64 | petals; a game of tag

They were all going to die.

At least, they would not die alone and pathetically, concluded Lucas with an unusual burst of cynicism.

Soon, he shook the thought away from his clearing mind, both refreshed and also chaotic from his laboured breaths. That clinging weed must've influenced him. The man's pessimism and negativity polluting his own thoughts.

Thinking about it, it was a bit of a pity if he died like this, here and now. Without first forcing Elias to give up his kingly Title to Kane, or at least roughing up that annoying creature until the sly smile left his face.

There was also Kane. Lucas still didn't know why, but there was a lot he wanted to say to that doctor.

He just hadn't figured out what.

Wren wheezed, slapping him hard on the back. His thoughts were slapped out of him, just as his breath was. "Stop thinking! Also, it's probably something ridiculous and pathetic, and it's really not the time for that, my dear bond!"

They skirted around the corner, bundling up the children. The dozen trusting pair of eyes that scrambled after, away from the dining hall that had gestured them out in a flurry of wind.

Lucas knew that some had turned, some had looked and had seen what was underneath the table—the mangled body of their old friend, empty sockets crying tears of blood.

Manipulated, half-alive puppets of what were once innocent children.

One of the ones who realized was Will, a tortured curtain falling over his dark and gloomy gaze before he spun on his heels, and forced the other children to keep moving.

He was well aware that the child could no longer be saved.

And it felt like he was picking between two children, choosing to sacrifice one to save another, and he thought that it was unfair, being made to choose. He wanted to be back in those days in the hospital, reading his books or sleeping.

Being disturbed by the delighted laughs outside his room, or the children who crept inside and found joy in startling him.

In the children who played with their foods, cried over their family and suffered endlessly to survive. He wanted to go back to those times.

But who didn't?

Will grabbed the arm of a fallen child, pulling them up even with his limited strength. His limbs trembled and shook, but he kept on running, eyes firmly set on the adult that rushed ahead.

Standing in front of them, ready to fight and to protect.

Nothing had come for them, yet they continued to sprint down, chased by ghosts. It was scarier, rather than being chased by some twisted body, to not know when the chase would begin.

To be only able to run, and run until their legs wore out, or their hope for survival diminished and died.

Just as they almost dared to hope nothing would appear, a dark shadow swung above their heads. It dangled in the darkness, before the candle's eerie glow erupted, casting harsher shadows on the corpse.

A smiling child, as innocent as its eyes were wide.

But petals spilled out of his mouth, and half his hair had been torn out and replaced by poking wool, mimicking a cropped hair style, yet painfully fake. He looks as if he were taken apart and sewn back together with worn doll parts.

Berry's eyes went wide as saucers before he screamed, a shrill scream that instilled itself in all of their hearts.

A scream that made them dazedly think, 'Oh. We're all going to die.'

And a mad panic ensued.

Lucas stretched out and flung the body to the ground crudely, cursing and rudely nodding his head towards the hall. "Keep running, and don't you dare stop!"

His speech had lost any softness or quiet, only booming loud. Silence was his peace, and silence was what he kept to. But this wasn't peace—no, this was cruel madness. And he no longer could remain silent.

"If you have the energy to stare, you have the energy to run! Move! Now!" He ordered arrogantly, leaving no room for disobedience.

Out of compliant fear or shock, the children shook and turned to run. Wren pushed any of the children who didn't, sighing in frustration and scooping up the ones whose legs had turned to jelly out of horror.

"Listen, you foolish link!" yelled Wren as she sped ahead with the children, while the corpse grasped at Lucas' arms.

"I'll help you this once—your ability, I'll make it so the effects won't come until later! I'll make it so you won't remember their deaths, until you make it out—and you will make it out. So do as you please!"

She yelled it, knowing Lucas could've broken free of the child's mangled hands, knowing that he wouldn't. Her warnings hadn't been spoken carelessly.

The ability to gain other's abilities was something grand and wonderful, entirely useful. But for somebody as empathetic as Lucas, despite his chilly exterior, having to feel and remember every crevice of the dead's thoughts and regrets was ruining.

But perhaps, an ability like that, wouldn't ever be blessed on somebody who wasn't empathetic. No, that ability clung to Lucas because it knew that he would hurt.

As the damned End's Delusion enjoyed doing.

Lucas moved slowly, his hair a scruffy mess over his face, covered in a mess of blood that wasn't his own. "Thank you." He mouthed, turning to the body.

He stopped resisting, allowing the sharpened nails to pierce his arms and hang from his body, clinging around him. The sunken cheeks that had once been plump and full. The empty sockets that had once been youthful and free.

Broken and ugly wilted petals that broke free from the skin, marking the corpse as a decoration; a toy for the Teller to amuse themselves with.

Lucas closed his eyes and knelt to one knee, pulling the corpse closer.

