I watched the edges of the picture burn as I faded into the deep darkness of death.
*an hour earlier*
The hallway was dark as I walked down it reaching my hands out to find the edges. When I reached one side of the wall I felt something cold and sticking on my fingertips. When I woke up there was a book of matches on my bed table and a note that said ‘walk down the hall or you will die.’
I had six matches and I had to use them wisely. None of the lights would work and I was scared to death. My heart was pounding in my chest and I could hear my blood pumping in my ears. I heard a floor board creak, “W-who’s there?” I asked. My whole body was shaking as I took a step forward. My feet were bare and the hard wood floors were cold.
Nobody answered my question as I took small steps forward feeling the sticky liquid on my right hand drying and getting all gross like old glue that peels off your hands after it dries. I didn’t want to remove my hand from the wall to wipe my hand off on my pajama pants. I was scared I would never find the wall again and be lost forever.
“Clara, come and find me,” I heard a whisper down the hallway and I snapped my head in the direction it came from. My palms were sweaty and pushed my back against the wall quickly feeling my hair mold into the sticky liquid on the wall. I heard footsteps and pushed myself farther back into the wall closing my eyes tightly. I felt a hot breath on my face and a whisper in my ear, “the time has come Clara.”
“Please go away, please, I haven’t done anything,” I pleaded in a panicked voice pushing myself so tight against the wall my body was starting to ache and tears were forcing out of my scrunched up eyes. I quickly opened my eyes and lit a match using it to look around and what I saw on the wall made me scream loudly.
There were hand prints made of blood and a message that said ‘you’ve been bad Clara.’ Blood was on my hands, in my hair, and all over me. The match was out and I was left in the dark again running my hands against the bloody wall. I had five matches and a long stretch of hallway to go, I was doomed.
I heard a voice that said, “Tibi morte morietur,”(you will die) in a dark rumbling voice unlike the one before then the other one before chanted, “venit tempus,”(the time has come) over and over again. The language sounded like it was Latin and I couldn’t understand a word they were saying but I knew it was bad.
“Clara, move or you will die,” a new voice said and it sounded familiar. I moved towards it, “come on Clara you’re going to die if you don’t move, Mufiti and his clan will kill you,” the voice said and I kept moving towards it. The chanting of “venit tempus,” got louder as I keep walking towards the voice. “You’re almost to the door, once you reach the door you will move on to the second challenge,” I now recognized the voice as my brother, Jack’s voice. “I love you Clara you will do fine,” Jacks voice faded off and tears sprung to my eyes because the only familiar thing is now gone from this terrible scene.
I reached my hand out and felt something cold and metallic and knew it was a door knob. I slowly turned it and opened the wooden door into another dark room; I walked into the room carefully feeling plush carpet under my feet. The little creepy voices that were chanting all stopped at once and the door slammed shut with so much force the house shook.
“Welcome to the second challenge, I will be your guide Nahi and lead you through the maze of pain,” a new voice that was very soft and soothing said to me. The maze of pain didn’t sound like it was a very pleasant thing but I had a bad feeling if I didn’t go through it I would end up dying.
“How bad is this going to be?” I asked rubbing my sweaty, sticky palms on my shorts. I searched around the dark room but couldn’t see much. I waited for Tahit to tell me my impending pain. The room was silent and I could hear a small scraping sound in the distance but made no move to go for it.
