Only a Game (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Chapter 4: Dancing Ground

Ariadne

I toss down the controller, wiping a lock of hair back from my face. There should be some sweet success to the congratulatory message. There isn't even. My eighth redbull and now I'm just jittery after forty hours straight of gaming. I stand up and stretch before picking up the controller to key through the prompts that let me sign up for Labyrinth.

"I'm on my way," I say, quietly, finishing with the sign up. No air fare needed. I'm right here already. I can see the maze's walls from the window, right there on the tiny island next to ours.

"What---you finished it," my mother walks into the dark sitting room, flicking on a light. The light glows back against the floor to ceiling windows, blocking out the view I had of the moonlit beach.

"Don't sound so surprised," I say, smiling a little, as I pick up a coat. She's really my step-mother. My mom lives in America. But my father happens to have ridiculously good custody lawyers. In two months when I turn eighteen that's not gonna matter though. I haven't seen my mom in seven years. I realize my father has a lot going on. He needs to realize keeping me locked up isn't the best way to keep me safe.

"He'll never let you," my mother says, stopping.

"No, he won't, but I'm doing it anyway," I say, "And when I show up for the orientation he really can't comment because 'no my daughter can't participate because spoiler alert: all the contestants are gonna die' would be bad press."

"I don't want YOU to die," she says.

"He's not gonna hurt me," I scoff, a little, picking up my discarded redbulls to throw away.

"Ariadne---it's not your problem," she sighs.

"What he's doing needs to be someone's problem," I say, tossing the cans one by one across the room into the trash, "Beyond sending gamer-kids to their deaths—Viktor and Mr. Metion have been trapped in there for years---we're running out of time. Somebody has to do something; apparently it has to be me."

"Once more people die surely someone will notice—"

"That's what you said during the first two testing rounds and he covered it up---this is murder," I say, folding my arms, "You know it is."

"Your father is out of options---we all are," she says.

"Yes and tricking children into entering the Labyrinth is not a good solution," I say, "I am going. And I'm getting them all out."

"Ariadne you'll die—"

"No, I won't---"

"It's a maze, Metion himself can barely find his way around—"

"And I know his games better than anyone---Dancing Ground had dozens of hidden clues that he knew I would find---it was a message, he wants me to come in—"

"Okay and because the crazy inventor your father is imprisoning asks you to do something is not a reason to do it you realize that—"

"Viktor is stuck in there too," I say.

"If he's still alive," she say, quietly.

"He is, or was last night, he did an update to the game, he left me a clue," I sigh, shaking my head. My name was spelled out in the treasure trove, on the gold pieces it was printed there. A quite high-five from the lonely boy. I have to go to him.

"You realize your father will send a helicopter for you as soon as you make it out of the tunnels," she sighs.

"Yes, and by then I will have given Mr. Metion a walkie-talkie and satellite phone so that we can get them out, for good."

"You don't have to save them."

"Yeah, I pretty much do."

"Just, promise me, one thing?" she asks, folding her arms.

"What?"

"When the time comes, and someone is there to save you, you let them okay?"

"Nobody is coming to save me," I figured that out a long time ago.