Devils Game

Chapter Sixteen | The Crater

Running to the end of the mirror halway, I make it to the end and practically launch myself towards my brother and fall flat on my chest next to him out of breath. Not wasting a second to catch my breath I turn him on his back, facing me. I relax as I look down and see his chest rise and fall up and down continuously.

Out of breath, I lay down next to him deciding to take a knee until he either wakes up or I regain my breath. I lay there next to him for what seems like a long period of time, but my breath has not caught up with me by the time that he wakes up.

"What happened?" he groans, sitting up with his hand on his head signaling pain.

"I was just about to... ask you that." I say out of breath.

He looks at me up and down and to the mirror hallway, threading the pieces together and shrugs. He looks again towards me and decides to lay back down, and for once; I join him.

Defeated by my own breath I lay down and close my eyes, glad for the silence my brother was granting. I close my eyes and focus on my breath and slowing it down, and in that moment I found peace and fell to sleep.

When I woke up all I could feel was the cold floor pressed against my back. I press up a little dis-oriented and confused as to where I was. I see my brother on the floor beside me and remember what happened and let out a sigh, knowing that it wouldnt be safe to stay here any longer.

I get onto my feet and dust off my clothes and kicked my brother awake.

"Lets go." I say, not wanting to waste another second here.

"Well good morning to you too." He says standing up.

I smirk at him and turn around, not entirely ready to continue straight into the next room but knowing I have no other choice. I take a deep breath and walk towards the door slowly, taking in the moment without another trial for a second longer.

"Ready?" I say without looking back to my brother.

"No."

I push open the door and walk in, knowing my brother is just a few steps behind me. Instead of the usual darkness that meets to consume me theres nothing but light. All I can see is this huge big white light radiating from the door. Its so bright that I cant even look at it, or else my eyes water and burn.

"Shit what is that!?" my brother yells towards me.

"I dont know! Lets move!" I say and charge into the door, running straight for the light before my brother can stop me.

"What are you doing?!" I hear behind me, but I ignore the voice and keep running towards the light.

I shut my eyes as hard as I can, running straight ahead of me and tripping over myself because I cant see.

I run another few steps before falling into a ditch. I slowly open my eyes and see that the light is not bursting but dim and settle. Its a crater in the ground.

I frantically look around without moving, scared that if I do I might set something off. And I was right. Because all around me where things like bear traps, rat traps, and most importantly land mines. Just one move and Im dead.

I check to see where my hand is only to realize that its flat on a bear trap. "Hey! Im down here!" I scream after my brother, my only hope to escape this alive.

I know theres a red piece of tape that says how to remove it if a human were to get into it. I scream for minutes and finally, my brother plops down.

Fortunately he lands on the area without any traps, and looks right over at me and notices what my hand is in. The light gets drained from his eyes and is replaced with a dark, drained look.

"Look behind you." he says, and I turn my head every so slightly on the ground only to see a thin glass window, thats slowly filling up with water.

"Get over here!" I say urging him to help me out.

He snaps out of it and comes running towards me, turning right and left to avoid all of the traps. "What do I do?" he says.

"Look at the bear trap. There should be some writing on it to say how to unarm it or something!" I turn back and look at the water, its more than a quarter up.

"No! Theres nothing on it! What do we do?!" he says frantically, loosing his patience.

"Keep looking!" He circles the trap and looks at me like Im crazy.

"Theres nothing." he says.

"Crap... then I gotta do it fast."

"Do what fast? What do you mean?!" he says stepping away, scared.

"Calm down! For God's sake just calm down. I gotta do it fast. I have to whip my hand off of the plate as fast as I can. You have to help me."

"How can I help?! Theres nothing I can do!!" he says.

"Yes there is! Find something that will replace my hand like a piece of wood or a shoe or a jacket or something that will replace the weight of my hand!" I say.

He sways for a moment, not knowing what to do before it hits him. He lights up and lifts himself out of the crater.

"Where are you going?!" I say, screaming after him. No response.

I look back at the water and its more than half way full. Were running out of time. He comes back falling into the crater on the safe side carrying a medium sized rock. "Will this work?!" he says.

"Its gonna have to. On three okay? One... two... three!" I whip my hand as fast as I can out of the bear trap and as soon as my hand is out the rock takes my place. The bear trap stays open.

"Oh you're kidding me." The bear trap was never activated in the first place.

"That doesn't matter right now! We have to go!" I say, trying to pull myself out of the crater.

"Wait! Wait! What if the water is just another trick?!" he says, pulling my back down slightly.

"What do you mean?! We have to get out of here!" I say trying to get up.

"Like the bear trap! What if its another trick!?" he says, pulling me down all the way.

"Do you really want to take that chance?!" I say, and then the water fills up all the way. And the glass cracks.

"Trust me." he says, taking my hand.

And the glass breaks and a giant burst of water comes spewing out at us. We get pushed back a bit but then my brother grabs my hand and pulls me towards the room.

The water keeps pouring out but we get inside where the glass was and into the room. We drag ourselves to the other side of the water-filled room and open the door on the other side.

And into the next game we go