Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

It took me a while to open my eyes. It hurt so much I couldn’t breathe.

"Don’t touch me..."

My arms hurt.

My legs hurt.

Everywhere hurt.

Joel loosened his hand.

Damien marched over with a worried expression as well.

"Do you still remember who pushed you down the stairs?" He asked nervously.

I shook my head. "It was too dark."

However, I had every reason to believe that the one who pushed me had wanted Damien dead.

I’d pushed him aside at the very first minute. Then... I was shoved down the stairs.

Apart from me and Damien, there was definitely someone else on that floor.

"Who was the last one to come down? Did any of you see?" I asked in pain.

Joel shook his head. "I panicked as soon as I saw you fall down. Afterwards, I came to check up on you. I didn’t;t notice if anyone else was there."

"The 17th floor is too dark. When you fell, I looked but I couldn’t see anything."

Damien furrowed his brows and subconsciously reached for my hand. But seeing as Juliet was present, he retracted it.

"We should get out as soon as possible. That lunatic... He won’t let any of us go."

"Those on the 17th floor formed a temporary group. They bonded with each other and developed a certain amount of trust..." Juliet started analyzing again. "There should be killing on a larger scale on this floor."

The lights went out three times on the 17th floor. Three people should have died, but I didn’t.

There must be a large-scale killing on this floor.

That man won’t let us get to the first floor alive.

Suddenly, someone was banging on the wall of the room we were in.

The wall between us seemed to be made of plaster. It didn’t sound very sturdy.

I cautiously looked at Joel and then Howard’s gang. Aside from the ones that died, there were exactly 13 people left. So who was the one on the other side of the wall?

"He sounds familiar," Joel muttered.

"It’s Eason Grant!" I stared at the plaster wall in shock.

Maybe because he didn’t gather a response, Eason then started to break the wall.

Damien led me away from the wall instinctively.

Not a while later, Eason’s head peeked through.

"My goodness, all of you are here?"

We both stared at each other in shock.

"Stop wasting time," Zion’s voice rang out from the other side as well.

He pushed Eason aside and kicked a hole in the wall before making his way over.

"What are all of you doing here?" He was surprised too.

Zion and Eason were both in scrubs as well. It looked like they were brought here like we were.

Aside from the pair, Violette also made her way through the hole in the wall.

"Violette!" I exclaimed in surprise. What were the three of them doing here?

"Where are we? I woke up and herel was." She scratched her head."That’s odd. I had a glass of juice at my blind date and just ended up blacking out."

"I chased after her after I saw her get taken away. Then, I ended up getting roped in as well..." Zion coughed.

"What about you, Genius Mr. Grant? You’re the star of the task force..." All eyes were on Eason.

"Ha..." He rubbed his nose

"But why did they wake up on the 16th floor while we woke up on the 18th?" Quinn asked quizzically.

"Because they’re the police," Joel

scoffed.

"This is a taunt from the lunatic. He’s telling everyone that the game’s difficulty level is increasing."

The game is leveling up.

This meant... that the difficulty is getting harder.

Getting out of this floor seemed like an impossible feat.

All of a sudden, my head started hurting again. My eyes started ringing too.

A warm liquid flowed out of my nose-it was bleeding.

Countless memories started flooding my head again.

"Are you okay?"

Joel’s yell rang out.

The man came to check on me while I was in a daze, only to be slammed against a wall. The impact seemed pretty heavy.

He stared at me in confusion for a bit before opening his mouth to speak.

"My goodness... Dexter wasn’t blind after all... You’re definitely Sophia..."

I furrowed my brows. The pain on my head felt like it was about to split my entire body into pieces.

"Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable to come back to life?" I asked in a raspy voice.

That question confused me.

Who was I asking?

Myself? Or someone else?

Currently being pressed against the wall, Joel’s body froze before he started yelling, "That hurts, that hurts. Let go..."

At the side, Violette stared at me in shock. Zion and Eason also regained their senses and stepped forward to pry my hands away.

"That was... quite professional," Eason said dazedly.

Wasn’t that the hold they learned during training?

Pressing someone against the wall with their arms twisted made it possible to maximize the impact dealt even if there was a huge disparity in strength. Violette also drew a deep breath and tried to ease the awkwardness.

"Sophia probably didn’t realize what she was doing," she said. She was struggling when she was unconscious earlier, maybe... she had a nightmare."

I sharply let go of Joel and took a step back without saying anything.

The man rolled his shoulders in pain and stared at me quizzically.

I lowered my head and turned to look around. I felt oddly... foreign.

"Sophia?" Violette noticed something off about me and softly called my name.

My hand seemed to reach for her throat instinctively, as if I didn’t want anyone around me.

Her body stiffened as she looked at me anxiously.

Eason rushed forward and tucked her behind him.

"Did the fall make you mad?" He looked at me cautiously.

I froze before looking down at my own hands. A wave of panic and helplessness washed over me.

"It’s not me... it’s not me..."

I didn’t know what I just did.

Violette pushed Eason away and clutched my hands nervously.

"Sophia... it’s okay, don’t be afraid. I know you didn’t mean it. Don’t be afraid, let’s leave this place and go home."

"Why are you pretending?" Juliet

scoffed from behind. "Stop wasting

our time if you’re not dead from the

fall. Try to think of a way to leave this floor if you want to live!"

She spoke coldly and purposely glanced at Damien before strutting away.

Damien furrowed his brow and looked at me with a complicated expression.

I shot him a glance and knitted my forehead together wordlessly.

"I checked out the entire floor. There are no exits or walkways. This floor is different from 17th, it’s filled with dividers."

"They look like solid walls, but many are made of plaster. There seems to be something going on behind some of them. I don’t dare to break any carelessly right now."

Damien explained his observations solemnly.

It seemed like the fastest way to find the way out would be to work together.

"That lunatic won’t give us so much time to look for an exit, I bet he has other things up his sleeve, like how he killed people during blackouts on the 9th floor." Joel berated before kicking a wall beside him.

There was a loud bang-That wasn’t a solid wall either.

He furrowed his brows and took a step back. Then, he reached for a nearby ax and swung it at the wall.

A thick smell of blood immediately wafted through the new gap in the wall.

Everyone tensed.

Outside, upon hearing the commotion, Howard and his group of people also ran over, terrified that they’d be left behind.

"Be careful, there should be something inside..." Eason followed closely behind Joel, clinging onto the edge of his shirt out of fear.

The latter shot him a look of contempt. "Don’t cling onto me."

Eason froze before wiping his hands and rolling his eyes. "You think I want to?"

"Stay away from me, or I’ll chop you up." Joel pointed the ax at him and asked him to stay further away.

He took a few steps back and cautiously looked behind the wall.

There was a dim light on the other side, and a floor filled with blood and bodies.

Not human bodies... animals.

"Dogs..." he pulled Joel aside. As a police officer, he entered first. Joel was still a teenager after all.

I stood glued to the ground. My feet didn’t obey me.

"Sophia?" Violette called.