Into The Hellfire

The sight of Min-seok sitting comfortably against the wall made my blood boil. My jaw tightened, and my fists clenched involuntarily. Without a word, I knelt to let Da-on slide off my back. My muscles ached, my body begged for a break, but the anger pumping through my veins drowned everything else out.

Each step I took toward him felt like a hammer hitting the ground. Min-seok flinched, standing up. His hands raised in defence like they could shield him from the wrath building in my chest.

"Min-seok," I said, my voice low, cold, and trembling with restrained fury. "Tell me—how should I kill you?"

He stumbled back, almost tripping over his own feet, his lips quivering. "W—wait! Why are you mad at me?"

I didn't stop. I leaned closer, my gaze burning holes through him.

"You locked the door," I hissed. "You left us to die."

His trembling intensified, and he stammered, "W—what? No! That's not—"

"Don't give me that!" I snapped, grabbing his collar and yanking him forward.

"Fucking bastard." Eun-jin's voice came from behind me, sharp and cutting. She strode up, her eyes blazing. She wasn't the scared mother I'd seen earlier. Now, she looked like a woman on the edge, fury radiating off her like a flame.

"You locked the damn door!" she spat, her voice trembling but fierce. "Do you even know what we just went through? Do you know how close we were to dying?"

Min-seok said in a panicked voice. "I didn't—"

"You ran without even looking back!" Eun-jin roared, cutting him off. Her face was red, her fists trembling at her sides. "You didn't even think about what would happen to us. And now you sit here, smiling like nothing happened?"

Min-seok's face twisted in confusion. "Smiling?" he said, his voice cracking. He raised his phone, holding it up in front of our faces. The screen flickered to life, revealing a photo of a woman in a blue dress. She sat on the grass, a tiara of flowers resting on her ash-brown hair.

"I wasn't smiling because I left you," Min-seok said, his voice quiet but firm. "I was smiling because I was looking at this. It's my wife. I just wanted a good memory before I—" His gaze dropped, his hands trembling as he held the phone out. "If you'd seen those beasts up close, you'd understand. I thought I was going to die. I ran because I was scared—because I wanted to survive long enough to see her again."

Eun-jin froze, her breath catching in her throat. "Oh we did see them up close. A lot closer than you." She snapped.

"I didn't lock the door," Min-seok continued. "Why would I? If I left you all to die, how would I survive? The kid—" he gestured toward me—"is the only one who knows what's going on. I wouldn't have made it alone."

I opened my mouth to argue, but something in the back of my mind whispered doubt. My memory replayed the scene. The door. The rats. The panic.

I had assumed the door was locked. But… had I actually heard it click?

No.

The realisation hit me like a punch to the gut. I had forgotten that my decisions carried weight. More than they ever did. I can't be making more misses like these.

I stepped back, my hand falling from Min-seok's collar. My anger wavered, replaced by an uncomfortable knot in my stomach. "So you… you waited here for us?" I asked, my voice quieter.

Min-seok nodded. "I thought you were dead when no one followed me back in. But there were no bodies, so I stayed here, hoping you'd made it somehow."

Eun-jin's face twisted, her anger faltering. "L—lies…" she muttered, though the edge in her voice had dulled.

"I swear it's the truth," Min-seok said. "I'm not proud of what I did, but I didn't leave you to die. Please… just trust me."

"Enough!" Jae-hyun's voice cut through the tension.

We turned to look at him. Propped against the railing, his face pale but determined, he met our gazes with surprising strength. "Whether he locked the door or not doesn't matter anymore," Jae-hyun said. "What matters is that we're wasting time."

Eun-jin turned back to me, her face still full of doubt. I could see the distrust in her eyes, but she didn't say anything.

"If you can't trust him, trust me," I said firmly. "I'll keep an eye on him."

She hesitated for a moment longer before nodding stiffly. Her silence was heavy, but it was enough.

"Let's move," I said, scooping Da-on up onto my shoulders. Min-seok offered to help Eun-jin with Jae-hyun, but she refused, brushing past him without a word. The crack in the group was wide, and I wasn't sure how to fix it yet.

The climb from the seventh to ninth floors was gruelling. My legs ached, and sweat dripped down my back, but we kept a steady pace. I checked each staircase before proceeding, wary of hidden dangers. The idea of stumbling into another swarm of monsters was enough to keep my guard sharp.

As we reached the landing for the ninth floor, something felt… wrong.

The air grew hotter with every step, stifling and heavy. It felt like I was walking into a furnace. I paused at the base of the stairs, staring up at the door.

The cloud of forgetfulness that had been blocking my memory suddenly lifted.

"Hotter than the deepest pits of hell. This floor was designed to melt challengers alive in the inferno of its flames."

The words from Survival 101 flashed through my mind like a warning bell, but I pushed through onto the landing of the tenth floor.

Reaching for the door handle, my fingers trembled as they brushed the scalding metal. It burned against my skin, but I gritted my teeth and pushed it open.

A wave of heat slammed into me, stealing my breath.

The scene before me was like stepping into a nightmare.

Molten lava churned across the floor, bubbling and spitting violently. Islands of jagged, superheated rock floated on its surface, glowing an angry red. The air was thick with ash and smoke, every breath searing my lungs. The walls weren't concrete anymore—they were molten, crumbling slightly as small pieces broke off and splashed into the lava below.

The room pulsed with heat, the very air rippling with it. A single pebble broke free from the wall, dropping into the lava. It glowed white-hot in seconds before disintegrating into nothing.

My stomach twisted as I stared at the hellscape before us.

The floor's theme burned back into my memory: "The Inferno Beyond Hell's Mercy."

[Time Left: 22 minutes and 34 seconds.]