A Series of Short Stories

Special - Artgo Part 2

A/N: Here's the second part! Sorry, the first part left off suddenly, but this story wasn't originally formatted to be in multiple parts. Anyway, enjoy!

After a short pause, "I'm not sure, we probably should've asked that before we entered the maze," I looked at him with a worried look, then he proceeded to give me a reassuring smile. "It's fine though, no one has ever gotten stuck in one of these. There's usually a command, or eventually, the game just shuts off by itself."

"Oh, alright. That's good, then let's ask the first person we see since there must be multiple people playing on this level." I spoke with a semi-worried tone. Luciel gave me a small nod to agree. Shuffling across the floor together, we turned through multiple hallways. Not knowing if we were making any progress, a small hint of annoyance hit me, but the lights were still able to mesmerize me. Turning across a corner, we spotted a person sitting alone. My excitement went up from the sight of another person as I quickly rushed towards him. Following me, Luciel ran to the person and greeted him. It was when we first made eye contact that we realized this person was not enjoying his time here in the land of Artgo.

"Uh, excuse me, hello!" Luciel greeted him as the random man looked up to us with blood struck eyes. This look caused both Luciel and I to jump back an inch.

"We were wondering if you knew how to exit the game?" With the anticipation sinking in, I immediately asked the man despite his terrified appearance.

"Exit? Exit!?" Although he didn't respond to Luciel's greeting, he immediately reacted to my question in a shaking and crackly voice. "There is no exit!"

"W-what do you mean?" Changing his tone, Luciel responded.
"I've been in this maze for days! There is no exit! We're stuck! We're stuck in their trap! Their twisted experiment! There's no exit! There's no exit!" In a bloodcurdling scream, the man yelped an answer. His voice, along with his answer, sent chills down my spine. Once again, everything froze as my fear spiked up.

"There is no escape. The exit command doesn't work. We're stuck. Stuck. Stuck." He spoke again while Luciel and I stood there, staring at him with worried looks.

"Wait... no, there must be away! Maybe it's just a glitch, what's the command?" With a worried voice, Luciel questioned him.

"Artgo off. That's how you exit. That's how everyone exits. But no one has been able to exit. No one." The man replied with a shaky voice once again.

"Artgo off!" Luciel immediately spoke after the man explained how to exit. Nothing happened.

"Artgo off!"

"Artgo o-off!"

"...A-artgo... o-off..." Luciel began to stumble upon his words as he realized the man was speaking the truth.

"Artgo off!" I attempted to exit myself. It didn't work. I quickly shot a terrified glare at Luciel as he did the same to me. The two of us realized we were stuck.

"I-I told you! There's no use!" He screamed with a mixture of fear and anger.

"W-wait.... There has to be a way, why else would all of us be here? All of t-these games had to have been tested before humans were allowed to enter it.... R-right?" I took a step forward and spoke to the man with an extremely shaky voice.

"Maybe. Maybe. That's not what I can tell from this though. Maybe we aren't stuck. But we probably are." The man looked down and began to visibly shake. This sent another round of chills across my body.

"Hold on here, maybe there is a way out. Maybe we just need to beat this level." Luciel presented some hope to us, but there was no question that the three of us were utterly terrified.