The funhouse of murder • Stray Kids X reader

50 ☠️

"You all have everything stocked?" Chan checked once more. The water bottles we lost earlier, we now regained due to the small rations stocked in the room. We'd been able to shower, toilet in peace and drink and eat enough to at least get back to some strength. I chuckled to myself. Peeing in the sand with a blanket wrapped around you so no one could see wasn't exactly one of the things on my bucket list. I just had to hope the next zone would be easier with that.

For the rest, the backpacks had pretty much stayed the same as before we had entered the second zone. Some rations now, the cutlery with the wooden cases, some water, the fabric and needles, the matches in Chan's, and still some of the first aid condiments left in Seungmin's backpack too. The only thing that had now changed was the gun resting in mine. Hopefully we'd never have to use it, but that was probably not going to be the case here. "Yeah, all good here," Minho answered as we were forming a line.

"Good to go," we answered one by one, with Changbin up front, Chan once more in the back. At least this time we knew what we were up against as soon as the door opened. I glanced past Seungmin at Felix. We still hadn't had the time to talk. Well, the time we had. The courage to bring it all up, especially in such a small space where everyone could hear you? That I definitely lacked. Maybe in or after this zone we could talk. For now I had to get back to focusing on surviving. Luckily I was already feeling quite the bit better again, thanks to my good immune system, but Seungmin was still sweating, even though he didn't want anyone else to notice. I placed my hands on his shoulder, giving him a small smile as he glanced back. "We got this," I whispered, just as Changbin opened the doors.

"Go, go, go, go!" he hurried everyone, holding the door open until the last of us were through. Instead of being greeted by a large sandstorm, this time we entered nothing but a large hallway, a burgundy carpet laying out the endlessly seeming path straight ahead of us, chandeliers lighting up the stone walls. I had no clue what to expect, but it definitely looked pretty. Changbin closed the door as Chan was through, the two sprinting to catch up to the rest of us. I took a hold of Seungmin's hand, pulling him with me to match the group's tempo. He really was struggling... Chan must have noticed, as he took Seungmin's other hand, Changbin tapping me to take over. "We'll help, you just focus on running!" He yelled, as I finally let go again.

Not too much later, we could all hear the blast behind us, looking back to see the fire rapidly spreading through the hallway, racing towards us. "Quick, the door!" Minho yelled, pointing at an old looking wooden door right ahead of us. Hyunjin reached it first, pulling it open with all his might, everyone racing through one by one. I finally stopped running as I reached it, hearing Jisung scream in agony. "Jisung, hurry!" I shouted from the top of my lungs, watching him stumble in lastly, finally allowing Chan to close the door. He fell on his knees, instantly pulling off his burning backpack and shirt.

Seungmin already hurried towards him, throwing the last bit of water left in his bottle to not only stop the fire, but to completely soak Jisung's shirt. "This might sting," he told him, spreading it out over his bare back. Jisung was breathing heavily, tears stuck in his eyes. Minho had already crouched down in front of him, holding his hand, whispering nothing but sweet things to him as the rest of us watched breathlessly. I had to tear my eyes off of his flaming red back to finally look around, looking at just where we had ended up. The flames seemed to have stopped behind the door, so that shouldn't be a thread anymore. The rest however was a mystery.

The way it looked was similar to the hallways, a medium sized square room, about the size of a classroom, decorated with the same carpet and chandeliers. The only difference here was the small, round table in the middle with a note, a box, and three doors in front of us, each distincted by a different color and symbol. The left had a green mushroom, the middle a blue glass panel, the right a red joystick. And above it all, the comments and donations were displayed carefully on a screen. We were at 4,6 million won now. Not much more than before we went into the safe zone, but that was understandable. The viewers wanted specials to give more money too. As for the comments, nothing too crazy seemed to be going on. Spamming answers had stopped after the first time, and for now they just seemed focused on speculating what would come next.

I finally looked back at Jisung, who was still on the ground. He was still crying, his entire face now red too. No wonder, those had to be at least second degree burns, probably even third at some points. I hadn't even noticed him falling behind, but it makes me wonder if I could have helped him. A beeping noise made me turn back to the screen, seeing a timer appear, already counting down from 10 minutes. "Hey guys, I think this thing is urging us to figure out what we're supposed to do," I reminded them. It felt bad for Jisung, but maybe it was karma.

For now we had to focus on figuring out what to do, and how to safely get out of here.