Piggeh seemed a lot better than when they'd left the two. The color had come back to his face and it looked as if the wound on his arm had stopped bleeding. Now Piggeh was leaning on the wall in the corner of the room, eyes closed and apparently sleeping.
Mr. Chair, happy as ever to see them, rushed over at the sight of the lantern. "You got it!" He jumped and hugged Stephano before returning to Piggeh's side. "You weren't gone for too long. Was it that easy to get?"
"No. We're back early because we ran."
"Ran?" Mr. Chair looked their way once more. He opened his mouth but then bit his lip almost as if what he had wanted to say had gotten stuck in his throat.
Felix sighed. "We were running from the damn monster. That… uh… the Brute guy."
The brunette's eyes fell to Felix's ripped jeans. "Oh! You're hurt!" He would have moved if it weren't for Piggeh grabbing his arm and sitting up suddenly. Hatred burned in those eyes again, a look so fierce it gave Felix a gut ache. Piggeh pulled Mr. Chair back to whisper in his ear.
"It's not what you think," Stephano said, stepping into the room and closing the door once the blonde was in. "He fell when we were running. WE were running. He wasn't leaving me."
Piggeh grit his teeth and looked away.
"Wait, I thought we were past this crap?" Felix stared at Piggeh for a long while. "I thought we were working together now. Why does he still hate me?" Then he felt the churning in his stomach and didn't want to hear anyone answer that.
"You-"
"Never mind." Felix pulled out a chair and sat down wanting this ache in his stomach to stop already.
Stephano held back what he had been about to say. "Anyway, we have the lantern now so we can go to the sewers. Piggeh, are you up for it?"
The pink haired man glanced his way only to spit at nothing in particular and look away again.
"Felix? How's your leg?"
"I told you it's fine. Let's just get out of here already." Felix pushed down those feelings deep inside knowing full well that he couldn't be dealing with them right now. Right now he needed to set his focus on what they were about to do. "You first, Stephano."
Something sparked in the golden man's eyes. "Yes. This way." The lantern had already been put out some time before and was then handed to Felix. "You need this more than we will."
Felix stared at it. "What do you mean? You can't see in the dark, can you?" Holding the lantern forced a nostalgic feeling through his body. Funny because he'd never actually held the lantern except for in game. Still that feeling was there and very real. "If you're in the lead then you need it, not me." He attempted to give it back but Stephano wouldn't budge. "Stephano! Take the damn thing!"
"If we get separated, you need the lantern to find your way out."
He flinched. "What?"
"Do I need to tell you again? My first priority is you and keeping you safe." Dark gold eyes narrowed until Felix took the lantern back. "Keep it, PewDie. You might need it."
The thought of getting lost without any of his bros had Felix wanting to just stay in the room they had found and lock the door forever. It was a temporary thought because he knew better than that. Hiding was never a permanent solution.
"PewDie?" Stephano waved his hand in his face. "You sure you're okay?"
Felix felt cold; all the color having drained from his face from that sudden fear. He shook his head and then sat down from dizziness. "Y-yeah…" he lied without trying to hide it.
"We should go now if we want to make it to the sewer before the Bro comes back around. Come on." His hand came into Felix's view then. "Let's get out of here."
The Swedish man stared at that hand for a heartbeat before grabbing hold of it and standing back up. "Okay. Let's try to find Jennifer, Skully, and Sven while we're out there."
"It's worth a try. Skully is around here somewhere. Haven't heard him but we've seen plenty of him around the castle." Stephano patted Felix's back.
Mr. Chair helped Piggeh to his feet and allowed the other to lean on him – even though it didn't seem necessary. "Shouldn't we wait? Percy's still hurt. We should go back to the room and wait till tomorrow."
"Percy?" Felix glanced back and then to Stephano.
"Piggeh's name, but only Mr. Chair calls him that." Stephano rolled his eyes. "And it's his arm, Mr. Chair. That's not going to do anything to his running. You okay to go, Piggeh?" he then asked a second time.
The pink haired man shrugged and then nodded.
"Percy…" Mr. Chair's grip on Piggeh's arm tightened.