And as the nails moved to his back, Lucas returned the obscure hug and plunged his knife through the ribcage.

"It's okay." muttered Lucas, responding to unheard cries of help. "I'm sorry."

The half-alive body slumped against him, and he tore the child away, pulling the body to a wall and arranging him in a seated position.

Lucas heaved, closing his eyes in a moment's prayer and turned to catch up to the group, already far ahead. A whisper ghosted in the air, and Lucas turned his head slightly, as if he heard a faded,

'Thank you.'

However, there was no time to dwell on it, and he bowed his head once to the empty space and continued to run.

By the time he caught up to Wren, she'd disabled a puppet on the ground, displaying a more grotesque depiction than the last. She glanced back at Lucas' blood-stained clothing, back soaked with red, and frowned.

"Hey. As long as they're dead, that's saving them, right? There's no need to comfort somebody that's already gone, even if they're a kid."

Lucas counted the heads, relieved that nobody had gone missing. "It doesn't matter."

"But it does. Because you're not just risking your mentality, which I'm already against, but your body too. Can you keep protecting these children, if you're not willing to save yourself? They don't need a broken and injured guardian!"

"I'm perfectly fine." A raise of the chin, arrogantly revealing no weakness was enough for Wren to swear and shake her head in frustration.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." She peered down at the body on the ground. "That's two."

"Three more."

However, nobody felt at ease despite having killed two of the five chasers. Rome's eyes remained settled on the child's twisted corpse, listening to the clawing inside the walls, and feeling the shadows shift and twist above his head.

Will's entire body tensed in a constant state of alertness. Lucas and Wren had killed one each, easily. And that was the issue.

There was no way the Teller would let them escape easily.

Then, one of the children collapsed to their knees and threw up a rush of food and bile. The reaction surged through them, and two more gagged and coughed, tears and snot spread over their skin.

"I-I-I... I don't want to end up like that!" wailed a young boy, who'd been standing closest to the corpse on the ground.

Another girl followed. "Mister, is that dying? I don't wanna die!"

Lucas swept his gaze over them, noticing the ones that shed no tears, but instead stared blankly with empty eyes. As If they were already on the verge of giving up.

His mind worked overtime.

He wanted to be honest with them, because even if they were children, the End's Delusion wouldn't spare them. They had to grow up fast, or end up as victims to the apocalypse.

But to this point, they'd been restraining their feelings until now. They hadn't complained about their burning feet or collapsing lungs, hadn't begged or asked for a rest.

It was time to change the scene.

Lucas nodded, and bent down on one knee, ignoring the spike of pain that ran up his leg. He lowered his voice, softening it. "You're not going to die." He lied, hating himself as he did. "We're just playing a game."

"A... a game?" sniffled the boy.

"Yes. Three-way tag. Those scary children with flowers are the taggers. They chase you. But, I'm a big, terrible tagger. I can chase everyone. Understand?"

"It's just tag? But—"

"It's a haunted house tag. They're dressed up so you know that they're it. If they didn't dress up with flowers, you wouldn't know who the taggers were, right? And is that fair?"

"No... it's not fair."

"Right. That's why they look like that—they're meant to scare you. But if you win the game and get to the room without being tagged, you win a prize."

At the word, the boy's eyes lit up. "A prize?"

"Whatever you want."

"Really? Promise, no matter what?" asked the boy, as several other children listened closely in, taken by the idea of a prize. A distraction, however slight, was enough to change the mood.

Lucas nodded solemnly. "No matter what happens, I'll give you a prize. Just... remember to think about it in your head, or I won't be able to know. As long as you remember to think about your prize, I'll grant it."

When Wren heard the words, her eyes changed and she twisted her body. "Lucas, what you're promising—"

He raised a slender finger to his lips, and she fell silent.

Propping himself up with the help of his bent knee, he staggered faintly and ruffled the child's hair with a plain expression. Seeing that Lucas wasn't panicking, the child's panic receded.

Of course, that didn't mean all the children's worry was calmed. It only worked on some, but that was better than nothing.

Berry smiled his silly smile, hopping over to Lucas and grabbing hold of the man's hand. The child ignored the wet blood that dripped down slowly.

Another one of the girls walked up to Will questioningly, putting all their trust in the teenager. Will softly smiled, nodding. "Yeah... remember to run... from the flower children... but... Lucas can tag them... so don't run too far away from him... okay?"

"Mn, okay then!"

"Hey, I hate to break this sweetness, but this game of tag is resuming!" Wren herded the children to a turn in the hallways, as an upside down body crawled towards them at a rapid speed.

Their limbs jutted out at unnatural angles, and long hair splayed over their melted face. Lucas couldn't make out the face, but he recognized a set of red beads set around their wrist.

He'd briefly glimpsed it, and only remembered the detail vividly now, while the body scrambled for his life, and the children scrambled for theirs.

