MAVERICK: Back in the Game (TBZ)

Chapter Six

Sangyeon heard the echoes of screams coming from all around him. He'd lost Juyeon and Hyunjae and is stuck with Kevin and Eric. They are wandering down a bare, white hallway in the giant building.

"Hyung, do you really think that Sunwoo is the murderer?" Eric asks.

"I don't know," Sangyeon mutters. He holds a sharp dagger in one of his hands. He'd pulled it out from the bag he'd seized off the table, thinking he'd possibly need it. He flicks his head around, looking out for anything suspicious.

"What about Q or Younghoon or...Haknyeon?" Eric whispers.

Sangyeon shakes his head. "I don't know, Eric. I really don't know."

Kevin looks at them. "You hear the screaming?"

Sangyeon stops dead as a figure races down the hallway right for them. He has his head turned around, looking behind him.

The screaming gets louder and louder as he gets closer and closer.

Sangyeon can see that the man has blood on his hands and blood stains on his clothes. He also has a busted cut on his lip. His head whips around at the last minute, before he slams into Kevin, knocking them both into the wall.

"Haknyeonie?" Eric questions, poking out from behind Sangyeon's back. "Hyung, what happened?"

"Q..." Haknyeon breathes out, shaking with fright.

Sangyeon puts a hand on his shoulder. He can feel Haknyeon's heart racing faster than a winter day in Alaska. "Hak, calm down. It's okay. You're okay. What happened?"

Kevin helps keep Haknyeon on his feet, offering himself as a crutch for him.

Haknyeon keeps staring back down the hallway in the direction he'd come from.

"What about Q?" Sangyeon gently probes.

"Sunwoo...Younghoon..." Haknyeon gasps out, his eyes wild.

Eric's voice murmurs into Sangyeon's ear, saying, "Hyung, should I hug and kiss him to calm him down?"

Sangyeon shakes his head. "No, Eric, what is wrong with you?"

"Everything, hyung. Everything," Eric sassily remarks.

Kevin looks at Haknyeon in concern and then looks down the hallway as another figure appears.

"Q killed Younghoon!" Haknyeon manages to get out. "And Sunwoo's dead!"

Sangyeon staggers backward as though hit by an invisible gust of hurricane-force winds. "You're joking, right?"

Haknyeon shakes his head. He draws his tongue across his chapped, cut lips and looks Sangyeon dead in the eyes.

The figure gets closer and closer, a familiar form clarifying. A dark brown-haired man stops a few feet away from them, smirking darkly. He eyes the group, his dark eyes glittering. "Well, well, well, if it isn't my old friends."

"Hwall?!" Kevin gasps.

Sangyeon's head snaps to the side. "Hwall?"

"Whoa, easy there, leader and Canada Boy, don't wear my name out..." Hwall sneers, flashing sharp canines at them. He has on a dark casual outfit of sweatpants and a black long-sleeve shirt under a bulletproof vest. A few weapons are glinting, attached to it, like a dagger, a few grenades and a nasty-looking gun.

Haknyeon places a hand on the wall and looks at Hwall. "What are you doing here?"

"Wow, no, 'hey bro, we've missed you'? That's rude, Haknyeon," Hwall snarls. "But, for the record, I didn't miss you all. I mean, I hate you so much, I killed Jacob Bae. And New and Sunwoo and threatened Q into killing Younghoon."

"YOU--?!" Sangyeon and Haknyeon shout in unison.

Kevin and Eric share a look with one another.

"Did you also kidnap Juyeon and Hyunjae?" Sangyeon growls, feeling anger slowly rising inside of him.

Hwall chuckles. "No. I have nothing to do with that. For all I care, the madness has driven them to go after one another. If I'm lucky, I'll have no effort in them killing each other and knocking two more members off my list."

"Why?" Haknyeon snaps, his blood boiling. He stomps toward Hwall, Sangyeon throwing a hand out to stop him.

Hwall looks at Haknyeon. "Jeju Boy, you all never made me welcome. You laughed in my face."

"We did not!" Sangyeon snarls. "We welcomed you with open arms. You're the one who turned your back on us! Don't twist things for your own evil enjoyment."

Hwall smirks at him. "Evil enjoyment?"

"You're just as bad as Changmin!" Eric snaps, still hiding behind Sangyeon.

"Speaking of, you liked how I used your pencil to stab Sunwoo? Oh man, you should've seen him. He was all for killing Sunwoo and then chickened out at the last minute. But it was the prime opportunity for the kill." Hwall puts his hands on his hips.

Sangyeon looks at Haknyeon.

Haknyeon's eyes are narrowed. "I'll make you pay."

"You'll kill me for potentially killing your friends? But you won't kill Sunwoo for potentially killing your friends?"

Haknyeon starts forward, thrusting against Sangyeon's arm.

"I just wanted to show myself and wish you luck. Oh, and there is someone amongst you who's helping me out. I'll give you a hint, it may or may not be Ji Changmin." With that, he laughs.

Haknyeon shoves Sangyeon's arm away and racing at Hwall. He dives for him, launches through him. He lands on the ground, stunned.

Hwall keeps laughing as he gradually flickers away.

Sangyeon cusses. "He's a damn hologram!"

The lights in the hallway flick off. Eric screams.

"NO ONE PANIC OR RUN OFF!! THIS IS WHAT HWALL WANTS! HE WANTS TO GET ONE OF US ALONE!" Sangyeon shouts out.

The lights blink back on and Sangyeon finds himself alone. Haknyeon, Kevin and Eric are gone.

Sangyeon spins around. He clutches tightly to the handle of his dagger weapon.