Bane Academy: To Run From Fear

Chapter 20

Shae

After hours of walking and walking some more, we're all still trapped inside the maze. Dawn has arrived to a frosty morning, snow flakes float down slowly and softly. I have distributed extra clothes to everyone to keep warm and even put some on Skia on her German Shepard form.
"Haven't we already passed this wall?" Dale asks.
"All the walls look the same, you idiot." Becca sighs, walking with Fade side by side.
"'All the walls look the same, you idiot.'" Dale mimics.
"Cut it out."
"'Cut it out.'"
"That's enough!" Fade yells.
"To know how to get to the Glade, we need the maps, which are in the glade. So the only way to get there is to bump into it eventually, hopefully it's before sunset." I explain.
"Why before sunset? What happens at sunset?" Dale asks.
"That's when the grievers come out again." Becca says.
A visible chill runs down Dale's back. "Can't you just magic us out of here? Send a flare or fly us out or something?"
"Skia broke my wand, remember?" I say and Skia whimpers guiltfully. "It's alright pal. I still have my stele. Maybe Becca brought her wand?"
Becca shakes her head sadly, and we carry on walking in silence.
"Who broke your wand?" Dale asks.
"Our Maniae. She's invisible to you." Becca explains, gritting her teeth.
"Yeah right." Dale laughs. "There must be some way we can get out of here quickly. Won't the maze runner kids have training today?"
"No, their classes were all cancelled." I sigh.
   "That explains why they were all running around yesterday." Fade comments.
"Well what abou-"
"Do you ever stop talking?!" Becca yells at Dale.
"'Do you ever stop talking?'"
"UGH! That's it!" Becca stomps her foot and runs towards Dale. Dale runs in the opposite direction and through the maze. Becca follows.
Fade and I look at each other nervously. "Dale! Becca!" We shout, chasing after them. We turn a corner and just see Becca's body turning right and we follow. As we're running, the snow gets thinner and thinner until it's not existent. Our shoes leave the soft, white snow and onto the cold, hard, grey concrete. Just like the snow, the air gets thinner too, causing me to breathe quicker.
I stop running and put by hands on my knees. "Fade, stop." I say looking at the ground, trying to catch my breath. No response. "Fade?" I ask. I look up and see no one in front of me. Where did he go? I walk up and down to see no one in sight. Not even Skia. I make a turn left and see Fade, Dale, Skia and Becca huddled in a group. "Everything okay?" I ask them.
They all turn to me with the same blank expression. Dale walks behind me, death glaring me and my eyes follow him. Fade pushes me harshly onto the ground from behind, I hit the hard concrete ground face first. Pain erupts from my nose and lip. I hold my palm up to my nose gently then look at it. Red blood is dripping from my bloody nose and cracked lip.
"What the hell guys?" I say. "Did I do something?"
"Did you do something?" Dale laughs. "You only ended the life of your friend. How could you forget?" He circles me.
"Maybe she didn't care enough to remember." Fade smirks.
"Sounds about right." Becca mutters. "Playing innocent as always."
I search my mind quickly, retracing my steps, remembering. I remember walking through the maze, being chased by grievers, getting caught at night and walking with Skia to the dorm quietly to collect clothes. I can't remember going to the divergent block, I can't remember seeing Tobias or drinking the serum. It has to be a fear landscape. But how?
"Guys, you know I didn't-" Skia cuts me off with a swipe of her claws.
I cover my hands over my face to brace myself, but I don't feel her claw me. I open my eyes and I'm all alone in the maze. They've disappeared. But the walls bulk and shift. I know what's about to happen as it has happened so many times before. I close my eyes at the inevitability of it all.

"Do you have any...Fears?" Liam asks as he puts down his notes and sits forward towards me, waiting for me to answer.
"No." I say nervously, also putting down my notes. "No fears."
"What are they?" He asks.
"I just said I don't have any." I laugh.
"Oh come on, everyone has one. Tell me." He smiles, insisting.
"Tell me yours first then I might tell you mine."
"Okay, very clever, Shae Fall." He smiles and half bows at me.
"Why thank you, Liam Whiteland." I laugh and pretend to curtsy.
"Okay, my fear would probably have to be..." He takes a dramatic pause. "Being accused of something I didn't do."
"Like being accused of leaving the toilet seat up?"
"On a small scale, yes. But it's more like being accused or murder or something."

"Shae!" I hear a familiar voice call out. The sounds rings in my head.
I open my eyes and either the maze is tilted 90 degrees to the right or I'm laying on the ground. I'm back on the snow again. My head throbs and my eyes are heavy. The call I heard earlier was not a call of concern as I thought it was, it was a call of anger.
"You didn't tell me that I'd see spiders and worms crawling all over me in the maze!" Dale shouts, outraged.
I sit upright quickly. "You saw your fear too?" I ask.
"Yeah! There was creepy crawlys everywhere! Not only that, they crawled into my mouth and down my throat!" Dale yells, I shudder at the thought. "AND I failed heaps of tests!" He continues.
But I don't pay him any attention, I look around for the other two. "Fade? Becca?" I shout. Out from the corner of my eye, Fade staggers towards us. "You okay?" I ask, running up to him.
"It-it couldn't have been real." He says, catching his breath.
"It had to be!" Dale protests.
"Trust me, it couldn't be." Fade says simply
"I felt them crawl down my throat! It couldn't have been a nightmare or something, if that's what you're intending."
"And I saw you guys." I said. "It was more real than a fear landscape, I could touch, smell, see and hear everything."
"It wasn't real!" Fade snaps.
I look at him again. His dark, baggy clothes are damp with sweat. So are the roots of his dark hair. His face is more pale than normal. Whatever his fear is, it must be deep and heavy, darker than any of ours put together. I want to know what it is without asking him. "Where's Becca?" He asks quickly as his eyes widen with the realisation.
At that moment, I see Becca walking towards us and I point to her. "There." I say.
Fade follows where I'm pointing with his eyes and starts running towards Becca as soon as he sees her.
"Shae, clothes." She says shivering. I pass her a long sleeved shirt and pants from my bag. She takes them and walks around a corner where we can't see her to get changed.
"Why is she dripping wet?" Dale asks.
Fade and I know why, but we don't say anything.
"Fade." I start. "It must be real. Otherwise she would still be dry."
He nods his head in agreement. "Is this supposed to happen in the maze?" He asks "Seeing our fears?"
"No." I tell him. "No it's not."
Becca walks back around the corner to us. Although her hair is tied back, it still drips onto her back. Her eyes shine as the light reflects off her teary eyes. "You okay?" She asks me.
"Yeah I'm fine." I say.
"Does it still hurt?"
"Does what still hurt?"
She brings her hand up to her face and points at her nose and lips. I do the same and dried blood stains my fingers.
"It's fine." I say. And there is silence. "I know why I have that fear now." I say to Becca.
"Why?" She asks.
"Liam had a fear of being accused of things he didn't do." I explain.
Becca covers her mouth, trying to stop a wail of sadness from escaping. "You caught his fear." She whispers. "You were still his friend."
"Well, of course." I say confused.
"I'm so sorry." Becca cries. She runs towards me and wraps her arms around my neck as I do to her. "I forgot you and Liam were friends. I thought of you as this girl who took my friend away from me." She whispers. "I forgot you had a friend taken away from you too."
"I had two friends taken away from me." I whisper back. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too." She whispers, her hug tightens.