paranoia / gyuricky

12: pushing through the pain

Jang Eunbi's singing abruptly stopped, which frightened Gunwook even more. He concluded that she was attempting to catch him off guard, so she stopped singing in order not to reveal her whereabouts.

After patrolling one of the rooms, Gunwook shuts the door, gasping in surprise when he hears one of Taerae's screams. In turn, he suddenly feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder; he's afraid to look back, but if he doesn't, there's a good chance he can just die on the spot.

Gunwook grabbed whatever had become stuck in his shoulder and yanked it out, wincing as he turned around to face Jang Eunbi, now carrying two box cutters. He aims at a random spot with one, managing to pierce the girl's throat, causing her to gag and cough blood out onto Gunwook. Making a face of disgust, he decides not to retrieve the box cutter, running away instead.

With blood trickling down his arm and seeping into his clothes, Gunwook held his shoulder in pain. He walked into another room, leaning against one of the walls to recollect himself and catch his breath. "Fucking shit," he mumbled between pants.

Taerae found himself limping through the checkout area, attempting to elude Skull Mask, who was chasing him. He'd already been injured once in the leg and twice in the arm, weakening him to the point that he wasn't sure he'd make it through the night. Skull Mask wasn't particularly quick, but Taerae knew he couldn't keep playing ring around the rosie at the checkout counters forever; he was going to pass out from blood loss eventually.

His breathing began to burn as he continued to run, causing Taerae to clutch his chest and cough, his body hunched over—there was nowhere to run anymore. Weakly turning around, Taerae flicks the lighter he was holding, using the hairspray in his other hand right behind it. Skull Mask walked right into the flames, and it set his head ablaze, which distracted him enough to give Taerae time to make a run for it.

Feeling an arm grab him, Taerae lets out a yelp, yet a hand is slapped over his mouth. He looks up to see Matthew, who is holding him up and leading him into the medical supply aisle.

"It's okay, you're okay," Matthew says softly, sitting Taerae on the ground. He frantically grabs handfuls of products from the shelves, squatting down next to Taerae. "Holy fuck," exclaimed Matthew, a clear expression of worry on his face.

Taerae had a deep gash on his thigh—so deep that Matthew was able to see bone peeking through. He had no clue how only a knife managed to do that to Taerae, but he didn't have enough time to think about it, as his friend was quite literally bleeding out in front of him.

"Is it bad?" Taerae asked, deliberately keeping his gaze away from his leg, as he'd always been a squeamish person.

"You're gonna need stitches," Matthew ends up saying, starting to wrap Taerae's thigh in multiple layers of gauze, hoping that it would stop the bleeding.

When the gauze ends up being too tight, Taerae winces. "Fuck, that's awful."

Matthew quickly apologizes under his breath, unwrapping Taerae's leg to redo the gauze in a way where it wouldn't be insufferable to him. "Is that better?"

"Yeah, thanks," Taerae replies with a smile, accepting Matthew's hand that helped him shakily stand up.

In the seafood section, Gyuvin is still holding Ricky under the water, tears rolling down his cheeks as he watches the blonde thrash around. "Come on, Ricky. Come on."

Ricky feels around the edge of the tank, his hand landing over Gyuvin's, clutching it tightly. He actively tries to die, breathing the water in with both his nose and mouth. Ricky gurgles, his lungs burning as they're constantly filled with water.

After being discovered hiding behind the fruit display, Yujin begins to play a game of tag with the Camp Planet murderer. He dashed down an aisle, only to come to a halt when he realized he had run directly into the seafood area, where Gyuvin was frantically trying to drown Ricky. Gunwook's words, "Let's keep those psychos away from Ricky," rang in his mind, but Yujin is unsure about what he should do next.

Yujin began sprinting towards the axed guy without thinking, desperate to keep him away from Ricky. The idea was stupid, but using the logic of what happens in video games and in movies, Yujin thinks there's a slight chance of it actually working.

He notices the man come to a halt in the middle of the aisle and prepare to swing, which works out in Yujin's favour as he sprints towards the man, his gaze fixed on a certain spot next to him. The axed man swings, and Yujin ducks as he runs by, the axe's gust of wind sending shivers down his spine. As he ran, he laughed at how perplexed the masked man seemed. "Come catch me, idiot!" he shouted, waving his blood-stained frying pan in the air.

Ricky feels cold, but also numb. His limbs feel heavy, dead even, and he barely has control over them anymore. The vision at the edges of his sight seems to turn into black flecks, then pulses a reddish white.

Gyuvin looks back, realizing that Skull Mask was coming towards him. "Please, Ricky!" he sobbed in desperation, his breathing shallow as he closes his eyes, unable to look at Ricky anymore.

Eventually, Ricky's vision goes black, and there are little flashes of sparks in his sight as his eyes frantically move for the last few times. He finally realizes that he's about to die, his whole world fading away, leaving a high-pitched ringing in his ears.

...

"No! No!"

"You can't leave!"