EnderOni, Loop Two

Chapter Twenty Seven:

Distraction

-...-

Tyler sat with his head down on the table. Everyone was back in the safe room again. And again, everyone was broken by the news of the next death. Tyler had witnessed it, and the scene continued to play in his head, on repeat, loop after loop.He felt sick and sad. The others in the room had talked about the things they had found, which was nothing, and then turned to doing other things again. Tyler realized that what they were doing were loops of their own. They go out, someone gets killed, they come back,they rest, they go out, someone gets killed. There was no ending that. Not till everyone was dead, at least.

Tyler felt guilt again, like he had in the last loop. He still blamed himself for Brice's death. It was one he could've stopped....wasn't it? Brice was so confused when he died. In front of him was Onity, in his Onity form. Brice didn't let the confusion take hold of him too much, and fought back. Maybe if Brice was strong enough to have lived, maybe Tyler wouldn't feel so alone. It didn't matter, though. Onity would've found one way to kill Brice anyway. If Brice had lived, he'd find out about everything, and  then the rules would be broken, and Onity does like his rules.

"Game? Rule?"

Tyler shifted where he sat. Those were Brice's last words, weren't they? And what was the last words he had heard of Ian or Bodil? Two of the longest lasting pawns in the first loop? It seemed like they had no choice but to die first, as they were some of the ones to die last before. It was something Onity would do.

Tyler couldn't remember the last words of Ian or Bodil. He didn't have that strong of a memory.Everything up until the last death is a blur for him. He wondered what Bodil saw before death. How long had Onity kept him alive? Did Bodil see Onity, or did he just see the Oni? A lot of what Onity said to him was a blur too. He remembered Onity changing forms, his sick voice changing as well. His voice never perfectly fit the body he choose, but hell it came pretty close. At some moments, he didn't think he could tell a difference. Wait...

Tyler coughed, sitting up to a realization. He remembered hearing Brice from the other side of the door when he was trapped in the room. That Brice claimed to have lost his axe, and that Brice had no fear when going off on his own when there was a clear threat among them. Would the real Brice act so calm? Sure, Brice can be calm, but there was a slight difference that made it all. The Brice he had heard wasn't Brice, but Onity, giving Tyler a false sense of panic. Tyler believed Brice was walking off to his death alone. And didn't Brice have the axe. He used it to fight against Onity. He had never lost it.

"Listen up!" A voice broke Tyler'strain of thought. "We have another plan!"

Already? Tyler knew that it must have been an hour or two since Brice died, but that was quick. Nobody really tried to argue about how we should stay or go anymore. They'd had that argument already, but by the looks on some people's faces,they were still torn on going along with the flow or not.

"I was talking to Jerome, and he told me about how they had found something odd on the first floor. He wants to go back down and check it out. On top of that, I..I want to go back and look at the lounge room on the fourth floor. The one with the lever." Sky said. "I want to look at that lever again."

"We wont be pulling the lever,though." Seto said.

"That's not my intention." Sky replied.

"Well, i'm fine with that. I don't have much to lose." Mitch gave in quickly. "I'll go with Jerome."

"I'll go with Sky." Seto said.Though he trusted Sky, He didn't trust that lever at all.

There was a pause, but there was no fighting that fact that they should all go. The bigger the groups,the better chance there was of survival. Tyler watched as they all were able to come to a conclusion with who would go with who. They were different from those in the last loop.

"That would leave Tyler with....Sky's group." Jason said, and Tyler nodded his hurting head, getting up from the table he sat at.

"Alright. Mitch, Jerome, Sub, Jason, and Bashur are going downstairs while Me, Tyler, Ty, Seto, and Ant go upstairs." Sky said. "Sound right?"

There were no objections. The show had to go on.

-...-

Jerome lead his group to where he had a suspicion something was off. On the first floor, near the greenrooms down the middle hallway, there was a weak part in the wall.Jerome took them there, and explained how the rest of the walls felt hard and sturdy, while a part of this wall was weak.

"The rest of the wall is pretty strong." Jason said as he stepped a few feet over and knocked on the same wall.

"Exactly. Don't you think that's strange?" Jerome asked.

"Then there must be something wrong with the wall." Bashur sighed.

"You think there's something under that wall paper?" Mitch asked.

"Let's find out." Jason replied.

