On the other side of the darkness, Sam was greeted by a wide, dimly lit, empty corridor. It appeared to be made out of the same thing as the magnificent walls of his prison. Here and there, they were damaged, impacted by something hard and heavy.
The light was provided by torches bolted to the walls, but by one quick glance, he easily determined that there was no fuel being burned. He didn't waste more time watching them, instead focused on what lay ahead. The path was simple, and straight, but very soon had its first crossroads, with more corridors even further, until it ended either with a wall or winded to the left or right. The direction was unclear due to the distance.
He was pushed out of his analysis by the rest who entered the labyrinth, forcing him to move further to make some space.
„We will die here," Evan deemed a few seconds after he appeared. „We will get lost and die."
„W-we could leave some clothes to mark places we already visited," Mia stuttered with a hand, hidden in a sleeve, right next to her mouth. She was trembling with fear.
It was obvious that she desperately wished to appear useful, due to Evan's jokes. After all, she was the weakest link.
Sam immediately looked around upon hearing her words. He scanned the floor and saw what he was looking for. A few broken pieces of the wall. He picked one, and using it tried to mark the wall with an X. It worked.
„Good idea," Brad deemed as he noticed.
„What if there are monsters ahead?" Mia squealed.
„We could use the torches as weapons," the soldier immediately deemed. He grabbed one, wrestling with it for a moment, before managing to pull it off, only for the flame to extinguish itself, before the whole torch disappeared from his grasp. „What the..."
„So we are screwed," grumbled Evan. „Great. I love to be screwed. Too bad it's not by a beautiful blonde with big boobs."
Lily gave him an irritated glare. „I guess if there are monsters ahead, we will just have to run," she sighed after the anger subsided.
„Don't worry, I know what to do if we meet a monster," Sam said, making everybody give him a curious look.
„W-what?" Mia squealed again.
„First, no sudden moves. Then I will slowly step back as I push you forward," he explained with a voice as dry as a desert.
Evan snorted, which turned into a chuckle. Jordan also laughed. Kenji, on the other hand, looked slightly annoyed by those words.
„Let's go," Brad said, squashing the potential argument before it had any chance to start.
He began marching, looking curiously around. The rest followed. As he was closing on the first crossroads, he slowed, trying to first peak what was behind the corners. There appeared to be no imminent danger, as he relaxed a bit.
„Look," Evan suddenly pointed out.
On both of the walls, a similar sentence was written. Slightly crumbled due to time, but still very clear. 'Second trial,' spelled the first one, with an arrow pointing ahead. The second one spelled 'Fourth trial.'
„I guess we won't need to mark anything," Sam shrugged, throwing away the pebble.
„It appears we have some trials to clear," Evan sighed. „Let's look around for the direction to the first one. I doubt we will be able to do the second, without clearing the first."
Brad nodded to his words. They immediately began moving. The search for the correct direction began. At first slow as everybody was scared of what could pop from behind the corners, but time put their awareness to sleep eventually. They found the correct path, discovering as well that not every wall was marked. Only some did, which left a bit of room to still get lost in the maze.
For now, they stuck to the clues pointing them toward the first trial, slowly marching ahead. Minutes passed in silence, gracefully morphing into hours, successfully killing their caution. All that time passed in silence, as initially, they were keen to listen for any noise that could potentially alert them about danger. Eventually, though, all this wariness passed and the first words were spoken.
„Why didn't we consider that those arrows might be misleading us?" Sam pointed out, making everybody stop.
All except Evan froze in the spot to look at Samuel but didn't provide any answer to his question. Evan did, as he finally halted his march, pointing at something to the left, where the path turned.
„Because of this!"
His words made them all rush to him, and they peeked over the corner like characters from an old cartoon, with their heads sticking over one another. What they saw was the corridor going further, but ending with a two-winged, black door. On the floor was something written, but the poor light and the distance made it impossible to see.
They rushed, one by one, to get closer.
„The first trial. Face your fears, look in the mirror, But be careful, as danger grows nearer. To clear the path, you need to be brave, Scare the monsters, to make the path safe!" Was written before the entrance.
