Escape the Night

~ Death Is Beauty ~

Espen p.o.v.

For some reason, Rose, Rhea and I are now in a blue stone cage filled with sand? I can feel a strange feeling below my feet. I need to forget Lucas for a while, or else I'll die for sure. Ever since Lucas died I've felt empty. He has always been a good friend, but I've always been more a person to keep emotions inside rather than speak up about things. When things get too much, I snap, but I'm also very quickly sorry again. I'm so confusing. Then a floating siren appears above the sand in front of us. "What is that?" Rose asks. "It looks like one of those things we turned into." Rhea responds. It's a siren, I think to myself. "I am not a thing." She said. "I am a siren, I hypnotised you with that smoke and now I need your help." She looks at us. "Help with what?" I ask. "That's for me to know, and for you to find out..." She responds. "In three minutes or less." She disappears again. "Wait!" Rhea said. "Did she just say 3 minutes or less?" She asks. The strange feeling I felt below my feet is now up on my knees. "Oh my god, the sand." Rose says. All three of us release our legs from the sand. Is this a trial? Fuck! How did we even get sent here?

"Rhea!" I call Rhea's name to get her attention. "Yeah?" She asks. Rose also turns her head to listen. "What are we going to do? I don't want to drown in sand!" I say, and that's genuine. I've always been scared of things that sting or silently hurt you. "I don't know!" She says. "The siren didn't tell us anything!" She looks at the sand that's slowly crawling up our feet again. There must be a way out of here. I look at Rose, who is panicking. "Calm down Rose," I can hear her say to herself. "You're survived one of these already..." She looks at the sand. "Guys!" She says. "Dig!" She picks up a red gem and shows it to us, "Try to find more of these!" She says. I'm glad she's taking the lead, even though she is the reason Julia is dead, I think her getting me out of here is worthy of forgiving her. "The sand is getting higher! Did you find anything?" Rose asks. Rhea hands Rose a blue gem. What if they think I'm not doing enough and then they send me into the next trial? That thought caused me to dive deep into the sand, I climb back up and see that Rose had found a golden frame stuck to a chain, like a necklace. It has two holes, and the gems they found fit perfectly. "Hand me the gem!" Rose says to Rhea. "I found their frame, it's the way out!" She tells us. I'm not even sure if it's the way out, but I don't want to die... "What are we waiting for?" Rhea says. "Hand us that base and let's put it in!" She takes the base and the sand is almost up to their chests. She puts the diamonds in, and I watch them succeed, while I feel useless.

The sand keeps rising, even after having put the necklace together. "What?" Rhea asks. "I don't get it! We put all the pieces together! What else is there!?" Rhea starts stressing. "Guys," Rose says. "This is a trial, I think we know what we have to do." My eyes widen, and I look at Rose. "As beautiful as that thing looks, I'm not wearing that!" I say. "Me neither," Rhea says. "Who knows what will happen when I put it on?" She puts the necklace back in the sand. "One of us has to wear it or we all die!" Rose says. "Maybe you should wear it?" I ask Rose. Shit. "Sorry, that came out of nowhere..." I say, and look at the necklace. "No," Rose says. "I'm here with a reason and I intend to do it without getting killed." She says. "What would that reason be?" Rhea asks, and looks at Rose angrily. "Espen," Rose says. "Remember that word we saw in the last challenge that got us out of the room?" She asks me. I nod. "I don't know how they knew, but that's the name of a girl who died!" She says. Rhea gets even angrier, I don't get why... "You're just making up excuses!" Rhea yells. "Just like you did when you killed Julia!" "I didn't kill Julia! The gun went off by itself!" "Still making up excuses to ignore the guilt! Typical, Rose! You should put on that necklace, it's the least you could do for Julia!" "Julia refused to believe me and now you're doing the same! Maybe you should wear it! At least the two of you can rot in hell together!" "I thought you were someone I could trust! But now I see why Julia didn't trust you!" It gets quiet. I can feel regret filling the room. Then Rhea pushes Rose down on the sand. "Espen!" She says. "Put the necklace on Rose now!" "Please Espen, you have to believe me!" Rose says. I pick up the necklace. "I... I..." I try to say something but I can't. "Please, Espen! Do you think I would make this up? You know me!" Rose says. "She's lying!" Rhea screams. "Put the necklace on her now!" She pushes Rose harder. "Please believe me!!!" Rose and Rhea both yell. It hurts my ears and my heart.