Ross opened his eyes and saw the ceiling. He tried to get up from the bed, but he felt he could not move from it, as if something had grabbed his limbs and wouldn't let go.
"When did I get chained?"
Ross's voice echoed when he spoke after seeing chains that were imprisoning his limbs.
James moved his head to the right from the bed and saw a bottle of poison on a table next to the bed. Before reaching the toxin, he tested which chains were most easily broken.
First, he tugged on the chains for his hands for a minute, and they broke into pieces. Then, he tried to do the same with his legs, but it was harder to pull off.
'Wow, these are harder than pulling my chains on my hands.
'I guess I have to use the toxin from the table over there.'
Ross attempts to grab a bottle of toxins from the table, moving it forward slightly and nearly dropping it, but stops it before it hits the ground.
'Sigh, that was close.'
After taking a deep breath, he moves it slowly forward toward him.
'This will be easier if I could see where I'm moving the bottle.'
His eyes weren't focusing on the table, only on the ground, so it was hard, but he continued slowly.
After a minute of struggle, he finally brings it toward him. He opened the capsule with his hands.
'I need to pour the poison into the chains carefully not to hurt myself.'
He pours the venom onto the leftover chains, carefully not melting his flesh. They melted, freeing Ross!
***
James got up from bed, looked around the room, and saw a speaker and a security camera on the wall.
"Testing... testing... is it working? I see you freed yourself. Impressive." From the speaker, a woman's cute and deadly voice came out.
"Who are you? Why are you horrible at trap design? Come on, you can easily break these chains with just a pull. But I give it to you for putting a bottle of poison far away from my reach to make it harder for me."
For some reason, James Ross gives his kidnapper a tip about how to make it complicated.
'Why am I helping my enemy?' He didn't even know why.
"My name is Diamond, a member of the infamous White Clan, and you are a very funny guy."
"Fuck! I suspected it was all the White Clan's doing, but didn't expect one of their members to stay here."
Diamond smiled, "Oh, you know us, that's relief. That means you had trauma with us, so I don't have to explain what the White Clan, thank god!"
Ross pointed at the camera, "Where is Samuel... Where is he?!"
"You mean that man who was with you? If you meant him, it's a secret!"
Ross's plans changed when he got caught. At first, before knowing who was responsible for the murders, he wanted to investigate, but the White Clan arrested him; he knew they were the ones who murdered everyone inside the hospital. Now, he plans to find Samuel and retrieve his jacket, which contains everything, and then leave.
Without saying anything to Diamond, James left his imprisoned room. The enemy tried to stop him from taking a few more steps by talking.
"Don't go any further. You will become food for this hungry monster roaming around in the corridors!"
Ross continued without listening to her.
"Fine, go ahead straight towards the monster's stomach." She shakes her head, disappointed in James.
"Fuck you! I'm not listening to you!" Ross yelled.
He entered the area in the dark without a flashlight, and all the ceiling lights were broken. James went sideways, touched a wall, and moved forward slowly, so as not to get lost. It was a smart move.
From a distance, Ross heard a roar that didn't belong to any normal animal and a scream of help.
"Yo, I got hungry from that teenager screaming."
Diamond goes to the fridge and grabs a cold pizza to munch on.
James Ross heard Dimond's monologue about how she loves cold pizza, and the breathing of different people came out of the speakers. He was irritated by her annoying voice, which kept him from hearing the roar.
He was worried about facing the monster, not because he couldn't beat it, but because he was in a hurry.
***
Ross didn't want to deal with that, so he went in a different direction from the noise, following the wall. Surprisingly, there was another room, and he found it without any light.
James heard a swoosh sound coming from the next room.
"Grand beef is cooking in the next room, Mr. Whatever your name is."
Diamond still thinks she is distracting James by speaking from the speaker. Ross does not heed her remarks.
In the area, there is a sphere in the ceiling that opens up, repeatedly summoning dead bodies that were killed, going straight toward the ground. Then the floor opens, and corpses fall into a vacuum, leaving no trace. The only place that light shines.
"Horrible assholes! You demons should pay for killing so many people; no sane human would think about doing this." He was disgusted by the White Clan's treatment of innocent lives, so he talked loudly to make Diamond know he hates them.
He put his hands on his head. "Why do I feel like I've been in this room before?"
James had a Déjà vu for this place. Diamond heard Ross.
'Interesting, he has Déjà vu, and why doesn't he faint here as the master said?"
She thought hard until Diamond couldn't come up with an answer, so she explained it to the person next to her.
"Hey, bro, can you explain why our boss got his prediction wrong?" From what she heard, Diamond was on an emotional roller coaster.
"I am not your brother, Diamond. I have a name, and I am not going to answer your question." The man behind Diamond had a profound voice.
"Oh, for the fuck's sake, I'd rather have the crazy and fun brother than have you, the boring and emotionless brother." Diamond thought this guy was boring, and she knew his younger brother was more fun.
"You're similar to my little brother, Diamond. You two always seem to become miserable when you see me."
He blinked, "Do you have anything else to tell me before I leave?"
Diamond looked at him, "No." Turned around to look at the screen, "Return to whatever you were doing, and don't come back until you turn into your brother. Because..."
He fled the room before she finished talking, so she didn't notice him leave. James Ross left the room with a waterfall of bodies and entered a different area.
In the room, a random brown table stood at the heart of the place, with a chair beside it. At the ceiling, a black-and-white ceiling fan hung with gold accents. There was a light bulb inside the core of the fan, blinking every few seconds, hovering above the table.
On the chair sat his brown jacket. James goes towards the table and grabs the coat.
I found my jacket now. I should see my friend. Then leave.'
He puts it on, searching his pockets to see if anything is missing. Nothing significant was lost. Now Ross has his jacket on and grabs the flashlight from his pocket.
"I hope you work." The flashlight was shining like it was new.
'It's working again. But why didn't it work after we entered the hospital?
After seeing that the flashlight batteries were new, Ross remembered that he didn't have a walkie-talkie in his pocket. He searched, and there was no talking device.
Ross's trusty revolver had all six bullets inside the barrel, and his golden brass knuckles were in his pockets.
'Ah, I can't contact the outside world. What a horrible luck! It's fine. I don't need help.'
As he walked, an item fell from his pocket. Ross didn't notice it. James heard a whisper, turned around, and saw nobody there.
'Weird, I heard a person faintly saying, 'Bingo.' Whatever, it's probably my brain tricking me again!'
An hour had passed when he found his brown jacket and saw the sign saying "exit" in Colorlish, the Color Kingdom language. Unfortunately, he didn't find his friend, but he'd made it this far and wouldn't turn back to search for him.
'Sorry, Samuel! That I am leaving you behind. I wanted to find you, but I didn't expect to find the exit first, so I hope you find the way out.'
James opens the door to the outside world, and sunlight shines through his beautiful black face. But in the last minute before putting his foot outside, his conscience couldn't let Samuel behind. He wanted to find his friend. It was selfish for him not to. He turned around to look for Samuel, but someone punched his gut, and he collapsed on the floor.
To be continued.