Madalen sighed and sat in a corner, watching Jasper, who was amused. She wished her brother would get bored quickly, but she knew that was unlikely.

While she was sitting and staring at her cell phone, there was the clown again with the strange, scary mask and white hair. She noticed his attire. It wasn't a uniform. He was wearing a suit: a white jacket and white linen pants. Madalen was getting annoyed with the clown staring at her for so long. So she gathered her courage and spoke to him:

"What are you looking at? Have you never seen a bored girl before?"

The clown didn't speak. Madalen irritably turned back to her mobile screen, not wanting to deal with the strange clown any further.

She felt the cell phone slip from her hands. The clown had grabbed it and was running away.

“Hey! Give me back my cell phone!” she shouted, running after him. If the clown took her cell phone as a joke, Madalen certainly didn't find it funny at all.

The clown slipped into a room at the edge of the backstage area. From the outside, it looked like a big, white box. Above the white door was a large sign that read in black letters "The Box of Madness."

Madalen grimaced, taken aback. Not thinking much of it, she quickly followed the clown into the room in exasperation.

Walking in, she saw a huge, empty space. The room was wallpapered above, below, and on the walls with black and white checkerboard squares that made her dizzy when she looked at them all at once. In the middle of the room was a large, pitch-black hole. The clown was nowhere to be seen. Madalen hesitantly approached and peered into the hole. Absolute darkness spread over its invisible bottom.

Soon, a light appeared in the utter blackness. It was faint but enough to make out the scary clown mask staring at her, holding her cell phone. It was deep but not as deep as she thought.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked.

It was obvious that he had urged her to follow him. He didn't speak, just continued to look at her from the bottom of the hole. Suddenly, she heard laughter behind her, but before she could turn around, she felt a strong push and her body fell into the void. As she fell on her back, she looked up and saw six masked clowns surrounding the hole, looking at her mockingly. The one with purple hair seemed to have pushed her.

Madalen expected to hit the floor soon, but she kept falling...

She was falling, falling, falling, with no bottom in sight. She felt herself plummeting into absolute emptiness, with no sign of contact with the floor. How could this be? The hole didn't look that deep. A cold feeling came over her. She felt that her end had come. If she hit the ground, she wouldn't survive from such a height and speed. Several seconds passed, and she was still falling… Every second she wondered when she would hit. She waited moment to moment to feel her bones shatter.

Soon she saw light. She saw light at the bottom of the hole. It blinded her, and she closed her eyes, putting her hands in front. Now she was sure she would explode somewhere, in the bowels of the earth perhaps…

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she bumped into something cold, fluffy, and soft. She felt herself bounce up a few inches and then fell back onto the same soft spot. The hole above her was closed. She looked down. She had fallen on a large, white, soft lump like a pillow. Trembling, she stood up, panting and taking a deep breath. She looked around. No matter which way she looked, she saw a vast corridor. Everything was patterned like a chessboard, like the Box of Madness. She didn't know if she should go left or right. On the other hand, maybe she should wait for someone to appear.

After a few minutes, she decided to go to the right. The hallway seemed to never end, and the chessboard patterns on the walls, floor, and ceiling made her dizzy. There were several corridors branching off. She had to choose one, but she felt that whichever she chose, she would get even more lost in this checkerboard maze.

It was then that she saw a head sticking out from a corner, looking at her... It was the clown's head! When he saw that Madalen noticed him, he revealed his entire body. He just stood there, staring at her.

She moved toward him, but he started to run away.

"Stop!" she yelled and ran around the corner.

When she turned, she saw a hallway with closed, colored doors. She stopped short and looked at them. There were seven doors: three on the left side and four on the right. Meanwhile, the clown had disappeared, as if by magic. She assumed he was in one of the rooms. She grabbed the handle of the left white door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She wondered if they were all locked. Proceeding to the next door, which was purple, she found it wasn't locked and opened it with ease. She looked inside and saw the same pattern as the maze, except the tiles were purple and white. Not seeing anyone inside, she closed it. She opened the next door, which was red. It had the same room with red and white tiles. In the end, she opened all the doors. All the rooms were the same, colored and decorated similarly. They had sitting areas with crockery, beds, mirrors, and wardrobes, each with an extra small door that she assumed was the bathroom. However, the strangest room was the green one. As soon as she opened the door, she saw dozens of snakes in glass cages.

After seeing that it was futile to search the rooms, she proceeded straight into the corridor, where a door-shaped opening could be seen, showing nothing on the other side, only pitch darkness. Hesitantly, she stopped in front of the opening. She raised her right hand and touched the black void. Her hand went inside. Her palm and fingers were lost in the darkness. She couldn't see them. Her hand looked as if it had been cut off at the wrist. She felt a slight shiver as a soft, icy breeze came from the other side. With a deep breath, she stepped into the black void...