„M-monsters?" Mia squealed.
'Useless,' Sam thought about her, then walked forward, trying to push the door open.
„Wait!" Lily shouted. „Shouldn't we think about this first?"
„There is nothing to think about. We need to get inside and see what's there. Wasting time here has no point. Who knows what's ahead and we don't have any food to survive here for long," Evan pointed out harshly, as he passed by her to help Sam.
Soon Brad joined them, and they were able to push one of the wings open, revealing a dimly lit chamber. There was no source of light, it somehow poured down from the ceiling, just like back in the rooms where they had awoken. The path was quite simple, but short, filled with two rows of mirrors, fixed to the walls, facing one another. In the distance, they could see the exit – a similar black door.
„Looks like we have to pass this," Jordan pointed out the obvious.
„We should watch out for monsters," Evan murmured, as he stepped forward, looking around. He stopped a few steps away from the mirrors, looking at them curiously, then scanning the walls and the ceiling.
Noticing that it was safe, the rest followed.
„Just don't close the door," Mia squealed again. She was trembling out of fear.
„Don't worry. We won't," Kenji assured.
Sam joined Evan in looking around, but there was nothing there except what he originally spotted. It appeared that their mission was to simply cross the path, but he had a bad feeling about this.
„I'll go first. You follow me after I make sure it's safe," Brad announced, and he slowly approached the path.
The mirrors were originally reflecting only themselves, creating this neverending recursion of mirrors within mirrors, that looked kinda like a portal to another world. This changed almost immediately, as the soldier passed the first one. A shadow appeared in it, quickly moving away. He spotted it, so he turned to face the mirror, but whatever appeared in it, was gone. Turning around, to have a look at the reflections, Brad continued a few steps further. Each time he looked at a mirror, except him, it reflected something else, moving fast, and vanishing.
Everybody held their breath, as the soldier faced his fears. Then, he stopped for just a second right in front of one of the mirrors, and the elusive creature appeared again. It burst out of the mirror – a grotesque thing. Long hands, armed with even longer fingers, all completely black, as if somebody sketched them roughly with a pencil. The head followed – a naked skull of something that roughly resembled a deer. It had hollow eyes.
The limbs grabbed Brad by the legs, pulling him immediately in. Screaming, he freed his right, simultaneously grabbing the frame of the mirror. He was kicking in, yelling, but the monster was stronger. With a powerful jerk, it forced the soldier inside its domain. The noise began to gradually fade, disappearing in seconds.
Mia let out a high-pitched scream, while the rest gasped. Sam instinctively stepped back, while Evan for some reason tried to look into the reflection from an angle, but he didn't spot the monster, nor Brad.
„R-run," Jordan stuttered, moving out of the chamber, but his eyes remained glued to the source of the danger – the mirrors.
„There is no point in running," Evan observed, before turning his back to the monster's domain, facing the rest. „We are trapped here, so we either try to clear the trial, or we die from starvation. The monster came out only when one of us tried to cross the path. I bet it won't come unless we try again," with those words he turned around, to have another look at the test they needed to pass.
„B-but h-how can we cross!" Mia squealed tears in her eyes.
Finding some courage, Sam moved forward, joining Evan. He was right. Their only way was forward. The trial was a puzzle they simply had to solve. In memory, he returned to the text they read before entering.
„Face your fears, look in the mirror, but be careful, as danger grows nearer. To clear the path, you need to be brave, scare the monsters, to make the path safe," he muttered.
„And how the hell are we supposed to scare those monsters?" the suited-up man spoke, as he approached the two. It was the first time he talked.
„Yelling at them?" Jordan asked more than pointed out.
„Yeah. Great idea. You know, I have a better one. Why won't we try showing them a picture of your mom? That will scare the hell out of them," Evan snorted.
Jordan tightened his fingers into fists but didn't respond.
„Maybe we just need to run fast?" Lily said. „Not look in the mirrors, only run."
„If you watched closely, you saw that the monsters were showing in different mirrors as Brad was walking. He didn't exactly have to look at one, for it to appear." Evan retorted looking over his shoulder at her.
