Chapter 2

“We might need to conserve our batteries,” worried Shane. And Perry knew immediately what he was getting at. If this place was a maze, a deep and punishingly dark maze, then they would need to think of their battery life as a quickly depleting resource.

“Yeah, I’m turning off the light. But, get up against the wall first, and we’ll follow it back.” Perry turned off his flashlight. In the absolute dark they slowly moved back to from whence they came. Carefully placing each step as if the terrain were treacherous, or slippery. Hyper aware of the sounds they made, their heavy breathing, and the air moving through the corridors making ghost-like noises.

The more Perry thought about this place, the more creeped out he got. The feeling of this weight on his chest appeared, restricting his breathing, making him feel even more trapped. Just concentrate on your breathing, in and out. He concentrated, pushing his turbulent thoughts to the back of his mind until the weight alleviated.

As they got closer to the place they woke, a faint light appeared on Heather’s freckled face. It was a green and purple light coming from her cellphone, probably reflecting her home screen, then it turned to red when she must have opened some app. Then she turned in fright as Perry took another step. She frantically flipped through her favorite apps to find her flashlight and flagrantly flashed the light in Perry’s eyes, blinding him with brilliance due to his eyes being unadjusted.

She gave a terrible shriek, an unexpected reaction from Perry’s perspective. From Heather’s though, it was a sensible response to the situation. She woke up in the dark, not knowing where she was or how she got there. Then while checking her phone she heard a sneaky sound in the dark, slowly approaching. And when she, in a panic, got her flashlight to work, what did it reveal? Two shadowy figures holding a big ass knife.

“Whoa! Stop screaming! It’s us! Me and Shane,” said Perry quickly.

“What the fuck!” shouted Greg in his annoying whiny voice.

“Where are we?!” asked Katie loudly.

Priya topped their reactions though, she just screamed at the top of her lungs. It was a long scream and just when you thought it was almost over, it just kept going.

“Shut up! Everyone shut up!” Perry shouted, raising his hand and waving it wildly in an attempt to command attention.

Priya stopped screaming, not necessarily thanks to Perry. Her lungs had to give out eventually. But the chaos remained. Greg was furious. “Perry! What the fuck! What did you do!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“Why were you awake! Why do you want us to be quiet! Why do you guys have that fucking knife!” Greg continued to shout, even over the top of Perry’s response.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Perry shouted even louder than before. His eyes displaying the fierce anger he was known for. They all knew the tale of the time he lost his anger, and almost got himself kicked out of school. All the shit he went through in the past year swelled up inside him like the fury of a thousand suns. His face turned beet red. “Shane, hand me the knife.”

Shane handed it over without a second thought. He was the truest of bros.

“Everyone else needs to shut up! I have the conch!” Perry said pumping the knife into the air for emphasis. “This knife is the fucking conch. So you all need to be quiet and listen up.”

They all fell silent. Perry waited a second to make sure it sunk in.

“We woke up just like the rest of you. In the dark. The last thing I remember is being on the train. We don’t know where we are. But this place looks big. It’s too big to just be some guy’s basement.”

“What’s going on!” Greg rudely interjected. “Give us answers, now!”

“I don’t have any answers you dumb fuck! Weren’t you listening to what I just said? We’re as lost as you are. What’s going on? Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Then fuck you! Give me the conch, I want to speak now,” said Greg. The light from Heather’s phone still blinded Perry. What were they doing? Was Greg gonna try and take the knife? There was no way Perry would let Greg lay a hand on that knife.

“No! This knife belongs to Shane.” Perry gave the knife back to Shane and said to him, “Don’t let Greg hold the knife.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

“The conch thing was just a figure of speech. I just needed everyone to calm down. You can talk, we just need to stay calm now. But if you try and take this knife from Shane, I swear, I will bite your nose off while Shane stabs you!” They all were silent for a second.