one by one.

-ten-

Warning: Violence and language.

"Maya no!" Riley shouts as the blonde falls to the ground. She kneels down and gently lifts her best friend's head up from the ground. "Please don't leave me, Peaches. Wake up. I need you, Maya." A tear makes it down Riley's rose colored cheeks, waiting just a second before dropping down onto Maya's pale, cold skin. "Please wake up," Riley utters, as she wipes her own tear off of the other girl's face. "I love you."

Maya jolts awake, her breath heavy as she examines her surroundings. She is alone. The room she woke up in is empty except for the bed she was sleeping on and a blank screen on the wall.

She runs her hand through her blonde hair, and notices the lack of dirt and debris she had slowly gotten used to out in the forest. She was clean for the first time since she had last been at this place, which she presumes was the headquarters of whatever the hell Farkle had signed them up for.

There is only one thought that is currently racing through the girl's mind, and that is Riley. Was she here? Was she still out in the forest? Was she alone? What if she was alone? Guilt instantly rushes through Maya's entire body. What had she done? How could she have been so selfish and leave Riley like that? She could only imagined what her best friend is be going through right now. For all she knows, Riley still thinks that Maya is dead.

The walls seem to be closing in on Maya. Her breathing becomes uneven and frequent. She wants nothing more than to get out of that room and now. She stumbles over to what appeared to be the door and begins frantically pounding on it in hopes of someone hearing her and letting her out. But to no luck.

Maya manages to back herself into the corner of the room closest to the door. She proceeds to close her eyes as tight as she possibly can and bury her face into her knees, praying that when she found the courage to open her eyes again, all of this would have just been a bad dream.

Her mind takes her back to the speech Riley gave in her the forest. "Stay strong for Riley. Stay strong for Riley," the girl repeatedly mumbles to herself on the ground. After a while her panic attack slowly goes away and she reopens her eyes. Unfortunately she finds herself still alone in the same empty room, but sometime during her panic attack the door must have opened.

Before she could even generate another thought, her feet had lead her out of the room and down the hallway. She didn't know where it lead, but she did know she wanted to be as far away from that room as possible.

"Farkle!" She sighs in relief at the sight of her friend. She isn't alone and not being alone is the only thing she needs right now. The boy is sitting alone at a table with five other chairs around it. Plates of food are set up in front of four of the chairs. As Maya looks around the room she sees four other doors open, other than the one she had come through. "Farkle, where's everyone else?"

She hadn't noticed it until now, but since entering the room the boy hasn't moved, perhaps even blinked. He simply stared blankly at the middle of the table in silence.

"Farkle?" Maya repeats, in an attempt to get any kind of response from him. For a moment his eyes look into hers. There was no other way to describe what she saw staring back at her than dead. "Farkle, what happened to you?" Maya is barely able to speak completely devastated by the boy's condition.

"Sit down and shut up," she hears from a voice behind her.

"Smackle," Maya smiles. Even though Smackle's tone was rather harsh Maya was still happy to see her. "What's wrong with Farkle?"