Bane Academy: To Run From Fear

Chapter 21

Becca

It feels so good to have my best friend back. It's as if that dark cloud of depression from Liam's death has finally lifted. For the first time in months, I can see clearly.
We don't find the glade until dusk. As we step onto the soft, ankle length grass, I pull the lacky from my pony tail and let the dry curls rest on my shoulder.
"Finally!" Dale yells loudly. "Why is there no one here?"
"I told you," Shae sighs, "they closed down the Maze yesterday."
"Well what do we do now?"
"We should find the runner's shack," I look at Shae hopefully, "find the code words?"
She smiles happily. "Sounds good."
I notice Fade hiding the smallest of smiles. "Lead the way then."

We'd found the files and identified the words to escape the maze - FLOAT, CATCH, BLEED, DEATH, STIFF and PUSH - and have decided to wait out the night in the shack.
"There's no way we can go back out there," Shae had said, "we'll have to wait till morning."
I'm curled up and half asleep next to Shae when Fade shakes me gently by the shoulder.
"Can we talk?"
I feel my heart jump into my throat but quickly swallow it. "Sure."
He helps me up and leads me into a separate room, identical to the first - sticks for walls and dirt for the floor. Fade sits down and leans against one of the walls. I sit next to him. I bend my knees and they instinctively lean towards him.
"Soooo..." I prod after a minute of silence.
He clears his throat.
"I just...you said something while you were..." He seems to struggle with the next word, which I can't interpret. "...incapacitated, and I-I miss you. Can we be...together? Again? I don't really know what happened after the Battle of the Books and-" I cut him off by kissing him. He jumps a little, then smiles into the kiss before taking my face in his hands. I grab his baggy shirt like I used to and pull him closer until we're tummy-to-tummy, that familiar sensation creeping into my body. My hands begin to re-explore his shape; the fragile frame of his skinny torso and bony shoulders. Soon our mouths are moving faster and that powerful passion I used to know so well comes back to say hello.
Then, an earsplitting scream wails through the shack, so incredibly filled with terror that my heart quivers slightly in its cage.

I run into the other room, just ahead of Fade, worry burning in the pit of my stomach. Upon entering, a cry of fear erupts from my own throat. The room is covered in unnaturally large strings of web, as thick as vines. Giant spiders, the size of large dogs, skitter in every direction, circling around a wailing Dale caught right in the middle. He struggles against the thick, sticky strings, while the huge arachnids crawl over and around him.
Shae, on the other side of the room, is screaming as she hacks at the web with a plank of wood. Damn, a sword would be handy right now. Or even better, a lighter.
"Becca!" Shae yells suddenly, seeing us enter. "Use your stele!"
Right! Who needs a lighter when you've got runes?
"Fade, cover me!" I yell over the chaos and drop to my knees, pulling out my stele and securing a thick enough section of web fastened to the floor. I quickly draw the fire rune, and the next thing I know, flames are racing across the entire web, zipping this way and that. The spiders seem to screech as the fire envelops them, their hundreds of eyes blazing a bright candy colour.
Shae dodges the rising flames and rips Dale from the web. By now, the fire is spreading and smoke is choking the air.
"Get down!" I yell and the four of us drop to our bellies, crawling towards the door. Once outside, I kick my feet underneath me as fast as I can and launch into a full on sprint.
"What's going on?!?!" Shae calls to me as we run, Fade just in front and Dale just behind.
"Who cares?!" Fade yells in response, slowing for no longer than a second to grasp my hand. "Just run!"
The four of us high-tail it towards one of the open doors. There's a large fluttering sound above suddenly, like a million crows. Then the screech of birds; next second we are being poked and pecked.
"Ow!" Dale is crying in surprise and fear. I bat away the beaks as they nip at my clothes. Shae is yelling with her arms above her head.
We finally reach the entrance to the maze, and as soon as we step foot on the concrete, the birds disappear. We don't stop running.
"What the hell just happened??" I yell as we turn random corner. Fade's hand grips mine tighter.
"This....is the last time.....I come near you guys.....aGAIN!" Dale pants between breaths.
"We're so lost..." Shae trails off as we turn another corner.
The soles of my sneakers slap the concrete, every one a painful jolt in my ankles. Until suddenly, the concrete is gone and my feet kick thin air. And then I'm falling. Fade's hand slips out of mine and my stomach rockets upwards, twisting and choking the air from my lungs as I scream. I force my eyes open through the urge to squeeze them shut and see that ground itself had just disappeared, all four of us falling down an impossible cliff in the maze. I force breath into my lungs in an attempt to control the fear and clear my mind. Below, a bumpy looking ground is approaching. Weirdly bumpy. And all different colours. The hell?
Next thing I know, I've been shot into a net of limbs and torsos. The makeshift net of people grab me in almost every place on my body and put me on my feet, in a group with the others, isolating us. We're back to back, Fade on one side of me and Shae on the other. Manic laughter erupts from the crowd.
"What?!" Dale yells, in an exasperated, angry voice.
Shae grips my hand.
"Becca..." And suddenly I know what's going on.
"You killed him didn't you?" Several voices speak at once from different places in the crowd, creating an eerie surround-sound effect.
"It was you. We know it was you."
I take Shae's arm and whirl her around to me, grabbing her face between my hands.
"Shae! Listen to me," I speak urgently. "It's not real. It's all a trick. You never hurt anyone!"
The voices continue, echoing from every direction. Shae doesn't look convinced, her hands are shaking and her eyes are darting about. I squeeze her shoulders until she focuses back on me.
"You're one of the nicest people I know. You'd never even consider hurting anyone, even the people you hate. You're not like that. Shae! This isn't you!"
Nothing is working. Shae's covered her ears with her hands and is mumbling something indistinguishable under her breath.
"Right," Fade quips, that edge in his voice that says he's about the explode. "I've had ENOUGH."
With the last word, he spreads his arms outwards and releases a charge of energy so filled with anger that everyone in the crowd turns instantly to fine black dust that swirls upwards, obscuring my vision. There's a moment of confusion and chaos before the dust settles and a field of bones is drawn out in front of us. Ribs crack under my shoes as I stumble for balance on the new, morbid terrain. Fear is licking my spine. I look up at Fade, who is staring at the field of yellowing marrow with a hard expression. Guarded. His dark eyes show nothing but resistance. This must be his fear. Killing by accident. Makes sense, being a son of Hades.
Then it clicks. I'd already been thinking about it, cataloging it.
"Dale, are you afraid of birds?"
"Um.." His cheeks floss over. "A little..."
"Dale, Dale, me, Shae, Fade..." Shae gives me a realising look.
"Our fears!" I nod at her.
"Doesn't seem to be any particular pattern, but-" I'm interrupted by a loud cracking sound, like one you'd expect to hear from a breaking glacier. Oh no. The ground begins to web with cracks, as if the bones themselves are encased in ice. Fade takes one careful step towards us, and it shatters. Freezing cold water erupts upwards.

There's nothing but the cold and the darkness and the fear. I don't know if my eyes are screwed up or if the water is just dark. I thrash about in slow motion, frustration mounting as my limbs refuse to move normally. It's so completely, entirely, bone-chillingly cold that I can feel the ice in between the vertebrae of my spine.