There's some gruesome stuff so I figured this should be marked mature.  There's a lot of blood and stuff.

The person just finished their welcoming speech. Now it was time to go find a team or go into a route alone. Neither of those seemed like an option I would prefer. One I have to socialize, the other I will most likely die. Yeah I think I prefer death. I was about to enter Route 1 and hope that I would get lucky when a hand landed on my shoulder. I jumped and let out a squeak. Turning round I saw someone I spent my whole life avoiding. Sarah. Sarah Lukeson. Her twin was fine, Lucille Lukeson.

“Hey Iz, want to work together?” she questioned.

“Oh, um- n-not r-re-” great I was stuttering again. I got nervous talking to people.

“Great! Let's go to the group I found!” she basically shrieked.

She dragged me to a group of people that seemed to range from geeky to athletic to popular to stupid. She had everyone. The group consisted of 10 people (excluding her and me.)

“Hey, guys! I found someone that can answer any riddles we come upon!” she exclaimed. How was this person so happy and exited her whole life? “So her name is Izabel but feel free to call her Iz or Izzy. She doesn’t mind, right?” The last part was directed towards me.

“Um n-no not re-really,” I stuttered. Why do I have to stutter? They all think I’m stupid now, right? And ugly, they must think I’m ugly. They have to. And why did I have to agree with being called Iz? I prefer Bel, Iz is my sister, Izabela. Our parents really liked the name.

“Good, so Iz, this is Gertrude Gurtreude,” she pointed to a black haired girl with pink glasses. She had a light blue shirt on and black pants. “This is Echo,” this time Sarah pointed to a tiny girl with her hair cut short. She looked ready for war. “Tom,” a green haired boy. “Kath,” a pastel pink haired girl with a turtleneck sweater. “Arch,” a girl dressed completely in black and a baggy sweatshirt. She also had glasses. Black if you couldn’t guess. “Addi,” an athletic looking girl with a long braid made of red hair. “Dani,” a short, young girl with dark purple hair and eyes. Contacts. She was on a phone, so she must have been from a rich family to be able to smuggle a phone in. “Nate,” a Spanish boy? I couldn’t tell if Nate was a girl or a boy. They had eye bags and looked like they probably hadn’t slept for a week or more. They were the first one that responded.

“Hola,” they greeted. So they knew Spanish. I guessed correctly.

“Gérald,” a well dressed French (?) boy. “Sharla,” a neon orange haired girl wearing only neon colors. It hurt to look at her. “OK, so that’s everyone. Let’s go wait behind that trio and when they open the door for Route 10 we’re going to follow them. Let them deal with all the obstacles and get to the end and win!” No one said anything about there being 12 of us and only 10 get to make it to the top. If more people get to the top then they have to fight until there are only 10 people left alive. Maybe she was certain of some of us dieing? I would be. There has never, ever, been a time where 10 people survive. If 3 survive that’s lucky.

Again, Sarah grabbed my arm and dragged me off. We waited behind the people in front of the door for Route 10. I was petrified we weren’t going to make it. They finally got the door open when there were only 20 seconds left. We waited 10 seconds after they went in. Sarah wanted to stay longer but a very annoying, very loud buzzer sounded and we had to enter the route or drown to death. Luckily the people before us hadn’t thought to close the door. The last one of us, Arch, made it in just as the water had reached ankle level and the piranhas were released into the water. The water never entered the Routes. I always found that interesting. How did they do it? Who was the mastermind behind it?

I was snapped out of my thoughts as we heard a deep, scratchy voice speak. It was terrifying. Everyone shivered.

“Why, welcome. I wasn’t expecting visitors today. And so many, either. Oh, today will be fun!”

“So many? There's only 3 of us?” a young looking girl from the group that had opened the door spoke.

“Oh, but sweetie. That’s where you’re wrong. You didn’t notice the group behind you? That many I was expecting for them to be louder.” Then he laughed. It made me whimper. It made me want to hide. To run. But where? Arch had closed the door behind us and piranha infested water didn’t seem too appealing even if we could get through the door.

What happened next seemed to happen is slow motion. The 3 ahead of us turned around and the monster stood straight. Then as the girl that looked younger than 12 gasped the monster lunged. He flew past the 3 in front of us. Straight at me. Or at least that is what I thought until the beast hit Addi and knocked her to the ground. None of us could move. The floor had become too sticky to even try. All we could do was watch in slow motion as the beast laughed, took its claw, and with one smooth, graceful motion brought it down and cut off Addi's arm at the elbow. She screamed. The monster laughed again. The dark, red blood oozed out of Addi’s half arm. It spread on the floor, which was somehow stone where Addi was. It turned the floor a dark red. She wouldn’t stop screaming. The monster wouldn’t stop laughing.

