some level, David had already intended on shadowing Felix, but now it was under ‘threat’ of his old ‘amigo.’ The two had never actually been great friends— their personalities clashed quite spectacularly— but their partnership had been convenient at the time. Only after his actions had resulted in a tragic fuck up had David distanced himself from the older man. For a long time after that, he’d been enough of a self-centered asshole to hang out with Nea and Meg, surviving for the sake of surviving from one day to the next, but now… not quite so much. That part of himself was dead and gone.

These days, he had an actual reason to carry on. 

But now, after hearing this smarmy fucker throw his own terrible words from his old self back in his face… listening to him degrade their relationship, make light of his struggling friend’s trauma, outright threaten them both… Visconti had crossed the line.

David remained dangerously silent, withholding any and all capitulation. His eyes narrowed into a sharp line, wondering if there was a realistic way for him to kill the other man without waking Felix.

Ace arched a brow, as if in challenge. His lips curled into their usual amused smirk, as if filling a familiar mold. 

Felix snored softly and steadily between them.

The sound of boots crunching through leaf litter closed in on them from behind. “Ya’ll trying to learn how to play?” called Kate.

Ace instantly snapped from his antagonistic demeanor. “Wouldn’t dare dream of it, querida! You’re the only one with any kind of talent here,” Ace replied, plastering a huge cheshire grin over his crooked face. He promptly stood and presented the guitar to her. “Was just making sure it was safe and sound.”

Kate accepted it back with a soft smile. “Well thank ya, I appreciate it! Oh!” Her eyes suddenly brightened upon seeing Felix fast asleep. Her hand flew to her face. “Sorry!” she whispered, smile widening into a delighted grin.

“Yeah, the poor guy’s all tuckered out,” Ace said in a theatrically hushed tone.

“Well, I’ll try to keep it quiet then. I’m sure he could use some rest,” Kate whispered, moving over to the farthest log.

Ace lingered by David’s side. The cheshire grin fell away as he leaned over his knees and peered back into David’s murderous gaze.

“Better keep a close eye on that little waste of space there, amiguito , because if I hear he’s dragging down the girls or anyone else again…”

David snapped at Ace before he could finish the thought. “ Best watch yer fuckin’ back from now on Visconti, ‘cause I’m goin’ to break it half next chance I get,” he bit back, baring his teeth into a silent snarl.

Ace shadowed eyes glinted like obsidian daggers. His lips curled back over his teeth into a jagged smirk. “I’d love to see you manage that, but it looks like you’re going to have your hands full for a long while.”

The two glowered at each other for another long moment. David refused to react or break eye contact.

Eventually, Ace gave up with a petulant chuff and a roll of his eyes, not quite having the patience or countenance for extended stand-offs.

“Whatever amigo …” he breathed wearily. He stared somewhere off in the distance, although the shades made it hard to determine exactly where. “I don’t know if you think saving this one will mean you’re somehow redeeming yourself, or that it’ll make you feel better about what happened, or whatever the hell… I just think you’re fucking up here, okay? I’m just trying to look out for you, hijo .”

David maintained his icy reticence.

Ace scoffed again. “ Culo terco. Fine. Do whatever you want— just don’t come crying to me when the Entity eventually takes your pet back, because it’s pretty damn obvious he ain’t gonna last much longer,” Ace said, lips curling back into that insufferable smirk. “If only he had a convenient little reset button in his head like some other people,” he said, nodding at Kate. “I bet you’d love that.”

“Fuck. Off. Visconti.” 

Ace snorted. “Fine, fine , I’ll leave you to your oh-so-benevolent cause of saving the damn Bambi or whatever it is you think you’re doing, but don’t try to kid yourself hijo — you’re just as selfish as ever. The only difference now is that it doesn’t count for shit.”

Ace gave him one last serious look before rising with a surprisingly exasperated sigh and shoving his hands into his pockets. He muttered quietly to himself, “ Pendejo ya está medio loco, ” before finally sauntering off.

David watched him carefully, not taking his eyes off the older man until he’d disappeared into the darkness of the Forest. 

When he was finally gone from their presence, David released the lungful of air he’d been holding onto with an unsteady, adrenaline-tinged breath. He repeated the breath once more, trying to calm his thundering heart. He wrapped his arm even tighter around the still-soundly sleeping man at his side and pressed his cheek into that lightly tousled mop of soft, blonde hair, trying to keep the sorrow and despair from slipping back in and poisoning his heart. He closed his burning eyes and focused on the quiet, snuffling breaths easing in and out of the warm, uninjured, living body breathing against his that was free from any and all troubles and anxieties for this very fleeting moment in time. 

As a series of sweet, silvery chords kissed the stillness of the eternal night, and his breath slowed into an easy rhythm, David could almost pretend that everything and everyone was not conspiring against them, and that very soon… everything would be alright.

Notes:

Oh boy, lots of spicy stuff happening! Hope the wait was worth it!

Sorry again for the unexpected delay! Been lagging behind on my writing lately, but I'm gonna do my best get back on top of it and build up some extra material!
It's still very possible that unexpected delays might happen again in future, especially with the holidays coming up. The next time that happens, I'll post about it on my Tumblr @superpsychedelicdbd and try to leave an edit on the last chapter as well to let you guys know. Thanks for the understanding, love ya'll! ♥

(11/8/23) EDIT: Welp, I certainly didn't speak too soon. Chapter 18 delayed, more details on my Tumblr, but expect it on Nov 24th if all goes well!

Chapter 18: Fine Pt 1

Notes:

Here's a tidbit that will hopefully tide you over until the next chapter!

“Are they gone yet?”

“Nah, she’s still muckin’ about the bloody gen— fookin’ numpty, piss off already!”

Felix peered over the windowsill of the dilapidated auto repair shop and followed David’s eyeline out into the junkyard. About twenty or so meters away, Nea vaulted herself through a gap in a pair of crushed cars just as the killer’s knife came down on her previous position with a loud clang.

That didn’t stop the black-clad killer for long, however. He immediately leapt through the gap and dashed after her, blade raised high. The two circled several times around a pallet and the nearly completed generator they’d been working on moments ago. The killer— who he’d forgotten their nickname for— gained on her position at an alarming rate.

“Just be ready to scarper if he hits her, aright?”

“Ehm… what?”

David did a double take at him, momentarily taken aback by his confusion, then seemed to realize the issue with a snort. “Agh— run , run, be ready to run — soz mate. Sometimes, an odd bit of home slips in and I forget yer not a native speaker who’s clued in to most of me chatter.”

Felix couldn’t help but smile softly at that. “It’s alright. I do just fine with the majority of your vernacular, but I’ve admittedly never encountered that one before.”

He’d been around David long enough to pick up on most of his unique colloquialisms, but every so often, the man would just drop new ones out of the blue. He sometimes wondered if these were actual words from his home country or if he was just making them up on the fly. The latest addition to his internal Mancunian dictionary seemed like one of the most invented, incongruous words yet, but Felix was moreso amused by the fact that David had momentarily forgotten that English was not his first language. It was flattering, really, although it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. If he hadn’t already been fluent in English, he certainly would be now; he'd barely spoken a word of his mother tongue since coming here, except in his dreams of course. 

David made a sudden sharp noise of surprise, and Felix looked up to see that the pallet had finally been dropped. The killer recoiled, momentarily stunned by the blow, while Nea stood on the opposite side shouting something incomprehensible.

“Bloody smashed it! Cheeky fuckin’ lass! Don’t get cocky now…” David whispered excitedly, like he was spectating some kind of sporting event instead of a deadly dance at the point of a blade.

With disproportionate might for his size, the killer instantly stomped the pallet into splinters and took off after the sneering Swedish woman, who now held a substantial lead on him.

“Oi, look! They’re pissin’ off finally! Let’s finish off that genny before she decides to circle back around.” The Brit made to leave, but hesitated, giving him a severe, appraising look. “You doin’ alright by the way?”

Felix nodded seriously. “Yes, I’m fine.”

David’s brow furrowed deep with wary concern. His hard, brown eyes jumped around his face, trying to analyze it. After a long moment though, he seemed satisfied with what he saw there, and relaxed with a confirmatory nod. 

“Alright… let’s crack on then,” he said, giving Felix’s shoulder a gentle pat and trotting back over to their objective.

Felix let his breath silently slip away and trailed after him. He made sure to give the man a thin smile of reassurance whenever he turned back to confirm that he was indeed following close behind.

David was right to be wary. Felix was very much not fine, but for now, he was about as fine as he possibly could be. That was because here in this Trial was the only time and place he knew for certain that he was safe. Admittedly, he wasn’t free from harm like he was at the campfire— far from it— but in a Trial, Felix was completely beyond the detection or manipulations of… him . 

Here, he could simply… freely… exist — free from the spying eye, keen ear, and lurking blade that was almost certainly prowling about the perimeter of the campsite… watching, waiting . But here, Felix didn’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing, or lingering in David’s presence after being strictly forbidden from existing anywhere near him, or dreading the next time that unholy dark would drag him away to be with him , because Felix was already in the midst of a Trial. 

Knowing for certain that Danny could no longer see him here with David… Felix felt like he could finally breathe easy— even under bodily threat of another killer. And simply existing in David’s presence was reassuring in a way he’d thought was no longer possible. Even back at the campsite, under the unbearable stress of David’s probing questions and the knowledge that Danny was almost certainly watching them interact… he’d still somehow let himself fall into David’s all-encompassing embrace. After hours, days , of torture and terror… the promise of even one singular moment of solace and comfort had been too alluring to pass up.

But being under David’s watchful eye wasn’t all roses…

The generator roared to life under his hands and snapped him from his thoughts. Felix looked up to see the larger man offering him a helping hand.

“C’mon then. Only three more to go and we’re golden.”

Felix nodded solemnly and accepted the help.

He followed after the Brit like a lost duckling as the man stalked about the junkyard in search of their next repair job.

Admittedly, they were much less effective as a pair, but Felix wasn’t about to venture off on his own anytime soon. David wouldn’t for certain— the man couldn’t even go for more than a minute without turning back to make sure he was still behind him. Felix was overall thankful to be in David’s calming presence once again, but now…

David was onto him.

He could see the man trying to work him out every time he caught his gaze— trying to see beneath his eyes and pry away his flimsy mask of calm… David’s company was a blessing overall, but keeping him at bay was exhausting. Fortunately for now, with David forced to suppress all of his inquiries during the Trial, it wasn’t so bad. But back at the campfire, Felix had barely managed. Despite how much it had pained him to keep the man at arm's length and keep his own soul-crushing anguish inside… he’d done it. It was the only way he knew to keep David safe from Danny’s wrath. If David didn’t know what was happening, then there was no reason for Ghostface to target him. Danny had alluded to messing with David, but that had obviously been a manipulative lie. Danny wouldn’t dare risk an encounter with the Brit unless there was good reason… Felix had to at least believe that much.

“Get down!”

“Wha—?!”

Felix gasped as he was yanked to the ground. He floundered about the grass for a moment until he managed to get himself into a proper crouch.

“Soz mate,” David whispered, and nodded over the junked car they’d hidden behind.

Felix puffed wanly at him, then slowly eased himself up enough to peer through the shattered windows.

About a stone’s throw away from their hiding spot, a dark, hooded figure strutted through an open area of the junkyard, impatiently spinning the talon-shaped knife around his finger as he scanned the surrounding area. Felix momentarily caught a glimpse of the crude skull painted over what looked to be a bandana covering his face. The killer’s human stature and dark clothes made him very easy to miss in the murk of the hunting grounds. Felix had been so wrapped up in his tumultuous thoughts, he would have almost certainly been seen if not for David…

As he kneeled there, watching the killer lurk about the junkyard in search of his next victim, Felix couldn’t help but wonder why a different killer wasn’t standing there instead. 

When that accursed black fog had come rushing into camp to take him away, he’d very nearly descended into another panicked breakdown, but then David had shown him the shroud. He’d still been terrified as the fog swarmed around him, but seeing that tattered piece of cloth and knowing he wouldn’t be alone had kept him grounded. 

Back in the Forest, after witnessing Danny’s terrifyingly violent reaction to him being prematurely whisked away from his grasp… Felix had thought for certain he’d have to suffer the repercussions of that in this Trial, and yet… he wasn’t. 

For almost every Trial since this nightmarish ordeal had begun, for whatever reason, Danny had consistently been his killer. After what had happened, he knew that Danny would stop at nothing to have him back, so why wasn’t he here hunting him? What had changed? How could he keep it like this?

Felix’s mind flicked back to that fuzzy memory of the Trapper’s terrible, toothy maw smiling in his face. Did that behemoth of a killer somehow get rid of Danny like he’d threatened? Felix could only dream. He wasn’t ready to accept something so unbelievable unless there was undeniable proof that Danny was gone. Only then would he allow himself to accept that his nightmare was over. Until then… he had to remain cautious and keep an eye on the shadows. A single Trial without Danny was not enough for him to conclude anything.

Eventually, the hooded killer passed on, and they both released an unsteady breath.

“Oi. Mate. I know you’re a tad out of it right now, but at least try to keep an eye out for us, yea? I only got me one pair here…”

Felix nodded guiltily. He was far too wrapped up in his thoughts. “You’re right. I apologize. I’ll try to be more observant from now on.”

David gave a wan sigh, looking almost remorseful that he’d even asked such a thing. His mouth hung open, perhaps on the verge of speaking aloud some sort of apology or even a question, but then seemed to decide against it. He sighed again.

“It’s okay… I’m just tryin’ to make sure you don’t get hurt here, yea?” he said, clearly trying to keep his deep concern from creeping into his expression. “Now c’mon, I think there’s another genny over here.”

David waved him along and Felix obediently followed— this time with an eye on their surroundings.

The two of them steadily snaked their way between the towers of twisted metal and piles of crushed cars until finally arriving at a dilapidated shack. Wasting no more time, they got to work repairing the machine sitting idle in the center.

As they worked, Felix periodically caught David glancing over at him from the corner of his eye, his features deeply furrowed with watchful apprehension. Felix tried to ignore him, but with every look, he felt more and more like a specimen squeezed between two slides of glass under a microscope.

He couldn’t have another outburst like that again.

Being so obviously distressed only raised suspicions and put people at risk— put David at risk. With every glance, he saw the infinite number of questions on the tip of his tongue, waiting for the next earliest opportunity to bury him alive with them— questions he could never answer.

No, he had to be better about controlling his emotions so he could avoid this situation altogether. He had to be better about hiding his pain, else eventually collapse under the scrutiny, and then… No. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He had to mask his anguish— pretend  everything was how it was before, and to do that… he had to play the part of his former self.

Compared to the pretentious, overconfident entrepreneur that occupied his overworld life, trying to project a calmer, more reticent version of himself now, despite all the fear and anguish eating away at his insides… it seemed impossible. He’d played so many different versions of himself over the years; the normative, dutiful son, the charming gentleman, the enamored romantic… the loving partner…

But this? Trying to pretend that this… atrocity… wasn’t happening to him? It would be the most difficult thing he’d ever had to do in his life. He didn’t know if he could do it, but he had to at least try . For his and David’s sake… he had to try…

A long, drawn out scream of agony echoed eerily through the air. Felix tensed hard, nearly touching two wrong wires together. They both traded stiff looks of concern. Someone had just been thrown onto a hook.

“Agh, that sounded like Dwight,” said David, worrying the inside of his cheek. “Nea should be able to get him…” he murmured, then resumed work on his side of the generator. He did not appear very confident in the assumption.

Felix mirrored his furrowed expression, wondering whether or not to object before eventually returning his attention to the generator.

Another long while passed in strained silence, filled only with the metallic clangs and whirrs of moving machinery and crackling electronics.

Another agonized cry floated through the air and into their ears, this time sounding more like an urgent plea for help.

David visibly squirmed. “Nea will get him…”

Felix mirrored his apprehension. “Are you certain of that?”

The Brit gave him a stilted, sidelong grimace, but did not answer. He returned his focus to the generator.

Felix balked. “David.”

“He’ll be fine. We’re about done here anyways.”

“He might also be done by the time we get to him!”

Felix waited to be acknowledged, but David only continued to work. Finally, he jumped to his feet with a scoff and strode to the doorway, trying to ignore the sharp, stinging pang of anxiety that pricked at his heart. The thought of being on his own again made his anxiety skyrocket, but he couldn’t let their leader suffer because of their inaction.

David’s eyes instantly shot back onto him. “The hell do ya think yer goin’?”

Felix stopped and turned back, grimacing tightly. “I may not be in the best state, but that doesn’t mean I can’t function on my own. We’re not efficient working like this, David. Finish that gen. I’ll get Dwight.”

David shot to his feet. “The fuck you will! I’m not lettin’ you outta my sight ‘till I know your head’s in the right spot. It’s too dangerous for you to be alone right now.”

Felix shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said, and maybe if he believed it hard enough, it would eventually become true— or at the very least, convince everyone else that he was fine.

“Except you’re not! If you’re so fucking fine, then what was that back at the campfire?! Why wont you say what’s going on with you?!”

Feeling the panic rising back up his throat, Felix swallowed hard and spun back around toward the doorway, breaking away from David’s intense gaze. “We don’t have time to discuss this. Dwight will be lost unless we act immediately, and I will not allow him to suffer just because you’re overprotective of my wellbeing,” he stated sternly, barely suppressing the nervous quiver in his voice, and stormed forward.

“Felix, wait! Wait! Fine! I’m coming with you! Whatever you wanna do, we’ll do it— just so long as you aren’t by yourself.”

Felix hissed in frustration. “ No David. Just stay here and finish the gen— I have to do this.” He had to prove to himself that he could play the part. He had to show David and everyone else that he could function— that he was fine.

“M’sorry, but I can’t let you do that. I— FELIX!!” David screamed. His eyes went huge with panic.

Felix whirled. His vision was filled by a pale face with empty eyes.

Time slowed to a halt.

Felix stared back into the vacuous pits beset into bone white, barely believing what he was seeing. Him . It was him! Danny had found him, and his horrible, eternally-staring empty sockets had captured his gaze. Now, they were going to swallow his soul. There had never been any escape. He was back, and he was here to take him away! He was here!

Felix suddenly felt himself falling backward, away from the face that filled his nightmares… no, not falling… he was being pulled. Something was pulling him away.

A large, gray blur suddenly appeared between him and that terrible face. There was a flurry of movement, followed by a flash of red and a yelp of pain.

His back hit the ground hard, forcing the air from his lungs. The spell that had immobilized him was broken.

David was standing defensively before him, tightly clutching at his side. Red blossomed and spread through the torn fabric beneath his fingers. A pallet that he hadn’t noticed before now blocked the doorway, stopping the killer on the opposite side from reaching them— the killer that wasn’t Danny. 

The killer recovered from the blow he’d taken with a furious roar, slashing at the air as he whirled back on them. The skull painted over his cloth mask was reminiscent of the face he knew so well— but only at a glance. It wasn’t him.

“MOVE YER FOOKIN’ ARSE!!”

Felix jolted back to himself. David was snarling back at him like a feral animal. The killer was in the midst of smashing through their only protection, seconds away from slashing them both to ribbons.

“MOVE!!”

Felix scrambled onto all fours and launched himself toward the opposite doorway. He barrelled through it and took off into a clumsy sprint. A violent commotion erupted from behind, and his heart dropped. Felix slowed to a halt and looked over his shoulder.

David was on the ground, roaring and hurling his fists into the dark figure on top of him, but none of the hits seemed to affect the killer in the slightest. There was a sudden flurry of movement and flashes of steel. David thrashed and yelped until the frenzy ended with a final jab in his side, and he finally went limp.

“No, NO!”

Gasping breathlessly, Felix turned back toward the pair but stopped again, not entirely sure on what he intended on doing. All he knew was that David was dying , and he’d been the cause. His festering trauma had stopped him from reacting in time, and now David was suffering for it!

Felix started to move again, intending to go back and fix this , but stopped.

From his bloodsoaked spot on the ground, David was looking back at him. His eyes were glazed with pain, but still hard. Focused. They drilled back into him, trying to repel him back. 

Don’t you fuckin’ dare.

Felix’s heart squeezed. David had sacrificed himself to protect him. He’d spared him from the consequences of his ineptitude. Felix couldn’t just waste that by jumping back into the killer’s arms. He had to carry on with the Trial. He had to bear his part of the burden or else they were all going to die. And then, he’d have to return to the campfire alone— easy prey.

No! He couldn’t let that happen!

Chest squeezing, Felix gave David one last look of anguished remorse.

The crude skull face suddenly snapped onto him, and Felix flinched backward with a gasp. It canted to the side, considering and calculating his next possible target.

David suddenly lurched back to life. His bloodied fists grabbed and clutched at the killer’s limbs like a feral animal. It didn’t do much to hinder, but it was instantly successful in pulling the killer’s attention away from Felix and back onto himself.

The curved knife raised high into the air, and Felix turned away before it could plunge back down. He took off back into the junkyard, blinking away fresh tears as the sound of David’s screams faded into the eternal, midnight murk.

Chapter 19: Fine Pt 2

Notes:

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a lovely holiday! Sorry it's been such a hot minute since the last update (combination of the holidays and action scenes ironically being boring to write), but I've finally managed to complete this chapter before the end of the year at least. Consider this my belated gift to you!

Felix didn’t stop running until he heard the sound of working machinery. The telltale flickering light pole of a nonfunctional generator rose from behind a stack of crushed cars. It was clearly being worked on by another survivor if the sounds emanating out from it were anything to go by. He paused for a long moment to assess his surroundings before deciding that it was safe enough for him to stop.

Suddenly feeling weak, Felix leaned over his knees and squeezed his eyes shut.

Fuck, he might’ve gotten David killed . He’d seen that mask and just… frozen up. David had been forced to step in and take the repercussions of his fuck up, and now he was probably dead. His inaction and ineptitude he’d tried so desperately to pretend wasn’t there had killed his friend.

Felix clutched at his hair. The corners of his eyes burned hot.

“Scheiße!”

Even when he knew for a fact that Danny wasn’t here with him, he was still here . No matter where Felix was or what he was doing, his tormentor was still lurking in the shadows of his mind, influencing his every thought and action. The killer didn’t even have to be anywhere near him to have complete and utter control over his existence. No matter what he did, no matter where he went, he had to carry Danny with him— and probably would forever . No amount of playacting or pretending was going to change that. Danny and the terrible things he’d done were a part of him now— just like the darkness of his childhood. It was like he was cursed. Despair always found him one way or another.

“Hey.”

Felix jolted and spun around.

Nea peered from behind a stack of crushed metal, frowning darkly at him. “Are you just going to stand there like a moron, or do you plan on doing something useful?”

Felix grimaced acutely. In the wake of his guilt and shame, her heartless words cut much deeper than they normally would have. Suddenly, he remembered something incredibly urgent; the whole reason this debacle had even occurred. “Dwight! Is he—?!”

“Safe? Ja, no thanks to you two. I barely got him off the hook in time. Why the hell didn’t one of you save him? I can’t be doing everything around here!”

“I… We were ambushed. We couldn’t—”

Nea hissed. “What? You two were together this whole time? Were you conjoined at the hip or something?! One of you had plenty of time to get Dwight! Jävlar röv… ”

Felix winced and shook his head. Anxiety clamped down around his throat. “No, we… we were just trying to watch out for each other, but then—”

A deep, agonized scream drifted through the air. Felix’s blood went cold with realization. The killer hadn’t outright slaughtered David like he’d thought. His friend was still alive — and he’d just been hooked.

Felix spun around to dart back off into the night, but stumbled backward when his arm didn’t follow after him. 

“ Värdelösidiot! Stop!”

“I have to save him!”

“No! You’ve fucked this Trial enough as it is! The last thing we need is you going down alongside him,” she snapped, then huffed sharply. “I’ll get him. You stay here and finish the damn gen. You can handle that, right? Or do I need to babysit you too?”

Felix made a noise of distress, but did not protest. Nea gave him one last venomous look before scampering off into the fog, leaving him alone in the gloomy junkyard.

He wanted nothing more than to redeem himself by saving David… but Nea was right. He’d already caused far too much damage. It would be better if he just stayed out of it.

Felix knew that slipping into a version of himself who’d never even heard of the name Ghostface wasn’t going to be easy, but the damage ran much deeper than he realized. His very core had been poisoned. The trauma now infected every aspect of his existence. If he tried to help again, he’d for sure just make things even worse by freezing again. He might even get David killed for certain this time. It would be better for everyone if he just stayed out of the way and stuck to repairing gens. The less he interacted with everyone, the better.

Swallowing down the thick knot that had appeared in his throat, Felix turned to the broken generator, sighed, and began to coax it back to life.

Silently, Felix mumbled aimless hopes and prayers that David would turn out okay.

Aside from the machinery clanging in his hands and the occasional groan of settling scrap piles around him, the air maintained its unnatural stillness. No more screams or shouts of desperation sounded in the junkyard. He hoped it was a good sign.

The uncanny silence was finally broken by another generator rumbling to life on the opposite side of the hunting grounds that startled him from his concentration. He glanced at his surroundings, but saw no signs of life except for the odd loitering crow. His own generator was nearly completed.

He couldn’t recall exactly how many generators had been done already, but he felt like they should be close to powering the gates by now. The team seemed to have finally recovered from their setback— no thanks to him…

Puffing dejectedly, Felix returned his attention to the open innards of the machine, searching for the next pair of wires that needed to be twisted together— but paused. Something in the distance caught his eye. Narrowing his vision, Felix craned his neck and tried to make out the moving blob through the churning haze.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

A dark, hooded figure was barreling toward him through the fog. A gleam of silver in his hand periodically flashed dull moonlight at him in rapid succession— every time he took another bounding step towards Felix’s position.

The killer was going to be here in a matter of seconds.

Felix’s first instinct was to drop everything and run, but the gen was nearly finished . There were only a few seconds worth of repairs left to make.

No, he had to complete it. He couldn’t fail David and the team again. He had to show them that he wasn’t compromised— that he was still functional — that he was fine . 

The white splotch on the killer's mask was now close enough for him to resolve it into that smeared image of a grisly skull— so eerily alike to the face he knew so well.

A second passed, and three less meters of distance separated him from the approaching killer.

He could do it if he moved fast enough!

Felix tore his gaze away from his approaching doom and refocused his attention back on the gen. He found the two matching pairs of disconnected wires again and pinched them back together.

The killer’s clamoring footfalls were clearly audible now as they tore over the grass, growing closer and louder.

He slammed a dislocated gear back into line with the others, then finally slapped the switch that would light the whole thing up— but nothing happened! 

The sound of great, heaving breaths of exertion were quickly approaching— almost right on top of him!

The starter! He forgot the starter! Felix repeatedly smashed the button that would build up enough electric charge to kickstart the machine into working order, praying it would be enough, then smacked the switch back into the ‘on’ position.

Finally, the generator roared to life, and Felix instantly rocketed away from the thing with a panicked yelp. He dared not turn to see just how close the killer had gotten, but the sounds of heavy, ragged breaths and pounding footfalls told him that it was far too close.

That was all but confirmed when a stinging line of pain slashed across his back. Felix stumbled forward with a shocked cry. He used his unsteady forward momentum to rebound off the ground and speed off into the mazal scrapyard. He had no earthly idea as to where exactly he was running, but as long as the sounds of his pursuer were decreasing, he kept on his path. He stole a quick, cautious glance behind and saw that the skull-faced killer had fallen behind a bit, but was still hot on his trail.

The hulking repair shop from earlier appeared from behind a mountain of vehicular corpses, and Felix automatically deviated toward the building. He hoped to somehow use it against the hunter to stave off his bloody fate, but could scarcely remember what the inside had looked like.

He picked up his pace to put a bit more distance between himself and his pursuer, but immediately gasped as the hot line on his back opened up and screamed in protest. A flood of warmth spread from the pulsating laceration and seeped over his skin through the layers of his suit. Felix grit his teeth. He adjusted his posture to limit the stress on his injury, but did not allow himself to slow down. He would not slow down! He was going to live.

Finally, he reached the worn, clapboard siding of the repair shop. He turned back to see that the killer had gained significant ground on his much slower prey, still only seconds away. Felix lurched through an open window, hissing as the gash on his back strained open once again. Despite another flood of uncomfortable, sticky warmth flowing over his back and down his leg, he pushed himself forward and tumbled into the shop.

Inside, there wasn’t much that he could use to defend himself or even put distance between his body and the killer. Every other window was boarded shut. There wasn’t even a pallet in sight. The open shutter door only led back out into an empty section of forest that was devoid of protection or even cover. The only thing in sight was a partially disemboweled automobile mounted on a rack, and a pair of lockers in a corner.

He was severely injured, he had nothing to work with, and the killer would be upon him in a matter of moments.

If he tried running outside, he’d be caught out in that empty void in seconds. Hiding in the locker would be laughably obvious. The blood running down his leg and pooling on the ground beneath him would do nothing but create a convenient trail that would lead directly to his hiding spot— that was, if the killer didn’t notice the increasingly heavy scent of blood first.

Fuck!

He didn’t have a choice.

Felix limped quickly but gingerly toward the lockers and glanced back to see just how obvious his blood trail was— but then noticed something.

A section of the trail ran through a pool of thick, black motor oil. The blood he’d dropped there had instantly flowed and swirled into the dark, iridescent liquid, obscuring and swallowing it up like it had never been there in the first place.

His eyes followed the source of the oil slick and saw that it ran underneath the suspended car in the center of the shop where a huge lake of the liquid had gathered.

Felix changed course without a second thought.

He quickly backtracked over to the puddle then eased himself around the side of the car, making sure to only walk through the pool of dark, slippery slick emanating around it so that no more of his blood would splatter onto the pavement and betray his intention.

Just as the killer’s shoes scuffed loudly onto the pavement beneath the window he’d flopped through seconds ago, Felix was rolling himself underneath the gutted automobile and into the greasy, sticky puddle of fluid beneath it. The liquid instantly seeped to his ruined suit and clung to his skin. His nostrils were instantly hit by a blast of pungent vapor that made his eyes tear up and his throat seize in seconds. The acrid, lung-scorching fumes of the spent oil were as bad as the terrible cologne that Danny loved so much, if not worse.

As the killer walked further into the shop, Felix fully situated himself on his belly and pressed the clean part of his palm over his face, partly to muffle his huffing, heaving breaths of overexertion, but mostly to keep the putrid stench of the oil from burning his airways.

From his hiding spot beneath the car, Felix watched keenly as a pair of dark sneakers trod into the center of the repair shop and stopped. The shoes shifted from side to side as the body above moved its weight around, turning to and fro as the room was examined. Then, mid-movement, they froze.

A curt chortle echoed off the walls of the decaying building. “Stupid bitch…” 

Even as Felix’s heart jumped with dread, his mind couldn’t help but acknowledge the timbre of that voice. It sounded surprisingly young for a killer— too young, actually. In the context of this entire situation, it was unnervingly uncanny. The voice didn’t match the horrible acts of violence its owner had gladly carried out. The knowledge tinged his fear with a shade of pity. How could someone so young fall to such evil and depraved violence?

The pair of dark sneakers strolled alongside his trail of blood and followed it over to the locker he’d nearly jumped into, then stood before it with certainty.

Felix stifled a choking gag. He pressed his hand against his face until his nails were digging crescents into his flesh. He tried to breathe as shallowly as possible. A wave of dizziness fell across his mind, and his vision blurred. He blinked hard and refocused his wavering eyes on the killer.

“No wonder the bigger dude tried so hard to get in my way— you're the weakling priss of the bunch.” The youth chuckled darkly. “I bet you're fun to kill…”

A cold chill crawled down the length of Felix's spine despite his fading faculties. His body spasmed as he bit back another gagging, retching cough. Acrid fumes burned his watering eyes and his head swam with sickening nausea. He could barely keep his eyes focused.

The locker doors crashed open, and the killer gasped. “W– What?! What the fuck?!”

The sneakers spun back around to face the repair shop with a hissing snarl. The air settled into silence once more as the baffled killer pondered the seemingly empty shop.

Felix’s entire body spasmed hard. Bile surged up his throat. He nearly spewed the contents of his stomach into the puddle of toxins before him, but somehow managed to keep it down. His eyes wobbled in his sockets as he forced the burning bile back down with a hard swallow. Silently, he begged the killer to leave before the fumes killed him first.

A long, wailing siren reverberated throughout the entirety of the hunting grounds, and Felix nearly let himself faint with relief. The last generator had been completed and the exit gates were now active. They’d done it.

The killer snarled harshly. A sneaker kicked at the ground hard and a layer of dust sprang into the air like an echo.

“FUCK!”

The youth darted out of the shop and took off into the fog, no doubt attempting to salvage what he could of his lost time.

Felix could only stand to wait a handful of seconds longer before he was scrambling through the slippery black muck and out from under the disemboweled car. The repair shop heaved and spun around him as he dragged himself away from the cloud of toxic fumes. When he felt nothing but dry, dusty concrete beneath his sticky fingers, Felix opened his mouth wide and sucked down a huge gulp of fresh, clean air. Almost instantly, he spat it all back out and descended into a coughing, gagging fit as his body worked to rid itself of the poisonous fumes it had inhaled. The torturous episode concluded when his body heaved and the bile he’d earlier held down rushed out of him.

He spat several lingering globs at the pile on the floor between shaking breaths, trying to rid his mouth of all remaining foulness as his stomach calmed and his head cleared. The noxious scent still clung to his clothes and lingered in the air, but wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it had been under the car. He felt and sounded like he’d smoked fifty or so cigarettes in fifteen minutes, but at the very least, he could breathe again.

Felix could barely even believe he’d even gotten away with that. It had been dangerous— stupid even— but he’d been out of options and forced to think on his feet. The risky gambit had paid off, but now, he had to actually escape.

He sucked in a final, wheezing breath and climbed gingerly to his feet, but faltered as his back arched sharply with hot pain. He fell back to his knees, clutching uselessly at the throbbing line over his back that flickered with a warmth that soaked his clothes.

Felix groaned miserably. His head hung back towards the oily black concrete. Droplets of red swirled and intermingled in the pearlescent black puddle beneath him, refusing to fully mix. Another fat drop plopped into the center of the shining, stinking pool and chased the other drops until they all accumulated into one, large oval of thick, dark blood that grew larger with every passing moment.

Felix grimaced and squeezed his eyes shut.

The gash was much, much worse than he’d thought. The bleeding should have slowed to something much less life-threatening by now, but hadn’t.

He peeled his eyes open again, and was immediately hit by a wave of disorientation that almost knocked him on his ass. 

Fuck, not good… 

Just then, the earth trembled beneath him, and a web of ghostly, orange-red veins flickered over the ground and faded away. He knew immediately that this was the Entity’s way of saying that this morbid game of theirs would be coming to an end soon, and it was time for everyone to get the fuck out.

If he wanted to live, he had to move— now.

Felix staggered to his feet. He braced himself as a barrage of dizzying waves washed over him, threatening to bring him back down. After a long moment of defiance, the tide eventually receded and his vision cleared.

One deliberate step after another, Felix dragged himself to the wide-open maw of the repair shop. He leaned heavily against the guide rail of the shutter door and scanned the murky horizon. Beyond a certain point, the junkyard seemed to disappear into a smudgy gray void of obscuring fog. Trees, buildings, and cars alike were swallowed indiscriminately by the thick haze. It was as if he were suddenly alone on an island suspended in a cloud.

Felix quickly realized that he had no earthly idea on where to go.

Just as that all-too-familiar sense of overwhelming, hopeless despair began to crawl back into his mind and his knees began to buckle, a faint voice floated to his ears. 

His breath caught in his throat.

The voice was heavily muffled by distance and fog, but he could still make out its warm, bassy tone and rumbling grit that was all too familiar to him. His heart warmed.

Felix unmoored himself from the solid structure of the repair shop and let himself drift through the gray void toward the voice. Rusted cars, scraggly shrubs, and twisted metal faded in and out of existence as he pushed himself forward, one clumsy step after another.

Again, the voice floated over the murk, this time a bit louder than before, and Felix altered his path toward it.

Before him, a gnarled tree emerged from the fog. Between its branches, a bright, blurry dot tinged the gray world a pinkish red. 

He felt his heart thud insistently in his chest, beckoning him urgently forward, but restrained himself. He wasn’t quite ready to accept that the glow was what he thought it almost certainly was, but he staggered cautiously toward it nonetheless. With every unsteady, wavering step, Felix navigated the abandoned scrapyard, and that glowing red dot shone brighter and brighter, cutting sharply through the mist like a beacon. At some point, the single dot divided into a line of three, and a towering chasm of light opened up beside it.

It was the gate, wide open and beckoning. Three silhouetted figures stood within, closely gathered together. The largest one stood apart from the others, lingering just inside the entrance.

That same, gravely voice he’d been hearing called his name pleadingly out into the night. It was quickly rebuffed by a commotion of hushed, indignant rebukes.

Felix nearly collapsed with relief. They’d all made it— David included. Now, all he had to do was meet up with them and they could all leave safely together.

Felix breathed an easy sigh, ready to let exhaustion take him and be done with this grueling ordeal. He pushed himself away from the stack of tires he’d been leaning against and started for the gate. He could see David clearly now, looking slightly hunched and almost half-mummified with the amount of gauze wrapped around his body. It would have been comical if not for the juxtaposition of the obvious distress distorting the man’s blood-covered features.

Felix smiled softly, on the verge of reassuring his friend when a dark figure passed in front of his face— barely an arm’s length away.

Felix bit back a gasp of surprise and ducked back behind the tires.

Crunching footfalls faded steadily to his left, paused for a short while, then trekked back across the soundscape in the other direction, stopping somewhere on his right. The killer was patrolling the exit, no doubt hoping to catch the obvious straggler off guard— and he’d very nearly succeeded.

Felix cautiously wrapped his vision around his hiding spot and surveyed the stretch of land between him and safety. To the left of the exit gate was a small thicket of trees situated between a pair of large boulders that could provide substantial cover, but before then, there was a substantial gap of open space only occasionally broken up by stray piles of junk. To his right was an array of precariously stacked cars that led into a jumbled maze of junk metal cubes with a pallet propped up on the inside. It looked to be the much safer route, but again, there was a substantial amount of dead space between him and cover. The killer was scouring the area far too frequently for him to pass without being seen first.

He ducked back into his hiding spot as the killer passed by again. Thankfully, he still hadn’t been seen.

When the footsteps faded, Felix sunk back against the hard rubber and shivered miserably. 

He could sneak back into the junkyard and leave through the other exit, or even the hatch, but then he’d also be venturing out into the Forest of Passage alone . There was a decent possibility that he could find the others on the way back, but the thought of being by himself again in that endless Forest for even one second, completely isolated and vulnerable…

Easy prey …

A violent shiver rolled down his spine.

No, he had to leave with the others! At least then, he’d have a chance . He couldn’t risk being alone again! He had to leave through that exit gate, but how?

“FELIX!”

Felix peeked out from behind his hiding spot. David was frantically scanning the terrain while Dwight leaned precariously on Nea.

“Hey, enough! You’re going to make the killer come over here!” Nea snapped at David as she shifted Dwight at her side. “We need to leave!” 

David whirled on her, and what followed was a murmuring, indistinct back and forth between the two that he could not discern.

Felix ducked back into safety as the killer’s footfalls approached again.

Maybe he could somehow get their attention? He wasn’t sure what they could do for him at this point, especially with Dwight looking as incapacitated as he was, but maybe they could figure something out?

The earth below him rumbled threateningly. Another wave of veiny red light raced over the grass, casting faint embers of energy into the air.

Time was running out.

Felix waited until the patrolling footfalls were at their furthest point. He leaned out from his hiding spot and made certain that the killer wasn’t looking at him before waving frantically at David— who wasn’t looking in his direction!

Please please please see me!

He heard the killer begin to move back toward him. Despite the danger, Felix waved even more animatedly, desperate for David’s attention.

Finally, the Brit stopped scanning the junkyard. Felix saw the whites of his eyes grow wide as his gaze finally locked onto his. He had to break off the eye-contact immediately, however, as the killer had approached far too close for comfort by now. He pressed himself close against the hard rubber of the tires, still scared for his life, but relieved that he’d finally made his situation known to David.

Something was wrong, though. It took Felix a moment to realize what it was, but once he did, the last of his blood seemed to freeze in his veins.

The footsteps had stopped.

Felix couldn’t breathe.

Soft snuffling sounds came from the other side of his stack of tires. It sounded like someone sniffing at the air.

“What the fuck…” the killer whispered quietly.

The motor oil. He was still covered in it.

Felix barely suppressed his gasp of horror. His hands flew over his face and he squeezed himself even further into his little nook. He was all too aware of how futile his actions were, but what else could he do? How could he be so stupid?! His incompetence had caught up with him, and finally gotten him killed! Not only was he about to suffer a horrific death, but he was also about to wake up in the middle of Forest— alone . He was practically delivering himself to Danny!

No! He couldn’t do that!! He had to run! His back was slashed to hell, his balance was shot, and his legs felt like gelatin— shit, he could just fall on his face with his very first step— but this was his only option!

Felix squeezed his eyes shut and began taking slow, silent, deliberate breaths, trying to steel himself for what he was about to do. 

The sound of vegetation and mud being crushed underfoot emanated close on his right. Cold fear rippled down his spine and pooled in his legs, charging them with a rush of adrenaline. Felix carefully shifted his stance then opened his eyes, ready to launch himself into a frantic escape.

“ Oi!! Ya through whingin’ over there ya bloody wanka?! Could barely catch the one of us! You think you’re a hard-arse, but you’re just a pissant nipper!”

There was a harsh snarl directly above him. Nea’s voice echoed furiously in the background.

Felix froze, barely believing his own ears.

“How ‘bout we give it another go, eh? See if you're just another poser twat or if ya actually got the guts to finish me off this time!”

“Dumbfuck meatbag,” the killer growled, then gave a long, sinister chuckle, “If you insist.”

There was a flurry of footsteps as the killer launched himself away from Felix’s hiding spot and toward David’s voice. Felix threw his gaze around the tires and watched in horrified disbelief as David flung himself away from the safety of the exit gate and stumbled toward the maze of cubed cars with the killer in hot pursuit.

David turned to look behind him, and their gazes met for what couldn’t have been longer than a split second. In that brief instant, in those sharp, tourmaline eyes, Felix saw only certainty. No fear, no grim acceptance, just… calm, self-assured confidence.

David didn’t intend on sacrificing himself this time. No, this time , he had a plan, and he wanted Felix to take full advantage of it. Whether or not it was a plan born from reckless abandon or sheer hubris was another question entirely, but now, there was no more time for doubt— only trust, and there was no one in existence that Felix trusted more than David.

Felix threw himself from his hiding spot and scurried toward the copse of boulders he’d seen earlier. Even though the killer was distracted, the threat of being seen was still high, so kept low and moved as fast as his damaged body was able. 

When he finally reached cover, he paused to glance back over at David and killer, watching as they danced around the propped up pallet. He couldn’t help but notice the man’s unsteady gait— no doubt from the numerous injuries and stab wounds he’d sustained earlier. There was no telling how long he’d last in that condition.

Felix grimaced and spurred himself toward the gate. At this point, he was basically home free. The killer was so fixated on David, it was almost like Felix didn’t even exist.

With a gasp of relief, Felix finally stumbled into the safety of the exit gate— much to Dwight and Nea’s surprise.

“Jävla unge…” she murmured, then seemed to snap back into the moment. “Get that idiot back in here!”

Felix blinked stupidly as his floundering mind tried to comprehend her words. After a second, the words finally clicked. He rushed back to the edge of the gate just in time to see a flash of steel and David throwing the pallet down behind him. He clutched his side and plummeted down to one knee with a pained yelp.

Felix’s heart plunged into his stomach. On David’s midsection, he could clearly see a new spot of bright red blooming through the torn gauze.

The hooded killer stomped down on the pallet with a roar. “Let’s see you run that mouth with this knife down your throat!! ”

Glowing veins of blood-red light surged over the trembling ground.

“David!!” Felix shouted.

David’s eyes snapped onto his, then went wide with recognition. The pallet at his back exploded into splinters and David jolted back to action. He scrambled back to his feet and launched himself into a lopsided sprint. The killer barrelled after him, talon-shaped blade raised high and shining with gore.

“GO!!” David roared, sprinting straight at him. They were seconds from crashing into him if he didn't move now.

Felix whirled and scurried toward Nea and Dwight, waving and yelling at them to get out of the way. The two stumbled awkwardly backward into the zone of safety beyond the invisible barrier.

Felix stopped just short from them and turned just in time to see David lurching into the exit gate with the killer in tow, mirroring his every move like his very own shadow.

There was only a split second for Felix to brace himself as David's body smashed into his. Air exploded from his lungs. The ground was no longer beneath his feet. Somehow, despite everything, he felt oddly safe and secure in his situation.

The next thing to register in his fibrillating mind was the leaf-slicked ground sliding beneath him and his back flaming with pain. 

He gasped as his body came to a sudden halt. Felix opened his eyes and found his face buried in soft, sweat-damp fabric. He drew back and found himself looking up into David’s deeply furrowed face, which was now inches from his own. Deep, dark eyes immediately captured any and all thoughts of urgency or anxiety, and his mind went blank. He could feel the man’s labored, fatigued breaths washing over him in hot waves.

“You okay?” David breathed, eyes still searching his face.

Felix blinked and swallowed hard, remembering himself. “Are you?” he ground out.

David’s lips hooked into a gentle smirk. “Ye—”

“FUCK!”

They both snapped back toward the exit gate.

Beyond a wall of long, black spikes stood the killer they had just barely escaped from, hunched and holding his blade in a quivering death-grip. His bandana mask puffed out with every heaving breath.

“Gonna gut you alive, fuckface!! And I'm NOT gonna fuck around next time!! I don’t give a SHIT what that thing wants!! That goes for you too, fancy fucking pussy-ass bitch! I’m gonna—”   

“C’mon…” David murmured in his ear. 

A hand tugged at his elbow. Felix flinched, but quickly relaxed and accepted the help. However, he couldn’t help but notice how David struggled to his feet, even as the man did his level best to help Felix to his.

“ Pute , you really got nothing to say to me? Just gonna fuck off to your shitty camp now?! FUCK. YOU!!”

The killer continued bellowing a slurry of vile insults and threats of impending violence, even as they turned their backs on him and silently limped away. David used an arm to shield his back, ushering him away from the last vestiges of the Trial and into the Forest. Nea and Dwight shuffled silently after them.

Eventually, the raging voice faded into the muffled background of the dense vegetation, and the group of four were finally alone in a verdant labyrinth.

As the horror of his narrow escape faded and a new reality settled into his mind, something that had been lurking in his thoughts creeped to the forefront.

Felix felt his legs go stiff. He slowed to an unsteady halt and scanned the dark, endless Forest around him. Every shadow concealed a nightmare, and every tree was a voyeur. He was surrounded.

If his stalker really was still out there like he thought he was, now would be the perfect opportunity for him to make a move, and for all he knew… it was already too late.

Notes:

Since it's the end of the year, I just wanted to take this time to thank everyone for reading and following along with the story this year. It's been a joy reading all of your reactions and thoughts after every chapter! I'd say were about halfway through the story now, so depending on how quick the writing goes, expect at least another year of updates! Can't wait to share the rest of this story with you all-- it's going to be great!!

As always, feel free to reach out to me on my Tumblr @superpsychedelicdbd for any additional questions, concerns, comments, etc. you may have (or if ao3 goes down for some reason).
See ya next year!

Chapter 20: Siren Song

Notes:

Turns out I'm kind of bad at estimating chapters. 😩
It would help if I stopped adding extra scenes to my 30k word outline, but then it would be over sooner! Guess that's good for you all, right? 😆
Enjoy!

“Felix?”

His eyes flicked over the gloom surrounding them, picking amongst the foliage for any hint of white in the endless dark. Every shadowy swell, every swaying beam of moonlight… all of it possessed a very real chance of being… him.

There were three other pairs of eyes around him, but only he knew how meaningless their vigilance was, especially when those eyes weren’t even aware they were supposed to be on the lookout in the first place. It would only take a split second distraction to draw all attention away from him for just one moment, then he'd be snatched away into the shadows, never to be seen again.

If the Forest of Passage was an ocean, then he was a lone mackerel struggling on its surface, signaling his exact location to the prowling shark lurking about the depths. There was no telling when exactly it would decide to strike, but when it did, it would happen without warning and in an instant.

They’d never see it coming.

A violent moment from his last interaction with the killer flashed before his eyes. The pain and emotional turmoil echoed after it. He shoved the memory away before it could fully form, but was still left with a lingering sense of crawling, creeping discomfort that twisted his guts.

The killer hadn’t even finished with him then. What Felix had endured so far had simply been foreplay compared to what lay in his future. In the face of Danny’s wrath, their reunion was going to be ten times worse than anything else that had come before. It was only a matter of time before he’d have to bear the full brunt of his abuse. 

Only a matter of time…

“Felix?”

His body was jostled. Finally, Felix was able to drag himself away from his spiraling thoughts and back into the present. He found himself staring back into David’s dark brown eyes, now framed with heavy creases and a deeply furrowed brow.

“You alright mate?”

Felix stared blankly back. Was he alright? He didn’t feel very alright… but shouldn’t he be? He was supposed to be quelling David’s suspicions, not rousing them. Now that the danger of the Trial had passed, he was supposed to be fine— not having a silent nervous breakdown.

Felix tried to unbind his tongue to assuage David’s concern, but couldn’t manage to do so before Nea could cut in.

“It’s okay,” she said with a weary huff. “We should stop anyways. We need to regroup… and Dwight’s getting heavy.”

Nea shifted Dwight off her shoulder and eased him to the ground. He gave a pained grunt as he hit the grass and clutched firmly at his bloodied leg.

David’s gaze settled back on Felix’s face, questioning silently.

Felix’s mind felt like a giant, empty, blank spot. He really didn’t know what to do at this point. He just felt adrift— like he was waiting for the shark to make its move.

David’s hand suddenly shot out and caught his shoulder. Apparently, he’d been wavering on his feet without even realizing. He’d been more adrift than he’d thought…

“Sit down mate, before you fall over,” David ordered.

Felix nodded dumbly and unlocked his knees. He would have plummeted to the ground like a rock if David hadn’t been holding onto him. The Brit followed him down with a series of grunts and halting staggers, until they were both situated firmly on the grass in a pile of soft leaf litter. David kneeled before him and immediately set about checking him over.

“The bloody hell ya get yerself into…” David murmured, wrinkling his nose. No doubt, he was smelling the oil permeating his clothes. Felix had forgotten it was even there.

“Don't know, but he smells like the inside of a gas tank,” Nea interjected as she tended to Dwight.

David grimaced sympathetically and leaned over his shoulder to get a better look at his back. That was when Felix noticed the bright red bloom on the man’s side. Blood had seeped through a substantial portion of the muddied, torn gauze. Whatever had previously been white was either bright red or mud brown now.

“David…”

“Hm?” The Brit leaned back to catch his eye, then followed it back to himself. “Agh, it’s nothin’. Don’t fret over it. That gash on your back is lookin’ proper grim though. Let’s get you outta this jacket so we can have a look.”

Felix hesitated. He knew David had a habit of putting up a strong front and ignoring his own wellbeing— even when his injuries were fatal. Felix wasn’t sure if that mindset originated from some misplaced sense of masculinity or maybe just complacency, but he knew for a fact that the man sometimes had to be bullied into taking care of himself.

Felix’s eyes fixated on the bloody bandages, then followed the wrappings up David’s body. From this close, he could see now that the majority of the bandages were all somewhat spotted with blood from the injuries beneath— especially around his shoulder region. A significant amount of padding had been applied there to stop the heavy blood flow from the gaping hook wound beneath.

A sweeping sense of guilt settled deep and heavy in Felix’s breast. All of this damage had happened because of him— because he didn’t have a handle on his emotions. He should be the one covered in lacerations and bandages right now, not David.

The Brit seemed to catch on to his distress, and his concern eased. “Oi, I said I was fine, didn’t I?” he said almost jokingly.

Felix looked up, but did not respond. His expression must have betrayed his thoughts though, going by the way the creases in his friend’s face shifted.

“It’s fine, I promise. I’ll take care of it in a minute if you really want me to, but, mate… you’re about as pale as a snowman right now. I gotta make sure you’re okay first so I know I didn’t get this thrashin’ for nowt, yeah?”

Felix grimaced. He swallowed the knot in his throat and conceded with a nod.

David gave his own serious nod in return, then immediately set about helping Felix out of his soiled suit jacket and the vest beneath. Felix hissed sharply as the thick fabric was peeled off his back. It sounded like wet sludge. The gash reignited with fiery pain as whatever initial clotting was torn from his flesh. New warmth flowed over his skin, and his head was hit with another wave of fuzzy vertigo.

“ Shite… Oi lass, you got needle and thread or any of that anti-haemorrhage stuff over there?”

Nea grumbled to herself, then surveyed the medkit splayed open beside her. “ Nej , we just have a couple of gel pads and one more roll of gauze.”

At his back, David hissed a curse, then went lethally quiet.

“Give it ‘ere,” he grunted finally.

The medkit was unceremoniously slid over to them across the leaf litter. David snatched up the first large sterile pad he could get his hand on, ripped it from its packaging, and pressed it hard against the gash.

Felix couldn’t suppress his simultaneous yelp and spasm away from the sudden pain, but David managed to keep him and the pad in place. Through the constant maddening roar of fury in his head, Felix picked out David’s whispering apologies and suasions of calm in the undercurrent and focused on those. It helped to make the pain bearable.

After a long while, when the mind-rending roar had transmuted into a dull, disorienting static, the pressure on his back finally lifted. His exposed flesh quivered under the frigid bite of the open air.

Behind him, David grumbled with dissatisfaction. “Fuck… Gonna have ta just strap this down best we can until we can get ya fixed up proper.”

Felix nodded and subsequently sent the world into a roiling, pitching, tidal surge.

From behind came more shuffling and tearing sounds. The heavy pressure on his back returned. Almost immediately, the rocking and swaying of the landscape intensified. He shut his eyes when it became too much.

While David held the new pad in place, he carefully wrapped the roll of gauze around his body every which way until it ran out. The wrappings were compressive and tight— almost too tight— but for the purposes of keeping his innards in , it was tolerable enough.

“There. Should see you through until Claudie can get a look at ya,” David said, grunting quietly as he climbed to his feet. After a short pause to catch his breath, he asked, “How’s the leg?”

Confused, Felix did a quick mental check of himself before realizing he wasn’t the subject of the question.

Dwight gave a hitching groan and muttered, “Think my Achilles is severed…”

“Shite.”

“ Ja . It’s going to be a chore getting him back.”

Felix let his eyes fall shut and allowed himself to drift in the darkness, half-listening to their back and forth conversation.

“I know you’re hurt as well, but I can’t help him back by myself. We’ll have to take turns…”

Their voices faded to a hum in the background. His head dropped as whatever energy he'd been holding onto finally slipped his grasp. Warm darkness settled comfortably around his waning consciousness, lulling him deeper and deeper into the depths. It felt like something was down there, calling sweetly out to him, inviting him into its serene embrace. Down there in the dark awaited the easing of his pain and the inviting peace of slumber. All he had to do was let go…

“HEY!”

Felix gasped awake. His head rolled precariously on his shoulders until he found the strength to snap it back into place with a clack of his teeth. He blinked hard to refocus his vision and was met by David’s face, this time twisted with dangerous intensity.

“Don’t you DARE go noddin’ off like that again!” 

Felix’s heart thumped hard and sluggish as it tried desperately to catch him up to the situation. 

“You ain’t allowed to go out like that after all that shite we just went through, you hear me?!”

Felix blinked furiously as he tried to quell his disorientation. He gulped hard then gave a sloppy nod in return.

David went still and watched his face, assessing his attentiveness. Eventually, he relented and released a strained breath. “Dwight needs enough help as it is. If you pass out, or… —I won’t be able to carry you. You understand what I’m saying?”

Felix wet his cracked, dehydrated lips and nodded again.

“Stay awake ,” David said, giving his shoulders another firm shake. He then added in a fractured whisper: “ Please .”

Felix stared back at the Brit with open-mouthed incredulity, heart aching with guilt. He should have known better than to let himself drift off like that. Falling unconscious in his state was careless and dangerous. He’d probably never wake back up, at least, not in this life. When he eventually did though, it would be by himself and in the middle of the Forest— just the sort of opportunity his stalker shark would love. Not only that, he couldn’t imagine how David would feel if he just keeled over after he’d practically dragged him across the finish line. Even if Felix didn't fade away and just passed out, David would still have to choose between staying with him or leaving him behind in the Forest.

He couldn’t fall asleep again. He had to push through so David wouldn’t have to make that choice.

“Now, on your feet.”

He gazed at David’s outstretched hand, took a long, preparatory breath, and grabbed it. The Brit pulled him from the ground as tenderly as he could manage, but Felix couldn’t hold back his hisses and whimpers as his back strained. Despite how his legs trembled, he eventually found himself standing on his own two feet. Granted, it wasn’t tall or strong or even completely upright— but he was still standing.

Once he was steady, the Brit nodded in approval and gave his shoulder a gentle, encouraging clap. “Brilliant. Good job. Now just stay close, and we’ll be back in no time,” he said, handing him back his ruined vest and suit jacket.

David stepped off to the side, revealing Nea standing at the ready with Dwight hanging off her shoulder. For the first time, Felix noticed that she appeared completely untouched. There was a bit of blood on her tank top against where Dwight was situated, but nothing to suggest she’d actually been injured. Dwight, on the other hand, looked about as ragged as David did. His shoulder was covered with bloody bandages and his freshly-wrapped leg hung uselessly beside his human crutch.

“Ready?”

“Yea, we’ll be right behind ya. Gonna make sure this one’s good to walk by ‘imself.”

Nea nodded. The pair then maneuvered themselves in the other direction and began to trudge and limp awkwardly along.

Felix wrung the ruined, oil-soaked fabric in his hands, feeling unsure. A hand pressed gently at his lower back, urging him forward, and so he moved. His first dozen steps were stiff and unwieldy, but thankfully, Nea and Dwight’s were too. It took all of them several minutes to fall into a steady rhythm, but once they’d found it, their march became almost hypnotic. Having David close at his side, ready to catch him if he faltered, helped a great deal towards feeling secure in his footing.

After a while, Felix’s eyes wandered to the ground, then over to David’s waist. Some of the bloodied gauze there had dried to a rust brown, but much of it remained a bright, shining red— especially around the section that had been ripped open.

“You’re still bleeding…”

David's features hardened and refocused on the path before them. “Told ya it’s no mither… Got nothin’ to patch it up with anyhow.”

Felix winced and hunched in on himself. That was because he’d taken the last of their bandages…

“Don’t fret about it. I’m fine. Just focus on walking.”

Felix hung his head and pressed on, trying hard to not feel responsible for David’s pain. He hoped David wasn’t lying about his condition just to make him feel better.

Not much later, Nea and Dwight staggered to a stop. “Okay, that’s all I can do for now,” she said with a strained huff. “Your turn King.”

The Brit gave a low, disgruntled sigh, but stepped towards the pair nonetheless.

The moment David left his side, Felix’s blood surged with icy anxiety. That paralyzing feeling of vulnerability returned with a vengeance. He was still firmly within the presence of the group, but none of their eyes were on him or their surroundings— all of them were focused on Dwight. Would they even notice if he disappeared?

Felix spun around to face the shadowy woodland. His eyes picked frantically through the shadows, trying to determine if any of them held prying eyes or matched the outline of a certain killer. Nothing appeared to be amiss, but Felix damnwell knew better. His stalker practically was a shadow. He couldn’t drop his guard for even one second— not until he was back safe at the campsite.

“Roight, let’s crack on then.”

Felix turned to see David already starting off with Dwight limping along in tow. Nea wandered further ahead. Felix scrambled after them as quickly as he could, and fell into step directly behind the pair. Despite being so close, he felt more exposed and vulnerable than ever without anyone to keep an eye on him. It would be so easy for Ghostface to just pluck him away from the group with nothing so much as a wisp of foul cologne to suggest what had happened to him.

A violent shiver rattled down his spine at the prospect. Felix threw his vision over each shoulder and scanned the Forest again. Despite how imminent it felt like a gloved hand was about to curl around his face and smother him, he saw nothing in his wake but dark trees and mangy shrubs. He turned around fully and began to awkwardly saunter backward, watching for any movement hinting at a figure moving through the underbrush, but still, he saw nothing. After stumbling and nearly falling on his ass, Felix decided to turn back around and walk normally. Still, he couldn’t stop the hair from standing up on his neck whenever he wasn’t looking behind himself.

“Holdin’ up alrioght back there?” David called between strained puffs.

Felix tried to respond, but realized his mouth had gone dry. He swallowed hard and tried again. “Y– Yes… yes I’m fine.”

David’s head bobbed satisfactorily. “Alrioght… just makin’ sure you didn’t pass out on me or sumthin’ without me noticing…”

Felix breathed an easy sigh, thankful for his friend’s unwavering concern. “Just a bit woozy, but I’m managing.”

David’s head bobbed again. “If you say so… but if you suddenly don’t feel fine, just give us a head’s up, yea?”

Felix nodded even though the man couldn’t see him. “Of course.”

His heart thumped heavily upon realizing he hadn’t looked behind him for more than a minute. Felix quickly spun around… and saw nothing— only shadows and greenery.

Slowly, a thought that had been nagging at him edged to the forefront: Was Danny even out there?

Felix assumed the killer would have just pounced on him the second everyone’s back was turned, but he hadn’t even heard so much as a twig break out there. Were there just too many eyes? Too many chances for him to be seen? Or was he just biding his time? Was the killer simply waiting for him to grow tired of checking his back? —Waiting for him to drop his guard? Would he strike only then?

Felix did not know, and so he turned and checked over his shoulder once again.

Twenty or so checks later, David stopped and let loose a great groan of exertion. “Take him,” he rasped.

Nea hustled over to support Dwight. The moment the exchange had been completed, David stepped off to the side and fell to his knees.

A trio of startled voices called out all at once.

Felix’s heart jumped into his throat. He threw himself to the ground beside the larger man, fearing the worst.

“David?!”

“M’fine,” he slurred automatically.

It was obvious though, that he was not . For a man of his stature and countenance, he looked shockingly frail. Beneath a layer of shining sweat, his skin had faded to a deathly corpse white. His breaths were coming in shallow, rasping wheezes as his body worked overtime just to keep him upright. The blooming rose of red beneath David’s bloodied hand had grown substantially larger since he’d last seen it. 

Felix couldn’t help but wonder if he’d gotten his friend killed after all.

“ David? ” called Dwight in his robust leader voice. The timbre of his voice betrayed his true level of concern, however.

“ M’fine ,” David repeated between wheezes, “Jus… jus’ need a minute to gather m’self…”

Felix felt completely useless. There were no supplies to patch his wound nor words he could speak to aid in his recovery. He was afraid to even touch the man, he looked so unnervingly fragile. So, Felix just continued to remain anxiously by his side, hoping his presence would be enough.

Unexpectedly, David’s head turned toward him, and he caught a momentary flicker of tourmaline brown from his cursory glance.

“Don’ worry mate,” he whispered, “Won’t be leavin’ you anytime soon— swear down… Should know me better’n that.”

Felix felt his heart twist hard. His throat squeezed with hot, suffocating emotion.

Even when David was on death’s door, his only concern was still just for Felix. Why? What had he done to deserve such care and attention? What made him worthy of such sacrifice and veneration? How could David care so damn much when he’d done so little in return? What had he done to deserve someone like David?

As Felix lingered by David’s side, trying to keep his gathering tears from spilling over his cheeks, that ulcer of guilt in the pit of his stomach grew painfully larger.

It took a long while, but to Felix’s relief, it seemed like David was going to be true to his word. It was obvious he was still far from being fine, if the pallor of his skin was anything to go by, but at the very least, it seemed like he’d managed to recover some of his composure. 

David wasn’t going to be leaving him anytime soon.

When he was ready, Felix helped the man back to his feet the best that he could. It was an awkward, painful feat, but a feat nonetheless, considering just how much more mass the man had on him.

“ Thanks mate ,” he said softly. His bloodied hand gave his arm a gentle, heartfelt squeeze, before returning to hold the gash at his side.

Felix nodded, still trying hard to keep his emotions at bay.

“You gonna be okay?” asked Dwight.

“Yea… just need ta go a bit easier on m’self.”

Their leader nodded. “If it takes us a bit longer to get back, that’s fine— whatever it takes to make sure we all get there in one piece. Slow and steady, right?” he said with a stunted grin.

David audibly grimaced then shot Felix a precarious look of distress. Felix promptly returned it with a scolding, disbelieving frown. He wasn’t about to let David run himself into the grave just to get him back a little sooner.

David glanced at each survivor, then relented. “Alroight then,” he sighed, “Whatever you think’s best.”

Soon after, the four resumed their journey. They reorganized into the same marching order as before: Nea and Dwight in the front, with David and him trailing behind. It was an arrangement far better for his sanity; under David’s watch, the chances of something happening were much slimmer. Just to be sure though… he still threw a glance behind them every so often.

A long while passed with nothing but the sound of rustling and crunching to accompany their labored breaths. There was no energy to spare for small talk. Felix was too preoccupied with managing his dizziness anyways. More than once, the path before him had become so muddled and unfocused, David had to steer him back on course. He absolutely would have just continued to wander off into the Forest otherwise.

After his vision had led him astray for a third time, Felix was on the verge of just letting himself drop to the ground without a word. The vertigo had become that unbearable.

Thankfully, Nea stopped before then. David was quick to rush to Dwight’s other side, and together, they eased him to the ground.

Felix was quick to find an open spot in the grass and dropped his soiled clothes, then himself to the ground. He promptly fell over, closed his eyes, and curled up on his side, willing the world to stop its incessant spinning.

Grass whispered and crackled nearby as a large body eased itself to the ground.

“Oi, don’t you be noddin’ off now.” 

Felix groaned miserably. “I’m trying, but this dizziness… I can barely stand to keep my eyes open.”

David grunted in thought, then scooted himself over behind him. He gave another, more disapproving grunt soon after.

“Pad’s soaked through… but it looks to be a slow bleed. Most of what’s there’s dried.”

Felix acknowledged this silently. If he had stopped bleeding, then that was good. But if he hadn’t, and he was as close to bleeding out as he felt like he was… there wasn’t much he could do about it. It didn’t really matter at this point. It was better to just not think about it and keep pushing. 

“What about you,” he mumbled.

David grumbled, “I think it’s stopped but I can’t really tell…”

That was good. David had almost overdone it earlier. He was glad they could both rest a moment…

Felix let his body go limp. He was quickly embraced by the warm, comforting dark. Its tendrils curled around his mind, whispering soothing sweet nothings as he sunk further and further down…

…

“Oi, enough of that. Get up.”

Felix snorted back to awareness. He’d almost drifted off again— just like he’d promised not to. He shouldn’t have laid down, but the thought of finally resting had been too good to pass up.

His shoulder was jostled again. “ Felix. C’mon. ”

Felix tried to tell David that he was going to get back up, but nothing came out of his mouth except incoherent mumbling. He couldn’t even make his eyelids open. His connection to his own body felt like a vague suggestion rather than a reality, like he was floating on the surface of that inviting, embracing dark. 

“Fookin’ ‘ell. Knew I shouldn’t‘ve let you lie down. Get up. ”

Like an understuffed ragdoll, his body was pulled every which way until he was finally sitting upright. His head lolled against his chest as he fought for the strength to hold it upright. He was so tired… The thought of letting himself go, letting himself fall in the black where there was no pain and no fear, even just for a little while…

“C’mon Felix, don’t do this. We’re almost bloody there! You can rest after you get fixed up, aright? Wake up. ”

David’s voice seemed so far away compared to the sweet song calling to him from the pleasant depths of unconsciousness. He felt himself starting to sink down into the dark, but the irritating, repeated batting at his cheek was keeping him on the surface. Despite this, he felt himself finally begin to slip away…

“WAKE UP!”

His head snapped violently to the side. His eyes shot open as his mind and body lurched back to attention. Again, he was met with the very intense and unnerving expression of a very distraught British man.

Felix blinked several times, trying to reorient himself… and realized that one side of his face felt like it was on fire. He winced at the pain and placed a hand over the area that was now warming over with pins and needles.

“Did… did you just slap me?”

David’s open-mouthed fear instantly morphed into indignant fury. “Well you weren’t bloody wakin’ up! What else was I supposed to do?! I damn well weren’t about ta let ya drift off like some damn bellend! Daft fookin’ git!”

“ David ,” Dwight warned.

David hesitated and seemed to think about what he was doing. The iron grip on Felix’s shoulders eased. The Brit gave a troubled sigh. “Don’t fookin’ do that again, or I’ll have to stay here with you.”

Felix almost chuckled, but then realized the man was deadly serious. David would really rather sit here and die slowly with him than save himself… It shouldn’t have surprised Felix, knowing what did about the man but… Felix still couldn’t help but feel taken aback— guilty even. He didn’t deserve this level of… devotion. He didn’t deserve David.

Maybe it was the lack of blood, or the exhaustion, or just everything, but this time, the emotion of the moment hit him particularly hard. The tears spilled silent and unimpeded over his cheeks.

David's expression immediately softened. “Ay, none o’ that now, s’okay mate,” he whispered, gently rubbing his arm, “Listen, that don’t have ta happen if you can just get up and come with me back to camp, yea? It’ll be okay.”

Felix nodded silently, afraid that if he spoke, everything he’d hidden away inside would just come pouring out in a deluge of hot emotion.

“Alright, come on then,” David said, and offered his hand like a lifeline in an empty, endless sea. 

Felix still didn’t think he deserved it, but he still took it— if only to keep from disappointing David again.

Felix was then promptly hauled back onto his feet. It took a while for the strength to return to his legs, but thankfully, David was right there to support him. It helped that his dizziness had finally abated into something much less debilitating.

Once Nea and Dwight were situated, the four set off once again. The rest of the Forest remained as silent and stoic as ever.

“Sorry I slapped ya.”

Felix jolted from his marching trance. “Huh?”

“Sorry I slapped ya back there.”

“Oh… Well… it’s okay.”

David rumbled dubiously. “Nah, it weren’t.”

Felix returned a quizzical look.

“I… panicked. There was probably a better way to bring ya back, but… I just did the first thing dumb thing I could think of— course it was fuckin’ violent…”

Felix internally squirmed and fidgeted with the coat in his hands. He didn’t really know what David was alluding to. “Well… I’m not sure what else you could have done. I didn’t really give you much of a choice.”

The Brit grumbled again. “Maybe… I’m just— I’m trying not to be a brute, ya know? But when I… I get scared… I guess I just fall back on my instincts,” David said, staring down at his hands, looking surprisingly ashamed. “Thought I was going to lose you there, and, well…”

Felix fidgeted with his coat again. “Sorry…”

“Ya, well, don’t make me do that again. Fuckin’ hate hurting you… And don’t apologize.”

Felix’s gaze snapped onto David, but he was still focused solely on the path before them, distressed and deep in thought. Apparently, hitting him had greatly unsettled the man.

Upon realizing this, Felix felt another wave of guilt wash over him. This time though, it was tinged by warmth. The slap hadn’t even been that bad. Clearly, it had been necessary to get his ass going again, but David still could barely handle the fact that he’d even laid a hand on him. Despite the guilt, Felix felt his center warm with a soft, tender affection.

At the very least, he could help David feel a bit less bad about it.

“Eh, I kind of deserved it anyways.”

David’s head whirled. His expression was filled with horrified shock.

Felix winced. Okay, maybe not the best time for a self-deprecating joke. “Ehm, I mean… I’m fairly certain I was going to be done for if I didn’t snap out of it somehow. You did the right thing. The slap wasn’t even all that bad anyways.”

David’s aggrieved expression waned marginally.

Felix sighed. “Listen, it’s okay David. I’m okay. I wouldn’t be if you hadn’t done that.”

“Okay,” David grumbled, “Still don’t like it though…”

Felix sighed again. “Would it help if I said I forgive you?”

The man seemed to think it over for a moment before shaking his head. “Nah, not really.”

Defeated, but somewhat enraptured, Felix shook his head and continued on in silence, saving his meager energy for the rest of the journey. It seemed even his own placations were worthless in the face of David’s unrelenting empathy.

As they walked on, it wasn’t very much longer that Felix’s newfound energy began to wane, and the world began to tilt again. He soon found himself clutching at David’s jacket to keep steady, and then outright hanging off his arm when his legs became too weak and numb. Ahead, Nea and Dwight’s pace also slowed as they struggled on.

“Almost there mate, just hold on a bit longer…”

Felix could not respond, but he believed David, so he forced his body to move forward. The darkness had started calling out to him again, trying to lure him back to its pleasant depths, but Felix knew now that it was a siren song. The more he ignored it, the less cordial and pleasant it became. That sweet calling slowly morphed into an uncanny, desperate pleading, urging him to stop and rest— to stop the pain and the cold and the anguish of life, and just let it go. 

But Felix knew he couldn’t do that. The dark may be peace, but it was also death and loss. Nothing good resided in that black void… and David would be disappointed in him if he gave up. So, he continued to brave the pain and the cold and the suffering— just a little while longer.

“Oi, look! Felix look! We made it!”

“ Tack för fan! Finally! Thought the Forest would never let us go!”

Felix lifted his bleary vision. Sure enough, as if David had spoken it into existence himself, that wondrous, brilliant orange glow was on the horizon. Finally , they’d made it back. His legs almost completely gave out beneath him at the prospect of finally resting, but David’s grip on him held firm.

“Ah! Not yet! Just a little more and then you can rest, aright? Just a little longer.”

Felix nodded, and then forced his gelatinous legs back into their trudging rhythm. More than ever, the darkness was trying to get him to stop. It whispered to him constantly, telling him to just let himself fall into its dark embrace, let it be over and done with, to stop struggling so pointlessly when it could all just be over…

But he couldn’t. He was almost there. Just a little longer…

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but eventually, Felix found himself on the other side of the treeline and in an open clearing that was bathed in warm firelight.

The second he crossed the line, that whispering darkness fell silent. 

He felt someone take hold of his free arm and usher him forward.

“Quick, over here,” said a soft, female voice— perhaps Claudette’s, but he couldn’t be sure. “Alright Felix, there’s a seat behind you, go ahead and sit down.”

Felix moreso just stopped holding himself upright rather than actually sit down, and let the people holding onto either side of him do the rest.

As soon as there was something solid beneath him, his body finally saw that as permission to let go, and he slumped forward towards inviting oblivion.

“Oi, oi! Not so fast!”

Felix automatically snapped back to some vague level of awareness. His doddering head fell into a rough, calloused hand and rested in it limply. Something brushed tenderly at his sweat-slicked hair.

“Hold on just a tad longer so Claudie can work on ya, then you can rest, alright? Just a bit longer. I’ll just be roight over here with Adam, okay? I’m right here. Just hold on a little longer mate.”

Felix nodded marginally. He forced his heavy-as-lead eyelids to flutter open just long enough to see a mottled gray blur moving out of his vision. The hand on his cheek followed after it. His head fell back towards his chest, but he managed to hold himself upright. 

“…deep, needs several layers, and I think there’s several veins that need tying off, but…” Claudette’s voice faded in and out, but he managed to hold on to his presence in the moment. Just a little longer… for David.

What came next was a muddled blur of voices, tugging, and sharp pricks at his back. Pain was merely a dull suggestion in the background of his limited cognition. The cold that was invading further and further into his body had become more vexing than anything else. It made staying awake rather difficult, but he did it. It helped hearing David’s voice every once in a while. It was like having a beacon guiding him through a black haze, steering him away from that dark realm of sleep, even though it seemed to be safe now.

Something large and soft was suddenly wrapped around his body, completely encompassing him in warmth. His fumbling, trembling hands clutched desperately at it. An arm wrapped gently around his blanketed waist.

“Alright, c’mon Felix, let’s walk a bit over here. Got some blankets set up so you can lie down and rest.”

“ David. You shouldn’t be straining yourself.”

“Claudie, m’fine, just let me do this…”

The woman sighed.

Another set of hands wrapped under his arm, and his body was lifted back onto his feet. He floated through the air for a short while and then drifted down until his body sank into a bed of soft warmth. He immediately curled up and burrowed deep into this new world of real, tangible, embracing comfort, ready to be taken in and let it chase this sickly chill from his marrow— but only if he was allowed to. The dark seemed to be safe now, but Felix wasn’t going to let go unless David said it was okay.

A light pressure slid up and down his arm over the many layers of fabric piled over him.

“It’s alright Felix, you can rest proper now. Just don’t go wandering too far off into the dark, yea? Can’t have you leavin’ us now…”

That was all Felix needed to hear. He slipped away without a second thought.

Notes:

This one was kind of meandering, but I hoped you liked it!
I you haven't commented yet and you've made it this far, I'd love to know your thoughts on the story and where you think its going!
♥ Thanks so much for reading!

Chapter 21: Withdrawal

Notes:

A day late, but it's out! Hope you enjoy!

Felix gasped awake from a dreamless sleep, disoriented and confused— but pleasantly warm. His body immediately protested against him with a sudden, debilitating spasm. Every single one of his muscles ached horribly— as if the Hag had just finished flaying him alive. Had he entered into another Trial without even realizing it?

“Sorry Felix, I didn’t mean to startle you awake like that!” said a soft, feminine voice.

His panic immediately waned. He blinked the bleariness away from his eyes, and found himself staring up into a kindly, apologetic, tawny face.

“You’ve been asleep for a while now, so I just wanted to check up on you and see how your wound is healing,” said Claudette, kneeling comfortably in the grass beside him. The campfire behind her outlined her form in a soft, orange glow.

It took him a moment to recall how exactly he’d come to be in this position— most of it was just a hideous blur— but he could at least remember the key moments. His body certainly seemed to remember.

He tried to swallow, but found his throat to be as dry and desiccated as a barren wasteland. Instead, a violent barrage of wheezing coughs exploded from his lungs. He coughed on and on until precious moisture was distorting his vision and his muscles started spasming again.

An old tin cup suddenly appeared in his face. Felix grabbed it and sucked down the contents without even considering what was inside. Thankfully, it was full of fresh, clean water that instantly soothed his irritated throat. He finished it off with a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” he croaked, and handed her back the cup.

She took it with a gracious nod. “Mind if I take a look at that wound?”

Felix nodded, and stared back at her.

Claudette waited a moment, then gave a kind smile. “Can you lay on your stomach for me?”

“Oh, yes,” he rasped sheepishly. He then eased his aching body into position back down on the blanket. As he turned, Felix noticed another set of blankets behind him. They were arranged as though someone had been sleeping in them. His mind immediately went to the most obvious culprit.

“Where’s David?” he said against the fabric.

“Mmm, he slept here for a bit, then spent some time watching to make sure you didn’t stop breathing or anything,” she said, pulling the blankets away from his shoulder. “I told him to take a break. I think he’s down by the stream trying to wash out your clothes right now.”

“…He’s up before me? Wasn’t he much worse?”

David had been impaled on a hook and stabbed probably a dozen or so times. Was he just made of stronger stuff? Or was Felix just that weak?

“Yeah, he was a pretty big mess, but his first aid was pretty good. The antihemorrhagic powder stopped him from losing too much blood, so all we had to do was clean and sew him back up. You on the other hand…” Claudette audibly grimaced. “You had several open veins that were slowly bleeding you out. I’m not sure how long you were carrying on like that, but… I’m honestly surprised you managed to stay with us,” she said tightly.

Felix couldn’t help but avert his gaze. He didn’t really know how to feel about that. It seemed as though, by all accounts, he should be dead. Instead of sitting safely here by the campfire, swaddled in warmth and talking with Claudette, he could be lying alone on the cold, hard ground of the Forest of Passage, looking up into a pale, ghoulish mask.

“I’m glad you did, though,” she said, touching his bare shoulder. “We all are.”

When her hand fell on his bare skin, Felix finally realized that was topless. In fact, he was pretty sure he was wearing nothing but his boxers right now. He couldn’t remember when that had happened. Thankfully, he was mostly covered at the moment, but he couldn’t help the slight blush that crept into his cheeks.

He’d never really been all that comfortable showing his body to other people— not even his partners. It made him feel vulnerable. Recent events certainly hadn’t helped… 

Claudette took note of his sudden discomfort. “Sorry. Your clothes were pretty soiled. We couldn’t let you soak in that gas or whatever it was. Would not have been good for this,” she said, gently prying away the medical tape from his skin.

The pad covering his wound was lifted away. He expected it to hurt like last time, but surprisingly, all he felt was the dull, aching chill of exposed, oversensitive skin.

“Ah, that actually looks surprisingly good. Not much blood at all! I think that herbal mash helped it clot quite well.” The woman then gave a thoughtful hum. “Tell you what. Why don’t you head down to stream and freshen up a bit? It would help to accelerate the healing process, plus, I think I can still smell that gas on you. You think you’re up for that?”

Felix squirmed beneath his covers, thinking about the painful process of leaving the warm comfort of his makeshift bed and getting back onto his aching legs.

Claudette immediately noticed his hesitance. “I could give you a corticosteroid if you want— should help you feel a bit better and help you get some energy back. I promise you’ll feel a lot better if you get cleaned up.”

Felix frowned, this time thinking about the layer of grime coating his skin as well as that faint smell of that acrid oil he was now noticing. “Okay,” he said finally.

Claudette smiled brightly. “Great. I’ll be right back!” she said, then bounced away toward the supply box.

Moments later, she returned to his side with a small, modern syringe and damp piece of cotton. “Alright, just need to find a good spot on your shoulder,” she said, flicking at the liquid inside the glass tube.

Felix turned away and waited patiently as her hand roamed around his back, looking for a suitable injection sight. A cold, sterile stripe wiped over a section of his skin.

“Alright, just a quick pinch here…”

He flinched as the needle bit his flesh and flooded his muscle with medication. His mind automatically wandered back to the last time he’d given himself an injection. In comparison to now, those had been much more hopeful times… 

“Okay! You should feel better in a minute. Let me know when you're ready and I’ll walk you down.”

Felix nodded and quickly rebundled himself as she walked away. The line of stitches trailing down his back caught and pulled uncomfortably on the fabric of his bedraggled blanket.

Almost immediately after Claudette had left, his heart began to thrum unnervingly fast in his chest, no doubt in reaction to the medication. He shifted around in his warm cocoon, trying to avoid agitating his exposed stitches while also trying to deal with the uncomfortable side effect of his heart trying to beat through his ribcage. As his body shifted to and fro, however, he quickly realized that the dull ache in his shoulder had lessened to almost nothing. The thought of getting back on his feet suddenly didn’t seem so far-fetched.

After laying there a while longer, Felix finally began feeling more of himself again. He dragged himself and his blankets upright, and was surprised to see that another survivor had been at the campsite this entire time, just outside of his view. Jake sat on the ground with his back against a log seat, chewing on a long stem of dry, seeded grass as he watched Felix silently. The survivor made no effort to break eye contact when their gazes met. He only continued to stare with that ice-cold, analyzing expression.

Felix felt as though he’d suddenly become transparent— like all of his secrets and emotions were on full display for the other survivor. 

Felix averted his gaze to the leaping flames. He trawled his thoughts for some other subject to divert those penetrating eyes away from himself. “Where’s Dwight?”

Still staring that blank, unsettling stare, Jake took a long moment to readjust the grass in his mouth before giving a long, slow look over the log behind him. “Over here.” His voice was as thin as the blade he held in his mouth— as if he hadn’t used it in weeks.

Felix squirmed minutely. “Is he okay?”

Jake gave a subtle nod. The ear at the tip of the grass moved significantly more than his head did. “Sleeping.”

The stoic survivor then seemed to finally decide on staring at the fire, and the conversation was over. Felix supposed that was all he could ask for.

Not long after that ‘conversation,’ his heart rate slowed to something much less panic-inducing, and Claudette returned to help him up. His legs were still quite sore and stiff, but his pain levels were surprisingly tolerable, especially around his injury.

He clutched tightly onto Claudette’s arm and the scratchy blanket around his body, then slowly made his way down to the stream. As the orange glow was overtaken by the silvery white of the moon and the trees began to close around him, a deep sense of unease began to grow in his core.

Very soon, he would be stepping beyond the invisible line separating him from safety. Claudette and David were around, but he knew their presence didn’t necessarily mean anything for his wellbeing.

He and Claudette threaded between two small thickets of trees, and the clearing containing their burbling stream came into view. In the center was David, kneeling over the water with his back to them.

Felix stopped abruptly.

Claudette faltered precariously at his side. She looked questioningly up at him. “Felix?”

From here, where he thought might be the edge of the invisible barrier, Felix scanned the small, moonlit clearing. His eyes carefully picked over the shadowy lining of the meadow, searching for any and all discrepancies in the obfuscating foliage. But just like on his long trek back, there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. Paradoxically, the peace only heightened his anxiety.

David half turned, seeming to have finally noticed them. The moment his and Felix’s eyes met, David’s face lit up like a sunbeam. He immediately dropped what he was doing and hustled over to them.

“Ay! You’re up!”

Felix’s center automatically warmed, and his anxiety eased. He hadn’t seen David this cheerful in a long, long time— and he looked a lot healthier since he’d last seen him too. Much of the color had returned to his face. The enthusiasm was infectious.

Felix couldn’t help but give him a wide smile back. “ Ja , I’m feeling much better now.”

“Mind you, he’s not fully recovered yet,” Claudette interjected.

David’s hand hovered in the air, seemingly torn on whether or not he should put his arm around him. Eventually, he decided on holding him by the elbow through his blanket.

“He needs to be careful with his stitches,” she warned, “but I’d thought it’d be a good idea for him to clean up a bit. Can you help him out with that?”

David hesitated for a beat, glanced at Felix, then gave an oddly pinched, “S– sure! Sure thing!”

“Great. I’ll leave you to it then. I need to tend to Dwight,” she said, and then her gaze fixated on David. “Oh, and uh… see if things are… okay with him, yes?” Claudette’s eyebrows shot up in emphasis, as if to say: ‘you remember’?

The Brit stared at her for a moment before seeming to catch on. “Oh, yea, sure thing.”

Felix shifted awkwardly as the two seemed to have a silent conversation about him right in his face, as if he were a child. He really didn’t appreciate it, but thankfully, the moment passed quickly.

Claudette then gave each of them a serious, yet gentle look that was on the verge of curling into a smile, but then she turned away before it could fully form. “Just let me check up on those stitches as soon as you’re done,” she said, and began her hike back to the campsite.

Finally, Felix and David were alone.

“So, uh,” David coughed, “Need ta wash up, do ya?”

Felix pulled the scratchy blanket a bit tighter around himself and nodded.

“Well, I’m dead chuffed to see ya up and about so soon. Claudie told me not to worry, but… you know.” He shrugged sheepishly, and yet, his expression was drawn.

Felix did know. He nodded, feeling a bit sheepish himself as he remembered the other set of blankets arranged next to his.

The somber moment passed into an overlong silence, and David had to cut it with another low cough. “Let’s get you over to the water then, yea?”

David took a step forward, elbow in tow, but stopped when he realized Felix wasn’t following. He turned back, silently questioning.

Felix set his gaze past David onto the line of trees and the amorphous shadows that hugged their sides. There were odd shapes and suspicious smears of darkness… but no spots of white with drooping moans, and no movement at all— not even from false gusts of wind.

On an instinctual level, Felix knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He was opening himself up to attack and putting David in the line of fire. He didn’t doubt for a second that Danny would walk straight through his friend to get to him if there was a good opportunity for him to do so.

An image of Kate’s quivering body dressed in a gown of blood flashed in his mind’s eye, and he shivered.

He could be walking David into that very same trap, and yet…

Nothing had happened in the Forest on their walk back.

Felix couldn’t decide if it was just some sort of fluke on the killer’s part— like the last Trial that hadn’t been against him— or maybe just the fact that Felix had been in the company of too many people for him to make a move, but it seemed like Danny was very… absent. It was almost palpable in the air, like he could sense the lack of his sinister, voyeuristic presence in the shadows.

Or it could just be wishful thinking. Maybe Danny was just waiting for the perfect moment… but somehow, Felix didn’t think the killer had the patience for that. Maybe… the Trapper really had done something to Danny— something permanent .

He wanted to know— no, he needed to know— for his own sanity and peace of mind, if he was free from him or not. He had to push the limits of what he thought was safe so could know if Danny was really, truly gone.

This environment was about as controlled as it could be for him to do such a test. David would be here, and their bubble of safety would just be a short sprint away.

He could do this.

Felix took in a long, slow breath. He gave David a solemn, certain nod, then stepped forward. The moment he left certain safety, his heart immediately began thumping away in his chest as if he’d taken another dose of that medication. 

A sudden reminder made his heart nearly leap out of his chest. What if the fog came for him? It seemed early, but what if it happened?? “David! A shroud! Do you—?!” 

A dingy, knotted piece of cloth was dangling between them before he could even finish the thought. “All good mate.”

Felix breathed a low sigh of relief. Of course David was prepared. Felix didn’t know where he’d be right now without him— he didn’t want to imagine it.

Felix sucked in another slow, shallow breath, trying hard to calm himself as he pushed forward again, further and further away from security. He gave the Forest another cursory once over to see if anything had shifted out there, but still, he saw no sign of darting shadows or any other sudden movement.

His heart eventually slowed, but Felix maintained his furtive vigilance— he would not be caught off guard again.

As he made his way down to the bank of the small, meandering stream, David made sure to hold him steady. When they reached the edge, they both stopped and stared into its clear, shallow depths.

“So, uh… You actually need help? Or…”

Felix looked over at David and noticed that his face had turned a shade brighter pink than he remembered him being a minute ago. He also seemed a bit… flustered.

Oh.

Heat rushed into Felix’s cheeks. He immediately averted his eyes back toward the stream, hiding whatever color his face had turned. He also suddenly became very aware of his lack of clothing and the single layer of fabric wrapped around his body.

“I– I know Claudie wanted me to help, b– but I can just leave you to it if you want me to just sod off I don’t havta be ‘ere I can—”

“N– No! No, it’s okay, or er.. I mean— I can do it myself, b– but… can you just… could you just stand nearby?” Felix felt horribly embarrassed for even asking that much. “J– Just to be safe.” He stole a glance at David to gauge his reaction.

The man stood stock still for a moment, then straightened and gave a stiff, resolute nod. “‘Course mate. Whatever you need.”

Felix nodded thankfully, but still kept his eyes averted. His gaze wandered over to the water-logged assemblage of his navy jacket, vest, slacks, and other items of clothing laying stretched out in the grass. They all still looked heavily stained, and the faint scent of spent oil still lingered in the air.

“Er.. I tried washin’ ‘em out best I could, but there’s not much I can do without soap…”

Despite his self-consciousness, Felix couldn't help but smile warmly at David’s effort. “I– Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Another moment of silence passed between them that stretched on for far too long. Felix stared down at the languidly flowing water and clutched at his makeshift robe. He couldn’t bring himself to carry on with the next step… He really shouldn’t be this apprehensive. It was just David after all— well… more than likely it was just him, he couldn’t really be sure— but Felix just… couldn’t.

Per usual, David was the one who took the initiative. He coughed dubiously. “Well, I s’pose I’ll just be roight over here then,” David said, then trudged off. He stopped a short ways away, and stood with his back to Felix, arms folded, casually scanning the Forest.

Felix watched him for a beat, waiting to see if he turned or looked back at him, but of course, David never did.

He really should have expected as much.

Before he dropped his only covering, Felix looked back toward the treeline and scanned it one more time. He couldn’t help but imagine Danny lurking somewhere out there in the shadows, watching through the lens of his camera as the object of his obsession prepared to bathe. This was probably a dream come true for him.

Felix shivered violently, shoved the unsettling thought away, and set himself back into a cool, clinical mindset. This was a test— probably the most effective test he could do. If Danny didn’t try something while he was putting himself on full display like this… then there was no way in hell he was still out there. He had to do this.

Finally, after one last, deep breath, Felix let the blanket fall away from his body. He tried not to think about the two possible eyes roving over every single one of his curves. He swiftly folded the fabric and set it upon the grass before sidling over to the water.

“There’s a rag by the clothes if you wanna use that.”

Felix’s head snapped over to David. The man had turned slightly, but was still respecting his privacy. Felix looked back to his drying clothes and spied said rag by his slacks. He swiped it up, and again stood before the gently burbling water in nothing but his briefs.

His mind helpfully provided another image of eyes staring at his exposed body from the shadows, and he shuddered. He immediately wanted to cover himself again.

Before any other second thoughts could obstruct his mission, Felix braced himself and just charged into the chilled water up to his waist. The cold immediately stole his breath away. He gasped and held himself as he shivered, trying to acclimate himself to the temperature. It wasn’t dangerously cold, but it wasn’t exactly a warm bath either.

“S– S– Scheiß!”

Rather than just stand here and shiver forever, he forced his arms to unlatch themselves from his body and began to run the cloth over his skin. The grime came off in dark, mushy rolls and was quickly carried away by the flow. His back seemed to be the worst. Even with his limited reach, the piece of cloth still came back stained rust brown and covered in flecks of black. He did the best that he could as quickly as he could without disturbing his stitches.

Every once in a while, he made sure to skim his immediate area while also making sure that David was still there on the bank. He dutifully maintained his watch while also respectfully averting his gaze.

When the dexterity of his fingers began to succumb to the cold, he gave up on the rag and just dunked himself. Beneath the surface, he tousled his greasy hair a few times before the cold became too much to bear. He shot back up and rushed out of the water. His numb fingers fumbled at the corner of the blanket several times before he finally managed to swipe it up and wrap it around himself. He couldn’t help his gasp of relief when his physique was no longer available to be seen.

“You done mate?”

“Y– Y– Yes,” he forced out, teeth chattering. He clutched the blanket tight around himself, wishing it was a bit thicker as he attempted to wield it against the cold.

David glanced at him from the corner of his eye before fully turning around. His lips hooked up into a small smile as he approached. “Feel better?”

Felix huffed a quivering breath. “Maybe.”

“I bet you will after you get warmed back up,” he said, stopping next to him. “Mind if I take a gander before we head out though? Make sure that’s sound?” David said, gesturing toward his back.

Felix’s tongue fumbled. Despite how cold he was, he began to feel his cheeks burn. He didn’t know why he was feeling like this. It was just his shoulder. Of course David didn’t mean anything by it— he was just trying to check his wound— but for some reason, Felix couldn’t keep his anxiety at bay at the prospect of revealing even a small portion of his body to him. In comparison to what he'd just done, it didn’t make logical sense. It was just David . David was safe.

Despite himself, Felix quashed the false warning bells shrieking in his mind, and let a portion of his damp blanket drop off his shoulder.

David hummed dubiously. “Looks like you missed a good bit… Is it okay if I clean it up a bit more? Claudie’ll kill me if this ain’t bob on…”

Again, despite his illogical anxiety, Felix forced himself to nod.

He stood trembling minutely as he listened to David swipe the rag back up, swish it around in the water for a bit, ring it out, and then return to his back. The freshly cold, moist cloth dabbed gently away at his skin and around his stitches. Felix was thankful for how his cold shivers masked his anxious trembling.

Trying to quell his unease so David could work, Felix closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. After a while, the gentle swabbing and laving over his back began to feel rather nice. Slowly, steadily, he was lulled into a state of easy calm, and he forgot about feeling exposed and spied upon. His shivering abated, and the anxious tension in his muscles eased. The only thing that mattered was that soothing, massaging touch over his back.

The damp rag then left his skin and didn’t return.

“There, that’s better.”

Felix snapped out of his torpor and back to attention. Feeling exposed and self-conscious again, he immediately pulled his blanket back over his shoulders and shivered as the chill set back in.

He turned to see that David had taken to gathering up his wet clothes. Felix watched him for a moment, feeling somewhat flustered, and let his gaze drift back onto the Forest.

He realized he hadn’t been doing that great of a job watching out for Ghostface, but despite his anxious imaginings, it was beginning to seem like it wasn’t all that necessary. Nothing about the area had changed since they’d left the safety of the campsite. No snapping twigs or darting shadows— not even a waft of cologne. He knew he’d given Danny a big opening by coming out here like this, but if the killer was indeed here, he wasn’t taking advantage of it. Felix found that hard to believe.

Felix couldn’t stop a tiny sense of hope from eeking its way into his subconscious— the hope that his ordeal might finally be over. He was careful not to let it settle too firmly into his mentality— letting his guard down too early could have disastrous consequences— but Felix couldn’t help but imagine what he’d be able to do if he truly was free from Danny.

His thoughts immediately went to that little black pentagonal artifact and its accompanying journal hidden away in a secret drawer. He’d been terrified of Danny following him there and taking it for himself, but now… he might actually be able to properly examine it. And after that… maybe even escape.

“Alroight, let’s get you back to the fire so you don’t catch a chill.”

Well… maybe not yet. It was far too early for him to be thinking about such fantastical possibilities, but it was hard not to.

Hope was a dangerous thing, Felix finally decided.

He trailed closely after David as they hiked their way back toward the campsite, giving a glance over his shoulder every minute or so just to be safe. But of course, there was nothing to be seen.

“Oi Felix?” David asked suddenly. He glanced behind him to confirm that he had his attention. “What sort of friends did you have back home?”

The question took Felix completely by surprise. He blinked hard, trying to determine what might have spurred such a random inquiry about his old life. “You mean like actual friends or just acquaintances?”

David shrugged. “I dunno. I suppose whoever comes to mind first.”

“Ah, well… Besides Christine… I didn’t actually have too many close friends. Most of them were co-workers or people in the industry. I did make an effort to socialize with some of my father’s old friends and their family, but I wouldn’t have necessarily called them friends. Why do you ask?”

“Eh, mostly just curious. I just don’t hear you talkin’ bout your old life much these days.”

Felix shrugged wordlessly. There was a good reason for that. It was because it was a somewhat painful thing to recall, knowing there was almost no chance of him ever returning to his old life, specifically Christine and his child. Right now though, with the possibility of other options in the back of his mind, the thought didn’t sting quite so much as it usually did. 

David gave him a small smile over his shoulder and carried on. “Ay, weren’t you kinda famous or somethin’? Did you have a lot of reporters following you around?”

Felix’s gaze narrowed on David’s back. “Ah… no, not really. Maybe a journalist or two at grand openings, but no one I ever saw regularly or built a relationship with.”

David was silent for an overlong moment. “Who was your closest mate then?”

“I… didn’t really have one.” Another beat of silence. “David, what’s this about?”

The man glanced oddly back at him. He looked… disconcerted.

“David?”

The Brit sighed long and hard. He stopped walking. “I know you’ve been a bit… distressed lately, which is why I haven’t said anything about it until now, but it’s something that’s really important for you to know.”

Felix waited apprehensively for him to continue, feeling more and more like an overtightened winch.

“I had an encounter with a man in the woods— someone I’ve never met before. From what I could tell, he seemed like a new arrival, but… he said he knew you.”

“What?”

David nodded gravely. “He knew a lot about you and your previous life— details . He said you two were… friends.”

Felix realized his mouth was hanging open and closed it. He shook his head to reset his stuttering mind. Someone from his old life was here? “W– What did he look like??”

The Brit grimaced in a surprisingly repulsed way— like he was disgusted by the mere recollection of this man. “Short, dark hair. Real pale and wiry. American accent. About my height. Might also be a journalist, but I’m not certain. You know someone like that?”

Felix balked. “N– No… I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like that…”

David’s expression twisted and he broke eye contact. He shifted on his feet and folded his arms tightly over his chest, as if he was trying to hold himself together. His darkened eyes fell back onto Felix, disturbed and grim.

Felix felt a chill slither down his spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

“Felix. This… guy… He said some shite I’d really rather not repeat. I don’t mean to spook ya, but… most of it was centered on you. I got the impression that he… well, he seemed a bit… obsessed.”

Felix’s legs began to shake. His mouth went dry.

“W– W– When was this?”

David’s eyes drifted to the night sky as he thought it over. “Pretty sure it was right after I dressed that bite wound on your neck. I went off into the Forest to find ya, but ended up finding that scumbag instead— and he was a scumbag.”

Before Trapper.

Felix’s breath rushed out of him, and his trembling waned marginally. Still, he found breathing very difficult. “Did he… Did he do anything to you?”

David’s eyes narrowed. “No… But I didn’t exactly feel safe around him.”

A sigh of relief rushed out of him, but his limbs continued to shake.

That had to have been Danny. That had to have been Danny! He’d shed his costume to look like a survivor— a possibility that Felix naively hadn’t even considered to be perfectly honest— and he’d threatened David. Danny hadn’t been lying when he’d alluded to interacting with him. That psychopath had been alone in the Forest with his friend for who knows how long. Anything could have happened. But thankfully, it seemed like all Danny had done was make an unnerving first impression. It had almost certainly been a warning meant for him — to show Felix that Danny could do whatever he wanted to his closest friend whenever he wanted if Felix didn’t obey. However, it seemed like the warning had come a bit late…

Slowly, Felix began to realize that nothing had been said for more than a minute now. He looked up to see David staring down at him, expression hard and sharp.

“Felix… For yours and everyone else’s safety, I need you to tell me the truth right now. Do you know who that man is?”

Felix gaped up at him. His heartbeat was heavy in his ears.

He’d been too obvious. The shock of the revelation had been all over his face. David could tell that he knew something.

Somewhere, in the deepest depths of his subconscious, a tiny, whispering voice reached out: ‘ Tell him. Stop hiding it. Just tell him everything. He’ll help you. He might be upset— maybe even angry— but he’ll help you. He can help you. Tell him.’

An opposing bolt of fear surged back.

No. It’s too early. Ghostface could still be out there. There could still be consequences. He could still be putting David at risk, and… Felix hadn’t wanted to admit this feeling to himself until now, but…

What would David think of him? What would he actually think? David had helped him up to this point, but… if his friend knew what he’d done, with a killer no less… How would he react? Would he look at him with pity? Sadness? Disgust? Revulsion? Would he treat him differently? Coddle him? Avoid him? Sneer at him? Berate him for not stopping it? For not being more of a man? For… letting those things happen?

Would he ever smile at him again like he had at the brook?

Felix had interacted with his fair share of bullies throughout his life. He knew what could happen with that type of person if something of this magnitude were to suddenly crop up. David didn’t seem like that sort of person anymore, but… Felix wasn’t sure how deep those kinds of character traits ran in a person. What if something like this was too much for him to deal with? What if David abandoned him?

Maybe… one day he might be able to gather up the nerve to tell him… but not now. There were too many reasons not to.

David was still staring at him, arms still firmly folded, hard eyes scrutinizing every single one of his microexpressions— searching for the truth. 

He couldn’t.

Felix swallowed hard, and steadied himself the best that he could. “No, I don’t know him. I’m sorry.”

A confusing mix of emotions spread over David’s face before he finally settled into a sorrowful, almost wounded grimace. “Felix. That doesn’t make sense. How does he know so much about you then?”

Felix shrugged and tried to look as helpless and dumbfounded as possible. “I don’t know. I’m sorry. Maybe he was following me around out there before I was taken, but it was something I was never aware of.”

The hurt in David’s expression grew. “Then why were you so damn freaked out before our last Trial Felix? Huh?” David suddenly dropped the clothes he’d been holding and advanced on him. Felix was forced to backpedal. “It was because you saw him, didn’t you? You freaked out because you know who he is— or he did something. Did he attack you?!”

Felix balked and shook his head, continually trying to retreat from David’s increasingly overwhelming onslaught.

“C’mon Felix, I know you know who he is! Why else would you panic like that right after he appeared? You seriously gonna stand there and tell me you don’t know him?!”

His heart raced hard and fast in his breast, threatening to completely break free of him. He shook his head again. His words were trapped in his throat. He couldn’t!

“If it’s not him, then what?! It’s bloody obvious that something is happening with you Felix! I see it in your eyes and even in the way you bloody carry yourself! The only thing I don’t understand is why you won't tell me the fuckin’ truth!! ”

“David!” The name tumbled out like shattered glass.

The desperate anger and frustration suddenly fled from David’s demeanor, and he stepped back. Slowly, a sense of realization seemed to dawn on him, and his face fell into a deep regret.

“Sorry.”

Felix watched him warily, feeling all of his limbs shaking markedly.

David’s head dropped as he sighed deeply, looking completely dejected. “Felix, I… I’m just trying to protect you. I want to help, but just… please … make it make sense .”

The breath that Felix had been holding onto slipped out low and quivering. His body quaked as he pulled the damp blanket tighter around his dripping body and subtly wiped away the new bead of moisture that had appeared on his cheek.

