I opened the door, my hand gripping the door handle.

“Guys, instead of arguing, maybe we should be trying to figure out how to get out of here?” A boy with a soft English accent recommended as he held onto a girl’s shoulder. The girl nodded, putting her arm around him.

“That's what we’re trying to do! But this asshole over here is being irrational!” Another girl pointed to the boy standing next to her, who rubbed his hands through his hair with a frustrated groan.

“So what do you suppose we do? Sit here and wait for the “Announcer” to come back? Wait for him to come back and kill us? Yeah right, princess.” The boy had on a Red Panda mask, which complemented his bright orange hair in a strange way.

The girl, on the other hand, had a Wolf mask on. She had short brown hair that only went down to her shoulders. She wore black coveralls, similar to mine except with a white belt wrapped around her waist. When she realized I was staring at her, she directed her attention to me.

“Hey! You just came in, huh? My name is...Wolf! Nice to meet you.” Wolf smiled, walked over and held her hand out to me. Her apprehensiveness when saying her name made me nervous, but I threw the fear to the side.

“Hi, my name is Peacock. It's nice to meet you too, Wolf.” I shook her hand and noticed the callouses spotted near her fingers. I winced and let go.

“We were just trying to figure out what's going on here. I say that we wait for the Announcer to come back before we try to kick down some doors. Apparently, I'm the only one who didn't wake up in this room. Neither did you, it seems.” I nodded at what Wolf said. I didn't really want to be the odd one out but I was already introduced as one anyway.

“Wait, so the rest of you didn't meet the...voice?” I asked. Everyone else shook their heads.

“That's why I said that we should stay here and wait for instructions,” Wolf added.

“So? How do we know that we can trust him? Or even you too!? You both might be workin’ with that Announcer guy!” The boy whose name I assumed was Red Panda stomped his foot and waved over to us. The others seemed to agree with him now.

“N-no! I swear I don't work with the voice or anyone who made us come here! And I'm sure Wolf doesn't either.” I stuttered.

Suddenly, a girl stepped from the back and cleared her throat, gaining all our attention in a second’s time.

“You see,” the girl fixed her glasses up onto the beak of her mask, “It wouldn't be plausible for those two to be the so-called “traitors” of the group. I suggest we all introduce ourselves before making any more...dangerous assumptions. For example, my name is…”, The girl paused before continuing, “Owl. I believe my name would be Owl based on the fact that our masks depict our names.”

“Then mine is Red Panda? Damn, what a sucky animal to be stuck with for whoever knows how long! Just call me Red so I don't feel embarrassed.” Red put his hands in his pockets and shrugged.

“My name is Bat then, and this is the love of my life, Duck.” The boy from earlier hugged his girl close, who giggled in response. Bat had black long hair in a ponytail

“Hello there! My name is Axolotl. I hope we all become friends.” A tall and buff boy exclaimed as he sat in a small chair that obviously didn't fit him, but no one had the heart to tell him.

A girl raised her hand and slumped her shoulders lacklusterly, “Panther. Nice to meet y’all.” Her hair was long and black.

“I'm Bear. N-Nice to meet you all…” A chubby boy leaned on the wall.

“Fitting. My name is Butterfly. Which is barely fitting.” The short boy sat in another chair, glaring at me. I shook my head and looked down, trying to get him to stop.

One boy was left. He stood near the corner of the room with his arms crossed, looking more scared than an antelope cornered by a lion. We all waited in silence for him to speak until he finally did.

“Spider. I believe Spider is my name.” He mumbled. He wore the same coveralls as the rest of us but with a cross on his chest.

“Nice to meet you, Spider. And everyone else too. Now that we all know each other we should decide-” Before I could finish, the Announcer came back.

“Hello, my performers. How’re you all doing?” The Announcer asked.

“Not very good, now that you ask. First of all, we’ve been stuck in this room for the past 10 minutes and I'm starting to get impatient!” Butterfly stomped his foot on the ground.

“Okay, okay. I know you all have been here for a while. I just had to do some paperwork. You'll be free soon.” With those few words, everyone looked at each other and cheered.

“No, I don’t mean that you’re out of here. I mean, you get to be in the show! The show is gonna start! Aren’t you excited?” The voice’s owner clapped. Everyone else groaned.

“Awww, it’s not that bad! Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.” The voice laughed.

Suddenly, another door opened and a sign above it flashed the words, “Center Stage”.

“I’m starting to get a little sick and tired of walking through all these doors…” Wolf mumbled as we all walked through one by one.