The Faceless

Task three: Strength

"Lana!" Sienna screams and throws herself at the edge.

Addie and I wrap our arms around her to stop her plunging after her sister.

"No Lana!" she shrieks hysterically, viciously struggling to free from our grasp.

"Sienna there's nothing you can do," I shout over her cries "she's gone, I'm sorry but she's gone!"

Sienna slumps in our arms and sobs. clinging to us, rocking backwards and forwards in pain. Addie and I pull her away from the ledge so she's not in danger of falling into the abyss. I turn to glare at Bailie who is still standing with his arms crossed, tapping his foot impatiently.

I leave Sienna crying into Addie's chest and march over to him. He raises an eyebrow at my approach and I shove him as hard as I can. Thrown by my attack he crashes into the wall.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asks outraged.

"What is wrong with you?" I yell "she's just lost the one person she had left, show some compassion!"

"Forget it Carina," she hiccups getting to her feet "he's not worth it."

Her pretty face has gone hard and cold and her bright green eyes have adopted a dull, dead look.

"Sienna I'm," I begin.

"Don't," she says thickly "just don't."

Sienna sets off down the passage without looking at any of us. Bailie follows her his expression unreadable. I stare after them until I feel something tugging at my elbow. It's Addie and she's crying again.

"I want to go home Carrie." She whispers.

I wrap my arms around her, "I know but we have to keep going forwards; we can't go back. It's sad about Edmond and Lana but there's nothing we can do for them."

"Come on you two I'd like to get out of here at some point!" Bailie yells over his shoulder.

"Why couldn't he have been the one that fell?" I hiss.

Addie gasps, "Carrie!"

"Alright, alright come on." I lead her after Bailie and Sienna.

We hurry past Bailie, who seems to have cessed trying to lead the group, and walk just behind Sienna wary to speak to her. We reach another split in the passage, this one with three options: straight on, left or right. Sienna silently strides down the right corridor and we all follow like obedient puppies. After a long time of following the grieving woman she abruptly stops.

"Where is the next task?" she yells rounding on us.

She stares into my eyes and I see the hurt and anger ripping her apart from the inside but I also see something else, something I've seen before.

"We're going to have to keep looking because it's not here is it." Bailie says slowly as if he's speaking to an emotional child.

Sienna's lip curls and she whirls back around whipping her ponytail.

"Stay back here, I'm going to talk to her." I say and Addie nods.

I match my pace to Sienna's and walk beside her. I speak but don't look at her, "I know what you're going to do and I'm telling you don't."

"Don't think you know anything!" she snarls.

"I know what you're going o do because you have the same look in your eyes that Edmond had before he deliberately gave the wrong answer to his riddle."

Sienna doesn't respond so I keep going, "Lana wouldn't want you to give up the next task."

"How would you know what Lana would want?" she spits.

"I knew her long enough to know she loved you and she wouldn't want you stuck here forever like her and your brother. Don't do it, not because I'm asking you not to but because your brother and sister wouldn't want you to."

Sienna still doesn't say anything but there are now tears rolling silently down her cheeks. I sigh. I've done the best I can and fall back to join Addie.

"What did you say to her?" She asks.

I just shake my head; Addie doesn't need to know. She'll only get upset if she knew Sienna was planning to throw the next task.

We follow the most twisting path we found yet but a part of me hopes we'll never find the next task, my heart leaping everything we reach a dead end because I'm not sure I've convinced Sienna to keep fighting. The bottom of my stomach drops as the familiar cloaked figures appear around the corner but I'm quickly distracted by the enormous wall with broken bricks and rocks sticking out.

"The third task strength. You all must scale the wall using your strength and skill alone. This task you will do at the same time however you are forbidden to assist one another."

Sienna makes towards the wall but I yank her back. I tell Addie and Bailie to go on. Bailie raises an eyebrow at me but starts climbing.

"What?" Sienna hisses.

"Listen if you throw this it means they win." I whisper nodding my head in the direction of The Faceless.

"What are you talking about?" she asks.

"They're trying to break us, the best thing you can do for your sister is avenge her by defying them."

She watches my expression for a moment before nodding. "Alright I'll do it your way defiance."

The look in her eyes sends a cold shiver over me What have I just done?

Sienna and I start climbing the wall; Addie and Bailie were already half way up. Addie scales the wall like a squirrel. I smile to myself as I get a grip on a broken brick and hoist myself off of the ground. As soon as Sienna and I leave the floor the tiles underneath us fall away. If we slip we will fall into the shadows.

A lump rises in my throat and I swallow it down. Just focus on the next foothold, focus on the next grip. I lodge my feet as close to the wall as I can before reaching up for the next thing to pull myself up. It's all going well, Addie and Bailie have reached the top; Addie is leaning over the edge on her hands and knees to cheer me on. Bailie has vanished from sight but I don't want to see his smug face anyway. Sienna and I are about three quarters of the way up when I lose my footing.

I slip. Addie's eyes and mouth go wide. A scream rips from my mouth when a hand clamps around my wrist and pulls me back to the wall. I scrambled to regain my footing then realize what's just happened. Sienna caught me when I had started to fall.

"What are you doing?" I ask gaping at her.

She looked at me with the ghost of a smile, "Defying."

She had broken the rules and I had given her the idea. I'm so stupid! She'll be punished. What will they do to her? I swallow and keep climbing. Addie makes sure no to touch me until I had pulled myself entirely onto the ledge.

She throws her arms around me and whispers hurriedly into my ear, "Sienna broke the rules, she helped you! What are they going to do?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" I whisper hugging her back tightly.

Sienna claws at the ledge clamouring up on to it. She gets to her feet panting as The Faceless appear. They advance on her uninterested in us.

"Sienna Moore you have ignored our instructions not assist Carina Griffin and have proven yourself unworthy to live the world we have so generously created for you," they say "You will be punished for you gross disobedience."

Sienna doesn't struggle or speak. With inhuman speed one of The Faceless darts behind her; it wraps a cloaked arm around her neck. She closes her eyes. I don't even have time to pull Addie away. With a swift movement The Faceless snaps her neck.