He couldn’t handle David if he was going to be like this. The man was on the verge of literally interrogating the truth out of him. Things had gotten out of hand, especially with Danny’s unplanned appearance. Felix had to dispel the man’s suspicions once and for all. If he didn’t, everything would fall apart— himself included. He had to explain this away.

Felix sucked in a deep, steadying breath, and tried to recompose himself. He didn’t look up until his anxious shivering had subsided.

David’s expression couldn’t have been described as anything other than despondent.

A dagger of guilt slipped its way into Felix’s heart. Still, he pressed on, and shoved all of his anxiety and festering trauma far, far away until it was just a flicker in the background. He then straightened his posture, breathed in, and became someone else.

“David. I appreciate how much you’re watching out for me— it’s a great help— but I am telling you the truth. I don’t know this person that you’re describing. Maybe he’s some kind of stalker that followed me in here, but I don’t know him.”

David shifted uncomfortably on his feet, His expression tightened into a distorted frown, obviously doubtful. “Then what was that at the campfire before the Trial? Why were you acting like that? Why have you been so… on edge lately?”

Felix made himself sigh sadly. “Honestly… after the serum failed, I’ve… not been doing all that well lately. I just keep constantly thinking about the fact that without the serum, I really, truly might be here forever… that I’ll never see my home or my family again… that I’m going to suffer here for eternity. I try not to remind myself, but… the more I think about it, the more I wish I could just… stay in the dark… just a little longer each time, you know? Just so I don’t have to feel or think about it again.”

Felix shivered and hunched in on himself. As with all good lies, he made certain it contained a kernel of truth. He hoped it was enough. 

David stood stock still, looking almost stunned. His hand began to reach out, but then stopped and retreated to the back of his head. He stood like that for a long moment, seemingly at a loss.

“I’m… sorry Felix. I didn’t know you felt like that… I… I wish you would have said something.”

Felix shrugged meekly. “Well… knowing how you felt about the serum, I… suppose I just didn’t want to upset you again.”

David visibly flinched.

Another dagger of guilt stabbed straight through Felix’s heart, and his false persona fizzled. He couldn’t look David in the eye anymore. He was taking advantage of the man’s boundless compassion right now to distract him from the truth. Manipulating his friend like this was terrible, but he was also saving him from far, far worse.

A beat of silence passed.

“I’m… I’m sorry…” David said finally. His voice was strained beyond anything Felix had ever heard from the man. “I’m sorry I made you feel like that…”

More silence.

“Y– You know I’m here for you, right Felix?”

Felix nodded. He continued to avert his gaze.

“You know I’d do whatever it takes to keep you safe, right?”

Shame and guilt squeezed Felix’s throat. He hesitated a moment before nodding again.

Yet another moment of strained silence as David looked him over. His large, calloused hands opened and closed weakly at his side, as if he was actively stopping himself from reaching out. Felix almost wished he would.

Felix continued to stand precariously before his friend, still staring at the ground. He couldn’t bring himself to do anything else.

“If… if ya need to talk about anything— anything at all— you let me know aright? I don’t want you feelin’ like you can’t come to me and then you try to hold it all inside— that’s dangerous. It’s important to talk about stuff like that so it doesn’t eat away at ya, you know?”

Felix squirmed on his feet, still feeling like his voice had fled him.

“And if… if you feel like it’s somethin’ you can’t talk with me about…” David said, voice going thin and wispy, “You can take it to Claud or anyone else you feel more comfortable with, okay? Just so long as you aren’t… struggling, and carryin’ on like you have been lately, yea? I don’t wanna see you like that… can’t see you like that…”

Again Felix nodded. His heart was heavy, but at the very least, there was a good chance he’d actually be able to comply with his request in the future.

“And I’m sorry I yelled at ya like that… I didn’t understand what was going on and I suppose I just assumed the worst. I thought you might’ve been in some sort of danger. Still… I shouldn't have done that. It was unwarranted.” The man then gave a long, alleviating sigh, as if he was finally letting go of some of his anguish, and stared off into the distance. “Don’t know if that guy is still out there, but… just do me a favor and promise me you won’t go anywhere on your own for a while, alright?”

Felix nodded immediately. He had no objections to the stipulation at all, especially if it could ease David’s worries.

David stared at him for another long moment, perhaps waiting for some other kind of response or admission, but eventually he relented. “Alright. Let’s get you back… Shouldn’t be standing around out here anyways.”

He then bent down to scoop up the clothes he’d dropped, piled them under one arm, and returned to Felix’s side. A steadying, unobtrusive hand settled low on his back, and gently urged him forward. Their short hike back to the camp resumed in silence. 

They were walking side by side in very close proximity, but somehow, Felix felt like there was more distance between them now than ever before.

In less than a minute, the campsite was before them— this time with two new residents. Ace and Nea sat side by side on a log adjacent to Jake, muttering quietly to one another while Nea played with a Zippo. She flipped the lighter casually yet skillfully between her fingers, being careful not to accidentally strike it and waste precious fuel.

David slowed. Felix looked over to see that the man’s gaze had narrowed. He was about to ask what was wrong, but then David’s gaze dropped, and he sped back up to his previous pace. Felix watched him a bit longer, silently proposing this same question to his companion, but was never acknowledged. After a while, Felix let the incident go and refocused his attention forward.

As they approached the circle of logs, Ace and Nea’s conversation faded away, and the Zippo stopped moving. Slowly, Felix began to realize that he was now the sole object of their attention.

Ace’s dark, inscrutable lenses were unwavering as they fixated solely on him. The corners of grungy lips pulled into a dubious frown, and a single, silver brow arched high above his shades, judgmental and speculating. 

Nea just seemed discontent.

Felix averted his gaze to the ground, and his cheeks began to burn. His fingers clutched absently at his blanket, searching uselessly for some kind of non-existent anchor. The hand on his back shifted up to his shoulder and gripped it tightly, making him feel slightly more shielded under the pair’s uncomfortable, pointed scrutiny.

When they made it into the seating area, David let go of his shoulder and grabbed several blankets from his makeshift bed. He then set about layering them over the ground in front of the log seat to create a cushion. 

Ace and Nea continued to stare.

Felix kept his eyes on David and tried to ignore them. He wasn’t even sure why they were glowering at him so disdainfully like this. Was it because he was in a state of undress? Or was it something else?

“Roight here Felix— roight by the fire where it's warm,” David said, giving the cushion he’d created a curt pat.

David helped to ease him down, and he sat with a wet squelch. Felix couldn’t suppress his sigh of relief as the fire’s radiating warmth immediately chased the chill from the surface of his skin. 

Beside him, David began laying his wet clothes over the log to dry. Felix glanced around himself, and realized that he could no longer see Ace and Nea. The fire was blocking his view of them. He couldn’t help but wonder if David had done that on purpose.

A familiar tin cup suddenly appeared before him. Felix followed the hand that was attached to it up to Claudette’s kindly smiling face. 

“Here. Make sure you're replenishing your fluids.”

Felix gratefully took the cup and ended up downing half of it in one go. He hadn’t really registered just how thirsty he was.

Claudette nodded approvingly. “Can I see your shoulder?”

Felix grimaced, and glanced around the campfire again. Jake appeared to be dozing, Ace and Nea were still blocked by the fire, and David was now working on gathering up some blankets behind them.

He breathed deep, and allowed the blanket to slip off his shoulder. He went still.

“Looks good,” she finally said after a long moment. “Much cleaner than before, and no damage; just what we want to see. Feeling any pain?”

Felix shrugged. “Barely.”

“Good,” she said again, and moved to stand before him. 

Felix immediately pulled the blanket back up around himself, feeling the ticklish irritation of the fabric catching on his stitches. 

“I suppose there’s not much else I can do for you now, except direct you to rest all you can and drink all the water you can. Got it?”

Felix nodded, and remembered the small cup in his hands. He leaned against the log seat at his back and took another sip.

The woman nodded back. “You’ll be back to one-hundred percent in no time, Felix,” she said, then gave a curt nod somewhere behind him.

Felix turned just in time to David moving in with another, larger wool blanket spread wide between his hands like a wind-ladened sail. “Here ya go, Felix,” he said, and draped the faded, multicolored, zig-zag-patterned blanket right over the other one. 

Felix wasn’t quite so cold anymore to warrant another layer, but the weight of it was instantly gratifying and comforting. His body shuddered as the blanket was wrapped around him, and the remaining tension in his muscles finally faded. 

“Let me know if you need anything else,” said Claudette, and finally took her leave. As she walked back to her usual refuge by the supply box, Felix couldn’t help but think about how good of a nurse she would have made in her old life.

From the corner of his eye, David’s sneaker stepped over the log beside him. The man himself followed promptly after. He sat upon the log seat with a sigh. Felix had to crane his neck to look back at him, so decided to just stare into the dancing flames in front of him. They had done a fine job in thawing him out.

“Better?” David asked.

Felix squirmed further into his all-encompassing warmth and nodded.

“Good…” David breathed long and low as he leaned over his knees.

From the corner of his vision, Felix saw David look his way. He stayed like that for a long while, silently watching and considering. Perhaps he was trying to formulate a question or re-running their conversation over in his head again, or maybe he was just thinking in a broader sense of the word… but it didn’t seem like he was going to be giving those thoughts any sort of presence any time soon. 

Felix continued to observe David from the edges of his vision, listening vaguely to the low hum of conversation on the other side of the campfire as he did. He yawned into his blanket cocoon and realized that he had suddenly become quite drowsy. That trip down to the stream had taken more out of him than he’d realized.

Felix finished off the rest of his water and set the cup aside. “I think I need to lay down…” he muttered.

David took a moment to register his words. “Oh. Sure thing mate.” He then got up and stepped back over the log.

Felix listened as he gathered up more blankets from behind, thankful for the momentary break from his scrutiny. Felix began to wonder if David had truly accepted his excuse, or if he still suspected something.

David returned a short time later with an armful of various blankets of all different shapes, types, and sizes, and began to lay them out over the grass at Felix’s side. He finished up by putting a rolled up quilt at the top of the arrangement where a pillow would have been.

“Thank you,” said Felix, and promptly fell into the makeshift bed.

“‘Course,” David replied, and sat somewhere on the log behind him.

After a minute or so of adjusting his many blankets, Felix finally found a comfortable position, and closed his eyes. His mind immediately began to drift as the crackle of the fire drowned out the endless thoughts and worries echoing through his head. 

He was on the verge of losing consciousness when a sudden, very concerning thought jolted him back to wakefulness.

“D’you have a shroud?” he slurred incomprehensibly, but David clearly understood.

“Yea, got it right here. No need ta fret. Go ahead and rest up— I’ll be roight here.”

Felix relaxed back into his nest of warmth, feeling a bit more at ease and genuinely grateful for David’s attentiveness… but his warm feelings were poisoned by guilt. He’d manipulated his friend… Truly, Felix did not deserve this level of care and attention from him. It was too much.

Felix sighed and tried to push his shame away from his mind. There wasn’t anything to be done about it anyway— not unless he told the truth.

So, he tried his best to forget, and focused on his convalescence.

Felix nestled further beneath his covers, hoping he’d be able to avoid the Trials for a while longer— at least, until he was fully healed and fully dressed. This respite had been quite nice, especially without the extra threat of his stalker, but he knew it couldn’t last for much longer. If the call to a Trial did happen before he was back to normal though, Felix supposed he could at least jump into his slacks and throw on his dress shirt if he really needed to, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. He would prefer to put his clothes back on when they were dry— and in his own private company. Privacy in combination with safety was hard to come by in this realm, however.

Inconsequential musings about the logistics of redressing ended up being some of Felix’s last thoughts as the fog of sleep finally took hold and blotted out his consciousness. Feeling safe and secure under David’s watch, he allowed himself to fall into darkness and slipped away into his dreams, feeling more hopeful about his future than he had in a very long time.

Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it! Thanks for reading!

In other Felix news, I'm a bit sad he still hasn't gotten a Tome yet, but I did enjoy his new, very sharp suit! It even came with a little mini-story! You know I'm going to be all over any new lore for him whenever it drops! 😆

See ya in three weeks!

(2/29) Edit: Make that four weeks! >< Sorry folks, real life got in the way. Should have something for you by next week though!

(3/16/2025) Added something... 😏

Chapter 22: Whispering Dark

In the gentle embrace of parenthood, we find ourselves navigating a labyrinth of endless discoveries and emotional symphonies. Each day offers a fresh page to script the tale of our children's growth, as we strive to blend the art of nurturing with the science of guidance. Just as a tree, firmly rooted in the soil, needs both sunlight and rain to flourish, our children require the warmth of our love and the refreshing showers of wisdom. As we traverse the peaks and valleys of this profound journey, we are reminded that parenting is not just a responsibility, but a sacred dance of lessons and love, where we, as the guiding stars, play our part in the universe's grand constellation…

Felix pressed his face between the pages of the book and gave a long, hard groan.

He thought he’d somewhat prepared himself for the caliber of literature that he promised to read. He’d expected a bit of social theory, some introspective inquiries, maybe even a bit of poeticism, but this… drivel… this pontifical, prohibitively pig-headed, pretentious garbage… it was just too much.

Felix blew out a sigh and let the paperback fall into his lap. His head flopped back onto the tower of pillows piled against the headboard. He stared up at his bedroom ceiling and listened to the shower running on the other side of the bathroom door.

No. He couldn’t give up on yet another parenting book. He’d committed himself to improve before his child arrived, but he was barely through the first chapter. The online reviews had been nothing but praiseworthy, so how could it be this bad?! …Maybe it got better? Maybe there was some actual, useful information hidden somewhere within these pages? He’d never know unless he continued reading…

Breathing a heavy sigh, Felix fished the book up out of the richly plush, silver-blue duvet, and reacquired his place.

In the multifaceted tapestry of parenthood, we ardently cultivate the art of patience as we traverse the labyrinthine passages of understanding. Here, we encounter the delicate equilibrium between fostering our children's burgeoning independence and offering the scaffold of our unwavering support. Within these profound moments of connection, reminiscent of quiet ripples in a vast cosmic ocean, we bear witness to the resplendent synergy of— 

“No, no. That's it. I’m done with this,” he said, tossing the book to the foot of the bed again. “Damned masturbatory gibberish… parental mysticism .” 

“What about masturbating?”

Felix snapped upright. Christine stood in the open doorway of the bathroom, towel-drying her hair with an amused smirk spreading across her face.

He cough-laughed cagily. “Ah, erm… it’s nothing, I’m just…” The words evaporated from his tongue as his attention was drawn to the way her thin, cream-colored nightgown clung to her damp outline. It made the very slight bump on her belly that much more noticeable. She arched a curious, yet impish brow, encouraging him to continue.

Felix snorted. “It’s just this moronic book on parenting I’m trying to read. The prose is unbearable . I’m not even halfway through the first chapter and I already want to tear my hair out.”

“Oh no! Don’t do that, I love your hair!” she said with a playful smile. She tossed the towel behind her into the bathroom and padded over to the foot of the bed. “It can’t be that bad,” she said, swiping up the paperback. “Let’s see what—” she glanced at the front cover “— Gerald Stephanopoulos… the Third …” She leveled a teasing, judgemental brow at him.

His hand waved ambiguously in the air. “It had good reviews,” he mumbled, as if that could explain his purchase decision.

“Well let's see what he has to say about child rearing, hm?” Christine sat herself on the bed, then took on a very prim and proper posture. She cleared her throat and began to read in a posh, overly dramatic accent. “‘ In the boundless continuum of parental stewardship, we, as the illustrious architects of nascent consciousness, embark on an extraordinary pilgrimage to transmute the raw clay of progeny into—’”

“Alright, alright, please! No more, I yield! ” Felix begged, on the verge of stuffing his own fingers into his ears.

Christine chortled gregariously at his suffering. “What, you mean a connoisseur of fine literature such as yourself doesn’t want to keep reading this masterpiece? It even mentions architects!”

Felix groaned, and Christine laughed again.

“I see what you mean though,” she said with an apologetic grimace. She tossed the book onto a nearby antique armchair and crawled into bed beside him.

“They can’t all be like this!” Felix exclaimed. “Either I have the worst luck in the world picking out these books or something is seriously wrong with this neck of the literary world.”

Christine propped herself up on her elbow and hummed. “Why don't you try books on child development instead? Those usually have actual research backed information instead of being— what was it you said? ‘Masturbatory gibberish and parental mysticism?’” she said with a chuckle.

“Yea, something like that…” he sighed wearily and looped an arm around her waist. “I just… egh, nevermind.”

Christine didn’t need to hear about his anxieties. Suave, bold, self-assured Felix wasn’t supposed to have any. His nervous breakdown on that balcony in Paris had been an unfortunate slip up of his persona— one that had frightened Christine greatly. He could never again show such weakness. It wasn’t who he was supposed to be.

“No, no. What? Tell me what’s on your mind,” she said, sincere concern shining bright in her pale blue eyes.

Felix grumbled, feeling himself internally squirm. He would have preferred not to reveal his insecurities to Christine, but then he’d gone and sabotaged himself by alluding to it. But… what harm could discussing this one in particular do? Children were a perfectly natural thing to be anxious about, right? He might even feel a bit better after talking about it.

“I just… I just don’t understand how you can be so calm . We're about to be responsible for the life of another human being — a helpless infant— and I don’t have the faintest idea on how to do that! It’s already been a month and I feel like I haven’t learned a damned thing! Between here and the firm, I have so little time, it’s—”

“Shhh, shh shh shhh,” Christine whispered, laying herself over his shoulder. “Relax…”

“How can I? I—” He was suddenly silenced by a pair of soft lips closing over his own. Felix stiffened in surprise, then relaxed easily into the gentle, almost feather-light kiss. All of his thoughts were suspended as he fell into the exquisite feeling of the moment. 

After a short while, she pulled back, leaving him somewhat dazed as the taste of cool mint lingered on his lips.

She looked up at him with an easy, tender fondness. “You know why I’m not worried? Because when I watch you fret and worry like this, I know that means that you care about this baby more than anything else in the world. You’re going to be a good parent because you’re scared, and I know for a fact you’re going to do everything in your power to be the best father you can possibly be to this child.”

Felix made a noise of uncertainty, and Christine scoffed in disbelief.

“Give yourself some credit! You think I haven’t noticed how much you’ve cut back on your drinking? Or how much time you spend researching childcare? I can tell how much this means to you. You’re going to do fine .”

“I suppose… I just—”

Christine groaned and fell back on her pillow. “God, you are breathtakingly thick-headed. Just accept the praise, okay?”

Felix gave a sheepish shrug. “Okay?”

Her blue eyes rolled like marbles, and she sighed vexingly. “Alright. If you’re that worried, we can take some classes together or hire a parenting coach. Does that sound good?”

This time, Felix smiled heartily. “That sounds wonderful actually— and I'll look into getting some of those child development books.”

“Whatever you feel like you need to do to prepare,” she said warmly. “Now get down here and into bed.”

Sighing away the rest of his anxiety, Felix flicked off his bedside lamp and slid fully beneath the layers of cool sheets and plush covers piled over the bed. He turned to face the woman carrying within her all of his hopes and dreams for the future, and found her hand in the velvety dark. He gripped it tightly but gently, as if he could absorb the smallest portion of her boundless, self-assured calm. Her eyes twinkled in the moonlit darkness of the bedroom as they roamed over his furrowed expression, which was still unfortunately creased with the anxieties he could not hide from her. 

Manicured fingernails delicately combed through his hair and scratched at his scalp. “Relax baby. You can worry about being a good father tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

Felix nodded and puffed out the last of his nervous energy. He closed his eyes and let the feeling of her nails dragging through his hair relax away the last of his tension, pulling him further and further down into that tranquil sea of slumber with every gentle pass.

“My precious Felix…”

His nose scrunched.

Her tone was… off, and the fingers combing through his hair felt different. Softer?

Felix pulled himself back from the edge of sleep and began to stir, except… his bed had suddenly become very hard, and his soft, plush blankets now felt rough and abrasive against his skin. The air smelled… wrong.

“You’re so delightfully alluring… dreaming away like this... ”

That voice…

THAT voice.

Felix leapt to full awareness. He flung his woolen blanket into the air, only to have it immediately tangle around him. He twirled onto his back, trying desperately to free himself from his prison— and was instantly petrified by the thing before him. A cold chill slithered down his spine and burrowed deep into his bones, freezing the air in his lungs. 

That horrible, wailing, corpse-white face was hovering directly overhead, less than an arm's length away. Its empty, void-like sockets stared deep into his soul, siphoning away the last of his strength and rendering his body as stiff and useless as a cadaver.

Soft, leather-encased fingers brushed gently against his cheek and through his hair. 

“Sleep well?”

His heart lurched, urging him to run somewhere, anywhere , but all he could manage was a twitch of his eye.

The mask canted oddly. “What’s the matter, love? Didn’t think you’d see me again so soon?”

Felix's entire body quaked as he stared up into the white mask, completely stunned by its visage. He forced his eyes shut, hoping to dispel what could only be a waking nightmare or a stress-induced hallucination. He mumbled pleading gibberish and self-soothing nonsense, but when he opened his eyes, Danny was still there.

He was real.

A sinister chuckle reverberated within that terrible mask. “Still here love.”

Felix could no longer move. Blood roared in his ears.

Another wickedly amused chuckle. “Oh love, you didn’t think it would be that easy did you? That you could just leave before I was finished with you?” The killer's tongue clicked in muffled admonishment. “Poor, clueless baby… There is nowhere… and nothing in this realm that will keep me from what is mine .”

Felix finally managed a tremulous breath, and his mind shook off its icy chill.

David.

DAVID. He’d been right here when he’d fallen asleep— where was he?!

It took every bit of remaining vitality that was within him, but somehow, Felix managed to break his gaze away from the white mask. He searched frantically around himself— and came to a horrific realization.

He was still at the campfire.

And it was empty.

Felix could barely even process it. He was within the safety of the campsite, laying exactly in the same place he’d fallen asleep… and yet Danny was here?! How had he gotten into their one and only refuge?! 

How was this possible?!

The velvety voice chuckled low and dark within its plastic enclosure. “Like I said… nothing .”

A bolt of energy surged through him. He tried to throw himself away from the killer, but was instantly snatched back and shoved against the ground. A fist grappled the mess of blankets at his front and pressed painfully down against his ribcage. The melting wail loomed closer. Its empty sockets stared inches from his face. Felix pressed himself away from the encroaching killer and flat against the ground at his back, eyes burning with burgeoning tears.

There was no one around to help, and nowhere to go. Danny finally had him exactly where he wanted, and now, he was free to finish what he’d started.

His skin crawled as it remembered how those hands had touched him. Phantom pains echoed in his fizzing nerve endings.

God, how could he have been so foolish to think he'd be rid of Danny so easily?!

He feebly raised his hands between himself and the killer, half pleading, half shielding. A fearful sob slipped out between a pair of shallow, shaking breaths. “No wait, please… don't hurt me, please… ”

“Shhh shh shh shhhh…” the killer whispered, gently batting his hands away, “None of that now… You don’t get to cry after how naughty you’ve been…”

Felix stilled. His eyes went wide.

“Ohhhh yessss … I’ve been watching you this whole time Felix, and I must say… I’m very disappointed in you. I was very clear about what would happen if you didn’t stay away from that meatsack — or did you forget?”

An icy chill seized his heart. “No… No wait! I– I’m sorry! I—!”

“Shush.”

His wrists were snatched out of the air and shoved against the ground. Felix squirmed and gasped uselessly as the killer leaned ever closer toward him, those infinite voids mere inches away. Felix turned away and squeezed his eyes shut, on the verge of bursting into an unbridled panic as he felt hot breath puffing over his face.

God, he knew he shouldn’t have interacted with David again! He should have ran away the second he’d seen him!

A dark, muffled giggle vibrated the plastic mask. “Oh love… sweetheart … don’t be afraid. Now… you may have fucked up beyond belief, but I’m not going to hurt you… yet . I actually have a surprise for you.”

His eyes snapped open again. Felix stared up at the killer in horror. Every possibility from a brightly colored rope, to a knife in his gut, and everything in between flashed through his mind.

“But first…”

Felix yelped as he was suddenly dragged to his feet. He dangled pitifully from the blanket wrapped around his body. His hands clutched frantically at the killer’s arm and his legs flailed as he struggled to find the ground beneath him. Eventually, after a clumsy, panicked struggle, he managed to find his footing.

The white mask stared fixedly at him as he fought to catch his breath. The empty black voids pulled him deeper into their depths with every passing moment, like they were swallowing him whole. Nothing disturbed the thick tension of the moment aside from his shaking breaths and the crackling fire meters away.

It was only then in that unbearable, tension-thick stillness did he finally notice a dull ache spreading from the back of his head. Creeping tendrils of fuzzy, amorphous pain were slowly making their way down the tendons of his neck and throughout his skull. He winced as the edges of his vision throbbed and his ears clicked. Distantly, he wondered if Danny had shoved him into the ground a bit harder than he’d realized.

The white mask suddenly rotated out of view, and those tendrils of dull pain retreated and disappeared after it.

Felix snapped back to himself the second that pale mask was no longer within his line of sight. He then became hyper-aware of the killer's presence looming close at his back. Warm puffs of air whispered over the back of his neck, chilling his skin with a layer of gooseflesh. He shivered, and was reminded of his mortifying state of undress. His trembling fingers clutched tightly at the mess of blankets hanging around him.

A gentle pressure settled on either side of his shoulders and he jumped. Leather encased fingers began to squeeze and dig into the tender flesh until he was cringing away from the pain. 

A low, hungry growl rumbled at his back. “ Fuck , you really are a tease; parading around like this. Makes it really hard to believe you don't want this… ” the killer said, crushing his shoulders until a pained whimper was forced out of him. “You were so brazen earlier in front of the meathead. Why are you trying so hard to hide now when you so obviously want to be seen ?”

“ No! Wait!”

The blankets were ripped away in one violent swoop. Felix gasped and curled in on himself. He hugged his exposed body tightly as he shivered in the open air in nothing but his boxers.

The killer rumbled behind him. “There, that’s better…”

Felix nearly jumped out of his skin at the feeling of hands on either side of his hips. Rough fabric whispered against his back as a dark, overwhelming presence moved in close and curled around his form. Fingers began to crawl like creeping spiders around his waist and up his chest, tickling his body hairs and teasing his quivering muscles.

When one began to slip beneath the waistband of his briefs, Felix grabbed it before it could get to its final destination. For his defiance, the killer’s arms instantly wrapped around him, caging him close to the body at his back. 

A hard bulge pressed against his rear. Felix lurched away from it as if he’d been burned. He shrieked and squirmed feverishly in the killer’s crushing, suffocating grasp, trying desperately to escape from his imminent fate.

“No, wait!! Wait! WAIT!! WAIT!! PLEASE DON’T! PLEASE!! Oh Gott hilf mir!!”

“Shush shh shh shushhhh, easy now… easy… ” the killer hushed into his ear.

Despite his feverish panic and the scalding hot tears cascading down his cheeks, Felix gulped down his panic and went quiet and still in the killer’s arms. His breaths came in short, burbling whimpers as he waited for the killer to give him a genuine reason to stay calm, hoping against hope for an alternative to his worst fear.

A dark, muffled giggle vibrated within the mask and against his back. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. You’re far too tempting like this…”

Felix’s heart picked up its pace again. He tensed in the killer’s arms, anticipating the need to resume his panicked struggle.

The killer sighed longingly into his ear, “I’d love to play with you a bit more, but it’ll have to wait. I have something I’d like to show you… We’re going to have to walk a bit to get there though.”

“Wha—?”

Felix yelped as his legs were kicked out from under him. He cried out as his bare knees crashed into the ground and his arms were wrenched painfully behind his back. Thin lines of abrasive, yet stretchy, material wrapped around and around his wrists. He squirmed and fought to break away before it was too late, but the rope cinched tight only seconds later, rendering him completely helpless and at Danny’s mercy.

No!

“D– D– Danny, wait! Please don't do this! I—!” 

He yelped again as he was wrenched back to his feet. Danny held him until he regained his footing. When he was finally steady, the hands bracing him slowly relaxed their grip and began to drift delicately down his bound arms.

Felix stood stock-still as he awaited his fate, skin crawling and trembling in the face of Danny’s demented whims.

The feather-light touch retreated. A hand wrapped tight around one of his bound wrists.

“Walk.”

Felix’s mind stuttered. “W– W– What? ”

“ Walk. I told you. I have a surprise to show you. It's just a short walk from here.”

Felix hesitated, then glanced around at the empty campsite. He didn’t know where David or the others were, but if he left the campsite with Ghostface, the chances of them finding him would practically drop to zero. He had to stay here as long as he could on the off chance that one of them would come back.

Felix sucked in a long, thin breath, and steeled himself. “N– No.”

A beat of silence.

The hand around his wrist tightened. “You don’t have a choice ,” the killer growled.

Felix curled anxiously in on himself, dreading the consequences of his actions, but remained firmly in place.

The killer hissed irately. “Start walking now, or I’ll drag your unconscious body there.”

A vicious chill lashed its way down his spine. Still, Felix did not move. For his own sake, he couldn't.

The campfire crackled quietly off to the side. A crow cawed in the distance.

“Fine then.”

A tremendous force smashed into his back. The air was thrust from his lungs, and his body hurtled through the air. He stumbled, lost his balance, and crashed hard into the earth with a hollow cry. He writhed breathlessly in the dirt, straining against his binds as his chest radiated hot pain from the impact. Once the initial shock had passed, he sucked in a long, ragged breath, and immediately spat it all back out, rattling his battered ribcage. He tried again, and rasped shallowly at the air, trying and failing to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him.

Something looped around his arm and wrenched him away from the ground. He shrieked brokenly as his shoulder was nearly dislocated from the force. The grass then began to rush away from beneath him as his body was dragged over the ground.

Felix gulped air and twisted around himself to gauge his surroundings. He was being dragged away from the campsite and toward the Forest. 

His heart lurched. Despite his diminished and damaged breath capacity, Felix fought and screamed for his life.

“NO!! Help!! Someone help! PLEASE!! DAVID!! DAVID HELP!! ”

His shoulder screamed as it was yanked again. The world spun. Again, the air was forced out of him as his back hit the ground hard, and his ears rang like alarm bells. A familiar pair of dark, wilting voids were suddenly inches from his face. The killer’s gloved hand hovered in the air nearby, seemingly on the verge of plucking the eyeballs out of his skull.

Danny snarled low and threatening. “It’s almost like you’re trying to get me to kill you…”

Felix stared wide-eyed into the killer’s black voids, barely breathing as Danny seemed to contemplate his own suggestion further.

Taking into consideration his currently unknown, but very likely soul-destroying and incredibly painful future… dying a gruesome death now didn’t seem all that unappealing to Felix.

Paradoxically, the ringing in his ears seemed to increase the longer he stared into the eyes of the mask. At some point, he could have sworn those dark depths began to swirl like liquid fog, becoming almost hypnotic as they absorbed his attention. Felix squinted as that odd pain in the back of his head returned as a muted buzz in the background.

Finally, the killer seemed to relax and gave a forced chuckle. “You’re not getting off that easy though…”

The dark hand that had moments ago seemed on the verge of carving the flesh from his face now tenderly brushed against his cheek. It pushed away the stray lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes and tucked it neatly behind his ear.

“It’s not like anyone will hear your screams anyways,” the killer sighed. “The others are all very much… indisposed.”

Felix’s blood went cold. “What?! Wh– What did you do?! ”

The killer chuckled again, this time sounding far more enthused. “Now, now, The Ghostface never reveals all of his secrets— but I will say it was a helluva good time. I especially got a good kick out of watching your dipshit boyfriend squirm .”

Felix’s jaw tightened. His eyes welled with tears. 

“What did you do to him?!” Felix could barely squeeze the words from his throat, his voice was so tight with emotion.

The killer tsked icily. “I can’t believe how fucking obsessed you are with him of all people. It’s revolting ,” he hissed, voice dripping with contempt.

Felix winced as his shoulders were squeezed painfully.

“But since you care about him so fucking much , I want you to know— What happened to him? What’s still happening to him? It’s your fault. ”

Felix tensed again, jaw aching as he squeezed it tighter, fervently shaking his head.

“Oh yes… yours . If you had stayed away like I fucking told you , he could have been fine, but oh no… You couldn’t. Fucking. Help yourself .”

Felix’s voice faltered at the simultaneous pain of those fingers digging into his shoulders and the crushing realization of his culpability. 

“And now? He’s currently wishing for death— thanks to you. ”

Felix went limp in Danny’s crushing grasp. Tears poured freely down his cheeks.

“I’d love to tell you all about how he screamed and cried and begged for mercy like a little bitch … but I’m afraid I’ll get carried away, so I’ll have to tell you later.”

The killer then pulled him back up, and immediately began to march him toward the gloom of the Forest. Felix dragged his feet, barely able to concentrate on walking; Danny was plenty capable of moving him right along, though.

All Felix could think about was David. Every unspeakable possibility of what he’d suffered at the killer’s deranged hands flashed over and over in his mind. What really made him sick, though, were the things that he couldn’t imagine; the things that only someone like Danny could conceive of, and then gleefully carry out.

And Felix was the one who had brought this down on him.

David— his closest friend, the most considerate, most thoughtful person he’d ever known— had finally paid the price for his selfish, reckless negligence in ways he couldn’t even fathom.

Felix couldn’t even bring himself to call out for help anymore, even as he was dragged past the line of trees guarding the campsite and into the arboreal murk of the Forest of Passage. As that familiar orange glow reflecting off of the surrounding foliage faded into shadows, Felix felt himself fade with it.

He deserved whatever fate Danny had planned for him.

Despondent and listless, Felix hung limply in the killer’s grasp, letting himself be carried away further and further into the darkness. Only when his shoulder began to strain under his own weight did he even begin to try supporting himself, but it was nearly impossible while he was still being dragged.

“Danny… hold on a moment…”

To his surprise, Danny slowed to a stop— although the lethargic resignation in his voice probably had something to do with it.

“I’ll walk…”

There was a moment of silent consideration, then a triumphant sneer as the killer pulled him to his feet. “Finally coming around, are we?”

“No,” Felix answered quickly, “ Never. My shoulder is hurting…”

Danny tsked. “Never say never, baby— especially when we have all the time in the world… literally ,” he purred.

A hand settled on his hip and pulled him in close. Felix shuddered and cringed away, straining against his binds as the killer pressed close against him.

An eternity of this? On top of everything else?

Felix could barely fathom it, much less imagine how he was even supposed to survive it.

He suffered the killer’s incontrovertible proximity a while longer, squirming as Danny squeezed him close and nestled into the crook of his neck, humming contentedly. Thankfully though, it didn’t go much further than that.

The killer sighed as he drew back, “C’mon. Let’s not keep them waiting any longer…”

Felix whirled. “What?”

Instead of clarifying, the killer simply resumed walking. Felix was pulled along beside him without care or fanfare. He stared sidelong at the killer as he stumbled beside him, hoping for some kind of explanation for such a loaded statement.

Did he mean other killers? Did Danny intend on… sharing him?! Was that where he was being taken?!

Felix’s mouth went dry. His heart thumped hard in his chest. “Keep who waiting?!”

The killer chuckled, clearly enjoying his panic and distress. “You’ll see…” he cooed teasingly.

Felix grit his teeth as his grip on the situation faltered. His mind ran wild with the dozens of terrible, painful possibilities that might lay in his immediate future. He continued to stumble alongside Danny, barely processing his surroundings as he was ushered forward by his captor. The dread of the unknown was suffocating him, and Danny seemed perfectly content with that.

That probing pain at the back of his skull returned, slow and aching at first, but steadily growing. Tendrils of pain seemed to reach out and wrap around his skull like an octopus, squeezing and crushing his brain until he could barely see. His ears clicked and popped oddly.

Felix whimpered and squeezed his eyes shut, confused and languishing at this strange, surreal pain. Closing his eyes did nothing at all to help, however. If anything, it made it worse with nothing else to focus on, so he forced them back open. Strange, swirling shadows huddled at the corners of his vision, and every time he tried to look at them, they darted away from his perception like cockroaches fleeing the light. He couldn’t tell if they actually existed in the world or not.

The Forest continued to rush at him through a tunnel of shadows. Felix’s head lolled on its stem as he tried to find something to orient himself.

His blurred gaze fell over something bright white in the distance. Felix steered his eyes onto it immediately, but the second he looked, it was gone.

He stared fixedly at that spot among the trees the white blur had been only moments ago, feeling bewildered… but there was also an odd sense of… familiarity. He felt like some memory or recollection was hiding at the edges of his mind, and seeing the white thing had teased it to the surface…

“Something interesting out there?”

Felix snapped back to himself like an overstretched band of elastic. The tendrils of dark pain retreated, and his vision cleared. He stared absently up at Danny, feeling more disoriented and confused than ever.

When Felix didn’t answer, the killer hummed dismissively and just continued on with their journey. 

Felix just continued to stare. He couldn’t understand what was happening to him, or even if it was still happening.

His shoulder ached. He'd been hanging in Danny’s grasp again.

He stumbled back upright until he was trudging alongside the killer again. He couldn’t help but scan his surroundings as he walked, searching the darkness of the Forest for that mysterious white blur. He felt like if he could see it again, things might somehow make sense.

As he scanned the forest floor, however, he realized that something about it was strange. Off . Something was different, but exactly what, Felix couldn’t tell.

At his side, Danny took in a long, protracted breath, and contentedly puffed it all out. “Ah… lovely moon out tonight, huh?”

Felix narrowed his gaze on Danny. The moon never changed… 

An eerie sense of dread settled low and uneasy in the pit of his stomach. He peered up at the thick forest canopy overhead, waiting for it to reveal the moon as they trudged on. Eventually, a gap appeared above them. Bloody bars of dim, auburn light streamed through.

His heart stalled. 

No… it couldn’t be… It can’t .

The gap approached closer, until finally, it lay directly overhead. Felix stood within the beams of red light and craned his neck up at the sky, mouth agape.

The moon was blood red — just like the last time those blighted Pustula Plants had inundated and infested the realm.

The Blight was back.

Felix stared dumbstruck through the trees, unable to comprehend when and how this had happened. The others had told him that these events were separated by years. He’d been so panicked at the campsite, he couldn’t remember if the moon had looked like this or not. How long had it been like this?

Danny gave him a moderate push forward, and he stumbled forward into an unsteady, ambling walk. The blood moon disappeared from view.

As their trek resumed, a terrible, tangential thought wandered into his mind, and his heart did another anxiety-induced lurch.

“Where are you taking me?” he demanded through gritted teeth.

The killer chuffed in amusement. “I told you, it’s a surprise. It wouldn’t be a surprise anymore if I just told you where we were going now, would it? That’s not how surprises work, baby.”

Felix clenched his jaw tighter as he stared helplessly back at Danny. With every step he took toward this ‘surprise,’ the more his anxiety twisted and morphed into a gnawing, ineffable dread. This time, it came not from the infinite possibilities of his unknown fate, but of one possibility in particular that had suddenly become plausible.

Despite his growing fear, Felix reluctantly allowed himself to be led deeper into the shadowy, scarlet-tinged woodland, although the hand at his back now needed to prod him forward a bit more often. It didn’t help that he kept being slowed by his need to continually look up at the sky. Every time the moon peeked its bloody face through the trees, his anxiety heightened. It felt like he was being stalked by something hungry . 

Eventually, Felix couldn’t take the uncanny sight of the moon anymore, and averted his gaze. He felt like he was taking his eyes off a predator— giving it an opening— but at least he didn’t have to see its disturbing visage anymore.

As soon as he pulled his eyes away, however, that odd, aching pain in his head reappeared. It began as a dull, muted flicker behind his eyes, and a subtle, high-pitched chime in his ears, but quickly morphed into something akin to a power drill boring into the back of his skull— and then some . At some point, Felix thought he could even see the piercing pain caging his skull like a bear trap in the corners of his vision. Its penetrating teeth seemed to lurk at the very edges of his perception, and no matter how quickly he tried to spy them, they always seemed to dart away. It was almost like these odd shadows he was seeing existed on the inside of his eyes, like muscae volitantes.

A flash of white in the distance. Felix’s gaze snapped onto it immediately. This time though, it didn’t disappear. It was hard to fully discern exactly what he was looking at due to his ailing vision, but he could tell that the blurry white thing seemed to be… fluttering. Felix narrowed his gaze, but dared not blink. He was afraid he would lose it again if he did. He peered hard at the fluttering thing in the distance, and managed to somewhat bring it into focus. The longer he looked at it, the more he began to realize that it appeared to be… a figure?

His heart skipped a beat.

Was that…?

“Ah finally! Here we are!”

Felix jolted and snapped his head forward. 

Danny was ushering him toward a great, cavernous opening in the trees where bright, auburn moonlight poured in, casting an eerie, otherworldly glow on the dark foliage around them. 

Felix quickly looked back toward where the white figure had been, but it was gone.

Danny quickened their pace and eagerly urged him forward. “Can’t wait for you to see this…” he tittered, practically vibrating with excitement.

A chill raced over his exposed skin. If Danny was this excited about anything, Felix knew he should be very, very afraid.

A wave of dark pressure inundated his skull. His head throbbed, and the bloody moonlight pulsated with it. The open maw of the Forest drew nearer. The clicks and chirps around his head grew steadily louder as the shadows at his periphery encroached. Felix’s heart thumped faster, panic steadily rising as his ultimate fate loomed. 

He braced himself as they walked into the moonlit clearing, squinting hard as his eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness.

Felix froze.

No…

His heart seized.

NO.

He stomped his heels into the dirt and threw himself to the ground. Danny picked him back up without missing a beat and continued to usher him forward, even as he began to flail and writhe deliriously in his grasp.

“NO!! Danny, no!! PLEASE!! Gott, BITTE!! ”

Before him, spanning the entire length of the clearing, was a giant, gaping pit in the earth, tinged with golden light.

But this was not just any old pit, no no… it was THE Pit. The one that had haunted his nightmares, inundated his every waking thought, and had nearly made him give up on existence altogether— and Danny was hauling him ever closer to its perilous, golden edge.

Felix fought and cried as ferociously as he could, but Danny paid him no heed; only silently and stoically dragged him forward until they were mere meters away from the craggy, golden ledge.

He was released without warning and flopped face-first into the grass. Almost instantaneously, Felix rolled himself back upright into a sitting position and began to desperately push himself away from the cliff, but his back met with the killer’s legs almost immediately. He fruitlessly continued to push against them, bound hands clutching at the wall of fabric behind him, wild eyes transfixed on the gaping nightmare before him.

“Danny, Danny, ” he gasped, barely able to speak through his hyperventilation, “ Oh Gott! ”

He felt the killer crouch down behind him. An arm looped tightly around his shoulders and cradled him like a loving partner watching a sunset.

The killer sighed a long, wistful, sigh. “Incredible, aren’t they?”

Felix squirmed and made a noise of distress. He hadn’t yet looked deep enough into the Pit to see the source of his nightmares that were almost certainly lurking down there.

“I’ve got no fucking clue what these things are, or why they’re even here in the first place, but I do know one thing, Felix…”

Felix stilled. His breathing went shallow.

“You looked fucking beautiful with all those tentacles filling and penetrating your shaking body… So many of them, distorting and bloating you like some kind of living sex doll, nectar gushing out of you like cum… I can’t get it out of my fucking head. ”

Felix sobbed brokenly. His attempts to writhe away began anew as flashbacks of the horror mixed with Danny’s sickening descriptions. The hand on his shoulder gripped tighter.

“And no matter how many times I look at all those photos I took… It’s not the same, and it never will be. Thankfully… the Entity is a generous deity, and I hold great favor with it. Look, Felix— look at what it did for us.”

Hands took hold of his body and began to move him forward. Felix resisted instantly and automatically, digging his heels into the dirt and leveraging himself like a lateral brace. He slid uselessly over the grass for a heart pounding moment before his foot finally caught on a rocky divot in the earth. His movement was halted for only a moment before his body was lifted up and shoved forward.

His heart leapt into his throat as the cliff edge rushed toward his face. He wheezed hard as his chest hit the ground, and his vision was filled with radiant, golden light. He gasped and blinked furiously until his senses returned— and found himself staring down at a sea of writhing, quivering Pustula Plants. Their wicked, leaking blossoms and swaying, spiked tendrils reached up at him like hands awaiting alms.

Felix yelped and tried to wriggle back from the edge. His body seized when his scalp lit up with stinging pin-pricks of pain and his head was wrenched back hard. Felix could do nothing but tense and blindly endure as the nerve endings in his scalp screamed.

“Look at them Felix. Look how badly they want you.”

Felix cracked one tearful eye open. The entire throng of disgusting, squirming cankers and limbs shivered and rolled like a wave. Their limbs reached higher, sending up a putrid scent of death and rot up into his face.

“This is where you belong.”

Felix gasped and yelped as he was pulled by his hair onto his knees. He shrieked in horror as one seemed to slip off into nothingness. It spent less than a second in the open air before it was pulled back onto the shrinking piece of ground beneath him. The grip in his hair lessened, and Felix took immediate advantage of it by lurching away from the edge of the pit. Again, he was met by a wall of solid, rugged fabric that halted his retreat. Vertigo quickly overcame him as he stared down. His vision spun around the great, golden gorge beneath him, stealing away his breath.

“Oh Gott! Scheiße!! Heilige SCHEIßE!! Danny! Danny, please! For the love of God, please!! Don’t do this to me!! ” he shrieked between panicked gasps. 

When Danny didn’t respond, Felix turned around and pressed himself against the killer’s leg like a frightened child. Through tear-filled eyes, Felix gazed pleadingly up into the emotionless sockets of the mask. 

“Fuck, I’m sorry! Whatever I did, I’m sorry!! Just please don’t throw me down there! Holy shit, please!!” He gulped hard and steeled himself for what he was about to say next. In his core, Felix knew that literally anything was better than this! “I’ll… I’ll do whatever you want!! Anything!! Just— please!! Don’t do this!!”

Felix then broke down into a flood of tearful sobs, practically wrapping his body around the killer’s leg as he begged and pleaded for mercy from his all-powerful adjudicator.

The mask inclined down at him ever so slightly. The hand on his head stroked tenderly through his sweat-slicked hair. “You would submit yourself to me?”

Felix’s heart lurched with disgust and hope. “Y– Yes!!”

“Completely?”

“YES!! YES!!”

“You’d start sucking and riding my cock like a well paid whore the second I ordered you to?”

Felix whimpered. His stomach churned. “Yes!”

The killer hummed thoughtfully. Felix stared intently up at him, shivering with fear as the hand on his scalp massaged absently. He was on the verge of nuzzling the killer’s crotch to convince him further, when a blurry white blob entered the edges of his vision.

Felix instantly locked his gaze onto it as it emerged from the treeline. He squinted long and hard at the thing until finally, it came into focus.

His heart skipped a beat. Confusion overwhelmed him.

Less than twenty meters behind them, standing like a phantom at the edge of the clearing, was… Christine— belly swollen with child, white shawl fluttering like butterfly wings in a nonexistent breeze, and… she was looking back at him. Her face was heavily shaded by her sunhat, but for the first time since he’d been in this place, she was looking at him. 

Felix’s heart lurched anxiously again, but… something wasn’t right; she didn’t appear to be smiling at him like how he imagined she’d be.

The sunhat lifted and Christine’s face came into full view. She was… disappointed, and… disgusted with him? 

Like an instant-replay, the things he’d just begged for replayed over in his mind.

A wave of crushing guilt and self-hate crashed over him.

She’d watched him beg for all those terrible things— was still watching him prostrate himself like a cowed prostitute to this… monster. Of course she was disgusted with him. Who wouldn’t be? Even he was disgusted with himself. Why the hell should she feel anything else for a man who would degrade and debase himself like this? How could she ever want him again? How could he ever be worthy of her again?

Felix wilted under her unbearable, judging gaze.

Finally, her hat dropped back over her face. Christine then turned back towards the woods, and resumed her slow walk away from him— away from them.

She’d be better off…

Hot tendrils of penetrating pain clamped down hard around his skull. Felix reeled and curled in on himself, utterly incapacitated. Somehow, it was worse than ever before! Felix nearly cried out as the dark pain advanced, sinking into his brain like a dozen talons sinking into flesh, and screeching inside his head like a wild animal.

Despite the fire inundating his mind, Felix forced open an eye. The edges of his vision swirled and warbled with shadows, but he could see for the most part. He cast his searching gaze to the treeline, but saw no sign of Christine or her fluttering white shawl. She was gone.

Felix felt his body start to move on its own. Frantically, he forced the dark pain away to the edges of his mind until he could perceive his surroundings. Again, he found himself staring into that unholy sea of glowing, squirming Pustula Plants. His body reacted automatically, fighting and flailing to pull back, but was terrified to find himself confined to ihis position.

“I’m sorry Felix,” said a dark, slithering voice, “But you already made your choice when you went and cozied up to that fucking moron.”

Felix gasped. “No! No wait!”

“And no matter how much you cry and beg to suck my cock, I cannot ignore how brazenly you’ve disobeyed me.”

“No! Danny please!! ”

“So… since you love being with him so damn much, you get to die with him.”

Felix’s lungs seized. Beside him, a dark limb extended and pointed into the tangled chaos below. His eyes followed an invisible line toward a dark, gray lump nestled among the cankers that he hadn’t noticed until now. Felix stared at it until his languishing mind was able to fully process what it was seeing.

David.

Swollen, bloated, bloody. Twisted and overwhelmed. Lifeless, but not motionless.

His heart wrenched. Felix sobbed and squeezed his eyes shut, unable to look at the consequences of his actions. 

Not once, but twice had David suffered unimaginable torture and terror to these things — because of him. How despicable of a friend Felix was to the only other person in this existence who had ever cared for him? How could he have been so selfish?!

The world spun as Felix was suddenly and violently flipped onto his back. His darkened vision swayed as the pale mask came back into focus, drooping voids staring impassively. His bound hands sought purchase in the grass beneath him, but only grasped at air. His pulse quickened as he realized that his upper half was dangling over nothing.

The fingers digging into either of his shoulders lessened their grip, and Felix’s stomach flipped.

“Wait! WAIT!! Danny please! PLEASE!! I SWEAR I’ll do anything you fucking want! Just— bitte Gott! DON’T DROP ME!!” he shrieked tearfully. His lungs heaved as he waited for Danny’s response. 

As he stared back into those black, emotionless eyes, awaiting his final verdict, that dull, piercing pain that had been lingering at the back of his skull returned. This time though, it grew so fast and to such an intensity that Felix could barely make sense of his existence anymore. His vision tunneled around the eyes of the white mask. His blood roared, and his ears whined so blaringly loud, Felix thought for sure his eardrums would burst.

Something about that deafening roar was somehow off though. The more he zeroed in on that part of the sound and concentrated on it, the more he realized it sounded like some sort of whooshing wind. No… no, not wind. It sounded more like… whispering — but not human .

The whispering was coming from a voice as deep and dark as the shadows bordering his vision. The words were unintelligible and incomprehensible, but they were indeed words. The unearthly voice was speaking words from some sort of language mixed with some kind of chitinous chirping— and it was being spoken inside his skull. He couldn’t understand how or why this was happening, but it was utterly terrifying.

A sharp pain suddenly stabbed into the back of skull like a knife, and he screamed out. Except… he couldn't hear himself scream. In fact, Felix could no longer hear anything at all— not the environment around him, not his own breathing— not even the otherworldly whispering inside his mind. The entire world was suddenly muffled by silence.

Felix felt his heart beating away in his chest like a stampeding horse, but could not hear it in any way.

His gaze refocused on the eyes on the white mask, still bordered by churning darkness— Felix could no longer tell if they were still in his mind or not. The darkness seemed to curl around Danny like crude oil. The sockets of the mask seemed to froth and flow as well, as if they were filled with dark fog. As he stared deeper, Felix could have sworn that each eye held a tiny, flickering ember deep in their centers.

And then, Danny spoke above the silence. The voice that came out of him, however, was distorted and warped beyond all recognition. Felix wasn’t even sure if it really was him speaking.

“Ah… I can see myself in the edges of your eyes,” the voice mused. “ Finally .”

An involuntary chill raced down his spine. He stared wide eyed and wondering through the dark tunnel of his gaze.

“Goodbye Felix. We’ll meet again soon.”

The hands holding him disappeared.

Felix gasped as the terrifying feeling of weightlessness overcame him. The white mask slipped from view and was replaced by a sea of undulating gold.

Felix screamed into the deafening silence as he plummeted into the pit, hurtling toward a spot directly beside his friend’s mangled corpse.

Dark claws and curling tendrils rose eagerly up to meet him.

Notes:

Phew! Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear everyone's interpretation of this chapter!

Chapter 23: Prodding

“Maybe he’s still lying to me, maybe not, but I just… I dunno what ta do anymore Claudie… I feel powerless… and I hate it.”

“I’m sorry David… If I had a remedy for this, I’d give it to you in a heartbeat, but based on what you told me… it seems like all we can do is just be there for him.”

David gave a long, morose sigh and let his head fall into his hands. He gave his worry-creased face a good, long scrub then looked off to his other side. Beside him on the ground, Felix lay curled up and fast asleep under a mound of blankets. He’d developed a subtle frown over the past ten minutes or so, but for the most part, he still seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

He found himself staring at Felix’s softly frowning face for far longer than what could be considered a cursory glance, and the longer he stared, the heavier his heart became. 

Felix was suffering. He thought it might've been because of that creep motherfucker in the woods, but Felix was adamant that that was not the case. Instead, he’d admitted that the failure of the serum was demoralizing him to such a degree, that… that he wished to stay in the darkness of death for however long he could. And to make things worse… he’d been afraid to tell David about it because of his harsh reaction to the serum experiments.

David had suspected that Felix didn’t trust him in some aspect, but he hadn’t expected the truth to hurt as much as it did. This was completely his own fault though— he shouldn’t have lost his cool like that in the first place. Anger was something he struggled with constantly. David knew this, yet he still lost his temper on a regular basis. Shit, he’d just raised his voice to Felix not thirty minutes ago. Granted, it was hard to stay calm when the man he loved was so obviously suffering and trying to hide it. No matter how bad things appeared to be though, Felix didn’t deserve to be berated like that. David had yet again given his emotions free reign, giving Felix yet another reason to hide away instead of opening up. It was why David had offered Claudette as an alternative source of support; he wasn’t sure he could trust himself to be calm when he was this on edge.

His impulsive reactions had done nothing but open a new rift of mistrust between them. For this reason, he still wasn’t sure if Felix’s excuses were true or not, but… what if they were? What if Ace was right? What if there really was no malicious, external force bringing Felix down? What if the man in the woods was really just a nobody?

What if Felix was telling the truth?

His brow furrowed hard as he stared at his sleeping friend.

“I’m… I’m scared Claudie…”

He swallowed the hard lump of emotion sitting painfully over his Adam's apple, and began to wring his clasped hands. His voice faded to a breathy whisper, afraid to even speak his worst fear aloud. “What if… What if he really is… fading? ”

His throat closed up the second he spoke it aloud. He tried to keep the idea at arm's length— as if it were a mere suggestion instead of the most obvious scenario— but the longer the thought hung freely in the air, the more tangible it became. This person he’d found such connection with— even a deep love for… this person who was like the sun to him in a sunless place… Losing him now, after how much they’d grown together… David didn’t think he’d be able to function without him.

Claudette was silent for a long while.

Voice still stolen away, David’s eyes remained locked onto Felix’s face. He suddenly felt as though he only had a limited amount of time to take it in.

“If Felix really is losing hope…” Claudette finally said, “Then we have to give him other things to be hopeful for. We need to show him that all is not lost— that it's not over … not yet anyways.”

David sucked in a revelatory breath. 

Claudette was right— and he was being a fucking bellend right now. Here he was, practically grieving for Felix’s loss already, when the man was still right here , right in front of his fucking face. It wasn’t too late. Even if Felix didn’t fully trust him right now, there was still time to pull him out of his downward spiral. He just had to become less emotional and a lot smarter about helping Felix.

Despair was like a cancer. If allowed to grow and metastasize, it could quickly take over and smother the life out of a person. If attacked early and strategically, though… it could be managed effectively— if not outright eliminated. He just had to put in the right kind of effort.

Felix wasn’t gone yet, and he’d be damned if he was just going stand by and let it happen.

Finally, David broke his gaze away from his friend’s sleeping form and turned back to Claudette. “You’re right Claudie. Thanks.”

“Of course,” she said, smiling warmly back. “We’ll work together on this, okay? I’m going to do everything I can to help, and I’ll be sure to fill Dwight in on all this too. I’m sure he’ll be able to sway some of the others to keep an eye out for him.”

He nodded heartily, feeling the beginnings of a smile curl his lips. For the first time in a long time, David felt his heart swell with hope. Things still weren’t great, but now he had a plan— and help.

A sharp gasp punctured the air.

David’s eyes fixated on Felix immediately. Instead of sleeping peacefully like he had been, Felix now seemed to be quivering beneath his blankets and breathing in shallow, hissing gasps. 

David scooted down the log away from Claudette and back over to Felix. From this close, he could see the man’s expression was now twisted by distress.

This wasn’t the first time that Felix had suffered a nightmare, nor would it be the last. The man seemed particularly susceptible to them, so David had become accustomed to knowing when to wake him out of them. This one seemed to be well on its way to becoming quite bad, so David moved to do what he usually did in this situation.

He kneeled beside the shivering man and began to coax him awake. “Oi Felix… Felix, wake up,” he said, gently shaking him by the shoulder. “You’re dreamin’.”

Felix continued to shake. His jaw clenched tight as he breathed a diminutive, broken whimper.

“Felix.” David shook him a bit harder, but saw no change. He pulled down the blankets a bit to get a better view of the man’s face, which now looked almost pained .

He frowned and began to pat repeatedly at Felix’s cheek. “Hey. Wake up.” 

Still, Felix did not wake.

A low pang of anxiety struck a chord within him. This was starting to become abnormal…

An indignant snort echoed from the other side of the fire. David looked up to see Ace sneering at him from his log seat, looking exceptionally snide. Next to him, Nea watched the scene with a raised, dispassionate brow.

He gave them each a pointed glare and refocused his attention back on Felix. He tried to rouse him again, this time with a bit more force. Still, he did not wake.

David let slip a fearful grunt. “Claudie? Claudie c’mere, I can’t—”

Felix shrieked and wrenched violently backwards.

David recoiled in shock. His heart thumped wildly away in his chest as he watched Felix begin to jerk and spasm on the ground.

“What the fuck! ” shouted Ace, who’d jumped to his feet with Nea. They both stared with tight grimaces, shrinking away from the scene as if Felix had become contagious.

That snapped David back into the present. He fell back to Felix’s side, hands hovering indecisively as his friend’s body distorted and strained against itself. The whites of his eyes peered out at him from beneath fluttering lids.

“CLAUDIE?!?”

The botanist was at his side in a second. “Cradle his head!”

David grimaced and did as she commanded. He gathered up the man’s floundering head in his palm, stopping it from bashing against the ground while also stabilizing his neck. He used his other hand to brace Felix’s convulsing body against his own. 

David grit his teeth hard. “What’s happening to him?!”

“I don’t know! Looks like some sort of seizure!” Claudette barked, kneeling above Felix and slipping her own hands beneath his to aid in supporting his lurching head.

The man let out a disturbing, gulping sort of gasp, sounding almost like he was being strangled . He then arched forcefully again, practically wrapping himself backward around David’s body. Despite how upsetting and shocking it was to see Felix like this, he held firm. 

The convulsions grew in intensity and power, to the point that it looked as if he was being electrocuted . His hands curled up against his chest like mangled claws. Foam was beginning to gather at the corners of his lips, and his eyes had rolled so far back into his head that his pupils were no longer visible. David held onto Felix for his life, pulse pounding and tears welling in his eyes as he listened to his friend suffer and squirm and gasp for air in his arms. It was horrifying to watch, especially when they had no damn idea about what was causing it.

“It’s getting worse! ” he cried.

“It’ll pass!”

David shook his head without even thinking. His mind flashed back to the last time he’d been in this position, uselessly holding Felix as he writhed and twisted himself into knots, vomiting himself inside out— basically doing nothing until his friend died in an ocean of his own blood.  

No. He was not going to stand by and let the same thing happen again!

David let go of Felix’s waist, shot forward, and cradled his face in his hands. He stared straight into the whites of his eyes and shouted for the person he cared for more than anything to come back to life.

“Felix?! FELIX!! Wherever you are in there, come back!! ”

“David! He can’t hear you! ” Claudette exclaimed, but David ignored her.

“Felix, please! I’m right here! Snap out of this!!”

The body beneath him continued to rhythmically seize and jerk.

“FELIX!!”

A gurgling, wheezing sound fought its way up the man’s throat and pushed more white foam down the sides of his face. His eyes closed partway for a moment, then opened even wider than before, as if he were gaping up at some unspeakable horror with those unseeing white orbs.

David sucked a startled breath. 

He wasn’t sure if it had been there this entire time, but from this close, it was clear as day. The borders of Felix’s eyes were stained black — not the pink flesh around the eye, but the eye itself . It definitely wasn’t any kind of discharge or dirt though, because it looked like it was moving .

Astonished, David moved in closer. It was a bit hard to determine if he really was seeing what he thought he was due to Felix’s convulsions, but the black substance on his eyes appeared to be… flowing… and swirling— like some kind of thick, billowing liquid… like fog. Some of it was reaching out into his eyeball like living, wriggling veins. 

“What the fuck…”

The body in his arms suddenly shuddered and went completely limp.

David reeled backward. His eyes frantically roved over Felix’s lax form, pulse pounding in his ears as he waited several long seconds for any signs of life. 

“Felix?” He croaked, voice barely audible.

His hand moved to check the pulse point at his neck. 

Felix’s chest suddenly heaved, and David jumped back. The body in his arms gasped hard and wet, then began sucking air as if it were a balloon reinflating itself. With every breath his lungs took, the more life seemed to return to him. His arms suddenly began flailing wildly. They searched and clawed for something to hold onto, until finally, they found purchase in David’s shirt.

“Felix! FELIX!!”

The man flailed about for a moment, locked eyes with him, and went stiff. This time, Felix was staring up at him with those familiar, sapphire blues, mercifully devoid of any of that mysterious black substance. David stared back apprehensively, waiting for the calm to descend back into chaos the very next second.

Suddenly, those wide, blue orbs went glassy with moisture, and Felix sobbed hard. Tears spilled down his face as his hands began to clutch and grasp at David’s shirt, desperately trying to pull him closer.

David obliged instantly, gathering him up into his arms and hugging him tight against his body. 

Felix buried his face into his chest and began to sob and wail like a child. His arms squeezed around David’s chest in a death grip, as if he might fade through his fingers at any moment. 

When David’s mind finally accepted that the danger was over and that Felix had truly come back, a breathtaking wave of relief flooded over him and the adrenaline faded. A wave of emotion quickly rushed in to replace it, and David began to feel his own eyes well with tears. He squeezed the sobbing man even tighter, feeling how each and every sinew in the man’s body shuddered with trauma and shock.

As the frightening horror of what had just occurred fully sank in, the floodgates seemed to open. David felt his own limbs begin to shake, and the sobs came quickly after. 

He cradled the man closer and pressed his tear-soaked grimace against Felix’s mussed, blonde hair. “You wouldn’t wake up!” he rasped.

Felix’s sobs turned into blubbering whimpers as he tried to fuse himself to David’s form. David could barely hear it at first, but eventually, he was able to make out the words the man was muttering into his clothes.

Not real not real not real not real!…

David held him as tight as he could, whispering watery condolences as his own tears fell unabated into the man’s hair and stuck the fine locks to his cheek. He continued to sit there cradling Felix in his arms, listening to his heartbreaking, anguished whimpering, until he could no longer feel his legs.

Eventually, the man’s sobbing died down, but whether or not that was due to the success of his soothing or sheer exhaustion was unknown. 

When Felix finally pulled back enough to reveal his flushed, fluid-encrusted face, David’s heart wrenched. He looked utterly exhausted and dazed. His breaths were coming long and overly deliberate, like every inhale and exhale was a conscious, measured decision. He also seemed somewhat dissociated, like he was only half-present in the moment. 

David opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, then asked anyways. “Are you okay?”

Wet, red-ringed eyes flicked up to meet his own, displaying some measure of lucidity and then drifted back down. Felix then wordlessly sank back against his shoulder and turned his face into his damp shirt.

David’s heart twinged again, but he did not allow himself to fall back into sorrow— Felix needed him right now. 

He quickly wiped the gunk and detritus on his face into his sleeve and sniffed away the last of his tears. He set about checking Felix over and noticed that the man was still shivering. He dragged up the blankets that had been thrown to the side and wrapped them tightly around his exposed shoulders.

Claudette appeared on Felix’s other side out of seemingly nowhere, holding out a damp cloth. David took it without a second thought and began to gently dab away at Felix’s begrimed, fatigued features.

“Felix? Can you tell us if you’re okay?” asked Claudette.

Felix blinked a few times, seemingly trying to regain a bit more of his awareness, and then nodded weakly.

“Can you use your words? Are you able to speak?”

Felix swallowed hard. His jaw worked for a moment as he gathered the energy to speak, until finally, he croaked out a hesitant, “Y– Yes.”

The botanist seemed to consider his reply for a long moment before moving on. “Here, why don’t you lean back against this log here?”

Felix glanced behind himself and then up at David, who he was still somewhat clinging to. David gave him a thin, encouraging smile in return, silently communicating that it was okay, and that he’d still be right here by his side. Felix seemed to think about it for a moment longer before fully relinquishing himself from David and settling against the log with his blankets pulled tightly around himself.

David also sat back and immediately shifted his sitting position so that blood flow could return to his numb, prickling legs.

“Do you know what happened?” asked Claudette.

Felix didn’t seem to want to look at her. He minutely shook his head.

“You seemed to have suffered some sort of seizure. Have you ever had a seizure before?”

Felix grimaced. Again, he shook his head.

David quietly observed as Claudette went about her examination. She asked him several more questions about his medical history and if he remembered anything before or during the seizure, to which Felix replied nonverbally. She then moved on to a physical examination wherein she tested his vision, pupil dilation, and motor skills.

During this, David looked up and around the campfire for the first time. Ace and Nea were lingering a respectable distance away, muttering quietly to each other, while Jake stood idly by, silently and stringently eyeing them. On a nearby log sat Dwight, who had no doubt been roused from his convalescence by all the commotion, and was now watching the scene before him with quiet concern. His ankle was still heavily wrapped, so David guessed that he couldn’t have moved away with the others even if he’d wanted to. That was just as well to David though; it was important that their leader was aware of everything going on right now.

He cast his attention back to Felix just as Claudette finished up a test where Felix was required to follow her finger with his eyes. She then sat back on her heels with a wan sigh, looking perplexed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, it looks like… nothing.”

David frowned and looked appraisingly at Felix. “Hold on, mind if I check something roight quick?” he asked, extending a hand into Felix’s space.

The German nodded, so David moved in closer.

“Can you look up toward the sky for me?”

Felix did as he asked, and looked up. Claudette watched quizzically as he thumbed the skin just below Felix’s eye, and pulled his eyelid down.

Nothing was there. No foggy, swirling fluid or wandering threads of ink-dark blackness— just normal, pink and red flesh and white sclera.

Confused, and somewhat disturbed, David retreated from his friend, wondering if he’d been imagining things.

After a long moment of silence, Claudette seemed to decide to move things along. “Well Felix, if you’re feeling okay, why don’t we give you a moment to gather yourself while we discuss a few things with Dwight, okay?”

Felix seemed to stiffen at that. He cast an anxious look over to David and then back to Claudette. After a short, strained moment though, his eyes suddenly dropped and fixated back on the fire. He bundled himself a bit tighter and gave a diminutive nod.

David watched all of this with an air of apprehension. He wondered if Felix still needed him, or if he was just trying to put on a brave face. It was also possible that he just needed a bit of space after all that attention. Despite how uneasy David still felt about Felix, he ultimately decided to trust the man’s decision, and rose to his feet along with Claudette. 

“Let me know if you need anything at all. Aright?” David said, finding an excuse to linger a bit longer.

Felix glanced up at him then gave another sluggish nod.

David couldn’t help but delay a bit longer. He still felt anxious about leaving his friend’s side for even for a moment. This entire situation had shaken him greatly, and the urge to just sit back down and hold Felix close again— just to reassure himself that he really was okay— was incredibly hard to resist.

He could feel Claudette’s and Dwight’s eyes on his back though, so eventually, he overcame his anxious reluctance and moved to join them. Thankfully, it wasn’t much further than six or so meters away, so he could be at Felix’s side in a split second if called.

David sat sideways besides Dwight with Felix firmly in the corner of his eye. Claudette stood before them both with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, expression hollow and grim.

David expected at least one of them to speak right away, but no one did.

After several long, empty beats of silence, Dwight ended up leading the way. “So… is he going to be okay?”

Claudette breathed long and slow. “If you mean physiologically, then yes, he seems perfectly fine. Other than that?… I can’t see how he would be.”

David grimaced tightly. “You two ever seen anythin’ like that before?”

They both shook their heads immediately.

“Only ever in Trials when there’s severe head trauma,” Claudette said somberly. “Never just out of the blue like that.”

David swallowed hard. “D’ya think it could be like… a symptom of some sort? A sign of him…” He couldn’t finish the thought. His throat closed again.

Claudette’s expression grew sympathetic. Dwight frowned in confusion and looked to her for clarification.

Claudette sighed sadly. “We think Felix is showing signs of… fading. Without the serum or any other avenues of escape for him to work towards, it seems like he’s been steadily losing hope ever since that last experiment.”

Dwight’s brow furrowed deeply under the thick, black frames of his glasses. “We’ve lost more people over the years than I’d care to admit… good people. Countless souls being slowly hollowed out and chipped away little by little with every Trial. Of course, I’ve always tried my best to motivate them and bring them back out of it— and sometimes I’m successful,” Dwight said, smiling up at Claudette, and she smiled softly back. As he continued on though, his smile quickly faded. “Other times though… it seemed like no matter what I did, there was no pulling someone back from the brink— like their mind was already made up. Sometimes they were gone after only two Trials, and other times, it happened so slowly and steadily, I never even realized they were struggling until it was too late.” Dwight stared solemnly at the ground as he appeared to reminisce. The man breathed deep, then suddenly turned toward David, looking more serious than he’d seen him in years. “But in all my time here, not once , have I ever seen something like that. ”

An icy chill slithered down David’s arrow-straight spine. Feeling somewhat pale, he glanced back at Felix just to reassure himself that the man was still okay.

“Then what the hell was that?” Claudette asked, mostly to herself.

Dwight shook his head helplessly.

“I saw something,” David said suddenly. 

Their attention was instantly on him.

He breathed deep to compose himself, and then carefully described the mysterious black substance he’d seen in Felix’s eyes. When he was finished, their faces looked several shades paler than when he’d started. David had hoped this detail might mean something to the more experienced duo, but they seemed just as utterly horrified and baffled as he was.

Dwight’s gaze slowly dropped as he puzzled it over. After several long moments though, he shot upright with a snap of his fingers. “The serum— he’s the only one who ever took it, right? What if he’s suffering from some side effect that’s only cropping up now?”

David silently gasped. His heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t even considered that possibility. Had he really missed something that dangerous?

Claudette mumbled dismissively. “I don’t see how that’s possible. Our bodies completely reset and regenerate when we die— right down to the very clothes we were wearing when we were taken. Nothing aside from our memories carry over to our next life— well, most of the time anyways— but there’s no reason to think that any substances in our system would stay with us.”

“But what if it changed ‘im somehow?” David asked a bit too frantically, “What if he’s starting to mutate into something like that blighted monster out there?!”

“Hey, easy David…” soothed Dwight, subtly squeezing his shoulder. “Not so loud…”

David winced and threw a furtive glance over his shoulder. He caught Felix subtly eyeing the group and then turning his attention back to the campfire. David turned back with a tight grimace and a shallow breath, hoping that Felix hadn’t heard him. The last thing he wanted to do was make him panic.

Claudette shook her head, expression warm and considerate. “David. There’s no reason to think that this has anything to do with the serum. Admittedly, I don’t know everything about it, but me and Felix both spent a long time studying it. Black, oil-like substance over the rear of the sclera was never a manifestation of the serum’s effects, and when there were external excretions, they were always gold in color— not black.”

David couldn’t help but somewhat cringe at her very clinical descriptions of the ways Felix had succumbed to the serum in the past. She made it sound like those experiments had been routine or inconsequential, but David knew all too well it had been anything but.

In a rare moment of empathic incognizance, Claudette appeared to mistake his discomfort for doubt, which she then attempted to assuage. “Of course, there’s no reason to rule it out completely, but I’m just saying there’s no evidence to suggest this was due to the serum— especially after how much time has passed since he last took it.”

David frowned deeply. “I… s’pose I see what you’re gettin’ at Claudie, but… what else could it be then?”

Another long moment of consideration passed between them.

Dwight perked up, eyes narrowed in thought. “Maybe it’s just… the Entity?”

David and Claudette both stared inscrutably.

“David, you said the substance looked almost like fog… so what if it is?”

David blinked in surprise.

Dwight prodded the idea a bit more, seeming to build on it as he talked it out. “Maybe… maybe it’s trying to single him out for some reason? Maybe what we just saw was a direct attack of some kind?”

David drew back in horror. “W– What?!”

Claudette immediately interjected. “ David , calm down. Dwight. We don’t know that, okay? The Entity has never interacted with us like that. It’s only ever taken us in Trials—”

“—Are you saying it’s trying to get rid of him?!”  

They all stared silently at one another as the implication settled in. Dwight’s furrowed, bespectacled gaze shifted rapidly between them. His mouth hung open for a long moment.

“I… I didn’t say that. I was just trying to work out a possible explanation, okay? There’s no reason to think that’s what’s happening here— I was just speculating.”

David stared hard at the man beside him, jaw clenched hard with dismay. Even though Dwight had backpedaled on the allusion, David couldn’t help but be taken by it. He already had a sneaking suspicion that the Entity had a certain ‘dislike’ of Felix due to how often it made him participate in the Trials. There was also the incident with the Pustula Plants and the subsequent aftermath in the Forest where the Entity had almost certainly tried to take him then. But targeting Felix directly? Attacking him? Was it tired of waiting at this point and just taking a more direct approach? And why did it want him gone in the first place?

David shuddered at the thought. If this were true… there was no hope in defying the ambitions of an all-powerful, eldritch deity, and Felix was as good as gone .

“David? Hey, David .”

David centered his wide-eyed, frazzled gaze directly on Dwight. “I– I think you’re right.”

Dwight’s eyebrows shot up, and his glasses dropped.

“I– I think it’s the Entity. I think it wants him gone.”

Claudette and Dwight both stared in wonder.

Looking doubtful, Claudette canted her head and pursed her lips. “What makes you think that, David?”

“I…”

David hesitated. He’d made a promise never to tell what had happened to them in that pit— not that he really wanted to talk or think about it in a million years, but a part of that story was relevant here. Back then, the Entity had clearly attempted to use the trauma of that experience to drive Felix to despair, but hadn’t quite succeeded— Felix had managed to pull himself out of it somehow. Now, the evidence seemed to point to a similar thing happening here. Sharing some of the information about the incident could be helpful, but the last thing David would ever do in his infinite existence was break a promise he’d made to Felix.

“I’ve… noticed some things. It’s hard to explain, but… sometimes I feel like the Entity has it out for Felix in particular.”

The two veteran survivors waited for him to elaborate, but when that didn’t happen, their skepticism became plain to see. The expression that had grown on Dwight’s face quickly softened, however.

“We believe you David,” Dwight said suddenly, and David could tell that the man truly meant it. Dwight had never been the sort of person to discount the experience of others, evidence or no, and it was a trait that had endeared him to the man long ago. “Your intuition has some merit since you spend a lot of time with him, but I think we should still keep all these possibilities in mind. We could be completely off-base about all of it. The bottom line though is that Felix is at risk and needs support. I’ll direct everyone to keep a close eye on him and help him out however they can. Sound good?”

“And we need to make sure he’s not left alone,” David added, “That loony Bambi could still be out there as well. I’ve been tryin’ to stick by Felix’s side just in case he comes back, but we could get separated at any time— ‘specially during a Trial.”

Dwight’s eyes brightened, and he nodded. “Sure, of course— and did Felix ever say anything about him by the way?”

David shrugged and shook his head. “Said he never met the bloke in his life. I think the fucker’s absolutely a threat though, just goin’ by the vile shite he prattled on about to me.” David said through gritted teeth. His fists automatically squeezed as the key moments of that conversation ran through his head again.

Dwight’s eyes narrowed in that signature way, indicating his working mind. “It’s odd…”

“What?” asked David.

Dwight squirmed in place and puffed out his frustration. “Well, all of it really. Everything that’s happened seems centered on Felix, but none of its connected.”

David silently concurred. He’d experienced all these odd occurrences first hand, but the thread that connected them all together, if there was one, seemed nowhere to be found.

“Well, if it’s the Entity itself that’s orchestrating all of this,” Claudette said, finally breaking her silence, “Couldn’t it have sent the stranger too?”

David reeled. “Fucking hell, of course! So it is the Entity doing all this then!”

Dwight threw a cautionary hand between them. “It makes a lot of logical sense, I’ll admit, but let’s not jump to any conclusions right this second. Let’s just focus on Felix and inform the others for now, okay?”

Feeling that to be wise, David straightened and nodded along with Claudette.

Just then, a huddled pair emerged from the Forest. The taller half bobbed unsteadily alongside the shorter figure, clearly being used to support their weight. As the struggling duet limped into the firelight, it was revealed to be Kate and a dreadfully bloody detective David Tapp leaning heavily off her shoulder.

“Guess I’ll start with them,” Claudette said, and hurried off to meet the returning survivors. She was quick to support her new patient’s opposite side as they both carried him off to the supply box.

It was also at this point that the group of lingering survivors took that as a sign to return to their spots around the campfire.

David grumbled territorially. “I better go check up on him.”

Dwight nodded, but then interjected. “Ah erm, David?…”

David paused with his leg mid-swing over the log.

Dwight’s face scrunched in that apologetic, awkward, yet endearing way that David hadn’t seen from him in a very long time. It made his center warm with nostalgia.

“I… I just wanted to say that… I’m sorry this is happening. It’s obvious that you care about him a lot.”

David felt his cheeks heat, and his expression tightened into a thin line. He nodded deftly.

“And… I’m glad you were able to find that again in someone else. I know things haven’t been the greatest for you for a while now, and I’m sorry about that—”

“It’s not your fault. Things were different back then.”

Dwight smiled wistfully. “Yeah… a lot less responsibility… and fewer eyes,” he said, face blooming a pinkish red.

David couldn’t help but smirk mischievously. “Lot easier to muck about with only four pair to worry about, aye?” he teased, giving the man a gentle elbow.

The smaller man nodded sheepishly, skin turning progressively more red.

David sighed fondly. “Was fun while it lasted, but… ending things was for the best. Was getting unhealthy anyways…”

Dwight half nodded and half shrugged.

They’d already hashed this out years ago, so it was understandable for him to want to avoid digging it back up again.

For someone like David, who was so used to wielding physical strength and intimidation to mold the world around him, adapting to this place had been… difficult, to say the absolute bare minimum about it. With their main adversaries being pretty much invincible, his pent up anger had usually ended up being directed at the people around him. It came as a surprise though when the nerd of the group was the first to stand up to him, and it had made an impression on David.

His temper eventually cooled with time, but his baseline frustrations had only seemed to grow, until… one day, a heated argument about generators with Dwight turned into… something else. Burning off all that pent up energy had felt amazing, and it wasn’t long before the both of them were finding excuses to wander off together.

At the time, David had thought it might’ve been love. The longer it carried on though, the more apparent it became that their little fling was more about mindless pleasure and staving off existential dread than anything else.

Of course, he’d tried to deny it as long as he could, but the end had been inevitable. Dwight was becoming the unequivocal figurehead of their growing motley crew, and his time and objectivity was becoming more important than ever. 

Being directly involved with the leader of the group had become… inappropriate. 

So, Dwight cut him off.

Of course, he’d been upset about it and maybe even a bit resentful, but it didn’t take long for David to realize that it had been for the best. Dwight needed to do his important leader thing, and pleasure for pleasure’s sake was never going to result in a healthy relationship anyways.

He went back to being fairly rough around the edges after that, falling in with Ace and his crew to fill the gap. Being ruthlessly efficient in the Trials and beyond had worked out for a while… until it didn’t… and David could no longer stomach it.

He grew rather cynical after that. Bitter. Distant.

He’d fucked up, and didn’t know what to do with himself anymore aside from just going through the motions. Trial after Trial after Trial until it was all just a bloody blur. He still helped out whenever he was needed of course, but… for the most part, he’d been on autopilot.

And then one day… something funny happened… 

The most aggravatingly attractive man he’d ever seen in his life waltzed into his world and threw a big fucking spanner into everything.

Looking back now, David was fairly certain he’d been so initially hostile because he’d found him so attractive… and maybe there was a little fear there too— a fear of falling for someone else again. Now, he knew that that fear had been very legitimate.

David spied over at the man that had turned his heart into a warm, bloody, overwrought pulp, and let slip a long, sorrowful sigh. He stared absently as his unobtainable love gazed unseeing into the flames at his feet, looking pitiful and exhausted.

“It’s real for you this time, isn’t it?”

David blinked back to himself and turned back to Dwight. He reran the words over again in his mind as he caught back up to the present. Mouth hanging open and unmoving, he stared at his old partner for a while longer, searching his deep brown eyes as he mulled over the same words several more times, considering their weight. Eventually, his mouth pinched shut, and he looked away. He gave a slow, solemn nod.

He found his eyes drifting back to the campfire to watch how its smoldering light danced off the gilded locks of that disheveled, flowing gold hair.

“But… isn’t he…”

“Yea,” David answered quickly, intercepting the man’s thought process.

He felt his insides twist at the unwanted reminder— at the impossibility and immorality of what he wanted, but could never have. Slowly though, like a well-trained muscle, he let the uncomfortable tension ease and dissipate into a sore but familiar acceptance.

“It’s… beyond that now. As long as I can be there for him, whatever that looks like… That’s all I need.”

David could no longer take his eyes off Felix. He felt Dwight’s warm, puppy-dog eyes roving over his face as they tried to read his disposition, and then a fond, somewhat sad smile spread through his old friend’s features.

“Don’t worry David,” said Dwight, voice a bit rougher than before, “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure he’s safe.”

David nodded wordlessly and felt his throat go tight. He wanted to say thank you, but could no longer find his voice.

That didn’t seem to matter to Dwight though, who just gave his bulky shoulder a strong pat and a small smile. “Go on. He needs you.”

David sucked in a sharp, steadying breath, and blew it all back out with a nod of self-affirmation. He gave Dwight one last look of gratitude, and hopped back to his feet.

As he left, Dwight called the others over. They had been lingering around the campfire for a minute now. Kate, Nea, and Jake rose silently, but Ace tossed his head like he was rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, the disgruntled Argentinian went to meet Dwight along with the others.

With another long, drawn out breath, David did his best to rid himself of all visible signs of anxiety and trode carefully over to Felix’s side. The man’s eyes were now tightly shut. He appeared to be completely focused on taking slow, deliberate breaths. When David stepped into his space, his eyes snapped open with a bodily jolt.

David winced. “Sorry mate, is just me.” He eased himself to the ground beside him, brought his knees up to his chest, and then leaned back against the log.

Felix hadn’t broken his gaze from the fire. His expression was careful and hollow— like he was looking straight through the flames rather than at them. The hard, orange light cast heavy shadows over his face, deepening the severity of his sallow look.

“You doin’ alroight?” David asked, making an effort to sound hospitable.

Felix glanced at him from the corner of his eye, then shifted his blanket a bit higher over his shoulders. He gave a stiff, almost imperceptible shrug.

Anxiety returning, David shifted and fretted at the calluses on his hands for a long moment, thinking about how best to proceed. “Do you want to talk about it?” he finally asked.

“No.”

David flinched, the biting sharpness of the reply taking him by surprise.

Felix made a rueful noise, seeming to realize how he’d sounded. “Ehm, I mean… sorry, I…”

David shook his head, “S’okay mate. I get it. You don’t have to explain yourself.”

The German drew his shoulders up and gave a haggard, hesitant nod. “Thank you.”

David found himself staring again, wishing he could see into Felix’s mind— it would make all of this so much easier.

Again, the man glanced back at him from the corner of his eye. “So, what did they say?”

“Huh?”

“Dwight and Claudette. What did they think about…”

“Oh. Roight. Well… we’ve got several working theories about what’s happening. Could be the serum, could just be… your emotional state, but I think the most likely theory is that it’s the Entity.”

Felix turned back to look at him, brow furrowed with confusion. “What?”

David leaned forward, returning his own serious look. “Felix. When you were… out… I saw something... in your eyes.”

His dirty blonde eyebrows drew tautly together. “Wh– what do you mean…”

David sighed. “It looked like… like swirling fog or black tendrils or somethin’.”

The German blinked in disbelief as he processed this, and then the color then seemed to drain from his face. He turned dazedly back toward the fire without a word.

David grimaced at this reaction, but continued on; it was important that Felix understood how at risk he was. “Because of this… we think that what happened to you was some sort of direct attack by the Entity. I’m thinking that, since it failed to get you that first time, after… you know… —It’s tired of waiting, so it’s trying a more direct approach.”

Jaw tight and expression drawn, Felix’s eyes wandered as he appeared to take all of this in. 

“But don’t worry— Dwight’s gonna make sure everyone’s keepin’ an eye on ya from here on. We’re all gonna make sure nothing happens to ya.”

Felix suddenly turned back toward him, wide-eyed and aghast. “How?”

David blinked, somewhat taken aback by his response. His mouth hung agape as he gathered his thoughts. “L– Like how we always do… Covering you in Trials, making sure you’re not on your own, sticking by you when—”

“Against the Entity? The all-powerful thing that runs this place?”

David stared back into Felix’s hard eyes, and was seized by the despondent, weary fear he saw in them.

Felix was right. What could they do against the will of the Entity? Preventing his death in the Trials and keeping him company only went so far, but… even though things seemed dire, the same rules could still apply. Like with those at risk of losing hope, keeping Felix’s spirits high could still play a role in how susceptible he was to the Entity. If not, then God help them… but Felix didn’t necessarily need to worry about that.

David crossed his legs, straightened his back, and rested a comforting hand over Felix’s shoulder. “Mate, listen. The Entity might be all-powerful, but by all accounts, it seems limited in certain ways. It’s only ever taken people when they lose all hope. I don’t rightly know why… maybe because it needs ‘em to be weak to do anything to ‘em, but—”

“Or because it's just bored of them . ”

He felt a pang of frustration at Felix’s demoralized belligerence. David huffed and tried again. “Maybe, but it hasn’t outright taken you for a reason , Felix. This place has rules — fucking mental, irrational, absurd rules— but they are rules. Take the campsite,” David said, gesturing around them. “We are one-hundred percent safe in this area. No killer will ever reach us here, because they physically can’t . The Entity wont allow—”

“Are you certain of that?” 

The look on Felix’s face was intense— almost challenging. On the surface, that look spoke of doubt and skepticism, but deeper down… it suggested a profound, volatile fear.

David hesitated, considering his friend’s sudden emotional intensity. “Yes… yes, I’m dead positive. The Entity loves its suffering, but it seems to like its rules even more. Sometimes they’re a tad flexible, but for the most part, things are set in stone.”

Felix continued to look him over with that hard, morose expression, and the longer he stared, the more wounded he seemed to become. Finally, he turned back toward the fire. The subsequent silence was like a gaping, seeping wound.

Perplexed, David stared at the back of Felix’s head, wondering if he’d somehow said something wrong or if Felix just didn’t believe him. “Is that something you’re worried about?”

Felix vaguely aimed his vision over his shoulder and gave a meek shrug. “Maybe… the rules seem rather flexible these days…”

“ Hey. You got nothin’ to worry ‘bout,” David said, tightly gripping Felix’s shoulder. “You’re safe here— I swear . The only thing you gotta worry about is stayin’ safe up here ,” he said, gently tapping at Felix’s temple. “I know it’s hard, but you can’t let this place get to you. The Entity's going to take full advantage of every opening you give it, ‘specially if it's already targeting you. I know you've been struggling a lot lately, especially without the serum, but you gotta keep your chin up, okay? There's probably another way out, mate— you just haven't found it yet.”

David waited a moment for him to respond, but Felix only continued to cast that morose, downtrodden stare into the flames.

A sharp pang of fear jabbed at David’s chest. Did Felix still not believe him? Did he even trust him? Had he already resigned himself to his fate? At this, David’s heart gave a hard, painful thump against its cage.

David suddenly realized that helping Felix was going to be much, much harder than he’d initially presumed.

Anguish and anxiety rising, David scooted himself a bit closer into Felix’s space and stretched an arm over his back. “ Hey. You’re gonna get through this, aright? The group is closing ranks and everyone’s gonna make sure that thing can’t get at ya, but you have ta be roight there with us, Felix. I’m here to help you however I can, but you gotta let me help you. You get me?”

For a long, terrifying moment, it seemed like Felix still wasn’t going to respond to him. David was about to start begging him to say something, anything, but eventually, Felix managed a half-hearted nod.

David breathed a low sigh of relief. It wasn’t exactly the enthusiastic response he’d been hoping for, but it was better than nothing. He hoped Felix was able to eventually pull himself out of this depressive slump, but if not, he fully intended on dragging him out. 

As long as David was breathing, he would never allow Felix to give up.

It was at this point that the group gathered around Dwight finally began to disperse. Jake went back to his usual spot on the ground and settled back against the fallen log, a new piece of grass between his teeth. Ace, hands in his pockets and Nea in tow, sauntered back over to the spot he’d earlier occupied across from them. Of course, the older man couldn’t help but shoot David a sardonic look and an ineffectual shrug, as if to say ‘I don’t know what you expected, amigo.’

David’s lip curled into a silent snarl, and he shot back a hard, warning look of his own. He’d told Felix that everyone would be looking out for him, but that had been false. Even after witnessing Felix’s horrifying seizure, Ace still seemed as untroubled as ever. In fact, he was probably even happy to see it. Nothing in existence would make that selfish bastard happier than not having to put up with Felix and his struggles. No, that was far too much of an inconvenience for him.

As David stewed in his roiling ire, he failed to notice the sound of approaching footfalls from behind. Kate suddenly appeared beside Felix and crouched to his level, her smile warm and kind but tinged with sorrowful sympathy.

“Hey Felix. Just wanted to say I’m sorry this is happening to ya. It ain’t right. I know we haven’t talked much since ya got here, but if you ever need an ear to bend, I’d be happy to oblige, okay?”

Felix gave her a thin, tight-lipped smile and a small nod.

Obviously expecting a bit more of a response, Kate’s expression fell for a moment, but the uncharacteristic unease was quickly wiped away and replaced with her usual warmth. “Well, alrighty then,” she said, “Just let me know if ya’ll need anythin’.”

David nodded appreciatively, “Thanks love.”

Felix only turned back toward the campfire, expression wan and weary.

Chewing her lip, Kate hesitated a moment longer before finally giving up and rising to her feet. She pulled her guitar out from behind a nearby log and went to sit with it a short ways away. Soft, silvery chords began to fill in the empty spaces of the air not long after, mixing with the low hum of conversation.

The somewhat crowded campfire was soon becoming even moreso as Claudette helped the gauze-wrapped detective to find a comfortable spot to recover.

“Why did you never tell me about her?”

Caught off guard by the hollowness of that voice, David turned haltingly back toward his friend. “Huh?”

Felix looked back at him, expression muddled by a deep hurt. “Kate?”

It took David a second or two to understand what the man was getting at, but when he did, it hit him like a sack of bricks. He closed his eyes and silently cursed himself. 

Seeing as how Felix’s trust in him seemed to be dangling by a thread as of late, this was probably the worst time possible for him to discover Kate’s ‘impairment,’ and he’d obviously figured out that he wasn’t the only one who knew. Again, David cursed himself.

Despite the dread of seeing that look of betrayal on Felix’s face again, David opened his eyes with a weary sigh. “M’sorry,” he said as sincerely as he could.

Felix just continued to watch him with that strained, sullen look, waiting to hear the explanation for this most recent lapse in their friendship.

David sucked in a long breath, and puffed out as much anxiety as he could. “When the group first realized that Kate was… different… well… it wasn’t pretty. A lot of us resented her for it. Here we were, suffering every day trying to forget what had happened to us not thirty minutes ago while the happy-go-lucky new girl never had to remember a second of it. It didn’t seem fair, ya know? And I’m sure you’re probably feeling something similar…”

He stole a glance over at Felix, but his expression remained the same, so David took in another long, steadying breath and continued.

“Well… some people ended up going too far with it. They started leaving her for dead in the Trials or would just straight up use her to save themselves— ‘cause why not? Not like she was going to remember it anyways…”

David grimaced as he recalled this era of the survivor group. Despite how kind-hearted Kate was, it had been hard not to be resentful or vindictive. Ace, Nea, and Meg were unsurprisingly the most bitter about it. It didn’t take long for them to start taking full advantage. They were all very polite to her face, but in the Trials, she was basically fodder to them— someone they could freely throw into the grinder without any consequences. David knew because he’d been right there with them. He’d never felt comfortable actually sabotaging her or anything, not to the extent that Ace or Meg seemed to be, but knowing that Kate wouldn’t remember if he’d left her behind a few times helped to dull that pang of guilt. Thinking about it now made him feel somewhat sick.

“When Dwight and Claudie realized what was happening, they did their best to fix the situation, but it’s hard for people to ignore something like that, ya know? So, in order to protect Kate, Dwight and Claudie decided that no one could tell newcomers about her condition except for them— whenever they felt that might be. There was a concern that certain… mishaps could happen during Trials if people weren’t privy, but they felt that those sorts of incidents weren’t as bad as the consequences of unstable newbies learning about her too early.”

Carefully, David watched as Felix seemed to take this all in, but his expression still hadn’t wavered.

“Felix I’m sorry. I woulda told you ages ago, but I couldn’t. It weren’t my place. I… thought the chances of something bad happening because you didn’t know about her were low, but… seems like I was wrong.”

From Felix’s continuous look of weary disappointment and his accompanying silence, David knew that this was the only reason for him to ask about this now. Something bad had happened to him because of Kate— something preventable— if only David had warned him. Out of respect for Claudette and Dwight’s leadership, and Kate herself, he hadn’t told his closest friend about it. Now though, under the pressure of this unbearable look of hurt and betrayal, David knew that he should have said something sooner.

Finally, Felix broke their shared gaze, and turned back toward the fire.

David anxiously watched and waited for the man to say something. He would have taken anything at this point— insults, anger, grief, resentment— anything other than this listless resignation that he had no idea how to respond to. 

As he continued to wait for the man to give some kind of hint at what he was feeling, David began to fretfully pick away at the calluses on his hands as his insides began to twist and writhe. Of course, Felix never did anything else. He just… sat there and stared as David squirmed.

Felix’s numb silence reigned on, only occasionally peppered by the cordial, carefree notes from Kate’s guitar.

As David sat pensively by Felix’s side, silently agonizing and ruminating, a terrible dread began to grow and fester in the pit of his stomach.

If this was the state of their relationship… If Felix was this emotionally distant from him now… then David was seriously doubting his ability to protect the man he loved from the darkness of despair and the omnipotent clutches of the Entity.

The fear he held for his friend had never been greater.

Notes:

Wowee, this story is officially one year old! Feels a bit unreal to have been writing this thing for so long, but if my outline is accurate, we've got at least another year to go! xD

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if the reveal threw you for a loop. I try to give hints and let the story speak for itself about what's really going on since each character has limited information, but some things might slip through the cracks. If things are too vague or confusing, please let me know so I can clarify and adjust. Sometimes it's hard to know how many puzzle pieces I need to give to hint at the full picture without giving the whole thing away! 😭

Anyways, thanks for following this story for an entire year+! It really means a lot! 😄
See ya next month! ♥

Chapter 24: Spiraling Dread

Notes:

Damn, sorry this one took so long! Here it is though!

A revving saw. A blur of white. An explosion of red.

The moment replayed over again in his mind. It was hard to think of anything else in this dismal, dragging silence that was only barely blunted by the repetitive sound of their trudging footfalls, and even that seemed to be heavily muffled by the surrounding Forest.

Felix glanced over at his two remaining companions. Beside him, David plodded dazedly along, looking a bit more pale than when they’d set off. He’d caught a nasty gash over his shoulder blade during the Trial, but his first aid seemed to be holding up well. Further down, Yui marched stoically along, mostly untouched, but looking somewhat worse for wear. She’d done a good bit of distractive evading for them during the Trial, and looked exhausted. Distraction was a strenuous, unforgiving, and mentally taxing job— even without the threat of a chainsaw.

Felix turned back to the endless woodland before him, absently pursing his lips to moisten them, only to wince at the sour taste of iron.

A revving saw. A blur of white. An explosion of red.

He shuddered and pushed the image from his mind, telling himself there was nothing he could have done differently in that moment.

Felix trudged on, continuously reminding himself not to open his mouth again. He imagined he looked rather grisly right now with this layer of gore coating him, but he was thankfully uninjured, all thanks to…

Saw. White. Red.

Felix squeezed his eyes shut. Against his will, the scene fully replayed itself over his eyelids.

He’d been caught out in an open field with the malformed Hillbilly bearing down on him, chainsaw roaring at the sky like a feral animal. Nothing was around him except rows and rows of desiccated cornstalks. He’d raised his arms to shield himself, expecting to feel the bite of cold steel ripping into his flesh… but felt nothing. Instead, there was a smear of dingy white, and then Dwight was suddenly in front of him, shoving him out of the way.

Felix shivered. The sound of grinding flesh and bone as the saw ate through the man’s torso was still frightfully vivid in his mind. He hadn’t been able to see much in that moment of blood-blind shock, but the sound had been enough. He eventually saw the gruesome aftermath later on in the Trial.

Dwight had traded his own life for his, and Felix had never felt such guilt and gratitude all at once. David had said the others were going to protect him, but Felix never would have expected… that . He knew without a doubt that if Dwight hadn’t done what he’d done, Felix would have undoubtedly died in his place, but… it still made him feel wretchedly inadequate and undeserving. Was he really worthy of such a sacrifice?

He glanced over at his side. David continued to trudge silently along, eyes glazed and unfocused. The Brit usually had at least one or two things to say on these long walks back to camp, but this time, he was completely silent, and Felix could only assume it had something to do with what had happened. When they’d finally met back up later in the Trial, the shift in the man’s demeanor had been obvious. He’d seemed… distressed, somber— torn even, like he didn’t know how to act anymore, and Felix couldn’t really blame him. He felt much the same way.

David’s silence was fine though. There was nothing to say about it anyways. Dwight had made his choice, and neither of them had any say in it. All Felix could do was just be grateful to be alive and with David.

Trying to dispel that horrible moment for a final time, Felix drew in a long, focused breath and held it. It was unfortunately tinged by the thick scent of metal, but the supplementary oxygen helped to keep his nerves in check. With only two other pairs of eyes to watch their surroundings, he needed to be alert and focused right now. 

Very discreetly, he glanced over his shoulder and watched the murky woodland for a long moment. He scanned for movement in the underbrush and fractures in the bundled bars of silvery moonlight lancing through the canopy, but all appeared quiet and still. Nothing seemed to be creeping through the Forest of Passage at the moment except for that usual layer of thick haze trundling over the ground.

Somewhat eased but not quite reassured, Felix refocused his attention forward.

Against all odds, it seemed that Danny was still nowhere to be found. The blatant absence should be easing his nerves, but on the contrary, he was more on edge than ever.

After that very vivid, feverishly realistic nightmare, his initial hopes and presumptions about Danny’s disappearance had quickly been reigned in. Perhaps he was being paranoid— nightmares weren’t reality after all— but Felix couldn’t help being instilled with a renewed sense of caution. He realized that there was a very real possibility that Danny could return at any time— and most likely would when he least expected it. Not even in the places or situations he thought were completely safe could he be sure that the killer wouldn’t somehow figure out how to get to him like in his dream. Danny was just too determined. Even now, in this apparent quietude of his absence, Felix couldn’t be sure that Danny wasn’t actually out there, silently skulking about as he waited for his perfect moment. Were two companions even enough to deter Danny? Or did he need three? How could he know until the killer finally decided to make his move?

Seeing how remiss his exhausted companions were to their surroundings, Felix stole another cursory glance around them, and of course, saw nothing. He turned forward again with an uneasy grimace.

There was also another, far more terrifying aspect to all of this that he now had to consider…

‘I can see myself in the edges of your eyes.’

A chill slithered down his spine, leaving his flesh prickling and his hair standing on end.

If David had been accurate in his description of the things that had been happening to him in reality during his nightmare— the seizure, that unfathomable, flowing black sludge in his eyes— then it was obvious to him that parts of his dream had manifested in reality. 

Those daggers of pain digging into the back of his skull, that incomprehensible whispering darkness, communicating with him from the depths of his own mind… those shadowy tendrils lurking at the edges of his vision… 

All of that had been real.

‘I can see myself in the edges of your eyes.’

Again, Felix shuddered as another chill rippled over his skin.

In his nightmare, the things that had happened to him had felt extraordinarily real and vivid, especially… towards the end… but however horrible all of that had been, those things hadn’t happened. Everything else though… all of it had felt far too similar to what the Entity had tried to do to him that first time in the Forest.

The Entity…

If that thing had a hand in any of this… with Danny … then he was doomed. If the Entity was the true architect of his suffering, then nowhere was truly safe, and his reunion with the killer was practically inevitable. Shit, if it really wanted to, the Entity could just pluck him from existence and drop him into Danny’s arms— rules be damned!

Although… however terrifying that possibility was, he had to concede to David’s reasoning. If there really was a chance of something like that happening— of the Entity doing with him whatever it pleased— then why hadn’t it happened yet?

Felix did not know, but there was still an important caveat to all this that he could not dismiss— Yet. Nothing of that magnitude had happened yet. Given enough time though, the impossibility of all things eventually drops to zero.

Two simultaneous sighs of relief dragged Felix away from his thoughts.

“‘Bout bloody time…”

He looked up to see the thinning edge of the Forest, illuminated by a misty gray. Once again, they’d made it back without incident, but just to be certain… Felix gazed back toward the shadowy depths of the Forest of Passage one last time. The darkness there was ominous— but harmless. He couldn’t help but wonder how much longer that would last.

The last stretch of their journey passed quickly and without incident, and the three soon found themselves emerging into a familiar open meadow with the brook burbling through its center. It came as somewhat of a surprise, but Felix supposed his desire to clean up had somehow influenced their destination. At any rate, he wasn’t going to question the convenience of it.

Without hesitation, Felix hauled himself to the banks of cool, clear waters and dropped to his knees. The moment his stained fingers touched the pristine surface, it turned a bright crimson. Almost mechanically, he began to wash and scrub his hands together. Dwight’s blood flowed away from him in a diluted, sanguine line.

When the water ran mostly clear, Felix bent forward and splashed himself as much as he could tolerate, then began to scrub away at his face and hair. He paused once in a while to see if the water was still running red before going back to tossing more into his face. He repeated this cycle several times over, but the water never seemed to run clear. 

Felix spluttered at the stream and paused a moment, watching as the pink droplets growing from the fringes of his hair peppered the calm waters with painterly swirls of crimson. The pinkish blood then slowly faded into transparency as it rode the current into oblivion.

Watching this, Felix realized that no matter how much splashed and scrubbed, the water was never going to run clear.

With a heavy sigh, he began to half-heartedly squeeze at his sodden hair, wringing out what he could as he climbed to his feet. At the very least, he could open his mouth without tasting iron now.

When he turned around, he was surprised to see David standing idly by. The man had been so quiet, Felix had forgotten he’d even been there. David stood watching him at a lopsided angle with one arm hanging by his side, looking sallow and weary but resolved. 

Felix felt an immediate sense of guilt at delaying David’s medical attention, but was thankful the man hadn’t left him alone and continued on to the campfire like Yui apparently had.

Seeing David like this though, looking so haggard and worn, caused a sudden twinge of fear to prick at his heart.

They’d barely escaped the last two Trials with their lives… How much longer could they keep this up? Even if they managed to keep surviving the Trials, how much more abuse could their bodies take? How much more could David take? How many more times could David throw himself between Felix and a falling blade before he stopped getting back up?

Even now, Felix could see how the damage David’s body had sustained was taking its toll. David probably thought he was doing a decent job of hiding it, but the tightness of his jaw and his waning posture said otherwise. David couldn’t go on like this forever, and as soon as he fell… Felix knew he wouldn’t be far behind. Despite David’s assurances that the other survivors would watch out for him in that scenario, Felix doubted in their ability— much less their will— to look out for him as much as David, Dwight, and Claudette had so far. 