„But it only caught Brad when he looked right at that mirror," Sam pointed out. „Something tells me that was only a coincidence," he added after a second. „The riddle is in front of the entrance for a reason."
„I agree," Evan nodded. „We have to solve the riddle, to pass."
„I'll leave you two to it," said the suited-up man, patting them both on the shoulders, before he stepped back.
'Who the hell is that guy?' Sam mused, briefly glancing at the individual. 'When I think about this… I don't know who the hell anybody is,' he sighed as his eyes moved back to the mirrors.
„To make the path safe we have to scare the monsters. How do we do that?" Evan asked, his eyebrow frowning as he concentrated. „And please, spare me from idiotic ideas."
Behind them, Lily found her own solution. She, for a moment, stepped out of the trial room, returning soon with a broken-off piece of the wall. It was slightly smaller than her fist. She approached the two boys, then without a word, threw the debris at the mirror.
„Wait!" Sam screamed, but it was too late.
The piece of wall, bounced off the glass, leaving no mark.
Evan started clapping, as he looked at the girl with pity. „Congratulations for solving the problem," he murmured.
She growled at him, baring her teeth. Sam quickly stepped between the two. „Calm down, both of you."
Lily backed down, not because he convinced her with one sentence, but rather because she understood that fighting among each other wouldn't bring them closer to a solution. Evan wasted no time, his gaze returned to the mirrors as soon as she moved away.
„Face your fears, look in the mirror," he murmured.
Sam slapped himself on the forehead, as the sentence made everything click in his mind. It lured the gazes of everybody.
„Face your fears, look in the mirror, but be careful, as danger grows nearer. To clear the path, you need to be brave. Scare the monsters, to make the path safe. It literally tells us what to do," he said as if it was supposed to explain his epiphany. Looking at the faces of the rest, he quickly figured out it didn't.
Lily's raised eyebrow was especially irritating. She clearly detested Evan for making fun of her, but she also embraced his tactic.
„Explain," Evan urged.
„We have to look in the mirror and scare the monsters. But we are not scary, the monsters are," he pointed out.
„So if we go in pairs, back to back, the monsters will see themselves in reflection, and be scared of themselves, so we will be able to pass," Evan finished for him with a smirk on his lips.
„Exactly!" Sam agreed.
The silence fell upon the whole group, as they exchanged glances. Instantly it became obvious that nobody was willing to check if Sam's theory was right.
„Oh come one! We will die here if we don't do anything!" Evan snapped.
„Then go first!" Mia yelled back at him.
„I will! Come on," he said, his gaze jumping to Sam.
Before he could voice his hesitance, Kenji spoke first. „But we don't even have enough pairs… Somebody will be left behind."
„That's the smallest of our problems," Sam murmured, as Evan's proposition irritated him. He was convinced he was right, just not convinced enough to be the guinea pig to test his idea. „One group can go as three. It doesn't matter if two people are looking at one mirror, as long as there is at least one looking at the one behind them."
„Let's go," Evan urged him again.
„Tsk! Fine," he gritted his teeth turning to the teenager.
They locked their arms, standing back to back, then slowly began moving to the side, entering the domain of mirrors. With pounding hearts they held their breaths, staring intently at the reflections in the infinite recursion. The shadow appeared once again, moving at the edges of Sam's vision. He tried to follow it, but soon realized it was impossible. Not only because it was too fast, but also because there were more of them.
As they entered the line of the second mirrors, the creature burst out in front of Sam, only for the second one, to reach for Evan, but they both paused, before capturing their prey. Ignoring the two boys, paralyzed by fear, they spotted each other, which made them hastily retreat.
Two gasps quickly morphed into laughter, as the two realized they were safe. The plan worked. They almost ruined it as in excitation they tried to look at one another, but the shadows still lurking in the reflections reminded them about the danger.
Audible sighs of relief filled the room. More laughter followed, with a crescendo of applause.
The rest of the journey was easy. Soon everybody found themselves on the other side of the room.