The Mysterious Door

Chapter 15

I wake to the worst stinging sensation in my heat that I've ever experienced. All I manage to do is lay down in the unknown bed I find myself with my eyes closed, thinking about what everything I saw means.

My parents are dead, we are all a bunch of clones and who I thought was my first real friend turned out to be my executioner. When did the world turn upside down?

The pain subsides and I manage to open my eyes, taking in the beautiful red and grey 4 poster bed in the center of a gorgeously decorated room. The carpet is grey, the curtains match the bedding and there is a big painting of a stern man hanging on the wall.

I walk over to the window and look out over a courtyard of perfectly trimmed hedges, water features and multiple statues, searching for the figure and with it a way out, but I could feel my headache return with a very small prospect of success. The Instructor won't make it that easy.

I find a letter on the dresser at the foot of my bed addressed to me and sit down to read it:

Dear Jake

I assume you must think we are monsters to have done what we did, but I assure you that everything that happens, happens for a reason. There are things out there bigger than all of us, things that are threatening the future of humanity and I believe these trials are the only thing that can ensure the survival of humanity.

You may not understand it right now, but if you give it some time everything will become much clearer. We as SPORT, the Society of Prosecuting and Organizing of Rogue Teleporters, are working on eradicating this threat, but we will need all your help and that is why the next phase is of utmost importance.

You have been placed in one of our manors, which have a set of puzzles you will need to solve in order to get through. Your objective however is much more complicated than just getting out. You see, there are 6 of you left, but not all 6 of you were part of the starting group. We have taken the liberty of replacing one of you with an Empath, a parasitic creature that can drain the powers from any supernatural being in such a painful way that death is all but certain.

You will need to find this creature and kill it before it finds you.

Good luck

S

I don't know what to think about this. Just when I thought the Instructor couldn't get any worse, she proves me wrong again. Just like the romans we have been placed in our coliseum with a dangerous beast to be picked off for the Instructor's entertainment.

I put the letter down and leave my room. I need to find Cindy and Anthony, they'll know what to do, I'm sure of it. My door is one of many in a long hallway and has a plaque with my name on it. Five other doors have the names of the other candidates that are left on and the rest have been left blank.

I go to Cindy's room first and knock on the door, hoping with all my might that she's awake. Before she answers dread suddenly engulfs my heart. This isn't real. We're all just clones of the original candidates and I might be the only one that knows it. I should tell Cindy, but I don't want her to have to carry that burden with her too. We've been through enough already.

Her smile is as warm as ever when she answers the door. I definitely can't tell her and take that away. I'll just have to keep that to myself. We might not be real, but our feeling definitely are.

"Hey," she says, "I was wondering when you were gonna get up."

"Hey," I smile back, "You can't be this good-looking without a little beauty sleep."

"Then I guess you need to get back to bed, cause it doesn't seem to be working," she winks and stands aside for me to enter her room.

"Is everyone else awake," I ask sitting on her bed.