His nightmare had been a stark reminder of the decision he’d made— the decision to stick by David despite Danny’s threat. Maybe he could have done a better job at avoiding him… but it was hard not to. Like magnets, they both somehow always found their way to each other, and when they inevitably did, separation was difficult. The inherent comfort and safety he found in the man’s presence was hard to pass up on— even with those threats at the back of his mind. When David was around, he could count on him to ward off the majority of threats— even the intangible ones, like those of his mind.

His decision to stay by David had been more of an instinctual one than a conscious one really. In the midst of his anguish he’d needed safety and comfort, and that’s what David had been. But in reality… he’d only been condemning them both.

At this point though, he didn’t know what else to do. There was nothing else he could do. It was too late to recuse himself of David, so now his only hope now was to use his friend’s presence like a shield. If Danny was as dead-set on keeping his involvement in him a secret like he thought he was, then Felix was going to utilize that. Everything was riding on this flimsy assumption of his, but Felix had nothing else. He had to hope that David’s presence could ward off Danny, but obviously, David had limits— a time limit— and once that was up… once he was finally separated from David…

Deep down, in the core of his very being, Felix knew that it would be over— for both of them.

It was only a matter of time…

Felix breathed a low sigh and swallowed down his anxiety. He stared hard at his languishing companion, observing the blood now seeping from his jacket sleeve. Felix decided to focus on the present rather than their inevitable future.

“Sorry— I shouldn’t have dawdled. You need medical attention.”

The Brit waved dismissively. “Dun worry ‘bout it.”

Felix grimaced. Despite the anxiety churning his stomach, he nodded back.

Not wanting to delay David’s recovery any longer, Felix started for the campfire, smoothing his damp hair back into place as he meandered along. David followed close behind, footfalls heavy and laggard. Listening to them did nothing to soothe the unease festering in the depths of his mind. 

Weaving and braiding their way between several thickets, the two soon found themselves bathed in flickering oranges and yellows. The campsite came into view not long after, revealing a lone pair of survivors chatting cordially— Adam and Yui. Whatever subject they were discussing seemed like a happy one. 

Feeling a wistful gloom growing at his center, Felix averted his eyes from the pair and veered toward the stockpile of supplies.

Behind him, David grumbled lowly, “‘Course Claudie ain’t here when I need her…”

The Brit brushed past him and threw open the lid on the box. He began to dig around inside with one hand while his other was held close against his chest— the one affected by the gash on his back. At this, Felix couldn’t help but wonder if David’s injury was actually more severe than he was letting on. It was hard to tell though with the gel pad covering everything up.

By now, a pile of various supplies had accumulated on the ground by David’s feet. The lid dropped closed and David sat himself on top, cradling a bottle of rubbing alcohol oddly. Soft grunts of frustration soon began to emanate from the man as he attempted to fumble the cap off. 

Felix’s perturbed frown deepened. “Would you like some help with that?”

The Brit grunted as he struggled to find good leverage to open the bottle. “Nah m’fine… Go sit yerself by the fire. I got this.” David’s hand suddenly slipped, and the cap went flying into the grass. “See?”

Felix grimaced.

“Go on then. I can take care of me self. No need ta stand there n’ fret,” he said, setting the bottle to the side and reaching with his good hand to wrench the bandage away from his back with suppressed hiss. David then raised the bottle high and looked precariously over his shoulder. His expression tightened as he aimed the disinfectant, then went acerbic as the liquid poured down his back. He hissed a venomous, biting curse, but continued to pour until it was empty. The bottle was tossed into the grass with a bit more force than necessary.

Felix then watched in dismay as David fetched a suturing needle and some thread from the kit at his feet. Watching him try to string it through the eye was like watching a gorilla trying to knit with oven mitts. The man’s motor skills had obviously declined to the point where he could no longer accomplish delicate tasks. If he tried to sew himself up, it was going to be a bloodbath.

Unable to watch this struggle go on any longer, Felix marched up to Brit and stuck out his hand. “Give it.”

David balked, his upper lip curling with indignance. “I’ve been stitchin’ m’self up since I was a lad. I can bloody well take care of it,” he rebuked, and again, attempted to fumble the stiff thread through the tiny metal ring.

“ David, give it to me— please, ” Felix begged, voice unsteady and wavering.

Felix hadn’t meant to sound as desperate as he had, but the Brit had taken immediate notice of that tremor in his voice. 

In an instant, David’s previously disdainful expression disappeared and was replaced by gentle concern. “Okay mate…” he said softly, and then held the needle and thread out in his bloodstained palm.

Felix swiped it away from him with a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” he said, thankful that the man’s stubborn bravado only went so far with him.

Felix then circled around to David’s back— and flinched. From this close, the damage was dreadfully apparent, and it was much, much worse than any kind of glancing graze like David had claimed. The gash was almost as long as his forearm, and it was deep. Shredded fat and muscle seeped blood and plasma, and at the deepest point, the bright white bone of his shoulder blade was even visible.

Felix swallowed thickly, suddenly doubting himself. He’d seen Claudette and the others stitch wounds plenty of times before— he’d even mended a few minor ones himself— but he’d never tended to anything this serious before. His level of first aid was basic at best. Something like this couldn’t wait though. If this wasn’t taken care of properly, David would very likely lose the full use of his arm— a death sentence in the Trials. 

No, he needed to do this right now because he needed David.

Trying to calm himself, Felix closed his eyes and took in a long, steadying breath. His heart slowed. When he opened his eyes again, he tried to look at the damage before him as a problem that needed to be solved rather than a significant threat to David’s wellbeing. With this clearer, more objective mindset, the first thing he realized was that the shredded clothing was matted by dried blood to the edges of the wound, making it much more difficult to assess.

“Could you please remove your shirt and jacket?”

David gave him a dubious side-eye, but began to comply after only a moment of hesitation. 

Felix helped him shrug out of the jacket, taking additional care as it peeled away from his wound. For his shirt, instead of trying to undo every single button, David simply yanked it open. The buttons seemed to survive the abuse though. This, too, Felix carefully pulled away from his skin, although the thinner fabric made it difficult. More than once, he could hear David’s breath catch with suppressed pain as the fresh scabs were torn and reopened. 

Eventually, the soiled shirt came away, completely revealing David’s upper half, and Felix couldn’t help but pause at what he saw. The long, bloody gash when fully revealed was grisly to be sure, but Felix couldn’t help but be distracted by… the rest of him. 

The wide, rolling expanse of his back was like a finely sculpted, storied landscape, dotted by a litany of old, blanched scars of all shapes and sizes. Thick cords of muscle curved and bulged his skin appealingly, every contour clearly defined as they flowed seamlessly from one muscle group into the next. Every breath and subtle movement made the sinews beneath his skin roll and shift in a way that was almost mesmerizing to watch. The colorful rose tattooed on his neck, usually obscured by the collar of his jacket, was now clearly visible. Like this, with it surrounded by such an unbroken expanse of skin, the tattoo somehow seemed more… risqué— like it was now a flirtatious target. 

A muscle in his shoulder twitched suddenly, and a wave of power rippled throughout his entire back, displaying the full potential of the formidable body before him. In that moment, David’s strength and— dare he say it— beauty , had never been so apparent to him.

The muscles in David’s back shifted again, and Felix realized the man was glancing back at him with a unsure grimace. “Shite, is it that bad?”

Felix’s heart jumped in surprise. His cheeks went hot with embarrassment.

What was he doing?! 

Remembering himself and what he was supposed to be accomplishing at the moment, he coughed awkwardly and swallowed to clear his throat. “Ah, erm… W– well, it’s not good,” he stuttered, desperate to get some sort of coherent response out.

Felix shook his head hard, trying to dispel the inappropriate thoughts from his mind, and refocused on the task at hand— helping David. 

Again, he reassessed the damage before him objectively— he needed to clean up the wound before he tried to stitch it up. “C– Can you hand me a roll of gauze?”

David nodded and bent down to pick up the kit of supplies at his feet. As he did though, Felix couldn’t help but notice how the man’s sizable chest tapered off into a relatively narrow waist that curved back out with his hips like a strong, sturdy hourglass. The muscles along his hips and backside swelled as they plunged beneath his— No, stop. Stop it!

Felix tore his eyes away from his friend. He very nearly slapped himself but settled on pinching the bridge of his nose until his eyes watered.

What the hell was wrong with him?! How could he gawk at David like this? Why was he gawking at him like this?! He wasn’t supposed to feel these sorts of things for other men— much less his friend! He had a pregnant girlfriend for christ’s sake!

“Felix?”

Felix snapped open his eyes to a roll of gauze hovering in the air before him. No, not hovering— David was trying to hand it to him.

“S– sorry,” he said, and quickly took the gauze.

He found himself staring dazedly at David’s muscular back and the deep gash that divided it. Still feeling off-kilter, Felix let his eyes fall shut and refocused his mind on his task, expelling any and all stray thoughts for his friend’s physicality.

David spoke again when nothing happened for a long moment. “Eh… ya know, if you don’t feel comfortable doin’ this, we can just wait for Claudie t—”

“N– No, no. No. We can’t wait that long,” Felix quickly responded, keeping his eyes firmly shut. They really couldn’t wait on this, and there was no telling when Claudette would come back. He had to do this.

Solve the problem.

With a long, slow breath, Felix opened his eyes and focused his attention on the bloody gash. Before anything else, it needed to be cleaned. 

Taking up a section of gauze, Felix began to wipe away the old blood and grime away from the wound, being sure to catch any new blood that happened to well up and applying pressure as necessary. He was careful not to let his eyes stray too far from his area of focus— even when David tensed up from unexpected pains.

When that process was finished, Felix next reached for the curved needle and thread he’d laid on the box, still making sure to avert his gaze from the rest of David’s body. He eventually held it in hand after several attempts of blindly grabbing for it. After that, it was just a matter of looping and knotting a small section of thread to the needle and searching for a good starting point. Considering the depth of the gash, it looked like it was going to need two layers.

The curved needle hovered over the tip of the gash, reading to dive into the fibrous tissues. Being an experienced artist, his hand was relatively steady, but David was not. Felix’s hand drifted over the man’s spine to stabilize him, but then he hesitated. The thought of actually touching the man’s bare skin, of feeling how his muscles moved beneath his fingers, made his cheeks heat and his heart thrum. Again, Felix shut down his intrusive thoughts and reoriented himself to his objective.

Solve the problem.

His hand settled onto David’s back next to the injury, and the hot flesh beneath his palm shuddered at the touch. Felix withdrew instantly, breath catching in his throat. His fingertips still tingled with the latent feeling of those muscles rippling underhand.

“Sorry mate, just a bit sore,” David grunted.

His hands hovered in the air for a moment longer before Felix finally found the mental prescience to force air back into his lungs. He swallowed down the anxious mortification making his heart race and forced his mind to go blank. 

His hand resettled onto David’s feverishly warm back. Despite his conscious efforts to ignore it, the nerve endings in his palm still seemed to tingle over David’s skin, almost like it possessed its own electric field. His heart ticked up its pace. A tremor traveled up into the hand holding the needle.

Again, Felix breathed deep to calm himself, internally trying to normalize the situation. 

This was just David— his friend — and that friend needed his help right now.

His attention refocused on the gash. Hand now steady, Felix aimed his needle at the severed edge of the muscle and pierced it. David flinched minutely. After a moment to steady himself, Felix swooped the curved needle over to the other side of the gash to catch the muscle there before pulling the two halves of the bloody ravine together with the thread. Felix then tied off the stitch with a secure square knot— just as Claudette had demonstrated.

As Felix prepared more thread for the next stitch, he took a moment to appraise just how many more he would need to do. With two layers… he approximated anywhere from twenty to thirty at least. 

Felix was going to have to get very comfortable with this situation…

The next couple of stitches came quicker as his hands fell into an easy rhythm. The work was tedious and grisly, but it was mechanical. It gave his mind the freedom to drift, but he managed to keep it from wandering too far. However, Felix was still a bit baffled as to why his mind wanted to go there in the first place. The first time he’d been confronted with David's physique, he could admit to having a somewhat similar reaction then… Granted, at the time, his feelings had been swirling with a whole slew of intense emotions, so he’d simply chalked those thoughts up to confusion and distress, but now… 

Here he was again, throat tight and belly churning at David’s physique as if he were a hormone-fueled teenager again. Why him? Why now? What was it about David that was making him feel this way? Felix couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt such visceral attraction to another person like this— much less another man. 

Had… had being with Danny changed him somehow? Had Danny ruined his sex drive?

The warm churn in the pit of his stomach suddenly turned fetid and sour. Anxiety-fueled nausea bubbled in the hollow of his throat.

If he ever managed to get out of here, would he ever be able to love Christine again like he had before?

Felix finished off his tenth square knot with a morose sigh, and just as he pulled it tight, the body beneath his fingers suddenly rumbled.

“Felix? Er… Are… you still mad at me for not tellin’ you ‘bout Kate?”

Felix straightened in surprise.

David looked back at him from the corner of his eye, expression taut and unsure. A long moment of nothing but blank stares passed between them.

Finally the words began to sink in.

“Eh, no…” Felix said automatically, but whether or not that was true, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps he was a bit bitter about it, but… was he angry?

David continued to stare at him over his gored shoulder, looking mournfully unconvinced by his answer.

Felix straightened and gave a wan sigh. 

Okay, yes. He was still upset by the fact that not being told about Kate’s condition had directly led to some of the worst abuse he’d ever suffered, and all of it might have been prevented if his best friend had simply trusted him enough to tell him… but he hadn’t. It  left him feeling betrayed— and yes, maybe even a little angry. However, for his own sake… he couldn’t afford to be angry at David. He needed him too badly to open up yet another rift between them. At any rate, it was obvious that the man deeply regretted not telling him despite not knowing what the consequences of his choice had been. David was good enough at reading him to know it hadn’t been anything good.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” he finally said, and bent forward to start on his next stitch.

But David did not look away. That single, sad, dark brown eye stayed situated on his face for a long while, trying to read him in that tell-tale way. Felix drew back again, discomfort growing the longer David stared.

“M’sorry,” he finally said, shoulders drooping with a silent sigh.

Felix felt his guts twist. His lips drew into a thin line. “It's in the past. There’s no point in dwelling on it any longer.”

David grimaced and glanced away, seeming to think on that for a moment. “Would… would ya be willing ta tell me what happened?”

Felix stared hard, jaw clenching. “ No. ”

David winced, expression twisting with guilt and remorse. He looked so pitiful like that, Felix couldn’t help but feel his own pang of guilt despite feeling justified in his response. He needed David, but he also needed to keep him at arm’s length— for multiple reasons.

Without another word, David finally turned his back to him, and Felix took that as a sign that he was free to continue his work. The remainder of it went swiftly in the silence that stretched between them, but Felix couldn’t decide if that silence was a blessing or not.

“There,” he said, puffing with relief as he tied off the last knot. The line of dark stitches were jagged and ugly over the pale, rolling landscape of his skin, but they were keeping David together, and that was all that really mattered.

“Thanks,” David mumbled, rolling his shoulders to shrug off the stiffness. His deltoids surged, and his oversized biceps bulged as he tested his newly mended body. Felix quickly averted his eyes and tried hard not to think about every single time those arms had been wrapped tightly around him. 

Purposefully keeping his gaze down, Felix quickly began gathering up the remaining supplies and tucking them away within their case. David promptly rose to his feet and began to shake out the jacket he’d earlier shed. He grumbled quietly about the giant hole in the back before slipping it back on. His ruined button-up was shoved in a pocket to be dealt with at a later point.

Felix quickly slipped the medkit under the lid of the supply box now that it was free. When he finally found the courage to face David again, his heart skipped a beat— but not for the reason he’d been agonizing over.

David’s abdomen was riddled with dozens upon dozens of bright red, barely healed lacerations— the price he’d paid for his inattentiveness and incompetence. All of them were barely held closed by an uncountable multitude of stitches. He looked like a patchwork doll. The sight made his blood run cold.

The shock he felt must’ve been all over his face, because David’s brow suddenly arched up to his hairline. The jacket was quickly zipped up.

“Eh, I know it looks bad,” he said out of the corner of his mouth, tone deliberately soft and placating, “But it really ain’t, okay? I’m a bit stiff, but other’n that, I’m perfectly peachy. Yea?”

Felix snapped his hanging jaw shut and pressed his lips into a thin, restrained line. His heart thumped hard and heavy in his ears. Fears and doubts about David’s well being swirled and echoed endlessly in his head. How many more Trials would David be able to survive like this? One? Two more?

Felix swallowed hard and tried to push the dark thoughts from his mind. He couldn’t control David or the things that happened to him, so there was no point in agonizing over his state or whether or not David’s claims were true. All Felix could do was try his best to keep them both safe. The final outcome of all this was going to be the same anyways. The only variable was time.

Felix breathed deep and did his best to expel his anxieties, nodding his solemn acceptance.

David nodded slowly back, although he seemed a bit skeptical about Felix’s swift acceptance of his placations. “Back to the fire then?”

Felix nodded again and trudged after him, feeling as though he were swimming through a numb haze.

When they reached the log opposite Adam and Yui, David immediately set about gathering up an armful of quilts and blankets that had been piled to the side.

“That won’t be necessary,” Felix said plainly.

David paused mid-grab and looked questioningly up at him.

“Erm… I don’t think I’d be able to sleep even if I wanted to.”

David’s eyes brightened in realization. “Oh. ‘Course,” he said, and dropped the blankets back onto their pile.

Felix grimaced at David apologetically. Just the mere thought of sleep— of exposing himself to those mind-rending dreams again— made his skin crawl and his stomach swell. He was going to damn well stay awake until he was physically unable to.

Sighing, Felix dropped himself onto the log and let his head fall into his hand. David settled beside him moments later.

Another long silence fell between them, disturbed only by the low hum of conversation on the opposite side of the ethereal crackling fire. All there was to do now was wait.

But of course, David didn’t seem to want to simply linger in peace. “Ay, if ya don’t feel like resting, whaddaya think about headin’ up to the lab? It’s been a stretch since you’ve been back there— maybe workin’ on your blueprints or some of your old projects might take yer mind off things?”

Felix squirmed in his seat and quickly shook his head. It was impossible. Too risky.

David frowned. His mouth opened for a moment, perhaps on the verge of trying to convince him otherwise, but fell shut again. A thoughtful expression took over his features once more.

“What about that notebook I see ya scribblin’ in sometimes? Where’s that tucked away at?” he asked, looking around at the campfire.

Felix griped quietly, feeling himself growing more agitated with his friend. “I don’t feel like drawing at the moment.” 

Sketching was a very private activity for him, and it was impossible to work while someone was hanging over his shoulder. Even if he were alone, though, he felt too on-edge to even think about creating anything worthwhile.

The Brit grimaced. “Well… is there anything you wanna chat about then?”

Felix gave a frustrated puff and wrapped his arms around himself. “ No. ”

The grimace turned into a deep frown. “Felix. You can’t just sit here and agonize. It’s not good for you. We’re supposed to be working on your mindset, remember?”

With a wan sight, Felix let his eyes fall shut and tried to exhale away his nervous energy. He knew David was right but it was hard— especially when his fate seemed so hopelessly inevitable. It made everything seem pointless.

“I’m sorry, I’m just… tired.” And scared. “I just want to sit…”

From the corner of his eye, he watched as David stared at him with that deeply perturbed look on his face, and Felix had to fight to keep his leg from bouncing. After an uncomfortably long moment, the Brit drew in a long, careful exhale and finally tore his gaze away.

“Okay Felix, whatever you wanna do.”

Relieved, Felix drew in his own long breath and nodded appreciatively. 

Another instance of prolonged silence took hold of the air between them. Felix found himself staring into the jumping flames and glowing embers of the fire in an effort to divest himself of his racing thoughts. The longer he stared, the more he saw outlines of figures and creatures in the shifting inferno. At one point, he even thought he saw a ballerina leaping into the sky. When his eyelids began to drift closed, Felix mused that this was probably not the best activity for him to be doing if he intended on staying awake. 

Those gentle musings were precipitously disrupted by a creeping sense of unease building in the pit of his stomach.

Felix instinctively lurched to attention, and David snapped upright in response.

“Wot? Wot’s it?” he asked dazedly.

Anxiety steadily growing, Felix carefully scanned their surroundings, searching for the source of that cold, creeping, dread, and hoping he was somehow imagining it. 

But he wasn’t.

A tendril of dark, billowing fog was slowly meandering its way into camp, searching for its next victim in the upcoming Trial. It seemed far, far too early for it to be here for him, but Felix could feel the Entity’s pull. He had no idea why, but deep in his gut, he knew that it was here for him.

Tongue stuck in his throat, Felix blindly fumbled for David’s arm and gripped it tight. His gaze remained fixated on the approaching fog.

“Ah shite. That ain’t for you, roight? It can’t be! It’s too early!”

Felix couldn’t respond. He squeezed David’s arm tighter.

“Ah shite!”

As the snaking fog drew closer, Felix listened and felt as David frantically searched through his pockets, presumably looking for the shroud he typically kept on his person.

The black tendril trundled nearer, like a shadow reaching out over the ground, devouring up any and all light that wandered too close. The precarious sound of searching dragged on. He squeezed David’s arm until his fingertips were bloodless and numb.

“David?” he squeaked.

“ Fook! Hold on!” David then suddenly tore away from his grip and took off somewhere behind them.

Startled, Felix spun around and watched as David sprinted over to the supply box and skidded to a stop, nearly knocking the whole thing over when he threw the lid open. 

Felix snapped his gaze back on the approaching fog and stumbled to his feet. Adam and Yui watched helplessly on as he slowly backed away from it and toward David where a tornado of banging plastic and metal grew steadily louder.

The black tendril creeped over the log where he’d been sitting and arched toward him. Its speed increased, and the thundering pulse in his head increased with it. He desperately tried not to think about what would happen if David couldn’t find a shroud in time.

The fog licked the tips of his shoes.

“David?!”

“GOT IT!”

David suddenly appeared by his side, tattered cloth in hand. He deftly snatched his hand, and wrapped the shroud around their wrists, binding them together.

“It’s alright mate, it’s alright! I gotchu!”

Felix huffed out his barely contained panic. He squeezed David’s hand tight and held his stalwart gaze as the liquid shadows began to bubble up around them. He wanted to absorb the smallest parcel of that steadfast, assuaging confidence that David so easily assumed, but there were too many perilous unknowns raging around him and within him. Why had the Entity taken him so early? Was David fit enough to survive this Trial? Would he himself survive this Trial? 

Would Danny be waiting for him?

These and a dozen other horrifying questions surged through his thoughts as those stony, dark brown orbs disappeared from view. His entire existence was muffled by a dark, humid cloud soon after. Muted clicks and chitinous squeaking echoed throughout the endless void.

Feeling unsettled, Felix squeezed David’s hand tighter, and received a reassuring squeeze in return. He tried to focus on the warm feeling of David’s hand clasped around his as he mentally prepared himself for whatever horrors awaited them.

Notes:

Hey, thanks for reading, and thanks for all the kudos and follows recently! It makes me really happy to know people are liking the story 😄
See ya next update! Hopefully I'll have the next chapter done on time, I hate making you guys wait! 😭

Chapter 25: Silent Shadows

David couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. Everything, everywhere around him was pitch black, but it was far from silent. Subsonic clicks and chirps echoed in the darkness, muted and muffled as if he were deep underwater. He breathed slowly in, and frigid damp poured into his lungs like cold seawater— as if he really were on the bottom of the ocean.

He squeezed the hand held tightly in his own to keep himself grounded, reaffirming that Felix was still with him in this disorienting, transitory murk. His pulse was still high from the scare of frantically searching for a shroud at the campfire, and holding onto Felix helped to ease his palpitating heart.

The sensation of the Entity transporting them into a Trial was an uncanny one. Even after all this time, he still hadn’t fully become comfortable with it, but it was familiar. Routine almost. He wondered if Felix was used to it by now as well.

After a long while, the black lifted into an abyssal gray, and then a milky, swirling ash as more and more light began to penetrate the fog. A moody, misty, evergreen forest glinting with silver moonlight faded into view. The empty carcasses of long dead and decaying structures dotted the landscape in the form of lonely, incongruous brick walls. Random junk littered the ground where the greenery was thin. Jutting high above it all was an aberration of tarnished steel and broken glass— a sickly, disfigured tower that housed a derelict iron smelter from a bygone age.

The Trial had officially begun. Instantly, David’s mind went into tactical mode.

From this vantage, David could see a good portion of the hunting grounds, but nothing that hinted at who their killer might be. This initial position was rather exposed, however. They needed to get to cover, else risk being seen. Fortunately, there was a nearby assortment of crumbling brick walls that would serve just such a purpose. There might even be a generator for them to work on nestled inside.

He looked back to Felix to point this out… and realized that he was still holding his hand.

Before the warmth in his cheeks could become noticeable, David quickly released it and began stalking his way toward cover.

“C’mon,” he grunted, and listened as Felix scurried after him.

Keeping an eye on the horizon, the two men swiftly slunk their way into the small, brick and mortar refuge. Sure enough, a generator lay tucked away in one of the inner corners. They both got to work on it without a word, knowing intimately that speed would be the defining factor in their survival.

Not knowing who the killer was yet, David maintained a careful eye on the many gaps and entrances surrounding them. He began to visualize a dark figure rounding a corner, or the sound of a bell, or the unsheathing of a blade, and began to draft out what he would do in each situation. In one scenario, he imagined he could thrust Felix toward the pallet standing up in one entrance, and he could try darting for the window. In another scenario, if the killer came from the nearest entrance, he would have to take a hit— especially if Felix wasn’t paying attention. 

David would have thought that with the German being so on edge lately, it might have made him more heedful of his surroundings, but it was to the contrary. David found himself having to be the vigilant one. Sometimes, it seemed like Felix became trapped in his own head, oblivious to his environment as he was overwhelmed by whatever thoughts absorbed him. Not only were these bouts of inattention very concerning, but it was also making David’s job that much harder. He felt like he needed two extra pairs of eyes just to make up for Felix’s recent lack of awareness.

David had to wonder if it was because Felix was being mentally harassed by the Entity, or if it was just due to stress and worry. Whatever it was though, he could see the effects of it plainly on Felix’s hallowed-out expression and even in the way he held himself. Gone was that quiet confidence and determination, and now, all that remained was despondency and fear. It made David’s heart heavy with sorrow.

He’d been trying his damndest to help and lift him out of those doldrums, but Felix was making it difficult. He didn’t want to talk like they so easily used to, he didn’t want to draw, he didn’t want to work, and he resisted any and all comfort until the situation had become dire… almost as if he’d already resigned himself to his situation. Nothing he did seemed to help at all.

David wished he could just wipe away all of Felix’s problems and take them on himself— just somehow get the Entity to settle its gaze on him so Felix wouldn’t have to suffer anymore… but David didn’t have the first clue on how to do that. He could curse the Entity every waking moment for the rest of his existence, but what would that accomplish? He’d have a better shot screaming at the clouds.

Felix had been right… What good could they possibly do against the all-powerful deity that controlled every waking moment of their lives? It all seemed so hopeless… but despite everything, David could never let himself give up. It went against the very core of who he was as a person and what Felix meant to his soul. 

As long as he was still breathing, David was never going to stop fighting for Felix.

The generator suddenly rumbled to life in his hands, and a bright white light switched on above him. David jolted to attention, realizing that his mind had wandered off during the entire repair. His injured shoulder cramped and burned from the sudden movement after being immobile for so long. He silently cursed himself for his negligence while simultaneously lauding his luck that nothing had happened that entire time.

Shrugging away the pain smoldering through that side of his body, David tried to clear his mind of all distractions and background worries, and refocused himself on what he had power over right now in this moment— the Trial, and Felix’s physical wellbeing. Nothing else mattered.

Not wanting to press their luck any further, David quickly ushered Felix out of the brick structure and away from the thundering machine before any undesirables could come and investigate. He shadowed Felix keenly as they picked their way through thickets and outcroppings by the outer walls, searching for their next objective.

Feeling an odd sense of discomfort rising in his breast, David paused a moment to spy at their surroundings. 

Everything around them seemed… quiet— almost too quiet— as if the world had somehow frozen in time. He also couldn’t recall hearing any screams or shouts echoing through the forest yet. In fact, he couldn’t even remember hearing a single squawk nor peep from the crows that usually littered the landscape. It was just… silent. David began to suspect that some sort of stealth killer was afoot. Either that, or the Entity was playing games with them.

Whatever it was, he really didn’t like not knowing what to expect.

When he turned forward again, he very nearly plowed right into Felix, who had stopped in his tracks. Irritated and bewildered, he was about to chide him before noticing that Felix was staring intently up at the second story of the ironworks.

David followed Felix’s eyeline, but saw nothing of note. “Somethin’ up there?”

Felix snapped out of his trance and glanced over at him. “I… don’t know. I thought I saw something on the second story, but…” His eyes narrowed on the building again, searching carefully. “I don’t know…”

David hummed thoughtfully. He looked up at the building again, but still saw nothing. It was possible Felix actually saw something, but it could have easily been the shadow of shifting machinery or even a bird. There was no way to know for certain. 

“Well, we still don’t know who the killer is yet so just keep yer eyes peeled, yea?”

Felix grimaced tightly. Finally, he tore his eyes away from the building and gave a solemn nod.

David nodded back and gestured over to the next brick outcropping. “Now let’s get back into cover ‘for we get walloped outta nowhere.”

Again, the two resumed their careful trek forward, this time with David taking point so he could be ready if something jumped out at them. The uncomfortable silence rang on. He guessed Felix must have also sensed this abnormality, because it wasn’t much longer that he felt a gentle tug on the elbow of his jacket. When he looked down to see Felix’s hand hooked there, his heart did a little leap in his chest.

He turned just in time to see Felix’s cheeks flush bright red. “S– Sorry, I– I just… I don’t want to get separated,” he said, looking overly frazzled and perhaps a bit worried that he’d overstepped. 

Feeling his own cheeks surge with heat, he quickly swallowed down the tightness in throat before attempting to speak. Even then, his voice still sounded forced. “S– S’okay mate. No worries.”

Felix seemed to relax at that and nodded thankfully.

David gave him a reassuring nod back and resumed his march with Felix in tow. His heart continued to flutter away in his chest as he mentally fixated on the feeling of those fingers digging gently into his arm.

They weren’t exactly holding hands like a happy couple, but aside from those little moments with the shroud, this was about as close to that little fantasy as David knew he was going to get. He knew he really shouldn’t be thinking this way after working so hard on accepting that a relationship like that would never be possible, but he supposed it was okay to appreciate this very brief moment of intimacy.

A tragically short amount of time later, the two found themselves within the shelter of a half-destroyed structure with the next inactive generator tucked safely away inside. When Felix pulled away to begin work on it, David tried hard not to feel that little feeling of loss at the center of his chest. He kneeled beside the machine and forced himself to focus on the work in an attempt to numb that unfortunately familiar ache.

Partway through the repair, Felix began to more frequently check his surroundings. At first, David was glad he was paying more attention, but then he kept doing it, over and over again, to the point where he was barely getting any work done at all.

“Felix? What’s wrong?”

Felix met his eyes for a brief moment, looking as if he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to, but then immediately went back to scanning their surroundings. “I just…” he trailed off as he got up to look around a nearby corner. “Don’t you think it’s too quiet? I– I feel like we should have heard something by now,” he said breathlessly. He moved over to another corner to look out into the night. “Right? I– I– mean, shouldn’t we at least have heard another generator finish by now? Where are the others?” he said, going back to the first corner to check it again.

Many of those same disturbing questions had been running through David’s own head, but despite his unease, he knew that staying calm was imperative so the situation could be dealt with. Obviously, Felix was struggling to do that right now. He could come out and affirm the man’s very valid feelings, but feeding into his growing panic would not do them any favors. He had to keep Felix calm.

“Mmm… Could just be luck. I bet the other two are dealing with the killer on the far side of the ironworks and that’s why we haven’t heard nothin’.”

The words didn’t seem to placate Felix at all. He continued to pace back and forth from corner to corner while anxiously wringing his hands. “W– What if.. what if something is happening?” he said, stumbling over his own nervous whimper. “What if we’re alone in here? What if… what if?..” He couldn’t seem to finish the thought. Suddenly, Felix looked to be on the verge of tears.  

But then, as if on cue, the sound of a generator roaring to life echoed throughout the forest and bounced its way over to them.

A wave of relief washed over David, giving him the confidence to put on a reassuring smile for his panicked friend. “Hey, see? It’s okay! They’re out their workin’ just like we are. No need ta fret!”

Fortunately, Felix had stopped pacing, but he still seemed very on-edge and unsure.

“It’s alright mate, come sit back on the gen. The killer’s probably just bein’ lazy.”

Felix seemed to consider his proposal for a long moment before looking around one more time. David knew his explanation was lazy, but it was the best and most attractive one he could come up with on the fly.

With a long, tension-thick breath, the nervous man finally reclaimed his spot on the generator and resumed working.

David exhaled a silent sigh, relieved to see him calming down, but still alarmed that Felix had even been that panicked at all. He could somewhat understand his paranoia though, what with the Entity outright targeting him.

David wanted to be confident that the rules of the game hadn’t changed, but even he could admit that they were on flimsy ground right now. With Felix’s life on the line, it was better to be overly cautious than not, while hoping for the best. At the very least, it seemed more and more like this Trial was going to be an easy one, and David was ready for it. His battered body desperately needed the reprieve. The thought prompted him to roll his freshly mended shoulder around in its socket a few times so it didn’t get stiff again.

By now, the generator had a substantial amount of progress, and only a handful of repairs remained. That was when Felix decided to go back to anxiously scanning their surroundings again and stopped working. The man then hopped to his feet and went to the corner to peek carefully around it.

David continued to work but kept a careful eye on him. An uneasy, churning pit began to grow in the depths of his stomach. He’d never seen Felix this paranoid during a Trial— even against the deadliest of killers.

What was he so afraid of?

“Oi, Felix, why don—”

“We should go meet up with the others.”

David had to pause a moment to process that suggestion. “Why’s that? They seem to gettin’ on just fine by ‘emselves.”

An anxious whimper floated freely out of Felix. His eyes darted around and he started to wring his hands again. “David please. Something is wrong— I can feel it. We need to find them.”

David produced a sound somewhere between a sigh and a dejected grunt. “Agh, fine— just gimme a second to finish this up, aright? It’s almost done.”

Felix grimaced uneasily at that but did not protest. He didn’t kneel back down to help him either though. Instead, the jittery blonde just went back to pacing and scanning his surroundings, all the while wringing his hands like a defendant awaiting a verdict.

Even though Felix’s heightened vigilance allowed David to more easily concentrate on the generator, it also worried him greatly. He couldn’t help but speculate about the possible sources for Felix’s debilitating fear. His mind immediately went to the moments right after Felix’s seizure and the breakdown that followed. What he’d seen in those crystalline blue eyes had been nothing short of sheer terror— a terror which he later realized had been caused by the Entity.

It made him wonder if what Felix was experiencing now had any connection to that. Did the Entity show him something? Did Felix know something about this Trial that he didn’t?

David flipped the final switch and the generator roared to life under his grease-stained hands, washing them both in a pale, white light. Felix straightened to attention and stared at him intently, obviously anxious to get moving.

David rose with a sigh. “Aright, I think that other genny popped off on the far side. Let’s keep circling ‘round and see if we can’t run into ‘em.”

Felix nodded deftly. 

David started off for the other gen while Felix followed close on his heels. Barely a minute passed before he felt fingers curling into the crook of his elbow again. David continued on as if he hadn’t noticed, but couldn’t deny how his heart lifted in his chest like a hot air balloon. He allowed a ghost of a smile to spread over his lips.

Trying not to be distracted by Felix’s closeness, David continued to carve a path along the outskirts of the hunting grounds. He did his best to keep them in whatever cover or refuge he could find while still keeping a close eye on their surroundings for both friend and foe. However, even after several minutes of continuous searching and cautious traversal, nothing of note occurred. Aside from that one generator that had popped earlier, there was nothing else to suggest that they weren’t in here alone— or that there was even a killer in the Trial at all.

David was still hoping for the best, but the longer this abnormal stillness dragged on, the more Felix’s anxiety began to influence his.

He gazed out over the bereft landscape again and took note of the orientation of the towering ironworks. They were on the opposite side now, which meant that they should be coming across a fully repaired generator soon. He was somewhat surprised they hadn’t encountered the survivor who had repaired it, but it was entirely possible they’d decided to go the opposite way.

Sure enough, as they approached a small hill, the sound of a rumbling engine grew steadily from the opposite side. A brightly beaming light fixture extended above it, washing the entire hillside in white. David took one last gander at their surroundings to confirm they were still alone before approaching the generator. When he turned the corner on the hill and the rumbling generator came into full view, David didn’t know what else he’d been expecting to find. It was just a generator chugging along at full power like it was supposed to be doing. 

Felix then suddenly moved past him. With great care, the man stepped warily toward the machine and began to examine the area. “There could be signs of a struggle…”

David straightened in realization. If they could find any evidence like blood or footprints, then it could answer many of their questions. David immediately joined Felix in picking over the scene. After several long minutes of searching, however, it was beginning to become clear that neither of them were going to find anything of note.

“Scheiße…”

David grunted in agreement. 

“They couldn’t have just disappeared!” Felix whispered fervently, “Where are they?!”

“Dunno… Maybe they went further down?”

Felix gripped his own arm tightly. He wavered precariously on his feet as he gazed over the empty area again. “There’s no footprints…” he murmured, voice momentarily faltering.

“Well, maybe we’re just missin’ ‘em. Obviously, someone was here— not like they can just up and disappear on us.”

Felix turned and stared him down intensely, looking even more unconvinced and unsettled than before. His fingertips dug hard into his arm until the tips turned a bloodless white.

“Oi, don’t worry just yet. It’ll be okay,” David placated. “Let’s just keep lookin’, aright?”

A long moment passed in silence. David patiently watched as Felix shifted in place as he scanned the area one last time. David wasn’t sure how many more excuses and explanations the man could accept, but he sincerely hoped it would be enough to get him through this ordeal without another panic attack. If Felix did panic, and there really was a killer sneaking around out there… then David’s job would quickly become deadly.

Still, he was hoping for the best.

Finally, Felix drew in a long, quivering breath, and puffed it all back out. His shoulders dropped in capitulation. “Fine.”

David waited for the German to return to his side before moving away from the light of the thrumming generator and delving back into the murky dark of the forest. As expected, and to his secret delight, surreptitious fingers once again slipped into the crook of his elbow to hold firm.

David continued on the circular path he’d been forging around the edge of the hunting grounds. Going by the orientation of the colossal foundry in the middle, they’d nearly completed a full circle. The only significant structure left that they hadn’t yet visited was the shack in the far corner, which he could now see from their position. It lay at the end of a short but very exposed path lined with junk and scrap. There wasn’t much cover between here and there, but David was somewhat doubting that they even needed it at all.

He turned back to address Felix. “How ‘bout we take a look-see at the shack? Betcha twenty quid they’re both workin’ a genny in there like a couple of empty-headed muppets. Wot ya—”

Felix’s eyes suddenly went huge. His pointer finger shot past him. “David! David look! ”

He spun around just in time to see a small, shadowy figure sneak carefully behind the shack and disappear from view. 

Felix latched onto his arm with both hands and squeezed painfully tight. “What was that?!”

David narrowed his eyes on the spot the figure had last been and tried revisualize what he’d seen in that brief glimpse. The figure had seemed fairly human in its movement and stature— much like what a stealthy survivor looked like— but there hadn’t been enough time for him to pick out any identifying features like a cap or a ponytail. He also hadn’t seen them leave the shack so he could steal another glimpse at them. It seemed like they planned on staying inside.

David rumbled thoughtfully to himself. “Could be another survivor…”

“Could be?!”

“Well, it seems like it. They weren’t taller‘n two meters and they haven’t left the shack yet. A killer would keep on patrolling ‘till they found someone.”

“Well, w– what if you’re wrong?”

David grumbled to himself again. “Might be, but we can’t keep wandering around like this. Gotta figure out what’s goin’ on here.”

Felix whimpered quietly, but did not protest further.

Feeling his heartstrings tug at the distress in that voice, David turned back to give the nervous man a stalwart look. “Hey, it’ll be okay,” he said, giving the man’s shoulder a quick squeeze with his unrestrained hand. “We’ll just take a quick gander, and if no one’s there, we’ll scarper, aright?”

Harder and sharper than a pair of diamonds, Felix’s ice-blue eyes stared keenly into his. Deep beneath the surface of that grievous look, David could see an intense terror in those eyes, much like the kind he’d seen in the aftermath of that harrowing seizure at the campfire. The hands holding his arm pulled very slightly, almost as if Felix were subtly trying to pull him away from the place that they needed to go and back toward himself.

Felix wasn’t outright saying it, but everything else about him was saying that he did not want to go to the shack. If David knew for a fact that Felix would be safe on his own, he’d go and check it out by himself, but seeing as how Felix could barely stand to be separated from him for any length of time, that was obviously out of the question. He needed to stay with Felix, but he also needed to check that shack. That figure they'd seen was their only lead on what was going on here, and David felt like if he could find out who or what that was, then he'd better be able to protect Felix. 

To David, it seemed far more likely that the figure had been a fellow survivor. If he could meet up with them, then they’d be in a safer position. But even if they really were walking in on a killer, then at least that knowledge would help him protect Felix in the remainder of the Trial. 

Approaching the shack was high risk, but it would also be a calculated one— they needed more information.

David stared back into those sharp diamond eyes with as much calm, reassuring confidence as he could muster. He prepared to do his best to soften that grievous look. “Oi, look, I know this seems a bit dodgy, but we gotta figure out what’s goin’ on here. Wouldn’t you feel a whole lot better knowin’ that was just Claudie or Dwight creepin’ ‘round or summat?”

Felix’s furrowed expression darted over his shoulder at the shack, then back onto him. His expression became somewhat more contemplative and slightly less terrified, but it was plain to see he was still paralyzed by uncertainty. 

David sighed sympathetically. “I’m sorry mate, but we gotta do this. I don’t think we’ll run into anything bad over there, but if we do, I swear on me life you’ll get out safe. I promise, ” he said, giving Felix’s shoulder another firm squeeze to emphasize that promise.

The blonde squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed thickly. “O– Okay. I trust you.”

David’s heart clenched. His center warmed with adoration. He smiled and nodded graciously.

“But don’t swear on your life,” Felix quickly added, deadly serious. But then almost as quickly, his demeanor waned into something much more timid. “I… I still need you…”

An intense, indescribable feeling of what could only be described as love, bloomed hot and fervent in David’s chest. Of course, he already knew that Felix needed him. Hearing him actually say it directly to his face like this though… It made that sense of deep devotion smoldering in his depths blaze that much hotter and fiercer. He knew it was a very dangerous feeling for him to have, but fuck it all, he could deal with the emotional repercussions later . Felix needed him right now. Whatever that entailed, be it his death— or as Felix had just made clear to him, his life— he was going to provide it.

David couldn’t help but puff out his chest and stand tall. “Well then, in that case, I swear to stay alive and protect you no matter what. Sound better?”

Finally, Felix’s intense expression somewhat waned. He nodded deftly.

With a smile of barely contained reverence, David nodded and turned toward the shack. 

The building sat alone and ominous at the end of the path. There was nothing to suggest any sort of life was contained within.

Ever so gingerly, David began to move forward. When his arm didn’t follow, he paused and waited patiently for Felix to follow. Felix had already agreed to this, so he had faith he'd move eventually— the man just had to gather up enough courage to do so.

After several long moments, David was about to turn and encourage him again, but then Felix huffed forcefully and trudged forward. The pull on his arm lessened. David began to move forward again, feeling a substantial sense of pride for his companion’s bravery.

Slowly but steadily, the two inched further down the dirt path, closer and closer towards the dilapidated shack. 

Felix’s fingers pressed even harder into his arm. Beneath each one, he could feel the beginnings of painful bruises forming, but he could happily ignore it if it meant Felix felt less anxious.

A crash in the upper canopy shattered the silence. Felix yelped and clutched frantically at him. A crow squawked and flew into the night.

“Oi, it’s okay mate! It’s okay! Is just a crow…” he hushed quietly.

The deathgrip on his arm shifted lower. David suddenly felt another hand intertwine with his own, gripping tight and desperate. On instinct he squeezed back, tightening his hold until he could no longer feel it trembling.

It was only several seconds later that his heart seemed to register what was happening and began to flutter raptly away in his chest. The exhilarating joy of holding Felix's hand like this was undeniable, but the knowledge that it was due to fear somewhat dampened those warm feelings. Despite that, David decided that he could still enjoy this small moment between them while it lasted.

The shack loomed closer, growing steadily out of the forest. From here, he could somewhat see inside where dim moonlight fell on the ground. Still, there was no sign, nor sound, of life within.

The cavernous doorway drew near. Felix’s hand clenched painfully tight. 

David silently slunk to the outside of the shack wall and dragged Felix alongside him. The air remained silent. Carefully, David leaned around the doorway and peered inside. It was bare. All that lay inside were a pair of lockers and a few stray boxes. There wasn’t even an inert generator to repair.

Confused, David drew back and scanned his surroundings once more. The titanic ironworks sat idle in the distance like a giant, decomposing corpse. Nothing around them moved. 

A pang of unease stirred within him, but David quickly stamped it out. He turned back toward his companion to gesture that they were about to enter. Felix looked as though he was barely holding down a scream, but still nodded in confirmation. David gave him a quick pat of acknowledgement and slowly skulked inside, gently pulling Felix along behind him.

The old floorboards beneath their shoes squeaked and moaned and they approached the center of the shack. David continued to meticulously scan their surroundings, checking every corner he could see and whatever view there was of the outside, but from what he could tell, there was nothing of significance here.

He felt Felix's grip lessen. Despite the bitter pang of loss that pricked at his heart, David also loosened his hold. When the hand slipped away, he did his best to hide those feelings as he turned to see why Felix had pulled away from him.

Before him, Felix stood staring down at the ground, a curious expression on his face. David looked down as well and saw a medkit perfectly squared against the floorboards like a painting on a wall. Somehow, he'd completely overlooked it during his initial search, but it was small and somewhat obscured by shadows, so missing it wasn't an entirely unthinkable thing for him to do.

“Hmm… So a survivor was here after all then,” David noted.

Felix did not answer. He instead kneeled carefully beside it, seemingly transfixed by the red box.

David hadn't quite finished clearing their surroundings of potential threats, so he continued to do so as he talked. “Betcha anything Claudette left that there; she likes to stash kits around during Trials.” He quickly peeked inside both lockers before discreetly moving over to the other doorway. “She’s gotta be the one we saw slinkin’ ‘round earlier.”

He glanced quickly at Felix, who now gingerly held the medkit before him like some sort of priceless artifact.

David frowned, thinking this to be somewhat odd. “Check inside. See if she left us a note or anythin’.”

While Felix did that, he poked his head outside to check for anything out of the norm, but this side of the shack was just as empty as the front. There wasn’t any sign of Claudette either.

Felix sucked in a quiet gasp.

David flipped around to see him staring wide-eyed into the open medkit in his lap. Its metal handle rattled quietly against the frame.

“What? What is it?”

Felix tore his widened gaze away from the kit with a staggered lurch and gaped up at him in wordless horror. His eyes were glassy with unshed tears.

“Felix, what is it?!”

Felix’s eyes suddenly darted off to the side, and went somehow wider. His teeth bared and lips moved to form the beginnings of the syllable ‘N’, but before any sound could leave his lips— 

Red. 

Pain. 

A hot, piercing pain that radiated out from the back of his neck like fire. The scent of iron flooded his nostrils and poured out onto his tongue. Felix lurched and scrambled away from him back against the wall, hand pressed hard over his face. Wide eyes pouring tears stared up at him in shock. 

Felix was in danger.

David shouted at him to run, but in place of words, a red cascade erupted over his lips, and Felix flinched as it spattered over the ground.

David realized that there was something obstructing his throat. It was stopping him from speaking. He blindly fumbled at his neck and found something that wasn't supposed to be there— something hard and smooth and slick. A hot, sticky, liquid was pulsating out from around it and pouring onto his fingers.

David finally understood that something terrible had happened to him, and Felix would be next if he did nothing. 

Desperate to prevent more blood from leaving his body, he clamped down hard on the wound and around the thing protruding from his neck. He reached out behind him with his other hand, searching for his attacker, but found nothing but open air. He couldn't turn his head.

Felix was still just sitting there, completely frozen in terror.

Again, David tried to tell him to run away and save himself, but just heard himself gurgle. More hot, metallic blood spewed over his front. He could feel it pouring down his throat and filling up his lungs. He couldn’t breathe.

Another lightning bolt of hot pain came as the hard thing in his neck twisted sideways. The world grayed. His legs went weak and suddenly decided to stop holding his weight, and he crashed to his knees like a ton of bricks. His lungs seized and forced another surge of blood up his throat, adding to the growing pool beneath him. 

The thing in his neck tore roughly away, leaving a momentary gap of air in his throat. His head suddenly flopped too far to the side. Half of his neck suddenly didn't want to work anymore, only following one command to move his head in one direction. 

His vision blurred. A wave of vertigo surged over him, washing away any and all sense of himself and his body.

He opened his eyes and found the world to be a sideways smudge. His eyes naturally fell on the navy blue blur huddled in the corner. Shadows slowly encroached on him. The longer David stared, the more regret and terrible guilt smothered him. 

His final thoughts were spent trying to figure what had even happened and how it had come to this— how he’d failed so miserably and so completely.

His friend. 

His love.

Felix.

Finally, the darkness rushed in and tore his soul apart.

Notes:

Hope you all are prepared for the next couple of chapters... 😨

Chapter 26: Retribution Pt1

Notes:

Alternative title: In which Danny is a vindictive bitch

⚠ Minor warnings listed in the end notes ⚠

Felix couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. 

All he could do was stare— stare at those deep brown eyes that had moments ago been warm and kind and lucent. Now, they were dull and cold and dark. Empty. The warmth had gone, swallowed by the cold black of lax, dilated pupils. Those eyes that had been holding his gaze with such sympathetic sadness and worry now stared past him as if he no longer existed. Frozen.

David was dead.

His lifeless body lay sprawled in an ocean of cooling blood, gleaming like a pool of mercury in the metallic moonlight. The growing puddle creeped steadily over the decaying floorboards as it grew larger, fed by the trickling fountainhead in David’s neck where he’d been partially decapitated. The silver-crimson blood advanced outward like the tide.

Standing over that mercurial ocean and David’s slaughtered body like a ghoulish reaper— his living, breathing nightmare… was Ghostface. 

Danny.

Staring blankly down at him with that pale, melting moan like a sleep paralysis demon, that dripping, gleaming red blade still in hand. Except this time, Felix was certain that this time, the demon was real, but he still couldn’t move an inch.

The bone-white face tilted ever so slightly, and all of a sudden, Felix could feel his heart pounding in his chest and on his eardrums again like a stampeding horse. 

It was the loudest fucking sound he’d ever heard in his life.

When Danny’s shadowy body shifted toward him, the invisible chains holding Felix in place finally broke loose. He sucked in a violent gasp, and all of his senses finally rushed back to him. 

With stupid, fumbling fingers, he began to grasp at the wall behind him for leverage. He tried to gather his feet beneath him, but his gelatinous legs could barely cooperate with him. Felix threw his other hand behind him to support himself, but heard a loud clang instead. Realizing he was still holding onto the medkit, he dropped it to grasp at the beam on the wall behind him. The medkit popped open on impact, scattering its contents all over the floor— including the picture that had been placed inside. It was a voyeuristic photo of him and David sitting together at the campfire, with the word ‘SLUT’ scrawled crudely over it in red.

Movement in the corner of his eye forced his gaze upward. A dark combat boot was in the process of stepping over David’s lifeless body. When it fell into the ocean of congealed, silvery blood surrounding him, it squished out from beneath the thick tread with disturbing, visceral wetness. The other combat boot followed suit with another accompanying sickening squelch, which was again followed by the first. 

The killer began stalking toward him at a hauntingly slow, smooth pace, looking as though he were floating through the air like a phantom, rather than walking.

Heart and breath lurching, Felix redoubled his efforts to climb to his feet, now fueled purely by adrenaline and sheer terror. The muscles in his legs finally surged with energy. He scrambled upward against the wall and… froze.

The white, empty-eyed mask was suddenly less than a meter away from him.

Unbidden tears welled in his eyes. Felix caught his stolen breath and began to fumble at the wall behind him, searching for the open doorway that he knew was there somewhere , but he felt nothing but all-encompassing, stifling obstruction. 

He was trapped.

The rhythmic sound of soft, squelching footsteps carried on. A dark shadow fell over him as the killer and that wailing white mask loomed close and blocked out what little light had been casting over him. 

Felix pressed himself against the unyielding wall at his back, stealing whatever space he could to distance himself from his approaching nightmare. His shaking fingers clutched at the beams for stability as his legs once again went weak and flimsy. The edges of his vision blurred with moisture.

The white mask loomed closer— so close that Felix couldn’t stand to look at it any longer. He tore his eyes away and stared purposefully at an empty spot on the ground, then flattened himself against the wall at his back until he was one with the wood.

The squishing footsteps stopped. The killer’s overwhelming, shadowy presence was now caging him against the immovable object at his back. Warm puffs of air washed over his cheek in time with the killer’s barely audible, muffled breaths.

Despite how hard he was shaking, Felix did his best to remain as still and quiet as he could. There was nothing else he could do.

“Do you know why you're not trying to run away from me right now?” the killer asked, his baritone voice as steady and sharp as a surgeon’s blade.

Felix continued to stare at that blank spot on the floor, trembling faintly. He remained frozen in place against the wall, trying hard to keep himself from hyperventilating.

“It's because somewhere, deep down inside that dumb cunt brain of yours, you know that you fucked… up.”

Felix winced as the voice darkened.

The killer shifted his stance as he examined his catch. “Do you have any idea… any fucking idea at all… what I’ve had to deal with lately— what I’ve been forced to suffer through… because of you? Hm?”

His mind immediately went to the Trapper. Felix tried to drum up whatever breath he could manage to whisper out an apology, but could not find his voice. He forced himself to shake his head instead, but the movement turned out more like a muscle spasm.

“And during all that time… after you swore directly to my fucking face that you would stay the fuck away from that piss-brained gorilla… I see that you’ve been cozying up to him this whole goddamn time?”

Felix gasped as the killer pressed against him. His hands shot up and hovered in the air in a pathetic attempt to shield himself. The ability to breathe escaped him.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice?! That I wouldn’t fucking KNOW?! Are you really that fucking stupid or are you JUST THAT DESPERATE FOR HIS COCK?!”

Felix shrank back with a broken whimper and slid further down the wall. His eyes reaffixed to that empty spot on the ground, but now, it was no longer empty. The slinking tide of silvery blood had encroached on it and began to spread its crimson fingers between the gaps in the boards. Felix’s downcast eyes naturally wandered upward and settled on the origin of the bloody pool— David’s body— still frozen in the position he’d died in, staring at nothing. His skin had since turned a bloodless shade of ash gray.

Felix felt his pounding heart begin to ache like a freshly opened wound.

What had he done? How could he have made such a fatal mistake? How could he have drawn David into this, expecting him to shield him against such a lethal and unrelenting monster? To put his friend at such risk for his own selfish, illusory protection without him even knowing…

David hadn’t even known what he’d been killed by… 

Harsh fingers suddenly latched onto his jaw and thrust him back against the wall. Blinding white pain suddenly exploded from the back of his skull and sent his mind reeling.

“YOU DON’T LOOK AT HIM, YOU LOOK AT ME!”

Felix sucked frantically at the air to catch his breath and reclaim some sense of himself. Gradually, the black and white blur resolved back into that horrible, empty-eyed scream.

“The fuck are you looking at him for, huh?! You think he’s going to get up and help you?! NO!! HE IS FUCKING DEAD. I KILLED HIM! HE IS FUCKING WORM FOOD — NOTHING BUT A SHIT STAIN ON THE BOTTOM OF MY BOOT AND I AM. YOUR. FUCKING. GOD. Are you hearing me you useless cum rag?! Am I getting though that thick fucking skull of yours?!”

Fingers drilled like screws into flesh of his jaw, squeezing like a vice and crushing him against the immovable plane at his back. The empty sockets of the mask filled his quivering vision completely. Felix gasped and nodded the best that he could in the killer’s unyielding grasp.

“Oh really?! Because I. DON’T. BELIEVE YOU! ” the killer screamed, squeezing and shaking his face painfully hard. “I fucking TOLD YOU that I would RIP OUT YOUR ENTRAILS if I ever saw you with him again, AND WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO?!”

Felix’s hands hovered meekly between them, blood going cold at the reminder of the threat. He tried to force some words out from between his trembling lips in a desperate effort to defend himself. “P– p– please, D– Danny! I—”

“SHUT UP!!”

An incredible force suddenly rocketed into his guts. Felix lurched forward and retched so hard, he thought his eyes might’ve popped out of their sockets. He collapsed to the ground and curled in on himself, gagging and coughing as he tried to regain some kind of control over his spasming body. 

But Danny would not allow him this mercy.

A brutal fist suddenly tangled itself in his hair and wrenched his scalp hard. “C’MERE YOU STUPID SLUT!!”

Clutching weakly at the killer’s arm for leverage, Felix gulped and wailed hoarsely as he was bodily dragged through the puddle of jellied crimson and toward David’s ashen body, then dumped at his side. 

Felix plunged face first into the ocean of blood. His senses were instantly overcome by the pungent scent of death and iron, so thick and strong that he could barely breathe, let alone think through the smell. He tried to push himself up off the floor, but his hands slipped out from under him and plunged him back into his dead friend’s bodily fluids. His tongue recoiled at the sour tang of metal. He tried to push himself up again, but to no avail. His hands, clothes, face, body, was covered in shining red blood. He was soaked in it. All he could see was red blood, blood, David’s blood! The blood of the man he’d led to the slaughter!

Felix sucked at the iron air, on the verge of screaming insanity.

A fist buried itself in his hair and wrenched him into the air, rescuing him from the crimson sea. Felix cried out in relief, almost thankful for it— until he opened his eyes and found himself face to face with David’s unmoving, unseeing face.

“You love this goddamn corpse so much? Then fucking kiss it.”

Felix’s mind fumbled. “Wh– wh–?!”

The grip in his hair suddenly disappeared, and his face nearly crashed into David’s skull. He managed to stop himself from plunging back down into the blood sea by using David’s outstretched arm to stabilize himself. He turned back to Danny again, wondering if he’d somehow misheard this unthinkable demand.

The killer crouched directly beside him, mask tilted with venomous intent. “It’s obvious you want to be with him more than you’ll ever respect me, so fucking kiss him. Show me how much you want to be with him.”

Felix reeled. His heart lurched. “W– w– what?”

“I SAID FUCKING KISS HIM!!”

Felix gasped as his head was shoved forward. Pale, bloodstained lips and empty eyes were suddenly inches from his own.

“Do. It.”

The hand in his hair retreated. Felix swallowed hard and stared at David’s ashen face. His eyes drifted down to the massive gouge in his throat where the life had been drained from his body. It looked like a wet, wide-open, toothless mouth. When his stomach began to churn with nausea from looking at it, Felix forced himself to look away and back up at David’s face. 

It was as the same as it had been before— white as chalk and staring off into the distance with deathly, darkened pupils. His expression was exceptionally relaxed however— as if there was nothing in the world for him to worry about, and in truth, there really wasn’t. Not anymore. 

In a strange way, it was a nice contrast to the typical expressions David wore, so often creased with sadness and worry. It seemed like those sort of expressions had been permanently affixed to his face these days, no doubt borne from the stresses Felix had been putting him through.

Now though, he couldn’t remember the last time David had looked this relaxed and at ease. If his eyes weren’t open, Felix could almost pretend this was one of those rare moments of peaceful sleep he’s sometimes seen him in. Even then, he usually maintained some sort of frown.

“I’m waiting .”

The spell he’d been building in his mind suddenly shattered, and his heart leapt. He glanced over at where the voice had originated from. Dark, empty voids stared intently back, barely a forearm’s length away.

Felix felt his insides squirm like a ball of eels, and tore his gaze away from the white mask. David’s lax, ashen face filled his vision once again, but his guts still continued to turn in on themselves.

This is madness.

His eyes squeezed shut. He breathed deep and long to try and quell that sick feeling brewing inside him, and worked to calm himself. Again, his friend’s sallow form came into view. 

Felix was completely and utterly baffled as to why Danny was making him do this. It seemed like the killer was somehow convinced that he and David were together. Did Danny really think making him do this would prove it? Or was this just another fucked up way for him to show dominance and ownership over him? At any rate, no matter how repugnant the reason, he had to do it. Danny was already so viciously angry, and Felix feared what would happen if he didn’t take every opportunity to appease him.

He could do it, but… God forgive him.  

Felix swallowed hard and looked over his dead friend’s face again, trying hard not to think about how pale and still he was. Instead, Felix went back to his thoughts from before, and imagined his lax expression to be one of calm and tranquility. It was an expression in plain contrast to his robust, angular features and the occasional scar that notched his skin, but it was an expression he wore well. Felix wished he could see it when he wasn’t so… cold.

He leaned in a bit closer, and noticed how the very fine hairs on David's skin began reacting to his breath. The reality of what he was doing made his heart flutter in his chest. He’d never been so close to David like this.

He discreetly tucked his lips to moisten them and leaned in a bit closer. His gaze caught David’s empty eyes again, and his breathing went shallow.

This isn’t right.

The shadow in the corner of his vision shifted impatiently and his heart leapt again.

He didn’t have a choice.

Felix closed his eyes and took in a slow, quavering breath. He then whispered one final, silent apology to his dead friend and closed the rest of the distance.

Cold, dry lips instantly adhered to his own, absorbing their warmth and whatever moisture he’d applied to them. The sharp taste of metal was immediately apparent, and hit hard. Layered beneath it however, was a very subtle, savory musk that was not dissimilar to David’s natural scent. He found the familiarity of it oddly comforting in the precarity of the situation.

Not knowing how long he was supposed to do this, Felix pressed forward into the kiss and was surprised to find just how soft and pliant David’s lips still were. If not for their frigidity, he could have easily believed that they belonged to someone still living.

Felix’s mouth seemed to move on its own accord then, naturally drawing together and capturing David’s bottom lip as if it were a motion he’d practiced a dozen times. The tang of metal faded further as his saliva diluted the remaining blood, allowing more of that unique, masculine sapidity to invade his senses and dull the outside world. 

A flicker of clarity briefly shone through the dull, dissociative haze he was in, making him truly aware of what he was doing. He was kissing David right now— actually kissing him— and other than the fact that David wasn’t alive anymore… this somehow didn’t make him feel bad or guilty or shameful like he was expecting it to. Felix couldn’t explain why, but somehow, this felt… good. Right. Like all those times Felix had found comfort in David’s arms, this somehow felt even better than that. It was as if his heart had found the perfect cradle to nestle into and be embraced. 

It felt like… home.

As the soft, cold lips against his began to warm, so too did that place fluttering deep at the center of his being. Everything seemed to become tranquil and serene. For a long, suspended moment, nothing else in the world existed except for him and David, locked in this neverending moment of intimacy and connection.

And then it ended.

His entire body was wrenched painfully away by the scruff and hurled backward. There was a terrifying moment of stomach-flipping weightlessness— long enough for him to process his peril— and then he came crashing back to earth. A flurry of blinding white stars burst across his vision and scattered about the room in a static fuzz. Up and down were beyond comprehension. Breathing was a foreign concept.

For a brief second, his vision cleared to reveal the horrifying image of a wailing white visage swooping down on him like a Screech Owl. A moment later, vicious claws were violently tearing into him.

Felix gasped hard as the reality of his situation crashed back down on him. He blinked wildly as he worked to clear his vision and reorient himself. The dark figure was on top of him, ripping wildly at him and his clothes. He blindly started fighting back, grabbing and pushing at the hands trying to take him apart. He flinched when the fabric covering his body split apart and tore from their fastenings, allowing the ambient, ice-cold air to flood over his normally sheltered flesh. 

Felix heaved at the shock of it. His heart rushed into overdrive, and his mind descended into a full-on panic.  

He began to wildly punch and claw at the weight on top of him, desperate to stop or even momentarily impede its progress in exposing him. On a wild swing, his fingertips briefly connected with something hard and hollow, eliciting an animalistic snarl from above. A second later, an incredible impact met with the side of his skull, and everything stopped. 

Darkness.

Felix was an unthinking mind in a blank void; completely anesthetized and unconcerned with his current state of existence. 

He was nothing, floating through nothing.

Gradually though, some pieces began to pierce his veil of nothing, like sound. Thumping, tearing, shuffling. Then, some physical sensation started to bleed through as well. Every so often, he could feel his body being manipulated and tugged at, as if he were a piece of carrion being picked over by a scavenger. It was a disturbing feeling he didn’t much care for. Very soon after, bits and pieces of his memory started to come back as well— David, red blood, a white mask— along with a vague but very urgent notion that he was in danger.

That bone-deep feeling of imminent peril caused him to rouse from his stupor a bit quicker than he otherwise would have, but he instantly paid for it with one of the worst migraines he’d ever experienced. The pain split his skull like an iron wedge, driving itself deeper and deeper the longer he insisted on staying awake, but he had to stay awake.

First, he tried to move his limbs, but found that to be an impossible feat— like trying to move cement blocks against the torrential current of a powerful river. The nauseating vertigo of movement drove him back almost immediately. Instead, he put all of his energy into peeling his eyes open. The dim light rays of the moon stung like needles stabbing directly in his brain, but he could endure it. His eyes revealed a splotchy smear of blues, grays… and a fuzzy black void hovering over his lower half.

Awareness came back to him in a dizzying rush. His heart kickstarted itself back to attention, flooding his system with enough adrenaline to make him gasp aloud.

Everything was still painfully blurry and his body was numb with cold— which he now realized was because his upper half was completely bare— but the one thing he could clearly discern was the feeling of hands gripping onto either side of his hips and tugging at his pants. 

His pulse quickened to a dangerous thrum.

Felix tried to wrench his arms forward to push away the dark figure, but was stopped by a tight, constrictive pain that dug into his wrists. 

Cold terror poured down his spine.

In frantic disbelief, he attempted one more time to pull his arms forward before finally coming to terms with the horrifying fact that they were bound securely above his head.

His breath went shallow and rapid with panic.

He blinked furiously to clear the fuzz from his concussed vision and started to kick out at the mass of shadows in front of him. His feet didn’t connect with much, but he still received an agitated snarl from the shadow for his efforts.

He drew back at the feeling of something hard, cold, and sharp poking painfully into his cheek.

“I can make this so much fucking worse for you…”

Felix instantly stilled. He blinked hard and fast until the black and white blur in his face finally resolved into that all-too-familiar silent scream, staring at him with an intensity he could barely explain.

“You will sit there like a good little whore, and you will happily take this punishment that I’m about to give you, because despite how much I should be turning you inside out for what you did…”

The razor-thin tip of the knife twisted deeper into his cheek, and Felix winced as it pierced his skin. 

“Seeing you strung up like this after all this time…” 

The sharp, stabbing pain in his cheek lessened. A soft, almost dainty pressure then appeared over his stomach. Felix squirmed as familiar leather fingertips began to dance softly up his quivering bare chest. 

“It’s really turning me on…”

The fingers stopped just shy of his pectoral and shaped themselves around its curve. The thumb stroked upward. Felix whimpered in distress and disgust as it pressed over his hardened nipple. The thumb pushed the sensitive nub of flesh slowly upward and then eased off, letting it rebound back into place. His entire body shuddered.

“And you owe me a fuck.”

Felix felt his heart lurch so hard, he thought it was a stroke. He wanted to plead with Danny to spare him from that, but couldn’t gather enough air from his frozen lungs to force out any words.

With a metallic whisper, the knife fell from his cheek and settled lazily onto his chest. Danny sat himself comfortably on his hips directly over his groin. Felix silently prayed he’d be able to control his disobedient body.

“But first things first…”

The blade was angled upward over his chest until the razor tip was pressing into the skin just above his right pectoral. The pressure was almost non-existent, but Felix could already feel the metal beginning to sink into his flesh.

“I’m going to make sure it’s crystal clear … just who it is you belong to.”

Felix tensed as the pressure began to slowly increase. His eyes locked with the sunken voids of the mask, silently pleading for leniency and mercy.

“It’s not him, or anyone else, it’s me . You got that? — Fucking skank— You belong to me.”

Felix choked as his skin finally gave way to the blade. Hot ribbons of red suddenly erupted from the cold steel and cascaded down his chest. He hissed and cringed as the stinging blade cut deeper.

The wailing mask leaned in close. “This time, I’m going to make sure it’s fucking burned into that stupid cumslut brain of yours, that if I EVER—” 

Felix shrieked as the blade suddenly sliced around his pec in a smooth, stinging arc, carving through his flesh like a hot knife through butter. Scalding hot blood spilled out over his frigid skin like a bloody cascade. 

“— EVER , see you and that knuckle-dragging mongoloid in the same place at the same time ever again…”

Felix continued to yelp and strain against his binds as the lacerating blade continued its swirling, skin-splitting dance over his stomach, painting the pale canvas with sheets of crimson. The pain finally stopped at his right side. Felix gasped and sucked down a sharp inhale at the momentary relief. He looked up only to recoil at Danny’s extreme closeness, white mask mere inches from his face.

“I will fucking destroy him.”  

Felix shivered at the absolute, incontrovertible rage barely contained within that quivering, seething voice. He could almost feel it radiating off the killer’s body in dark, suffocating waves. When he stared back into those empty, simmering voids, Felix knew without a doubt that Danny meant it this time.

After a long moment— long enough to make the seriousness of the threat clear— the white mask leaned away. The hunting knife then lifted languidly into the air. Felix watched nervously as it drifted over his body and then dangled directly over his heart which began thumping heavily in response. The prospect of the knife plunging directly into his heart seemed painful but not unappealing. Felix didn’t think there was much chance of his life ending that mercifully, though.

“What I’m going to do to you…”

The blade slowly lowered back down into his flesh. Felix grit his teeth and groaned as it pierced through his skin and bit deep into his muscle tissue. 

“...won’t even come close to the complete carnal agony he will suffer at my hands. I want you to remember that throughout all this, alright?” 

Danny suddenly yanked the blade all the way down his torso, and Felix screamed as another line of fire split his belly open. For a terrifying moment, he was deathly afraid to look down and see that he’d been gutted, but when he finally did, he was relieved to see the cut hadn’t gone deep enough. Felix yelped again when blade suddenly slashed across his belly, perpendicular to the longer cut. His flesh seeped bright red from a myriad of curves and lines. 

It almost seemed like Danny was spelling something.

“FUCK— he is so goddamn lucky I had to kill him so quick. Next time I doubt I’ll be able to stop myself from tearing that shithead to fucking pieces, ” Danny spat as his blade opened up yet another fresh gash in his blazing skin. “If you don’t want that to happen, then you’d better keep me occupied for every waking moment of your life from now on.”

The blade kept going and going, carving and slashing and immolating his skin like a sculptor carving into clay, until finally, Felix couldn’t take it. The all-encompassing pain took hold of mind, and he started screaming— and couldn’t stop. Slice after long, agonizing slice, Felix writhed and screamed until he could barely breathe, and then screamed some more, because it wouldn’t stop. The fiery hot pain turning his skin to pulp and his mind to mush— the mutilation of flesh, the long, drawn out, agonizing slowness of it… no matter how much he twisted and turned, he couldn’t escape it, and it wouldn’t… STOP!!

When the searing pain began to yield to a somewhat older, more turgid and miserable agony, Felix finally stopped screaming, and began to breathlessly gasp instead. He sucked greedily at the cold forest air, shivering and shuddering as he worked to retrieve some fragment of his mind in his hazy existence of pain.

Despite the constant, throbbing flare over his chest that pulsed agony with every heartbeat, awareness slowly began to return to him. His eyes and cheeks were hot and swollen, but his skin was cold and damp. He shivered violently. Everything was wet. The taste of salt was prominent on his lips. His throat felt raw.

Eventually, he managed to focus his eyesight again, and the dark shadow before him came back into focus. The white, moaning mask faded back into existence, its stare as silent and intense as ever. 

Felix’s head lolled weakly forward. A sheet of shining red came into view, rising and falling with his labored breaths. Felix realized that he was looking at his own body.

He stared at it for a long time, trying to reconcile the misery he was experiencing with the myriad of bloody carvings littering his chest. It almost looked like they spelled something, but there was too much blood to determine what.

“It says ‘cockslut,’ ” Danny offered helpfully, “Because that’s what you are— a stupid, cock-hungry slut who can’t stop himself from jumping onto other dicks the second you think I’m not around.”

Hot tears of frustration immediately welled in his eyes. He bit back a shivering sob and weakly shook his head. He never did anything with David! 

Felix swallowed painfully, gathering up what little moisture he had left to try and defend himself. “N– No, D– Danny please! I never—”

“I DON'T WANNA HEAR IT!!”

Felix flinched away as Danny lunged forward. Quivering breaths of barely contained rage poured through the mask and over his face.

“I don’t give one fuck what your lying whore mouth has to say. It's bullshit,” Danny said, stabbing an accusatory finger painfully into his bloodied chest. “The way you mouth-fucked that corpse told me everything I needed to know.”

Realizing that he would never be able to convince Danny of his innocence, Felix hung limp and listless in his binds. Silent, salty tears of defeat poured from his eyes and rolled off his chin, periodically causing the open wounds on his chest to ache with fresh pain.

A long moment of silence persisted between them as Felix wept until Danny finally withdrew. He leaned slowly back until he was once again sitting comfortably over his clothed, bloodsoaked thighs. Felix breathed raggedly into the empty, iron-tinged air, grieving silently for himself and his autonomy.

“You know what?” Danny said, sidling further down his legs.

The feeling of hands on his belt made Felix’s hazed mind lurch to attention. He looked down to see dark hands fiddling with his belt buckle. His breath caught the moment it unlatched.

“I think it’s long past time I teach you, once and for all…”

His button and zipper came undone in a fraction of second. Felix barely had time to yelp before his clothes were wrenched all the way down his legs and tossed into the far corner, leaving him completely and utterly bare. Shocked and breathless, Felix instantly tried to turn away and twist his legs to cover himself, but Danny was quick to put a stop to that, pouncing on top of him and grabbing either side of his hips to force them back down so that he was on full display.

“ …Just who it is this body,” he growled, fingers digging into the flesh of his rear, “and this tight little ass , belongs to.”

Felix squirmed desperately in Danny’s painfully invasive grasp, barely able to hear his own fearful cries over the sound of his thundering heart.

“It’s not you . It’s not him. It’s me.”

Danny’s leather clad hands withdrew and went somewhere beneath his black cloak. The sound of unbuckling fasteners and a zipper coming undone was like a million nails on a million chalkboards all screeching at once. Felix’s eyes welled with hot, agonized tears.

“And I’m going to make sure you never forget it.”

Notes:

⚠ Derogatory sexual language, blood and gore, torture, Felix coerced into kissing a corpse ⚠

Edit: Just a head's up, I'm taking an extra week with the next chapter because it's quite long and I'd rather not split it up, so expect it July 12th! Thanks!

Chapter 27: Retribution Pt2

Notes:

Alright, this is really long, but I wanted all of the supremely fucked up shit all contained in one chapter. This will probably be the worst of it. And with that…
⚠ Major warnings for the entire chapter— *highly* graphic content ahead. Specific warnings are detailed in the end notes. Remember you can ctrl+f to the next ⚠ if you want to skip it.

Felix strained hard against his binds, shivering and staring with huge, wet eyes as Danny lazily stroked himself atop his naked, bloodied body. Already, the killer was rock hard and leaking.

Sputtering through the tears pouring over his lips, Felix fumbled out a desperate plea. “D– D– Danny, wait. Please! I—”

A dark hand lashed out like a whip and struck him across the face with a thunderous smack, sending his entire upper body careening to the side. Felix blinked at the far wall in a breathless shock, waiting for the stars to clear from his vision as he tried to process the strike. The pain came quickly after in a scalding hot crescendo.

“Don’t even fucking start with that shit. I’m done giving out mercies and trying to accommodate you. No more begging. From now on, that cockslut mouth of yours only has one use.”

Felix swallowed hard as his shock finally faded. He could feel his stricken face begin to swell and warm over with pins and needles. His breath came back to him in short, shallow gasps. 

His eyes shot forward when Danny began shuffling toward him over his lacerated body, dark red, erect dick in hand. Felix grit his teeth and pressed himself backward, whimpering repudiations under his breath as he recoiled from the approaching organ. 

To his surprise, Danny stopped just before reaching his mouth and rested it on his bloody chest. Felix grimaced tightly, shivering in pain and disgust as the hard flesh began to slide between his pecs. He turned his head deliberately away from the offending organ, cringing and groaning as his wounds were agitated by the abrasive grinding. He flinched away every time the head poked into the hollow of his throat.

Danny then shifted his stance. One hand went to steady himself against the wall behind his head while the other anchored itself firmly into his long, sweat-soaked locks. Felix grunted and keened as his head was dragged forward and down toward his chest.

The head of Danny’s blood-slicked cock then came into full, overwhelming view, its tip aimed directly at his face, already pearling with beads of milky white. It then moved slowly forward until it was under his nose pressing firmly against his tightly locked lips. The pungent, heady musk of it cut sharply through the ferrous acridity of the blood and burned his sinuses. Horrific memories associated with that same scent from the depths of a moldy basement flashed through his mind, forewarning him of what lay imminently ahead.

The cockhead pressed hard against his lips. Felix tried to recoil, but failed to go anywhere. He grimaced tightly and gazed up through his moisture warped vision at Danny, silently begging for his mercy. 

The white mask was as stoic and blank as ever. The fist in his hair tightened. 

Felix felt his heart wither and die within him. The message was clear and indisputable: He was no longer a person with sentience or a will or choices. He was a thing to be used— a possession— and he belonged to Danny.

The moisture that had gathered in his eyes spilled over his flushed cheeks in full force. His grimace turned into an anguished, grief-stricken rictus, and he sobbed hard. The cock twitched impatiently against him. 

Lips quivering and heart wrenching with grief, Felix finally accepted his new position, and forfeited the last of his bodily autonomy to Danny. His teeth unclenched and his lips loosened. 

The hard length of flesh immediately pushed past his defenses and shoved its way inside. The sweaty, salty, bitter taste of it combined with the iron of his own blood made him gag almost immediately. Danny pressed inward while the hand in his hair pulled him forward, forcing the thick, bulbous flesh to the rear of his throat.

Felix retched hard as the cock violently triggered his gag reflex. The golden hell of the Pustula Plant Pit flashed before his eyes. He tried to escape from the invading intrusion on instinct, but the grip in his scalp held firm. His legs flung out and writhed uselessly against the sticky floorboards.

Danny moaned in satisfaction above him. “Ah, fuck yeah…”

The cock then slowly withdrew, allowing him enough room to gasp greedily at the air and recompose himself. The additional oxygen helped in regaining some semblance of mental awareness, and the golden hell faded.

The hard length then fully retreated from his panting orifice, grinding along his lacerated chest as it did so. Felix squirmed and moaned through gritted teeth as the wiry hairs and veiny flesh inflamed his wounds and coaxed more of his lifeblood to the surface.

The fist in his hair yanked him painfully forward again, showering his scalp with fiery pins and needles. The cock sat idle on his chest, awaiting entry into his mouth once again.

“Keep those cocksucking lips wide open,” Danny warned.

Felix felt his heart thump lethargically in his chest. He gave a pained grimace before pulling his trembling lips open again.

“Wider.”

Felix felt something deep within him buckle. His aching face, still hot and pained from the earlier strike, warmed further still with a deep, penetrating humiliation. An aggrieved whimper slipped from his open mouth as he forced it to open wider.

“There you go…” praised Danny, and eased himself back into Felix’s damp warmth. 

Felix choked as it hit the back of his throat once again, but managed to keep his flashbacks at bay. Danny did not withdraw this time, however. He just stayed there like that, poking into the constrictive depths of his esophagus as Felix’s eyes watered and his throat seized over and over around the head.

“Now wrap your lips around it…”

Desperate to make Danny move again so he could stop choking, Felix instantly complied and closed his lips around the shaft. He was rewarded with the ability to breathe again as the cock retreated from his airways, and he inhaled desperately through his nose.

“Now suck.”

A wave of shame and revulsion rolled over him, and his heart squeezed. Felix shut his watery eyes, feeling more tear tracks appear over his sticky, tacky face. He sucked.

Danny moaned lecherously in response, and his hips jutted forward. “Ah fuck!”  

Felix retched at the unexpected movement and his eyes flew open. His lips instantly unlatched from around the cock to reject the intrusion. Bloody, bile-tinged spittle overflowed from the corners of his mouth and poured down his neck as he gagged.

His scalp was wrenched hard. “I didn’t say stop.”

Despite the bulbous, leaking head trying to suffocate him, Felix forced his shaking lips back around the foul flesh filling his convulsing throat. He evacuated the air from his cheeks and hollowed them out to create negative pressure.

That earned him another lewd moan from the killer, who withdrew and thrust forward again. This time, Danny didn’t go so far, so Felix was able to keep his composure and his lips in place as the thick flesh slipped in and out of his mouth. The hand in his hair continued to yank and pull on his burning scalp. Hips rocked back and forth in front of his face, and Felix continued to suck, only daring to steal minute gasps of air whenever he felt like he could get away with it. His mind went numb and hazy from the repetitive motions, being jolted to awareness only by Danny’s occasional lewd praises and sexual commentary. At the very least, he was thankful Danny wasn’t choking him.

As Felix listened to Danny lose himself in the encompassing warmth and dampness of his mouth, a mortifying, but very pragmatic thought occurred to him. Maybe… if he could get him to climax now, then maybe Danny wouldn’t have enough energy for… other things. 

The thought of becoming a willing participant in his own rape disgusted him to no end, but the possibility of staving off that terrible alternative was too attractive a prospect for him to ignore. He had to at least try to save some small part of himself…

How to accomplish that though? It wasn’t like he had much experience sucking off other men, especially ones hung like goddamn pornstars but…

Felix thought back to his last encounter with Danny in the Forest of Passage. Much of his experience had since been ground down into a murky, suppressed haze, but he could still remember parts of it— like how Danny had practically taken him apart using only his mouth. Felix tried to recall what Danny had done to him back then and how it had felt. Somehow, the movement of his head, throat, and tongue had all worked in concert to bring his mind into the stratosphere with stimulation. Felix tried to imagine how he could use such techniques to accomplish the same…

He looked back up at Danny’s swaying body. The killer’s head was aimed at the ceiling, completely enraptured by the feeling of his dick wrapped in the wet heat of his mouth. The thick, veiny flesh continued to glide back and forth between his lips, now slickened by his saliva. Those grotesque techniques that had been performed on him earlier swirled in his mind as he watched Danny in this mindless, pleasure-hazed state. Hesitantly, Felix swished at the underside of the head with his tongue, and in return, his taste buds received a potent wave of acerbic foulness that almost made him lurch away. 

Danny sucked a small gasp of surprise and looked down on him. He chuckled darkly. “Getting into it now? Decided you like sucking my cock?” he asked, giving one long, languid thrust forward.

Felix flinched backward as the cock dipped into his throat again. The urge to vomit nearly overwhelmed him, but he managed to suppress it at the last moment. Once he recovered, Felix gave a watery, but determined look up into Danny’s eyeless sockets. He fought back another aching wave of humiliation before rolling his tongue down the entire length of the shaft.

Danny tossed his head back and gasped again. His entire body shuddered, and his cock twitched hard. “Ah fuck! Oh yeah? You love this cock, don't you? You nasty slut.”

The killer gave another hard, almost malicious thrust into him, but this time, Felix couldn’t stop himself from gagging. He retched hard as his penetrated esophagus convulsed around the tip. More torturous flashbacks of invading tendrils squirming down his throat replayed before his eyes and in his mind.

Danny seemed to enjoy it though. He stayed there for a long moment, groaning languidly as he savored the feeling of Felix choking and spasming around him. Felix strained hard against his binds, fighting against the ropes as hard as he fought against the spiny tentacles of the Pit.

After what felt like an eternity, Danny finally pulled back. Felix scrambled for air, gasping and coughing around the flesh in his mouth until his head felt as light and airy as a balloon. He thought it might float away at any moment, but eventually, he was able to bring himself back down from his oxygen-induced high.

The hard length in his mouth nudged forward over his tongue, reminding him of his self-ordained task. He had to regain control before Danny took it away again.

With a ragged gasp, Felix automatically nodded forward onto the cock, fully enveloping it with his lips and tongue and taking it as deep as he could without choking. He then shut his eyes tight and began to bob his head back and forth on Danny’s dick, sucking and tonguing and lapping furiously away as he fully threw himself into stimulating Danny’s length.

Danny groaned and cursed fervently above him. The harsh grasp on his hair had lessened further and further the longer he sucked, until it was almost nothing. It eventually became a gentle, encouraging hand on the nape of his neck, following along with the movements of his head as he bobbed and swayed on Danny’s dick.

“Ahh yeah… That taste good baby? I bet it does. Look at you— you’re loving it.” Danny huffed. “Such a good little cocksucker…”

Felix registered the comment, but ignored it. He was fully invested in his mission to get Danny off as fast as possible. He thought he was already doing a decent job of that, but felt like he needed to go a little bit further if he wanted to push him over the edge. Danny loved to push him to his limits. He loved to make Felix swallow as much of him as he was physically able, and then push him even further… The convulsing tightness of his throat… it was the thing that had brought Danny to climax the last time he’d had to do this. If Felix was going to fully commit this… then he had to go all the way.

Eyes still firmly closed, Felix started to push himself further onto the cock with every bob of his head, testing the limits of his gag reflex. Every time he felt his stomach churn and his throat begin to seize up, he made himself relax and pushed a little bit further before backing off for a breath. He could feel his mind trying to sink back into the Pit every time he pushed himself, but Felix stalwartly kept the flashbacks locked away. It might’ve been a bit easier for him to just let himself slip into that mindless state of trauma, but he needed to maintain his control. That numb haze would do him no good here.

So Felix continued to push, taking down more and more of the pulsing length until his nose was pressed up against the shag of Danny’s pubic hairs and the tip of his penis tickled his Adam's apple. The hard length pulsed and twitched within him, relishing in the tightness of his deepest recesses as it filled and stretched his esophagus.

In this position, the urge to pull away and vomit all over the floor was great, but Felix forced himself to stay in place, staying calm by breathing slowly and deliberately through his dripping nose. Once his urge to puke had been quelled, the next part of his plan came into play. He began to swallow and squeeze his throat around the cock as if he were taking down a large glass of water. 

The hand on the back of his head gripped hard. Danny yelped and keened above him, spewing a slurry of sexual comments so filthy and vile, it would have made even the most promiscuous of sex workers blush.

Felix ignored him, focusing fully on working the cock with his entire throat as long as he could.

When his lungs started to burn, Felix finally relented and pulled back just enough to catch a breath. As he did so, he felt the cock twitch hard on his tongue. A faint but unmistakable salty tang flooded throughout his mouth and quickly faded. Felix felt his heart jump hard when he realized what it was. 

Danny was close.

With a renewed, desperate determination, Felix threw himself back onto Danny’s cock, swallowing it down until the tip of his tongue was lapping at his scrotum. 

Danny keened loudly above him. His hips jutted forward on instinct, forcing his cock further down Felix’s throat as it tried to chase that mindless, primal pleasure. The unexpected movement nearly shattered his composure, but Felix held on, suppressing his rising need to descend into a coughing, gagging fit and coaxing his body back under his own command. 

When control had finally returned to him, Felix initiated a furious cycle of every technique he could think of, alternating between sucking, licking, and deepthroating the rock hard flesh that was now throbbing inside him more fervently than ever. A visceral torrent of noises filled the air— wet, sloppy smacks and deep, guttural gulps as Felix worked over the cock. Above him, Danny’s breaths were growing increasingly ragged and heavy. His hips kept periodically jutting forward in that mindless, pleasure-hazed way, signaling his closeness. 

Felix’s neck muscles screamed. They strained and cramped as they begged for a break from the repetitive movements, but Felix pushed onward. He couldn’t stop yet— not now, not at the very end.

Danny throbbed, and another wave of salty precum spread out over his tongue. Felix instantly lunged all the way forward and sheathed his throat around the cock. His lips latched on it and began to suckle the cock as hard as he could, trying to milk the orgasm out of it as if he were milking a teet.

The killer gave a thunderous roar and pulled back. Felix tried to chase after him, but a hand in his hair wrenched him painfully back. The cock evacuated his mouth with a loud pop.

Felix howled raggedly in frustration, watching as Danny’s penis twitched and floundered in the air before his face, leaking with premature excretions but still angry red and unsatiated. 

“ Fuck!! Cock hungry whore!” Danny spat, gasping for breath as much as Felix was. “I didn’t think you had it in you, but fuck if you proved me wrong.” 

Felix hung limp in his binds, exhausted and despondent, slowly coming to terms with the fact that he’d thrown his dignity to the winds for nothing. He’d failed. 

“Guess you picked up some damn good cocksucking experience while I was away, huh?” Danny said as his fingers combed through his sweat-damp locks.

Felix instantly stiffened from his dejected slump, feeling the cold blade of fear sliding directly into his jumping heart. His eyes darted cautiously up at Danny’s empty sockets, fearing that he’d made a deadly miscalculation.

“Yeah, I bet you did, you fucking whore… ” Danny hissed, pulling a bit too hard on one pass through his hair. “I don’t know what else I should’ve expected…”

The hand in his hair had stopped moving, and fisted it tight. Felix stared up into Danny’s cold, dead voids, breath locked away in his bruised throat as he waited for the killer to either fly into a renewed rage or just move on as if nothing had happened.

The fist pulling on his scalp relaxed, and Felix’s breath relaxed with it. Danny chuckled darkly as he resumed combing through his fine locks.

“I know what you’re trying to do though. You want my cum down your throat so fucking bad, don’t you? But that’s not gonna happen— I’m not letting you get off that easy,” Danny said, snickering at his own pun.

The icy dagger of terror slipped a bit deeper.

Danny’s scarlet-red penis bobbed freely as he shuffled himself down Felix’s lacerated body. The rough fabric of his cloak whispered gratingly against his skin as it dragged over him. Felix gasped as it caught on his own penis which he was horrified to find was standing proud and erect in the open air. He felt his cheeks flush and his stomach sink as Danny took immediate notice of it. 

The killer laughed aloud and batted at it teasingly. “Fucking slut.”

Felix flinched away from the touch, more mortified with himself than anything else. He tried to hide away his burning face by tucking it behind his restrained arms, but did not find much cover there. On some level, he couldn’t help but agree with Danny’s assessment.

A soft hand hooked behind one of his knees and lifted it into the air, turning his lower half to the side and opening up his legs. Felix inhaled sharply as fresh air caressed his most private crevices. He instinctively tried to close his legs to conceal himself, but harsh hands forced them back apart. His eyes darted down to see the white mask craning to gaze at his bared genitalia with Danny’s saliva-slicked cock dangling far too close for comfort.

“There you are,” Danny breathed. “ Finally. I’ve held off on this for far too long.”

Felix watched anxiously as the hand not holding his leg drifted toward his ass. The second he felt those fingers brush up against his entrance, his entire body automatically seized. His legs spasmed violently out into the air, nearly hitting Danny in the head.

Leather hands caught him again before he could wrench himself too far out of position. One leg was thrust against the ground and pinned beneath a crushing knee with the killer’s full weight behind it. The other was pressed up uncomfortably high against his chest. Felix heaved as his lungs strained against this new, highly compressive position. It forced him to take only very shallow, quick breaths, which did nothing to quell his sky-rocketing anxiety.

Wheezing rapidly, Felix watched as Danny’s attention settled back onto his splayed open groin. The killer observed his nakedness for a long moment. Felix’s face burned hot with mortification. Danny’s free hand then drifted up to his stomach and began pawing at his open wounds.

Felix yelped and squirmed as his cuts were agitated and reopened. Fresh blood spilled out over his stomach. The gloved hand was quick to gather up what it could, swiping and coating itself in the layers of bright red seeping from his body. Felix groaned and whined at the fresh, stinging pain, wishing he could scream for it all to stop without any consequences.

Finally, the hand withdrew from his tormented stomach, and Felix gasped in relief. He chased his stolen breath as fast as he dared, made exceptionally difficult by the strained, compressed position he was being kept in.

Something wet and warm prodded at his hole. 

Every muscle in Felix’s body seized as if he’d been electrified. His tightened gaze shot back down. The white mask stared intently at his most intimate area with one gloved hand disappearing from his view behind his raised thigh.

The wet warmth returned again, this time pressing against his hole until it slipped inside with a painful, aching sting. A finger?!

Felix felt his breath hitch. His muscles went rigid and then spasmed hard— or at least tried too— as the slick finger moved deeper into him. Danny was adept at keeping his body in place though, crushing one leg hard against the ground until the nerves stopped screaming, and shoving his other leg against his chest until Felix could barely even breathe.

Felix panted rapid and shallow at the air that was rapidly becoming warmed by his breath. His pulse pounded in his skull as his hole clenched against the finger probing into him. It slid back and forth over that very tight ring of muscle, sticky and slickened by what he could only assume was his own blood. Felix writhed in discomfort and distress, unable to catch his breath as he slowly but steadily succumbed to his rising panic.

The finger continued to press and drag on the ridges of his inner walls, and Felix’s heart lurched and faltered in response. He couldn’t get enough air, he was being invaded, and he couldn’t move. His head began to spin. He tried one more time to move his own leg off himself with a burst of power, but Danny held him firmly in place. He couldn’t breathe.

“C– an’t!” Felix squeaked

The pressure on his chest momentarily eased. His lungs instantly expanded into the extra space, letting him suck slightly more oxygen from the air with every panicked breath, but it wasn’t enough. Felix began to hyperventilate. Shadows began to creep into the edges of his vision.

The finger withdrew, but not all the way. It stayed just inside, hooked on his rim. Soon after, he felt another one by its side, pushing its way into him right next to the other one. Felix gasped and cried out with what little breath he possessed as that tiny little ringlet of muscle was stretched painfully wider. 

The panic that had been roiling beneath his skin finally broke its seal and erupted onto the surface.

“Gah!! NO!!” Felix cried weakly. His voice was clipped and airy, but raw and wild. 

He could endure no longer. Felix began fighting like a delirious, panicking animal. His one free leg kicked out and contorted in its hold. His back arched and body twisted. A mist of tears, sweat, saliva, and blood showered the walls and floors. He pulled hard on the rope stringing up his wrists, trying to use it to wrench his body away from everything hurting him and trying to hold him down— trying to be free.

A furious roar cracked the air and rattled his eardrums. “FUCKING CUNT!! ENOUGH!!”

The fingers slipped out of him. His leg was dropped. The crushing pressure on his body lifted. Felix gasped in relief and curled up on his side, trying to protect as much of himself as he could as he recovered from his frenzied panic. He sucked air hard and fast, savoring each and every breath as it filled his lungs and eased his heart.

A heavy thud impacted the floor by his head. Felix flinched hard. He peered between his arms and saw a black combat boot. The ropes holding his wrists then began to quiver with movement, drawing his eyes upward.

Danny was crouched over him, fumbling at the bright red rope he’d used to fasten him to the wall. It was only now that Felix noticed there was a great deal of extra length that hadn’t yet been utilized. All of it was now being looped around several beams with dextrous speed. 

“Fucking whiny bitch. ”

His leg was once again snatched into the air and held aloft. Felix yelped and tried to pull it back down, but the killer’s grip was far too strong. Danny then came at him with the rope coiled in his other hand. Despite his desperate struggles, several loops were swiftly wrapped and knotted securely around his knee in a matter of seconds. The stretchy material— nylon, he remembered— gripped him tight as the line was pulled taut, suspending his leg in the air and keeping his posterior accessible. Danny finished tying it up to the other side of the wall, fully locking him into his position. Felix tried to wrench his leg away, but the bindings were rock solid. Danny’s work was without flaw.

The killer retreated quickly to his previous position and crouched before Felix’s ass, now perfectly and effortlessly exposed to his view. Once again, a dark hand swiped at the blood on his stomach, sending Felix contorting and writhing in his binds, but only for a short moment. 

Slick pressure appeared on his hole again. Felix didn’t even have time to tense up before two fingers were shoving their way inside. What followed was a brutal flurry of rapid thrusting as the bloody fingers fucked open his hole. Felix writhed and shrieked as his sensitive insides were jackhammered apart. The ropes holding him groaned and quivered at his forceful tugging, but did not give even a millimeter of leeway. They diligently presented his body to be ruthlessly exploited.

Felix gasped when the jackhammering suddenly stopped. He hung there in a daze as he tried to catch his breath, only to seize up in pain moments later when the fingers suddenly scissored open, wrenching an embarrassingly high-pitched squeal from his abraded throat. Felix couldn’t care one bit how he sounded though; all he could think about was how much his asshole felt like it was on fire. It clenched and throbbed against the intrusion in protest, sending wave after wave of aching, electric pain as the fingers continued to dig into his depths and spread him open.

The fingers suddenly slipped out of him, and Felix’s breath caught. His hole pulsated and clutched at empty air. He was disturbed by how empty he suddenly felt.

He flinched and hissed at a hand swiping over his stomach again. When it left, he looked down, expecting to feel more prodding at his hole, but saw Danny stroking himself with the collected blood instead.

An icy chill spread out over his sweat-slicked skin and slid down his gullet. His heart began to race.

Danny casually clutched at one of the fleshy globes of his ass and pulled it away from his hole. The white mask canted to the side, silently observing him as he continued to fist his cock in the squelching wetness of Felix’s blood. Felix jumped at the feeling of a thumb pressing on his rim and pulling it apart. He felt it cramp and gape around the empty air in response.

“Fuck, your cunt is quivering so hard… It’s just begging for me to fill it.” Danny shuffled closer, aiming his cock at its final destination. “Gonna make my little cockslut nice and full… show you what a real fuck feels like…”

Felix went rigid. Cold terror reached up into his ribcage and seized his heart. He began to struggle and yank breathlessly at his binds, wishing and hoping and praying for something to give so that he could escape this!

“Shhhh shh sh shhhh…” Danny hushed, leaning against his suspended leg. Smooth leather began to gently caress up and down his thigh. Felix’s bare foot flailed uselessly behind his back.

Danny moved his hips forward.

Something hard, wet, and huge pressed against his hole. 

Felix shattered. “ NO!! NO WAIT! Danny, PLEASE!! Gott! Please stop!! I can’t do this!!”

The white mask snapped upward. “What the fuck did I say about that mouth, cockslut?!”

Felix gulped down his burgeoning panic, and pressed tearfully on. “D– Danny, please. I’m begging you, please don’t—”

Danny’s open palm reeled back. Felix ducked behind his shielding arms and shut his eyes tight, bracing for the pain of the strike. When nothing happened for a long time, he hesitantly opened his eyes and looked through his arms. 

The dark hand still hovered threateningly in the air. Danny’s drooping, sunken voids were throwing invisible daggers.

“Do you want me to fuck you, or you want me to rape you? Huh?! Which one is it going to be?!”

Felix flinched back at the terrible word. He stared wide-eyed up at Danny, teeth gritting hard. There wasn’t much of a difference to Felix, but he knew what Danny meant by it. The implication made his blood go cold.

“Either way, this cock is going up your ass, so shut the fuck up. ”

Felix remained frozen in his defensive posture, still hidden beneath his elbows. Danny’s outstretched hand slowly dropped and settled on his hip. His fingers curled over the natural handhold there and then suddenly wrenched his entire body forward.

Felix gasped as the ropes went tight and put his limbs in a brutal tension. He squirmed and strained in discomfort, but then went rigid at the feeling of that hot, slick, bulbous flesh against his puckering rear. Felix heaved hard, instantly wanting to resume his panicked pleaing, but swallowed the words back down when he remembered Danny’s threat. 

The cock pressed harder, forcing that tiny ring of muscle to stretch further open. Felix grit his teeth. His muscle chords all went as taut as guitar strings as stinging spasms of pain began to surge up his spine and throughout his core. Compared to the two fingers from earlier, this felt huge, and it was barely even inside him!! 

The cock gave a little jab forward. Felix arched backward and let out a hollow shriek as his hole was forced painfully open.

“Ach Gott! Fick fick fick FICK!! Hör auf, BITTE!!”

He squeezed his eyes shut and strained against his binds, panting hard and fast through grinding teeth as he tried to endure the stinging, cramping pains rippling through his body. It was a deep, foreign pain, unlike anything else in this realm of torture and death.

In the roar of that excruciating electricity radiating out from his core, and his ragged, hissing wheezes, Felix barely registered Danny’s indignant chuff. 

“The fuck is wrong with you… Don’t tell me you’ve never fucking done this…”

Felix heaved and gulped hard. He shook his head hard and fast. “Nein! Nein! Never! I’ve NEVER!!”

“You seriously gonna lay there and tell me that drooling meathead never fucked you?!”

He sobbed and shook his head even harder, flinging his scalding tears into the night. “NEVER!! NEVER!! I swear it!! Bitte, Gott, hör einfach auf!” he begged, whimpering that last part mostly to himself, knowing that Danny would never relent.

Felix stayed in that position for what felt like hours, shivering with dampened skin and silently sobbing as his body spasmed and cramped around the vile thing stabbing into him. It wasn’t moving at the moment, but Danny also wasn’t taking it out either, so Felix simply waited as caustic pain and dread pooled in his stomach.

He tensed hard when Danny suddenly leaned forward, pressing ever so slightly into him. “You better not be fucking lying to me,” he growled.

Felix frantically shook his head again. “Nein! I’m not! I swear! O– other than when you tried that first t– time in the woods, I’ve never… Gott, scheiße!” an upwelling of emotional intensity nearly overwhelmed him, but he managed to stave off the breakdown long enough to force out the rest of what he had to say. “I’ve never done this! Not with David, not with anyone! Please! We’re just friends… I never wanted this!…”

Finally, the sobs came quiet and breathy as he grieved for the brutal injustice of it all. All he’d ever wanted was to feel safe and cared for, and that was what David had been doing for him. Now, he was paying for it with both his body and mind.

An extended silence fell between them, filled only by his shuddering, anguished weeping. Finally a sharp sigh of vexation sliced through the misery. 

“ Relax ,” Danny barked.

Felix’s puffy eyes fluttered open, and his crying faltered. He stared at Danny in confusion, and then flinched in surprise when he felt several hard swats of admonishment against his ass. The surprise made his insides clench and cramp painfully around the invading hardness.

“I said relax you fucking idiot.”

Felix gave a faltering groan and gulped hard. He shook his head. “I can’t!”

“Yes you fucking can. If this really is your first time, then fucking listen . Stop trying to fight me and let me in. If you don’t, you’re just going to make this hell for yourself. Relax.”

A shattered sob worked its way up his throat and spilled out between his panting wheezes. He shook his head again but said nothing else. He had to. Somehow, he had to make himself relax or else Danny would just force it in and tear him apart.

Gulping down his spittle, Felix tried to focus on his breaths. He concentrated on drawing them out from the desperate little wheezes he’d been doing earlier, and into longer, more substantial inhales. It was difficult with Danny’s cock still trying to spear him open, but it seemed like it wasn’t going to move any further at the moment. It seemed like Danny was giving him a chance to comply.

He inhaled a bit deeper and felt his pounding heart slow minutely. Relax. Relax. Finally, Felix worked on unwinding his tightly knotted muscles, going over each one in his mind and eventually convincing it to release its tension. The air was coming easier now, but the pain was still there, deep in his guts where it pulsed with his heart and lit him up like an exposed electrode. Finally, he tried to relax the muscles clenching hard around his entrance, but it was a difficult thing for him to do knowing that he would only be allowing that vile thing to penetrate him further. Nevertheless, Felix forced himself to do it anyway, knowing that the alternative would be ten times worse. He sucked in a long, drawn out inhale, and then slowly blew it all out, forcing his mind to go blank and his body limp.

The cock suddenly sank several inches into him and popped past his rim. Felix instantly seized up again, teeth gritting and breath catching in his lungs. It felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. He puffed his breath forcefully out as he tried to process the pain and discomfort of his hole being stretched open far wider than he ever thought possible. He knew Danny was big, but this felt like he was taking a baseball bat rather than a dick!

“Ach! Scheiße!!” he hissed.

