𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑳𝒀 𝑮𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺 | 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑦𝑎 𝑥 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟．

thirty seven.

"To be fair, my life was at risk the second I passed the registration point. Yours too."

"That's right. Should we go now?" he asked and you smirked victoriously.

  As an answer, you just began walking in the direction you came from. You kept your steps fast instead of running. It wasn't ideal to walk, but you had to be careful to notice Keiju.

  The man behind you was probably cussing you out in his head. Even though remaining at that dead end was worse than going back. He gave up once that concrete wall appeared in front of him and blocked his way. The choice of staying there, doing nothing, until the beast finally caught him was one that he almost made. His plan changed when you insisted on going back, which bothered him because he was still giving up. The game installed a tiredness inside of him that not even escaping the maze could erase it.

  The sound of the beast being near was slowly starting to get familiar. Even if it was near, you didn't feel the urge to run in the opposite direction. Instead, you were walking towards it. And you knew that it was probably waiting for you, preparing for a well earned meal.
  You expected the old man to start running once he heard it. But he didn't. Your head tuned to look behind you with a short side glance, trying to check up on the man that was no longer there. Did he go back after he realized that there would be no use?

  You removed the unwanted thoughts that were slowly unfocusing you from your goal. The beast kept getting louder and louder, but it didn't force you into changing your mind. Going back to a dead end meant that you were giving up. And you weren't.
  The path getting split in three and the door that killed the girl appeared faintly in your sight. Increasing your steps was making the image clearer.

  The thing that confused you was the fact that the beast was supposed to be there. The door was intact, but from the way the animal sounded, it could've easily torn it apart. It seemed weird to you from the start that there was an animal placed inside to chase the players.
  Then, like a click, you finally understood why. Since the game started over an hour ago, no one saw the beast even once. Only the loud sounds it was making to create panic among the players. When in reality, there was no beast.

  Your thoughts were spulberated when you saw a figure approaching, but because of the faint light, you weren't able to clearly see who it was. The silhoutte got closer until it could be recognizable, you let out a relieved breath and ran to embrace him tightly. The moment you knew it was him, a stone made of worries that was placed on your heart disappeared.

  "When did you get lost? I was so worried." you asked without letting him go.

  "The guy behind me disappeared so I went back to look for him, thinking that he couldn't have gotten too far. I didn't find him and I got lost too, apparently." he explained and you gently pat his back before letting him go.

  "I also lost that man, but I think he just got back to where we came from. It was a dead end." you said and the 'beast' started to roar again.

  Keiju was about to start running when you grabbed his arm to stop him. It was useless to run from something that didn't even exist. A waste of time as well, and your time was limited.

  "What are you doing? Let's go!" he couldn't figure out why you stopped him from trying to run away.

  "I don't know how much sense this makes, but let me finish. It's a Hearts game and judging by the last games I played, not one actually had something that was chasing you. I know this time it's King of Hearts and it might be different, but it isn't. Have you ever seen this beast? Because I didn't. I only heard it."