We crept through the halls quietly, afraid to make our presence known to whatever else was in here. A thick fog seemed to seep in from nowhere in particular, making it easy to get turned around. The fog was bad enough but the maze of hallways seemed to go on forever. Despite the vastness of the building, I was surprised we hadn’t run into any of the four groups that came in before us.
There were no traces of them to follow, no belongings scattered about, not even the faint glow of their sensors could be seen. Though I doubt we’d be able to make it out in this fog. It seemed to dust over the walls, allowing us to draw little circles on the walls of the paths we had been through already.
When the corridors split into a fork, I felt a tug on my sleeve. Abel jutted his head towards the left path.
“We’ll have a better shot at finding this thing if we split up.”
I looked down at the sensor on my wrist 03:04:02 flashed across it. I shuddered to think what might happen if we were still in here passed the allotted time. Reluctantly, I nodded at Abel and watched him disappear around the left corner. I headed towards the right, listening to see if I could still hear his footsteps. When I could no longer hear them, I sighed. The maze had to have an end. Yet all I could do was aimlessly wander through it in the hopes that the next corner I turned would yield some kind of discovery.
03:59:08
It had only been 2 minutes since we entered, and yet my feet ached as though I had run a marathon. Just as I finished drawing a circle to mark my progress, a guttural scream tore through the misty halls. I froze.
“Abel? ABEL! WHAT HAPPENED?”
I yelled for Abel as I sprinted back the way I came. All that I got in response was more wailing. Fumbling my way back to the fork, I turned onto the path that he took, barreling through the foggy hall as I called out.
“ABEL WHAT’S GOING ON? ARE YOU HURT?”
My lungs felt like no more air could possibly come through them. With my chest on fire and my legs about to give out, I finally spotted the glow of Abel’s sensor, but it wasn’t the dull green that it had been all this time. Glancing down at my own sensor, I was met with bright red numbers.
02:20:15
I reached for the wall to steady myself as I ran towards the light. When I finally reached it, Abel was hunched over on the ground, Screaming in agony as he clutched his arm. Standing in front of him was some sort of statue with a gaping hole in its hands as though something had been broken off and pried out of it. I dropped to my knees next to Abel and pulled him around so he was facing me.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” He screeched, gripping his arm impossibly tighter.
Even in the red glow of the sensor, I could make out that the arm he was gripping was slowly turning grey and hard like stone.
“Abel you have to tell me what happened! Time is running out!” I urged.
Abel just shook me off. Even though he was in pain, I could see a wide smile on his face. The sight of it made me want to throw up.
“What’s in your hand? Give it to me.”
Abel jerked his body away so I couldn’t grab his hands. “NO! YOU CAN’T HAVE IT! IT’S MINE! I FOUND IT! IT’S MINE!”
Abel flailed against me as I pried open his fist to see a small red stone embedded into his skin. The grey, stony flesh came from the stone and crept up his arm until everything up to his elbow was solid as a statue. A statue? I whirled around back to look at the statue. My heart dropped when I saw the same sensor we had on the statue’s wrist. In Abel’s desperation to get away from me, he kicked over the statue. As it shattered, I grabbed one of the sharpened edges and held Abel in place.
“YOU CAN’T TAKE IT FROM ME! IT’S GOING TO GIVE ME ETERNAL LIFE! I KNOW IT! PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT FROM ME! He wailed.
I looked at where the stone hand had spread to. Just below his shoulder now.
“Hang on Abe. I’m gonna get us out of here.”
Raising my hand in the air, I brought the shard of stone down onto Abel’s arm.
01:18:48
Abel’s screams turned into something else. If he was in pain because of his flesh slowly turning to stone before, now he was in pain as I tore away at his flesh frantically and haphazardly. Blood splattered my face and clothes as I ripped through his muscle and continued to saw. When I hit bone I began bashing the stone against it. It chipped away at the bone but it wasn’t enough to break it off.
So I stood, looking down at the carnage beneath me and jumped. I stomped and stomped until the sound of Abel’s bone snapping stopped me. Though, if I hadn’t been listening for it, I probably wouldn’t have heard and continued to crush him. His screams slowly quieted, no longer ripe with fanatical desire but weakened pain.