“Oh fuck— yes ,” Danny moaned, seemingly more enthralled by how his dick felt rather than how it was making Felix feel.

That was all but confirmed when Danny kept pushing deeper into him without bothering to wait for him to adjust. Felix writhed and cried out as the cock dragged against his inner walls, dredging up fresh new pains from his depths. He tried to make himself relax again, tried desperately to just allow the cock to sink into his body, but his spasming muscles just wouldn’t cooperate.

Danny moaned and sank himself deeper while Felix struggled harder, gasping and moaning and yelping as his insides were speared slowly open and his guts were rearranged. Finally, when Felix felt like he would break in two if Danny went any further, he stopped. 

The breath Felix hadn’t even realized he’d been holding rushed out in a forceful heave, and he quickly replaced it. He felt disturbingly full and bloated, and his entire lower half burned. His skin felt clammy and cold and hot all at once, as if he’d suddenly come down with a fever. His arms quivered like he’d overstrained them, and Felix realized he had. He’d been pulling against his binds almost nonstop. The resulting fresh indentations around both of his wrists were now growing hot with inflammation.

Danny gave a sloppy moan and wrapped himself around his suspended leg . “Fuuuuck you’re so goddamn tight, I think I almost believe you now. Ugh, I’m going dizzy it’s so good…”

He emphasized the point with a sharp jab that dredged a high-pitched yelp from Felix’s lungs. The killer then slipped out just as suddenly, leaving him breathtakingly empty. His overstretched rim strained and clutched against the bulbous head still lodged inside.

A gloved hand scraped up more blood from his stomach, and Felix barely felt it this time. What he did feel were slickened, grimy fingertips brushing around his hole and on the cock penetrating it.

“Better do what I told you earlier, ‘cause I don’t think I’m gonna be able to control myself,” Danny huffed, starting to slowly rock his hips into him. “Gonna fuckin’ destroy this tight little cunt of yours and fuck it for all it’s worth… make it worthy of a real slut.”

Felix sucked in a hollow, faltering breath and grit his teeth. His hands wrapped around his binds in a deathgrip. He held on for dear life as Danny began to fuck him in earnest. 

The thrusts were short but powerful as the hard flesh slipped and dragged over his insides, each one like a punch to the gut that forced some little cry or damaged moan up out of his lungs and into the cold air. Felix did his best to relax like Danny had told him rather than tensing up, but the deep, aching cramps continuously crashing through him made that all but impossible. He couldn’t focus. Every thrust was a lightning strike that arced up his spine and reset his brain with every jolt.

“Ugh. C’mon baby, open up for me… Take my entire cock.”

Felix moaned and whimpered brokenly as the thrusts began to steadily deepen and the fire blazing through his lower half began to grow. His tears of anguish reappeared and coated his face with a fresh layer of brine.

From the movements alone, it seemed like Danny really was trying to open him up from the inside— like he was slowly chipping away at his passage and carving out a furrow for his cock to nestle snugly into. 

The increased movement and friction was stoking the pain to new, almost unbearable levels. At the very least, his blood still seemed to be keeping things lubricated, but the abuse was still completely foreign to his body, and he was suffering for it. 

Danny gave him a rather painful jab, and Felix couldn’t stop himself from arching back into a pained shriek. Danny was becoming more frenetic, more voracious, and less forgiving. Felix gulped down his pleas for mercy and just reapplied his grip on the rope, holding on as tight as he could as the pace increased.

The cock continued to rhythmically punch into him, gliding and catching on his oversensitive, overstretched rim and rutting his insides further and further apart. His internal walls clutched and grabbed at the hard, veiny length every time it withdrew, leaving behind a gaping emptiness. It was almost as if his insides actually wanted to keep the cock inside and hold it there. Every jabbing thrust forced a ragged, gasping wheeze out of his lungs, leaving him panting for breath. With every jerking jolt of his body, he could feel his grip weakening and strength waning. He feared he would soon become nothing but a limp sex doll.

Felix languished as Danny extracted the pleasure from his flesh. His existence had become a rhythmic, jolting haze of pain, breath, and movement.

Eventually, Felix came to a point where wasn’t sure if his nerves had stopped firing or if he’d simply gotten used to it, but the sharp, knifelike pain he’d been feeling up to this point had since dulled to a deep, radiating ache. Undoubtedly, the pain was still there and exceptionally unpleasant, but it was bearable— background noise. He could endure it without losing his mind.

It wasn’t much later than Danny seemed to take notice of this change as well, most likely due to the fact that the volume of his cries had decreased significantly. The killer’s thrusts stopped and the rhythmic haze was broken. Felix somewhat came back to himself at the interruption and felt Danny change his position.

The killer filled him up again with a long, angled thrust. Felix gave a weak groan in response, aggrieved by the feeling of Danny’s cock grating against a new part of his passage. Danny then pulled back and did it again, this time at a slightly different angle than before. 

Felix wasn’t sure what he was doing, but he didn’t like the fact that there was no rhythm to it. The rhythm had helped him to dissociate and block everything out.

Danny shifted his position again, and then came at him with an even more extreme angle that aimed more toward his front. 

Felix gasped and tossed his head back in a silent scream. His skin tingled with the staticky aftermath of the explosion that had just rocked his nervous system. He blinked hard, trying to clear the spots from his eyes as he tried to understand what had just happened to him. 

Before he could decide if what he’d just felt had been pain or pleasure, Danny hit him again. A fresh wave of stars burst over his vision and stole away his breath and mind. A broken, guttural moan filled the air. Only after Felix had come back to himself did he realize that the moan had been ripped from his own throat. He sucked hard at the air to regain some control over his mind.

“Oh yeah,” Danny snickered, “There it is…”

Felix shook his head in bleary confusion. “Vhat– vhat vas…?!”

Danny cut in before he could fumble out his accent-muddled question. “That? Your prostate? Are you fucking serious?!” He laughed hard and cruel. “Fucking hell, you really are an anal virgin, aren’t you?! You tellin’ me you never tried fingering yourself here? ”

Stars filled his vision again as Danny’s cock punched him in that same spot. He keened obscenely loud as hot, electric sensation spread out from that spot deep within his groin and over his skin. He felt his own cock twitch hard.

Felix gasped when he finally surfaced from the wave, realizing that what he was feeling wasn’t pain, but the most intense pleasure he’d ever felt in his life. He dazedly shook his head, scarcely understanding it.

Danny chuckled wickedly. “You like it when I hit your g-spot baby? You want some more? Yeah, you look like you want some more. Don’t worry, I’ll give it to ya…”

Felix keened and curved backward as Danny’s cock grinded long and languid over that same spot. Another wave of white-hot pleasure exploded outward from his groin and burned throughout his body like a flashover. The slowness of it sent his mind reeling and his eyeballs rolling up into his skull. 

When Felix had finally come down from his dizzying high, he found himself breathing raggedly. His throat also felt sore and used— as if he’d been using it to scream.

A soft leather hand wrapped around his penis. Felix jumped as another wave of stimulation pulsed through his groin, and he realized he was as hard and stiff as a rod. His scrotum clenched with need. The hand around his cock slowly squeezed up his throbbing length and let go, leaving his erect penis bouncing and twitching at the air.

Felix felt his face go hot. Every inch of skin from the tips of his ears to the base of his collar bone burned hot with arousal and embarrassment. He couldn’t come to terms with how he’d become so aroused so quickly just from that one spot— and from Danny no less. He figured there had to be something wrong with him. He wasn’t supposed to feel this way from… this.

“Fuck, you’re already about to blow just from my cock. That is so fucking hot.”

Felix moaned as Danny dragged back out of him, teasing that same little spot as it went. His head spun from the pleasure. It was so wrong but it felt so good.

“How many more thrusts do you think it’ll take? One? Two?”

Felix remained blearily silent, afraid that any noise he attempted to make would just come out as another sexed up moan.

“Let’s find out together, shall we? My money’s on two…”

Danny shoved into him hard, hitting that abominable pleasure-button within him dead on. Felix strained in his binds, sending out a hollow wail as the pleasure surged through his dick and up his spine. The hard cock filling him up suddenly exited as quickly as it had entered, again rubbing over that mind-rending spot as it went.

Felix felt his balls seize. His abdominal core tightened. His heart thrummed.

Danny’s cock shoved back in, and everything went white as Felix’s world exploded. His toes curled and his muscles seized as wave after wave of hot, electric pleasure poured over him. His entire body convulsed in time with his pulsing groin and fluttering heart, over and over again, and all Felix could do was let himself be carried away by the most intense orgasm of his life.

Just as he thought the waves of his orgasm were waning, that sensitive spot was assaulted again. Felix screamed out as his climax renewed and his body lurched into round two of tumultuous convulsions. His vision then darkened from white to gray as his brain fuzzed and all sense of spatial awareness was lost. Felix found himself floating in a dizzying haze of darkness and hot, suffocating stimulation.

A mechanical click suddenly dragged him out of his mental stupor. He jerked back to himself with a rasping inhale, blinking hard to clear away the rest of the cottony fog from his brain.

Another clunky click sounded from above, this time accompanied by a bright white flash. Felix blinked that away too, and squinted up at its origin— a small, rectangular camera. It looked like the same one from before, except it was damaged. Its casing was scuffed in several places, one side was lined with brown tape, and the lens was marred by a scratch that hadn’t been there before.

The camera flashed again, forcing Felix to cower away from its blinding visage.

“Finally back with me sweetheart?” Danny asked, voice dark with lust. “Good. I just wanted you to see how much you came. It’s amazing. All that just from a couple thrusts of my dick. I said two, but we can call it two and half.” 

The camera flashed again, whirring as a new section of film was pulled into place.

Felix let his gaze fall. Long streaks of white plastered the bloodstained floor beside him and arced across his chest and belly. His body had become an avant-garde canvas of red and white. The second he saw it, Felix knew that it was the most he’d ever ejaculated in his life. He let his head fall weakly back. Exhaustion and disgust quickly seeped into his battered flesh and bruised bones. 

It didn’t make sense. He couldn’t understand how Danny had managed to make him do that, how he could’ve… could’ve enjoyed being raped like that. He’d never felt pleasure like that in his entire life, and his most intense orgasm ever had come from Danny raping him. How?! Why?! How could he have enjoyed that?! It didn’t make any sense!

Another bright flash and whirr. Danny thrust lazily into him and he groaned miserably, realizing for the first time that Danny still hadn’t pulled out yet. A hand appeared on his stomach. Felix flinched as it started to smear the gooey mess about, mixing it with his blood and pushing it into his cuts. The salt made his lacerations begin to burn anew.

“Oh yeah, look at all that nice thick cum, you enjoyed yourself didn't you? You loved getting fucked, didn’t you? Secretly wanted someone to fuck your brains out all this time huh? That's why you kept cuddling up to the beefcake isn't it? You wanted him to fuck you, didn’t you?”

Danny punctuated that with a particularly brutal thrust that made him cry weakly out. When the throbbing pain passed, Felix sank bonelessly back into his puddle of bodily fluids and hid his flushing face beneath his elbows. He didn’t have the energy nor the confidence to rebuttal Danny’s words, so he just silently wallowed in his internal concoction of misery, confusion, and shame.

“Yeah, you wanted it so bad you didn’t even realize it. You knew exactly where to get it though. Surprised that dumbfuck never tried anything with you to be honest, especially with the way you were acting around him, fucking slut. ” 

Felix whimpered as Danny jabbed into him again, sending another wave of loathsome pain/pleasure up his spine. 

Some of the viscous slurry on his stomach was scraped up. Felix gasped as Danny’s cock suddenly slipped completely out of him, leaving behind a gaping emptiness that left him completely stunned. His sore hole clutched weakly around the gaping absence, unable to fully constrict back to its original size.

A flicker of hope ignited within Felix at the fleeting chance that Danny might be done with him, but it was quickly snuffed out when his hole was unceremoniously refilled by cold, sloppy fingers. He cringed at the disgusting feeling of his own lukewarm cum being pushed up inside of him.

“Yeah, it's obvious you love taking cock— I mean, fucking look at you. Makes me wonder why you ever bothered with that shitty girlfriend of yours when you could've been screaming and cumming on dick this entire time.”

Felix shook his head, trying hard to dispel the words from his mind, but he still couldn’t get past the fact that Danny had made him feel like that— how he'd made him orgasm that hard. Was his body just naturally receptive to this sort of thing? Felix wondered if the ease of his climax just proved Danny’s point— proved that he was exactly what Danny kept claiming him to be. A dirty, cock-hungry, easy slut that came buckets the second he got a dick up his ass, whether he wanted it or not. How could Felix ever see himself as anything else after what had just happened?

The fingers inside him twisted one last time before withdrawing. Felix gasped at the momentary relief, only for it to be interrupted by the feeling of Danny’s cock at his entrance again. He squirmed and whimpered at the prospect of even more violation and degradation.

“But don’t worry baby, that’s what I’m here for. I’m gonna make you crave my dick so fucking much, you’re gonna be crying when it’s not inside of you.”

Felix groaned as Danny reentered him easily, shivering at the feeling of his own cum squishing around inside of him. Fresh tears welled in his eyes. He sobbed as the cock dragged over his sore, oversensitive walls. His own cock twitched as Danny grazed the spot that had ignited his arousal like a bonfire. Felix was afraid that he would just start pummeling it again, but then he continued past it, penetrating him even deeper than he had before.

“Gonna fuck you until your insides conform to me like a glove. No other dick in the world will be able to fill you like me.”

Felix writhed and groaned as the deep, cramping ache in his belly returned with a vengeance. His inner bowel ached and throbbed as it resisted expansion. He yelped as Danny fully seated himself with a forceful thrust, stabbing the tip of his dick into Felix’s tightest, deepest recesses. Danny then leaned over him, pressing himself against his rear with the force of his entire weight until his hips were completely flush with his buttocks. His depths clenched and throbbed around the hard, thick length lodged deep within. A cold, feverish shiver reverberated over his skin. Felix felt like he was going to be sick.

“I’m gonna make fucking sure… that you will be able to think of nothing except my cock for the rest of your fucking life.”

Danny leaned even further over him, until his white mask was hanging less than a foot away from his face. Felix squinted up at it through his blood spattered arms and his haze of pain. Cold misery pooled around his heart.

Danny’s voice came in a dangerous, whispering growl. He punctuated each and every word with deadly purpose: “I will fucking own you.”

A long, pregnant pause. The pair of empty voids held his gaze long enough for the words to convey their severity, and then Danny leaned back. 

Felix shuddered. He finally broke eye contact and tucked his gaze back beneath his arms. He closed his eyes tight, wishing he could be anywhere else but here— or dead. 

The jabbing thrust came suddenly out of the blue, sharp and fast like a gunshot. Felix choked out a gasp and fumbled to get a solid grip on his ropes in time for the next one, which hit just as hard as the first. Felix cried out and squeezed his eyes shut. The next thrusts came in brutal, quick succession, all very deep, sharp, and painful. They were completely unlike the ones that had brought him to orgasm just minutes ago. These were focused purely on driving into him as deeply and forcefully as possible with no consideration for his own pleasure. It was exactly as Danny had said— he was being treated as something to be owned.

The fiery pit in his belly was quickly becoming a white-hot, searing starburst of pain, but Danny’s pace was only increasing. Hot, fresh tears poured from his eyes. Felix sobbed through his teeth and tightened his grip on the rope. His wispy, shallow wheezes began to falter as the pain grew unbearable. Every thrust forced whatever air he’d managed to collect out in the form of ragged, strained moans.

The whip crack sound of wet, slapping skin echoed over and over itself in the empty shack, one sound indistinguishable from the next. The feverishly hot, sweaty flesh of Danny’s pelvis and thighs were constantly sticking and unsticking from his rear like old adhesive. The fingers on his hips were digging painful bruises. So forceful and aggressive was every movement, that the killer began to snarl and huff with every thrust.

He flinched away when the taste of rancid iron suddenly appeared on his lips. His eyes shot open. Danny’s grasping fingers pursued his evading mouth until they eventually managed to hook into his jaw.

Felix sobbed brokenly as his face was pulled away from its sheltered crevice and out into the open.

“C’mere slut. Don’t you dare hide that delicious misery from me.”

Felix squinted his wet, tear-sore eyes down at Danny and himself, and hated everything that he saw. 

Danny’s hips rhythmically thrusting into him with his own body jolting in response. The cum jiggling on his bloody stomach with every movement. His limp penis bouncing against his thigh.

Felix tore his gaze away and tried to hide again, but was stopped by a finger hooking into his cheek and dragging him back out.

“No no no, I said c’mere. Look. Open your eyes…   I SAID OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES CUNT. ”

Felix’s tear-crusted eyes snapped open. Danny’s sunken voids stared back. All movement had stopped. The gloved hand slowly drifted away from his face. Felix looked away but did not move his head.

“ No, look. Look at me. Let me see those sad little baby blues of yours.”

Felix looked. Latent tears streamed down his searing hot face. Danny stared back, silently observing and unmoving. After a long moment, his hand suddenly went to the rope keeping his leg suspended and pulled on something. His leg crashed back to the floor. Painful pins and needles flooded through it as blood rushed back into the numb flesh. Danny grabbed up both of his legs under the knee and maneuvered him onto his back. He pressed his legs forward and apart, then leaned far over him until they were face to face. Felix winced as Danny sunk back into him.

“Don’t look away,” Danny said, and began ramming into him again, slow, forceful, and deliberate.

Felix’s breath caught as an old memory with Christine overlayed itself onto the present. 

“Felix, look at me.”

Soft fingers had touched his face, pulling him from his concentration. He’d opened his eyes and looked down on Christine’s naked body on the bed. He’d stopped moving his hips and stared into her eyes as she caressed his cheek.

“There… Now don’t look away.”

He’d started moving inside her again, this time while holding her gaze. It had been something he’d been struggling with since they’d first started having sex. He’d felt awkward with the intimacy of it at first, but his confidence had grown along with their mutual pleasure.

Felix blinked.

Christine disappeared, replaced by a melting white scream. His position was switched. Now he was the one on his back.

Danny’s hardness was slipping and squishing in and out of him, filling and emptying his insides over and over again in a steady, grinding rhythm. That hypersensitive spot inside of him was finally receiving some attention again, slowly stoking that ember of pleasure in his belly back into a flickering flame. Felix’s cock twitched in anticipation. Fresh tears streamed silently down his face.

Danny’s hands moved from holding his legs back to beneath his hips. He then repositioned his ass into a sharper angle so that his cock could simultaneously reach deeper while also hitting his prostate more directly. The killer’s breaths grew harsher and faster along with his pace. His hand planted itself next to Felix’s head to steady his increasingly frantic movements. 

Felix had become a spectator of his own violation. Not once had his eyeline broken from Danny’s mask, but he wasn’t really looking at it. He was somewhere else, floating on the unstoppable wave of scalding pleasure rising up from within him. He had neither the will nor the energy to fight it— or Danny for that matter— any longer. 

He heard Danny say something, but didn’t know what. The rhythmic haze muffled the outside world.

The killer’s hand reached out for his bouncing penis and started to quickly stroke it. It had grown hard and was growing harder. 

Danny pounded into him without mercy. The flicker of pleasure in his belly was growing rapidly back into that ravenous, engulfing blaze. Felix let it happen.

He felt his insides begin to pulse and clench as his second orgasm drew near. He wanted to look away from Danny’s eyes towards the ceiling so this wouldn’t be so intimate, but knew he couldn’t. Danny would just force him to watch anyways. 

The fist pumping his dick stroked faster. Danny's throbbing hardness punched directly into his prostate. Felix lost himself beneath the rising waves of pleasure and let it pull him under. He shivered hard as it took him over and squeezed him ruthlessly. Three thin lines of ejaculate were wrenched from his groin and onto his chest, and then he collapsed. It was all he could manage. His second orgasm had wrung him out like a tired old wash rag. 

Danny cursed. His fingers dug into his hips hard. His rhythm faltered. He pulled Felix into one last powerful thrust and then stilled deep inside. The scrotum sticking against his rear began to pulse. Danny roared. The hard, hot length began to twitch and throb against his clenching walls. A scalding hot wetness flooded throughout his bowels and around the pulsating length inside him. Felix couldn’t stop trembling.

As he continued to cum into him, Danny gave one last shove directly against his prostate, sending one final wave of lightning to his groin. Danny furiously stroked his wavering erection until it produced a fourth rope of thin, almost clear semen. Felix gave a broken whimper as it was forced out of him and then he collapsed again, panting hard.

The white mask rushed toward him. A dark hand fumbled with it from the corner of his vision, and then he was feeling scruffy skin on his face and dry lips closing around his. A hand on the back of his neck held him steady as a foreign tongue forced open his mouth and reached in to explore him. Felix was quickly overwhelmed by the aggressive mouth invading and attacking his, but he did not fight it. There was no more fight.

Danny slowly fucked and kissed him as he rode out the rest of his orgasm and filled him with his semen. It seemed to go on forever. There was so much, it eventually started to leak out and trickle down his spine into the small of his back. He felt bloated and nauseated. 

Danny eventually stilled, but did not pull out. He wrapped his arms tightly around him and pressed their bodies together. The pilfering mouth wandered its way down his neck, licking, huffing, and taking as it went, and then traveled back up to his ear. It bit gently at his lobe and then licked over the indentations left behind.

“You’re so goddamn beautiful,” Danny huffed, breath hot and sweltering against his ear. “I love you.”

Felix went rigid. The words echoed over again in his skull. 

I love you.

His pulse began to thrum.

No… NO. This wasn’t love… this… this was the furthest fucking thing from love. This was torture. This was coercion. This was rape! This was psychosis!! Not fucking LOVE , and whoever thought otherwise was sick in the fucking head!!

I love you.

Felix felt his head begin to spin. His breathing picked up. He felt sick. He couldn’t handle Danny being wrapped around him and inside of him and everywhere fucking around him anymore . He was being smothered, and the panic was bubbling to the surface.

“Get off of me.”

Danny hummed questioningly, still groggy with lust. He nibbled teasingly at his neck.

“Get OFF of me,” Felix said more forcefully. Any remaining control over his breath had deteriorated. The panic was screaming to break free now. He started to hyperventilate.

“Hmm?” Danny slurred, pulling back just enough to look at him. “What’re you—”

“GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!!” Felix snarled. He began to thrash, twist, and kick however he could in his binds, trying desperately to buck Danny off or shove him away. Felix was almost surprised when he backed off.

The white mask stared silently down at him, somehow affixed back into its usual position. Felix took advantage of the extra space to get his knees between them.

“GET OFF!!” he shrieked, and shoved Danny backward. It seemed far too easy to do, but Felix didn’t care. All he cared about was getting space.

Danny’s softened length slipped out of him as he fell backward, and a gush of thick, creamy fluid rushed out after it.

Felix choked out a gasp when he was finally free of the killer’s smothering presence. He panted greedily at the open air as his heart finally began to calm and his claustrophobic panic waned.

Danny just sat there watching him with his limp, cum splattered dick in his lap. His blank mask looked somehow wounded or confused, as if he were a scolded dog or an alien trying to figure out what wrong it had committed.

After a long moment, the killer spat an indignant chuff and climbed to his feet. “Fucking fine… little shit,” he snarked, sounding like an inconvenienced teenager. He quickly tucked himself away and then pulled out his camera instead. “Goddamn princess…”

Felix closed his eyes. He ignored the flashes of the camera as Danny documented his handiwork. 

Felix didn’t react. He just laid there and tried to stay focused on his breathing instead of his aching body and the fluids leaking out of it. He lay completely still until he felt a hand try to nudge his legs apart. He snarled and kicked violently out at the offending touch, but failed to hit anything of substance. Still, Danny seemed to get the hint and didn’t touch him again. The camera clicked on.

When the clicking noises finally stopped, he heard Danny start to pace about the room instead. Feeling a bit less on edge now, Felix opened his eyes and saw Danny walking with the medkit he’d dropped earlier. He was wandering around the shack gathering up the supplies scattered about and placing them back in the kit, even taking the time to wipe down the ones that had been submerged in blood before putting them away. 

While he did this, the killer began rambling to fill the silence. He mostly talked about how much he enjoyed fucking Felix and watching him cum like he had, while also comparing the experience to some of the other victims he’d had in the past. He was convinced that Felix was the best fuck he’d ever had, and was glad that Felix was practically immortal.

Felix stopped listening. His eyes dropped and lost their focus. He’d been hoping this misery would be coming to an end soon, but now, he was having doubts. Danny was enjoying this far too much. Since this was still a Trial, the two of them could theoretically stay in here forever. There were no Deus ex Machinas or calls to a Trial that could save him here. He was trapped until he died, or until Danny decided he was done with him, whenever that was going to be.

Felix blinked lethargically and let his eyes regain some focus. 

David’s ghost-white face resolved into view. 

Felix felt his heart skip a beat. The dead Brit was staring straight through him with sad, black eyes, as if in reaction to the horrible acts that had just taken place. 

Felix felt a wave of shame and guilt flood over him. He’d forgotten about David. Seeing him and his piercing dead eyes now after everything that had just happened made Felix wonder how David would’ve reacted if he’d actually seen him orgasm multiple times from being raped. 

A dark, cavernous hole opened up in the center of Felix’s chest. It felt so big, Felix thought he might fall into it. Thin wisps of moisture sprouted in the corners of his eyes. He didn’t know how he’d ever be able to look David in the eye again, that was, if he ever saw him again.

Felix slowly realized that something in the air had changed. It was quiet. He blinked and looked around.

His eyes fell on Danny. The killer was staring at him, hand frozen in the middle of putting some medical scissors away in the kit. 

Felix felt a sliver of cold dread slide down his throat.

The white mask slowly turned to look down on David, and then slid back up to him. The sunken black voids stared directly into that deep dark pit in the middle of his chest.

Felix didn’t breathe. 

The medkit suddenly dropped to the floor. Felix jolted.

The killer strode with purpose towards David’s dead body, blood squelching underfoot. He stopped beside his head and raised one bloody combat boot high above the Brit’s frozen face.

Felix’s breath caught in his throat. He tore his gaze away a second before the boot came back down, but that didn’t prevent him from hearing the terrible sound of crunching flesh. Felix flinched with every impact, each one progressively more grisly and visceral than the last. His skin crawled with grief and horror. When the skull finally caved in with a wet crunch, Felix felt the sickening rise of bile in his throat, but somehow managed to keep it down.

He heard Danny pull his boot from the slushy pulp of David’s brain matter and then slowly saunter away. Felix kept his gaze averted as the heavy, squishing bootsteps approached and then stopped at his side. He felt Danny’s dark gaze burning twin holes into the side of his face. He maintained his slow and steady breaths despite his fear bubbling just beneath the surface. The heavy scent of gore wafted over him.

Danny stood over him like that for a long time.

“You still haven’t learned a fucking thing, have you?”

Felix remained silent. His heart raced.

“You haven’t.”

The statement was simple but substantive.

Felix’s pulse was loud and heavy in his ears. He kept Danny’s boots in the corner of his vision.

Another long moment passed in silence.

Danny lurched at him.

Felix yelped and curled up onto his side to shield himself from attack, only to feel a sharp impact directly over his kidneys. Hot pain vibrated throughout his gut. He gagged on his shriek of surprise and twisted away, trying to avoid both the pain and the next impact, but the next one never came.

Instead, he felt hands scooping around his knees. His legs were shoved high up against his chest. Clothed hips smashed up against his aching rear with a hard, bulbous mass bulging out from beneath it.

Despite still suffering from the painful disorientation of his injured kidneys, Felix instantly flew into an adrenaline-fueled resistance and tried to twist away from Danny's grasp.

“NO!! DON'T TOUCH ME!” 

He tried to kick and flail against him however he could, but Danny's grip was crushing. The killer pressed against his legs harder, using the entire weight of his body to keep him in place while he quickly fumbled at his crotch.

Felix sobbed harshly when he felt Danny's half-hard length against his thigh. He grit his teeth and shook his head hard, mentally crumbling at the prospect of being violated again so soon. He couldn't take this anymore!!

Danny started to grind his cock against his perineum, and Felix began to frantically squirm and cry like a wounded animal.

“NO NO NO WAIT!! Not again, PLEASE!! Just STOP and say what you want from me!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?”

Danny stopped moving. Felix bit back his panicked wailing so that the answer could be heard. The only sounds were those of his heaving, shuddering breaths.

“I want…” Danny said, voice strained and dangerous, “for you to fucking understand and accept, the exact same thing I’ve been telling you from the start. You are mine. I fucking own you. I command every aspect of your existence. If I want you to lick my boot, you will lick it. If I order you to lay down and die, you will do it. If I want to fuck you, you will lift your ass in the air and beg for it.”

Felix felt his panic rising with every horrifying word.

“I want you to know your fucking place, is what I want. No distractions. No complaining or FUCKING CRYING .”

Felix flinched hard as Danny screamed at him, reigniting the pain from his many injuries. His tears resumed silently.

“And I want you to stay the fuck away from him.”

Felix didn’t need clarification on who.

Danny released one of his legs to wrench his blade out from under his cloak. Felix recoiled at the sudden swiftness of the steel whistling through the air, fearful of what pain the deadly weapon might bring. Danny pointed the tip directly at him in a casual, imprecise manner.

“This will be your final warning.”

Felix swallowed thickly. He glanced several times from Danny’s eyes to the knife and back again. He nodded.

Danny didn’t seem to acknowledge this though. He just bounced the blade several times in his hand and then propped his elbow on top of Felix's knee. The knife rotated leisurely in Danny’s fingers as he examined it, and then his empty gaze settled back onto Felix.

“That wasn't the warning.”

Felix frowned in confusion, and then froze up. A deadly chill spread out over his skin. 

The blade in Danny’s hand went still.

Felix didn’t breathe. The two stared at each other for a long, tense moment.

Danny moved and the steel flashed. 

Felix instinctively yelped and recoiled. He knew something had just happened, but Danny had been too fast for him to determine what. His eyes rapidly scanned both himself and Danny, but it seemed like nothing had changed. Had he missed? Had he just been trying to scare him?

That was when Felix saw it. The knife was dripping with fresh blood. He hadn’t missed.

Felix looked down at himself again, and finally saw the new cut amongst the dozens of older lacerations; a thin, red smile spanning the base of his belly. His brow knitted together firmly as he inspected it. Now that he was aware of it, he could now feel its fresh sting as his newly exposed flesh tasted the air. The injury seemed dubiously shallow and unserious compared to the threats that had come just before. Had that been the warning?

Felix looked questioningly up at Danny, but the killer just continued to watch, dripping blade still in hand.

Felix began to scoot himself away from the killer’s precarious presence. “I don’t understand. Am I—”

Something in his stomach gave way, like a tendon snapping in a calf muscle. He looked down just in time to see a red wave of coiled flesh and viscera gush out of the red smile on his belly and pile onto his lap. 

Felix gazed blankly at the pile of gore that had just evacuated his body, trying to compute the image that his eyes were currently showing him. Those looked like… his intestines… and they were… outside of his body.

A wave of dizziness hit him hard. The grisly scene of his own body began to darken and sway, but Felix managed to keep it in view while also fighting off the urge to pass out. 

The shiny red and silver blade reentered his view, along with the white, empty-eyed mask. “Oops,” it said.

The razor tip centered on one corner of the red smile and then disappeared below his skin. The blade then extended the smile up and around his belly, stopping just short of his ribcage. The same thing happened on the other side, leaving him with a C-shaped gash drooling with fresh blood instead of a thin red smile. He didn’t feel any of it.

Felix felt like he should be protesting or saying something about this, but his tongue felt like it had gone numb and his lips refused to work. He was a frozen spectator. 

Danny’s gloved hand then reached for the bottom of the gash where all of his intestines had fallen out, stuck his fingers in, and lifted the fleshy flap up and over onto his chest.

Felix blinked hard, trying to clear the static fuzz from his vision. He was staring down into his own guts… and he could see his entire lower digestive system… like a vivisected frog from a school science class.

Felix was jolted from his haze by the sudden movement of loose intestines jumping off to the side. He processed what he was seeing a bit longer before realizing it was Danny shoveling his fleeing viscera away from his lower half. When all of it had been moved aside, Danny refocused his attention on his rear. He felt his wet, sticky fingers prodding at his hole again, but they were quickly replaced by the head of Danny’s cock. The full length slipped in without resistance.

When Danny’s blood slicked hand dipped into his open body cavity, Felix realized for the first time that his heart was pounding. He watched dumbly as the arm moved between his coiled intestines and pushed them aside. Very vaguely, he could feel fingers prodding and brushing over different parts of his abdominal cavity as they searched for something. Finally, he felt the sensation of pressure as the fingers closed around some part of his insides.

“Ah, there it is…”

A section of his lower intestine was dragged out of its place and held gingerly above his vivisected abdomen. Danny thrusted into him, and Felix watched in horror and disbelief as that outstretched section of his intestine swelled and contracted along with his movements. Danny giggled— actually giggled — as he did it, like a kid frying ants with a magnifying glass.

Felix felt his head start to spin and tilt. His heart pounded inside his skull. His eyes lost focus on the horror show before him and then his head dropped.

“Ah! No no no! Not yet! Come back to me baby…”

Felix was coaxed back from the edge of unconsciousness by a hand batting against his cheek. His heavy-as-lead eyelids fluttered back open. His sagging head wanted to roll away with gravity, but Danny was keeping it in place.

“I need you to see how beautiful and amazing you are.”

With lethargic, labored wheezes, Felix hazily watched as Danny used his exposed large intestine to masturbate with. He slid more and more of the fleshy tube onto himself with every thrust, sleeving it onto his dick like an overstretched sock. Felix could feel a strange, vague sensation of simultaneous internal and external pressure, but still no pain; the adrenaline was saving him.

“ Fuck, I’m going so far into you…”

Danny started to genuinely fuck him again. His gloved hand slid up and down the wet length of penetrated viscera with every thrust. Felix could physically see his insides being skewered, constantly swelling and deflating every time Danny’s cock slid into him.

A roiling wave of cold vertigo washed over him. The world went dark as his eyes escaped to the back of his skull and didn’t come back.

Felix was swept away into the infinite, embracing black of nonexistence. A split second later, he was yanked out of it by a sharp pain across his face. He gulped air and came reeling back into the agony of consciousness. His eyeballs rolled unsteadily forward and centered on the shadowy blur kneeling over him. They focused just long enough to make out Danny’s staring white mask and the furious, frenzied movements of vigorous masturbation.

The killer canted his head and gave a labored moan. Long, thick ropes of semen spurted across Felix’s open body cavity and onto the mounds of spiraling flesh, sprinkling them with globs of pale white.

Felix’s head dropped and the world winked out of existence for another brief moment of reprieve.

He was pulled out of it again by the thunderous sound of a metallic cascade and sharp pricks of impacts in his guts. He forced his eyes to flutter open and back into some semblance of focus. An overturned, empty medkit was being held over him. It shook a few times until the last remaining item— a small pair of silver medical scissors— fell out and landed in his guts. It was accompanied by a myriad of other packages and objects that had been in the kit.

The empty kit was tossed aside with a loud clang, and then Danny began shoveling the tangled ropes of viscera back into his open abdominal cavity.

His eyes fell shut, and the dark rushed in. 

A dull fire began to burn in his lower half, slowly spreading and consuming his flesh. Felix forced his eyes back open to investigate. The gaping chasm that had exposed his internal organs was no longer visible. It had been replaced by the familiar layer of skin he had grown accustomed to seeing almost every day of his life. Momentary confusion caused a fleeting moment of doubt as to whether or not he’d been disemboweled in the first place, but he couldn’t deny the increasingly intense pain bubbling up from his depths, or the overwhelming, continuous sensations of wrongness that his body was sending up his brainstem.

He sucked a labored breath and blinked several more times to focus his vision further. 

Danny’s gloved hands came into view, hovering over his stomach with a curved needle between his fingers. It swooped continuously in and out the flesh of his belly like a kingfisher plunging in and out of the water for its prey. Felix looked closer at himself and saw a jagged series of thin black lines that followed the C-shaped red smile curving around his stomach. Danny was about halfway through sewing him back up— badly. He was using a simple whipstitch to secure the entirety of his lower digestive system instead of a myriad of far more secure types of suturing methods, but he doubted Danny was concerned with the security or quality of his first aid. 

Felix wasn’t even sure why he was bothering to do this… unless he wanted him to stay alive a bit longer. The thought made his mangled insides churn with cold, miserable dread. His tear ducts strained with the urge to cry, but had no more moisture left to give.

“N– n– no,” Felix mumbled brokenly, barely managing to shape his lips to the correct syllables. “L– let mm d– ie… ples…” He sobbed weakly. The pain emanating from his lower half blazed hotter and fiercer.

The white mask broke from its sewing job to incline toward him, but looked back down without a word.

Felix sucked a quiet, shuddering breath in place of a sob, and let his head fall back. The grueling weight of despair bearing down on him was suffocating.

“You ever watch any scary movies?”

Felix blinked in confusion. The senseless detachment and irrelevance of the question threw him off balance. He glanced down at Danny, but the killer’s attention was still focused on stitching him up.

“I grew up watching ‘em. Loved ‘em. Watched every single one I could get my hands on. The local video store had a huge gap in the horror section because I kept stealing them all.” Danny chuckled fondly. “Other kids my age looked up to idols like Michael Jordan or He-Man or other dumb shit, but me? Well, other than dear old Dad— the bastard — I had some of the greatest horror icons to ever grace the silver screen. I wanted to be as feared and loved as them one day…”

Felix wished he could sink back into the darkness of unconsciousness so he didn’t have to hear this narcissistic monologue of insanity, but the pain searing through his nerves was keeping him from slipping away. He stared up at the blurred ceiling, suffering in silence as he was forced to listen to Danny’s story.

“But there was always this one little thing they did that always bugged the shit out of me. They always killed their victims way too fast— like they were just butchering livestock or taking out the trash. I never understood it. What they should have done was take it slow. Draw it out. Savor the one precious life their little victim had to give and milk it for all it's worth— life is a precious thing after all. Each and every one is unique… every gasp of pain… every fearful whimper… the last, waning flicker of it as it leaves a person’s eyes… Life… is like nothing else, and taking it in your own two hands…” Danny paused in the middle of a suture to cup his hands, as if holding a tiny, fragile creature, and then snapped them shut into twin shaking fists. “And squeezing the shit out of it until it gives out with a rattling wheeze…” He opened his hands and held them apart, palms up. “It’s better than sex.” 

Felix stared rigidly down at Danny, feeling his heart kicking hard and sluggish against his ribcage. That all too familiar grip of cold, creeping fear had pooled closely around it.

The white mask suddenly canted upward, as if in momentary thought. “Well, almost,” he added. “Sex is pretty damn good.” His hand flapped dismissively as he returned to suturing. “Anyways, yeah. Ending things too fast? That’s where all those guys went wrong. Hell, most of these chucklefucks out here are still doing wrong! Such a fucking waste…” 

The jagged black lines now almost completely adorned the entire length of the long, red smile. Danny finished off the last stitch with a knot tied snugly against his skin, and then just tucked the needle away into the corner of the slit open flesh he’d just sewed together.

“There, all fixed up.”

Danny then stepped over him and started to fumble at the ropes holding his arms in place. Felix’s upper body dropped to the floor. His arms flopped bonelessly to either side. A flood of static rushed through the numb flesh as blood began slowly returning to them. Felix let his eyes fall closed and tried to let his mind float, but the pulsing burn of pain searing through his veins kept pulling him back down. His attempt at dissociating was made all the harder when he felt Danny start to manipulate his limp body. His heart momentarily picked up in fear of the reason for this, but calmed when he felt soft fabric against his skin. He was being redressed. 

Felix somewhat came back to awareness at the vague feeling of fingers prodding at his overstretched hole. It felt loose and open, and he realized he no longer had control over the muscles there. He felt the vague sensation of pressure as the fingers sunk into him with a wet squelch.

Danny chuckled. “Lookit you— as loose and sloppy as a ten cent whore. I could probably fit my whole hand in here now.” He laughed aloud. “Just like a true slut.”

The fingers slipped out, and Felix went limp with relief. The burn of shame was barely noticeable over the sustained blaze of agony scorching through him.

⚠

Once his pants had finally pulled onto his body and his ruined nakedness was finally concealed, a brief moment of solace warmed him over. It allowed his overwrought mind to sink into a moment of gray nothingness. He floated freely over it like a feather on the wind. Felix thought he could almost hear it whispering in his ear as it carried him away. The further it carried him, the stronger and louder its blowing seemed to become, until eventually, it sounded like a hurricane blustering directly against his ears.

Felix jolted to awareness as his body was suddenly turned upright, and all of his insides suddenly shifted and slid down towards gravity. Thinking his guts had just fallen out of him again, his hands scrambled to catch his intestines and keep them inside, but was surprised to feel only tattered clothing.

“Shh shhhh, it’s okay, you’re okay…”

He felt his toes, now encased in his leather shoes, scrape against the lumpy ground. His knees settled onto a mound of soft grass and strained as they took the majority of his weight. The wind was howling now. His stomach strained against its stitches. Felix wanted to fall back to earth so that he could lay down and relieve the pressure, but there was another warm body in the way and an arm around his waist keeping him propped upright. His head lolled onto the nearby body’s shoulder.

A hand briskly patted at his cheek. “Ah c’mon baby, don’t fall asleep yet. We’re not quite done.”

A dark cold flooded around his languishing heart and he wheezed with despair. His aching eyes squinted open. A gaping black hole in the ground howled directly before him— the hatch. It was the origin of the blustering wind he’d been hearing.

Tender fingers brushed gently over his cheek. 

“Listen closely baby… I want to play a game.”

Felix shivered as the dark cold seeped down his spine. The hand on his cheek shifted to his bloated, inflamed stomach and began rubbing it gently as if he were pregnant.

“Here are the rules. I’m going to let you go now, but you must complete the next Trial like this. If you kill yourself to reset your body, or let whoever is hunting you kill you, or you try to get help… We’ll have to do this all over again. You understand?”

Felix felt his breaths grow heavy and more strained with every word as he stared into the gaping abyss before him. The dark cold in his chest was slowly morphing into an icy, painful panic. His battered body began to shake like a trembling leaf in the wind.

No… There was no way… He could barely even move… How… how was he supposed to do this?!

“ Hey.” Fingers snapped in his face. “You hear me? Nod if you understand.”

Felix wheezed shakily and unsteadily. He wanted to pretend he hadn’t heard him. He didn’t want to accept this horrifying game he was being forced into, but didn’t know what else to do. He nodded weakly.

“Good boy,” Danny praised. His hand wandered smoothly over his chest in what was intended to be a gesture of comfort, but was the furthest thing from it. The hand paused. “Oh, and before you get any ideas, I will know if you try anything— so don’t.” 

The body beside him moved away, but Danny’s hands continued to hold him in place. 

“Consider this a… graduation of sorts— a final test. Pass it, and I’ll know that you’re finally serious about following my instructions and committing yourself to me. If you don’t, well… I guess we’ll just have to keep working at it until you do.”

Felix shuddered again. All support left his body except for an urging hand on his back.

“Go on now baby. I believe in you, but hurry up— there’s not much of that precious life left in that fragile little body of yours.”

The hand on his back gently nudged him forward. The seething blackness of the open hatch rushed up to meet him and swallowed him whole.

Notes:

⚠ Non-con/dubious oral rape. Anal rape. Forced orgasm. Degradation. Derogatory sexual language. Physical abuse. A head is curb-stomped. Disembowelment. Gore and body horror. Using intestines for masturbation. Surgical horror. ⚠

Alright there it is in all its ugly glory. I hope you enjoyed it?? 😆 Ah well, see you all next update!

Chapter 28: Carrion

Notes:

Surprise! :D
Short chapter here, so I'm releasing it a week early!
Here, have a misery!

Inhale… Hold… Exhale. 

Slow and Steady. Breathe. Slowly through the nose, hold… and let it out…

Felix’s breath caught on a sharp, stabbing pain from the base of his diaphragm. He sobbed brokenly, whatever calm he’d managed to gain shattering into shrapnel. Crying only made the pain worse however, so he fought to make himself stop and worked to recover control of his breathing. He panted shallowly until the pain passed, and then focused on slowing his breaths to what they had been before. His laboring heart slowed along with it.

Slow… and steady… 

Easy…

His eyes cracked open. 

Pale pieces of white shone through the heavy Forest canopy above. So thick was the overhead foliage that Felix could barely even make out the white disc of the moon. Only vague, amorphous chunks of it had been left behind by the devouring trees. The arrangement of black and white shapes formed a curious silhouette that seemed to match that of a certain mask. 

An odd, overwhelming feeling bubbled up in his chest and seized his mind. Felix was powerless to contain it. He suddenly burst into a hysterical, mirthless laughter that quickly morphed into a series of gasping, hitching groans. Hot, stabbing pains radiated out from his stomach and blazed throughout his nervous system, flashing all the way from the tips of his fingers to the base of his spine. 

The laughter hurt, but Felix couldn’t help it. It was just… funny. 

Danny was still here. His mask was still staring down on him, even when he wasn’t actually here. Felix couldn’t escape him. No matter what he did or where he went, that white mask would be hanging over him, watching and judging his every move. Danny always knew, because he was always watching. That pale white mask was omnipresent and inescapable— like the god damned moon in the sky, and now here it fucking was.

Felix had the urge to laugh again but managed to bite it back down. The pain wasn’t worth it. He managed to ward off the last of his hysterics with a long, quivering breath, and then let his body go limp. In its absence, a raw, aching hollow was all that remained, like a giant, gaping wound where some part of his being had been ripped out. 

The emptiness was crushing.

Thin wisps of moisture suddenly gathered in the corners of his eyes. An anguished sob was cultivating in the bruised recesses of his throat, but he bit that back down as well. Crying hurt just as much as laughing. Just barely, he managed to stop the paroxysms of sorrow from bubbling up, but the rising wave of grief still easily pulled him under.

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

Why… 

Just… why.  

Why was this happening? Why couldn’t he just be safe and warm and at home with Christine and their new baby? Why did the Entity have to rip him out of his life and drag him here to this hell? Why did Danny have to be so fucking obsessed with him, and why did he have to be so goddamned cruel?

Felix stared hard at the black and white face in the sky, desperately searching it for answers, but the face just hung there above him and stared silently back, just like how Danny had when they’d… 

‘Don’t look away.’

A choked-off sob bubbled up from that deep, sinking pit in the center of his chest and slipped between his teeth. Sharp, aching agony chased after it. His body shuddered hard. It barely felt like his own— more like a rancid lump of masticated flesh wrapped in a wet paper sack. Used up. Mutilated. Disgusting. Something that deserved to be thrown away instead of being forced to breathe these pathetic little miserable gasps just to hold onto the agony of life a little bit longer…

Felix wanted nothing more than to stop breathing right this second— to let this broken, desecrated body drift off into oblivion— but he couldn’t. No. He had to hold on and draw this out for Danny’s sick fucking amusement.

Suddenly, Felix felt the disturbing sensation of his intestines shifting and unknotting themselves inside him as they tried to find their way back to their proper place. His breath caught. A cold, sickly chill flooded over his skin and mottled it with prickling goosebumps. His entire body shuddered. His weakened rectal muscles spasmed, and then he felt the disgusting sensation of a thick, slimy fluid oozing out of him and pooling in his underwear. 

A fresh wave of revulsion crashed over him. A replay of everything that had happened in the past hour or so hurtled through his mind. All of that pain and depravity… he hadn’t wanted it. He hadn’t. He’d hated what had been done to him— was repulsed by it— and yet he’d somehow gotten off on it. Twice. Danny had raped him— violently— and he’d climaxed from that twice! Why?! What the fuck was wrong with him?! Had he liked being raped?! Is that why he’d cum so much and so fast? Was he some kind of sick fuck degenerate like Danny all along and all he’d needed to realize that was to be taken by force?! 

Was he as fucked up as Danny?!

Numb, sticky fingers raced and grasped at his matted hair.

Was that… was that the reason why he couldn’t stop himself from ogling David all those times? Was he actually some kind of sick freak secretly wanting it like Danny had claimed? Was that why he’d been so drawn to David? Why he hadn’t felt that bad about making out with David’s corpse?

Had he been taking advantage of his friend all this time without even realizing it?

“Gott, David, I’m sorry…” he whimpered quietly out into the night. Any louder, and it would have hurt.

His grimy fingers pressed hard into his eye sockets. His tear ducts ached with dry sorrow, desperate to shed his anguish, but Felix held back, knowing it would only make things worse.

All this time… he’d been using David to his own benefit— as a meat shield, a security blanket, a servant, a shoulder to cry on, a guard dog, and more— all without giving the man a single consideration or thanks in return. The only thing he’d managed to do was get him slaughtered like a piece of livestock, and then, to add insult to injury, he’d turned around and violated the man’s body without much provocation at all, like a sick fucking freak.  

He’d taken advantage of his friend in just about every way one could possibly imagine— sometimes without even realizing it. Even without Danny’s cajoling, Felix had been sizing David up and violating his autonomy long before he’d ever been forced to kiss him.

In that moment, Felix realized that he was no better than the psychopath that had raped him.

He was the scum of the Earth.

Felix groaned miserably and sunk his palms into his eyes until he started seeing starry, reddish blobs floating through the darkness.

He was unworthy of ever seeing David again, but god damn it— selfish scumbag that he was— he missed him.

He simultaneously wished David were here to comfort him while also praying the man would never ever see him like this. He wanted to curl up into his massive arms and cry until he couldn’t anymore, while also feeling like a disgusting, turgid thing that would just infect his friend with his depravity the second he touched him. 

He wanted him, but also didn’t. Couldn’t. He wasn’t worthy. He could never see David now, or ever again, if not for the fact that he was a perverse disaster of a human, then for David’s own damn sake! If Felix had suffered this way under Danny’s love, then he couldn’t imagine what the killer would do to someone he hated!

He let the pressure over his eyes go with a fractured heave. The Forest canopy faded back to him in a series of splotchy, red-tinged gaps. The black and white face in the trees stared down on him.

He could never see Christine again either. Even if he miraculously escaped one day, he couldn’t go back to her. He was ruined. Hollowed out. Damaged. She’d be able to tell he wasn’t the same with a single look. She would know, and then she’d leave, and he wouldn’t be able to blame her for it one bit. No woman in her right mind would ever want to raise a child with him after what he’d done— after what he’d become.

Whoever he’d been with Christine… that man was dead and gone. If she’d had a funeral for him by now, she would’ve been right to do it, because that man wasn’t ever coming back. All that was left of him now was an aberrant, distorted, obscene shell of what had once been— violated and tossed aside to stew in its own loathsome juices. He was a degenerate who took advantage of his friends and got off on being anally raped, emasculated, and taken advantage off. No woman in the world would dare have someone like that— someone like him.

Felix breathed a bit too deeply and felt the sharp pain of something stabbing at his guts. He tensed up and resisted the urge to clutch at his stomach. Doing that would be an agonizing mistake.

Eventually, the pain subsided into a smoldering red haze that hung over his perturbed mind like evening fog. He breathed slow and shallow, carrying out the arduous task of keeping his mutilated body alive and his heart working.

Not once had Felix ever wished for the Entity to take him into the next Trial. Not once had he ever asked for the bloody slaughter that had plagued his existence and haunted his nightmares, but he was doing it now. He was begging for it— if not to get this sick and twisted ordeal over with, then at least to finally be put out of his misery. 

Whatever was to come… he needed it to happen soon .

A considerable part of him was begging for the relief of death… but there was also another part of him that feared what would happen in the very likely event that he failed Danny’s game. Was Danny actually expecting him to survive a Trial like this? He could barely even move. Even the mere act of breathing too hard hurt… Would the killer really make him suffer though all of that torture again if he couldn’t do it? 

Or was that the point?

Felix shivered. A wave of sickly nausea passed over him as his innards churned— literally.

Was he supposed to fail? Was that the real punishment?

It was a horrifically heinous thought— cruel beyond belief— but also cruel enough to make Felix almost certain that it had been Danny’s intention all along. It was the darkest, most malevolent outcome, so that could only mean that it was intended. He was supposed to fail so Danny would have an excuse to torture him again.

His heart lurched sluggishly as distress pulled on his heart. His fingers snatched and pulled at his grimy hair, using the distracting pain from the throbbing nerve endings in his scalp to keep himself from crying.

Danny’s sadism and cruelty really knew no bounds. Already, the killer had taken so much from him— damaged him beyond belief and beyond repair— and yet he still wanted more. Danny wanted to hold his life in his hands and squeeze the shit out of it until it gave out with a rattling wheeze. 

Danny didn’t just want to possess just part of him. No… he wanted all of him all to himself. It was the sick and twisted version of what he called love.

A strained sob bubbled unevenly out of his throat and sent his core into a flurry of painful, twisting knots. His eyes leaked thin threads of salty moisture.

He couldn’t take this anymore. Already, Felix couldn’t take it, and yet he knew in his mutilated core that this torture was just the start. The suffering had barely even begun . Ahead of him lay infinity…

Danny was going to dismantle him— take him apart piece by piece— until there was nothing left!

Felix gulped down his sobs and again tried to calm himself so the boiling tide of pain could be placated and recede into the background.

His mind wandered back to the Trial imminently before him— Danny’s impossible test. Felix wanted the agony to end, but he also didn’t want to give Danny another excuse to torture him. If he let himself die, then he’d just be trading his current pain for a future one that might be even worse. Completing a Trial in this state seemed hopeless, but was there actually something he could do to survive it? Could he crawl to a corner somewhere and just hope for the best?

There had to be something he could do!

Felix shrieked and jolted hard as a huge shadow fell from the tangled canopy above. His heart rocketed against his ribcage. His broken body lurched away from the shadowy mass flailing at his feet, but then it suddenly went still.

Felix steadied his gaze on the shadow. When his mind finally registered what it was, his shivering body went limp with relief and annoyance. He glared irately at the gigantic crow that had sent his body into painful spasms. It now perched calmly on the tip of his shoe with its wings outstretched. It was as big as a small child and felt like it weighed about half as much as one. It leisurely folded its wings against its body and cocked its head to the side, aiming a single, shining black eye directly at him. A hollow, woody croak vibrated the air.

Felix whispered a curse at the bird and let his head fall back against the grass. His heart was thundering. The scare had been the last thing his body had needed. He closed his eyes and tried to ignore his visitor so he could concentrate on fighting back the fresh waves of pain crashing through his nervous system so he could focus on coming up with a plan for the next Trial before it arrived.

The crow gave a soft, warbling croak, and then felt it hop heavily off his shoe and onto the ground beside him.

Felix frowned. Crows usually didn’t get this close to survivors. They tended to keep their distance. He wondered if the bird somehow sensed his weakness and had taken the opportunity to come down to investigate. Whatever the reason, he didn’t appreciate its company.

The bird continued to hop and croak softly at his side. Felix did his best to ignore it as he worked to calm his protesting body. 

Just as he’d managed to reign in his overexcited heart, he felt something hesitantly prod beneath his shirt. His breath caught and he flinched. He looked down just in time to see the child-sized crow pulling its head away from his body. It ruffled its feathers and looked everywhere but him with its beady little eyes, as if making an effort to appear far more innocent than it actually was.

Felix grit his teeth and hissed sharply through his teeth. “Don’t.” His heartbeat had picked back up.

The crow swiveled its head to aim its other eye at him, and then stared for an extensive moment, as if considering his request, and then swiveled its head again. The inhuman, shiny eye watched for his reaction as it angled its beak back toward his belly.

“Nein! Stop!” 

His attempt at intimidation came out like a death rattle, and the bird seemed to take it as one too. Unswayed by the weak warning, Felix watched in distress as the crow’s black head disappeared beneath his shirt. His skin flinched at the feeling of a sharp, searching beak poking at his bare skin.

Felix gasped. He tried his best to swat at the bird, but couldn’t quite reach far enough. The crow ducked back to appraise the risk of his swatting hand before determining that there was none. Its head dove back beneath his shirt and quickly found the pre-made gap in his belly. The hooked beak prodded between the hastily-made stitches and pushed its way inside, probing his softer insides.

Felix cried out in pain and panic. He again tried desperately to deter the bird, but this time, it just ignored him completely, having determined that he was not a threat. The beak jutted deeper into his belly as it searched for some morsel of flesh to latch onto.

Despite the pain of even the slightest of movements, Felix made one last attempt to stop the crow by trying to turn over onto his side, but couldn’t quite muster the strength. He eventually managed to drag one knee up off the ground, but using that leverage to flip himself over was beyond his ability. His leg slid uselessly back to the ground.

The hooked beak pinched tightly around something inside of him. Felix keened weakly at the sharp, internal pain. 

His body then began to rhythmically jolt and jerk as the crow started tugging at him with its entire weight, trying to rip out whatever piece of viscera it had gotten its mouth around.

“Ach! Gott!”

Felix sobbed at the air, completely powerless to stop the scavenger from eating him alive. He prayed to only higher power that he knew of to save him from this horrific, Promethean fate and whisk him away.

With a final, faltering jerk, Felix felt a sharp twinge as something inside him was torn free. He groaned miserably, watching as the crow pulled back with a stringy piece of bloody pulp in its mouth. The bird threw its head back and tossed the mangled viscera to the back of its throat where it worked to take it down. It struggled somewhat to get the sinewy bits hanging off to the side into its mouth, but it eventually succeeded and swallowed down the bit of his flesh. The dark, emotionless eye leveled on him, seemingly oblivious or just uncaring to the pain it was causing him. The crow bowed its head again, preparing to go back in for more.

“No, please.”

Felix whimpered and let his head crash back against the soft grass. He panted shallowly as he tried to work through the pain and horror washing over him, but couldn’t suppress his wretched wail as the blood-slicked beak jabbed back inside his vulnerable body cavity. The stitches strained against the intrusion. Felix could only hope that they didn’t snap. If they did, then it would be a feast fit for an entire murder.

Again, the sharp, probing mouth found something to latch onto, and the tugging began anew. Felix grit his teeth as tried to endure it, whimpering soft, faltering prayers for the Entity to save him. His wavering voice swayed and jolted along with his body as the crow slowly tore him apart. 

He jolted at the sound of rapid fluttering and looked up. Another, smaller crow had landed on his other side. Obsidian eyes flashed at him with predatory interest.

Felix’s heart sank.

The smaller crow hopped up onto his thigh, watching as the bigger one ripped at his belly.

A desperate, despondent wail bubbled out of his chest, made unsteady by the constant jolting of his body. 

He was about to be taken apart by these crows piecemeal before he ever got the chance to complete a Trial!

He let his head drop heavily back and started praying even more fervently than he had before.

Please… please Entity, take me now and let this be over with!

Just as the first crow wrenched another mouthful of viscera out of the growing gap in his belly, he felt the tentative, groping prod of a second break as it searched for a suitable entry point to the feast within.

Felix sobbed brokenly and began to wail his desperate pleas aloud to the obscured sky. His voice was merely a grating wheeze, and he had to work hard to give it any sort of presence.

“Please… please dark god of this realm… please h– hear me… T– take me into a Trial… Don’t allow me to die th– this pointless d– eath! Let.. let me be s– sacrificed to your glory… Allow me t– to exalt… y– our g– greatness!”

He heaved for breath and went limp as his dark supplication was sent out into the ether. 

It would be his final attempt at salvation. 

He waited anxiously for that familiar cold grip of the Entity to pass over him, flinching and wincing as the crows fished out bloody pieces of viscera from his body.

Please…

Hot tears pooled in his eyes. A smothering wave of abject despair swept over him and seized his heart.

And then he felt it— that cold, creeping darkness tugging on his soul. 

Felix wept aloud as excruciating relief crashed over him. 

The Entity had heard him.

He welcomed the ominous presence with wide open, worshipful arms as it embraced his languishing heart with its cold, dark fingers.

Shadowy tendrils raced from the blackness of the Forest and over his body, spooking the crows away from their easy meal. They flew off into the night, their complaining voices steadily fading to nothing as they went off in search of a new opportunity. Felix wanted to yell out at them in triumphant rebuke, but couldn’t find the energy for it. 

His skin pimpled over with gooseflesh as the frigid darkness slowly bubbled and frothed up around his body. As it rose up around his head, the roiling black fog momentarily wreathed the dimly lit canopy and the black and white face in the sky. Moments later, all of it faded to black.

Felix was engulfed in an ocean of thick, cold murk. Exhausted and drained, he floated languidly through it like a leaf riding a river current, letting it carry him wherever it may. He was glad for the momentary safety and peace. Not even the mysterious sounds that resided out in the formless fog could bother him after the fate he’d just escaped from. Normally, he found those sounds quite disturbing, but this time he was content to listen to those muffled chirps and buffeting clicks as they echoed in the distance.

As time passed, however, something about those sounds did begin to bother him. It seemed like they were getting louder… or closer. 

Disconcerted, Felix focused more intently on the sounds and tried to determine if the darkness was just playing tricks on his mind or if they really were approaching.

A low frequency pop suddenly came from above him and jolted his already frayed nerves. He looked up, but of course, saw nothing but black. 

His breaths went shallow as he tried to listen again. It seemed like everything had gone silent… but somehow, Felix felt like he wasn’t alone. He couldn’t explain why, but he just felt like it.

He focused on the thick, humid air around him, searching hard for the presence he thought was with him… and then felt the air move, like the trailing wake of something cutting through the air and pushing it aside. 

Felix swallowed. He flinched as another thick wave of displaced air washed over his face and tousled his hair, this time stronger and closer. It felt like some huge was swimming through the fog directly over his body. 

Felix was afraid to move, worried that he might accidentally touch it.

A soft sound, like an old joint clicking into place, emanated from somewhere in front of his face, followed by a deep, bellowing reverberation that rattled his ribcage and stole his breath away.

The subsonic noise carried on for a while, and then came to an abrupt, echoing stop. The air went silent.

Felix continued to shake.

It was silent, but it wasn’t gone. He could tell. The air was still moving around him— ever so very slightly… but it was definitely moving. Felix waited, barely breathing as he tried to see through the perfect darkness. The air continued to gently shift over his skin and through his hair.

Something touched his cheek.

Felix screamed and lurched back, arms flailing frantically at the dark as he tried to swat away whatever had touched him.

The presence suddenly rushed away with a chitinous click and a gust of wind.

Felix panted heavily at the murky dark, slowly realizing that the presence in the fog had left. His heart remained thundering away in his chest. His cheek felt hot.

There wasn’t much time to consider what he’d come into contact with though. A dim light was beginning to flood the sea of tar-black fog, turning it a cold, listless gray. His heart somewhat eased as the darkness faded and the formless fog fell away. He didn’t want to find out what incomprehensible monsters lurked in the black fog.

The first thing he noticed was the smell— stagnant damp and herbescent humidity— the smell of life. Next came the distant whine of cicadas and the quiet chirping of concealed crickets and frogs. The ground beneath him turned soft and malleable. Smooth, wet clay and wiry grasses played against his palms.

Finally, the gray fog parted, but not by much. Dozens of cattails were revealed to be towering over his splayed body, reaching toward the rain-dark clouds in the sky. Beyond that, Felix couldn’t see much else from his position on the ground, but it was immediately apparent to him that he’d been dropped somewhere in the swamp.

This would be the battleground for his Trial, and for Danny’s game.

Through gnashing teeth and faltering, hitching gasps, Felix fought to prop himself up on his elbows to get a better view of his surroundings, but the small bit of extra height did little to ameliorate his situation. Below one meter, the wall of bulrush was practically impenetrable.

A low, rumbling discomfort that had nothing to do with Danny’s dubious first aid began to build in his core and crawl up his throat. The kick of hope he’d been riding since the Entity had whisked him away from his gruesome fate had gone. Cold, grim reality was now settling in.

Felix stared past the velvety brown cylinders of the swaying cattails and up at the amorphous, ashen sky. Blood began to rush through his veins as hope drained from his heart.

The most critical, perilous Trial of his existence had begun, and Felix had no clue how he was going to survive it.

Chapter 29: The Trial

Notes:

It's late but its out ✊
Enjoy 😜

Felix wet his dehydrated lips with what little moisture his tongue had left to give and tried to quell the panic rising up his throat. The Trial was already well underway, a killer was on the prowl somewhere in the swamp, and he could barely move.

He had no idea where he was or even what he needed to do to be safe. He was just lost in this impenetrable thicket of cattails, completely oblivious to anything and everything around him. If a killer or even a survivor were to walk within arm’s length of him, he doubted either of them would ever realize the other was there.

The thought gave Felix pause.

Maybe he was already in a good enough hiding spot? Staying put was a risk to be sure, especially when he had no idea where he was, but Felix had to consider whether or not staying put would be safer than trying to crawl somewhere else. If a killer, or even another survivor, stumbled upon him… it would be very, very bad. A killer would probably just put him down, but if a survivor found him… Trying to explain his condition to anyone would be disastrous. If he stayed put and kept quiet though…

Felix felt the air change.

The crickets and frogs went quiet. Every follicle of hair across his body stood on end. An unusual scent cut through the blanket of humidity— something crisp and metallic.

Ozone.

His heart jumped as an unsettling energy spread out over his skin and pooled thickly in his chest. The odd energy stayed there where it continued gathering strength.

It felt like pure, distilled anxiety.

Suddenly, the energy discharged all at once with a painful, high-voltage shock that made every one of his muscles all spasm at once. A pained yelp forced itself up his throat, and at the same time, a chorus of screams echoed in the distance.

Felix gasped in horror as he tried to catch his breath.

It was the Doctor! 

No!

He couldn’t stay here! It was impossible! Those electric shocks would force him to scream and reveal his position! He’d be found for certain if the killer wasn’t on his way here already! He had to move— now!

“Scheiße!”

Felix gulped hard and started sucking down great, deep lungfuls of oxygen, preparing himself for the daunting task of moving his mutilated body. Only when he began feeling lightheaded did he stop hyperventilating and held his breath firmly within. He grit his teeth, screwed his eyes shut, anchored his fingers into the soft ground beneath him, and finally wrenched his knee into the air. 

Felix wailed hoarsely at the blistering pain that surged through his abdominals and up his spine. He heaved and panted frantically as he tried to push himself into a roll, but his body was just too weak and damaged. He couldn’t do it. Felix sobbed as the leg collapsed back to the ground— just like it had the first time.

Fuck, he was so weak and pathetic!! How was he supposed to survive this when he couldn’t even stop a couple of birds from ripping him apart?!

No, stop! Don’t think like that!

He couldn’t afford to think like that! Panicking would only make things worse. He had to stay calm and think about how he was going to do this instead of making the same panic-induced mistakes over and over again. This method hadn’t worked the first time he’d tried, so why in the world did he think it would work now? No, he had to figure out a different way to flip himself over.

Felix grit his teeth, squeezed his eyes firmly shut, and put his hyper-visual mind to work imagining all the different ways he could move himself and trying to decide on which would be the most efficient and effective. When he finally settled on what he thought might be the best, he began focusing on exactly how he was going to move rather than the immense pain it was going to cause. He visualized what he was going to do several times over in his mind, subtly flexing each muscle group he would need over and over again, as if he were preparing for a complex, carefully thought out acrobatic feat.

When he’d practiced the movement in his head enough times to feel familiar with it, he sucked in one final breath, held it deep in his lungs, and finally moved.

He threw his right arm across his body and kicked out his right leg as hard as he could. The momentum threw his weight to the side and carried him into a roll. The breath he’d been holding in his lungs exploded in a silent, pained cry as his entire body flipped over. His blood went cold at the feeling of his guts sloshing around in his belly as they rushed toward gravity. Sharp, stabbing pains from the medical supplies entombed within him accompanied the sickening momentum of his churning intestines. The stitches lining his belly strained from the new, internal pressure.

Felix completed the rollover with a gulping, shivering gasp, making sure to land on his right forearm and outstretched knee so he wouldn’t plop directly onto his fragile stomach and pop it like a swollen cyst. Ice cold, sweltering chills wracked his trembling body. A feverish sweat broke out over his skin. His back spasmed as a violent swell of nausea pushed up his gullet. Stinging bile burned the back of his throat and squeezed the moisture from his eyes, but Felix managed to hold back the torrent— barely. 

He gulped down the acidic bile tearfully and started sucking deep lungfuls of air between wet, viscous sobs. His skin crawled violently as his insides continued to settle into their new orientation. The sensation made him deliriously ill, but Felix managed to keep his composure and worked to calm his distressed body with slow, easy breaths. Eventually, the nausea passed and his pulse slowed.

He’d done it. Somehow, he’d done it.

A shrill scream faintly echoed above the continuous hum of life that he hadn’t even noticed had resumed its song. It sounded female and far away. 

And he still had time.

Felix breathed a low sigh, relieved that the killer had decided to target someone else, but felt a sharp pang of guilt immediately after. He really shouldn't be glad that someone else was suffering instead of him… but he was. It was out of his hands anyways— this reprieve was nothing more than an interchange of luck that he had no control over. Someone else’s misfortune happened to be an opportunity for him, and Felix had no choice but to take advantage of it.

Reassured and confident that the killer was distracted and far away, Felix next began to work on surmounting his next obstacle— the towering wall of cattails.

He strained to look up at the tops of the plants, but stopped when his abdominals spasmed. He averted his eyes with a hiss and settled back into the soft clay. When the swell of pain passed, he aimed his vision straight ahead and tried his best to peer through the fibrous stalks, but could see nothing beyond the thick weave of intimidating plantlife.

Another distant scream jolted him from his resigned contemplations. It sounded similar to the first, but closer— the chase was moving toward him.

He swallowed thickly and turned back toward the wall of cattails. His heart thumped insistently against his sternum as he stared through them.

He couldn’t afford to delay any longer. It was either move now, or stay here and die.

Felix closed his eyes and breathed until his heart was calm. When he opened his eyes again, he stared at the living obstacle with renewed focus. His muscles tensed in preparation. Finally, he took in one long breath, held it inside, and forced his body to go forward.

Numb, rubbery legs pushed. Fingers clawed and scraped. His breath came out in sharp, hissing gasps through tightly locked teeth as he pushed himself forward. Hot, stabbing pains radiated throughout his body as it shifted and dragged over the ground, screaming for the serenity of stillness and a long, slow death. 

Despite his body’s primal protests, Felix continued to slowly propel himself toward the seemingly impenetrable thicket. He took care to keep his body turned so as not to place any weight on his stomach, but the measure did little to ward off the pain of moving.

When he finally came face to face with the wall of cattail stalks, Felix hesitated, but then thought better of it. If he stopped, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get his momentum back, so instead, he put one forearm forward and plowed into the wall. The stalks slowly bowed under the weight, falling over until their bases creased against the ground. Felix continued pushing forward and crawled onto the bed of foliage, being careful to avoid the sharp edges of the bent over stalks. 

Despite the constant painful spasms flooding over him, Felix forced the pain aside and pushed on. He soon found himself in a dark, herbaceous tunnel of his own making. Soft, gray light filtered in from above and lit his way. His quivering, overexerted breaths were muffled by the dense crowd of plantlife hugging around his form.

Felix pushed against the cattails again, and this time, they gave much easier than expected, and he suddenly plummeted forward. Felix groaned and cringed in on himself as his stomach screamed. Searching for any sort of relief, he clutched desperately at the fallen stalks beneath him as pain and nausea rolled through him like a thunderstorm.

When the pain finally passed, Felix eventually uncinched his eyes and slowly realized that a great deal of light was being cast in front of him. His body gradually unfurled from its protective cocoon and he looked up. 

A great swath of the swamp was before him. The first feature of the landscape that registered with him was an old, half-destroyed remnant of a building or pier situated in a low spot of the swamp. Sparsely forested hills gently sloped around it. Ancient, old growth oaks framed the scene with their branches. Layers and layers of parasitic mosses hung from their arms like laundry hung out to dry. Beyond that, the outer wall of the Trial grounds was visible.

Felix quickly realized he was looking at a remote corner of the hunting grounds. He reasoned that if he could make it into that structure, or even to the thick brush bordering the wall, he’d be able to insulate himself from the violence of the Trial and increase his chances of survival dramatically.

He’d gotten lucky.

Relieved, Felix puffed out his breath and ignored the dull twinge of pain that followed immediately after it. He dropped his head onto the layer of cattails beneath him and began regathering his strength in preparation for the next stretch of his journey. The structure he had to reach was only ten or so meters away, but to him, it seemed like the length of an entire football field. He would need all the energy he could muster to traverse it.

Slow and steady, in and out, Felix breathed in the earthy, herbal scent of the swamp, and allowed his overstrained muscles to relax. The constant, chirping hum of the crickets and frogs easily lulled his mind into a calm haze. Distantly, he wondered if the singing creatures actually existed, like the crows, or if they were merely some sort of auditory hallucination created by the Entity.

A long, shrill scream shattered the calm.

Felix jolted from his rest with a snort. He swallowed down the cottony taste of exhaustion that had gathered on his tongue and realized that he’d almost passed out. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed or how close the scream that had woken him had been, but he knew he couldn’t delay any longer. Every second spent out in the open was another opportunity for the Doctor to find and kill him.

Energized by the adrenaline of waking in a panic, Felix only needed to take in a handful of preparatory breaths before he was ready to launch himself back into that shuffling, lumbering crawl across the ground. His clothes and hands quickly became covered in dirt and muck. Small rocks and debris easily found their way beneath his nails as he clawed forward. He did his best to stay on his side to keep his stomach from touching the ground, but the radiating pain of forcing his body to move was all-encompassing. Still, through gnashing teeth and labored gasps he fought through it, slowly but steadily decreasing the distance between himself and the small, dilapidated shelter until eventually, only a meter or so remained.

With a shuddering, gulping gasp, Felix finally pulled himself behind a moss covered wall and collapsed. He panted greedily at the air, shivering from both the outer damp and the feverish sweat that had gathered under his clothes and plastered them to his body. He almost let his eyes fall shut, but then thought better of it. He might be in a better spot now, but that didn’t mean he was safe. The killer could still decide to come this way.

The resonant, rumbling snarl of a generator faltering to life echoed from somewhere in the distance. It came somewhat as a surprise to him that the others had managed to finish one so soon, but Felix supposed it was simply a testament to his teammate’s tenacity and fortitude despite how much he was currently handicapping them.

Feeling pressured by the unstoppable progression of the Trial, Felix mumbled several incoherencies into the dirt and decided to take better stock of the place he had dragged himself to. After several failed attempts, he managed to haul his head up off the ground and look around.

The few, partially collapsed walls of whatever structure had been here before were now being slowly eaten away by several different species of moss and lichen. Hugging the corner of a wall farthest from him was a pair of lockers. Across from them through a gap in the decaying boards was a tangle of hoses, wires, and machinery— the innards of a generator.

A hoarse scream floated over the stagnant air, this one sounding much more masculine than the last.

Felix grimaced. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on the far side of the swamp, but from the sound of things, it wasn’t good.

His eyes fell back on the inert generator. 

He wondered if he should try to fix it. It seemed like a huge risk to take on, but the team obviously needed some help. A single generator could mean the difference between everyone’s survival and death, but Felix had to wonder if that also translated into his survival. His original plan was to just hide out in the corner until the hatch became available, and it was indeed a much safer plan, but it also depended on his teammates dying. If he decided to help out though and work on the generator, there was a good chance that it would indirectly help his own chances, but there was also a high risk of drawing the killer’s attention. 

Another hoarse, gravelly scream echoed through the hunting grounds, this time for a far longer stretch of time. It sounded like the agonized scream of a man being thrown onto a meathook.

Felix grit his teeth and stared hard at the idle generator. A long moment later, he forcefully puffed out his breath and began to awkwardly shuffle his way toward the machine.

When he made it to the generator’s side, he took a moment to catch his breath and let the pain swirling in his guts subside before using the makeshift handholds provided by the outer machinery to start hauling himself upright. The process quickly became exhausting and agonizing. Half-way through he began having second thoughts about the whole idea, but pushed on anyways.

When Felix was high enough to start pulling his knees underneath him, he suddenly had to stop when he felt his insides slide toward gravity. The sensation was quickly followed by a dizzying wave of nausea so intense he could barely even see straight. He clung to the side of the generator for dear life as the waves rolled through him, determined not to lose his hard fought progress. He patiently waited for the feeling to pass, continuously swallowing down the burning bile tickling the back of his throat as it tried to work its way up and out of his roiling stomach.

Eventually, his insides settled into their new position and the nausea passed. Felix breathed a long, quivering sigh of relief. Finally, he dragged his knees into the proper position beneath him and eased himself down into the new sitting position before the gen. His arms were sore and shaking from holding his weight for so long, so he took a moment to rest and recover his strength before anything else.

Felix sat quietly and just breathed. Other than the natural hum of the questionably real swamp life, no other sounds carried through the thick, stagnant air. 

He hoped the silence meant something good.

He took a moment to gauge his surroundings as if to confirm his assessment, but there wasn’t much for him to see. At the very least, he could now see much of the swamp’s landscape from this new position. Near where he’d been dropped into Trial, there was what looked to be a small fishing hut on stilts so it could avoid a tide that would never come again. Further out into the fog-obscured distance was a much larger building, but was ignorant to its original purpose. 

As to the status of the other survivors or the killer, however, there was nothing for him to observe. 

His eyes fell onto the tightly closed access panel of the generator before him. His arms still didn’t feel very steady, but he was becoming increasingly more anxious about staying here longer than he had to. Generators tended to attract people… and things.

Felix breathed deep, and then finally made himself reach for the latch holding the service panel closed. It flipped open, and a huge rat’s nest of different colored wires all fell out of the machine at once.

He grimaced deeply at the mess, but decided against wasting any more time. He wiped his grimy hands on the cleanest section of his clothes he could find and immediately set about delicately sorting and pulling them apart. He was careful not to touch any bare or frayed ones to himself or any other piece of metal— any of them could have been live with voltage. Sorting and rejoining wires was turning out to be a much more difficult task for him than it otherwise would have been though. It required the deft, nimble hand that an artist like him usually possessed, but right now, his fingers didn’t seem to want to work. His grip had become inconsistent and his coordination was shot. More than once, his hand had spasmed for no good reason and had nearly made him touch bare copper to his own skin. So far, the repair job was not going well, but Felix wasn’t ready to give up on it and hide quite yet.

After several grueling minutes of work though, he’d managed to jerry rig two fuses that had been knocked out of place and reconnected three separate pairs of wires. He was about to start on his fourth when the scene before him suddenly became fuzzy and unfocused. Confusion overwhelmed him as he lost all sense of himself and his orientation. He instinctively reached out for a handhold as his body began to sway.

A deafening explosion ripped him out of his stupor.

Felix gasped and flailed backward. His fingers barely managed to catch something solid in time to stop his fall. He blinked furiously as he attempted to process what had just happened over the deafening sound of his own heart.

Eventually though, through the haze of his mental fog, Felix realized that he’d blown the generator, and the consequences of that were slowly beginning to dawn on him. Finally, he remembered to breathe… and then started to hyperventilate.

Already, he could feel an uncomfortable bit of charge beginning to build on his skin. 

Still clutching at the generator, Felix frantically strained his neck to search for a hiding spot, but saw very little with his still-unfocused vision. He blinked hard and tried again, but failed to see anything more than a few fuzzy blobs a few meters away.

Felix gulped at the air and noticed that it had become sharp and sweet, like how it smelled back home before a thunderstorm. Mindless panic began to seize his heart, but Felix held it at bay so he could think about how he could possibly save himself. Even if he somehow managed to crawl out of sight fast enough, all it would take to reveal him was a blast of electricity.

The lockers.

Felix grit his teeth. He knew from experience that they would insulate him from electricity, but hiding there would be painfully obvious. Unless the killer was stupid or pressed for time, it would be one of the first places they’d check, and Felix was certain the Doctor wasn’t in either of those situations. 

Slowly, Felix was beginning to realize that he’d basically killed himself.

He squeezed his eyes shut and whispered a broken curse.

“Verdammt!”

It was his only option.

As quickly and carefully as he could manage, Felix eased his weight off of the generator and back onto his knees. He then gingerly laid himself against the ground and did his best to ignore the dizzying swell of nausea that followed from changing his orientation. Finally he began to crawl. He whimpered softly as pain radiated throughout his core, but he pushed on, especially when he began to feel his hair standing on end. 

By the time he was throwing open the locker door, the air reeked of ionization and the surface of his skin was practically vibrating with energy. He quickly dragged himself inside and reached for the inside handle to close it behind him. The inner darkness suddenly lit up with a flash of light and Felix recoiled as a tiny bolt of electricity arced from the metal handle of the door to his fingertip. He bit back a yelp of pain and tried to reach for the handle again. Finally, the door closed, and his surroundings went dark. His only light now were the thin bars of gray streaming in from the shuttered windows and falling onto the backside of the locker.

Felix huddled as tight as he could in the bottom of the locker. His panting breaths echoed loudly in the enclosed space, despite his efforts to slow them. It was all he could hear aside from the natural hum of the swamp filtering in from outside.

As if on queue, all noise from the outside suddenly stopped.

Felix gasped quietly and looked up at the dim light beaming in from outside. He clasped a hand over his mouth and nose to muffle himself and tried to listen.

The uncanny silence persisted. After several minutes, he began to wonder if the killer had moved on or decided not to investigate, but the wildlife had not resumed its song. So, he continued to wait.

Felix sat in the increasingly muggy darkness of the locker, trying to ignore how his clothes clung uncomfortably to his sweat-damp skin as he listened to the outside world.

Then he heard it; the sound of someone— or something — slogging through the muck. Despite the apparent distance and the locker greatly muffling the outside world, Felix could clearly hear how the mud sucked loudly and sloppily at whoever was working through it, as if their great weight was causing them to sink deep into the swamp.

As the entity approached, the sucking sounds grew louder until they eventually found solid ground where they transitioned into the heavy, pounding footfalls of a giant.

Felix listened in tense, helpless horror as the massive figure trod into the dilapidated structure and stopped directly beside the generator he’d blown. Even though the sound repressing material of the locker, the Doctor’s heavy, heaving, open-mouthed breaths were dreadfully clear as the killer paused to take in the apparently abandoned area.

Felix could do nothing but hold his breath and wait.

Suddenly, there was an odd, melodic chitter, followed by a low frequency hum that steadily grew louder and higher in pitch— like something charging. Even inside the insulated locker, Felix could feel his skin tingling and his hair floating in the air from static electricity. For a horrifying moment, he thought that the flimsy wooden locker might not be enough to protect him from a discharge this close, but it was already too late.

The outside air popped and sizzled like a firecracker. Blue bolts of voltage danced between the metal shutters of the locker and then disappeared. Felix felt the static that had been clinging to his clothes and skin dissipate without so much as a zap.

It was over.

The air he’d been holding in his lungs eased out of him in a careful, silent wheeze.

Outside, he heard the Doctor continue to breathe laboriously. The dirt beneath his shoes crunched and his clothes strained as his weight shifted, presumably to inspect his surroundings.

He wasn’t leaving.

Felix closed his eyes and whispered a silent plea for the killer to move on.

A generator rumbled to life in the distance, and a long silence followed. Finally, those weighty, thumping footsteps resumed as the killer started to move again.

Felix let his breath rush out of him as a wave of relief flooded over him… but quickly stilled again when he realized something was wrong.

The footsteps were coming toward him.

Felix’s blood went cold. His breath stalled in his throat. The locker vibrated beneath him with every tremendous step as the killer descended upon his hiding spot. Suddenly, everything went distressingly dark. Felix looked up and saw that the gray light from the windows at the top had disappeared. His heart lurched in his chest. Desperate panic and dread clawed at his throat.

A strange, distorted giggle emanated from just outside of his locker.

“What have we here?”

Felix couldn’t breathe. Briny tears leaked over his cheeks. His nails carved divots into the old wooden planks of the locker’s interior.

“A little mouse trying to hide from its treatment?”

Another disharmonious giggle fractured the air like a shorting wire. 

The doors flung open and Felix screamed. The Doctor’s horrifying, towering bulk filled the doorway. His piercing white eyes instantly found Felix in the bottom of the locker like guided lasers. The killer then peered down at him with that maniacal, distended grin spread wide by that psychotic mouth gear, and Felix could have sworn he saw it stretch somehow wider.

“Come along now, you’ll be SO much better after I’m done with you!”

Felix shrank back as a massive, grimy hand reached out for him.

“No, PLEASE!”

The hand closed around his entire shoulder like a steel trap and dragged him upward. Felix cried out as his body lit up with pain, clutching desperately at the killer’s trunk-like wrist to support his dead weight. His heart jumped as a surge of latent voltage from the killer’s body coursed through his body in return. The Doctor lifted him up until his feet were no longer touching the ground and then held him there against the back of the locker. Felix watched as the blown, misshapen pupils began to flick over his body, no doubt taking in his already damaged form. The longer those unnatural eyes roamed him, the more that terrible dread gnawed at his core.

The Doctor then canted his head oddly and raised his weapon between them— a malicious, spiked metal rod that looked like an artifact from a medieval torture museum. The spikes were already tipped with fresh blood. 

Felix winced as the tip prodded at his waist and pushed up his shirt. A chill slithered down his spine as fresh air caressed his bloated, patchwork belly.

The Doctor’s bared teeth parted and his pried open eyes lit up. Felix felt a swell of voltage surge up his arms and jolt his already stuttering heart.

“An amateur laparotomy!” the killer exclaimed, voice buzzing like a tesla coil. “Fascinating!”

His shirt caught on the bloodied spikes of the metal cudgel as it lifted higher, exposing even more of his marred flesh to the open air. It then pressed firmly across his chest and pinned him against the locker. Felix dropped precariously as the hand on his shoulder released his weight. He fumbled quickly at the rod to stop himself from crashing to the ground. The Doctor seemed to take notice of this and pressed him more firmly against the back of the locker to keep him in place. 

Felix hung from the rod like a racoon hanging from a branch, whimpering in pain as the spikes threatened to stab through his clothes and sink into his flesh. He flinched at the feeling of stubby fingers running alongside the messy line of stitches across his belly. Fresh pain thrummed throughout his nervous system.

“Are the little mice attempting to broaden their medical capabilities?”

The restrictive mouthgear that forced his lips into a smile made some words and syllables hard to understand, but the Doctor had developed his own cadence to compensate and make himself surprisingly comprehensible. When Felix didn’t respond, those horrific glowing eyes flicked up to his face, perhaps waiting for some sort of confirmation, but all Felix could do was gasp and groan in the painful, precarious position he’d been forced into. 

After observing that Felix didn’t intend on answering, the killer went back to inspecting Danny’s work. Felix grunted and whimpered as rough fingers explored the sensitive area with careful pokes and prods. Distantly, Felix wondered if any part of the derogatory term Danny had carved into him was visible to the Doctor, and if he would comment on it.

An harmonic, buzzing hum reverberated out from the Doctor's hulking body. White-blue bolts of voltage jumped between the electrodes spread across his charred skull. 

“A development like this requires further study,” The Doctor pronounced methodically through his maniacally wide grin, “I MUST bring you back to my operating theater and perform an exploratory surgery to see what clinical advancements my patients have made!”

Felix felt his heart stutter. His breath stalled in his lungs and his blood turned to ice. 

He suddenly found his breath again when the Doctor’s hand reached out for his face.

“N– n– no! Wait! Y– you can’t!”

Surprisingly, the Doctor hesitated. His head canted curiously as he waited for his explanation.

Felix gulped hard and clutched more firmly at the spiked cudgel to steady himself. His mind raced as it desperately searched for a way out of this treacherous situation in a way that would also preserve his life. 

“Y– you can’t, b– b– because…”

Felix was mentally grasping at straws. He thought about just outright telling the killer about his situation, but didn’t think the Doctor would sacrifice his desire to experiment on him out of respect for Danny's meaningless, sadomasochistic game. Felix believed there was a way for him to reason with an intelligent killer like this, but the increasingly suffocating static in the air made thinking straight almost impossible!

“B– Because.. because I’m…”

The Doctor’s eye muscles twitched as he waited on, perhaps in a reflexive attempt to narrow his eyes— a now impossible feat for him.

“You are stalling.”

The massive, charred hand reached for him again and closed around his neck.

“ No wait! I– I’m conducting a scientific experiment!”

The Doctor paused again. His teeth clacked softly together as his head tilted.

Felix gulped and clutched at the hand loosely wrapped around his throat, hoping against hope that this haphazard manipulation he’d stumbled his way into would work. He could feel his heart hammering anxiously away in his chest as watched the Doctor consider his words.

“What sort of experiment?”

The killer was interested.

Felix sucked quickly at the air in an effort to calm himself and gather his thoughts.

“I am tasked with finding out w– whether or not I am able to s– survive a Trial after receiving a lapre.. laparo…”

“Laparotomy?”

Felix huffed nervously, “Y– yes, that, but if you remove m– me from the Trial, then the results will be compromised.”

The Doctor’s vestigial eye muscles twitched again. “Who is conducting this experiment?”

Felix’s open maw gaped around the name he couldn’t say. His tongue fumbled to spit out something that sounded compelling. “Th– th– that’s confidential.”

The killer produced a harmonious buzz from his throat that sounded something akin to a scoff. His giant, hulking form seemed to list with dismay. “I must admit that I find this very disappointing. We could have learned so much together…” the Doctor lamented, voice warbling and chittering oddly, “But who am I to interfere with another man’s pursuit of science?”

Felix’s shaking legs almost collapsed with relief.

“So, for the sake of integrity, I suppose I have no other choice but to carry on as I normally would in this situation.”

Felix tensed, and then gagged as the hand around his throat clamped down hard. He pawed desperately at the killer’s arm as his body was lifted out of the locker and high into the air.

“Since I am forfeiting my own scientific endeavors for this, I have only one simple request.”

Felix glanced down at the Doctor’s horrendous grin as he choked and dangled in his crushing grasp.

“Will you share the findings with me when we next meet?”

Felix grunted and nodded as best he could without even considering the question. All he wanted was the ability to breathe again as he fought to keep himself from falling unconscious.

“Excellent!”

Felix’s heart lurched as his body was suddenly wrenched forward. A gagging scream ripped its way out of his lungs as his stomach impacted the Doctor’s rock hard shoulder. His mind fizzed and vision speckled over with fuzzy black and white dots as the debilitating, white hot pain seared throughout his writhing form. The world was spinning. His head was exploding. He clutched blindly at the rough, grimey fabric beneath his fingers as he struggled to relieve the agonizing pressure digging into his abdomen, but couldn’t quite find the strength nor the leverage to do so. All he could do was mindlessly sob and moan as the world around him became a meaningless, fluidic haze of pain and torment.

Suddenly, he felt his insides lift as his body became weightless.

Moments later, Felix screamed bloody murder as blistering agony pierced his left shoulder and seared away all sense of time and space. All he knew was pain, and pain was all there was. Pain and warmth pouring from his shoulder and soaking into his tattered clothes.

Felix then felt an odd, arresting chill, as if all of his blood had suddenly drained from his body. His eyes rolled up into his skull and his head dropped. He felt a momentary flicker of relief before abyssal nonexistence inundated his mind and snuffed out his tormented consciousness.

… 

Felix jolted awake with a heaving gasp then choked on everything he’d inhaled as searing agony began rushing through him again. His shaking fingers fumbled at the main source of radiating pain and found a curved piece of metal protruding from his chest. His head dropped back as he sobbed hollowly at the humid swamp air, wishing he could return to that peaceful, painfree void of nonexistence.

His hazed mind suddenly faltered as it registered what it was seeing— spindly, spikey, insectoid appendages forming around him out of glowing, gold wisps of nothing. The Entity. It was almost ready to consume him.

Something else was also trying to make way into his overstressed, overloaded mind— a sound… no, no, a voice . 

Felix blinked heavily and let his head drop limply against his chest. He blinked again and realized that someone was in front of him. It was an older man with wrinkled, coffee-dark skin wearing a plain black ball cap and black jacket. His mouth was moving, but Felix couldn’t make sense of the words coming out until he forced his mind to focus.

“–elix? Felix! Christ, you’re a mess… Hold tight son, I’ll get you down!” he said, voice low and reedy like a well played tenor sax.

As the man reached under his armpits to lift him off of the hook, Felix finally remembered the man’s name was Tapp, and then promptly forgot it when he started to pull.

Felix gagged as fresh agony radiated out from shoulder as his body was slowly ripped away from the sharp metal. He almost screamed out for him to stop, but knew that stopping and starting again would only make it worse. He had to get off of this thing!

Tapp grunted with effort. Felix wailed as the hook finally slipped free of his flesh. His head swam and shadowy blobs filled his vision as consciousness began to slip his grasp.

His limp body crashed to the ground like a bag of wet laundry and crumpled forward. Tapp shouted in surprise. Hands caught him and arrested his fall before he could nosedive into the ground. 

“Shit, Doc must’a really done a number on you.”

Felix was vaguely aware of the man as he moved to his uninjured side and settled beneath his arm. He whimpered as it was pulled tightly over the man’s shoulders.

“Alright, this is probably gonna hurt like hell, but we need to get you to a safe spot ‘fore I can help you out, so hold on tight…”

When Tapp dragged him up off the ground, Felix nearly bit off his tongue as yet more pain surged throughout his body, and then they started to move. Tapp’s huffing breaths quickly turned into overstrained wheezes and the swamp turned into an nonsensical, stretched-out gray blur as he was indelicately hustled away from the hook with his shoes bouncing across the uneven ground. He knew that Tapp had no other choice than to transport him like this, but that didn’t stop every step from feeling like a kick to the shoulder and a punch directly to his stomach.

Eventually, his mind grew numb to the constant, overwhelming pain of movement, and ceased to process it all. He was suspended in a limbo between awareness and unconsciousness, completely oblivious to the world around him or even himself. So, when Tapp’s sandpapery, whispering voice finally broke through the haze and brought him back from that protective limbo, Felix was surprised to find himself sitting on the ground with his back leaning against something solid. 

He blinked dazedly. Tapp’s hunched form came into focus. He was kneeling over an open medkit with its supplies set carefully around it. In his hands, an absorbent pad was being split apart from its packaging.

Tapp seemed to notice his renewed awareness and looked up to meet his eyes. “You back with me?”

Felix just blinked slowly. He himself wasn’t even sure if he was really back or not. He felt like he was barely clinging onto life by his fingertips.

Tapp’s hard eyes scanned him up and down. “Good enough, ‘cause this can’t wait.” 

He stuck another unopened pad between his teeth and shuffled stiffly toward him.

Felix gasped from the dull wave of pain as his navy jacket was pulled to the side and roughly shoved off of his left shoulder. That little kick of adrenaline was enough to make him aware of what Tapp was trying to do. 

He felt the man’s fingers curl into the collar of his dress shirt and start to yank it open. His heart leapt with panic.

“Wh– what’re y– doin’?” he slurred.

“Gotta get t’ the bleed so I c’n shtop it,” Tapp said around the package hanging from his teeth. He tugged again on the dress shirt and popped it open by several buttons.

“No!” Felix used what little strength he had left to snatch Tapp’s hand and stop him from going any further.

Tapp’s tempered gaze furrowed deeply. His dark, sharpened eyes pointed at him like spears beneath the brim of his cap. The package between his teeth dropped to the ground. “Son, I’m trying to save yer damn life. Let me see what’s wrong so I can—”

Tapp tried to pull open his shirt again, but Felix firmly held his hand in place. 

“NO!!”

The retort came out much more forceful than either of them had been expecting. Tapp stared at him in confused astonishment and Felix blinked in surprise at his own reaction. His heart was hammering.

Eventually, he managed to swallow down his panic and tried to speak in a calm, steady voice. “Th– there’s no time for that. Just t– take care of it like this.”

Tapp shook his head. “That won't be good enough. I can’t—”

“ J– just… just do your best.”

Felix stared hard at the other man, and Tapp stared back. It looked like he wanted to argue the matter further, but then seemed to realize that he would just be wasting time. He sighed and dropped his head. Felix released the hand on his shirt and let it slip away. His heart calmed.

Aside from the occasional hitch of a breath, the two fell silent as Tapp worked to wrap his gaping hook wound. One absorbent pad was slipped behind his back under his jacket while the other was pressed firmly over the bleeding hole in his chest. All of it was then wrapped in a tight layer of gauze to keep it in place.

During the lull, Felix took a moment to absorb his new surroundings.

Tapp had brought him to the backside of the fishing hut he’d seen earlier and sat him against one of the thick piers supporting the precarious, haphazard structure. To his right was a set of makeshift stairs that led up to the second story, and to his left was a great swath of open swamp with the remnant containing the generator he’d tried to work on in the near distance. Much of the ‘wall’ that he was leaning against, consisted mainly of permeable debris and tattered fishing nets. It didn’t make much structural or architectural sense, but it did allow him to see into the bottom of the fishing hut as well as a decent view of the rest of the swamp without having to expose himself.

When Tapp was finished wrapping up his wound, he sat back to evaluate his work and grimaced disapprovingly. “Might be enough to stop the bleedin’, might not. Kinda hard to tell when I can’t see shit.”

“It is good enough. Thank you.”

Tapp shook his head, but said nothing. Felix was just glad he’d somehow prevented him from seeing the lacerated mess covering his chest. He wouldn’t have been able to explain it otherwise.

“Anything else wrong with you?” Tapp said suddenly.

Felix felt his heart momentarily stutter, but managed to make himself answer calmly. “N– no, nothing immediately life-threatening.” 

Tapp frowned harshly. His reedy voice tightened with growing anger. “C’mon son, you want my help or not? You look like you’ve been put through a woodchipper. You obviously ain’t fine. ”

Felix’s breathing faltered, but he maintained his firm gaze with the older man. “It’s g– good enough. I’ll m– manage.”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Tapp barked. “You obviously got beat within an inch of life. Why’re you tryin’ to hide it and pretend like you ain’t about to keel over?”

Felix let his lips part, but said nothing. His mind was void of any kind of rational explanation. He closed his mouth and dropped his eyes from Tapp’s penetrating gaze.

A long moment of silence passed between them.

“You can’t walk, can you?”

Felix felt his jaw reflexively tighten. The subtle shake of his head would have been barely perceptible to the other man.

Tapp dropped his head and hissed a quiet curse.

There was an unspoken understanding between the survivors that if someone could no longer walk, then they were as good as dead and should be treated as such. It was harsh but practical. There was no reason for a dead man to bring down those who still had a shot at survival, and Tapp was currently interpreting Felix’s unwillingness to accept aid as a reluctant admission that he was basically done for.

A pair of screams echoed in the distance.

Both of their heads popped up to angle their attention toward them, and then their eyes locked. The silent message that passed between them was incontrovertible.

Tapp’s thinly bearded lips pressed into a narrow line. His gaze then broke off to the assortment of unused medical supplies strewn across the ground. Felix watched as he wordlessly began repacking them into the kit. 

When the supplies were put away and Tapp finally stood up, Felix didn’t allow his gaze to follow. He expected the man to simply leave without another word, but he didn’t. From the corner of his eye, he watched as the man’s loafers hesitantly shifted in the grass. He felt the urge to squirm as he felt his eyes roving over his body.

“What’d he do to you?”

Felix’s heart jumped. His widened eyes shot halfway up to the man’s shadowed face, desperately trying to hide his blatant terror. Did he know?

“The Doctor,” Tapp clarified. “What’d he do to you that was so…”

He didn’t finish, but the real question was clear: ‘What are you hiding?’

Felix’s terror waned minutely. His eyes darted about as he tried to think of a response, but didn’t have the mental prescience to fabricate a believable explanation for his state. All his brain managed to manifest was what had actually happened to him.

Feeling the raw emotion of those memories clawing at his throat and the corners of his eyes, Felix finally just let his head drop and shook his head.

Tapp seemed to understand. He lingered for only a moment longer before starting off in the direction of the screams.

“Good luck son,” he said, and then he was gone.

Once again, Felix was alone with the crickets, frogs, and cicadas. His eyes fell shut, and for a long time, he just sat there and listened, allowing the natural hum of the swamp to lull him into a calm, drowsy haze. The exhaustion made it easy to tune out the dull waves of agony thrumming through his mangled flesh. Soon, the comforting darkness of nonexistence was swadling him in its embrace and pulling him away from the low hum of wildlife and pain.

In the back of his mind, Felix knew he shouldn’t be allowing himself to slip away like this, but the reprieve was just too alluring in comparison to the grueling slog of life. He’d gone as far as he could and given it his best… but it hadn’t been enough. He’d known from the beginning that his chances were slim, but now they were practically zero. He couldn’t do it anymore.

A distant sound fractured the calm and dragged his consciousness back from the edge. His eyes flickered open. He saw nothing but an unfocused blur of gray-brown swatches. The swamplife was still singing its droning, chittering song. 

Unsure of what exactly had pulled him out of his haze, Felix sat still and focused intently on the sounds around him. After a long period of concentration and fighting off the exhaustion clawing at his mind, he began doubting that he had heard anything at all.

A sharp scream pierced the air. It sounded like it had originated from the same female survivor as before, except a bit closer. If he had to guess, he thought it might’ve originated from the killer shack.

The woman screamed again, but this time… she didn’t stop. She kept screaming , and was getting louder .

Felix felt his shoulders tense and jaw clench as the screaming dragged on and on. He wanted to cover his ears, but knew his left arm wouldn’t be able to reach high enough, so he endured. It was only fair, he thought, seeing as how he had been the main cause of this.

Steadily, the screaming intensified until the sounds being produced barely sounded human— more like a dying cat or wounded animal— until the torture eventually culminated with a high pitched, nails-on-chalkboard screech that was suddenly cut off.

The hum of the swamp filtered back in.

Felix whispered a shaking curse. His heart was racing in his chest even though he hadn’t moved an inch. He waited to see if any more screams followed, but none did.

Once again, Felix sat in silence, but no longer felt the dark pull of fatigue. He was far too on edge for that now.

A thin yelp echoed in the distance, and Felix jolted. He blew out a strained sigh and tried to recompose himself, but it was in vain.

More screams followed, all from a voice that sounded very low, raspy, and strained. Felix tried not to put a face to terrible noises echoing over the landscape, but they all sounded far too similar to Tapp’s uniquely grating tone for him to imagine it coming from anyone else.

His insides churned with guilt as the man’s torture carried on and on, until finally, just like the survivor before him, his scream was cut short. 

Felix felt like he was suffocating in the tremendous silence that followed.

He squeezed his eyes shut when he felt the burn of tears, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

All of this pain and misery… It was all because of him.

A familiar, uneasy feeling spread out over his skin and marred it with gooseflesh. Cold dread pooled in his stomach. The air became sharp and sweet, and all natural activity gave way to uncanny silence. 

Felix went limp and let his head fall back against the old, rotting pier. 

Fate was on its way. The others had completed their suffering, and soon, it would be his turn.

His pulse heightened as the air became more and more energized, supercharging his anxiety. With nowhere to go, no way to run, and nowhere for him to hide, Felix simply waited for that painfully powerful release of energy to surge through his body and force him to reveal his position. A short time after that… hopefully a short time … this miserable life of his would finally be over.

More time passed, and more energy saturated the air. 

Finally, as expected, the sound of footsteps slogging through the muck began to reach his ears.

It wouldn’t be long now.

The footsteps steadily grew in volume as they neared his location… but something about them was off. They sounded much more rapid and agile than the footsteps he’d heard before.

Felix frowned. He opened his eyes and angled his head over his shoulder as far as he could manage. Most of the swamp was obscured by the structure he was sitting against, but there were enough gaps through the planks and netting for him to see a decent portion of it. 

On a nearby hill that sloped towards the stilted fishing hut he had taken refuge behind, there was a small, blurry figure stumbling down the incline. Their pace was lumbering and uneven, as if from a serious injury. The figure then suddenly lost their footing and fell forward with a harsh yelp. Their body hit the muck with a hollow thump and then slid all the way down to the base of the hill, eventually coming to rest in a muddy heap.

Felix blinked several times to clear his vision and squinted until the figure came into focus, but still couldn’t yet make out who it was.

Another figure crested the hill, this time far larger than the other. The Doctor paused at the top of the hill and stared down at the figure in the mud with that too-wide, electric smile. A harmonic, buzzing chatter echoed in the air as the Doctor seemed to say something that Felix could not make out, and then he began to make his way down the slippery hill with heavy, plodding strides.

At the base of the hill where the other figure had fallen, a head suddenly popped up from the ground, revealing a mud-splattered baseball cap. The figure then spun around, saw their approaching doom, and began frantically trying to swim through the swampy sludge in a poor effort to escape. 

The frenzied vocalizations from the survivor that Felix was able to hear could only be interpreted as pure, mindless panic.

