Nightmare Shuttle

Mu Xun lay in the silent ward leisurely, a feeling of profuse gloating filling his heart, he could imagine the shocked look on the others faces when they realize that they had not showed up.

A rising sense of superiority at fooling the so-called veterans filled him with joy, in his previous world he was the licking dog that would always stick his hot face against his bosses his cold ass just to have a better life. At least here, even if they were dissatisfied with him for the sake of not adding to the chaos, they would end up ignoring their blunder anyways.

This was always the case.

He couldn't help but sneer, this was all they amounted to, then and now, he stretched his hands slightly and prepared to sleep, he just had to wait for the survivors to come back tomorrow and pretend to be pitiful and weak.

"Da–"

The smile on his face froze, his heart stuttering in his chest, there were footsteps at the door,

"Da–"

That was the sound of heels were clicking!

"Da–Da''–"

The footsteps wandered around his door, increasing in intensity becoming louder and louder the longer time passed!

Almost instantly he knew who was there, how–

Shouldn't they be chasing and killing the other players who had ventured into the basement now!

Why would they be here, this made no sense,

"Da da da da da da —" 

The footsteps sped up and became more intense as they went back and forth rapidly on the floor outside, the incessant sound scraped against his eardrums and pounded into his skull like a sharp nail being hammered into brain and smashing it to a terrified mush, as if it was deliberately enhancing his fear.

Mu Xun could sense that the slowly moving sound seemed to be patrolling the door outside, the jarring click of sharp heels hitting the cold tiles made his heart constrict with absolute terror, the gloating on his face had long been replaced with fear and regret, it was only now did he fully realize the consequences of staying in the empty ward by himself, with nothing but himself to fend off the dangers.

His limbs felt cold, pupils dilating into thin needles as crouched motionless behind the bed, the silence only made his heart beat faster, even his breathing was stifled in his throat, not caring about the the creeping suffocation that gripped his lungs with a burning agony!

His fingers clutched onto the yellow cinnabar talisman in his hand, this was a precious prop that could ward off any attacks for a few seconds, he was reluctant to use it in previous instances but now he couldn't care less–

His arms felt like lead, he didn't know if was because of overwhelming fear but the air only grew colder, his teeth faintly clacking and hairy goosebumps erupting on his skin, sweat dripped in torrents from his forehead and stung his eyes but he was afraid to even blink!

Suddenly, the heels stopped, as if the nurse had gone away, having given up on its terrified prey but the man's fear only grew deeper, unable to suppress the trembling in his limbs, the woman was in front of the door and she had stopped right where his body was hiding!

The room fell deathly still in an instant.

Mu Xun felt his scalp go numb and he tightened his fingers around the talisman at once, shuddering breaths being stifled in his heaving chest, he couldn't hold his breath for much longer but he had a feeling that it didn't matter, it knew he was here–

Everything was silent, Mu Xun could even hear his heart thumping inside his chest, he even worried that his heart was indeed beating too intensely, afraid that the 'thing' outside could hear it.

At this point, his mind was already flooded with deep regret, why did he decide to be smart and not go with the other players. Even if Mu Fang couldn't protect them in the end, there were plenty of others that weaker than him and could prove as suitable cannon fodder, especially those disabled trash, at the very least it wouldn't be his turn so why was he so insistent on defying the rest. 

His heart was now clear, even if he made it out tonight, there was no guarantee that the others would take him back, now he just wanted to go back and slap his past self–

In the silence, every second seemed to stretch for an eternity. An invisible, encroaching bad premonition increasingly pressed down against Mu Xun's head. 

One second passed, two seconds, three seconds….

Was it really gone–

Just as Mu Xun's breath was about to run out and he would be forced to breathe, a 'clatter' resounded through the room.

His blood ran cold.

The room was still the same, quiet and rundown, unlike the semi-clean appearance of the red players wards but It was just that now the door had disappeared, as if peeled out from thin air! The sudden fluctuation in the air, and the endless sounds of footsteps above his head intensified and the footsteps resumed horrifyingly. The darkness flooded in like a tide, rushing like a hungry beast to it's trapped prey, from the darkness came the sound of shoes,

"Da —"

"Da —" 

"Da —"

Each click seemed to be stepping on his heart, closer and closer it came, then suddenly the crisp sound of high heels clacking on the ground rang out above Mu Xun's head!

His mind was blank, time seemed to still and with a shuddering breath he lifted his head and looked above him. 

"Da —" 

A droplet of cold sweat dripped from his forehead and stung his eyes painfully but the only thing burnt into his retinas was the terrifying sight of a blossoming bloody face, as if her skull had been smashed repeatedly with a mace until her face was a bloody mash of putrid flesh and then glued back together and combined with the sliced tentacles of a spme sort of animal to create the disguting sight in front of him ....she smiled at him with a sweet carnivorous grin,

"Disobedient residents should be punished–"

It lifted an arm and from her hands, his dilated pupils saw the sharp bloody knife that dripped with scarlet blood and pieces of broken flesh, it hung above his head, the blood splashing against his face as it swung down!