00:48:08
I didn’t wait to assess how he was doing, I picked him up and began dragging him to the exit, blood and pieces of flesh trailed behind me, coating us in the remains of his arm. Despite tearing through most of the flesh and crushing his bone, what was left of his arm hung limply from a string of flesh that the shard of stone couldn’t cut through. At least, the stone was no longer spreading.
00:23:00
His halfhearted kicks and screams continued all the way down the hall. Weakened by the blood loss and hoarse from screaming, he stopped thrashing and simply shut his eyes, sobbing into my shoulder. I glanced over at him. I had already left behind one brother. I wasn’t going to do it again to the closest thing I had to one here.
00:15:07
Abel’s face was stained with tears and blood. His body was limp in my arms and my shaking legs wasn’t making it any easier to carry him. I willed my legs not to give out beneath me, to at least let me make it to the entrance, to at least let me get Abel out. I followed the misty markings back the way we came but even then, the fog was disorienting. When I passed one marked wall, I would turn a corner and seemingly pass the same wall. I could feel the warmth of Abel’s blood soaking into my shirt and running down my back as I frantically searched for a way out.
A harsh thud resounded in the corridor as my legs finally gave way and I dropped to my knees. When I looked back up, tears blurred my vision. It wasn’t until I forced myself to my feet again that something dawned on me. We had found it strange when we came in, but preoccupied with the task at hand, we didn’t think too much of it.
What was causing the fog?
Was it simply part of the stone’s strange power? A defense mechanism of sorts, to lead those who came for it astray? There’s no way we’re getting out of here with it disorienting us like this. I looked down at the dangling remains of Abel’s arm. If it really Was the stone causing these things, Abel’s hysteria, this fog, I could just…get rid of it.
My gaze briefly flitted to Abel who was still weak with exhaustion and too delirious to speak. I let out a sigh that sounded more like a strained sob. If I destroyed the stone, there was no telling what kind of trouble I would get in. Would I be gunned down too?
…but if I had the stone then…I could survive…what was Kayne babbling about earlier? Something about immortality? If I was immortal…I could survive this whole thing. Why do I need to be so desperate to leave?
I could be immortal…eternal…I can just stay here with the stone…
Before I even registered what I was going, my fingertips were already grazing the cool surface of the stone. Abel flinched when I touched it, his eyes snapping open and glaring at me.
“THIEF! YOU CAN’T HAVE IT! IT’S MINE!” He screeched with renewed ferocity.
The longer I looked at the stone, the more I wanted it. A burning desire welled in my chest, urging me to take the stone for myself, but when I pulled at it in an attempt to dislodge it from the stony grip that was once Abel’s hand, it wouldn’t budge.
Abel’s screams sounded inhuman. That’s right! He wasn’t human. He was something else entirely. He was completely and utterly undeserving of such a treasure. I pulled harder and in an attempt to pry me off of him, Abel jerked his body in the opposite direction, completely ripping through the remaining flesh that tethered his arm to the rest of his body.
When his back hit the wooden floors, the look in eyes changed. No longer was is filled with hatred and selfish desire. All that was left in its place was panic.
“VIC NO! DON’T TOUCH THAT THING!”
I couldn’t tell if it was blood pooling on the floor beneath us or simply us being illuminated by the red glow of the sensor. All I knew was that the stone shone brighter than the sensor, its ruby appearance glistened in the light like a lure, one that I wasn’t opposed to following.
The elation I felt as I once again reached to pull out the stone was quickly replaced by a brief flicker of red hot rage as Abel lunged at me with his remaining arm and yanked the stone arm from me, throwing it into the foggy abyss. The stone arm must not have gone very far because we could hear it skidding across the wooden floor. As soon as it was no longer within reach, the urge to go bounding after it, dulled and the urgent need to get out returned. The red light on the sensor still attached to the stone arm cut through the fog. An idea struck me just as I saw it.
00:05:00
Grabbing Abel, I began sprinting to the light once more. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU CAN’T TAKE US BACK TO THAT THING!” Cried Abel.
“JUST TRUST ME!” I hadn’t noticed it before because I was so preoccupied with getting us out but the stone glows! It’s not just the sensor. Nirvana was right. The sensor responded to the stone’s presence by lighting up red but the closer we got to it, the brighter the stone began to glow too! The combined light was enough to see through this weird fog!
