Chapter 27

Red Light Green Light IV

Jasper was sliding down the tunnel that everyone had dived in to go after Sophia. What he didn’t expect at all was that the tunnels to start to divide into different routes. When he was about to follow behind Silver, she suddenly veered to the right and seconds later the path disappeared, forcing him to go left.

It didn’t take long before Jasper was spit out from the long passageway and thrown out into a small packed room with large enchanting red crystals that he had never seen before. Getting up from the ground, he felt a presence. Quickly looking around, he noticed that he wasn’t completely alone. He saw inside each crystals were skeletal remains that he had wondered how they even got in there.

“Where am I?” Jasper started to walk around the room filled with large red crystals that towered over his body. Until, he finally came upon multiple passageways that he could choose from. In total they were two paths. Overhead each passageway a circular lights that reminded him of a traffic light were embedded into the walls. One of them were green and the other red.

He couldn’t help wonder what those light have to do with anything in the tunnel. Each one started to change in different intervals from green to red. Jasper watched for a moment, seeing if he could find any clues, but so far he wasn’t able to figure out what purpose they were for.

Pulling out his dagger, he started to etch signs into the wall to make sure he wasn’t going around in circles. For every pathway that he choose, he tallied the wall with his knife. He then stood back and watched the lights change.

He choose the one that changed into red. The moment he entered, a burst of fire erupted from the wall, blocking his path. He stumbled backwards with his hands held up in front of him. He was startled from the sudden trap that sprung forth, but luckily for him he was not too near it to be caught up in its flames. The passageway through the red light was a lot more dangerous than he had suspected, making him believe that he had made the wrong choice.

It didn’t take too long before more flame throwers were activated along the walls out before him, turning on and off in intervals.

“Did I choose wrong?” Jasper waited to run past the flame throwers, and when it turned off, he bolted.

He was glad that they were no other traps present in the hallway and he eventually came out into a similar room from before. This time he was in front of one.

“I think I’ll stay with the one when it turns green.” Jasper walked over and entered the passageway when the lights turned green. The distance between the next room was shorter than the red, but when he came back out he was back in the room with two different passageway again, confusing him. For a moment, he thought he was back to the previous two rooms, but he didn’t find any marking on the walls that he had made.

“I guess I’ll go with left.” Jasper started to walk towards the passage that turned green, and he walked for a few minute, ending up in another similar room this time with three different pathways.

With steady steps, he examined each entrance way wondering if it would give him any clues. He ran his fingers on the cold granite wall, feeling anything that would catch his attention. Bending over to see if they were any tracks that could give him a hint of what was going on, so far he wasn’t able to find any fresh tracks on the ground.

Jasper was getting a bit annoyed, but he continued and this time choose the one in the middle when it turned green. He then came upon another similar room, but this time with four different exits. Each light would filter between red and green, switching over in different intervals.

As he continued to enter through the green lights, the number of passageway increased by one. He was finally in a room that had over ten different passageways that he had to choose from. Honestly, he didn’t know if what he was choosing was even the right in the first place anymore. The number of choices was increasing too much that he was getting worried.

“Hey!” A female’s voice called out from behind him.

Jasper turned around with his fist in the air ready to fight. Coming out from one of the passageway was Brianna. Her smile radiantly shine when she saw someone she has recognized. She ran up to him with excitement.

“I never thought I would see you here. What are the chances, right?” Brianna clasped his hands excited that she wasn’t alone.

“Brianna?”

“Your Jasper right? Where your sister that I always see you with?” She glanced around, trying to find Silver.

“We got separated and she’s not my sister.”

“Really? I thought you were. Nevermind, I got separated too.” She was pouting in frustration. “I thought I finally found a way out by following the green light, but it seems I was completely wrong. The exit just keeps going up by one.”

“You too?” Jasper was surprised to hear the same thing that he had thought about. She had confirmed his theory that entering a green lighted passageway would increase their choices by one, causing them into a predicament where they were now more than one choices to choose from. He thought he was going crazy at first, but now he knew he wasn’t.

“This is getting old fast” Brianna sighed.

Jasper walked over towards one of the passageways, taking a good look at the changing lights.

“I think I might have a way out of this place..”

“Really?” Brianna was asking excitedly. She danced around him in hype. “I would so love to get out of this hell forsaken maze. I feel like I’m just going in circles.”

“Though I have to wonder, how did you guys even end up in here anyways?”

“Well,” Brianna casted her head down a bit embarrassed. “We saw you guys running this way from on top of the building. We followed after and slipped through the hole.”