Jerome, Sub, and Bashur stepped back as Jason and Mitch pulled at the wall paper over the weak spot, and tore it down. What they found was a door. Jerome had found something after all. They kicked the wall paper to the side, and Sub walked over with Jerome to examine the door. It was a wooden door that looked old. Jerome sniffed the door to find a distant chemically smell. It was a red flag, but Jerome decided that the smell was too distant to be of concern. Other then that he couldn't hear much on the other side of the door.

"It's locked, though." Jerome frowned when he went to open the door.

"Do you think we could break it down?" Mitch asked.

"I don't know. I don't think anybody has a key." Jerome sighed and looked back at the others.

Jason and Bashur shook their heads,but Jerome noticed Sub fishing through his pockets. After a second,the mute pulled out a key. It was the key to the Annex. He was the last one to be given the key, as nobody knew where the Annex was.

"That's great, Sub!" Jerome smiled."Let's test it before trying to break anything."

Sub walked forward with the key in his hand and placed it into the keyhole. With a turn, the door clicked, and opened.

"So this is the Annex, huh." Jason said as the door opened and a coldness spilled into the hallway.

"Are we ready?" Jerome gulped,looking at his group members.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Mitch replied.

The group found that they had to step down a latter to get to the annex. When they got down there,they found the walls and floor to be a dark color, gray if not black.The air was stuffy and It was almost as if a light fog covered the area. Jerome, using his ability to smell, lead the way as they group cautiously walked down a hallway. There was a small room to the side,but the group found nothing inside. Then they got to the doorway at the end of the hallway, and found a bigger room.

The room had a few tables and bookcases in the back. Sub and Bashur looked around the tables while Jerome and Mitch went to look around the book cases. Jason found something rather odd. Fire extinguishers sat around the room, one at each corner of the room.

"Do you think this room is flammable?" Bashur asked, walking over to Jason.

"Well, if you're asking if there might be some reason as to why those things are here, then probably."Jason said. "But I wouldn't know for sure."

The two joined Jerome and Mitch in searching through the book cases. Sub made his way to the side of the large room to find another door. It was unlocked, and Sub stepped inside. It was a smaller room, like a large closet, and inside was a collection of weapons. Axes, swords, knives, everything other then firearms. Sub turned around to find Jason, who he got the attention of and showed him to the room. Jason looked inside, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"So many weapons!" Jason said."We'd never lose a battle against the oni with these!"

"Weapons?"

Mitch and Jerome walked over, having been nearby. They peeked inside to see the stock.

"Ohh man! Way to go, Sub!" Mitch grinned.

"Look at everything." Jerome gasped. "We need to take as much of that as we can back to the others in the safe room!"

"Hell yeah, we do!" Jason nodded his head.

"Looks heavy though, can you handle it?" Mitch commented to Jerome.

"Do you insult thy bacca!" Jerome huffed and Mitch just laughed.

"H-Hey! G-Guys! Take a look at this!"

Sub, Mitch, Jerome, and Jason heard Bashur call from the other side of the room, and they all turned away from the room to find the melon. Bashur was standing, looking up at the wall in the back of the room. The four stopped and stared at the wall, finding what was on it to be pretty disturbing. Sub looked over at the Melon, to see him shaking.

"What do you think it means?"Jerome asked.

"I-I don't know, b-but I want to get out of here. I don't want to be here anymore!" Bashur cried.

Sub looked back at the walls. Written on the dark walls was the same two words, over and over, different sizes, all telling the same thing.

"NO MORE"

-...-

The second group made it upstairs to the lounge room, where Sky went over to the leaver to look around at it. Tyler watched as Ty and Ant took the time to look around the room again, and Seto sighed, walking over to Sky to see if there was anything else with the lever in the corner that they could find out about. Tyler walked over to the two beds and sat down on the side of on, holding his journal in his hands. The room was pretty silent.

Tyler remembered what happened int his room last loop. He remembered Sub attacking Onity, who was still pretending to be the real Ty. He remembered Sub admitting he had tried to kill Onity. But he remembered that Sub wasn't even sure if Onity was Onity, or if he really was the real Ty. Tyler wondered what Onity thought at that moment last loop. Was he afraid that Sub would give him in? Or did he trust the mute a little too much? The candle stick still sat on the desk, the same one Sub had used. This time, this loop, it would remain unstained with blood.

