Hot air burned the teen's nose and charred his throat, thick smoke sucking all the moisture out of his mouth. It all mixed together and forced him to double over in a coughing fit. Tears brought to his eyes by the ash and smoke swirling through the air caused his pink eyes to go blurry, making him almost completely blind. Hands fumbled around in front of him as he struggled to find someone, anyone, amidst the maze of ashen smoke.

"Rei-chan? Ai-chan? Anyone?" Nagisa cried out, another coughing fit striking him as he struggled to form words with his dehydrated tongue.

How did things come to this? the small teen wondered, a small part of him wanting to just give up while the other part of him pushed to keep moving. The ash and smoke covering the sky as well as the roar of the fire around him was all caused because of last night.

The game had taken a strange turn. The six friends found themselves awkward around each other now after they had been forced to partake in sexual acts with one another. Even if no one was willing to say it out loud, the definition of their friendship was certainly skewed after that. Not long after Makoto had mounted Rin - and Rei had taken care of Haru's heat - the boys had found themselves weary from exhaustion. Even though they had not eaten since that morning, no one could muster up enough energy to even think about being hungry. Sleep eventually won and they all ended up falling asleep, strewn about the cabin once more.

This time, however, they had taken care to leave adequate space between each other.

Nagisa woke to the smell of frying mackerel, which could only mean Haru was back to his normal self already and cooking them breakfast. Yawning, the blond boy stretched his arms over his head as he slowly raised himself into a sitting position. This time he had taken one of the sofas, with Rin taking the other. Makoto, Ai, and Rei had found places to sleep on the floor, while Haru had taken the bedroom.

Looking around he saw that no one else had been woken up by the smell of food yet. Figuring there wasn't much for him to do at that time, he decided to get off the sofa and tip toe quietly over to where the board game lay against a wall. When he bent down to examine it, he realized Makoto had done some damage to it last night when he had thrown it to the side.

"Aa-ah, Mako-chan broke it," Nagisa complained softly, lifting the painted metal up with his small hands before taking it back over to his sofa to examine. Sitting down on the soft cushions, he laid the game across his lap so he could get a better look at it.

Along one of the corners that had first slammed into the wall was scratched and chipped paint, and even though it lowered the overall aesthetics of the game, it was thankfully nothing major. What was most worrisome was the animals themselves.

The rabbit appeared to be fine, still sitting properly in its track without even a scratch on its intricate paint job; the other animals were not so lucky. The cat looked to be jammed in, pushed further down into its slot than it had been the day before. The wolf was even worse off, with its metal stick bent enough to make the animal tilt to one side of the board. Nagisa tried to move them manually to see whether or not they still worked and functioned properly, but all three of them wouldn't budge. In the end he gave up, figuring the only way to see if they still worked on not would be to continue playing the game.

Eventually the food finished cooking, and after everyone woke up they would eat the meal together on the floor. Putting aside their dirty plates, Nagisa put the game onto the bear rug and sat next to it, but when no one joined him he looked up at all of their apprehensive faces. They all seemed reluctant to continue the game now, especially the redhead that sat on the furniture with his maroon gaze turned away from the rest of them.

"I'm not playing anymore," Rin stated firmly, top lip curling to bare his sharp teeth at no one in particular.

"You can't do that," Makoto frowned, his soft gaze looking at the swim captain. "We still need to finish this game-"

"You can say that because you weren't the one taking it up the ass!" Rin snarled, whipping his head around to glare viciously at the other wolf. Nagisa unconsciously dragged his eyes lower to stare at the maroon-haired boy's lower half, and noticed he was sitting in a way so that he wasn't putting direct weight onto his ass.

Makoto bit his lip and looked taken aback for a moment before he continued speaking. "Even so... We can't just sit around and hope this game will end on its own..."

"I didn't realize you were so quick to accept defeat," Haru suddenly spoke up, his face passive with blue eyes staring lazily through a window. Everyone turned to look at him in shock, especially Rin who couldn't believe the words that were coming out of Haru's mouth. "Makes sense why I always beat you so easily."

Snap. That did it. Rin ground his teeth together as he lunged at Haru, grabbing the front of his shirt as they toppled onto the floor in a tangle of limbs. The redhead was quick to pin the black-haired boy to the ground, legs straddling his waist as brows furrowed together in agony.

"You don't understa-"

"Don't I?" Haru countered back, not even moving a muscle as he gazed calmly up at his childhood friend. "You once said you were going to show me a sight I'd never seen before... So don't give up so easily. Rin."

Red eyes shifted back and forth rapidly as they scanned Haru's face, before Rin would suddenly let out a sigh and fall backwards onto the ground behind him. He dragged his fingers through his hair, and even though he still seemed apprehensive, it was clear he had taken his friend's words to heart and would continue playing the game. With the weight off of him, Haru would slowly sit back up with his gaze trained on Rin.

Coughing slightly, Rei reached for the dice and took them in his hand.

"Guess it's my turn," he commented to no one in particular, before he rolled the numbers: six and two. They could hear a grinding noise coming from the board game, but the cat didn't seem to move at all in its slot.

"I looked at it earlier and I think the cat's jammed," Nagisa spoke up, pointing at the animal that hummed and vibrated slightly as if it wanted to move but couldn't.

"Maybe some sort of force would fix it," Ai commented, jumping suddenly as Rin shot out a foot and smashed it against the small cat. The loud crack! that came from the collision brought the fear that he had broken it, but when he removed his foot they saw that the cat was thankfully not broken. Instead, it appeared to be pushed back up out of its slot. Free to move, the animal slunk along the board eight spaces before it stopped and the card was revealed.

"Life doesn't let you cheat. Lose your home and move back two spaces," Rei read, violet eyes shifting upwards to watch as the cat moved back two spaces. "Cheat...?"

"Maybe the game thinks you were cheating because Rin hit and shifted the game piece?" Makoto suggested, brows furrowing slightly.

"Hey... Do you guys smell that?" Ai suddenly piped up, his long silver ears twitching back and forth nervously as he began to rapidly sniff the air. Nagisa raised his nose to the air and sniffed along with him, and it didn't take long before he took in what Ai had smelt: burning wood.

That's when it happened.

It was so sudden they barely had time to react as the far wall of the cabin suddenly roared to life with flames engulfing it. The heat spreading from the inferno bathed over them and caused them to reflexively scramble away from it, all of them pulling their shirts up over their mouths and noses to help breathe in the hot air.

No one needed to say anything as they began to scramble to their feet; they all knew they needed to move, and fast. Nagisa pushed himself to his feet and grabbed the dice in one hand while also hugging the game tight to his chest with the other, before turning to follow everyone else as they filed out of the cabin door. As they burst through the cabin door, it was as if they were stepping from one world and into a completely different one.

The entire forest around them was engulfed in fire, the red hot flames licking every tree and devouring every piece of undergrowth. The searing heat was hot enough to make it seem as though it was directly burning their skin, ash and smoke floating through the air and stinging their eyes.

"Watch out!" someone suddenly cried. Nagisa barely had enough time to jump backwards before the creaking and groaning echoing through the air sent a massive, burning branch crashing down to where the blond had been standing just seconds earlier.

Looking up with bleary eyes and a sore throat, the teen shook with fear as he realized he couldn't see any of his friends. He turned in rapid circles to scan the entire forest around him, but no matter where he looked he couldn't see any of them.

"Rei-chan? Ai-chan? Anyone?"


Thank you for the favourite and follow, Red-Shermilk! And thanks again for the second review, Allen-Is-Mine, glad you're still enjoying it :)