Chapter Text
Damon had a choice to make.
Truth be told, it’s a decision he could have made at any point since learning of the rules for graduating and leaving this killing game, since Wolfgang was found in the basement with a horrified expression on his face - that could have mirrored Damon’s own if Jean’s plan had worked - and Eva was found culprit of a murder she was forced to commit by that god forsaken perk. It all comes back to that perk, doesn’t it?
The same perk Damon had taken. He should have known that trying to solve all those puzzles wouldn’t lead anywhere but a trap, and yet, a part of him expected it. He wasn’t going to lie to himself about the fact that he had been trying to be the next one to find it, even if just subconsciously, after learning of Jean’s attempt and the look he had given him during the whole trial. A “You shouldn’t be here” and ”It should have been you” look.
It left him gripping his knuckles in his podium, breathing heavily while Jean continued to get dunked in water, each time more and more of it filling his lungs; left him thinking of Ulysses’ body, deteriorating over the night and only in the morning realising the ploy and being unable to do anything.
It should have would have been me.
And I would have been none the wiser.
So he’s back to deliberating, his hands still shaking but this time not from fear of the claws of death he had somehow managed to avoid. No, this time, his own hands could be the cause of someone’s demise with relative ease. And it’s all thanks to the perk he received.
An artifact that could remotely poison someone. Ridiculously overpowered in his opinion. A way out of the game too.
And he could take Kai with him too.
Kai, who had come off as annoying and downright nonsensical when he decided that tape was the best way to “protect himself” from his unchosen partner. Kai, who had clung to him after the blackout in an attempt to quell his anxiety. Kai, who, after Eva’s execution, had come and found him like a stray dog looking for shelter, crying his eyes out to be let in, into his room, his bed, his space.
Damon had ignored him back then. He had been too tired after watching the flames lick away at-
But Kai had kept on trying to reach him, bringing him food he could eat without throwing up and leaving before Damon could snark at him to get away. He had done his laundry, without being asked to, and had gotten Ingrid to give him space, having to split the tasks Damon had usually been the one doing. He even had, at some point while Damon was outside his room, which was rare now, tidied up his room and made his bed with fresh sheets from the laundromat, which as much as it made Damon uncomfortable that Kai was still messing with his space after he told him off, he found the action helped ease the pressure in his chest, if only a little bit.
And then Kai had gone and decided to room with Diana.
If you asked him, Damon would have said he didn’t feel bothered, but that couldn’t be further away from the truth. He felt himself burn under his skin, a sizzling feeling that travelled from his chest to his head and left an everpresent fire that threatened to swallow his body from its core. Maybe that was the reason people were avoiding him lately, that and the eyebags painted on his face. He really did look like he might bite anyone who looks at him too long. Still, the isolation from everyone was taking a toll on him.
So much so that, the next time he met Kai in the dormitories’ hallway, he confronted him about the roommate change. To say Kai was bewildered would be an understatement, as he couldn’t quite process why the prickly and detached Damon had come to debate him on his choice, with six prepared arguments no less. If things had been better between them, Kai would have laughed himself sick and teased Damon to hell and back “THE Damon Maitsu, jealous? Of Diana? This is too good to be true”, but at the time, the only sentiment he could find inside himself was a deep relief.
“It wasn’t over. This wasn’t over”
However, not everything came back to how it used to be before they parted ways just days ago. Damon himself was still grieving the death of his so-called friend and he also noticed the way Kai felt closed off, trying to reach for Damon when he felt upset only for his hand to never get close enough to touch him, not like before.
Damon hadn’t bothered to acknowledge it till he had found Kai in a worse state that he himself was in and realised just how much they had been circling around the topic, without actually making any efforts to talk it out. He remembers sitting next to him and eventually, rubbing his hands across his back and doing tiny circular motions with his fingers. Kai had stiffened next to him when his hands found the baby hairs in the back of his neck, before eventually relaxing as Damon caressed him. He had then met his eyes and leaned in, enveloping the once uptight man in a hug and whispering “I missed you, I missed you” into his ear like a broken record. It would have been a lie to say that Kai had been the only one crying that night in the bathroom.
After the fact, it did become simple to ease back into the same routine they had before the first trial, sticking to each other and, this time, sharing Kai’s bed. Damon would never admit it, but feeling a warm presence inches away from his had managed to give him the best sleep since he woke up next to Eva in the basement.
Lost in his thoughts, Damon came back to reality only after he felt himself bump into someone. He couldn’t quite catch who it was at that moment, having been scared that someone could have seen the artifact - still in his hands, great job Damon - but turning his eyes to the figure hurrying along the corridor revealed the only one person in the building that was that small in size.
