Phase One: The Maze Test

Speechless. We were completely speechless when it was announced that the new Hellvanian Elite Exams is going to be a three part hellish nightmare that can potentially kill us. We watched helplessly as the teachers, the guards, the principal and that Bane looking man vanished in a blink of an eye. Red lights and wailing sirens surrounded us Hellvanians as we witnessed multiple metallic walls opened, revealing numerous paths that we can use. After that, all hell brakes lose as all of the other Hellvanians ran as fast as they can in hopes to pick a path that was easy and somehow safe. As panic erupted from all over the place, I was lucky to find Theo and the others gathering up in a corner near a withering dead tree. We all huddled up in a circle.

"What do we do now?!" James yelled in order for us to hear him speak. Jessie peeked her head out to look at the openings.

"There are four main big openings with four small ones beside each one." Jessie explained. Theo rolled his eyes in response to Jessie's statement.

"Way to state the obvious." He said sarcastically.

"I was thinking aloud." She replied and then she went silent for a moment, she was murmuring something but all of the chaos was too loud that I couldn't hear her.

"Four openings, with four sub openings. Life. North, South, East, West!" Jessie exclaimed. We all looked at her, confused.

"What do you mean North, South, East, West?" Octavia questioned, her brows were buried on her face as she crumbled her face in confusion.

"Four openings. North, South, East, and West. The sub doors are Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest. It's like a compass guys!" Jessie explained in enthusiasm. We still looked at her confused, what was the point of bringing that up?

"So? Why bring that up Jessie? Come on we're running out of time." Theo demanded, irrigation is visible on his face.

"This may be crucial Theo, knowing Hellvanian Elite Exams, you must know that every detail is crucial." Jessie stated, Theo was taken a back by this comment, he must've realized that Jessie was right. Every clue, detail or hints IS crucial to successfully complete The Hellvanian Elite Exams. I learned that the hard way a few years ago.

"So if it's a compass, then it must have a certain direction. The question is where's the direction do we go and how do we know we're in the right path?" This time it was me that spoke, by now, it seems like we were the last one left at the start point. Everyone probably ran different directions and randomly picked a path.

"Uh, guys, I think you need to see this." James, who was standing near the metallic walls, announced to us. We all jogged towards James. When we arrived, we noticed that the walls has the phrase "Follow your heart" engraved on it.

"Follow your heart? What does that mean?" A confused Theo questioned, I looked at the walls and noticed that the same phrase was copied and pasted on each and every walls.

(Follow YOUR HEART) I was hit by an epiphany. Of course! That's got to be it!

"Follow YOUR HEART! The Hellvanian Elite and Extraordinaires' statue they unveiled at the beginning!" I exclaimed, extremely proud of myself that I solved this little problem.

"Of course! Nice work NO QUIRK" James joked, I glared at him, he promised that he won't use that nickname to me since that's a nickname he constantly used to bully me before. When he saw me glaring at him, he pouted and smiled. (This little motherf-)

"Great, now that we have plan. Let's NOT waste time on silly things, okay James?" Jessie snapped. James looked at her, suprised by her attitude, thankfully Theo intervened.

"I have an idea. Jessie you told me a couple of days ago that you can see everything that the plants see right?" Theo questioned.

"Yeah, why?" Jessie replied.

"I need you to control this leave, I'll launched it up in the air and try and see where's the direction of the statue." Jessie smiled at this idea, she nodded and picked up the green leaf Theo gave to her.

She closed her and eyes and a couple of seconds later she said, "Alright, I'm ready."

Not wasting any more seconds, Theo used the air and launched the tiny leaf up in the air.

"Okay, I see something. Good Lord this maze is freaking huge" Jessie commented, I can see her veins slowly revealing under her skin. It's both disgusting at the same time cool to look at. Theo waved his hand like crazy, somehow struggling to keep the tiny leaf up in the air.

"There I see it! It's—" Jessie was cut off from speaking when the tiny green leaf suddenly combust and went into flames. The sky above us glitches like it was a computer monitor I saw malfunctioning at the computer laboratory.

"What in the world was that?!" Theo said, surprised by the sky glitching and the leaf suddenly burning without any fire present.

"Let's just go! We're wasting precious time!" Jessie said, annoyance was present on her tone.

"Did you see where it was?" James asked.

"Yes, but unfortunately I didn't get to take a good look at it's route." Jessie replied, disappointed at herself for not getting any clue. We all looked around the four openings and it's four sub openings.

"I guess we'll just have to randomly choose a path and hope to lady luck that it's the right one?" I asked at my friends. I noticed that Octavia was still touching the metallic wall.

"Don't worry, I got that covered bHiEs" Octavia proudly announced, she flipped her hair and smiled.

"We will take the southeast one." Octavia said and started to walked towards the southeast opening but Jessie intervene and stopped her mid walking.

"Wait, how did you know that this path is the right one?" Jessie probed.

"Honey, you're not the only one that's gifted in here." She promptly replied and then continued walking towards her destination. We followed her and soon after Jessie started to follow us but before we entered the southeast opening, we stopped and looked at eachother.

"You guys ready?" I said, we all smiled at eachother.

"Let's all protect eachother okay? No one, I mean NO ONE is allowed to die today." Theo stated, we all nodded in response.

Knowing that we have eachother's back, we all confidently entered the southeast opening of the maze. Not knowing the hellish obstacles we're about to face inside this stupid maze.