Chapter 19 - Threads of Survival 2

The chamber door creaked open, revealing a dark passage ahead. The air behind them grew heavy, suffocating and urging them forward.

A recruit, desperate to escape the oppressive presence of the woman and her fox, bolted forward.

A sharp, wet crunch echoed as he was yanked into the darkness mid-step. His strangled cry was cut short, replaced by a sickening slurp.

The mist receded slightly, revealing his desiccated corpse slumping to the floor—skin stretched thin over brittle bones, his veins now hollow husks.

A soft chuff came from Serapha's direction.

Mireth, nestled in her lap, stretched lazily before vanishing into the gloom.

The remaining recruits recoiled, some gagging, others frozen in terror.

Tom's hands clenched into fists. Harry swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing.

A red-haired woman, standing near Alex, exhaled sharply. "What in the world was that?"

"Death," muttered another recruit—a dark-haired girl with sharp, watchful eyes. She took a wary step back. "And it's waiting for us in that maze."

No one corrected her.

Because she was right.

As they emerged, a horrifying realization set in.

It was a maze.

Towering stone walls stretched endlessly in every direction, some pulsing as though alive, others cracked and worn as if they had existed for millennia. The dim glow of spectral torches flickered along certain paths, casting eerie shadows that twisted and danced.

But there was no guiding pattern. The pathways shifted—corridors that seemed open one second would be walled off the next, reshaping the maze like a living entity. The air pulsed with something ancient, something hungry.

A recruit named Liana, a girl with sharp reflexes and an almost unnatural ability to read danger, darted to the front. Her breathing was controlled despite the terror clawing at her chest.

"We can't just run blindly!" she hissed.

Tom gritted his teeth, scanning their surroundings. "Split up and we die faster. We stick together—"

A guttural shriek sliced through the air.

The group turned just in time to see a recruit—a man named Vick—freeze mid-step. His body trembled, eyes widening in raw terror.

A shadow loomed behind him. Not a figure, not a creature—just wrongness.

From the mass of darkness, something extended. Not a limb, not a tentacle, but an absence—a space where reality itself seemed to unravel. It touched Vick's shoulder.

The moment it did, his body withered.

His skin shrank against his bones, his hair turned brittle, and within seconds, he was reduced to a dry husk. His empty eye sockets still held terror as he crumbled into dust.

Screams broke loose as the recruits scattered, some pushing forward, others pressing against the walls in sheer panic.

Alex clenched his fists. Damn it.

But then—

A soft hum.

They all turned.

Mireth.

The fox had leapt from a wall afar, its silver fur shimmering under the ghostly light. It sat on a jagged stone, watching them with eerie amusement.

Then, it moved.

Effortlessly, without sound.

A second recruit, a girl named Sarah, gasped as her limbs locked in place. Her breath hitched, her pupils dilating as Mireth's gaze settled on her.

She didn't even scream.

Her body convulsed violently, and then—collapse. The essence drained from her in an instant, leaving nothing but another dried corpse.

Mireth licked its paw, satisfied.

"Move!" Tom roared, snapping them out of their trance.

They ran.

And then... The laughter began.

Faint chuckles, distorted and overlapping, echoed through the labyrinth.

The red-haired recruit, who had introduced herself as Elaine, whispered under her breath, "This place is wrong."

The other female recruit, Mira, exhaled slowly. "We should've never come here."

The laughter grew louder.

Something stirred in the mist.

A shape detached from the fog.

It was tall, humanoid—yet impossibly thin, its limbs elongated like stretched shadows. Its head twitched unnaturally, and its grin…

Too wide.

Too hungry.

The thing lunged.

Elaine shoved a recruit aside and barely rolled away in time. The creature's claws scraped across the ground, leaving deep, smoking gouges in the stone.

Tom roared, swinging his blade in a desperate arc. It passed through the mist-like body, but the creature barely reacted.

Harry pulled a small energy pistol from his belt and fired. A bright flash illuminated the maze for a split second.

The creature screeched as the shot burned through its form.

But it wasn't dead.

Instead, it turned to Harry, its grin stretching further, jagged teeth gleaming like shattered glass.

Then, it lunged again.

A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air.

Not from Harry.

From another recruit who had strayed too far.

The shadowy entity's arm speared through his chest, lifting him effortlessly. His body convulsed, eyes rolling back as his skin turned to ash.

His husk crumbled to the ground, dissolving into nothing.