Tyler looked down at the book in his hands. His eyes scanned the cover, and he thought about how he was still unsure of it's origins. His handwriting was everywhere in it, but he didn't remember writing most of it. It was an odd thing. Tyler's eyes went from the book to looking at his shoes on the wooden flooring. It looked dusty. The whole mansion was untouched, it seemed, for a long time. Tyler then looked over to see the whole in the flooring between the beds. He'd seen it before.

Tyler leaned over and looked down into the whole. Below, he saw the piano in the white piano room. The room was still. The memories of the deaths inside that room from last loop haunted Tyler. He shook them away, and he turned to walk back over to his group.

"I was hoping to find something that could be used to unscrew the lever, however it looks like there is nothing we can do about it." Sky sighed,walking away from the lever with Seto.

"Well, there isn't anything new and exciting in this room anyway." Ty shrugged.

"It was worth the look at the very least." Ant replied.

"Now should we find the others to see if they've found anything?" Seto asked,walking over.

"Maybe we can do a sweep through the other rooms while going down?" Ant suggested.

"It's not like we've got any time to lose." Ty agreed to the idea.

"Tyler? What do you think?" Sky asked, and they turned to Tyler.

"I, um, sure.I'm okay wit-"

Tyler's surprised reaction to be acknowledged was stopped short when the door to the room flew open. They jumped, turning to see the floor fill with the purple fog, and the Oni monster walk into the room. Tyler's heart pound again as his mind began to race. Oh shit. What were they going to do? Who was he going to kill this time!?

"Don't let it take you by surprise, Tyler!" Seto yelled, pulling Tyler back from the Oni. "Get prepared to attack it!"

Sky was already able to pull out his sword, swinging it at the Oni as Seto stood back, casting small attack spells. Ty grinned, taking this moment to take turns with Ant in attacking with what weapons they had. The Oni fought back strong, and with the four on him, he was given quite the challenge. And What did Tyler do? He stood back and watched. Again, his mind screamed at him. He should help, he should play the game, he should save them, but he should let them die.

"Tyler! Snap out of it!" Ant shouted, noticing the nerd having doing nothing the whole time but stare.

"What's he doing?" Seto whispered to himself, taking a look over to Tyler,only to realize Tyler was shaking. Was he scared? What was wrong with him? Maybe he was remembering Brice's death. From what Seto could conclude, Tyler had witnessed that, hadn't he? And Ian's death.

But Seto remembered Ty being angry at Tyler for not doing anything while Ian died too. And Tyler hadn't witnessed Bodil die, so what was he so afraid about back then? Could it be that Tyler just wasn't as strong as Seto had thought? What was the problem.

"Let him stand there! Just focus on th-"

Seto was caught off guard when the Oni jumped past Sky and Ty, lunging towards the sorcerer. Seto flung himself to the side, falling to the floor,nearly hitting the bed. He then quickly got up, see the Oni turn towards him.

"Leave Seto alone!" Sky jumped in the way, Ty following, and the pair slashed at the Oni with their tools. The Oni growled, and pushed the two to the side. It quickly turned back to Seto, it's eyes staring at the sorcerer.

"W-What the-"The Sorcerer stepped back, and his foot slipped into the hole in the flooring. Without time to react, he fell to the floor again, trapped.He looked up at the Oni as it towered above him. His heart pounded in his chest. For a moment he was distracted, and then the next, he was dead.

"NOT YET, YOU DON'T!"

Suddenly Ant jumped onto the bed from the right and used it to jump in between the two as the Oni went in for the kill. Ant used his weapon to block the Oni's attack, and with what last strength he had, he pushed the Oni back from Seto.

"Oh my lord!" Seto gasped, all the breath he had been holding inside him escaping at last. He had to admit, that was fucking terrifying. With Ant holding back the Oni, Seto used his strength and given time to push himself up, and use the beds to help him up. He had to admit that his leg did hurt from the edges of the hole, but he was luck to still be alive.

"We got him!"Ty shouted, and Sky and Ty both jumped in again to aid Ant.

The three together landed a rather large cut in the beast, and it roared,stepping back from the three. That's when Seto looked up to notice Tyler still standing there. And the Oni did too. Without hesitation,it turned and went after Tyler. There was no time at all for Ant,Sky, or Ty to beat the Oni to Tyler. Within seconds, the Oni's claws were out, and it was going to take the nerd out.

