Chapter 8: Signs Of Trouble
For the first thirty minutes of the test, no one bothered to step into their corridor.
Leo sat crouched near the wall, his dagger resting lightly in his hand as his sharp eyes remained locked on the dimly lit passage stretching before him.
He expected an ambush at any second, which made his nerves tense, but the silence here was deep—unnaturally so.
Occasionally, faint noises drifted in from nearby corridors: hurried footsteps, muffled screams, the sound of metal clashing against metal. But no one came this way.
Felix's choice had been good—better than Leo had anticipated. This corridor was open, exposed, and it was easy to spot someone approaching from either end.
It wasn't an ambusher's paradise, nor did it promise any quick kills.
'Felix is a genius,' Leo thought.
Predators prefered shadows and hidden corners, which made them instinctively avoid this place which was like a ramp walk, with illumination on both sides.
In his palm, the Test Counter glowed faintly, with the numbers it displayed continuing to tick down as the minutes passed.
1250 → 1020 → 900 → 850
Eight hundred people—four hundred pairs— were eliminated in just thirty minutes.
It was a testament to how brutal this entrance test really was, as the deranged killers seemed to be on a full hunt.
*Sigh*
Sitting in silence, Leo let out a deep sigh as he continued to stare at the Counter for a long moment before eventually slipping it back into his pocket.
Beside him, Felix was sitting cross-legged on the dusty floor, clutching one of his oversized alcohol gourds like a lifeline. His round cheeks glistened with fresh streaks of tears, and his lips trembled as he whispered to himself.
"Goodbye, Uncle Terrance... Goodbye, Auntie Magda... Goodbye, Sir Swimsalot... you were such a brave fish..."
Leo's eyebrow twitched slightly, but he said nothing.
"And goodbye to Gravy the cat... even though you hated me... I still loved you, buddy..." Felix sniffled, wiping his nose with the back of his sleeve.
Leo risked a glance at him. The boy was staring into space, his lips quivering as though he were giving his final will and testament.
"...and I never even got to finish my cheese platter last night. A tragedy. Truly."
A faint chuckle escaped Leo before he caught himself, quickly covering it with a cough. Felix's melodrama was ridiculous—but it made the heavy silence a little easier to bear.
'He's loud. Too loud. But... harmless.'
Leo returned his attention to the daggers in his hands. They were standard-issue weapons, balanced and sharp, yet they felt familiar—comfortable, like an extension of his arm.
Without thinking, his fingers adjusted their grip, and his wrist flicked the blade slightly. The motion was instinctive—effortless.
It wasn't something he had to think about; it was something he knew.
'This... this feels right.'
Leo twirled the dagger once, watching the blade catch the pale flicker of the fluorescent lights.
"I know how to hold this. I know how to use it. But... does that make me a killer?" Leo wondered, as he furrowed his brows slightly at the question.
The answer should have been simple. But it wasn't.
Somewhere deep inside, Leo felt it—a boundary, a line he couldn't imagine himself crossing. He didn't have the same hunger in his chest as the others he'd seen today.
If he was a killer, he wasn't one driven by madness or bloodlust.
If he was a killer, he sure as hell wasn't one that killed simply for the joy of it.
That much he knew, even though he did not have his memories.
*Thud* *Thud*
A faint sound broke his line of thought.
It wasn't much—just the faint scrape of boots against the concrete floor—but it was enough. Leo's head snapped up, his sharp eyes narrowing as his senses honed in on the direction of the noise.
"Stay quiet," he whispered, barely audible, as his hand shot out to stop Felix mid-meltdown.
Felix froze, his wide eyes darting nervously toward the corridor's far end.
The faint sound grew louder, more distinct, as two sets of footsteps became evident.
"Two opponents" Leo gestured towards Felix, without making a sound, as Felix nodded nervously.
Soon, shadows flickered against the walls as the approaching figures stepped into the fluorescent light, their voices low but audible.
"Are you sure about this passageway?" one of them muttered, his tone laced with unease. He was a tall and wiry looking dude, with a nasty acid burn running across his jawline. In his hand, he clutched a long, thin blade that gleamed under the flickering lights.
The second figure, a stockier man with a thick neck and a mace slung over his shoulder, snorted dismissively at his partner's worry.
"Relax. This is the perfect hiding spot, nobody can ambush us here without alerting us. We can rest and recuperate here for at least an hour before we head back out"
The scarred man hesitated, his eyes scanning the corridor. "Still... It's risky. What if someone else is camping at the end, waiting for us to step into their trap?"
The stocky man laughed, the sound grating against the oppressive silence. "I've been keeping watch, and I haven't seen a soul step in here for the last 20 minutes. You're paranoid."
As they moved closer, Leo pressed himself flat against the wall, his breathing slow and controlled. The dagger in his hand felt twitchy as he leaned ever so slightly to peek around the edge.
The two figures were no more than twenty feet away now. Their footsteps echoed faintly, accompanied by the occasional creak of the prison's decaying structure.
Leo's gaze traced their movements, analyzing their weapons and stances. The wiry man walked lightly, his blade held at an angle ready for a quick thrust. The stocky one carried himself with the casual confidence of someone who believed he couldn't be outmatched.
They were predators, no doubt—but so was Leo. Or at least, he hoped he was.
As Leo prepared himself to strike, an unexpected soft, high-pitched yelp escaped from behind him.
It was Felix.
The sound was barely louder than a breath, but it ricocheted off the corridor walls like a gunshot, and forced the two figures to stop dead in their tracks.
The scarred man's eyes narrowed, his blade shifting slightly. "Did you hear that?"
The stocky man's grip on his mace tightened as he took a cautious step forward. "Yeah... I heard it."
Their gazes snapped toward the darkened corner where Leo and Felix were hidden, their previous casual approach gone.
"Who's there?" The stocky man asked in a gruff voice, as Leo silently cursed under his breath.
Their greatest strength, the element of surprise, had now been squandered.