The both of them sit down in the darkness, they can barely see anything except for some light coming from the corridor, they stay silent for quite a long time before Kayla decides to speak,

“I.. have never thought that things would become like this”, she paused for a long moment before continuing, “Do you think we could do it? Getting out of here”

“I have seriously thought about it, the reason why that person is dead is not because of an accident, it is because he has broken the rules— Do you still remember what Liam said before, not to injure each other? That means if you try to kill another person, that person will be the one to get the retribution, so the things that happened to him, it is all their own fault”, he said, but he suddenly became unsure, “Well.. that is assuming that they didn't want our death, that is the only logical explanation”

Kayla suddenly realized something and couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, “Now I finally could see how small we are in this world. I have heard of wealthy people using other people's lives for entertainment, they like to see how other people struggle to keep on living. I have never really thought about it up until now, who knows that there are really indeed people out there who use human life as a plaything, and even I, myself, personally experience it— And right this moment, they are probably watching us from somewhere, watching our every moved, thinking how funny and ridiculous we are”

Aaron didn't know what to say either, this was also the first time he was being played like this by someone. “Let’s hope for the best, I don't think we will be so easily killed, since we got the brain, isn't it?”, he was trying to ease the tension, and Kayla knew about it, so she let out a small chuckle, “Yeah, I don't believe they would dare to kill all of us, our parents wouldn't just stay still, at the very least I hope that they will give me justice if I really died”

“You won't, all of us won't lose our lives here”, Aaron said seriously, Kayla nodded her head. ‘They didn't say that they would give us any punishment if we failed to find the keys, but since they told us to find it, there must be some use for it— When we find all of the keys, we will finally be able to get out, just hopes that other people would be willing to cooperate’

Kayla didn't know when she had fallen asleep, because the moment she opened her eyes, it was already six in the morning, her phone battery was already very low and was about to give out anytime soon. She looks around and found that the one guarding now is Diane, she is playing with her necklace, a black gothic cross necklace dangling from her neck, Kayla has never noticed it before, but looking at it now, it looks kind of scary, but when Diane wear it, it looks very suitable for her.

“Have you felt better?”, Diane suddenly asked, Kayla didn't quite understand what she was asking about since she was not feeling unwell, she was just feeling a bit sleepy and it got better after some sleep, so Diane continued to explain her words, “You are much softer than I think, that is what I mean”

Kayla sneer, “Shouldn't you be saying that to Clara? She has been crying since we got trapped in here”

Diane also smiles at her words, “She is indeed crying like a baby, but she is an empty-headed person, I think she will soon forget about it after being given some sugar-coated dessert”.

Kayla didn't know whether she should laugh or cry, because from her understanding, every person will slowly forget their distressing experience with the passage of time. After they have encountered the good things in life, they will slowly recuperate, nobody wants to keep on putting their head inside the dark water. So it is very normal for Clara and even herself to start to forget about these things once they can safely get out of there.

“We have been trapped here without any chance to flip the situation, yet you still have the time to worry about someone else, I really respect you”, Diane is talking about the words Kayla said last night, it is not that she is really worried about them, since she doesn't really know who they were, but she just thought that if she could figure out what happened to them, maybe she will be able to know what to do.

“Wouldn’t it be better to know what happened to them, since if we didn't succeed, maybe their fate is our fate tomorrow”, Kayla reasoned, Diane snorted, “It would be much more comfortable if they just immediately killed us. The worse? Being trafficked and played with, wouldn't that be more painful”

Kayla is rendered speechless, she had never thought that she would be able to say something harsh like that, Diane let out a snort when she sees her expression, “I already told you, this world is very dark, don't put your hopes too much on this world”

Kayla's brows furrowed and looked at Diane suspiciously, “You.. seem to be used to this kind of situation relatively well”, she said and Diane twitched.

Kayla, “Do you.. Encounter this situation very often?”

