Experiment X

29 | The Labyrinth

Phase 7 | The Darkness Thickens

29 | The Labyrinth

When the wrenching rush of a sensation at once vanishes, Emberly’s eyes fling open finding that she hasn’t been sprawled onto the ground like before. In fact, looking down she sees she’s standing on a black circular platform much like the Transporting Circle she had stepped on with Kel, and the others. She allows herself to catch her breath, get her bearings, and take in her surroundings curiously.

Before her stretches a long narrow blindingly white passageway quite similar to the closed in quarters she remembers from the beginning, but it’s much narrower, and the bordering blank walls are soaring high above her. It takes a few moments to let the startling quiet and loneliness sink in when she realizes Kel nor Quint are anywhere to be seen. She is alone, here. No, she mutters inside her head. This can’t be…Where are they? Somewhere else far away in this maze that’s no telling how big, she thinks starting to panic, her breath quickening.

Clear your mind of this, Emberly, she thinks to herself. Her name now has become natural, an extension of whom she is finally. All the time spent with Kel and Quint has masked her from the looming reality that they are enemies just as much as anyone else in this; and without them here, this unfolds, and she feels sickened, vulnerable, and weakened. But that’s just it, she thinks, they’re the furthest thing I have from enemies…The mere thought of losing Kel is crushing, and Quint, the small boy who’s out there somewhere defenseless beyond his ability to flee, and hide. And she had sworn to Willow she would keep him alive as much as she could. It was a promise. And there is no going back on her word, at all.

The thought of that hulking, black-eyed Thirteen stalking either one of them, or that dangerous girl with the long black hair is unsettling in itself. She makes her main priority first of finding both of them as soon as possible. Then, she would figure out things from there. Because there’s no way she could kill either one of them, Kel or Quint, not now, not ever.

Focus, Emberly. You got to focus if you want to survive any longer. Taking a deep breath in, she steps forward and off of her dark platform. Quickly whipping around, extending her hand, she sees there is nothing but a flat wall behind her: a dead end. So the only option now is moving forward…Unless…Emberly thinks of her phasing power as she turns back around and walks steadily ahead, her eyes peeled. Not now, she thinks. Later, when I must evade at all costs. Now, I just move forward.

She remembers the time piece, and looks down and is shocked to see that more than fifteen minutes have already passed, and time’s swiftly disappearing. Great, she thinks smirking. The possibilities of what all could be lurking within this labyrinth begin to tear at her mind, envelope her thoughts; there could be so much: sure-fire death booby traps to be sprung by only the soft patter of a foot, a shower of spikes to be launched from a wall if you happen to press the wrong space hard enough, a pit of wild beasts opened by the pull of a switch—other predators: wild mangy beasts trained specifically for this Tournament to rip out their throats, or even perhaps assassins waiting to kill them or intellectually challenging traps, where they must answer or suffer death. Okay, perhaps, I do have a bit of an over-active imagination, Emberly thinks shaking her head out of it.

This particular passageway leads from her deployed platform to a sharp curve that is maintained until—Emberly stops short, blinking. The walled path has led to a fork: one passageway goes to her immediate right, the other continues it’s curved path ahead. Emberly notices that the nearest breaking pathway is also curved, which makes her think…What if this labyrinth is in some way cyclical?

Narrowing her eyes, and perking her ears for the slightest of sound, Emberly decides to take the nearest passageway, stepping into its same eerie white light. Nothing feels right, she thinks, heading onward, here. A plethora of other circling passageways begin open up into twisting chasms of white light, and eventually Emberly feels lost, not knowing exactly which way to go anymore. A great deal of time has passed, and periodically Emberly checks her time piece and frowns seeing that it now reads only 116 hours meaning four hours have already past of just wandering around taking paths that appear to lead somewhere, but Emberly eventually becomes frustrated seeing that everything looks the same: every curved, narrow passageway, and it’s become increasingly tiring. Her legs are already cramping in pain, and for the first time Emberly begins to feel strange pangs in her stomach, granted, she can stifle them down with concentration, but still they are evident. This must be the beginnings of hunger pains: minimal, enough to keep her going, to push her wanting to survive more and more.