𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐄? ; 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆𝗳𝗶𝗰

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

surprise surprise, the mad hatter's a bitch

Sloshing through the murky water, Neva heads towards the sign. As soon as she reaches within a couple feet of it, she loses her balance, but rights herself easily. "Right. So, I think it's pretty deep," Neva says as she turns back to us.

"Anyone up for the challenge?" I attempt, ignoring the voice crack on the word 'challenge'.

"I'll do it," Amari asserts. "It's my fault Carmen's stuck... wherever he is."

I frown. "Go ahead... but it's not your fault. We didn't know what stepping on that brick would do. It was just bad luck, I guess." I'm wary to accuse Carmen of being the reason for his almost-death — it seems unfair to his memory. But at least he's not actually dead. Hopefully.

Lotus perches on one of the rocks sticking out of the swamp beside a moss-covered tree trunk. He looks a bit green in the face, clearly unable to process this whole ordeal.

"Well, we've got nothing better to do," Amari proclaims. "I'm going in."

She strips off her jeans to reveal a pair of boxer shorts, lying the jeans delicately on the nearest dry rocks, then slips off her Vans and lays them beside her pants. I can't tell if they just don't care, or are just comfortable around us. Then, wading past twigs and possibly a dead frog floating in the water, Amari approaches the boundary Neva reached.

She eyes the sign in the middle of the pool distrustfully but takes a deep breath and dives in boldly.

It seems like forever that they're down there; precious seconds slipping away in my mind. I can practically hear the clock ticking — why wouldn't we think to make sure she could hold her breath for a while? Maybe we could've wrapped a rope around them, something, anything, to prevent the chance that they might be lost, too?

I examine a very interesting area of bark on the nearest tree. I avoid looking at any of the others — I'm pretty sure if I make eye contact with any of them, I'll burst into tears. Stress does funny things to a person.

Someone's moving behind me; small waves from their movement lap against the cusp of my dress. Now that I think about it, I'm glad I'm not the one diving into the water — there's no way I'd be able to move freely and swim well in the dress I chose to wear tonight. Is it even night anymore?

A splash, then a loud gulp of breath from the vague direction of where Amari doves in forces me to look up.

Her brown hair plastered down the side of her face and eyes red from struggling to see underwater, she triumphantly raises a hand just above the water to show off a large brass key. Behind them, an arch way seems to grow out of the wall. There's a keyhole in the middle of the door, practically begging to be unlocked.

A sense of relief overwhelms me; finally, a challenge that's easy and harmless.

Simon rushes forward to help Amari out of the deep water. Amari grips his hand so tightly that I see her own knuckles grow white. I don't know what they had to go through under the water to get to that key, but I suspect it wasn't as simple as I'd thought.

They balance precariously on the edge of the shallow water as they struggle to put on their somewhat dry jeans. "This key better be worth it," Amari says, picking up her shoes but not bothering to put them back on, "or I'll the Mad Hatter with my bare hands."

Yeah, it was definitely a lot more work than it looked like.

Neva reaches out for the key, but Amari shakes their head. "I'll do it myself."

She treks around the pond, a sick, squelching sound accompanying each step. For a moment, Amari fumbles with the key, and my stomach hurts at the faint idea of the key falling into the water again. Luckily, they insert the key into the keyhole with no problem and twist it.

It makes a satisfying clicking sound as the bolt unlocks. Amari peers around the door hesitantly, as though frightened something might pop out and scare us. Then she gestures towards the rest of us, a dazzling grin of relief meeting my gaze.

Tyler takes the lead, pushing past Neva and Simon, but grasps onto Amari's sleeve as he reaches them.

"You don't seriously mean we're supposed to go in there," she gasps.

Do I want to know? Not really. God dammit.

aster.

yippee yippee i 
was productive !!