Waking up in the labyrinth, I was already feeling an intense bout of pain. Doubling over, I gripped my chest and hoped that it would pass quickly.
As it had before, the severe waves of discomfort and dizziness seized. I might have gotten used to it at this point, but I wondered if the session ended earlier than it had before.
Midnight found me before I did. He called out from the depths, most likely using something other than his eyes to detect my presence. "Feste."
I quickly turned my head towards my principal's voice. He appeared a few seconds later. "Hello again." I didn't exactly know of any conversation starters between us.
"How was it?" Midnight put on another pained expression. "I was starting to get a hang of it, but I still think it hurt you quite a bit."
Nodding, I displayed a crooked smile. "If you can get rid of this labyrinth, I'll gladly go through that."
Instead of accepting my gratitude, Midnight folded his arms. "Then I suppose I can get a little bit dirty." He looked downward. "I only descended one extra level and there're still quite a few more to go."
My smile disappeared. "How many, exactly?"
"I'd estimate around fifteen."
"Fifteen?" I couldn't believe it; if I hadn't spoken about my problems to the school officials, it would have taken a monumental amount of time to gather enough friends to reach the end of my labyrinth. "What's it like at the next level? The fourth one."
My principal shrugged. "It looks the same as all the others: a bit darker, the walls are a bit more slippery and it's overall harder to navigate."
"Oh." This confirmed some predictions that I had made several nights before this one.
Midnight took a step back and began to turn around. "I suppose I will get going now. I'm sorry in advance if you feel a slight tingling sensation from your chest."
With that, he disappeared. I gripped my torso, already beginning to feel something building up. I dismissed this as a psychosomatic episode and began to traverse the endless hallway yet again, turning away from where Midnight had been.
Near the end of the night, I began to feel a presence close to me. The tingling in my chest was now in full swing as Midnight drilled further into the labyrinth using some unknown magical spells, as the pain was magnified solely from its persistence.
"Feste! Feste!" I hardly heard the loud voice coming from the small creature. He quickly dashed up to me.
"Hello, Boingo."
"What's wrong?" Boingo circled me, investigating my improper posture and strained voice. "Did you get sick or something?" Upon saying this, the creature jumped back. "You better not infect me!"
"No, no," I defended. "Midnight's just doing his work; when he drills through all the levels, it hurts me too."
"That's weird." Boingo now sat in front of me, his eyes flickering up and down my body. "So how much does it hurt?"
I became aware of my hand, which still gripped at my chest. "I don't think it got more painful since when it started, but since it's constantly there, it's..." I unconsciously grunted and started hyperventilating.
"...Then should you tell Midnight to go a bit slower? You almost look like you're dying!"
"I'm fine." Against the sharp, stabbing pains, I kept walking. Boingo could still easily catch up to my wobbling self, only casually walking to do so. "It'll help in the long run. You'll see soon enough."
"If you say so." Boingo kept walking with me but disapproved of my decision. With every opportunity he had, he would push me to reduce Midnight's speed. "But even if he slowed down a little bit, you would be so much better!" "If you make him go slower, you'll be much less stressed!" Eventually, I decided to let my principal slow the rate of his spells just enough that I could hold a stable conversation.