"Me mates call me the Butt Endah. Fancy a little hide and wank before we head back to your sis?"
"Do you mean hide and seek, Mr. Ryan?"
"If that's what you want it to mean, lad."
Riley tilted his head, considering Ryan's invitation. The dim fluorescent lights buzzed above his head, and for some reason, the shadows around Ryan's face flickered, strange.
"I have never played hide and seek in Nightwalker's House of Horrors before, Ryan," Riley said after a few moments. "But I will try it."
Ryan's smile widened, showing teeth that seemed too sharp in the dim light. "Good lad. I'll count to twenty," Ryan did not hesitate, taking a step back while keeping his eyes on Riley, "Better find a good spot."
He turned to face the wall, covering his eyes dramatically as if he were playing with a toddler. "One... two... three..."
Riley watched him giggle silently by himself, before moving silently through the cluttered storage area, scanning for the most optimal place to hide with the time he had.
The costume racks offer little coverage, my clothes could probably blend. But my skin would be obvious. Those crates would be too obvious, too. Perhaps, there?
Riley's gaze settled on a pile of large cardboard boxes near the back wall, beside what appeared to be a naked mannequin propped against the wall.
"...eighteen... nineteen... twenty! Ready or not, here I come!" Ryan called out, his giggling voice echoing strangely in the enclosed space.
Riley quickly crouched behind the boxes, his back nearly touching the mannequin, but he made sure not to move it at all.
This is the most optimal spot. The mannequin would also serve as a cover-up if he looked here—this is good, Sister would be proud of me.
From his position, he could see Ryan moving between aisles.
"Got you!" He slid open the costume racks, the sound of him sniffing between the clothes loud enough to reach Riley's position. Ryan giggled, clicking his tongue while wagging his finger quite… oddly.
"Now, where are you hiding, little dove?" Ryan sang out, licking his lips as he scanned the room, "I've never seen someone with skin as bright as you. You're an albino, right? Even rarer than supers. I wonder… just how one like you would taste? Oops,did I blur that out?"
Riley remained perfectly still, not finding anything strange about Ryan's words at all. He just crouched there without a single emotion on his face, as if a single twitch of his face would make a sound.
His eyes did narrow, however, as Ryan slightly looked in his direction. Riley shifted slightly, placing his palm down to balance himself.
"Hmm?" But he quickly felt something warm and sticky beneath his fingers.
He looked down, and there was red. His palm was coated with something red and viscous. He looked at the trail of red, and it led to the naked mannequin that was behind him, coming from between its thighs.
The red had pooled beneath it, dark and slowly clotting.
Riley turned his head slowly, examining the mannequin more closely. Its proportions were perfect. Flawed, and that was why it was perfect. The skin wasn't smooth at all.
And the face…
The face was too real. It was frozen in an expression of terror, eyes glassy and unfocused. The mouth, slightly open as if it was screaming… or perhaps it was before he died.
This wasn't a mannequin. It was a person.
Riley looked at the red on his palm again.
This is blood.
And then he stared back at the corpse, the blank look on his face still unchanged despite the dead man right next to him. He tilted his head, and then for some odd reason, he had the urge to poke the dead man's leg.
And he did.
He prodded the man's calf with his finger, and the skin failed to spring back after he withdrew his touch.
And very slowly, a hint of a smile crawled on his face.
This is it. The feeling. It's back. The tingle crawling at the back of my neck… it's very comforting.
Riley's attention snapped away from the corpse when a whisper of air brushed the back of his neck. He turned, eyes scanning the dimly lit storage area, but found nothing behind him.
"Hmm?" But he was sure someone was there – someone breathing. He scanned the space again, realizing that Ryan was no longer there.
But the breathing… he could still hear someone breathing. Soft and ragged, coming from… beside him.
The hairs on Riley's arms stood up. Not from fear – Riley didn't feel fear – but from pure instinct honed through years of training.
And without even thinking about it, Riley shoved the cardboard boxes aside and launched himself forward. His body twisted in the air, and when he landed, he was already in a perfect defensive stance.
He narrowed his eyes, but he didn't even have to scan in front of him to see what was wrong.
One of the boxes didn't fall. It hung suspended in the air as if held by invisible hands.
No, it truly was. Fingers slowly materialized around the cardboard. A wrist appeared, followed by an arm, until Ryan's face faded into view, grinning with that disgusting set of teeth.
"Found you, little dove." Ryan's voice had changed, deeper and rougher than before. "Now it's my turn to hide."
He dropped the box with a hollow thud, and his body simply... vanished into thin air.
The remaining boxes shifted and scattered across the floor, and it was clear to Riley that Ryan was running toward him. But then, the boxes became still.
