House of Anubis: The Real Ones - Book 1 - COMPLETED.

Chapter 28

Here I was again, in another place I didn't recognize. There were walls made of steel on 3 sides of me, above and below me, too. I realized that this must be the maze that The Guiders mentioned. I can't believe they retained information as huge as this from a minion. Which, reminded me of my mission:

Find Eddie.

I thought about yelling for help, but this was a maze made of pure steel. Would my voice echo? Sure, maybe a little, but not far enough to help me. Based on my past experiences in the serum, I figured I was alone here, and I would have to find my own way out. I tried holding the Eye of Horus necklace up to walls, seeing if it would glow red and lead me out of the maze.

I thought about leaving a piece of me at every corner, so I would have known if I had been in the part of the maze before. Like in Hansel and Gretel. Only, with pieces of clothing of mine. But I soon realized that I would run out of shoelaces, shoes, socks, bobby pins, etc. pretty fast.

I thought about my poor, sweet, innocent Gran. She didn't die. She couldn't have. I would have found out through somebody somewhere, right? I couldn't cry anymore. What if Rufus and Caroline were watching? That would make me seem weak. They want me to go weak, but I refuse to. I need to focus on the mission and find them.

I also thought about Eddie. And Fabian. And Amber. Patricia. Jerome. Alfie. K.T. Mick. Joy. Mara. Willow. They all seemed so nervous down in the secret study. I felt bad for them, but then again, I didn't. I'm not the one to blame for this. I didn't ask all of them to be apart of this, I was the one who fought for them to not be apart of this. I wondered what they were doing right now. Did they meet young Sarah? Witness family members possibly die? Witness family members live?

All of these thoughts were racing through my head as I made my fifth turn left and then my third turn right. Staring at my shoes as they kept walking, I hung my head in self doubt. Mumbling senseless words to myself, I looked up to decide to keep going straight, turn left, or turn right. But, I didn't have to decide. There was a beacon of hope right in front of me. A small sliver of hope, but the small sign of hope in front of me wasn't real.

If it was Real, if he was Real, he would be running full speed at me now, but he wasn't. So I didn't run full speed at him either. I simply walked toward him, scared of what this projection might do. Were my eyes playing tricks on me? Maybe. Or this was simply apart of the game. I held my hand up to his just to see if this was a trick. His hand touched mine back, and he laced our fingers together before embracing me in his biggest hug yet. This reminded me of our hug at the beginning of the year in front of Anubis.

"You're Real." I tried to tell Fabian, but nothing came out of my mouth.

"You're Real." I tried to tell him again, my mouth moved but nothing came out.

"YOU'RE REAL!" I attempted to shout at Fabian. Guess what came out of my mouth? Nothing.

"You're real." I thought whispering would work. It didn't.

Fabian just stared at me, with this unbelievable look. I'm guessing it was because 1. Here I am. I found someone, him in fact. 2. We can't talk in the maze. It's physically impossible to.

You're Real. I thought in my head. He's Real. He's Real. He's Real. He's Real.

I tried to carve something into the steel with my nail, but nothing came out. It was impossible to communicate here. I sat down on the floor and buried my hands on my face. I shook my head, unable to comprehend that this was really happening. It didn't matter that my boyfriend was right in front of me, we weren't even able to communicate.

Fabian took a hold on my wrists and helped me up. He made slow, up and down motions with his hands. He made it look like he was trying to tell me to calm down. I nodded, but this still sucked. I made a gesture with my hands for him to follow me. I ran. I ran through the maze, hoping my boyfriend would keep up. Taking a left here, a right here. Going straight on occasion. I was sick and tired of this maze. If I had to guess, I'd say I'd been in here for a good 15 minutes.

At certain times, I had to stop myself and simply just breathe. Fabian put a comforting hand on my shoulder, telling me that everything was going to be okay. But was it? What if this maze didn't end? How long would I be in here? Until the end of term? Until my birthday in July? As I walked in front of Fabian, I let out a single silent tear representing my slow down fall. 

Don't get me wrong, I love that Fabian was here with me, and that I found him quickly. It was the fact that Rufus and Caroline made the serum, so this could easily as well be a trap. I wiped away my tear before turning back to Fabian and gave him a nod, signaling that I was ready to run again.

Another 5 minutes went past. 30 minutes in this horrible maze. I wondered if The Guiders were bored watching us yet. Fabian has been keeping up pretty good, I think he also realizes what's at stake here. I thought I saw somebody turn the corner in front of me, so I chased after them. I looked down the hall, and I saw Jerome and Amber running down it. I tried to scream "Hey!", but then I remembered the rules of the maze. They were running too fast for me to even possibly catch up. But, I still tried. As I turned a corner, I noticed how Amber ran while holding her red heels in her hands. Typical Amber.

I caught up a little, but they were still too fast. I felt like they must have a lead. It's inhuman for somebody to be running this long, especially in our circumstance. So, I did what I only could do. I jumped up and down like a child throwing a tantrum, hoping the steel would react by screaming.

My plan worked. The pair heard my jumps, turned around, and started running toward Fabian and I. I hugged Amber, and then Jerome. Fabian did vice versa. As I let go of Amber, she started to tear up a little. I mouthed the words, "Don't cry." hoping she would understand me. Jerome made a gesture with his hands for us to follow him. We followed him for a good eighth of a mile before he grabbed my hand and placed it on a steel wall. The steel was warm. I looked up at him with a puzzled look.

He replied by turning a corner and holding his hand out to show me.

It was the end of the maze. A square room made of steel, with lit torches marking the perimeter. In the center of it all stood a white light, like when I first got put under the serum. That seemed like forever ago. Jerome was about to step through it when I grabbed his hand. And then I grabbed Fabian's. And then Fabian grabbed Amber's hand.

And together, we stepped into the white light.

Only to come to something much worse.

"Well, hello, darlings." a familiar female voice boomed.

"We were starting to get worried." a familiar male voice thundered.

"Let's play." the female voice rumbled again.