Nightmare Shuttle

Was he trying to court death–

But this thought didn't last long, 

To the other's consternation, the player was actually floating in the air! 

The man turned around and looked at them with an apologetic smile, he didn't have to say anything they understood his meaning well enough.

With the first player as precedent, some players lost their inhibitions, they disregarded the resentment filled looks of the others and immediately brought out their own props!

In an instant, they pulled away from the others, some even sending a vicious, grin before hurtling towards the hole. 

They would escape from there!

The faces of the players that didn't have props that could be of use instantly turned green, they could still hope to work together to find a solution before but now they were directly left to die along with the other hapless souls!

"Fuck!–Bastards!"

The sludge would only trap them here, the bloody damp smell mixed with the burning sulfur of the fire and the situation seem inescapable!

"What do we do!–"

Suddenly a player moved but it was not to escape but to suddenly grab a unsuspecting player from beside him and push him out of the shrinking safe range!

The players eyes were completely red and his chest heaved as if he had been running for a long time, with a distorted grin, he laughed crazily, gesturing frantically towards the falling player,

"This is for the good of everyone don't blame me!"

The players watched on with horrified gazes, yet no one moved to help, behind the horror, their was relief, in every movie, there would always be someone who sacrificed themselves for the greater good everyone else.

They would just burn more paper money for him when they left this place–

Ba–Dump–

Chu Yi's heart skipped a beat, 

Ba–Dump–Ba–Dump–

Regardless of the happenings behind him, Chu Yi stared relentlessly at the dark hole. Slowly a powerful heartbeat seemed to echo in his ears and gradually even his own heartbeat rose to match the tune of the other

Ba–Dump–

His red eyes slowly narrowed.

Ba–Dump–

The dim light faintly reflected a flash of red, flickering in the black hole. 

Chu Yi's heart sped up.

When he thought that the light was just his imagination, the red light flickered again, twice, thrice…

Ba–Dump!

Faster and faster, the red light began to expand, eroding the darkness little by little until all the darkness was expelled by it, eventually swallowed completely.

Like a glowing a red moon, the crimson light spilled into the ground from the hole. The thin and hazy light was like a gauze, enveloping all the creatures in this room.

The light carried with it a overwhelming fragrance of roses, a dark and dangerous scent that had their hearts booming in their chest!

Harsher and harsher, brighter and brighter, the red glow took over the entire room!

Ba–Dump,

Then abruptly it all stilled.

As if everything was just an illusion, 

The only thing they could hear was the heavy sounds for their own breathing–

Then, it was the sound of cracking space,

"Boom!––"

The players who were dashing towards wanted to stop but before they could react, brilliant green vines suddenly surged from the room!

The gaudy outer skin was covered with blooming red roses, but this only made them looking even more eerie and terrifying!

Like a signal from a flare gun, the vines surged from the hole in a unstoppable manner, their bodies, as if they had bones, were dancing wildly, the thorny branches flooding towards them, filling every crack and crevice and turning this place into a flowery prison!

The vines covered in vibrant red roses didn't give them any time to react and entangled the players like a spider web, they couldn't struggle, they couldn't move, all the organisms in the room were wrapped up in the terrifyingly beautiful rose vines!

The players at the forefront wanted to stop at the first sign if trouble but the vines seemed to have a mind of its own and suddenly entangled the players like a hungry snake opening its enormous mouth!

The players screams were instantly lost in the ocean of thorns and dark vines, as it pierced into their flesh and quickly drained their bodies of blood!

Under their incredulous gaze, the crimson roses got brighter and brighter leaving only a dried husk as tantamount to their previous look.

Chu Yi, watching the hauntingly beautiful carnage unexpectedly grinned, an excited and strange smile that made his entire aura sink evilly.

From the distance, an intense gaze was directed at Chu Yi, slowly moving its greedy, coveting gaze from the tips of his toes to his head.

Lips rose into a cruel and mocking smirk "I thought we had a bet." 

He was like a gorgeous but icy moon. But this pale moon did not hang high up in the sky to illuminate the path of others but gleamed on the scythe belonging to the death god. This was the light used to harvest souls. His body spun like a delicate sword, a sword laced with poison.

As soon as he finished speaking, a ferocious black mist surged from the hole, forcefully disintegrating the wall and making it bigger. The shadows filled the room, carrying with it a sweet sticky stench.

From a distance, the black mist seemed to slowly wrapped the black-haired youth, as if he was hugging the black-haired youth to death.

It gently wrapped around his limbs and lingered at the fragile and swan like neck. A soft touch flowing down along his pale and cold face, leaving in its place a fragrance that was sinister and strong.

There were also sweat droplets sliding down from the side neck, flowing down a series of ambiguous and moist water marks. The shadows seemed inexplicably attracted and softly followed the trail of sweat until lay gently against the deep, radiant collarbone at his neck.

Tracing the red bruises still present formed from the marks caused by deep, intrusive acts.

The man seemed to grin playfully, as if he was inexplicably happy at others expense.

