Sophie's POV
I turned another corner, panting and with sweat dripping down my face. The monster was still freaking chasing me, and I had nothing to kill it with.
My teleportation attempt had been a huge fail, as the maze was at the bottom of the cliff. Waiting for me.
And, like an idiot, I fell for the trap. They knew that I was going to escape the second I was unrestrained, and that my only method of transportation was teleportation.
They were playing right into my great 'escape', feeding me false hopes of a miraculous return to my friends and family.
That's what Brant was warning me about; he was trying to tell me that resisting would only lead to me getting more hurt, just not in the physical way. My hopes had been shattered and resolve had been crushed.
I still didn't understand why Brant decided to bless me with the warning that was too little too late. It almost seemed like Brant had a heart.
The Tin Woodman came to my mind briefly, from Wizard of Oz, getting a 'heart' from the wizard.
Anyways, I had dropped down into this dreadful place instead of teleporting. It was apparently designed by the giants and titans that were the Neverseen's new allies.
I knew this because of the small plaque that I had landed in a heap in front of, one that stated the rules and details of the maze.
The only major rules were that I couldn't use my abilities or skills and I had to face every challenge. Failure to step up to a challenge resulted in death.
Very medieval if you asked me.
The maze was also designed after some sort of labyrinth from Greek mythology. I had no idea what that had to do with anything, but my photographic memory ate up the information anyway.
There were supposed to be ten different challenges to face, but what the plaque failed to tell me was that there would be monsters continually chasing me, even if I wasn't completing a challenge.
So, that's why I was currently running from a gorgon after passing the first challenge, which was the riddle of the Sphinx.
I had recalled, during my curious phase in the human world, researching Greek mythology. I was always interested in it, albeit I had no clue that it actually existed, or that I was connected to it in a way.
But, thanks to my photographic memory, I remembered Oedipus' answer to the riddle.
Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?
Thankfully, I had answered correctly. Man—who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age.
If I hadn't answered, the legend said that the Sphinx would strangle and devour me. Now, I had no clue how that applied in the maze, but I didn't necessarily want to find out.
A low growl pulled me out of my thoughts and reminded me that I was starring in another near-death situation.
I slipped around another corner, failing to realize that I was walking straight into a dead end. Thankfully, I noticed it was upon further inspection, but by then, the gorgon was already cornering me.
Come on! I barely even got past the first challenge! I didn't even understand the purpose of this stupid maze!
I scoped the dark area around me; the floor was a strange tile substance that was wet to the touch and the walls were a dark green, with various scratches and indents.
My feet had found an unsure stance on the ground, my back almost pressed up against the wall of the dead end. I could just make out the fiery red snakes of the gorgon's head trying to snap at me in the darkness.
She was edging closer, snarling at me. My inner Greek mythology nerd made me aware that this was Euryale, the middle gorgon sister. After Medusa, she was said to be the smartest, but not as vicious as Stheno.
So, I had to rely more on my strength to defeat the gorgon.
Great.
My shoeless feet were a big disadvantage, because they would not have a great impact on this snake-headed monster, but I could still knock the air out of her with a powerful kick.
Pushing off the wall behind me, I lunged forward to build up momentum for my kick, then threw my leg up to her face in a roundhouse motion. Thankfully, I didn't get bit by any snakes, and the kick was just powerful enough for her to collapse slightly to the right, leaning against the wall for support.
I quickly ran past her, slipping and sliding all the while. Footsteps came from the dead end I had just exited, but I paid no attention to that as I went down an unfamiliar path.
Just as I turned left, a blinding light flashed from in front of me. I clutched my head and shut my eyes quickly, trying to relieve the newfound ache in my head as well as behind my eyelids. It felt like lasers were piercing through my eyes.
The light didn't seem to fade away as my hands stayed secure around the back of my head, and I leaned against the wall.
When I opened my eyes hesitantly, I was horrified to see that I couldn't see.
Well, I couldn't actually see that I couldn't see, but I could . . .
Wait, I don't want to sound like Keefe . . . Moving on.
I figured that this corridor was meant to be the second challenge, so I hesitantly walked down it, leaning onto the uneven surface of the wall for support.
About twenty steps or so into the passageway, a shrill scream sounded from my left. My head instantly turned to that direction, but I couldn't see so it was pointless for that action to help me in any way.
I clung onto the wall, realizing that it would be my only guide in terms of direction. If I left it for a second, I would go mad trying to figure out which way was forward or backward, left or right.
So, I trudged on, doing my best to ignore the shouts and screams from my left, all echoing around me in the darkness.
At one point, the screams turned into those of my friends and family.
"Why did you leave us?!" Edaline cried in the distance. "Come back!"
"Save us, Sophie!" Biana screamed.
"Say goodbye to your friends, Moonlark," Fintan hissed.
