The stairs feel endless as we descend even further into this hellish nightmare.
What's next? I'm honestly not sure I'll be able to mentally handle another boss fight right away.
After another few minutes, the stairs don't end the way I expected them to. One moment, it was stones and ragged rocks all around. Now there's a blinding light in my face.
I squint and have to shield my eyes. For a heartbeat, I thought we'd stepped back outside, into another world entirely. An open field stretched before us, tall grass swaying as though touched by a breeze I couldn't feel. Above, a pale sun hung in the sky, warm and steady, but wrong. Too steady. Like it was painted there.
I turned a slow circle, trying to find walls, a ceiling, anything that made sense. But the horizon stretched endlessly, flat and clean.
Kai lets out a low whistle behind me.
- Kai: "You've got to be kidding. A whole damn meadow? Are we really underground?!"
Lena mumbles something against his shoulder. He's been carrying her since we left the upper floor, her arms loose around his neck. She's very pale—more than usual—and her face is drawn tight with exhaustion. She'd pushed herself too far with her magic. Kai adjusts his grip on her like she weighs nothing, but I see the strain in his jaw. He's worried about her.
- Christy: "This doesn't feel right…"
She's right. It doesn't feel right. Not at all.
Something about the way the air moves, the way the sun sits frozen in the sky—it makes my skin crawl. None of this should exist underground, if that's where we really are. None of this should be real.
That's when I spot it.
A cabin sits in the middle of the field, maybe a hundred feet away. Wooden walls, a slanted roof, smoke-blackened chimney. From a distance, it could be dropped straight out of some countryside village.
Kai shifts Lena on his back again.
- Kai: "If that place has a bed, I don't care if it's a trap. I'm using it."
I grab his shoulder—the one Lena isn't resting on.
"Wait up. We don't know what danger is ahead. Let's at least—"
- Kai: "At least what?! Wait out here? Lena is injured and needs to rest."
His voice is sharp, and I flinch.
"I never said that! I just think we shouldn't rush head first."
God knows that won't end well.
He looks me in the eyes before relaxing his shoulder, my answer satisfying him.
We make our way across the grass. Isabella falters halfway, legs trembling and she falls over. Luckily, I catch her just in time, supporting her. She's just as pale as Lena.
- Isabella: "You don't need to hold me. I'm fine."
"It's fine. Let me help you. You're clearly exhausted."
Her shoulders slump and she doesn't argue.
Inside the cabin, the place is rundown, but oddly welcoming. Dust coats the floor, but a stove, a cracked refrigerator, and scattered canned food suggest someone once lived here—or maybe just prepared it for whoever arrived.
On the second floor, there are 5 beds littered across the room. There is a door to the left. A bathroom with the essentials—a toilet, bathtub and sink with a mirror.
None of this makes sense. How is all this down here? It all seems kind of old, but what if the guy who used to live here comes back.
Kai places Lena in one of the beds, closest to the bathroom. He tucks her in the bedsheets. Her chest is rising up and down as she breathes steady. I glance at Kai. He's leaning against the wall, arms crossed, still watching her.
I keep an arm around Isabella until she steadies herself, then guide her to a chair near the stove. She takes a seat and breathes. It almost looks like it's her first time ever getting a moment to rest without immediate death around the corner.
Blair is inspecting the room, the windows. Everything.
- Blair: "This place is rundown, but seems relatively secure. We should be fine for now."
- Christy: "I agree. We should take this chance to recover."
Everyone takes a turn going to the bathroom, clearly enjoying the luxury we haven't had for around a day.
Well, for them it's been a day. For me it's been a little longer.
Once it's my turn, I head to the sink and splash my face with water. My reflection is pale, tired, but my blue eyes exude determination. The system flickers briefly at the edge of my vision, reminding me that there's still two more test remaining.
I take a deep breath while ruffling my light blue hair.
I exit the bathroom and see most of the group is sitting at a dinner table—excluding Lena and Isabella. It has enough seats for 10 people.
- Kai: "Yo! Look what we found!"
I look at his hands as they hold something I wasn't expecting.
"Cards?"
- Christy: "Come join us."
Her invite puts me off. I still haven't forgiven her for the crime she committed against me, the memory still fresh in my mind.
Her voice is gentle, almost warm. It makes my stomach twist. She shouldn't get to sound like that. Not after what she did.
I force the thoughts down again, as I accept her offer and take a seat next to Kai, facing Blair and Christy.
Kai and Christy are both holding 7 cards each. There's a third hand prepared.
But it's on my side of the table.
"You aren't playing?"
- Blair: "Play without me."
- Kai: "Oh come on. Let's have some fu—"
- Blair: "How are we in any situation to have fun?"
This question makes him put his head down, staring at his feet. He's clearly been trying to convince her for a while and is completely wiped.
