Day 9 in August 17, 2017
Time: Irrelevant

Their eyes had finally landed on the familiar 2-C and they enterd the room that was corresponded by the sign.

James slid the sliding door shut but he was quick to open them again as he felt a looming shadow behind him.

"Shit! It's you again!" he said right at the face of the giant long necked monster that had been there from the very beginning.

"Go watch the fireworks," It said, its voice mixed with other kind of voices-- low, grounded, high, all the pitch and kind of voices you could think of.

"Go watch this!" he yelled and stabbed it right at its eyes. Just like before, it still didn't make a sound but it wiggled, feeling the knife in its eyes.

James posed his body in front of the group and guided them to circle the inside of the room, his arms on both his side as a protective fence.

Their backs had hit the window and that's when they knew thay had reached the opposide side of the door, the monster had stopped wiggling and pulled the knife out of its eyes. It stared at the knife as if studying it, like it was its first time seeing such a thing until it had an idea and threw the knife back at them.

It swooshed through the air, fast and glinting in the multicolored background.

They were frozen still, couldn't make a move at how fast it approached and it was only a few meters away when they realized that it was going for Sammy and it was about to make it's way in her forehead when Mark raised his arm and stopped it there. The knife met his flesh and it made a sickening wet sound as it almost went through his arm. Red splattered everywhere and they expected a scream of pain but it never came.

Mark should've screamed right then and there but instead, Sammy and Fei did it for him. They screamed in horror at how grotesque it looked, at the implications of shattered bones, pierced flesh and the pain that came with it.

They screamed with that in mind but it took them a few seconds to realize that he had no reaction to it at all and that earned him a horrified look from both of them. Their heads slowly turned towards him, their eyes blown wide. They realized it. They realized that he couldn't feel anymore.

He tried to smile but it faltered. "I can't... feel my arms anymore."
He held his bleeding arms into his chest and that seemed to terrified them more.

"Mar-" Fei was about to say something but she was interrupted by the monster attacking again.

"Move!" James yelled and they scattered inside the room, their body bumping onto chairs and desk, messing the place up, almost making it look like a maze.

Fei growled and kicked a table towards it, Mark and Sammy was there with their knives at the ready. James stripped his shirt off of him and he went for the windows. He had been seeing a lot of bombs going down near it and when he saw the tiniest sign of yellow spark, he threw the window open, widened up his shirt and scooped one ball right out of its free fall.

"Get behind me!" he commanded and he threw the bomb right across the room. Sparks flew everywhere, the colors spun into a spiral and the bomb exploded right at the monster's face. The whole place shook and the impact pushed everything away, knocking them off their feet, the pulse of heat strong against their skin, the ringing evident in their ears.

When they had recovered from the impact, they raised their heads just to stare at the work they'd done but what they saw there just threw them into a shock.

"You gotta be kidding me?!" James said, exasperated when the explosion he had made just managed to push the monster out into the hallway. It didn't retain any damages and it's making its way back into the room again.

That's when he knew he had to do it. They had to do their plan. They had to do to it, afterall.

James gulped down the lump in his throat and looked back at Mark.

Mark was already staring at him when their eyes met and they knew the message between those stares and they both nodded.

Mark dreaded what was about to happen. When James had pulled him aside earlier he started with a question asking if he could still fight.

He answered with a regretful "no".
But he was more than willing to be a shield for everyone and when he was about to propose that to James, he had cut him off with a crisp "fuck you" followed by the words: "don't you dare become a meat shield."

He said that he had a plan. He was going to do something. And this was what he was going to do.

James screamed at the top of his lungs and it grabbed everyone's attention, even the mosnter's.

He ran straight towards it, bagpack slung in one of his arms as he slipped the blanket rope out of it. The bag clattered on the floor, the rope tailed on the rubbles and just like that, he jumped on the monster.

The monster roared ballistically, trying to shake him off, tried to pry him out but he didn't let go. He grinded his teeth, stretched his arms around it and coiled the rope he had in his hands on its body and on his, temporarily binding him to the monster with the rope.

He yelled at it, cursed at it and when he was about tie a knot-- something sharp had peirced his torso.

His screaming came into an abrupt stop and everyone behind him screamed instead. His eyes went down to see what happened and what he saw there was a giant nail going through his stomach and out his back, he was impaled into the monster and he vomited blood.

It felt like time had stilled there and his life was flashing before his eyes, colors bloomed on his paling cheeks as the light outside illuminated it. His eyes were rolling back into his head, but then, an explosion rocked the place and he remembered that they were in a middle of an explosion, dammit! His eyes turned into a wild gaze and he scremed again, sounding more choked this time, his hand found the end of the rope and he circled it around them one last time and tied it at the very end.

He stumbled inside the room with the monster and when they turned, his eyes landed on Mark and he said: "you know what you have to do," before a genuine smile appeared on his lips as he heard Mark made a mad dash towards him and the monster, tipping them both back and shattering the window that was behind them.

There was a shattering, he was in the air with the monster dangling by his feet and he could hear a lot of people calling out his name. He'd never thought a day would come where someone or anyone would call out his name with such desparation and longing. His eyes peeked from his lashes and he could see them all, peering down from the window, they were holding an arm out for him, their hands on the other end of the rope and the others grazing his hair with their fingers.

There were tears, creased foreheads and begging eyes and he couldn't do anything about it. He didn't want to see it but if he blinked enough he could see an illusion that bent that very picture.