Diane was nervous at first, her breath stifled, but when she heard the later words, she finally let out the breath she had been holding, the more Kayla saw her gestures, the more she felt that Diane was hiding something, and that made her feel uncomfortable, yet she didn't have the guts to directly asked her, since it could be something personal and difficult to say to other.

The both of them didn't talk anymore, and the atmosphere between the both of them also became awkward, after sitting for another hour, they were all awakened by a sound coming from above them, a tray was being lowered from above, Aaron and Jeremy quickly step forward while holding the pipes in their hand, ready to fight with whatever is moving toward them. When the tray is low enough for them to see what the content is, they are surprised to see that it is food, five sandwich and five bottles of mineral water.

“Hah! They indeed are surveilling us”, Aaron spitefully said, Jeremy quickly took all of the food and the tray slowly went back up again as if it knew that they had taken the things in it. The meals could be considered edible, but for people like Aaron and Jeremy who are built larger and already exhausted themself in the fight, how could it be enough for them.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Well, at least they are treating us like a human”, Diane sarcastically said, Jeremy looked sadly at the sandwich he was holding, his pout grew bigger and he seemed like he was going to cry at any moment. Kayla who sees it silently gives him half of her sandwich, Jeremy's eyes glow in excitement, but he turns to look at her worriedly, “If I take it, how about you? You would be hungry”

“If I am hungry, I still have water to quell the hunger, you don't need to worry”, Kayla reassured him, Jeremy seems hesitant, but he still took it, Diane smiled looking at them, “Since you have taken her food, you need to take care of her properly, or I will call you someone ungrateful”

Jeremy scoffed, “That is without saying!”, the atmosphere suddenly has become lighter with their jokes. After they are done eating, there is still one thing they need to solve, and that is lighting, Kayla's phone had run out of battery before they started eating, the only phone that has battery now are Aaron and Clara, but the both of them also almost run out of the battery. So in order to save some battery, they have to sit down in the darkness,

“What should we do? Once the phone is death, we will be completely blind!”

“Could this wine be used to make flame?”, Jeremy asked, which ended up getting a slap on the head from Diane, “Are you stupid? Even though it is a type of alcohol, wine is not flammable”

Jermey only pouts, “I was just saying”

“Sitting here for a long time is not a solution, should we go elsewhere?”, Aaron suggested, but Kayla immediately show her disapproval, “How about we search for the key in here first then go?”

They all agreed and started to splitting in groups, Aaron and Clara in one group, Kayla, Diane, and Jeremy forming another group, they spread around the room in the hope to quickly finding the keys as soon as possible, but because of the darkness, they couldn't see anything clearly and have to drain their eyes, resulting their eyes and head hurting and in discomfort.

“This really is not the solution, how about we search for a light first?”, Jeremy sulked, he keeps on rubbing his eyes out of discomfort, Kayla also started to regret her decisions, but if they went somewhere else and couldn't find any source of lights, then by that time they will be completely swallowed by darkness since Aaron and Clara phone won't hold out until then. It is better to start searching at somewhere they have already examined before compared to somewhere unfamiliar. At the very least, if they are lucky, they could still find a key, and after that, they could discuss carefully where they wanted to go.

A loud scream of excitement could be heard on Clara's side, it seemed that they had found the keys. Kayla, Diane, and Jeremy carefully slide to their side, the key is located inside the bottle of wine, this bottle is much bigger compared to the other, and that is probably why it also catches the most attention.

“Great job Clara”, Jeremy smiled like an idiot, he finally didn't have to search for it anymore. Aaron smashes the bottle to the floor, making the glasses break into pieces, revealing the box inside, he opens it and finds the key inside. Somehow the mood has lightened up a bit after finding this key, at least they still have some hope. Aaron gave the boxes to Kayla to keep, and the moment she touched them, she could feel that something was wrong, “The pattern is different”,

They all look at her confused, “The box pattern is different from the previous one”, Kayla explained, Aaron took the box back and fondled it around, he was kind of amazed that Kayla could know it with just one touch. Kayla took out the box she had been keeping before and Aaron turned on his phone flashlights to see that the pattern was indeed different, Jeremy also felt astonished, “How did you know it?”

