Everyone was a restless mess. They were all gathered in Jin's cabin as he hurriedly, yet carefully tended to Diana's many wounds decorating her body.
Her legs ended up the worst. Large number of stab wounds scattered around her legs from her ankles and to her thighs. Jin thought it was a miracle none of her bones seemed to show signs of a fracture. He was sure with the amount of red covering her legs, there would actually be at least 1 broken bone.
'Just say "hallelujah!" Jin. You got lucky.', he thought and chose to be grateful it wasn't anything more.
There were 2 other shallow stab wounds at the middle-left side of her stomach and another by her tail-bone.
Jin's mind was a wreck of thoughts shooting through his head like bullets. He kept jumping back and forth with dumb thoughts and worrisome ones that helped nothing for his stress.
And while it won't do much for the others to linger within the cabin as they watched with a deep frown and scared eyes as Diana was being tended to, they refused to leave.
All of them didn't bother to eat as nighttime fell and their time for dinner passed about an hour ago. Namjoon, Taehyung and Yoongi deliberately focused on a piece of paper they snatched out of the many spikes from the snake-like creature.
It was an anonymous note written on it without any explanation other than the obvious instruction on it.
——🏳——
See the first no7e.
6e 4ttentive a5 eight.
The second l3ad is for the start.
——🏳——
"See the first note. Be..? Uh, be attentive.. as eight. The second l..lead is-" Taehyung read out loud.
"- for the start." Yoongi mumbled after that. "Were we supposed to find something else, as well? What are we meant to solve in this?" Hoseok asked. Namjoon hummed, scrutinising the paper before he puckered his lips and looked up at the others standing by the door of the cabin idly.
"Can someone bring the notebook from Diana's cabin? I think I know what it means." He voiced and Jungkook and Jimin nodded immediately, rushing out of the cabin together to retreat the said notebook.
"Can someone get fresh new water..?" Jin sighed out, feeling drained from the sight itself. The hospital must've sedated Diana - he assumed, since her body remained still while he treated her wounds.
At this point on, he's simply glad she's still breathing and alive. It was a gut-wrenching sight to come across when everyone followed her screams of agony.
They came across the sight of her small frame being mercilessly squeezed and zapped with electricity. The snake-like body still continued to tighten and press deeper, restricting her. He watched with horror as she coughed and wheezed, visibly struggling to breathe. The continuous flow of tears falling out of her tightly shut eyes and then the shock passing through his body when it was clear the amount of red staining the clothes that was still visible and uncovered from the slithering body. He watched how she was suspended in air and still tried to fight her way out.
Then when the creature turned to them, another shock making his body tense as his gaze landed on the right side of its face - eyes useless and wounded, blinded by the clear stab that was pressed deeply in. Diana did that.
(A/n: SLAYYYYY—-)
"I-I'll go change the water." Hoseok offered and with a deep breath, he took the red stained liquid inside the make-shift bowl. Bile building at the base of his throat at the sight before he intently stared forward, not able to handle the sight very well.
Jin thanked the younger male before getting back to work, shifting the plain cloth covering her to tend to the other wounds decorating her skin.
"Here's the notebook, hyung." Jungkook piped in, slipping inside with Jimin right behind him before he handed it over towards Namjoon.
Flipping over pages, Namjoon stopped over the page where all the words were written.
Looking back at the new note, he began noting down all the numbers written on it; "7...6...4...5... and 3." He wrote down. "What do you think these numbers are for?" Yoongi asked, watching closely to see for himself.
"There's 'eight' as well." He pointed out and Namjoon nodded, writing it down as well.
"So we have 7, 6, 4, 5, 3, and 8?" Taehyung mumbled, thinking of what purpose these numbers hold. "See the first note.." he repeated under his breath, looking back into the notebook held open before Namjoon.
'The', 'within', 'the', 'hidden', 'Reality', 'light', and 'lies'. 8 words and 8 players.