Instead of them crying and fucking wailing, he could see them peering down the window like they were rapunzel and he was the prince climbing up the tower just to reach them, instead of grieving eyes, their eyes were mischevious. They looked like friends just messing around and really, he'd rather see that than this.

He pulled at his strength one last time and moved his head up, making him face Fei head on.

He smiled at her and held out a hand. She was the very person that was holding the rope, she was biting her lips as she tried to keep a strong face on and she just kept holding on.
His hand finally reached hers, his bloodied fingers grazing her scratched small ones. He felt that sensation with every precious second that he had.

This was the best he could get from that dance he kept on dreaming about.

He almost grabbed on.

He almost squeezed back.

He almost became desparate but he only let his blood ran down her fingers before he went for her grip and pulled the rope out of her grasp.

She gasped when it slipped out of her hands, her eyes showed betrayal but she didn't miss a beat and held out another hand but he didn't held out his, he didn't even try and so, he descended and finally went out of reach.

"James!" Fei called his name and it resounded. He savored that one sound and he smiled.

"Go home, all of you," he whispered into the wind before he met the ground and everything turned black.

"James!" Fei yelled after him but he was gone now, on the ground, silent and drowning in his own blood.

Mark had pulled her away from the scene as soon as possible and hugged her as he whispered in her ears.

"I'm sorry," he said, as she cried onto his chest.

Are you gonna survive that?

Mark had asked that question to James when they had discussed that plan.

James had just smirked at that, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'll make it if I'll make it."

He'll make it if he'll make it. Those were the only words that echoed in his mind as he did what he did.

He'll make if he'll make it.

But he got stabbed in the stomach.

He'll make if he'll make it.

But he fell.

... And he didn't make it.

"I'm sorry," he said again. The only part that he had to do was to be the one to push and he did that. And he was the one to blame.

"I'm sorry."

All of a sudden a new set of arms had wrapped around them both and it was Sammy. She held her head between the two of them and she closed her eyes as she buried them in her embrace.

"That was crazy," she said, her voice was nothing but a whisper, tears were running down her cheeks. "You should've told me, you idiots." Her hands started rubbing the back of their heads. "You should've told... me."

There was a moment of silence before she started again.

"But it'll be alright now. James hadn't sacrificed himself for nothing, we have the board for ourselves now and we could rewrite all of this."

A familiar scraping had filled the room and their watery eyes went to the board. The August, 17 there was getting erased by an unseen force and the sound of the chalk tapped and tapped as it wrote the words, August, 18.

"That's me," Sammy said and she let go of her hold of them. She held the chalk and wrote:

"Sammy, do not let youself and the others go the old meeting room."

It replied, "Who is this? What are you?"

Sammy wrote back. "Let's just say I'm a friend from the other side that's kind enough to warn you of the upcoming danger. Please listen to me. A boy named Mark and a girl named Fei will enter the room. The girl will ask you why you like writing dates on the board. She'd do exactly that. If that finally happened, and you're convinced. Please do as I say and get them out of the meeting room, immediately!"

"But--" the letter was starting to write again but Sammy wrote faster, outrunning it.

"Do it or I'll curse you!" She wrote fast, moving on to a threat when persuasion was taking a long time. She let the chalk fall by the side of the board and stepped back for a little and there were no answers for some time until the tapping started again and their eyes burst in tears when it said:

"Okay, I'll do it."

It left at that and Sammy turned to look back at the remaining group, a smile of triumph on her face, her eyes screaming the words: "we did it!". She ran back to them and she embraced them again.

The explosion outside became louder and louder as it grew nearer. The room rocked with intensity and glitters of colors spread everywhere but it didn't faze them as they hugged in the middle of the crumbling room without a care in the world. Protected by only their backs, held by their arms and supported by their shoulders that was bumping into each other.

At the center of their little circle their faces came together in a smile, their eyes flowing with tears of joy and other mixed up emotions.

"Sammy, will Laine, Josh and Mae be there once we got home?"

Sammy remembered Fei asking that question when they were still back in their meeting room. Her hand was raised and her eyes were glittering at the idea of them finally going home but she couldn't help herself and had to ask one last question. Typical Fei.

Sammy smiled.

"Yes. All of them will be there. Safe and sound."

She remembered ending that meeting on a good note. It was the last one they would ever have in this world and she thought of that as she cleaned the board off it's words. She thought of that when she finally wheelled it to the sides. She thought of that when the last bits of chalk clattered back down in its box. That room had been a lot of things to them, a shelter, a bedroom, a meeting room. And at the very last moment, she was proud to say that their meeting ended there.

That finally concludes everything.

They're going home.

"... I'll see you there," Sammy whispered into the air before fireworks exploded directly at them and rubbles came falling down.

---------

Fei blinked her eyes open.

There was someone standing by the board, their face against the light of the dawning day. Their long black hair flowed in the wind, their hand held a chalk and the smile that was on the person's face was genuine, not mechanical, not of a porcelein doll.

"Welcome back," the figure said, its voice gentle and caring as always.

Fei smiled back, her sight becoming clearer as seconds past. For the very first time in what felt like a very long time, the light surrounding her wasn't green. Suddenly, it was orange and there was no wall of green outside. Mark was beside her, holding her hand, no injury, not in the brink of death. She barked out a laugh as a single streak of tear made its way out of her eyes. She tilted her head at the person in front of her and she smiled.

"It's good to be back... Sammy."

The End

Art by twintails18