Young Writers Society

Secret sidestepped another blank tile, trying to ignore the fear quenching her stomach. Who knows what could be lying at the bottom?

No, stop it, Secret, She scolded herself. Don't let your imagination run away with you.

Solid tiles were becoming sparse, and Secret found herself gaping at a large hole of missing tiles.

She crouched down, judging the distance of it. She could probably leap over it from right here. Her legs were long enough to make the jump.

Secret stood up, took a deep breath, and jumped over the hole. She landed in a crouch on the other side.

Standing up, she noticed a door on the left side of the hallway. A way to get out, perhaps? Hope rose in her chest as she made her way over, stepping over more bottomless tiles.

Secret opened the door and saw a staircase going up. Hope soared in her chest.

"Hey, guys!" she called out. "I found a staircase!"

Susan looked up where she'd kept her eyes trained on the empty tiles to see a staircase that Secret was pointing to. That seemed like a great idea. When she saw the large hole of missing tiles that had to be crossed to get there, she wasn't so sure. Still, it was probably their only chance of getting out before they ran into a place where there were no tiles at all.

Taking a deep breath, she tried her best to get a decent running start in the tiny space available and jump. As soon as she leapt off she knew she wasn't going to make it. Her legs were just not strong enough. Panic started to rise up in her chest as her arms flailed wildly and then "THUMP". Her arm hit something and she realized she'd just about managed to land on the edge. She held on for dear life, her legs dangling uselessly below her.

Her heart was beating so loudly it might as well have exploded by now. Taking deep breaths to stop herself from fainting, she let the adrenaline running through her take control. As the unfamiliar icy feeling spread through her veins, she found her voice to yell for help, hoping Secret would come to help. She's literally only a few feet away. Of course she can hear you. Pull yourself together Susan

Secret glanced back up the stairs, thinking about scouting ahead to check for any more missing tiles.

What is this, the apocalypse? she thought. This was supposed to be a normal last day at school. They weren't supposed to be trying to stay alive.

Suddenly, she heard a loud thump behind her, and a voice cried out for help. Secret turned around so sharply, her neck cricked.

"Oh no, Susan!" she cried, running to the girl. Secret knelt down and reached for Susan's arms. "I got you, hold on!"

She gritted her teeth and tried to pull Susan up, but she only moved an inch.

"We're going to help you, don't worry," said Secret, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. She tried again, straining. "Argh, help!"

Kody's eyes widened in alarm when Susan didn't make the jump.

He wasn't athletic by any means, but he was terrified of Susan falling into the endless abyss down below. He took a deep breath, eyed the little space next to Susan and Secret across the divide, and made a running leap.

One foot made contact. The other didn't entirely. He waved his arms around, frantically trying to get a grip on something that could help him balance. But then he steadied himself. He didn't have a chance to acknowledge how close his run-in with death was.

He turned back to Susan and Secret.

Grabbing onto Susan's arms, he started to tug, too. The combined strength of him and Secret was enough to pull Susan up - and on top of both of them. There was just enough space for Amber to make the jump now, too. Which was good - Kody didn't think he would be getting up anytime in the next minute. The jump and pulling Susan up had exhausted both his actual body and his adrenaline.

Amber took a deep breath. She wasn't going to need up here. One thing Amber WAS good at was athletics.

She could take this, easy peasy, "All right, watch out"

Getting a running start, Amber lifted off the ground for a moment, ad was sure she would reach it.

But she tripped.

On her shoelace.

Arms flailing, and a determined look on her face, Amber somehow managed to land on the other side. Her landing, however,, was botched, and she slammed into the timer floor, the impact jarring her bones.

Unable to get up, Amber saw Kody next to her and laughed, even though she was terrified and in pain.

"Looks like you died, too."

Thankfully Secret ran over to her and started to pull her up. Before long, Kody had joined in and she felt herself slowly get pulled up over the edge inch by inch. Then finally with one last massive tug she was free, only Kody managed to fall flat on his back dragging Secret and unfortunately Susan along with her, which meant she was currently situated right on top of the two of them.

Her face felt like it was literally going to catch fire with the heat that rose to her cheeks, turning them bright red. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry. Her brain felt frozen for a moment as she gazed right into the eyes of the girl she had a massive crush on. She barely even noticed that she was also crushing Kody at the moment.

Then Amber landed beside Kody, also collapsing to the floor. That restarted her brain long enough for her to roll of and land beside Secret.

"Th..th.th..thank y..y..you," she managed to stutter out in Secret's direction.

Kody gave a nod from his spot on the floor.

"My body doesn't like me right now," he confirmed. He tried to sit up, but then decided that sitting up was too much effort and laid right back down. He'd wait for someone else to get up before he did.

"No...problem..." Secret told Susan, panting slightly. Next to her, Kody made a move to get up, but he laid back down again. Secret couldn't blame him. The floor made a really comfortable spot at the moment.

Amber landed on Kody's other side, and she jokingly commented on his appearance. Secret gave a small laugh.

Once everyone's breathing came back to normal, Secret pushed herself into a sitting position and took a deep breath, letting her head hang down.

Then, she got to her feet unsteadily.

As Secret got to her feet unsteadily, Susan did her best to push herself off the floor. Once the shook of everything had worn off, her legs were feeling well enough to hold her wait, at least until whatever came next.

"We...uhh...should go through that door then, shouldn't we?" asked Susan, "I don't want to wait and find out if these tiles are going to disappear anytime soon."

...The tiles disappearing wasn't something that Kody had thought of before, but it was enough to make him jump up to his feet. He stood by the rest of the group and waited for one of them to make the first move - he didn't want to leave anyone behind.

Secret bounced lightly on her heels, trying to make the feeling come back to her legs.

One of them had almost died. This was a life or death situation now. Every step, every thought they made had to be carefully decided. Secret was starting to wish that she had bailed like Mariah.

But, this was no time to stand around. Already, she could see tiles at the end of the hall quickly disappearing. Soon, the tiles would fall under their feet, and there would be no one to save them.

"It's time to go," she said, glancing at the tiles fearfully. She helped pull Amber up and pointed to the staircase. "Come on."

Secret carefully made her way over and opened the door, holding it for everyone to go through.

The moment everyone stepped into the room, the door slammed shut behind them.

Kody spun around to see who had closed the door, but the room was far too dark. He squinted; that didn't do much to help, either. He reached a hand back in search of his zipper. After a moment of frantic searching, he got a grip on the little piece of metal. He was just about to get his phone out when he heard noise from nearby.

He looked back into the room, hand partially wrapped around his phone.

There was a glint and flash of red within the darkness.

His eyes widened.

Several feet ahead of the group was a pair of eerie, glowing red eyes.

Susan saw the glowing red eyes and she heard a loud shrill scream echo through the room. A few seconds later when her brain cells finally fired she realized she was the one screaming. She stumbled back a couple of steps hands up in front of her face.

Secret's heart leapt into her throat when she heard Susan scream; and when she turned around to see what had frightened her, she almost fainted on the spot.

Glowing red eyes stared at the group.

Secret let out a choked gasp and stepped back.

"Wh-what?" Amber looked around and saw that almost everyone had stepped back a little bit.

Disoriented, she squinted in front of her and saw two little red dots.

She walked forward and felt something ahead.

"What are you all so scared about?" She reached two hands forward, unwary of what could happen.