No Escape
Mark ran inside the tunnel filled with guilt, but he had to at least save Vicky.
As he reached deeper inside the tunnel, he tried desperately to find the exit.
"Where the fuck is the exit!"
He was losing his mind. After a while, the number of holes and tunnels increased so the number of paths he could take raised significantly.
He went up, down, left, and right, but no matter how much he ran, he couldn't find the exit.
"Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!!!!"
"Calm down! We won't get anywhere like this!" Vicky was just as nervous as Mark but they had to stay calm if they wanted to survive.
Surprisingly, Mark listened to her and took a deep breath, he already fucked up too many times because he couldn't control himself but not today, not again.
"...I-I'm dumb. I can't think of anything useful, so please tell me what to do"
Vicky was surprised by Mark's change in attitude. Normally, he would never say something like this.
"I don't really have any real good plan but we can try following the wind"
"Okay"
He grabbed her again and ran into the only tunnel he could barely feel a thread of wind.
They kept going for a long time and Vicky was relieved that at least they had a lot of room to run if something happened.
Soon, there was this weird mood between the two. They never talked properly since the incident and they had no idea what to talk about now that they were alone.
"I... I'm sorry" Mark said weakly.
"About what?"
"About everything. I should have said this so long ago... I'm sorry... I should have saved your sister that day"
"... It wasn't your fault"
"Yes, it was my fault. If I had my head in place, if I wasn't so much of an idiot, I could have saved her... It's a mistake I can't fix, and I will regret it for the rest of my life"
"..."
Vicky didn't know what to say. She always thought he never cared at all, that he just stopped thinking about it. But knowing it affected him so much made her feel conflicted and somewhat glad.
"I'm a fucking coward as well. It took me so long, so long just to apologize when I couldn't hope to pay enough to repay you for what I did"
He tried to apologize many times over the years, but his guilt and fear stopped him every time and as time passed, it only got harder and harder.
Mark walked slower and slower until he stopped.
Ren's sacrifice affected him more than he could understand. He wanted to be brave like that, he wanted to be strong like that.
He put Vicky down and kneeled on the ground.
"I'm sorry!" He apologized again but this time he was on his knees and crying.
Just like the brave man he wanted to be, he needed the courage to show how weak he was. To pull his heart out with no fear of being hurt.
He could never do it before, he was always afraid of his weakness being seen because he was too afraid of the pain. But now, at this moment, he was strong enough to step over his pride and fear to do what he wanted... So he apologized.
"I-I... It was never your fault, we wanted to go and you accompanied us. Even if you didn't go, we would have snuck out anyway. I was the stupid one for not stopping it"
Vicky started crying as well when she remembered everything that happened.
It was a strange and warm moment but now it wasn't the time for emotional breakdowns.
Mark heard the sound of the fairies approaching them and he quickly picked her up again while running at full speed.
Mark, with Vicky on his back, continued to run through the maze of caves.
The fairies followed them and they knew they wouldn't last very long.
A few minutes later, they found themselves near the entrance of another huge tunnel.
The entrance looked completely different from the others. There weren't any holes or openings, just smooth walls. In fact, it even resembled a door.
Mark passed through it and his vision blurred. He was teleported somewhere inside the cave.
"Where are we?" Vicky was worried.
"I don't know"
He walked for a while and he finally recognized where they were. They were teleported to the start, right behind the hole they fell into to reach this place.
His face filled with despair as he saw the scene of Ren's body being kicked on the ground as the fairies laughed around him.
Vicky covered her mouth and she held her impulse to scream.
The fairies quickly noticed their presence. Mark put Vicky on the ground and prepared to fight.
He was gonna die but he was gonna die fighting
A fairy appeared behind Mark and stabbed him in the back with its dagger.
Mark tried to turn around but it was too late. His shoulder was pierced and he groaned while cutting the fairie in two.
His sword was stained with blood as more fairies approached.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!!"
Five more fairies attacked and he cut them all down.
After killing five more, the rest ran away from him and entered the mass of fairies again.
Mark was exhausted but he stood up and started walking.
He couldn't understand the fairies' actions, there were more than five hundred fairies around him now but they didn't attack.
Why? Did they want to capture him or something else? What was their goal?
He was getting desperate and he tried to look at anything to find an answer.
A few seconds later, his eyes widened with disbelief. Ren's body was moving on the ground, he had not died yet
Ren's head moved and Mark could see the disappointment on his face.
Everything he did to save them and now they came back here to die. It was ironic and painful to see all his efforts turn to dust like that.
"Ren! I'm sorry!"
Ren was on the ground far away with a lot of fairies between them.
He could try to get him but he knew he wouldn't make it. The fairies would never let Mark get near him.
Vicky looked at Mark and tried to say something but Mark waved her off.
They had no hope of escaping until they heard something from above. Two people fell from the same hole in the cave's roof.
Mark smiled with a hint of hope.
"It took you long enough you bastards!"