Chapter Text
Chapter 1 :
Your heartbeat refused to settle, hammering wildly inside your chest as though trying to escape. One shaky hand clamped over your mouth, muffling each frightened breath while you peered into the suffocating darkness. That was when you saw him.
1x1x1x1.
This round’s killer.
His glowing green torso cast eerie reflections across the walls, staining the shadows a sickly neon. The light flickered with every slow step he took, revealing the sharp angles of his face and the unnatural stillness of his white, silky hair—so perfect it felt wrong, tied back just slightly with a thin black elastic. When he spoke, his voice slithered into the air like nails dragged across a chalkboard.
“Where are you… little fawn?”
Every syllable scraped at your spine.
A sudden rip tore through the silence, jolting every nerve in your body. Before you could even look for the source, his voice returned—closer, hungry.
“I see you.”
The whistle of a blade cutting air was the only warning you received before a sword flew toward you like a streak of metal death. You barely had time to gasp before another sound rang out—
CLANK.
A heavy impact. A cry of pain—not from you.
“GRAHH!”
Shedletsky.
The one person still alive besides you. He’d thrown himself into the attack’s path without hesitation. But the moment his body hit the ground, agony exploded from him in a raw scream.
“Holy fucking shit, my arm hurts—!”
You felt the pain too, in a way—shock flooding your veins, your mind turning to static. Thoughts slipped from your grasp the way water escapes cupped hands. Your vision tunneled. Your legs refused to move. It was as though your blood had transformed into molten metal, burning through your poor, poor body.
You could hear footsteps.
1x rose again, unphased by interruption, his single crimson eye locking onto your trembling form. He scanned you from head to toe, the glow of his torso making your skin look corpse-pale.
You writhed helplessly, panic triggering violent spasms. Your limbs jerked out of your control—your entire body rebelling. A seizure ripped through you, each convulsion worse than the last, until you could barely breathe.
Then—
1x4 kneeled beside you.
Your body stilled. The seizure receded like a wave crawling back into the ocean, leaving you drained and hollow.
You are one tap, you thought bitterly, realizing just how breakable you were in that moment.
Her gaze traveled over your battered form, calculating, cold. She tightened her grip around her weapon—ready to strike, ready to end you.
Terror rooted you in place. You squeezed your eyes shut, bracing for the final blow. Seconds crawled past like hours.
You waited.
And waited.
…and waited.
Silence.
No pain.
Slowly, you opened your eyes.
1x4 wasn’t looming over you with malice.
She was crying.
Tears spilled freely down her face, dripping onto your wrinkled, blood-stained shirt. It made no sense—this killer, this merciless creature—yet there she was, shaking, grief carved into every line of her expression.
Mustering every drop of energy left in your battered body, you forced yourself upright. One inch at a time. Breath by breath. Until finally, you reached her.
And you wrapped your arms around her.
The embrace was weak, trembling, but real.
Somewhere above you, the timer continued its final descent.
The round ticked to 0.