Bloody Odyssey-Chapter 32: Poolrooms

Chapter 31

Kakarai died once again.

Moments later, his body began to reform beneath a mass of water. Bone knitted to bone. Flesh returned slowly, taking the same agonizing duration as before.

Then—

His eyes snapped open.

Water surged straight into his nostrils.

He jolted upright, coughing violently, dragging in desperate breaths as his lungs burned. Water spilled from his mouth as he scanned his surroundings.

A pool.

Endless water stretched around him, its surface unnaturally still.

Then a whisper slithered into his ears.

POOL ROOMS... POOL ROOMS...

A chill ran violently down Kakarai’s spine.

He remembered his last death.

The pain.

The helplessness.

For a brief moment, terror threatened to crush him—but he forced himself to look around. Giving up was not an option. Not here.

Along the tiled walls, four figures slowly peeked out.

Plastic.

Smooth.

Mannequin-like.

They were identical to the one that had killed him before.

Their heads tilted unnaturally as they stared.

Watching.

Waiting.

Kakarai stood in the pool, water dripping from his face, his expression unreadable. Madness settled in—not as chaos, but as stillness. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

A terrifying calm.

Suddenly

Hands grabbed his legs.

He was yanked downward, nearly dragged beneath the water.

Kakarai reacted instantly.

With a violent kick, he launched himself upward, bursting out of the pool and landing hard on the tiled floor.

The moment his feet touched ground—

They moved.

The figures blurred.

Their massive plastic bodies moved with impossible speed.

Too fast.

One slipped beneath his vision—no warning, no sound—swinging upward toward his head.

Kakarai barely avoided it, bending low as the strike cut through the air above him.

He dropped to all fours.

Like an animal, he bolted forward.

Running.

Crawling.

He didn’t dare fight them.

Not outnumbered.

Not in a place like this.

This world held too many unknown entities—things his fractured mind refused to imagine.

All he could do was run.

Kakarai ran through the hallway like a madman, dodging entities with razor-sharp precision. Every step left bloody footprints behind him. Each movement was dangerous. Each breath was stolen.

He was fast.

Too fast.

Moving like a blur.

In a flash, he appeared before one of the entities.

He punched.

Boom!

The entity was blasted into the wall. The wall remained untouched, pristine—but the creature collapsed, its body twisted and broken, screeching as it lay there, unable to move.

That scream was a signal.

The others reacted instantly.

They gave chase.

Laughing.

Shaking.

Moving like lunatics.

Kakarai spread his arms wide.

The face on his arm peeled open.

Micah’s fist slowly transformed, stretching and warping into a blade as his arm swelled grotesquely. Without realizing it, Kakarai shifted into movement—fluid, precise.

With a swing of his fist he cut them down.

Again.

And again.

He didn’t want to die.

Not this time.

But unknown to him, the more he slashed, the more appeared.

In an instant, they surrounded him.

Bodies littered the floor.

Yellow blood seeped across the tiles.

Yet the Smilers only smiled wider, their bodies shaking in airy, unnatural movements. The yellow room did nothing to dull the bizarreness instead it amplified it.

Kakarai stomped.

In a blink his leg began to dissolve.

Boom!

A violent blood ripple exploded outward, blasting the surrounding creatures apart. His bones were revealed but was regranting at an insane speed.

He scanned the area.

No escape.

Then he saw a flicker. His eyes instantly locked unto a hidden passage.

The glow pulsed ominously.

Without hesitation, Kakarai vanished.

He sacrificed both legs.

They dissolved mid-movement blasting him through the air, leaving his bones exposed.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Midair, his legs reformed.

With terrifying speed, he shot forward and plunged into the flickering passage.

Behind him, the creatures stopped.

They didn’t follow.

They stood at the threshold, smiling, shaking—but something else lingered within their plastic forms.

Fear.

Slowly, they retreated.

Kakarai crashed onto the ground on the other side, his body slamming hard as he dragged in deep, ragged breaths.

His life had been hanging by a thread.

He had escaped.

Barely.

He slumped into a corner, staring blankly.

Vos? (What is my fate?) he wondered.

—

In the control room, Dax observed everything with gleeful interest.

He watched Kakarai descend through layers of madness.

"Fear truly did reveal madness in its purest form."

"At first," Dax murmured, "he underestimated them."

He smiled.

"These backrooms are beyond his comprehension. He’s sinking deeper... and deeper."

His eyes glinted.

"For my greater goal."

"The Blood River will feel this."

"This is only the beginning."

Dax laughed softly, continuing to take notes.

He noted the Skin-Stealers cruelty.

"They found a loophole," he said calmly.

"They couldn’t steal his body... so they wore his skin from the inside and out."

Dax smiled, resting his face against his hand.

"I’ve seen enough."

He looked up at the ceiling of the control room, lips parting slightly.

"On the ninety-ninth cycle," he ordered,

"send him to a safe zone."