trouble - evnne

18

Onepact managed to make their way down the staircase entirely intact, sometimes Yedam thought it would be funny to try and spook his members by grabbing them suddenly, other times Taegyun yelped randomly to freak them out, but after lots of cursing and Jongwoo slapping the pranksters, they reached the bottom.

Dramatically, a light gust of wind extinguished the candle Jay grasped, earning a noise of disappointment from the hunter. The light rays from the torchlights darted around, before they managed to figure out that they were in a large, square-shaped room of concrete and LED lights, the cosiest basement yet. And much to their delight, they spotted a cat.

A cat the size of a truck, that is. With its fluffy orange fur and lightly swishing tail as it gracefully licked its paw, the cat looked too innocent and adorable to kill. Along with the cat in the room, where a number of doors lining the three walls of the room. Most of the doors were garishly colourful with whimsical patterns decorating them, every door bearing a different handle.

Upon noticing their arrival, the gigantic cat bared its teeth from where it was curled up in the centre of the room comfortably until they had barged in here rudely. Its eyes blinked at them with hostility, those eyes bigger than their heads, it truly would have been cute if not for the terrifying size. As it carefully lifted itself up from the ground, Yedam nodded, "Ah. So the "cat" is a beast. Cool! That's doable!"

Jay actually had the time to slap his thigh and laugh, "Ohh, yeah, this, this is what we're used to, thank you, a nice, normal dungeon."

"He's losing it," Taegyun sighed, then side-stepped the cat's paw that came swiping at him, causing all of them to duck.

"Let's just crush it," Jongwoo suggested as he raced to a side, "Piece of cake."

Sharp-eyed Yedam noticed a glimmer of something tucked under the cat's enormous belly, before gasping, "I think there's something metallic under the cat! That's probably the key."

"Can we not kill it?" Seoungmin started to plead, "I think that violates the feeding part of the request."

"Really? Now? You're worried about animal cruelty now?" Taegyun bit at the other while the cat hissed at him.

"You're not a cat person, huh?" Yedam chuckled, standing peacefully at the side as the cat kindly ignored him.

"That's a great point, Taegyun, you seem to be the only one the cat hates," Jongwoo called out from the corner he had tucked himself in to stay out of the way.

"Let's use Taegyun as a bait for now, then," Jay suggesting, snapping back to his professional mode, "Once it moves far enough, we'll hold it down and grab what is hopefully the key."

"Excellent plan Jay."

"Excuse me?"

"Take one for the goddamn team, Taegyun."

"I hate you guys."

While Taegyun miserably entertained the cat by being its personal cat toy, trying to lure it towards him, the others scattered to surround the cat. Taegyun scowled in annoyance when he realised there wasn't much space for him to move, the cat was quickly cornering him.

"Why is this cat so big," Taegyun cursed, trying to look around the cat to see if the key was within reach. Swiftly, Jongwoo and Seoungmin leapt into action, working their gravity on the cat as Jay dove for the key. Taegyun worked to keep the cat's head planted to the ground just so that it wouldn't get the chance to take a bite out of him, which Yedam graciously helped out with.

"Okay, we have the key, what do we do after that?" Jay asked as he scrambled to his feet, gripping the key.

"Let's try every door," Yedam helpfully suggested, and while maintaining his focus, Jongwoo shot the youngest an exasperated look.

"Worth a try," Jay shrugged, ramming the key into the first keyhole and swearing when it didn't fit, before moving to the next one.

"Wait...we didn't feed the cat," Seoungmin recalled as Taegyun extracted himself from the tiny space the cat left for him. On a whim, he tried the door handle nearest to him, the simplest, plainest one that remarkably reminded him of the one that led them to the basement. Much to their delight and relief, the door cracked open to reveal a massive bag of what is presumed to be cat food. Wasting no effort, Taegyun ripped the bag open and with a wave of his hand, hurled the bag towards the cat, still pinned down by the other members.

As the cat went to town on its kibble, Jay continued to stuff the key into every door, before one door began glowing, as though behind it was a bright spotlight, with light spilling from the bottom and sides.

"That must be it," Jongwoo sighed, drained from the effort of holding down the large cat. Indeed, once Jay slotted the key in the keyhole, it opened with a satisfying click. Seoungmin spared one last look at the cat, still gobbling down the kibble. Yedam too, looked slightly fond of the cat.

Jongwoo chuckled, "When we get out, I'll get you two a cat, since you like it so much."

"If we get out, that is," Taegyun piped up, the ever mood killer, before the five slipped through the door, leaving the cat.

an: I'm gonna push back the update timing to be every 7 days, I'm really busy with work these days