The siren went dead. Silence fell like a heavy steel.
The six doorways began to glow brightly, each symbols indicate a heavy light. Maya's team stood prepared, weapons in hands and eyes sharp.
"Remember," Maya whispered. "Do not trust anything you seez don't trust anything you hear. The maze feeds on fear."
The gothic voice boomed. "Passengers, enter the maze. Predators will be marked. prey will run. The game begins in sixty seconds."
Joe's hand trembled as it tightened around the strange compass. The pointers spun dangerously, pointing at every direction at once.
"Stay together," Marcus barked loudly. "No matter what may happen."
They moved towards the nearest doorway, the one marked with a symbol that looked like an axe. As they crossed the entrance, the room shifted.
The corridors stretched endlessly before them, the walls changed to glass and reflected their faces in distortion. Joe's reflection smiled when he didn't. Lena's reflection was faceless.
"Don't look at them,"Goldy said sharply. "They are meant to toy with your mind."
They tiptoed in silence, their footsteps echoed slowly in the narrow space. The air was cold with each step they took, ice frost formed on the walls.
Then the whispers started.
"Joe…Joe Miller….my…son.."
Joe froze. That was his mother's voice.
"Joe why did you leave me?why did you allow them to hurt you?"
That's not real Joe," Maya said and grabbed his arm. "Don't listen, just keep moving."
But the voice was louder now and more deep with remorse. "Joe please! I need you! Come back to me!"
Joe's body trembled. He knew this wasn't real but he couldn't bear the pains of hearing his mother's voice after a long time.
A scream broke the whispers. It came from behind.
They turned around only to see Leo holding his head, tears rolling down his face. "They're coming! The shadows are coming!"
"What do you mean, what shadows?" Maya asked scanning the corridors with her eyes.
Leo pointed his shaky fingers down the hallway they just passed. At first they saw nothing. Then they noticed the darkness moving.
It wasn't just a shadow. It was alive.
Black tendrils crept a long the walls of the corridor spreading like black paint. The moved fast, with purpose and a searching and hunting.
"Run!" Maya screamed.
They raced down the corridor, the compass in Joe's hand spinned faster. Behind them the shadows grew larger and consumed the light. It swallowed the reflections in the mirror.
The corridor split into three pathways. "Left! Go left now! Maya shouted without hesitation.
They turned sharply, and suddenly the walls changed. They were no longer in a corridor. They were in an empty chamber filled with doors. Hundreds of closed doors. Each one looks identical and stretched into darkness.
The chambers of imagination, Marcus whispered. "We're in the worst zone already.."
"How is that even possible?" Lena gasped. "We just entered!"
"That simply means the maze isn't following rules," Maya said her voice stiff. "It already knows our plans and it's changing."
A door at their right flung open. Joe peeped inside and saw his high school. The same classrooms. The same lockers. He saw Ben and his friends at the end of the hall, grinning and staring at him in mockery.
"Come on Joe," Ben's voice called. Let's end this once and for all."
Joe entered and the door immediately slammed shut.
Immediately, his friends disappeared into the thin air and immediately a giant scorpion apeared.
Joe screamed as the scorpion approached.
No…no…no
Joe! Wake up.
He heard another voice. And flung his eyes open. Maya stared at him, "I told you not to believe anything you see."
Joe shivered, finding it difficult to believe he was alive.
They were still in the corridor.
Another door opened. This time Lena stepped towards it, her face pale. "Mom?" She whispered.
"Lena don't!" Joe grabbed her arm, but she pulled away.
"That's my mother! She's alive!"
"It's a trap!" Maya yelled, but it was late, Lena was already through the doorway.
The doors slammed shut behind her. Joe reached for the handle, but it won't open.
"Lena..Lena" he screamed, hitting the door hard.
No response.
"She's gone," Marcus said coldly. The maze has her now."
"The maze almost had you remember, Joe, you're lucky to survive. if I didn't pull you out fast." Maya said immediately.
"But we can't just leave her!" Joe screamed.
"We don't have a choice," Marcus said pulling him backz we need to survive and if we stay we all die."
The shadows came again, this time faster and it was pouring into the chambers like flood. Doors began to open on their own, revealing nightmares behind each one. Creatures with too many limbs appeared. Rooms filled with screams.
"Run!, Don't look." Maya commanded.
They ran through the chaos, dodging between doors, the compass in Joe's hand now pointed to a specific direction. He followed it closely,others trailed behind him.
They entered into another doorway and tumbled into another corridor. This one was different. The walls were made of bones and dead human skeletons stood on the way with rusty bloodstained knives in their hands. The floor was covered with something thick and red that looked like spilled blood.
"The hall of death," Leo whispered whimpering slowly.
Maya checked her knife. "We're halfway through. If we can reach the shadow abyss, we can find the exit."
"What about Lena?" Joe demanded.
"She already made her choice, she is now a predator, if you come across her don't even try to touch her." Maya said flatly.
"So you mean anyone claimed by the maze becomes a predator?" Joe asked his jaw tightening.
"Yes and she has to kill, to survive the game."
He wouldn't accept that. He couldn't, Maya saved his life in the first game, he had to do so for her too. He must find Maya even If he had to become the predator to do so.
A sound echoed through the hall, slow light footsteps approached them. Everywhere suddenly became darker.
"What is that?" Leo asked, his voice barely a whisper.
The footsteps grew louder, they began to approach the skeletons but another figure was coming behind them.
"We need to walk faster,Maya yelled loudly.
Suddenly the skeletons came to life, and they began to approach them too.
"What the hell, Joe screamed.
"We need to fight them to pass through." Maya said swinging the knife nlinher hand.
"How do we even do that we have no weapons."Joe said trembling slowly.
"Stay behind me," Maya ordered Marcus stepped forward and covered the rest of them.
"I'll take my chances too." He said and tightened his grip on the rope he was holding.
The skeletons approached them and all of a sudden disappeared into the thin air.
Then the footsteps behind them grew louder. Closer.
Then they turned and saw it.
A figure emerged from the shadows. Impossibly tall, with arms dragged on the ground. It head covered in dark mask, and if had no eyes in it's sockets except darkness.
It stopped five feet away from them and then spoke.
"Joe Miller."
The voice was his own.
"I've been waiting for you."
The creature raised one of his long hands and pointed direclyat Joe's chest.
"You belong to the maze now."
Before anyone could even try to move, the floor Beneath Joe cracked open, and he fell into the darkness, his scream was swallowed by the abyss below.
Maya lunged forward but she was too late.
Joe was gone.