Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

Turn In (Trials 88-89)

Word count: 1445

Chapter warnings: Mild language, themes

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"How did Kris make it out alive?" Kyungsoo asked Xiumin under his breath as Y/N and the man in question both sat, now silently on the ground.

"The key was in his leg. What happened to Kai?"

"It- It was in his abdomen. He wanted us to kill him first, but... we thought he could make it, but we didn't have the medical training to be sure. We..." Even someone as controlled as Kyungsoo was having trouble. "We perforated his stomach on accident." It was most definitely painful- if they had cut his stomach open, the acid from must have spilled out and corroded his other organs. He didn't want to ask who was the one to do it, but he felt like he knew. "What about you? What happened to your arm?"

"Oh, the second trial. What was yours?"

"Strangely fine, actually." Kyungsoo shrugged. "There was this panel that opened up to a glass box with an open face. There was some sort of weird meat or something in it. One of us just had to eat it- I let Sehun do it because honestly, he hasn't shut up about being starving since we started. He said it was kinda tough, but he still managed. I think he actually took two bites of..." As Kyungsoo was explaining their trial, he saw Xiumin's eyes widen and mouth fall open as he unintentionally brushed a hand over the shirt wrapping his arm.

"Uh, what's the matter?" Kyungsoo asked, looking to the side awkwardly. Looking to him, then jerking his head back to his arm, he unwrapped it- he had never really looked at the wound. Pulling the fabric away from the still sticky blood, he saw the streaking tracks in his flesh, coursing inwards where the wound deepened. Horrified, he looked over to Sehun, who was also staring in shock. It was so quiet, if someone had dropped a feather, everyone would have heard it. Then, as they all sat frozen, Sehun threw up on the ground, hands over his stomach. There was barely enough water in his system to do so, Xiumin frantically trying to summon up ice for him to drink.

"I can't do this anymore!" Sehun started crying as he lay down on the ground, Xiumin still trying to help him get a hold on himself. "This is insane, there are only six of us left, I can't keep watching people die, I don't want to be treated like some kind of toy by this stupid fucking game!"

"Sehun, you have to calm down-"

"No! I want to leave." He was curled up into a ball, crying into his knees as Xiumin tried to help him. "I want to go home..."

"You can't drop out now," Kyungsoo reminded him, rather unhelpfully, "This set of trials just ended, we have no idea what the penalty will be. Even then, the last one was literally a limb, how much worse can-"

"I don't care!" He was screaming, repeating it over and over, "I don't care, I don't care..." Kyungsoo was right, though. Even in looking down at her phone, she saw the new text, always so unusually cheery and blank for the circumstances.

Congratulations! You have completed the Unit Trials. Welcome to Round 8, the Sacrificial Trials! Round 8 will consist of 14 trials completed based on the directions. If a player drops out, the trial will be null for that players and they will pay the dropout penalty fee. Round 8 will end after trial 100. The reward will be given after trial 100.

Nowhere in the round description did it give them even a semblance of the dropout fee, as per usual. He didn't seem to care though, batting Xiumin's hand away as he tried to scramble to his feet, basically covered in his own sickness.

"I'm dropping out- I can't- I can't-" He scrambled to find his phone. With Y/N and Kris basically in shock, as well as Kyungsoo's general attitude and approach to things like this, Xiumin was basically the only one who was able to still try and talk him out of it, and he was growing less and less effective by the second. He even tried pulling the boy's phone away from him, but he was adamant, entering the app to press the drop out button. Xiumin has previously been under the impression that only Player 1 could allow someone to drop out, but that was obviously not the case as his nameplate faded from colored to grey. Sighing in relief, he tried to wipe the mess of salt, mucus, and blood off his face, leaning back and breathing heavily.

Not even a second later, Kyungsoo fell to the ground behind them. Spinning around XIumin ran to his side, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Kyungsoo! Hey! What's happening?!" His tongue hung out of his mouth as he tried to breathe, pointing to his throat, even Y/N and Kris watching at this point. It was as if he was choking on nothing, lungs heaving and yet drawing nothing in as his chest spasmed out of control. It wasn't even minutes before he slumped over, unmoving.

"Kyungsoo! Get up!" Xiumin was shaking his body. At this point, Kris tried to limp over by sliding on the ground with his one good leg.

"We have to figure out what's happening, if he can't breathe he'll completely die within ten minutes." Xiumin tried to snap himself out of his blind shaking of the man beneath him to actually figure out the issue. They opened Kyungsoo's mouth, and Kris even reached in, but there was nothing blocking his throat. Xiumin pushed on his lungs, on his heart, but still nothing. They sat there, trying and trying, not even stopping once Kris's warning of ten minutes had passed. They couldn't just leave him there. Baekhyun was busy trying to get Y/N up, trying to get her to help, or at least make sure she was okay, but she was still flitting in and out of reality. She only was able to focus her eyes on her own phone when she heard a repetitive, familiar ringing reach her ears.

Fatality Skip: Trial 88

Xiumin buried his face in Kyungsoo's chest, practically beating on the man's limp frame as his shoulders shook. Kris sat back, exhausted and leg clearly still in pain, just watching helplessly.

"What the fuck was that?" Sehun whimpered. "T-this is why I wanted to leave, this isn't fair, it's just awful, it's..." As he said this, she clicked the button. There was no point in waiting now. They had spent so much time discussing and arguing and grieving just to move on as usual, so she may as well try and find out what happened. As soon as the notification was gone, she'd have the ability to use the search bar again. Maybe there were answers there.

Trial 89: Find the final room.

Limited power: Kris

Drop-out Fee: Xiumin

"So that's what happened." She muttered under her breath.

"What? What happened?" Sehun asked, earning himself a glare from Kris.

"Weren't you going somewhere?" Ignoring his snide comment, they all sat waiting expectantly for her to provide them the answers. Swallowing away her nerves, she explained quietly,

"The dropout penalties for the sacrificial trials..." She glanced at Kyungsoo. "They're other players." Sehun's eyes widened as he stepped backwards. Without saying anything, he turned around, agonizingly slowly. She watched as he took a few small steps towards the door.

"Sehun," She started to say, getting up and chasing after him to grab his elbow. He turned to face her, eyes still wide, but mouth shut and features unwavering, almost as if he were looking through her. "Sehun, hey, it's not your fault, you didn't know."

"Let go, Y/N."

"No, you don't-"

"I already dropped out. There's nothing I can do. You'll be fine." He gently pulled his arm away from her as he walked through the door. They hadn't been able to escape before, but something told her the game would let him go. Those were the rules, after all. As he faded from her view, she muttered,

"Be safe." She returned to the group, looking down at her phone, desperate to get out of the same room as Kyungsoo's body. She picked up the pills out of his pocket, skin still warm against the fabric of his pants, making her sick to her stomach. She turned away, looking at her phone. Their next trial was to find this 'final room'. That is, it was, until her view was obstructed by the new notification.

Fatality skip: Trial 89