The smell of burning flesh hit my nostrils, and I inwardly gagged. My muscles weakened against the wall and my legs practically gave out underneath me as pained screams followed the burning stench.
"You're no sister of my mine, you coward!" Percy shouted.
I was full-on sobbing by now, desperately pleading with my body to push forward. My fingers dug into the rough grooves of the wall.
"What are you even good for, Sophie?" Keefe accused, making my movements halt for a fleeting second.
Keefe would never blatantly ask me such a thing, unless he was playfully joking and called me by the nickname of Foster. Percy would never disown me as a sister, unless I unexpectedly turned evil. I had hopes that my friends weren't in Fintan's clutches and they were safe. Biana would never scream for me for help because she always insisted on fighting her own battles. And, Edaline would never want me to come rescue her, putting myself in more danger.
These realizations urged me to pick up my pace, as a renewed sense of strength filled my body. My tears stopped, my hands clung to the wall less feebly than before, and my legs willingly supported my body.
The screams, shouts, yells, and accusations never ceased, but they faded into the background of my main hearing. I ran forward against the wall, my feet slapping down on the slippery cold floor.
A new sound, a persistent beeping that I had been too distracted before to hear, suddenly flooded my hearing.
It repeated over and over, alerting me that it was arguably in some sort of code. Memories of learning Morse code from an old, retired US veteran in school filled my mind. I smiled slightly at the week where we learned survival skills and exercises and listened to accounts of battle from the experts.
Photographic memory never felt so good.
After listening to the message a few times, I got the basic gist of it: Pull the lever above you.
Sure enough, I reached up over my head, and my hand connected with some sort of string-like material. I pulled at it, expecting some sort of noise to echo throughout the hallway.
But, the screams and shouting stopped. Nothing else happened.
I sighed loudly, closing my eyes in frustration even though I didn't have to rest them for any reason, given that I couldn't see.
I was pleasantly surprised that, upon opening my eyes, I could see the vast hallway that stretched before me. I pushed myself off of the wall, suddenly embarrassed that I had been clinging onto it like a toddler does to their mother figure.
There was a light at the end of the stretching pathway, flashing a light yellow hue.
I begrudgingly started to make my way over there, squinting my eyes to get a better glimpse at the flame.
Wait a minute . . .
My legs started shaking and my breath quickened at the large flame lighting up the start of a narrower passageway.
I could vaguely make out the start of a small staircase past the archway of fire. This wall was different from the rest I had encountered in the maze, birch wood with flames leaping all across it.
As I grew closer, I started to cough at the thick scent of smoke. I now realized that this is what I had been inhaling when I heard the screams from earlier.
Taking a deep, smoke-filled breath, I stepped under the blazing doorway and started my descent down the stone scents.
My senses picked up as I started making my way down. There was a faint smell of standing water somewhere at the bottom of this winding staircase, but it would only benefit me if I was allowed to use my abilities.
I didn't want to find out what would happen if I cheated.
There were spider webs covering the sides of the enclosing walls around me as well as the bottom of the stairs that I had already passed. The staircase seemed to go on forever and, as it went deeper, the webs increased. I noticed the spiderwebs starting to make intricate patterns, rather than the trademark web.
Some were basically woven into small images; one made a shape similar to a rose, another looked like a small flame, and another was the face of a young woman.
I was so distracted in the webs that I failed to notice the last step of the staircase approaching. So distracted, in fact, that I skipped the last, more steep step, and toppled off the staircase.
I landed with a grunt in shallow water. The small depth automatically soothed my sore feet, the bottoms of my palms, and the tops of my knees, all of which I had landed on.
I was wary of the inclusion of my element, but took little notice of the minor detail as I proceeded to let the water soothe my burns and cuts.
The water failed to make the burns go away completely, leaving them as small raised scars on my arms and stomach, but it helped nonetheless.
A low hiss snapped me out of my 'bathing', directing my focus to where the sound came from, above me.
I managed to catch sight of the scariest looking monster I'd seen so far, just as it leaped from the ceiling, heading straight down for me.
Keefe's POV
I'd never seen the old dude run so fast. He was basically scurrying in the direction of the common room.
We passed several of our wallowing friends on our way, managing to catch glimpses of their shocked expressions, before we slid past them.
I knew that they were following hurriedly behind us, but we didn't stop for them to catch up. They also didn't question us, but it didn't seem like they had the energy to, anyways.
We reached the common room in no time, not even stopping as Mr. Forkle immediately made his way to one of the bookshelf walls. An obvious scroll was sticking out of one of the shelves, the only one in the whole room.
Mr. Forkle snatched it, unfolded it, and took a deep breath of relief as he finished reading its contents.
When he looked up at all of us, he warily eyed each of us one by one. What sparked my interest was the clear way he had stopped his gaze on Percy for the longest amount of time.
