George POV
"It would be a shame if any of you feared what hides in the dark." As if on cue, the screen returned to raven black.
George exchanged an apprehensive look with his friends. Nothing about that announcement sounded good. His attention slipped to Dream's stomach, flitting to Tommy's weak condition. He swallowed hard. If this game involved combat, they were done for. Opting out of a game would result in death, injured had to play.
Guards stepped forward from their posts, and the elevator wall rolled up. The room flooded with familiar rumbles, green light bathing the floor from the eerie elevator lights.
Dream entwined their hands, giving the brunette's palm a gentle squeeze. Striking green met warm brown, long lashes tapping freckles in a quick wink. "If we'll be in the dark, that means you'll have to hold my hand."
"It does not." George grumbled, tugging his hand unsuccessfully. "Idiot, I hope you trip."
The dirty blond laughed softly under his breath. He kept one eye on the guards, standing cautiously from his seat.
George rolled his eyes, but stood to follow his friend. Chairs scraped the tile as Sykunno, Corpse, and the brothers copied their movements. The guards needn't raise their guns at the group, standing aside to watch them obediently enter the elevator.
Several players were already loaded into the elevator, and he could hear the stumbling steps of less cooperative players forced into the moving room.
Green shifted to red, and that heavy door slammed shut. The ground shook beneath them, and George tightened his hold on Dream as they descended to the next game. Unlike elevators built by humans, the aliens had no indication of how many floors this place contained. There wasn't any buttons, either.
Rumbles faded into silence, a jolt slamming through the players. The bright lights changed back to green, and the wall panel slid up to reveal a massive cavern.
Whoa. George peered between the bodies around him. The cavern stretched on farther than the eye could see, disappearing into the dark.
The dark....
Guards shoved players out of the elevator onto uneven stone ground. George kept pace with Dream, scanning the cavern for a clue to what would come. Gray and brown molded in a dull atmosphere, finding nothing but stone everywhere he looked.
"Welcome, players, to the fourth game." The electronic voice buzzed in the tense air. "The rules to this game are simple. Please look at the tunnel before you."
Heads turned, staring into the pitch black awaiting them.
"In this game, the objective is to make it to the end of the tunnel without the aid of sight. There are traps set at unknown locations throughout the tunnel, and the distance to the finish is not for your knowledge."
"Somehow, they made it sound easier than it will be." George muttered. "If we can't see, we can easily get turned around. Or land in a trap."
"Still don't want to hold my hand?" Dream teased in a hushed tone.
"I already am, idiot." George reminded him.
"That is all, let the game begin!"
No one moved. Players glared at one another, shifting their feet like cornered rats. Not a single person wanted to risk falling into a trap first.
"Get a move on!" BANG!
George's heart leaped in his throat as screams erupted from the back of the group. Players startled forward, one or two even tripped. The guard who'd fired the gun grew silent, their job done.
Dream pulled the brunette forward, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to reassure himself of his presence. George matched his pace and raced headfirst into the dark. Their hands clutched tight between them in white-knuckled grips.
Shadows grew thicker as the light drained from the tunnel. His blood pumped through his veins, flinching when screams erupted at random.
Bodies raced through the darkness, sneakers pounding in thunderous noise. They bumped and shoved, pressing close like schools of fish through a thin stream. George's shoulder brushed Dream's, barely able to make out his tall silhouette in the gloom.
Behind him, Wilbur pulled his brother along the path. The fluffy brunette's arm clutched tight around Tommy's shoulders, keeping him steady.
George was about to turn his head back to his front when a player crashed into the brothers' backs. Wilbur cursed loudly, losing his grip on his brother who'd been knocked away.
Tommy yelped as he tumbled to the ground, and George skidded to a halt. He moved toward the blond, reaching out his hands to help pull him up.
At that exact moment Dream screamed his name, the ground scraping as though he'd spun around at shocking speed.
He wasn't fast enough.
George's hand encased Tommy's, the blond's grateful smile only lasting a heartbeat before they became weightless. Air rushed through their hair, the world tilting upside down.
This is why everyone was screaming. That was George's last thought as his head shook into a strawberry smoothie. He could hear Dream and Wilbur's screams abruptly cut off by a loud crash, and suddenly the darkness seemed all the more thick.
The ground they'd fallen through had sealed closed. George kept a bone-crushing grip on Tommy's hand, the teen's shrieks mixing with his own through the crashing black.
Then they hit the ground. Hard.
All at once the world stopped, slamming into George with cruel force. His lungs shut, chest heaving as he fought for air. Tommy's winded gasps echoed beside him.
"Are... you... okay...?" Speaking felt painful, his throat squeezed with breathless heat. He forced himself to calm, taking slower breaths until his chest didn't burn quite so much.
"Bloody hell." Tommy groaned. "Am I dead?"
