Young Writers Society

The fingers grasping the curtain pulled it. It ripped from its pole above and fluttered down to reveal a sea of stony faces, frozen in expressions of terror as they stared at the group.

Their eyes pierced Maggie's soul, dragging over their skin like hot needles.

They reached up slowly and brushed a hand over their hair. Would that do any good? The statues weren't flesh-

The statures suddenly surged forward, a river of stone and frightened faces, and Maggie stubled back.

"Run," they said, sprinting for the door, "RUN!"

That was terrifying.

Hades wasn't sure if running was the way to end this, but it was what Maggie thought they should do. Trusting Annabeth and Kaz's instincts, he darted over to Elias and grabbed him by the arm.

He gave Elias's arm a jerk and made a move for the door.

At Maggie's shout, Annabeth's eyes shot open and beheld the frozen faces of terror carved on stony sculptures.

When one of the faces turned to her, she screamed. Her trembling hands clutched her face, and she sprinted for the door, passing by Hades and Elias with barely a glance at their direction.

Kazimir let out some very loud uncensored words before he too, high-tailed it and ran -- but for reasons both due to wanting to make sure the kids made it away first and due to his injured leg, he was a few steps behind everyone else.

Maggie wove through the maze of nearly identical hallways, marked only the occasional to another loft like theirs. All the while, the...whatever Maggie had created, gave chase.

They turned a corner and threw open a set of elegant glass double doors, urging the others through and closing the doors behind them. Milliseconds felt like crawling minutes as they waited for the last of them - Kazimir - to make it through the doorway before she could slam the doors closed and lock them.

The hoard of horrified figures slammed into the doors, clawing and pounding at it, but the glass didn't so much as shudder. This was Miguel's loft, a well organized, open concept workspace with tools of every kind one could imagine hung and laid out neatly, sorted near where the material Miguel would likely use with them. He was going to kill them when he found out strangers had been in his loft. Chances were he already knew.

Maggie glanced at the camera that watched the door apologetically. They'd explain later.

Kazimir leaned heavily back on the door, glancing back at the freakish stone people trying in vain to get through.

“Okay,” Kazimir said through heavy breaths as his leg began to throb again. “Maggie. Now would be a great time if you could explain what’s going on.”

Maggie glared at him. "Right, sure, as if I know what's going on."

It was none of their business and Maggie was going to keep it that way.

Now that they were somewhere safer, Hades finally let go of Elias.

He understood Maggie's need for secrecy. He had wanted to keep his true identity secret, too. But not knowing what was going on right now was putting them all in danger, and Hades knew Maggie facing their fear was key to getting out of this situation.

He took a deep breath.

"Maggie," he softly said, adrenaline still rushing, "this isn't really where you're from. Think of everything we've seen so far. They're illusions. They're all tailored to our memories and our fears so they feel real, but none of them really are. We didn't go to my Underworld. What we saw in Elias's world-"

He faltered, glancing over at the boy in question. He wasn't going to mention the details. Maggie knew, and they would know why he was so reluctant to get into more depth about what had happened there.

"...it couldn't have been real," he quickly ended. Regaining some confidence, he added, "Kaz wasn't really separated from his son or put in prison, and the farm Annabeth faced a monster on wasn't real, either."

He glanced at what was trying to get into the room. He wondered how long it would be before those glass doors actually broke.

"I know this feels real. What's chasing us could actually exist, and could be something that you've interacted with before. But they're not really there. This isn't really your home. If you want to get back there and get rid of what's at the door right now, the only thing you can do is face your fear. You can do it on your own, but we can help you if you just tell us what you need us to do."

Maggie muttered curses under their breath and glanced back at the doors. What had Miguel said about them? They were modified polycarbonate, something like that. Strong enough to withstand the worst of Miguel's less successful 'tricks'.

They tugged lightly at a lock of hair. They couldn't look any of the statues in the eye. Calcified flesh, exchanged for stone. What happened to their real bodies. The thought caught Maggie off guard. Their stomach churned. I did this. I did this without even knowing...

"I made them," Maggie said tersely, revealing to no one how shaken she was. "They're in a limbo state, not exactly alive, but not dead either. The doors will hold for a while. I know the guy who made them, his lease can't afford for him to mess up." The chuckle that comment brought was more of nerves than humor. "I'm...I don't know how to get rid of them."

At this point, Elias was used to being yanked around. Elias went flying after Hades since he was was tightly holding on to him, but he didn't resist, especially since there were somewhat terrifying rock people chasing after them now.

Elias wasn't sure if he should have been more afraid of these rock people more than that monster at the farm. Rock people wouldn't kill sheep, right? What did they even eat? Rocks? Each other?

By the time they all reached the new room and Hades let go of him, Elias did two things: first, he rubbed his wrist, because ow; and second, he peered over Kaz's side where his body didn't cover the glass so he could see the stone people try to claw its way through. It was freaky, that was for sure. And he couldn't stop staring at it, more and more intrigued, although also a little nervous since all that separated them from attacking was a glass wall.

It took a few lagging seconds for Elias to register Hades's words. He still didn't fully understand what really happened in his world since he apparently wasn't present for it, but now (or anytime, really...) was not the time or place to think of it. Instead, what Hades said last suddenly clicked in his mind: the only thing you can do is face your fear.

... Oh. These were everyone's fears. Suddenly everything made a lot more sense.

But it was still hard to know what they were supposed to do next.

"Well, you made 'em, didn't you?" Elias said, finally tearing his gaze away from the monsters. "Can't you just do the opposite of whatever you did? Or, uh, Annabeth is a monster hunter." He then turned towards Annabeth with a proud smile tugging his lips. "Maybe talking to them like last time would do the trick?"

Annabeth blinked at him and then looked around Kaz to see the stone people. She ducked back around.

“I don’t think they’re willing to talk things out,” she said, twisting her hair. She chuckled weakly.

Maggie suppressed a glare at then bringing up Annabeth's...profession, again. There was a monster hunter in Miguel's flat. He was going to kill them.

"They're not- well, they are monsters, but not literally..." Maggie gestured vaguely in frustration, trying to find the words. I don't owe any of you an explanation, was what they wanted to say. No one would agree with that, though, and they'd just keep pushing.

They gave a frustrated sigh and glanced back at the glass. It was holding up fine...for now. This can't be happening.

"This is so stupid. They're supposed to be..." they gestured vaguely at the hoard, "you know, done. No longer participants in the grand scheme of things. In stasis. Whatever you want to call it, this is meant to be impossible."

"I don't care if it's impossible," Kazimir said, leaning on the glass. If and when they did break through, Kazimir preferred that he was the one rock-mauled first. "It's happening. So, you made them, and now they're basically rock zombies. This is your fear, Maggie. What do you think we should do? Kill them to put them out of their misery? Let them overtake us? Try to run again?"

Maggie huffed a laugh. Fuck it. "Honestly it would probably be best to kill them properly." What kind of fraud only does half the job? Maggie, apparently. Their father would be so ashamed.

"We don't have a lot of time left," said Annabeth. "What do we do?"