“Hahaha, I see the trust has easily been severed with simple words…I wonder what the reaction will be once it is completely severed by actions. I shall patiently await the outcome. To every person here, there is an opposite, one person you are tied to and in order for you to survive the hell I’ve created you must outlive your opponent. You all are either my mind or my body…but I will not dare to say which is which, although two are probably already obvious. The rules of the game are, you all must not kill – for you all, from the previous game, are obviously not fighters. You all can run, you can hide, or you can die. With each set of two, one shall be my body and the other my mind; you all will be a part of the shadows – my vessels. As previously stated I can’t wait to see which one outlasts the other – who will lose and become my food, my meal, my energy. Ah, you all must be very confused and filled with questions…don’t worry, your answers will come with time, but for now, let the game of Outlast begin.”

Shock and fear pulsated through their veins as the voice fell silent, leaving them in silence, the only sounds they could hear were the groans of the monsters – previous experiments of the doctor, past patients in the asylum - as they begged to be let in and the ghostly whisper of the wind as it pushed through the limbs of the trees.

The males looked behind themselves at the black iron gate, their hearts beating harshly in their chest before Woohyun whispered faintly, “I guess there is no way to escape other than moving forward.”

“As much as I hate to agree, it is,” whispered Sunggyu, “Let’s start looking for the entrance – the longer we stay together, the better.”

The others nodded in agreement, moving forward silently until they all heard Sungjong gasp, his face paling even more than it already had as he peeked into a window.

“What’s wrong Sungjong?” questioned Sungyeol in concern as he faced his younger brother, worry creasing his brows.

“I don’t want to go in there,” muttered Sungjong, backing away from the window, falling backwards onto his – collapsing in on himself – until he sat in a fetal position, “I can’t go in there hyung! I don’t think I can do this again. You all practically have lovers, but I don’t. I have no one to cling onto!”

Sungyeol kneeled beside Sungjong, wrapping his arms around his trembling brother. His own hands were shaking in fear as he gently ran his thin fingers through the younger’s hair, “You have me, you have Chunji, you have Niel, you have Hoya…you have me. You’re not going to be alone.”

“I can’t go in there again,” whispered Sungjong weakly, “I’m not strong enough for this.”

“We have to push through this together, Sungjong,” whispered Hoya as he kneeled beside his cousin, running his hand gently up and down his spine, “We have to push through this.”

“You’re all I have left Jongie,” whispered Sungyeol, “Please try.”

Sungjong trembled before nodding, “A-arasso.”

“G-guys, you might want to see this,” muttered Cap in shock, looking into the window that Sungjong had previously glanced into.

Upon hearing the male’s words, they moved towards the window, their jaws dropping as they saw the bloodied mess that lay on the floor – showing no semblance of a human being. It had been there for a while, seeing as how the blood had dried, but still it brought the harsh reality back to them – they had not made it out yet.

“Do we really have to go through this again?” muttered Chunji, his lips quivering slightly from fear.

“This of it as a haunted house,” whispered Hoya, trying to make it better for all of them, “Don’t think about the fact that we could die in here…”

“That helps a lot, Hoya,” muttered Sunggyu, rolling his eyes as he saw Sungjong, Chunji, and Ricky trembling even more than they previously had.  

Hoya looked at Sunggyu sheepishly before coming out and saying, “Lying to them is only going to make it harder when and if someone dies.”

Sunggyu sighed, “Let’s not think that way.”

Hoya sighed but nodded anyway. With that they moved forward, looking for an entrance into the Asylum they knew that they’d come to know as Hell.

Woohyun suddenly ran ahead, trying the main doors, only to find that they were locked, he sighed and looked towards the others, “It’s never that easy.”

“It’s never going to be,” retorted the magnae of the thirteen, sighing as well.

Sunggyu peered at the magnae, “I guess we should spread out and look for some other entrance.”

“You just said you don’t want to split up,” stated Sungjong, peering at Sunggyu.

“Only to look, Sungjong,” stated Sunggyu, “Once there is an entrance found, we’ll meet up – alright?”

The younger took a deep breath but nodded, latching onto his hyung’s arm as the elder turned to look at the silent Myungsoo, who stood off to the side with Cap – both eyeing those they had started to establish feelings for warily.

“Let’s start the search,” whispered Dongwoo, “The sooner we get in there, the better – the sooner we get out of here.”

The others nodded in understanding, in agreement.

They spread out along the building, looking for an entrance.

Chunji stood beside L.Joe near their area that they were assigned to search; both tried hard to ignore the groans and grunts of the monsters that were being kept outside by a brick wall and an iron fence. As they looked along the wall of the building, Chunji grabbed ahold of L.Joe’s arm – causing the barely younger male to look at him in concern.