"If you're dead, I'm dead." George rolled onto his side, relieved when his body ached but lacked the piercing pain of broken bones. He brushed his palms over— what was this?— searching blindly for the teen. Soft fabric touched his fingertips, immediately tightening his hold. "Can you stand?"
"Yeah, who do you think I am?" Tommy's jacket pulled beneath his hand, curses hissed quietly into the dark.
George ordered his own aching body up, arm wrapping around the teen and aiding his standing. He silently applauded Tommy's strength, imagining how much agony he must be in.
"What do we do now?" Tommy leaned heavily on the brunette, his weight holding a light tremble. "Wilbur? WIL! Where are you?!"
"He's not here." George shuffled his feet. "He and Dream are stuck on the surface." A tiny knife stabbed his heart, but he pushed the anxiety away. "We'll have to look for a way out on our own."
"We can't see anything, Gogy." Tommy reminded him.
He ignored the weird nickname, stubbornly stepping forward on the squishy ground. Seriously, what was this? Foam? "We'll just have to do the best we can."
Their progress began slow, stumbling together step by step. George knew the blond was weighing him down, but he refused to leave him behind. No matter how much his shoulders strained to keep Tommy standing, he'd bring him back to his brother.
He just wished he knew where they were going, particularly when he slammed face-first into a wall.
Tommy snort-laughed, coughing as he tried to hide the sound. "You okay Gogs?"
"Fine." George kicked toward the wall, scraping the toe of his sneaker against a rough surface. He walked sideways, following the bump of shoe on stone.
"Wait, I see something." Tommy nudged him. "Look, farther right."
The brunette angled his head, eyes straining in the dark. He'd almost called out bullshit when he spotted a tiny speck of light. Pulling Tommy with him, he approached the little bright orb. It was a key, made of luminescent material and hanging from a thin string.
"Take it." Tommy encouraged him.
"That's what I'm doing, idiot." George rolled his eyes, shuffling the blond's weight as he reached out and took the key. He squinted his eyes, waiting for a horrible trap to unleash.
Nothing came. Just the same, empty silence.
He returned to the wall, assuming there was some door he had to find. Instead, his sneaker waved in empty air after a few minutes. George frowned, moving forward hesitantly. A tunnel?
"What if it's a trap?" He mused aloud. "Why give us a key if there's another way out?"
"Maybe we don't need the key yet." Tommy offered. "Or the point is to confuse us?"
That didn't seem right, though. They were missing some crucial piece, hanging like the key on a string just out of reach. He took a deep breath, eventually walking deeper into the "tunnel".
He hadn't noticed the lightening of the path, turning corners and treading carefully. It wasn't until he realized he could see the outline of the walls that they were heading towards light.
I hope Dream is alright. He pictured the overprotective dirty blond now, face painted in panicked frustration. He prayed the idiot wouldn't do anything reckless and worsen his injury.
"There, look." Tommy snatched the key from George's hand.
A bright silver chest sat in the center of the tunnel. It appeared to be made out of the same illuminous metal as the key, glowing brilliantly in its larger size.
"Okay, that one has to be a trap." George was already moving around the chest, but Tommy stubbornly dug in his heels.
"It's not, Gogy! Why give us a key if we aren't going to use it?"
"Because of idiots like you who will use it!" George pulled harder, triggering a match of tug-of-war. "Don't forget you need me to walk, idiot! Keep annoying me and I will leave you!"
"Bitch! You wouldn't dare!" Tommy snapped. "Stop being a wuss and open the chest!"
Ice blue glared into mocha, their tug-of-war ending in a Mexican standoff.
"Look." George took a deep breath, and decided to try one more time at a logical approach. "We don't know much about this game, but what do we know?"
"That you're scared of opening a—"
"Tommy! I'm being serious."
"Okay, okay." The teen rolled his eyes. "Something about reaching an end of a tunnel we totally aren't in anymore without giving us a damn flashlight. But, look, they gave us a pretty chest!"
I could use a painkiller right about now. George sighed against his oncoming headache. "The game host said 'it would be a shame if any of you feared what hides in the dark'. I originally thought that meant how the tunnel above us is completely dark, but now..."
He nodded at the chest. "Notice how it glows? I think the point is to make it through this place without using light at all. Remember the weird voice saying there was traps? It never said what kind."
Tommy gaped at him. The blond stared as though George had turned into Albert Einstein. "You're a fucking genius gogy!" He frowned. "Then why did you take the key?"
"I didn't think of it until I saw the chest." George answered honestly. "But I think they just wanted us to trust the chest was safe. We shouldn't pick up any more objects that glow."
"Oops." Tommy shook his head sheepishly. He gave the key a sad glance before throwing it into the dark. "Were you like, in some crazy smart person college?"
George breathed a sigh of relief and continued their trek through the dark. Unknowingly leaving behind a bomb-rigged chest. "Not really, no. Just coding and computer science."
