[9 — Sleep Killer]
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"What are you doing?" 173's voice was filled with both a mix of confusion and irritation.
Hastily, I had scrambled off of the plague doctor, barely able to find my footing as I moved about. "T-There's... There's something here that struck me!" My heart racing as fast as the adrenaline rushing through me, I had thoughtlessly grabbed the one of 049's sleeve and had began to drag him away, frantically looking for the white thing in the dark.
It wasn't there.
"[Name], let's settle down, there's nothing here," 049 spoke as I had tugged him relentlessly down the halls, 173 audible behind us. "I'm sure you're just seeing things."
"Oh, I was seeing things alright!" I cried, barely being able to make a corner. "I just can't anymore! I-It busted my goggles!"
I skidded to a halt as soon as I had felt the doctor yank himself free of my grip, that leathery feel in the palm of my hand no longer there. Whipping around on one foot, I stamped the other down to stop myself as I faced him and the statue more properly. "What are you doing?"
"Do you even know where you're going?" 173 had griped, deflecting my question.
"No!" I snapped, reaching out for the doctor once more. "But we need to move!"
049 shrunk back a bit before reaching out his own hand and firmly gripping my arm, to which I had began to worry against. "Dear [Name], I advise that you to calm down. Neither of us can see anything."
Swallowing, I eased my attempts at breaking free of him, shoulders slumping a tad bit. "...I swear I saw it. It... I-It hit the goggles."
Seeing as I was settling down, 049 released my arm. "Would there be a way to try and turn it back on?"
Doing my best to regulate my breathing pattern, I lifted a hand up to the night vision goggles. "I... I guess I could... Try that."
Flicking it off and then on again, my hope had dropped completely when it hadn't done anything, though the hope had quickly been yanked back up whenever I was able to see the screen flash green a few times before staying as such.
I would've been smiling if it weren't for the frail, white creature pacing its way towards us. Shoulders tensing, I had sucked in a dry breath, whirling around and trying to move past them. "It's here!"
Perhaps what has frightened me the most was that I was previously running in the direction it was approaching from, meaning I could've unknowingly run into it.
Thankfully, the other two had actually followed me instead of trying to hold me back. My teeth clenched a bit at the sight of another one— The one that had struck the goggles— Approaching from where I had originally fled from. There was a split that lead off to another hallway between me and the anomaly, and I took no hesitation in swerving into it.
I had managed to slow down a bit soon after, hearing 049: "What exactly is it that you're seeing?"
Before I could even muster up a response, the voice of the statue came first just over his leg nubs scraping the floor. "I think I know what they're seeing." His voice had threads of speculation woven into it. "035 had mentioned some weird invisible guys that had some affect on a human's sleep or something. I think the stupid mask said that he's observed some NTF use night vision against them in a few past breaches. Called them 966."
"NTF?" I inquired as I turned yet another corner, hoping not to spot any more of the things that had just gotten explained to 049 and I. In which, what was said had made sense to me.
"Nine Tailed Fox," the statue stated. "They're usually sent when there's a breach. I think they specialise in it or something, which just makes them more fun to go after."
Sometimes I forgot I was with the world's worst chiropractor and a clinically insane plague doctor.
Just as I was about to respond, I had rounded yet another corner with a slight stumble, only to be greeted with yet another one of those eldritch beings crawling their way towards me.
"Shit," I cursed under my breath, looking behind us to see yet another one emerging from another corridor that we had just passed. "Where are they even coming from?"
"I am more concerned about how many there are," 049 had spoken.
Right, right, they can't see them... Which just makes things more difficult in all this.
"I'm not concerned at all!" 173 blurted out from behind me.
In response, I snapped: "You're a statue!"
Whirling around, I attempted a different route while repeatedly checking the battery on my goggles, glad I still had any.
"Do you think we can—" A piercing pain shot through the entirety of my shoulder blades, the burning and stinging cutting me off. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, as the shock from the blow had caused me to trip over myself.
I twisted the top half of me to see one of those 966's stretching from the hall I just passed. Its long, bony and claw-tipped fingers were outstretching towards me.
Before I could get anywhere, it had began to grip and claw at my legs as I tried to scramble away, heart hammering against my ribs. Letting out cries, tears threatened to escape my eyes as I continued to struggle as my body suddenly felt hot.
I tensed when I felt its claws hitched and then release, a slamming sound being audible. I had hastily looked behind me again to see it had been slammed on the ground, as well as a dark mesh nearing me.
It scooping me up in its arms, I realised it was 049 as it worked my form up off of the floor and against its, holding me tightly. Right after, I could heard the scraping of 173.
Everything had happened within seconds.
Mind struggling to process everything, I wasn't aware of he anomaly having swooped me up until the jerking motion of him rounding a corner had hit me.
"Wh..." The pain was still coursing through me, and I could feel that both my forelegs as well as my shoulder blades were soaked with blood. "P-Put... Put me down."
"No." There was a firmness in the disobedience. "I won't let them harm you."
"Let... Let me down..." I blinked away a few camping tears. "I... T-The wounds..."
It hadn't stopped him, as his pace remained the same. "I can mend you when we are in safety, [Name]." Still, even with the situation, he sounded calm.
My brows furrowed at that. "H-How?"
"Oh, but a doctor most certainly has their ways, [Name]."
"You don't have any tools." Slowly, my voice was coming back, giving a light confused tone to the statement.
"Quite the contrary," he said.
