The Deadliest Generation: The Maze Of Monsters

Nostophobia

Title explanation: Nostophobia is a fear of the past.

River had never liked locks. He never enjoyed the feeling of claustrophobia, being trapped in a small space or anything like that. It had taken him a long while to get used the Doors closing, sealing him inside, and to ignore the insane urge to just run around the Maze until he found the exit. 

This was a pity, because, at eleven years of age, locking the kids who'd been paired up in the Spiral Games into their dorms seemed to be Janson's favourite experiment for the first few weeks. 

The door had rolled shut - odd for a door, but neither River nor Alec questioned it, or questioned when the door also made various clicking and whirring noises when it closed, like it was being locked multiple times, although nothing visibly snapped into place to shut the door properly.

River already hated this. 

He looked around the room. It was plain, white walls, had two beds that weren't dissimilar to the ones in the main room on either side, two bedside tables with lamps on, a large wooden desk with paper, pencils and uninteresting books on it and a door, that was open, leading to a shiny, white-tiled bathroom. 

Alec turned to River and blurted out, "I don't like it. I don't understand. Do you, or am I just stupid?"

River shook his head, studying the other boy, saying softly, "I don't understand either. And I don't like locked rooms."

Alec nodded, his eyes were wide with panic, and he was looking around the room, turning all the way around to take it all in. 

River noted that he was on the slim, lean side, much like himself, but at the most an inch taller, his eyes an innocent, vibrant blue. River would remember that innocence, because it vanished quickly, replaced and marked by hollowness, distraught, depression and guilt, the pale skin underneath was going to be dark and haunting. Alec also had red-brown hair, smooth and soft-looking, chopped into the style many boys went for; long at the top, short at the sides and back. His cheeks were lightly dotted with a few faint freckles, and he smiled at River when he'd paused in his spinning.

River snorted lightly and moved forward, taking the older boy by the shoulders and pulling him to a stop. "Stop," he said, "you're gonna get a headache or something, you've spun round enough times to take in the room, surely."

Alec smiled again, and River instinctively smiled back. 

"What do we do? Should we figure out a way to escape-" Alec began, but River cut him off.

"No. This is WICKED, they'll have planned and placed everything down to the point." River bit his lip. "If anyone would figure it out, it would be one of those kids they squirrel away to teach them magical fantasy smartness. And WICKED wouldn't wanna kil-harm them, they're too important to the variables." 

"But that's not true..." Alec frowned, "I saw three of them." He held up a hand, and began to tick off with his fingers, "B1, B2, that... d-demigirl? I think? I think their subject name's C1? I barely know all the kids, there're so many." 

"They threw in the siblings?" River's smile had dropped, sadness spreading over his face, his eyes wide, "oh my god... I didn't know they were both, you know..."

"...like us." Alec finished for him. "To be honest, I didn't know anyone else was like me, let alone forty odd other kids."

River nodded. Aside from Luna, and her advice on hair cutting, styling and materials to use from living with boys, along with River's advice back from living with girls. Any trans-friendly equipment wasn't prone to WICKED, all he'd been able to use was a pair of socks for packing and a tight and slightly flattening sports bra to cover the slight rise in his chest, that the boys in the facility didn't have. Luna had restored to tape, bandages, and finally, sliced stretchy socks and tights to help her, along with the padding of sports bras and bras that River had cut out of his to attempt to pass.