Gray stepped back and felt the hardness of the wall behind him. "Where?" he asked, holding his hands out to feel if anything tried approaching him.
"It's fast," Doctor replied. Despite his calm voice, his breathing was a little ragged. He stepped back as well, taking a spot beside Gray against the wall.
For a moment the two of them stood there in silence. Gray tried hard to make out any figures in the darkness, but the harder he tried the darker the room seemed to get.
"Is it approaching us?" he asked.
"It's just watching," Doctor whispered in response.
"Wait, do you smell that?" Gray asked; a pungent scent hung in the air.
"...bleach."
The scent quickly grew to a strong odor that clogged the room, making even breathing a task. It seared the throat and burned the lungs, tears rolled down Gray's cheeks as he felt daggers stab at his stomach.
"What's going on?" he chocked out, before holding his breath.
Just then two yellow orbs appeared at the other end of the room, right beside the pulsing orb. He could finally make out a figure, it looked slender, skeletal almost, and long.
"What the—" The figure snapped in half, slowly, a long craaack following the contortion. A moment later, those faint yellow orbs disappeared, and something breathing down his neck.
His heart thumped in his throat, and the skin on his neck prickled.
"What? Do you see something?" Doctor asked, his voice strained.
Gray didn't dare speak, he remained absolutely still. It seemed to work, the creature did not attack him. But just how long was he going to hold his breath for?
A few minutes felt like an hour, and he was beginning to get lightheaded. His lungs screamed for air, and his joints cried for the sweet release of movement. But still, he held on.
A few seconds later, he heard a sharp inhale beside him, Doctor had given up. And a few seconds after that, he faltered as well.
The bleachy odor was stronger than ever and hit his lungs like a truck. He could feel the pain in his core growing, pushing deeper into places he never knew he even had. As his core burned, the prickling on his neck returned.
A warm wetness caressed his face, and something wrapped around his leg. He was going to die here. The plaything of some monster he never even got to see.
"Fu-fuck this," he stammered, before punching at the air beside him. However, nothing was there. Was this all just an illusion?
~The air, it's causing hallucinations,~ he realized.
"It's the a—" Right then, Doctor's eyes began glowing brighter than before, and he exuded an abnormal amount of heat. So much in fact that it seemed like he was a burning flame.
The yellow orbs appeared again.
"Ru—" Doctor's words ended in choking, and a cloud of golden mist poofed where he had just been standing.
It wasn't an illusion. This was really happening.
Gray could feel his own body burning as well, as if his core were molten lava. He looked to the Doctor's golden remains, then to the pulsing blue orb. It was the only thing in the room, and if he was going to die anyway, he at least wanted to try.
He held his breath and ran, ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He covered a quarter of the room in a few strides, but despite moving so fast, he could still feel something breathing down his neck.
He tried to push even harder, but only a few steps later he stumbled over a raised platform. A sharp pain bit at his leg, warm liquid dripped down, and a raw chill followed after. He covered his mouth as tight as he could and screamed into his hand, not letting the toxic air in.
It hurt. It hurt so fucking much.
A shriek pierced the air behind him, high and guttural. No living thing should've been able to make that sound. There were footsteps, fast, faster than even he had been moving.
He began crawling his way forward, at first slowly, but as the footsteps got closer, he struggled to his feet and willed himself forward.
He couldn't hold his breath anymore, not with so much going on. He sucked in the toxic air, giving both sweet release and burning torture to his lungs. However he didn't care anymore, he was pain and pain was him, all that mattered was stumbling forward.
Still, despite his efforts, why did it look like the orb was just as far as it had been when he started? Why did it seem like he wasn't moving forward at all?
"Fuck, I can't die here," he groaned, trying to push himself even further. Just then, he stepped on something soft, and a section of the ground began glowing blue, illuminating the room.
It looked like the inside of a cave. Several areas on the ground were engraved with strange markings; one of which was the area he stepped on. And on the far end of the wall, were drawings etched into the dark earth.
Before he could properly process what it was about, he felt a sharp pain tear through his back. The room began to dim, as the glow beneath his feet slowly dimmed.
Darkness.
###
Gray found himself floating on a cloud, his head melting into silk fabrics that gave off the subtle scent of sweet cinnamon. He was currently staring at a white ceiling adorned with etches of what looked like angels.
~This is... familiar,~ he thought to himself, trying to remember how he had gotten here.
~The challenge! Doctor! Wait, how did I get back here?~ he realized, his memories flooding back to him all at once. He shot up and stared at the familiar face waiting at the foot of his bed.
"You're awake, dominus," his attendant announced.
"How did I..." Gray whispered, now looking at his leg.
"You have accessed one of the hidden rooms," she said. "But failed its challenge. Death is not a penalty in the safe point, but you are banned from attempting again for 24 hours," she added.
"Is that right..." Gray whispered, before sinking back into the pillow. He grabbed the sheets and got inside. He needed rest. Mental rest.