Chapter Eight #2
“It’s a very small fortune in the grand scheme of tonight, Everest. I assure you.
” He says as he leads us around a corner.
We continue to chat as he leads us through the hallways.
The doors and rooms we pass seem to all be nondescript, only labeled with numbers.
There are random doors here and there that have a name plastered to them as well.
I examine them closely as we pass by, simply because I have nothing better to do.
There are a couple doctors listed and a few other named rooms, but for the most part, things are very…
plain. The numbered rooms aren’t even in numerical order, and when I pass a door with ’1011’ and then the very next door says ‘3021’, I’ve given up hope on whoever designed this building. It’s a chaotic mess.
“Are we almost there yet?” I whine as we make yet another turn.
Thorne looks over at me with a sympathetic smirk. “Actually, yes. We are.” He says as he pushes through a set of double doors and leads us outside.
“You could’ve said a raincoat would be appropriate.” I grumble as we step out into a torrential downpour.
“That would’ve been against the rules. I checked.” He says as he leads us to the mouth of a maze. “Giving away anything about the current weather was prohibited, which makes no sense to me.”
If finishing this maze has anything to do with this test, I’m going to fail miserably.
I may joke around about being good at everything, but I know my own flaws, and as I mentioned before, directional awareness is my biggest flaw.
I keep my hand wrapped around Thorne’s arm as he leads us through the maze.
I tried to keep up with the turns we were making, but after five or six I had already forgotten what order they went in.
Which seems like a fantastic start to this night.
Just as we step into a clearing, lightening splinters through the sky casting an eerie glow over the center of the maze. My eyes are immediately drawn to movement on my left, and just as I realize what I’m witnessing, Wilde’s voice bounces around in the darkness.
“Great timing!” He blurts cheerily.
“It’s the middle of the fucking night…” Axel mumbles so quietly that I can barely hear him over the pattering of rain.
There’s faint light coming from somewhere in the distance, but it’s hardly enough to make out anything between the walls of stone that surround us.
Thorne leads me to the right and drops my hand from his arm.
I hear him click some kind of button and in a matter of seconds a blinding light flares from above us.
I cover my eyes with my arm as I try to glance around at everything.
Panic immediately floods my body as I take in the state of Axel.
He’s bound by leather to what is essentially a cross that’s suspended above a tiny platform.
I’m talking, so small that his bare toes are hanging off the edge.
“Everest…” Thorne summons me, so I turn my attention back to him. “We have three minutes to get you strapped in before the lights go back out.”
I cautiously approach him, feeling a mix of trepidation and anticipation for what’s to come.
Thorne extends his hand in my direction, offering to help me climb onto the platform.
Lightning flashes across the stormy sky again, followed by thunder so loud that it rattles the ground beneath us.
Startled, I let out a small gasp, barely catching myself from toppling right back off the platform.
Thorne watches me with apologetic eyes before he grabs the leather straps and starts to restrain my wrists.
As he works, I try to take the few seconds of light we have left to look at our surroundings.
Honestly, there really isn’t anything out here that gives us any hint to what we’re about to be doing.
Aside from the platforms that we’re strapped to, there doesn’t seem to be anything other than the worn brick walls of the maze.
There are random lights perched around the perimeter, but they seem uniform and unlikely to be of any importance.
Thorne’s eyes snap over to mine as he adjusts the final strap, and he eyes me warily.
“Don’t fall asleep.” He whispers. His words are so faint that the rain washes them away nearly as quickly as he breathes them out.
Just as Thorne takes a step back to admire his work, the lights all sputter out, submerging us into intense darkness.
The light seemed to touch me with a faux warmth, and the plunge into shadows douses me in a bitter chill.
The rain pelts down, stinging the exposed parts of my flesh.
Every nerve in my body, inside and out, is overstimulated and sensitive.
“Alright. A timer has been started. You’ll remain here for a total of two hours.
You are allowed to talk to one another. Talk about the weather, theorize, strategize…
Hell, you can edge each other for all we care.