“I am the one who has been holding onto it, so I know”, Kayla said. The color of the box is the same, but the pattern above is slightly different, now carefully looking at it, it is indeed a number, but there are something aside from that, it is an arrow, this made Kayla even more confused, ‘Shouldn’t it be the end after we found the key, what is with these arrows again?’

Kayla looks up at them with worried eyes, Aaron also has seen the things she has noticed and also frowns, “Should we try to follow these arrows?”

“What? Follow what arrows?”, Clara asked surprised, Diane turned to look at her, looking at her as if she was stupid, Clara saw that and turned her head away from her, pretending not to see anything. Diane only snorted, and turned to Kayla, “We could try to follow it, it could lead to something, much better than not knowing anything”

Kayla also nodded her head in agreement, and that is how they headed off to follow the guidance they just found. Being in the dark has never been pleasant, they had to fondle around and stay close to the walls as they walked. ‘How huge is exactly this place, don’t tell me that the whole mountain is built for this. Or could this be an abandoned underground place used for hiding in war times and they renovated it to become like this?’

Their walk was slow because they are being careful, but the process would only be seen if you kept on walking forward. Soon they finally arrived at the final turn of the corner, but there was nothing except an empty alleyway, leaving them in a dazed, “What is this? There is nothing here”, Jeremy scowled.

“Since it told us to come here, then there must be something in here”, Diane said, indicating that they should start searching for it. So they began searching their surroundings, every corner and cranny, but still found nothing. Kayla started to doubt herself and stood there in a dazed, ‘What could it possibly mean? Or could it be that it means nothing and we just overthinking it?— Think Kayla! What could a box holding a key be possibly trying to tell us’

A footstep suddenly came from the farthest corner in front of them, and all of them became silent and froze on the spot, Clara immediately searched for Kayla and hid behind her, “Who.. who is that, they won’t come to find us right?”, Clara cries out, her whole body trembling. Kayla shook her head slightly, she was also unsure about who would be popping out, and her heart was also thumping loudly. They all didn't talk about it, but all of them were still traumatic by the incident last night. Well, except for Diane who is looking fiercely at where the sound was coming from.

“Don't be nervous, I could be another group of people. Wouldn't it be great? We could probably have a nice talk?”, Jeremy whispered, nobody wanted to pay attention to him right now, all of their eyes were fixed to that source of footsteps. When the shadow approaches and finally reveals the person himself, they are all stunned, it is only one person and he is holding a candle in his hand.

The candle slightly flickering and lit up some part of his face, highlighting all of his features, especially his glowing green-yellowish eyes and sharp nose, Kayla immediately recognized who he was,

“Steven?”

They were just running blindly to one of the alleys because they panicked, did they accidentally run into the same route as Steven, or did the subconscious mind do it, since they all had seen which path he had gone before?

“What are you all searching for?”, Steven asked lazily, all of them were frozen to their feet, nobody wanted to say anything, they were contemplating whether to disclose it to him or not, Kayla hesitated a moment but decided to tell him the truth, “We have found the keys and there are some.. things that we found on the box, so we came to take a look”

Steven looks at her with his cold gaze, without saying anything he searches for a certain place, as if he knows that there is something there, “Here, you can insert the keys here”, he suddenly said, his hands still touching the walls, under the dim light, Kayla could see that there is indeed a keyhole there, she slowly approached him and take a good look at it,

“What would happen if we inserted the key?”, Kayla asked carefully.

Steven looks at him as if he is a little surprised as if he didn't expect Kayla would ask him such a thing, which makes Kayla a little confused by his reaction, “You exchanged it with a coin, after that, you find a place where you could exchange it for supplies”

All of them fell into silence, they had never thought that there was something like this, ‘Are they trying to play with us?!’

TO BE CONTINUED…