Down in the basement…
“Where are we…” Devyn asked. “Room one… This room is an easy nightmare… and as we go
on to each room… the nightmares get worse… there are five rooms according to Cadet and
Apollo…” Andre explained. “Then what nightmare is in this room?” Devyn asked, as the lights
suddenly turned on.
Entry of the Gladiators starts playing. “Oh no…” Andre said. “What?” Devyn asked. “Clowns…”
Andre responded as clowns came out of strange places in the daycare.
“Grab something…” Andre said, grabbing a nearby chair and snapping the legs off.
Devyn follows his lead and pulls off a metal pole from a play pen. One-by-one the clowns try to
attack Andre and Devyn until the clowns are down. “Take that, clowns!” Andre shouted as he hit
clowns down.
A door opened at the other side of the daycare. “Come on Devyn… time to take care of the next
level…” Andre said.
Moments later in the second to last room…
“So we've dealt with clowns in room one… spiders in room two… and a long maze of puzzles in
room three… what’s next?” Devyn asked. “I’m not sure but…” Andre was interrupted by the
sounds of whispers.
“It’s your fault… he fell because of you… the spider killed her because of you… you could have
kept them from leaving and ending up here, but you didn’t… you can’t even admit to your true
feelings…” the whisper said. “Who’s it talking to?” Devyn asked Andre. Andre froze before he
spoke. “He’s talking to me… He’s repeating some of my deepest thoughts…” Andre responded.
“You are a failure… you failed at being fearless… you failed at saving everyone… you made a
promise you couldn't keep…” the whispers said. Andre stood still as the whispers continued to
speak. “Andre?” Devyn asked. “Andre, can you hear me?”
“I… I’m sorry Devyn… I truly have failed…” Andre said as he listened to the whispers. “I failed to
get everyone out in one piece… I failed at keeping a grip on you… I keep making promises that
I can’t keep because I fear that I will let people down…”
“Don’t listen to the whispers… I’m alive so falling means nothing…” Devyn said. “You saved us
back at the clowns… you apparently saved them from a maze… you even put everyone before
you…” Devyn said. “You didn’t fail… you passed at being someone that humanity can look upon
as a good example…”
“You have been fearless when no one else could…” Devyn said. “You're right… I don’t know
what I was thinking… I can do this!” Andre said.
“Don’t you have something else to say?” the whisper said before a Devyn like clone came out
from the shadows. “You know you want to say it…” the clone said. “Andre... What’s going on…”
Devyn asked. “Nothing…” Andre said. “You know you want to say it, but you're too afraid of
rejection… plus… you are afraid you might ruin his dreams…” the clone said. “Go on… say it!”
“Fine!” Andre shouted before turning to Devyn. “I have been lying to you about my feelings…”
Andre said with a sigh. “Over the years since second grade… you have been there for me…
you have kept me from feeling totally alone… you have made me laugh and there has never
been a time that you had totally ignored me… yeah, you might be sarcastic a lot… and yeah
you do not respond to some of my texts, but still… you read them and it lets me know that
you're still there…” Andre said. “I was too afraid to say anything because you have been my
best friend for years and I don’t want to ruin it… I was also afraid that you would reject me…”
“I’m just glad you told me…” Devyn said. “We’ll talk more about it later…”
“Congrats...” The clone said before turning to dust. The lighting in the room went from a dark red
to a black color, revealing a door. “There is the final door…” Andre said. “Are you ready?”
“I am if you are…” Devyn said as they both neared the door. “Then let’s go…” Andre said, as he
entered the room. Devyn carefully followed Andre into the pitch black of the final room.
216Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaO1WPSuFIA
