Chapter Text
The pillow under me was cold. Extremely, uncomfortably cold. And stiff as a rock.
Plus my blanket was nowhere to be found. And people were being loud and annoying somewhere in the distance.
I shivered, reaching a hand over my head. It was then that I realized just how sore I was, and that one of my hands was damp. And then came the thought that I should probably wake up.
"Ugh," I groaned, lifting my head up. My eyes were forced wide open at the sight in front of me.
"What the actual heck?" I whispered to myself. The area around me was, in fact, not a tent, but a freezing stone box. My pillow and blanket were nowhere to be seen and my outfit was unfamiliar, plus one of my hands had a bleeding cut on it.
I shoved myself to a sitting, and then standing position, and ignored the slight pain in my hand. This was the most terrified I'd been in a while, and I couldn't...
Wait, what?
I blinked, shaking my head. My memories were fading quickly and left me with nothing to rely off of. Whatever I would normally do in this sort of situation was lost to - amnesia? Possibly.
The voices far above me caused me to gasp and look up. Several people were gathered around the top of whatever stone creation I was trapped in. One of them dropped a bunch of berries down, very nearly hitting my head.
I yelped and jumped away. My back collided with something poky that moved with the force of my weight. I moved away nervously and regarded the lever. Anxious thoughts ran through my mind but were quickly interrupted by the box starting to move.
"WHA-" I yelled.
I fell onto my side with a muffled grunt. The box, which I now realized was an elevator of sorts, had begun to function with the lever being flipped and was bringing me up to the surface. Groups of people were gathered around the opening at the top, and I began to make out what some of them were saying as I got closer.
"Jumpy dumbass," a boy with goggles muttered. Some girl with a crown and backpack elbowed him, muttering something under her breath. Another girl with goggles like the boy just rolled her eyes at them.
"New people again?" another stranger observed. The person beside her blinked and tilted their head to the side, not saying anything at all. Both had odd eyes, crimson tails, and matching horns.
"Everyone back up!" someone yelled. The collection of people mumbled grumpily and began to shift away, but didn't fully leave my sight.
The elevator slowed to a stop at the top of the stone box and several trapdoors were opened up above me. I shuffled away, eyes wide with terror, and pressed my tall body into a corner.
"Easy, we're not going to hurt you," a girl soothed gently.
She hopped down into the elevator and slowly walked towards me. There was no more space for me to back away, so I just stared at her in fear.
"My name is Graecie," she introduced. "And I promise none of us here are going to hurt you."
"Speak for yourself," a young boy muttered. He was quickly shushed.
"I understand that you're scared, and you have no memories of who or where you are, but I promise you, we're all in the same situation," Graecie explained in a calm voice. "Do you know your name?"
I froze for a moment before slowly shaking my head. Even then, with no one making a move to harm me and an extremely kind woman in front of me, I had no intentions to co-operate. Wariness showed in my every movement.
"That's okay," Graecie reassured me. "Can you come out of the box?"
My eyes flicked from person to person above me and I was too scared to get up, but terrified to say no to this stranger.
"I, uh," I whispered. "S-sorry, I d-don't-"
"Don't worry about it," Graecie murmured. "Whatever you choose to do, it'll be okay. Now take some food, you look hungry."
I took the apple from Graecie's palm with my own shaky hands and warily bit into it. Before I'd been given food, I hadn't realized how hungry I was. Maybe food had escaped my mind in the possibility of being in a near-death experience.
"Okay, that's enough waiting." Goggle boy jumped down into the elevator with us. I flinched and eyed him nervously, scrambling away again.
"Mohwee-" Graecie started in a warning voice.
"Move, idiot!" 'Mohwee' yelled. He grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the ladder. I yelped, falling to my knees.
"MOHWEE!!" Several people yelled.
I pulled away from him and huddled into a corner. Pure terror shone in my eyes, and I tried my absolute best not to tear up.
"All right, that's it!" Graecie yelled. "Everyone go back to your houses now!"
