[ There was no room for questions, there was no guidance other than that of survive and away he went. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there, staring down the long lane and off into the distance. All he knew was that he felt as if he’d just woken up and he was here; what looked like a sports store with the immediate items on display around him.

Noct picked a foot up and pushed it forward, after about ten steps he was beginning to feel a bit more aware of himself and his environment. It was cool in the store and there was a distant sound of music without words that played low to his ears. What he heard next was his own breathing and he took a few more steps further into (or was it out of) the center of the store. Thus far he hadn’t seen anyone here, rather, he moved forward toward the check out stand where he hoped to find someone to help him. ]

[ Employee of the month; which equated to King of The Dippin’ Dots, evidently. He told himself everything would be fine, so long as he played this role as expected. Which meant he scooped the ice cream and served it out to eager people with blank stares or those who shared the same expression he had worn when he had first woke up on that bed.

From there, he had come to this vendor in the mall as if he’d done it a hundred times before. Some innate push forward to this destination kept him on track. When he tried to deviate from it he suffered an unbearable pain that afflicted every inch of his skin and blurred his vision. Once he got back on the “path” he was free of that pain. So, in this, his role was to serve ice cream, evidently, to those in the mall. ]

[ Noct was one of the foolish who went out of the mall, following a line of others. At first, when he was tightly sandwiched between two people, he thought they were the brave. Weathering the unknown to come back with answers. Five feet out into the mist and he was starting to feel confident, so had the person behind and in front of him as they both detached from walking close to him. His heart fluttered at the sudden chill that replaced their warm bodies as he faced the mist as an individual rather than a link to a tethered row of people. Another few feet and everyone started to go off in a different direction, and he too became mesmerized by the thickness of the mist. There was a smell to it, as well, something he was about to put a finger on before the smell changed vastly and a quick splash of warmth hit him across the left side of his body.

Behind him her heard the splat of something hitting what sounded like glass he surmised it was the door, the mall door. He slowly looked down to his hand which felt grainy and wet and through the light blue-grey of the mist he found himself clear on the color of the gore on his flesh. Red, speckled, blood with pieces of what looked like broken fragments of bone, clothing, and whatever else coated the left side of his body and he immediately began his ascend back toward the mall doors.

Through the mist he couldn’t see where it was he was going, but there was a red trail of horror to lead him back from where he’d come. Upon reaching the mall doors he found the item responsible of flight beside his body— the left half of a body, cut vertical like a gingerbread cookie. Save for, of course, everything sweet that came of the treat.

Yet, in the mist perhaps that’s how they were seen; a treat to be sliced, diced, and devoured?

Noct’s red-stained hand slammed flat against the door and if he had been pleading it was lost to his ears as nothing could be heard over the sound of his own heartbeat. Let me in.. let me in!! Whatever was happening out here he was ill-equipped to handle it. What he didn’t want to register, was that the left half of that body belonged to the person who was tight against his front on their journey out. Yet, his mind knew as a sinking threat echoed down his spine: you’re next in line … you’re next..

Gods, someone let him the hell in! ]