"Sounds like smart shit to me." Tommy commented.
"I didn't apply myself enough for that." The brunette moved to shrug his shoulders, quickly stopping when he remembered he was holding up Tommy.
"Huh." Tommy dropped his gaze. "Why?"
"I didn't know where I wanted to go with it yet." George nearly ran into another wall, sticking out his foot to track the curve of the tunnel. He wasn't one for small talk, but he found the teen's easy conversation calming. "How about you? Highschool?"
"Yeah, but I wanna be an influencer. Wil says I'm annoying enough for it." Tommy beamed with pride as though he didn't just call himself annoying. "I can start my videos like I AM IN A DARK TUNNEL WITH GOGY AND WE ARE TRYING NOT TO DIE!"
A burst of laughter broke out before George could stop it. "Well, your brother's not wrong."
"Wil is never wrong unless I'm the one who's right."
The blond spoke fondly, and George studied him from the corner of his eye. "You're very close with your brother."
"Yeah, Wil and I do everything together. He lets me listen to his band, I know all his songs. We ride trains to Brighton after school to walk the park, and he bought me cotton candy once when dad said no." Tommy grinned ear to ear. "He's more than my brother, he's my best friend."
His smile faded. "He's the only family I have now. Do you think he's okay?"
"He's with Dream so there's a chance the tunnel is on fire and we will need to save them, but yeah." George nudged him reassuringly. "I'm sure he's fine."
He hated lying to the blond, but he couldn't bring himself to admit there was a chance Wilbur wouldn't be alive up there. Truthfully, he can't face the reality that Dream might not be among the living, either.
"I hope Sy's okay too." Tommy added. "He's really nice. Corpse is scary, but he's cool."
George froze with one foot in the air. He turned his head achingly slow, listening intensely.
"I wish I had his voice. Man, imagine how many ladies I could add to my har-"
He slapped his hand over Tommy's mouth, leaning close to whisper. "We aren't alone."
The blond's entire body stiffened. He removed his hand, relieved when Tommy stayed silent. He stepped forward, and sure enough, he heard someone in the dark walk with them.
"Who is there?" George shouted. "We can hear you!"
Silence. Not even a single breath.
His heart hammered full speed in his chest. George didn't break his pace, dragging Tommy through the black. His eyes darted uselessly around, and the mysterious footsteps disappeared.
Could it have been a random guard keeping watch? That would explain why the 'person' didn't respond. Unless they stayed quiet for other reasons....
"I think they are gone." Tommy's whisper shook.
"For now. We shouldn't talk unless necessary from here out." George decided. He kept his grip on the teen tight, praying the footsteps had been a guard.
They passed three more glowing chests and hanging keys, strongly walking past the now-obvious trap. Rounding a corner, they found themselves face-to-face with two doors.
One door had light peeking beneath the seams, and the second door lurked in the dark. He almost wouldn't have seen it if the dull glow of the first door didn't reflect off the knob.
They didn't need to discuss the decision, simultaneously reaching for the door shrouded in shadows. To no surprise, more blackness awaited them.
George shuffled through the doorway with Tommy, startling when the door snapped shut on its own. Bright light flooded the room, and both boys screwed their eyes shut with pained yelps.
The light sliced hot blades over his corneas, and he blinked rapidly through gathering tears until his vision adjusted.
The hall looked similar to the one leading to their private quarters, stark white and easily deceptive.
"It fuckin' burns!" Tommy rubbed his eyes. "Does the light mean we lost?"
George opened his mouth to reply, but the electronic voice beat him to it.
"Congratulations on surviving the first part of the game. You will now enter the second phase."
"What is the second phase?" Tommy shouted.
"In order to complete this game, you must sacrifice one player to allow the other to move on."
George spun so fast he nearly knocked the blond from his hold. Blocking the path to survival was a man with long golden hair. His bright green eyes speckled with gold, and his skin shimmered with golden dust. Two horns curled from his head, and a finned shark-like tail whisked behind him.
"Hey there." He grinned. Long fangs flashed in a handsome face. "Sorry, guys. Looks like only one of you is getting out of here."
"No way." George angled the teen away from the alien. "You must be stupider than you look."
The alien almost looked offended. He shook his head with a click of his tongue. "Tsk tsk. Must you make this difficult? I could choose for you, if you'd like. I'm starving."
"Fuck you!" Tommy's face paled, but his tongue remained sharp as ever. "Freak! Asshole!"
"Now that's just mean." The alien pouted. "I have a name you know."
"Which is?" George narrowed his eyes. His soul was ready to fly out his body, but he wouldn't give ground.
Tossing his luxurious hair to the side, the alien propped a hand on his hip and flashed a brilliant smile. "Foolish, which is what you humans are for assuming you can reason with me."
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN. Now for my favorite part of chapters, the wonderful cliffhangers. :D Just kidding haha... kind of. See you all next chapter!