The month of February was normal despite what happened with us getting in a fight with the other group. It shocked me that at the end of the first month, January, three people had already lost their life. That was just the first trial, and I knew more awaited me, awaited us. Our wounds seemed free of infection and seemed to be losing pain, which was a good sign. You never know what you may be in store for, and extra pain sure isn't something you want when trying to survive. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, expecting to see Katie, or maybe anyone else I would recognize like Keith and Darren. When my sight was clear from waking up, though, I didn't see them. It wasn't just them that was gone, my whole surroundings were different. I started panicking a little, but I realized nothing was going on after a few seconds. I was still wary, though, as I took in my unfamiliar surroundings. It was hard to tell where I was since everything seemed old and rusted. I seemed to be in some kind of bathtub, the wall kf the bathub being made out of tiles. They were rusted and chipping away, revealing the crude grey wall they were originally put over. That wasn't the only unusual thing, though. Along the walls seemed to be holes. They were rusted metal, but still in good enough shape. They were all in the wall, except for one half of the wall. The other half seemed to be like a screen door you could open and shut while taking showers, yet I couldn't see anything past it and I couldn't open it. I tired, but I heard chains and metal clink like I was locked inside. So what I've gotten out of this so far is that I'm trapped in a bathtub that has a bunch of holes in the walls. I looked in the holes to see if they were just holes, but they were like pipes. So, the holes were actually pipes built into the walls. The floor was also tile, and there was a dim light flickering on the otherside of the bathtub screen. The bathtub screen was the only thing blocking me from escaping, being I guessed this was some kind of trial. I forced myself to stay calm, though, because freaking out wouldn't help. I noticed that along with all of the chipped and broken tile pieces on the floor, there was a folded piece of paper. I picked it up and opened it, reading it out loud.
"I'm guessing you've already realized that it's time for the second trial. Are you excited? This time I expect you to survive alone, being that the last trial was based on luck. Let's hope you get lucky, and don't disappoint me." The note read, I knew who that was from. His signature was strangely neat, neater than mine actually. I looked around my enclosed space, looking for some way to escape. It's not like anything is going to kill me right now, so might as well look for an escape route. I decided to conserve my energy, because you never know. I searched around everywhere, looking for something thst could possibly aid me in my attempt to escape. I ended up finding nothing that would help me, and nothing seemed to be happening. Did I have to breal the screen door down? I call it a screen door, but it was more of a thick plastic feeling. Like a large wall of plastic that's hard to see through, but you can slide it. I would've been able to slide it if it wasn't locked. I couldn't pick the lock either because it was locked from the outside. I began to ponder my decisions, then I felt something cold and heard water running. I looked at the pipes built into the walls and realized they were pouring out water. There was no drain, and the water would have no way of leaking out. It dawned onto me that if I didn't get out of here, I would drown. The water was filling up fast, being it was already to my knees. It felt ice cold, and I began to pound on the screen door.
"Help!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I bashed my fists and rammed my body into the screen, attempting to get out. It only shook, nothing seemed loosen. The water was now up to my hips and drastically ascending, there seemed no way out. I couldn't ram the screen door now because now it was hard to even charge with half of my body covered in water. I pounded and pounded until my fists ached, hitting the screen repeatedly. It seemed futile, and the water was up to my chest line. The water was already making my body numb, and I could imagine my lips being blue. I searched frantically looking for an escape but there was no way out that I could see. For the first time I could see that I was floating, the ceiling being ten inches away from my bobbing head. Anxiety was deeping in my chest and stomach as the whole bath filled with water, being totally encased in water. I hed in my breath, trying not to let any escape while my lungs ached. I soon learned after a few seconds that banging on the screen was pointless. My body chilled and I felt numb all over, only my hands having some feeling left. I pressed them against the ceiling of the bathtub, running out of air. My arm ached severely, and I felt that I could escape if I didn't have that damn bullet wound. I felt along the ceiling with my hands, hoping maybe there would be something. I finally felt something, but I didn't know what it was. It felt like a vent cover, and I pushed with all of the energy I had left and broke through the vent seal. I sent it flying inside the ventilation shafts, and I bobbed my head out of the water and into the shaft. I took the deepest breath I could, then laid down, taking deep breaths and savoring the fresh air. My lungs stopped aching, but my body began to chill. I shivered and sat up, water dripping from my whole body. I had nearly drowned to death in freezing water! After my lungs were full of air, I began to crawl through the shafts. It was like a maze, but my main hope was to find some way of escaping. I kept crawling, making sure to be silent and ignored my shivering body. I didn't find any openings in the vents until I heard something below me. It sounded like thrashing and banging against something. Confused and still shocked from my near death experience, I crawled to a vent opening that was just a few feer away. The banging continued, and I broke the ventilation seal that was blocking the opening. I was cold and still shocked, but I had adrenaline running through me. I fell down the opening in the vent and hit the hard floor. I landed on my hands and knees, ignoring the pain and observing my surroundings. I was to shocked and filled with adrenaline to notice the pain.