When Felix had seen the baseball cap, he thought the poor bastard might’ve been Tapp, but the voice didn’t quite fit. The tone wasn’t low enough. Felix also was fairly certain he’d heard Tapp’s screams earlier, until they’d been cut off…

Felix narrowed his eyes and stared fixedly through the fine netting draped around the fishing hut. The person on the ground then happened to swivel their head in his direction, revealing a pair of muddy sunglasses that had almost completely slipped off his nose and onto his lips.

It was Ace. 

The realization struck a chord within Felix, and made him feel oddly uncomfortable. Him and the older man weren’t exactly friends— Felix thought he was somewhat of a prick to be honest— but Ace had seemed like the most confident, cocksure survivor of the entire group. He stood tall and cool in the face of everyone and everything. Felix had almost never seen him without his signature suave smirk. From all appearances, Ace seemed like the perfect survivor— experienced, efficient, and fearless.

Seeing him like this though… clawing and groveling through the mire like gasping fish trying to slog away from a scavenger and back to the water… It was disturbing.

Eventually, the Doctor caught up with Ace. His hulking form towered over the struggling man, completely eclipsing him with his shadow. Ace then froze up, and slowly turned to look up at the killer. His hand lifted into the air and hovered in front of him like a shield. He continued scooting away from the looming killer as his hand pleadingly pressed him away. 

It seemed like Ace was either trying to negotiate… or pleading for his life.

The Doctor appeared to humor him for a time, listening to his offer while he absently bounced his medieval weapon against his palm, but made no move to leave the survivor alone. The Doctor’s bared teeth opened, and the air fizzed and buzzed as he replied to whatever Ace had said. Then, to Felix’s surprise, the killer put away his weapon, sliding it into a little leather holster on his hip.

Was he going to let him go?

Trying to get a better view, Felix shifted minutely in his spot and narrowed his intense gaze to filter out more of the netting blocking his view.

The Doctor raised his hands into the air and then suddenly slapped them together. Felix jumped at the unnaturally loud, thunder-like crack that followed. The killer’s hands then separated, revealing a web of white-blue bolts of plasma leaping from palm to palm.

Felix’s heart sank.

No, the Doctor wasn’t going to let him go.

Ace’s panicked voice rose to a fever pitch. He began frantically scrambling backwards as the killer approached him with open, electrified arms.

Felix realized his heart was racing. He wondered for a moment whether or not he should be watching this— and then the Doctor lurched forward. 

Ace shrieked as the killer grabbed up his head into both hands. He started to scream, and then suddenly stopped at the same time that an electric hum charged the air. His body began to violently jerk and seize in the mud. Faint gurgles and gasps were barely audible over the symphony of cracks, pops, and fritzing voltage.

The Doctor’s eyes shone a bright, blinding white as he observed the seizing survivor. His freakish smile was stretched painfully wide across his face with blatant excitement and delight as he carried out his treatment.

The pitch of the electric hum increased. Stray tongues of electricity began to flit off of the killer’s body and into the surrounding air. Ace’s body curled up into a shaking mess as every muscle in his body was forced to contract. A dark smoke began to rise off his clothes.

A new sound then filled the air— some sort of electric chirping or chittering. For a long moment, Felix was having a hard time understanding what it was he was hearing. When he saw the Doctor’s wide open, gaping mouth however, it hit him.

The Doctor was laughing.

And not in any small way either— oh no — he was outright cackling, as if what he was doing to Ace was the funniest thing in the world.

The realization sparked an icy chill that slipped languidly down Felix’s spine.

The Doctor then surged upwards and flicked out his hands, sending a blinding blue flash and thunderous clap out into the air.

At the same time, a painful jolt surged throughout Felix’s body. He yelped as hot pain hit his nervous system hard and fast. His lungs were heaving seconds later as his muscles unclenched and the white gradually cleared from his vision. He gulped and blinked furiously as he tried to process what had just happened, eventually coming to the slow but chilling realization that he’d screamed.

Felix gasped and turned back toward the gruesome scene he’d just been witness to, frantically blinking and squinting as he worked to bring it back into focus.

The Doctor was standing tall over a smoking black lump on the ground. His head slowly rotated atop his torso as he scanned the surrounding area.

Felix knew immediately that the killer was searching for the origin of his scream.

A loud, metallic clunk suddenly shattered the silence. Felix startled and nearly screamed aloud again. He whirled around himself, trying to find the origin of the sound… and then froze.

A familiar, howling wind was bellowing directly behind him.

Felix slowly turned and peered through the broken planks and sheets of netting at his back. 

It was the hatch, and it had appeared mere meters away from him on the other side of this makeshift wall of debris.

Adrenaline flooded his bloodstream.

His head snapped toward the flight of stairs leading up to the second level of the hut. There had to be a way down from the inside of the second level.

He snapped his head in the other direction over his shoulder. His breath froze in his throat when his eyes caught the wild, lucent gaze of the Doctor, who had preemptively been staring in his direction. The killer’s manic grin widened. His head tilted over to one side… and then he began casually strolling straight toward him.

Felix’s heart lurched.

Without a thought of care or consideration for his own wellbeing, Felix threw himself away from the wall and toward the base of the stairs. He cried out at the bolt of pain that radiated throughout his body as a result, but didn’t let it stop him for more than a second. He launched himself over the ground at the stairs like a lizard scrambling across a scorching desert. Seconds later, his fingertips were touching the first step of the staircase. Felix started clambering up them like a madman, ignoring every protest and warning his body was giving him, all for the single objective of making it up these stairs.

His mind was in survival mode, and survival was within his grasp.

Felix wailed with effort as he pulled his shaking body onto the very top step, and then collapsed. He gulped down the sweet, ozone-tinged air ravenously as he took a moment to recover from the frantic scramble.

A violent shudder of exhaustion and overexertion rocked his body. Felix was instantly spooked by the feeling of biological surrender, and forced himself back into action.

He couldn’t stop. If he did, he knew his body wouldn’t be able to start again. He had to keep moving.

Felix scuttled across the rickety planks of the second level of the fishing hut, hurriedly navigating a collection of wooden crates, piles of discarded netting, and rusted barrels as he searched for the second set of stairs that had to be there. There wasn’t a question in his mind that they weren’t. There couldn’t be.

An odd, acrid scent drifted its way to his nose, and Felix's face scrunched. It smelled like charcoal and burning plastic. 

A soft, chittering giggle floated over the air.

Felix froze.

“Is that a mouse I hear trying to skitter away from its treatment?”

The voice had come from just outside the fishing hut.

An intense tremor began traveling up his leg. Felix sucked a strained breath and forced himself to start moving again before it could become any worse.

Keep moving! Don’t stop or you’ll DIE!

It didn’t matter that the Doctor was right on his heels. The only thing that mattered was finding those stairs and getting to the hatch!

Felix urged his body to skitter faster over the worn floor, pushing past anything that was in his way and ignoring the screaming pains that went along with it. His eyes frantically scanned the hut for the second staircase, but saw nothing yet— Yet.

The first staircase moaned and creaked under new weight.

Felix felt his heart skip a beat. He threw his head over his shoulder and nearly screamed. 

Distorted, blazing white pupils were staring at him through the netted wall a ways behind him. The top half of a hyperextended grin was just visible over the edge of the second story floorboards.

Keep moving! Don’t stop!

Felix started to snap his gaze forward again, but hesitated when something else caught his attention. A thin red line had been left along the path he’d taken through the fishing hut. Momentary doubt and dread creeped into his mind, but Felix quickly smothered it and pushed it away before it could grow. 

His gaze snapped forward, and back onto his objective. He ignored the thump of heavy footfalls climbing up the groaning stairs.

“Such a will to live the last little mouse has…”

When Felix rounded on a stack of crates, his pounding heart suddenly lifted with euphoric hope.

The second staircase!

He scrambled toward the gap in floor, ignoring how his lower half shrieked for respite as he forced his mangled body beyond all reasonable functioning. When he reached the top of the stairs and looked down into the steep, dark descent, he hesitated. The hatch bellowed sombrously from below. Felix wasn’t sure how he could descend the stairs quickly without severely maiming himself. At this point, new injuries meant almost nothing to him, but he couldn’t afford to hit his head or break his spine. If that happened, then his one final chance at escape would be lost— no matter how close the hatch was.

Felix felt a thump vibrate up into his arms. His eyes jerked up from the precarious pit before him and onto the malicious, glowing eyes of a psychopathic killer. The Doctor towered over the stack of crates and debris he’d navigated around, staring with that manic grin stretched wide with giddy enthusiasm.

“I admire your stamina in the pursuit of science,” he said, tongue working hard to produce the syllables his lips no longer could. “I wonder if you’ll withstand treatment longer than the others!”

Felix sucked a sharp breath and stared back down the stairs. He felt his body begin to shake. The floorboards beneath his fingers shuddered again. There was no time.

Felix grit his teeth, closed his eyes, and threw his body forward.

In that brief moment of weightlessness, he shielded his head the best he could and tucked himself into as much of a ball as he could manage— and then the impacts came. A flurry of sharp jabs and bruising blows attacked every inch of his body as he twirled and tumbled down the steps. He did his best to protect his vital head and neck, but more than once, his skull hit a painful impact that left him reeling. He tumbled and spun on and on and on, and Felix thought the fall would never end. 

Suddenly, he was rolling across soft ground and then came to an abrupt stop as his stomach collided with something hard. Felix screamed as agony surged up his spine. Fresh tears burned his aching eyes. He heaved and writhed piteously against the incredibly solid pier than had stopped his tumble, and then pushed himself away from it. Felix felt a wave nausea claw at his throat as he rolled over onto his opposite side. Heaving heavy, laborious gasps, he clutched at a nearby patch of grass by his head, desperate for something to anchor himself to as he tried to process this horrible sensation he was experiencing. 

It was obvious that something was very, very wrong with him .

His stomach twisted and his back muscles all seized at once. Hot, burning bile surged up his gullet and splattered into the dirt. His body seized several more times, launching dark globs up from his depths until there was nothing more to expel, and then he finally relaxed into a miserable heap. Felix slowly blinked the fuzz from his eyes, working methodically to claw his awareness back from the edge of senseless agony.

He looked down at the mess that had been inside him moments ago. Thick red globs of congealed blood sat in a soup of yellow bile.

Internal bleeding.

Felix swallowed hard, and then jolted painfully at the shock of a harmonic, crackling voice at the top of the stairs.

“An admirable, but disappointing move. You obviously carry a bias for a particular outcome to your experiment. I, on the other hand, highly value scientific integrity. I shall proceed as I normally would in this situation.”

The old wood groaned and squealed under the Doctor’s momentous footsteps as he began to make his way down the stairs.

Felix’s heart heaved and mind reeled at the impending threat. He gulped hard and cringed at the acrid scent of charred flesh that filled his lungs. Skull swimming with mind-rending agony, Felix scoured the soundscape around him for the howling bellows of the hatch and aimed himself toward it. He raked his fingers weakly over the ground, but his body barely moved.

No, no, No! His body couldn’t give out now! He was so close!

Felix gulped hard at the fizzing air, gathering up the last remaining dregs of his strength from his failing flesh, and steeled his soul. 

He thrust himself blindly forward with a shuddering cry, and the baying winds of the hatch grew louder. A wave of vertigo smashed into his mind, but Felix endured and maintained his course. He lunged forward again. The ground squished wetly beneath him and his mouth filled with the taste of iron. The hatch got a little closer. 

The pounding steps at his back grew louder.

Felix spat blood and panted feverishly at the air, hardening himself for one final leap forward, and then took it. 

He wailed hoarsely as his body sailed forward with arms outstretched. When he landed though, Felix felt and heard his stomach pop open and his insides explode out around him. He nearly vomited again at the grotesque sensation of unnatural emptiness he now felt in his abdominal cavity. He groaned wetly and clawed in agony at the ground… except… the ground was much harder and smoother than he was expecting it to be.

He curled his fingers experimentally again, trying to make out what it was he was touching… and then realized that it was metal.

He was touching the lip of the hatch.

Felix felt his heart stutter arduously in his chest. A weak dose of adrenaline dropped into his slogging blood.

A warbling chitter of surprise sounded directly from behind. “AH! Not so fast little mouse!”

With shaking, rubbery arms, Felix wrenched himself forward into the boiling darkness of the hatch, and felt the whispering brush of static electricity across his lower back. A portion of his intestines slipped after him, while the rest remained coiled in the mud of the swamp.

As Felix tumbled into the unending, weightless void of formless dark, he thought he heard the harmonic, echoing vestiges of a single word cloaked in the buzz of electricity.

Impressive.

His overwrought consciousness finally faded as the black swallowed him up.

Notes:

Phew, hope you enjoyed this one! I really worked to get it out by today ><

Speaking of delays, I already posted this disclaimer on my Tumblr, but just so everyone's aware I'll say it here too. I'm going to be quite busy irl for the next few months, so expect a general slowdown in Chapter releases. That could mean shorter chapters or longer periods between releases, depending on circumstances. I'll still be sticking with usual upload time of Friday nights so at least you'll only have to check once a week for new uploads. I'll do my best to keep up with the original upload schedule, but no promises!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay lovely! ♥

Chapter 30: Blowback

Notes:

A very small reminder that any and all feedback is very appreciated and important to me ♥ Enjoy the Chap, and lemme know what you think! 👀

Felix stared dazedly through the dark green patchwork of overhanging tree limbs. His eyes fixated on the blurry white disc wavering overhead. If there was a shadowy face projected onto it like last time, then he wasn’t able to make it out.

He coughed wetly at the cold, lonely air, and felt a warm mist spread out over his face. His mouth tasted like old pocket change.

Felix was dying.

He’d beaten Danny’s game by the skin of his teeth, but now he was dying, and he could feel it. He could feel his body slowly shutting itself down, bit by bit, system by system, in a last ditch effort to prolong his existence by any means possible.

Felix didn’t much care for that. He’d managed to complete the impossible task that had been assigned to him, and now, all he wanted to do was rest. No more pain… no more terror, no more suffering… just silence and darkness.

He closed his eyes and listened to the empty Forest whispering around him, patiently waiting for his body to eventually give up its pointless fight.

For a long time, Felix floated in that dark, cottony haze of dull pain, allowing the thready, fluttering beat of his laboring heart to lull him into a state of numb meditation. As its tenuous, hummingbird-like beat thrummed against his sternum, he wondered vaguely if he would be awake long enough to hear it beat for the final time.

A faint, chemical acridity seeped through the overwhelming tang of blood and tickled his nose. It wrenched him away from his dying meditative haze and back to the agony of the present. His eyes rolled open, and his languishing heart skipped a precious beat at what he saw.

The blurred moon had been replaced by a ghoulish, upside down wail with deep, empty voids for eyes. It cocked coyly to the side as its empty pits took in his visage.

“I’m so fucking proud of you,” whispered the familiar velvet voice.

Felix’s eye twitched as soft leather fingertips began brushing soothingly down the side of his face. Thin wisps of moisture appeared spontaneously in the corners of his aching eyes.

“I didn’t think such a pretty thing like you actually had the grit to pull it off, but damn if I wasn’t wrong.”

Soft hands moved to cradle his head and gently lifted it up off the ground and forward. Felix choked as his trachea was compressed. He coughed a thin red mist over his front.

“Shh shh shhhh…”

The uncomfortable compression eased as he was lowered back onto something solid and scratchy yet warm. He guessed it was Danny’s lap. The new, elevated position removed the ghoulish mask from his sight, but gave him an unfortunate view of his body in return.

Almost every inch of his clothes were dark and stiff with mud, blood, and gore, both old and new. His shirt had become askew, revealing the bloody remains of his evacuated intestines that were now peeking out from beneath the soiled fabric. The bloody, meaty ropes of viscera were scattered haphazardly about his legs along with several foreign pieces of debris. 

“What a filthy mess… You must have worked so very hard to complete my test… I’m flattered. ”

Felix wheezed softly and closed his eyes, trying to block it all out. Soft fingers continued to stroke lovingly through his matted hair. His throat tightened with acrid nausea.

“I hope this means you’ve finally learned your lesson and accepted your place, because I want us both to move on from this. I want to treat you right baby, I really do… but if I ever see that you’re backsliding again …”

Danny rumbled deeply, sending a low vibration up through his back. Felix shuddered.

“We might have to up the ante a bit, if you know what I mean.”

Felix swallowed hard and tasted blood. He tried to shake his head, but couldn’t find the strength. He forced out a gurgling, squeaking wheeze instead. His eyelids continued to ward off the sight of his own body.

“I’m glad that you seem to understand.”

The smooth leather glove continued to comb through his hair. Danny then decided to gently caress down his neck and over the ridge of his exposed collar bone. Felix shivered involuntarily as the fingers glided over the sensitive flesh.

“I wish we could spend a bit more time together,” he sighed, “But since you’ve already done so much to make up for your behavior, I think you deserve a bit of a reward. It's only fair, right?” he said with a chuckle. “Your reward shall be…”

Felix’s heart momentarily juddered and his eyes peeled open. From somewhere behind him came the sound of singing metal. A pristine hunting knife appeared in his peripheral vision.

“…a quick death.”

Felix wheezed with abject relief. He wanted it. He wanted it so terribly…

The shining metal approached the center of his chest, and then backed hesitantly away. Felix breathed a hollow, frustrated whine. 

“Hrm…” Danny grumbled, “I usually don’t like dealing quick deaths to my favorite playthings. It feels like… sacrilege…”   The blade was expertly flipped downward and then drifted side to side as Danny examined it.

Felix’s eyes mindlessly followed the instrument like a carrot on a stick.

“Out there? Before? I never would have ended things so soon like this… I always used to let my special projects take their last breaths on their own so I could watch how it happened…” The blade tip hovered close again. The flat side angled so that the white mask was now clearly reflected in the clean steel. “It always made me kinda sad when my prey eventually succumbed to my designs, but only because I only ever got to see the life leave their eyes one time— once per person, you know?” Danny sighed wistfully and the knife wavered, causing the reflection in the steel to disappear. “Lucky for us though, you don’t really have that problem because this won’t actually be your last, last breath now will it?” 

The blade shivered as Danny chuckled mischievously. His free hand resumed its gentle, creeping caress down the side of his cheek.

Felix felt the burn of nausea return to his throat. His already thrumming heart began to flutter dangerously against his ribcage.

“I have been bestowed with the immense privilege of savoring each and every one of my favorite plaything’s infinite lives, and every last gasp that goes along with it.”

The steel sang as the tip of the blade dragged teasingly across the front of his jacket. Felix heaved wetly as both dread and blood loss began to claim his flesh. 

“So… your life might be cut unfortunately short for now, but later… I’ll be able to see all the different ways your lips take that very last breath,” Danny chirped with a wild, barely suppressed giggle. “I must be the luckiest psychopath in the whole wide world.”

Felix swallowed down the blood that had gathered on his tongue and wheezed despondently as the panic gripped his throat. If Danny was the luckiest psychopath in the world, then that made him the unluckiest bastard in the entire universe .

Danny’s laugh was then suddenly cut short as if he’d remembered something. “Of course, you’ll only need to worry about that if you misbehave,” he quickly clarified. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to treat you right, but you’ve been making that very difficult for me.”

Felix gurgled quietly. The exhausted and overwhelmed part of him wanted the prospect of less misery to be true, but the rational half of his mind didn’t believe Danny for a single second. Almost every interaction he’d had with the killer so far had been excruciating, and he obviously enjoyed it. There was nothing to suggest that would change now, even if Felix did decide to stop resisting like Danny wanted.

The hunting knife moved to hover over his chest with the tip aimed toward his heart. Despite how fervently the cold fingers of death were pulling on his eyelids, Felix fought to keep his gaze affixed on the shining metal and the promise of relief it carried.

“If I give you this mercy, I expect to have your obedience from now on.”

The soft fingertips moved to slowly trace over his bottom lip, gliding easily over his blood and saliva slicked flesh. It was a blatant, intrusive taunt— a flagrant trampling of his dignity and autonomy— but by this point, Felix’s attention was fully captured by the shining blade hovering directly over his heart.

“When you come back, I want you to wait for me in the Forest. There’s something I need to retrieve from you. Is that something you can do? Or will I need to discipline you again?”

The alluring, shining blade retreated slightly, causing Felix to choke out a hollow, whistling whimper of desperation. He jerkily bobbed his head without even really considering what Danny was asking of him— anything to stop the source of his salvation from being taken away.

The killer hummed contentedly, and the blade returned. “I’m happy to hear that, Felix.” 

The fingers gently trailing over his lips transferred to his throat, and then wrapped around his jaw. Felix let himself relax into the hold, allowing Danny to cradle his head. His heart fluttered as the blade raised slightly higher.

“Sweet dreams, love. Enjoy your rest. I’ll be seeing you again soon.”

Felix gasped. A hollow breath rushed out over his lips as a sharp pain dove deep into his chest and drove away his breath. He choked on a flood of tangy, metallic blood that filled his throat. His heart squeezed around the thin blade of steel as it tried to pump for the final time, but failed. He wheezed in wet and deep, then stared for a long moment at the knife hilt sticking out of his chest before his eyes rolled up into his skull. Soft leather dragged over his bottom lip as his final breath rattled in his throat. 

The frigid touch of death retreated from his flesh as a warm, abyssal tide rose up and embraced his dying body. Felix eagerly allowed himself to be taken by it, glad to see his current existence fade as the darkness pulled him beneath its surface. Finally, finally, finally, all pain and anguish withered away to nothing as he was granted his coveted relief. At long last, Felix was free of his bodily prison. 

 

— — — 

 

“NO!”

David shot upright and his hands reached out to rescue a man that was no longer there. David gasped and blinked in bleary confusion at the dark expanse before him. Heart thundering in his ears, his brain did a quick mental restart as he reassessed where he was and what was happening. 

He stared dazedly around himself and finally realized that he was now in the Forest of Passage… alone. Pairing that with the last thing he could remember meant only one thing— he hadn’t made it out of the Trial with Felix.

He’d died.  

He’d died, and left Felix behind!

David heaved and squeezed his eyes shut, trying desperately to remember the very last moments of his life.

A piercing pain at the back of his neck. Hot, metallic blood running down his throat… Felix’s bright blue eyes wide with shock and terror.

Fuck, he’d left alone him like that. He’d left him alone with the killer like that!

David’s hand went to his short crop of hair and started to pull. “Agh ffffock!! ”

What had Felix done afterward? Had he run away? David thought he must have, but couldn’t recall seeing him doing anything of the sort in that moment. All he could remember seeing was Felix just sitting there like a frozen deer, and then everything after that had just been a dark haze.

Had Felix really just sat there in a daze after watching him die? Did the killer murder him right after? Surely not, right?! He would have run for his life right afterward, right?! Felix would have eventually snapped out of it and then run away like the smart, level-headed guy that he was! Sure, Felix had been significantly more frazzled than usual that Trial, but that didn’t mean his survival instincts were totally impaired.

David wanted to believe Felix would have saved himself, but there was no way for him to know for sure. He didn’t know because he hadn’t been vigilant or careful enough like he’d fucking promised to his best fucking friend who’d been utterly terrified of being alone for the entire Trial. He’d failed Felix again , and right when he’d needed him most.

“Fookin’ bloody useless nonce!!”

David cursed himself again, and then sucked in a long, slow breath in an effort to calm himself. Beating himself up right now wasn’t going to help Felix. He had to stop agonizing and think.

Whatever had happened in that shack after he’d had blacked out, whether Felix had escaped or… otherwise… either way, Felix would have eventually ended up in the Forest of Passage. 

His friend was out here somewhere. He had to find him.

David sprang to his feet and went still. He closed his eyes, blew out a long breath, and did his best to quiet his racing mind. It took much longer than it otherwise would have, but eventually, he managed to force his thoughts and fears away into the depths of his being, and focused . 

His mind became a blank slate. The Forest dropped away as the subtle, emotional veil of the world impressed itself upon him. In the distance, he felt the familiar warmth of the campfire calling him home, along with several other places and people that he was familiar with. What he was looking for, though, would have been a bright, blazing star to him in comparison— that welcoming, yet timid, tender embrace that was Felix’s imprint on the world. Unless the man was purposefully hiding himself away or still stuck in a Trial, David should have been able to pick his presence out of the background noise instantaneously. Right now though, not even a hint of Felix’s presence was detectable to him. 

David pushed away any darker explanations that were trying to worm their way into his mind, and redoubled his efforts. He did his best to ignore those thoughts as he searched, but could not fully push away the dread and desperation now clawing at his heart. 

He searched the amorphous expanse around himself a while longer, hoping for some vague flicker of the man to eventually be revealed to him… but it never did.

David opened his eyes. 

He stared out into the endless, engulfing darkness of the Forest of Passage, and felt like it would swallow him up at any moment. Dark thoughts rushed to fill his mind.

What if he was gone? What if the Entity had finally swallowed him up?

No.

Felix was stronger than that. He had to be. Sure, things had been precarious, and the man was a bit vulnerable at the moment, but that didn’t mean one mishap would completely destroy him. He had more resilience than that.

Every time David had feared he’d lost Felix, he’d been wrong every time and he was going to be wrong about this time too. Felix would turn up again eventually— perhaps a bit worse for wear and a little more downtrodden than before— but he’d come back eventually. Once they’d found each other again, David would apologize for not being more careful and leaving Felix by himself in that terrible situation, and then they’d get back to work on his deteriorating hope.

Eventually.

But not now.

David fiddled with the hem of his jacket as he stared into the unending darkness all around him. He swallowed hard and then shifted his vision in the direction of the campfire.

Going back to camp felt like a grave capitulation, but other than aimlessly wandering the Forest searching for a sign that might never come, there was literally nothing else he could do. He had to wait for Felix to turn back up, and the most logical place for him to do that was at the campfire.

David breathed a long sigh and started off for the survivor’s only refuge, feeling more useless, guilty, and despondent than he had in a very long time.

His only hope was that he hadn’t failed Felix completely.

As David trudged on in silence, it wasn’t long before his myriad of fears and anxieties began to bubble up from beneath his own reassurances.

What if he was wrong? What if his fears were correct this time? What if this was the incident that finally pushed Felix over the edge and into the Entity’s awaiting claws?

What if Felix was never coming back?

David slapped himself hard.

Shut. Up.

There was no point in thinking those thoughts. Agonizing over the worst case scenario helped no one. It was better to think about what he would do once he found Felix again instead of if he didn’t.

David blew out another long, sustained breath to clear his mind, and then refocused himself on the path ahead.

In the silence of the Forest of Passage, keeping away intrusive thoughts was a difficult task. It was the main reason he despised these long walks back to camp by himself. With nothing but the sound of his own footfalls to keep him company, there was little to distract his wandering mind from the mistakes and choices that had brought him here.

He decided the first thing he would do when he saw Felix was apologize.

No. Not just apologize— beg. He would beg for Felix’s forgiveness.

David trudged on. Every once in a while, he paused a moment to see if Felix’s emotional imprint was detectable, but it never was. David did his best to remind himself that it meant nothing.

After an excruciating amount of time with his own thoughts and the incessant sound of his repetitive footfalls, that familiar orange glow finally appeared in the far distance.

He breathed a low sigh of relief, glad for the small comfort that at least he wouldn’t have to be alone anymore.

A minute later, he passed the line of sentinel trees that kept the darkness at bay and found himself within the protective bubble of light that he’d come to know as home. Only two individuals were sitting around the fire: Jake and Meg. Their distinctive outlines were instantly recognizable to him. Meg was absently poking at the flames with a stick while Jake watched her with his back against the log and his arms comfortably folded over his thick green jacket.

David felt himself internally list at the sight of them. He’d been holding out hope to miraculously find Felix sitting peacefully beside the fire as if nothing had happened, but that had been a fantasy.

Jaw tight and innards churning, David eventually managed to get his feet moving again, and dragged himself toward the fire. The two survivors gave a momentary glance of acknowledgement as he approached.

“‘Sup,” said Meg, while Jake stayed silent. Her eyes remained fixated on her stick and the flames.

David gave a half-hearted grunt in response and drifted toward a nearby log. He lingered next to it for an awkward moment before finally deciding to sit down, as there was nothing productive he could do.

He sat there wringing hands for a long moment before returning his gaze to the other two survivors.

“Have you lot seen Felix at all?”

Meg’s sharpened gaze flicked onto his. She tried to hide it, but David couldn’t help but notice the sour tinge in her expression as she registered the name.

“No,” she said flatly, and went back to poking at the fire. A swarm of sparks exploded into the air as she gave the stick a particularly hard shove.

David felt his brow crease at her response. Ace had almost certainly influenced her distaste of Felix. He felt a spark of anger rise within him but quickly snuffed it out.

He narrowed his eyes and lowered his tone. “You sure ‘bout that lass?”

She heavily rolled her eyes back onto him and shot him an incredulous scowl. Her silent, yet incredible indignance was so palpable, David had no choice but to take it seriously. His hands went up in surrender, and her expression eased into a sharp skepticism. She gave him one last pointed side-eye before returning her attention to the stick and the fire.

Meg obviously didn’t like Felix, but that didn’t mean she’d lie to him about his whereabouts. He didn’t actually think she was that far gone, but he had to make sure of it.

His eyes next fell on Jake. The quiet man simply shook his head. There was no visible prejudice in his eyes.

David sighed and let his gaze fall back onto the flames. It had been too much to hope for.

The minutes passed in relative silence. Meg continued to poke away at the fire while Jake appeared to drift off into a light sleep. Meanwhile, David kept an eye on the surrounding treeline, waiting for the moment that a glint of that fiery blonde hair would finally emerge from the darkness.

Sitting here in this silence, he’d thought that at least being in the company of others would somewhat mitigate his anxiety, but the general frigidity and reticence of these two was making him feel even more on edge than before. He wished someone like Claudette or Dwight was here instead, or anyone he felt comfortable commiserating with. Instead, he was forced to sit here and stew in his anxiety.

David watched Meg absently jab the fire a few more times before finally losing his patience. He launched himself to his feet with a disgruntled huff. The girl gave him a suspicious side eye as he turned and sauntered off to the edge of the campsite. 

He folded his arms across his chest and stared out into the murky black beyond the treeline. His head dropped. He let his breath seep out through his nose and his eyes fall shut. The outward expanse of the Forest fell across his mind like a blank shroud. The campfire at his back was like a blazing star radiating out into the black, but everywhere else felt like cold space. He searched the emotionless void beyond the fire meticulously and methodically, but found zero signs of the man he’d sworn to protect. 

David opened his eyes and sucked an unsteady breath. His hand absently squeezed at his own bicep until he felt the sharpness of his nails digging into his skin. The murky haze of Forest of Passage danced just beyond the flickering orange of the camp’s repellant flame. David stood there for a long time just watching the shadows churn and flow as his own insides roiled with dread.

When he couldn’t stand to stare into that empty darkness any longer, he spun on his heel and went to reclaim his seat by the fire.

Meg had since thrown her twig to the flames. She now stared at the fire with her head balanced in her hand and her knees rocking from side to side. It was painfully apparent how bored out of her mind she was. With nothing to direct her unlimited stores of energy at, the athlete’s vivacity was practically bursting from every seam. If anything, he found it impressive that she wasn’t trying to talk his ear off at the moment.

Jake, on the other hand, was completely at ease and oblivious to the world.

David could only stand to watch the girl fidget in the corner of his eye for a minute before wandering off to the edge of camp again. This time, he didn’t bother staring into the engulfing darkness beyond the light. He knew it would do nothing except make him feel more anxious, so he just slowly paced along the border instead. This activity too, however, was just as dreary and did nothing to distract him from his racing thoughts and growing anguish.

With a relinquishing puff, David crossed his arms and shut his eyes as he gave into the urge to check for Felix’s presence yet again. 

It was the one thing he could control.

The vague plane of emotion stretched out before him once again as his mind went quiet and empty. Once he filtered out the intensity of the campfire at his back the surrounding lifeless frigidity of the Forest came into stark focus. He was about to dismiss it as empty yet again, until he noticed a dull flicker of something in the far distance, like a lone firefly dancing in an open field.

His heart did a little jump in his chest. David did his best to temper his emotions so he wouldn’t lose focus. He wasn’t even sure if the distant flicker was the person he was even looking for yet…

David blew out a breath to calm himself and then centered his mind on the presence in the distance so that he could absorb its qualities. His nose scrunched in confusion as he realized that what he was actually detecting was a myriad of temperaments all mixed together: irritation, fatigue, resentment… and even anger. Nothing in that chaotic mix was even remotely close to what he knew to be Felix’s distinctive emotional signature.

David guessed that what he had picked up on was a group of survivors on their way back from a scavenging run or a Trial. He wasn’t familiar enough with their emotional signatures to deduce exactly who was out there, especially when they were that close together, but he could tell that they weren’t happy.

David sucked in a breath as he came back to himself and opened his eyes. He stared fixedly into the Forest as if he could pick out the incoming group through the misty murk, but saw nothing. They were still a good distance away.

At the very least, he would now have some new people to question about Felix’s whereabouts.

David continued to linger at the edge of camp, waiting restlessly for the group to make their appearance. After several long minutes of pacing and periodically checking on their progress, he saw several shadowy silhouettes finally appear in the distant depths of the woodland haze. David absently clutched at a nearby sentinel tree as he watched the three figures develop distinct outlines and then discernible features as they drew near enough for the light of the campfire to bounce off their clothing and their faces.

When he was finally able to discern who each of them were, David’s face automatically dropped into a deep grimace.

Ace and Nea were trudging toward him with tight shoulders and bitter scowls. Tapp trailed lethargically behind. 

David went stiff as the two closest faces morphed from recognition into disgust in an instant.

“Jäkla skit. Well there’s the damn babysitter.”

Ace snarled the second he saw him, revealing a wide line of straight white teeth. “ Puto cabrón, I thought I told you to watch that fucking imbécil!” He called out, hand flying out into the air as he shouted. The pair were still at least ten meters away.

David’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Don’t tell me you already forgot about your fucking mascotita after all those threats and bullshit you threw in my face! You were supposed to be on his ass so he’d stop fucking us over!!”

David’s mind stuttered as he tried to work out what Ace was talking about. “ Wait , Felix was in a Trial with you all?!”

Ace’s jaw dropped in utter disbelief. He snatched his tacky blue cap off his head as he spun around and then cursed at the shadowy trees in the background. He then slung it back over his head and then rushed the rest of the way into David’s personal space, forcing him to recoil. Beneath the sunglasses, the man’s entire face was as red as an old phone box.

“YES! And he got us all killed!”

David blinked rapidly as he tried to process this information. He knew that time could get wonky here, but it seemed unlikely that Felix had already gone through an entire other Trial in the time since he’d been resurrected. Had he been dead that long? 

“You sure it was him? I jus—”

“Of course it was him!! I can pick that pendejo’s squeal out of a fucking hurricane!!”

David felt his face instantly heat at Ace’s terrible comment, but he held back his furious response. He needed information. “Where is he now? What happened to him?”

“Who fucking knows. I got fried like mi madre’s tortas fritas so I couldn’t tell you. Pero Dios mio , I hope he’s fucking dead for good this time,” Ace said, and shoved past him.

David’s simmering anger ignited like gasoline. “The fook you jus’ say?!”

He reached out to snatch the Argentitian’s shoulder, but Nea stepped in front of him and batted away his hand. “ Back off King. This shit’s your own damn fault, so take your lumps.”

David snarled at her back as she trailed after Ace. “You think I’m above smackin’ a girl in the face, yer bleedin’ wrong Nea! Can barely consider you one to begin with! ”

Without turning around, Nea flipped him the bird and continued to follow Ace back to the fire.

“Better simmer down hijo ,” Ace called over his shoulder, “Before I decide to go and fix this problem of ours once and for all.”

David bristled like a lion. His vision went red. “You mother fuckin —”

“Hey hey hey hey hey!! Stop!”

Hands grappled his shoulder and stopped him from rushing forward. He spun around to face Tapp, teeth bared and fists shaking with barely restrained violence.

“Hey c’mon man, easy! He ain’t worth it!”

David snarled and tried to wrench himself free, but the older man held firm. “He can’t just threaten Felix like that! Fookin’ scumbag!! ”

“You’re fuckin’ right man, you’re right! But even if you beat his face in, that asshole ain’t gonna learn shit, so at least save it!”

With a huffing curse, David jerked away from Tapp’s grip and finally broke free. He stood in tense silence as he watched the now distant pair of survivors arrive at the fire and start up a conversation with Meg. Finally, his fury waned enough for him to start thinking clearly again.

“Hey, you were saying you wanted to know about Felix, right?”

David snapped to attention and spun around. “ Yes . Did you see him?”

Tapp nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I saw ‘im alright.”

David’s eyes widened. A frantic desperation to know absolutely anything about Felix clawed at his heart. “How was he? What happened?!”

Tapp grimaced. The dark brim of his baseball cap concealed his eyes as he looked away to recollect. “We were against the Doctor in the swamp.” His head shook minutely. “Couple minutes in, and I already knew it wasn’t going to end well.”

David waited anxiously for him to continue.

“I was with Nea and Ace most of the time. They tried to keep the psychopath busy, but you know how that goes. We managed to get a gen or two done, but after that…” Tapp grumbled dismally, then hesitantly met his eyes. His expression became apologetic. “Man, I hate to say it, but Ace is kinda right.”

David frowned sharply, “ What? ”

Tapp’s hands went up in defense, then slipped smoothly into his pockets as he leaned backward. “Listen man, I dunno what your friend was doing all that time, but it wasn’t gens.”

David grimaced and his indignation eased.

Tapp continued. “While we were taking a moment to lick our wounds and recover, we heard Felix scream in the distance— the only kind of scream a man makes when a big shard of metal is shoved through his shoulder. That was the first time we all realized he was our fourth, and as you could’ve probably guessed… I was the only one who was willing to go and get him.”

The two men shared a solemn moment of silence. David had the urge to go and beat Ace senseless again.

Tapp stared off toward somewhere in the distance as a memory played over in his mind. His eyes flicked hesitantly over to David’s. “When I first saw him hanging there… I thought he was dead.”

David felt his heart jump up into his throat.

“He was a damn bloody mess and he wasn’t moving, but since I saw those freaky spider claw things starting to appear, I wanted to make sure of it— just in case I was wrong. Sure enough… after I yelled at him and shook him a few times, he came back to life, so I got him down as quick as I could.”

Tapp folded his arms over his chest and looked away into the distance again. David felt his stomach slowly churn over on itself.

“He collapsed on the spot,” Tapp said grimly. “Hell, he was barely even there. I ended up having to drag his ass into cover so I could work on him.”

The older man shifted on his feet as his expression went visibly taut and a muscle in his jaw flexed. Finally, Tapp met his eyes again. David’s stomach twisted with dread at the expression he saw in the man’s dark gaze.

“Listen man, I couldn’t tell you who, what, or how the guy got as fucked up as he was… but I don’t think the Doctor could have done it.”

David’s expression twisted in confused surprise. “What? How’s that?”

Tapp grumbled as he shifted, as if reluctant to explain himself. “You know the Doctor’s weapon? That crazy spiked metal rod?”

David grimaced and nodded minutely. He couldn’t help but imagine that nasty weapon being brought down onto Felix’s body. His insides squirmed at the self-imposed imagery. 

Tapp continued. “Well, that thing usually leaves behind little holes in the fabric wherever it lands, especially if it's a particularly hard hit, but on Felix? I didn’t see that anywhere. In fact, other than them being covered in mud and blood, and the hook puncture, his clothes weren’t even all that damaged.”

David’s gaze narrowed into a thin, hard line. He wondered how in the world Tapp could have noticed such a miniscule detail like that before reminding himself that the man was a detective in his previous life. It had been his job to notice things like that. 

Almost instantly, a dozen questions and theories about what had happened to Felix popped into his mind. Instead of bombarding the older man with them though, he forced himself to remain silent and waited for the rest of Tapp’s analysis. 

“Here’s where it gets… weird,” Tapp said. 

Again, David felt his stomach do a flip.

“So of course, the first thing I do is try to get his shirt off to check for injuries, because all that blood couldn’t have just come from nowhere, you know? Not even from a hook wound. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t mortally wounded because he was in such bad shape… but then he wouldn’t let me look.”

David’s face screwed up into a confused rictus. He didn’t want to keep saying ‘what’ over and over again, so remained quiet.

Tapp nodded in grave confirmation. “Yea. I kept trying to convince him to let me see, but he kept physically stopping me. It was almost like he was afraid for me to see whatever was wrong with him.”

David shook his head in dazed disbelief.

“I kept pushing to let me help him, but then he kinda freaked out on me, so I backed off. I didn’t want to leave him like that, so I ended up just dressing his hook wound the best I could, and that was it. He wouldn’t let me do anything else, even though the asshole couldn’t even walk.”

Tapp stared at the ground and shook his head. The silence between them was drowned out by David’s own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

“Of course I couldn’t stay there with him. The kid was basically fucked and things were going to hell on the other side of the swamp,” Tapp reasoned, as if excusing his own actions. “Before I left him though, I tried to ask him what had happened.” Tapp dropped his head and shook it again. An exceptionally weary expression overtook the features not obscured by his hat. “And… it wasn’t that he wouldn’t tell me… he straight up couldn’t — like the words to describe what he’d been through could not physically come out of his body.”

David felt his throat seize with emotion.

Tapp finally drew his head up and met his eyes dead-on. They were now soft and apologetic. “Man… something happened to that kid before that Trial ever even got started, and I’m not even sure I wanna know what.”

In a dazed horror, David stared long and hard at the older man as he tried to absorb everything he’d just been told and connect it with what he already knew. Going by what Tapp had just told him, David had no choice but to assume that whatever or whoever had taken him out last Trial had also gotten to Felix, and… and had done who fucking knows what to him. Somehow though, Felix had managed to escape, and was then immediately swept up into another Trial in that terrible condition.

An image of Felix’s terrified, ice-blue eyes popped into his mind, and David shivered violently.

What killer had it even been? He hadn’t seen one single hint of a killer that entire Trial until he’d felt something ram through the back of his throat. That made him believe it had been one of the stealthier killers, but most could be stealthy when they really wanted to— shit, those stupid punks had managed to get the jump on him more than once. David could think of several possibilities as to what sort of killer might stab him in the back of the throat and then go on to hurt Felix like that, but he had nothing concrete. The world was infested by too many terrible monsters.

Whatever unspeakable things had happened to Felix… David knew deep down that it was his fault. Felix’s suffering was all the direct result of his ineptitude and carelessness— his complete and utter failure to protect the man he loved. He’d sworn to Felix’s fucking face that he would protect him from anything, no matter what, and Felix had trusted him to do so . He’d trusted him god damn it, and David had failed him instantly.

Grief and guilt welled from deep within his churning innards. An intense bout of nausea and vertigo crashed over his mind, and David came to the sudden realization that he’d been holding his breath. He forced himself to gulp down some fresh oxygen and then tried to recover his composure. With a renewed sense of mental clarity, the first and most immediate question about Felix popped into his mind.

“W– what happened after you left? Did he escape?”

Tapp grimaced and shrugged helplessly. “Doc decided to fry us all, so I couldn’t tell you. Seeing as how the kid could barely move though, I highly doubt it. After I woke up, I managed to meet up with Ace and Nea, but we never saw any sign of Felix on the way back… I’m sorry.”

David tore his gaze away from the old detective as if he were tearing himself out of a bear trap. He once again found himself staring into the swirling, shadowy murk of the Forest of Passage. He imagined Felix somewhere out in the darkness, suffering and dying alone with nothing but the dark whispers of the Entity filling his head.

He had to find him!

David was on the verge of rushing back out into the darkness when a shout from the campfire grabbed his attention.

“Puto de madre!!”

He turned to see Ace storming off toward the treeline with Nea and Meg trotting after him. David assumed that whatever conversation they’d been having had broken down into some sort of disagreement— until he saw Ace drag something from out of the darkness and into the light of the campfire.

Felix.

He was being flanked on either side by Nea and Meg as Ace continually shoved him toward the center of camp. A cacophony of angry voices was quickly filling the air.

David instantly bolted toward them. “HEY!!”

Tapp cursed and rushed after him, but made no attempt to stop him this time.

“BOLUDO MALDITO!!” Ace screamed, and grabbed a stunned Felix up by his collar. “You think you can just stroll in here and show your fucking face after the shit you just pulled?! ”

“Oi! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!!” David roared.

Nea immediately stepped in to block his path, but this time, David just barreled straight through her. He dove between Ace and Felix and pushed them apart as hard he could. Ace stumbled backward as his grip was broken, but then immediately came at him again. He ripped the dark glasses away from his eyes as he rushed at him, revealing a vividly red face flush with anger and hatred.

“FUCK YOU KING! I’m done dealing with him and his bullshit!! HE’S GOTTA GO!!”

Ace shoved at his chest, but David stood firm and repelled him away.

“You lay a finger on him and I’ll FOOKIN’ KILL YOU VISCONTI!!”

David quickly looked around. Tapp was doing his best to talk Nea down, but she looked about ready to punch him in the face. Behind him, he saw a panicked Felix trying to retreat from the entire situation, but couldn’t because Meg had latched onto his wrist. The German kept trying to yank his arm away, but Meg was holding firm.

“The fuck do you think you’re going, Frisk??” she spat.

David wanted to help him, but couldn’t be in two places at once. David’s attention was directly forward again as Ace shoved him, causing him to falter backward.

“I KNOW you KNOW he’s doomed!! WE ALL KNOW IT!! WE KNOW what it fucking looks like!! He’s fucking done for, so stop letting him DRAG US ALL DOWN WITH HIM!! DON’T YOU EVEN FUCKING CARE?!”

“I CARE ABOUT HIM!! ”

“Fucking— ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS YOU SELFISH GOD DAMN CABRÓN?! ”

“Let me GO!!”

David turned back at the sound of Felix’s cry, only to see an explosion of stars. Hot pain burst across his face and sent him reeling. 

Years of experience instantly told David that Ace had sucker punched him.

Before his opponent could take any advantage of the opening his surprise attack had created, David planted his feet and threw his fists up to shield himself. The follow up punch that had been aiming for his nose was blocked, but the one that had gone for his stomach hit home. He stepped out of range with a pained groan, and ducked low to assess his target. 

Experienced fighter that he was, David knew intimately that the quickest way to end a fight wasn’t with agility, clever tactics, or even brute force— no… It was just how quickly you could get the other guy on the ground. 

With a feral snort, David peered through fists, dug his toes into the earth, and then launched his entire body forward. Ace couldn’t move out of the way fast enough. David dived into the man’s midsection, grappled him, and lifted his body into the air with a savage roar. He brought him down again hard, forcing all the air from his lungs as he slammed him into the ground. Ace choked and coughed as David climbed on top of him and then raised his fists in the air. There was a moment of hesitation as the now helpless man shielded his face from imminent attack. David thought about backing off, but then every threat that Ace had ever made toward Felix hurtled through his mind. David snarled and followed through.

His knuckles turned the man’s flesh into putty in a matter of seconds. David knew that the immediate threat Ace had been was long past subdued… but he kept going. The only thing that drove him now was anger . Anger for how Ace had driven him to become the very worst version of himself, anger for how little value the man saw in others, and finally, an intense, overwhelming fury for how he threatened the life of the man he’d grown to love more than anything in this godforsaken hellscape.

David screamed bloody murder at the pummeled face on the ground, and then raised his fists into the air to finish him off for good. 

Something wrapped around both his arms and stopped him. Suddenly immobilized, David roared in frustration and tried to break free, but was instead lifted backward and away from the source of his rage.

“GET OFF OF ME!!”

David fought and kicked, but still couldn’t manage to break free. Finally, he looked around to see Tapp, Nea, and Meg all holding onto him with all their might, their faces awash with shock and horror.

The sight finally snapped David back to himself, and he went limp. Their frantic voices faded in soon after.

“God damnit! ”

“ Jävla psykopat! The fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Fuck, is he dead?!”

David’s eyes flicked back to the unmoving body on the ground. He stared at it numbly, slowly beginning to realize that he actually might’ve killed Ace. A few moments later though, it jerked and launched a geyser of blood into the air. 

“Shit!”

Meg and Nea rushed past him to Ace’s side, leaving him and Tapp alone on the ground breathing hard.

“Shit, son,” Tapp heaved, acting as though there was more to say, but ended up just shaking his head.

David watched as Nea and Meg fretted and fawned over Ace… before slowly remembering that someone else was missing from this equation.

He jolted upright and spun around himself in search of the person that had ignited this entire fiasco to begin with, and found him splayed out on the ground, watching the scene before him play out with wide, frightened eyes.

“Felix!”

The man jolted as David called his name. As Felix looked to him, David expected to see a wave of relief in those bright blue eyes, but the second their gazes locked, David saw nothing in them except sheer, unadulterated terror.

His heart dropped into his stomach.

Felix suddenly flipped over onto his hands and knees and started to scramble toward the treeline.

David’s heart jumped back the other way as he realized what was happening, and started to frantically scramble onto his own feet.

“No, wait! Felix! WAIT!”

Felix took off into the darkness of the Forest, and David stumbled clumsily after him.

“FELIX!”

David sailed past the line of fire-lit trees and dove in the hazy murk, but saw no immediate sign of the man. He instinctively decided to run in the direction where he thought he’d seen Felix bolt off to. David ducked and dived around low hanging branches and thorny bushes as he rushed to try and catch up with the fleeing man. No matter how fast he ran though, David couldn’t ever seem to catch up with him. 

He’d lost him. 

David called out for Felix again, desperately hoping the man would somehow change his mind and call back, but there was no reply. The Forest was silent.

He came to a faltering, heaving stop in the grass and whirled around himself. He listened and scanned the Forest carefully for tiniest hint of Felix in the endless murk, but heard and saw nothing. 

The verdant labyrinth had swallowed him up.

A sudden sob bubbled up from within David’s throat and poured from his lips. He crashed to his knees and stared down at his shaking, bloodied hands, watching as they began to warp and ripple as fresh tears filled his vision. 

What had he done?

He looked back up, stared all around himself at the suffocatingly dark Forest… and saw nothing except isolation, misery, and death.

David drew in a deep, gulping sob, and screamed Felix’s name into the endless void one last time… but received not even an echo of his own voice in return.

Chapter 31: Surrender

Notes:

Man, I never thought this would get to be as long as some of the longest Steven King novels, but here we are! 😆 I'm still following my outline, but it turns out I'm just really bad at estimating how much actual writing two bullet points are! Ah well, I suppose that's good for you all though, huh? 🤣

⚠ Brief explicit section, warnings in end notes ⚠

Felix ran. He ran until he stopped hearing his name echoing off of the trees. He ran until he could no longer breathe. He ran until his legs lost all strength and gave out from under him, sending him tumbling to the ground. Felix smashed flat against the Forest floor and then stayed there, heaving and panting for breath. 

After several moments, his desperate gasps for air transmuted into a murmur of choked-off sobs and breathless cries. His fingers stabbed into the soft loam of the earth, searching desperately for some kind of tether or anchor to latch himself onto as his entire world came crashing down around him.

Going back to the campfire had been a terrible, terrible mistake. 

When he’d come back from the blackness of death, he’d tried waiting like he’d been ordered to, but the darkness of the Forest had just been so suffocating and he’d just been feeling so incredibly lost … He hadn’t wanted to be alone. 

He’d eventually convinced himself that it would be fine, that most of the survivors probably wouldn’t even be there anyways, and that David would almost certainly be in another Trial by now… but nothing had been further from the truth.

He hadn’t realized that Ace had actually hated him this entire time— so much so that the man had been ready to outright obliterate him right then and there. Thinking back though, Felix could understand why; almost every Trial he’d been a part of had ended in disaster one way or another, and for Ace, that last one with the Doctor seemed to have been the final straw.

On top of that… David had been there— the man Danny had forbidden him from seeing ever again.

Felix sobbed hard as a heady mix of dread, fear, and heartache hit him all at once.

God, he hoped Danny hadn’t seen that! He’d tried to get away as quick as he could, but he didn’t know if he’d been fast enough! He should’ve stayed put like Danny had told him to!

Felix sucked a hitching breath and gulped hard as he worked to get a handle on his emotions.

He could never go back to the survivor camp again. It was too risky. Ace and his gang would thrash him the second they saw him… and then there was David.

David…

Felix sobbed again as the devastating emotions that he’d been trying to suppress crashed over him.

“David… I’m so sorry…”

Not only would his mere presence put David's life— and his own— in jeopardy, but Felix didn’t even deserve to see him again. The man had already given him so much, and all Felix had done was take and take and take. Not only that… Felix was tainted now— tainted by the most disgusting and vile acts a person could participate in— and he could not allow his friend to be infected by his filth. He had to stay away…

Felix weeped at the thought.

At the very least… he’d been able to see David one last time while he was alive and breathing… Admittedly, it wasn’t a very happy nor very pretty last memory of him, but it was better than the pale, black-eyed corpse he’d been forced to be with…

“I thought I told you to wait for me.”

Felix shrieked and shot up into a panicked scramble away from the dark voice. His darting eyes instantly found the melting white mask in the murk and immediately began to clamber backwards away from it.

When he was a good ten or so meters away, Felix realized that the killer wasn’t pursuing him, and hesitated. Confused, he paused to catch his breath and waited to see what Danny would do.

Danny cocked his head to the side in that familiar, yet unsettling way that made Felix’s hair stand on end. A long, tense moment of silence later, the killer spoke again. “Why’d you go back to camp Felix?”

Felix felt the air in his lungs freeze. His blood went glacier cold. He stared stunned and open mouthed at the silently observing killer, at a complete loss for words. His heart began to pound.

“I asked you a question, Felix. ”

Felix spat a series of random syllables as he tried to form some combination of sounds that the killer might find acceptable, but couldn’t sort them out in time.

“I– I– I… I don’t know.”

Danny straightened. His body went rigid.

Felix quickly tried to rectify his statement. “I mean— I– I was scared! I– I didn’t want to sit out here alone in the dark, a– and…” he shook his head in resignation. “ You scare me.”

The killer relaxed and clucked sympathetically. “Oh baby… I know I’ve been hard on you lately, but you know that as long as you do what I say, you have nothing to be afraid of, right?”

Felix grimaced and swallowed hard. The nausea began to churn in his stomach. He couldn’t say how much he thought that was a blatant lie.

His heart leapt as the killer began casually striding towards him, but he resisted the urge to turn and bolt, knowing that it would only anger the killer… but also knowing that he wouldn’t get far.

“I thought you might’ve finally learned to follow my orders, but it seems like you still have issues listening . Have we come to an understanding or does my lesson need more reinforcement?”

“N– NO! No! No! I– I understand fully now! There’s n– no more need for that!”

Ghostface finally came to a stop with a waft of spicy cologne only a step or two away, then looked up through the moonlit trees for a moment. He hummed dubiously and stared down, casting a long, dark shadow over his trembling form.

“Are you sure? Because you seemed awfully eager to get back to your cozy little campfire. Were you missing your boyfriend that bad already?” Danny growled, voice chillingly dark.

Felix choked on his fear. He frantically shook his head and waved his hands between them like a madman. “No! No!! It wasn’t like that!! I– I realized I’d made a mistake the second I got there and left immediately!! I– I won't ever go back there again and I won’t see him again, I swear!!”

Felix heaved for breath as he waited for Danny’s reply, preemptively shielding himself from attack. His entire body was shaking.

The silently screaming mask angled off to the side as it considered his words carefully. After a long, tense silence it slowly settled back onto his face. 

“I believe you Felix.”

Felix let out a quivering sob of relief. His shielding, pleading hands dropped bonelessly into his lap.

“But unfortunately, you still disobeyed me…”

Felix’s breath caught once again, and his eyes went wide. His heart convulsed with dread as the killer crouched smoothly to one knee before him.

Danny sighed wistfully as he made himself comfortable in the grass. “But… since you came back, I suppose I can let it slide this one time… so long as you remain compliant and obey my every word from now on. Is that fair?”

Felix swallowed down the nausea burbling up his throat, and after a moment of reluctant hesitation, finally nodded. There was no way around it.

Danny nodded. “Good, I’m glad you agree.”

Felix flinched at the feeling of pressure on his leg. He looked down to see Danny’s gloved hand gently gliding up the inside of his calf. A swell of icy dread licked at the base of his ribcage.

“And if you agree to that, you must understand that your compliance also requires you to be pliant, yes?”

Danny shifted a bit closer into his space. The roaming hand gently caressed the underside of his knee before moving further up his leg. Felix’s skin crawled and shuddered. He had the incredible urge to shake it off and scurry away, but remained still despite his growing distress and revulsion.

The white mask loomed closer and Felix’s eyes became locked into that empty gaze. His breathing picked up and went heavy as Danny’s hand massaged up to his inner thigh. His fingers clawed into the grass.

“No more fighting… no more pleading or panicking… just simple, calm, acceptance .”

Felix whimpered and brought his legs together as Danny palmed him through his pants, fighting hard against the urge to scurry backwards or push the hand away. Instead, he clenched his teeth and stared at the twin empty sockets, silently pleading with the killer to stop. 

The hand suddenly squeezed and Felix gasped and seized up. His own hand automatically went to grab at the one holding his privates hostage.

The white mask cocked inquisitively. “Do you think you can do that?”

Felix huffed a strained breath as he struggled to deal with the borderline painful hold. His gaze remained fixated on Danny’s blank sockets as he tried desperately to communicate his distress and discomfort, but the killer remained unresponsive, his grip constantly tight. 

Finally remembering the question he'd been asked, Felix nodded his agreement as a last resort.

Danny’s hold eased, and Felix gasped in relief as the pain dissipated, but remained anxiously vigilant, as the hand still had not left his intimate area.

“That also includes not interfering .”

Felix’s expression screwed up in confusion before realizing that his hand was still clutching at Danny’s. 

He grimaced at the white mask acutely. Despite how his every instinct screamed at him to do otherwise, Felix slowly removed his hand from Danny’s and placed it firmly on the ground beside him.

“Good boy…” Danny cooed. 

Felix tensed as the smooth leather hand began to massage him over his pants. He clawed into the ground as it gingerly traced and caressed his outline. Felix couldn’t help but groan and whimper quietly at the delicate stimulation, and it wasn’t long before his face grew hot with mortified arousal and his underwear tight.

He flinched at the feeling of pressure against his chest, and looked down to see Danny’s other hand pressing there, wordlessly trying to coax him backward.

Again, despite his anxious reservations about this entire situation and the position he was allowing himself to be put into, Felix leaned backward until he was laying flat against the grass. 

The white mask followed him downward as if it were attached to his person, carefully taking in his every microexpression as he complied. Danny’s shrouded body followed after it, draping over him like a shadow.

As the hand on his crotch continued to massage and stimulate him, the other one on his chest transferred delicately up to his neck. Its soft fingers stroked tenderly against his thrumming carotid artery before gently cupping his jaw and thumbing at his cheek, clearly intending to relax him. Laying against the ground like this made Danny’s advancements somewhat easier to accept, but there was also this creeping undertone of just… perversion and menace to everything Danny did that made complete surrender to him simply impossible.

As Felix’s breaths grew hotter and heavier with involuntary arousal, that stimulating hand began to drift further downward until its fingers were pressing firmly against his rectum through several layers of fabric.

Felix hissed and tensed as a fingertip hooked into his rim and drove itself as far inside him as his clothes would allow. He squirmed in discomfort and distress as the finger wriggled around inside him like a worm. He grabbed and pressed hard at the body hovering over him just to have something to hold onto

“You’re so damn fuckable ,” Danny growled wolfishly, “Are you going to behave yourself when I decide to fuck you? Huh? You gonna let me pound that teasing little cunt of yours when I want to?”

Felix gasped as the hand driving into him suddenly reached for the back of his pants and ripped them down over his ass. It took several forceful yanks to get them fully over his rear due to the tightness of his belt, but Danny kept him firmly in place until he could get them down. Suppressing his burgeoning need to panic, Felix simply averted his gaze from the endlessly staring white mask as he was exposed. He whimpered and trembled quietly as the all-encompassing body on top of him pressed against his chest.

Fully expecting the next sensation to be those same fingers pressing into his exposed entrance, he remained anxiously rigid, but he instead felt them against his lips. Felix jumped and instinctually clamped his teeth together to prevent intrusion, but when his eyes fell back on those dark, expectant voids… a replay of all the pain and misery Danny had forced him to endure flashed before his eyes and beneath his skin.

It would be easier to just let this happen. All of that misery and torture could have been avoided if he’d stopped fighting sooner and given in. What point was there in fighting when Danny would eventually take what he wanted from him anyways? No… the pain and punishment wasn't worth it. He couldn't go through that again. He would sacrifice his dignity and autonomy to stave off the suffering.

He would let Danny have his way with him.

Despite how his heart wrenched with anguish and shame, Felix went limp, and allowed his mouth to drop open. Two of the soft leather fingers slipped their way inside and dragged over his tongue, flooding his taste buds with the tang of processed animal hide. The fingers began to slowly pump in and out of his mouth, going just deep enough to tease his sensitive gag reflex.

“Suck on them like you sucked my cock.”

Felix felt a tiny part inside himself shrivel up and die, and then complied. He wrapped his lips around the invading digits and began to listlessly suck and tongue at them until the material was slick with saliva. All the while, Danny lavished him with generous praise and pampering touches as he slow-fucked his orifice with long, deep strokes.

Eventually, Danny seemed satisfied with his performance and pulled his fingers from his mouth with a pop. His knees were then nudged apart and lifted up, exposing his rear to the open air. Seconds later, he felt Danny’s wet, lukewarm fingers slipping between the cleft of ass and brushing against his entrance. Felix shivered as a wet digit began to teasingly circle his pucker like a circling vulture.

“Say how much you want it,” The mask vibrated, inches from his face. “Say how much you want me to make you feel good.”

Felix shivered again as the slick, teasing finger pressed with the lightest of pressures against his quivering hole. A swell of churning nausea gathered in the hollow of his throat and was promptly swallowed down. 

Another part of himself died away as he gave Danny his faux consent. “P– please… please make me feel good,” he said, voice as hollow as the wind.

The white mask rattled as that sinister, velvety voice chuckled in ominous delight. “Whatever you desire, love.”

The awaiting finger then pressed its way past the ring of muscle guarding his entrance and into his depths. Felix groaned as the slick leather finger slipped easily inside. His rim momentarily caught on the knuckle and then sank in by its entire length. Fully within him the finger then twirled around inside him, brushing against his many internal ridges, then started to slide slowly in and out. 

Felix breathed heavily and deliberately as his heart thundered, doing his best to deal with the odd and disconcerting sensations as the appendage hooked and dragged across his rim and against his sensitive insides. The white mask watched his expressions intently with remnants of its hot breath wafting continuously over his flushed, twisted face.

A minute later, the finger slipped completely out of him, but was instantly rejoined by a second. The two quickly entered him side by side. Felix averted his gaze and huffed sharply, tensing hard as his hole burned from the uncomfortable stretch.

Suddenly, he felt the brush of soft leather against his cheek. “Relax…” Danny chided gently.

Felix shuddered. He squinted through his lashes at the white mask hovering overhead and whimpered brokenly. It was almost impossible for him to relax when he hated this feeling of being invaded and manipulated so much… Nevertheless, he managed to steal an unsteady breath from the air and allowed it to permeate his tensing musculature. 

“There you go,” Danny praised, “Let me in…”

Soft, fragrant leather caressed his face as the wet pair of digits drove deep inside him, causing him to squirm and whimper breathlessly as his hole was stretched open.

“That’s it…”

The fingers pumped in and out a few times, ensuring that the saliva he’d earlier applied was now thoroughly coating his passage, and then they curled forward.

Felix convulsed and gasped aloud as an electric wave pulsed throughout his nervous system. Before he had a chance to recover, however, the fingers curled inside him again, forcing a wailing moan from his spasming body. Felix blindly fumbled for purchase at the body on top of him, trying desperately to recover from the surge of mind-rending sensation. He gasped and blinked hard as the spasms slowly subsided, leaving him quivering and panting in Danny’s orchestrating hands.

A familiar, mischievous chuckling fell on his ears, and Felix realized that the sensation he’d just experienced was the same one that had taken him apart during that horror show in the shack— the feeling of that devilishly sensitive, traitorous spot within him.

“Oh yea, you remember this little fun button here, don’t you?” Danny breathed, “Remember how much you loved my cock hitting you here over and over again?”

The two fingers stroked over the spot again, causing his vision to blot out and his body to seize up.

Danny’s giggles faded back to his ears as the sensation eventually released him from its hold. His newfound erection strained shamefully against his pants.

“God, I love watching you writhe.”

The fingers moved again, and again Felix’s body automatically curled and gasped at the electric pleasure that coursed through him and took hold of his mind. His head fell back in the grass and his eyes rolled upward at the waves continuously radiating outward from that spot deep inside him. Wanton gasps and broken moans poured from his lips. His cock throbbed and strained within its confinement, begging for attention.

Between brief flashes of cognizance Felix found himself clutching desperately at Danny’s black cloak. Somewhere in his suppressed frontal lobe, Felix knew that holding onto Danny like this was far too intimate, bordering on obscene, but Danny was his only anchor in this overwhelming onslaught of stimulation. He had nothing else in the world to moor himself to.

“Fuck, I need to taste of those slutty moans of yours.”

Felix suddenly felt a fist in his hair. Hard plastic squashed up against his nose. A pair of dry lips bordered by sharp scruff clamped down over his open mouth. Felix was jolted to further awareness by a long tongue forcing its way down his throat. It licked roughly around the entirety of the inside of his mouth as it tried to taste every inch of him. Tongues wrestled and recoiled. Lips and teeth clashed and nipped and drew blood. The fist in his hair pulled tight.

Felix clawed and pressed anxiously against Danny’s chest as the crushingly invasive kiss grew in intensity, until eventually growing to something bordering on violence. It was like Danny was trying to consume him. Felix looked down to try and catch Danny’s eye, hoping to convey his distress to the killer, but saw nothing except a wall of blurry white plastic.

As more of his air was siphoned away and his mouth became bruised and bloodied, Felix began considering more forceful ways of alerting Danny to his angst when his mind was suddenly short-circuited by an inebriating wave of pleasure. The involuntary moan that was forced from his lungs was promptly snatched up by the awaiting mouth and sucked away. The body on top of him vibrated with a lustful, hedonistic groan.

Before Felix could fully come down from the high and steal a breath to steady himself, though, the fingers inside him curled again. Another hot wave of pleasure surged throughout his tingling nervous system and dredged yet another witless moan up his gullet. The fingers then started to rhythmically pump and prod at his inner wall, continuously teasing and petting at that devious spot within him that set his belly alight, his mind blank, and his body into spasms. 

The litany of carnal moans and breathless whimpers Felix was forced to produce were consumed before they even had a chance to touch air. Danny drank them all directly from his mouth like a ravenous, dehydrated wolf.

Felix keened and pawed at everything and nothing as Danny’s hands and mouth and tongue turned him into a mindless mound of writhing, melting putty. His head spun with oxygen deprivation and his cock throbbed with need as the suffocating haze of pleasure finally hit its peak, threatening to push him over its ledge.

The smothering lips suddenly unlatched from him and then lashed and sucked their way into the crook of his neck. Felix heaved for breath as soon as realized he was free, tongue lolled dumbly from the corner of his mouth. Feverish, panting breaths poured into his ear. The twin fingers pounding at that spot inside him refused to stop.

“Say you want my cock,” Danny huffed hotly and breathlessly into his ear between gnawing kisses. “Say you want to be filled with my cum . Say it.”

Felix somewhat came back to himself and swallowed hard. His eyeballs fluttered forward and back into focus as he reprocessed what Danny had asked of him.

No… No, he couldn’t say that. It wasn’t true. He couldn’t…

Felix choked on a sordid moan as the fingers curled viciously within in. His legs coiled around Danny’s body for support as his muscles seized and his vision went white. His leaking cock ached painfully within the confines of his pants. He was so hard it hurt.

“Fucking say it ,” Danny snarled into his ear, the scruff around his lips scratching harshly against his skin.

Felix whimpered tremulously, his head spinning from the heady mix of both fear and delirious pleasure.

He couldn’t face Danny’s wrath again… never again …

“I– I…” He swallowed thickly as acidic bile rose into the pit of his throat. His tear ducts burned. He had to say it. 

“I… I want y– your… your cock…”

The body surrounding him shivered with glee. A humming chuckle vibrated throughout him as a long, lazy stripe was licked up his pulsating carotid artery. 

“And what else…?” Danny asked, voice hot and dark as he nuzzled into his flesh.

Felix shivered as the killer’s breath chilled his damp, irritated skin. His soul wilted as he recalled the second half of Danny’s command. He closed his eyes— as if that could separate him from the words he was about to speak— and felt a bead of moisture trail down the side of his face.

“I– I want to beee—!!”

He yelped and convulsed backward as the spot inside him was stroked harshly, sending a dizzying flash of electric stimulation directly to his brain. Felix heaved and gulped for breath as the static faded from his vision. His hardness throbbed and ached, desperate for attention of any kind.

The killer gave a wicked chuckle and then licked over his ear. “Want to be… what?”

Felix squirmed and whimpered in frustration and at the overwhelming, suffocating stimulation. He clutched hard at Danny’s body— his only anchor in the world at the moment— and gathered the will to finish the vile statement.

“I… I want to be filled with y– your… your cum.” As the words left his lips, Felix felt his skin crawl like it wanted to slither away from him and into the darkness.

Danny groaned lewdly. “Fuck yea you do baby…” 

The harsh, scruffy lips captured his own once more and began to fervently drink up his groans and whimpers. The fingers resumed their furious ministrations against his insides, stretching and stimulating and working him open for what Felix could only assume was the next step in this process— the terrible, vile thing he’d just asked Danny to do to him.

Felix moaned into the killer’s attacking mouth as the constant waves of arousal crashing over him became almost too much. His belly felt like one giant, too-tight knot, and his skin felt hotter than the glowing coals at the heart of a fire. He was losing his mind.

Just when Felix thought he might just explode or pass out, the twin fingers suddenly ripped out of him. Felix jolted with a gasp, trying to comprehend the sudden emptiness when he heard the chilling whistle of steel flying through the air. 

The instinct to survive instantly seized his mind. He curled in on himself and threw his arms up to protect his face, but Danny was one step ahead. A section of his hair was grappled tightly and then used as a handheld to force his head against the ground, minimizing his panicked struggle.

“Shh shh shh, it’s fine, you’re fine…”

Felix gasped and clawed and the arm holding him in place, fraught with terror at what Danny might do to him with that wickedly sharp blade. 

Suddenly, he heard and felt the sound of the knife shearing something in two. Felix yelped and thrashed in a confused panic. He felt no pain, but was still aware that something on his person had been cut. 

Felix was on the verge of renewing his panicked struggles so that his fragile life might be preserved but then everything holding him down suddenly vanished. 

Heart thundering, he thrashed at empty air for a moment before realizing there was nothing there for him to fight. Blinking and gulping furiously, Felix finally stopped struggling to assess his surroundings.

Danny was standing over him with his mask affixed back into place, tying a length of black fabric around a large chunk of blonde hair— his hair.

Felix fumbled at his scalp with trembling fingers and quickly found the newly created gap in his hair. He frowned up at Danny in sharp confusion as he slowly pawed at the layer of trimmed fuzz where his hair used to be.

“I needed to replenish my stock after losing it all,” Danny explained casually, “Otherwise, it’ll be a while before we’ll get to see each other again.”

Felix’s confused frown deepened. His heart continued to thunder away in his chest from the rush of adrenaline, making his thoughts fuzzy and slow.

Danny finished tying up the bundle and then slipped it away into his cloak. He looked back at Felix and cocked his head to the side, seeming to notice his confusion.

“Oh baby, I know you’re just aching to feel my cock inside of you…” Danny said, gesturing to Felix’s lower half.

Felix looked down and realized that he was still half undressed. His unsatiated erection still strained against his half-deposed pants, highlighted by a small wet spot at the tip of his bulge. Felix felt his face flush hot and began scrambling to get his pants up and his clothes back into their proper position.

Danny chuckled, and then continued. “Unfortunately though, our time here is limited, so you’ll have to wait for me to pull you into a Trial before I can finish taking care of you. You deserve to be treated properly after all.”

Felix hesitated in the middle of re-buttoning his dress shirt that had somehow come undone, and looked back up. Did he hear that right? 

“D– did you say… pull me into a Trial?”

Danny shifted coyly, and Felix could almost feel the conceited, malicious smirk radiating from beneath that ghoulish plastic mask.

“Well, of course. We wouldn’t want our fun to be interrupted like last time now, do we?”

Felix felt the blood drain from his face. His mouth went dry. “H– How?” was all he could manage.

Danny’s shoulders shuddered as he laughed silently. “Survivors aren’t the only ones who can sway the Entity with offerings you know,” he said through a clearly audible, toothy smile.

Barely breathing, Felix stared as the implications of what Danny was saying began to click into place. 

“The Entity knows what I want for the most part, but it's also a big, stupid, lumbering thing that can quite often get… distracted. ” Danny patted the spot on his body where the bundle of blonde hair was tucked away. “But as long as I have something of yours… I can send that big ol’ spider god an enticing little request to bring you into my Trial. Basically, I get to call dibs — no matter what.”

Felix balked. All those times he’d been pulled into a Trial with Danny… That time he’d noticed that he was missing hair, and all the other times he hadn’t noticed the missing hair at all… His impression of their meetings as being unfortunate happenstance had been an illusion, because Danny had been orchestrating their interactions from the very beginning. Aside from that one singular mishap in the Forest, everything Danny had done had been carefully planned out. Deliberate. The killer had been purposefully pulling him away from the others and into his well of influence until he was all that remained in Felix’s world— all that really mattered in all of existence— and now… there was no escape.

Danny shrugged impassively. “I know I just got you all worked up just now, but there’s no need to worry. I’ll be able to pull you into a Trial in no time, and once everyone’s dead, we’ll have all the time in the world to play. You’re already good and ready too, so we’ll be able to get right to the good stuff,” he said in a low, breathy voice, and began to rub himself through his pants. “It’s a good thing too— I doubt I’ll be able to hold off much longer with you looking all debauched like that…” he rumbled sensuously, the entirety of his black body shivering with arousal.

Felix could only stare numbly. He heard all the words being said to him and absorbed them, but was unable to fully process their meaning.

Danny grumbled as hand dropped away from his crotch and back to his side. “Egh, I’m just wasting time at this point. I should get going. Wouldn’t want someone else to snatch you up before I do, right?” He chuckled that loathsome, nails-on-chalkboard chuckle again, and Felix wished he could cut his ears off just so he wouldn’t have to hear it again.

Finally, Danny turned away and began walking into the murk. 

“See you soon, love,” he called with a wave, and then faded into the shadows.

Felix stared at the spot he’d last seen the killer’s outline, but could no longer see any sign of him. Like so many other times before, Danny had disappeared before his very eyes. This time though, Felix was almost certain that he was alone— Danny had an offering to make.

As Felix sat silent and unmoving on the Forest floor, the events, feelings, and revelations of the past several minutes finally began to process. In the deafening silence, his own thoughts were barely audible over the sound of his own thready heartbeat and the blood rushing in his ears. His eyes dropped to his hands and stared at his open palms. They were shaking. Felix closed them. He curled into a ball and wrapped his arms around his knees, holding himself tight.

Breathing slowly and deliberately, he waited in numb, silent horror for the inevitable fog to return, and place him in Danny’s awaiting arms. There was nothing else for him to do. No fire to warm himself at, no friends to talk to, no shoulder to rest his head on… just silence, darkness, and… Danny.

This was his new existence, and so it would be from now until eternity.

Felix breathed, as it was all he could do as crushing reality came down around him.

Never before had he felt such hopeless despair.

Notes:

⚠ Sexual assault and molestation, fingering, aggressive kissing, sexual language

Chapter 32: Built to Last

Notes:

Hey! Coping-hard-edelic here! So uh... this chapter is really, really dark and depressing, so if you're in not in a good headspace (and I imagine most people aren't right now), please don't feel obligated to read it. This chapter has multiple explicit scenes and something else at the end that could be highly triggering. I did my best to bracket those sections with warnings-- one ⚠ for the start of it and two ⚠⚠ for the end of the section if you want to skip them. If you want a full disclosure of the warnings with spoilers, you can find that in the end notes.
🌟 Bonus author's note at the end about what comes next.

⚠

“Oh fuck! FUCK! Your ass feels so damn good baby! You’re so fucking tight! ”

Felix screamed through tightly clenched teeth, nails clawing into the rotting wood of the barn wall as Danny slammed into him from behind. The crushing grip on the back of his neck forced him against the hard, splintered wood, keeping him firmly in place as he was assaulted. One of his knees was hiked up against the wall to keep him spread open and easily accessible, while his other foot barely touched the ground by an outstretched toe. Even though Danny was holding up the majority of his weight, Felix felt like his one quivering leg would give out from under him at any moment, and the pain and stress of being fucked so ruthlessly was making it no easier. 

Danny huffed his searing, oven-hot breaths over the back of his neck as the pace increased, the sounds of sweaty, sticky skin slapping furiously together overtaking the straw-scented air. Long ago had the sharp pains of Danny’s violent thrusts faded from a fiery blaze; Felix’s lower half now simply smoldered with stinging heat, as if from the aftermath of already having been on fire. 

Felix felt hard, cool plastic against his shoulder as Danny used it to nudge his mask to the side. He shrieked as a dozen teeth sank into his flesh and latched onto his shoulder. The scent of iron quickly filled the air as his skin spit and his muscles were gnawed. Felix groaned weakly, the fresh pain simply being one more instance on top of the many sources he was currently experiencing— one more drop in an ocean of agony. His body shivered hard, partly from the cold of his completely naked, sweat-slicked body being exposed to the elements, and partly from the hot mouth tonguing and sucking at the wound on his shoulder.

His eyeballs wobbled in his skull as the constant, jabbing thrusts rhythmically forced his front to scrape against the rotting wood, littering it with fresh rashes and lacerations. Everything eventually went hazy and numb as pain and vague pleasure burned and melded together.

Danny had made quick work of the others. Felix hadn’t even seen them, but he’d heard them. Their voices had sounded familiar, but not familiar enough to guess who they’d actually belonged to. He’d been too afraid to show himself on the off chance he’d meet up with the wrong person… and also Danny. He’d tried his best to hide on the false hope that Danny would eventually grow tired of searching and leave him be, but after the corn fields had gone silent, and the screams had stopped echoing… he’d been found almost immediately— as if Danny had known where he’d been hiding all along.

The killer had been absolutely drenched in blood— practically baptized in it— and seeing Ghostface come at him like that… with the screaming white mask splattered and the knife still dripping… It was like seeing a demon. He’d panicked and ran without a second thought to the consequences, but the killer had apparently been so sexually worked up and crazed with bloodlust that he hadn’t seemed to notice nor care. In fact, he’d seemed to revel in the brief chase, pouncing on Felix and tearing into him like a wild animal in heat. 

In that moment, it had been blatantly apparent to Felix that Danny was done holding back.

A hot, slithering voice wrenched him back from his haze of recollection.

“UGHF, c’mon slut, take this fucking load. Take all my goddamn cum!! AGH!!!”

Felix cried hollowly out as Danny slammed into him several more times, burying himself as deep as possible before finally going still. He shuddered as Danny’s genitalia began to throb within him and against him, flooding his stinging depths with hot, wet ejaculate. Danny moaned in ecstasy as he came, pressing himself flush against his naked, bloodied back as he lazily fucked his cum deeper into Felix’s body. 

That was the moment his leg finally decided to give out.

Felix’s limp body began to plummet, but was caught almost instantly. Danny held him in place as he finished his long, pulsating orgasm, and then brought them both down to the ground together. Very gently, Danny laid them both down in a nearby pile of old, musty straw, cradling him close so that his softening cock wouldn’t accidentally slip out and release the torrent of seed he’d just deposited in him.

Felix wheezed as Danny held him close, floating in a numb, traumatized haze as lips and teeth grazed the back of his neck and hands caressed and toyed at his overwhelmed, exhausted body. Felix wished for nothing more than the ability to just crawl away to a corner and be left alone, but knew it was impossible. 

He cringed as Danny wrapped his arms around his stomach and pulled him closer, causing the half-hard length still inside him to grate over his damaged passageway.

“Mmph, m’sorry if I was rough baby, you’re just too damn irresistible…” Danny breathed against his neck. “You make me lose control… Very few things can do that to me you know.”

A series of long, tender kisses were speckled over the back of his neck while a soft leather hand smoothed down stomach and took hold of his flaccid length.

“Here, lemme take care of you now…”

Listless tears dribbled down his feverishly hot cheeks. The hand began to pump him languidly, but Felix couldn’t manage to find enough pleasure in the act to outweigh the pain. 

The same couldn’t be said for Danny. 

Felix felt the length immediately begin to grow and re-harden within him as Danny worked him over. Eventually, the killer became aroused enough to the point that his hips began to move and he started to fuck him again. The second time was only slightly less painful thanks to the excess cum acting as a lubricant, along with Danny’s slightly increased awareness of his recipient’s body and the signals it was giving off.

It took a long time, but eventually, Danny managed to make the pleasure outburn the pain, coercing a feeble, tenuous orgasm from out of his battered body.

Completely exhausted, wrung out, and used up, Felix went limp in the straw and sank into a numb fog. Roving hands pulled him close and played at his over-touched flesh, fondling and kneading it lazily in the post-coital haze.

Felix just wept silently in the stillness of the aftermath.

 

…

 

Danny found him in the locker this time.

In hindsight, it was a stupid place to hide. The space left him no routes for escape, but it had been the easiest, and in the chilly, snowy landscape of the mountain resort— the warmest. 

Moving his abused body in any fashion still hurt enormously, so tucking himself away from everyone and everything for a moment of rest had seemed an attractive prospect. Now though, he was trapped chest-to-chest within this confined, coffin-like space with the one person he wished to never touch again. 

In the darkness of the locker and the sweltering, smothering closeness, it was nearly impossible to see what Danny was doing to him— only feel. The killer seemed hellbent on crawling inside his skin, caressing and licking and embracing every inch of it that he could possibly reach. 

Felix sucked a gasp as his pants and underwear were suddenly ripped down his legs, and then flailed precariously as he was lifted up into the air from under his knees. Felix had no choice but to hug the killer tightly to himself to keep from crashing to the ground. He squirmed and whimpered breathlessly as Danny chewed and licked at his chest while a clothed bulge rutted against his naked rear.

“God, you’re so fucking sexy,” Danny breathed over his shivering skin. He pressed Felix hard against the back of the locker to keep him in place while fumbling at his clothed crotch. “Gonna fuck you so fucking good baby…”

Felix’s breath caught at the feeling of hard, hot flesh poking into his rear, smearing it with sticky precum. His mind went on instant alert, the words rushing out of him in a panic. “P– p– please, reconsider! I’m still very damaged and sore from the last time and I don’t think I can— ACH!! Scheiße! ”

Tears instantly sprang from his eyes as he was penetrated. His body convulsed and tensed in Danny’s grasp as waves of pain radiated out from his core.

“I know baby— that’s why I came prepared.”

Danny loosened his hold on him, allowing his suspended weight to sink further onto the hard length. Felix arched and yelped at the further penetration, but beyond the pain of the stretch and the sting of his lacerated insides, he noticed that it was much slicker than it had been the previous time. 

Apparently, Danny had taken the time to lube himself with something. 

“See?” The killer chuckled as he slowly rocked his hips into him, gradually slicking up his insides. “Told you I’d treat you right.”

Felix gasped and writhed as Danny gradually forced the rest of his cock inside him bit by bit. It was far from the pain-free affair Danny seemed to think it would be, but it was marginally easier. His torn internal walls still stung and his guts cramped horribly, but at the very least, the friction was absent. Felix groaned as the killer finally came to fully sheath himself within him, shuddering with nausea as his insides were spread apart and rearranged to make room for the enormous intrusion.

Danny echoed his groan and without another second of delay, immediately began to bounce him on his cock. Felix yelped in shock, holding onto Danny for dear life as he was mercilessly pounded into. The position he was in forced him to feel every veiny inch of the oversized length as it moved in and out. The pace was steady at first, but quickly grew frantic. 

The wet, squelching slaps of furious, animalistic sex quickly became deafening in the tiny wooden box. Felix moaned and keened miserably, begging Danny between broken, watery stammers to slow his pace, but the killer paid him no heed. Instead, the killer just caressed encouragingly up his spasming ribs and mouthed at his hardened nipples as he fucked into him, becoming rapidly punch-drunk on Felix’s writhing body.

Apparently, this time, Danny hadn’t even bothered dealing with the others before claiming his prize. The sound of generators springing to life echoed all around them as they committed their indecent act, but to Danny, it was merely background noise to the hot, humid, sticky world of depravity that he’d created for himself.

Tears poured freely from Felix’s eyes as dull pain radiated throughout his system, but eventually, like every previous time Danny had taken him, the pain bled through to pleasure and his foolish, idiotic body was persuaded into betraying him. His bitten-off yelps and agonized whimpers soon transformed into guttural moans and blissed-out keens of need as his prostate was jackhammered apart. Danny obliged his fervent noises without question, titillating his shivering, tingling skin, jerking his leaking erection, and fucking his quivering insides until he could no longer tell up from down. Danny's cock was taking him apart and forging him into something he barely recognized— something lewd and obscene— a lustful, sex-hungry slut.

A muffled noise emanated from just outside the locker. 

Felix gulped air as he wrenched himself back down from outer space and back into his body. He blinked hard to clear the static fuzz from his vision and stared hard out through the slats of the locker window.

Less than fifteen meters away, Dwight was carefully prowling about the remnants of the building that their locker was nestled in. Freshly fallen snow crunched rhythmically beneath his dress shoes and echoed off the walls as he crept forward. His features were dusted with frost and ruddy from the biting cold. Despite his heavily fogged glasses, the suspicious frown he used to scan his surroundings was plain to see.

Noticing Felix’s sudden attentiveness, Danny paused his vicious thrusts. The outline of the killer’s true face became silhouetted by frozen light as he turned to see what had distracted his prey from his skillful ministrations. 

“What?” Danny huffed, his panting breaths of exertion freezing into miniature clouds, “Oh. You want him to join us?”

Felix stared down in horror as the shadowy face turned back to look at him. 

“Ha… I bet his entrails would feel so warm and wet around us while we fucked, don’t you think? Why don’t you call him over?”

Danny suddenly jabbed his entire length up into him. 

Felix choked on a yelp and slapped a hand over his face to prevent his lurid noises from leaking out. His eyes instantly darted back out to the snow-covered world to see if Dwight had heard anything. The man was now hovering by the entrance of the ruins, visibly shivering as he gave the area one last scan. Did he suspect something?

Danny vibrated with a mischievous hum. He shifted slightly, and then viciously thrusted into him again. Felix could barely contain his muffled shriek as his prostate was slammed dead-on. His hand squeezed even harder against his face until his nails were carving divots into the soft flesh of his cheeks. Shaking breathes streamed from his nose.

Danny’s throbbing girth resumed pounding into him, obviously trying to make him scream out, while Felix’s eyes remained transfixed on the hesitant figure outside. He did his best to bite back every moan and coital squeal that he could, but keeping all of them down was impossible. Fugitive noises continuously leaked out and floated off into the surrounding air to make themselves known, much to Danny’s wicked satisfaction. It was almost like a game to him.

Eventually, to Felix’s abject relief, Dwight slipped from his view and moved on, completely ignorant of the deplorable scene he’d nearly stumbled onto. 

Felix went limp as the threat passed, allowing a sordid moan to tumbled from his lips as his fucked open insides were relentlessly and repeatedly filled and emptied.

“Shame,” breathed Danny as he mouthed his pec. “Could’ve been fun.”

The killer’s thrusts then picked up to a furious pace, genitals slapping against his rear like an applause as Danny chased his climax and brought forth Felix’s own. The shadowy insides of the locker turned to white as Felix lost himself in the rising tide of pleasure and his limits overflowed.

He came thunderously at the sensation of Danny’s hot seed spilling into him, screaming out between his fingers into the confined space as his orgasm crashed over him. As he sank into the tingling warmth of unconsciousness, his sole cogitation was the hope that nobody had heard his depraved cries…

⚠⚠

…

 

Felix couldn’t stop shivering.

The Forest of Passage wasn’t cold— not in the slightest— but Felix couldn’t stop. Despite how tightly he hugged himself, no matter which way he laid himself across the ground, his body just wouldn’t. Stop . 

Five times. 

Five times had Danny taken him since he’d given in— Five different Trials of varying violence and brutality— of Danny taking everything that could possibly be taken, inflicting every perverse depravity that could possibly be inflicted upon him, again and again and again…

And Felix wasn’t sure he could handle another. 

It was like the killer was letting out years worth of pent up sexual frustration all in a matter of days… or had it been it weeks? How long had he been suffering like this? His body already felt like it had suffered a lifetime of abuse. He was completely ruined— destroyed and devastated beyond repair or reproach— and yet he still hadn’t died. Danny refused to kill him for some reason and Felix didn’t know why. Did Danny just like fucking something so battered and exhausted they might as well be a corpse? Or was it the actual process of making him into one that Danny found attractive? 

A violent shudder coursed through him, and Felix moaned at the wave of pain and discomfort that followed after it. His violated insides spasmed weakly, causing a latent gush of… something… to wet his pants. He shuddered again and hugged himself tighter, closing his eyes and trying to block the sensation from his mind.

The shadows had started whispering to him. 

From between the trees, beneath the bushes, and the endless depths of the infinite murk… The darkest gaps in reality had awoken, and now… they were trying to reach out. The Forest had shed its silence, and it was terrifying.

Even now, he could hear their droning, rustling murmurs at the edges of his perception, amorphous, toneless, and incomprehensible, but insistent, as if they had something important to bestow upon his mind. 

Felix dared not listen too closely for fear he might actually start understanding them— even acknowledging their existence seemed like a step toward insanity. He wasn’t there yet… He wasn’t there yet…

Wanting to withdraw himself from this dangerous momentary acknowledgement but also knowing that covering his ears did nothing to block the susurrus, Felix gradually tuned it from his perception. He directed his mind onto other things to distract himself… like his current predicament.

He’d hoped Danny would be gentle with him if he didn’t fight back, but it seemed like the killer didn’t know the meaning of the word. Aside from a few brief moments of tenderness, the only way Danny seemed to know how to have sex with someone was through total domination. 

Rape. Felix reminded himself. Not sex, rape… He wouldn’t be doing this if he had a choice…

If Danny ever bothered to pay attention to him at all during the whole process, he might see the pain he was inflicting, but… it also didn’t help that Felix had managed to orgasm almost every single encounter— sometimes without even being touched. No doubt, Danny saw that as confirmation of a job well done. 

Felix wished it weren’t so. He hated the fact that his body always responded positively to the abuse— hated himself for it— but Felix just… couldn’t help himself. Couldn’t help how Danny made him feel, how his own body reacted to that heinous touch, how it reacted to Danny’s… efforts.

Felix wanted to believe that his reactions were involuntary, and a part of him did realize that, but deep down… dark thoughts and doubts clawed at his soul. What if this really was his natural state? Was he simply this vile, pathetically horny creature that was meant to take dick no matter how brutally it was given? It seemed like the only explanation… Felix couldn’t imagine anyone else getting off on this sort of treatment like he did…

At any rate, even if he really was naturally predisposed to this… he didn’t think he could handle another interaction if it was as rough as the others. His mind and body were on the brink .

But maybe… maybe if he asked nicely, or maybe even begged and groveled and appealed to Danny’s ego just so… maybe he could catch a break.

An swell of icy foreboding swept across his mind. Felix shuddered as he was overcome by a familiar dread. He looked hazily around himself for the source of the feeling, and eventually found it, confirming what he already knew to be true.

Danny was calling him.

As the black fog coiled around his trembling body, Felix began to rehearse and rework his plea for leniency over and over again, hoping against hope that Danny would take it into consideration and have mercy on him…

 

…

 

His plea was dismissed.

Danny needed him too much. After the Trial, Danny had claimed that he needed to burn off all the tension he’d built up chasing ‘that little red-headed brat,’ who’d apparently given him a run for his money around the oriental estate. If he didn’t blow that steam off right now, then he’d take it out on him later, and Danny didn’t want that for him. 

Felix had promptly withdrawn into himself at that, not caring about the Trial or anything else as he was unceremoniously disrobed. Before, he’d attempted to dissociate without much success, but this time, it happened fairly effortlessly… perhaps from exhaustion, but likely having his hopes and spirits crushed so callously and flippantly. 

⚠

Even as that dark, shadowy body climbed on top of him, even as his ruined insides were carelessly invaded… it was as if all of it was happening to someone else. Felix himself was far away. He was soaring high amongst the treetops with the moon, safely away from everything and everyone, including his own body. None of that ugliness was actually happening to him…

A sharp, stabbing pain in his side brought him crashing back down to Earth. Felix heaved as he came back to himself, utterly breathless as all of the agony he’d deferred slammed into him all at once, knocking the wind from his lungs. Another lance of icy pain shot through his abdomen and up his curling spine. Gasping breathlessly, Felix finally looked down and saw the tip of a bloody blade digging into his side. He moaned and then choked groggily as a squeezing pressure around his jaw forced him to look back up into that familiar, pale visage.

“ Hey. Don’t fucking do that.” Felix’s teeth rattled as Danny shook him. “You stay right here with me, got it? Otherwise, there’s no fucking point… And fuckin’ squeeze down on me or somethin’— you’re too goddamn loose.”

Another excruciatingly piercing pain rippled from his side and throughout his body, forcing his muscles to seize and strain. Another warbling wail was wrenched out of his lungs. His body began to rhythmically jolt as Danny resumed driving into him. 

It wasn’t long before his eyes started to roll aimlessly around in his skull as the world went hazy and dark. Before he could sink too deep though, several more sharp stabs of pain wrenched him back up. Danny growled at him in warning as he came to. Despite the horror and the pain of his current reality, Felix did his best to stay present. He didn’t want Danny to be more upset than he already was.

A short time later, Danny abruptly stilled and tensed up. His mask was angled off to the side, as if listening for something.

Felix held his breath. He’d thought Danny had killed off the others already, but had he missed someone? Felix listened intently to the landscape around him, terrified that someone might see him like this.

“Fuck off,” Danny snarled, jolting Felix from his stricken stillness. 

He gasped as Danny resumed thrusting into him, but stopped again after only a few seconds. The killer's shoulders were hiked up to his ears, as if in reaction to a shrill alarm or sound that only he could hear.

Felix watched him in silent apprehension. Confusion and dread steadily pooled in his stomach the longer this abnormal occurrence went on.

Finally, Danny seemed to snap out of it with a frustrated growl. “I’m not finished with him yet.” 

Felix winced as the killer took hold of his battered hips and pulled him flush against his own. He dived deep into his innards several more times, briefly sparking within him several flickers of that distant, alleviating pleasure.

⚠⚠

Felix jerked in shock as Danny suddenly yelped and recoiled. The killer cringed and clapped his hands over the sides of his head as if trying to keep out whatever invisible noise was tormenting him.

Felix stared up at the killer in wide-eyed horror, wondering if this was a good thing that might potentially save him, or if the affliction would somehow pass onto him.

Finally, Danny seemed to shake himself out of it and roared, “FUCK!! FINE!”

Felix gasped and curled away as Danny lunged for him. Dark hands grappled around his bare body and then hauled him into the air. His breath was forced away as his stomach landed hard on Danny’s shoulder. His bloodied ribs smarted sharply at the impact. He clutched fervently at the dark cloak to anchor himself as Danny carried him away, throwing his vision around frantically through the pain as he tried to understand why this was happening and what he might've done wrong.

“Wh– what are you doing?!” he croaked.

Danny grumbled out a biting curse, and then blew out an exasperated sigh. “Sorry baby, but someone is getting a bit bitchy about sharing. Unfortunately, we’re not the only ones in this relationship— gotta make room for God.”

Felix craned his neck to look behind himself. An anxious whimper slipped through his teeth when he saw that they were approaching a hook. 

Danny was going to sacrifice him.

Felix wasn’t sure if he was happy about it or not. On the one hand, death would be a welcome reprieve, but by way of the Entity?… The feeling of his soul being dined upon by that… thing, was one of the most existentially unpleasant experiences of this entire hell. He’d never gotten used to it.

Felix’s heart jumped when Danny stopped just before the hook. The killer gave a wistful sigh as his gloved hand caressed up his naked thigh ever so softly.

“Just remember to wait for me in the woods, okay?”

Felix’s eyes remained fixated on the razor tip of the hook while Danny continued to hesitate. His mask then angled back at him with what appeared to be an expectant look.

“O– Okay,” Felix replied quickly once he realized what the killer wanted from him.

Danny turned away and then stared at the hook a while a longer. Felix felt the body beneath him sigh deeply.

“Alright,” Danny barked.

Felix gasped as his stomach lifted with weightlessness as he soared backward through the air. Sharp pain punched through his left shoulder in that old, familiar way, and he screamed as hot suffering coursed through his body and mind. When his breath had been completely used up, Felix resorted to squirming and pawing in blind agony at the blood-slicked hook.

“There, you fucking happy now?”

Felix blinked through his haze of misery to find the owner of the voice standing just before his skewered body, arms crossed and shoulders hunched. Clearly, Danny was very displeased by this, and maybe even a bit… distressed? Or was Felix just imagining that? It was hard to tell without a face to read…

A set of giant spider legs suddenly exploded from the top of the hook and swung down toward his face. Felix yelped in surprise and threw out his hands to catch the leg just before it speared into his breast. 

In his current state, the fact that he managed to catch it at all was borderline incredulous to him.

His muscles trembled with effort as he held limb at bay, his already diminished strength fading quickly. In truth, he didn't know why he was fighting the inevitable. Perhaps it was simply his baseline instinct to survive or something else entirely, but he was. 

The Entity gave a particularly hard shove forward. The limb momentarily slipped beneath his grasp, bringing the tip just close enough to graze the hairs scattering his chest. 

Felix cried out as his arms began to burn. The wicked limb continued its agonizingly slow advancement toward him, beating back his wavering will with every passing moment. Eventually, the spear-like tip met with his skin and split its surface. A rivulet of blood sprang from his flesh as it began to steadily penetrate his flesh. Tears crested in his eyes as stinging pain and despair bloomed in his chest.

His eyes momentarily flicked over the background in search of Danny. Why he did this, he did not know— maybe an instinctual need to share his last moments with another living being… or maybe because of another reason so deep and dark he couldn’t ever examine… Regardless, he couldn’t see the killer anywhere. Felix scanned his surroundings a bit more slowly despite the waning seconds on his life, until finally, he picked a shadowy cloak out from among the bamboo stalks. He saw Danny striding swiftly away into the distance, not bothering to watch his final moments.

His strength finally gave out.

The spindly claw ran him through, and Felix choked as a fountain of blood erupted from his throat. His vision tunneled as another pierced his ribcage with a wet crunch, and then went black shortly after. Felix went limp. His agony faded with the world as he was lifted into the sky, condemned to face death and the Entity’s awaiting maw alone.

 

…

 

Felix was on the beach.

Always the same beach. Always the same pearlescent sands. The same teal water to his left and the same tropical resort to his right. Always the same.

Christine in the distance, walking slowly away from him.

Dare he even attempt to pursue her? What if she looked back at him this time? Would she hate what she sees? Would she reject what he’s become? Would she scorn this shell of a man she used to know?

Despite his terror, Felix ran after her anyways, like every other time before. He called her name, but it never left his lips, like every other time before.

But this time… he was catching up to her. This time, he was getting closer— slowly but steadily. It was as if the sand was actually a thick, sloppy muck he was wading through— but he was indeed getting closer. It wasn’t an illusion.

More than half way now— the closest he’s ever come to her.

He called her name again, but his voice still did not carry. The waves lapped soundlessly at his feet. 

Christine stopped.

Felix froze. His heart felt like it should have been thumping in his chest, but he felt nothing. Her long white shawl whipped absently at the breeze. He stared and waited in perilous suspense for his long lost love to lay her judgment upon him.

Slowly, she began to turn.

Felix went rigid and held his breath.

Her wide brimmed hat lifted away to reveal—

A black void.

A null space where her face should have been.

The sand turned into ash. Light fell from the sky and cast the ocean into liquid obsidian. 

Christine’s faceless form reached out for him, as if in offering, and then shrieked like a banshee. A dozen wicked spider limbs suddenly exploded from her face and lunged out at him. Felix screamed noiselessly. The chitinous claws snapped him up like a praying mantis snatching an insect. He screamed and writhed in deafening silence as they dragged him into the infinite abyss of her face.

An audible scream shattered the silent horror. Felix shot upright. The infinite abyss was now an infinite woodland.

Felix blinked and swallowed hard. The screaming had stopped. He realized that it had been his own.

Something was pounding on his chest. No, not on his chest, in it— his heart. He could feel it now, along with the rest of himself. His body was whole again, and it was shaking.

Felix sucked a desperate breath as he fully came back to himself, and then felt his insides crumble. He let himself fall over and curled up in the cushion of leaf litter. His trembling fingers weaved themselves into his hair and pulled hard. Briny tears streamed down the side of his face until his eyes grew sore.

Hushed whispers crept from the shadows. They began to pick at his mind like an infected scab… flirting, scratching, ripping— begging to be acknowledged, begging to be more than just background static…

Hesitantly, Felix began to listen… and then promptly drew back.

No no no no, he couldn't let them in. Don’t let it in…

Felix withdrew into himself and his inner turmoil, making painstakingly certain that nothing else would be joining him. Eventually, his mind was able to go blissfully blank, but the darkness still lingered outside, like an insatiable, unscratchable itch. Ignoring it was exhausting.

Felix didn’t even realize he was no longer alone until something brushed at his hair. 

His heart inexplicably leapt with hopeful terror at who he wished it might be, but then promptly sank into that numb, overworn dismay at the site of the only person it could be. Felix couldn’t even muster the energy to be afraid. He laid like a slug in the grass as Danny gently caressed and prodded at his form, the murmuring, velvet voice like a fly droning at the back of his skull. Felix didn’t, and couldn’t acknowledge his words.

Finally, after failing to procure a reaction from him, Danny took the piece of hair that he’d come for, and left him to the darkness.

When he was alone again, the shadows promptly descended on his mind, and Felix fought tooth and nail to keep them at bay.

 

…

⚠⚠

The sound of wet flesh slapping together was like a rail spike being hammered into his eardrums. He drooled mindlessly against the trampled grass, the strength of his arms having given out long ago. His back ached with the trauma of a thousand tiny impacts. The natural handhold between his hips and thighs throbbed with the devastation that crushing fingertips had wrought on his malleable flesh.

Hours.

It had been hours of this non-stop marathon of sex and debauchery under the watch of a towering, burnt-out mental asylum, and Felix was sure Danny was trying to break him this time. That, or the killer’s supernatural libido was driving him to do this.

Either way, Danny’s sex drive was insatiable, and Felix was losing it. 

This time, Danny had started out with an uncharacteristic approach to his assault, making an effort to limit any physical damage to his prey’s body and even taking the time to lube himself before going in. The experience had been unnervingly and distressingly pleasurable, and Danny had brought them both to climax quickly… but then he’d kept going… and going… and going …

By now, Felix had lost track of how many times they’d both orgasmed, but he was certain Danny had come at least twice as many times as him if the bloated feeling in his stomach was anything to go by. How the killer was even able to produce so much damn cum boggled his already fractured mind to no end

The constant, ever present slapping and squelching that had come to define his existence suddenly slowed and lost its rhythm. Danny snarled and dug his fingers deep into his aching hips. Felix moaned as his battered prostate was rammed into several forceful times, his eyes rolling up into his skull as the searing stimulation overwhelmed his clouded senses. His hips were pulled back into one final thrust, and then was held still. Felix shuddered as the cock buried in his depths began to pulsate, filling his already sloppy insides with even more semen. Danny groaned and ground his hips against his rear as he came, teasing his abused prostate with tenuous prods of stimulation.

Felix gasped and clawed into the grass. His body began to quake as he was surprised by yet another weak orgasm. His half-hard penis throbbed listlessly at the tepid air, unable to produce even a drop of ejaculate. He sobbed as the agonizing spasms ended, then went bonelessly limp. He would have collapsed to the ground completely were it not for Danny holding his hips, still fucking leisurely into his inflamed, cum-laden innards. He felt the fresh excess leak out between thrusts and trickle over his encrusted scrotum and sticky thighs. 

He’d lost track of how many times he’d come dry like this, and had no idea how many more were ahead of him. Between his pounding head and fluttering heart, he felt like a stroke was on the horizon, and at this point, he was begging for it. 

Danny’s hands slipped smoothly from his bruised hips to wrap around his stomach and pulled him close. The killer hummed contently as he carressed and massaged his bloated belly, cock still grinding at his ruined insides.

