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12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3E1YyddH5
A.J. slowly opens his eyes and sits himself up to then see a new scene: in the darkness, he sees walls of stone bricks surround him on three or four sides. A small cut-out near the top of the back wall is blocked with iron bars, as well as the open area behind him which leads into a small corridor. The walls are lined with vines, mold, and other plants growing through all the cracks. It is the next morning, and the air feels cool, which brings upon him a brief yet necessary sense of calm. "Where am I?" A.J. shouts aloud. He stands up and, heading over to the iron bars of his cell, he tries to look down the corridor to see if he can make any sense of this place. However, it is all unfamiliar, and he doesn't immediately know what to do next. Only his belt with food and water remains with him.
He slams his fist into an iron bar in frustration and winces in pain. He now becomes aware that his legs are still burning, especially his left knee. "You have got to be kid-" he says before being cut off by some sort of clanking coming from down the corridor. In a few seconds, a new figure comes into view. A.J. cannot believe his eyes when he sees it.
The figure is only bones. A.J. is seeing a skeleton for the first time: it appears to be some kind of high-ranking officer who has yellow epaulettes on top of a loose-fitting, navy blue jacket. On top of the skull is an iron helmet with two feathers sticking out the top. In his right hand, he carries a loaded bow, with the arrow pointed down to the floor, and in his left is a torch. On his face is a slight smile. After taking in all its features, A.J. slowly backs away, still in shock. The skeleton stops and turns to face him.
"Well look who we have here... a human person," the monster chuckles before asking, "I'm not familiar to you, eh?" his voice echoes in the cell, the low-pitch vibrations hitting A.J's ears with a surprise.
A.J. can only shake his head, not taking his eyes off of it. He takes a few more steps in reverse. It's only made of bones and can talk? What sort of witchcraft is this?! He thinks.
"You'll be learning here quickly, you little rat. I am Lethargic, the 'leader' of this place. Don't expect anyone to be nice to you," he laughs again.
All A.J. can think: Lethargic? sounds pretty fitting. He's probably here with all his bony goons and whoever else to kill me and others. However, he shakes his head again. "This can't be real, can it?" he mutters mainly to himself, "Am I in some sort of dream?!"
"...not at all. In fact, I don't think you'll be dreaming at all once we use you to our ad-"
"Who's 'we'? And secondly, I didn't even know you to be real. How are y-you even possible?" A.J. demands, now wanting to get out of this situation he seemed to put himself into as soon as possible. He feels beads of sweat run down the sides of his face, uncomfortable with it all.
"You really are stupid, aren't you?" Lethargic now shakes his head and takes two steps towards A.J. "We've been around forever. I probably know more about your world than you do."
"That's not true! Where did you even come from- the depths of our caves? I just want to know, you pile of scum!" A.J. can't handle himself and his anger well, and he starts to feel like life might be over even sooner than he thought.
In a second, Lethargic furrows his eyebrows and raises his bow, the tip of the arrow pointing straight to A.J's forehead. "Say that again," he sneers while pulling back on the string, "and I'm sure you'll regret it."
A.J. presses himself up against the back wall, now panting for air. What can I do now? I guess my father and all those obscure books were right.
Outside the cell, he begins to hear screams and shouts. However, he figures any help he might be getting soon would be too late. He closes his eyes while stinging tears begin to fall.
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Booms and bangs start ringing out from outside, seemingly near the cell. A.J. had yet to be killed, and yet in this situation, the minutes felt like hours to him. Lethargic continues to stand at the ready, pointing the arrow in his direction. However, this commotion begins to concern him, and A.J. can tell this from his face.
"Don't even worry a bit about all that, idiot. You're bound to be hearing this for a whi-" suddenly, a storm of arrows come flying down the hall, passing the cell continuously for a minute. Lethargic turns around, stepping out of the cell and, as if on cue, the arrows land all over him, knocking him out cold and scattering his bones across the floor. A.J. remains frozen, still holding tightly the disbelief over everything that has just occurred in the past five minutes. He hears footsteps running his way and yet stands still, his arms and legs squeezing as hard as they can against the back wall. His whole body and hair feels like it is covered in sweat.
That's when he sees them. He lets out a big sigh when he sees ones whom he thought he would never see again. It is his best friend Jake and his other classmate Alex, rushing to get him. How do they even know I'm here!? What even happened before I got trapped in this place?
Before A.J. can even say a single word, he is pulled off the wall by Jake, who assists him with walking into the hall. He now takes in more detail about the place: in the direction the arrows came from used to contain a double set of iron doors, but now fire engulfs that doorway. Jake pulls him in the opposite way, and he sees in front of them torch-lined walls and a set of iron doors, and before them the walls are lined with levers and buttons that he guesses are part of a combination lock set up with redstone.
Alex leaps ahead of the other two to start fiddling with the code, apparently trying to figure it out in a jiffy. "Come on, you stupid lock..." she shouted through gritted teeth. Jake stood back with A.J, trying to keep him up.
"Wher- w-what?" A.J. blurts out, his breath heavy like the others.
"We'll explain later. W-we need to get you out of here, A.J!" Alex responds nervously as she tries another combination. Nothing. The sound of shouting and groans rings out from behind them. The mobs are looking for them. "That can't be good."
"Come on, keep on trying! Do you need the book?" Jake asks, taking his backpack off using his left arm only, his other limb supporting A.J's back.
"There's not time! They're after us- come on!" She tries another combination, and another, and it now seems like hours that they have stood there, anticipating further trouble stirred up like a pot of soup by zombies, skeletons, and more.
And finally, a satisfying click sound is heard by the three before the doors slowly begin to open outwards, revealing a large, stone brick room up ahead. A.J. does his best to move forward on his own, and as they run into the doorway, they stop and take in multiple cracked paintings covering the walls and a couple of iron doors along the other wall ahead. Bookshelves and hidden buttons and pressure plates line the floor and the lower walls near the doors. "Be careful- there might be traps here," Jake points out. The others nod and squint their eyes while scrutinizing the room.
They all take drawn-out steps. The floor goes creak beneath them, and Alex quickly jumps back to the doorway. However, nothing gets triggered. The only other sounds are the groans growing ever closer behind them. Jake runs over to the leftmost door and starts stepping on pressure plates. On the other side of the room, A.J. starts to use his good leg to press down on other plates and buttons. Finally, after what seems like ages, the middle door opens, and everyone runs over to go through it. The shouts of skeletons can now be heard: "This way, this way!" As they rush down this new corridor, they can see sunlight up ahead.
That's when the worst possible scenario for them that could happen does happen: because there are separate halls branching off from the corridor, it allows skeletons, all armed with bows, and zombies to block off the exit at a second's notice. They are now surrounded on all sides, facing certain death.
"T-this is what the writings mean by nightmares," A.J. whispers to the other two.
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