“I see.” Jasper was thinking it over. He was quite surprised that the two was still alive, he had a hunch that they would do alright, while Amy’s family was a different problem. They were dragged into this place, because of the zombie dog that took Sophia away.

“We should try some more of these passageways when it turns green. I mean how about we split up?”

“I’m not so sure that is a good idea.”

“Then your suggestion?”

“We go through when it turns red.”

“You serious? There traps in there.” Brianna was not to thrilled with the prospect of going towards danger than staying safe.

“No, we should. If I’m right than we will get out of this maze.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Just trust me this once.”

Brianna shrugged not really caring if she should or not. “Alright, I’ll see what you got before I make my decision.”

“You won’t regret it.” Jasper walked over towards one of the passageway and waited to enter when the light turned red. Brianna stood next to him and waited patiently.

It didn’t take long for the light to change, and they both took a step into the passageway. Not even a minute went by before the flame thrower trap were activated.

“You serious?!” Brianna jumped back, her clothes were burning. She wildly flailed around trying to get the fire off her clothes. She dropped down onto the ground and started to roll, finally putting the fire out.

“You okay?” Jasper reached out his hand to help her up.

“Yea. I thought I was going to burn to death.” Brianna took his hands and pulled himself up. “I really dislike going through the red light. It’s like saying come run me over, so I can die.”

“I know what you mean. It’s not something we would normally do if we were walking across the street. Though right now there is no cars moving around that would cause us to get run over. Whoever set up this game made it so that their using it for something else. The first one is that certain monsters must obey the laws set upon them, while they are some monsters that breaks the laws just like humans like those zombie dogs. Now, if I’m correct on my theory, the green light is a trick to make us continually go in circles and will definitely have more and more passageways added. While the red light is our way out. Even if it's dangerous and filled with traps, it's still considered ‘safe’ in a sense of it leading us out of here. The number of passageway should decrease by one.”

“Make sense. We won’t know until we see what you say is real.” Brianna was starting to agree with Jasper.

They both took caution in passing through the trapped passageway, making sure not to set off the traps as much as possible. They swept through the traps as quickly as possible and eventually made it to the next area.

“So it's true.” Jasper was counting the passageways that were in front of them. In total they were one less for them to choose from. “It was all just a mirage. It doesn’t matter which one you go through. It’s the traffic lights that decide the outcome.”

Jasper headed straight towards the next. He entered the passageway when it turned red and entered without waiting for Brianna.

“Wait up!” Brianna yelled, following behind him in a hurry. They passed through the passageway carefully, trying there best to avoid traps and eventually made it across the other end. They continued this process until finally they were left with only one exit.

“I’m impressed.” Brianna spoke with a smile. “Now we have one way to get out. Let’s go!” She excitedly stated and started to run towards the exit in a hurry.

“Stop!” Jasper called out in a hurry, raising her hand to stop her.

Brianna looked over her shoulder confused at why Jasper had suddenly called out to her. She was barely about to pass through when the light was green. It eventually turned red.

Jasper quickly walked over and pushed her through.

“What was that for?” She called out in outrage, confused at his sudden push.

“You almost made the wrong choice. The game is not over yet, if you took the route through the green light, you’ll have to go through two more passageways to actually get out.”

“That would’ve sucked. Thanks.”

“It’s fine.” Jasper leaned over and picked up a pebble on the floor. He threw it in front of him, a second later an arrow whizzed past it, hitting itself against the wall.

“More traps. Great.” Brianna stated sarcastically. “I’m sick and tired of seeing traps. Can’t we just breeze past it just once for crying out loud?!” She threw up her arms in frustration.

“If we were this easy, we would’ve been done by now.”

“I know.”

Jasper took a handful of small rocks, he continued to walk forward setting off traps one-by-one eventually leading them out the hallway to another room. This time the room was different from all the room that they were all in. Hundreds of small crystals the size of a human were scattered all around them. They were also a few large crystals that were about two story high. Inside the crystals were tall humanoid skeletal monsters that reminded him of an priate. Its cheesy eye patch with a hook for one of its arms.

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“What the…” Brianna gasped. “Their actual skeleton’s that big?” Her gaze was fixated on the large skeletons that were towering above them, bearing down upon them with an evil glare.

“Brianna?” A male’s voice called out in surprise. From behind the large crystal, Sam stepped out. He was observing Jasper with a hint of curiosity, but it quickly disappeared and instead a scowl appeared on his face.

“Sam?! Oh my god! You’re alive!” Brianna ran forward and hopped into his arms excited. “I knew you wouldn’t die. I’m so glad that you’re alive.”

“Isn’t that Jasper?” Another voice spoke out from behind Sam. Out stepped Jamie who looked all bang up with scratches and bruises.

