-CLICK
-CLICK
-CLICK
'Go…go…go…quickly!'
In a dimly lit hallway where darkness seemingly prevailed amongst all surfaces, a balding man who was currently sweating buckets, snapping his fingers by the second, as the clicks rang through the hallway.
'It won't be far, right? I can see it all…everything beyond this darkness. All I have to do is…avoid the Black Box. I just can't stay here any longer.'
'I promise I'll be back to save everyone. I just need to leave…I can't take this anymore! I've suffered while sitting idly and watching this nightmare!'
His footsteps carried no sound, and where one would think to keep themselves in the dim light from above, he chose to creep in the darkness, which he did seamlessly.
'Just one more distraction…he won't be mad, right? He'll understand. We're friends after all. In a way, I'm doing him a favour. Death in a place like this…my sin will be his salvation.'
His fingers twitched as he bit at his nails so hard they started to turn red with blood.
In the next second, he came to a stop, peeking around a corner as his dilated pupils focused, his clicks having long become fainter.
'Just one more…'
Ollie thought, clutching the grip on his bloody kitchen knife.
And so, with this final thought, he leapt out into the new and unknown hallway.
Only…that was a lie.
This hallway wasn't new.
No, he knew this. From the familiar scent of his knife only intensifying here, he could perfectly remember the pressure he felt on his blade as he sliced at the throat of his fellow Nulled.
Nor was this hallway mysterious.
No, he could see.
With every click, though he couldn't see it with his eyes, he could see the young boy with slicked back hair and a white hoodie with its arm torn, peeking around the same corner Isagi once was, oblivious to everything happening around him.
With every step, his expression grew more contorted and uncomfortable, but his approach only quickened.
And with every second, upon raising his knife, a thought repeated in his mind like a broken record.
'I'm sorry…Rin!'
-SHUAA
All time seemed to have slowed.
Ollie's breath came to a stop as the hair on his neck stood up upon feeling fearsome glares stabbing into his back.
For a small moment…a sliver of doubt flickered within his heart as, for a split second, he pondered whether these shadows really did belong to him.
'No, that's impossible. My Quirk makes it so…so why do I feel like cornered prey?!'
He yelled inwardly, and in the next second, it was as though the world slowed just so he wouldn't miss why he was wrong.
With his knife already driving forward, he witnessed piercing emerald eyes snap toward him.
'Huh…'
Ollie froze, watching as Rin came face to face with him, raising his hands as his middle finger and thumb connected.
But that wasn't what he was focused on.
He lagged to notice Rin floating backwards, as though he was ready to fall onto his buttocks, nor the eerie and almost…negative pressure exuding from his hand.
No, instead, he stared at the cold and unrecognisable eyes of the boy.
With no emotion on his face and his hair slicked back, he almost looked like a different person from the Rin he knew.
But that didn't matter.
Why?
Because nothing changed.
The knife never stopped in motion. It now lay inches away from the green-eyed boy's throat…
-CLICK!!!
"KHRM!!!"
The knife hit the ground as Ollie's eyes widened, his hands rushing to block his ears. The balding man foamed from his mouth as his eyes threatened to roll to the back of his skull.
'He snapped his fingers…so hard…how…'
For once, everything went dark for Ollie.
Compared to the awareness he had before, he was practically blind in this delirious and overwhelmed state.
Each of his senses felt dulled to the point that he thought he had lost a few of them, and those that remained made him feel as though he was underwater.
It was because of this that his eyes only widened upon feeling something…or rather two things, crash into his back.
All he could feel was the copious fur-like hair on his neck before he was launched forward, passing right over Rin, who already had his back on the ground.
'He knew…'
Though his mind wasn't operating like usual, in the back of his mind, these thoughts resided.
'Well, we used to be friends after all…'
'I wonder why he does this? Salvation? Simple survival? Maybe…it's just revenge…huh…'
For a split second, Ollie's thoughts came to a stop.
For a split second, he stared at Rin's face as he failed to comprehend what exactly he was looking at.
For a split second, every reason he'd thought of for why Rin was doing this disappeared.
'He's…smiling…'
It was a small smile. His stoic expression was betrayed by the slight upward tug in the corner of his lips.
It was so faint, almost like he didn't know he was doing it himself.
'Mock? No. Joy? It doesn't look like it. Just who…is this?'
