Hunted Down With My Lover (ON HOLD)

Part 7; Ao Oni (Cont.)

I checked around the room, which turned out to be a bathroom. I noticed the bath was full of water, so I drained it. At the bottom was a Phillips head screwdriver. I grabbed it and put it into my satchel, stepping towards the door afterwards and pressing my ear against it. I didn't hear any footsteps, so I slowly opened the door, peeking out. I let out a sigh of relief, leaving the bathroom. I went to the door at the end of the hall, and opened the door to yet another bathroom. In it, I found the bar of soap we needed to clean the blood off the piano. I stuffed it in my bag and hurried out of the door in excitement of our progress, coming face to face with Felix and bumping into him on accident. We nearly fell over, but we held tight onto each other, keeping the other from falling. My cheeks turned red with embarrassment.

"Ah, sorry Felix," I said, pulling away from his grasp.

"It's okay," he muttered, a smile on his face. "I'm just glad I found you." 

A small smile pulled on my lips as I replied, "Me too." 

He grabbed my hand afterwards, informing me it was a way to keep us from losing each other. I laughed a little at that, pulling him to the room with the piano in it. I took the handkerchief out of my bag and put the soap in it, rubbing the blood off the piano. The numbers '176' were etched into the piano, which I assumed was for a code to open something. 

"M-Marzia!" Felix screamed, pulling me away. "Run!" 

We ran out of the room, the monster tailing us again. It had seemingly teleported out of thin air behind me. The two of us ran until it had finally disappeared, leaving us in the dining room kitchen complex. We both plopped tiredly onto the couch, catching our breath. Ryan popped out from behind the counter, his mask nearly falling off his face. 

"Are you two okay?" he asked, sitting beside Felix.

"As okay as we can be." I replied. "How are you?" 

"A bit shaken, to say the least." he said, shivering as he pushed himself deeper into the couch. 

It was quiet for a bit, until Felix noticed Ryan's mask was about to fall off. 

"Honestly.." Felix chuckled. "Here, turn your head." 

Ryan did so, allowing Felix to readjust the mask and tighten the string. Ryan smiled widely after, well, at least it seemed like it. 

"Thanks, dude." Ryan pulled Felix into a tight hug. 

When they finally pulled away, I got up from the couch and gestured towards the door. 

"If you two are done, I think we're still missing Ken." I said, a worried look plastering itself onto my face. "Who knows what could be happening to him right now?"

"You're right." Felix said, getting up and pulling Ryan with him. "Let's go."

We left the room and ran back upstairs, looking in the bedrooms. Ken was once more found shivering in the closet. Felix helped him out this time, letting him lean on him for support since he was tremendously shaken up. 

We hurried to the room with the piano in it, going straight for the lock in the back corner in between the bookshelves. The lock had a screen with shapes on it, and a place to input numbers for the code. Ryan punched in the code for the lock, it opening to reveal a key labeled 'Kid's Bedroom Key'. Once we exited the piano room, Ryan led us to the kid's bedroom, using the key and getting us inside. 

The room was empty, save for a bottle of lighter fluid located on top of a shelf,  that I had to use a chair to reach. Then, we hurried back to the Japanese styled room to acquire the actual lighter. 

I stopped there afterwards, sitting down in the middle of the room, putting my hands to my face.

"Marzia?" Felix asked, concern in his voice. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I muttered. "Just.. tired." 

I felt tears roll down my face and I hurriedly tried to wipe them before anyone could notice. The three men crowded around me, each figured out I was crying. So much for hiding it...

Felix sighed and hugged me tightly, gesturing at Ryan and Ken to help comfort me. The three of them kept telling me that I was going to be okay, that we were going to get out of here. At the time, I couldn't really believe it. I felt like it was hopeless, that we were going to be trapped here forever. But the moment I heard Felix say, "I'm here for you" was when I truly felt like I was going to be fine. He emanated such warmth in me, something I wasn't able to explain. He was special. I knew that if I had him with me, I could take on the world.

Felix cupped my face in his hands and wiped my stray tears off with his thumbs. At this point, Ryan and Ken had backed away, knowing smiles on their faces as they watched us.

"You are going to be okay." he said, looking me straight in the eyes. "I'll make sure of it."

I smiled, pulling him in for a tight hug. It lasted a while, enough for me to forget where we were for a moment. 

After that, Felix got up from the floor and held his hand out for me. He pulled me up and kept his hand in mine. 

"Come on." he smiled. "It's time to continue our journey home." 

The four of us left the room, a new found warmth in all of us. Felix was able to take our apprehension and turn it into motivation to do what we needed to do.

He really was something...