Discoveries | TMR | Three

3:7

"It looks... bigger, than I remember."

After two grueling days on the road, they have finally arrived.

Nick stands at the threshold of the very place that held him captive for three long years. The towering walls of the Maze loom above him, sending a chill of apprehension through his veins as he confronts the heavy burden of every decision that has led him back to this fateful moment.

The structure seems different from his fragmented memories, though to be fair, those memories are more like shadows than clear images. He can only recall the disorienting sensation of being pulled through the coarse sand under the cover of darkness, drifting in and out of awareness. Yet, the fragments that do surface hit him like a freight train. Fleeting glimpses of dark figures mixed with blinding sunlight each time he mustered the courage to open his eyes. A chaotic symphony of sounds enveloped him; the haunting echoes of screams, the relentless whir of propellers, the terrifying cries of Cranks, and the sharp reports of gunfire.

A solitary guard kept watch, while another stood firm as a protector from that moment onward, and a third merely exchanged fleeting glances between the first two. Nick, too exhausted to question those looks or to summon the strength to stay awake, felt the weight of his past pressing down on him.

"Nick, did you hear me?"

Yes, Alby, he heard you. He just needs a brief moment to collect his thoughts and steady his nerves.

Returning to this place was never part of his plan, especially not under such grim circumstances. Even now, Nick is overwhelmed by the nagging feeling that they are on the verge of being trapped once more. Perhaps he simply didn't have the fortitude - mentally or physically - to confront this reality. Why did he agree to this mission? Adeline. Should he have fought harder to keep her safe from danger? The truth is, he didn't resist at all.

If only he had, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess.

But as he watches her confidently approach the dilapidated building, he realizes how pointless that would have been. There was no way to dissuade her from coming here, not even in his wildest imaginings.

"Hey." A tap on his shoulder, and Nick is brought back to reality. He flinches and looks down to his left, seeing Alby right by his side. "It's gonna be fine."

He scoffs. "You sound a lot more confident than you did last night."

The previous night, as they settled into another creaky old house, Alby had been gripped by a panic attack at the mere thought of going back; one so severe it rendered him a quivering mess on the dusty carpet of the bedroom the two of them shared. A panic attack that he, Nick, found difficult to soothe whilst simultaneously battling his own encroaching fears.

"I just figured I had to be," Alby comments softly, complimenting it with a shrug. "It was too late to back out from the second we got in the car at the Harbour. No use letting it get to me now."

"How sensible."

Alby can't shake off the sound of Nick's mumbling, a clear indication of his distracted state. Although he yearns to stay by the entrance all day, evading the memories that haunt him, the others have already stepped inside. The burden of unresolved matters looms over him, a constant reminder that a daunting task still awaits. Above all, they need to dig deep and uncover every fragment of information hidden within this crumbling structure.

"At least the place looks like it's abandoned...," he starts, attempting to make light of the situation, "bodes well for us going in there, don't you think?"

Nick gives him a quizzical look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the walls are cracked, they look dirty, it looks like the ivy is overrun from this angle, and that hole is still in the wall," he points out. "I'm guessing that if Wicked were here, they'd have at least upped the security and not left a giant hole in the wall for anything and everything to get in."