“963....!”

  “RUN!” I yelled.

  We ran, but that thing was far faster than we were. It caught up to us in an instant and slammed its hand down in Zero’s direction. Right before it made contact, I grabbed her sleeve and pulled her my way. It wasn’t enough to escape the damage, as just the action of that thing’s palm hitting the floor created a shockwave that blew us back.

  “Gagh!”

  “Your gift! Can you activate it?!” I shouted at Zero.

  “The only blood on that thing is dried! I can’t!”

  *SCREEECH*

  The veins on its arm started to vibrate and shot out like lances.

  “Duck!”

  We both ducked as the veins barely missed our heads and stuck into the wall behind us.

  “Now, let’s move!” I said, helping her up. We hastily scrambled away from it’s veins and turned the corner, making a mad dash to the end of the hallway.

  “963, What do we do?”

  “I don’t know! If I could cut it with my knife without worrying about dying immediately, we could activate your gift!”

  We heard the flapping of wings behind us as I looked back to see that thing flying toward us at high speeds.

  “It can fly?! Is this thing a walking cheat code?!” Zero yelled in disbelief.

  “Don’t you mean flying?!”

  “You choose now to tell your first joke?!” She yelled with a half-smile.

  It gained on us in an instant and slashed at me with its claws. I pulled out my knife and turned around to meet its attack, but the blade shattered after slight resistance. The only thing it served to do was slightly shield me against its attack, its claws only barely breaking through my flesh.

  “963!”

  It stomped its foot in my direction, and I quickly rolled in between its legs to avoid it.

  I held my chest in pain, as curling my body had opened the injury slightly. I looked at the blood dripping from my hand and realized something.

  “Zero, you need blood, right?!”

  I forcefully waved my hand in the creature’s direction, and blood splattered all over him.

  “They’re gonna be tiny, but I got it!”

  She cupped her left hand and tiny flowers began blooming from the blood on the creature, after a short time they exploded with a *pop*.

  While this was happening, I ran back over to Zero, who was staring at the creature in shock. There were no signs of any injury after the explosions; all it did was serve to enrage the creature.

  Think….how do we get out of this situation….!

  I began gnawing at my thumb as the creature stared us down.

  “Zero, what about the inside of its body?! Its outer shell is hard, but can you detonate a flower inside its body?”

  “If you get blood inside, I can! But to spark more, I would need at least a finger’s worth of blood!”

  How convenient.

  “Right?”

  If I just…bite it off completely.

  “You can be healed; you’ve been through worse.”

  I know, but….

  “You have something to protect now, don’t you?”

  Yes….

  “What was that word called again….”hero”? That’s what you’ll be. Don’t you want that?”

  …….

  “Why the hesitation?”

  You aren’t the same voice as before.

  “Hmm?”

  It was you who awakened my gift, but when I was tortured, and in the tournament, it was someone different.

  “…..”

  Who are you?

  “Just a bystander that needs you alive.”

  Telepathy?

  “Far closer than that.”

  You….get out of my head.

  “Don’t you have bigger things to worry about?” The deep voice said with a slight snicker. For the first time since talking to me, I was able to distinguish the sound of its voice from my own. It was a deep voice that sounded like it came from an old ruler.

  “963! Why are you just standing there?!”

  I snapped out of it to see that creature lunging at me. I quickly jumped away before it could grasp me, as I placed my thumb in my mouth.

  “Zero, get ready!” I yelled, mentally preparing myself for a moment.

  *CRUNCH*

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  “GrrrrrraaGHHHHHH!”

  I continued to bite harder and harder until my teeth finally met each other. My thumb spun through the air, and I quickly grabbed it with my other hand and threw it in the creature’s mouth.

  “Zero, do it NOW!”

  She snapped out of her brief shock and cupped her hand. A small flower bloomed on the thumb, and it exploded inside the creature’s mouth.

  *SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*

  Blood spilt from its mouth as it took a step back.

  “Hemofloral Garden!”

  Zero clapped her hands together, and I saw countless flowers bloom in that thing’s mouth and violently explode. It was so potent that I got lifted off my feet and blown back at least 20 feet, right past Zero.

  When I opened my eyes, the creature’s head was gone, and it slowly fell to its knees, collapsing on the ground.

  “963!”

  She ran over to me and helped me up.

  “Your thumb….”

  “It’s fine, the healing pods here can regrow it.”

  “Yeah, but….”

  “I told you, I’m fine. I’ve been through worse.

  With my other hand, I tore off part of my gown and, with Zero assisting me, wrapped it around where my thumb used to be.

  “Let’s leave, I’m sick of this place.”

  She nodded her head as we started walking back the way we came. We had only walked a couple of feet before Zero abruptly stopped and held her hand up.

  “What is it?”

  “Do you hear that?”

  The pain from my thumb was blurring my senses, but I stopped and attempted to listen to what she was talking about.

  After a couple moments I heard a slight wriggling sound mixed with what seemed to be shuffling. I quickly turned around to see if the creature was still alive, but it still lay there motionless. Right as I was about to turn back around, I noticed that the veins in its arms were stuck to the wall.

  Wait….they’re not stuck….they’re inside it!

  “Zero run! It’s not dead!”

  “What?!”