Surprisingly, they complied and only took a few seconds to clear away. I blinked in bewilderment at the sudden peace.
"I'm sorry about that," Graecie whispered. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah," I managed. "I'm okay, t-thanks. Where is this p-place?"
She sighed. "You'll see. Are you ready to come up?"
I hesitated, but nodded. Now or never.
Graecie climbed out of the elevator first and turned back to offer me a hand up. I took it gratefully and scrambled ungracefully out of the cold stone box, leaving it behind me.
The shorter woman turned to look down at her hand and breathed in sharply. I blinked.
"You're bleeding!" Graecie realized. "What happened? Did Mohwee do that?"
"No, the boy with g-goggles didn't hurt me," I assured her in a quiet voice. "I woke up with th-this."
"We should get that treated," she murmured sympathetically. "It looks painful."
I shrugged. "It stings a b-bit, I guess."
Graecie put her hand on my shoulder and led me over to a small shack before making me sit down and roll up my sleeve slightly. I glanced at the various scars covering my arm in surprise and wondered if the rest of my body looked like that.
"Stay still," Gracie advised. I raised an eyebrow at her.
She dumped a freezing cold bottle of water on my hand and I nearly drew away, hissing in shock. But the woman held onto my wrist with a firm grip and used a cloth to wipe little bits of sand and gravel out of my wound before drying my hand off and wrapping bandages around the cut expertly.
"I take it you've d-done this before," I spoke.
"Yep," Graecie confirmed. "People get hurt a lot around here, being reckless and such. I'm usually the one who bandages them up and lectures them, but no one really listens." She finished securing my bandages and leaned away with a smile. "Is that okay?"
I nodded. "Thanks. How do they get hurt?"
Graecie shrugged. "Berry bushes, campfires, tripping, falling out of trees, slamming doors on each other, poking each other with extremely sharp sticks-"
"So everyone here's just children?" I guessed.
Graecie let out a surprised laugh. She took a couple moments to recover, and I let a soft smile rest on my face before she looked back at me. It felt nice to make someone laugh.
"No, only Oeca," Graecie chuckled. "We're all mostly in our late teens or early twenties. But most of us sure do act like kids."
I nodded and smiled. "Can you show me around, please?"
"No problem!" she responded cheerfully. "Come on, follow me."
Graecie tugged me to my feet - not roughly - and led me out of the shack before taking me to a large pond and waterfall.
"This is pretty," I observed.
"Serene," the shorter woman agreed. "But Oeca can't swim, no matter how much he tries and almost drowns. So we usually try to keep him and Mohwee away from it."
"Why Mohwee?" I questioned, puzzled. If Oeca was the one who couldn't swim, not Mohwee, then-
"Because Mohwee pushes people in," Graecie answered bluntly. I snorted in amusement.
Graecie blinked, then smiled. "Glad you're warming up here."
"No, I'm still cold," I tried to joke. Graecie took a few moments to understand, then laughed softly. I had a feeling that she was just laughing to make me feel better, but I appreciated it anyway.
"This is the maze," Graecie said softly as we stopped walking. "Never go in, especially not at night or alone."
I stared up at the giant opening, eyes wide and jaw open in shock. More giant stone walls in the shape of a doorway stood in front of me, with unfamiliar sounds coming from inside. Only then did I think to turn around and look up.
All around us were huge, ivy-adorned stone walls. Trapping us in, and anything else out. For whatever reason the latter part came to my mind I couldn't fathom, but it made me shiver and think of being stung by something.
Creaking sounds came from behind the two of us. I yelped and jumped away, turning at the noises quickly.
"It's closing," Graecie murmured.
The giant, mossy, stone-and-cobblestone door was shutting. Its walls slowly shifted together and blocked our view of whatever was inside the terrifying passageways.
"What...?" I breathed shakily. I took several steps back.
Graecie stepped up beside me and exhaled as if she was experiencing it all over again. She then pulled herself together, shrugged, and glanced over her shoulder at me.
"Welcome to the maze."