Blood, lots of blood.

I’m not even surprised that we found Addi strung up like that. She obviously wasn’t alive anymore. And, honestly we wouldn’t be for long either. I also wasn't surprised to see Echo on the floor, sobbing. She may have LOOKED like a warrior and like she was ready for war, but looks can be deceiving. The person in a blue suit was smiling at us but then he turned to the monster/his pet. He whispered something in its ear. He didn’t bother to cover his mouth so I managed to lip read most of what he said.

“I want you to tie them all up on that wall over there and then light the fire underneath them. Next place some chains in the fire, so that the ends are sticking out. Oh, and place some sedimentary rocks in the fire. Can you do that for me?”

So murder is too easy for this man. Nice. Torture is always fun to deal with. I looked around the room. A flash of some metal caught my eye and I looked back at it. Just behind the blue suit man there was a dagger, curved and shiny. Both sides were super sharp, you could see the flames dancing inside the blade. Enchanted then. Well technically it was a fancy flamethrower inserted into the blade so that the blade is continuously hot, but enchanted sounded better and was more reasonable. If I could just get to the dagger I could use it to fight. I heard a whisper to my right.

“Adams, we need to get to that dagger,” it was Miller.

“You think I don’t already know that?” I said.

She just snorted and said, “Improvise.” Then she turned to the guy in the blue suit. “Excuse me, sir. But I was wondering if there is the possibility for you to just let us walk away from this. No one needs to get hurt.”

“Eva,” he sighed. Notice how he knows her name while he was NEVER told. “I want to set you free, believe me. I truly do. But what would be the fun in that?” And he snapped his fingers. The monster/pet lumbered forward before, with surprising speed launched forward and grabbed Nate. They started saying stuff in Spanish. Probably cursing or something. I understood nothing. That was when I realized they took out my translation chip. Everyone has one that translates all foreign languages for you to understand. This realization froze me for a moment before Miller started talking again.

“How about we make a deal? We do something for you, you set us free. Simple.” I took a step forward.

“Hmm…” he mused. Two more steps. “Maybe.” His eyes shut as he thought. Another step. “If you can send one person to retrieve the purple apple from the middle of the maze, then I will let you all go,” he gestured behind him to a tunnel just big enough to crawl through. “Can’t promise they’ll be alive by that time though.” Nate tied to the wall. Echo covered in blood. Addi continued to smile, her eyes then moved. Must have been a trick of light. The monster/pet takes Gérald and puts a claw perfectly on the heart. Slightly pushing down. Blood wells up in little droplets and falls to the ground, where a chalice awaits to catch everything. Another step. Gérald stills. Stops breathing.

“How do I know you will keep your word? No offence, but you don’t seem too trustworthy.”

“No offence taken. And don’t worry, I’ll keep my word. I always do.” Another step. Pause. Those words. The words of The Secret Holder. A foe that normally appears further into Route 10. The torturer. The killer. The lier. There was no purple apple. I just hoped Miller knew that.

“Great, then who do you think would be the best at retrieving this purple apple.” Chaos. Blood. Screams. Gérald on the wall. Unconscious. Running. 3 more steps. Close. The monster lunges. I duck. Claws scrape my arm. Blood gathers in the wound for a second. Blood flows down my arm. A trickle. A stream. A waterfall. The world spins. The monster laughs. I smile. So close. Just another 10 steps. 1 step. Fall. Dizzy. Blood gets in my eyes. The world has a black frame. Laughing. Screaming. 1 more step. The wish of air. Falling. A chalice. Adrenaline. I smile. Adrenaline. A natural drug. The pain eases slightly. My brain fogs. Everything muffles. Breathing gets hard. Blood on my lips. I need to stand. Laughter. Blood. Blood everywhere. Another step. Then another. Claws at my throat. Stumbling. Falling. Slipping under an arm. A lunge. A step. 3 more. Just 3 more. Let the thing continue playing. As long as I’m alive. Another step. Pain on the side of my head. Stumble. Fall. No blood. Crawl. Stand. Fall. Hit. Blood. Pain. Dagger. Chalice. Step. Blood. Dagger. A toss. A scream. The floor. Laughter. Blood. Pain. A scream. Dragging. Long, dark, lines on the floor. Blood from my lips. Gurgling. A laugh. Mine. Another laugh. Complete darkness.

---

Pain in my arm woke me up. I tried to move. Held down. A scream. Mine. Hot pain.

---

Whispers. Miller.

