The Wilted Flower ⁀ 𝐤. 𝐳𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐲𝐜𝐤 𝐱 𝐨𝐜

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷 • 𝓽𝓾𝓵𝓲𝓹

✿ﾐ

Two awoke to the blaring alarm of the overhead speaker of the airship, groggily sitting up and yawning. She looked around to remind herself of her surroundings. The lady's voice announced that they would be landing in fifteen minutes, and that they should prepare for the Third Phase. Kurapika looked at Two, who's hair was now a tangled mess. "Good morning, Two."

"Good morning, Kurapika," she muttered, her voice a little hoarse. She ran her hands through her hair, attempting to get all the knots. Eventually, it straightened out, and hung limply on her shoulders. "how did you sleep?"

"Okay. How about you?"

"Fine. As best as I could on a cold metal floor."

Kurapika smiled at her remark, and got up to grab breakfast. He stretched and walked over to where workers were passing out food trays, mentally preparing himself for the day ahead of him.

=^=^=

"How on Earth are we supposed to get down?" Two asked, tentatively looking over the edge of the tower. She flinched and scampered back to the center of the floor, a slight fear apparent in her eyes.

"I have no idea," Killua replied, following Two to the middle. He guessed that she had a fear of heights. The goal of the Third Phase was to get down Trick Tower within seventy-two hours. At the moment, it seemed absolutely impossible. Everyone walked around for a while, and eventually, Two and Gon started to notice that there were less people than there was before.

"Killua, Two, it looks like there are fewer people here than before. . ." Gon started, scanning the area. The crowd seemed to be thinning out, but why?

"I noticed, but I don't kno-!"  Two suddenly dropped, her words halting to a stop as she let out a little meep of surprise. 

"Two?!"  Gon and Killua asked in unison, confused and also scared at what just happened.

"Where did she go?!" Gon fretted.

"She dropped!" Killua replied, jumping on the spot where she had previously been.

"How?!"

"I don't know!"  Killua tried to calm down and succeeded after a minute. Gon did the same, and looked at the spot where Two had fallen. He crouched down and pressed his ear against the floor after knocking a few times.

"It's hollow," he said, looking around at all of the other tiles. "We should check all of the other tiles, maybe there are more secret openings. This must be how you get down the tower."

Killua nodded and got to work, and after a few minutes, he found two different openings near the same spot as well. 

"I'll get Kurapika and Leorio, and then we can all go down together."  Gon said as he ran off to get the pair. Killua was left near the spot where Two had disappeared. He wondered how long it would take her to get down, if she even could. After they went down, they wouldn't be able to see each other until they cleared this phase. He would be lonely again.

Gon came back with Kurapika and Leorio am starts filling them in on what had just happened.

"So these secret doors are how we get down, and Two fell down one of them on accident," Leorio concluded, looking at the spot Gon was pointing to.

"Yeah!" he urged. "She just fell! And now she's on the way down, so we have to catch up with her."

"Okay," Leorio responded. The four boys got in their places, and decided that they would jump on the count of three.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye, for now," Kurapika said.

"See you guys at the bottom!" Leorio grinned.

"Okay," Gon started off. "one, two, three!"

The four side-jumped onto the trap doors, prepared for whatever the Third Phase may throw at them. 

=^=^=

"Oof!" Leorio landed with a painful thud as the other three boys landed gracefully on their feet. They looked around, and saw. . . Each other.

"Oh."

"Well, that was quite a quick reunion."

The four scanned the room, and they all laid eyes on the pale figure sitting against the wall, looking like she just woke up from a nap. "Oh. . . Hi guys." she heavily yawned. She uneasily stood up and walked to the front of the room, uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. Two doors and a stand resided there, the stand holding five wristwatches, one for each of them. She placed one on her wrist and faced the others, attempting to make the situation a little less skyward. "When I read this I thought I was going to have to wait forever, I still don't know how I got down here."

Her voice echoed throughout the room, making it seem louder than it actually was. It was low in tone, yet shallow and sweet. Not high-pitched, as one might expect from her appearance.

"Well, you fell because there were trap tiles on the roof, and you stepped on one." Gon replied. He nodded in understanding.

"Read what?" Kurapika asked. Two pointed to the small board on the wall above the stand. The four read it, and started to make sense of their situation. 

"I get it. Majority rules, right?" Killua asked. Leorio confirmed his question.

"Yeah. The first question is which door to go through. X or O."  Everyone went to press the corresponding button on their watch, and after a few seconds, door O swung open. 

"Let's go," Kurapika stated. They all squeezed through the door and emerged into a hallway. At the end were two new caged off paths and a sign, 

Which way? O for left, X for right.

Everyone pressed their desired button, and the right path cleared.

"What?! Which one of you guys picked right?!" Leorio asked, a tic mark growing on his face.

"I did," Kurapika answered.

"Why?!"

"I read in an article that in situations like these, most people tend to go left. The examiners probably know that, so they would've made the left path harder."

"Yeah, I think I read that article too." Killua agreed. Leorio huffed and glanced at Gon and Two. 

"I chose to go left." Gon admitted. Leorio nodded and turned to Two.

"Did you read that article too?" he questioned her. 

"Um, no. . . I just chose right," she responded. Leorio dramatically sighed as they started walking down the path.

"Geez. I guess we're just too simpleminded for this, Gon."

". . . We?"

✿ﾐ

g u y s I made it to the 950 word mark bUT THEN IT ALMOST DELETED ITSELF I WAS SO SCARED-

Word Count: 1091