Gravely, Runa whispered, "I think there is another monster in the building."
Abby gasped. "There's another one!?" She cried, "I'm going to pass out!" Rolling her eyes, Abby pretended to faint, which made Manjiro laugh. For a moment, the mood lightened. Runa added, "Whatever this monster is, it won't stop us from leaving. Polina, can you walk?"
Lips trembling, Polina answered, "What about Vicky? Do we just leave her here?" Runa paused, then tilted her head at an unnatural angle, her eyes staring unblinkingly at Polina like twin black holes. "She is dead, we can't bring her along!" A wave of cold washed over Abby, sending chills down her spine. Patting Runa on the shoulder, she asked worriedly, "Are you ok?"
"Of course I'm ok!" With a big smile on her face, Runa turned and spoke to Abby in a cheerful tone. "Why wouldn't I be ok?" Abby was happy that Runa is all right, but something in her is telling her there is something wrong with Runa. Then, they continued discussing where to go. Weirdly enough, they just stopped talking about Vicky's dead body.
Abby got annoyed and started complaining anxiously. "Please, let's just try to get out of this place. I can't stand a minute longer here."
Runa had an idea. She threw a dice which seemingly came out of nowhere and said, "If the dice lands on an odd number we will go left, if it's even we go right. Is that fine?" Abby nodded to show her approval.
The dice landed on a six. Looking right, it looked almost clean compared to the corpse-ridden corridors they had passed through, warm lights shining at them invitingly. Abby cracked a joke to lighten the mood. "You know right is always the right way!", she winked at Runa. Smiling back at Abby, Runa grabbed her hand and they led the group into the right-side hallway. Nobody looked behind where Vicky's dead body lay forgotten.
They walked on and on through the twisting maze before coming to a dead end. Panicked, Abby turned to Runa: "Girl, what do we do now?"
Before Runa could answer, they heard a blood-curdling scream behind them. They turned to see Polina pointing at the floor with a trembling finger, her face pale as a ghost. "T-t-the mon-monster is h-he-here!"
A tall shadow with sharp tusks and a furry, pointed snout stretched menacingly on the tiles, holding twin katanas in its hands. Their eyes followed the shadow, looking up to find the boar-headed man looming behind them where Manjiro once stood. In a flash, Abby finally realized why she thought the drawing Polina made seemed familiar: because it was Manjiro all along.
"We're all gonna die!" Abby shrieked.
Manjiro slashed at Abby from behind. "Look out!" Runa cried, yanking her to safety. Abby crashed butt-first onto the ground, narrowly missing the blade by mere inches.
Before she could react, she spotted a pair of bare feet stepping closer in her peripheral vision. Heart pounding fast, she scrambled back, but a soft yet ice-cold barrier barred her escape.
She turned. Polina stared at her with eyes that were as dead and emotionless as the void, a large smile stretching to her ears. Screaming at the top of her lungs, Abby felt a warm hand pulling her away. She was sprinting with Runa down a hallway before she even had time to think about what happened. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the school's entrance hall.
Abby panted hard as they slowed down, cheerfully asking Runa who had stopped behind her: "How were you running so fast? It was like you weren't even human!" She waited for Runa to answer, but was met with nothing but silence. Confused, she turned around. Runa stood still as a statue with her back toward her.
"Hey Runa! Why aren't you answering?" Runa still gave no response. Annoyed, Abby walked towards her friend when Runa finally spoke. Her voice was weirdly cold and stiff, like a robot.
"Abby, get out of here!"
"First, what is with this voice?" Abby asked Runa. "Second, aren't you leaving with me? I mean, why would anyone want to stay here? This place is —" But Runa interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.
In a voice that was not even hers, Runa yelled, "Even if I tell you why I'm not going to come with you, you won't understand! Just leave and forget about me already!"
She then said in her usual soft and cute voice, "If you don't leave now I can't make sure I won't… Never mind, but Abby, what I'm trying to say is, leave now!"
Now Abby was even more confused. "Runa, what is with you!? If you want me to leave without you that bad, at least tell me why! And why are you facing away from me? When you are trying to make someone do something, especially when it is this ridiculous, the least you can do is to look them in the eyes!"
Before Runa could reply, Abby grabbed Runa's shoulder and yanked her around. She gasped as she saw Runa's face. It was the same deathly pallor as Polina's, two trails of bloody tears sliding down her cheeks. And her eyes. Where Polina's were pure black, Runa's eyes were nothing but two white spheres. The blank stare made Abby feel like she was dunked into ice cold water.
For a second, she froze out of pure shock. She stared at Runa, about to say something, until she saw Polina and Manjiro coming out of a side of the hall. Abby screamed: "Runa, be careful!"
Runa reacted in time and pushed Abby back toward the door. To Abby's horror, her body started glitching as she shouted in a distorted voice, "Abby, I have no time to explain, but trust me! We will meet again."
As the final word fell from her lips, a roaring inferno suddenly flared up and circled the whole lobby within a matter of seconds. Then, the flames merged into one and swarmed in on Runa. In an instant, she was nothing but ashes.
The fire ball burst, scattering Runa's ashes around Abby's speechless form. The door flung open, a soft wind blowing Runa's ashes into the air. It looked like thousands of stars floating through the galaxy, shining until they disappeared into the hot, hopeless air.
As she stared at the sight in front of her, Abby felt wetness down her cheeks. She wiped at it absently and found her whole hand covered in tears. Walking toward where Runa's ashes were, she knelt down and grabbed the air helplessly, wishing to be able to grasp some parts of Runa's ashes. And when she felt nothing but the hot surrounding air she knelt down, closed her eyes, clutching her chest, sighed, and murmured, "Runa, I..."
When Abby closed her eyes, a burst of tiny lights flowed out of the air. They formed a hazy silhouette of a small girl who ran forward and hugged Abby, then whispered softly in her ear. Yet, the moment Abby opened her eyes, the little girl vanished into thin air. All she could see was the all-consuming fire.
She tearfully picked herself off the ground. So close to the finish line, she couldn't give up now. However, just as she was about to step out of the school gate and breathe in her first breath of freedom, a hand grabbed her and smashed her hard into the floor a mere inch away from the scorching flames. Abby groaned, coughing, the heat and ashes overwhelming her. She staggered to her feet.
Abby looked up. Polina stood in front of her.
Holding a knife in one hand, Polina grabbed a bottle of vodka out of nowhere, took a sip and splashed the rest all over her knife. She grinned. It made Abby's skin prick with goosebumps. Her voice was soft, but the words felt like a bucket of ice water over Abby's head.
"Runa was a fool, you know?" For the first time ever, Polina's eyes were alight with a vicious glint. "She died trying to save you. It's your fault that she's dead! Don't you get it? She was on our side until you came in and ruined everything! She was supposed to kill you, but then she had feelings and saved you insead! This is her punishment for her stupidity. Because guess what? There was no point! I'm gonna kill you anyway! You made her die for nothing!"
She pierced Abby through the heart with her knife, laughing like a maniac. "HAHAHAHAHA! RUNA, YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD FOOL ME WITH YOUR LITTLE TRICKS?! WELL, I SAW RIGHT THROUGH THEM HAHAHAHA!!!" She leaned down and held Abby's face up. "It's ok that you die today~ We're gonna meet again with your dear lil Runa very, very soon." She kissed Abby on the forehead, "Good night~ See you in our next game!"