blood trail {adrien}

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

There was so much to feel that Adrien Nox found it easier to shut down. His body in shock, hands beginning to tremble the second the doors opened and he saw the two lifeless bodies lying on the ground. The closest was Amrin and even seeing her in that state, completely still, those big wandering eyes now vacant, gave him a great urge to vomit. But when he realized that the second body was Poppy's, it was immediate. He took the piece of him that needed to feel this- that needed to hurt, or scream, or fight, and he severed it away from himself so that all was left was a cold stare and a single thought:

I need to leave.

He turned away because if he didn't then, he would've been frozen. His father, Poppy, all he had left was the boy whose arm he snagged as he began to stalk away from the group without looking back.

"We're leaving, Indigo. Now."

There was a desperation in his voice that he resented himself for having. Indi was all he had left. His life, or whatever was left of it, and one friend in a lion's den. He couldn't lose him, too, or all that would be left was the darkness of this forsaken place and the killer dwelling within it.

Once they were far enough away from group, Adrien let his grasp on Indi's arm loosen and they walked separately. The lights flickered off again, Adrien had to use muscle memory to know where he was, but had no idea where he was going.

People were dying. They kept dying. He was a magnet for monsters, but they never seemed to come for him. They took the ones he loved, or the ones he was supposed to love, and they beat them down and made him hate himself for letting them get close to him.

"Don't-" he interrupted, when Indigo began trying to console him about Poppy's death.

Indigo went silent and he heard a thud. He sighed into the darkness.

"Did you fall?" he heard something else. At first he mistook it for the rustling of leaves, but after a short while, he realized it was the sound of something dragging against the ground.

"Indi?"

He squinted his eyes, peering into the nothingness in vain as the dragging sound grew louder and more apparent.

His heart began to pound. Fight or flight.

"Indigo." He wasn't asking anymore, he was demanding. If you're alive, say something. If you're just high and tripped over a rug, fucking tell me. No noise came, just the sound of something- something heavy- being dragged away. Fight or flight.

He wasn't letting this happen again.

"He's all I have left," he called. A feeling of sickness overtook him and he realized that it stemmed from the fact that he had potentially just spoken directly to the killer. What's more, when his feet began to move, they were carrying him toward the sound. Fight or flight.

He chose to fight.

Though, it was quite difficult to do, stumbling around in the darkness. More than once he was certain he heard the sound from his left or his right, only to reach out and find a wall. Eventually, he wasn't sure where it originated and where it echoed from, and at some point he could no longer hear it at all. The lights flickered on briefly, just for a moment, and he found himself standing all alone in the hallway, right next to the kitchen Violet had disappeared into.

He stepped through the door, trying as hard as he could to ignore the fresh memory of Poppy and Adam helping him disable the lock. It felt like it had happened months ago, but only a few hours separated him from that time, when he thought that was as bad as it would get.

He pressed his hands against the cool marble of the counter and breathed in a deep sigh.

She was gone. There was nothing he could do, but Indi might have still been alive. He might've still been able to save him.

[tries to find key]
oTBUuiDTLd1-10
[fails]

·1-10

[umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars]]

It was small and insignificant, more an absence of sound than an actual noise, but it was enough for him to stall his breathing. Hands still pressed against the counter, he felt an incoming presence, felt the air bending in an unnatural way before he finally heard the footsteps.

"Fuck."

He glanced around him for something- anything- sharp, to no avail. He didn't have time. Not to protect himself, not to know if he needed to or not. He ducked into a cabinet just as a shadow began to bleed past the doorway, and he covered his mouth with the palm of his hand so that his need to breathe wouldn't be the reason he stopped. The footsteps were silent for a beat, then a beat more; Adrien could hear the distant ticking of the clock above the sink and nothing more.

Finally, the clacking sound of shoes began to sound again, leading the person they belonged to further and further away. He exhaled when he was sure he was safe, willing himself to move but not being able to. What if they were tricking him? What if they were waiting just on the other side of that door? What if they were standing just on the other side of the cabinet, waiting for him to reveal himself so they didn't have to go through the trouble of dragging him out in order to kill him.

He closed his eyes and laid his head onto his knees.

There was a chance it was just one of the others, looking for the next step, looking for a way out. There was a chance they would have seen him and he could've explained what had happened with Indigo and they could've helped to find him. And maybe the chances of that greatly outweighed the chances of the other option, but even 1% was too much of a risk right then.

Because just as easily as it could have been friend, it could have also been foe.

[tries to find key]
J69IehD0jC1-10
[fails but the second one]

1-10