“He had been fading in and out of consciousness for 48 hours. The stitches are dry. Everything looks fine. Why is he not awake? What’s wrong?”

“He is recovering. He lost too much blood. Without him we would have lost though. His terrible throw to you managed to stick itself into the man. Adam must be traumatized after that. He was on the verge of death. Even now there is no guarantee of his survival. I did all I could with the supplies we have here but… well… he isn’t doing too good,” a voice I didn’t recognize. Darkness.

---

Light. Groaning. Tring to move. Being held down. Yelling. Opening an eye. Miller. I cleared my throat.

“H-hey. What… What h-happen-'' I tried to speak but my throat was sore and I was exhausted.

“Well Adams, you throwing that dagger saved us all. As little as I like to admit it. The dagger landed in that man’s neck. He fell over and died. We all worked together to take down the monster. For some reason it became half as large as it was once the man died. Afterwards we picked up the tickets and walked through the door that appeared. We made it through the first room of Route 10. Archer stitched you up with what we had and we split the tickets. You got the most because you almost died. We each get 3. You got 10. Oh! And we found some food,” she turned away from me. “Nate, grab something for Adams to eat!” she turned back to me. “Anyway. We are staying in the hall between rooms. You have been out for a week. Enough for us to stitch up your wounds AND remove the stitches. No sudden movements. Change the bandages every day, and thank Archer for the bandages. She spent her tickets on them for you. She doesn’t want anything in return but don’t be too mean to her.” Nate arrived with the food. I ate and Miller continued talking. “You had the worst injuries, everyone is fine but you. We are going to stay here for another 24 hours then move on because yeah… We really can’t stay here forever. That would be boring. And the food is running out. OH! And here’s your dagger. We decided you should keep it because you got to it first. All the other weapons mysteriously disappeared so take good care of that knife. And I think that’s all.”

A moment later Arch came over. Her full name must have been Archer. I thanked her. My voice was getting better. The food and drink certainly helped.

“It was nothing. Also now I can prove to my family that being a doctor is important and I don’t have to become an artist. And I don’t think Eva mentioned this but there is a ticket thing over there. And she probably didn’t mention how all 14 of us are a group now.”

“She must have forgotten,” I responded.

For the next 24 hours we all relaxed and prepared for the next room. I kept the dagger in a sheath that Echo had found. I bought a rucksack and am using it to store my 4 days worth of food and water. Everyone ignored what happened to Addi. Echo seemed so much more dull now. She looked exhausted. And Nate was asked what their gender was. They said whatever. They didn’t really care. Girl, boy, both, none, anything else. Eva and I are now on a first name basis. She had to stop me from accidentally opening the wound again multiple times. Surprisingly all my other wounds were almost healed by the time I woke up. When 24 hours were up we all stood in front of the door to the next room and prepared ourselves.

“I’ll go first,” Echo said. She has a little of her fight back. Just a tiny, tiny bit. She pushed the door open and we all entered. There was no light. And I mean absolutely no light. Then a blinding flash of light. A smoky figure appeared.

“Welcome, dear travelers! Welcome, welcome! I am here to warn you. Go further and die. Understand? Great! Now I must tell the master you have arrived. He hasn’t seen live humans for years and will be very excited to meet you! Farwell!” when she disappeared again we could see the inside of a mansion. Everything was made of dark wood. The lights were dim and there was a figure at the top of some very long stairs. He had a dark cloak, all we could see was his outline and glowing, red eyes.

“Welcome, to my humble abode.” he stated simply then disappeared. Seemed to vanish into thin air. He popped up behind us. Closer this time. “Mother does say not to play with your food but when I haven’t had any fun for years I must disobey her. Now, I’m going to give you a couple options. Run and hide. I love to chase my prey, or submit to me. Either way I think I’ll keep you alive for at least a few more years. I do prefer fresh food,” he spoke slowly, softly, and had a deep voice. It made us want to run. And that is just what we did. We scrambled over each other as we ran as far from the man as possible. A dark laugh was heard from behind us. “Run then! As I said. The chase is always fun!” His voice was the same as always, quite, calm, we still heard it through. It was unnerving. We ran into a dark room and locked ourselves in.

“It’s a vampire,” stated Kath. “I’ve encountered one before and it killed my whole family. The only reason I survived was that my sister ran and he ran after her. Forgetting about me. I still have the scars.”

“Of course it is? How could this get any worse?” Tom muttered. Just as he said this a deep growl could be heard from the back of the room. We saw 2 glowing eyes and the huge outline of a beast with the light coming under the floor. Why Tom, why?