Into the Darkness

Chapter 1

I sit staring at the floor, secretly eyeing the strangers that have gathered around me. The room is dark and musty, the guy said it was about the size of half a football field not that I can tell. The only light in the whole place is a single flickering light, hanging bare in the center of the room. if gives off a nice sized circle yellow light on the stone floor but then cast eerie shadows everywhere else. Right now I am just glad to be away from all the bright lights. I can get some decent sleep now. After a while, though I think the darkness will get to me too.

Everybody slowly gathers in the circle of light. There is something so casual and routine about their movements So I'm guessing this is something that they do a lot. They sit along the edge in one big circle, although it is almost too big of a group for all of them to sit down. It kind of reminds me of circle time I Kindergarten except this is way different than kindergarten. For one it was significantly less depressing. No one wore black  full body armor and we were definitely not armed with neon knives

No, this definitely not like kindergarten.

Benedict told me that all of these people are survivors of the maze, there are 15 of us now, including me. But think that there were a lot of other people who didn't make it through. The Voice did say people had died. 

Part of me is still kind of skeptical of all this. Just because they say they went through the maze doesn't mean that they did. They could tricks, they could all be in on it but the more I see them the less I believe it. One look at their dirty worn out faces and I have a hard time not believing them. The all look scared and exhausted but strong too like they went through hell and came back from it. I don't know how you can fake that.

"Go on Tori." Benedict urges. He has an accent. Irish, I think but who knows it could be Scottish. I have never met someone with either. He seems nice so far but things like that are easily fake so I remain skeptical.

I am supposed to say my name, age, where I used to live and anything else I want them to know but I can't speak. They just keep staring at me with wide, curious eyes. 

 "It's okay we are all friends here." He smiles and sets his hand on my shoulder, "We all did this too."

Maybe it might be okay to trust them. I take a deep breath, "My name is Tori Bentley. I am 15 and I used to live in Portland."

Benedict makes a series holes in a piece of cardboard with his bright green knife.

"What's that? Why are you doing that?" I ask accusingly. 

"It's all okay.I'm taking notes. I am just trying to figure out if anything matches up with anyone else. If we find something in common or some kind of pattern we might be one step to figuring all of this out."

I feel myself blushing. I am such an idiot, "oh sorry."

He smiles again. I wonder how he can smile in this situation. "It's okay. No one gets it better than we do."

I nod.

"I'll go next, I am Benedict Callaghan, and lived in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. I was 18 when I went through the maze and I am now 22."

Four years! He has been here for four years! What chance do I have of escape if he couldn't in four years?

Next up is Travis Wright. He has dark colored skin and even darker eyes. He smiles at me as he talks but there is something blank about his eyes like his heart isn't in it. I wonder how many of these introductions he has had to do. He is the same age as Benedict and identifies himself as Benedict's best friend, from before the maze.

"And," he continues, "I was the first one to make it through. I was here and then Benedict showed up. It was too dark to see his face and I thought he was that Voice. You should have seen me, I almost gutted him."