AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His cries become hoarser and hoarser until they eventually stop. An eerie silence blankets the entire maze, almost as if time itself paused. I don’t want to blink, don’t want to breathe, worried if I move I might miss something or cause the balance of the world to fail.
Sound erupts again into a cacophony of terror. Fearful screams, painful shrieks, and guttural groans of death fill the air from all corners of the labyrinth. Bianca is in shambles, shaking and crying, seemingly ready to give up. Remi slaps her across the face, pulling Bianca from her breakdown.
She pulls the brunette along behind her as she leaps into the muck—only Remi doesn’t sink. Joy courses through me when she steps forward, finding a submerged pathway. Soon, chaos ensues as the others realize what she’s found, and a race to be the first to follow her begins. The few remaining students in the area battle one another, pushing one another to their deaths in order to save themselves.
In their haste, they’ve forgotten one major detail—the serpentine creature inside black water.
Yellow, slitted eyes emerge from the sludge, and a forked tongue tastes the air. The behemoth snake sets its gaze on a student behind Remi who’s too frightened to move. As my brave lass leaps to her right, finding another hiding step, the snake attacks.
Moving faster than something that large should be able to, the scaled beast knocks the other girl to the ground and encases her with its giant, muscled body. With her arms pinned to her sides, she can only sob as the vice tightens around her. The girl suffocates to death just like Zit Face.
Meanwhile, an all-out battle takes place around Bianca as she feebly attempts to follow Remi’s footsteps through the murk. Dreadlock boy follows behind her and lifts a leg to kick her off the step. But Bianca jumps to the side just in time. Remi glances behind her, only watching the snake for a moment before reaching for Bianca. The dark-haired girl stretches her hand forward, slipping as she jumps, but Remi pulls her to safety on the third step before searching for the next one.
Seeming unsure, Remi clutches onto the front of Bianca’s shirt, while the girls balance precariously on a single step. Remi begins patting the mud with her foot in search of the submerged pathway. She smiles and I think she’s found it, but when she leaps, the dread-locked fucker shoves Bianca in the back and she collides with Remi as they both crash into the slop.
I add dreadlock to the top of my kill list. I can’t stand this anxiety, the unbelievable stress of watching this happen in real time right in front of my eyes.
My throat clogs as I swallow hard, my body thrumming with adrenaline I can’t use. Ben and Professor Vaughn shout at the screens but their voices are lost on me. I have tunnel vision, can’t hear, can’t see anything…but her.
My little lass.
She struggles in the muck, clawing her way forward as Bianca clings to the back of Remi’s shirt forcing Remi to carry the weight of them both. She must find the next step because she pulls herself up onto wobbly legs, and Bianca loses her grip. The girl screams for Remi who kneels down, trying and failing to link hands. Their skin is too slippery. I see Remi looking around for something to use as Bianca sinks further into the darkness but she has nothing.
With a look of resolve on her face, Remington grabs the halves of her torn tank top and splits it in half, finishing what the dead ginger started. I’m startled at first, my eyes landing on her mud-soaked tits, wondering what the fuck she’s doing. She wraps the scrap around her wrist, then drops to her knees, stretching her arm forward, chest pressed into the muck.
Bianca links her hand through the other end of the shirt tightly and Remi tugs, her lips pulled back, teeth so white against the black mud covering her. Her mouth opens wide in a furious shout as she yanks Bianca closer to her. I hate myself for thinking about how hot she looks.
A piercing shriek echoes over the arena and a second snake slithers from the dark, capturing a student and plunging them under the mud. Once Bianca is stable, Remi finds her footing and leaps, a final jump, making it safely to the other side. The relief I feel is palpable between us all, though Professor Vaughn isn’t as at ease with Bianca still in the thick of it. I actually find myself cheering her on as she follows Remi, and springs off the step, landing hard next to Remington. The two girls hug for a moment before rushing through the exit.
“Thank fuck,” Professor Vaughn lets out on an exhale, collapsing back to his seat as the bell tolls again and I pump my fist into the air thinking Remi has made it. But Professor Vaughn staunches my celebration. “That wasn’t for Remington or two bells would have chimed since Bianca is right with her.”
“Fuck,” Ben groans, tugging at his hair again.
Panic sets in now as I search the screens but none show my girl. I watch a girl choose the wrong path and meet the sharp end of an ax when she fails to duck quickly enough. I could swear her head was still screaming even after it was severed from her neck. A guy crawls through a netting of barbed wire, shredding his skin as he tries to escape. Another guy with a gun takes his own life rather than continue on and face the pacing jaguar with its mouth covered in blood. Then I hear a thunk behind me and turn to find the student sitting with us slumped over, his chest no longer rising.
Dead.
All dead. And for what? Some sick man’s game?
Not some man. According to Principal Windsor, there’s an entire fucking gallery invested in our lives.
And so is my so-called father.
My heart pangs again at his betrayal. Seeing his name on the list of people voting for our lives will hurt forever. But if I get through this, I’ll have my revenge. And not just on him, but on everyone who hurt me, who hurt Ben, and most of all, who hurt Remi.
I’ll kill every last one of them.
Because I’ll have nothing left to lose. Even if I make it through, I’ll still be a broken man with a jaded understanding of humanity.
Time ticks by with no signs of Remington or Bianca. My head is in my hands, elbows perched on my knees. Ben wraps his arm around my shoulders and squeezes, words unnecessary between us. I scrub at my cheeks, my knee bouncing nervously as I continuously scan the screens. I notice Ben bouncing his leg, and Professor Vaughn too. We’re all barely hanging on.
The bell chimes again. And again. And again.
“Three more to go,” Ben announces and I feel like I want to puke.
Professor Vaughn types furiously into his phone and I hear it buzz in response. But what he reads angers him and he almost crushes it between his fingers.
Minutes drag by, students die, and some vanish into a part of the maze we’ve not been allowed to see.