"Kids, there is something I need to tell you," he cleared his throat, his eyes finally looking anywhere but us. "But, first, I need to find a secure place to hide this scroll."
"Wait, so we don't get to know what's in this scroll?" I snapped, crossing my arms.
Mr. Forkle sighed, rolling up the scroll and running a hand down his face tiredly.
"I cannot share this information without permission. I swore that I would never disclose it before getting their word of approval," he said solemnly, looking at us with pity and guilt.
I scoffed, "Unbelievable."
Slipping past Mr. Forkle, I made my way to the exit of the treehouse. "If you guys need me, I'll be at Candleshade and the Neverseen bases, looking for more clues as to where Foster is."
With that, I exited, more than aware of all of the stares my friends were drilling into my back, as well as Mr. Forkle's plea to stay.
Unknown's POV
I watched from a distance as Keefe entered his old family home, completely alone and unguarded.
Seeing an opportunity, I followed close behind, managing to slip behind him as he carefully opened the door. I easily blended into the shadows, before he turned around to close the door quietly.
He whirled around and walked further into the house, with me close behind.
We walked into what looked like a home office, though nothing was on the wall or in the room, save for a small desk and some cabinets.
There was a stack of old papers on the desk that Keefe immediately went for, as if he had been here countless time in search of the same thing.
The thought tugged on my heartstrings, but I refused to let it affect me. I knew what was going to happen and I was prepared for it, no matter how much it hurt.
I knew what I was doing would benefit everyone in the end, no matter the side. I was especially doing what was right for my family, for my husband and my daughters.
When he stopped on a specific piece of paper and whirled around, I gasped in fright. I hadn't expected him to turn around so suddenly and I was openly exposed to him in my position in the room.
"Oh, you scared me," he breathed out in relief, picking up the paper had dropped to the floor in his jump scare.
"I'm sorry," I said quietly, hoping to showcase a false sense of grieving. "Mr. Forkle informed the adults of your whereabouts, so I came to make sure you weren't in any danger."
"Oh . . . thanks," he said dismissively, still scanning the old paper.
"Did you find something?" I asked curiously, not even hiding my anticipation because it made my question seem more innocent than intended.
"Yeah, in one of our earlier searches of this place, we found this stack of papers from the Forbidden Cities in a secret compartment in this room," he explained, looking up from the paper. "They're all written in English, but I'd been working on the language with Foster for a while, so I could somewhat read the words on the page.
"I didn't understand any of it until now," he continued. "There's a part about a scroll that the Neverseen needed to complete one of their experiments, but I didn't know about any scroll until today."
"What scroll?" I inquired, shouting victoriously in my head.
He looked into my eyes intensely for a bit, before finally answering, "The one that was in the commons of the new treehouse base."
"Was?" The more alarming question that I wanted to ask was about the treehouse base, because Mr. Forkle hadn't informed us of anything of the sort, yet.
It made me wonder why he hadn't thought the parents would need to know where their kids were, or if he suspected a mole in the Black Swan. I'd have to ask the Vackers if they had any idea of the new base for the kids.
"Yeah," he replied absentmindedly. "Mr. Forkle's moving it, or something."
"Does that make you mad?" I guessed, trying to find a new vantage point in this situation. I wasn't proud of attempting to use the kid my daughter was so smitten with, but it was a necessary wrong.
"It's just-," Keefe cut himself off with a groan. "It's just that he doesn't tell us anything about anything. We need to know something if it's related to or can help us with finding Foster!"
I sympathized with his concern. Even though I was somewhat working with the Neverseen, they never told me where they took Sophie, just that they wouldn't harm her and they were only looking for information from her.
I was worried about what was happening with her due to the amount of time they've had her, but they promised not to harm a hair on her head. I warned that I wouldn't fulfill my end of the bargain if they did, that warning also extending to my other daughter they had.
But, I also knew why they had kidnapped Sophie. It was all apart of an elaborate, but necessary plan. They convinced me that they had absolutely no intentions of hurting Sophie.
Of course, I would've rather they had not taken Sophie, but I had virtually no say in the matter. I couldn't have prevented it, even if I tried.
"I agree," I nodded sympathetically. "But, if he won't tell you any answers, you need to search for them."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you should try to find where he hid the scroll and see what's in it for yourself. You can even tell me, and, together, maybe we'll be able to find Sophie with its information," I responded, knowing full well that the scroll had nothing to do with Sophie's whereabouts.
"Right," he sighed, seemingly contemplating his options. After a short while, he announced seriously, "I'll do it, for Foster."
I smiled at him, a plan already forming in my head. Finally, I would be able to carry out my part of the deal and get my daughters back. Both of them.
A/N: . . . welp, that's that
poor sophie lol the challenges just get worse for her as the story goes on, but they're veryyyy important.