“Mmph, God, look how full you are… just absolutely brimming with my cum. So squishy and warm… bet it feels amazing. Your face looks like it feels amazing,” he laughed breathily, slowly grinding into his leaking hole as he regathered his energy. “Wish I could bloat you like those plant things did… but I guess I can settle for this.”

Felix whimpered as Danny’s hardening cock plunged into his slimy depths.

“Gonna breed you until you look fucking pregnant ,” he said, retaking hold of his hips as his thrusts picked back up to their previous pace. “Gonna fuck out your brains and fill you up until all you can think about is my cum.”

As the renewed cadence once again began to buffet his overwhelmed and battered insides, Felix’s mind was forced away from its exhausted, fucked-out haze. His head shook unsteadily as a sound that was something between a sob and a moan crawled up his chest and slithered out like a slug.

“No… bitte… ples … no more… can’t… ” he ground out between desperate, croaking wheezes.

Danny scoffed. “Don’t kid yourself. Between those slutty fucking moans and the way your ass keeps trying to suck me inside, its obvious you love this way more than you wanna admit. I’ve already made you come like five times, so keep pretending you’re straight, cockslut . Your ass is way too hungry for dick.”

Fresh tears bloomed in Felix’s eyes. He clawed into the grass and fervently shook his head again, body arching as the tip of Danny’s cock began to pound into his brutalized prostate. Static swarmed over his feverish skin as tortuous swells of pleasure began to radiate out from his core. 

“No, no more!”

Danny ignored him. His rapist’s only reply was the sound of his increasingly labored breaths and the incredible grip squeezing his hips raw. Felix sobbed brokenly as the pace of Danny’s assault grew to a near-unbearable frenzy. He tossed his head from side to side as he tried to endure. Long, frazzled locks of sweat-slicked hair plastered themselves to his flushed cheeks and stuck there.

Don’t fight. He shouldn’t fight back. He knew he shouldn’t. Fighting was stupid and pointless and did nothing but make Danny angry, but God , he couldn’t take this any longer!

Felix dug his quivering fingers deep into the dirt and grappled several clumps of grass. He heaved in a giant lungful of energizing oxygen and started to squirm and kick and wrench himself away from Danny’s unending abuse. 

“Please! I can’t!”

The killer growled and yanked him forcefully back onto his cock. “ Quit. Stop being such a dramatic bitch. I thought you were done with this.”

Felix cried out as Danny drove into him hard and fast, already searching for his next climax. Felix only fought harder, every nerve ending in his body screaming for this to end, one way or another. On one flailing kick, he somehow managed to brace his foot against Danny’s thigh, giving him some crucial leverage. He pushed himself away, momentarily slipping through the killer’s grasp and sending himself lurching to the side. 

Danny cursed in surprise. He quicked caught him and forced him back against the ground so his cock wouldn’t slip out and let loose all the semen he’d worked so hard to deposit within him.

“Fucking STOP.”

Felix gasped as his head was suddenly ripped backward. He cringed and clutched feebly at the hand wrapped in his hair, trying desperately to lessen the stinging pressure of his dead weight pulling at his scalp. Hot tears poured incessantly from his swollen eyes.

“ Please! At least g– give me a moment to—”

“No.”

Felix choked on a wounded sob as Danny shook him hard. 

“ I’m the only one who says when we’re done fucking— not the whore who’s getting fucked, got it?!”

Danny shoved him forward. What little breath he held exploded from his chest as he hit the ground hard, leaving him writhing and wheezing harshly in the dirt. He jolted sharply as harsh hands seized his painfully tender hips, already blotchy and purpled over with bruises. Felix yelped and arched backward as Danny speared him deep. 

“Now shut up and stop fighting ,” Danny barked between thrusts, “Or I’ll make you stop.”

The deafening sound of slapping flesh once again filled the air. Despite Danny’s warning, Felix continued to curl and writhe in his crushing grasp, desperate to give that most sensitive bundle of nerves inside him even a moment of reprieve from this unending assault. He wept unabatedly as he struggled, kicking and clawing and twisting himself into knots as wave after wave of searing stimulation scorched him from the inside out. He nearly wrenched himself away and threw off Danny’s pace one more time before the killer had finally had enough.

“FUCKING!”

Sharp steel sliced the air. 

“STOP!!”

Felix barely had time to process his dread before he felt something punch into his back. He gasped at the lancet of pain that coursed through him, and then felt… nothing. 

Felix blinked. His breath wavered. The pain was… gone. No… no, not just the pain…

His breathing went shallow. Experimentally, Felix curled his fingers and felt the fibrous stalks against his palm. Next, he tried to move his leg…

His eyes went wide. His mind faltered.

“You’re a stupid fucking cunt, you know that?”

Felix’s cheek scraped against the grass as his body resumed rocking back and forth. The sound of skin slapping against skin recommenced. Below the waist though, he felt… nothing… as if his lower half had stopped existing altogether. Felix’s mind whirled as he tried to process it.

“Your own damn fault…” Danny grumbled. “Ah fucking hell. Now you’re all loose… Tst, whatever. Still gonna breed your ass until it's full… gonna make it look like it took a damn gangbang,” he said with a malicious chuckle.

Felix blinked wetly as his body continued to rock and jolt against the ground, unable to move, unable to feel, unable to resist in even the most basic of ways. He was completely disconnected and without control— like a marionette with half of its strings cut— and it was… horrifying.

And too much.

⚠

The asylum blurred as Felix’s mind slipped away from the nightmare of reality and into the safety that was his subconscious. His mind floated in the empty darkness of his inner world for a while before deciding that it could do a bit better. A flickering orange flame emerged from the darkness, revealing an empty campsite. Felix found himself on a log and stared into the flames. His wavering thoughts briefly considered simulating a few other souls to sit with him at the fire and keep him company, before quickly rejecting the idea. Remembering them… and him … would only make him feel worse. 

Felix huddled close to his tranquil simulacrum, patiently waiting for the nightmare to end.

Only when the flame of campfire had flickered to nothing and a dull pain bloomed in his chest did Felix realize that the Entity had graciously put an end to his life.

 

…

 

A part of him hadn’t even expected to wake up again, but he did, and the Forest of Passage was here to greet him like an old friend. He wished he could stay in that abyssal nothingness where he didn’t have to think or agonize or exist, but unfortunately, death was never the end in this forsaken place— no matter how much he wanted it to be.

Felix blinked slowly up at the omnipresent moon peeking through the trees, and then rolled over onto his side. He hugged himself tightly as the darkest nooks and crannies of every twisted tree and gnarled bush began to murmur in his ear. He squeezed his eyes to shut and tried to block them out. 

Danny would be coming to collect his memento soon. After that, it wouldn’t be long before he was called to a Trial, and then made to suffer once again…

His eyes fluttered open. The Forest whispered and churned.

Was this all there was?

Was this all he was?

Was this it?

Felix mentally shook himself.

No… 

No.  

It couldn’t be. There had to be a way out of this hellish cycle. He couldn’t just sit here and wait for it to happen again . There had to be something he could do… 

Maybe he could make it back to the campfire before Danny got here and… then what? Confide in someone and drag them into this hell with him? Get beaten up by Ace’s gang? Condemn himself to another torture session once Danny got his hands on him again? 

No, he couldn’t risk going back there… but where else was there to go?

Despair began to drag on his heart— and then a spark of recollection lit up his mind.

The Lab.

Felix sat upright. His heart skipped a beat.

He wasn’t even sure what he would or even could do once he got there, but the lab was isolated, sheltered, and held many odds and ends that might help in some way, including…

That pentagonal artifact… 

Felix shuddered. The moment he’d discovered it, he’d desperately wanted to study it, but his mere presence in the lab risked Danny discovering it. Danny was perceptive. If he noticed even a hint that the antique cupboard it was stored in was not what it seemed…

He shook the unthinkable from his racing mind.

Leading Danny to the lab was an insane risk to take, but Felix was out of options and running dangerously low on sanity. 

It was either this or… No. He had to try something!

With an unsteady, trembling breath, Felix climbed to his feet and stared around himself at the murky, moonlight-kissed Forest.

He would need to be quick. There was no telling how long it would take Danny to track him down. Danny might even intercept him before he even got there. How would he explain himself then? No, he needed to be quick.

Felix’s darting eyes finally settled on a subtle gap in the trees around. He steeled himself with one final gasp and then dashed off into the woods, willing with all his heart for the Forest to manifest the eminent yet elusive laboratory before him quickly.

 

…

 

Felix stood at the back of the makeshift lab chewing anxiously at his usually unblemished, highly kempt nails. His heart thundered in his ears as he stared fixedly at the old glass cupboard across the room that held the serum. The outline of the secret compartment that held the precious artifact was barely visible, but it was there. The memory he’d been holding in his mind was indeed real and not a stress-induced hallucination.

But Felix hesitated to go to it. He wanted to examine that artifact more than anything… but he also couldn’t shake off the stomach-churning feeling that he was being watched.

Felix’s eyes momentarily broke from the cabinet to quickly scan over what he could see of the line of trees surrounding the lab, and of course, he saw nothing.

He huffed a breath and began to pace behind the main table that still held most of the glassware they’d used to make the serum, gnawing hard at his thumb. The giant blood stain beneath it that he’d made an eternity ago was still there, and would probably remain there for another.

What if he’d been too slow? What if Danny had followed him here and was now watching and waiting to see what he’d do? What if he barged into the lab while he was retrieving the artifact?

“Ach!”

Felix recoiled from his chewed thumbnail to see that he’d gone and torn his nail bed. A bit of blood was now beginning to leak from beneath the hangnail that he’d just created. He grimaced at the ugly sight and began to carefully pull away the rest of the sliver so that it wouldn’t catch on anything. It came away with another gout of blood that left his thumb throbbing. Felix hissed, then spied a stray rag on a nearby counter that looked relatively clean. He snatched it up and haphazardly stuffed his thumb into it to catch the blood. 

Once that was resolved, he found himself once again staring at the old cupboard with the clouded glass windows.

It was too risky.

There would only ever be one shot to get this right— one chance at escape — and now was not the time. There were too many unknowns. Hell, he couldn’t even read the journal the Pentagon had come with because it was still encoded, and how long would that even take?

No, coming here had been stupid and impulsive. He’d risked everything on a panicked, desperate whim, and now Danny would soon learn about this place. If he wasn’t here already, then he was going to be soon because Danny always fucking found him some fucking way without fail . 

He’d fucked up.

“Fick!”

Felix clutched the rag in his hand tight. He spun around to leave, but then his hip caught the edge of the flimsy table and sent it lurching to the side. All of the glass sitting on top of it wobbled and clanked precariously. Felix instantly scrambled to steady the precious glassware. He managed to keep the biggest pieces from falling over, but was unable to save a medium-sized beaker from slowly rolling off the side. He cringed as he heard it smash against the floor.

When the broken glass finally settled, he breathed long and low, then took a step back to evaluate the damage. His head shook in dismay. They only had two of those…

“Fick.”

He automatically kneeled to the ground and began to gather the broken shards in one palm. After the third shard, he realized his cheeks were wet. Broad beads of moisture began to run down his face. He hesitated for a moment, but then continued picking up the glass like a preprogrammed automaton.

As he reached out to pick up the largest shard, several large teardrops hit the dark wood beside him and were promptly swallowed up by the well worn floorboards. His hand hovered in the air for a long moment before falling to the floor beside the long, translucent chevron. A warped version of himself stared out from its reflection.

Felix stared at it a moment longer, tears falling and mind churning. He let the other shards he’d gathered tumble back onto the floor, then took the long, pointed chevron into his injured hand. His legs went lax, and he sank fully to the floor, still staring at the sharp, reflective shard in his hand. A droplet of blood trickled down from his thumb and fell onto its reflective face.

The longer he gazed at it, the more that time seemed to slow. Certain thoughts began to percolate in his brain. His hold around the chevron tightened until he could feel the tiny slivers along the edges boring into the surface of his skin. His heartbeat was even and slow.

Danny wouldn’t be able to get to him if he were dead.

At least… for a little while… but that was a problem for future Felix. 

⚠

He scooted himself back against the remains of a half-plastered brick wall, set the large glass chevron carefully at his side with the rag, then started to unbutton and roll up his sleeve.

Knowledge of one’s own body was control over one’s own body.  

He could still remember the anatomy lessons that his father drilled into him when he was a boy. Beneath the pale white plane of his inner forearm lay the radial artery, which trailed from the base of his thumb into the crook of his elbow where it connected to the bigger brachial artery. 

A deep enough cut along it would guarantee his end. Doing it would hurt, but it would save him from so much worse with the added bonus of also protecting the knowledge of this place.

If Danny had been here watching him do this, he’d have almost certainly interrupted him by now. There was no telling when he would eventually appear though— it could happen at any moment.

His time was short.

Felix wrapped the long glass shard in the blood-stained rag, held the pointed end downward, and then aimed it at his outstretched arm. As he placed the point over his wrist, his heart began to thrum and his hand started to shake.

Felix backed off with a shaking curse. He closed his eyes, shook his head, then took in a long, slow breath to calm himself. Several locks of hair fell into his face.

He couldn’t delay any longer. There was no time.

Felix decided that the moment he opened his eyes again, he was going to do it. No hesitation, no half-measures. He was going to stab this piece of glass deep into his wrist and rip it up his arm, releasing the blood from his veins. He was going to do this and he was going to save himself.

Felix took in one last breath, held it deep in his lungs, and opened his eyes.

He saw the pallid flesh of his wrist, hesitated, and then looked away just before the glass shard dove into his wrist. He automatically yelped at the sharp pain, and then grit his teeth together hard. 

He wasn’t finished yet!

The jagged glass began to drag across his wrist. Hot blood trickled down his arm and wet his sleeve as his flesh split. Felix continued to avert his eyes, huffing and hissing through the grisly pain as his skin crawled in revolt. When he finally got to about half-way up his wrist, his self-preservation instinct finally overcame his will to self-harm, and he recoiled.

The bloody chevron clattered to the ground. Felix held up his arm and finally forced himself to look at the damage. A long red gash weeping with blood crossed jaggedly from his wrist to the middle of his outer forearm. Its throbbing edges were ugly and rough, but it looked shallow; the flow of blood much too weak to have hit anything of importance. He’d missed.

Felix sobbed.

He had to do it again. 

With sticky, trembling fingers Felix reached for the shard once again, needing several clumsy attempts to gather it into his fist. Fat tears blurred his vision as he once again took aim at his shaking, bleeding arm, resolving himself to look this time so he could do it right. Hot, pulsating pain and fresh blood welled around the jagged point as he pressed it down into his wrist. He tried to stab it in as deep as he could, but the process was difficult with his hand shaking so bad. 

Felix grunted and sobbed brokenly as he once again began to drag the wobbling shard down his arm. He tried to keep it steady, but his hand was just shaking too hard, making the cut uneven and still too shallow.

He finally wrenched his hand away with a hollow wail and let the wrapped glass chevron clatter to the ground beside him where it finally splintered into two. He buried his face into his one good hand and began to sob uncontrollably. Sticky mucus and briny tears poured down his face while dark blood dribbled down his mangled arm and puddle between his legs.

God damn it!! How could he be such a pathetic failure?! He’d allowed himself to become another man’s fucking concubine and now couldn’t even fucking kill himself right!! How was he this weak?! 

God, his father had been right about him!

He’d always been right!

Felix unraveled like an abandoned scarf. His hitching gasps and agonized wails wracked his quavering body until he felt sick to his stomach and a drum beating on his skull. The dark whispers descended on his mind like a tide, blotting out his hopes and will to go on, and Felix let it happen. 

He wanted to end.

Beyond the cacophony of emotional collapse and buried in the depths of his own despair, Felix was barely aware enough to notice that a new sound had joined his doleful chorus. He instantly froze up when he realized what it was.

Footsteps.

Falling carefully and stealthily over the creaky hardwood floor.

Felix was no longer alone— and he had a fairly good idea as to who had just joined him.

Notes:

⚠ Three separate, violent rape scenes, traumatic injury, dissociation, paralyzation, suicidal ideation, explicit self harm by way of cutting, failed suicide attempt ⚠

Alright, so... after what happened with the election, my mental health is kinda trash right now. Oddly enough, it doesn't really keep me from writing shit like this, but it does make it a good deal harder. I've been kind of wanting to take a bit of a break from this story anyways since I've been working on it for almost two straight years, so I think now is probably a good time to do that. The holidays are kind of a trash time to post anyways, so I'd estimate sometime in January is when I'll update this again. That DOESN'T mean I'm going to stop writing though. I'll probably still end up inevitably working on this story a bit since I can't stay away from it, but I've also had a few ideas bouncing around inside my head for a while now. One of those involves David and a kitten, and I KNOW how much we could all use a bit of fluff in our lives right now, so be on the look out for that! 🐱

In the mean time, I'll be getting my ducks in a row and basking in the schadenfreude that is r/leopardsatemyface and I hope you'll join me there! It certainly made me feel a hell of a lot better about all this! Thanks once again to everyone for reading and sticking with me. Stay strong, carry on, and I'll see you again soon! (and sorry about the cliffhanger 😭)

Chapter 33: Love and Death

Notes:

Woo! Welcome back! Hope ya didn't miss me and the story too bad! And look, I even managed to get this out before the end of January so I didn't make a liar out of myself! xD
We're back to monthly updates, albeit, maybe with a bit more wiggle room than before. Posts will still happen on Fridays.
And nowww, enjoy the chapter! This one's a doozie! Please let me know what you think, I live for all your reactions!! :DDD

Somewhere, out in the infinite, despondent labyrinth that was the Forest of Passage, David trudged aimlessly on. Where he was or where he was even going was of no particular consequence nor concern. All he could do was move. The energy required for anything else was just too much. Caring about something as stupid as where he was in this infinite, infernal hell was simply ridiculous.

And how could he care, when the one thing that mattered to him had seemingly vanished from existence?

His foot caught on an exposed root and he stumbled forward. Very nearly, he almost let himself just plummet forward and faceplant, but decided against it at the last possible second. He caught himself with a firm foot forward… and just… stood there, letting his thoughts churn painfully within his mind.

After Felix had run away into the Forest… or rather, after David had driven him away… David had spent every waking moment of his existence trying to find him again. When he wasn’t in a Trial, he was scouring the Forest for the smallest hint or sign of the man, checking absolutely everywhere he could think where Felix might hide himself. He’d checked the lab multiple times, the campfire and the stream, and even some of the other realms the group scavenged on occasion— regardless if he thought Felix knew about them or not. 

And even when David was in a Trial, he still searched. During every Trial he was in, he did his best to identify every other survivor on the off chance one of them might be Felix, but it was a challenge. Things would often fall apart before he could account for all three, and other times, he’d simply get taken out before he even had a chance to look— sometimes without ever seeing his attacker. Searching for Felix was like searching for a drop of freshwater in an ocean.

Dwight and several of the others had graciously offered their help, but none of them had reported a sighting despite all the time that had passed. Other than the occasional vindictive, self-satisfied smirk from Ace, they only ever had commiserations for him…

It really, truly seemed like this time… Felix might actually be…

No… 

He couldn’t accept that. Accepting that would mean surrender, and David was almost certain he wouldn’t be able to survive that. He had to believe Felix was still out there. He had no other choice…

But if Felix really was still out there, then why could no one find him? Why wouldn’t he come back?

Where was he?

David felt himself teeter as his heart wrenched. His eyes began to burn as yet another wave of grief washed over him and took hold. His knees buckled. Finally, he let himself fall to the ground. Legs buried in the gritty, sloppy mud, he stared blindly out into the murky horizon, seeing, but not perceiving.

David had convinced himself that if… if he could just find Felix again, then everything would be alright. He’d be able to explain himself, apologize, and show the man that he wasn’t just some violent brute ready to fly off the handle at any moment, and more than anyone else, Felix was safe with him. He’d only done what he’d done because he cared about him goddamn it! He cared…

More than cared…

David let his vision drop. His scarred, calloused hands lay open and idle atop his thighs, useless and uncouth. His heart stuttered as a painful thought pricked his mind.

What if… What if the reason no one could find Felix was because… he didn’t want to be found? What if Felix wasn’t just scared of him, which was already bad enough, but…

What if Felix hated him? Hated him not just for being a violent asshole, but… for not believing in him and his ideas… for letting him take multiple, horrific, preventable injuries… for allowing him to brave the Trials with teammates who hated him… for his reckless inattentiveness that would ultimately lead to him being left alone with a killer that wanted to hurt him badly… and finally, for each and every promise that he’d ever broken.

At every turn, every opportunity, David had berated him, dismissed him, and failed him.

Of course Felix hated him.

How could he not?

The visage of his curled, useless hands began to morph and distort as bubbles of moisture pooled in his eyes. David squeezed his lids shut. Fat, hot tears spilled down his cheeks. His heart clenched painfully as grief and shame crushed it like a vice. He shook his head like a beaten dog. Truly, he was no better than one.

“Felix…”   he whispered, voice raw and broken. 

The words he’d been desperate to say all this time finally just forced themselves out of his body.

“ M’ so, so sorry… I didn’t mean to… to drive you away… I know I treated you poorly… and you have every right to scorn me, but I…”

He choked on a breathless sob. His fingers dug deep into his legs to steady himself, and then he pressed on, as if Felix was in front of him listening to every word.

“I– I can’t carry on like this! Please… please give me another chance! I promise I’ll do right by you this time! Whatever it takes, whatever I have to do, just… please come back Felix… please … I can’t keep goin’ on like this. I— I need you.

“I love you…”

The word echoed out into endless night and then crumbled away to nothing— swallowed up by  the cruel, unempathetic void.

David stared through his tears at the murky undergrowth as if he could follow his words through the dark. He imagined their essence somehow traveling through the air like a butterfly on the wind until eventually arriving at their intended recipient and whispering themselves into his awaiting ear… He imagined the expression of surprise Felix might have as he registered the words, and then imagined his face morphing from surprise, to pain, to sadness, regret… But for those last words… David’s mind drew a blank. He didn’t know how Felix would react to those words. He’d been too afraid to say them— too caught up in pretense and perceptions and possibly ruining what little he had.

But now… more than he ever imagined, David wished he would have said them, because now… he couldn’t, and didn’t know if he would ever get the chance to say them ever again.

He’d always imagined there’d be some intangible, perfect point in the future where all fears would be dispelled and all feelings would be revealed, and he’d be able to safely reveal his deepest wants and desires… but of course, that had never happened, and never would. That was a fantasy— an excuse to be a coward.

His heart twisted with a dreadful, aching loss for what might’ve been. 

In that moment, David decided that if by some immaculate miracle he ever managed to see Felix ever again… he would deny himself and his feelings no longer. No matter what happened, no matter the risks or the consequences or the outcome… he would say those words, because the regret and grief he was feeling in this moment was more painful than death.

And he knew death. Intimately.

It was nothing compared to this.

David let his head drop. His body went limp and listless, becoming a wretched, turgid mound of misery wallowing in the dirt. He closed his eyes and let himself feel the wet streaks as they formed on his face, letting his mind go blank. As his surroundings fell away, his mind automatically began to reach out to feel the emotional auras around him… but then he quickly reeled himself back in. 

So many times already had he reached out in search of that one flickering soul he knew so well. Hopeful. Expectant. Only to find… nothing. 

He didn’t want to feel that nothingness again.

For a long, long time, David sat in his own personal darkness like a corpse on the dewy, muddy grass, letting the dark slowly eat away at his insides like burrowing, flesh eating worms.

The Forest around him remained stoic and apathetic.

However much he felt like a corpse, David still breathed, slow and steady, until eventually his inner turmoil began to recede like a withdrawing tide. He felt raw and exposed, but no longer like he was drowning. 

Despite his hope being at one of the lowest points it had ever been, David was still holding onto its embers. Whether by ignorance or idiocy, he was unable to fully release himself from even the remotest possibility that Felix was still out there, and with those remotest of chances… David was compelled to search. He didn’t know for how long he would or could do so, or if that was even a logical question to ask, he just knew that he had to, no matter how painful that process might be.

David opened his eyes, and stared down at his calloused, dampened hands. He turned them downward, and then squeezed them into steady, resolute fists.

Whether or not Felix hated him, whether or not he was lost, or just actively avoiding him, whether or not their relationship was ruined forever… All of that was irrelevant, because David loved Felix no matter what, and he was going to find him and tell him that to his face, even if it took him an eternity to do so. Wallowing like this was not supposed to be in his nature.

It was time for him to man up and stop feeling sorry for himself. 

David sniffed hard and brought up his sleeve to scrub his face until it tingled with hot static. He then pounded the ground with a harsh, blustering sigh as he prepared to force his body from its corpse-like torpor. 

It took a concerted effort to get his numb and bloodless legs working again, but eventually David was able to rouse himself back to his full height. Once he got there, though, he found himself just staring absently at the surrounding foliage, feeling the determination he’d dredged up slowly beginning to drain from his breast.

He contemplated casting out his emotional feelers once again, but was hesitant to do so. Feeling nothing would just hollow him out faster. It would be better if he just started physically searching.

There were only so many places he could look, and he’d already searched them dozens and dozens of times. How many more times could he possibly do so?

As many as it takes.

For all he knew, he could just be getting unlucky with his timing, especially if Felix was constantly on the move.

He just had to keep checking.

As he decided on where to go, David stared at the murky woodland around him. His thoughts wandered back to the very first time Felix had hid himself away from everyone and everything, and where David had eventually found him.

It wouldn’t hurt to check the lab one more time.

 

…

 

The derelict lab arose out of the Forest like a carcinogenic growth erupting from the back of a bristling dog. The burnt out wood and brick husk was ugly and unsightly, but it was functional, and it was theirs to utilize— for all the good it had done them.

The kerosene lamp hanging inside was unlit and the lab dark, but David wasn’t about to let that stop him from checking anyways; fuel was a precious commodity, sparingly used.

Despite knowing deep down that the lab was more than likely empty, his heart still swelled with anxious hope as he ascended the shallow hill. He did his best to rationalize and downplay like he always did to keep his disappointment in check, but it was difficult.

Eventually, he crested the hill and then began making his way toward the entrance of the structure. As expected, the lab was also completely silent… except… for some sort of very soft snuffling sound. David froze just before the entryway and listened. It was so quiet he thought he might even be imagining it… but no, it was there. Next came the soft hitch of a breath, and David’s ears perked.

That sounded like a person.

His breath caught. A cold frisson raced up his spine.

Could that really be…? Was it possible?

Without another thought, David fast-walked into the lab with his head practically spinning. His eyes frantically combed through the mess that might as well have been a scene from an I-Spy book — and then he saw it. On the ground beside the table. Shattered glass. Several pieces smeared with blood. A red trail leading up to… 

Felix.

His hands and arms were covered in fresh blood, with a small pool beneath him. Two long, jagged cuts ran parallel down the length of his exposed left arm. His enormous, hazy blue eyes looked up at him in absolute terror, red-rimmed and gleaming with tears.

There was no sign of a struggle, no apparent threat, and no blood anywhere else that he could see, except for what was on the broken shard of glass. All the puzzle pieces telling him what he’d stumbled onto were there, and told him exactly what Felix had been doing to himself… 

He just didn’t want to believe it.

The two remained frozen, gazes locked. 

He wanted to say Felix’s name, but couldn’t get his vocal chords to work. His body and mind were in too much of a shock.

Finally, David somewhat snapped himself out of it. Ever so slightly, he inched himself forward, gingerly raising a hand. “F… Fe…”

In response, Felix also snapped from his stupor. His body jolted and sucked in a heaving gasp. “N– No!... Y– You… you can’t be here!”

David shook his head as if to deny the very fact. “ F– Felix, you’re hurt ,” he said urgently, palms outstretched and offering. “Let me help you.”

“No! Stay away from me! ” 

David flinched hard at the words. He felt like his heart had just been stabbed straight through, but then suddenly, it seized with fear when he realized that Felix was trying to get his legs under him so he could make a run for it. 

On instinct, David rushed forward to stop him. Just as Felix moved to dash off into the Forest, David looped his massive arms around the man’s midsection and lifted him into the air. Almost immediately, the man began flailing and fighting madly, as if in a fight for his very life. That alone would have been enough to break David’s heart, but the frantic shrieks and cries of desperation Felix was now making completely shattered it. 

“No! No! NO! Please no! I can’t!! Let me go! LET ME GO!!!”

David squeezed Felix to himself as hard as he could, feeling and hearing the man’s panicked heartbeat thump wildly through his back. Anguished tears poured from David’s eyes as he endured the stray blows, clawing nails, and heart-rending pleas of the man he loved more than anything. 

Blood smeared everywhere from Felix’s wound as he fought to escape, making everything increasingly slick and slippery. David’s arms were already covered in it. If this kept up, he feared his grip on the man would eventually fail, and then Felix would run and he’d be lost again— maybe even for good this time!

Somehow, he had to subdue him without hurting him!

“Felix! Please! I'm tryin’ ta help you!”

“No!! You can't!! LET ME ALONE!!”

David’s heart twinged in anguished despair. He’d already supposed that Felix wanted nothing to do with him, but this… this reaction was… incomprehensible. It was almost too much to bear.

Felix suddenly twisted himself hard to the left while simultaneously wrenching at one of David’s arms as hard as he could. A flailing backward heel smacked into his shin. For a heartstopping moment, David felt his grip falter. Years of experience and instinct took over. His right arm shifted up in front of Felix’s right shoulder and looped behind his neck, immobilizing his arm. He then swiped out Felix’s left leg, shifted their weight forward, and sent them both plummeting toward the ground.

Felix hit the ground first with a forceful, wheezing exhale and a sickening, cringe-inducing thud. David did his best not to fall directly on top of him and crush him, but there was only so much he could do with so much momentum. Felix heaved again at the second impact. David instantly picked himself back up and onto his knees as quick as he could. The man seemed stunned, but was still clearly trying to fight back in his dazed, clumsy stupor. David took the opportunity to immobilize him by wrenched Felix’s uninjured arm sharply up behind his back to keep him in place. Felix cried out and began flailing wildly against the floor, smearing his blood everywhere.

“FELIX PLEASE! I DON’T WANNA HURT YOU!!”

But Felix still wasn’t giving up, so David finally just decided to hold him down with his full weight until he did. He pinned the man’s legs beneath his knees and held his other arm against the floor. Like this, Felix would have no choice but to tire himself out or relent. The moment David completed the pin, however, he felt Felix’s body go completely and utterly rigid beneath him, as if he’d suddenly turned to granite. 

David’s heart jolted. He instantly backed off, scared that he’d somehow hurt him, and began to quickly check him over. 

His chest was moving with breath— albeit short and shallow. His eyes were open, but they were as wide as saucers and staring off at nothing. David could also clearly feel his pulse though his wrist— he hadn’t let go just in case— but it was thready and fluttering. At the same time, he also finally took notice of something else he’d initially overlooked— Felix’s entire body was trembling like a leaf.

It seemed like Felix was experiencing some kind of silent panic attack.

Shit.

Very slowly and deliberately, David let go of the man’s wrist and leaned down to place a gentle hand against his shoulder— not pressing down on top of it like he had been moments ago, but to the side.

“Felix,” he murmured softly, rubbing his arm up and down. “S’okay. Yer okay. Nothing’s hurting you… I’m not hurting you… I’m jus tryin’ ta help…”

After a long moment, Felix finally blinked. His eyes then began to rove about to lab as he became somewhat more aware of himself and his surroundings.

“Tha’s it, yer okay…” David said, continuing to encourage while also preparing himself for a possible round two.

With a tremendous, shivering, full-body shudder, Felix seemed to come out of his stupor and then went completely limp, almost melting into the floorboards. David checked to see if he’d passed out, but saw that his eyes were half-lidded— conscious, but exhausted.

His eyes wandered to the man's still-bleeding arm. He frowned in thought and then looked around at the lab, wondering if this might be a good opportunity for him to fetch the medkit that was stashed here. He stole one more glance at the exhausted Felix before deciding that he was probably going to be staying like that for a while. He quickly and quietly jumped to his feet and trotted over to the cabinet drawer where he knew it would be. After retrieving it, he then swiftly went to kneel by Felix’s left side, and began going through its contents.

As he was unfurling a roll of gauze, Felix groaned and began to stir.

David immediately went to ease him. “Oi, shh shhh, it’s okay. Jus’ stay right there and lemme bandage this. Yer bleedin’ everywhere.”

But Felix ignored him and continued trying to pick himself up off the ground, albeit very clumsily. He swatted the medkit away, sending it sliding across the floor. “No. Leave me alone. ”

David felt a flash of anger surge through him. He couldn’t understand why Felix was being this unreasonable! “Damnit Felix, stop bein’ so daft! Just bloody talk to me!”

The German squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, clearly getting emotional. He tried again to get to his feet. 

David instantly seized him by the wrist and yanked him back down onto his ass. “You ain’t goin’ bloody nowhere ‘till you let me bandage this and talk to me.”

Felix pulled back against him like an unruly child and gave a heart-wrenching sob. Fresh tears bloomed in his eyes as he shook his head again. “No, you don’t understand! ”

David pulled him in closer. “Then make me understand! Why are you…” There were so many why’s he could have asked, but settled on one that simply encompassed all of them: “ ... doing this?? ”

The German gulped down a heaving breath and closed his eyes, appearing to try and center himself despite his distress. When he finally opened his eyes again though, David almost recoiled at the fierceness he saw there. It was like he was suddenly looking at a completely different person.

“B– Because— I want nothing to do with you anymore!!”

This time, David actually recoiled.

“You’re violent, you’re controlling, ill-tempered, pushy, possessive , and you’ve done nothing but make my life here even more of a living hell that it already was!! ”

David’s mouth hung open in stunned disbelief, barely able to process such vitriol. His grip on Felix’s wrist nearly faltered. Was… was he really talking about him?

“I don’t need your help— or your placations— or your excuses! All I want is for you to leave. Me. ALONE! ”

Finally, Felix succeeded in breaking free of his hold and ripped his hand away. He fell backward onto his elbows with a heaving sob. He slowly levered himself up back up off the ground, and then started throwing icy daggers with his piercing blue eyes.

David just gaped, uncomprehending. He blinked several times to try and overcome his shock. “I– I haven’t… I don’t… Y– You don’t mean that.”

Felix’s scowl deepened. “I do. ”

David drew back. The utter disdain in Felix’s expression was cutting.

He really, really meant it…

David had already entertained the thought that Felix might hate him, but… seeing it in his eyes… hearing it from his own lips… David swallowed hard and tried to think. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the end of them.

“Felix,” he pleaded, “Everything I did, all those times I… I didn’t mean t— ”

Felix jumped to his feet and made to leave.

David felt his heart jump and scrambled after him. “ No, wait! Jus’ hear me out, please! ” 

He went to grab his wrist, but Felix instantly jumped from his grasp like a spooked gazelle, continuously dodging his advances and attempts to impede until he eventually backed himself into a corner. 

“Felix, please. I know I let you get hurt, and I’m fuckin’ sorry as all hell for it, but please give me another shot! All I wanna do is help you!!”

“No!! I can’t— I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this! Just get away from me and leave me alone!” he shrieked, eyes going glassy.

David kept trying to block him in, barely resisting the indelible urge to physically grab onto the man and hold him in place until he saw sense. “Felix, Felix please ,” David begged, voice breaking. “ Please don’t do this! Don’t push me away! I know what you were trying to do before I walked in here, and— and you can’t do this! If you keep this up and isolate yourself, you could…!” a quiet sob escaped his throat. He still couldn’t say it. “At least— at least let me take you back to the others! I understand why you want nothing to do with me, and I’ll leave you alone like you want, but just— please just let me take you back to camp and get you some help. You’ll never see me again, I swear down! Just please don’t — fuck — don’t let yerself go out like this!”

Felix was just fervently shaking his head, barely even looking at him as he dismissed his pleas. Did his words really mean that little to him? Did he even care? Did Felix even want to live?

“Felix, please!!” David groaned, practically groveling as he desperately tried to meet the man’s eye, “I can’t let you do this yourself! I just can’t!”

The German whirled on him. “ Ja?! And what are you going to do to stop me?!” he screamed, nostrils flaring and voice shaking. “Are you going to wrestle me to the ground?! Are you going to knock me out and drag me back?! How exactly will you go about forcing your will on me?!”

David stepped breathlessly back, feeling as though he’d just been socked in the stomach. “Th– that’s not what I… I– I wouldn’t…” Except he already had, and had just been considering going further.

Just how far would he go to save Felix from himself? 

David shook his head as he tried to keep the tears from gathering in his eyes. “I don’t wanna do that— any of it— but I can’t…” he just managed to choke back his sob, but the tears still came. “I can’t lose you Felix. I can’t! You mean too damn much to me,” he growled, barely holding himself together. “You’re the only reason I’ve endured this long to begin with. If you give up then I—” his throat closed as another sob tried to push its way out, but he swallowed it back down. “You understand what I’m saying?! You fookin’ get it?!”

For a long time, Felix just stood there staring as he slowly deciphered his words, and as he did, his expression slowly dropped from one of anger and hurt, to something akin to disbelief and shock. His eyes went wide, and his face pale. “D.. Don’t… Don’t do this to me.”

David shook his head as if to ward off Felix’s look of horror, and cast aside all remaining doubts and reservations. If this was the one thing he could say that could make Felix reconsider his path and maybe even save his life, then he was going to fucking say it. He had to tell him. He couldn’t keep it inside any longer. 

“You’re the only thing in this godforsaken hell that matters to me, Felix, the only damn thing, and whatever the fook it takes to protect you— to keep you breathing and living and alive and here — then I’m gonna fuckin’ do it!! You know why Felix?! You bloody know why?! ”

Felix’s eyes were wide and haunted as his head swayed from side to side. His voice was barely a breath. “David, please… Please just leave. Please just leave. Don’t do this to me. Don’t do this. ”

But David couldn’t stop. He was in too deep. The words burst forth like water from a failed dam— like the tears cascading down his face.

“Because I fucking love you, Felix!!”

Felix’s blue eyes went somehow wider and glassed over with moisture. His breath seemed to stop. He began to tremble, and then he flipped around and just… stood there with his back to him.

David remained affixed in place, shaking and breathing hard as he watched the back of Felix’s head, his thundering heart on the verge of beating itself out of his chest. 

Instead of stopping to consider Felix’s reaction, however, and what effect his words might be having, David pressed on. His soul was pouring out, and it was too late to stop it.

“I’ve loved you longer than I’d care to admit. I know it ain't exactly right, or fair to you, but I just… I can’t help it. You’re kind, and intelligent, and warm, and gentle, and damn it all, I can’t remember the last time I saw you smile, but whenever you do, my chest hurts and my mind goes blank and always forget everything we were talkin’ ‘bout. And all those times when you were feeling just like this, and you let me hold you ‘till it went away,” David sobbed simply from the overwhelming warmth of the memory itself, “It feels like bein’ reborn or bein’ rescued or summat, over and over again. And I know it ain’t practical, but I’d bloody hold you forever if I could, Felix.

“When you’re not around though, it feels like I’m fuckin’ drownin’ . All I can think about is how much I fuckin’ miss you and how I can get back by your side, because it hurts when I’m not around you. It hurts more than dying. I can’t bloody stand it. ”

At this point, David’s voice was on the verge of shaking apart with the breadth of emotions it was trying to carry. His desperation to make Felix understand just how much he loved him was almost too much to endure.

Felix continued to stand with his back to him, hands drawn up to his face, body still trembling minutely.

Despite how weak and pathetic and arrhythmic his voice was, David charged forward through his tears and into his final appeal.

“So you see Felix? I can’t let you go. I can’t leave. Because if I did, I’d be giving up on myself as much as I would be giving up on you, and I don’t bloody give up Felix. I just don’t. S’pecially not on the man I love more than anything in this goddamn hellhole, so you best get bloody used to it!!”

Finally, David’s voice died and the lab went silent. Despite how hard his pulse was beating and his lungs working, his heart was swollen with hopeful fervor. Now that Felix understood how much he was loved and needed, he’d have to change his mind about all this nonsense, and then he’d come back with him to the campfire and then they could be happy together.

David tried patiently waiting for a reply, but the silence was simply too overwhelming. He couldn’t stand the precarity of it.

“Well?!”

For the first time since he’d started talking, Felix began to move. His hands dropped to his sides and curled into quivering fists. Heavy, deliberate, and slow, his breaths were now clearly audible, faltering to the wayside as he spoke.

“How… dare you.”  

David’s eyes went wide. His stomach dropped out from under him.

Felix’s voice was a venomous, grievous whisper. “How dare you claim to love me… when you’re the one who has driven me to this very state!”

The world began to crumble. All David could do was blink.

“You don’t listen. You never do,” Felix said, shoulders jumping as he bit back a harsh sob. “A– All you care about is yourself and your own needs— never mine. You just said it yourself. It's all about you… I already said I wanted n– nothing to do with you, and that you’ve made my life a living hell— but you ignored all of that and dumped all your emotional baggage onto me, p– pressuring me, and expecting me to reciprocate… Well I won’t — and you can’t force me to either, no matter how much you threaten me or hurt me…”

David could neither move nor speak… nor deny. He was breaking.

“ How. Fucking. Dare you… ”

David’s knees suddenly gave out, and he crashed to the floor. The tears came in a silent torrent as the man he couldn’t stand to live without slipped away before his eyes.

Felix’s hands went up to grab at his hair and pulled it into fistfuls. “ Gott… I hate you,” he sobbed. “I hate you…”

David could barely see anymore. Felix was just a blue and blonde smear.

“Just leave me alone…”

There were no more words, and no more pleas, and no more confessions, and no supplications. David had given his whole self, and now had nothing left but his own hollow shell. 

And Felix didn’t even want that.

At this point, all David wanted was for Felix to turn around so that he could see his face one last time… but it was obvious the man couldn’t even stand to look at him.

“ Leave!!” he snapped “Before I start considering ways of removing myself!! ”

That finally kicked David up from his anguished stupor. He forced himself back to his feet, and then lingered as he watched the quivering shoulders of the man he loved with all the broken pieces of his heart, still wanting nothing more than to reach out and pull him into his arms.

David continued to stand there a while longer, just watching Felix’s back move with breath and sorrow. At any moment, he expected to be snapped at again… but wasn’t. 

The two continued to wait for each other in the silent stillness… Waiting to see if the other would rescind or relent.

After a long time, David finally let his vision drop to the floor, and relented. 

For him.

David numbly turned himself around toward the door and stared at it, stealing away another second of this precious moment in time.

“Take care Felix… … … … … I’ll always love you.”

David picked up his foot, and began leaning forward to leave… but then put it back down, hesitating one last time. He turned until blonde hair appeared in the corner of his eye, and then ground out his final, parting words before he would end this unending moment.

“No matter what.”

Chapter 34: Deprivation

Notes:

⚠ Warnings in end notes. ⚠

Felix waited, and listened.

The footsteps started, and didn’t stop. They dragged themselves over the hardwood floors, scuffing and scraping and heavy all the way to the entrance, and then kept going. Grass and detritus crunched softly and slowly as the footsteps continued onward, gradually becoming quieter and quieter with every step. Eventually, their rhythm faded to where Felix strained to hear them, and even wondered if he was imagining them— holding onto those last auditory remnants like dying embers— but somehow, even those imaginary steps seemed to die away to nothing. Eventually, inevitably… the silence took hold and smothered it all out.

David was gone.

Felix finally released the stagnant air from his lungs and then sucked it all back in with a heaving, shaking gasp. His trembling palm slapped over his face to keep it inside. The fresh oxygen made his head swim, and the lack of blood, and… everything else, only made it worse. He reached out for a nearby bookshelf to steady himself. His knees began to tremble, burdened by exhaustion and the immensity of what he’d just done. 

What had he done?

His weakened legs suddenly gave out from under him and he crumpled to the floor, his fingers clawing all the way down the bookshelf as he fell.

What in god’s name had he done?

Overwhelming grief and pain plowed into him like a fully-loaded freighter, utterly annihilating his façade and cracking him apart. A torrent of anguish came flooding out, inundating his mind and drowning his shattered heart. His body became an utterly useless, heaving bag of empty air, completely possessed by grief and his own unfathomable cruelty.

God, what had he done!?

David!

Felix moaned in abject agony at the floor that was quickly becoming slick with his own blood and tears, barely able to breathe through the heaving, retching sobs that consumed his body.

What had he done?! What had he done?! What had he done?!

He’d practically murdered the man was what he’d done! David had said he’d been the only thing he cared about, the only thing keeping him going— his sole reason for existing— and Felix had just gone and… squashed his bleeding heart like a bug!

He’d done it in the name of protecting him from Danny, but at what cost?! At what point was he actively killing the man instead of saving him?!

Mother of god, David had confessed his undying, unshakable love for him, and Felix had still managed to…

God, David loved him.

David loved him!

It was the most terrible, wonderful, amazing, most frightening thing he could possibly imagine, and Felix had no idea how to process it. On some level, deep down, he’d already known— or at least suspected it. It explained so much of David’s behaviour and treatment of him, but he'd always just dismissed the possibility whenever it cropped up in his mind. He’d always attributed David's overprotectiveness and amiability to a very close but platonic friendship, and nothing more. He'd taken the man at face value, always assuming someone like him would never, ever consider courting another man in a million years… but how wrong Felix had been. How completely and utterly wrong!

All this time…

A muffled, laggardly clapping echoed throughout the room.

Felix lurched and spun around. His heart seized.

In the exact center of the lab, with his hands raised in a dainty, polite applause, stood Danny, watching pointedly as he clapped every other second. 

Somehow, the applause sounded like it was mocking him, and Felix flinched at every one.

Finally, after several claps too many, the killer withdrew and folded his arms across his chest.

“ Bravo! Bravo… Quite the show that was. I almost shed a tear… Almost.”

Felix hurriedly wiped the grime from his face and huddled further back into the corner, concentrating on steadying his breaths into something more even and slow. His eyes fixated on the imminent threat to his life.

Danny began to saunter toward him. He picked up an antique test tube as he passed the center table and made a show of examining it.

“Your acting skills are quite impressive. Halfway through that smackdown, I almost started to believe everything you were saying,” he said, pinching his thumb and forefinger together for emphasis, and then letting it drop with a tsk. “But we both know better… don’t we?”

The killer paused and went completely still, allowing the statement to chill the air. His black pits stared daggers. 

Felix felt every one. He fought to keep a shiver from rattling down his spine.

Several excruciating heartbeats later, the killer broke their shared gaze, and went back to examining the glassware he’d picked up, twisting and flipping it in his fingers like a trick knife. “You also kinda went off the rails there at the end, but whatever. It worked. Kinda surprised it did honestly… I guess he’s dumber than I thought.”

Felix felt an uncharacteristic wave of anger swell in his breast.

If only Danny knew that the only way he’d gotten himself to say those things to David was by imagining he was actually talking to Danny. Everything he’d said— every cruel remark and every spiteful accusation— was what Felix had fantasized about saying to him. Every day, every encounter, Felix had wished he could have said all those things, but was always too afraid. Ironically, he’d gotten his wish. Danny had heard it all, and had absolutely no idea it had actually been meant for him.

Felix couldn’t help but derive some sense of petty satisfaction from that fact.

Danny sighed and tossed the vial back onto the table. It clanked and chimed loudly in random melody against the other pieces as it settled, but did not break. Danny's black-clad body inched closer, loose tassels floating coquettishly behind. The unpleasant notes of an acrid cologne tainted the air. His mask wandered about the makeshift laboratory as he went, taking in its many curiosities.

“Nice place. I’ve seen it from afar a couple of times, but I didn’t know you had access to all of this . Someone could get up to some seriously devilish things in here…” he said, then did a double-take as his gaze fell upon the glass cabinet containing the serum. “Oh!”

Felix felt his stomach drop and flip over on itself as he trotted over to it.

“Is this the famous golden goop?” He pulled open the cabinet doors and poked his head inside, giving an enthused hum as he looked over all the glowing vials full of serum and equipment stored within. 

Felix’s heart was practically beating out of his chest as Danny plucked one ampule from its stand and held it in the air like a precious gemstone. 

“Wow… You made this?”

Felix swallowed and nodded haltingly, trying desperately not to glance down at the hidden drawer that was slightly offset from the rest of the cabinet.

The killer’s body shifted furtively. “What does it do?”

Felix grimaced, not really wanting to say anything at all. “Nothing good…” he ground out, his voice a little too even and controlled.

The killer hummed with interest as he moved the glowing ampule between his fingers. “Mind if I take one? As a souvenir?”

Despite his internal repudiation at the request, Felix felt he had no other choice but to nod.

“Sweet. Thanks.” The golden vial slipped beneath his cloak and disappeared.

Felix internally squirmed. His only consolation was that it would be very difficult for Danny to properly utilize the serum without one of the syringes. 

As the killer closed the cabinet back up and moved away from the hidden treasure, Felix’s heart finally began to calm from its thunderous pace— but only by a bit. The killer was still approaching him ever so gradually.

“So… Did you two have a nice chat? Get all caught up on the latest gossip? You exchange phone numbers? Maybe love notes?”

Felix nearly lost his breath. He scrambled to defend himself. “I– I didn’t mean to see him. He just appeared from nowhere— and I tried to run, but he wouldn’t let me! I made him leave eventually though— you saw it!”

The killer’s ominous amble stopped. The silently screaming mask tilted in consideration.

Panic rising, Felix shifted onto his knees to improve his ability to grovel. “I– It wasn’t my fault— it was a coincidence! I didn’t know he would be here, I swear! I did the best that I could! ”

The screaming mask snapped back. “And just why are you here, Felix?”

His voice caught in his throat. The killer waited patiently for a reply, but Felix was unable to think of even a single excuse.

Danny’s head slowly shook in disappointment. “Felix… I thought we had an understanding…”

Felix’s eyes went wide. “No! W– We do! We still do!”

But the killer’s head only continued to shake, eventually landing somewhere far off in the distance. Danny breathed in a long, languid inhale, then heaved it back out with a blustering sigh. “You still haven’t learned… Punishing just you won’t be enough this time.”

Felix choked on his heart as it tried to leap from his throat. 

“Maybe if I go a few rounds on your special little sweetheart—”

“NO!! Please no! Please! It wasn’t his fault! He was only looking out for me!”

A sharp chuffing noise cut the air. “Among other things, ” Danny hissed.

Felix flinched. He grit his teeth at the pointed accusation.

The killer stared icily, letting the silence momentarily speak for itself. “My warning was very clear, Felix. I said that if you ever saw him again… ”

His heart began to race. He shuffled forward on his knees, hands grasping. “No, no! Don’t do this! You can do whatever you want to me, but please leave him alone!”

“I already can do whatever I want to you,” Danny snarled, fists shaking with fury.

Felix momentarily recoiled at the brief show of anger, but then quickly recovered and pressed on. “Y– you know what I mean. I’ll.. I’ll service you however you wish— I’ll do whatever you want! Just… please!”

A long silence took over as the killer seemed to think it over. Felix watched him intently, bloody hands clasped tightly together in silent supplication. Several heartbeats later, the killer resumed his sauntering approach and closed the remaining distance between them. He crouched low to meet his eye, gloved hands dangling lazily over one knee.

“And what sort of things did you have in mind?” he asked, voice grinding and husky. “I have a very vivid imagination.”

Felix swallowed hard. His eyes instinctively flicked away from the twin black voids, but he quickly forced them back up. He tried to reform his expression to be as sincerely reverent as he could, despite the nausea trying to squeeze its way up his throat. “I’ll… I’ll deepthroat you again. I’ll ride you until I pass out. I’ll… I’ll… ”

“Aaaaand? What else?” the killer purred devilishly, sending a dark hand out to caress his lips and play at his straying hair. “How much do you love your precious boyfriend?”

Felix’s breath caught, and his heart stuttered. His eyes went wide as the trap he’d just walked into snapped shut behind him.

“Just what would you be willing to do to save him? ”

Felix gasped as he was grabbed forcefully by the nape of his neck and the collar of his shirt. He stared into the black pits with wide, fearful eyes, clutching weakly at Danny’s arm as he was dragged to his feet like a scruffed kitten.

“Would you ride my blade like my cock? Would you moan and take it as deep into your cunt as it’ll go? Would you let me slice open your trachea and fuck out your voicebox? Could I crack open your ribcage and make love to the ventricles of your still-beating heart?— That traitorous fucking heart that can’t seem to forget about that stupid fucking mongrel for one goddamn second?!”

Danny gave him a hard shake as he brought him up to his full height, making his teeth clatter. He let Felix dangle in his hold for a long, precarious moment, invisible, blazing eyes drilling hard into his watery blues… before easing him back onto the ground. The harsh grip receded, leaving Felix standing on weak, quivering legs.

“Would you do all that for me baby?”

The breath that had been trapped in his lungs slowly slipped out from between his teeth in a shivering whisper. His legs continued to tremble, utterly cemented to the ground.

Danny began to circle him, teasingly grazing his fingers across his chest as he stepped around him. Eventually, the killer slipped from his peripheral view. Felix’s hackles raised as Danny’s menacing, overwhelming presence hovered close at his back. He shivered hard as wave after wave of hot, moist air began cascading down the back of his prickling neck.

“Will you let me open up your heart so I can see how much you love me?— Instead of him? ”

Felix went rigid. His blood drained from his face. His voice remained locked away in his throat as his mind raced for a response that never came.

He remained silent.

“That’s what I thought.”

A red line dropped in front of his face. A powerful ring of pressure squeezed tight around his throat and Felix gagged as it yanked him backward. His feet fumbled beneath him as he tried to keep up with wherever the line was taking him, trying to stop himself from being strangled. He attempted to wedge his fingers beneath the rope to take some pressure off, but it was so tight, the material was practically flush with his skin.

When his body stopped being dragged backward, Felix tried again to pull the rope away now that it had a bit more slack, but Danny was quick to rectify that. Felix choked and gagged as the makeshift noose nearly jerked him off the ground. Above him, from the corner of his eye, he saw a great length of red rope being tossed over the protruding stem of a broken off ceiling joist. Seconds later, he was strangled again as the rope went taut and dragged him skyward until he was barely touching the ground. He found a wall at his back and tried to get some traction to lessen the pressure, but it was all but useless compared to his own weight. He bounced against the wall like an old landline dangling from its cord.

Felix swayed helplessly in the air as he suffocated, the tips of his shoes just scraping the floorboards, fingers digging uselessly into the rope biting into his neck. Hollow, wet gurgling noises whispered from his gaping mouth as it fought to take a breath that refused to come. His heartbeat thundered within his skull as blood gathered in his brain and became trapped, making it seem like his pounding head was on the verge of popping like a balloon. He wheezed shallowly as his vision began to tunnel and the darkness closed in.

The rope went lax.

Felix dropped like a rock. He hit the ground hard and collapsed into a heaving mound, wheezing and coughing violently as he fought to refill his burning, oxygen-starved lungs. The world slowly returned in a sideways, speckled haze. A pair of black combat boots stood idly by.

The rope tightened again.

Felix gasped with adrenaline. This time, he held fast and fought to stay with the line as it dragged him to his knees and held him there. He found himself looking up into Danny’s temperless, invariable scream. A bundle of red rope was clutched in his fist with one end in tension as it ascended to the beam of wood above. 

Felix expected him to say something, but the killer remained uncharacteristically quiet. He just stared with those depthless pits into Felix’s wild, frightened eyes.

Danny’s grip shifted a bit higher, and then he slowly pulled. 

Felix’s heart thumped as the makeshift noose once again tightened against his burning throat. He quickly drew his feet up underneath him and pushed himself higher, desperate to stay ahead of gravity. 

His heart beat faster as Danny dragged him higher, until he was barely touching the ground. He pulled desperately at the rope as he balanced on one foot, whimpering with breathless dread as his air was threatened once again.

Danny just held him there, silently observing as he struggled.

Felix felt himself growing tired not even a minute later. He tried forcing out a plea for mercy, but his throat was simply too raw and compressed. It came out as nothing but a hollow wheeze.

When his muscles started to burn in insistent warning, the killer began to approach. 

Step. 

By step.

Until their chests were nearly touching. Danny’s screaming mask filled his quavering vision. 

“Ever watch someone die like this? It’s quite the spectacle. Sometimes their eyes even pop out of their sockets.”

Felix’s leg shuddered. For a moment, he was hanged under his own weight as his stance faltered, but he forced himself back up despite how his muscles screamed and protested against him.

A low, muffled chuckle echoed inside the mask as it cocked to the side. “Need some help there sweetheart?”

He nodded as fervently as he could against the rope, sucking air through grinding teeth as he forced his body far beyond its limits.

“Alright then…”

The killer leaned down and dipped beneath his eyeline. Felix waited anxiously for him to do something, but felt nothing. He did, however, hear the zip and strain of woven nylon against wood as the rope was fastened onto something by the floor.

A few seconds later, the killer popped back up in front of him, this time with his hands free.

Felix felt his knee finally buckle. He gagged as the full weight of his body fell on his trachea. He clutched frantically at the rope above him and tried pulling himself back up, but his strength was practically gone.

“Oh!” Danny said, chuckling as if he’d forgotten something silly. “My bad. Let me help you out with that.”

The killer moved in close and took him by the hips. Felix choked wetly as he was pulled slightly forward, putting even more pressure on his neck. His vision began to swim. The instinct to survive took over, and he automatically reached out to grab Danny’s shoulder, desperate to remove even a fraction of pressure away from his throat. 

Danny threw him back against the wall and shoved his hips into his. His hand was ripped away from the killer’s shoulder and held painfully taut, the powerful grip nearly crushing his wrist.

Felix gasped fast and shallow as fresh oxygen suddenly began to trickle down his throat. Ironically, despite the violent impact, being pinned against the wall like this had removed the majority of the pressure from his neck and freed his airways. Awareness began to filter back into his consciousness as he continued to breathe. 

Eventually, he became aware enough to register the killer taking a closer look at the two long gashes running down his outstretched forearm. He cringed as Danny squeezed his wrist tight and looked back up at him.

“Only I spill your blood, got it? ”

Felix wheezed and nodded feebly.

The crushing grasp on his arm lessened. Felix flinched as his other arm was suddenly snatched from its hold on the rope, and again as both were slammed against the wall at his back.

Danny leaned in close, grinding his crotch against Felix’s own as he did, eliciting an unwanted pulse of stimulation in his groin. Felix turned away as much as the rope would allow, tensing as warm puffs of air from the mouth of the mask began to wash over his cheek.

“Back to square one Felix; that’s what this little stunt is going to cost you. Everything it took to get you where you were? We’re going to have to do it all over again — and if you misbehave even once… If you thought last time was bad, just wait. ” he hissed, squeezing his wrists and grinding his pelvis roughly into his. “I still haven’t even decided what I’m gonna do to the fuckhead yet. There are just sooo many options… but I suppose it all depends on how well you take your discipline…”

Felix whimpered softly as Danny ground his bulge into his groin again. He resisted the urge to plead for David’s life, knowing it would only further condemn them both.

The killer gave a low, hungry growl as his grip loosened and slid smoothly down his arms. Felix tensed as his cuts were agitated. Their bleeding had since decreased to a viscous, sluggish ooze. The smooth leather fingers trailed gently over his shoulders, then across his collar, and then fisted firmly in his shirt.

Felix gasped as they violently ripped away from each other and bared his chest to the open air. He flinched as his upper layers were shredded in half and stripped from his body into a mangled pile on the floor. 

Next, the leather hands drifted smoothly down his ribs, roving over each and every one, then traced around the exposed crest of his hips, and then smoothed down his belly to settle on his belt. Danny hummed mischievously as he took hold of the buckle and began to unlatch it, grinding his already firm bulge against his own as he did so. Felix turned away and closed his eyes, not wanting to stare back into that looming, too-close mask, and mentally resigning himself to his situation.

⚠

As soon as his pants were undone, a warm hand dipped inside to grab him. Felix gasped and went rigid. He barely stopped himself from latching onto Danny again to keep himself steady.

Danny hummed a chuckle as he languidly massaged and stroked his half-hard length. “Always so receptive…”

Shaking with stress and arousal, Felix squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, trying hard to separate himself from his situation and the sensations being kindled within him. Thankfully though, the molestation was short-lived. The hand withdrew a moment later and Felix allowed himself to relax.

But the groping hand wasn’t the only thing that withdrew from him. 

Felix gasped as Danny stepped back, only to be choked off as the entirety of his body weight dropped onto his throat. He kicked and clawed at the rope as it bit into his neck and strangled his life. His heartbeat began to pound inside his skull like a bass drum. He felt his eyes begin to bulge, and his mind replayed the horrible statement Danny had made earlier along with a helpful visualization.

Suddenly, his kicking legs were seized and held together in place. He gaped in a silent, wheezing scream as his legs were pulled down, and even more pressure was put on the noose. His spinal cord strained and creaked. His fingers clutched and clawed wildly at the rope above him, desperate for even a modicum of relief. It felt like his head was on the verge of popping right off his shoulders!

Suddenly, he swung forward and felt a blast of cold air around his legs. As the pressure lessened to only his body weight and he crashed back into the wall, in his haze, Felix realized that his pants had just been shucked from his body. The boxers barely hanging onto his hips followed soon after. Despite everything, he shuddered deeply as the cold rushed over his withered intimacy.

Darkness once again began to invade his senses and he began growing weak. His lungs ceased to burn and his strength waned as numbing cold invaded his thrumming nerve endings. His body spasmed lethargically as it tried and failed several more times to force him to breathe. As his consciousness faded and the sweetly whispering dark invaded his mind, Felix welcomed the incoming death fervently, hopeful that he might actually be able to escape his fate this time…

But of course, his omnipotent oppressor was far too competent to allow for that.

His heart suddenly boomed in his chest like a clap of thunder, rocking his entire being. His lungs juddered and spasmed. Confusion swirled in his darkness-clouded mind. What was that?! Again, his chest exploded with force. His lungs suddenly heaved back to life, and his mind lurched to alertness, bringing his surroundings back into stark, overwhelming focus. His body descended into a fit of heaving coughs and rasping breaths as it tried to wrestle back control from the brink of death. His chest ached as if it had taken a direct hit from a sledgehammer.

Danny’s mask loomed large in his vision, fist raised high in preparation to strike, but then quickly dropped. “ There you are,” he sneered. “Can’t have you getting away that easily…”

As Felix coughed and gasped and his brain slowly restarted, he began to realize that Danny had literally punched him back to life. 

Truly, death was never a simple thing when it came to Danny.

The killer shifted against him, and the next thing Felix realized was that he was once again being pinned by his chest against the wall. One of his legs was hiked up high around Danny’s hip. He tensed as he felt the stray brush of fingers against his genitals, and then tensed even harder at the sound of unclasping buttons and a rolling zipper as Danny freed himself from the confines of his pants.

Felix automatically arched away as hot, stiff, bulbous flesh grated long and hard against his rear. 

The killer gave a roiling, predatory groan as he ground into him. “You ready to make up for all your fucking bullshit?” He hissed, gathering up both of Felix's legs from beneath his knees and pressing him hard against the wall, spreading him open for easy access. “You gonna make it up to me like you promised?”

As Danny lined himself up and prepared to just dive straight into him without any kind of prep or lubrication, Felix instantly lurched with panic. His hands shot out to push him away, and he began to squirm and whimper in Danny’s grasp, trying desperately to dodge his attempts at penetration. For all the times Danny had raped him, at the very least, he’d always made sure it hadn't been dry like this!

“P– prep!” he squeaked from his devastated throat.

Danny chuffed as if he'd just been deeply insulted. “You spoiled fucking bitch. Prep is a fucking privilege , and if you want it back, you’re going to have to earn it ,” he barked, pressing him back against the wall until he was completely immobilized. “And until you earn it, you’re gonna take what I give you, and you’re going to fucking thank me for it— OR…”

Felix felt Danny shift against him, then heard the reverberating ring of unsheathing steel. When the touch of a cold, pointed blade grazed feather-light against his pucker, Felix gasped and seized as though he’d been electrocuted, grinding his teeth and frantically arching away to keep the knife from touching his most sensitive, intimate area.

“I can just fuck you with this instead.”

Felix clutched desperately at Danny’s cloak as he tried to escape the threat of the blade, eyes wild and pleading as they stared into the killer’s blank stare.

“NO! No! No!” he rasped breathlessly, barely able to squeeze the words from his damaged larynx.

The deathly white mask tilted with interest. Felix jolted and practically squealed as the icy tip prodded dangerously at his rectum, the delicate flesh screaming as it came into contact with the razor sharp edge.

“NEIN!! BITTE!”

“Oh? What’s that? You want something else instead?”

Felix nodded fervently, frantic breaths grinding like gravel down his gullet.

“What is it that you want, baby? C’mon, speak up now,” the killer cooed, voice dripping with an audible, malicious grin.

Felix swallowed hard and dry, steeled himself, and forced out a ragged, “Y– your c– cock!”

“Oh yeah? You want my cock now?”

Felix grit his teeth and nodded. “Yes!”

“You want it rough and raw and deep in that greedy little cunt of yours?”

The flat side of the steel teased at his perineum, and Felix shrieked brokenly. “Yes!!”  

Danny snickered wickedly, and the blade withdrew from his skin. As soon as it was gone, Felix deflated into a limp, boneless mound in the killer’s hold, cheeks speckled with tears and sweat.

“Whatever my little cockslut desires.”

Danny shifted again as he put away the knife, and then resituated them both into the optimal position for sex, with Felix's legs cradled in his arms. Felix automatically tensed as the hard length poked and prodded at his backside until it finally found its intended target. As it pressed against his pucker, Felix forced himself to relax as much as he could despite how fast and panicked his breaths were now coming, trying not to anticipate the moment when— 

“aaaaAAAAHHHH!!!”

Felix shrieked when what felt like a searing hot fire poker was suddenly shoved halfway up his ass. Tears instantly burst from his eyes. He writhed and gasped and clutched desperately at Danny’s cloak as he tried to endure the worst, most mind-shattering pain he’d ever experienced, comparable to being split in half or being thrown onto a meathook.

“Ffffiiii— AGHH!!! ”

He screamed again as the hot poker shoved inside him deeper, grating and lacerating like a bonesaw at his dry internal walls. Smothering waves of nausea and sweltering chills crashed over and over his quaking body as the pain overwhelmed all sense that he possessed.

Danny grunted with effort as he forced himself in further, gradually wriggling and squeezing his cock into his spasming, shrieking depths until his hips were completely flush with his rear. Felix shivered and panted hoarsely through his sobs as he tried to get himself to adjust to the brutal invasion, only to be thrown into a renewed state of shock as the cock suddenly ripped all the way back out, and then immediately shoved back in.

Danny cursed and Felix wailed. Hot tears scalded his already burning cheeks. His fingers searched out for any handhold it could find as radiating fire seared and scorched throughout his insides. Eventually his searching fingers found his rapist’s shoulders and grappled them like a life-preserver. The pain was so intense, Felix had to wonder if Danny had actually put away the knife or not!

Again, Danny pulled out and slammed fully in, punching out what little breath he possessed from his lungs.

The killer grunted hard as he fully seated himself, and then sighed long and low as he leaned in close. “What does my greedy little cockslut say?”

A flurry of mangled sobs poured from his lips as the last of his dignity was crushed into a fine powder. He shook his head, squeezed his eyes shut, then mumbled out a broken, blubbering, “Th– thank you…”

Danny gave a throaty chuckle, and then began to fuck him in earnest, pulling fully out and slamming back in again, and again, and again, establishing a swift and brutal pace for the devastating assault that would be his punishment for daring to lay eyes on the man that truly loved him.

The air became marred by a litany of forceful grunts, slapping flesh, and unsteady cries, as Felix felt himself being ripped apart from the inside out. His mind felt like it was being dismantled into a million jagged pieces and melted down in a blast furnace. 

The intensity of the torture only lessened when Danny’s thrusts began to glide a bit easier, which Felix knew could only be due to the slick of a great deal of blood. That was all but confirmed when he felt its hot, sticky wetness squishing out his hole with every thrust and dripping down his buttocks. The iron tang of it was quick to intermingle with the heady stench of sweat, breath, cologne, and sex, creating an unpleasantly thick, soupy atmosphere.

Voice all but destroyed, the sounds now fleeing his lips consisted of a mindless mush of broken wheezes and croaking moans. Any and all sense of himself he’d once possessed was but a past, fleeting glimmer as he boiled in his agony. 

And just when he thought he was stable in that agony, per usual, Danny decided to change something.

The brick wall scraped against his back as Felix felt himself drop. His pain-hazed vision brightened as he felt the noose around his neck go tight. Heart thundering, Felix locked his fearful gaze onto Danny's empty pits, silently begging him not to do this. 

And of course, Danny ignored him. His hips still absently thrusted into his ruined hole as he backed away, allowing his hold on him to go lax. Felix instantly scrambled to follow him, wrapping his limbs around the killer tightly so that he wouldn’t be hanged under his own body weight.

Danny chuckled darkly and immediately reciprocated the embrace, stroking lovingly down his spine and taking firm hold of his ass. “Ahh, so clingy… Don’t worry baby, I’ll hold on tight if you will,” he said, voice lilting with faux affection.

As Danny began to bounce him on his cock, Felix had no choice but to hug the killer tightly to himself to keep from falling. His arms and legs coiled tightly around his undulating body to stay in place and keep himself from being strangled. Even then, the noose still choked him periodically whenever the killer dipped a bit too low, all on purpose of course.

It was a cruel, precarious game.

Holding his hips crushingly tight, Danny forced him back onto every brutal, bouncing thrust, every one feeling like a bolt of lightning straight up his spine. And despite his will to maintain his hold on the killer, and to keep from being strangled, it wasn’t long before his strength was depleted and his hold began to fail. Keeping his legs around the killer was a struggle. They kept unlocking and sliding down, pulling the rest of his body down with them and causing the rope around his neck to go tight. Danny was quick to bounce him back into place though so he could keep pounding into him, but only after watching him choke for a bit.

Eventually, the violence of the thrusts increased and the killer’s breaths grew laboured and heavy. Gloved fingertips dug painful divots into the soft flesh of his rear.

The end of round one was approaching.

Felix squeezed his eyes shut and held on tight as Danny fucked into him hard and fast, sobbing brokenly as his intestinal lining was sandpapered down to raw, bloody flesh. Like a rabid wolf, the killer snarled and huffed as he slammed into him with all his might, spearing his throbbing cock as deep into him as it would go, until finally, his pace began to slow. 

With a foul, pornographic moan, Danny dropped low and rammed into him one final time before going still. Felix gagged as the rope around his neck cinched tight and cut off his air. He fumbled at it in a panic as Danny ground his throbbing dick into his depths, flooding his lacerated insides with stinging, salty ejaculate. Eyes rolling, Felix gaped silently at the murky sky as the pained wail he’d intended to release came out as a whispering, choked-off whine.

Danny held him in that suspended, oxygen-deprived state for moment after long, agonizing moment, pumping him with seed until he was overflowing and his vision was nothing but blotchy voids.

All of a sudden, Felix’s imprisoned breath was forced out of him all at once as he was slammed back into the brick wall. Before he could even think about recovering, he found that his mouth was being invaded by a searching tongue and ravaging lips.

Blinded by the dislodged mask, Felix pressed insistently against the killer’s chest as he stole away the final remains of his precious breath and flooded his mouth with the taste of old, rotting socks. Gurgling and wheezing, he tried multiple times to break away so he could suck down the life-giving oxygen all around him, but the raping tongue, suckling lips, and gnashing teeth persued him no matter where he went. His vision began to swim and tunnel, and he felt himself once again falling into the dark depths of unconsciousness. 

Finally Danny’s mouth shifted to his neck, and Felix took immediate advantage of the opening, gasping and coughing as he fought to take down all the air that he could. 

Danny just continued to wildly gnaw, lick, and suck at his fluttering carotid artery, still caught up in the afterglow of his release as he slow-fucked his sloppy, leaking hole.

“Fucking fuck , you’re so goddamn beautiful like this,” he grated, hot and heavy in his ear. “I could fuck you like this forever.” 

The scruffy lips once again latched onto his panting orifice, and sucked hard for a long moment before pulling back. Danny’s absently humping hips picked up back to their previous pace.

“Gonna make you make every sound a human being is capable of making, and I’m gonna drink it all up.”

Felix moaned mindlessly as his mouth and guts were once again invaded deeply. He could feel himself fracturing under the suffocating agony of it all. 

His mind was slipping.

And the voices lurking the dark were calling.

His eyeballs began to roll aimlessly around in his skull as his body began to scrape and bounce against the brick wall at his back. Danny was back to viciously raping him, but Felix was barely aware of it. It was all just a blurred haze.

Or at least, it was, until he felt something thin and cold snaking between his ribs.

Felix gasped and went rigid, eyes going wide as he fumbled and flailed in Danny’s hold while his empty pits watched intently.

“Shh shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. It’s just a little knick. You can take it…”

The icy cold invaded him further, sinking deep into his chest and chilling him from the inside out. Scalding, viscous warmth poured over his shivering skin and down his ribs. He pawed and grasped at Danny in desperation as his lungs began to stutter and vibrate with stupefied panic. His overstrained heart felt like it was about to explode.

Finally, what he now understood to be Danny’s knife stopped moving inside of him. 

He panted and wheezed in wild-eyed desperation as Danny held his gaze, mask as unemotional and impassive as ever as it observed his reactions.

Felix gasped and went rigid as the cold steel jutted a tiny bit deeper, and then retreated. Almost immediately, he felt a congestion begin to gather on that side of his chest. His breaths became wet and gurgling, and his tongue flooded with the taste of blood. Pink froth began to gather in the corners of his lips as it suddenly became much more difficult to breathe.

The mask once again moved in close, then shifted off to this side as Danny moved to recapture his lips. He licked up all the bloody froth that had gathered around his mouth and then kissed him hard, suckling the iron-tinged breath from his penetrated lungs. The icy, offending blade was kept securely between his ribs as his body jolted under the force of the killer’s gyrating hips.

Felix wheezed and gasped wetly when Danny eventually pulled back and allowed him to breathe again. All Felix could think about was just getting air to his lungs as one of them filled steadily with blood.

The killer’s panting mouth chewed at his earlobe, and then pulled back ever so slightly to whisper fiery, poison-coated sweetness.

“You know… I could take you away from all this…” he huffed between several vicious thrusts. “Back to my place. No more Trials. No more sneaking around or hiding. No more bullshit… You wouldn’t have to deal with anyone or anything, because it’d just be you and me. I’d finally be able to treat you right. I wouldn’t have to punish you anymore, because you’d be away from all this bullshit…”

Felix’s eyes ached as they silently streamed with tears. His heart thrummed in panicked horror. The thought of being trapped somewhere with Danny… Forever … 

He’d sooner slit his own throat!!

Danny moaned languidly as he fucked him deep. Felix could only cry, gurgle, and wheeze in abject terror and anguish.

“The Entity would let me do it you know— for all my hard work. I’d make it happen. You’d never have to think about anything or anyone else ever again, because I’d love you like never before. It’d be the best sex you’ve ever had in your fucking life. You’d forget that dipshit ever existed. It’d be perfect .”

A wet sob pushed its way painfully up his throat between heaving, wheezing pants. His devastated body shook and seized as one of the worst panic attacks of his life took hold and crushed him in its iron grasp.

The killer’s scalding tongue licked a slimy stripe up his neck and dipped into his ear.

“So what do you think? Would you like that baby?”

Felix tried his best to scream out a resounding, unmistakable ‘NO,’ but couldn’t get his damaged vocal cords to work properly. It came out sounding like a toneless, hissing wheeze. His chest heaved and his eyes burst into fresh tears when he realized that he couldn’t say the most important ‘no’ of his entire existence.

“Ah, who are we kidding? Of course you would.”

The noxious, whispering mouth then moved back over his lips and captured them like someone trying to imitate an old, familiar lover— slow and deep and tender, but devoid of any real meaning or passion.

Felix could only lay back and weep as the next phase of his twisted relationship with Danny loomed menacingly and horrifyingly before him, while he was all but powerless in its face and to its will.

His existence was forfeit.

Danny continued to kiss and fuck him fervidly, completely enraptured by the prospect of their joint future.

⚠

A soft creaking sound echoed from somewhere behind the killer’s back. Danny went completely and utterly rigid. Felix’s heart almost stopped. The killer pulled out and spun around, letting Felix’s legs drop to the floor, but kept him pressed against the wall to keep him from falling.

Heart pounding, Felix strained to see over the killer’s shoulder to see what had spooked him, but was blocked by a wall of black fabric.

Finally, the killer shifted to the side— and Felix felt all the blood in his veins freeze into sharp, icy crystals of dread and horror.

Standing frozen midstep by the entrance of the lab, David gaped wide at the scene before him, mouth as broad as a gulper eel’s. The color had drained from his skin, now looking about as pale as it had been on his corpse. His eyes were like twin full moons as they took everything in, somehow growing larger with every fateful second.

And then, he met Felix’s eyes.

All the color suddenly returned to him— and more. His face went blazing red, with his nostrils flaring and teeth bared in a gnashing white line. His darkened, furious eyes locked back onto Danny, and then his hands balled into twin, shaking fists.

Felix’s heart fluttered as if on the verge of a stroke, the horror and terror of this moment almost more than it could handle. This was his worst possible nightmare, and it was happening right before his eyes.

Never before had he been more scared for another person in his life.

And he had no idea what was going to happen next.

Notes:

ITSHAPPENING.GIF

(AND IT ONLY TOOK 220,000 WORDS TO GET THERE XDD)

⚠ Warnings: Disturbing sexual language and threats, anal rape with rectal bleeding, hanging and strangling from a noose. ⚠

Chapter 35: Dead Hard | Part 2: Defiance

PART 2: DEFIANCE

David was shaking.

His breaths were shaking. His fists were shaking. His very core was shaking. Even his eyes were shaking.

And what his eyes were showing him… the near incomprehensible image that would be burned into his retinas for the rest of eternity… It made him feel like a throng of snakes were coiling up his arms and legs, wrapping their long, cold, scaly bodies all around him, and working their fangs up his spine. He could feel their icy venom invading his bloodstream, chilling him to the bone, and threatening to stop his thundering heart dead in his chest.

That… that was Felix— his Felix— and he was…!

David suddenly felt himself go weak and dizzy with nausea. He wanted to look away and vomit— but couldn’t! It was so, so, fucking terrible, but he couldn’t look away, because that was…

That was his Felix!

Blue eyes dyed red with blood, every vessel in them having burst apart. Pink froth streaming from his stained lips. Throat raw and gored by the rope around his neck. Bruised body as bare as the day he was born, and… God! Blood streaming from between his legs!! Blood coagulating in a pool beneath him, scattered with fatty white globs of…!!

Again, David felt the incredible urge to vomit. He began to hyperventilate.

No no no no no no no, this can’t be real. This can’t be happening! This can’t be real! This can’t be happening!! Not to him!!

His dividing, swaying vision went hazy and then slowly began to convalesce and refocus. He found himself staring at a white moaning mask affixed to a black, shadowy body.

The perpetrator.

Ghostface.

Suddenly, David felt something within him ignite.

That venomous chill that had so thoroughly seized his form boiled away to vapor. Every single muscle in his body went taut and ablaze with surging, quivering fury. His vision went red with violence, and his fists clenched with the urge to kill.

This… monster… this motherfucker … had done this to the man he loved— the man that was his entire world—  the man he cared for more than anything!

He'd done this to his Felix!

And he was going to FUCKING PAY.

The shadowy killer shifted furtively. His free hand dipped beneath his cloak and to the front of his pants. The muffled sound of a zipper and clinking buttons floated tauntingly through the air as he put himself away.

Another drop of fiery, hate-fueled adrenaline injected itself into his surging bloodstream. He hunched over and broadened his footing. His muscles coiled into tightly bound springs as he prepared to launch himself at this evil fuck!!

His attention was suddenly stolen away when he heard Felix suck in a strained wheeze, and he centered his gaze on him immediately. Felix’s broken visage was as upsetting as ever, but his ghoulishly bloody eyes were surprisingly clear and intense. His expression was hard and consumed by terror— but not for himself. No, David had seen that on him far too many times to make that mistake. This fear… this terror that had taken such complete hold of Felix’s battered, bloody visage…

It was for him.

Suddenly, David’s hazy, rage-tinted vision cleared. The situation before him came back into stark focus.

He couldn’t just rush at a killer with guns blazing and expect to survive. That would be suicide. He couldn’t help Felix at all if he were dead.

No. Somehow, he had to calm down and think this through. Despite how utterly horrifying, enraging, and heartbreaking this all was, he needed to set his burgeoning emotions aside and think.

The killer shifted again to the side, revealing Felix a bit more and the knife that was protruding from his ribs. The killer’s left hand rested atop the handle idly.

A muffled, grinding voice slithered surreptitiously into the air, like a rat snake emerging from its den.

“Well, I suppose I’ll be skipping the stalking phase…”

An unbidden chill slunk its way down David’s spine. For all the fleeting moments David had come into contact with this killer over the years, and the even rarer times he’d seen him up close like this, not once had he ever heard him talk. This was the very first time. 

That tone set off something primal and dormant deep within his mind. It made his hair stand on end and his blood into tepid sludge.

Except… No… This wasn’t the first time. He had heard this voice before…

Slowly, a seed of recollection that had been planted long ago began to cultivate in David’s mind.

This same voice had come from a person who, at the time, he’d thought had been a floundering Bambi or a skulking reporter, but suddenly, had morphed into the most chilling, threatening, and disturbing persona he could have imagined… only to disappear into thin air.

It had been him.

A bone-deep chill rattled its way through David’s entire body as he replayed the interaction in his mind. That entire time… he’d been casually walking alongside and talking about Felix with… Ghostface.

Another sickly chill slipped its way down his spine. He felt more loose threads trying to string themselves together in his brain— trying to make sense of it all— but David didn’t possess the mental bandwidth for it at the moment.

The killer languidly tilted his head to the side as David stared at him, as if eyeing something interesting. His stance shifted smoothly, almost imperceptibly, into something much more subtly threatening— like a wolf spider preparing to pounce.

Suddenly, David began feeling less and less like a raging lion, and more and more like… prey.

The muffled voice floated freely into the air again, smooth and sinister. “You want a turn with him? I know for a fact you’d enjoy it.”

David’s fury reignited. His teeth bared and his fists raised. 

“I'm honestly surprised you haven't tried yet already, considering your tastes. He's an amazing lay.”

“You fucking…” David snarled. His vision exploded into flames, and blood began to thunder and boil. His body went alight as it was consumed by aggrieved vengeance, all fear and hesitancy suddenly burning away to ashes.

Through his haze, he saw Felix move minutely, and his eyes fixated on him again. The blonde was wide-eyed and staring at him with that same facet of fear, teeth gritting together in a firm, bloody line. His head was subtly shaking from side to side, imploring him to stop. 

David blinked and the haze cleared. He forced his burning rage back down into his smoldering depths and tried to regain his focus.

Felix’s eyes then glanced insistently down several times. David followed his eyeline and noticed that the black tassels sprouting from Ghostface’s left elbow were wrapped around and around Felix’s arm and held tightly in his fist.

David’s mind lit up with the beginnings of a plan.

If he could somehow catch the killer off guard or distract him, then Felix might be able to give him one precious extra second to do… something. David wasn’t even sure what that was yet— he just knew that he had to get the killer away from Felix.

That wicked, sonorous voice spoke out again from the dark depths of the mask. “What’s the matter?” it cooed, “Feeling a bit shy? That’s alright. I can help you if you want. Just come on over— I already made him nice and slick and open for you.”

This time, alongside the anger, David felt a burning swell of nausea rise up and claw at the base of his throat. His heart began to thrum. He swallowed down the acerbic saliva that had gathered on his tongue and tried to keep the words and accompanying imagery from worming their way into his mind.

Ghostface shifted cagily. “No? Ah well, more for me then…” His free hand drifted up towards Felix’s chest and squeezed his pectoral hard. Felix whimpered and squirmed.

David snarled and lurched forward. “Don’t FUCKING touch him!!”

Both Felix and the killer visibly tensed as he advanced one tremendous step forward and stood there, fists shaking and spittle hanging from his grinding, gnashing teeth. 

He was now less than six paces away from them.

The mindless rage simmering just beneath the surface wanted to push him all the way and just fucking stop this , but David kept it stuffed down and held himself back. He had to keep his head. He had to be careful. Felix was depending on him.

Felix winced minutely. David looked to him again and saw him trying to cringe away from the blade. The killer had tightened his grip on it, ready to rip it out and wield it against him at a moment's notice. He still seemed to have no idea how difficult that would end up being though. Felix’s grip on the tassels were still firm, but it was obvious from the man’s expression that he was growing weaker with every passing moment. He wasn’t going to have the ability to help him for very much longer.

The window for action was closing quickly.

David grit his teeth. “Get away from him,” he ground out, taking another small step forward.

The killer’s head cocked oddly, the movement reminding him of one of those creepy, spying crows. He hummed thoughtfully, then stated plainly, “No.”

David grimaced hard. His heart thumped faster. Felix sucked down a hard, wet wheeze. A froth of pink bubbles spilled over his lips and oozed down his neck. His eyes had begun to look hooded and hazy, but he was still holding onto the tassels with a firm, solid grip.

David shook his head and tried something else. “ Please ,” he said, entreating. “Let him go. He’s dying. ”

The screaming mask cocked oddly, seemingly entranced by this sudden change in his demeanor.

David stepped forward again, hands open and outstretched in offering. Less than five paces now. “Please. You can…” David hesitated, then forced the terrible words out anyways. “You can take me instead. I’ll go willingly. Just— please . Leave him alone.”

Felix glazed eyes widened in horror. He wheezed and gurgled in distress.

Ghostface huffed indignantly. “Tempting, but I already have a willing slut. I don’t think you’d be able to compete.”

Again, David grimaced hard. Anger and repudiation licked hotly at his wildly thumping heart, but he maintained his control. He stepped forward again, still maintaining his pleading, subdued demeanor. Less than four paces. “At least let him down! Can’t you see he’s dying?!”

Felix took that opportunity to suck in a hard, wet gasp, and let it gurgle back out. It was a terrible noise that made it sound like he was drowning. More bright pink foam pushed down the sides of his face.

Ghostface didn’t move.

David grit his teeth and threw an insistent gesture toward Felix. “C’mon look! You're killing him!! ”

David wasn’t sure if Ghostface actually cared whether or not Felix died, but he was running out of ideas for distractions, and Felix was running out of time. 

The German then made a disturbing noise that sounded like something between a cough and a gag. That was followed up by some sort of desperate, squeaking whine that could have come from a dying animal. It set his teeth on edge and made his heart nearly wrench itself out of his chest. If not for Felix’s deathgrip on the black tassels, he could have easily believed that Felix really was on the verge of death.

Still, Ghostface did not react.

David’s gaze flicked frantically from Felix to the white mask, trying to sell his panic. He threw a desperate hand toward Felix again. “C’MON!! LOOK AT ‘IM!!”

Felix then shuddered hard and his eyes rolled back. Something akin to a death rattle reverberated deep in his chest, hollow and wet and terrible.

Ghostface turned back to look.

David launched himself forward, and the killer instantly turned back.

Felix jolted back from the dead and yanked the killer’s arm toward himself with all his might. He cried out as the knife sank deep into his chest and then grappled the killer’s arm to keep it there.

Ghostface tensed hard and moved to yank it back out, but it was too late.

David crashed into the killer with a furious, animalistic scream, tackling him up into the air and along the wall as he tried to get him away from Felix— but who was still firmly attached to the killer. The languishing man was wrenched along after them as David tackled the killer into the wall. A horrible gagging sound filled the air just as he felt a sudden resistance pulling him and the killer back the other way. David glanced back just long enough to register Felix hanging dangerously from the rope attached to the beam above. His free hand clutched at it desperately while his other was still entangled with the killer's arm.

David grit his teeth hard and planted his foot against the wall. With a tremendous, gut wrenching roar, David launched himself off of it and into the air, swinging everyone else along with him. There was a brief moment of stillness as all of them dangled weightlessly in the air, practically frozen in time, and then the rope slipped. 

Everyone crashed to the floor. Ghostface grunted as his back hit the ground while David made sure to land directly on top of him. Half a second later, Felix hit the ground hard directly beside them with a retching, gagging wheeze. David tried not to think about his state as he started wailing on the killer with all his might, launching hook after devastating right hook directly into that ghoulish, taunting scream. He cringed in pain as the killer's free hand latched onto his left arm with the force of a steel trap— but only for a second. Despite feeling his bones grinding beneath that crushing grip, David kept going, his very next hit causing the plastic mask to crack and split up through the middle. Seeing this, David felt a rush of encouraging adrenaline and vengeful bloodlust, and went in for another hit. 

Ghostface suddenly jerked forward with a snarl. David felt a stinging line open down the side of his arm as he drew back, feeling scalding hot blood seeping over his skin. He looked down and saw that Ghostface had somehow gotten hold of his blade and had tried to stab him with it, but had only managed to graze him. He hadn’t been able to reach far enough because of Felix, who was still holding onto the tassels with all his might despite the now gaping stab wound in his side hemorrhaging like a broken garden hose.

Felix’s entire body lurched across the floor as Ghostface again moved to spear David with the dripping knife. David dodged out of his limited reach then went for the arm trying to wield it. He grabbed his wrist and tried to shove it against the ground so he could knock it loose, but it was like trying to bend a piece of rebar. It barely moved an inch. 

David’s heart thumped hard as he was struck by a sudden bolt of fear and doubt.

Felix’s bloody hands suddenly fumbled up around the killer’s hand as he tried to help, attempting to pull it down and away from him in any way he could. It made the knife jostle and sway, but not much else.

David retched as a crushing pressure suddenly clamped down onto his throat. His widened gaze flicked down to see the killer’s other arm sprouting from his neck. Realizing his left hand was now free, David used it to frantically claw at the iron grip that was squeezing tighter and tighter with every passing moment, threatening to crush his windpipe into pulp.

The killer shifted beneath him. David felt a boot press into his gut, and then he was suddenly sailing through the air upside down backwards. For a stomach flipping, breathtaking moment, he was completely weightless. In the next, there was pain.

Glass shattered and wood splintered all around him as his back fell into some piece of furniture, knocking both wind and sense from his disoriented body. He slid bonelessly back to the ground, and found himself staring hazily up at the swollen moon and a precariously wobbling cabinet that was threatening to come down on him in the very next moment. He gasped back to alertness and rolled himself out the way and onto his belly just as it crashed into the floor where he’d been laying. The ground around it became scattered with shattered ampoules and puddles of glowing gold serum. His arms were covered in stinging, bleeding lacerations and shards of glass.

Remembering the imminent threat, David blinked the haze from his vision and quickly scanned the room.

Ghostface had since flipped himself back onto his feet, and had just spun around to face him. “I’m going TO FLAY THE FLESH FROM YOUR FUCKING FACE!! ”

David’s entire body shuddered at the booming, almost volcanic scream of utter rage that shook the room. He winced hard as Ghostface started to rush at him, but was pulled back by his knife-wielding left arm, which Felix was somehow still attached to. At this point, the man looked like he was half-conscious and barely hanging on. The tangled mess of black fabric wrapped around his arm was doing most of the work. 

Ghostface gave a guttural roar of frustration and then began awkwardly slashing at Felix’s wrist and trying to yank himself away.

Felix didn’t even make a sound.

Ignoring the chorus of pains singing throughout his body, David pushed himself back onto his feet and rushed urgently forward. 

Ghostface turned and primed himself for the attack.

Just before meeting the killer, David raised his left fist in a highly telegraphed attack, only to feint at the very last moment. He dodged the slash from the blade that he knew the killer was desperate to stab him with, and darted to the left out of its limited range. David then followed it up with a bellowing roar and devastating right cross straight into the damaged mask. 

A deafening smack split the air.

The punch was one of the hardest David had ever thrown, sending sharp lancets of stinging pain throughout his hand and up his arm. Back in the ring, any man would’ve been knocked out cold by it, but here, the killer’s head snapped back to him almost instantly, as if the punch had instead been a light breeze. Faint, gold embers now emanated from the crack in the plastic mask, which was much smaller than it had been a minute ago.

David hesitated as another bolt of fear struck his heart. He’d known killers were tough, but this? He couldn’t beat this. No way in hell he was going to win against this .

He dipped backwards as the killer swiped for his throat, mind racing for his next move. Felix’s body lurched as he was dragged along after them. The killer jolted forward and lunged out for him again, but this time David grabbed the outstretched arm and pulled him through his momentum. 

Ghostface might have been supernaturally stronger and sturdier than him, but his weight was almost certainly unchanged. 

He helped the killer meet the ground a bit faster by kicking out his legs, grabbing the back of his cloak, and shoving him down face first. The dark body hit the floor with a thunderous smack. David jumped onto his back and started hammering at the back of his head as hard and fast as he physically could, desperate to believe that all of this violence was having some kind of effect on the killer, and that eventually, it would all add up to something impactful.

The killer’s cloaked head rebounded off the wood with every impact. The air was a visceral ensemble of heaving, guttural snarls and meaty, thumping flesh.

Suddenly, a dark elbow flew backward and David’s world turned into a garbled, fuzzy white. He came back to himself a second later with his face on fire and a drum pounding on the inside of his skull. When he looked back down, it was just in time to catch the flash of something silver. 

On instinct, he threw up his arms to defend himself, and then a split second later, he was blinded by an explosion of gore. David blinked it away and saw the business end of a blade sticking out of his left forearm, dripping with fresh blood. The pain he knew he should have felt from that was missing, numbed by adrenaline and shock. 

The blade retreated with a wet, sucking slurp. David looked down to see that Ghostface had managed to turn onto his back and had transferred his blade to his unimpeded right hand in a lethal reverse grip. The knife was reeling back in preparation for another overhead stab. The killer’s left arm was stretched across his chest, with Felix’s entangled arm partially pulled across him. Felix lay limply by his side, face down, unmoving.

David moved to block the incoming attack with his damaged left arm again, this time just barely managing to catch it just below the blade on the killer’s wrist. It stopped just before meeting his neck. He slapped his other hand directly on top of the killer’s to keep it in place. He tried hard to unfurl his fingers from their hold, but it was like trying to change the grip of a marble statue.

Ghostface snarled and pushed forward. Despite having the positional advantage and holding down with all his might, David was forced to retreat as the knife jostled and swayed perilously closer. The killer shoved forward again. David's heart thumped hard as the razor sharp edge drew a messy, stinging line over his neck. His left arm began to radiate with a dull, aching pain, pulsing along with the blood pouring from the open stab wound. His jaw ached from the force of his own clenching teeth.

Knowing his body was on the verge of failing him, the next time Ghostface drove the knife toward him, David redirected it into his left shoulder. It punched in without resistance, nicking his collarbone and bouncing off the inside of his shoulder blade.

David gave a delayed, truncated scream as he fought back the incoming agony and pushed his body forward, using his entire weight to keep the knife in place. He again tried to wrench the killer’s fingers from the handle, even going so far as to use his own body for leverage. He twisted and turned to try and dislodge it from his grasp, hoping the slick of his blood would be enough to loosen the killer’s hold, but nothing seemed to have any kind of effect. He was failing.

A deep, feral growl then rumbled out from the cloaked figure beneath him, menacing and eager. Vindictive. Bloodthirsty. 

David’s heart gave an agonized thump. 

Ghostface sucked in a muffled breath, and then snapped out a toothy roar as he began to push him away.  David belatedly attempted to reach for a handhold on the killer’s cloak to keep himself from being tossed away, but it was no use. After Ghostface managed to get a knee beneath him, it was over.

David, with all of his bulk and waning strength, was flung to the wayside like a bag of dirty laundry. His vision flashed white when the back of his head bounced off of the hardwood floor. When it came back a second later, it was just in time to see Ghostface on his feet, ripping his arm free from Felix’s limp body. 

When that pale, melting moan of a face spun back around to meet him, David felt all of the remaining blood in his veins freeze solid. 

The killer roared in overwrought, abject fury as he lunged for him, stained blade raised high. 

David stiffened and threw up his arms, but it was in vain. A heavy weight drove itself into his stomach, and then his torso was peppered with a flurry of deep, sharp, punching pains, the agility and violence of it almost more than he could comprehend. His mouth was flooded with the taste of iron, and the last of his strength finally slipped his grasp. His body went limp and the attack stopped.

Through a hazy, swiftly darkening tunnel, the bone-white mask hovered overhead, now speckled with blood. Heaving, quivering breaths resonated the plastic shell and poured over him in a hot wave through the void-like mouth. It sounded like he was out of breath, and somehow, David found that surprising.

Feeling his throat and lungs filling with blood, David choked and saw a geyser of red spurt from his mouth.

Ghostface grunted with an air of irritated finality then pushed himself away and back to his feet.

Beginning to drown in his own tangy, metallic blood, David watched from his limited vision as the killer stalked back over to Felix’s unmoving, naked, battered body and kneeled down beside him. With a dull, tepid anxiety, David observed as the killer placed two fingers into the crook of Felix’s neck and checked for a pulse. After a long moment, his shoulders dropped and his head bowed.

David spasmed and coughed as his body tried to clear his airways of blood, but ended up just sucking down more. His mind began to haze. Vaguely, he mused that even though this outcome was grisly, it was probably the best he could’ve hoped for. At the very least, Felix was away from this fucker.

A furious, hate-fueled scream shook the air like rolling thunder, and then Ghostface was on top of him again. The knife was a flashing, silver and red blur as it drove into him again and again and again, driving away what little life he possessed with every savage, piercing impact.

The darkness came quickly then.

Notes:

If you'd like some emotional whiplash and need a break from all this angst, then check out my other story that features near-illegal levels of fluff, David Encounters the Cat Distribution System!
Chapter 3 is currently in the works and should be out soon! 😺

Chapter 36: Revelation

David lurched to life.

His heart leapt and lungs heaved as they sucked in all the air they’d previously been unable to. He scrambled upward, blowing out everything he’d taken in, then immediately gasped to take it back— then out, then in, then out. His head spun and the murk swam as new oxygen overwhelmed his straining, newly reacquired senses.

The Forest of Passage faded into focus, and all of the terrible memories and images from his last life crashed back over him. Blood. Pain. Ghostface. Felix.

God, Felix!!

A lancet of aching, agonizing anguish speared his heart deep as that terrible image of Felix’s ruined, desecrated body popped into his brain and embedded itself there like a parasitic worm. His stomach boiled as every atrocious detail burned bright in his mind— the shadows of fingerprints outlined in the bruises on his pale hips, the mouth-shaped bloodstains mottling one side of his gored neck, the mix of fluids streaming from his body— Fuck!!

David sobbed and slapped a hand over his face to steady his reeling mind. Acrid bile burned hot and grotesque in the hollow of his throat but he swallowed it back down, if only to keep himself grounded.

He had to find him. 

He had to find Felix!!

They’d both died at relatively the same place and time— he should be close!!

David gasped hard at the air, using the fresh oxygen to dispel that horrible, arresting image from his mind— at least for the moment. That mental picture would be with him for the rest of his life.

He scrambled to his feet, pulse galloping in his veins as he scanned the murky green labyrinth all around him. Despite all of his heartache and mental anguish, he forced the world to go blank. He reached out into the infinite, lifeless black, searching for that uniquely special, indelible warmth…

David gasped as he came back to himself. 

For the first time in seemingly forever, Felix was there. He was out there!

And he was close!!

Nearly sobbing with relief, David darted forward, focusing solely on where he’d felt that tender, yet pained presence out in the verdant, shadowy abyss. Envious bushes and wicked branches scratched and clawed at him as he dashed breathlessly forward, as if actively trying to stop him. But it didn’t matter how much the Forest bloodied and thrashed him though. Nothing did, except that luminous, radiant presence in the distance that was steadily becoming brighter and brighter with every passing second. 

Eventually, it became so radiantly close that David couldn’t bear to stay silent any longer. Felix’s name burst from his heaving, working chest like an involuntary adulation.

“FELIX!!”

Only a second or two later, his own name echoed back— and in that unique, unmistakable, wavering tone he knew so well. 

The corners of his eyes burned hot as he pushed himself toward that voice, the desperation to see its owner nearly overwhelming his very sense of self.

“FELIX!!”

He called out again, if only to hear that precious voice again— and did. It was stronger, closer, and almost twice as clear as it had been before. They were both running toward each other.

Just as he was about to scream that name out into the Forest again, Felix burst from the bushes in front of him, golden hair cascading into his eyes as he staggered to a stop. His eyes were wide with terror as he heaved over his knees.

David felt his tears burst from his eyes the second he laid eyes on him, that terrible, horrible image flashing again before him. Barely holding back another sob, he skidded to a stop just before the other man, hands hovering hesitantly around his heaving form as his mind fumbled stupidly for what to do next. For some reason, he felt like if he touched him, then Felix would just shatter into a million pieces. He blinked hard, and a cascade of briny tears streamed down his cheeks.

“F– Felix!” he rasped, “A– are you—?!”

He jolted as Felix reached out to grab his arms, blue eyes bright and wild with urgency. “David! There’s no time!” he gasped. “We have to get back!!”

David blinked stupidly, his grief-stricken mind stuttering with incoherency. All he could see were those ghoulish, traumatized, bloody-blue eyes. “Felix!”

“DAVID!! THE CAMPSITE!”

He jolted again as Felix screamed at him, brain still trapped in its dazed, spiraling stupor.

“ Scheiße! COME ON!!”

Finally, Felix just snatched his hand and yanked him along behind him as he took off into the Forest. David stumbled clumsily after him for a few seconds before finally snapping out of it, blinking hard as he fell into step alongside him.

Side by side and hand tightly in hand, the pair bolted through the foggy underbrush of the Forest together, navigating the uneven terrain and supporting each other’s unsteady gaits as they sought the safety of that eternal orange glow.

David nearly faltered as Felix pulled him along even faster. 

As an athlete in his past and an adept survivalist now, he was no stranger to sprinting hard like this, but somehow, even he was having trouble keeping up with Felix’s breakneck pace. He almost couldn’t believe it. The man was practically flying over the ground like a gazelle. 

Just then, David thought he heard a crash of vegetation some distance behind them. He almost turned to look, but then Felix screamed at him without turning, his hair fluttering behind him like shredded, golden ribbons.

“DON’T LOOK BACK!!”

David’s heart thumped hard as it absorbed Felix’s panic and began thrumming in time with the pace of their pounding feet. He cast his gaze from Felix to the dark path before him, willing it to manifest the survivor camp before his eyes.

Another heavy crash reverberated throughout the woods behind them. David nearly choked as his hammering heart leapt up into his throat. He didn’t even consider looking back this time

“HURRY!!”

Felix pushed them even harder and David steadfastly matched his pace, ignoring that aching burn in his lungs and in his legs and concentrating on the hand that was on the verge of crushing his own. 

Finally, as if summoned by their combined volitions, that familiar, homely glow bloomed between the trees like the first light of a sunrise.

David heard Felix gasp with relief, then nearly stumbled and fell as Felix pulled him forward again. Their frantic pace was almost too much. They were barrelling toward the campsite like a freighter at full speed, and nothing was going to stop them from reaching it now— not even whatever unfathomable thing was following them.

That radiant orange glow rushed toward them like a tsunami of light, and before David knew it, they were tumbling and falling all over each other through the grass and into the safety of the clearing.

David came to a lurching, heaving halt on his back, staring dazedly up at the black sky as he sucked greedily at the tepid air.

Hearing another set of puffing breaths echoing his own, David turned to look at the man beside him and squeezed the hand still wrapped tightly in his. Again, that terrible image flashed in his mind’s eye. “Felix.”

Felix was on his knees, forehead digging into the ground with his eyes squeezed tightly shut as he tried to recompose himself.

“Felix,” David tried again, “What was… what was that in the lab?!” he said between heaving, wheezing breaths. “Are you—?!”

Suddenly, Felix launched himself away from the ground with a broken gasp and tore away from his grip.

David flipped himself onto his hands and knees and watched as the man stumbled several paces away from him and stopped, hands fisted in his hair and elbows wide. David climbed to his feet and stumbled after him, eyes burning as the adrenaline faded and the horror of what he’d witnessed began to settle firmly into his heart and mind. His hands hovered cautiously and unsteadily over Felix’s back as he muttered frantically to himself in his native language.

“Felix, Felix please. Please talk to me! Tell me what’s going on!! ” His tears were falling freely now. 

“Gott, scheiße!!” Felix sobbed, head falling forward into his hands. “This isn’t happening!”

David automatically shook his head and grit his teeth. “Felix please. Talk to me. What was happening back there with you and Ghostface?! What did he—?!” 

He tried to put a hand on the man’s shoulder to ease him, but the second he did, Felix leapt from his grip as if he’d been electrocuted.