Toshiko looked like a deer in headlights when she saw Damon staring back at her, before eventually bolting for the door like a kid who had been caught, leaving Damon with so many questions on his lips. Something felt off about Toshiko’s expression and Damon found himself suddenly very interested in figuring out why. Before he could give chase however, something else caught his eye in the hallway splitting the one he had been walking in; the door to the theatre was open, only slightly. Damon put two and two together and didn’t hesitate to approach it, leaning his head in without fully stepping into the space. It was pitch black. He tried hitting the light switch, but it didn’t work. That was definitely strange.
It seemed like a stupid idea at the time, to enter into a big open room, being unable to see anything past a few meters due to the faint light coming from the hallway. Still, Damon stepped foot inside, looking as far in as he could, trying to determine if there was any movement inside the theatre. After a minute or so he started walking further in, against his better judgement, one that was screaming at him to turn the fuck back around before he found himself the victim of a murder attempt. And yet, his curiosity got the better of him and he kept moving. Clearly he hadn’t learned anything since Jean-
He stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a faint noise. Coming from the stage, possibly, but it was hard to tell. The darkness was disorienting him, especially since he decided to leave the door ajar instead of fully open - what was worse, being attacked from the front or from the back?
He composed himself, leaving the thoughts of a possible attack behind, and tried to focus on the noise. Now that he could hear them more clearly, the noises seemed familiar in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He didn’t know if he had heard them before, but it certainly seemed that way.
God, it was getting harder and harder to move around in the space without bumping into chairs or messily laid out props. Did no one bother to tidy this up before leaving the theatre? Toshiko’s face flashed in his mind for a minute. Definitely, if she had run off in such a hurry, she probably wouldn’t have had the time to clear out the floor.
Now that he was thinking about it, what was Toshiko running away from? He feels like he should have given that a thought before jumping head first into a position of disadvantage, but he couldn’t back out now, not when he was getting closer to wherever the noises were coming from-
An alarm started blaring, startling Damon into almost tripping over his own feet. He quickly regained his composure and covered his ears. Where was the alarm coming from? Tozu’s broadcast speakers? It just adds another layer of mystery and dread to the situation. Damon really should have turned back around now that he didn’t have the advantage of being able to hear someone approaching, he should have run straight for the door and bolted it shut, but he couldn’t move an inch.
He was so close to finding the source of the noises. And he knew, for a fact, that something weird was going on in the theatre.
So, he pushed on, shielding his ears from the noise with his hands and stumbling before eventually the alarm stopped. “Finally”, Damon thought and stretched his hands in front of him to find the next chair he was about to bump into, before he stopped once more.
He was such an idiot. He cursed under his breath and started patting his wrists, feeling for the watch on it, and turned it on. The one Tozu had given them, of course. He really had set himself up for failure when he didn’t wait a few moments more by the door to think of his strategy better. If he had, he wouldn’t have forgotten about a device he carried that could provide some light to help him navigate. Leaving his self-deprecating thoughts aside, at least now he could keep approaching the noises without being completely blind.
Using the Tozu Trinket as a flashlight, memories of the first blackout he experienced in this place suddenly came to mind. That time, the people attending the game tournament had decided to explore the basement in search of its cause. He remembers splitting up from the rest to investigate with Kai after he had shot him a panicked stare and nervous laugh and Damon had given up on picking someone else before grabbing Kai’s hand with his own and examining the storage closets. He had also heard someone running away from the basement then and had gone to investigate only to find Wolfgang’s body in the boiler room. The situation at the moment was painfully similar to then, only this time there was no Kai in tow to keep him company.
At the thought, a chill ran through him. It had been a while since he had seen Kai, since this morning when he prepped himself one of his frappés in the kitchen before making his way out the door. This was one of the only times in a while that they had been separated this long, since Damon shut him out, and that didn’t help with his current anxiety. He wished, then and there, that him and Kai had been joined at the hip like any other day and had decided to investigate the matter together. That’s in the past though, and there’s no time for regrets as he gets near the stage.
The closer he got to it, the more he could distinguish the noises coming from it. Groaning, heavy breathing and the sound of multiple objects shifting. And, if he really put his ears to work, weeping that seemed to fade away slowly as time ticked by, almost becoming inaudible. He was certain then that there was a person in front of him, and by the sounds they were making, they were struggling against something, he didn’t know what yet. He still hurried over, the tiniest bit faster. He didn’t have time to lose if someone was in danger.
However, as he reached the stage stairs, his mind started reeling with the idea that he did recognise who was making those noises. There’s only one person he knew that cried like that, in between laboured breaths.
Kai. Kai. Kai.
The moment his brain made the connection, he rushed towards him, stumbling around fallen props to find a mountain of them exactly in the middle of the scenario, with a curtain covering part of the mess. He was almost hesitant to lift it but couldn’t bear the thought any longer and pulled it off.
And focusing his Trinket on the scene, he felt his knees give out as the scene confirmed his worst fears instantly. Underneath the mountain of props, in a pool of blood coming from his head, laid Kai, unmoving.