Once Upon a Story [ INCONSISTENT UPDATES ]

Bad Blood FINALE

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 1452

In the dim light, Pearla and Tristan ventured without a clue about the exit's location. They'd found a map earlier and tried following the directions, but only wandered further off track. The walls were covered in heavy drapes and fake blood, and the jumpscares were all subpar in their eyes. But the flickering lights and silence of the past few minutes had changed the atmosphere.

Objects would fall off walls, and doors would creak open before they were in sight. Tristan was starting to get paranoid. Not a single actor had come out to scare them.

"Maybe we should turn back," he suggested, but Pearla wasn't deterred. She, too, had a sinking feeling in her stomach, but chalked it up to her usual anxiety. The flashlight in her hand illuminated a mirror at the end of the corridor, but something else peeked from its corner.

A face.

Oh, how she wished she hadn't spotted it. She bit her lip, forcing herself to step forward. "Come on, Tristan. We only have one flashlight."

"I still think this is all too creepy. We haven't seen anyone in here for the past ten minutes." He took the flashlight from her hand, saying he'd lead from now on. "Your map-reading skills are what got us lost in the first place."

Pearla didn't fight and advanced, hands to her chest. She had taken out her gloves earlier and started scratching them to distract herself. The sound drove Tristan up the wall with how tense he already was. But it was either that or she'd make the place look like a crime scene.

He jumped past the corner, his light pointed. Scouring the perimeter, he sighed in relief.

"Coast is clear." He turned around, and his heart dropped. Pearla wasn't there. It was like he had been walking alone this whole time. The silence bared heavily on his shoulders as he waited for her to pop up from behind a drape.

Nothing.

He called her for several minutes; still no answer. All he could do was retract his steps. But the path he came from had changed. Or had it?

"I swear that door wasn't there before," he murmured. His breath hitched as something grazed against his side. Hot air puffed on his already sweating neck. When he checked, it was empty behind him.

But something was visible.

There's something there. Eyes red and black watched from a distance. A sharp ring played in his ears as it smiled, revealing hell in its mouth.

Just what kind of madhouse is this?

"Tristan?"

He yelped, stumbling into the wall as Pearla appeared from the door he'd been avoiding. She was seemingly fine, with a few cobwebs in her hair. "Are you okay?"