A.N
I updated Chapter 1 as I accidentally published it before. Picture on side, is of Danielle.
Have fun reading and vote, comment, fan. Oh, and the trailer on the side is made by Brookeismy name, so massive thanks to her for going through all that effort!
I woke up, gasping and scared, looking around wildly. I was trying to see an enemy that wasn't there.
I'm not in the maze. I'm not there, I'm here. I'm not in the maze. I'm not there, I'm here, I chanted in my mind, trying to calm myself down. As I recognise my surroundings and the nightmare fades from my mind, my breathing goes down a few notches. I'm safe.
For now.
I never remembered ever being completely safe. Even as a baby, a dark taint fouled my mind, something I never understood. It was the reason that I cried for my mother those solitary nights. As I grew from an ignorant child, I had to change, and my mind needed to harden, to develop a shield against the harsh world which enveloped all that lived in this damned country.
The answer to our fear, and the shadows which fell across our thoughts, was, and always will be Raxis. Raxis: the man who was once thought a god, now deemed as a terrible master to us all. One hundred and fifty years before my birth into this sad reality of life, a man with golden hair, and eyes, graced with intelligence higher than even we could comprehend walked into the lives of everyone in this country.
A spell was bound around all of its people, a simple love radiated from them to this unknown but charismatic and powerful man. And the devotion they felt in their hearts had been real. And so, as time passed, and the man proved himself worthy of all the honours that they would bestow upon him, a new type of government was put to our system. In a way, it was a dictatorship, ruled by one over the many.
Dictatorships were looked down upon, always. They were unfair, cruel. But we didn't seem to see that. How could you, when he had taken us all into his power?
Not that that was how we saw it though.
So he took the leading role, and ruled over us, just as he had planned. A year of happiness and celebration flew swiftly by, and everyone felt a wonder and euphoria beyond anything they could have imagined. Because things seemed so perfect.
Perfection is eternally unattainable.
Yet, a rose may look beautiful, but that does not strip the pain from you as you run its fingers down its stem and feel the thorns cutting into your skin. Even though we felt those thorns, we just kept on smiling blindly. With the blood from our wounds trickling over our skin.
As the new year was rushed in with fireworks, laughter and love - our leader set forth a firework of a different kind. On live television, he made a chilling and heart-breaking speech to all of his people. Mocking us, taunting us, laughing at us.
The first scream sounded as his appearance seemed to melt away: the gorgeous, golden locks falling away and shrivelling at his feet, the gentle features of his face changed to a hawk-like structure, still as a human, but one of contempt and superiority. His hair had changed to an unnatural black.
That had only been the start.
Raxis, the name of our ruler, devised a game called 'The Games of Hell' where twenty people were chosen by Raxis to enter The Games. They consisted of a series of challenges where the only aim you had was stay alive. This was easier said than done, as Raxis had devised many clever and horrific puzzles, traps and... monsters. Terrible monsters with mutated bodies and a hunger for one thing - flesh.
Today, the first challenge would begin, for me. The Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth, as explained to us yesterday, was a maze where a wrong turn would mean facing a monster and, in most cases, death. The aim of the game is to stay alive for as long as it takes for four people to die. Never in my life would I yearn for another's death so badly - just as long as it wasn't mine.
At the end, when there would be one competitor left, they would have to face a test, a test of endurance. It was known as the Mercy Game. There are five levels of torture and it could be anything - acid, fire, a knife... anything that can be used to inflict pain. You can say Mercy to escape the pain - if you'd like. It gives you a swifter death.
But I had to win these games for my family back home: Mum and Dad. I was all they had now.
I just hoped for the courage to do it.
-------------------------------------------
We wandered these halls, a shadow of doom hanging over us all. The colours of this place are bleak, and mostly grey, reflecting our futures. The First Stage was today - something we have all dreaded. After spending most of the morning a trembling mess, I felt utterly numb now. The reality of the Labyrinth had not yet settled upon me.
How could something so terrible be real after all?
All Competitors had been taken from their homes two weeks ago, and we had waited here ever since. I remembered being torn from my mother's arms. I remembered my father hunched over in grief and my mother's cry still echoing in my ears. That was how I remembered my parents.
Yesterday, they'd told us the Labyrinth would be in one day. I'd listened to the news and all I'd thought was how badly I wished to sleep. How tired my body felt.
Some stayed in the solitary silence of their rooms: perhaps crying, raging, or even sleeping to escape as I did. Even slipping into once lazy slumber was no rest from the terror. Our dreams were targeted by monsters, and fear - wrestling with our mind. You didn't know what awaited you in the dream world: whether a passive dream, a terrifying nightmare, or oblivion.
Competitors were searched on arrival: weapons were surprisingly allowed, Raxis didn't care of the plight of his servants - though a revolution was unlikely, if not impossible. Drugs and alcohol were taken: substances such as these would let you dream up a different world, maybe even one when you were free. And so the rules prohibited it.
