Before them lay six brownish discolored skeletons. Amelia moaned. Dead, decaying human beings. Prisoners in this hole. She tried to turn away. Wanted to run away and never look back.
But she couldn't stop staring at the skeletons. Their clothes were falling to shreds. Some sat with their backs against the wall, as if waiting for someone to come. Others lay on the floor, their jaws wide open. Their bones were the color of graveyard dirt.
But what shook Amelia most was her eye sockets.
Empty. dark... And dead.
She suppressed an outcry. Who were these dead? Nick poked his toe against the ribs of a skeleton. "This chamber must have been cut off from the outside world for a long time."
"Did they die in here?" whispered Veronica in a trembling voice.
"Probably," Nick replied. "The ceiling's collapse apparently sealed the room airtight."
"What makes you think so?"
"No rats." Nick knelt beside one of the skeletons and examined it closely. Amelia saw the faint glint of a belt buckle in the center of their body. The shoes had fallen from their bony feet. Only the heels were left of them.
"I can't believe you're so calm," said Amelia.
Nick looked at her forcefully. "Would you rather I scream wildly?"
Amelia sighed. "I'm sorry. But these skeletons are really getting to me."
"Don't worry, Am. They won't hurt you," Nick said. "What do you think happened to them?"
"I can tell them what happened," Veronica shouted in a mad voice. "The red mist has killed them. And then someone walled up the entrance to keep this thing in here. Now that we let it out, it will kill us, too!"
"Don't get hysterical," Nick said in a soothing voice.
Veronica snorted angrily and then nodded.
"She's wrong. The red mist didn't kill them. Look around, Lia," she heard Ayla's voice.
" Do you really think that the red mist has let itself be trapped in here so easily?" Amelia asked incredulously.
Nick shrugged. He raised his torch and let his gaze wander over the walls.
Graffiti everywhere - always against the same words:
LET'S PARTY!
"I can't see that line anymore," mumbled Veronica. "It's just everywhere."
Amelia's eyes fell on neatly stacked bottles and cans in the corners, along with chip bags that had faded white over the years.
*Strange,* she thought. *Everywhere else in the maze, the rubbish is lying around in a wild jumble. But here, everything was...*
"They were surprised by the collapse," she blurted out, pointing to the stacked bottles. "Not the red mist."
"What do you mean?" Nick asked.
"Look at this trash. It's piled up in the corners, nice and neat. They must have been in here for a while. The fog didn't kill them. They were trapped and had no way to get out."
"So they starved," Nick concluded.
"Or died of thirst," Amelia added.
"And what about the red mist?" Veronica replied. "Do you think it kept them company until they died?"
Amelia and Nick looked at each other.
"Who knows," Nick then said. Amelia shook with disgust. When she looked again at the walls, she noticed something.
"Look over there," she said, holding her torch higher.
Under one of the bigger graffiti someone had written more words with red paint. The empty can lay upside down on the floor and the brush was still in it.
Amelia went closer to the wall with the torch and read:
LOCKED
CAMERON BUTLER ... JAXON CARTER
ZEPHYRA ANDERSON ... MAISIE HARRIS
MILO WASHINGTON ... JAYDA TURNER
"Six names," whispered Amelia. "The names of the dead bodies."
"It's a guest list," Nick said.
"What for?"
"For the last party in the maze."
They looked at the names in silence and let the knowledge sink in. Amelia's head was spinning. She didn't know which was worse - being torn apart by the red mist or being trapped in a tunnel and starving.
But that was exactly what their prospects were if they did not find a way out of the maze quickly. Amelia shuddered at the thought.
"Looks like they ran out of paint," Veronica pointed to a part of the wall on the opposite side of the chamber. Something stood out from the rest of the wall there.
Amelia went over to check it out. Someone left another message here. The letters were smaller and carved into the wall with a stone:
WILLIAM GREY KNOWS
Amelia couldn't do anything with it.
"William Grey?" she asked. "Who's that?"
"Our principle, good old Mr. Grey," Nick replied.
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Forget the Forgotten
FanfictionAmelia Hawkins was an A+ student and had to be in detention on a Saturday. But when she walked around the dark halls of the school, she enjoyed the thrill. But they don't only discover the secret of the city, but also the secret of Amelia's own twin...