It belonged to one of the two girls that had gone missing.

"Lucas, you need to run!" yelled Wren as he wavered, lingering behind. "We'll come back for the... child. Prioritize making it back to the rooms!"

She yelled and shouted, but knew that once that fool decided to do something, he wouldn't be swayed easily. Lucas couldn't leave the half-alive children, no matter how deformed and deadly they now were.

He couldn't leave them here, in this warped state, for perhaps an eternity.

However, the girl's crawling speed was frenzied and chaotic, so the man turned around and sprinted towards the group. Her bones creaked, cracking as she bent and twisted after them. Vines curled around a gape in her wrists, branching out and around her arms.

Her frail body soared high into the air, almost reaching the ceilings as the breeze caused by her moments extinguished several flames.

Berry tripped on the edge of a carpet, sprawling on the ground.

Lucas' pupils shrank and he spun, rushing to scoop up the boy as he raised an arm high, just as the girls jagged teeth embedded into his skin.

He ground his teeth together to mask his pain, shielding Berry with his entire body. Moving to fling the body off, to treat the child—now monster, as a foe to be defeated, as Wren suggested—Lucas froze.

And all his resolve was erased by the furrowed eyebrows on the girl's face.

Her teeth still firmly planted in his arm, she mumbled incoherently in a strangled voice, "...pl... sav... me..."

Grief wrote itself over Lucas' impassive features.

Because even if logic told him what to do to survive, and the means of protecting all the children, how could he forsake the wishes of a child, made a victim of circumstance?

In the Prison Story, he sacrificed many people, revealing their ugly characters and even risking the lives of Nora and Rome. Though he had believed they would make it.

Had he not, he would've reconsidered his choices.

In fights, he had dealt death to those who attacked him with the same fury. Although rare, he had killed. But this was different, in the way that the girl had done nothing to struggle, had no opportunity to fight before her life was reaped.

That she wouldn't truly be dead, but instead eternally trapped and manipulated. And the fact that now, even with her life half-stolen, she attempted to resist.

He reached into his mind, using the ability that killing on of the two brothers had given him. As if twisting a dial to lower his emotions, Lucas closed his eyes. When he opened them, there wasn't even a flicker left to burn.

A frightening cold radiated off his body, all colour and feeling stripped away in an instant. What was left was logic and rational thinking.

He swung his arm over, and the girl's body flew at the wall, heavily slamming into it. He barely spared her a glance as he picked Berry up, shadows trailing after his wake.

When he was closer, he shouted, "Wren!"

The woman turned in surprise, flinching as a body was tossed in her direction. Berry screamed in an odd combination of delight and fear as he was thrown into her arms, caught safely.

"Hello? No warning, nothing?!"

Berry blinked in her arms and a beautiful, carefree smile stretched over his lips as Wren gazed down at the child, shaking her head.

In the future, she absolutely would never have children!

Without responding, Lucas mechanically twisted away, running in the opposite direction. Wren opened her mouth to call out, until she realized that he was running directly at the scrambling and twisted body.

A tearing sound echoed beside her, and withered hands scrambled out of the crumbling walls.

"What the hell!" She jumped backwards with Berry tightly held in her arms, watching as a peeled body fell out of the wall, squirming on the ground in a bloody pulp.

Raising their mashed head slightly, juices leaking from a crack in their skull, the body groaned and stretched closer. Wren stepped back slowly, swallowing harshly as she noticed the body started to drag itself faster and faster.

Slamming a foot down on their face, it screamed and gurgled, bubbling liquids spilling from their broken mouth.

"Ahhh...! Help, help, help—!"

The sudden scream was cut short as another body dropped from the ceiling, hands wrapping around the tender neck of a child and yanking the trembling girl up. A sharp needle gleamed among the shadows that spanned the ceiling.

The surrounding children parted, hurrying away, scrambling over their feet. Wide-eyed with sheer terror, not one could remain oblivious to what would happen next.

Snap—!

Swiftly, before Wren could even call out or take a step, the child dangled limply in the chilling air, her once soulful eyes vacant and lost.

———XXX———

[ding! message from lukiyo...]

An appreciation as it feels like ages since I've done one, though there isn't a day I'm not thankful to you dear, wonderful readers that are the core that helps me keep writing.

Of course, for writers, you write for yourself in a solitary path. To be given company, and have somebody explore these worlds is absolutely fantastic, and again, I am so thankful. Feeling extra happy today!! Thank you so so much!!

I know I may be lacking in this particular genre, and still learning as a whole, thank you for simply being here! I am beyond appreciative! <33

It's a little dark right now... but it's a story of death and calamity T^T so there's not much I can do ahhhh, things will look up soon for our dear Lucas!! Have a wonderful, delicious and productive/restful day!