People were allowed to bring in knick-knacks from home. I remembered a teddy bear hanging from the hand of a little boy. He might have been just six. I had brought nothing along with me. I needed to move on into the Games and try and leave my past behind - at least until I was free.
Only when freedom was achieved could I think of returning to my old life as an actuality.
--------------------------------
Hours later and the Competitors all gathered in the main room: the Starting Room - as it was named rather unimaginatively. Others called it the Doom Room. This was the place where we would start our first challenge. Despite my earlier numbness, my insides were writhing and I felt like throwing up the mush served for breakfast.
Every second spent waiting for the briefing was killing me.
A man with jet-black hair entered the room and planted himself at the centre. Some of the more devoted supporters of Raxis's regime dyed their hair to appear as slickly black as his. It was considered a mark of servitude. In my opinion, it was also a mark of betrayal.
The man smiled at us, only deepening my distrust for him.
Rage revolted inside me - an easier emotion to feel when fear was the only alternative. How could he smile at us when he knew nineteen of us would die? That the remaining one would be subjected to torture of the worst kind? A hush descended upon us as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Raxis, our glorious master, has asked me to inform all of you about your upcoming challenge - The Labyrinth." The man spoke in a hushed, subservient tone, eyeing each of us with barely layered contempt. I never understand humans who could betray their own kind - and then act as if they were superior for doing so.
Another characteristic of Raxis's servants. Disdain for their own race - like they were more than us, like they were better.
"As explained to you yesterday, the Labyrinth is a convoluted maze, filled with many dangers ranging from our glorious master's own creations to traps made by the skilled and esteemed Event Planners. Each person will set off at the same start and will then travel around as groups or singly, whichever way is best."
"You will be in the maze for however long it takes for four people to die, though worry not about dying of starvation or thirst as the maze has only ever lasted for two days, maximum."
He chuckled at that. Despite the horrifically slow death dying of starvation would entail, I wished for that kind of end, rather than by meeting my fate at the hands of a monster.
The group of competitors glared with hatred at him, laughing so callously at the death of his kin. It was so easy to light us aflame with anger. After having been tossed in here two weeks ago - like we were nothing - and knowing we wouldn't live longer than a couple of months at the most... it felt right to seek vengeance.
The presenter cleared his throat and went on with his speech - despite the heavy bombardment of hatred he received from his captive audience. Even I felt like leaping onto this man and strangling the life out of him. Anything that would stop the trembling in my hands. I viciously imagined pressing my thumbs down on the base of his neck and watching him panic.
"Now," he declared to the open room. "We shall begin."
Without further ado, he hurried into an adjoining room. The door hissed shut behind him and my gaze was torn to it, unable to look away. I could only imagine beating down that door and escaping the mess I had found myself in. I couldn't do this.
We all stood there stock-still, fear creeping into all of our hearts. I could only think of the horrors thay lay within that maze. All the death and loss behind that one door. I might never return, might never see this room again. I might never see my family again.
My family.
The only thing that kept me from completely losing it was my family. My parents would never get over losing me - not after all the death they'd endured over the years.
I had to win for them.
-----------------------------------
A nasal sounding voice came over the loud speaker and began the countdown.
"Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Zero!"
The door slid open and the maze appeared: sharp, black hedges with spiky thorns bordering the thin, worn path. The path itself - a ribbon of gunmetal grey - was splotched with patchy crimson. I knew it was blood. I knew more blood would join it.
I paused before entering this eerie place of darkness, but when I saw the others walk forward, I joined them hurriedly. We walked in single file down the path and when a fork came up, we broke off into smaller groups. All of us crept down the path, wary and cautious.
Though the others were pressed close to me and exhaled, inhaled, cried and lived right near me - I could not picture a single one of their faces. The competitors were a blurry mass of indistinct shapes. to me, they did not exist in this moment. Four of them would die only too soon.
My breathing was already harsh and ragged though we haven't been running. I couldn't help the harsh inhale and exhale of stale air - as if I was struggling to breathe.
When a screech broke the pregnant silence, which had been hanging over the air, a boy of around ten years of age, screams; a high, piercing sound. My first thought is:
He's so young.
We all jumped and a grey-haired woman tried to calm him, but he shakes her off and runs forward away from us, ignoring our shouts of warning to come back, back to us, where we are safer. Though we are set against each other, we cannot let a boy rush into danger.
The Games may have sprung us into death, but that doesn't mean we have to encourage it. But sadly, for the boy- I thought it would be too late.
A few minutes later, we heard his scream again, accompanied by a roaring unknown to man and then, to my horror, crunching sounds. The boy is dead.
We all froze. Because we knew this would happen. Knew the deaths would mount up, until only one is left. But before this, it had all seemed like a nightmare.
But with the sound of a young boy's death echoing in our ears, I finally understood how real this all was.
And that just made it fucking terrifying.