Young Writers Society

"It is not as though you have much of a choice," Enide said, a tiny amount of bitterness slipping into her voice.

"Do you think that's something we can find?" Denebola said, nodding at Nathan's description. "It is underground."

For one the few times in my life so far, I fell into silence.

I watched as Nathan shook his head out of the corner of my eye. "I-It's probably not here," he said. "The flowers would have to be different. We're at her place, even if it's not working like it's supposed to."

"It doesn't normally force people to blurt out their darkest secrets?" I asked, my temporary lapse of silence over.

He nodded. "It's supposed to be a normal place..." he confirmed. "It's just her home. It's not meant to be anything else."

Denebola took a deep breath. Nathan was freaking out, and he had a lot of reasons to be worried about being stuck in the wrong body, in the wrong place, surrounded by the wrong people. But she wasn't quite a fan of where this conversation was going. "What do you mean by not here?" she said, a little bit of irritation in her voice. "Not here as in if we walk long enough the flowers will be different, or not here as in we just can't get to there?"

Nathan stiffened at Denebola's tone.

"...We can't get to there." He took a deep breath, staring down at his lap. "It's not a regular place...It's another reality. And only we can get to our own places. If we want to visit each other's, we have to come along."

He bit his lip.

"...I tried getting back to mine," he whispered, "but I only ended up here again..."

"Is there any way at all we can get there?" Denebola said, the anger fading from her voice as she processed what Nathan was saying. "You said you don't always have a body, and it looks like this body is what's holding you back, since it's not really yours - can you get out of it?"

Nathan shook his head again. If I hadn't already expected I would be gone for awhile, I would have now - it didn't look like getting back to normal was an easy task.

"There's not," he whispered. "...Because this is her body, I'm bound by her rules..."

He kept staring down at his lap. I started to give him a comforting squeeze on the shoulder, but then I was suddenly hit by a thought. "How do you meet?" I asked.

Nathan stared.

"You have to meet somewhere," I said. "The only way to bring her to your place is by bringing her with you, but you can't get to her place on your own. So there has to be some sort of middle ground - some other place you meet before going to each other's places."

Nathan quickly raised his head to stare at me, only to duck it back down to give a nod. "There is a place," Nathan said. "...Do...Do you think she'll be there, too?"

"That's where I would go if I was in either one of your shoes," I said. "So where is it, and how can we get there?"

"...We have to walk," he said, "but we can leave to do it after the rain."

Denebola's looked out at the cave's entrance. She could barely see more than a few inches past the sheet of rain that poured down. "And how long is that going to take?" she said, voice a little quiet. She knew the answer, but this place really liked obvious questions.

"We can afford the wait," Enide said.

"I'm not sure about that," Denebola grumbled, folding her arms. "Is there anything we can do to pass the time? That isn't boring?"

"We can play a hardcore game of truth or dare," I cheerfully suggested. "Since we physically can't lie - except for Nathan, who probably wouldn't lie to begin with - the answers to the game would actually be true."

Nathan looked over at me. "...You lie during truth or dare?"

"...I do," I admitted. "But I'm probably never seeing any of you again after this, and I've come to accept my fate of blurting out my deepest and darkest secrets. Might as well make it fun."

"I do hope you have any secrets deeper and darker than lying in a game wherein the object is to tell the truth," Enide said with a faint smile.

Denebola sighed loudly, sinking to the floor and crossing her legs. "Fine," she said, looking back up at the others. "It should be at least a little funny."

"I've already told you most of them," I said, "but I definitely have more."

I had been doing good about accepting what I blurted out, but this admission made me let out another quiet swear under my breath.

"...Who should start?" Nathan quietly asked.

"Oh, apologies, I am not acutely familiar with the rules of this game," Enide said. "I had been hoping to learn by watching those of you who are familiar."

"Same," Denebola said, nodding.

"The game's easy," I said, with a somewhat evil grin. "It's like what the title says - all you have to do is pick truth or dare when it's your turn. If you pick truth, another person asks you a question, and you have to answer it truthfully. If you pick dare, you have to do whatever you're dared to do."

Enide smiled, showing off her canines a little too much as she tapped one of the buttons on her dress with her claws. "That sounds wonderful," she said. "Who would like to go first?"

"Maybe Skull or Nathan?" Denebola said immediately, a sense of unease creeping into her voice. Enide looked way too confident. The lionness would have to make sure Enide didn't ask any questions or make any dares.

"You're scared of truth or dare?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and looking over at Denebola. That was a surprise. She didn't seem like the type to scare easy, but apparently the thought of telling the truth about things - even though she already had to - frightened her.

Then I shrugged, because it really didn't matter in the scheme of things.

"I'll can go first," I said. Nathan didn't protest, so I took that as a sign that I was good to go. "I pick...truth."

Denebola snorted. "Oh please," she said. "I'm not afraid of a game; I'm afraid of who's playing the game." She tilted her head in Enide's direction.

"And I find this game extremely interesting," Enide said. She rested her chin on the backs of her paws as her smile faded away. "How did you die and become a skull in a jar?"