"He said he's okay. Don't make such a big deal about it." Stephano opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He looked down the hall and signaled for them to follow. "Don't make a noise. Follow me."
Felix sighed as the feeling in his gut grew worse. He wanted to get this over with and have his bros free from this hell so he could feel better. He wasn't just doing this for himself, he wanted to know that his bros were safe.
Immediately Stephano took off in a run. Felix caught up easy and kept good pace with him. There was no point in running like he had before since he had no idea where they were going nor was there anything chasing them. Yet. A jolt of panic had him stumble at the thought of being chased again. That was one of the worst feelings – besides the ones he kept pushing away at the moment.
Almost too fast they came to a solid door that opened with a lever beside it. How Felix had missed it before baffled him. The door made an eerie scratchy creak as it slid up into the ceiling. Where it went was beyond him. It was open and that's all that mattered to him.
Cold darkness greeted them. A wind of hollowness bellowed from within almost pulling the surrounding light into its depths. Empty screams howled into the air from deep within the abyss before them. Screams that sounded long dead but still hung in the black spaces beneath.
Felix felt something worse than fear creeping inside of him and stepped back, bumping shoulders with Piggeh who showed no acknowledgement to the contact happening. The group seemed to take a step back without even having moved at all. Mutual feelings spread through them all stalling their decent.
It was Stephano who made the first move. Fitting enough, it still set a rock in Felix's stomach knowing the man would blindly jump into danger like this. He stepped in and was swallowed up by the shadows.
Piggeh was next, starting forward before turning and holding his hand out to Mr. Chair who took it without a second thought. The two vanished into the dark then leaving Felix behind.
Fear ate at him. Deep down to his soul. All the Swedish man wanted to do was google pictures of kittens or turn off this game and go eat ice cream until he puked. ANYTHING than go down there. In any game he'd NOPE out of that and wonder around for a while, but the only thing to find up here was the Bro; and who knew how close he was.
No. The only place to go at the moment was there. Down into the depths.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feeling determination scarcely dwindling at the edge of his conscious, the blonde stepped into the darkness and pulled out the lantern turning it on.
Lights danced out before him only giving limited sight that was almost not helpful but comforting nonetheless. With the lantern on he felt blinder than anything. Nothing but night before him so there was no reason for it to be lit in the first place, and yet at the same time he felt it to be necessary.
These stairs didn't go on like the others had. He quickly reached the bottom, surprised when invisible lights from somewhere illuminated enough space to show him his friends. Stephano stood with a sense of confidence and light to his face that changed his previous character altogether. Piggeh still looked pissed off, but now he too had that confident look about him. Mr. Chair was missing the confidence in his stance yet something about his eyes showed determination. Going into the darkness seemed to have changed them all. Almost like they had a purpose again.
"Glad to see you join us," Stephano said with a mocking, happy tone.
Groaning screams echoed through the darkness before them vibrating the very air. The normally horrifying sound didn't touch Felix. Strange because just the dark had been enough to almost make him turn and run. Maybe it was because he was use to that sound from his past.
"Shall we?" the golden man then asked with one last look to the people surrounding him.
Felix was still scared beyond anything, but having these three with him reminded him of the courage they had always given him. True that it didn't get rid of his fears at all, but they always gave him the courage to just yolo through everything and get it done.
He nodded then.
Piggeh gave a thumb up and Mr. Chair clung to his arm.
"Good. Onward." Stephano took the lead with Felix catching up to stay with him.
The darkness before them enveloped all of them leaving the lantern to hold them in a small pocket of light. This blackness was even more than what Amnesia gave. Shadows pulled the group in further and further to the depths. The more they advanced the closer they became.
Felix was grabbing at Stephano's shirt feeling as if the contact with the statue made him safer. He flinched at every sound around them, as their sight was impaired by the shadows it heightened his sensitivity to every crackle and creak that the emptiness offered up.
With each step further and further into the murky shades sent chills up Felix's spine. A sudden high pitched gasp caught his attention and Felix felt his heart about drop clean into his stomach at the sight of the monster reaching out of the dark for Mr. Chair.
