The Black Box

36

Isaiah pushes some buttons on the keypad and the deathly liquid vanishes, leaving the tank empty. He throws me into the tank like a sack of potatoes. The glass wall vanishes and a new one replaces it. "You and I will love this next trial," says Isaiah, rubbing his hands together.

"What the heck are you going to do to me this time?" I ask him.

"You'll see in just one second." And he's on me in a second, just like he said.

I look up to him and see that he's pinned me to the ground and has a dagger in his right hand. "I will surely enjoy this."

"Why?"

"Because I've done this too many times that it doesn't effect me at all anymore."

"Well that's reassuring," I mutter under my breath.

I think he heard me. "You won't have any breath to mutter under if you don't survive this."

He puts the dagger to my throat and slices me across it. It's not deep but it's not just a scratch. "Did that hurt?"

I clench my teeth and feel the dagger's blade leave my throat. After a second, I feel that same warm sensation I had when I was frozen alive but it's on the cut across my throat. Isaiah looks at me with curiosity in his eyes.

"Oh I see how this is." He cuts my face, slowly carving a C-shape down the left side of my face. The warmth is there once the dagger leaves and it heals over just like the cut on my throat.

Through clenched teeth, Isaiah cuts my arm, deeper than the first two. Heals right over just fine. Then he stabs me in the chest. It felt like someone tackled me but the power was only focused on that one spot. It was way deeper than the third cut. I feel blood rushing to my chest, but I don't see it. Instead it heals.

"You've passed your training. You can leave now," says Isaiah, getting off of me.

I walk out of the room when he throws the dagger at my back. It sinks to the hilt in my back. It felt just like my chest but much worse. I pull it out and see blood on it. I felt the warm sensation and it was gone.

I walk into the main room and see Adam and Kevin. "Hey." I jog over and sit next to them.

"Hey Peter," Adam says. "You look different."

"Back at you," I reply.

He has black swirls over his entire body, especially his palms. His silver ring has swirls over it too. "And shirtless."

"You are too."

"Jax would've pointed that out right away. By the way he wants you to join the shirtless club," says Kevin, elbowing Adam.

Navi comes into the training room. "Hey, time to hit the hay."

We follow Navi through the hallway and into the main area of The Shaft. He leads us to a hallway diagonal to the training room. We walk for a little, passing rooms with occupied bunkbeds. He leads us to the last room, the one that's at the end of the very long hallway. He types in a code. 1-3-8-5-2.

I thought we were gonna stay in a little room cramped with bunkbeds. Well I thought wrong.

It was like a luxury penthouse in an expensive hotel. The floor was white tile instead of the gray stone of The Shaft. The walls are a shade of teal. There's two white couches and black coffee table in the middle. Past that is a fake fireplace with bookcases. The lighting in this room isn't the dim lights in the hallways, instead they're white lanterns suspended in the air.

Both sides of the room have bunkbeds, but they're nicer than the ones we passed on the way here. They're separated from the main room by glass walls. Navi walks over and opens the glass door on the left. He walks through and you can't see him through the glass wall.
"Cool huh? This is your living quarters," says Navi.

"Heck yeah!" Kevin runs over to the room. "I call tops!" He holds the ladder of one of the bunkbeds, swings over, and lands on the bed. "This is the life."

"Where will we store stuff?" asks Jax.

"Come over here and I'll show you."

Everyone walks over and Navi presses a button that opens a secret compartment. "Right here. Every bed has one right next to it in the wall."

"Cool." Jax looks inside and it's actually bigger than it looks.

"Well I gotta go. See ya Pures later." Navi runs out of the room and out of our living quarters.

"Guy's side. Called it," says Kevin from the top bunk.

"Fine. Who would want a bed that Kevin's been in anyway?" says Annabeth. Sophie giggles at the comment.

"Hey!"

"Come on Soph, let's go over to the other side." Annabeth tries not to laugh out loud.

"Especially if he's shirtless," giggles Sophie. Annabeth laughs out loud now. She elbows Sophie and they walk out of the guys' sleeping quarters and shuts the door. They walk over to their beds and start to fall asleep.

"That's just mean." Kevin pouts.

"Says the guy that was hit with stones. You can take these Kevin, or are you soft?" says Jax.

"Ugh, whatever. Insult me. Pelt me with more rocks, burn me to a crisp!" He covers his face with his pillow.

"Whatever you say buddy." Jax summons a small flame and it licks Kevin's forehead through the pillow. It leaves a little burn mark.

"I was just kidding!" Kevin touches his burn. "You ruined my pillow too!"

"Sorry dude. I was just messin' around. You can have mine. I don't really like pillows anyway." He jumps onto the bunk.

"Get off!" Kevin shoves him off and Jax falls to the ground.

"Can we go to sleep now? I'm exhausted," Adam tells them.

"Sure." Jax takes the bunk beneath Kevin.

"Aw. Don't let this nut take the bed under me!" Kevin says.

"Sorry dude but I want top too." Adam climbs the ladder of the next bunkbeds.

Kevin looks at me. I shrug. I lay down on the bed beneath Adam. I can already hear him snoring. "Maybe I did luck out," says Kevin, smiling. I totally forgot Adam's a snorer.

Jax lays on his back and kicks Kevin's mattress through the wooden supports.

"Stop it!" Kevin yells. Adam wakes up and groans.
"Shut up you two." And he goes back to sleep.

Jax throws his pillow up to Kevin. " 'Night Kevin."

"Shut up." He takes the pillow and slowly drifts to sleep on his two pillows. Jax's out like a light. I can't sleep with the lights on so I walk out of our sleeping quarters and find the light switch. It's next to the doors and I flip it. The lanterns turn off and all I see is the fireplace. I stare at it for some time and head back to my bed. I slowly close my eyes and go to sleep.