“Jamie? You were here? What happened to Sofia?” Jasper called out in surprise that he found two most unlikely people in front of them.

“While chasing the zombie dog, I somehow splitted ways with it and made my where here. Luckily I found Sam awhile ago. I didn’t expect that you would come here too.” Jamie gave him a sad smile. “I lost my mom and Sophia at the same time. I hope they are alright.” His shoulder was slumped with no life in his body.

“I’m glad that you are alright. I can’t give you a promise that I don’t know if I can keep, but I will help you look for them. Silver came a long as well, though I’m a bit worried on where she might be.” said Jasper.v“Did you guys see her anywhere by any chance while you guys were making your way here?”

“No. Just Sam here.” Jamie stated with a sigh. “How about you guys, did you see Sophia or my mom?”

“No. Nothing.”

“I see.”

“So, we should leave this place.” Brianna spoke with a bit of nervousness. She was glancing around the room uncomfortably. “I feel like this place will come alive in any secon-”

Crack!

Alarmed everyone glanced up, wondering where the loud sound was coming from. Before them the large crystals that encased the giant skeleton were coming undone, allowing the crystal to shatter.

“You freakin’ serious.” Jamie blurted out. His eyes became wide from the unforeseen circumstance. They all didn’t expect the skeleton to break free from their crystal cage any time soon.

In total Jasper guessed they were over three of these gigantic crystals, and even the smaller crystals that were human size were breaking apart. From his calculations the smaller crystals were also a larger problem that would probably be over hundreds, swarming them and killing them if they did not escape.

“Run!” Brianna screamed.

They all ran towards the only exit that was present before them. It was a large opened spiral stairway that lead upwards towards an unknown destination. What was worse was that the stairway seem to endlessly go up without stopping, he knew that his body will not last long in climbing up the stairs before he got to tired.

Everyone bolted up the stairs, and the shattering sound of the crystals became louder and louder, giving rise to more skeletons to escape their entrapment. Even still Jasper noticed, the traffic lights dangling above them in green telling them that the skeleton were coming after them in seconds.

Jasper felt a tingle from the back of his neck, and he ducked. One of the large pirate skeleton the size of a two story building came stumbling over, its large sword crashed above them, blocking their climb. He was only a few inches away from getting his head chopped off from the large bone blade that embedded into the stairway. With a clunk, the blade was pulled out from the stairway, leaving behind a small gap that forced everyone to jump up to the next steps.

“Are you serious?!” Brianna was shouting in fear and hysteria. “Why the hell is that thing even allowed to exist!” She scrambled up, blocking Sam’s path.

“No time! Move your ass Brianna!” Sam exclaimed, pushing her forward to take the jump. Brianna jumped over the hole that was created by the giant skeleton. He followed after  and jumped over, climbing up the stairs frantically.

Jasper was leading ahead, he felt another tingle of danger behind him. “Incoming!” He yelled. A bright silver sword swung towards them. Jasper jumped forward, moving out from the swing. Thundering like sound could be heard as the sword made impact. Sam and Jamie, jumped backward before they would be caught up in it and be smushed.

Not even a second later, the giant skeleton stopped moving. Even the skeleton that were below them rapidly climbed up the stairs stopped. Jasper was confused for a split second wondering what was going on. He then noticed that the lights above them turned red, stopping all the skeletons.

“Move! Move! Move! This is your chance! The light is red!” Jasper yelled. He started to once again climb the stairs.

Sam and Jamie had to pull themselves up the sword to get across. They all knew what Jasper meant, and they didn’t look back. Everyone knew when the lights turned green, the movement of the skeletons would once again begin anew.

Climbing higher was their only chance of surviving, so the giant skeleton wouldn’t be able to reach them. Jasper ran and kept his gaze upon the lights, counting the time it would change green. It took a total of four minutes, before the lights changed and the giant skeleton resumed its pursuit.

It’s glowing green eyes, swayed dangerously towards them in glee. A cackle of bones, chattered with excitement while swinging its blade. Jasper had a sick feeling that these skeleton were playing with them. The past two attacks seemed more on the line of just distracting them, trying to hinder their path so the skeletons that were chasing from behind would catch up to them.

This wasn’t something that he wanted to happen. Quickly, his group continued to scale up the stairs, but the giant skeleton swung his sword in a playful manner, blocking their path as much as possible.

Jasper gritted his teeth, he then started to pull in large amount of light energy into his fist. Once again the bone sword, swung towards them, but this time Jasper raised his fist and slammed it against the bone sword. A bright blinding light erupted outwards, causing the giant skeleton to stumble backward into the wall. The bone sword shattered into pieces, leaving behind nothing but the hilt.

