The Seven Floors

The Realization

I can't believe that this has all happened already! It's only the third floor and Emily resents me, Jackson hates Christian for some reason, and I am all alone. I have tried to talk to Emily but she won't even look at me let alone give me a chance to try and talk to her. I can talk to Jackson but he is also sort of mad at me for not telling him either.

So Christian and I can only rely on ourselves. At this moment in time Emily and Jackson have separated from us glaring at us every time we look at them. I've been trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible by looking for the pedestal and the cards that are supposed to be accompanying it. Christian has been doing the same thing, so I decide to go talk to him to ease the loneliness that we both felt.

"I wouldn't talk to him if I were you!" I turned my head to see Jackson glaring at him.

"I will listen to you when you stop ignoring me!" I snapped back. I saw shock cross his eyes before anger took over.

"Well I wouldn't be ignoring you if you told us about Claire's death!"

I turned away from him yelling, "What?! I can't hear you!"

"because you know it's true..." Before I stopped to think, I turned and ran towards Jackson grabbing him by the collar.

"Remember that phase I was in when Christian brought me to you after you were looking for me?! The whole reason why I didn't tell you was because I cared for both of you enough to not want you to feel that same pain I felt!! I was empty inside and I didn't want to move for fear that I might break in half!! I needed both of you to realize just that and understand what I was feeling!! To come and comfort me!! So we could all support each other!" I saw sadness and regret in their eyes as I dropped the short brown haired boy to the ground before walking away saying, "But now I know that you don't have the heart to do so." I felt the tears threatening to come out with each step I took, Christian came towards me and hugged me. I wanted to hug him back but I knew I had to be strong, so I pushed him away sending him a weak smile to give him my thanks.

He smiled back and nodded, understanding why I pushed him away, and as I was still walking I felt arms wrap around me from behind me.

My eyes widened in shock when I saw that the person burying their face in my back was Jackson. I turned around hugging him tighter, after a while I felt a wet sensation on my shoulder and knowing that he was crying I pushed him off gently smiling at him showing him that I forgave him. He let out a breath of air wiping his cheeks from all of the tears running down them.

I looked past him to see Emily standing awkwardly looking at the floor. I ran over to her and gave her a hug, laughing feeling relieved.

She laughed a sad laugh along with me "I'm sorry I caused you so much pain, I was just so upset that you didn't tell me. But when you told me about how you felt afterwards I realized that what you were trying to protect us from."

I smiled at her, happy that this drama was over. "Ok, now that we are ok now can we look for the cards before we lose more time?"

We all nodded going our separate ways, but the minute I stepped one foot down, I felt the floor fall from under me! I screamed in pain as I landed in the hole I fell in feeling my ankle crack.

I saw Emily's head pop up, "are you ok? What happened?" I tried to stand up but winced falling back down looking at my swollen ankle, "I think I sprained my ankle, and I think that all of the gears on the wall connect to a different trap."

On cue I heard another scream, a thud, and then a groan. "Hold on I'll be right back!" I saw Emily disappear. "Be careful!" I yelled, wait now that I think about it, why didn't these traps activate when I was stomping towards Jackson before? Did they just now start working?

I was thinking about it when I saw Emily's head pop back over the edge of the trap hole I was in. "Christian just fell in another trap. He isn't hurt, luckily he fell on an old pile of leaves, breaking his fall." I sighed in relief. "Hold on I'm going to go look for a rope of some sort!" I nodded at she turned and left leaving me to lay there.

About 30 minutes later she came back with a vine, "How did you find this?" She shrugged before saying, "Jackson and I went back to the first floor and got a few vines off the walls!" I carefully climbed up making sure that I didn't use my sprained foot too much.

Sitting next to Emily resting my head on her shoulder I saw Jackson and Christian walk back and sit down next to us, all of us were tired and starting to get hungry, ready for this to be over.

Feeling my eyes not being able to take anymore torture I felt them close and I fell into a deep well needed sleep.