Wayward Travellers

chap. iv

CW: Body horror, maybe possessive behaviour too if you squint.

.

.

Walking aimlessly was never one of your favourite pastimes, but being forced to do it because of the place you were in only made you hate it more. You could've been doing things that actually mattered right now, so why'd you have to get stuck doing something as pointless as this?

Hong Lu was unusually quiet and that made things even more boring for you. It wasn't like he was normally the talkative type, though. He'd ask questions here and there but he usually kept to himself most of the time. However, when you were with him? He'd have hundreds of topics to talk about and even more to ask questions about, so seeing him be so quiet even in your presence felt weird.

Then again, it wasn't like Hong Lu was chatty ever since you found him, so you could only wonder what happened there.

You came to a stop when the hallway you were walking in for a while now forked into two paths that looked identical. You wanted to pick a random direction like you did previously, but one of the hallways gave you an ominous feeling and you couldn't discern which one it was. You wouldn't be doing yourself any favours if you put yourself or Hong Lu in danger, so backtracking was the only option you had right now.

You turned around to go back and find a safer way to traverse through only for Hong Lu to pull you towards him. "Wait..." he mumbled almost too quietly for you to hear.

"What are you doing?" you asked, not bothering to hide your annoyance. He didn't bother to answer you just yet; opting to keep his attention on the left hallway. You looked at it as well but there wasn't anything of note in there that you could see. Still, if Hong Lu was so keen on looking at that hallway specifically then there must be something in there.

"...Ah, nothing~" he suddenly answered with a smile before dragging you into the right hallway, much to your confusion.

"And where exactly are we going?" you asked. You trusted Hong Lu enough to assume that the hallway he picked was the one without the ominous aura, but you worried that the other one was where Yi Sang was located, though you didn't have the right to complain about it since you were also going to avoid the left hallway — as well as the one you were currently in — altogether.

"Don't worry about it, [Name]. All you have to do is keep following me."

There was a hint of urgency in his voice, the only reason why you didn't push it further even though you wanted to know why he took the lead so suddenly. Fortunately — or unfortunately — you didn't have to wait long to find out as Hong Lu came to a sudden stop when the space in front of you both suddenly ripped open; the colour of the ripped space oddly reminiscent of the blade of Hong Lu's weapon.

"So you heard us..." Hong Lu grumbled almost uncharacteristically. For a brief moment, you saw a scowl on his face before it was quickly replaced by his usual smile. "Oh well, I'll just have to deal with you~"

Before you could ask him what he was talking about, a strange person came out of the ripped space.

...No, not person. That thing couldn't be described as a person.

It looked similar to the monstrous form Hong Lu had when you first encountered him, but this thing was far more hideous. Just like you and Hong Lu, it wore W Corp's clean-up agent uniform; a grotesque version to be exact as its flesh and clothes were merged together in a disgusting manner. Its head and neck were merged as well with writhing muscle fibres, its laceration of a mouth extending just a little below its chest. Its arms were ripped off, having weird appendages that looked oddly similar to the weapon that Hong Lu had instead.