What If | tmr, newt ✓

Chapter 15

Running the Maze with Minho has grown on me over time. It seemed like I had barely been out here, but somehow the ominous walls and constant risk of death have grown only fainter in my mind.

After a couple of hours, we come across a T-junction; or, at least, that's what it looks like at first. The choice is evidently to keep going straight or turn off the to the right. We slow to a stop, resting for just a minute or two before we continue. I lean against the wall just before the junction, and Minho goes to lean opposite the turn - when he falls backwards through the ivy.

I immediately panic, thinking he has fallen into some sort of pit, but am - for once - relieved to hear his voice."Ow," he mutters from behind the wall of ivy.

I take a few steps forwards and push the curtain of ivy apart. Minho had fallen into a small, dark passageway, barely a metre in length, both entrances covered with ivy. I hold one hand out to help him up, one half of me still transfixed on the dark corridor, and the other half starting to stir up excitement inside. Maybe my plan had worked after all.

Taking a quick, nervous glance at me first, Minho walks through, pushing away the ivy and holding it like that for me as I duck underneath. We found ourselves in a completely new section of the maze; same layout as the rest, looking identical, but the floor was unscathed and I could tell no one had set foot in here before. I can feel my eyes light up, and I look at Minho as we have a silent conversation.

I knew my plan would work.

I never said it wouldn't.

I could see the doubt in your eyes every time you took a step.

Shut up, Falcon.

I laugh quietly. "Come on, let's go."

Soon enough, the turns of the Maze become sharper, more frequent, and more sudden. At one point we have to slow to a walk to even just remember which way we came from. Eventually, however, my heart sinks as I realise that every turn leads to a dead end.

Disheartened, Minho and I jog back to the short corridor we managed to stumble upon, checking every wall for secret passages as we go. We reach it, then continue on past it, all the time with an air of silence hanging over us. The layout on this side is the same; sudden, unpredictable turns and many routes leading straight into empty walls. With each step I lose more and more hope.

At one of the final turns, I jog around it and skid to a halt. In front of us is a large, open terrace with walls on three sides and just the one entrance from the middle wall. But on the fourth side... there's nothing. An empty void stretching on and on, the light from the overhead sun continuing for eternity.

Impossible.

"Shuck," Minho mutters, walking onto the untouched ground. Before he can walk too far, I put a warning hand on his shoulder to stop him; this was way too convenient to be true. Preferring to risk my life over his, I walk in front of him, bumping our shoulders on the way. I'm not sure why I do. Maybe to make sure he's still there and this isn't all a huge hallucination.

I move at snails pace, hardly moving an inch with each step. Gradually, and carefully, I approach the edge. Before me is almost exactly what I expected; an endless abyss, nothing in front, below, or above me except the sound of my own shaky breaths.

Deeming it safe, Minho joins me at my side, surveying the surroundings alongside me. Then, he kicks a stray rock from the ground, picks it up, and hurls it as far as he can into the oblivion. We just watch as it falls. And falls. And keeps falling. Endless. I refuse to believe it.

He looks up at the sun before grabbing my forearm. "We gotta go." I know what he's implying. We have to go unless we want to be stuck out here all night. He just spares me the last part, knowing it will only arouse my fear.