Crash! Rumble! Rumble!

The giant skeleton flared around, breaking the many stairs from below and hindering the climb of some of the skeletons.

“Woah~” Brianna whistled in excitement. “You could do that?!” She was staring at Jasper in a new light, her eyes sparkling at the amazing magical power that Jasper displayed.

“Pft. I could easily done that.” Sam rolled his eyes, he ran passed Jasper without glancing at Jasper.

“Sure you can.” Brianna spoke up. “You know better than me that your power doesn’t equate to his.”

“Whatever.” Sam ignored her and continued forward grumpily.

Everyone was getting tired from running up the stairs, they could feel the exhaustion in their legs catching up to them every steps. Jasper knew at this rate, they wouldn't make it out alive, but that last hit against the giant skeleton gave them extra time to climb up the stairs.

Finally, they were halfway up the stairs, and the lights turned red. Giving them a bit of a break from the wild chase.

“How much more?” Jamie was breathing hard. His hands were against the wall supporting him.

“I can see the exit. We’re almost there.” Jasper breathing a bit heavily. Even though he had stronger body than the rest, the strain of running up the stairs were a lot more difficult than it seems. It took twice as much energy to run up the stairs than down it.

“Finally.” Jamie was gasping for a breathe.

Jasper took out a crystals in his necklace and handed Jamie one. “Take it. Out of all of us, you’re the most exhausted. Every second counts and if you want to save Sophia and your mom you need the will and the stamina to move forward.”

Jamie stare at the red crystal that was in Jasper’s hands. He gulped with greed, but stopped himself from taking it. “That’s your. Why would you give it to me?”

Jasper gave him a gentle smile. “Like I said, my motto is to invest in the people I believe are worth in their potential. I learned this from Silver and I’m just passing on her teaching. Even though she doesn’t say it out loud.” He chuckled. Reaching over, he grabbed Jamie’s hands and left the crystal in it. “There is no I in a team. You can pay me back later if it makes you feel guilty.”

Jamie felt embarrassed, especially from someone gracious as Jasper who looks like a kid. He felt shame from thinking about only himself in this dire situation and felt the weight of the crystal in his hands. With a nod, he took it in his hand and gulped it down.

“What is that?” Brianna asked confused.

“Here.” Jasper handed one to Brianna and Sam, who stopped to see what Jasper was handing out to Jamie. “These are special crystals that revitalize and boost up your physical body. Same thing goes for your two as well. Let’s survive this and get out of here alive.”

“Wow, you actually bought one of these. They are expensive when trading with the Angel Coins. You must of gathered a lot of Angel Coins if you can fork over one to each of us.” Brianna held up the blood crystal shard in her hand and excitedly glanced at it with a smile. “I'll definitely pay you back for this.”

Sam crossed his arm and didn’t say anything else. Instead, he took the crystal shard in his hand and ate it like Jamie. His face was shocked that such a small shard gave him an elated feeling, giving him energy.

“You’ll find these crystals in monster’s core. You don’t need to buy them.”

“Then does it mean we can get them from fighting those skeletons?” Brianna was excitedly looking down at the frozen skeleton below them. The others were following Brianna’s look with excitement.

“No. Supposedly undead’s don’t have them.” Jasper took out a crystal shard for himself and ate it. He felt a gush of energy pouring into all of his body. The exhaustion that he felt in his muscles were slowly dissipating, but it didn’t completely erased it. He once again begin to power walk up the stairs.

“Really?” Brianna spoke with disappointment. The rest followed behind and started to climb. Their steps more confident, brimming with energy that they had lost.

“It turned green!” Jamie shouted, catching them off guard.

Jasper completely forgot to keep tabs on the light. When he turned to look over his shoulder, he saw a large wave of skeletons, heading towards them.

“Damn!” Sam swore. They picked up their pace, pushing themselves to reach up towards the top.

“Incoming!” Jamie shouted from behind.

The giant skeleton that was on the ground was now back on its feet. It’s large hands swooped up, grabbing the ledge and begin to climb.

“You gotta be kidding me.” Brianna bite the side of her lips. “When is it going to give up!”

With a grasp of the giant skeleton’s bony hand, it reached upwards towards them. Sam twirled out his black blade out from his pouch, a powerful gust of wind appeared out and wrapped around his blade. The moment when Sam swung, the gust of wind bunched up together into a sharp razor, cutting through the skeleton’s fingers in half.

Jasper could feel the gust of wind brush past his body, making him falter. If he wasn’t careful, he knew that he would’ve fall down the stairs to his death.