No–

His body moved instinctively, survival instincts kicking in as with a embarrassing dodge he lunged away from the flight of the knife, the air behind was sliced with a horrifying whoosh, and the nurse screeched dissatisfied behind him, scrambling to get up, he ran forward mindlessly, throwing the talismans at her and breaking for the door!

The nurse screeched in pain and her already mashed face was scorched by the burning flames that erupted from the paper that touched itself to her body, the rancid smell of burning meat flooded the room,

Mu Xun's footsteps never slowed, panic striped him from the ability to think as he did the unthinkable, he darted out from the open entrance and scurried into the corridors,

If he stayed there any longer be would die!

As he ran in the next second, bloody handprints appeared on the walls of the corridors, running alongside him, a second handprint appeared, followed by a third, fourth, fifth… Handprints appeared continuously on the walls, each one higher up than the one before. The densely packed handprints covered practically the entire corridor surface, and furthermore piled up on top of each other and basically merged with the dark shadows that flooded the building, Mu Xun ran as fast as he could, he would find someone's else's room and lead the monster over, 

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

The nurses footsteps rang out once more thunderous with anger and greed, the floor boards beneath them creaked under the unceasing attacks, as if at second, it would give away and send them spiraling into the dark abyss below,

His lungs burned and his heart felt as if it was going to beat out of his chest,

Wait...why wasn't the corridor ending–

His heart constricted, 

Almost as if it had been waiting, the darkness around him began to squirm as if it was alive and the black shadows that were originally hibernating had now completely woken up by the intruding prey, 

Mu Xun stared terrified at the shadows around him as they twisted and changed, slowly extending out into their surroundings. Long, monstrous black arms probed about, as if searching for something.

He couldn't help but letting out a hoarse scream, nut this single move seemed to stir up the tranquility in this space. The shadows which had initially been searching everywhere aimlessly instantly froze. 

The next second, like a pack of wolves that had discovered a lone sheep, the black arms all headed towards Mu Xun,

"Bang bang bang bang bang"

From behind the nurses footsteps were only getting closer and closer but the darkness was encroaching on him even faster, only the sound of his heart beat rung in his ears, was he going to die?

No–

He couldn't die like this, he had other things he wanted to do–

Suddenly he felt something hard underneath his foot and before he could react, his body was completely flung forward by the inertia, unable to control his limbs, he went crashing to the ground with a loud bang, head slamming against the floor!

He tried to crawl away hurriedly but somehow something seemed to be entangled with his foot,

He looked down, there was a dark green thorny vine wrapped around his foot, it looked fragile but no matter how much he pulled, he couldn't break free–

Enlarged pupils followed the vine to its source, 

A vibrant blooming rose.

But how can a rose be here–

He noticed something else, the nurse was gone.

Everything was gone, the corridors was now still, but this did not bring him any relief, because only something more terrifying than the darkness could scare them away, 

The originally tense and heart racing atmosphere immediately fell into a cold and eerie silence. The roses, which would have looked extraordinarily beautiful in the daytime, was like a monster from hell, then under his incredulous gaze it started growing, like a rapidly blooming tree, it vines made a rustling sound as it sprouted out, it's green branches and leaves turned a dry black, and it's sharp spikes protruded and stretched like the sickle of the grin reaper.

The vines quickly wrapped around his body and pierced his skin–

There was now way to resist!

The rose spread as quickly as if was a living thing, and soon filled all the corners of the corridor. The smell of nature was intertwined with blood, the leaves rustled as if celebrating the dying life,

Mu Xun didn't even have time to feel pain, the spreading rhizomes plunged directly into his flesh and blood, and the fine roots wrapped around his forearms, twisting like countless black bugs, sucking his blood greedily, he struggled, he screamed but it still couldn't stop him from baptizing the fresh leaves with the warm and fresh blood that spilled from his broken veins.

The leaves shook steadily, its dark vines losing the dry ash black and glowing with a lustrous red sheen, the dried corpse stuck to its rhizomes was mercilessly discarded, as the vines slowly resided and shrunk, the smell of fresh blood and leaves accompanying it as it became a blooming, vibrant red rose once more.

A pale gentle hand seemed to protrude from the darkness, plucking a gem-like petal from its shrinking leaves and slowly turning it on the pale slender fingertips.

It watched as the petal quickly withered and dried in it's hand, scattering like pale dust from its hand and disappearing in the slowly blowing wind.

A dark smile appeared on its lips and with a silent laugh, it disappeared, leaving only the bloody rose with a single missing petal lying on the cold broken floor.