Inside Park Manor • SKZ horror au

Chapter 25

Felix hit the bottom of the stairs with a loud thud, blood pooling underneath him. A white hot pain burned in his chest and his entire body ached, but the virus began healing him immediately, dulling the pain only slightly.

    He watched in horror as Mother slowly descended the stairs, preparing to finish him off once and for all. He pointed his gun at her, looking for a possible weak spot. She had to have one. Not even the virus kept someone from being completely invincible.

    A large, blood-shot orange eye glowed on Mother's underside, blinking slowly as if to tease him. The eye was within shooting range, but Mother kept pressing her body against the stairs, never leaving him an opportunity to fire a bullet.

    He stood up, ignoring the agonizing pain in his chest, and quickly retreated backward, knowing very well that he was backing himself into a corner. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs it would be impossible to continue slumping against the floor if she wanted to hurt him. She would have to reveal her weak spot, even if only for a second.

    "What did you do to Minho when he came here?" Felix provoked, keeping his gun trained on her. "That didn't seem like being lenient to me. He had no idea who he was for weeks afterward. Is what's inside the room that important that you're willing to hurt your son like that?"

    "Don't try to guilt me," Mother sneered, flashing yellowing teeth. "You know damn well that I only brought all of you here because Minseok wanted you. Father may have loved you, but I never did and never will."

    Felix was both attempting to stall her and keep her in one place as well as try and get a straight answer. Jisung had trespassed and left unscathed. Minho, however, was tortured within an inch of his life.

    "Also, don't worry about what happened to Minho. All I can assure you is that you'll be dead before you have to endure anything close to what he went through," Mother continued in a sing-song voice, slowly creeping closer knowing he had nowhere to run.

    Mother's arm raised, a claw the width and length of half his forearm suspending in the air. By doing so, she left part of her weak spot vulnerable. Taking his possible one and only chance, he fired four bullets into the orange eye.

    Mother screamed in pain, her limbs swinging around violently. The eye was still open, filling up with blood the way a normal eye would with tears. A claw ripped across his shoulder, fresh pain tearing through his body. He was glad none of the others waiting for him back at the safe spot would ever have to endure this.

    Tenderly lifting his injured arm, he fired the finishing shot into Mother's weak spot. Her ear-splitting screams filled the air as eye fluid and blood spilled onto the floor, her body writhing in agony as she turned into a stone-like substance and crumbled to the floor in a heap.

    His stomach dropped as he watched the eye fluid mix with blood, coloring the stone powder a watery red. He pried his eyes away from the horror in front of him and continued back up the stairs. With Mother gone, he was sure nothing could stand between him and what he needed.

    "Do you seriously believe the twin?" The boy's voice asked, sounding offended, Felix's hand left hovering over the doorknob. "It's a trap. There's no serum ingredients waiting for you behind that door. She was just hoping that Mother would finish Chan off. She never liked him quite as much as she liked the rest of you."

    "Liar," Felix said. He didn't entirely believe himself. The boy could be telling the truth, but he wasn't willing to listen. This was a risk he had to take.

    The boy's tantrum-like screams echoed in his mind as he opened the door. He made it very obvious that he wasn't used to being defied. He had the entire manor under his thumb, but when someone stepped out of line he revealed what he really was. Just a scared little boy
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    Mother's secret room was unkempt, the room full of cobwebs and huge moths. Batting them away, he picked up a lantern that was sitting on a table by the door, the wick already lit. Even though the light was dim, it was better than walking around blinded by the dark.   

    In the back of the small room was a large desk littered with yellowing papers. Felix placed the lantern on the table, using the dim light to read. Only there was a setback. The papers were written in  a language he couldn't understand and was unlike any one he had ever seen before.

    Concluding that the writing wasn't worth being translated, he resumed his blind search for wherever the arm and leg might be. Under the desk was a suitcase full of those revolting maggots that they had forced him to eat, which squirmed around the suitcase but never tried to escape.

    He spent what felt like an hour tearing the room apart for the serum ingredients when he stumbled upon a secret room in the back of the closet. Cautiously, he walked inside the cramped room that clearly only served one purpose.

    In the back of the room was a shrine, the candles on it still lit. A shrunken body from the torso up sat in the center of the candles. It had no limbs except for one arm that was lazily attached and a leg that lay uselessly in front of it. Upon closer inspection, he found that both had tags on them that read, 'D-series.'

    He had found their only source of hope.