“NO! Don’t touch me!” he shrieked back at him. “And don’t— don't ask me that!! ” He then went back to fisting his hair. “Gott, fuck!! ”

David stood frozen in horror, mouth agape in shock. Felix’s reaction was answer enough. He’d already had enough information to come to the same horrible conclusion all by himself, but hadn’t wanted to face it. Now, he had no other choice.

Heavy tears crowded his vision and streamed down his face, blurring the man as he turned back toward him, his own eyes taut and flooded with moisture.

“C hristus! You’ve no idea what you’ve done— what he’s going to do to us now that you— scheiße!! ” Felix flipped his back to him again as he frantically paced away, shoulders heaving with barely contained panic. 

David felt his heart almost stop. His eyes widened in sickening realization at what Felix’s words implied. Those cold, slithering snakes of unspeakable, harrowing horror crawled and gnawed down his back. “That… that wasn’t the first time, was it?”

Felix stopped pacing and went still, back still toward him.

David could barely breathe. His entire body began to shake. “Was it?!”

Felix flinched hard, and then his head dropped. With a grim, terrible slowness, it shook from side to side.

David sucked in a hitching gasp, faltering as the knowledge smashed through him and stole away his breath. He had to know. “H– How many times??”

Felix’s shoulders hiked up high as he hunched in on himself.

David staggered senselessly forward. “HOW MANY TIMES?!”

“I DON’T KNOW!!!” Felix sobbed hard and then collapsed to his knees. “I don’t know!…”

The man’s back then shuddered hard as he began to cry in earnest. 

David’s hand pressed hard over his mouth to keep down the anguished scream of grief and horror that was on the verge of erupting from his body. The abject, monstrous horror of it… it was more than he could comprehend. 

And Felix had endured it. 

All this time.

Every tormented look. Every fearful glance. Every stilted lie.

That venomous, virulent repudiation of their friendship and the confession of his love.

It had all been because of this.

Not the Entity. Not the serum. Not his mind.

This.

Ghostface.

And all the unspeakable things the killer had done to him.

All without him knowing.

All this time.

David sobbed hard, a fresh wave of tears pouring down his face as the grief nearly brought him to his knees— but he kept himself standing, at least, long enough to stagger over to Felix’s side.

He fell to his knees hard before his curled, sobbing friend— the person he loved more than anything— his love, who had suffered unspeakable, despicable atrocities he dared not even imagine— the person he had failed beyond forgiveness and reproach— and began to cry beside him.

“Felix, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry, Felix! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

His hands brushed gently over the man’s hitching shoulders, and before he could even register what was happening, hands were darting out and scrambling to grab hold of whatever they could. In a single second, Felix had latched himself onto his midsection and pressed his face deep into his shirt. David grabbed up his shuddering, shivering body and held him as tight as he could. Teeth grinding, he fisted the man’s navy blue jacket hard, partly in anger and partly in anguish as the man he loved fell to pieces in his arms. He wanted to scream. He wanted to destroy. He wanted to take Ghostface’s skull and crush it between his fingers— but couldn’t. All he could do was sit here with his weeping friend and mourn his shattered soul.

For all of the evils that resided in this place, not once had David ever considered that they would delve to these depths— to this level of violation and depravity. 

He’d been naive. 

He grit his teeth and shook his head hard to ward off his own rising anger and self-hatred. He placed a gentle, comforting hand over Felix’s disheveled, golden locks and began carefully smoothing them over. His voice rasped out through his unending tears.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Felix hiccuped hard, then turned his head just enough so that he could be heard. “H– he threatened to t– torture you— do terrible, unspeakable things to you— to both of us! A– and now—!” His body shuddered hard as he choked on a tremendous, arresting sob, but he pushed through it to get out what he needed to say. “You’re dead! We’re both dead! He’s going to get to us eventually, and w– when he does?!”

Words failed the man, and the sorrowful sobs retook control of his body. 

David blinked through his tears up at the sky, trying to comprehend it all.

Felix had been trying to protect him. He’d suffered at his expense. Felix had let himself be… had endured that . For him. He’d thrown his mind and body away for him. Of all fucking people. Him. When David would have traded places with him in a second.

Desperate hands clutched at the back of his shirt. Felix’s muffled, whimpering voice floated up from against his stomach. “I’m so sorry!”

Briny tears pushed down David’s cheeks as he squeezed his eyes shut and burned in his own self-hatred. He squeezed the man to him tighter. “ No ,” He hissed. “ No . Don’t you dare say that. It’s… it’s not your fault, okay? You didn’t have a choice in any of this. You fuckin’ hear me? It’s not your fault.”

After a long moment, he felt Felix nod against him. His sobs receded just long enough for him to squeak out a diminutive, “O– Okay…”

Another sob escaped David’s chest as crushing grief tore at his heart— grief for the loss of who Felix had once been, and would probably never be again— the person that Ghostface had all but destroyed.

And Felix had let it happen— had suffered in silence— for him .

Again, David squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, cursing the inhuman cruelty of it all as he hugged his sobbing, broken friend tight against his chest. It was too much.

“W– what are we going to do?” Felix rasped wetly against him.

David cracked open his eyes and started to look down, but was distracted by a hesitant figure outlined in orange hovering some distance away. Claudette. She watched them idly just out of earshot, a very worried and sympathetic look on her face as she waited for his permission to approach. Behind her at the campfire, the few survivors that he hadn’t noticed until now were watching the scene he and Felix had created with covert concern.

“H– he’s going to destroy us the next chance he gets!” Felix continued, climbing out of his damp shirt to stare up at him with terrified, red-rimmed eyes. But then, that devastated, terrified expression fell as he seemed to realize something. Felix clutched at him hard, eyes suddenly bright. “I could talk to him. It’s me he wants! I could make a deal and go with him willingly so he won't—!”

“NO!! No! No! No! No! NO! NO! NO!!” David barked harshly, shaking the man’s shoulders with every snapping syllable. “You’re NOT going to fuckin’ do that!! If you think I’m goin’ to just stand by and let you throw yourself away for me, then you’re a right fuckin’ bellend who’s not been paying any goddamn attention!! Promise me you’re not going to willingly go back to him— PROMISE ME!!” He shook the stunned man one final time as he shouted at him, teeth grinding as he stared deeply into those devastated, moisture-warped blues.

Fat tears slipped down the man’s flushed cheeks as he nodded curtly. “Okay. I promise.”

David felt his fierce expression break apart as his heart twisted with relief and sorrow. He wrenched the man’s body toward him, pulling him into a desperate, crushing hug as he hoped beyond hope that the man wasn’t lying to him. His fears somewhat eased as he felt the man’s hands curl up around his back and return the embrace. David buried his face into Felix’s shoulder, just inhaling his natural scent and molding himself around the other as he tried to take comfort in the fact that, at least for the moment, he was here and safely in his arms.

“B– but… what are we going to do?” Felix whispered, fingers digging desperately into his back. “What else can we do?”

Reluctantly, David pulled his head up from his shoulder and stared out into the empty darkness of the woodland, holding Felix close as he tried to think of a way to save him from this nigh unstoppable, inevitable force. He’d gotten lucky back in the lab. No way Ghostface would allow for something like that to happen again.

David thought back over all the time that had passed since he’d first noticed the shift in Felix’s demeanor. So much time… and so many moments that had led to them being separated— that had left Felix vulnerable. So many opportunities for Ghostface to move in and…

David shook the thoughts away and squeezed Felix to himself even harder to stay grounded. He caught Claudette again from the corner of his eye, still waiting patiently to help. David momentarily turned to meet her concerned, caring gaze, then glanced at the group watching from the fire, then finally turned his attention back on the man in his embrace.

“We can’t do anything by ourselves,” David said numbly. “We need help.”

He relaxed his fervid grip as Felix pulled back to look him in the eye, expression wan and worried. 

David set his jaw. “We have to tell them.”

Felix’s eyes went wide. “No! You can’t! Please don’t tell them David, please! I beg of you! Please!”

Realizing in horror at what Felix thought he meant by that, David soothingly hushed the man as he tearfully clawed at his clothes. “Shh, it’s okay mate, it’s okay. Calm down. We don’t gotta tell them everything, okay? Just enough to get them on our side.”

Felix eased at that. He swallowed hard and nodded as his panic faded.

David gripped his shoulders gently, but firmly. “Listen mate. We’re going to need everyone’s help in this, but you know as well as I do there’s a bunch of arsehats over there who won’t give two shites either way. We gotta give ‘em enough to get through to ‘em, aright?”

“O– okay…” Felix breathed, still looking incredibly shaken and unsure, “B– but you promise not to tell them about—”

“I promise mate. I bloody promise,” he said, raising his right hand in a makeshift oath. “I swear to you, I won’t be tellin’ anyone anything that you don’t want me to, aright?”

Felix nodded again, a devastatingly serious expression taking hold of his tearstained face. He was entrusting him fully with the last of his dignity and autonomy.

David breathed out and gave a solemn nod back, then glanced quickly back at Claudette. “Now, do you want to be the one to give her the rundown? Or should I?”

Felix grimaced as his gaze flicked over to the woman, then settled firmly back on him. “Please… if you could.”

David flattened his lips into a taut, yet pained smile, and nodded.

 

— — — 

 

To Felix, walking back to the campfire and all the people around it felt like walking down death row. 

After this, there was no going back. The people he sat by and survived with on the daily would see him as a victim— as a weak, oversensitive, fragile piece of glass— and would treat him as such in their own unique way. Even though they wouldn’t be learning the true nature of the assaults, the result would effectively be the same.

He wasn’t even sure if telling them would be worth it at all. Even if the other survivors could be convinced to defend him with their lives— even the ones that despised him— how much of a difference would it make? How were any of them supposed to fight off a supernaturally strong, vindictive, and almost certainly very angry killer? Especially one who didn’t have a reason to hide anymore?

As the radiating warmth of the fire became detectable on his skin, so too did the faces of the people around it. Jake, Tapp, Nea, and… Ace.

His gaze dropped to his trudging feet.

The hand on his shoulder immediately tightened its grip in response, but Felix felt no comfort from its touch. 

The metallic clicking and clacking of the Zippo lighter Nea had been playing with stopped. He didn’t have to look up to know that all eyes were on him.

They came to a stop by a nearby empty log seat.

“Go ahead and sit down Felix,” David whispered, giving his shoulder a comforting pat.

Felix glanced over at him but the Brit’s gaze was focused on the others. He sat down on the log, grateful that at the very least, he wouldn’t have to be the main subject of everyone’s attention during this terrible diatribe. 

Claudette began to talk, and his hands started to wring.

“Everyone, David and I have something important we’d like to share with you.”

Across the fire, Nea mumbled something inaudible to Ace, who quietly scoffed in response. Everyone ignored it.

“It has come to our attention that—”

Claudette stopped. Felix looked up at the sudden interruption, and saw three more survivors emerging from the shadows: Dwight, Meg, and Adam. He turned his gaze downward and hunched in on himself again. It would practically be a full house for the public execution of the remaining dregs of his confidence and self-esteem.

“Come have a seat everyone. There’s something we need to tell you.”

“Oh, this should be good…” snarked Meg.

Again, everyone ignored her. 

After the sounds of shuffling and moving about gave way to silence and the crackling fire, Claudette began again.

“As you all may or may not have noticed, one of us has been struggling a great deal lately, and even went missing for a while there. And, well, we’ve finally discovered the unfortunate cause for that. David?”

David sighed unsteadily and stepped forward with a grumbling, grunting cough, arms crossed tightly over his chest. Felix tried to make himself as small and invisible as possible. 

“Like Claudie said, Felix has been struggling a great deal lately, and now… I’ve finally found out why… Ghostface.”

There was some subtle shifting around the fire, but no audible voices. 

David continued. “For a long while now, he’s been targeting Felix, both in and outside of the Trials, and… torturing him,” David's voice momentarily wavered but he managed to recover and continued on. “Any time he’s been alone, whether in a Trial or coming back from one, Ghostface would get to him. He only did it when Felix was by himself so no one would suspect anything. Felix has… has been suffering a great deal all this time, but couldn’t tell anyone— couldn’t tell me because…” 

David’s voice seemed to die then, but Claudette was quick to take over.

“—Because Ghostface threatened to torture that person as well. So, because Felix didn’t think it would be worth it to put someone else through that, he stayed quiet— until now.”

Again came the subtle, absent sound of shifting, sniffling, and even a cough, but not much else. It was similar to the sounds restless church patrons made as they sat through a boring sermon.

Claudette continued. “So, bearing that in mind, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I just told you all this, considering the severity of those threats, and, well… It’s because I believe in you— in us. All of us. I believe that if we can work together as one unit, we can put up a strong enough front to protect ourselves— and Felix— from whatever Ghostface is going to do.”

It was at this moment that Felix decided to discreetly look up from his fidgeting hands to gauge how the others were reacting to all this. He was unsurprised to see that Meg was looking exceptionally bored with her head in her hand, while Nea and Ace seemed deeply disgruntled. 

Felix inwardly deflated, hoping that this explanation would have somehow eased their dislike of him, but it had been a foolish thing to hope for. Most of everyone else was frowning in rapt attention at Claudette’s speech, while Jake was staring absently off somewhere in the distance, and— 

Felix’s heart skipped a beat.

Tapp was staring at him. 

Felix quickly looked away and back at the ground. He started to wring his hands again, the pulse of blood in his ears drowning out whatever Claudette and David were saying to the group.

That had been a look of deep, penetrative suspicion— like the older man was trying to pick him apart with his eyes and look inside— searching for the truth.

Felix sucked in a tremulous breath and fisted his slacks to stop his hands from shaking.

This had been a mistake.

Just then, the sound of snapping fingers and a sing-song whistle came from Ace’s vicinity of the campfire.

“Ah, lo siento , perdón por la interrupción, querida, but let me just make sure I’m hearing you correctly. You want me and everyone else here to put our asses on the line and turn ourselves into living meatshields for blondie over there, because the coño can’t take a fucking knife to the gut?”

Felix inwardly winced at the sharp jab. There was a chorus of groans, rebukes, and concurrences from all around the campfire in reaction to Ace’s remark, while beside him, he heard David just sigh sadly, as if he no longer possessed the energy to be angry anymore.

“Ace, you know that’s not what I’m saying,” tried Claudette. “I’m just trying to say that if we can manage to work cohesively together and support each other, then—”

“No. No. I’m sorry querida, but I only help those who help me— and themselves— and frankly, I haven’t seen either from the priss yet since the day he’s arrived, so if you’ll excuse me— ”

Ace pushed off his knees to his feet, and spun on his heel to leave. Nea and Meg did the same.

“Ace, hold on,” interjected Dwight. “You’re not hearing what Claudette’s saying. If we can all just—”

“Nah, I think I’ve heard enough. Good luck to anyone willing to throw their lives away for this delicate, dainty, rich pendejo — you’re gonna need it.”

And with that, Ace and the two girls marched away from the group toward the darkness, leaving them all in a stunned, awkward silence. 

Felix had not broken his gaze away from his feet during that entire, excruciatingly scornful ordeal. He attempted to fight back the burning sensation in his throat and in the corners of his eyes, but the rising tide of shame and despair was too overwhelming to resist. He hunched over his knees and moved a hand through his hair to hide the fresh tears that were now trickling over his burning cheeks, barely crushing down the sobs that were trying to work themselves up his throat.

This had been a mistake.

No one was going to help him— could help him. Eventually, Danny was going to get his hands on him, gut David alive, stuff his entrails down his throat, and then drag Felix away to whatever dark hell he’d prepared for him and keep him there forever.

It was going to happen, and no one would be able to stop it.

Dwight gave a frustrated sigh. “Okay well, just— Everyone, if you come into contact with Ghostface, just be extra careful— and if Felix is with you, do your best to help him out and stick together, alright?”

There was a mumbling wave of agreement among the remaining survivors which eventually gave way to whispering pockets of low conversation.

Finally, David took that opportunity to crouch by his side and put a squeezing hand on his shoulder, giving a tired grumble of frustration. “M’sorry mate. I really thought this might’ve been the thing to get those three to flip, but…” he sighed heavily. “M’sorry. You won’t be listening to what he said though, aright? He’s a bloody fuckin’ arsehole who’s head’s thicker than a concrete block and he’s fuckin’ wrong about you, aright? Got no bloody idea what the hell he’s talkin’ about because he don’t know you like I do. Don’t let him get to y—”

“He’s going to take me.” Felix could barely squeeze out the words.

David hesitated. “Take where?”

A hitching sob escaped him. “ B– back to his place. He said he was going to take me away and keep me there. I—” He sobbed again and clutched at his hair.

David squeezed his shoulder and shook it hard. “Hey. Hey. I’m not gonna let that fuckin’ happen aright? You hear me? I’m not. I’d fuckin’ chew off me own arms before that. He is not gonna get at you again, you fuckin’ understand me?”

Felix squeezed his eyes shut and fisted his hair even tighter, desperate to believe those words and absorb them into his darkening mind, but it was so, so hard.

“And look— we got all these people here who’re gonna do the same and who’re all gonna do their damndest to make sure that aint gonna happen either. Those three bellends? Fuck ‘em. Don’t need ‘em. We got all the help we need right here, aright? It’s gonna be okay mate. Don’t worry. We’re gonna be okay.”

David patted his shoulder in an attempt to comfort and reaffirm. Felix breathed deep to calm his spasming lungs. He wiped at his face and nodded, but mostly just did it for David’s sake. In his heart, he knew that it wouldn’t be enough— especially if no one was going to take the delicate, fragile rich boy seriously.

Dwight’s legs trotted into his crestfallen, earthly view. 

“Hey, sorry about that. Are you two okay?” he asked.

David grunted dejectedly and dragged himself back to his feet. “Eh, I gotta be honest mate… No. No, not really.” There was a moment of silence as Dwight shifted on his feet to absorb that, and then David continued. “No hard feelings toward Claudie, but I don’t think she fully conveyed the seriousness of the situation here. Dwight, we’re in deep shite, and we’re going to need some serious help…”

Feeling a bit less on the verge of falling apart, Felix took in a deep, steadying breath, and picked his gaze up off of the ground. The campsite was alive with tepid conversation, while Ace’s gang was nowhere to be seen. He assumed they’d taken off to wherever they usually disappeared too. He wondered if Danny would intercept them, but then decided that he more than likely wouldn’t bother— especially if they had no intention of helping him.

Felix shuddered, trying to push away the mental image of Danny slinking around the perimeter of the campsite, listening to their conversations, and waiting for his moment to strike and steal him away. 

He averted his gaze back onto the others to distract himself— and froze.

Tapp was still staring at him.

Felix’s heart stuttered. He immediately averted his gaze and cast it into the flames. His fingers absently played at the fringes of his jacket as he tried to appear unphased and nonchalant. He placed the man in the edges of his peripheral vision and watched him stare back, wondering which one of the myriad of things he’d done to draw his ire. Was he considering what Ace had said about him?

Suddenly, Tapp got up, and Felix’s heart jumped.

With steadily rising panic, Felix watched from the blurred corners of his sight as Tapp sauntered around the fire, thumbs casually hanging onto his pockets as he slowly but surely made his way over to Felix’s location. All the while, Felix could feel his heart rate rising with every encroaching step, mind racing as it tried to come up with contingencies for the incoming confrontation.

Once Tapp had eventually completed his trek around the fire, he stood beside him for a long, precarious moment, just watching, and then finally dropped to take the seat directly beside him. Felix’s heart jolted as he did so. He was still unable to meet the man’s easy, piercing gaze as Tapp leaned over his knees to look into his face. 

David and Dwight were still conversing above him, completely oblivious to the other man’s intrusion of Felix’s space. Felix considered reaching out to alert David, but didn’t want to seem like a frightened child calling out for his protector whenever something went wrong.

“Yea. I know that look,” Tapp said in that low, reedy voice. He scoffed through his teeth. “Can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Guess I didn’t want to.”

Felix’s panicked gaze hesitantly flicked up onto the older man’s graying one, heart pulsing as those penetrating, yet somehow easygoing eyes stared straight through to his soul. Felix couldn’t speak.

“Yea… Saw it plenty back in the day,” he said, eyes roaming his face. “Mostly on women, but… sometimes on men too. Haunted. Vacant. Like your entire world is collapsing all around you, and nobody else can see it. You feel like nothing’s inside your head except for that big black hole that has all the shit you never wanna think about again, yeah? Except for the times when it leaks out and crawls out all over your skin like ants.”

Felix’s heart and lungs were thrumming. He wanted to look away from Tapp’s invading, yet oddly calm gaze, but couldn’t. He was trapped.

“Yeah… Fucker did a lot more than stick you with his knife… He broke you.”

Finally, David took notice. “ Hey. The hell’re you doin’? Back off!”

Tapp waved calmly up at the Brit, but did not break his gaze. “Hey, it’s okay man. It’s alright. Easy…” he said, voice as unbothered and smooth as old mahogany. He leaned easily over his knees and stared calmly into his soul, acting as if David wasn’t towering over them both. “So…” Tapp continued, “Is it as bad as those hollowed-out eyes of yours say it is?”

As if Tapp had just flipped an invisible switch inside of him, Felix’s eyes automatically welled with tears. His breath hitched.

He knew. Felix didn't know how or why, but somehow… Tapp just… knew.

And understood.

“Alright that’s enough ,” snapped David, trying to get between them and ward Tapp off. “Get the fuck away from him.”

“Yes,” Felix breathed.

David stopped and turned back.

Almost imperceptibly, Tapp began to nod, the motion growing until it became a serious, sympathetic affirmation. “For a while now.”

A statement. The tears tumbled down his cheeks. “Yes,” Felix said with great effort.

Tapp nodded to himself in thoughtful consideration, taking a long protracted moment to let the word settle into the air between them before finally responding. “I’m very sorry.”

Felix's breath rushed out of him, all the tension that had gathered in his body rushing out with it. He nodded back, somehow feeling slightly more at peace than before, despite the fact that now, two people knew.

“Alright, enough,” said David, albeit with a bit less force.

Tapp withdrew without resistance this time, scooting far enough away for David to sit between them.

David's arm was immediately over his back, shielding and protective as he glanced in warning back at the older man, then looked with wary concern into Felix’s eyes. “You okay?”

Felix nodded dazedly.

“You sure?”

“Yes,” Felix said, voice somewhat steadier than it had been before.

For a long while, David watched the features of his face until he eventually found whatever he’d been looking for. The hand over his back slipped away. “Okay…” He nodded. “Okay.”

Felix nodded diminutively back, letting his gaze drop. It fell on a pair of dark, muddy dress shoes standing several paces away— Dwight’s. Felix hesitantly looked back up, but saw that Dwight’s gaze was somewhere else, the lenses of his glasses alight with orange flame. His arms were crossed as he chewed on his thumb, looking deep in thought. Felix wondered if he’d heard anything that Tapp had said to him.

“Dwight…” David said suddenly, voice grave. “We need a plan .”

After a long time, Dwight nodded. “Yeah…”

“If what Felix told me is true, then the next Trial might not be against him, but there’s no guarantee. We also gotta think about gettin’ him back afterward. Runnin’ fast ain’t always gonna work.”

Again, Dwight slowly nodded, eyes still cast on the flames. “Yeah…”

“And this fucker wants him bad, mate. Bad. We can’t fail once or its fuckin’ over for him. You get me? Over .”

Dwight nodded a bit quicker this time. His arms folded across his chest and he looked toward them. His expression was drawn and subdued. “We’ll put a team together. I’ll ask Claudette to grab us a Shroud of Binding and we’ll work up a strategy. We can hit the gens hard and fall back on the hatch if we need to. We—”

“ Mate. That’s not fuckin’ good enough,” David snapped. “Did you not hear what I was tellin’ you a minute ago? Ghostface ain’t gonna give a single shite about hooks or gens. He’s just gonna slaughter us all one by one until it's just him and Felix, and—” his voice fell away as it momentarily caught on air. “—Our best effort ain’t gonna be fuckin’ good enough for this!”

At this point, Felix could barely hear David anymore over the blood through his ears and the breath hissing between his teeth. 

God, they really didn’t have a plan! How could they have a plan?! Nothing they did was ever going to be good enough!

Felix clutched breathlessly at his heart as it started trying to beat through his ribcage. “Gott, he’s going to take me— he's going to take me! ”

David’s hands immediately latched onto him. “Hey, it’s okay mate. Easy . He’s not gonna take you, okay? I fuckin’ swear Just breathe mate. Breathe. We’re gonna work this out okay?”

Felix could only shake his head as his lungs began desperately heaving for air. There was no plan. They couldn’t protect him. There was no plan.

Dwight’s head shook helplessly. “Well… What do we do then?”

Felix could only hear the sound of his own rapid, shallow breaths in the silence that stretched between them all. He began to drown in his panic.

“You beat the bastard at his own game,” said a rasping voice.

David leaned back to reveal Tapp, looking deadly serious as he leaned into their conversation.

“What?” the Brit asked.

“You heard what I said.”

Dwight shifted deliberately. “Explain.”

Tapp scooted closer and directed his placid gaze onto Felix's eyes. “You know I used to be a detective, right?”

The pace of Felix’s panicked breaths eased. He swallowed hard as a vague recollection from when he’d first met the man tried to dredge itself up from the back of his mind. At any rate, he’d forgotten the introduction by now.

“Homicide.” He dug into his jacket to pull out his badge and presented it to him. 

Felix leaned in slightly to examine it. The bronze lettering was tarnished and the black leather case holding it was worn and creased. He was allowed several long moments to read and examine it before Tapp pulled it back and stored it safely away.

It all made sense now. Tapp could see things— knew things… things that normal people overlooked or dismissed.

People like Tapp routinely came into contact with the darkest parts of humanity and stared them straight in the face. No doubt… he’d also seen the effects of that darkness on others, and the scars it had wrought. He’d had years of direct experience with that darkness— probably decades.

No wonder Tapp had seen straight through him.

“Spent most of my life chasing fucks like Ghostface, and from what I’ve seen since I’ve been here, he’s a textbook sociopathic narcissist with a power fetish. These guys? They’re all the fuckin’ same— just thirty-one different flavors of the same kind of scum. These bastards think they’re so damn smart, and so far above everyone else, they never even notice the cracks in the pedestal they've sat themselves on until it's too late. Their ego trips them up every damn time.”

“Wait, so what are you saying?” David interjected.

“I’m saying this fucker has a weakness ,” Tapp said pointedly, looking somewhat irritated that David had interrupted him.

Felix blinked as Tapp suddenly looked away, feeling like the older man had been speaking only to him. The detective was quick to recapture his attention though.

“Think about it. What does Ghostface do? Creates chaos and confusion in his Trials, takes pictures of us without us knowing… Did what he did to you, Felix.”

Felix somewhat squirmed as Tapp respectfully gestured toward him, but managed to retain his calm.

Tapp’s attention was on everyone now. “And why does he do it? Fear. Power. Control. He needs it— craves it. It practically defines his whole sense of self. So, the way you really get to someone like that…”

“—is by taking it away…” David finished, sounding almost in awe.

This time, Tapp pointed directly at him and nodded in approval. “And he's so far up his own ass, he’ll probably never see it coming.”

Felix sucked in a breath as he came back to himself, as if breaking from a trance. His mind was alight with half-formed thoughts and ideas. They couldn’t play by the rules anymore. Ghostface wasn’t, so why should they? No, they had to become resourceful— ruthless — creative…

Dwight finally chimed in with the obvious question. “So what are you suggesting we do?” 

Tapp sighed. “I’ll be honest, it’ll be difficult here in this setting, but I still think it’s still possible. We’ll just have to get—”

“We have to go back to the lab,” Felix whispered.

David’s head instantly whipped back around. “What?! No! Are you bloody mad?! No fuckin’ way!”

“It has the equipment we need to—”

“You’re not leavin’ this goddamn campfire ‘till—!”

“I never said I was!” Felix hissed, giving David a firm look. “But someone has to…”

He looked around at the others, who were all staring at him with curious, yet somewhat doubtful expressions.

Felix kept his voice low and measured, causing the others to lean further in to hear him. Dwight crouched low.

“He’s out there right now… at this very moment. Watching. Listening . I know it. We’ll be lucky if he hasn’t heard every word of this, but if we are to succeed… if I am to… survive… Then we’re going to need every scrap of wire, glass, and metal that that workshop has to offer.” He turned directly to David and grasped his arm tight, expression gravely serious. “If I give you a list, will you be able to find everything on it? Some things will be… hidden. I’ll need to explain where to find them.”

David's brow drew tighter together the longer he listened, clearly beginning to understand this makeshift plan of his and where he intended on taking it. “And just how exactly… ” he whispered very deliberately, hand moving to take firm hold of his elbow, “Do you intend fer me to slip past Ghostface without him noticing?”

Felix’s jaw tightened. His lips pressed into a thin, firm line as he stared into David’s hard, fearful, and devoted gaze— the gaze of someone who loved him and was terrified of losing him. It made his heart ache.

He breathed long and steady, keeping his expression as stoic as possible. “I’ll distract him.”

David closed his eyes and breathed hard, as if he’d just been told that the world was ending.

Felix pushed onward, despite the abject fear bubbling in his blood. “He wants me more than anything else— more than he hates you, so…” he shrugged half-heartedly. “Why not give him what he wants?”

David still hadn’t opened his eyes, almost like he was pretending Felix hadn’t said what he’d just said, because he knew there was no way around it.

“You sure about this son?” Tapp asked, his bearded frown deepening with doubt.

“Well…” Felix shrugged helplessly. “Do you two have any better ideas?”

He looked between Tapp and Dwight, who looked dismally between themselves and then at him.

“Fook.”

Felix turned back to David. The man’s eyes were open now, but dazed and far away— the end of the world. His upper lip slightly curled in revulsion as his expression soured. His fearful brown eyes flicked onto his tepid blues.

“I bloody hate this.”

Felix’s expression went taut but resolute as he swallowed down his gathering fear. He stared back into those warm, deep browns with as much steadfast determination as he could muster. “I know it’s terrible, and… honestly, it scares the shit out of me, but if you can succeed… then I’ll at least have a chance.”

David’s eyes closed in grave defeat.

He nodded.

Notes:

Yooo this plot is shmoovin now!

Also, turns out getting mad at DBD and dropping it for a couple of weeks is really conducive to writing. 🤣
Because if you may or may not know, I'm currently working on a little GhostFelix oneshot unrelated to this fic that should be coming out here in the next week or so, so keep them eyes peeled! 👀
I've also been utilizing my Tumblr a bit more to ask people about stuff like that, so next time I run out of ideas for side projects... idk maybe you should be there to help me out 😆
https://www.tumblr.com/superpsychedelicdbd

Chapter 37: Appealing

Notes:

I would like to thank dbd for killing my addiction to dbd. Thanks! 🤝🎉 I’ve never written more in my life!

Felix looked back over his shoulder at the campfire. Through the thick brush, the site was barely visible, but he could make out David, Dwight, and a few others at the supply box. Scattered around them was a sea of open medkits, toolboxes, and a myriad of other items that could have easily seemed like junk to the ignorant eye, but were incredibly precious to them. The group was in the middle of inventorying everything they had, and taking note of what they might need in the near future.

They looked busy.

And distracted.

Felix let his breath hiss unsteadily though his teeth and turned back toward the open meadow before him. The stream that wandered lazily through the middle burbled quietly and unobtrusively in the open silence.

His heart thumped heavy and burdensome in his chest and in his ears.

He took in another long breath to try and calm it.

Felix wasn’t sure if he was standing at the edge of safety or not— if he was inside the invisible bubble that would protect him. It was hard to tell. There were no trees here. He could somewhat make out where they stopped in the distance. He tried to draw a mental line over to where he was, but… 

It was hard to tell. 

He couldn’t be sure.

The meadow remained quiet and still. His heart continued to labor and he scanned the open space before him. He swallowed hard, taking in several more deliberate, steadying breaths before attempting to speak. 

“D– Danny?”

His voice sounded like the squeak of a mouse, so he took in a deeper breath and tried again.

“Danny?”

Better. His voice had carried, but the meadow continued to remain as it was. The shadows caressing its borders did not move.

Quickly, he glanced back over his shoulder, and saw David and the others still busying themselves with the supplies. When he turned back, he was relieved to see that the meadow had not changed while he hadn’t been looking at it, at least, from what he could tell.

The stream babbled on, dragging the silence along with it.

When nothing happened for another long moment, Felix prepared himself to call out again, but then choked on the breath that had been halfway into his lungs. All the hair on his body stood up as if he was about to be struck by lightning. His skin began to squirm all over his body as if it no longer belonged to him. 

That scent.

That terrible, familiar, god-awful scent, pungent and heavy on his mind and in his lungs. 

On him. 

Inside him. 

Felix shuddered.

His eyes began to dart about the calm scene before him, searching frantically for the source of the smell, but saw nothing. His legs itched like they wanted to run, but he kept himself rooted firmly in place and stood his ground. He had to do this. He had to be brave.

For a moment, Felix almost changed his mind about running when a shadow began to rise up from a thicket not even ten meters away from him. His lungs froze around the stinking air. His blood began to melt in his veins.

Danny arose from the shadows like a corpse ascending from a grave. The killer gathered himself all the way up to his full height and then turned his deadly gaze directly on him, staring straight into his core with that frozen, gaping moan. 

Felix felt his heart begin to race. It thrummed against his sternum and in his skull like a stuttering, backfiring engine. He wrapped his arms tight around his body to keep himself grounded and flicked his fingers several times out at the air. 

Danny then began moving toward him, appearing to glide over the ground as if he were a literal phantom. The tassels sprouting from his cloak floated along behind him like the stinging tendrils of a jellyfish or man-of-war.

Felix’s entire body began to shake. His frozen lungs ached. He held himself tighter.

Closer and closer, Danny silently drifted toward him. More and more Felix felt like he should run, but no longer could— even if he’d wanted to. His legs were locked in place. 

He was safe. He was safe. He was safe.

Finally, the ghostly shadow stopped just before him and stared deep into him, barely a meter away. His dark leather hands were curled into taut fists.

Felix winced away tears as the caustic cologne stung his eyes. He clutched at himself even tighter, as if he were wrapping his arms around a shield.

He was safe. He was inside the bubble. He was safe. He was safe.

“I– I’m sorry,” he forced out, then sucked in a breath as his lungs finally restarted themselves.

The silently moaning mask cocked slowly to the side.

Felix swallowed hard to wet the inside of his mouth, but found that his throat had gone completely dry. He forged ahead anyways, expelling the words he’d gathered from out his shaking body. 

“I– I did as little as I could, but I still had to make it convincing. He would have known otherwise. I know I still fucked up, b– but I had to do it. I had no other choice. I– I’m sorry.”

The screaming white face canted back the other way, as if in suspicion or consideration. The killer remained precariously and dubiously silent.

Felix brought his hands together in a beseeching, prayerful plea, inching desperately but cautiously forward.

“Please forgive me. Please. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Any of it. I want to go back to how things were before. I want… I want to make it up to you, but… but you must understand why I am… very hesitant to step forward.”

Other than the black tassels teasing at the air, Danny remained completely still. His empty, drooping sockets stared hard.

Felix dropped his gaze, losing his fragile willpower to keep his eyes fixated on those dark voids. “I… I can’t even imagine how furious you must be… how much you must want to hurt me for what I did…” he said, barely keeping down a gasping sob. “The thought of going back to you honestly terrifies me… but… I know I can’t stay on this side of the line forever, so… please.” He awkwardly lowered himself onto his knees, and then forced himself to look back up into that gaping, deathly face, holding his desperate tears in the corners of his eyes.

Danny towered menacingly over him.

“ Please . Have… have mercy on me,” he begged breathlessly. He again clasped his hands together before the killer and prostrated himself completely, as if he were pleading with a god. “ Have mercy. I… I’ll even go with you willingly this very moment if you do, I just… I have only one request— a plea, if you will.”

The moaning mask inclined ever so slightly.

Felix pursed his lips to wet them, barely maintaining the pace of his overly heavy and deliberate breaths. “Leave David alone.”

Danny’s padded shoulders arched as his entire body tensed. His fists clenched tight and began to quake, as if on the verge of lashing out. The voice that came forth from behind the mask was a razor-thin blade snaking between his ribs:

“So you do love him.”

Felix froze up. His heart leapt halfway up his throat before he managed to swallow it back down. His inner mind began to spiral into oblivion before he managed to lock it back down. “I… n– no. I just… He doesn’t… doesn’t deserve that, and it would take you away from… me.”

Danny straightened.

Felix looked reverently up into those twin black voids. “I’ve… been thinking about what you said— about leaving this all behind, and…” His gaze dropped back to the ground and onto the killer’s black combat boots as fear and shame overwhelmed him. His cheeks began to burn. He swallowed thickly as he clutched at his slacks. “I… I want to go. I want… you.”

The burbling silence rang on for a very long time. 

The longer Felix stared at those heavy black boots, the faster his heart thumped with unsure terror.

Suddenly, a different noise began to rise above the gurgling water in the background— a sharp, staccato rhythm. Felix hesitantly lifted his gaze and saw Danny’s shoulders shaking. The noise then emerged from deep within the killer’s chest, transforming into a low, wickedly malicious, almost triumphant laugh. The killer’s head fell back as he laughed into the air around them for a while, before finally dropping back to stare down at him with a satisfied inhale.

“ Do you now?” Danny cooed, voice low and slithering.

Felix swallowed hard and looked up to meet his gaze. “Yes. I do.”

The killer shifted with interest, silently imploring him to continue, his black leather fingers dancing restlessly over his thigh. Felix knew they wanted to reach out and caress him.

Felix breathed long and slow, and aimed his hooded eyes onto those twin voids. He dared not look away. “When you’re not… hurting me… the things you do to me— the way you make me feel… It's like nothing I’ve ever experienced before in my life, and I… I want more of that.”

Danny chuckled low and dark, and then crouched down to meet his eyes, arms balanced over one knee. “Yeah? My cock was that good huh? And you’re missing it already…” he breathed, voice heavy and hungry with lust. “You want it right now, don’t you? Can’t stop thinking about it filling you…”

Felix nodded, maintaining his hazed look. His voice dropped into something low and breathy. “I– I don’t want to go through the Trials anymore. I don’t want to hurt anymore. All I want is to feel good. All I want is… you. Please. ”

The killer nodded slowly in consideration. “And you’ll come with me right this second?”

Felix nodded again. “I will— but only if you promise not to hurt me any more, and you leave David and the others alone.”

The killer’s shoulders hunched and one of his hands closed into a fidgeting fist, obviously irritated, but perhaps not enough to put him off of accepting the request. “Fine. I promise.”

Felix let out his breath and nodded gratefully. His eyes squeezed closed.

“There’s just one more thing though…”

His eyes opened. He hesitantly looked back up.

The melting scream tilted curiously. “What was that little hand signal for?”

Felix’s heart stuttered. He steadied his voice. “What hand signal?”

“The hand signal you made when I first walked up to you. You flicked out your fingers.”

Felix hesitated for a long moment, then shook his head in confusion. “I– It was just a nervous tick.”

“No it wasn’t. I know your ticks. You wring your hands, hug yourself, avert your eyes… never that.”

His pulse was pounding. “I– I don’t—”

“A couple of your friends left with the knuckle dragger. You sent them somewhere.”

Felix felt himself leaning backward, away from those two empty pits that were suddenly too close. The breath had fled his lungs.

“Where’d you send them Felix?”

Felix remained frozen in place as his eyes darted between the two black pits. The silence rang between them like a stricken bell. Neither moved nor breathed.

 

He was too close.

Danny lunged forward.

Felix recoiled with a yelp and fell back. His head snapped as his fall was suddenly arrested in mid air. When he looked back up, his eyes went wide and his blood chilled.

A ring of dark shadows swirled around Danny’s arm. His hand was fisting the front of his jacket hard, holding him in place. 

Danny had reached through the barrier.

Felix gasped and tried to push himself away. Danny grunted with effort and pulled. Felix slid toward him.

A pair of shouts echoed from behind him where Tapp and Claudette had been hiding nearby. Suddenly the two were at his side. They latched onto his body and began to pull with all their might, momentarily stopping his slide through the grass. 

Danny snarled and pulled harder. The fog whirled and danced furiously around his arm. The twin black pits stared endlessly into his soul, swirling with murderous rage and lecherous hunger. Felix sobbed as his body jerked toward those depthless pits that were on the verge of pulling him into their infinite black. His feet skidded uselessly over the ground, toes inches away from the edge of the barrier. 

He barely heard Claudette and Tapp shouting beside him as they readjusted their grip and tried to get more leverage. The twin black voids yanked him further into their gravity. Gasping with fright, he blinked hard and tore his gaze away from the voids, and suddenly Tapp’s words came through.

“The jacket! The jacket, son! THE JACKET!!”

Felix gasped as he came back to himself, feeling Tapp trying to roll him to the side. Felix followed along and matched the movement, twisting his body around and slipping his arm free from its sleeve. He began to fall face first toward the ground. 

Danny roared in abject fury behind him.

Felix was about to fall completely out of his jacket, when suddenly, he felt the fabric twist around his other arm. He gasped as his entire body was wrenched backward toward the edge of safety.

Again, Claudette and Tapp piled their weight on top of him and stopped his fall toward the killer. Felix heaved as his shoulder was nearly dislocated from the force and looked back. Danny was fully on the other side of the barrier now, trying to use the jacket like a snare to pull him over to his side. Tapp and Claudette were both trying frantically to free him as Danny pulled on his jacket with all his might.

Felix cried painfully out as his joints and tendons strained hard under the immense force, feeling like they were on the verge of tearing apart. Despite the pain, Felix twisted and squirmed as best as he could, trying hard to find a way to escape the friction holding him and slip away.

His arm was wrenched hard again, and he wailed in agonized pain as his body lurched perilously closer to the edge and into the killer’s grasp.

A seam ripped open. The fabric gave way. 

Felix gasped and crashed into the ground. Tapp and Claudette collapsed in a pile on top of him. The air was suddenly filled with heaving, worn-out breaths. 

Felix groaned against the grass as his arm throbbed, but the pain was nothing compared to the abject relief that was now washing over him. He gulped air hard and fast as adrenaline surged throughout his body, leaving his aching muscles feeling like water. 

He jumped back to attention at the sound of a sharp, bitten off sneer. He spun around, his eyes finding Danny instantly. His navy jacket dangled from the killer’s hold while those blazing voids burned from just beyond the invisible barrier.

Felix felt his skin begin to ice over into gooseflesh, feeling the killer’s smoldering, radiating fury behind that penetrating gaze.

Claudette and Tapp picked themselves up off of him and sat back, staring hesitantly up at the looming killer.

“ Felix, ” Danny hissed, voice as sharp as his blade. “I hope you realize just how badly you’ve fucked up. ”

Felix shivered and swallowed hard, feeling the cold tendrils of dread beginning to coil around his heart. He jolted as the killer’s gaze suddenly broke from his and looked beyond him. Brow furrowing in unnerved confusion, Felix watched him for a moment longer before following his gaze. 

Behind him, a crowd of survivors had gathered to observe the scene, no doubt having been drawn in by the commotion. There was Jake, Yui, and… Ace and the two girls, who had probably just now returned from wherever they’d wandered off to. All of them appeared leery and guarded, eyes locked onto the killer standing just outside of their safe haven.

“You all have no idea who you’re protecting, do you?”

Felix snapped his gaze back on Danny, and saw that his wailing mask was preemptively trained directly on him. His heart began to pulse ice through his squeezing veins.

“Felix was so eager before, but now that he’s on the verge of being found out, he wants you all to believe he’s a victim,” Danny said, punctuating the statement with an insulted scoff.

Felix’s heart began to thrum. His breaths became wild and shallow, head shaking with growing shock. His voice barely a haunted whisper. “N– no, that’s not—”

“And I thought you all deserved to know the truth before you believed any more of his lies. He was the one that proffered me .”

As Danny’s hand went to reach into his cloak, Felix’s breath froze in his lungs. His eyes widened in abject, unmitigated horror as a stack of glossy white photos were pulled out and held high in the open air.

Felix instantly hopped up onto his knees before the killer, heart pounding against his ribcage in a dangerous, unbridled panic. His hand automatically reached out as if he could somehow stop him.

“He was the one who asked for this. ”

“N– no! D– d—!!”

Danny flung them all through the barrier and into the air. Every vulgar, horrible moment, every foul, disgraceful act and reaction— the entire, immortalized chronicle of his humiliating violation— cascaded all around him like confetti. 

Those dead, unempathetic pits stared through the snowing storm of his torture and into his horrified, tear-filled eyes, holding his gaze as his soul began to crumble.

Tapp gasped beside him, no doubt having already seen what the pictures contained. He cursed sharply, then began to frantically gather up the white squares from the ground. Claudette began to do the same.

A chorus of sharp inhales, suppressed gags, and mumbled curses began to echo all around him.

The empty, endless eyes continued to possess his gaze, pinning him in place with its vicious, vindictive cruelty, stripping him down and exposing him to the basest, most disgusting form a human could possibly take.

“God, what the fuck. ”

“ Dios mio… ”

Danny’s head inclined then, as if making a self-satisfied, sadistically pleased smirk behind that emotionless mask, and then he turned away and walked off into the woods, leaving Felix to disintegrate under the sheer weight of his horror and shame. Felix stared blankly out into the place that the killer had disappeared into, not wanting to face the chaos unfolding behind him as sickening nausea pushed up his throat. He didn’t want to go through this. He wanted to disappear. He wanted to die.

Against his will, the cacophony of voices behind him began to invade his consciousness.

“ Fuck, was he for real?!” cried Meg.

“Are you for real??” shouted Tapp. “He’s a fucking psychopath!! Of fucking course not!! Now give me those!!”

“Hey, wait a minute!! What if he is?! Doesn’t that make him a traitor?! Don’t we have a right to know that sort of thing?!”

“NO!! No you fucking don’t!! Now give me—”

“HEY!! Don’t touch me!”

“MEG,” snapped Ace, and everyone went quiet. “Stop.”

Another beat of silence passed, and then the sound of photos being gathered resumed.

Felix hadn’t moved from the ground, still in the midst of fighting back his bone deep shock and the incredible urge to vomit. He wanted to die.

“Anyone else have anything to say, say it right fucking now!” Tapp shouted as he paced back and forth behind him, the smooth reediness completely gone from his voice. “Huh?! C’mon!!”

Silence.

They didn’t have to say a thing.

Tapp hissed a biting curse as he continued to pace. “ Goddamn it. God fucking damnit. I know some of you all noticed he was actin’ different for a long time now. You knew something was wrong and none of you did shit . You just ignored him! You let this happen to him! Fuck — you might as well have just handed him over to that fucking psychopath yourselves!! Selfish fucking assholes — we’re supposed to be a goddamn team! We’re supposed to help each other! Not whatever the fuck this is!”

The sound of quietly shuffling feet melded with the burbling of the stream. Felix breathed long and slow, feeling his entire body begin to melt into a viscous, grimy puddle as his shock faded into exhaustion.

“This bullshit stops right here— right now! No more ignoring people and letting them suffer in silence until they shrivel away to nothing! No more cliques or gangs!! It’s all of us, or none of us, and all of us are gonna start acting like a fuckin’ team from now on— starting with this man right here!!” Tapp boomed, and Felix flinched. “GOT IT?!”

Silence.

Felix continued to stare forward at nothing, feeling like an empty shell.

“I said DO WE FUCKING GOT THAT?!”

This time, a wave of mumbling concurrences echoed from the crowd behind him.

“Good,” the detective huffed, and then trudged a ways away. “Nea, give me your lighter.”

There were no sounds of protestation or hesitation— only metallic clicks and clunks as the lighter was flicked open and switched on.

“You all never saw these,” Tapp said, pausing a moment as a low whooshing sound singed the air. The detective then began to trudge back his way. “Here, make sure these all burn to fucking ash.”

Claudette promised that she would.

It didn’t really matter. They’d all seen them anyways— seen him like that— and from now on, whenever they’d look at him, they’d see those images in their mind instead.

Exposed.

Debased.

Broken.

Disgusting.

He wished he could burn away with those pictures too.

Tapp came to kneel beside him, still breathing hard, and placed a gentle hand on him. “Hey, you okay?”

The moment the detective touched his jacketless shoulder, something stirred within Felix’s mind. He felt like he was forgetting something. Something crucial. Something important. Life and death. His thoughts began to spiral in search of it.

“Felix? Hey. Talk to me son.”

‘As long as I have something of yours…’

Felix gasped in horror.

Tapp jolted. “What? What is it?”

Felix whirled toward the other man, eyes huge and lungs breathless. “M– my jacket! He took my jacket!”

Tapp shook his head, face furrowing in confusion. “Yeah, wha—”

Felix clutched at the man hard. “He’s going to use to call me into a Trial with him!!”

After a second, the information finally clicked, and Tapp’s eyes went wide.

“Oh fuck. ”

 

— — —

 

“David, slow down!” Dwight huffed from somewhere behind him. Kate and Adam were even farther. He could barely hear their steps

David trotted on, the box of trinkets in his arms jangling rhythmically with his pace. “Can’t, mate!” he puffed back.

He had to get back. He had to make sure Felix was okay.

He pushed harder, and Dwight lamented behind him.

David hadn’t wanted to go, but Felix had insisted— practically begged him to— and David suspected it was because he didn’t want him seeing the distraction. David had protested, wanting to be near in case something went wrong, but Felix had probably been right to send him away. David didn’t think he would’ve had the willpower to hold himself back if he saw Ghostface that close to Felix again. He would’ve lost his cool and ruined everything. 

Leaving had already been hard enough when Tapp had given them the signal— leaving Felix behind with that evil rapist fuck — but he’d fucking done it. He’d done it because Felix needed him to go… and also, because he’d threatened Tapp with bodily harm if he let anything happen to Felix. He’d made the detective promise to protect Felix with his life. 

It had been the only way he’d been able to bring himself to leave.

The box in his arms continued to jangle and David continued to huff and rasp. His legs and lungs began to burn. His mind wandered to the contents inside, and the things Felix had asked him to get.

Like the thing that had been hidden inside the shattered serum cabinet and was now bouncing around somewhere at the bottom of this box. It looked like nothing when he’d first picked it up— just a decorative little black stone carved into an interesting shape— but the book it had been stored with suggested it was anything but. Had this thing really been there this entire time? How long had Felix known about it? Could this thing really help them? What did it even do?

David shook his head and decided not to worry about it. Felix or someone else who was smarter than him would figure it out. 

The other things on Felix’s list had been a bit easier to guess as to their intended use: paper, charcoal, and a board to draw on for a blueprint, broken glass, chemicals and powders, and… a syringe loaded with serum. At least, whatever was left of it. Most of it had been destroyed in the fight. He didn’t know how Felix intended on using it but… he hoped it wasn’t for himself.

Trying to find everything that Felix had asked for had taken them all quite a bit of time. The lab had quite literally been a right bloody mess, and his and Felix’s had been everywhere— even more than he’d realized. It had been hard to look at it. The two big puddles where they’d died hadn’t even completely dried yet. And then that puddle in the corner… the one by the wall where he’d caught Ghostface… 

David swallowed. He was getting nauseous just thinking about it.

It was hard trying to keep his mind off that puddle in particular while he worked— off that spot in general— when the memory of what had happened there was still so horribly fresh in his mind. It was like being in the room with a phantom. It made him feel haunted.

Eventually though, he’d managed to mentally tuck it away and get to work. As long as he didn’t look at it for too long, he could remain functional and focused.

Sorting through all that carnage had been challenging, but they’d eventually managed to grab everything— plus a bit extra. David’s mind was already whirling with ideas on how he could make the killer’s life substantially harder in the next Trial with what he’d found, but nothing that constituted a full plan.

He hoped Felix had one by the time he got back, that was, if Felix was even there by the time he got back.

Fuck.

David shivered and hurried forward, impatiently urging that orange light to appear in the distance.

“David! Wait!” Dwight called, his voice echoing from deep within the woods behind him. “We need to stick together!”

David cursed and glanced back, not seeing Dwight at all. His heart wrenched anxiously. He needed desperately to see Felix again to see if he was safe, but damn it, Dwight was right. Forging ahead by himself was dangerous as hell, especially if Ghostface was out here somewhere.

With a frustrated, growling sigh, David came to a stop and turned to watch the trees behind him. Half a minute later, Dwight stumbled out of the coiling darkness. The man puffed with relief upon seeing him standing there and then hobbled over to his side. He set his box in the grass and bent over double as he tried to reclaim his breath.

“Thank you,” he gasped.

David grunted and just continued to watch the shadows.

Another long moment later, Adam emerged with his crate of junk hanging low in his grasp, panting hard at the canopy overhead as he slogged toward them. He dropped his crate right beside Dwight’s box and began to puff with his hands on his hips.

David continued to stare at the spot where they’d emerged from. Another wordless half minute passed.

“Wasn’t Kate right behind you?”

Adam looked back where he’d come from and frowned. “Yeah,” he said between gasps. “Pretty much.”

David felt his brow begin to furrow the longer he stared at that unmoving patch of shadows. He shifted his stance and grunted uneasily. “We might have ta—”

Kate suddenly sauntered out from between two trees, blonde curls swaying over her box of trinkets. “Sorry!” she huffed. “Ya’ll are too fast for me! I had to take it easy for a while.”

David puffed out his unease. “S’okay. Gotta keep goin’ though— there’s no telling how much time we’ve got once we get back.”

He turned around and resumed walking in the direction he’d originally been going toward without waiting for the others. Dwight and Adam groaned and then picked up their cargo to follow after him. 

David kept his pace down to a fast walk, but still had to occasionally hang back and let the others catch up to him. His anxiety for Felix kept driving him to go unconsciously faster. 

He found himself sometimes glancing around at the darkness, maybe in search of a shadow that wasn’t supposed to be there, but never saw anything that set off his internal alarms. 

He’d somewhat expected to have an encounter with the killer on the way back, as the distraction had mostly been so they could leave without being noticed— there hadn’t been a plan for the return. It didn’t seem like they were being stalked at the moment though.

He found that to be somewhat unbelievable, but there was still time for something to happen…

Either Ghostface was taking his time or… the distraction had been too successful.

David grit his teeth and urged himself forward.

Finally, despite feeling like he might never see it again, the campfire appeared as a luminous, ghostly glow between the trees in the far distance.

David sucked in a breath and shot forward, ignoring the protests and pleas at his back.

He had to get back. He had to see Felix. He had to make sure he was okay.

The light of the campfire bloomed before him like a dahlia, stretching its petals out into the shadowy branches above and the brush below. It wasn’t long before David found himself completely embraced by the flickering glow and was bursting through the treeline and into the open clearing with a precarious, clinking jangle.

A series of heads popped up to look at him from the campfire, but David only had eyes for one. It took him a second to find him because he hadn’t looked like he’d been expecting him to, but yes, Felix was there. He was sitting safely on a log by the fire looking back at him, but his navy suit jacket was nowhere to be seen. 

David blew out a huge sigh, nearly dropping his box of trinkets in relief. He felt a smile curl his lips as he began to approach the man. When he saw the outline of Felix’s expression painted by dancing firelight though, his fledgling smile died. 

The man sitting next to Felix, Tapp, quickly jumped up and jogged to meet him halfway. “Hey,” he said. “We’ve got a problem.”

David’s heart thumped hard. “What? What is it?” He glanced back over at Felix, searching for whatever might be wrong, again noticing his missing jacket. “What happened?! Is he alright?!”

Tapp’s hands went up in defense, no doubt remembering David’s threat. “Hey, easy man. Easy. He’s fine— well, mostly,” he said, grimacing in discomfort. “Something happened.”

David almost let the box in his arms drop at his feet. “What?” he snarled.

Tapp frowned at Felix, and Felix looked on, expression wan and deeply disturbed.

David's stomach began to churn as he stared back into that unsettling expression.

Tapp sighed and turned back. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

Notes:

Thanks for reading! 🧡 😊

In other news, the first chapter of my Ghostfelix oneshot - BLOOD/LUST - is out! (yeah... you read that right), inspired by Sofei's office AU art on Tumblr. Basically, Danny gets a job at Felix's architectural firm to lay low, and ends up being very distracted by him. 😆 Here's the link! Check it out if you're interested! https://archiveofourown.org/works/64737667

Chapter 38: The Calm

“We burned the shit out of all of ‘em, but,” Tapp sighed, “Pretty sure everyone there saw ‘em, including Ace.”

David turned away toward the Forest and pinched the bridge of his nose hard. He didn’t know whether he wanted to hug the man or punch him in the face.

The detective sighed again. “Man… I thought those three were finally gonna be on the same page now, then at least something good would have come out of all this fucked up shit… but they disappeared. Don’t know why or where or when. They were all real quiet after, so I didn’t notice them leave.”

Eyes tightly shut, David breathed deep and slow, fighting hard to control himself and his rising emotions.

“I’m sorry man. Me and Claudette did everything we could, but… I know it’s not enough. At least with the stuff you brought b—”

“Mate.” 

Tapp stopped.

“Fookin’ clear off. ”

Tapp remained silent for another long moment. “Alright. Okay son.” 

Still unable to look at the other man, David heard him bend down to pick up the box he’d brought back, and then heard more silence as the detective lingered beside him, not clearing off.

He sighed again. “Look man, I’m sorry— and I mean it. For what it’s worth, I—

“M’not the one you should be apologizing to.”

The box clinked as the man shifted in place for a while, and then began to jangle when he started moving toward the fire. “Just don’t take too long.”

David wanted to snap back, but found that his throat was simply too tight. Instead, as the man left him, the boiling emotions David was harboring worked their way out of him in the form of tears brimming in the corners of his eyes. He squeezed the ridge of cartilage between his brows harder, desperate to stop the incoming torrent from overtaking him, but it was of no use.

His body spasmed as the sob he’d been holding down ejected itself from his throat and escaped out into the air. The sorrow poured over his cheeks against his will.

Christ.

Christ. He’d almost lost him. He’d almost lost him again to that fucking freak . Felix was almost… 

That terrible image that had been burned into his memory flashed before him.

Fuck!

And now they were on even more of a time limit than they were before! 

David let out a miserable, groaning sigh and pressed his palms into his leaking eyes until he saw stars dancing through the darkness. He remained subdued in his movements as much as he could, staying mindful of the crowd at his back. The heartache continued pushing briny tears down his face.

And then… all those photos. Of everything he’d been through— in front of everyone .

God.

David’s head automatically began to shake from side to side, as if trying to get the concept to settle down into his mind. He could barely even fathom it— how Felix had managed to get through something like that— having all of those despicable horrors put on display for everyone to see.

Another choked off sob bubbled up his throat, forced out by overwhelming grief and sorrow. He went back to squeezing his nose.

How much more of this?

How much more cruelty would Felix have to suffer through— that Ghostface would put him through? How much more could he be torn down? Broken apart? Dismantled until he was no more?

How much more would he have to endure?

When would it end?

Slowly, the dark answer to that question began to wedge its fingertips between the cracks of his self-assurance, but David quickly shoved them back out and filled in the fractures with excuses and denial.

He gulped hard and began to wipe away the evidence of his breakdown from his face as he prepared to face Felix and the others.

This was going to work. Felix’s plan was going to work, and David was going to use it to save him from ever having to go through that shit ever again— from ever having to suffer like that again.

He was going to do this, he was going to succeed, and he was going to get his friend— his love — back to who he’d been before.

Safe. Secure. At peace.

David sucked in one final breath, held it, and then blew it all back out. He made sure his breath and hands were steady before turning around to face the man he loved more than his very own self— the man he was going to save .

When he turned, Felix instantly turned to meet his eyes and gave him a small, but very forced smile.

A pang of dread struck David’s heart like the toll of a bell, but he quickly forced it down and away. He returned the man’s pained smile and that same mantra replayed itself over again in his head.

He was going to save him.

David went to sit by Felix’s side.

 

— — —

 

Felix’s charcoal pencil hovered over the expanse of parchment spread out over the makeshift drafting board on his lap. Already, the precious paper had been marred by a deliberation of lines and marks, but this one was important. The glyph needed to be written just so, otherwise it would ruin the entire thing, and there was no time to redo it.

There wasn’t time…

Slowly, the black tip of the pencil approached the aging white plane, ready to make its mark, but then right before it touched the paper it began to sway and tremble.

Felix drew back with a hiss and fisted his pencil tight. 

He was shaking. 

He puffed out the breath he’d just sucked in and set the pencil on the log beside him before he ended up dropping it. He rolled his aching shoulder around in its joint a few times, still sore from the earlier confrontation, then cradled his shaking right hand in his left and pressed his thumb hard into the palm, massaging it thoroughly as he tried to get himself to relax.

The unfinished blueprint lay ominously and expectantly before him.

“Oi, you okay?”

Felix looked up at the Brit sitting on the log adjacent to him, expression deeply concerned. His hands had frozen in the middle of the work he’d been doing— attaching an assortment of noisy junk and metal spurs to a long length of wire coiled in his lap.

David hadn’t stopped looking at him like that since he’d returned.

Felix exhaled a little bit harder than was necessary and swallowed. “Y– Yes, yes I’m fine, I’m just…” he sucked in a stuttering inhale, and then suddenly lost the words he’d prepared to use to placate David. 

He was still shaking.

He wasn’t fine.

Felix let his head drop into his trembling hand and puffed out his breath.

In less than a second, David had scooted over next to him. He gripped his shoulder tight. “ Hey . It’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay, because this plan of yours is fuckin’ sound, yeah? You’ve got this. We’ve got this. Just breathe mate. It’ll be okay.”

Felix nodded and did as he was told.

David nodded back in approval, although his brow remained deeply furrowed. “It’s alroight mate. Just take a second. You've got time.”

Again Felix nodded, and closed his eyes, focusing on his unsteady, uneven breaths, and began working to slow them. The hand on his shoulder squeezed one more time and then moved away. 

Felix took a moment to just sit there, letting all the sounds of the campsite wash over him as he breathed and calmed: the quietly crackling, sizzling fire before him, Kate’s calming guitar in the background, Dwight and Claudette conversing over by the supply box as they decided on which combinations of items they should take, Jake and Yui helping Tapp to craft some simple gadgets that would help them in the coming Trial, Adam quietly muttering to himself as he flipped through the encrypted pages of the book that the pentagonal artifact had been stored with… 

Felix didn’t have the time to examine it like he wanted, but Adam had expressed interest. Despite feeling nervous about someone else looking over it, Felix knew he couldn’t afford to be selfish. He didn’t think the former teacher would be decoding it anytime soon— or if the artifact could even help them— but it was better than letting it gather dust. Besides, Felix wasn’t even sure if he’d be returning to examine it at all… 

It was best to let Adam work it out. 

Felix opened his eyes and found the campsite to be in much of the same state he’d imagined it. He wasn’t sure if he felt any less anxious, but his heart rate had slowed, and Felix supposed that was all he could ask for— and all he had time for.

He picked his pencil back up and looked down at the unfinished blueprint. Somehow, he felt as though it was staring back, stern and expectant.

He shook his head to dispel the nebulous thought from his mind and regain his concentration, and then moved back in with the pencil to draw the glyph. This time, his hand remained steady, so he followed through. The lines came out smooth and straight just like they were supposed to. 

When the glyph was finished, he backed off with an easy exhale. His lips pulled into a small smile as he appreciated his work. Almost automatically, he turned to look at the man sitting beside him and found him already staring back— an equally small but pained smile on his face. Felix felt his expression tighten and his heart squeeze upon seeing it. He was only able to hold the other man’s gaze for another moment before returning it to the blueprint before him. His smile faded. He felt David’s gaze linger on him a while longer before dropping away.

It was hard when the Brit looked at him like that— like he was broken, like he wasn’t the same person anymore, like the only thing he was able to see was how he’d been with Ghostface in the lab. 

And Felix hated it. 

It made him feel like it was all he was, and all he’d ever be.

All Felix really wanted was to see the care and warmth that had resided in those deep brown eyes before all of this had happened— that dauntless gaze that had kept him grounded and at ease— but now, all that lay in those eyes was a haunted, grief-stricken sorrow. They’d always been filled with some sort of worry before, but they’d always remained strong and resolute back then. Now, they were… Burdened. Sad. Wounded.

Felix hadn’t been the only one Danny had broken.

After David had returned safely from the lab with the things he’d asked him to retrieve, and Tapp had gone to no doubt report what had happened to him… The emotions that had flashed across his face… Anger. Shock. Horror… Grief. At some point, the man must’ve not been able to handle it any more, because he eventually turned his back on the campfire fully and faced the Forest as Tapp had talked to him. Even after the detective had left, David had just continued to stand there on the edge of camp as he silently worked though the knowledge in his own way.

And all the rest of it at the same time, probably…

Felix had stopped watching after that, starting on the blueprint with the materials that Tapp had brought over to him, and leaving the man to his private moment.

When David had eventually returned, he’d tried to seem okay, although Felix could tell, like now, that he really wasn’t. At the very least, David didn’t try to discuss what had happened at the stream, and Felix was thankful for that small mercy.

All Felix wanted was to pretend that things were okay— at least in this very small moment.

He pulled back from his blueprint again to take stock of his work, and then furtively glanced over at the man beside him, who was still absently working away on his length of wire.

The man who was the only reason Felix was sitting here right now.

Who was now under threat of Danny’s wrath.

Who was now doing absolutely everything he could possibly do to save him.

And who had come back anyways, after Felix had so ruthlessly crushed his heart.

Felix’s own squeezed with guilt. 

He turned fully to look at David, and the man instantly looked up to catch his gaze, eyes questioning and sad.

Felix toothed anxiously at the corner of his lip and glanced away, unable to hold that mournful gaze for very long. “David, why… why did you come back?”

He momentarily looked back up to gauge the man’s reaction, and found it muddled with confusion.

Felix glanced away again, down at the mess of wire in the man’s lap. “In the lab, after I…”

“Oh.” The man’s gaze went suddenly stoic and distant as he seemed to think it over.

Alongside the dancing flames, Felix watched the memories from that moment replay and reflect over David’s eyes. The silence stretched on for a long while. When David seemed like he was finally ready to answer, his breath came out in a rough, grinding exhale.

“I… eventually decided that I’d rather you be alive and hate me, than respect your wishes and let you go.”

Felix’s throat closed up. He looked away again, feeling the building emotion in his core pressing on his sternum.

David had said it without really saying it— because he loved him.

Felix bit down on his lip hard and turned further away toward the fire, unable to meet that unbearably sorrowful, devoted gaze as guilt and anguish clawed at his squeezing throat and burning eyes. He saw David watching him from the corner of his eye, maybe expecting some sort of reply or perhaps just worrying about him like he usually did, but when it became obvious that Felix didn’t intend on answering him, David turned his attention away from him and back on his work.

Felix’s hands began to tremble again. 

His mind could barely comprehend the amount of love David had for him— how he’d struggled and fought and done all of this for him despite how much Felix had done to spur him away, and how little he’d done for the man in turn. 

No one in his life had ever loved him like this.

Ever.

And it somewhat scared him, because Felix didn’t know if he could return that love— or even should.

He had a family out there— a family.

Somewhere…

But then, David was right here — right beside him. Caring for him…

Waiting for him…

Felix sucked in a breath and shook his head. He couldn’t afford to think about this right now. There wasn’t time. The fog could come at any moment.

He raised his pencil to the paper again and waited for his hand to still before resuming his work. It needed to be flawless.

For a sustained period of time, Felix managed to get a decent amount of progress on the blueprint, but had to pause a moment when Jake broke his meditative stillness by getting up and going to Claudette. Once the pair had moved away from the group to talk, however, he was able to focus again.

He drew another glyph.

This blueprint was going to be special. He wasn’t even entirely sure if it was going to work, but if it did, his chances of escaping in the next Trial would practically double. In this blueprint, he’d designed the hatch to appear in the optimal spot by the killer shack like usual, but this time, he was adding one extra parameter to the design that would influence when it would appear.

Two survivors. 

The hatch would appear when there were two survivors remaining, not just one, at least, that’s what he was hoping for with this combination of glyphs. As to whether or not the hatch would actually be open when it appeared, he didn’t know, which was why he also wanted to take a skeleton key with him, but… they didn’t have one right now. It was the biggest deficiency to this entire makeshift plan of his, and he hoped that David and the others would be able to pick up the slack. Dwight and Tapp were going to be the other half of their team, and he had faith they would aid him however they could— almost as much faith as he had in David. Whether or not this blueprint worked… whether or not he had a key… he had faith they would do everything in their power to get him out.

Felix leaned in close to the paper, catching the tip of his tongue between his teeth as his fingers moved with a smooth, artful precision to create the final glyph. He drew back with a breath as he finished and felt the corner of his mouth curve up into a small smile. 

This was probably the best work he’d ever done. All there was to do now was create a few more annotations and draw the rest of the layout, and then it’d be finished.

He’d be ready.

He was about to move his pencil back in to make those final touches when the sound of approaching footfalls disturbed his focus. He looked up to see Claudette approaching with Jake in tow, his gaze cast hesitantly to the side.

Claudette smiled tightly. “Felix, Jake has something he’d like to tell you.”

The quiet, dark-haired man behind her looked over her shoulder to meet his eyes.

“It'll only take a second,” she added.

Felix felt his guts twist. “Ah… okay.”

Claudette nodded graciously, then went to sit between him and David, who was watching on with suspicion. Jake sat on his other side, arms crossed absently as he leaned over his knees. His dark, blank gaze fixated on the orange flames before them and reflected their light.

Anxiety piqued, Felix instinctively glanced back over at David, and saw Claudette murmuring to him quietly, capturing his narrowed attention.

“I’m sorry.”

Felix looked back over at Jake, whose gaze remained fixated on the campfire. Felix remained silent, unsure of how to respond. He squirmed in place, wishing this wasn’t happening right now, but continued to give the man his attention.

“I should have said something earlier. Maybe then…”

Felix felt his brow furrow, not understanding what he was trying to say.

Jake sighed and glanced tautly over at him. His gloved hands clasped together. “You weren’t the first.”

Felix’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn't mean…

“What… what do you mean?”

The quiet survivalist sighed again. His flat expression deepened with somber guilt. “I… have a fuzzy death memory. Sometimes things get… mixed up … in here,” he said, gesturing nebulously at his head of crow’s nest hair. “Dreams… Reality… I can’t always trust what I remember. That’s why… when it started happening…” Jake paused to swallow. “When Danny…”

He stopped. Old, terrible recollections hazed his eyes. The fire before them popped loudly. Kate's guitar carried obliviously on.

“I didn’t know if it was real or not. Or maybe… I convinced myself it wasn’t. I don’t know…”

Felix could barely hear Jake’s whisper-quiet voice over the pulsing blood rushing in his ears. 

He wasn’t the first. Danny had done this before, and Jake… 

And at least on some level, he’d known, and didn't tell anyone .  

Jake had known.

Jake shook his head. “I think… I think he eventually got bored of me, because he stopped after a while. I tend to not… react very much… dissociate…” His hands began to fidget. “So I don’t think he liked that very much…”

Another long bout of silence.

Felix’s insides roiled and churned. His grip on his makeshift drafting board was achingly tight— almost painful. 

Jake continued to avert his gaze. “So… I’m sorry. Maybe if I’d said something before now… let someone know… this might not have happened again, and he might not have…… I'm… I’m sorry…”

Felix blinked and started to breathe again as the man went silent. His thoughts began to swirl and proliferate endlessly on how different things might’ve been if he’d known— if he’d been made aware of the threat. He might’ve been more careful, sounded the alarm sooner… Maybe the group could have even helped him more, if only Jake had said something — if only he'd warned him .

“You don’t have to forgive me,” said Jake after a long time. “I just… needed to say it…”

Felix blinked hard as he tried to sort through the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions clouding his mind.

He wanted so much to be angry about all this— to blow up into a furious repudiation at this person who could have very well put an early stop to all this madness! Who could have prevented everything that had happened to him!

And…

Who was probably more conscious of what he’d been through than anyone else here …

Felix wanted to be angry at Jake for not telling anyone about Danny. He wanted to have something, someone— anything — to direct his anger and pain at, but… found that he couldn’t. Not at Jake. Deep down… he knew and understood why Jake hadn’t said anything, much more than he wanted to admit.

It was because… he’d been prepared to do the very same thing.

If it hadn’t been for the pictures… for David… then he probably would have carried this with him to his grave. Having other people know that such a terrible thing had happened to him— having it be in the back of their minds whenever they looked at him… like how David now looked at him… 

He wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

But if this hadn't been revealed to everyone against his will, someone else in the future might have fallen prey— just like him— and then once he'd been used up, the cycle would have continued. And for all he knew, him and Jake might not have even been the only ones. There might have been others that Danny had targeted— ones that hadn’t survived, and hadn’t told.

For all he knew, he could just be the most recent in a long line of silent victims.

Felix looked up from his swirling contemplations and back at Jake, who was already staring hesitantly and anxiously back as he awaited his judgement.

Felix breathed deep and allowed his room-temperature resentment to drain from his being. “I forgive you.”

Jake ever so subtly jolted at that. His dark eyes went wide with confusion and surprise.

Felix gave him an amiable grimace in return. “I understand— probably more than you could ever know.”

Jake’s face screwed up at that, as if he’d been punched in the gut. His eyes glassed over with moisture before they quickly diverted back onto the fire. The voice that floated out of him was tight and rough, like a tangled knot of dried out leather cords.

“Thank you.”

Felix nodded even though the younger survivor wasn’t looking at him, and cast his gaze into the flames. A deep peace seemed to warm him over then, settling into his core as he sat in silence.

Truly, Felix was not alone.

“HEY!”

Everyone jolted at Dwight’s exclamation. Felix’s gaze instantly locked onto the man as he pointed at the darkness.

“It’s here!”

Felix jumped to his feet, and everyone else jumped up around him. He clutched at his drafting board tight. Several smudgy tendrils of black were slinking along the ground and into their bubble of light.

It was here.

His heart lurched. “Fff– fick.”

No no no no, he wasn’t done yet! Not yet!!

Felix stared down at his blueprint. His eyes jumped around the drawing as he tried to decide if there was any way he could finish it in the next couple of seconds, before determining that it was impossible. He placed it down on the log and jumped back behind it, as if the piece of old wood could protect him from the incoming fog.

David was at his side in an instant, holding out a piece of tattered cloth with a knot on each corner. Tapp was on his other trying to hand him several test tubes filled with silver powder, while Dwight and Claudette were repacking medkits and toolboxes as quickly as they could.

Felix blinked hard as he tried to think through the panicked cacophony all around him.

Something wasn’t right.

The black fog meandered nearer. One tendril snaked its way toward Dwight and Claudette, while another diverted toward Adam.

This wasn’t right.

Felix’s mind began to race, searching frantically for what was amiss, and then gasped when he realized what it was. 

He couldn’t feel the pull of the Entity at all.

“It’s not for me!”

David’s head whirled around to meet his eyes. “Wot?!”

“IT’S NOT FOR ME!!”

The Brit’s eyes widened, and everyone around him suddenly went silent.

Tapp cursed.

The fog that had swarmed the camp was now steadily gathering around Dwight, Claudette, and Adam, who all quickly dropped all the items they’d been holding. 

“Who’s the fourth?!” Tapp barked.

Everyone else shook their heads. Another searching tendril coiled its way around the fire and began to creep toward them.

“Ah fook!”

Felix looked at the Brit in horror. No… No! He needed him! He couldn’t do this without him! He was dead without him!!

“David?!”

David gaped back at him, his open mouth and endless brown eyes wide with terrified shock. The tendril of darkness snaked around his ankles.

Suddenly, Tapp snatched the shroud from David’s hand and sprinted stiffly across the camp. He jumped into the fog gathering around the others and screamed at them all to take a corner of the shroud. All of them complied instantly, and the second they did, the fog that had been coiling around David’s form dropped away and retreated back into the cloud rising around the others.

Felix stared back at the old detective in stunned silence as the fog boiled up around him.

“Good luck kid,” Tapp said. “Sorry I can’t go in with you, but I’ll be here when you get back, okay?”

Felix could only stare.

“Okay?”

Felix jolted and then nodded. “O– okay.”

The detective gave him a curt, stern nod back, and then was swallowed completely by the roiling shadows. 

In place of the four survivors, four pillars of billowing, black fog now stood. Moments later, all of them collapsed, leaving empty, sterile air where friends had once stood. The fog then raced away into the darkness, leaving Felix and his four remaining companions to their fate.

No one moved for a very long time.

Kate and Yui shared a somber look, while Jake stared at him as if he were looking at a dead man.

Beside him, David’s breaths suddenly became strained and faltering. “Is this… Is this a fookin’ joke?! ”

Felix rotated his head around to stare numbly at his increasingly frantic companion.

The man’s teeth were bared and his eyes were glassy with moisture. “Is the Entity fuckin’ with us?! Is it trying to…” He blinked hard and shook his head, then looked over at the others. “M’sorry, but you lot ain’t gonna cut it!!”

Jake grimaced and let his gaze drop, while Kate began to fidget nervously.

Yui stepped confidently forward with her fist raised and brow furrowed. “We will do all that we can to aid you. I swear, Ghostface will not—”

“You got no bloody idea what you’re up against!! This ain’t gonna be like all the other Trials where you can just slip away to recover when shite goes bad! He ain’t gonna give you the chance! Fook , you don’t even know what the plan was!”

“David…” Felix whispered.

“And you two!” David spat, stabbing an accusing finger at Jake and Kate, who both immediately stiffened. “You two’ll probably just walk right into ‘em! ”

“David.”

Finally, David stopped and looked into his eyes. Felix could already feel that they were wet. 

“We don’t have a choice . We need them.”

At that, David’s reddened face twisted with anguish. He looked him hard in the eyes and slowly shook his head. “Mate, you don’t get it ,” he whispered seriously, clutching both of Felix’s shoulders tight. He maneuvered him away from the others and began to gently shake him with every harshly whispered word, as if it could help him to better understand. “You don’t know them like I do. They aren’t the sort we need fer this! They are going to fuck us over. They are going to get us killed! Yui might be alroight, but we don’t even have a shroud to make sure she comes with us! That was the last one! ”

Felix stared at him. His heart began to pulse on his eardrums as the reality of the situation fully settled into his mind.

David’s hard, glistening eyes danced across his face, as if he knew deep in his heart that he was seeing it for the final time. The lip curling over his distraught grimace quivered with emotion. His head shook fitfully. “No… I– I can’t…” he whispered breathlessly. “I can’t lose you. Not to that. To him . Oh God!”

Felix gripped David’s flexing arms tight and blinked back his rising tears. “I won’t. You won’t. Okay? You won’t. We just…” he said, trying to stave off the man’s breakdown despite being on the verge of his own. He swallowed hard and tried to breathe evenly. “We j– just have to stay calm and focus. Th– this can still work. We just need to get them up to speed.”

David’s tearful grimace deepened and his head dropped. Fingers dug hard into his arms. The man looked like he wanted to pull him in close and hug him tighter than he ever had before, but didn’t want to do it while the others were staring at them. David’s head slowly shook again but he remained mute, as if there was nothing more that he could say.

Felix blinked and felt several tears trickle down his cheeks. Barely staving off his impending doom, he wet his lips and tried to stay calm. At least one of them had to be. “D– David, we—”

“Oye!”

David jolted. His entire body whipped around to face the voice and everyone else followed suit.

From the edge of camp, Ace, Nea, and Meg sauntered easily into the light of the campfire. Nea and Meg looked darkly serious while Ace grinned and spread his arms wide. 

“Are we late to the party? Hopefully just enough to be fashionable!”

David snarled fiercely. He blindly grabbed for the front of Felix’s shirt and bodily dragged him behind his back. His stance became broad and ferociously protective.

“You lot got NO FUCKIN’ business bein’ here!! Visconti, you mingin’ sack of piss, you best turn back ‘fore I bash your fookin’ teeth in all over again!! We don’t want you here!!”

Frowning theatrically, Ace stopped about a dozen paces away and placed a hand over his heart, feigning hurt. “Ah, amiguito, you cut me deep— real deep. I even forgave you for that little transgression, like the kind and generous soul that I am. Are you really so ungratefully spiteful? You haven’t even heard why we’re here yet.”

David unconsciously gripped the front of Felix’s shirt tighter. “Don’t fuckin’ need to! I know you want nothing more than to see Felix wiped off the face of the fookin’ earth, so no!! I don’t gotta listen to a single goddamn shite that comes out of that snake mouth of yours, ‘cause it ain’t but bloody bullshite!! So FUCK OFF!!” David screamed, voice breaking apart with desperate emotion.

Ace tsked and shook his head in disappointment. He ambled several steps forward, but stayed safely out of attack range. “I’m hurt that you think so lowly of me hijo . I know I’m a ruthless, coldhearted bastard, but I’m not that cold.”

David seemed to be caught off guard by that. He remained silent as his back heaved with breath, but his protective stance remained firm. Felix’s eyes constantly darted between the two men, confusion and anxiety growing by the moment.

The Argentinian’s theatrical stance fell away with a long, tight lipped sigh. The shades came away from his face. They were folded carefully before being dropped into the front pocket of his tacky brown jacket. When Ace looked back up, the expression he wore on his uncannily, unobscured face was free from any parody or malice.

“I’m sorry.”

David straightened. The hand fisting Felix’s shirt relaxed minutely.

“I… never could have imagined,” he shrugged and shook his head uselessly, then blew out half of a breath. “I was wrong— we were wrong,” he said, gesturing behind himself.

Nea remained stoically silent while Meg frowned with her arms crossed, looking somewhat disgruntled.

Ace meandered a few steps closer, until he was less than a meter away. “And that’s why we’re here. I want to make it up to you. To him ,” Ace said, dark eyes flicking over David’s shoulder to meet his. “We’re here to help.”

David growled lowly, fisting his shirt tight again. “And just how the fook am I supposed to trust you Visconti?! After everything you did to crush him down and push him out? Huh?! How the bloody fook can I trust you?!”

Ace’s yielding hands went up in defense. “Hey, I get it hijo, I get it. I really do. You have every right not to trust me, but to me ,” he said, furtively glancing around himself, “It really seems like you don't have much of a choice. You obviously need help. All I’m asking is that you let us.”

David slowly shook his head. His voice was a grievous, hushed whisper. “Why is this the line for you Visconti? After everything you… we did… Why now? Why this? ”

Ace looked away with a grimace and sighed. “After… seeing that… realizing that I’d indirectly caused that, I…” He shook his head and stepped closer— close enough so that no one else could hear him speak. His eyes remained downcast and furrowed. “Back home… I grew up in the slums. My sister…” his expression went taut and he stopped. His head dropped low enough for the brim of his cap to hide his eyes. He didn’t need to say anything more.

Both men were silent for a long while.

“Well,” David said, “I’m glad that something finally got through that thick fuckin’ skull of yours, even though this is what it fuckin’ took.”

Ace nodded, keeping his gaze downcast.

“And you’ve got a hell of a lot more to atone for than this— a bloody hell of a lot more.”

Ace nodded again and looked up, expression hard and serious now. “So tell me what you need. Just say the word and you’ll have it.”

David shifted with uncertainty. The grip on Felix’s dress shirt loosened. “A shroud of binding,” he said finally.

Ace smiled and reached into his jacket. A tattered shroud appeared before them with a theatrical flourish. David instantly snatched it away from the man and Ace let him. The Brit looked down to examine for a moment and then slipped it away into his pocket.

“A key,” Felix blurted.

David glanced back in surprise at him, as if he’d forgotten he’d even been there. The hand in his shirt dropped fully away.

Ace smirked wide and sauntered up to him, passing easily through David’s defenses. “As you wish.” The Argentinian then flicked out his wrist, and suddenly, there was a skeleton key in his hand, shimmering with a subtle, rainbow iridescence in the flickering light of the campfire.

Ace offered it to him with a sincere smile and a dramatic flare.

Felix took it gingerly. “You keep one up your sleeve?”

Ace shrugged. “Lady luck may be my truest and only amor, but there are times when I need to make my own, you know?”

Felix smiled tightly and nodded. He looked down at the treasure as he ran it over in his hands, appreciating its mystical beauty. He gripped it tight and looked back up. “Thank you.”

Ace nodded once and grinned roguishly. “Anything for you, bello. It’s the least I can do.”

“Don’t call him that,” David snapped, baring his teeth in a silent snarl.

Felix felt a bit of heat begin to creep into his neck.

Ace’s hands shot up in amiable defense. “ Che , alright then. Alright. Whatever you want… boludo .”

David’s snarl grew a bit wider at that, but remained silent as he stared pointedly at the smirking older man.

“So,” Ace continued, clapping his hands together, “I can’t help but notice the lack of ah… let’s just say, proficiency around here. If you’re gonna get through this, the both of you… you’re going to need the best, sí?” he said, then tossed his head at Nea. 

The unsmiling woman dropped the colorful backpack that had apparently been hanging off her shoulder this whole time and onto the ground. Every pocket was stuffed with a different colored can of spray paint.

“We even brought along our special bag of tricks,” Ace said with an impish grin. “So what do you say amiguito? Want to bring the team back together? Relive old times?”

David looked the older man up and down with a deeply suspicious grimace. He gave a curt nod at the two girls. “What about Meg?”

Said disgruntled survivor was standing a ways from Nea, arms still folded in a standoffish fashion as she stared off into the Forest.

Ace smiled tightly. “She’ll come around. Girl’s got a lot to learn.”

David stared hesitantly at the man for another long moment, then glanced back at Felix, silently asking for his approval. Ace followed suit with a soft smile, dark eyes almost twinkling.

Felix straightened at the unexpected attention. He swallowed nervously as he looked between the two men’s expectant gazes. “I– I… suppose— if you think this will give us the best chance, David.”

David’s expression tightened into a stoic, serious line as turned back to face the Argentinian, who gave a gracious, good-natured bow of his head in turn.

“You better not fuck this up, Visconti,” David warned, stabbing a sharp finger into the man’s chest as he loomed threateningly over him. “Because you know what’s gonna happen if you do.”

The Argentinian gave the man a tight-lipped smile. “Oh, I know hijo, I know. Very much so.” His dark eyes then flicked over to meet Felix’s blues, and his expression became uncannily somber. “I saw it with my own two eyes.”

A wave of anxiety swelled up into Felix’s throat, and he suddenly became aware of every eye that was on him. His gaze automatically dropped to the ground, as if ignoring them all could make those knowing looks disappear. 

Ace then silently offered David his open palm, and after a long, precarious moment of silence, it was taken.

The two former enemies shook hands, quick and firm.

Ace then offered his hand to Felix. He took it after a moment of anxious hesitation, and gave it a firm, amiable shake.

Ace smirked in sanguine delight, and smoothly slid his shades back onto his face. “Best of the best, at your service.”

Felix couldn’t help but raise a skeptical brow at that. Despite his reservations about the man, Ace’s confidence was exactly what they needed right now. 

His only hope was that it was justified.

Everyone got back to work shortly afterward. Felix quickly finished up the blueprint before anything else could happen, while David thoroughly explained the plan they’d developed to Ace and Nea. The two seemed to have their own input on it though, because the conversation occasionally devolved into fairly intense debate, but eventually, they all seemed to work it out in the end.

Meg kept her distance, but Kate was quick to go and keep her company. The two chatted amongst themselves while everyone else prepared for the coming Trial.

Jake and Yui then came in to explain the devices that Tapp had shown them how to make: homemade flashbangs.

“Wot?”

Jake nodded as he held up an old corked test tube full of silver powder with some water in the bottom. “Said he saw it on one of his cases. Magnesium, potassium, saltpeter, and… water. Keep it upright.”

Felix nodded as he took it gingerly from Jake and held it aloft as the survivor explained the simple device to everyone around them.

“Potassium at the top. Magnesium and saltpeter in the middle. Water in the bottom. Flip it around so that the water can get to the potassium, and…”

“Bang…” Felix finished, somewhat in awe as he gazed at the silvery elements inside the tube. He felt nervous just holding this thing in his hand. The ancient glass could easily turn into dangerous shrapnel if it exploded.

“ Jaaaa! För fan! ” Nea said, looking almost too enthusiastic. “Can’t wait to throw one at that fucker’s head!”

“Tapp said that we should not do that,” interjected Yui. “It might not work.”

Jake nodded. “It needs gravity. You have to roll it or gently toss it at the ground.”

Nea frowned in disappointment.

Felix nodded in agreement. “The glass looks old. It might shatter on impact if we're not careful.” Everyone around him concurred, and then he quickly added: “We should test it.”

“Oh hell yes!”

David cringed at Nea’s outburst and grunted dubiously, “You sure? We’ve only got a few of these things. We should save ‘em for the Trial. If it works? It works. Spot on. If it don’t? It don’t.”

“Well, what if it doesn’t work when it absolutely has to? ” Felix asked pointedly.

David grimaced as he considered him. “Agh… alright,” he begrudgingly said after a long moment.

Nea shot up. “I’ll do it!!” she shouted, and then snatched the vial from Felix’s hand.

David scoffed in blatant incredulity. “Be my bloody guest, lass.”

“Just do it away from us!” Felix added.

Nea sneered. “Fucking pussies!” 

Despite her irreverence, the thrill-seeking Swede respected his wishes. She jogged toward the edge of camp and then paused for a moment to judge the distance for a throw. Everyone around the campfire became perfectly still and silent, watching with bated breath as Nea rehearsed the throw a few times. When she finally did toss the tube away into the grass, she scrambled away from it in a sprint and a second later—

BANG!!

A searing flash of white-blue light blotted out absolutely everything— even the campfire.

Everyone gasped, cursed, or shrieked.

Felix looked away and closed his eyes but still saw only white. For a panicked moment, he was worried that he’d been blinded, but thankfully, the world began coming back to him in less than a minute.

“Holy shit, ” said Meg.

Ace cackled. “ Che! Good thing I was wearing my sunglasses! That was wild!”

When he could see again, Felix found himself looking at Jake, who was staring at the rack of test tube flash bombs sitting beside him with a bit more fear than before.

Nea shrieked with joy as she jogged back over. “ Jävlar! That was way better than a firecracker! ”

Beside him, David stuttered in disbelief. “W– Wot in… Wait— are you tellin’ me we coulda had these bloomin’ things this entire damn time?!”

“Ah, well… it’s not as if we have an infinite supply of these chemicals,” Felix explained, “These are probably the only flash bombs we’ll ever have.”

“Yeah, and it's not like Tapp knew all that stuff was up there either,” Jake added.

David sighed and then grumbled in frustration. “Whatever. Just gimme one of them things.” He reached out and Jake carefully handed one over to him. “I’ll just be prayin’ it don’t explode in me bloody breast pocket.”

The other three remaining vials were passed out to each survivor going into the Trial and tucked securely away. Felix decided to loop a bit of twine around his so that he could wear it like a necklace. He felt it would be safer like that in the event that he had to crouch or crawl. Gravity would keep him safe from any mishaps.

While the others finished their preparations, Felix checked over his blueprint one final time to make sure that it was perfect. It still seemed to be, so he set it back down on the log, and… hesitated. The black pentagon was on the same log, set neatly on top of its accompanying book wrapped in blue velvet.

Felix told himself that he’d examine it fully when he came back. Once he’d figured out how to use it, maybe then he’d have a more permanent solution to his problems, and maybe then, this nightmare of his would end. 

Because he was going to come back.

He was coming back…

Felix straightened with a sharp inhale and put the artifact out of his mind. He then began checking himself over to make sure he had everything he was going to take with him into the Trial. He had his toolbox to fix generators as quickly as humanly possible. He had the flash bomb around his neck. The skeleton key was in his right pants pocket along with several vials full of broken glass to scatter across floors for an early warning system. Finally, in his other pocket… his item of last resort: The serum. C-23. 

Well, most of it was C-23 —the compound that had basically turned all of his insides into a liquified mush— but there hadn’t been enough to completely fill the syringe. Most of it had been destroyed. Whatever had been left, almost all of it was now within this single vial.

And he had absolutely no idea what it was going to do.

Maybe it killed, maybe it did nothing, or maybe… it did something far worse that he could even imagine …

He didn’t know.

Ideally, the plan was to use it on Danny if it came to that, but… he didn’t have much confidence in himself to pull that off. Danny was just too aware, strong, and agile to be caught off guard like that. 

Realistically… it would have to be for himself.

It would be his cyanide pill in case everything went to hell and they all failed.

Whatever the serum did to him… as long as it took him out in some way, then that was all that mattered to him, because he wasn’t going back to that horrifying existence— no matter what, no matter the cost.

He wasn’t going back.

Felix gasped in a breath and snapped up to ramrod straight attentiveness. The hair on the back of his neck stood out. Cold, probing fingers of impending dread plucked delicately at the fluttering strings of his heart, and then caressed down his spine, leaving behind a trail of prickling gooseflesh. He turned slowly to face the darkest edge of the campsite and saw it reaching out— invading their trifling little soap bubble of protective amber light with incomprehensible darkness.

He was being called.

It was time.

Still staring at the approaching shadows, Felix swallowed to moisten his rapidly drying mouth and called out to the others.

“It’s time.”

No one else but David seemed to hear him. “Huh?”

Felix felt his body begin to tremble. His breath became short. “It’s. Time.”

David was silent as he took a moment to process those words, and in the next, he was a bellowing, scrambling whirlwind of shouting orders and gathering hands.

“OI EVERYONE! IT’S HAPPENING! GET YER SHITE AND GATHER ‘ROUND!!”

The campfire exploded around him with activity.

Felix grabbed up his blueprint from the log. His eyes briefly flicked onto the black pentagon before he pulled himself away and pushed it fully from his mind. He examined the drawing for one more useless moment, and then tossed it into the flames before him. In a matter of seconds, his creation was nothing more than a collection of embers that then soared up into the eternally black sky. 

His offering had been accepted; he just hoped that it would work.

Felix shuddered as another deep chill rolled through him, and turned to see the progress of the approaching fog. Dark, billowing tendrils were beginning to snake towards them, searching for their chosen victims. Several were heading directly his way.

“FELIX!”

Felix spun around. David, Ace, and Nea were all standing at the ready, shroud in each of their hands.

David waved him over. “C’mon!”

Mind lagging, Felix hesitated a moment before moving to join the others, but then stopped again when he remembered his toolbox on the ground. Dark remnants from the approaching tendrils were already hovering around it. His shaking hand shot out to snatch it up and run away with it, but he kept missing the handle, already rattled by the impending Trial. His heart began to thunder.

“Just leave it! C’mon!”

Fog coiling around him, Felix ignored David’s plea and reached for the handle one more time. Finally, he got a good hold on it and pulled the heavy box from the ground. He leapt from the puddle of fog that had gathered around his ankles and then trotted over to join the others. He took the knotted corner of the shroud with a gasp of relief.

David and Nea looked at him sternly while Ace smirked easily.

“Oh!” Ace exclaimed, reaching into his pocket. “Almost forgot.” He brought out a small leather pouch covered in white dust with a white line etched horizontally over the front panel. Ace tossed it into the consuming flames and smiled. “Every little bit, right?”

Everyone remained somberly silent.

The fog gathered around them, and the remaining survivors watched on.

“Good luck Felix!” cried Kate. “We’ll be here when you get back!”

Felix looked to the woman and saw her smiling tightly at him, hands clasped hopefully together. Yui stood tall by her side, sharing a confident, steadfast look with him that he did his best to return. Jake lingered beside her, already staring at him stoically. When their eyes met, Felix saw his expression ever so subtly tighten with somber determination. The man gave him a staunch, deliberate nod. Felix swallowed down the knot in his throat and returned it, somehow feeling like he was going to survive this not just for himself, but for the both of them.

He saw Meg approach from the corner of his eye. The air was forced from his lungs as she suddenly slapped him across the back. He stared hesitantly back at her as he worked to catch his breath, while Meg gave him an amused but somewhat restrained smile.

“Good luck… Felix.”

It took him a moment, but eventually, Felix realized that Meg had called him by his actual name for the very first time, and not that offensive nickname.

The corner of his lip hooked up into a small, appreciative smile and he nodded back at her.

Still smiling, Meg stepped back just as the black fog boiled up around him and obscured his view. The world was plunged into a suffocating, impenetrable darkness.

Feeling suddenly alone, Felix gripped hard at the corner of the delicate shroud and searched out with his toolbox-burdened hand for David, who had been standing directly next to him, but couldn’t find him at all.

“David?!” His voice barely carried through the thick murk. Cold humidity filled his lungs. Was he alone?! Did they make it in with him?!

He jumped at the feeling of a hand gripping his elbow tight, but then relaxed when he processed its strong, familiar touch.

“Right here, mate,” David said, his muffled voice barely audible in the sea of icy murk. “I’m right here.”

Felix puffed out his breath into the mist and nodded even though he knew no one could see him. His heart maintained its elevated, thrumming pace. 

Chitinous clicks and insectoid chitters echoed all around them. Unknowable. Incomprehensible.

Finally, the perfect darkness began to ease. The formless, primordial world around him transmuted into dull ash, and then into a pale, sickly gray. Stray blooms of color and shadow then began to invade the desaturated plane as it slowly faded away. Three figures appeared around him— first as vague shadows, but then quickly morphed into the people that would be his only support for the incoming ordeal.

As he looked between them all, Ace, Nea, and David, the world around them faded into view.

Felix couldn’t help but shudder.

A preschool. 

And an empty, rundown neighborhood with a crashed ambulance abandoned in the middle of the road with its lights rotating absently.

He hated this place.

“Alright, time to execute,” said Ace, suddenly all business. He waved for him to join as he walked past Nea. “Let’s go, boludo .”

Instead of following Ace and Nea to the first generator, however, he turned to face David. He looked his friend hard in the eye, painfully aware of the blatant, unrestrained fear that was currently seizing his features.

For the first part of the plan, David would be going off by himself in an attempt to intercept the killer and catch Ghostface off-guard. Since he had the best chance of surviving an encounter with the killer, he would serve as the first distraction. 

And would have the highest likelihood of dying first— or worse.

David’s expression became pained as he looked him over, taking in every detail and feature of his face. His brow furrowed hard. “Oi, you be careful now, okay? Don’t— oof! ”

Felix lunged forward, wrapping his arms tight around the man’s muscled form and burying his face into his shoulder. David instantly wrapped his own arms completely around him and squeezed him hard against his body. Despite the imminent danger, the hold made him feel immediately more safe and secure. Felix felt the man’s warm, uneven breath puff against his ear as he pressed his stubbled cheek against his.

“Whatever happens, you fuckin’ fight like hell, you hear me? You don’t worry about me or anyone else, you just worry about yourself, okay?” David said, voice wavering with desperate emotion. “You fight. Like. Hell .”

Felix hugged the man tighter and nodded against him, tears welling in his eyes.

“No matter what.”

A sharp pang lanced his heart, and his breath seized. The moisture in his eyes overflowed. Suddenly, Felix felt the need to say something to the man just in case he never saw him again— something important —something that, despite everything , he probably should have said a long, long time ago. On instinct, Felix almost backed away from the notion, his chastened mind urging him to stay away from it and bury it deep… but after examining it for no more than a second, Felix knew that he couldn’t. He wanted— no— needed David to know.

He needed to say it.

Felix swallowed hard and tried to speak his revelation aloud, but found that his throat had become far too tight. Before he could try again though, David squeezed him one more time and then shoved him away.

“Now go. ”

Felix stumbled backward, feeling hands catch him before he could fall onto his ass. Dazedly, he looked back up to find David again. The Brit sniffed and quickly swiped at his nose as he backed away from them, eyes glassy and determined.

Felix absently reached back out for him with his mouth hanging open, on the verge of finally saying those mind-shattering words to the man that had cared for him more deeply than anyone else ever had in his life, but then was distracted by a hard tug at his elbow.

“Oye! C’mon boludo , you can suck his face later! We gotta go!”

Felix’s heart stuttered hard at the Argentinian’s irreverent comment and his entire face flushed with fiery, dizzying heat. In a stunned, mortified stupor, Felix let himself be dragged away toward the generator nestled in the killer shack. He came out of it several seconds later, remembering what he’d wanted to tell David and then started to spin around as he tried to find him again.

Finally, he caught a glimpse of the man in the far distance, moving as stealthily as he could manage to the preschool before disappearing behind its corner.

Felix’s heart wrenched with grief.

He tore his eyes away from the building and spun around to follow swiftly after Ace and Nea, swearing to himself that this would not be the last time he would see the man.

He was going to see David again, and he was going to tell him what he so very much deserved to hear, and what Felix could no longer stand to deny—

That he loved him.

Notes:

YEAAAAA!!!

Alright, so, I don't actually know if the test tube flash bombs actually work or not, but I don't think I can do any more research without risking my plausible deniability, so... let's just pretend they do, alright? 😆

I hope you guys are ready for these next couple chapters!!! (っ °Д °;)っ
I know that I certainly am!! It's been a long time coming! 😩
I'll go ahead and let you guys know right now that it'll probably take a while though. There's a lot that has to happen and stuff in my outline that needs to change, so I'll probably need to write everything out to make sure its all good and makes sense, and then post it as two or three chapters depending on how long it ends up being.
In the mean time, enjoy the FNAF chapter I guess? 😆
Anyways, thank you all so much for reading! 🧡🧡🧡 See you in a bit! ╰(´▽｀)╯

Chapter 39: The Plan Pt1

David’s sharpened eyes darted about the empty playground of the preschool, and toward the shadowy, suburban landscape that lay beyond it. Everything was absolutely silent and still— not even the swings on the rusted playset moved.

From this vantage, nearly the entire width of the Trial grounds was visible to him, and he could see from wall to incongruent wall that bordered the supernatural arena. If any skulking shadows happened to cross here on their way to the killer shack in the distance, then he would see it.

He nestled his bulky form a bit further between the hedge and the corner of the building, trying to conceal himself as much as was possible.

Of course, being in the center of the hunting grounds meant that he himself would be highly visible if that crossing shadow happened to look his way, but David was counting on that shadow’s cocksure, arrogant confidence to stay unnoticed. David figured that there was no version of the world that a narcissist like Ghostface could envision where a master of stealth such as himself could be tracked and followed by a lowly survivor.

The possibility simply wasn’t in the equation for him.

‘Bastard won’t ever see it coming,’ Tapp had said with an impish grin.

Despite his racing heart and the dread pooling in his stomach, David smirked at the relatively fresh memory of Tapp’s coaching when they’d been working out the plan. His analysis of Ghostface’s personality had been pivotal, and David was going to be relying on the man’s invaluable words for the majority of what he was about to do.

This entire plan revolved around one thing and one thing only— 

Ego.

More specifically, Ghostface’s ego, and the chinks in the killer’s armor that it provided them. 

Instead of letting the killer freely stalk them and reacting to him like a herd of deer, they were going on the attack, and David was taking the initiative. Confusion. Stealth. Arrogance. Fear. Control. Those were the things that made Ghostface the deadly threat that he was, and David was planning on taking that away from him.

This time, he was going to be the one in control.

David had to be careful though, because Ghostface was going to inevitably defend himself and retaliate— in more ways than one.

‘You’re gonna have to keep your head clear son, because that fuck is gonna try to get inside of it.’

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, David saw something dark move between a fence and some overgrown bushes about thirty meters away, and a jolt of adrenaline surged through him. David lurched forward into a stealthy, stalking crouch, moving as quickly and quietly as he could through the playground to catch up with the shadow and get eyes on it again. It wasn’t easy, especially with the extra gear he was carrying, but he was managing it.

Finally, as David reached the outer fence of the preschool, he paused to scan the landscape again and saw the shadow slither behind a copse of overgrown shrubs, on the prowl for its first victim.

David grit his teeth and trailed after it, trying to keep his focus as his roiling thoughts and emotions simmered just beneath the surface. He had to stay focused.

Fast and agile, the shadow wove itself through the empty suburbs, pausing for a moment in front of a quiet house to examine it before quickly moving on. David continued to furtively observe and pursue, carefully balancing his distance to remain unnoticed while still keeping track of his target. So far, he was seemingly successful.

Finally, the shadow reached the wide open, empty mainstreet dotted by puddles of lamp light that cut through the middle of the Trial grounds. The square structure, known colloquially to them as the killer shack that often held the dark and ethereal basement, lay directly on the other side. No doubt, Felix and the others were still inside working on the first generator. 

David felt his racing heart jump as the shadow looked its way and then stepped furtively out into the orange-yellow light of the wavering streetlamp overhead, fully revealing the shadow for what it was. Ghostface’s full form came into view, and suddenly, all of the anger, heartbreak, and hatred David had been harboring surged to the surface. That same terrible image of Ghostface looming over Felix’s broken, bloody body flashed in his mind— purple bruises against pale skin, burst blood vessels in twin puddles of pale blue, globs of white in a sea of red— and the tears came quickly after. How David wished he could take out his revenge on the killer right here and now like he would have so easily done back in the real world… but he fucking couldn’t. The killer was too powerful. No matter how viciously angry he became, no matter how much he wanted to, no matter how much that disgusting rapist fuck deserved it, David could never make Ghostface fully pay for what he had done!!