  As if reacting to the noise, the veins shot out from the wall in an attempt to puncture us. I saw it coming and dove out of the way in time. Zero wasn’t so lucky, however, as a green vein punctured straight through her right shoulder.

  “Aagh!”

  She stopped moving and held it in pain. That’s when the creature’s headless corpse stood up and began charging at her.

  “Zero! I know it hurts, but you’ve gotta move! It’s coming!”

  She turned around to see it charging at her, and she cupped her left hand and caused the blood around the creature to bloom and explode. It blew the creature back slightly, ripping its veins from the walls.

  “You ok?!”

  “It hurts but….I’m fine! Let’s go 963! We gotta make it to the exit!”

  We sprinted back the way we came, with the creature quickly recovering and in hot pursuit. Zero was slightly slower due to her injury and lower pain tolerance.

  If only I had a weapon!

  I heard the wriggling sound once again, signaling it had stuck its veins through the walls again.

  “Fall to the floor!”

  Like tendrils, its veins sprang from the wall and whipped around everywhere as if searching for us.

  Zero turned around and cupped her hand once again, causing the area around its head to explode, stunning it briefly.

  “Up! Now!”

  We got up and continued our escape.

  How is it pinpointing our location?! Its already limited vision was lost when we got rid of its head!

  I turned around as I was running and saw it still stationary, before bending its knees and beginning its pursuit once more. As it was running, lines were forming on both sides of the wall, and that’s when it hit me.

  “It’s using its veins to sense the vibrations! That’s how it’s finding us!”

  As I said, we heard the wriggling and its veins lashed out at us once more. Zero was able to duck in time, but it slashed my left arm twice before I was able to avoid its claws.

  “Tch!”

  Once I got up and caught up with Zero, we saw the familiar door of the first room we walked in.

  “The exit’s just a couple of hundred feet ahead!”

  We heard the wriggling once again and ducked, but something different happened. It used its veins to block our path of escape by making them go from the ceiling to the floor.

  “Damn it!” Zero screamed in rage.

  “To the room!”

  We turned left and entered the room with the lights still turned off.

  “What do we do?! Now we’re just trapped in here!”

  Damn….she’s right!

  The creature slowly walked through the door, blocking the exit of the room.

  “963, what do we do?!”

  “I’m thinking!”

  I looked around the room for anything I could use as a weapon, when I remembered my previous investigation of the room.

  “Zero, we’re about to make a gamble!”

  “What? What are you going to do?!”

  I ran over to the indent of wall that turned on the lights, and I pressed it. The lights turned off instantly, and I heard the same low rumble the first time I pressed the switch.

  “Why did you turn off the lights?!”

  “Just trust me! Follow my voice!”

  I started running to where I felt the hollow wall. I had already been in the room and remembered my surroundings, so it wouldn’t be an issue for me to get there.

  As I rounded a capsule near the light switch to make it to the hollow wall, a large hand grabbed me and pinned me to the side of a capsule.

  “AAAGH!”

  “963!”

  It wouldn’t matter to the creature if the lights were on or off; it was finding us by vibrations after all. Its grip tightened around me, and I could feel my bones slowly creaking under its weight.

  I raised my hand and started banging on the glass of the capsule. I continued doing so until I started to feel it crack underneath my fist.

  I clenched my bleeding fist and felt a tingle all throughout my hand. At first, it felt like the electrotherapy experiment, wild and uncontrolled. But this time, there were no external factors influencing the flow of the particles; it was completely natural. I could see the stagnant particles being charged and colliding by my hand, resulting in radiant electricity bursting forth from my fist.

  My gift….activated!

  “HRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!”

  I swung my fist at the capsule and broke the glass completely, the liquid became electrified from the lightning exuding from my fist and shocked the creature, causing it to let go of me.

  Glass dug into my feet as I began running to the hollow wall. The creature began to chase me, but was stopped by the thing in the capsule I just broke. It was the creature with tentacles for eyes, and with renewed life, it pounced on the creature and started slashing and biting at it. Its pounce knocked the headless menace all the way to the other side of the room.

  Now’s our chance!

  “Zero! Where are you?!”

  “I’m here!”

  I followed her voice and grabbed her hand, leading her to the hollow wall that had disappeared entirely to reveal a small door with a keypad.

  “A system made so that the door would only reveal itself if the lights were off, how annoying!”

  I started banging on the door in an attempt to open it, but it wasn’t moving.

  “We need a passcode!” Zero said frantically.

  “Damn! Do you know of a passcode the head researcher uses?!”

  “I don’t!”

  *SCREEEEEEECH*

  I saw the tentacle-eyed creature roaring in pain as the other creature was ripping it to pieces with it’s veins and claws. Once it was done, it turned its body left and right until it faced our direction.

  “What about your dad?! Just try something!”

  Zero stood still for a moment before running over to the keypad.

  The creature started running toward us on all fours, signaling that it had pinpointed our location.

  Damn!

  *Beep* Passcode accepted.

  The door automatically opened, revealing another room.

  “Get in! NOW!” Zero yelled.

  We both ran in and saw a large button on the right.

  “Close it!”

  Zero slammed the button, and the doors started to close. We could do nothing but watch with bated breath as it bounded towards the hollow space, unsure if it would close in time.