The shadow stretched out it's hands again to grab at another person.

Tom swung his weapon, severing one of its limbs, but another immediately took its place.

"We can't keep this up!" Harry shouted, shoving a smaller creature away.

Alex gritted his teeth. They needed to find a pattern—an opening, a weakness—something.

The maze twisted and warped. Some corridors led to dead ends, others looped back to places they had already been.

And the horrors didn't stop.

From the cracks in the walls, pale, elongated hands slithered out, grasping at anything they could reach. A recruit named Damian barely dodged one, but another hand clamped around his leg. He screamed as his flesh blackened where it touched, his leg crumbling before he could even be pulled away.

More screams. More death.

Alex kept moving, forcing himself not to look back. He could hear Tom and Harry running just behind him, breaths ragged but determined. Liana was still alive too, her sharp eyes darting between paths as she tried to map out the maze's patterns.

They turned a corner, and suddenly, everything went silent.

The screams. The sounds of pursuit. Gone.

No walls. No corridors.

The recruits stumbled, blinking in confusion. They were back in the chamber where it had all begun.

And she was waiting.

Behind them, where the entrance had been, was now only a wall of smooth stone, as if the maze had never existed.

Serapha stood before them, her expression unreadable, her fingers lazily stroking Mireth, who purred with eerie contentment. The fox's crimson eyes lingered on the surviving recruits, as though memorizing their faces.

"You ran well," Serapha murmured, her voice lilting with amusement. "But a race is only the beginning. This Big Sister would still love for you to play more with me."

She took a step forward, and though she moved with grace, an undeniable pressure filled the air.

"One day, much farther down the road... we'll play again."

Her gaze flickered over the group, but when her eyes met Alex's, something changed. Amusement faded, replaced by a strange, knowing intrigue. Her lips curved slightly—not a smirk, not a taunt, but something deeper.

"A thread of fate was spun tonight."

She reached out, lightly brushing a strand of his hair before pulling back with a smirk. "We'll see if it unravels when the real game begins."

Alex swallowed hard seeing her so close to him. Her captivating yet dangerous scent wafted over as he felt his blood boil. The urge to protect her arose within him. He dug his nails into his palms to keep him sensible.

Is this still how weak I am compared to all these people?

Toying with us like we are just sports to entertain them?

The woman, oblivious to Alex's thought returned to her seat.

With a snap of her fingers, the chamber collapsed into darkness.

When the recruits opened their eyes again, they were outside. The forest stretched before them, eerily still. The chamber, the maze, Serapha—everything was gone.

But the memory of her smile lingered.

And deep down, Alex knew.

This wasn't the last time they would meet.

Not by a long shot.

Maybe by luck or coincidence, they found themselves before the blue mist they had encounter when they first entered the blurred zone on the map. The mist seemed to split apart creating a clear pathway for them.

Some hesitated suspecting it was a trap.

"I'd rather take this chance than wait here to die after surviving." One of the survivors said as he moved over to the cleared pathway. The others seeing nothing happened to him followed him. They had all gone a distance when they noticed someone didn't go with them.

"Alex. What are you waiting for?" Tom said as he gave him a skeptical look."

Does this guy have some screws loose? After going through all that ordeal, who on their right minds will prefer not to escape at the first sign of hope.

He gave up when he saw Alex ignored him. Some tried calling out to him but it was all futile. They had to give up since they were all mentally and physically drained.

Alex watched as they all got farther away till he couldn't see them again. He waited a few seconds as he calmed his emotions.

"Why did you let us leave?" He said as he appeared to be speaking to no one in particular.

A short soothing laughter sounded. Alex felt his emotions stabilized.

Serapha appeared before him with the fox still in her arms. Her look towards him was like that of a predator.

"Is that really your question? I'll answer you then. You have the mark of Lady Aurora on you. It's a good thing to let your prey grow to make the game more interesting."

Alex nodded. He looked really calm like all his previous fears were just an act.

"I see. It's all a game to you powerful figures."

The lady rubbed the fox as it purred softly.

"True. But you are similar— choosing to let them die. How sweet little brother."

Alex shivered when she called him that.

"It's a bye for now little brother. Big Sister would love to play again."

Alex felt the world around him shift as he found himself on another side of the map, few kilometers from the blurred part.

He checked his device and saw that connection had been restored.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he checked to see his whole accumulated points and saw that he didn't lose any.

"It's almost time for evacuation." He muttered as he gazed at the sky.