Remembering Tapp’s words, David sucked in a shallow breath and tried to quash his rage… but it was so, so fucking hard. He had to do it though— he had to . For the sake of the plan, his own safety, and for Felix’s life, he had to remain calm and focused.

Instead of the anguish, David let his mind go back to several minutes ago— how Felix had wrapped himself around him just before they’d parted ways, and how David had squeezed him back so tightly. He remembered Felix’s comforting scent, the warmth of his breaths on his skin, and the feeling of those muscles working so desperately hard to keep him close. David knew without a doubt that he would have stood there holding Felix forever if he hadn’t eventually forced him away. 

In the moment, he’d considered declaring his feelings for the man one more time— just in case— but had decided against it.

Felix already knew, and knowing that he knew was enough for him.

David also didn’t want to put any more pressure on the man than he already had. Deep in his heart, he’d been somewhat hoping that Felix would eventually return the sentiment in the limited time they’d shared… but he hadn’t. That was okay though. David could understand why he hadn’t, and couldn’t, and was okay with it. 

In truth, it didn’t really matter. Even though it was obvious to him that Felix didn’t love him as much or in the same way, David still loved him just as much as he had before, and would carry on in his mission to protect and care for him however he could.

For David, there was nothing else.

Finally, Ghostface reached the other side of the road and stopped behind a dislocated concrete barrier just outside of the killer shack. He peered carefully over it, observing the survivors working inside through the small open window.

David grit his teeth hard as he slowly crept up on the killer’s back, dodging any stray detritus on the road that he could see in an effort to stay perfectly silent. And so far, to his own disbelief, he was pulling it off.

When he was a mere ten paces away, David thought for sure the killer would somehow hear his pounding heart and turn around… but he didn’t . He was transfixed by the other three and completely oblivious to everything else around him. So, David continued on with the plan, slowly dragging out the can of neon-yellow spray paint from the makeshift sling bag at his hip, and aimed it at his back.

David eased himself forward until he was less than five paces away and could not even dare himself to get any closer.

The killer shifted to move again, and David automatically pressed down on the paint tab in response. The can hissed. A thick, yellow mist flung out over the black fabric and clung to it like a rash. Ghostface flinched and spun around, rising up to his full height with his knife at the ready. David jumped back, still spraying as much of the paint as he could at the killer until he was safely out of range.

Ghostface stopped to look down at himself and his ruined outfit, then gave a venomous, vitriolic hiss.

“You.”

Ignoring the cold chill creeping up his spine, David smirked and shrugged nonchalantly. “Yeah— me .”

The killer straightened into an unassuming, motionless pillar, the tassels trailing from his cloak echoing the movement like strands of hair in water. It was very clear, however, from the tension in his shoulders and the iron grip on his blade, that he was prepared to leap into an attack at a moment’s notice.

David broadened his stance in preparation to dart out of the way.

The generator in the shack suddenly roared to life, and the paint-spattered killer turned to see Ace and Nea ushering Felix away to the next one.

David took that opportunity to hop back a few paces, as if he were in the boxing ring, and beckoned the killer on. “Come on then ya bloody wanka! Let’s have a go! Bet ya can’t even put a scratch on me!”

Ghostface’s drooping mask then slowly turned back to face him. The twin voids stared darkly back, as if they could eviscerate him with their gaze alone.

David snarled to stop a shiver of fear dead in its tracks. “COME ON!!”

A thick beat passed between them.

Ghostface suddenly turned and darted off in the direction the others had gone.

David blinked away his bewilderment and dashed after him. “HEY!”

The killer snaked between a tree and some bushes, nearly disappearing from view completely, but the bright neon-yellow paint periodically revealed his location through the brush— like a lighthouse flashing in the murk. Struggling to keep up, David sped after those flashes of yellow as Ghostface slithered through the thick foliage and obscuring dark at an unbelievable pace. If not for the paint, he would have almost certainly slipped away otherwise.

Finally, the skulking killer came to a small one-story house with a carport hanging off the side, and moved into the open to slip inside.

“Oh no you don’t, fookin’ slimy git!”

Reaching into his sling bag again, this time David retrieved the carefully wrapped length of wire that he’d outfitted with an assortment of nasty metal spurs and noise-making junk such as empty cans and shards of metal and glass. Packing it so it didn’t make noise every time he moved had been a nightmare.

He unfurled a good length and began to spin it quickly at his side as he dashed forward. 

“Oi! GET THE FOOK BACK HERE!!”

Just as David let the barbed wire fly, the killer spun around to face him and dodged out of the way. The wire clamoured loudly against the pavement, sounding as if someone had dumped out a box of scrap metal. 

In the very next second, David took notice of how Ghostface restabilized his footing, and then preemptively took several bounding steps backward as the killer lunged at him with his knife. Ghostface slashed at empty air. 

As the killer prepared to come at him again, David took that momentary pause to sling out the noisemaker wire again, and this time, Ghostface couldn’t move out of the way fast enough. The killer threw up an arm to block the makeshift barbed whip. It slung around it multiple times, the metal spurs clawing deep into the fabric to keep it in place. 

Ghostface growled menacingly as he took hold of the line and pulled it taut. David held firm.

“You’re playing with thermite, you fucking ape .”

David sneered ferociously. “Then why don’t you explode already?! You fookin’ rat!!

A rhythmic, muffled snickering peppered the air. Ghostface pulled on the wire harder and David had to let some slip through his fingers to avoid getting pulled along with it. The white mask canted to the side in an unnerving, mirthful way.

“Oh… What’s wrong, hothead? You mad that I fucked your precious little whore before you could?”

David grit his teeth as hot outrage flushed through his face. Instead of blowing up, however, Tapp’s words rang in his mind.

‘He’s going to say anything and everything to rattle you and trip you up— everything. So that’s why you’re gonna ignore him and do the exact same thing.’

He shoved the anger down deep and grinned.

“Nah mate, I’m just waitin’ fer ya ta stop running away like a sewer rat and face me like a fuckin’ man! Or did I beat that scrawny little arse o’ yours a bit too good for your liking? C’mon then, let’s have another go, eh? I’ll even let you have both your arms this time!”

The killer gave a low, somewhat forced chuckle as he pulled steadily on the wire again. He crouched low with his knife at the ready. 

At the literal end of his rope, David held tight, shuffling along with it as much as he dared.

Ghostface hissed like a coiled viper— “I’m going to enjoy this.”

David suppressed an icy chill and tensed hard, readying his legs to explode with energy at the twitch of a blade.

The white mask inclined forward. The hunting knife gleamed as the killer’s grip on it tightened.

David released the wire as Ghostface yanked on it hard and then rugby-dashed backward as the knife lunged for him. He kept up the backward dodging dance, working hard to stay out of range of the arcing, slashing blade as it tried to taste his blood, but it was getting closer. 

The noisy junk attached to the killer’s arm jangled and crashed constantly with his every movement, the loose end whipping wildly along the ground behind him as he constantly advanced and David dodged.

Remembering a pallet that he’d seen on his approach to the carport, David stole a risky glance from over his shoulder and spied it just off to his right. On the killer’s next overhead stab, he dashed beneath the blade and went for the pallet propped up between several concrete road barriers. Ghostface was quick to redirect his momentum and barrelled after him with a savage snarl, the clattering junk announcing the movement loudly. David could hear it rattling just behind his back, his hackles rising in anticipation of the feeling of imminent pain and bloodshed.

Finally, his fingers reached the pallet. He twisted to throw it down behind him as hard as he could.

There was a fleshy thump, a heave of breath, and a cacophonous clatter of metal. David spun around to see the killer hunched over as he worked to recover from the blow. 

A surge of euphoria flooded his bloodstream and his vindictive confidence soared.

“YEAAH!! HAVE THAT, YA BLOODY FOOKIN’ BASTARD!!”

David was about to disparage the killer further, wanting to make damn certain that Ghostface knew this was revenge for what he’d done to Felix, and that he was a disgusting rapist freak that should rot in hell for all of eternity… but again, the detective’s advice bled through his rage-filled haze and seeped into his mind.

‘Don’t ever show him your anger. I know it’ll basically be impossible for you not to be, and I get that, but at least hide it. All it’ll do is feed his ego. If he sees that you’re angry, then he’ll know for sure that he's gotten to you, and he'll think he’s won. But if you don’t show that anger, then you'll unsettle the hell out of him. Won’t hurt to needle his ego a bit too.’

‘How do you know all of this?’

Tapp had let his gaze drop with a soft smile.

‘My partner was studying to become an FBI profiler. He… eh, nevermind. It doesn’t matter anymore.’

David followed Tapp's guidance. To keep that constant, furious burn of anger away, instead of constantly thinking about what Ghostface had done to Felix, David chose something else. He chose to remember the feeling of the man in his arms and the bliss he had felt in those moments. He chose to think about those sad yet appreciative blue fractals reflecting Felix’s wavering soul as he gazed into David’s eyes. He chose warmth and comfort and love and peace.

His rage eased.

As the paint-splattered killer rose up to look his way, David let the vitriolic tension ease from his shoulders and put on an easy sneer.

“Aww, what’s the matter cock? Havin’ a bit of a strop there? Get yer knickers in a twist?” he rebuked, then chortled gregariously. “Thought you was a deadly killer or summat!”

Ghostface stared at him from across the pallet, still and silent. At first glance, he seemed almost frozen in place like a statue, but on closer inspection, David could see that his fists and shoulders were trembling.

He was angry.

David allowed for a conceited sneer to spread across his face. He skipped backward as if he were winning handily in the bare knuckle boxing ring.

“You look like you’re ‘bout to blow a gasket mate!” he laughed. “Did I hurt those delicate feelings of yours?!”

Suddenly, the killer lifted his boot and brought it down hard on the heavy piece of wood between them, splintering it in two with a single blow. 

David’s grin flipped into a taut grimace as the killer soared toward him. He glanced quickly around for the next island of safety and saw it nestled between an old car and a copse of thick foliage. He took no time in his decision to dart for it, the cacophony of the noisemakers at his back growing louder by the moment.

David lunged for the pallet just as he heard the sound of steel cutting through air, and threw it down hard behind him. This time, he heard no heavy thump nor heave of breath, but what he did feel was a new line of pain pulsing hot across the back of his arm. He turned to see the killer’s tassels echoing the move he’d just completed to dodge the pallet. The razor edge of his hunting knife was dyed red with fresh blood. 

David glanced back to appraise the damage and judged the slice to be relatively shallow— a grazing glance. 

“Who’s running like a sewer rat now?! ” Ghostface snarled, and again snapped the pallet between them in half with a single, powerful blow.

David was certain he’d been successful in his mission to upset the killer now.

Truly running for his life now, he darted off again in search of something else to put between himself and the rapidly approaching, rattling killer, instinctively running towards a nearby house. Ahead, he spied a hole in a section of the white fence surrounding the property, and bolted for it, the hairs on the back of his neck rising and skin tensing with the impending pain of a knife being driven into his back. The killer was so close, he could hear muffled breaths puffing through the mask over the clatter of metal and glass.

The white fence rushed toward him. He reached out with both hands to firmly grab hold of the edge, rebounded off of the ground, and launched his body smoothly into the air and through the gap— just as he’d done about a million times. With almost cat-like grace, David landed on the other side and continued in his sprint toward the house with almost no loss in momentum. Behind him, Ghostface stalled a moment to step ungracefully onto the gap in the fence and drop back down, then struggled an extra moment with the wire as it caught on the wood.

The evasion had given David some precious extra seconds to make it to the house, but Ghostface was already back on his heels again. The killer was apparently more zealous about spilling his blood than at any point since their little interaction had begun, because David could hear the killer snarling with every breath as he gained on him, and he was gaining on him fast— faster than he thought was even possible, even for a being that was supernaturally enhanced.

David pushed himself toward the house hard, aiming for the safety of the open window and the maze-like structure within. The huffing, growling breaths approached, and the jangling of the attached junk grew impossibly loud impossibly fast.

He wasn’t going to make it.

Unless of course, he made use of one final trick.

Before what little buffer of space that was left between them got too small, David diverted his path around a small hedge to break line of sight on his way to the window. He then grabbed the test tube flashbang from out of his breast pocket, turned back, and then tossed it at the ground behind him where the killer would be appearing moments later.

He was about to turn away from the imminent flash with a satisfied smirk, but then watched in disbelief and horror as the corked end of the spinning vial bounced off the concrete and back into the air. Ghostface appeared from behind the hedge a moment later, saw the thing spinning in his face, and then slashed it in half with his blade. A silver cloud exploded into the air all around him. Ghostface surged through it without thought or consideration to what it was, single-minded in his mission to murder the Brit who had dared to taunt him.

Despite not doing what he’d wanted it to do, the device had still been successful in giving him a momentary distraction, and the one extra second he’d needed to make it into the house. As the furious killer barrelled after him, David raced over those final extra meters as fast as he could manage. He tensed at the sound of a gutteral snarl and steel whistling through the air. David practically threw himself through the open window. 

Just behind him came a loud, echoing clang. The steel window frame reverberated through his hand and up his arm. David fell onto the hardwood floor awkwardly, landing painfully on his hip and crashing into a dining table before managing to roll back up onto his feet. He quickly spun around to gauge the scene behind him, readying himself to take off once again, but then hesitated. 

Coated with a layer of shiny metal dust over the neon yellow paint, Ghostface stood just beyond the window he’d leapt through moments ago, staring at him.

A moment of silence passed between them, and then the sound of a generator coming to life echoed in the distance.

Ghostface’s dark, empty pits, now glittering with powdered magnesium, continued staring through him.

Feeling unsure, but still wanting to give Felix as much time as was possible, David sneered and taunted the killer once more.

“Oi, what’s the mither prick? Am I too much for ya? Did I rattle yer wee pram, tot? Ha!”

Slowly, the white mask canted over to one side.

David’s sneer fell into an uneasy smile as the still silence dragged on. He felt his insides begin to churn. 

“He liked it, you know.”

David’s heart thumped hard. His spine straightened and his smile dropped.

“Even when I made him bleed, he always got off on it— always. ”

His lip curled into a snarl. His stomach twisted. “Lyin’ fuckin’ prick .”

“And his body was so beautiful whenever he did eventually orgasm— quivering and shaking so damn hard as he rode my cock like an animal in heat— always pushing back against me, so hungry for more… You should have seen his face .”

“Shut up…”

“Sometimes, whenever he got into it like that, I’d grip that slut’s soft, pale ass harder and harder until he’d whimper so deliciously in pain, and then I’d fuck that sloppy hole so deep and fast that he’d—”

“SHUT UP!!”

Ghostface’s hands froze in the middle of his demonstration of holding onto something that wasn’t there. He then snickered easily and let them drop back down to his sides, the noisemakers on his left arm jangling softly.

David’s heart was pounding. His throat burned.

“What? No more jokes? You suddenly lose your sense of humor? I thought we were having fun.”

Afraid to speak or react, David stood stoically in place as his fists shook and his fiery breaths poured unsteadily from his clenching lungs.

Ghostface stared at him straight on. “You should have listened to me back then. It would have saved you so much unnecessary trouble and heartache.”

David straightened in surprise, eyes wide as he tried to process the statement. 

Suddenly, there was a billow of yellow-black fabric, and Ghostface was gone.

David blinked hard in disbelief and then ran to the window with a heaving gasp. His head spun atop his shoulders as he scanned the neighborhood for the killer, but saw no sign of him. However, he did hear something instead. On the other side of the hedge bordering the yard, he could hear the subtle jangling of his noisemaker whip as Ghostface ran off into the distance.

Head spinning and heart still pounding, David stumbled awkwardly through the window and took off in desperate pursuit of the sound. For a moment, as he ran through the overgrown yard, David thought he was catching up rather quickly to the sound that signified the killer’s location… but then it stopped. 

David hesitated to process that for only a moment, and then rushed urgently but cautiously to the last location he’d heard the sound come from, wary of a potential ambush. He rounded the corner on a thick amassment of bushes and trees, and found himself in the near-empty, fractured parking lot of the preschool with tufts of grass periodically exploding up through the cracks in the tarmac. David scanned the wide-open plane for only a moment before realizing that what he’d been following was now scattered in pieces on the ground before him— the noisemaker wire.

Ghostface had broken free and reclaimed his stealth.

David cursed as he kicked at the shattered remains, then stared all around himself as he tried to sight the killer one more time… but saw nothing.

He grit his teeth and cursed again.

“Fookin’ SHITE.”

He’d let Ghostface get to him. All it had taken was a few moments of terrible description to blow up his concentration, and that had been it. He’d lost him.

He sucked in a wavering breath, trying to recollect and reassure himself that he’d accomplished most of the part he’d been meant to play— and had survived. 

David was still in the game, and was still here to help Felix.

Now though, it was up to Ace and Nea to do their part in looking out for the man… and David still wasn’t sure that he could trust them to properly do so. He would have to trust them though— he would have to — because he didn’t have a choice.

The life of the man David loved more than anything was now in the hands of the people who’d wished him gone less than a day ago. It was fucking mental and wreckless and irresponsible and stupid as all hell, but somehow… David felt like it was going to work— for all of those very same, ridiculous and absurd reasons, and for one more, much simpler, and more straightforward reason:

Because it had to.

Chapter 40: The Plan Pt2

Notes:

Really love this chap. Hope you guys do too! 👀👀👀

“Inside the preschool? Are you sure? What if—”

“Chavón. You wanted gens done, yes?”

“Yes, but…”

“Well, unless you want to be in a world of hurt later, we need to get the center one done before this Trial gets too far along.”

Felix grimaced and looked up at the badly weathered sign on top of the building, proclaiming ‘Badham Preschool’ in toy spelling blocks before they walked beneath the awning and it disappeared. As Ace strolled through the front door and into the dimly lit building, Felix stopped and glanced over his shoulder past Nea. He scanned the abandoned street beyond the chain link fence, searching absently for a dark shadow or a glimpse of a gray jacket.

Nea looked up at him with a questioning brow.

“Lo siento, bello, but it has to be done. Now come on. We’ll watch out for ya.”

Felix turned back to see Ace beckoning him in. After a moment of hesitation, he puffed out his breath and stepped inside. “Okay.”

Ace gave him a soft smile and then turned to venture deeper into the school. Nea trailed silently after them.

Most of the light fixtures inside were off, but a few overhead fluorescent lamps provided enough to navigate by. The peeling, water-damaged walls were lined with paper crafts and dozens of children’s drawings. Most were self-portraits or stick figure families that he found oddly disturbing. Disproportionate bodies. Deformed heads with too many teeth. Crooked hook smiles and unreadable pinprick eyes, all staring out at him… He didn’t like it; it was an eerie reflection of a dream he’d once had that would never come to pass.

After the uncanny art gallery, they came upon the lobby and the welcome desk, which was expectedly empty and unkempt. Toys, paperwork, and a few more pieces of amateur artwork were strewn across the tiled floors.

Ace hummed and deviated down the right hallway, then glanced into the open door of a classroom. “Should be around here somewhere…”

“With our luck, it’s probably in the basement,” said Nea.

Ace scoffed and looked inside another classroom. “With your luck maybe.”

Nea tsked and rolled her eyes.

Aced hummed and stepped back into the hallway with his hands on his hips. “Ah, and what do you know? It's almost definitely downstairs! How could you do this to us Nea?!”

Nea crossed her arms and glowered darkly at him.

Ace raised his hands in surrender. “Ah, no hard feelings! Lo que sea! ” he said, starting for the stairs at the end of the hall. “Basement it is!”

Felix grimaced and looked to Nea, hoping she might have a different idea, but all the woman did was sigh and brush past him. “Come on. Let’s get this done quick.”

He swallowed the rising knot in his throat, glanced back to make sure nothing was following them, and then followed Nea down into the basement. Before he could descend too far though, he reached into his pocket to pull out a vial filled with broken glass and scattered it over the hallway— an early warning system.

He leaned out to check the ground floor one more time and then descended into the basement. The stairs opened up into a cavernous, concrete box of a storage room with several rusty shelves and scattered piles of old school equipment that would never see use again. The way to his left led to a dead end cast in junk and shadows. A stained, dirty mattress with several unlit candles beside it was laid out in the far corner, as if ready to be used. It was a sight that gave him great pause.

Fuck, how he hated this place. It felt rotten to the core.

Opposite that accursed nook was the main breadth of the storage area. Beneath the dim light of a single, incandescent bulb, Nea was already laboring away on the generator that had been hidden away here like a thing to be abhorred.

On either side of the storage room were two shadowy hallways that escorted a tangle of copper pipes deeper into the basement. Ace walked out of one with a handful of empty vials.

“You get upstairs?” he asked. 

Bringing himself back into the moment, Felix nodded, but Ace bounded past him to check anyways. 

“Súper.”

Once Ace had checked his trap, he moved to help Nea with the generator, but then saw Ace pluck something from the inside of his ratty jacket which he began arranging on the top step. Felix stepped to the side to get a better look and saw him messing with a test tube flashbang. He was trying to set it up as a simple tripwire trap with some fishing line, but was having trouble getting it to stand upright against the door, the round bottom of the test tube not very conducive in this use case.

“Visconti!” Nea barked. “Quit messing around with that and get down here!”

“Tranquilo che, tranquilo. You’ll be thanking me when this saves all our asses later.”

Felix stood anxiously by as he watched Ace catch the thing every time it started to fall, ready to wrench the man away the second the glass tube fell over onto its side. 

He was completely in favor of any additional buffer they could put between themselves and the incoming threat, but not at the risk of losing fingers or eyes.

“Ace, hold on a moment. I think I have a cleaning cloth in my toolbox,” Felix said, placing the box on the ground to search through it. “You can use it as a cradle.”

“Oye, great idea bello! See? I knew the architect would come in handy!”

Nea’s dramatic eye roll was practically audible as Felix fished the cloth from the box and handed it off.

“Gracias bello.” Ace smirked at him as he took the soft fabric and then used it to cushion the bottom of the test tube and keep it in place. He then strung a bit of fishing line from the neck of the tube across the doorway, and the trap was set. Ace brushed his hands together and backed away with a satisfied grin. “There!”

“You shouldn’t call him that,” said Nea. “David asked you not to.”

Felix felt a bit of heat creep into his cheeks as Ace moved past him to the generator. His stomach reflexively twisted with worry and warmth.

“Well, as far as I can tell, David isn’t here right now, so that means I can call him whatever I want— unless he asks me to stop of course,” Ace said, shooting him an impish, questioning grin.

Felix felt his blush deepen. “I mean— I uh…”

“Idiot, you know he’s not going to answer you truthfully when you talk to him like that .”

“A– actually Nea, it’s okay. I don’t mind it.”

“Ayy, see nena? He’s okay with it!” Ace said, giving his back a hearty slap. 

Felix huffed and staggered forward.

Nea glowered at Ace like a viper. “Just get over here and shut up. You’re too loud and we need to hurry.”

Ace shrugged and complied. “As you say.” 

They both kneeled beside the machine and got to work repairing its innards. 

In truth, Felix really didn’t mind Ace’s needling or his antics all that much. It was a nice distraction from his building dread and the imminent horrors that awaited him.

Toolbox at the ready beside him, Felix deftly switched to the best instrument for the job whenever he could, wanting to get these repairs done and back on the move as quick as possible. With only three ways to escape and two of them only leading deeper into the basement, this place was feeling more like his coffin with every passing moment.

They’d completed two generators so far without incident, and other than that brief but heartstopping glance he’d seen of David standing off against Danny, egging him on, they hadn’t heard so much as a peep from either of them since then. It was too quiet out there. Felix didn’t know what that meant— if anything. It could mean that David had been successful in his mission and avoided harm, or… that Danny had taken him out silently, and was on the prowl again… or something far worse. He could be… and Danny could have cut his vocal chords so he couldn’t cry out— something the killer had threatened to do to him once before.

Felix shuddered and felt electric gooseflesh prickle out over his skin. He glanced all around himself at the dim, dark basement with all its shadowy corners, weakly lit by the single, incandescent bulb overhead… and felt trapped. He looked around again at the three routes of entry to the room— the flight of stairs, and the two hallways— and stared at each of them hard, looking for any shadows or white splotches that weren’t supposed to be there. His heart began to race.

“Oye ,” said Ace, gently directing Felix’s head back toward the machine. “Eyes on the gen. Ears on the glass.”

Felix swallowed heavily and nodded at him, directing his attention back on his repairs. He breathed deep to steady himself, then narrowed his focus, listening intently for the crackle of glass they’d scattered at each of the doorways. If Ghostface came, they would hear it.

Felix waited a moment for the crescent wrench in his hand to stop quivering before sticking it inside the machine and resuming his work. 

The sound of clanking machinery was all that echoed around them in the concrete, cave-like basement as the generator was slowly put back together. With every passing moment, the tension in the air grew until it felt like a thick, suffocating blanket.

Felix wished that Ace would start needling him again.

There was a quiet tinkling at the top of the stairs.

Felix gasped and instantly fixated on it. That had sounded like broken glass being brushed aside!

Nea and Ace’s eyes were on him immediately.

“What?”

Felix glanced between them in disbelief. Did they not hear that?! 

“Th– the stairs!” he whispered, barely breathing as he stared over at them, expecting a dark shadow to rush down the steps at any moment.

The other two stopped working and let silence fill the underground void. Everyone watched and waited for the glass or the stairs to make another sound, but aside from their breaths and the quietly hissing pipes, the air remained silent.

Had he imagined it?!

“I– I swear, I—”

“Ah, it’s okay amigo. No problemo. Let’s just continue working and keep our ears open, yes? We’re almost done.”

Felix gave a hesitant nod, but kept his eyes fixated on the stairs as the two got back to work. After a while, he saw Nea eye him from the corner of his vision, but she resumed working without comment. Even if he wanted to, Felix couldn’t help them anymore— not after that. He was too on edge now.

He knew he’d heard something up there— he knew it.

As the disharmonious sounds of repair once again began to fill the space, Felix listened intently to the ambience that lay beneath it, awaiting the moment the sound would make itself known again.

Seconds passed.

Suddenly, from the top of the stairs there was a clatter of glassware against concrete, and then—

BANG!!!

A blinding blue-white flash. An ear-splitting, amplified blast and a wall of pressure that punched him in the chest and rattled his skull. A high pitched, ringing wail began bouncing around in his head. 

Slowly, the basement faded back to him in a dizzying slideshow.

Someone wrenched at his arm hard and he stumbled backwards. His heart leapt with panic. Not knowing who or what was trying to take him, Felix resisted instantly, fighting back with all his might until he saw a graying, bearded face obscured by sunglasses silently yelling at him.

Felix froze and blinked hard, then stared dazedly at the man’s moving mouth while the world rang like a bell. Ace grabbed him and began pulling him down a hallway. Felix let himself be moved. It worried him that they were going deeper into the basement, but it was away from the threat. Leaky pipes dripped water and blew steam at him from all sides as they hurried through. He felt their hot, blasting pressure tousling his hair and spraying his face, but could not hear them at all. The world was still ringing.

Finally, after several disorienting turns through the dark, humid hallway, they came to the boiler room. A hole in the ceiling bathed it in a sickly, fluorescent glow from the main hall upstairs, while the burning furnace cast a flickering orange glow across the far wall.

They stopped beneath the cone of light, and the harsh grip on his arm fell away. Felix turned to see Ace glaring back at where they’d just come from. 

Nea was nowhere to be seen.

Head still ringing, Felix stuck his fingers in his aching ears and tried to pop them while he worked his jaw. Finally, the harsh sound began to fade, but now everything sounded like it was under water. 

Ace continued to stare at the dark hallway, as motionless as a sculpture.

Felix worked his ears a bit more, desperate to hear the soundscape around him. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure nothing was sneaking up on him without his notice, but saw only another shadowed corner to another hallway in the architecture of the maze-like basement. He assumed it led to the other set of stairs, but couldn’t be sure.

He looked to the boiler in the center of the room, orange flames licking out from the slats in the burning furnace like a tongue licking teeth. A jumble of copper pipes surrounded the boiling tank like a metal egg sack suspended in bronze webbing. The piping was nonsensical and random— more like the instinctual product of a living being than a carefully thought out, efficient design.

A hiss of steam came from a pipe overhead and Felix realized that he had heard it. His hearing had mostly returned, but everything was still a bit muffled.

Wanting to test this, and also wondering why they hadn’t moved, he turned to Ace and tried to whisper. “What are we—”

Ace spun around to shush him— but then looked up and gaped. 

Felix’s hackles iced over. 

Ace lunged forward to grab him. Felix reached out to try and meet his grasp, but couldn’t move his body fast enough. 

The pale light from above was blotted out, obscured by an enormous shadow that cast him and the room around him into fiery darkness. Fabric fluttered through the air behind him, followed by the impact of heavy boots. 

Ace caught his hand and wrenched him away hard, trading momentum to throw him toward the dark hallway they’d just come from. 

Felix stumbled forward and Ace yelped.

Catching himself, Felix spun around to see Ace faltering toward him, a pained grimace on his lips. Just behind Ace in the background, standing menacingly in the cone of sickly light, was Danny. His cloak shimmered with silver dust and was splattered with streaks of neon yellow. His hunting knife shone wet with fresh blood, poised to taste more. 

Ghostface stooped in preparation to attack, and Felix shoved Ace down the dark hallway before his fear could reach his pre-frontal cortex and paralyze him. Belatedly, he realized that he’d sent them down the wrong one, but it was too late to care, because Danny was chasing them. Heavy bootsteps reverberated through the pipes and up the hall behind them— furious, rapid, violent — like the double-pedal drum beat of a heavy metal band.

Panic on the verge of boiling over, Felix pressed at Ace’s back to urge him forward, but the man was struggling. A spot on his jacket was wet and warm. Ace used the pipes to help pull himself along, but it wasn’t fast enough. The roaring thunder behind them was getting closer and growing louder, until Felix felt like the killer was right on his heels. Puffing breaths of exertion echoed at his back.

“Ace, go faster!! PLEASE GO FASTER ACE!! ACE!! ACE!! ”

The two turned a corner, and saw a pallet propped up on the inside of it like a gift. Felix pushed the older man through it, using the pipes on the corner to swing themselves around to keep their momentum. Felix spun and slammed the pallet down behind him without even looking. 

He lurched away from it and stumbled back into the storage room after Ace, who was struggling to get off his knees. He only turned back to look when he heard a muffled snarl of frustration from behind.

From the other side of the pallet he’d just dropped, Danny glowered at him, shoulders tense and fists quivering with furious malice. He picked up a boot and smashed the pallet into splinters with a single blow. 

Felix’s heart lurched into his throat. He turned away despite the icy fear clawing into his spine and helped Ace make it to the stairs where he started pushing him upward. His back was soaked with blood.

A dark shadow rushed beneath them toward the bottom of the steps, and then the handrail shuddered under his palm. 

An involuntary yelp of panic leapt from his throat. He frantically shoved Ace up the stairs harder, their pounding footsteps outpacing his fluttering heart and heaving breaths.

“Ace go go go go GO GO PLEASE GO!!!”

Puffing and wheezing for breath, Ace crashed into the opposite wall as they reached the top, but Felix was quick to gather him back up despite the booming bootsteps clamoring up the stairs behind them. 

As they lurched down the main thoroughfare of the preschool, Felix finally looked up to gauge his surroundings and saw Nea standing at the far end in the lobby, eyes wide and stance rigid as she watched them struggle. Behind them, the killer's thunderous pursuit spilled out into the main hallway and swerved after them. Nea’s eyes widened further, and then narrowed into a firm, determined line. 

On the verge of calling out for her to run, Felix fell silent when he saw her simultaneously reach into her backpack and front pocket, and pulled out a lighter and a can of spray paint. His eyes went wide with realization.

Nea aimed the pressurized can at them, flicked on the lighter, and raised it to the nozzle. 

“GET DOWN!”

Felix sucked in a gasp, pulled Ace against him, and slid across the floor into a heap at Nea’s feet. 

From behind came a sharp inhale of surprise and the regretful scuffing of boots. A second later, the air above him exploded into a river of heat and bellowing flame. The hallway flashed bright white and a horrible, ear-shattering scream fractured the air. Felix looked over his shoulder just in time to see the tail end of a magnesium flash as it resolved into the shape of a person being swallowed by billowing flame. 

Danny screamed as he crashed to his knees and began to flail and roll as the white-hot fire melted his costume and ate away at his flesh. The plastic toys and ceramic tiles around him began to melt, while the artwork and paper crafts attached to the walls burst into flames and fluttered into pieces through the superheated air like confetti. 

Eyes transfixed, Felix pulled himself into a seated position and watched the scene play out before him in a stunned haze. His face burned and eyes ached from the searing heat and light, but it was impossible to look away.

After everything this person, this monster, had done to him— how much power and control he’d wielded over him— the fear that he’d commanded from him in his every waking moment… Seeing him like this , writhing and squirming on the ground like a leech… 

It was breaking his brain.

As the swaddling flames ebbed and Danny’s screams were choked off, an acrid scent began to fill the air. It was an odd combination of charcoal, fireworks, and something sweet he couldn’t quite describe, but it reminded him of cooking food. The thought made his stomach churn. 

Finally, as the consuming flames receded to the size of a campfire, Danny’s frenzied convulsions began to slow until they eventually… stopped.

Felix blinked.

Less than three meters away, where the monster who had tortured him, raped him, and haunted his every waking moment had once stood… now lay a thing— a flaming black mass of charred flesh, scorched bone, and melted synthetics lying face down in a puddle of rendered fat and grease. It was vaguely in the shape of a human, but could hardly be considered one now.

A wave of something putrid invaded his nostrils and he felt the urge to vomit. He slapped a hand over his face and turned away before he could. 

“La puta madre! ” Ace laughed, voice rasping and strained. “I bet you enjoyed that show!”

“Helvete… Is he dead?!”

Felix hesitantly looked back at the charred mass of flesh. The flames had since subsided; only a steady flow of swirling orange embers now emanated from the corpse.

His eyes told him that it was indeed a corpse— that what had happened to Danny was unsurvivable— that the state this body was in was incompatible with life… but his brain couldn’t accept it. That body was still Danny, and Danny was invincible.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Mierda, well he looks pretty dead to me! Good job nena!”  

Suddenly, Ace choked and fell into a coughing, gagging fit. Nea dropped down to steady him, looking intensely concerned. The coughing fit culminated in Ace spitting up a splatter of bright red foam into the palm of his hand.

“Ah mierda , he got me good…”

“Satan. We need to get that dressed. I’ve got supplies in my bag,” Nea said, shrugging off her pack to rummage through it.

Felix just continued to stare at the smoldering body while Ace languished next to him, stomach churning not just from nausea, but from unease as well. He couldn’t let his guard down yet— his brain wouldn’t let him. A squirming sensation deep inside him was insisting that something was still wrong— that he wasn’t safe and the corpse before him was still a threat— but couldn’t understand how or why. 

He studied the corpse a bit closer, taking note of how many countless embers were being cast off by it as the smoke dissipated, and thought it somewhat odd. His eyes drifted to the knife still held by the desiccated, blackened right hand, its center glowing bright red from the intense heat it had endured. For a moment, Felix considered trying to take it, but had second thoughts. He looked over the corpse again and— his heart skipped a beat. Was it… breathing??

“Felix ,” snapped Nea, “Can you please help me with Ace? He’s—”

The corpse lurched at them with the knife. Everyone screamed and scrambled back. The glowing steel stabbed into the grout between the tiles, and the face gaped up at them, skeletal, eyeless, and melting like his mask had once depicted, but now— so much worse! So much worse!

Felix screamed in horror and tried to scramble away, but something at his back was stopping him. He fumbled desperately at it, trying to push it out of the way so that he could escape but it was no use. 

Finally, the horrible, melting skull face dropped back against the ground and out of view as the scorched body began struggling to get up and peel itself away from the floor like an infected scab. Those orange-gold embers were now pouring out of every smoldering, fleshy fissure as if his body contained a swarm of spawning fireflies. 

Felix watched on in horror, heart hammering, mind spiraling, and lungs stuttering as he continued trying to escape from the thing. His head jerked on its stem as his body was wrenched hard.

“FELIX!”

His eyes snapped onto Nea’s snarling face.

“I need you to take Ace and get the fuck out of here, got it?!”

“Wh– wh– wh–?!”

He jolted as the glowing knife flailed in the air again before clanging against the tile. The charred body attached to it wheezed like a deflating balloon.

His body jolted again as Nea shook him by the lapels.

“FELIX.”

He gaped blankly up at her.

“GET. ACE.”

He stuttered wordlessly before finally forcing out: “O– O—kay!!”

Nea dropped him and stood up. Ace grimaced through bloodstained teeth on the ground beside him as he stared at the struggling horror— a true monstrosity now. Felix began mindlessly doing as Nea had asked and reached to grab Ace under his arms, who began yelping in pain as he was dragged away. 

Nea reached into her bag and pulled several paint cans onto the ground and kept one in her hand. She pulled her lighter back out. “Take the bag,” she said. “It’s got the medical supplies in it.”

Felix hesitated, and then snatched the bag and threw it onto his shoulder. He grabbed the groaning Argentinian’s arm and threw that onto his shoulder as well. His eyes flicked onto the struggling, horrifying black mass. “What about you? Aren’t you—?!”

“No,” Nea snapped. “I’m going to make sure this fucker stays down until you guys get out.”

Felix struggled to his feet as he pulled Ace up with him. “A– are you sure?! He could—”

“Yes. Now go. Take care of him,” she said, nodding at Ace.

The charred body on the ground was now working to get onto its knees, wobbling and writhing like a newborn as it fought against gravity and its own oozing, congealed musculature. Nea raised the lighter and the paint can and aimed it at the struggling atrocity. 

Felix felt a gentle touch at his chest and looked over to see Ace’s tight, bloodstained smile. “Nea’s got this,” he rasped. “Let’s go.”

Felix stared at him for a moment longer and finally nodded. He glanced at the broiled, struggling abomination for one more second before gingerly turning them around and limping toward the entrance. The melting faces and empty eyes of the children’s drawings watched them as they left. 

“Ach du Scheiße! Scheiße!” Felix whispered to himself, still reeling at what he’d just seen. “What the fuck!”

“I know I know!” Ace grunted unsteadily. “Relentless devil .”

As they reached the doorway and stumbled out into the moonlight, Nea roared behind them.

“Jävla djävulen!! STAY DOWN!!”

Then there was a whooshing roar and a flash of orange light as a torrent of fresh flame was released.

Ace patted at his shoulder with the arm stretched over his back like an encouraging father. “Eh, see? Told ya la nena’s got it. She’ll keep that fucker nice and crispy.”

Felix glanced at him but did not respond, concentrating on taking in as much oxygen as he could to keep himself calm as he lugged both their weights across the street and toward the house on the opposite side. 

He prayed that Ace was right.

Finally, they crossed into the driveway of the single-story brick house which had a carport built into the side and some stairs that led into a basement. Felix decided that he was done with basements, and so he led them to the adjacent door that took them into the house. Ace fumbled it open for him, and the two men stumbled into a musty living room with highly out-of-date decor. Felix dragged them over to an ugly corduroy couch and they both crashed backwards into it with a cry of relief and an explosive cloud of dust.

Ace groaned and leaned forward to start peeling his jacket off, back soaked through with slippery red. 

Still puffing for breath Felix shrugged off the colorful pack and immediately started going through it for supplies. After a moment, however, he just turned it upside down and dumped it on the carpet to see everything. He snatched some gauze and an absorbent pad and jumped back on the couch beside Ace, who had managed to get half of his shirt off. 

Felix balked. There was a lot of blood, and all of it was coming from one little five centimeter wide notch at the base of his ribcage on the left side of his back. Going by the bright foamy blood that Ace was spitting up, the knife had no doubt punctured his lung, and the man was in imminent danger of suffocating or bleeding out. 

A momentary flashback of Danny’s knife slowly sliding between his ribs and how it had felt to drown in his own blood struck him hard. Those three black pits in his memory then morphed into the three charred, oozing ones he’d seen only minutes ago, relentlessly pursuing him from the very precipice of death. God, he still couldn’t believe it!

Felix shivered and quickly shoved the vision away, forcing himself to focus and stay in the moment as he unwound the gauze and shoved it against the wound. He scanned the supplies again, looking for something else to aid in his first aid. 

“Shit, I really fucked up, didn’t I?” Ace rasped, and then coughed wetly.

“Nein Ace. Be quiet.”

Felix spied a bottle of anti-haemorrhagic powder and jumped off the couch to grab it. He popped off the cap, tried to clear as much blood from the wound as possible, and then dumped a bunch on top of it. Ace groaned and winced away from him as he reapplied pressure with the fresh absorbent pad. The man’s fingers gripped the edge of the sofa hard as he endured, knuckles white. His breaths whistled and wheezed. 

“I’m… I’m sorry, hijo. ”

Felix sighed. “It’s okay. Now be quiet and save your breath, this—”

“No.” The word was downtrodden and forlorn, sounding almost like a lamentation.

Felix fell silent. His gaze moved away from the wound to the back of Ace’s head.

“I… thought I was protecting them— the others… I thought I was protecting everyone from those who would tear us down from the inside, but I…” Ace’s breath hitched, and Felix couldn’t decide if it had been a sob of emotion or pain. “All I was doing was killing off scared, desperate people that needed our help… throwing them away, people that could have been friends…”

A knot formed in Felix’s throat as he listened, painful and thick. 

“And you…” Ace’s head slowly shook, “While that bastard was… You were just trying to escape from that, and we sent you right back. We helped him do that to you— I helped him. I—”

“Ace. Ace.”

The older man fell silent.

“Be quiet, before your lung collapses and you pass out.”

A beat of blessed silence.

Ace continued. “Aren’t you going to tell me off?”

“What?” Felix asked, reapplying pressure to the wound.

Ace groaned in response. “You’re not going to say I’m a selfish, evil bastard who’s no better than that psicópata? That I should rot in the Void next to all the people I sent there?”

“…No.”

Ace’s head shook in disbelief. “Why? You have every right— every damn right, ” he said, coughing weakly.

“Because you’re already trying to make it right.”

Ace’s head shook again. “Mierda… You’re too good hijo… You know that’s going to get you into trouble one day, don’t you?”

“It already has.”

Ace sighed and finally fell silent. Felix puffed in relief, glad to be free of the man’s guilt-ridden musings. He pulled up the medical pad to check the status of the man’s wound, and saw that it had mostly stopped bleeding, but didn’t know if that also included his internal bleeding. The stab wound was more than likely very deep, but it was impossible to tell.

Despite his reservations, Felix opened a fresh gel pad and placed it over the wound, sealing it away from the air and protecting it from foreign debris. 

“There. That should hold for a while.”

“Gracias hijo ,” Ace groaned as he pulled his shirt back on. “But I don’t know for how much longer— chest hurts like la concha de la lora .”

Felix grimaced and looked over the supplies scattered about the floor. If he remembered his father’s medical texts correctly, chest pain in this case indicated air in the chest cavity, which indicated a collapsing lung. Relieving that pressure required a syringe or some sort of hollow needle— and the knowledge to properly implement— but nothing of the sort was among the supplies that they had.

“Wait,” Felix said, suddenly realizing something stupid. “Did you say ‘the conch of a parrot?’”

Ace balked. His eyebrows jumped to the brim of his hat. “You know Spanish? This whole time?!”

Felix shrugged. “A bit. It’s fairly close to Italian and I’ve worked with some Spaniards in the past. What does it mean?” he asked, and started gathering up the supplies he’d dumped back into the bag. He was glad to be distracted by something inconsequential for once.

Ace chuckled nervously. “Uh, I mean, that’s not the exact translation. I suppose it's m– more of a euphemism for—”

Ace stopped and Felix froze in response, his hand in the middle of putting a sewing kit away into the bag. The two listened to the silence.

And then, there it was— a heavy impact— a bootstep— against the driveway outside the house, followed by a shuffling, dragging sound. More silence, and then a long second later, there was another bootstep with more arduous dragging, as whatever was out there slowly made its way across the driveway and to the entrance of the house.

A torrent of icy, prickling shivers poured over his scalp and gnawed down his back.

“Did you lock the door?” Ace whispered, barely able to breathe the words.

Felix haltingly shook his head. 

Another heavy bootstep, followed by more agonized dragging— this time right outside the door. A shadow cast itself on the thin curtains covering the adjacent window.

Felix threw on the bag and rushed to Ace’s side, then pulled his arm over his shoulder. The man latched onto him hard, stifling a pained grunt as he forced himself to his feet. Felix started for the kitchen, guessing it had a back door that would lead them to safety.

The doorknob rattled violently and started to turn.

Sucking in a sharp inhale, Felix froze in place and watched the door. His legs began to tremble. He was somewhat jarred out of it by a gentle patting at his side.

“Don’t look, hijo. Keep going. You don’t have to look.”

Blinking and swallowing hard, Felix turned away from the rattling door and trudged into the kitchen with Ace trying his best to hang on and keep up. As predicted, there was an escape route that led outside.

From behind them came a loud bang as the door flung open. They both jumped.

And then, a wheezing, desiccated voice floated from the living room like a cloud of newborn spiders riding the air with their web. Felix froze again as the creeping voice landed on his shoulder, crawled up his neck, and nestled into his ear.

“҉F҉҉fee҉҉el҉lliiixxx҉…”

Frozen in fear, his brain tried to imagine what sort of face could produce a noise as distorted and malformed as that, but could come up with nothing aside from the three scorched, melting holes that had gaped at him earlier. His skin began to tremble and crawl. The pungent scent of charcoal and burnt flesh filled the air around him.

Again, he was pulled back from the brink by Ace’s gentle prodding. “Come on amigo , keep it going. Get us out of here.”

Finally, he shook off the paralysis with a sharp inhale and pushed himself the rest of the way to the back door, ignoring the heavy, dragging bootsteps on the carpet behind him. Ace quickly pushed the door open for him, and they were down the back steps and out in the yard.

Felix breathed a heaving sigh of relief as the fresh night air rushed over him and carried away that terrible stench. He lugged Ace beyond the patchwork fence and out into the street, not knowing where exactly he was going, but just knowing that he had to get away from that house as fast as possible. 

They both jolted as the door they’d just exited exploded open and crashed against the brick facade of the house. 

Felix stopped and turned back to see Ghostface’s misshapen outline wreathed in silver moonlight, stumbling down the steps and out into the yard. Gold orange embers poured off his body like a dying campfire, but somehow, he seemed less charred than before. His hood had reappeared, and several patches of his black leather costume had returned to their previous state. Felix thought he could even see a chunk of his white mask on his face, but it was hard to tell with most of him cast in shadow.

This unreality he was currently witnessing was hard to absorb, but in some fucked up way in Felix’s fucked up head, it made perfect sense, because it was Danny.

The obscured, hooded head then angled toward them, and Ghostface began shuffling stiffly after them like a zombie, scorched knife fisted tightly in his blackened, skeletal hand. 

Felix sucked in a shaking gasp and spurred himself forward.

“Es un maldito demonio,” hissed Ace. His trembling finger pointed out toward the second story house at the end of the road. “There,” he wheezed, “We can hide there for a moment.”

Panting with effort, Felix adjusted his path without question, trying to ignore the sounds of Danny’s half-incinerated body stumbling after them as he concentrated on moving the Argentinian as fast as possible.

Somewhere in the distance, a generator roared to life, and he automatically perked up to search for its origin and the person who had finished it.

“Do you think that was Nea? O– or—”

“No,” huffed Ace. “Has to be tu novio. Nea wouldn’t have let this burnt toast fucker leave that school without a fight.”

It had to be David then. David was alive … and Nea was probably dead.

For a moment, Felix thought about deviating toward the completed generator for help, but it was much further away than the house and there was no guarantee David would still be there by the time they showed up. 

The house was their only shot.

Renewing his efforts, Felix pushed himself hard toward the house while Ace struggled alongside him. The man was trying his best, but from the way he was wheezing and hanging off his shoulder, it was obvious that his condition was worsening. By the time Felix reached the front door of the house, he was gasping for breath and sweat was dripping down his brow. Ace turned the knob and Felix kicked the door in, heaving and fighting to stay on his feet as he dragged the older man over to a nearby bench sitting in the foyer. With a cry of effort, Felix practically threw Ace and the backpack at the bench and then stumbled back over to the door to close it behind them.

For a split second, he glanced back outside at the neighborhood. Danny’s shambling, shadowed outline was halfway down the street, still trailing after them at that lopsided yet steady pace. 

Felix slammed the door shut and locked it tight, finishing the process by sliding the chain into its holder.

“Hijo,” Ace rasped, and then coughed wetly.

Still breathing hard, Felix spun around and stared hard at the man laying in a heap on the bench.

Ace had to take a moment to gather his breath before speaking again. “Your blueprint… Two survivors was it?”

Felix hesitated, dread piquing. “Y– yes, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work and I don’t think—”

Ace put up his hand and Felix stopped. “You believe in yourself?”

Felix’s mouth hung open, the response caught in his throat. 

“Hijo, come on.”

“Y– yes! Yes. ”

“We passed the shack on the way over here. You still have the key?”

Felix quickly felt over his pockets and then nodded.

Ace wheezed and nodded back. “Good. Nea is dead. I’m weighing you down. So what you’re going to do is—”

“Ace, no. We need to—”

“Damn it hijo, shut up,” barked Ace, and then he fell into a coughing, quivering fit. He choked on a bloody cough and forced out the rest of what he had to say between wet, strangled gasps. “You know damn well this was the plan all along… Now, go hide upstairs. When he’s done with me, you make a break for the shack and get the fuck out, you hear me? David will be fine.”

Felix was trembling. He didn’t know if this was the right path or not— leaving Ace and David to their fates— but Danny was coming, and time was running out. 

“You hear me?!”

Felix jolted back to himself. He stared hard at Ace’s off-kilter shades, considering all of his options, and then finally nodded. “Okay.”

Ace nodded back, looking relieved. He tossed his head at the stairs. “Now go. Ve. ”

Felix spurred himself forward and started up them fast, but then stopped and looked back. “Thank you Visconti.”

Ace huffed and gave a roguish, bloodstained grin. “No problemo, bello . It’s the least I can do.”

Felix smiled tightly and nodded appreciatively back.

The front door shuddered loudly, and the two men startled. 

Felix sucked in a breath and raced up the stairs. He darted into the first open door he laid eyes on— a bedroom, decorated for a young boy. He eased the door shut until only a sliver remained and lingered nearby so that he could hear.

Downstairs, the sound of wood splintering and cracking apart echoed throughout the home as the door was struck again, and again, until it finally shattered open, its pieces scattering over the hardwood floors. 

Felix couldn’t help but hold his breath as the sound of slow, heavy bootsteps sauntered inside, and then stopped where Felix imagined Ace to be sitting.

“Eugh, dios mío , no wonder you wear a mask!”

A slow, dry wheezing emanated in the silence that followed Ace’s remark, barely audible. The dry wheezing then hitched as it was interrupted by a larger inhale. 

“Wh҉҉er҉҉e… is҉ he…”

“Who?”

There was a cacophonous clatter as a collection of random items crashed to the floor, followed by an asthmatic growl. “҉F҉҉f҉f҉҉fuck҉҉ingg҉ … y҉҉ou҉u knnow҉  who҉…”

“Oye! Easy amigo ! Easy! Agh… Do you even brush your teeth?”

Danny growled again, and Ace wheezed.

“O– oh, him! I haven’t seen him since yesterday. See—”

Felix flinched at Ace's sharp yelp of pain and the sound of a knife punching deep into flesh. The man then began to pant through his teeth as he tried to endure the pain.

“O– or was it last Saturday? I can’t quite remember. Tengo la cabeza nublada…”

A moment passed in silence, filled only by Ace’s pained wheezing. Danny made a sound that was somewhere between a grinding exhale and a dry cough.

“T҉҉h҉҉hou҉҉ght҉  yo҉҉ou di҉҉dn’t g҉҉ive҉ a s҉҉h҉҉it…”

Ace laughed, sharp and humorless, and then coughed until he was gasping. “Yea, well, I didn’t— not until you pulled that stupid stunt of yours, fucking idiot.” There was a pause as Ace fought through the pain to find his words again and pressed on. “Y– you really thought we’d turn on him, didn’t you? Shun him like s– some kind of fucking leper? W– well, we don’t think like you! Not you… ” Ace hissed, puffing for breath. “And let me tell you something else, puta cabrón — there’s only one thing in this world I hate more than pompous, power-drunk bastards taking advantage of those weaker than them, and that’s— fucking— rapists.”

Ace was practically snarling now, so angry he could barely breathe.

“And you tick both boxes, mother fucker.”

A long silence came over the house then, filled only by Ace’s furious, strained puffing and Danny’s labored wheezing, and then… Danny chuckled.

A second later, there was a momentous crash and a heavy, hollow thump as the bench fell over and Ace’s body hit the ground. Then came the impacts— blunt, fleshy, and brutal as Danny’s combat boot drove itself into Ace’s body over and over again. The man’s breathless yelps quickly morphed into visceral gags and throaty gargling as his cartilaginous face was smashed into his skull. 

Felix cringed in on himself as it went on and on and on— seemingly forever as Ace refused to die. Finally, there was a wet, squishing crunch as his head cracked like an egg and the boot made contact with his brains. 

Hand clasped tight over his face, Felix fought back his burgeoning need to vomit as silence once again reigned over the house. Only Danny’s labored, wheezing breaths reverberated through the air as he calmed, but even that sound faded after a while.

Felix leaned a bit closer to the crack in the door, straining to hear what Danny would do next… but heard nothing— only the sound of his own strained, shallow breaths.

Felix held still, closed his eyes, and listened. 

.

..

…

The stairs creaked.

His eyes shot open, barely suppressing a gasp. Heart racing, Felix frantically scanned the child’s room for a suitable hiding spot. Behind the door? In the closet? Behind the curtains? Under the bed?! 

His nose recoiled as it was assaulted by the pungent stench of charcoal and burning flesh, and Felix choked on a surge of panic.

As silently as he could manage, he scrambled across the carpet and wriggled beneath the bed. It was a small, cramped space, especially for his larger adult frame, but he eventually positioned himself to where he could see the door and the surrounding room. He shoved himself against the back wall as tightly as he could and went still.

Felix forced himself to be silent, and waited.

The moments ticked by.

The house stayed silent.

And then… slowly, ever so slowly… the door began to open.

Felix’s heart began to pound.

From far beneath the bed in his limited view, Felix watched in horror as the door eased open until it was fully ajar. For a very long moment, nothing else happened, and he began to wonder if a simple breeze or crooked hinges had allowed the door to fall open on its own… but then a charred boot stepped into view, covered in blood and bone and bits of pink brain matter.

Felix stopped breathing and felt his blood begin to pulse inside his skull. His skin went cold and clammy.

Another boot stepped in front of the first, and then the two began to pad their way into the room, completely and utterly silent.

Wisps of that now familiar stench of charred flesh drifted to his nostrils. His nose recoiled in repudiation, but Felix refused to move and possibly give himself away. He breathed quietly through his mouth and tried not to hyperventilate.

Leaving a trail of blood in their wake, the pair of boots stalked across the carpet by the foot of the bed and over to the closet, and then paused.

A long moment passed. 

Felix barely breathed.

“No҉҉www, this҉ss… is҉s pat҉҉hetic… e҉҉v҉҉en for y҉҉ou.”

Felix shut his mouth. His eyes went wide and his skin bristled.

The closet door slid open a small bit, revealing a row of small, child-sized shoes.

“An҉҉d pointle҉҉sss…”

The boots then began making their way toward the far corner of the room, moving to the other side of the bed. He saw Danny’s weight shift as he checked behind a piece of furniture. 

“Ev҉҉en if y҉҉ou e҉҉sca҉҉pe.”

The bloodstained boots stepped forward, closer to the side of the bed. Felix stared hard at them, breaths coming faster as their weight shifted forward, tips digging into the carpet. Then, they shifted apart as Danny dropped to one knee.

Felix's pounding heart leapt into his throat. A fleeting thought urged him to make a break for the open door, but he found himself suddenly unable to move. From the top edge of the bed, a dark head began slipping into view. Hot, silent tears burst from Felix’s eyes. A sideways face slowly revealed itself— singed tufts of black-brown hair and a charred, inflamed scalp— a singular, sunken, bulbous eye set in a blackened socket, the other obscured by a half-regenerated mask— a black hole where a nose should have been, and two rows of scorched, lipless teeth swirling with orange embers.

“G҉҉et out҉ of th҉҉ere.”

Felix choked on a gasp and scrambled away as Danny swiped for him. He made it halfway out on the other side when a ring of pressure clamped down hard around his ankle. He yelped in shock and started to frantically kick at it when his entire body wrenched backward, back beneath the bed. He clawed in desperation at the carpet and the underside of the bed to keep himself in place, burbling sobs forcing their way up his throat. His body was wrenched hard by the ankle again and he shrieked in panic as he was nearly pulled out from beneath the bed. Another grasping hand clutched painfully at his knee.

“I’m go҉҉ing to t҉ie you to this be҉҉d, drag yo҉҉ur fucking boyfrie҉҉nd in here, a҉҉nd ma҉҉ke you watch a҉҉s I cut hi҉҉m ope҉҉n and RAP҉E҉ HIM҉ TO҉ DE҉҉A҉҉TH!! ”

His brain suddenly screamed at him to not let this happen— to do something— anything! DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!! NOW!! OR YOU’RE GOING BACK!!

Felix’s mind instantly went to the syringe in his pocket filled with deadly serum. His hand started to go for it— and then something hard and smooth tapped against his chest. His stuttering mind went alight with recollection— the flashbang!!

He snatched it from his neck and ripped it away, cord snapping easily. He then blindly tossed it behind him and curled his arms around his head, bracing for the explosion.

“And҉ d҉҉on’t worry, I’ll ma҉҉ke him wat҉҉ch too, a҉҉n— SH— ”

The world went white and silent, even through his eyelids. A pressure wave punched into his chest and hot pain raked down his calf. His eyes cracked open and he saw that the darkness beneath the bed had turned into a hazy, acrid gray. Throat itching, he coughed and crawled toward where he’d remembered the open door had been, finding that the hold on his leg was gone. 

Finally out from under the bed, he sprang to his feet and blindly stumbled through the smoke until he hit the open door frame. He launched himself off of it and out of the smoke, finding the stairs. Felix practically threw himself down them, losing his footing several times and nearly falling headlong if not for his deathgrip on the rail.

At the bottom of the stairs, Felix nearly recoiled at the state of Ace’s body. His head looked like a bomb had gone off inside of it, with pieces splattered everywhere, including an intact eyeball with its optical nerve still attached. It had rolled away to safety and was now staring up at him. Felix averted his gaze as he passed, working hard to suppress his burgeoning need to be sick as the heavy scent of blood washed over him.

He shot through the front door, over the driveway, and back into the street where he sighted the killer shack on the other side beyond some trees. He ran toward it, realizing for the first time that he couldn’t hear a thing, and hadn’t been able to for the past minute or so. If Danny was chasing him he had no idea, but Felix didn’t want to risk tripping and falling on himself to check, and so he pushed forward through his muffled, suppressed world, hoping fervently that he was home free.

Heaving breaths loud and heavy inside his skull, he came to a staggering halt as he reached the door of the shack and finally spun around to check his back. To his baffled amazement, no one was there. He spat a heaving breath of disbelief and gave the surrounding suburb one good scan to confirm this before deciding he was safe enough to start searching for the hatch. 

Spinning back, he gave the interior one good look, generator still chugging reliably along in the middle, and quickly decided it wasn’t here. It sometimes appeared around the outside though. He stepped back outside and began to jog around the perimeter of the building. He turned one corner… then another… and another, dread growing with every step.

Oh fuck, oh god, please!

He came to a halt in the exact place that he’d started. It wasn’t here.

His lungs began to heave. His heart boomed in his skull.

It wasn’t. Here.

Why wasn’t it here?!

Had he made a mistake on the blueprint? Was Nea still alive somehow? Did he not do something right?! What was going on?!

Felix swallowed a heaving gasp and tried to think. Frantically pacing the interior of the shack, he pulled and clutched at his hair until his scalp was sore. He closed his eyes and visualized the blueprint in his head, going back over every movement of his hand as he’d drawn it out, but couldn’t find a flaw in his work— if he’d made a mistake, it had been from his own lack of knowledge. He’d known this was a possible outcome, but hadn’t really considered it because he didn’t want to believe it would actually happen. Now, it was his reality.

Felix threw his hands from his hair and spat a hissing curse.

“SCHEISSE!!”

His legs then went weak and his eyes filled with tears. A broken sob pushed its way up his throat. He almost let himself fall to the floor in a miserable, defeated heap, but just managed to keep himself standing. Wiping away his tears, he sucked in huge lungfuls of air as he tried to hold himself together and stave off the panic attack trying to claw its way up his throat.

It wasn’t over yet. Ace and Nea didn’t sacrifice themselves for nothing— not yet. He still had options. 

If the hatch wasn’t here, then it could be somewhere else. The blueprint could have still worked, but not in the way he’d expected it to. If that wasn’t true, then he could at least try to meet up with David during his search. He would just have to be insanely careful now that he was on his own…

There was still a chance.

A wisp of something foul caressed his nose. 

Felix gasped and spun around. His eyes frantically searched over the inside of the shack and what he could see of the outside, but nothing was there.

Had he imagined it?! That awful scent of char and burnt flesh?! Had Danny followed him?!

Barely breathing, Felix snuck to the far door and slowly eased his head outside. He looked around— even forced himself to check around the nearest corner despite the acidic fear burbling in his chest, but saw nothing. 

Had his brain forged it from his anxiety? Was it psychosomatic? Was he losing his fucking mind?! Or was Danny really out there somewhere?!

Whatever the reason, Felix didn’t want to stick around to find out. 

As quietly as he could manage, he darted off in search of the hatch and for David, not noticing the dark shadow trailing after him in the distance.

Notes:

Fun fact: Magnesium burns at 3,100 °C or 5,610 °F 🫠

Omg guys PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me about your reactions to this chapter! IT FUELSSS MEEEEE!!

Chapter 41: The Plan Pt3

Notes:

Thank you to everyone who left your thoughts and reactions on the last chapter!! Those are like CRACK to any writer, and I enjoyed reading them immensely, so thank you!! 🧡
And now, without further adieu, the conclusion of... THE PLAN!!

“Ach, Scheiße…”

Felix limped across the yard and toward the brick facade of the house he and Ace had escaped from not ten minutes ago and leaned heavily against it. He winced as he angled his leg outward and looked down on it with a grimace. The section of his navy slacks that had shielded his calf from the flashbang was scoured with black scorch marks, and peppered with glass fragments and bits of blood.

With a pained whimper, he struggled down onto one knee and began to gingerly pick the tiny shards from his flesh. 

The flashbang had saved his life, but apparently, he’d been quite a bit closer to the explosion than he’d realized. He hadn’t noticed the injury in the heat of his escape, but now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain was coming full on and the accompanying shakes were too.

He poked his head up to quickly check his surroundings and then went back to picking glass. One sliver had gone quite deep into his ankle, and he struggled to get it out without flinching. He grimaced and held his breath. Finally, his quivering, bloodstained fingers got a good grip, and he deftly wrenched it out with a gasp and a gout of dark blood. Thankfully, only a trickle more followed after it. He didn’t know what he’d have done if the bleed had been serious…

He checked his surroundings once more before turning back to his leg to pick out the remaining shards.

God, where was David? Where was Danny? And more importantly… 

Where was the hatch?

Felix pulled the last piece of glass away with a puff of relief and then made the unsteady, faltering climb back onto his feet. His leg hurt quite a bit less than it had before but was still sore, so he took care to keep his weight off of it.

The neighborhood around him remained still and silent. The spinning lights of the crashed ambulance in the street flashed over him and its surroundings endlessly. Beyond it, the derelict preschool loomed.

Swallowing down his anxiety, Felix pushed himself away from the house and limped into the open carport. Inside, he paused a moment to stare down into the open doorway that led downstairs, looking and listening for any sign of the hatch. 

If his blueprint had worked only partially, the hatch might still be around here somewhere, but it could be locked shut— silent and hidden. 

His hand slipped into his right pocket. His fingertips drifted along the stem of the key, feeling how its pockmarked metal surface vibrated ever so subtly with ancient power.

It might be down there…

Might be. Could be. Possibly.  

Shit! He hated this uncertainty!

Feeling a terrible sense of Deja Vu, Felix quickly checked around himself to make sure he wasn’t about to be unwittingly snatched up from behind, and then aimed his gaze back down into the basement.

Just a quick look…

Before he could change his mind, Felix hurriedly stumbled down into the basement of the house. His injured leg nearly caused him to lose his balance for one heartstopping moment, but he managed to save himself by bodily latching onto the handrail. 

Thank goodness for safety codes…

When his feet both finally met the dusty, naked cement of the basement, Felix darted about to every corner until he was sure he’d seen every centimeter of the floor of this eerie place, and then scampered back toward the stairs with a biting curse. 

It wasn’t here!

Angry for risking his own life for nothing, Felix swiftly pulled himself up to the surface, praying that he wouldn’t catch the acrid scent of char and burnt flesh on the way up. When he reached the top, he didn’t bother to pause and gasp with relief, instead continuing his scramble until he was clear of the house and out in the open on a side street. Only then did he pause to catch his breath and give his leg a moment to stop throbbing.

At least out here, he would have a clear view if that mangled, shuffling body was coming for him…

That prompted him to take better stock of his surroundings. He was in a fairly empty corner of the Trial grounds that the Entity had laid out for them with the outer fence at his back, and a crumbling intersection before him. The second generator that he, Ace, and Nea completed sat chugging along in the center… but the hatch was nowhere to be seen.

Felix straightened with a stilted puff, his eyes naturally carrying his gaze upward to the weathered sign on top of the preschool. His brow automatically furrowed and his heart thumped in distress. His stomach began to churn at the mere mental insinuation of returning to that place, but… what if Nea was still alive down there? Or… What if the hatch was down there…

His eyes flicked about his surroundings, searching for an out of place shadow… or perhaps even a glimpse of David’s gently smiling face… but saw neither. 

It had been a long time since that last generator had come online…

His entire body shuddered at the prospect of being completely and utterly alone, and he gasped at the feeling of visceral, marrow-deep fear.

Please be alive David, please! Please be alive! Please!!

Before his growing panic could swallow him whole, Felix spurred himself toward the preschool, keeping as low and quiet as he could despite his leg thrumming and his lungs on the verge of seizure. He carefully picked his way around the chainlink fence and the hedges, and then finally paused as he came into contact with the doorway. The scent of smoke and charcoal immediately rushed over him from out of the dark, narrow hallway lined with art. On instinct, he turned back to check his surroundings and was distressed to once again see nothing. If Danny had been visible, then he’d at least know for certain that he was being chased!

Despite the panic threatening to tear through his ribcage, Felix turned back toward the narrow hallway and ambled cautiously forward. Again, the unnatural, pinprick eyes of the children’s drawings were on him, watching intently as he strode down the passageway. A fluorescent lamp flickered and buzzed overhead. The scent of scorched wood and plaster was overwhelming. 

Coughing, he buried his nose into the crook of his elbow to make it somewhat more bearable.

Finally, he came to the front desk in the greeting area and immediately turned to the right. The giant, black scorch mark where Danny had burned was still there, along with the melted, blackened tiles, and the singed walls and ceiling tiles, which were still being eaten away by embers and throwing off wisps of smoke. 

The one thing he did not see, however, was Nea’s body.

Eyes narrowing, Felix carefully began to scan the torched environment for any sign of the woman and where she might’ve gone, but it was difficult with the absolute bedraggled state of this place. He immediately recognized the cans of paint she’d set down on the floor about where he’d last seen her, but not much else— not even a footprint in the ash.

He puffed out a sigh of vexation and widened his search area, wandering away from the scorched hallway and toward the jumble of paint cans as he scanned the ground for clues, but nothing was jumping out at him.

His eyes wandered over the gaping hole in the floor— and he paused.

On the edge of the gap, a small spot of something dark and wet gleamed in the harsh, white light falling from above.

Felix grimaced and looked around himself to make sure he was still alone, and then limped closer to the edge of the gaping hole. He gazed fixedly at it, eventually realizing that— yes, that was indeed blood. It was only a smudge, perhaps from a small scrape or a brush against the jagged edges of the concrete, but… it was most definitely blood.

Stifling the knot of unease gradually growing in his chest, Felix shuffled a bit closer to the hole, wincing in pain as he kneeled beside it and stared down. This angle revealed nothing, however, so he gingerly sidled closer and braced against the wall to peer into the darkness.

Finally the floor of the boiler room was revealed to him, scattered with trash and debris and not much else aside from the orange flame of the steadily burning stove… except…

Something small and silver.

He squinted and leaned closer, almost sticking his entire head into the hole as he tried to confirm what sort of object was gleaming up at him…

Nea’s Zippo lighter.

Felix grimaced and cursed to himself quietly.

He leaned in a bit further, trying to catch a glimpse of her shoe or a semi-lit corner of her body, but saw nothing. Maybe she’d been crippled from the fall and had crawled away?

He swallowed to wet his parched mouth and then called out in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “Nea?”

The name barely even reverberated off the concrete walls. 

He wet his cracked lips and tried again. “Nea?”

This time, the name echoed deep into the depths of the subterranean space, bouncing back and forth between his ears and the empty darkness. He waited and listened for a reply for a long time— longer than he probably should have— but the only answer to his call was the rumbling ambience of the burning boiler.

Maybe she was unconscious… or dead.

The knot in his chest twisted tighter.

Felix sat up and looked around, finding that he was still alone in the charred, derelict preschool, and then looked back at the hole.

The hatch could be down there too…

A fearful groan escaped his throat, but he quickly clamped it shut to avoid making any more noise.

He scanned the preschool behind him once more for good measure and then climbed awkwardly to his feet, wincing at how his calf twinged with dull pain. He then stared out across the hole at what looked to be some stairs at the end of the hall, and then to the open doorway to his right that appeared to be a suitable detour.

Somewhat nervous about the structural integrity of the burnt out section of the school, Felix elected to take the path before him around the hole and into the basement, preparing himself with a quivering lungful of acrid air. 

“Gott hilf mir…”

Felix then gingerly made his way around the precarious gap in the floor and to the stairs he’d spied. When he finally made it there, he leaned heavily against the frame and stared down into the shadows that gradually swallowed the steps, lamenting the perilous position he was about to put himself in.

If Danny caught him down here… this time, there would be no escape.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he focused on nothing but his own breathing for several long moments, pacing his inhales and exhales until his lungs stopped hitching and his heart slowed to a laborious canter. When he felt like his skin no longer wanted to leap off his flesh, Felix opened his eyes. 

He forced himself to step forward, delving into the darkness of the basement.

Midway down, he stumbled onto the landing and took a moment to give his injured leg a moment of reprieve before turning the corner and continuing on. When he stepped off the last one and hit the floor, Felix saw immediately that he was in the boiler room again with the harsh, white light streaming in through the hole from above, with the lighter sitting idly in the center. Somehow, the sharp scent of char was even worse than it had been up there, and Felix guessed the fumes were somehow seeping downward and gathering here.

He ambled a bit deeper into the boiler room, eyelids fluttering as he hurried his vision to adjust to the darker environment. While that happened, he stepped toward the puddle of sterile, white light, and kneeled unsteadily beside it. Carefully, he plucked it from the ground with his fingertips and gave it a good once-over, but saw nothing to indicate what might have happened to its owner other than the fact that it had been left open. 

He flicked it closed and stuffed it into his pocket, then took a moment to judge his surroundings, but the cone of white light above him was making it difficult to discern anything outside of it— except for a cylindrical paint can lying on its side, right on the edge of the darkness.

The knot in his chest squeezed again. He pushed himself back to his feet with a pained whimper and began easing toward it, into the far corner.

After leaving the cone of light, his eyes finally began adjusting to the darkness, revealing a bit more of the room as he closed on the paint can.

He froze.

Chills spread out all over his skin and raced about its surface.

There was a figure in the far corner. 

It was small, and looked like it was kneeling. Orange light from the boiler periodically flickered across it, but revealed almost no features of the figure. It didn’t appear to be moving, but the constantly dancing fire light made that difficult to properly deduce.

He began inching toward it.

“Nea?” he whispered.

The figure remained still and silent.

He stepped over the paint can. The figure was still nothing more than a smudgy shadow in the corner. Was it even a person? Or was it just an odd pile of trash?

His heart began to race, and yet, he continued forcing himself closer.

The pungent scent of burnt, carbonized material was almost overwhelming now, smelling like a putrid, rotting barbeque pit. He gagged and stuffed his face into his elbow to make it somewhat more bearable.

When he was within three or four paces of the figure, its nature finally became discernible to him, and he hesitated in confusion. 

The first thing he noticed was that, even though it was in the shape of a human, it was too small, thin, and dark to possibly be one. Where arms should have been, there were none. What the hell was it?

Perplexed, he stepped to the side of the thing to get a better look— and froze.

A swarm of cold, prickling chills crawled up his legs, his arms, his spine— like a horde of ants stepping all over his skin with their tiny, pinprick feet.

A blackened, open-mouthed skull screamed silently up at the ceiling. Fried bits of flesh dripped down from the face while gummy, runny wads of white streamed from the sockets where eyes should have been. The shell of charcoal that had at one time been flesh was now shrinkwrapping for a mutilated skeleton. Bile rising in his throat, he looked away from the desiccated body and found its two missing arms against the far wall. They were bloody, but whole, and recognizably female.

Felix stepped back, nearly stumbling over himself.

“You know, it’s funny…”

He choked on a scream and lurched away from the voice toward the far wall. He crashed into it and spun around, finding Danny leaning lazily against the front of the copper-plated boiler between both exits. His costume had mostly regenerated to what it had been before, with only a few of those orange-gold embers flitting around him like gnats. 

“Even when their vocal chords are melted and fried to a crisp, people still try to scream. Ask me how I know… ” he growled, voice containing only a hint of that unsettling, grinding ruination.

He pushed off the boiler and stepped forward.

Felix sucked in a stuttering inhale and sidled further into the far corner, lungs heaving and heart threatening to burst out of his chest.

No no no no no NO!! This couldn’t be happening!! 

The killer deviated toward Nea’s burnt corpse and folded his arms. He scoffed and then kicked dust at the blackened body. “Fucking cunt put up a decent fight, but I think she finally got the message somewhere at the end— doubt she’ll ever try something like that again.” The drooping mask then angled itself directly at him. “You though…”

Slow and menacing, the killer began to steadily saunter toward him. Felix staggered backward until his shoulders hit the concrete corner of the boiler room and he had nowhere else to go. His eyes stung with burgeoning tears. A hysteric whimper squeaked from his squeezing throat.

No please no please no please no please…

“Encouraging them to fight me… Defying me…” his head shook in disappointment, continuing his ambling advance. “Lying to me… Out of everything that’s happened, that’s the one that hurt the most, honestly— and for what? You know as well as I do that this is pointless… Give up now, and maybe I won’t be so keen on taking my vengeance directly from your flesh…”

Felix’s head shook wildly. “No!! NEVER!!” 

Danny traipsed languidly into the cone of deathly pale light. “Or maybe, I’ll take it from his… ”

Suddenly, Felix’s fear-hazed mind went alight with recollection. His left hand darted into his pocket and fisted the syringe tight. Less than five paces away, Danny stopped and tensed. Felix pulled the loaded syringe out of his pocket and raised it high in the air like a weapon.

Danny’s shoulders dropped, and he scoffed. “Really? Do you seriously think you can stick me with that thing?”

Felix felt his body go calm and his face blank. “No.”

The white mask canted curiously.

Steeling his will and his fluttering heart, Felix sucked in a gasp and aimed the glowing syringe at his own neck, thumb hovering dangerously over the plunger.

Danny instantly straightened to attention. “Felix…” he said tersely, hand stretching carefully out to him. “Don’t do something drastic now…”

“Don’t move or I’ll FUCKING DO IT!!”

The killer hesitated for only a moment, and then tsked. He eased closer. “Felix. You can’t seriously think this is better than—”

Felix flinched as he stabbed the needle into his neck.

Danny froze.

The petrified moment dragged on.

“I– I have no idea what this serum is going to do to me,” Felix spat, chest heaving, “But I KNOW IT’S BETTER THAN BEING WITH YOU!!!”

The screaming mask tilted ever so slightly, but the rest of that dark, shadowy body remained statuesque. 

“Now— I’m going to walk out of here, and you’re going to stand right there and WATCH ME DO IT!!”

It was a gamble— an insane one at that— but Felix was confident he could get away with it. He knew that Danny wanted him in one piece desperately, and wouldn't dare risk losing his favorite plaything to something that might be irreversible. Felix was prepared to do almost anything to avoid going back to him… but he also didn't want to die, and he most definitely did not want to become a mindless, blighted monster if he could avoid it. Despite the unbearable risk of failure… it was a chance he had to take.

Danny remained frozen in place, hand still outstretched, so Felix continued on.

“A– and, if you so much as twitch…”

“I get it ,” Danny snapped, but still, he did not move.

Felix’s heart leapt with adrenaline, barely believing this was actually going to work. He was going to make it…

He puffed out a breath and nodded. “Put your arms down and step back.”

Slowly and gingerly, Danny did as he commanded and backed out of the cone of light. Those endlessly staring, empty sockets never straying from their eternal fixation, so eerily reminiscent to those of his desiccated, burnt-out corpse.

“By the boiler!”

This time, Danny didn’t move. He only continued to stand and stare. Felix bared his teeth, about to shout at the killer to comply, but before he could, Danny moved, and stepped back in front of the boiler. His body became silhouetted by orange, flickering firelight.

Felix nodded and swallowed hard. “Now, don’t move, or I’ll do it…”

Keeping the needle lodged in his neck and his thumb over the plunger, he began to gradually sidle against the wall toward the exit— and Danny. He would have to pass within arm’s length of him to escape…

He scooted closer. Despite his warning, the skull-like mask followed.

“You know you can’t evade me forever, don’t you?”

Felix stopped as a chill rolled down his spine. He bared his teeth. “Are you saying I should do it right now, then? End it now before you get the chance?!”

The mask tilted slowly. “I don’t think either of us wants that…”

Felix grit his teeth hard and continued inching along the wall. Once again the killer was within four or five paces of him.

“I’d take care of you.”

Felix stopped again. His heart stuttered with dread and disbelief.

“Believe it or not, I don't want to hurt you— and being with me doesn’t have to be this terrible thing like what you’re imagining. It can be as pleasant as you allow it to be. It always has been.”

A swell of hot rage burned through him. “FUCK YOU!!” Felix shrieked, the audacity barely fathomable to his mind. 

How could Danny say such a thing after everything he’d done to him?! After all the pain and torture he’d inflicted on him?! 

Scalding hot tears welled in his eyes. “How dare you,” he sobbed.

Danny continued on as if he’d said nothing at all. “Despite everything you’ve done to spite me… I wouldn’t even punish you for it, if you drop that and come with me right now. With me, there’d be no more pain or fear or dark fog… I’d keep you safe, and I’d give you the love that you deserve…”

Felix sobbed hard and faltered. His free hand went to clutch at his matted hair as the tears flowed freely down his cheeks, mentally crumbling at the sheer fucking hubris and psychopathy being directed at him with such cold, calculating precision. Somehow, it was worse than any threat of violence the killer could have possibly made, and it broke his heart and mind into sharp, jagged splinters.

He couldn’t be here anymore— he couldn’t stand here and listen to this obsessed psychopath coo and lie and manipulate him anymore! He couldn’t do this anymore!

He had to find David!

With a heaving, gulping gasp, Felix gathered himself back up and steeled his mind. He faced the expectant monster dead-on. “No,” he hissed tightly. “Fuck. You.”

A long moment of silence stretched between them. Felix sucked low, unsteady heaves while the killer remained perfectly in place. Not even his freely floating tassels moved. Despite this unnatural stillness, Felix swallowed hard and continued to move along the wall toward the exit, syringe still at the ready. The empty sockets continued to follow.

When he was within two paces, Felix decided to try his luck again. “Step back.”

He waited several seconds for the killer to comply, but nothing happened. Danny remained in place.

Felix grit his teeth. “I said, ste—”

“It’s okay. I won’t stop you.”

His brain faltered.

“You’ve clearly made your choice.”

After a long moment, Felix finally recovered and continued to gradually scoot along the wall. He was almost directly in front of the killer now, who had not broken his gaze from him for even a moment.

“I just hope you’re prepared to live with it— the both of you.”

Felix hesitated as his heart skipped a beat, considering the threat and killer standing frozen before him, before urging himself to continue on. 

Almost there… Just a little further…

Watching the killer’s body intently, Felix continued to scoot gingerly along the wall until finally, he found himself directly in front of the killer. The moaning, melting face loomed less than an arm’s length away. He was so close, Felix could feel and hear the hot, moist breaths pouring from the oblong mouth and whispering over his cheeks. 

Danny rumbled. “Last chance, Felix…”

Felix stiffened and stared back, still firmly holding the syringe to his neck as his pulse fluttered within it. His thumb was quivering, ready to press down on the plunger and end it all at the first sign of movement.

“After this, I can’t promise what’s going to happen to you… or him.”

Felix paused as his heart juddered at that. For a split second, as he stared into those twin, penetrating pits of possessive, despotic anticipation, he considered the alternative— to give in to protect David from retaliation and possibly lessen the severity of his own— but no, it was impossible. He’d already tried that once, and at any rate, he’d made a promise. 

His decision had been made the second he’d realized his love for David. 

Felix blinked, breaking the spell those two indelible voids had held over him, and continued carefully sidling along without dignifying that threat with a response. 

He had to get out of here.

Back scraping along the wall, Felix finally got to the point where he had moved past the killer, and was now increasing his distance away from him. The exit was so close he could practically taste it, but he kept his focus intently on Danny, daring him to make a move. However, Danny remained in place, only following him with his gaze.

Finally, Felix made it to the base of the stairs and stopped. Swathed in shadow, the pale, elongated moan stared silently on.

“Now, I’m going to leave, and you're going to stand right there. If I hear that you’re following, it’s over. Understand??”

There was a long moment of silence with only the sound of the burning boiler and the hissing pipes to fill the space. And then, a deep, rumbling chuckle began to emanate from the killer’s chest and reverberated all around the concrete walls of the boiler room. Felix froze as viciously deep, icy chills spread out all over his body. His legs began to shake.

The cloaked, silhouetted head canted coyly to the side. “Of course… See you soon, sweetheart…”

His heart lurched, and his lungs momentarily seized. Felix continued to shake for several long seconds before his deep disturbance and paralyzing fear began to dissipate, and he regained control of his breath. 

He breathed deep and swallowed hard. His voice came out low and grinding. “Only in hell…”

Felix took a moment to gather his breath, waiting to see if the killer was preparing to pursue as he gathered his energy into his tensing legs— and then spun around and ran. The needle came safely away from his neck, but Felix continued to hold it firmly in hand as he sprinted up the stairs, lurched out into the hallway, and rocketed into the main lobby of the preschool. 

Despite his pounding heart and electrified hackles, he latched onto the front desk and spun around, watching and listening to see if Danny was giving chase… but heard and saw nothing. Felix straightened to attention, barely believing it. 

Did Danny really care that much about losing him? Was Danny really going to let him go after everything that had happened— after working so hard to try and catch him? Or was Felix missing something?

Why wasn’t he following…

Whatever the reason, Felix didn’t care to know. After slipping the serum back into his left pocket, he darted out of the back of the preschool in search of David and the hatch, hoping desperately to find both and leave this terrible place far behind.

 

— — — 

 

In the brush behind the preschool, David paced back and forth over the dark, grey metal of the locked escape hatch, desperately scanning his surroundings for any glimpse of blonde or blue. 

“C’mon Felix, c’mon… Come on…”

But the man was nowhere to be seen.

He bit back a sharp curse and continued to pace.

After David had lost track of Ghostface, he’d gone off in search of a generator like Felix’s plan had called for him to do. He’d even managed to complete it despite his excruciating fear that something was going terribly wrong in his absence, but he’d done it. Afterward though, David couldn’t bear to sit around and do another generator, so he’d gone off in search of Felix and the others. However, he’d had nothing to suggest where they might have been in the Trial— he’d heard nothing that entire time except the sound of his own repairs. 

So, he’d started circling around the edge of the suburbs, picking over them meticulously as he’d searched for signs of life. Eventually, he’d found himself back at the two-story where Ghostface had broken off the chase with him, and went inside to search it.

What he’d found there… It had sent him into panic mode.

If Ace was nothing more than a bloody smear on the floor, he didn’t dare imagine what might have happened to Felix! 

David had set about searching the house like a madman, eventually coming upon a black scorch mark in one of the bedrooms. That had made him consider the possibility that Felix— or maybe Nea— had escaped the encounter, and had moved somewhere else. Stepping back outside and seeing the killer shack across the street had given him a good idea as to where, but after giving it a good search… he’d been at a loss. 

He’d been half-expecting the hatch to be there, but after not finding it, all his ideas about what the bloody hell was going on in this Trial had gone out the window. All he could think to do was continue to search for Felix, though, so that was what he’d done…

Until he’d come across the hatch— here — where it wasn’t supposed to be.

And that could only mean one thing…

Felix was in danger, but David didn’t want to leave the hatch and possibly miss the man if he showed up. It was very well hidden here amongst all this tall grass, and David was dead certain Felix would end up missing it unless he practically tripped over it like he had.

He had to trust Felix…

“Come on Felix, come on… Please…”

All of a sudden, as if manifested by all of his hopes and volitions, Felix stumbled out of the back of the preschool and careened toward the only remaining car in the parking lot. The man fell to the ground behind it with a lungful of air and began to pant at the sky in bone-deep relief. 

David gasped in both shock and disbelief at the sight of him, and rushed toward him without hesitation or thought. His only instinct was to get Felix out of here and to safety as quick as possible!

He crashed into the edge of the chainlink fence surrounding the parking lot, and then stumbled the rest of the way over toward the man. “Felix!” he snapped out as quietly as he could manage.

Felix jolted hard, practically launching off the ground at the sudden scare. The fear in his eyes evaporated away in a second, however, when they finally fell upon David’s face.

“Oh, Gott! David!” Felix cried out, practically melting in relief at the sight of him. He scrambled over the tarmac like a lunatic, expression twisting and eyes glassing over as he bounded to his feet. 

Felix practically threw himself into David’s arms with a hitching sob. David caught him easily and gathered him up into a crushing hug, overwhelmed and overjoyed to have him back safe and in one piece. He pressed his face into the man's hair and breathed his scent in deep relief. “Fooking hell— thank Christ…” he whispered, and then forced himself to pull back. “Felix! The— Shite! Are you okay?” he said, gesturing to Felix’s neck. A line of blood was streaming from a small pinprick in his neck.

Felix blinked and then seemed to realize what he was referring to. “Y– yes, it’s nothing. I’m fine, but have you seen—?”

“The hatch? Yeah, yeah! It’s over here! Come on, hurry!”

A chestful of absolute relief rushed out of the man, and then David began to pull him along by the hand. 

They were almost out! They were almost out and safe!

“Where’s Ghostface?” David asked, trying to account for any and all contingencies. “Did he follow you?”

“H– he’s in the basement of the preschool. I don’t think he followed me, but I can’t be sure.”

David nodded, fighting to suppress a pang of horror. Too close… “That’s okay. Won't matter here in a sec. The hatch is right over here! We’ll be out of here in two shakes of a key!” he said with an encouraging smile, and was surprised to see Felix return it in earnest. 

His eyes welled with hopeful tears.

They were going to make it…

Finally, David stopped them both over the hatch and grabbed Felix tight to stand beside him. The man looked almost stunned to see it.

“Alroight, here! Unlock it, quick!” David said, and began scanning their surroundings for approaching threats.

He heard Felix shuffle beside him, and then gasp.

His head snapped back. “What? What is it?”

Felix’s pant pockets were turned inside out, but the only items in his hands were Nea’s Zippo lighter and the syringe of glowing serum. He checked his back pockets too, but the look of growing horror in the man’s expression did not suggest he had found it there either.

Heart thumping, David stared at the man in wide-eyed fright. “Where is it? Where’s the key?!”

Felix gaped up at him, and then his eyes began to flit over nothing as he began to mentally retrace his steps. Suddenly, they stopped and went massive.

“Oh mein Gott…”

David stared back in horror.

“What’s the matter, boys?”

They both jumped and turned to face the voice. David felt his blood go ice cold.

About ten meters away, Ghostface stood languidly and perfectly at ease as he twirled a skeleton key between his fingers. He caught it and fisted it tight, and then aimed his mask directly at them. His head canted coyly to the side.

“Missing something?”

Beside him, Felix’s breaths suddenly went rapid and shallow. David’s iced-over blood began to melt and boil. He widened his stance, balled his fists, and bared his teeth in a silent snarl, ready to throw himself between Felix and the killer at a moment’s notice.

“Sorry sweetheart, but you’re too fucking obvious— and oblivious,” the killer said, directing his empty voids toward Felix. “Looking for the hatch that early?” he scoffed. “I thought you were smarter than that…” Ghostface flipped the key once more and then slid it beneath his cloak. His right hand dropped to his belt and pulled out a blackened hunting knife, holding it firmly at his side. “So… What’s plan B?”

No…

No!!

This couldn’t be it! It couldn’t be! Not after how hard they’d all fought to get Felix this far! How hard David had fought! He wasn’t losing Felix to this fucking psychopath!! If that meant his body had to be eviscerated into pulp for Felix to get that key and escape, then he would fucking do it!!

David dug his toes deep into the earth below him, readying himself for the fight of his life—

“David…”

He instantly turned to face the small, whispering voice, and found Felix’s expression disturbingly calm and blank as he stared on at Ghostface. Disconcerted, David inspected the man for the reason behind this uncharacteristic calmness… and then his gaze fell on the syringe fisted tightly in his hand.

David had convinced himself that Felix would only use it as a defensive weapon against Ghostface— a measure of absolute last resort— but… deep down, he’d known the real reason why Felix had taken it with him…

Heart thundering with growing panic, David looked back up, and the man met his gaze, expression still unnervingly calm and easy.

“I love you too.”

David blinked. His heart skipped a fluttering beat as the world seemed to spin around him and reorient itself into a new, almost unimaginable reality. His chest swelled with fond, fervent heat.

Felix loved him…

Suddenly, that same calm expression Felix had been wearing morphed into a fierce grimace as it diverted away. The glowing syringe rose high into the air, ready to stab it deep into his thigh. On instinct, David moved to stop him, but then something silver sliced through the air between them and smacked into flesh. Felix yelped sharply and fell back. Red splashed outward. The golden syringe flew into the air.

Time slowed to a crawl.

David’s first impulse was to help Felix, who was clearly injured, but… the serum. It could be their only chance at salvation.

And Ghostface was barreling toward them.

Against every instinct that he possessed and every fiber that made up his being, David bypassed Felix, and lurched forward toward the spinning syringe. Plunging forward, he stretched out his arm as far as he could and reached out. The falling vial brushed the tip of his finger and drifted away out into the open air.

A white, screaming face filled his vision, and then everything went black. He suddenly felt as though he were tumbling through empty space.

David came awake with a bodily jolt, and then instantly recoiled in on himself at the barrage of pain that swept over him. His brain was spinning in its case, and the entire left side of his face burned hot. Trying desperately to rouse himself, he clutched at the wiry grass beneath his fingers and felt their sharp blades cutting into his cheek. His entire body ached and burned.

Somewhere, he heard Felix whimper in panic and pain, and David felt a surge of adrenaline rush through his blood in response. He gasped to alertness and forced his lolling head up and away from the ground. Blinking hard, David eventually forced the world into focus. 

His heart stammered.

Ghostface loomed perilously over Felix, watching absently as he panicked and squirmed along the ground, trying desperately to remove the knife buried in his forearm and get away from Ghostface. Instead of going for him, however, the killer’s attention moved off toward something on the ground. David followed his gaze and felt his heart stammer again.

The serum— shining gold against the grass.

Head tilting, Ghostface considered the serum-laden syringe for one long moment, and then began marching toward it with purpose.

David lurched into action and scrambled forward, but it was too late. “NO!!”

Ghostface stomped on it with his boot, and the vial shattered. He lifted his boot back up a second later, revealing a broken syringe and a now useless puddle of gold that was quickly seeping into the dirt.

David wilted.

Ghostface scoffed and wiped his boot off against the grass. “I’m done with this fucking bullshit, ” he hissed, then turned toward Felix and began stalking toward him. “No more games, or tricks, or demands… It’s. Over .”

Felix’s panic instantly heightened. He gasped and heaved as he began trying to drag himself away from the approaching killer. “No!!”

Desperation and adrenaline spiking, David jolted back into action, ignoring how his every joint and muscle revolted against him. He launched himself at the killer with a furious roar. Just as David was closing in and winding up for a massive right hook, though, the killer dropped low. Surprised, David tried to readjust his footing and redirect his momentum but it was too late.

David heaved as a devastating impact slammed into his gut and launched him straight off the ground. Stars burst across his vision. Deep inside his body, he felt something snap and crunch. He fell to the ground like a bag of wet laundry, knees smacking painfully against the dirt, then bent forward and retched hot, burning bile into the grass. He gagged and gasped as his diaphragm continuously convulsed and seized within him. Breathing became nearly impossible. 

In the corner of his eye, black combat boots circled him like a pair of hungry vultures. “Fucking idiot,” Ghostface sneered, and then launched a hard kick into his ribs.

David heaved again as sharp pain shot through his side and radiated outward. He fell over into the grass, writhing and wheezing for breath.

“How about you choke on that brainless overconfidence of yours for a while. I need to take care of something…” Ghostface said, and then began stalking toward Felix. “Now, where do you think you’re going, sweetheart?”

Felix sucked in a squeaky gasp and cried out in terror. “NO!! STAY AWAY FROM ME!! ”

David’s heart lurched. 

No…

He tried to get himself back up, working desperately to force his body to obey his commands, but it was impossible. His chest and guts convulsed and twisted as if they were being eaten alive. When he tried to drag his legs under him to get up, he nearly blacked out, and came back to a dreadfully clear view of the horrifying scene unfolding before him. 

Ghostface towered ominously over a struggling Felix, who was trying frantically to wrench the knife out of his forearm and push himself away from the approaching killer, but was failing. Ghostface finally put a stop to his desperate attempts at escape by stepping on the man’s arm and pinning it to the ground. Felix yelped, and then screamed and squirmed as the knife was ripped from his arm with a spurt of blood.

For a heartstopping moment, David thought the killer was going to use the knife on him, but instead, he put it away and dropped heavily on top of Felix’s stomach instead. Yelping, clawing, and crying, Felix fought hysterically to escape the killer’s grasp, but then choked and gagged when squeezing, black leather hands found their way to his throat.

“David!! DAV— Agh!! He–lp!! P– pl– eagh!!”

“Shh, shhh… It’s okay, Love. Just let this happen… It’ll be okay— you’ll be okay. I promise…”

No! No! NO!!

Panting and groaning, David clawed forward in agony, desperate to stop this from happening— to save Felix from this terrible nightmare come true— but he could barely even move! He couldn’t even cry out to him! He had to try though! No matter what, he had to try!! Heaving and crawling and gasping in miserable, frantic despair, David finally dragged himself to within three meters from the pair, but Felix’s struggles were already beginning to slow.

“That’s it baby, go to sleep… When you wake up, everything will be alright…”

And then a moment later, Felix went completely limp. His arms flopped to the ground like dead, deboned fish.

NO!!

“F– fe…!”

Heart screeching, David tried screaming out for him, but only heard himself gag and wheeze on empty air. His vision dimmed and another wave of hot bile pushed up his throat. He spat weakly into the grass beneath him and forced his wobbling head back up.

On top of Felix’s unconscious body, Ghostface picked up the man’s bleeding left arm, and ripped the sleeve completely off it. He then tied it tight around his elbow, using it as a makeshift tourniquet for the heavily bleeding stab wound in his forearm. The killer then grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged his limp body over to the hatch where he deposited him like a piece of luggage ready for departure. Felix’s long, blonde hair spilled out around his head like strips of silk. His expression was uncannily peaceful and still until his lids momentarily flickered and went still again.

Still working to push himself upright, David groaned and panted as he fought to get control of his injured body and intervene. He had gained a bit of progress, and his lungs had finally stopped seizing, but he was nowhere near the ability he needed to be to save Felix. He was failing! He was failing him!

With his prize secured, Ghostface finally diverted his attention away from Felix and back onto David. He strolled over and crouched before him. The drooping white mask canted to the side.

David looked up, drew his lips back, and gave a huffing, heated snarl. 

Ghostface scoffed. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”

His rage swelled. “G– gon.. Fffu– ckin…k– kil…”

“Oh yeah?” the killer said with a lighthearted chuckle. “Let’s see it then. Come on now!”

David growled as he fought to get into a position to throw a punch, but could only manage a mild swipe that missed completely. 

“Oop, almost…”

David snarled in frustration, but his rage instantly cooled at the sound of a soft groan coming from around the hatch. He and the killer both looked to see Felix in the slow process of rousing himself from unconsciousness. 

The white mask turned back and leaned in close. “He’s not yours.”

Mind stuttering, David’s eyes flicked back onto those two empty voids.

“He was never yours. He’s. Mine. And has been since the day he got here.”

David’s pained grimace tightened back into a snarl as he tried to spit out his biting response to that, but couldn’t manage to form the words.

“What’s it gonna take to get that through that thick skull of yours, huh?” he said, poking hard at his temple.

David’s head bobbed as he recoiled from the contact.

“Do I have to fuck him right here in front of you? Is that what you want?”

His heart stammered with horror and dread. David moved to try and redirect the killer’s attention away from Felix. He swiped out for him again, only for Ghostface to grab his hand and yank him in close. David squirmed and writhed as he was crushed against the killer’s body, the two of them embracing in a mock brotherly hug. Over the killer’s shoulder, he had a clear view of Felix squirming weakly on the ground, still fighting to wake from his unconsciousness. 

The killer's slithering voice was hot and moist against his ear. “You’d probably get off on that, wouldn’t you? Seeing your pretty little slut get pounded into the dirt until he’s screaming and cumming all over himself? Knowing you’d never be able to make him do that? Yeahhh…”

David flinched as a soft, featherlight touch grazed the front of his belly and crept downwards. He fought to push the wandering hand away, but was too weak. His heart and lungs stuttered with growing panic. Still unconscious, Felix continued to twitch and writhe absently in the background.

“Yeah , you look like prime cuckholding scum…”

“Nn… gu— Fff…”

Pawing, clutching, and pushing, David fought to escape from the hold and the fingers creeping toward the front of his pants, but nothing he did had an impact. As they brushed over his zipper, a violent chill raced up his spine and shook his body hard. 

“Ff– fuckinn… freak.”

Ghostface rumbled against him with a throaty chuckle, and the fingers retreated. “Kidding. I wouldn’t touch a disgusting heap of angry mincemeat like you, and I certainly wouldn't share our reunion with you— not even out of spite. He needs some special care and attention right now anyways… I’ll let you imagine what I’m gonna do to him though— all the different ways he’s going to take my cock. I’m sure you’re very good at that.”

Stomach twisting with dreadful nausea, David snarled and clutched at the killer fiercely, trying hard to do something to him, but couldn’t quite find the strength or leverage in his position. He was all but a captive audience.

“I do have something else for you though— a parting gift…” 

The sound of an unsheathing blade chimed in the air. David fought harder to pull away, but Ghostface held tight.

“For all your futile attempts to take what is mine… ”

David gasped. Sharp pain stabbed deep into his gut and then began ripping slowly upward. David gagged and writhed as his belly was split up the middle and his innards spilled out into the grass. He fumbled frantically to keep the hot, bloody ropes of viscera inside him, but they kept slipping through his fingers like slimy eels. The thick scent of iron filled his nose and flooded his mouth. 

Finally, the blade reached the base of his sternum and stopped. Ghostface yanked it out and shoved him away. David fell back on his haunches, clutching at his vivisected abdomen and choking on blood as the world swayed and blurred.

“There. That’ll give you some time to think,” Ghostface growled, and then stalked away. 

Heart fluttering, David stared down at the massive gash in his body pouring blood, guts, and bile into a growing pool between his knees. At the sound of metal clanging and clunking, he dragged his hazy, blurry vision up to see Ghostface leaning over the hatch. A second later, it popped open and howled its endless darkness out into the night.

On the ground beside him, Felix groaned and began to stir. His eyes fluttered open and searched his environment in a daze. Only when those twin blue puddles finally landed on David’s dissected form did they still and grow wide.

Choking on a now constant stream of hot blood, David hunched over and looked on in dismay. All he could do was silently communicate the urgency of the situation, and to urge the man to get up and save himself. 

Uncoordinated and sluggish, Felix began to roll over onto his belly in preparation to scramble away, but was too slow. Ghostface took immediate notice of his captive’s renewed awareness, and scooped him up into an inviolable, strangling headlock. Felix dangled weakly in the hold, clawing at the arm on the verge of squeezing the life out of him as he stared in despondent grief at David’s dying, devastated body. It was as if Ghostface was presenting him as a final, vainglorious proof of his triumph over David, gloating with his hard-won prize. All David could see though was his most beloved, treasured soul— his only light in endless dark— for which he was about to lose to monstrous, unspeakable horrors, forever.

His eyes spilled over with briny tears, and he choked on a bloody sob.

“Nn– o… Ff…”

He reached out with a trembling hand that barely went above his thigh.

Ghostface embraced Felix’s desperately squirming body tight, his dark, groping hand wrapping intimately around his chest as he pulled him in close. The white mask nuzzled lovingly into the back of his head and reverberated with a possessive growl.

“Aww, look at that disgusting piece of meat. Pathetic. You can’t have possibly ever loved something like that, right? Don’t worry baby, you’ll forget about him soon enough. I’ll make sure of it…”

Strength growing, Felix began to fight and claw more animatedly in the killer’s grasp, face going bright red with effort, but then his eyes went wide as the arm around his neck squeezed tight. He choked and gasped in desperation.

“Easy now… easy… Time to go home…”

The fists beating against the killer’s body went slow and limp. Fading blue eyes rolled into white, and again, Felix was gone.

No…

David heaved as the pair before him began to blur and unfocus.

Felix…

Ghostface gathered Felix’s limp body into his arms like a sleeping child and backed up to stand over the gaping, yawning hatch.

“Thanks for this by the way,” Ghostface said, glancing down. “It’s made this so much easier.” 

David gazed helplessly on as tears streamed from his eyes and his heart slowly tore itself in two. All he could do was silently gather up all of his remaining hope and strength and will it into the man before him.

The white mask then angled down and stared directly at him. His voice dropped low. “I hope you never stop thinking of us.”

And then, with Felix in his arms, Ghostface dropped into the darkness of the hatch and disappeared, and the hatch snapped shut behind them.

They were gone.

Felix was gone.

All those times he’d told Felix it would be okay— that he’d protect him no matter what— that that monster would never touch him ever again… 

All those promises…

Broken.

He’d failed him. He’d failed!! He’d failed!!!

And now Ghostface was going to… 

Oh God!!

With a broken, gasping sob, David fell forward through his haze and crashed into the dirt. He clutched desperately at the wet, blood-slicked grass, writhing in despondent anguish as his life slowly drained out around him.

He had to find him! Wherever Ghostface was taking Felix now, somehow, he had to find it!! Whatever it took, whatever price he had to pay, he had to fix this and save Felix from this horrific nightmare!!

Just hold on, Felix! Hold on! For however long you can, hold on, because I’m comin’ for ya!! I swear to Christ I’m not leavin’ ya with that monster!! I’m not giving up and neither should you!! I’ll find ya Felix, I swear!! Just wait for me and fight like hell— just like I told you! Wait for me and fight like hell!

Fight like hell, Felix… Just hold on and fight like hell…

Fight like hell…

The mantra echoed over and over again in his fading mind, bouncing around in the darkness as he resolved himself for the desperate task ahead— finding and saving his one and only light and love in this endless, agonizing dark… Felix.

Fight like hell Felix…

Fight like hell…

Fight like hell…

Fight like hell…

Fight like hell…

Notes:

Oops 🙂

So anyway, that just happened, BUT! If you didn't know, I've learned Blender recently (the 3d modeling and animation program) and have started posting some fanart on my Tumblr! Come check it out!
Maybe it'll help ease the anguish from the end of this chapter? 😆
Anyway, hope you enjoyed! See ya next time! 🤩

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 2 of In Defiance of Darkness