The Maze of Nightmares

Nine: Rose

Rose

After the shark test, Rose decided she didn't like the maze at all. Endless black halls, nightmares lurking in the shadows... Ugg, it was like a horror attraction waiting to happen. Rose didn't appreciate it at all.

As she was walking vines wrapped around her in a cocoon. Some of them wrapped around her neck cutting off her oxygen. She grew dizzy and it was hard to think. She tugged at the plants, desperately trying to get them off, but that only seemed to strengthen them. Her hands slid off the vines. They were vines! There was nowhere for vines to grow! It was a stone labyrinth! Once she realized that, the vines disappeared.

Clueless to where the center was, she wandered helplessly. Eventually, she came to an intersection with five paths. She was about to try to make a complex algorithm to figure out the path most likely to lead to the center when she heard voices. Familiar voices.

She raced down the path straight in front of her and stopped in front of her friends. Jack, Mia, and David were all conversing together in the room. "I can't believe we finally beat the final test! Go us!" Jack said, high-fiving David. Mia smiled. "I know." Then she saw Rose and her eyes turned cold. "Oh, now you decide to show up. Where were you? We needed you!" She accused.

Rose was about to reply when David said "You know what, it doesn't matter. You haven't passed the test yet. You can't leave."

As if to prove his point, a black portal like the one they fell through appeared behind the three of them. "Only we can." Jack finished.

The walked through the portal. Before he left, David turned, his eyes softer. "Sorry, Rose." Then his eyes hardened. "Good luck passing the test alone." Then he was gone. They were all gone. She was alone.

Rose stood still as a statue for a whole minute before her legs dropped her to the ground. She was alone. Alone in this nightmare. There was no one to help her, no one to be her friend. The only people she had thought would stand by her had just left her alone.

She was alone. Abandoned. The others weren't somewhere else in the maze where she could find them. No, they had left her.

Rose sat by herself, knees pulled up to her chest, and cried. She buried her head in her hands, feeling like the only person in the universe. For all she knew, there was no one else in the maze. She was absolutely and truly alone.