'The new note says to be attentive as eight...' Taehyung thought and let out a soft groan. He never really favoured puzzles. Too much thought to be put into it. He pushed away from the puzzles and grabbed onto the pants Jin discarded from Diana and decided to instead, patch up the holes in them.
He rummaged through the one side of the desk holding items and immediately reached towards small safety pins as an alternative for a sewing needle. He reached for the bright pink bag sitting at the ground beside the desk and rummaged for the ball of threads. Soon after, he plopped onto the ground beside the bag and began working.
"It says 'Be attentive as eight.', so it must refer to our very first puzzle, right? We required everyone's eyes to figure out the hidden words written on the paper." Namjoon voiced and earned a few hums.
(A/N: honestly what I came up with is pretty simple lmao 🤡🤡 but for the sake of suspense, let's pretend it's a hard puzzle 😭✨)
"Here, hyung." Hoseok grunted, placing the bowl on the desk closer to Jin with fresh water. Thanking the brunet, the elder began working towards aiding the wounds he's yet to properly clean from sticky dirt and dried blood.
"Guys... it's getting pretty late..." Jimin announced timidly, "Let's all go to sleep for today and resume working tomorrow morning?" He suggested but the others declined, a variety of answers ranging from 'I'm not tired ' to 'I want to get this done'.
Sighing, he made his way over to sit beside Taehyung, leaning his head onto his shoulders before shutting his eyes.
"Jiminie if you need to rest, you should sleep on a bed. I don't think your body will appreciate sleeping on the ground." Taehyung mumbled in a hushed tone, a small smile making its way onto his face while his eyes remained trained on the piece of cloth in his hands. "I don't care." Jimin muttered.
-
Everyone had collectively taken a sleepover in Jin's cabin, wanting to remain close to one another after facing that creature. They had all went back to their cabins to bring their blankets and pillows to stay in and took their place on the floor.
Once the next day arrived, they all accepted the result of their aching bodies, feeling soar and stiff as they stretched but didn't regret the choice either way. When choosing to stay in this cabin, they had already expected the oncoming soreness when pulling through with their decision.
"How is she...?" Joon asked, rubbing at the nape of his neck as he stood beside the bed while Jin was already working through changing her bandages.
"I don't think she'll be able to walk much with the state of her legs... but thankfully, the wounds from those spikes weren't very deep. I'm just glad that she didn't sustain something truly serious." Jin sighed, pausing his work for a moment to take in Diana's figure.
"It's a miracle those spikes of that beast didn't pierce through her vital organs." Jin mumbled.
Namjoon heaved out a soft breath, eyes glistening sadly as she remained unconscious. "Do you have any clue about when she'll wake up..?" He inquired and Jin wistfully shook his head, "I'm sorry, I don't. I have no clue how much the doctors have done for her in real life. If I did, I could probably work from there and say that she'd wake up within this week's time." He explained.
"I heard Diana speak to that creature."
The two males startled at Jimin's voice, turning to see him taking a seat on the floor. Jin frowned, "Speak to it?" He asked to make sure he heard that right and the younger simply nodded.
"She said something like 'none of us do'. I have no idea what that meant, but I think she could understand that... thing." He muttered, swiping his fingers through his hair. Namjoon pursed his lips thoughtfully. His mind immediately jumped to link this new knowledge with the conclusion he had long believed to be that she wasn't meant to get here in the first place.
He believed his theory greatly, and this new news served to further prove his point.
"Eat up, guys. Let's not forget to take care of ourselves." Yoongi's voice chimed as he entered the cabin, pushing the door open with his back as he held two separate trays for Namjoon and Jin.
The two men thanked the rapper before filling their empty stomaches with the first meal of the day.
"What are the others upto?" Namjoon asked. Yoongi shrugged, "Trying to figure out the puzzle." He retorted. Nodding, the younger male returned to stuffing his mouth.
"They're onto something, actually." Yoongi piped in after a moment, catching the others' attention, "We've included all numbers written in that paper. Including the ones written with letters. It was a total of eight numbers. Now they're attempting to figure out how those numbers help." He revealed.