"TYLER!"

Seto had to think fast, and under this pressure, he was being an idiot. But it was his last resort. With the sudden shout, a blue magic formed around him, and he vanished, only to reappear half a second later in between Tyler and the Oni.

"I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU GET ME KILLED!" Seto yelled back at Tyler as a blue magic around Seto's hands helped him hold back the Oni.

"S-Seto!"Tyler gasped, falling back.

But the magic wouldn't last forever. The blue faided into the purple, and the Oni's force came back at it's all. Seto was pushed back with a powerful force. He tried to save himself, but tumbled back onto the back wall.Onto the lever. The lever was pushed down.

"D-DAMMIT!"Seto hissed.

"FORGET ABOUT IT! WE WON'T GIVE UP YET!"

With that,Sky, Ty, and Ant circled the Oni, one after the other attacking it.Tyler looked back at Seto, who looked horrified. He was probably very worried about what he had just done. He pulled the lever. The one who was so afraid of it was the one who would pull it.

Tyler gulped,turning back to see Ty land one final blow on the Oni. He put a very big gash into the Oni's chest, and with that, the Oni retreated. It disappeared. Tyler hoped that bastard felt like dying after all the cuts he received. The floor did have a concerning amount of Purple blood on it. There was Red too, but not much.

"I-I can't believe we did it!" Sky gasped for breath, sitting on the edge of the bed to rest.

"We lived!"Ant smiled.

"I....I don't think...everyone's okay..." Tyler began, and the four looked back at Seto.

"Seto?" Ty asked.

Seto was shaking. And the truth was, he was frightened by a lot of things. He remembered what it was like to stare into death's neon purple eyes,unable to get free. He remembered having to do the impossible and teleport across the room in half a second if not less. Nobody would understand how much strength a spell that quick would even begin to need. And now he's left to wonder what the lever did, because he fucking pulled it. He didn't hear anything. Nothing seemed different.

"M-Maybe it does nothing? This place is old, after all." Sky tried to help Seto out.

Seto stood up,and began to walk away from the lever.

"We need to find out what it did. I don't trust this place." He said.

Seto walked over to the door, and stopped, waiting for the others.

"We need to make sure the others are okay."

With that, the four got up and followed Seto. They checked every room on their way down. So far, nothing had changed.

-...-

The Annex ,however, was a mess.

"W-What the....what the fuck?"

Bashur, Jason,and Sub slowly made their way, together, to the other side of the room. They were near the doorway to the hallway when it had happened.A loud bang that made the place rumble. It came from the other side of the room. Bashur stayed behind the other two as they walked,covering their mouths when a horrid chemical smell hit their noses.It was even more potent then before.

The ground was covered in concrete pieces, and as they passed the book shelves, they found some of them were fallen over, broken, and books everywhere.And then they stopped. And they looked to see an huge whole in the wall. You could see gas pipes, broken. Exploded. And right before that wall, debris everywhere. And two bodies.

"F-Fucking...hell."

Jason looked down, and at his feet, blood. Blood splattered everywhere. The two bodies were there, but they had been too close to the blast. Mitch's back and shoulder was torn apart, and Jerome's head had probably been hit by a chunk of the wall. They were so torn up, there was no a single chance the two were alive. The blood and the gas mixed together, and the three ran. They ran out of that room, back upstairs. They were never going to return to the Annex ever again.

The Annex was silent, and a few moments after it was clear the three were gone, and figure walked out from the side, probably from the room with the weapons. He had his hand over his mouth as he walked deeper into the gas. He stopped where Jason once stood, and he looked down at the bodies.

"Would you look at that...." He spoke. "I killed two birds with one stone,and I wasn't even aiming for them."

He looked up at the wall, watching the gas continue to leak out. He noticed it was the wall with the writing on it.

"No more,huh?" He tilted his head. "Why does that seem so....so familiar to me?"

He shook his head, and got back to business. He leaned down and dipped his hand in the blood. The two types of blood mixed together in a pool on the floor, and Onity used it to paint out two numbers on each side of the hole in the wall. On one side was a four, and the other, a five.

He stepped back,admired his collaboration, and then turned to leave.

"I think i'll change my target this time. That sorcerer is going to take a bit more planning then I thought to take out."

Onity then, whom was covered in painful, bleeding cuts,  left the Annex.

-...-