Next the monster leaned down, ever so slowly, and cut- no bit off Addi’s other arm. Then it ate the arm. The crunch of bones seemed so much louder than the screaming that filled the room. The blood dribbled down the monster’s face and he licked it up with a long, purple, forked tongue. The skinny boy from the first group didn’t seem too bothered (Maybe he was a good actor?) but Dani had already thrown up at least 3 times. The monster left Addi writhing on the floor, now 2 limbs missing. Fresh blood covered her face and made her hair stick together.

The monster turned round the room slowly and then slowly walked towards me and blew something in my face. I felt my eyes get heavy and my breath start to even out. The noise started to dull and I hit the floor. The last thing I heard was the monster laughing. It certainly liked to do that.

---

When I woke my arms were bound behind my back and I had a chain on my ankle that led to a stone wall. All the others were starting to stir. I heard a quiet moan as the person next to me awoke. I suddenly remembered Addi. I looked round. She was gone. I started to panic. What happened to her? Was she still alive? Why did I care? What if she blames me for everything? She probably did. Maybe if I had refused Sarah then they wouldn’t have gone into Route 10 and then she might not have been attacked. A voice snapped me out of my spiraling thoughts.

“Hey, you, girl with brown hair!” I looked at him, the skinny boy from the group that opened the door. He was tied up next to me. “Yeah, you! What’s your name? I feel rude just calling you ‘girl with brown hair.’”

“Oh- um… B-Bel…,” I stuttered.

“Great! Bel! I need you to come over here and try to untie my bindings!”

“U-um OK?” I tried moving closer to the boy but could only move a little with my legs tucked underneath me. The boy frowned.

“Try scotching toward the wall and using it to stand up.” I followed his advice. Soon I was standing up and was able to walk over to him. Then we heard footsteps coming. I stopped.

“Hurry,” the boy hissed. I tried. Once I was next to him I turned around and started to pry apart his bindings. I got the last one just as the door opened. I quickly slipped away from the boy as not to raise suspicion. The person that entered was wearing a dark blue business suit and had a… leash? In his left hand. And at the end of the leash was… the monster that attacked Addi! It seemed so… tame now. So non-hostile. What kind of person could tame such a beast?

“Ah! You’re all awake! That’s good! I want to apologize for my new pet's behavior, I haven’t had a chance to tame him yet.” The monster seemed to shrink into himself and gave out a whimper. Again, what kind of person was this? “Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what happened to that friend of yours, no? Don’t worry, I can take you to see her, but only one at a time. Hmm… I think I’ll take you to see her first,” he said as he pointed to Echo. Then he unclipped the leash from the collar around the monster’s neck and clicked his tongue. The monster unhooked Echo from the wall and pushed the tiny girl in front of him. Everyone was silent as they left. But as soon as they left the skinny boy let out a sigh.

“Good thing they didn’t notice this!” he said in a cheery tone as he stood up and all his restraints fell off. He walked around the room taking everyone’s restraints off as he went. When he got to me he said, “Thanks! I’m Adam by the way.” He helped me up and moved on to the girl in their group. “I think introductions are in order,” he said and faced everyone. “Adam,” He pointed to himself, “Eva, and Jamie,” he pointed to each person as he said their names.

Sarah stood up, “Sarah, Danni, Iz, Arch, Gertrude, Tom, Kath, Nate, Gérald, Sharla,” she, too, pointed to each person as she said their name. “The person who just left was Echo, and the other one was Addi.”

“Great! Now let's go and find Echo and Addi!” How was this guy always so positive? I really didn’t understand that at all.

Anyway, we stepped out of the cell in single file and slowly crept down a hall. It was made of a dark red stone. Once we got to the end there were two paths we could take, left or right. We all stopped and were completely silent. The eerie laugh of that monster could be heard from the right so we chose that hall. We crept in complete silence down the hall and peaked around the corner. From our vantage point we saw nothing but the back of that man in a blue suit. He seemed to be chuckling softly. The only other noises we heard were the laughter of the beast and the… sobbing of… Echo? I noticed a glint of steel behind the man and pointed it out. A sword? Knife? Probably useful.

Then, Tom decided it would be a good time to rush into danger. We all hurried after him but stopped when we saw what was in the room. Addi was strung up, or at least what was left of her. Her hair was tied back and dripping with blood. Her lips were sewed into a smile. Her head was severed from her body and there was a sting going in one ear and out the other. Her body was nowhere to be seen. Her head still dripped blood and her eyes were wide and misty. Her legs were dangling next to each of her ears. They were missing toes and were torn up so badly there was barely an inch of skin left intact. Under her kneed a crying Echo, her hair was wet from the drips of blood from Arch’s head. Her face was covered with a mixture of blood and mud. There was a gash on her left cheek. The only cleanish parts of her face were where the tears fell down. Then, the man in the blue suit turned around and smiled.

“So nice of you to join us, but I’m afraid you’re a bit early. We aren’t quite prepared yet, but I’m sure we can whip up something real quick!”