They were only a few small blemishes that made him unhappy, the blood of others that stained that divine face like the mix of a devil and a sacred angel. Just like a devout religious painter who suddenly fell after carving out the most perfect holy child, and heavily splashed the wicked, the crazy, the cursed bloody tears onto his perfect face.

The man gently lifted his hand and Chu Yi only felt a cool wind across his face and the aggravating marks disappeared.

The man laughed uproariously.

A small, unique red vine with single horn lowly approached Chu Yi, gently entangling a soft white finger like a winding red string, it rejoiced in the feeling of the warmth against its body. 

It had worked hard, just to meet it's master again.

Ordinary people, humans...they couldn't smell that scent, only the existences in the dark could smell it. It was a wonderful, sweet, bloody smell that was enough to drive them crazed.

To the dark creatures, everyone else's blood had a scent equivalent to the stinky gutters on the roadside, the rose had endured too much in order to be strong enough to appear now. But this bloody smell was so sweet that it reminded it of a beautiful era, where it's original creator would gently pet him everyday and feed him the most delicious food.

It's creator was gone but inexplicably it felt the familiar breath of its creator on this human from the very first time.

It was like the most magnificent red rose.

It liked it very much.

Chu Yi suddenly felt a sharp pain in his fingers and looking down the scarlet vine had pierced a small hole into his finger, and was gently absorbing the crimson blood.

He tilted his head, 

The scarlet vine appeared an even deeper red as it absorbed, so deep that it seemed to emanate a thick, bloody smell.

He could even see the scarlet blood from his veins being absorbed into the translucent vines, his skin seemed to also translucent.

He raised an eyebrows watching as the blood slowly flowed along the raised cyan blood vessels on his pale skin, drawing a vine-like blood map, more brilliant than the color of petals.

The feeling was icy cold, boiling hot, and roaring with mad insanity...

The first drop of blood had fallen, completely marking him as its own. 

Suddenly, Chu Y lifted his head, red eyes filled with a fanaticism and maliciousness, as they stared intently at the dark hole.

Da, Da, Da.

From the darkness, a slender figure appeared, obscured by the darkness and bloody red roses, the man stood in the face of the players, half-length black hair tied behind his head with a scarlet red hair band, a dark green vine entangled on his arms with a blooming bright red rose resting diagonally on his shoulders.

The man grinned, and slowly raised a hand, "Nice to meet you 'again'."

"My dearest."

Almost instantly they could feel an extremely contradictory dark and cold aura precipitated on the man's body, like walking on a tightrope between the boundaries of elegance and madness, like a black hole in the depths of the universe that could swallow all light, easily grabbing the sight of others, sinking into the deep and melancholy evil thoughts.

Full of dangerous, extreme, charm.

The man bowed deeply and gracefully to the players shrouded under the cold light of the roses.

He appeared so elegant and so polite, despite appearing like the most terrible and strange opera verse and arriving in a beautiful splendor of blood and flesh.

The scarlet rose was still pinned on the man's chest. He seemed to think of something and casually picked a few rose petals from the rose still coiled around his neck, he held the small petals in his hand just like a person attending a funeral would hold a bouquet of white roses.

He clenched his fist, the soft rose petals being crushed in the palm of his hands–

He seemed to smile at Chu Yi softly, the coldness, violence, and sharpness temporarily faded from the man's countenance,

"Let me show you a magic trick."

The man's voice resembled a nightmare or a elusive dream, he stared deep into the eyes of Chu Yi then with a grin, he slowly released his palm.

The red petals had disappeared, leaving only a handful of pale pink dust that slowly dissipated in the ambiguous wind.

"How is it? Is it fun."

No one here was amused, only absolutely horrified.

This man was like an evil spirit straight from hell!

Chu Yi paused and laughed slowly under the players shuddering stare.

He seemed to have taken off the layer of disguised human skin, revealing his dark and terrifying nature underneath. A slightly neurotic smile rose at the corner of his bright red lips. It was obviously the same face, that the players were used to but now it seemed to make people shiver, and a feeling of fear rose in their bones.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha--"

The man joined him and the laughter grew louder and louder, turning from low to high, and finally to sharp and sinister, a terrible symphony that made even Tang Shun take a step back.

They all felt a chill rise in their spines shooting straight to their heads.

He stood up from the iron shelf, the rose vines gently entangling his skin, the red glow that shone unnaturally from the roses, cast his face in a seductive yet dangerous light.

Chu Yi closed his eyes and laughed like no one was beside him. His laugh was like the Gotham Joker who is full of sin and darkness; and like the red-haired, Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, immersed in his own world.

Anyone with a discerning eye can hear that this is not a sneer or sarcasm, but a real smile.

This was joy from the heart.

The man's smile grew wider and wider, and he bowed like a great magician performing his final act.

"My dear, I feel gratified that you're so amused by my tricks." 

Chu Yi suddenly stopped laughing, and smiled, 

A pair of beautiful, slender hands gently turned and like a burst of lightning had flashed through his red eyes, the man saw Chu Yi show him a cold and malicious smile.

He lips opened as If he was about to say something, raising a slender hand as if to greet him. The man raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but take step forward from the darkness but then without warning, a sharp crimson knife was flung directly towards him!