Bang.
The brute hurled me onto the ground like trash. My skull smacked the stone first, and my body followed in a heap. A flash of white burst across my vision. My brain felt like it rattled inside my head.
I let out a shriek. "Ouch! Would it kill you to be gentler?!"
Pain shot through my spine as I sat up, rubbing my head. My eyes adjusted to the dimness, and I immediately wished they hadn't.
The room was a graveyard. No—worse. A slaughterhouse.
Rotting corpses littered the ground. Limbs were missing. Bodies torn apart. Some were chewed on. Human bite marks.
"Oh crap!" I leapt up and scrambled back when I realized what I'd landed on—a pile of cold, dead bodies.
"…she… new… flesh…"
Whispers slithered from the shadows.
I spun around.
Children. Dozens of them. About my age, chained to walls like animals. Some stared at me with hollow eyes, others with twisted hunger. Many were covered in blood—fresh, sticky, and wet. But no wounds. No injuries.
I looked back at the corpses, then at them again.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
Fear prickled up my spine.
Their stares intensified—some wide with fear, others narrowed with hatred. And some... were hungry.
The weight of their gaze crushed my chest. My lungs burned. I couldn't breathe. The air turned heavy, as if it thickened just to choke me.
Creak...
The metal door behind me groaned open. A group of men entered, dressed in gray utility gear. Without a word, they began clearing corpses like it was routine.
One of them glared at me. "What are you standing there for? Move!"
I flinched. "O-Oh, no. S-sorry." I stumbled away, finding an empty corner to collect myself—far from the dead and the living who seemed just as dangerous.
My hand trembled as I opened my fist. The item Master Jay gave me—it wasn't just a token.
A long slip of paper had been tucked inside.
"When you see a senile old man, approach him and you might live."
A senile old man? I don't need one to make me go senile…
Before I could even blink, the paper evaporated into thin air.
What was that for?
I scowled.
A pale finger suddenly pointed ahead.
I followed the finger back to its owner.
"Lynd—"
Lyndall was sitting right beside me. He put a finger to my lips.
"Come. Come." Then, just like that, he stood and darted off into the darkness ahead.
Of all the horror tropes in existence, why this one…? I hate horror.
But I couldn't leave him. Not here. Not in this hell.
I sighed, steeled myself, and chased after him into the tunnel.
I crept deeper. "Lyndall…? Lyndall, where are you?" I whispered.
The light behind me faded, swallowed by the dark.
It was like walking into a black hole. No end. No direction.
A chill brushed against my face—followed by a smell that made my stomach twist. It was the stench of rot. The kind that made you wish you had no nose.
I pinched mine shut and broke into a sprint, stumbling through the dark until the air cleared.
"Ugh… I think I stepped on some corpses… Ouiii~. Why is it so cold here? I'm freezing to death…" I hugged myself tightly.
"Where are you, Lyndall?" I muttered. "Someone hasn't eaten him yet, right?"
Panic nipped at my heels.
He can't have gone further, right? This cold—it's unnatural.
Still, I moved forward. Slow. Reluctant. Slouching like a zombie.
I walked for what felt like hours. Same walls. Same blackness. The same suffocating silence.
"I feel like I'm walking in circles…" I muttered. "It's not like I'm not used to this, but can it please not be so damn COLD?!"
My shout echoed through the void—
Then stopped.
…Huh?
No echo.
I sprinted forward.
A faint glow appeared up ahead—distant, but real.
I ran. Light meant safety. Light meant life.
And then—
Blinding.
I shielded my eyes, stumbling as the tunnel opened into a new world.
"Ugh… What happened…?"
My mind was blank. All I remembered was chasing after light. Then—nothing.
"Llyne?"
I turned at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Lyndall?"
He stood there smiling like nothing had happened.
I ran to him and pinched his chubby cheeks. "Is that really you? I was so worried. Don't disappear like that ever again, okay?"
"Fwahahaha. And people called me senile old man. I guess they haven't met ya yet, young lady."
The gravelly voice cut through the air.
I turned around slowly.
A skeleton of an old man sat cross-legged, playing chess with himself. Stringy gray hair, long beard, paper-thin skin wrapped around bones. A walking relic.
"Senile? Me?" I squinted. "Wait—are you the one they called senile old man?"
The old man didn't look up. "Is that what they called me, young lad?"
"Didn't you just say people call you that?!"
Lyndall raised his shoulders innocently.
...Okay, now what? I found him. What am I even supposed to do?
Maybe… I could get information.
I stepped forward. "What do you know about this place, old man?"
"Everything. There's nothing I don't know. If not, I'm a dimwit!"
"…Okay, then. Would you be willing to share some of that?"
"Not for free," he said, eyes still on the chessboard. "Give me something in return."
I frowned. "What do you want?"
"Be my student. And call me Master."
"That's all?"
"No. Answer all my questions. Mhmm." He nodded sagely.
"Sure, Master."
The old man leaned back with a creak and… stopped moving.
Silence.
"…Master?" I tilted my head.
He didn't answer.
"Are you okay? You didn't die from excitement after getting your first student, right?" I nudged him.
Nothing.
I leaned in to check his breathing. Pulse.
"Ouiii… Master is dead. How sad. Just when he got himself a student…"
Then—
Pop.
He sat up.
"AAAHHHHHHH!!!! A ZOMBIE!!!" Lyndall and I screamed and clung to each other.
"Fwahaha. Had a nice sleep," the old man yawned.
"Sleep?! You weren't even breathing!"
"Don't jinx me. I've got years left," he said with a pout.
"I bet you steal people's lifespan by scaring the crap out of them!"
"And who are you to criticize me? A thief?"
"What is there to steal? You look poorer than me!" I clutched my head. "I think I'm getting a headache…"
"Anyway. Weren't you gonna teach me something about this place?"
"Eh? Ah! That's right. Ya crazy young lad—"
"I have a name! It's Llyne!"
My temples pulsed. Lyndall patted my back.
"I'll teach ya everything," Master said. "But you must obey everything I say."
"That wasn't the deal, Master."
"Hey, beggars can't be choosers. Take it or leave it, kiddo."
"…Fine. But if you pull any more weird stuff, I'll send you to the next life myself."
"We got a deal. Let's shake on it, ser—er, student!"
I grabbed his hand—and crushed it.
"You almost called me a servant."
"Ooo~ I didn't! I didn't!" He winced. "Ya sure got strength, brat. What did your parents feed ya?"
"…Are you gonna tell me now?"
"Nah. Lessons start tomorrow, kiddo. I'm sleepy. Ciao~!"
Then he vanished.
"…He vanished. Just like that? How?!" I turned to Lyndall, who simply shrugged.
"I'm not going crazy, right?"
Yawn.
The drowsiness crept up again—sudden and absolute.
"So sleepy…" I tried to fight it. Slapped my face. Blinked hard.
Too late.
Before I drifted off, I felt a small hand on my forehead.
"Goodnight, Llyne. Sweet dreams."
Lyndall's voice was the last thing I heard before the darkness took me.