Trapped

2.

After what felt like ages I finally fell out of the slide with a thud. To my surprise, I was not in the garden of the Seyfried Mansion as I planned, instead I was on a concrete floor in the dark. Everything around me was pitch black and it was cold. I felt a tiny sting through my arms and realized that I had goosebumps.

I was in a really dark room with only a tiny sliver of white light coming from what looked like a very small window on the far end of the room. The only sound in the room was the plonking of a single drop of water into a puddle that came from the corner of the damp room.
I slowly sat up, groaning slightly as my body was sore from landing on the cold and hard floor. I rubbed my bare, goose bump covered arms to bring warmth to them.

Everything seemed to be spinning ever so slightly, but I believe it was my head playing tricks on me. I stayed seated on the floor until the spinning feeling subsided. Then I steadily made my way to my feet, almost falling over while doing so, and I slowly walked towards the light. To my disappointment it wasn't a window, it was a random square gap in the wall with a thick blue glow stick placed inside. On the wall behind the glow stick, there was a message in black ink. I read it out in a whisper, "Find your friends." I was in complete shock at that moment, I had no idea how this was even possible. How did I get here and where did my friends go? I didn't even know where I was, how was I supposed to find everyone else?

I also couldn't understand why I was the one who had to find my friends. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and started concentrating on the task at hand, I had to find my friends as soon as possible. In the corner of the mock-window was a box. Inside the box, I found a purple crystal necklace with a note that read; "This is your way home, use it with caution, it can only be used once." I grabbed it and wrapped it around my neck and fastened the small metal clasp at the back of my neck, careful not to clamp my hair along with it.

I grabbed the glow stick and started exploring the place. After a while I discovered there was a long thin corridor in the middle of the room, it was my best bet since there was no other way out of here. I had to turn sideways to fit into the corridor as it was very narrow. I walked on with my glow stick in my right hand, lighting the way.
I could only move one step at a time since I was walking sideways and it was frustrating me.

There was water dripping from the roof and bugs crawling around between my feet and on the walls, I hated bugs as well as tiny, cramped spaces, but I had to push through because there was a lot at stake, my friends' escape depended on me. And I didn't really have much of a choice, it was either get through the corridor or stay in the dark and damp room, which didn't sound appealing either.

When I reached the edge of the corridor the floor ahead of me disappeared, it was so dark that I couldn't see where the floor was anymore, I couldn't even see my feet. The glow stick was weak by now and didn't help much. I decided to take a leap of faith because I didn't really have a choice. I had to get out of here or die trying, because if I didn't I would die anyway.

I jumped forward and to my surprise, the floor was just a few inches below me. I landed in a puddle and water splashed up causing little droplets to make contact with my skin. I was in a damp room, there was water on the floor and there was a bit of light coming from a hole in the ceiling. There were vines growing all over the room and some rocks and leaves were scattered around on the floor.

There were scratch marks on the wall as if someone was here before me, trying to claw their way out. It was entirely possible that this is the world that all those kids who went missing were talking about when they were found. If they made it out that meant we could do it too, but we are a much bigger group than the other kids I've heard of. That could make things more difficult since I had to find more people before we could go home and therefore it would probably take longer and it would be harder. Once again I had to force myself out of my investigative thoughts and turn my attention to getting out.

There was a soaking wet, broken down chair in the corner, a backpack and two flashlights were on the floor next to it, I checked them and unfortunately their batteries were dead. I looked inside the backpack but it only had a torn scarf inside. I put the two flashlights inside the backpack and zipped the backpack up so that it was now closed. I then put the backpack on my back and started searching for a way out of this place.

I walked around the room trying to find a way out, there was none. I checked again, this time I felt for any type of doorknob or spot that could help me get out of this place, once again I found nothing. The next time I checked the mouldy, wooden floor to try and find any trap doors on the floor, I was desperate for any way out of this hell hole.

When I checked the floorboards for the second time I found a little hole in the ground close to the side of the room. It was there the first time too but I didn't think it would be important. However, this time I was more desperate than ever so I slowly stuck my finger into the hole. I squeezed my eyes shut as I did it, fearing whatever was inside that could bite me or sting me, I felt something cold suddenly and I ripped my finger out of the hole and I let out a shriek. I stared at the hole for a while and when I realised there was nothing there, I stuck my finger in again, this time I pushed whatever the cold thing was, deeper into the hole.

Eventually, I heard a clicking sound and then something screeched behind me, I pulled my finger out of the hole in the floor and turned around to find a slightly opened door behind me. I rushed towards it and forced it open, it was stuck for a while but I kept on pulling, slowly but surely I got it to open just enough so that I could squeeze through. Behind the door was a bunch of vines that grew together, I pulled the vines away, tearing them away from each other. After a lot of struggling, I finally crawled through the little space I had created between the vines. When I came out on the other side I was relieved to be out but I still had no idea where I was or where I was going.