"Hmm." Riley slightly tilted his head, his eyes quickly becoming unfocused. He wasn't looking at anything anymore, but listening. The faintest shuffle of shoes against concrete, the slight rustle of clothes, and then… a muffled giggle behind him.
Riley's foot lashed out toward what appeared to be empty space.
But there was a thud.
His foot connected with something solid. And then, slowly, Ryan's face materialized, his cheek not showing a single hint of deformation even with the sole of Riley's shoe connected to it.
Even the grin on his face was intact. He didn't flinch at all from the impact.
"Now, this I like. I like it when you're fighting back," Ryan whispered, his hand suddenly clamping around Riley's ankle.
And with shocking strength, Ryan yanked Riley's leg upward, sending his head crashing to the floor. But he wasn't done, he swung him over his head and slammed him on the hard floor.
The impact caused Riley to wheeze, the air in his lungs completely knocked out.
And before he could try to recover, Ryan's entire body materialized fully above him, knees pinning his arms.
"Well…" Ryan wiped the drool on his chin with his shoulder before he hovered his face just inches above Riley's, "…What're you going to do now, lad?"
Riley strained against Ryan's grip, his muscles tightening as he tried to pull his arm free. But the man's strength was unnatural—far beyond what his lanky, miserable, and perverse appearance suggested.
"Heh…" Ryan leaned down, his tongue sliding sloppily across Riley's cheek, leaving a trail of saliva that wasn't warm at all.
"Mmm, you taste like vanilla ice cream," Ryan whispered, his breath hot and rancid. He licked Riley's cheek again, but by doing so, he shifted his knee ever-so-slightly.
Riley's eyes twitched for the first time—but not of fear or disgust, no. He realized he could pull his arm free.
Carefully, he managed to subtly free his right hand from beneath Ryan's shifting knee. But Ryan saw this, but instead of pinning his hand down again, his eyes lit up.
"That's it, struggle more for me—"
Riley blew out a controlled stream of air between his lips, the action so unexpected that Ryan paused with his words, his head tilting in confusion.
But then, he got excited with what Riley was doing that he forgot to ask himself why Riley was doing that in the first place.
And before he could actually do so, Riley cupped his palm, connecting it straight to Ryan's ear while trapping and catching the air he was blowing—it was almost an impossible feat, but Riley was trained to do so for this very exact scenario.
And its effect was devastating.
The compressed air exploded against Ryan's eardrum, rupturing it instantly. The villain's eyes bulged as pain shot through his skull, his balance completely destroyed. He howled, clutching at his damaged ear while blood trickled between his fingers.
"You little shit!" Despite his agony, Ryan's hand shot out, gripping Riley's forearm with crushing force. "I didn't want to do this this early!"
With a savage twist, he snapped Riley's arm. The bone broke with a sickening crack that echoed through the storage room.
Riley sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth from the pain, but his face remained eerily blank—no tears, no screams, just a slight widening of his eyes. The absence of reaction unsettled Ryan, whose grin faltered momentarily before returning with renewed, and even more excited malice.
"Let's see how long you can—"
His words cut off as his upper body suddenly jerked backward out of nowhere.
Ryan blinked a couple of times, wondering what just happened. And it happened again—somehow, Riley's body was sliding beneath him, moving with a strange, violent momentum.
"What... are you doing?" Ryan asked, confusion replacing his sadistic pleasure. His torso yanked backward again, harder this time. He grabbed Riley by the throat, fingers digging into pale skin. "What are you doing!?"
The sliding motion intensified, and both of them were now suddenly, and violently gliding across the floor toward the stack of crates at the side of the room.
And with perfect timing, Riley raised his knee, positioning it against Ryan's butt and pushing upward, ensuring the villain would hit the crates first.
They crashed into the crates with tremendous force. Wood splintered and exploded, debris flying in all directions as the crates gave way.
"Are you crazy!?" Ryan scrambled to his feet first, taking an unsteady step backward. Blood streamed from cuts on his face, mixing with the blood still leaking from his damaged ear.
Riley rose more slowly, pushing away broken pieces of crate with his good arm. His broken limb hung uselessly at his side, swinging with each movement… grotesquely.
Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat.
How could it not, when instead of fear, or instead of a will to fight back… a smile started to spread across his victim's face?
It wasn't a normal smile, but something disturbing that stretched from ear to ear. Riley's cute and ethereal face, transforming into something that felt… inhuman.
"Someone..." Riley whispered, his voice carrying clearly despite its softness,
"...One of us will not survive this encounter, Mr. Ryan—and does that not feel absolutely thrilling?"