- Blair: "…Not to mention the fact that we aren't friends."
The last few words were almost completely inaudible. None of us manage to hear it.
For a while the only sound is the shuffle of cards. It feels too normal. Too quiet. Kai lays a hand of his own out and looks across the table at Christy.
- Kai: "So… what about you? What were you doing back home before all this?"
Christy blinks at him like she wasn't expecting the question. Her hands pause over her cards.
- Christy: "Me? Uh… I was in college. Working on my diploma. Just trying to finish up before…"
Her voice trails off, her eyes darting toward the frozen sun in the window, as if the sight explains everything.
- Kai: "College, huh? What were you studying?"
- Christy: "Business. Boring, right? My parents thought it'd be stable. I just wanted to get it over with."
She tries to laugh, but it doesn't come out right—too brittle, like the sound of glass cracking.
Sensing the coming awkwardness, I try to shift the conversation. I look towards Kai while placing my card on the table.
"What about you then?"
- Kai: "Aside from taking care of my brothers? I didn't do much. I couldn't really go to college since I needed to pay the bills. Oh, but i did get a highschool degree at least."
- Christy: "Pay the bills? Why did you need to? Isn't that a parent's job?"
Kai smiles solemnly as he explains.
- Kai: "Dad died when I was younger. A lot younger. Mom couldn't really take it. So she left… I don't blame her. Raising 3 kids on her own was a lot to deal with."
The mood drops a lot as he puts this on us. I decide to say something.
"So you provided for them? That's very noble of you."
- Kai: "Not really. It's what family's for. I know my brothers would all do the same for me."
His words hang in the air. They shouldn't sting, but they do. He says it so easily, like it's the most natural thing in the world—taking care of the people who matter to you. I never did that. Not for Nia.
I said I'd come back, but it's been 10 years already. I lied to her.
I abandoned her.
Even now, I say it to myself without flinching, like it's just a fact. Calm. Cold. But the truth of it gnaws at me all the same. If I had just… stayed.
I should've stayed.
I failed her.
I look down at the cards in my hands, pretending to study them. But all I can see is her face.
"…I wish I did the same."
The words slip out of my mouth unconsciously.
- Kai: "Hm? What was that?"
"Nothing. Just thinking out loud."
Another few minutes of silence and the sound of a card game play before Kai speaks up again.
- Kai: "And what about you, Miss. Emo?"
Blair glares at him instantly, her jaw tightening.
- Blair: "Don't call me that."
- Kai: "It fits though, doesn't it?"
Kai just smirks, like he was waiting for the reaction. He's not trying to be cruel—I can see that. This is how he handles tension. By poking and teasing others. But Blair was probably the last person to do that with.
- Blair: "I'm going to bed. Goodnight."
She stands up abruptly and rushes off up the stairs. We all sit there, staring at eachother for a few minutes.
- Christy: "I think we should all do the same."
After saying our goodnights, there's a small problem. There are 6 of us and only 5 beds.
Therefore, the natural course of action, is for me to sleep on the couch on the first floor. I also grabbed one of the blankets I found in the closet upstairs and laid down. It's not uncomfortable.
The house creaks softly, providing the only noise. My mind begins to wander elsewhere.
This place is wrong. All of it.
A cabin with a working stove, cans of food that haven't spoiled, a bathroom that runs water. Who stocked it? Who built this? Did they want us to find it?
And where the hell are we? Are we even on Earth?
The thought chills me more than any monster fight.
There's that too. Monsters?
The silence presses in, heavy. My teammates are all fast asleep. I wish I could do the same. I wish I could shut off my head, forget the questions, forget Nia, forget the system waiting just out of sight.
But I can't.
I sit up halfway, then slump back down. My head's too heavy to hold upright for long. But my eyes keep drifting to the windows. We closed the blinds, but the sunlight is still shining through.
Something still isn't sitting right with me.
My eyes finally grow too heavy. I let them close and sleep finally embraces me.
- ???: "...…ayden...…"
A voice slips into the room, soft at first but steady, like the sound of wind chimes kissed by sunlight. Clear. Bright. Impossible to ignore.
More grown, more mature than I remember, yet still carved into my memory as clear as day.
- ???: "…ayden."
A voice I can never forget.
- Nia: "AYDEN!"
All the air blasts from my lungs as an elbow slams into my stomach.
"AGH! What the fuck?!"
- Nia: "Get up already! It's time for breakfast."
I freeze. My mind reels. Slowly, I lift my head—and there she is.
Her eyes. Still that same shade, like clear amber in sunlight. Her wavy brown hair spills over her shoulders, longer than I remember, but just as vivid.
I blink, heart hammering. This… can't be real. And yet, it is.
It's her. Every detail, every motion, every familiar tilt of her head—it's impossibly real.
How?