Bones clattered and broke apart, falling onto the ground. This still didn’t stop the giant skeleton from reaching over with its broken hand towards the group.

“Eat this, you bag of bones!” Brianna voice sent out a shrill. A ear popping sound spilled out from her throat, and a sound barrier blocked the skeletal hand from advancing. Every time the hand tried to push into the barrier, the sound vibrated the bones, dismantling the pieces into fine dust.

The giant skeleton whole arm broke apart, giving the rest of their group to escape the giant skeleton clutches. Swarms of skeleton that were climbing on the ground changed directions and jumped onto the giant skeleton. Their bones started to entangle together with the giant skeleton, creating a whole new arm that were ten times thicker than before. It didn’t move and waited for the skeletons to finish, converging into one.

With hurried steps, the small chances given to them from both Sam’s and Brianna’s attack gave them a chance to climb a bit higher. Now they were a close to the exit that loom over them with welcoming arms.

“You also have magic?” Jamie asked with awe and a tinge of jealously.

“Yep. Got Sound Magic, it’s quite useful…though my throat starts to get a bit itchy. Right now, I can only do that three times, before my voice becomes hoarse and I won’t be able to talk throughout the whole day.” Brianna was embarrassed in telling her power.

“Then I’m guessing Sam has Wind magic.” Jasper asked. He noticed from the last attack, the strong torrent from the air that sweep around them, when Sam used his magic.

“Well yes, but he has two. He can use water as well.” Brianna was excitedly telling everyone.

“Are you an idiot?! Why are you telling them my powers?” Sam gave her a growl. His hand was clenching the hilt with a bit of strength.

“Calm down, they're good people. I mean come on, Jasper can use light magic. People who use light magic are usually pure in the heart.”

“What kind of bullshit are you spouting again.” Sam was furious that Brianna just easily gave his information.

Jasper had a feeling that Sam wanted to tell them the information himself, but Brianna was the type to brag about her friend before him. He couldn’t help but chuckle at their strange combo.

“Haven’t you ever seen those shows where light magic casters can become evil themselves? It’s magic for crying out loud. The idea that light magic is used for good is way to cliche.”

“No, I’m sure what I say is true.” Brianna frowned. “I talked with the others who have tried getting light magic, but failed to even manifest it. Archarziel stated that one needs to be naturally have in their body with the magic to even properly use it. She even said that it’s a fifty-fifty chance that one could even gain the magical ability in the first place. There have been cases where the magic haven’t manifested, and they had to try a different element before they could even get it.”

“Rubbish.”

“I swear to god it’s the truth.” Brianna raised up her right hand, and brought her left hand to her heart.

Sam frowned at Brianna’s stern look. “Fine, let’s say it’s true. Then I must be the lucky one that was able to gain two.” A cocky smile erupted on his face.

“I wouldn’t say you're the only one.” Jasper broke Sam’s arrogant smile. “Silver and I have two as well.”

“What?!” Brian yelled out in surprise. “Really?” Her jaws dropped to the floor amazed.

“Yea. I’m an light and electricity, while Silver is darkness and ice.”

Brianna whistled. “That would make sense why both of you guys are so compatible. Look at you two, you’re literally the opposite of each other.”

“Wouldn’t it normally be un-compatible?” Jamie asked confused. “It’s a known fact that light and dark magic are the complete opposite. Same goes for fire and water. Earth and wind and so on.”

“True, but their are always the opposite cases where they can be compatible with one another. Sometimes opposite attracts you know.” Brianna spoke. “In some cases, polar extremes are considered the best compatibility.”

“Well enough chit-chatting. The giant skeleton just formed a new arm.” Sam scowled at the predicament that they were in.

Once again the giant skeleton started to climb much faster than before.

“Damn thing should stay down like a dog!” Sam yelled. A large force wind build up in his sword, and he shot it downwards once again.

A blade of winds cut through towards the giant skeleton body, but each time the blade cut through bones, the smaller skeleton took its place bridging the gap between them. Making it three times more difficult to harm.

“No time to fight. Just let’s get out of here!” Jasper saw the exit that were a few feet away. He pushed forward with every energy he got to climb up the stairs rapidly. Pushing up the ground, he dove towards the final step.

Brianna and Jamie came flying after, while Sam was shooting out a couple more shots of wind blades at the giant skeleton. A smile creep up his face, elated at the fight.

“Sam! You idiot! Hurry up and get in here!” Brianna yelled with a shrill.

Sam stopped what he was doing, and ran.

The giant hand loomed over Sam and came down with frightening speed.

“Sam!” Brianna shouted, running over towards Sam in frenzy. All she could see was the looming shadow that crashed down onto Sam.