Another Love, Another Woe || Wednesday Addams & Enid Sinclair

Vonam Is Supposed To Be Tricky, Not Traumatizing

The canoe didn't spin out this time, just sort of hit the ground running and continued flowing down the river as it circled the outer edge of Vonam. To their right were stone walls that stood fifty feet tall. It made the ever changing maze the souls were forced to wander. Peaking out over the walls from the center of the maze were orange and red palace towers. The sky was a warm orange and clouds rumbled with an impending storm. All the way on the west side was what looked like a dam connecting to the maze. They watched as the dam wall split open and out rushed white water. It ran through the maze, hitting walls and splashing up with loud crashes. Souls screamed before it getting cut short as the water engulfed them.

"What is that?" Ajax asked worried.

"The River Lethe," Wednesday answered. "River of forgetfulness. Just a splash could make you forget what you did yesterday. Enough and you could forget your entire life."

He gulped nervously. "Well, good thing we're not going there, right?"

"Indeed. The Styx circles all around the edge and then flows down like a water slide in the north."

"So as long as we stay in the boat we'll be fine," Bianca concluded. "Good. This may just be the easier layer yet."

But just as the words left her mouth, they all disappeared in a swirl of orange energy. When they reappeared, they were standing at a dead end in the maze, walls and floor damp from the river that had already magically drained and began to refill the dam. They all looked around panicked and confused, but the only way was forward.

Enid sent Bianca a glare. "You were saying?"

She glared back. "It's not my fault!"

"You jinxed it!" Ajax blamed.

Bianca scoffed, but before she could argue Wednesday beat her to it. "All of you shut up! This is obviously the workings of Kroella. Ramor said she could be tricky. But now we need to get the hell out of here before that dam lets loose again." She began running and the others quickly followed.

Their feet tapped against the stone floors as they ran the maze. They tried to use the center towers as a landmark to go the right way, but no matter how many turns they made, it didn't seem to get any closer. They ran by souls who were walking around confused and aimlessly. Some tried to stop and talk to them but they kept going.

After ten minutes of running they made a right and had to stop as they came to a dead end. But when they turned to go back, there was now a wall there. "What the fuck?" Enid asked. They looked around to see if maybe one of the other walls disappeared, but they hadn't. They were stuck in a box with no lid.

Wednesday walked up to the new wall and placed her hand on it, trying to see if maybe it was an illusion. But the hard and cold stone was real under her fingertips. Shit. What now?

"Umm, guys?" Ajax called out as he walked to the wall that had been their dead end. "You might want to see this?" The others turned and joined him, standing before the wall that had writing magically appearing on it as they read it.

If a zookeeper had a hundred pairs of animals in her zoo, and two pairs of babies are born for each of the original animals, then twenty-three animals don't survive, how many animals do you have left in total?

Once the writing finished, a ten appeared below it and a second later turned into a nine. Then an eight and so on.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Ajax panicked.

"Nine hundred seventy seven," Wednesday answered as the number hit six. It stopped and then disappeared along with the riddle. They heard a rumbling behind them and figured it was the wall moving to let them go, but instead it was inching closer and closer on the way to pancake them in a minute.