I observed that I was in a bathroom, and then I heard the banging. Like it was right next to me. I turned and saw Keith in the bathtub, drowning. It was full and he was unable to escape, seconds from drowning. I was still shivering but I didn't care, he was banging on a screen just like I was, his eyes wild with terror.
"Keith!" I screamed and began to help pound on the screen with my fists. It didn't budge or dent, so I tried unlocking the lock on the shower screen. The lock was complex itself, and I filled with dread ae I realized Keith stopped moving in there. He was dead, floating in the frozen water, his body already pale and blue. I could imagine his lifeless eyes, forever filled with terror. The once beautiful eyes I grew to love, the person I grew to cherish was dead. We'd only known each other for two months, but I couldn't push the grief down. I lost a friend, and someone that I could've had a deeper feeling with. I was dead, frozen. My eyes were empty and the adrenaline faded, already seeming to smell the stench of death and rot. The pain ebbed back to feeling, but it didn't bother me. The shock didn't lessen, and neither did the grief. My reaction was absent, and I was frozen as thoughts rampaged through my mind. He meant something to me, and now he was gone. Maybe forever, but I knew I could find comfort in the people I had left. In Darren ane Katie, if they were alive. I felt something hit me over the head, then I went unconscious.
~
I woke up dry, my mind dizzy as I looked around the room. I saw Darren and Katie, and everyone else from the other group. Hope surged through me, was it just a dream? I looked around frantically for Keith, but I couldn't find him.
"Where's Keith?" I asked Katie and Darren and they glanced at each other. I realized the throbbing pain on my head, and the soreness in my body. Then Katie spoke, killing any hope I had left.
"He's dead, Katlyn." Katie whispered but loud enough so it could be heard in the whole room. Grief shone in Katie's and Darren's eyes, and it seemed they expected me to cry or scream. I would've, but I saw something. A glint in someone's eyes, a look of satisfaction. A smirk. I noticed the look appear when Katie told me Keith was dead. I stood up and walked toward her, the look fading from her. Their group wasn't necessarily assembled, they were a bit scattered.
"What? You fucking expect me to pity your little friend that drowned? We all went through the same thing, don't fucking thing he's anything special." She sneered, and I was gonna yell. But you know what, I'm done yelling.
"Do you know what it feels like to drown?" I said in a quivering voice and grabbed someone's shackle chain and wrapped it around her neck tightly. I made sure it was so tight that she couldn't breathe, not letting up at all. Her eyes filled with fear and she tried to breathe, but I wouldn't stop. She tried clawing at me, but she couldn't reach me. Her face was changing color as I kept choking her, everything happening lightning fast. The first person to get up was Darren, not someone from their group. He pulled me away with force, but he was gentle. I stopped choking her, and sat down near Katie in my grief. What was wrong with that girl? She was taking deep breaths and feeling her neck, chain marks on her neck where I was strangling her. There was no hate or satisfaction in her eyes, just terror. Some of the other ones in her group had hate in their eyes, fear, or both. There was only four of them, not including the bitch I tried to strangle. I didn't feel bad or regret what I had done, but I bet she did reget what she said to me. With Keith dead, there was only three of us, and eight of us total. It seemed we were dropping like flies, and the third trial remained. We were probably in the month of March now, and there was something to look forward to. I had two remaining friends, and I had the loose shackle.
