“Ow.” Ethan pushed himself up on the stone floor where he had landed after being sucked into the Ether Tunnel. “Everyone ok?” He called out and his friends muttered a groan of reassurance.
“What happened?” Eugene stumbled up next to Ethan. They examined the room they stood in which was faintly lit with torches on the walls. They stood perplexed at the sight of staircases. There were staircases completely around the room, on the walls, on the ceiling, everywhere. The only flat landing in the maze of staircases was the one they stood on. “This is really weird.”
“Uh, no kidding.” Kai said but when Ethan and Eugene turned to face him there was no sign of him or Dawn.
“Where are you?” Ethan called out.
“Up here.” Dawn said and they looked up to see Kai and Dawn standing on a staircase above them. They weren’t hanging upside-down but it appeared that gravity shifted to the ceiling from where they stood.
“Why are you up there?” Eugene asked.
“Oh, well, because we decided to become bats.” Kai said sarcastically.
“Calm down, we’ll figure something out.” Ethan looked around. “Can you reach my hands?” Ethan held his hands up in the air. Kai and Dawn tried to reach for it.
“You’re too far!” Dawn struggled.
“Here! Get down, Ethan.” Eugene ordered and Ethan obeyed to allow Eugene to get on his shoulders and reach for Kai and Dawn. Kai’s hands met with Eugene who pulled and pulled but it nothing happened.
“It’s no use. There’s something keeping us on this side.” Kai let go of his hands. Ethan put Eugene down and looked around.
“Why don’t we just try finding a staircase that connects to down here?” Ethan suggested.
“Alright, come on.” Kai huffed impatiently. They started walking through the maze of stairs as they tried to find a connecting point.
“There!” Dawn pointed to a staircase spiraling down the side of the wall. Kai and Dawn quickly ran down it but to their dismay, Ethan and Eugene had somehow moved above them.
“What the heck? How are we supposed to get back together?” Kai shouted in frustration.
“Maybe stairs aren’t the answer.” Eugene pondered.
“What do you mean?” Ethan asked.
“We’re too focused on finding stairs to get together but we’re not thinking about what the bigger goal is.” He explained.
“We’re not looking for stairs, we’re looking for Shadoe.” Dawn exclaimed.
“We need an exit to get to her.” Ethan looked around. “Although it would help if there weren’t so many stairs in the way.” He frowned and put his hand on a stair next to him. Suddenly they heard an echo of what sounded like stone crumbling.
“Ethan, what did you just do?” Kai asked in fear as they turned their heads from where the sound had come from. It was getting louder and it sounded like it was getting closer.
“I don’t know.” They all stared in the direction to see what was headed their way. They slowly backed up as they noticed a darkness reaching out from the end of the labyrinth of stairs.
