You're My Chase

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Purpled 3rd Person POV:

He was running out of time.

In all honesty, he was running out of a lot of things; hope, happiness, strength. Even Quackity could barely make him eat nowadays.

The walls around him rushed closer, then fell back as he ran past them, over again with their own broken heartbeat. He paid them no mind. His feet thumped along just to run, to escape, to try and claw his way out of everything. Somewhere, he knew that Dream and Tommy were waiting for him, ready to mark him with their electricity and forever burn their pact together. Well, as far as Purpled was concerned, they could keep waiting.

Rounding a corner, he banged into the wall with a cry, falling back onto the floor from the impact. Tears piled up at the edges and he wiped them away furiously, berating himself for being so weak. Punz wouldn't have cried!

Still, though, it took him way longer than he would have liked to get himself together, to breathe out the pain and frustration that nothing was working. But when he did, he got up and began walking, his eyes focused on his surroundings and his mind cleared of everything except for one thing; escaping.

At least, he hoped that was so, and tried his best.

This time, the room was more of a parkour room. There was the easy path, a simple maze on the floor with a ton of dead-ends, or the hard path that snaked all around, testing their strength on the jumps and climbs. Both merged together at some points, so if someone got tired, they could opt for the more risky maze.

For now, Purpled meandered along the easy path, glancing up at the ropes and hurdles above him. Both Tommy and Dream knew he was good at those. So, he figured that was where they would waste their time the most, trying in vain to search for a purple sweater among the dark gray walls and dim lighting, with other bodies to scramble around in.

Then, he stopped, listening as a patter of running feet came closer with every second. For a second he froze, hearing his grating breaths echo lonely around the walls before he shot through the maze.

Before, he would have calmly stepped out of the way, maybe jumped to the parcour section to taunt the poor fellow. But not today; he couldn't afford that. He was too jumpy and nervous to make a clean getaway and he knew it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark corner and shoved himself into it, hoping it would conceal himself from anyone passing by. The darkness enveloped him, and the world around became a little brighter. As he watched, coat over his nose to ease down his panting, he saw a man flash out. Oddly enough, he wore a gingerbread man suit, but he seemed to not mind it as he ran along, his eyes flashing and his smile wide.

Purpled didn't step out from his hiding place even after the man disappeared. He sat there, gulping in air, feeling stupidly safe in the shadows where nobody could see him and hurt him. But it was his only form of protection here.

When he got his breathing and heart rate under control, then he slid up, wiping his sweaty palms against his pants. It was never a good idea to stick to one hiding spot, that much he knew. Unless it was a hard to reach spot and easy to escape, it was pretty much an invitation to whoever happened to be wandering by. He felt confident enough in escaping whoever would be pursuing after him; after all, he's been doing it for sixteen months now. Why would his seventeenth be any different?

Glancing around, Purpled made sure he couldn't hear anybody before he softly began to walk out, keeping himself in check with the slow, smooth movements that wouldn't make a sound.

At least this Race had places to hide and places to get away. It wasn't open, like some other arenas they could have placed out.

But the dead quiet alerted him. Occasionally he would hear bursts of noise in the distance, and shudder at the shout of the victor catching what they were fishing for. But other than that one gingerbread man man, there hadn't been another human in sight. And he didn't know if he should be terrified of that, or relieved.