Namjoon swallowed before standing up, "Where are they?" He asked, placing his tray on the desk. Yoongi tutted, "Sit your ass back down and finish the food. I didn't spend a long time cooking this up for you to leave it to turn cold." He scoffed.
Namjoon pouted, plopping onto the stool in the room before shoving the foods into his mouth, "Are you trying to choke?" Yoongi huffed.
Namjoon muffled out his exasperation in response, not sounding coherent enough with his mouthful as he went on to narrow his eyes indignantly at the pale man before slowing down. He can't do anything in peace if Yoongi continues his criticism. Jin rolled his eyes, stifling a chuckle at their exchange.
Jimin sported a soft smile as well before he stood up from his spot, dusting at his pants and making his way closer towards the bed, a soft look directed towards the unconscious girl. "I don't know why Diana always puts her life at risk for our sake." He mumbled breathily, crouching down onto his knees while he propped his head up with his hand; his elbows resting at the edge of the bed.
The three elder males eye the said girl, putting their small bickering to a stop to gaze at Diana.
"It's the third time she's done this and each time, she got hurt worse than the last." Jin mentioned solemnly, feeling a pang in his heart. "When she first saved me from the Olfstin, I asked her why she did what she did. All she told me was that my safety is worth the risk." He laughed emptily.
"But I just thought she said that because I was her first company, you know? kind of like a- I finally have someone to keep me company, some beast can't take that away now! -Sort of implication in her terms. Nowadays, I fear she literally means that." Jin continued on a rant, getting a bit emotional with it, but it was just his way of relieving his stress and calm his pounding heart.
"She's quite unreal sometimes, don't you think?" He laughed off the strong emotions building up at the base of his throat.
The others' eyes softened at that, gaze falling back on the unconscious girl.
~ Jungkook POV ~
I'm just about ready to rip my head off. These numbers are mocking me as I glared at them.
——🏳——
See the first no7e.
6e 4ttentive a5 eight.
The second l3ad is for the start.
——🏳——
First = 1
Second = 2
Eight = 8
So the numbers were basically counting to 8. I get it, okay?! There are 8 of us in this world but what about it?! How am I supposed to know what to do with these numbers?!
"Wait, wait." Taehyung gasped. "How about we just take them how they're written? The note is pretty direct. The order must be just that itself." He pointed.
"Let's try it, then." Hoseok hyung shrugged. I huffed out a breath, bringing the pencil I held towards the notebook and I wrote it down.
'1, 7, 6, 4, 5, 8, 2, 3.' I wrote down as they were.
"Now what?" I inquired, linking these numbers to nothing but the amount of players in this world. I read it over and over again before I looked back at the note.
"Uh, 'The second lead is for the start', I wonder what that is supposed to mean?" Taehyung wondered. I furrowed my brows, reading that sentence again.
The start. The start...
"See the first note." I read aloud.
Wait-
"The- the first note! The puzzle! Our first lead is the first puzzle we found! This code is the second note - the second lead! It's linked to the first one!" I gasped, flipping the page backwards to go back to the puzzle of words we had gathered.
"Isn't that too obvious, though?" Hoseok doubted but I shrugged, "The biggest lead can be right here - Diana said just that a while ago and eventually, we managed to find the puzzle inside the lake we get our food from." I stated.
Taehyung hummed in response, "She did." He agreed.
"Then that's probably it." Hoseok immediately relented, making me and Tae scoff out a laugh.
"The next problem we need to figure out is how to link these numbers to the words."
_____________________________
WoOOH so the boys are busying themselves much more than before, huh?
I guess Diana getting hurt by that creature was the last straw to make them chase after the answer that'll help them get out. She's already losing her memories. Getting really injured, on top of that?
They've had it 😬😬🤭🤭
I Hope you enjoyed this chapter! 🥰 I almost forgot to update this while it was laying ready in my drafts to publish! 🫣🫣 thank heavens I remembered! Here's your meal my children 🤭🤌✨✨ thou shall not starve ☝️
See you next week! Love youu~ 😘😘❤️💕💕
~ Ada