“What is it, Chunji?” questioned L.Joe.

“There is something in there,” whispered Chunji, backing away a bit, his eyes peering at the slightly fogged up window, there was a faint light coming from within the room and Chunji knew that there was abnormal about the room.

“How are you so sure?” questioned L.Joe, his eyes peering at the man he had unbelievably fallen for, “Did you see something?”

Chunji nodded, “I saw something move, well, I saw the silhouettes.”

“Silhouettes?”

 “Well, one, at least…” whispered Chunji, peering at the window, fear gracing his features.

L.Joe gently caressed the barely elder male’s hand, attempting to calm him down a bit. He then approached the window, only to scream as he saw something being hurled in his direction as the light in the room flicked off. Chunji stood in shock as well – he was too shocked to scream out like the younger, he just stood there frozen in shock.

Sungyeol walked up and down the side of the building, looking into each of the windows that he could, only to be greeted by either darkness or flickering lights – neither of which were environments he wanted to start out in. As he looked into each window, Sungjong latched onto his arm even tighter, burying his face in the elder’s back as Myungsoo stood beside them silently, his eyes following the elder male’s form as he moved almost robotically. Myungsoo could see that the elder was anxious for some reason and it concerned him – especially as he thought back on his hyung’s words from before, something in him was nagging him, telling him that the elder could not be trusted at the current point in time because he had no idea what the elder was thinking about, what the elder knew and wasn’t telling him. He looked back towards the fountain that sat in the middle of the courtyard to see Cap sitting before Niel, talking to him – probably confronting him on what he was doing and what was going on, what he knew.

However, his attention was pulled away from the duo and Sungyeol’s was pulled away from Sungjong as L.Joe’s scream broke through abnormal and eerie silence along with a loud crash and the sound of glass raining onto the ground. Within seconds, they were all moving towards the source of the noise to find L.Joe holding himself up over Chunji, protecting the elder from the glass shards that had rained down onto them. They all looked around to find what had broken the glass just behind the duo sat the shattered remains of a wooden chair.

“Are you guys alright?” questioned Sunggyu, helping the duo up, being cautious not to get cut on the glass himself as he checked over L.Joe’s injuries – countless cuts from the glass shards.

“I’m fine,” muttered L.Joe, his eyes were glued onto the spooked Chunji who was curled up into Sungjong’s embrace with Ricky and Changjo crowding around them – trying to get the elder to cheer up, or relieve his fears a little, seeing as how the boy was crying. L.Joe’s gaze drifted to where the window had previously been to see Sungyeol and Niel standing by it, looking into it silently – whispering to each other. His gaze then drifted to where Cap was standing with Myungsoo, Hoya, and Dongwoo whom were all staring at the duo by the window.

“Are you sure?” questioned Sunggyu, his eyes shining with concern as he looked over the male’s wounds, “These are some pretty nasty wounds…”

L.Joe looked down at himself, looking at the wounds shock marring his features as he saw just how bad they were. He looked up at Sunggyu, “I honestly don’t feel a thing.”

Upon his saying that both Niel and Sungyeol turned towards him in wonder, and Sungyeol whispered, “So, the first physical vessel of the shadow has appeared in the group…”

They all looked at the duo in shock.

“So, it really is beginning,” muttered Niel.

The look they got from the others made Sungyeol uncomfortable and without much thought, he put his hands onto the window sill, pulling himself up and over the ledge, ignoring the stinging pain of the glass cutting into his hand – even as he pulled out the pieces.

“Where are you going Sungyeol!?” questioned Sunggyu in shock, staring at the younger who looked at him nonchalantly.

“I’m going to go ahead and scout a bit,” muttered Sungyeol, shifting from where he stood on the other side of the ledge, “I’ll be back in a little bit, I’m not going to go far…”

“We should stick together,” stated Sunggyu.

“I’m not going very far,” restated Sungyeol.

“There is a monster or something in there,” cried Chunji.

“Hyung, don’t do this, please,” whispered Sungjong, however, it was already too late the elder didn’t hear their cries and disappeared into the darkness followed by Niel.

“L, CAP, go after them,” muttered Sunggyu, anger obvious in his voice, "I swear I will kill them with my own two hands if we survive this."

The duo nodded and carefully pulled themselves over the ledge, neither feeling the pain of the glass shards that bit into their skin, unaware of the fact that they had even been cut. 

So, the game finally - truely - begins. I know this is long over due and isn't really long - forgive me for that. Also, if you can't already tell, they're goign to be seperated once again. After all, it's scarier if you are in a smaller group, right? 

Here is another question for you all, what would you like to see in this story? Is there anything I can do to make it more enjoyable for you?