With Fear or Without

12- Labyrinth Pt. 2

As Cassian took the first step off the stairs and back into the familiar corridors, the pink glow filled the air staring at his feet. It extended, just like before, through the space, winding along the floor and disappearing around the next corner. Cassian took a step to follow it but he stumbled, barely catching himself on the stone wall.

"Are you okay?" Cleo said, feeling useless.

"Fine," he said without looking back. He pushed off the wall and trudged onwards. "Come on."

Exchanging a wary look, the trio followed behind him. The bright fluorescent lights hurt Cleo's eyes after the dim lamp light and she squinted at the floor until her eyes adjusted. Each hallway was just as plain as the last, spiderwebs lining the corners and the walls chipping here and there. The sounds of their hurried footsteps filled the empty space, only accompanied by heavy breathing.

Out of habit, Cleo glanced at her watch again. It still read three-and-a-half o'clock. The screen of her phone was still gray and flickering, completely useless. She felt like they had spent a lifetime in these halls and she dreaded the moment they walked out to face a police investigation of their disappearance. Surely the day was over, surely their parents were worried after they hadn't come home after working on the "school project."

To distract herself from that inevitable crisis, she studied Cassian as he led them left and right. He paused occasionally before a fork in the path as if to remember a road he used to follow often. It seemed familiar to him, but like a childhood memory. She wondered about him, the boy who showed up, bruised and battered, in her dream just the previous night. There was so much she wanted to know but no way to ask the questions flooding her mind. She got a bitter feeling he wouldn't answer them anyways. Not yet.

"This is too easy," he half whispered to himself as he strode past a branching path. "Where is everyone?"

"Careful what you wish for," Charlie replied.

That was the extent of his conversation.

As they walked, Andy caught up with Cleo, matching her pace. "You think Rowana was telling the truth? That she'd help us get outta here?" She glanced to make sure Cassian was out of earshot.

"Maybe," Cleo said back, unsure of what she thought. "Who knows. It could be because of her, or..."

"They're letting us leave," Andy finished for her. "Yeah, I've thought of that too. Whoever 'they' is."

"Yeah. I have a feeling there are multiple 'they's' too."

Andy nodded. "He better have a good explanation for this."

"Do we really wanna know?" Charlie chimed in. "I mean, after the day we've had do we really wanna get involved?"

Cleo thought about that, but her curiosity was strong. "Knowing and getting involved can be two different things. There's a whole world here we don't understand."

Her friends fell silent, resuming the quiet march. With no idea how long it had been, Cleo's feet began to ache and her stomach rumbled. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until Charlie, with a proud look on their face, offered her a granola bar. Andy teased them for it, of course, but accepted one herself.

Cassian's silence frustrated Cleo. His haste made her anxious. His caution scared her. His mystery made her curious. But his confidence made her confident as she followed in his footsteps.

Finally, finally, they turned a corner into a hallway twice as wide as the rest and a collective gasp came from the three followers.

At the end of the wide corridor, tall, arched double doors stretched up to the impossibly high ceiling. They were almost identical to the doors that led into the prison, but these were a hundred times more intricate. As if one person had carved both doors but the first was a draft, a practice doodle for the real thing. Deep engravings wove their way through raised markings, connecting and twisting and then separating again. Loops and circles surrounded patterns resembling flowers and stars, thin and thick shapes connected like optic illusions. The design flowed with purpose, following a path to the center where the doors connected. It was breathtakingly graceful and mesmerizing.

"Wow," Charlie gasped.

That pretty much summed it up.

The trio hung back at the end of the corridor and watched as Cassian walked straight up to the doors. The arch loomed over his thin figure as he squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. He reached his right hand, palm up, to the seam of the doors. Slowly, he ran his fingertips up over the break between the engraved slabs of iron.

Mimicking Cassian's hand, a pale rosy glow started at the base where the doors met the floor. It illuminated the hallway as it continued up, snaking in and out through each weave of the design. Cleo's eyes flickered back and forth, trying to follow all the waves of light at the same time. When it reached the tip of the doors, it shot outwards along the outside of each door until it returned to the floor.

Every so often, Cleo thought she caught a glimmer of gold hiding in the pink, a shining spark before it faded into the surrounding color. She searched for more gold like searching for a faint star in the night sky, but she began to think it was just a trick of the light. Once the whole surface was covered in the light, it was obvious the glow was completely pink.

Cassian let his hand fall from the doors and stepped back, craning his neck up at the display. A rumbling sound shook the floor and the doors came gliding outwards ever so smoothly. The trio caught their breath again once they saw what lay beyond the doors.

Pure darkness. Over it, a thin film of pink swirled over it. The glow looked a thousand times brighter with the stark blackness behind it.

"Coming?" Cassian asked over his shoulder. His breaths were heavy and his eyes struggled to stay open, but he grinned when he saw the three onlookers staring with their jaws on the floor.

"What is that?" Charlie countered, eyes glued to the unsettling display.

"Our way out. Come on." As if to prove it was safe, Cassian strode right through the doors, disappearing and leaving the pink film swirling behind him.

"What the..." Charlie mumbled.

"We have to follow him, don't we?" Cleo asked, knowing the answer.

"Don't really have another choice." Andy tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.

"This is insane," Charlie said.

"Would you rather stay here?"

"Yeah, no thanks."

Cleo sighed. "Fine, I'll go first. I got us into... whatever this is," she murmured as she crossed the remainder of the room. Before she stepped through, she turned to her friends. "Thanks for coming with me. I don't think I could've dealt with... this without you."

"I'm glad we did," Andy said.

"Yeah, if you told us this story we would've actually thought you were insane." Charlie earned a whack on the arm from Andy for that.

One by one they stepped through the film into the darkness, like moving through liquid glass. Cool and light. Quicker than taking a breath, they regained their senses and looked around.

It was downtown Chicago. The real, normal, windy city they left so long ago. It looked exactly as they had left it; the same afternoon sun peeking out from behind autumn clouds, bustling crowds walking this way and that through the streets, even the same police officer (at least, Cleo thought it was) standing in front of the bank across the street. Cassian was leaning against a lamppost, hands deep in his pockets, watching regular people go about their lives. He turned around when they joined him.

"Check your watch."

Cleo stared at him for a moment, frowned, then braced herself for what she would see. The watch on her wrist had begun telling intelligible time again; 5:47. If she remembered correctly, almost no time had passed. About five minutes, to be exact. Or 24 hours and five minutes. Both options scared her. She looked back at Cassian, words failing her.

Cassian pursed his lips, as if trying to guess the answer to a game. "Six minutes. How close am I?"

"Um. Five, I think... Hold on," Cleo asked slowly, "is it the same day?"

He nodded. Before the questions started, he held up a hand.

"It's hard to explain. But I promised you answers and I didn't lie. But first..." he scanned the block, "I need caffeine."