Chapter Text
Felix Richter's assimilation into the fog went about as smoothly as one would expect. His most recent Trial was particularly taxing, going against a tall woman with festering skin and vile purge — Adiris, as Jake called her — lacerated, bleeding out, and spilling his guts in a frenzied chase between acid-soaked palettes.
Claudette helped him pick the jagged splinters from his palm afterwards, a gentle look of worry flooding her face. She was more than accustomed to the brutality of the Entity's realm. In fact, all the survivors seemed to be accepting of their circumstance and comfortable with it — angry, exhausted, afraid, yes, but accepting nonetheless. All except for him.
"You'll get used to it." Meg reassured the male as he winced at another splinter being pulled from his flesh.
Claudette gave Meg a look, wiping the droplets of blood that surfaced from the puncture wounds.
"What Meg is trying to say —" The woman began calmly, "— is that it takes a little time getting used to all this. We're here for you to help you adjust."
"Has anyone ever made it out?" Felix spoke out suddenly, his mouth dry and eyes glazed, staring at the blood that smeared on his palm.
"We've tried. It doesn't matter what direction you walk in, the forest always takes you back here." Dwight chimed in from across the campfire.
Felix stole a glance towards the brunette as he leaned his head against the shoulder of a much larger and rougher looking man with a set jaw and dark eyes. That must have been the 'David' Dwight was talking about during their first trial together. Felix's gaze dropped to his hand again, shifting where he was sitting as he felt the Brit's eyes boring into his skin.
"The first couple trials will get easier though, darlin'," Kate offered gently, letting her hand rest on Felix's forearm, "We'll help you through."
And they did.
Fear. Blood. Death. Repeat.
It would have felt hopeless if it wasn't for the other survivors who stood beside him, teaching him to tread lightly beside traps and duck behind windowsills. Felix had always been a quick learner, and he used it to his advantage, soon becoming all too familiar with not only jagged metal piercing his shoulder, but the exhilaration of the chase.
Charming. That's how some of the survivors began to describe him. He could tell when Zarina started sitting closer to him beside the campfire... When Kate would cling to his arm during trials or during their moments alone, talk about their lives and the ones they left behind.
A father. He was a father. And with each passing moment, his child lived without one.
Jake and Adam helped Felix set up a tent in the outskirts of the campfire's lights — he assisted them with the construction and added his own personal touch to the design, of course, but there was only so much one could make out of ragged tarps and fabrics that were stolen from the killer's realms.
The tent became his comfort, decorated with offerings and broken pieces of the totems he had been taught to cleanse. He could hear the others' voices drifting from the campfire, and some hushed whispers from the other tents nearby: David's low voice drifting through the camp, lulling him to sleep... Feng's bright laugh that she somehow managed to keep even in this dark place... Crickets, and sometimes even a sharp, mechanical click that he just accepted as the sounds of the forest.
And then the pull... The familiar tug of being drawn into a Trial, this time, an abandoned farm with tall crops, dry and stagnant. Felix was lucky to find Nea so soon, carefully setting to work beside her on the gen that she had already started.
"Have you seen anyone else?" The woman asked, eyes darting behind them, but Felix stopped in his tracks, staring into the distance.
"Who's that? I haven't met her..." Felix pointed into the corn stalks to a girl in a hoodie who approached.
Immediately, Nea snatched up Felix's wrist, yanking him from the generator and through a window vault.
"That's the killer!" Nea hissed, "Split up and keep running if you want to make it through this."
Immediately, Felix followed the veteran survivor's order, but to his dismay, the concentrated footsteps of the killer continued to follow him as he sprinted away. He could hear the girl gaining behind him, but despite his efforts to doge between obstacles, he felt the sting of a slash against his back, flecks of blood splattered over the haystacks.
"Ooo! You're super cute! Danny's gonna love you." The girl laughed, shaking the blood off her weapon before continuing her pursuit, taking another swing.
The second blow landed more heavily, she drove the sharp object between his shoulder blades, forcing him to crumble in pain.
"W-Who are you?" Felix asked, clutching the dry earth with his hands as he tried to push himself back to his feet, but the pink haired girl already lifted him to her shoulder with ease.
"I'm Legion!" She said brightly, glancing around their surroundings before stepping to the nearest hook and throwing Felix on it, continuing in a pout, "Aww, sorry... I wanna talk more but this hook was waaaay closer than I thought."
Felix, unable to keep himself from groaning in pain as his full hanging body weight sank the hook further into his flesh, looked back at the masked girl, who wiped her crudely assembled weapon on her sleeve.
"I think I gotta go... But it's nice to meet you!" The Legion sang before turning her attention back into the cornstalks, disappearing with a rustle of dry leaves.
It was Meg who made the trek to unhook him, certain that the two generators flaring to life would distract the killer long enough to heal him and disappear back into the dry reeds of the farm.
Legion's attacks were picking up in viciousness; two others were hooked and released before Felix finished another generator. Within minutes, he found himself under her pursuit again, downed by a wound that had cut particularly deep.
"Hi again!" Legion's voice rang as if she was smiling sweetly under her sewed mask, picking the blonde up with ease and throwing him over her shoulder, "I like you! What's your name?"
"Let — go of me!" Felix gasped out in pain, trying to force himself out of her tight grasp.
"That's a nice name. Very unique." The girl laughed, hardly phased by his struggling as she threw him up on a hook closest to the barn.
Immediately, the cruel, spider-like legs began to burn around him, seizing around the hook so quickly, he barely had time to catch the one in front of him that drove towards his chest.
"Hey, about Danny..." Legion began, almost with an aftertone of worry that Felix convinced himself he imagined, "Make sure Frank doesn't find out."
"W-What?" Felix spluttered out, his grip slipping, causing the jagged point to pierce into his chest before he forced it off again.
"I love him, but he'll tear you apart." The girl shrugged, as if oblivious to the gore that opened up in front of her as the claw again stabbed into the blonde's ribcage and he let out a scream of pain.
Again, and with more ferocity, the claw pierced fully through the center of his chest with a spray of blood, and just like that, his vision faded — his last memory being pulled into the sky before he blinked his eyes open, already back at the campfire as he had been so many times before.