Ooh! That could be fun!” Wilder says excitedly before he clears his throats, reminding himself to get back on topic.
“You two are free to discuss whatever you want. You are not allowed to modify or remove your restraints at any point. We highly suggest that you not fall asleep, but ultimately… the choice is yours. Thorne and I will return to prepare you for the second phase of this test once the two hours have elapsed. Any questions?”
“Two fucking hours! Seriously?!” Axel bursts out, incredulity leaking into his voice.
Wilde chuckles, an oddly vibrant sound that seems to fade as he casually retreats back to the comforting embrace of the indoors.
It’s obvious that he immediately started to make his way back through the maze as soon as he finished his explanation, almost as if he wasn’t actually concerned with whether or not we had any questions or needed further clarification.
He gave us the rules, and that was all he’d intended to give us.
“Axel?” I call out to him.
He scoffs before answering me. “Yeah?”
“Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” I ask as I try to make out his silhouette in the darkness.
“Wilde called me and told me to get dressed. I wasn’t wearing anything, so I just threw on a pair of sweats and a shirt. I clearly wasn’t thinking.”
“I think— That’s probably a part of this.
I mean it’s the middle of the night and it’s pouring down rain.
I think they wanted us exhausted and flustered.
” I say as I adjust my wrists to try to find a more comfortable position.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I resign to the fact that it doesn’t matter which way I twist them, this is just going to be painful.
“You’re probably right, but why? What are we going to be doing after this?”
“I mean, I obviously have no clue, but I’m going to assume that we have to find the exit. That doesn’t sound too difficult though, even after standing up here for two hours. I’d be kind of shocked if it’s that simple.”
Axel hums his agreement, but then a comfortable silence hangs between us for what seems like an eternity.
We’re both lost in our own thoughts, and the sheer misery of our current predicament.
My feet begin to ache, and I shuffle them around to ease some of the pain, but I can’t find much relief.
My wrists are still throbbing beneath the restraints, and I know that come tomorrow my flesh will be marred with black and blue that will remind me of this night for days to come.
The rain is continuously beating down in painful bursts, swept violently by gusts of wind, but it’s hard to even concentrate on anything other than the strain this position is putting on my muscles.
‘Pain is weakness leaving the body.’ I repeat in my head over and over again.
No matter how many times I say it to myself, it doesn’t take away from the overload of sensations I’m currently feeling.
I’m not certain how much time has passed, but after a small rumble of thunder I can faintly hear Axel yawn.
“Axel?”
“Mmmm?“ He mumbles quietly.
“Axel! Don’t fall asleep.” I demand sternly. “I know you heard Wilder.”
“Yeah. He said it was up to us, and I’m exhausted, Ev.”
Since I have nothing better to do, I decide to stop and think about everything that’s happened tonight.
The first thing that sticks out is the fact that Thorne called me to wake me up instead of using the intercom or coming in to get me.
They explicitly said that if they called us, it was meant only for the person they contacted.
I don’t know if they’re trying to test us separately, or if the two of us are receiving a different kind of test, but for some reason we were brought to this test as individuals.
Thorne gave me as much of a warning as he could for what to wear and what to expect, even going as far as whispering to me not to fall asleep during this.
They want us to work on keeping secrets from one another, so I don’t want to divulge that Thorne gave me a tip.
That could be a test on its own, but I also don’t want Axel to suffer if he wasn’t given the same information I was.
There has to be a way around that, though.
There has to be some way to tip him off without straight up telling him that I know something he doesn’t.
“Axel. You have to stay awake.” I say with as much confidence as I can muster.
The problem is that I don’t have a lot of confidence, because while I was given a warning, I don’t know that anything will actually happen if we do fall asleep.
The only thing I know for certain is that I don’t want to find out.
“Whyyyyy?“ He pouts dramatically, almost causing me to chuckle at him.
“Listen to me, Axel. You have to trust me, okay? I need you to stay awake. We can’t have that much longer left. You can do this.”