Nightmare in hell

Decisions

I blinked, shaking my head, to see Mark yelling in victory. He had one arm around my waist, supporting my weight, and the other raised above his head, hand in a fist, a triumphant smile on his face. I watched as the shadows faded back into the forest but their vicious, eerie whisper whiped the smile off Mark's face. "We are the shatterers." Cold dread spread through me, sending a shiver down my spine. "What was that about?" Mark asked, looking down at me, fear in his eyes. Watch your expression! I wanted to hiss at him but that would only give him away, if the game hadn't noticed yet, so I shook his arm off and leaned back against the tree I'd been sitting in only moments before. The rough, bark dug into my scalp, dragging me back from my vision, focusing my thoughts. "What happened! It looked like you fainted, Lara what's going on!" He had that calm mask, forced on his face now, the one that I'd worked so hard to perfect, but the hint of panic in his eyes was enough to let me know that I wasn't alone in this.

"I had a vision, looking through someone else's eyes Mark." He didn't say anything so I continued. "Our name's were on a list, mine, yours, Alicia's, Caleb's and all these others but that wasn't the strange part, there was a voice in my head that wasn't mine that said I'm sorry I had to bring you in but you are not the one."

I could almost see the cogs turning in Mark's eyes, a crease between his eyebrows appeared. I waited, hoping that he would provide me with some sane explanation as to what this meant because everything, happened for a reason right? "I'm sorry I had to bring you in but you are not the one," he repeated, slowly, cautiously, testing the words out as if somehow him saying them aloud would crack a code to this game, to the level of pure insanity I was about to hit. "Someone's choosing people to bring into this game?" I shook my head at him in confusion, there was a flaw in that. "If there were so many names on the list why have I only seen Alicia and Caleb and you here?" "Did it seem like there was any order to the list?" he asked ignoring my question. I was about to reply back with a straight out no but then I remembered my name inked across the page in red. "My name was in red, all the others names were written in black." "That's a simple explanation, you were the first one to be brought in." "But what if I wasn't." "What do you mean?" "Just because I never found anyone else until Alicia and Caleb, doesn't mean others weren't already here." "If that's the case what's your explanation for your name being written in red then?"

I hesitated. I didn't have an answer for that one. I expected Mark to laugh and rub it in but no, even Mark wasn't gloating this time. "We need to get to a safe house." The moon barely showed tonight, I could only see one half of Mark's face. It reminded me of one of those happy and sad drama masks that honestly really used to creep me out. Used to being the key word. I may never see those drama masks again. "You know I can see through that mask Lara," Mark whispered, touching my shoulder. I saw a flood of sympathy enter his eyes, so again I shook him off. "We're sitting ducks out here, in the dark, we have to get to a safe house, check out the map, think this over, that vision meant something and we have to figure out exactly what's going on."

I shivered as I took the lead, but kept my hands at my sides, at the ready for the monsters that I knew were out there, poised and ready hungry for my death. "Lara?" Mark whispered and I turned to look at him, tense, picking up my pace every so slightly. His eyes were unfocused, head tilted, brow pinched. To anyone who didn't know him, honestly yes they would call him insane and they may also say he looked like an axe murderer and I really should get the hell away from him but those people haven't been living in this game, where death is just around the corner and besides I knew him now. He was in deep thought, turning something over and over in his mind. "What Mark?" "Did Alicia and Caleb have hour glasses?" "I suppose everyone has an hour glass in the game, if we do, they must right?" "What if the hour glasses represent our life?" "We already sort of had an idea it was something like that!" I snapped, annoyed he wasn't providing me with new information. "I have an idea but we need to take a look at Alicia's hour glass." "That would be all the way back in level 8! We can't go backwards, we have to go forwards!" I fingered my necklace impatiently, still walking but slower now, curiosity was trying to get the better of me.

Something crunched from behind me and I instantly tensed, pulling my knife out but it was just Mark's sloppy klutziness, scowling I ran a thumb across the cold, metal surface waiting for a response. "There's an answer to this mess Lara, I know it, we have to go back, find Alicia's hour glass and maybe Caleb's if its still there! There's a clue there Lara, we have to go back!" "I can't go backwards Mark," my voice trembled and I clutched tighter at my necklace, trying to get a hold of myself. "Fear gets you killed Lara," Mark whispered back to me but his eyes weren't soft and patient now, they were determined and strong. Somehow, without my knowing he had turned from the soft, wimpy boy who had entered the game, clicking at a disconnected controller....controller. Controller? A memory wafted up from the cracks in my mind but as soon as I tried to grab for it, it slipped through my fingers like mist. "Something about the controller too." "My controller?"

Just a guy's P.O.V

9 people are in this game now! 9 people! and none of them are doing any good. What happened to Alicia and Caleb, wasn't my fault, they were weak, the wrong people, not up for the task that I need to complete. The girl, Danielle, she is strong, but already I see her weakening, I didn't bring her boyfriend with her, she misses him but Lara on the other hand. Lara Shay was strong. She had cracks, oh yes she did, they were weighing down on her, trying to destroy her but she was fighting it, her hour glass was proof of that ah yes but there was a problem with this. Mark, Mark Adler made her strong. I had, had a tip off from a monster that she considered him her best friend. Yes, maybe she had proved herself before Mark had come but what if he was taken away from her. Could she handle that, could she complete the task without him. She had to! Only one could do it, she wasn't allowed support to do this. She had to be alone, or how could she handle the days, the weeks, the months, to years to come. It would have to be done, they would have to be separated, not taken back into the maze, Alicia would kill him and I need him alive, for leverage on Lara but some other way.

I glanced at the hour glass on the corner of my desk. The blood in it was dwindling. I was running out of time. The game was infecting me. Manipulating my mind. Then again, that was what it had been designed to do. Manipulation. A beep sounded up from the floor and I glanced down to see a red pulsating light. I reached down and picked up the controller, rubbed my thumbs across it. I would never get tired of the smooth surface, although it wasn't mine, I still felt a connection to it. It was Lara Shay's controller. Mine had become too unstable, I'd had to change to hers, it hadn't been easy taking it from her. In the earlier levels she protected it with her life, never letting it out of her sight but then as she levelled up, it almost seemed to fade from her mind. Became unimportant, just another thing that couldn't get her back home. It had only been too easy for the bats to swipe it from the safe house as she slept. I tapped my index finger twice over the pulsating light and instantly, it glowed brighter, until the whole controller was glowing a bright red. I waited a few seconds then boom, the light exploded out onto the map that lay next to the piece of paper flashing a name at me, Ezra Wilde, before shrinking into a dot half the size of my pinky right in the middle of the monkey sector.

I sighed and turned towards the sound of a knock. Before me stood the inside out man and I groaned in annoyance at the puddle of blood on the floor. "You called for me?" he rasped, through the river of blood that escaped his mouth. "Find Mark, take him away from Lara." "Kill him?" I thought I heard an almost shocked tone in the inside out man's tone but I shook it off. He was a monster, this was what he did. "No, we need him alive, this is only a test." The inside out man nodded and stepped out of the doorway. I listened as his raspy breathing grew fainter and fainter until it was completely gone before turning back to the map. "For your sake Ezra, I hope you are as good with your fists as you are with a controller before you die, or the you go mad, whatever comes first."

I heard the psychotic laugh leave my mouth, which sent an icy shiver down my spine. I'm as trapped in this game, as any of the other monsters, the people I've brought in. I checked my hour glass again, the blood was still dripping at a steady rate. If Ezra Wilde wasn't the one, Lara Shay would be my last hope.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Hurry Lara, you have to figure it out!