I sat down on my bed, holding my head in my hands for a few moments. After all that had happened hours before, I almost couldn't believe that it was all over. I would finally be allowed to catch up on the sleep that I had left and I would start my slow recovery back to perfect health.
With a sigh, I peeled off the clothes that were fairly crusty from sweat and after smelling them over decided to have a quick shower before tucking myself in.
It took a fairly lengthy amount of time before I lost consciousness, my mind reviewing the day's events iteration after iteration. Still, I sunk into my bed and felt my body manifesting itself in the corridor once again.
I pushed myself up and with a stretch pushed open the door that led to the hallway. Locating Boingo was no hard feat at this point.
"Feste," he greeted, noticing my footsteps. "You look... not so good." He cautiously eyes me over, noticing the bruises that had formed during my expedition. "What even happened out there?"
"Well, er, you see..." I began to tell the small creature all about the beginner club, even revisiting points that I had already told him before I went. Later I saw his eyes widen with surprise and his mouth snarling as I verbally walked him through the entire experience. It took a while to get through all of it and when I ran out of things to say he almost expected me to tell him more of the completed story.
"Wow." Feste shook his head, still trying to process everything. "Sounds like you had it really rough out there."
"Yes," I nodded, "I suppose I di-"
Our conversation was interrupted by a voice. A female one, one that was familiar to me. "Hello? Feste, is that you?"
Boingo got in a reply before I could form words. "Who is that? And why does..." He approached Endora, his back forming an arch. "Don't tell me that's..."
"Feste!" Endora picked up her pace and so did my heart. I knew that I would have to fend off Boingo while also explaining to Endora what this corridor was. "Feste, where are we? And who's that?"
"We... Uh..." I took a glance at the now hostile Boingo and sighed, preparing myself. "This is Boingo. Boingo, this is the Endora that I've been talking about." I then turned to the inquisitive alien that was more my height. "You're in my labyrinth. I'm almost as clueless as you are about everything, I've been in this place alone for most of my life."
"Feste!" Boingo was now hissing in a hushed tone. "You brought a girl here?!"
"It's not like that!" I started to feel the temperature of my head rising, my heart not only throbbing in my chest. "It's just like the situation with you. I never intended for you to wake up in here, but here you are!" I hurriedly turned back towards Endora. "I'm sorry, it's really been a hectic night."
"I... see," Endora was still looking around at the blank, repeating walls when a distant this was heard, one that was identical to the one Boingo and I heard days before. We instantly whipped around to the source and Boingo was the first one to start chasing after it. Endora and I had barely run a few body lengths before the smaller member had disappeared into the shadows and red fog.
"What is it? What is it?" Endora and I both gasped the instant we saw Boingo frozen, staring off into the distance. He seemed to be squinting at something.
"Oh, well..." He nodded down the hall. "There seem to be more stairs this time." Now that we had caught up to him, Boingo began to bound down the steps. With a glance to my left, Endora and I also took our time navigating further into the dark corridor.
Even though my knowledge about it was limited, I knew somehow that this staircase was significantly longer than the previous one. As the walls got darker still, it got to the point where I had to periodically hold onto a wall to ensure that I don't start falling. However, my eyes adjusted further to enhance my vision in the new depths.
By the time we got down, Boingo was waiting for us once more, only looking backward with a slightly agitated and bored expression. "Why do you two take so long to go down stairs?" He scoffed and kept walking, us following him once again.
"I just don't want to fall," I replied, Endora copying it by nodding in the corner of my view. "I believe that injuries gained in here transfer over to the waking world."
Boingo hesitated before speaking again. "Fine, but don't expect me to slow down for you two."
We continued our aimless journey. Even though we could not find anything that was of any use, we started to fade away before long. As an addition to my normal morning routine, I slowly began to feel the weight of the grogginess that I had acquired the night before. Stretching, I tried desperately to rid of this burdensome feeling by rubbing my eyes to no avail. Grumbling, I decided to swing my legs out of my bed and face yet another day.
While I struggled to focus completely during my lessons, I began to notice that people had been talking in hushed voices. Most of the time the students were too far away for me to make out anything, but as I was in the hallway after my first class I managed to make out some of a conversation that was held between two creatures that appeared to be of the same race.
"Really? Midnight beat them up?"
"Yeah, there's no club anymore!"
As my mind slowly went over this piece of information, I grumbled and turned around, looking for a Boingo that wasn't there. Out of all the times to ask Boingo about anything, it was only natural that I would have to end up waiting for him to show up. I shrugged and picked up my pace to match my class's. I was simply going to have to wait through one more class before I was allowed to interact with him.
"Hey Boingo," I said to the small creature the moment we met up inside of the classroom, "what's going on? Are they talking about what happened last night?"
Boingo paused to go through his memories before giving an answer. "Yeah, of course. Normally the principal doesn't lash out at wrongdoers like that. Club instructors don't usually force their members to overwork themselves, either."
My eyes widened. "You mean... the principal fought with Malus- the club leader after we were all escorted back to the school?"
Much to my surprise, Boingo nodded slowly. "If the stuff the other kids are saying is true."
I looked over the schoolwork that had already been taken out of my bag. Even though it seemed like I had the power to end the conversation right then, I peered over at Boingo and asked him one last question. "And Boingo, who's Midnight? Is he the principal?"
He nodded once more, not bothering to look at me again. Our teacher seemed to be ready to start today's lessons. "Yeah. That's his nickname."
"Class!" We immediately focused all of our attention on our somewhat stern teacher. "We will start the lesson now! Take out your textbooks and turn to page one hundred seventy-two."