Time Crunch

Inside the sixth room, Jayce was already trying to figure out the trick to solve the puzzle. It looked a normal room as far as he could tell. Ahead of him, about 15 meters was a door, to his left and right were two windows that had sunlight streaming through them. The room felt almost homey. As he was about to step forward he was suddenly wrapped in a bear hug. "I'm sorry," Micu mumbled as he grabbed his friend. Jayce tried to move but found himself completely overpowered. "Micu it's okay, I figured losing one member was better than losing two. You don't need to apologize." Jayce awkwardly patted his friends head as he couldn't do much else.

Micu let go of him then straightened his glasses. "I'll be better next time and we won't have to lose anyone." Nodding at Micu Jayce went back and turned the handle of the door. Ahead of them was another door in the same room but it appeared slightly later in the day from the amount of sunlight reflecting through the glass. Micu stepped in front of him and examined the windows. At this time Jenira and Ralnas had finally joined them. "So it's just a bunch of doors?" Ralnas raced past Jayce and Micu and opened the next door. Inside, the room was once again the same size and shape but slightly darker in color from a setting sun. Ralnas kept rushing forward opening door after door. He went through every stage of the day before he ended up behind Jenira. "Did I just go in a circle?" He raced the opposite way he had come. Stepping from a room he was now facing Jayce and Micu. "Definitely a circle. We must have missed a door?"

Micu quickly started opening and closing doors to see if it changed anything. As far as he could tell the only thing that changed was every time he opened a door it became later in the day. Jenira asked Micu to step into the room and then closed the door on him. When she opened it she found him exactly as she had left him. "It definitely got darker when you closed the door. But I didn't notice anything weird."

Ralnas sat down against the wall with his head in his hands. "They definitely gave us the hardest rooms. We only have 40 minutes to go and we've only solved seven rooms!" He pounded his hand against the wall. Jayce was also feeling stressed. His goal had been at least nine rooms and now they were into the most difficult levels with barely 20 minutes to spend on each. He also distinctly remembered seven being the furthest most teams got from watching earlier.

Micu and Jenira were trying all manner of opened doors, closed doors combinations to figure out the puzzle. Jayce watched them as he tried to reason out what the answer could possibly be. Each time they closed the door there was a flash of hope on their faces only to be snuffed out when they opened the door again.

Jayce was feeling hopeless when he suddenly saw a man made out of shadow jumping through the glass. He rubbed his eyes and the shadow again jumped through the glass. The window didn't shatter, nor did his friends seem to notice this shadow. He called over to Ralnas, "Do you see that man?" Ralnas looked up at him then across the room. "Jayce what are you talking about?" Jayce pointed right at the window where he could see as clear as if it were a real human the shadow man jumping through the window. Ralnas looked at the window and then to Jayce then the window again. "Buddy I know you're stressed but there isn't anything there." Ralnas then stood up and went to help Jenira and Micu with the doors.

Jayce was sure he was seeing the shadow jump through the window. "What's the worst that can happen..." He muttered and then ran and jumped through the window. Crashing onto the ground he realized that the room that they had been was indeed a circle with different lights moving up and down on tracks when the doors were opened. He then saw that in the dead center of the area was the door that he figured must be the real one. He turned as he heard Ralnas' voice behind him. "Jayce! Have you lost your mind! Why did you jump... out... oh." His voice trailed off as he noticed the door in front of Jayce. "Hurry guys! Jump through the window on the right side!" Ralnas quickly climbed through the broken window that Jayce had gone through. Followed by two other windows shattering. Jenira gasped and Micu let out a low whistle. "Nice Jayce."

Jayce brushed the glass off his clothes then quickly ran through the door. He was followed close behind by his friends. They stepped into the next room which had no windows and no door. There were only four white walls making a square with two hanging lights from the ceiling. There was a desk and a chair in the right corner. Jayce looked around for a few seconds before sitting down at the chair. "Okay, why is this the only thing in here?" The other three looked around the room with Micu poking and pounding on each wall. Jenira glanced up at the hanging lights. "Well eight rooms solved is still pretty good," Ralnas said while he was looking under the desk, under the chair, and on the desk for any kind of clues. "I mean worst case scenario of course!" Ralnas quickly added. Jayce started leaning back in the chair thinking before he leaned too far back and lost his balance. Crashing to the ground the chair broke in two before dissolving and reappearing in the spot it had started out in.

"Huh?" They all looked at the chair. Micu helped Jayce back to his feet. "I guess this chair must have something to do with solving the puzzle." Micu wondered aloud. Just as he was about to add something Ralnas jumped in the air and brought his foot down on the middle of the table. Breaking in two halves the table collapsed before dissolving and reappearing as the chair had done. "Okay, we need the chair and the desk..." Micu furrowed his brow. Jenira tried moving the chair around the room but it never dissolved or teleported back to its original position. "We can move it but we can't break it." Jayce looked up at the hanging lights again. They swung lazily from the ceiling. He picked up the chair and threw it at the lights. The lights shattered and a rain of glass fell on top of them before both the chair and the lights dissolved and went back to their original positions. 'And we need the lights," Jayce looked at the other three with confusion written on his face.

Ralnas suddenly jumped up. "I've got it!" The other three turned to him with skeptical looks. "Are you trolling us?" Jenira asked him sternly. "No!" Ralnas feigned distress. "I've really got it. Jayce put the chair on the desk." Jayce quickly did so. "Now climb on top of the chair and see if you can reach the lights." Jayce gingerly climbed on top of the chair before finding his balance and stretching upwards. He easily grasped the light and looked to Ralnas. "Good! Now pull yourself up and see if you see anything on the ceiling. Jayce nodded and started pulling himself up. Nervous about the strength of the light he went slowly before cresting over the lights to see behind them. "It's here!" Jayce shouted with excitement. He then climbed the rest of the way before the three on the floor heard an unlatching and saw Jayce's feet disappear behind the light. Ralnas did a little victory dance before quickly pointing to Micu and Jenira to climb up.

Once they were all through the ninth puzzle room appeared before them. It was the maze they had watched those birds attempt before they came into the exam. "Wait they got to do this one for their tenth puzzle, why is it our ninth one!" Ralnas yelled at no one in particular. That feminine voice responded, "Would you like to speak with a judge?" Ralnas quickly turned a paler shade, "No no. That's okay, thank you though!" He shouted up toward the ceiling. He turned back to see his friends snickering at him. "I didn't realize they took complaining so seriously..." He raised his hands in exasperation.

Jayce looked up to the clock, 21 minutes to solve two of the hardest puzzles in the exam and one of them he hadn't seen anyone solve since he had been watching. Just as he felt his hope dim he saw another one of those shadow men he had seen earlier. He quickly dashed after it.

"Jayce! Where are you going?" Jenira called out after him. Micu looked at her and shrugged before taking off after him. The Marrow's swiftly followed after him. Jayce was dashing wildly through the maze. Micu felt for sure that he was simply panicking and trying to solve the maze. Better that we all stick together though so that if one of us finds the exit we can all actually get through the door he thought to himself. Doing his best to keep pace with Jayce he was already beginning to feel lost but Jayce plowed on with no signs of slowing down. "Jayce! Where are we going?" He called out trying to understand his friend's plan. Did he see something during the bird's attempt? Micu's mind was racing as fast as his feet were. He glanced back and saw Jenira and Ralnas doing their best to not let him out of their sight. He turned back to the front and noticed Jayce had actually seemed to speed up the further that they got into the maze. Where the hell are we going Micu wondered again.

The shadow was always turning just before he caught up. Jayce was beginning to feel tired but last time the shadow had told him how to solve the puzzle and he knew he needed the help on this one. Twisting and turning walls zoomed past him. If someone had asked Jayce to get back to the start he was almost positive that he never would be able to do it. He had been so focused on following the shadow he hadn't paid attention to anything that he was doing. Finally, the shadow slowed down and then dissolved right before a lake. Jayce slowed to a halt and looked out across the dark blue water. With the only light coming from torches positioned throughout the maze the water had a deep black color in the center which lent it a sinister vibe. Hearing his three friends steps slowing behind him he turned around to face them, "Any ideas?"

Hearing this Micu about slapped him. "We were following you!" He huffed in between catching his breath. "What do you mean any ideas!" He looked at the lake and was about to continue scolding Jayce before his jaw dropped. Across the lake was the door to the tenth room. He turned to Jayce slowly. "You wanted me to get mad so I'd look like an idiot when you pointed out the door over there didn't you." Micu felt a little bit of shame for falling for one of Jayce's pranks so easily.

Jayce quickly turned and realized that he hadn't even bothered to look across the lake before asking for advice. Sheepishly grinning to himself he turned to Micu, "Gotcha!" He then dove into the water and swam as hard as he could to the other side. When he was getting out of the lake he noticed his clothes weren't wet. He turned to the others and gave thumbs up. Then feeling his clothes again he marveled, "It actually felt like water...." He Waited for his friends and then he helped them up onto the rock the door was located on. All buzzing with excitement they went through the tenth door.

Micu was the last to enter though. He had no idea how Jayce had solved the maze so quickly. Him solving the circular house was easily explainable. He had looked out the window and seen the door. Micu didn't question that for a second. But to solve the maze on the first attempt meant that Jayce definitely had a way of solving it. Micu respected Jayce but his brains weren't the first quality that he would tell people about if they asked about him. Micu was stumped and decided to ask him once they were done with the exam.

Just after they stepped through they heard the feminine voice call out, "competitors you have ten minutes left in the exam."