The light grew brighter and brighter as we neared and right as we were once again on top of the stone, I kicked the stone arm as hard as I could, sending it down the corridor, slamming against the walls we had marked and eventually stopping in the distance.
00:02:00
I gasped for air that my lungs just wouldn’t take in anymore as I ran.
00:01:00
As we neared the stone again, I didn’t stop to pick it up, I simply threw our bodies at the door with reckless abandon.
00:00:00
Despite it only being 6 minutes, my skin tingled under the sunlight as though I hadn’t felt it’s warmth in years. Though it might have also just been Abel still bleeding out onto me as we lay sprawled at the temple entrance. Nirvana, who had opened the door, smiled down at us with that same empty smile he sent us in with.
“My, my, you two look like you’ve been through hell!”
He laughed.
He fucking laughed.
I scowled up at him as the guards helped Abel off of me. “Wait! Where are you taking him!” I panicked.
Nirvana pulled me to my feet and gestured for the guards to go about their task, whisking Abel away to wherever.
“Relax. They’re taking him to get treated. A severed arm is not something to take lightly.”
I pushed Nirvana away “YEAH LIKE YOU CARE ABOUT A SEVERED ARM! YOU DIDN’T SEEM TO CARE ABOUT OUR WELL BEING WHEN YOU KILLED THOSE TWO PEOPLE EARLIER!”
Nirvana raised his hands in defeat. “Fair enough, but you two were the only ones who succeeded in completing the task, it wouldn’t do me any good to have my participants die on me when I still have use for them.” He nodded his head towards the stone arm that was laying behind us at the entrance. It was chipped and bloodied but it still shone with the ruby in its palm.
I balked at his audacity. “You lied to us. YOU LIED TO US.”
“Now whatever do you mean by that?”
His calmness only infuriated me more. “This…study of yours was never about testing the sensors! YOU JUST WANTED TO TEST THE EFFECTS OF THE STONE! Did you know? DID YOU KNOW IT MADE PEOPLE GO CRAZY?”
I was well aware of the irony. A man covered in blood, dirt and dust screaming about a stone making people go mad. Nirvana however seemed to think this was all normal. He smiled again, but this time something was different. This time it reached his eyes.
“We knew of its anomalous properties yes. All the more reason to make sure we can detect and take it into our possession before other innocent people discover it. Besides, the sensors worked didn’t they? You and that boy are the lucky ones. The others simply wandered around in the mist until it spat them back out at the entrance and the few groups before you couldn’t even fight the urge to tear each other apart to possess the stone once they had come across it.”
Nirvana kissed his teeth in annoyance. Like the people who had the misfortune of finding the stone in the maze of a temple were nothing more than pitiable slaves to their desires.
It was my turn to choke out a laugh. “Are you fucking kidding me? IF I HADN’T SAWED OFF ABEL’S HAND HE WOULD HAVE TURNED TO STONE LIKE THEY DID!”
Nirvana nodded in agreement. “Yes, very good thinking on your part. It’s precisely that quick thinking of yours that got you out. For whatever reason the mist doesn’t bring the participants who find the stone back to the entrance. You wouldn’t have been as fortunate as the first 5 groups had you dawdled.”
Bile rose in my throat, burning it as I struggled to remain steady. “Why are you telling me this? What are you gonna do to us?”
Nirvana chuckled, placing a hand on my shoulder to keep me upright. “The pairs who came back with nothing will be sent back to the citadel after receiving…treatment, to ensure they remember nothing of the events that took place today. They will likely be chosen for another study but it’s really just a waiting game until then.
As you’ve probably surmised, the pairs who could not make it out of the temple well…all records of them will be wiped from citadel archives. As for you and your friend, we have great need for people like you. People who don’t just succumb to their fear in the face of death, people who will claw their way out of hell with a toothpick if need be.”
Nirvana pat me on the back. “Escort him to the infirmary to have him examined. Then send him to his new room.” Nirvana instructed the guards to take care of me before he began to walk away. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he looked back at me. “I hope you keep up the good work. With stellar performance, who knows, you may even be able to climb the ranks in the academy!”
ns 15.158.61.8da2
