Inside this Twisted Labyrinth

Chapter Seven

AN: See Chapter One for warnings

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Day 9

"So Bigfoot: real, not real, or an alien?" Jaime asked, face pressed into the blueprints as he pointed them left when the hallway came to an end.

He knew what Jaime was trying to do: distract them from the weight of their pressing thoughts. Despite the fact they had survived the last room of horrors unscathed, they were all still shaken up over what had happened.

But Vic could not be distracted. Thoughts of Kellin and their predicament plagued him.

What if the next room held something they couldn't overcome? What if there was no hint from Kellin, no little piece of him that let Vic know at least his boyfriend had made it that far?

He staggered, and came to a stop, bringing his hand up to rest on the cool, damp wall.

What if ... What if he found Kellin's body?

No. Kellin still lived. He knew it. It had to be true. He couldn't believe otherwise.

"Are you okay?" his brother whispered to him. Vic jumped, not realizing Mike had stopped next to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, shrugging off his brother's concern and moving forward again. He tried very hard to ignore Mike's concerned look and concentrated very hard on Jaime and Tony's argument over Bigfoot instead.

"Not real," Vic heard Tony say to Jaime. "There is no way that an 8-foot undiscovered species exists on this planet."

"What about all the sightings from people?" Jaime argued.

"It's just people who have an overactive imagination that - since Bigfoot is such a common, well-known myth - people transcribe the shadow, or person, or bear they're actually seeing as a stupid, mythological creature," Tony argued.

"Wow, you're really adamant there's no such thing as Bigfoot," Jaime said.

"Yes. There are three things in this world you will never be able to convince me of no matter what argument you make. One, that Republicans and the people who vote them are good people. Two, that the people who vote for Republicans are intelligent. And three, that Bigfoot exists."

"Maybe Bigfoot isn't an undiscovered Earth species, but a race of aliens that visit Earth just to fuck with us," Jaime argued.

"Then there would be a correlation between UFO sightings and Bigfoot sightings, and so far I've never heard of such a thing," Tony said.

"Wow," Jaime said. "Sometimes I forget you're actually kind of smart sometimes."

"In relation to you, everyone's a genius," Tony said, playfully shoving Jaime to let him know he was only kidding.

"Ouch, that cuts deep, Turtle, real deep," Jaime said, poking Tony in the ribs and making him squirm. Only they knew just how ticklish Tony really was.

"Stop that," Tony said, smacking away Jaime's hand.

"What do you think, Mike?" Jaime asked.

"About Bigfoot?" Mike asked, jogging up to the other two and throwing an arm around both their shoulders. "Gonna have to agree with Tony on this one here."

"You two are no fun," Jaime pouted, pointing them left down the next hallway. "Vic, help me out here."

"Uh," Vic said. He knew Jaime was only trying to cheer him up and take his brain, for just a moment, away from this place. And for a second, it had worked. He had been distracted by their banter. But he couldn't muster up the energy to reply, to let his mind ponder on any other topic than their current predicament and the fate of his boyfriend and friends.