Monster's Labyrinth ~ Hyunlix

>25<

(Hey Kids • Molina, Late Verlane)

Felix wiped the blood off of his pale face. He gave one last look at the twitching hound on the ground, the one which had been chasing him through this mall for hours now, before turning around and walking away from it.

He walked out of the completely destroyed Louis Vuitton shop and headed for the grocery shop. You could never have enough food here anyway.

He entered the tiny shop. The ceiling had fallen down slightly, spraying everything with white pieces of plaster. Everything was a mess. However, the food was still intact.

There was a very big chance it was all a trap, the food I mean, but what did it matter anyway. Felix was almost out of his food ration and he wasn't planning on starving.

Felix took his backpack off of his shoulder and zipped it open. He filled the bottom with all types of food that were easily preservable. On top of that the food that would rot in a few weeks, and on top of that the food he'd eat that day.

After he was done he zipped the bag close and heaved the heavy thing on his back. It was hard but survival is survival.

Felix walked out of the destroyed shop. His eye lids were starting to get heavy from exhaustion, but he also knew he would be able to keep it up for at least a few more hours.

He walked towards the broken escalators and stepped onto them without a second thought.
He was limping slightly, since earlier he had accidentally bruised his ankle, but he knew he'd be fine in a day.
Carefully not to make a wrong step Felix made his way down the escalator.

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he walked over to a bench a bit further away. He needed to sit for a moment, just to come to his senses. For a fact he had almost died for the fifth time that week. Ain't that funny?

Without any hesitation he collapsed on top of the filthy bench, not paying any mind to the white plaster and other filth that stuck to his jumpsuit. He had made sure to close the door of the room, so he should be safe for now.

He slowly lifted the backpack off of his shoulder again and zipped it open. The inside was, as expected, stuffed with random foods and surviving goods. He reached inside of the bag, looking for a certain something. When his fingers touched the object he was looking for he carefully wrapped his hand around it. With shaky hands he slowly took out the pretty hilt.

The snake leathered hilt felt heavy in Felix's hands. He softly rubbed the ruby that was stored inside the pommel, feeling a wave of sadness and longing rush through him. The leather had formed itself to the owner's hands, which caused slight deformation. Yet somehow it only made the thing prettier.

He curled his knees up to his chest and held the pretty hilt in his hand. He wasn't able to unfold it, since he didn't have the right thumbprint for it. Yet he didn't care. It wasn't like he was planning on using it anyway. He just wanted to hold it dear to him, cling to the little he had left of his husband.

Oh how much he'd want to be with the person that owned this sword right now. Oh how much he'd want to hold his beloved again. He had lost his alliance barely a day ago and it was much harder than he'd expected.

For example: he barely slept. Previously he and Jisung would switch turns in who would be taking watch every three hours. That worked out well, but now that wasn't possible anymore Felix had to simply pray that he wouldn't be finished off when he did a little eye-shut.

Felix wondered how Jisung would be doing. Was he even still alive? Did he find another alliance? He didn't know.

But what probably bothered him most was by far the gnawing uncertainty of Hyunjin's state.
Felix was very certain that Hyunjin was there somewhere, but he didn't know if he was even still alive.

He's a strong man. Felix told himself. There was no reason for Felix to doubt that anyway, but still. He would do anything to survive. He tried to convince himself. And it worked, for some time.

You might question, how did Felix know Hyunjin was there?
Well, the answer is simple. The hilt.

He was very well aware of what the higher authorities were capable of, but that hilt was simply unrecreatable. Felix just knew it belonged to Hyunjin. The slight dents in the leather, exactly fit for Hyunjin's hands. Even the smell, despite it had started to fade slowly.

Felix felt a tear slip out of his eye. He quickly wiped it away in embarrassment even though no one was around to see it.

He stood up, deciding to leave the mall. Even though he had killed the hound already, it creeped him out. And he didn't want to be in an abandoned mall with a body either.

Felix walked through the maze of a mall and finally found the door he had entered through. He first listened if there was anything outside. When he heard nothing he opened the door and stepped outside of the eerie mall.

Felix walked for a while, he had nothing to do anyway.

Luckily his body wasn't used to eating much anyway. He knew it was considered an eating disorder, but usually he had Hyunjin with him to help him with eating so he didn't really bother to label it.

However, he had noticed, once it came to survival, the least he worried about was the fact that he was eating way more calories than he'd usually allow himself to.

Felix was pulled out of his trance when he heard a low growl. He quickly jumped behind a random corner. He heard soft cracking, but there wasn't any sign of danger.
Damn a human's curiosity, am I right?

Felix peeked behind the corner and god had wished he hadn't.
Right there, on the ground, lay a body. It had long before started to decay which made it practically impossible for Felix to make out the gender of the corpse. The skin had been falling apart from the face and huge chunks of flesh were just ripped out of it. The eyes were black and looked somehow deflated. As if someone had pricked it with a needle and all the liquid had run out of it.

But that's not what terrified the man. No. It had been the huge monster standing beside the corpse. The one that was holding the mauled face in his weird hand.

It was a huge monster made of clay and moss. It had branches growing out of its back and strings of something Felix didn't want to know what they were around them.
The monster had long hands and fingers. They looked more like human hands than anything except they were filthier than filthy. They also had very weird nails.
It had at least eight arms and three legs.

Felix watched in silenced horror how the monster opened the tormented face's mouth, he stuck his hand in and to Felix's greater horror he heard something crack.

When the monster pulled back its hand Felix realised with great disgust that it had pulled out a tooth from the jaw. Felix tried to suppress his gag reflex, to no avail, once the monster placed the tooth on one of his filthy fingers.

Without being able to control himself Felix retched, creating a surprisingly loud sound. The monster looked up at once, exactly facing Felix.

The monster had black, beady eyes. Felix couldn't see a mouth or nose because of the amount of mud and filth covering its face.

Felix stood as if transfixed, too scared to move. However, he knew he'd be able to sprint away at once once it would be of necessity.

For a few seconds the monster did nothing but stare at Felix. Felix did nothing but stare back at the monster. His heart picked up its pace and his breathing got ragged in anticipation.

Suddenly the monster let go of the mauled body's head, which caused it to fall down on its side, and screamed. The literal monster screamed like a six-year old girl.

Felix jumped up at the sudden sound. He hadn't expected that. But what he had expected even less was that the monster would literally run away. Still screaming, leaving a trail of mud behind.

Felix couldn't move for a moment, but once the realisation kicked in he felt relief flooding his body. He looked at the body on the ground.

Its mouth lay open, giving the corpse a haunted look. Felix felt a shiver run down his spine before he turned around and walked in the other direction of where the monster had run off to.