-THUD!!!
Ollie finally hit the ground face first, rolling a few times before he was able to catch himself.
"What was…"
Before Ollie could look back in an attempt to catch what it was that struck him in his back, he froze as his heart dropped.
-THUMP
Looking around, he found himself in a new hallway.
-THUMP!
The same hallway Rin and Isagi were peeking around.
-THUMP!!
The same one he knew to avoid.
There was nothing to indicate any immediate danger.
Well, that wasn't true.
In a way, having his senses dulled made him more attentive to these things. Call it instinct, if you will.
And so, with his heart almost waiting to drop its last THUMP, he slowly turned his head like a rusty robot, staring as he witnessed a figure at the end of the hall.
-THUMP!!!
A plague mask with two circular opaque pieces of glass for eyes, a black tophat and a dark cloak.
"You…"
Ollie muttered.
He wanted to speak, but he could barely breathe.
He wanted to run, but he couldn't even stand.
He wanted to yell out but…
'What…the ceiling?'
Ollie thought. Where he was once staring down the dark hallway with a figure standing at the end, the world seemingly spun as he watched his gaze unwillingly shift to the ceiling, the world rolling a few times until he witnessed a headless figure on his ass slouched beside him.
A single second passed.
'Ah…I see…'
In that moment of realisation, his mind quelled.
He was no longer scared.
He had nothing to be scared of.
With this absence of irrational fear came clarity.
Clarity he hadn't known for a long time.
'I thought death would feel peaceful…instead, it feels…empty…cold…haha, salvation my ass.'
He wanted…more.
From life.
Considering where he was now, what he had before didn't seem so bad.
But he still wanted to leave this place, but with everyone. Not just himself.
'But alas, I was too much of a coward. Is this how Isagi felt?'
In that moment, it was no longer death that was Ollie's greatest worry.
No, he was suffering a fate far worse.
'How awful.'
Immeasurable regret.
'Who knows…maybe they'll all be okay. Or at the very least, maybe, just maybe, there'll be someone who could do what I couldn't.'
Meanwhile…
Silence.
The plague-masked figure stood over a headless Ollie.
Staring, the figure slowly turned to the hallway adjacent to this, only to witness a bloodied knife, blood dripping down further into the darkness.
Looking back, silence continued to prevail.
"Prep for transfer."
***
Silence once again.
Though the hallway was different, the light was just as dim, the silence just as loud; this time, it wasn't empty.
One, two, three, maybe four. Hell, maybe a few dozen.
Who knew?
It was impossible to tell.
They seamlessly blended into the shadows and darkness.
They also all circled a singular figure on the ground, each staring silently.
The figure?
He wore a white hoodie, the sleeve torn and the hood up.
But more interestingly, his throat was slit as he fashioned amber eyes and a buzz cut.
Between what the cameras saw, the bloodied knife and Ollie seemingly being flung into the same hallway where he died, it wasn't hard to figure out the chronological order of things.
All the pieces fit.
Despite this, it was only a single one of them that turned their heads, looking down the hallway silently.
"Prep for transfer."
***
-TAP TAP TAP TAP
-SNIFF SNIFF SNIFF
Rin, his hair slicked back, wearing a white hoodie that was slightly bloodied but was intact, unlike his last, dashed through the hallway, his breathing heavy.
With both his divine dogs beside him, sniffing at the air, the three of them showed no hint of stopping anytime soon.
'Here it is…'
Turning one more corner, the two dogs let out a slight bark upon reaching their goal.
Their goal?
A patch of dirt right before a small globe depicting an aerial view of a mansion on a hill.
'There…huh…'
Rin froze as he suddenly felt his knees buckle, prompting him to drop to the ground chest-first.
'What…why am I feeling drained?'
If his exhaustion that made his lungs feel as though they were on fire wasn't enough, he felt as though he'd lost all the power in his body.
'Just a little more…it's right there.'
Drawing every last drop of strength he had, Rin crawled on the ground as he inched ever so closer to the sphere.
His vision was becoming tunnelled, and the sphere only seemed to move further with every inch.
'So close…'
But alas, Rin held out his hand as his vision slowly turned to black, the last thing entering his ears being a familiar noise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me what you think of my first 4 chapters in reviews, comments or however other way you like.
I appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks!