15. Scavenger hunt
Fera was on her left, Kein on her right, all three were running in that bright corridor they had come across, along with all the others.
After a few seconds, the group came to a crossroads.
There were four dark streets, no signs and no signs.
«Cya.» Ross's team took the first right, followed shortly after by Aldien's team who went to the next tunnel.
Dia and Sky gave her an encouraging look.
Name looked at Fera.
«Here we go.» it was Kein who answered.
They entered the third tunnel.
For a couple of meters, they ran in the dark.
Then some torches began to glow themselves, with a yellowish fire.
Quick, run!
Both Fera and Kein were behind her, but Name kept running forward.
«Stop!» Fera grabbed her by the arm, just before Name could plunge down an immense and deep ravine.
«Thanks.» she whispered, looking out.
«Welcome, welcome!» from the black ditch, a huge figure quickly emerged, twice the size of them, looking like a man, quite large and with a top hat. His eyes were star-shaped and one yellow, one pink.
He had a funny scarf of the same colors.
«You are the lucky ones who have come to my great, great game!» he laughed alone for several seconds, immediately after all he lit up with reflective lights.
On either side, people cheered.
In front of them, there was another golden door.
Name had closed her eyes and found herself, like the other two, suspended in a cube above the endless ravine. Her cube was yellow.
She was frightened when she saw in front of her a girl identical to her, on a pink cube. It was the same as her! It didn't move though.
She soon realized that she had three other doubles and the same thing had happened to Fera and Kein, they had their clones immobile, they were too far away to hear.
The cubes were alternating yellow and pink, the last one was white.
«Now I'll explain the rules, players!» with a laugh the man disappeared.
What magic is it?
«Look at the table!» the man had reappeared in front of her.
«In turn, you will roll a dice which, depending on the color in which it falls, will decide if you're going to fall or not! If the same color comes out three times, you will be saved. Twice and you'll have to face my little friends! Once and you will fall into the endless pit! Each of you has four lives! Be careful which square you are on!»
He laughed for a long time, his teeth were yellow.
«Now, choose the color that will lead you to victory, go ahead Charles, Rob, Anthony!» a man of normal size fell from the ceiling in front of Name, he looked the same as the presenter, but ... he was made of metal.
One had also appeared in front of Fera and Kein.
«Choose ... c-c-color.» his voice was metallic.
Two faces of a dice appeared in his chest, one yellow and one pink.
Name looked briefly at Fera, the furthest away from her, she seemed to shout something at her, but Name didn't hear her.
She clicked on the yellow color.
The machine disappeared back into the dark ceiling and a screen as big as her materialized in front of her, with the color yellow and the number zero.
Kein and Fera had both chosen pink.
The last cube of Name, the white one, painted yellow, as did those of the others, but in pink.
«Perfect! Before playing, know that for each color that comes out, you will have to eliminate a square of the same color! Plus ... you only have four shots. And now, play!»
A huge dice, the size of her head, appeared before her. Two faces, two colors.
The audience cheered, now that she looked at them, they all had her face, Fera's and Kein's.
It was disturbing.
Fera was the first to throw her dice, it fell upward.
It rolled onto an invisible ceiling and stopped on the yellow color.
She saw Fera click on her screen and the pink square farthest from her fell.
The next turn was Kein's turn. The dice fell on the pink side. He was lucky. He deleted a box.
What is the purpose of this game?
You didn't need the powers or even the head. Was it really just a game of luck?
Name, took her dice, gulping, and threw it into the air.
It landed on the ceiling slowly, rolling several times.
Eventually, it stopped on pink.
No!
Name lost a heartbeat, she was pretty sure that if she fell, she would never see the surface again.
The screen asked her which pink box to delete.
She chose the first one in front of her. Her clone, fell with it.
What is the significance of the clones? I haven't felt anything.
As she formulated that thought, the dice reappeared in front of her.
«Second shift!»
The audience cheered louder, but it was different, now the audience only had her face, not even Fera and Kein's.
Fera shot again first, but came out yellow this time. She cleared a box too.
She had run out of yellow boxes.
Kein was lucky, again, it came out pink. Only one square was missing!
Now it was Name's turn again.
She took the dice and threw it in the air.
Yellow, please yellow.
Yellow!
Pink came out.
Name removed the last pink box she had.
If I ends the pink boxes and the next turn I have no yellow ... what will happen to Fera and me?
«Third shift!»
Something was wrong.
The voice of the big announcer was everywhere, but he was gone.
Not only.
Now she saw her face everywhere.
Fera, Kein, their clones. They all had her face, her body, her leaves.
«Fera! Kein!» she yelled as loud as she could, but they didn't turn around.
What was really going on?
Fera pulled, or so did that face that she saw identical to her.
It came out yellow, again.
No!
«You lost! Hahahah.» They all laughed.
All the Names present. In the audience, the clones, Kein, Fera. Everyone laughed.
«No, that's enough ...» she whispered.
All of Fera's boxes turned gray and she, the only one who returned with her face, fell down.
«Fera!» she shouted looking out.
«FERA!» she yelled even louder.
She was crying, she hadn't even noticed.
«This was not in the rules! Bring her back!» she shouted at the ceiling.
She hated this game. She didn't understand what it was for, she didn't understand anything.
They all had her face, she hated it.
Why didn't Kein react?
Name looked for him, she couldn't remember which square he was on. The color of his boxes had changed.
«She's dead! Come on come on! Come on! Come on!» all the Kein, with Name's face, rolled a dice each.
The dice, however, was now only one color.
Red.
Red.
Red.
Everything was red.
The boxes, the audience, the clones, the blood.
And her clones laughed.
They laughed and cried.
«Make it stop! Please!» Name covered her ears.
Blood was leaking from the walls.
The board was covered with it.
She couldn't take it anymore.
Her red dice threw himself, rolling on the red.
Then it multiplied, into three more dice.
She saw yellow.
Then pink.
Then red.
Fera and Kein were gone.
At some point, there was nothing left.
Ah, I'm falling.
She couldn't think of anything else.
She kept falling, until she hit the bottom.
Oddly, nothing hurt her.
She rose to her knees, then saw what she had landed on.
Mannequins, of all.
There was the face of Fera, that of Kein, Sky, Dia, Aldien, Estelle, Leo, Mr. Xulio, everyone.
There was also her face.
It seemed to her that she had returned to her dream in front of the bowl without reflection.
She couldn't move.
It was all dark.
«Name.» Her mannequin, like her, spoke.
«Name.» she ignored him.
What did it want from her?
She was just too tired, as if the whole world had disappeared along with her mind.
She was sinking, even more, it was all dark. All dark.
Her hands, she couldn't even feel them anymore, they were immersed in the mannequins.
Many hands were clinging to hers.
«Name.»
Don't talk to me, go away.
It had the same voice as her.
No, it was a little different.
She recognized it, a little.
«Name. It's a dream.»
Dream?
«It's a dream. Run. Run!» she opened her eyes for the first time.
Dream.
Dream!
In the mannequins in which she was drowning, there was not only an infinite darkness, but something shone with gold.
It was a doorknob.
«Run!» she knew that!
She had to get out of that place now!
Without hands, Name grasped the doorknob with her teeth.
The doorknob began to glow.
«Run away from that person!»
Someone grabbed her face.
Who?
She began to fall asleep, or perhaps she was fainting.
Who...
Name closed her eyes, the knob had illuminated everything, it was too bright.
Then, it all ended.
-
«We... we took a knob!» she woke up with the content voice of Fera.
She didn't even look where she was, as soon as her breath returned, she hugged Fera tightly.
She had never missed her so much.
That dream ... it had been terrible. It had been a real nightmare.
She was trembling, but the warm embrace she received from Fera calmed her immediately.
«They all had my face ... that game ... the red ... you fell ...» she continued to murmur disjointed words, in fact they didn't make much sense.
«Everything is alright. You got out.» finally, she allowed herself to open her eyes, full of tears.
They were still inside, along the great high corridor, but there was no ditch.
They were standing in front of the huge golden door.
«It was a big mess, mine.» Kein was sitting with his back against the opposite wall.
He was sweating and breathing heavily.
His?
«What happened?» Name asked, her throat was dry.
It had all been a dream, yet she felt like she'd been screaming for hours.
«It was ... a test.» Kein stood up, he seemed to be better.
«To get a doorknob we all had to pass it. We did it quickly, the two of us, it took you almost an hour.» Kein watched the time on his Pass.
One hour?
It seems like ten minutes have passed ...
«Was it ... a real dream?» she asked, Fera got up too, Name followed her.
«Yes, it's different for everyone, of course. Most people don't wake up by themselves, and fail, but we ...»
All three walked in front of the door, in a small elevated segment was the golden knob.
«We made it.» Kein grabbed the knob.
Name hadn't actually woken up by herself.
She had been awakened and now she recognized that woman's voice.
It was the one of her dreams, but without the bells.
It was different, more desperate and more frightened, but it had awakened her.
And not only.
She had warned her to escape.
From a person, not from that dream.
«Huh, they call it the Forthcoming.»
«Why?» Fera asked.
«No idea, we have to insert it here, but…» Kein looked at something on the knob.
«We have to decide whether to go back with just one knob, or risk losing it for two. How much time do we have before the Median?»
Fera answered immediately.
«We still have about three hours.» Fera continued.
«We have to risk, they will all be ahead already.»
Kein didn't listen to her, but inserted the knob into a spherical hole in the door.
«Let's take a risk.» the door began to open slowly.
«Yep, that's what I said.» Fera replied.
Name simply followed them. The door opened onto an illuminated path of earth.
She was still reeling from that dream.
She had to talk about those dreams with someone, both those at the beginning and the latter. She had to know who that woman was and, above all, from whom she was to escape.
But now was not the right time to despair.
She walked with her eyes closed, holding on to Fera's shirt so as not to lose it.
From dark to light.
Name would have settled for a color in the middle.
She was still scared, but she went on anyway.
«You can open your eyes.» at the words of Fera, she opened them.
They found themselves in a kind of park, full of fountains, flowers of every color, multicolored butterflies and a bright sky.
«From hell to heaven.» Kein commented.
That said, an arrow nearly hit her in the face.
«I'm taking back what I just said.» Kein slipped off his ring, turning his bow.
Fera lowered Name's head after hers, a barrage of arrows passed them.
Now that she noticed them, they were arrows made of water.
«Uh-oh»
Fera, too, took out her book.
Name felt compelled to do something and her gaze immediately fell on his bracelet.
I have to ... I have to do something!
«Open.» she whispered, remembering Kein's advice.
«Open up!»she implored, but nothing happened.
«Come out!» Name recognized Ross's voice.
She was a little happy to hear that other people were fine, but at the moment, they were attacking them.
Kein was the first to come out, hands raised.
«We surrender.» he looked at the two girls.
He has a plan.
Even Name could understand it.
They both came out with their hands up.
«Do you want to steal the knob? We failed the first test, so we're at zero.» Kein was perfectly calm.
«We'll see.»
«Hey, hey, I can't escape anywhere, we're surrounded by a maze, aren't we?»
Ross lunged at Kein, followed by Hayden.
Kein, however, ran towards them, without running away.
But he was not running in their direction, but a little to the left ... towards a bush.
Ross touched the stone floor beneath him, Hayden already gathering the air around him in his palm.
Kein, however, sprinted straight into the bush.
The bush opened in front of him, leaves and branches made room for him and as soon as he passed, they began to shrink.
«Cya.» Kein grinned.
«Wha-»
Ross had time to throw a stone, with his magic, into the hole in the bush, which could not close.
Without further words, he reopened the life-size hole, one stone after another.
He and Hayden hurried through it, having removed the stones.
«Lynn, you deal with this here!»
The girl recovered in an instant and turned to face Fera and Name.
The three boys were gone.
Was Kein's plan... just to abandon us?!
Name was upsetted by that, not as much as Fera though.
«It's difficult to be in a team with two guys.» Lynn said sour.
«Don't tell us, we have one and it's crazy.» they both looked ferocious in Name's eyes.
But ... I have to ...
Lynn quickly gathered the water that ran into the fountain behind her.
I must...
«It'll be easy.» smiled.
Fera was already reciting a spell.
«Go!» more water, in the form of arrows, came towards them.
Fera wasn't done yet.
There were hundreds of arrows.
They wouldn't have made it.
I have ... I have to fight!
Name threw herself in front of Fera, hands outstretched.
«Open up!» she prayed again.
This time, it worked.
The bracelet seemed to dissolve in liquid, but she felt nothing different.
It climbed into her palm and turned solid, once the liquid took the shape of a scepter.
Name no longer had to ask for protection. She had to protect.
From nowhere appeared a white sphere at the curve of the scepter.
That white light was familiar.
She held the scepter firmly and thought as hard as she could about a shield.
She aimed for the arrows, forward, as Estelle had done.
No shield appeared, but at least, the arrows in front of the scepter fell to the ground, like normal water.
She managed to protect Fera, who was gaping.
Lynn, too, looked startled.
She hadn't even reasoned, she just let her magic flow in front of her.
Thanks to the scepter, it had been much, much easier than with the hands.
Despite this, she was short of breath.
With shaking, wet legs, she looked at Lynn fiercely.
She didn't know where that grit came from.
«Fight me!»