Cale navigated through the entire cabin, one thing worth noting to him was that the cabin was massive, it was so large in fact that Cale questioned if it really were that big and not just an illusion.
'The size just doesn't make any sense.'
Eventually, walking through the old planks he reached something that appeared like a door on the outside, a metal door barricaded with spruce planks.
Cale scoffed, thinking that whoever made this was lazy.
Stepping back about 25 yards away from the door, he aimed his gun at the metal keyhole.
"....."
He stared at the door thoughtfully, hesitation flickering across his face as he lowered the gun at his waist.
"Not worth it."
Flashing the silver blade, he felt it warm itself intensely each second that ticked by his flesh.
The blade was set right in front of the door, steam bellowed from it as the edges expanded.
This time, Cale walked further away than with the gun, while in full knowledge that the explosion was weak, he still felt his mental fatigue grow immensely due to how close he was to the explosion.
In other words, his insight was used in order to save him from danger and without it.
"I'd already be dead."
By a stroke of luck, he survived due to his ability.
But he can't have himself be this lenient towards danger, especially right now, because as his body grew colder, so did the blade's temperature grow in contrast to the cold.
He couldn't have his body exploding right in his face after all.
Humming a tune of hissing metal, Cale covered his ears and stood behind cover, waiting for the eventual—
BOOM!
Boom that would announce itself proudly before him.
Dust breezed by, clearing and revealing the completely intact door.
A blue barrier cut off any smoke that tried to pass.
Cale, with an intrigued expression, walked towards the door, extending a hand toward it.
Inches away from it, he felt a certain force reject him.
His expression crunched into wrinkles of confusion when feeling blood reverse its flow slowly. Cale snapped his hand away from the door, not wanting to cause any potential physical damage to himself.
Cale crossed his arms together, thinking on how to break past.
"Now what?" He tilted his head to the side, foot slowly tapping on the carpet.
"....?"
Only when he looked at his right did he show emotion, skepticism towards the arrow whose ink had long since dried.
Cale tapped his foot on the floor rhythmically as he pondered on whether he should follow it, reminding himself of the ability shown by that smiley face.
The ability to force someone into submission is a terrifying power to hold, having to be conscious and vigilant about someone like that constantly would be too tiring.
"It's obviously a trap." Cale said, muttering under his breath as he put pressure onto his neck, causing a satisfying crack to recoil through the dead-silent surroundings.
And although he knew that the road ahead held a trap, he also knew that he couldn't stay any longer here.
Anymore and he'd die due to his injuries.
"'Like it or not. I'll force your hand?' Is that it?"
He chuckled in the empty expanse of mahogany wood.
To survive he had to end this quickly or find an item that could instantly heal him back to his original state.
None of which seemed easy to do.
However, luck wasn't the only defining reason that he survived thus far.
It was the tenacity to grasp at that luck in the first place that allowed him to survive. If he hadn't moved, he wouldn't be here.
So he'd bite, bite and see how he'd dance and flail to escape death's clutches once again.
"I'll bite your bait, weirdo."
Shifting his heel toward the arrow, he marched with a tired expression that suggested he wanted sleep. A luxury he quietly thought, his steps filled with a constant weight that never seemed to be leaving for home.
*
Deafening silence, a type of silence where only static could be hallucinated in the ears within the stretching expanse of rooms.
Following the arrows, Cale eventually landed in the living room, where food supplies and confetti laid randomly on smooth and visually pleasing furniture.
On the couch, the table, everywhere.
"Someone seemed to have loved partying."
There was even a cake which still had its candle lit on the mahogany.
There was also a window where Cale got a better view of the outside.
A flicker of surprise smashed onto Cale's irises, they observed the clouds that moved at a speed unnatural to them.
"That's not a thing." His words were uttered in pure disbelief.
The sun soon narrowed at the edge of the observable fake world. Skies darkened as the moonlight shone once more, stars twinkling faintly through the clouds that blanketed their valor light.
When the moon rose up, many things also rose, sounds heightened themselves in the ears of the living, branches that tore were heard....And a hiss of the radiators whistled.
But there weren't any radiators within the room, just a fireplace with its fire more pale than it should be. In spite of this, they still reached the ears.
Cale ignored it, already having a plan in mind as he cocked the hammer of the Desert Eagle back.
'Will it work is the real question.'
Seeking clues, his eyes scanned everywhere, under the couch, the table and cabinets, even the pieces of sculpted art were thoroughly checked.
As his eyes darted around, they eventually landed at a specific edge of the room where red ink flowed, forming letters and a doodle of a crowbar next to it.
The language was incomprehensible, it seemed important, important enough that Cale deduced that in order to break the door, he needed the crowbar to escape.
'Surprisingly feels a lot like a puzzle game.'
Licking his dry lips, he upturned the entire room upside down, the result ending to a dead end.
"Not here then."
Arm on his hip, his eyes narrowed down as he left the room, blood washed out from his waist where his hand clutched. The pain felt unbearable, like needles that kept nagging at his side.
Still he pressed for more miles on his legs. Not wanting to break down and die pathetically here.
'I'm running out of time.'
As time stretched to ungodly lengths, Cale began to understand the weight of the situation he was in.
At best, he had a few hours before dying, the beat of his heart had been steadily growing fainter, his vision also darkened at the corners.
Wasting more time on uncertainties was going to be fatal, he thought. Jaw clenched as the lights hummed above.
Clack!
Metal filed complaints as his foot shoved it away unknowingly. On the side, like a dessert, a vent appeared with sweet seduction.
Dropping to his knee, he spotted another room on the other side of the vent, embroidered furniture sat neatly, Cale looked around once before entering the vent, wanting to cease the chance while it still winked at him.
He squeezed through the tight crevice, the smell of iron stacked bile on the back of his throat.
'There better be something useful or else I will go feral.'
As he grumbled, he finally saw the tall ceiling with the light that blinded, with a groan he raised himself up.
In doing so, his ears were penetrated with static. Then into a voice.
-Oh!
A static voice addressed him at the corner of the room. It was the radio.
-What a surprise to see a @!$%# walking amongst us!
It said, amusement tinting its tone.
"The actual start of the storiem I'm guessing?"
-.....
The static voice stopped, letting the words it heard register inside it. Ten seconds of grain salt passed before Cale heard a gasp audibly echo.
-Ha..Ha ha ha! You can hear us youngling?!
"...?"
Cale raised a brow before speaking.
"Yeah?"
Considering there was no point in hiding the truth, he answered.
Unaware of what they would ask.
-Oh yes! God has not yet forsaken our existence!
A voice oddly close to a woman rang out, a variety of different voices came from the radio.
-Young man! I beseech you to release my chains!
Another different one.
-No! Mine first! Release me and I shall help you!
A young man pleaded.
-I have been trapped here, unable to reincarnate at all and now....Now!
Voices overlapped with one another as Cale pretended to caress an earbud in his ear. Speaking and ignoring the pleas of the radio.
"Could you please repeat that Sergeant?"
Spurting out bullshit, Cale felt the voices of the radio dwindling.
"It appears I've lost connection...." A bead of sweat trickled, more improvisations burned through his mind.
-.....
The voices stopped the moment he said that. One voice clicked in audible frustration.
-Tch. Accursed Bureau, of course they'd be the ones in the storiem first.
Cale's ears perked, his expression unchanging as he purposefully avoided the radio.
'Bureau?'
His mouth opened slightly, but then it closed, his hand still covering his ear.