My eyebrows drew together.
“Ha-ha, you’resofunny,” I deadpanned and walked out, not wanting to listen to any more of his nonsense.
As I stepped over the threshold, a strange tingling sensation shot through my arms and legs, the air around me seeming to expand then compress. It was then that the realization dawned on me: this wasn’t an exit door.
The room held an uncanny stillness—every sound was swallowed before it could be born.
Over my shoulder, I found the fairy’s mouth hanging agape, his lips forming a silentO.
“Charisma, come out from wherever you are.” His voice was a whisper behind me. I closed the door, the wood vibrating from the impact.
Even though this wasn’t what I hoped to find, a wave of relief washed over me as I savored a moment of solitude, my eyelids fluttering shut as I drew in a long, freeing breath. I parted my lids, returning to sight, and allowed my eyes to sail to the transparent boxes saturated with peonies.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Eight tanks. Four on either side of me.
My fingers brushed against a flower’s petals, and they gave way like a trusting creature, its stem slanting melancholically. I tucked my bottom lip under my teeth, peeling off a thin layer of dead skin as my gaze traveled over the peonies, robbed of any light.
I was bewildered by how they survived without sun, but I felt my way forward, my hands straining to find a hint of a light switch on the wall or perhaps another door. There had to be a way out of the chamber building.Right?
After circling endlessly and finding no sign of what I sought, I paused and bit my lower lip. From a logical standpoint, if I were the mastermind behind this, I would never give the contestants an opportunity to leave. Even so, moving from one spot to another was a necessity, and this was only possible through…veyrithing.
No.No. Veyrithing couldn’t be the sole method to get out of here. There had to be another way.
The skin on my arms prickled with a strange awareness and a snake feeling danced down my spine. Deja vu, they called it; that odd sensation, like a memory resurfacing, an impression that I’d been there before. A weary breath rolled off my tongue, stirring the floating particles in the air. I moved toward the room’s edge, the cool wall brushing my back as I lowered myself to the ground, my arms coming on top of my knees.
My head snapped straight on my shoulders as I felt a subtle pressure lifting against my skin, a sensation akin to a shift inthe air. I froze, scanning the room, my eyes darting from one corner to another, looking in between the flowers and shadows—anywhere someone might watch from.
There was no one. Yet the feeling still clung to me.
I knew someone was watching me. The air seemed to ripple with each subtle move of my gaze, as if the observer vanished in the same instant.
“Hello?” I said, my voice throaty and dry.
The quiet hum grew louder in my chest. I couldn’t stop my imagination from filling in the gaps—a pair of eyes, dark and murky in between the flowers; a figure crouched, hiding behind them, breath held tight.
I slowly rose to my feet and regretted the decision as soon as I straightened. I felt safer on the ground, and standing made me a vulnerable target—there was a space between the wall and me, large enough for someone to slip behind before I could realize.
Why did I not sense them the moment I entered?
I crept toward the exit, my head turning with each creak of the floorboards beneath my feet. A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead, my pulse a frantic drum against my ribs. I held my breath, terrified that even a whisper of air could cover the sound of an approaching person.
At the thought, I turned around, my hair slapping on my back. I almost yelped at the contact, but bit my bottom lip instead, unwilling to let any noise out.
I had to get out of here.
With a twist of the doorknob, I dashed across the threshold, and the click of the door brought a sigh of relief as the crisp scent of the open air filled my lungs.
“Where were you? What happened in there?” 226688 questioned, not even letting me catch my breath. He crossed his arms over his chest, silently criticizing me for not listening.
I didn’t know what had happened either. The strange feeling remained even after exiting. Unlike me, the fairy couldn’t see the door. The room itself was an anomaly. While in appearance it seemed ordinary, its depths held a secret I could not identify.
Whether it was a person or a creature skulking in the shadows, it raised all the hairs on my body to attention. It was a warning I wouldn’t ignore—I was never going back through that door.
Perhaps it was just another trick in the gods’ world. Could it be Zeus’s doing? No. He wouldn’t have bothered with something so insignificant.
It was all in my head. I imagined it all. It wasn’t real, I forced myself to believe.
