It was a warm night, the moon was a dark red and everyone was inside their homes. Except three teenagers.

“Hey Mikey, look we have some followers!” Said the tall brown haired, hazel eyed teenager.

“Ignore them, we have a job to do! The moon is up” says the tall, blonde, blue eyed teen. “Run! I hear them! Hurry!” Says the short twin of Mikey. She has a soft voice hard to hear. The trio starts sprinting through the thicket of trees.

“To the left, hurry!” Mikey yells coming across a metal door standing alone radiating a red and black aura.

“Alex, Catch!” Mikey throws a golden key with silver streaks and a glimmering ruby-like stone. Alex catches the key and lays it over the bulky lock in the center of the door. A loud, screech like noise followed by complete silence spreads all around. The door swings open with a blinding red light following, the three enter and just as Jasmine steps in the door it slams shut, nearly hitting her. Alex and Mikey examine the room, it has orang-ish walls and a table in the center of the room. The walls are lined with one long counter except one wall, inhabiting a door and some drapes creating a window-like look. It’s well lit, once jasmine’s eyes adjust her face lights up.

“It’s a Kitchen?” she asks confused.

“Um, well. Anyone hungry?” Jokes Alex. Mikey’s face remains expressionless,

“What’s that paper say?” Mikey asks pointing to a small table, his face remains serious as he studies every content in the room. Jasmine picks up the paper,

“Tiny little thing” she clears her throat then reads,

“” Hello, my three little friends!” Her face a mix of confusion and fright, she continues “” I’ve set up a little puzzle for the three of you. But be aware you are not the only participants. We have my acquaintances and 6 other friends! The goal is to escape this room and move onto the next. Who knows, you might meet the others! Hope for the best and have a fun time” The three look at each other then, a sudden flicker and the note was missing from Jasmine’s hand. Alex’s eyes widen.

“I thought this was gonna be easy!” cries jasmine.

“Shh, hear that?” Mikey asks trying to focus his hearing. Alex looks at Mikey confused, “huh?” “I hear something creaking” he says staring at the ceiling.

“He’s gone mad guys!” he chuckles.

“Shut up, I hear it too. There’s something above us” A loud screech noise rings through the room and a hole in the roof breaks. Alex inches toward the hole and looks up, Mikey’s eyes pierced onto Alex. Mikey twitches lightly and darts pushing Alex to the floor. Within seconds a huge, sharp rock falls to the floor.

“Nothing in here has shadows. The fact that it’s dark is unsettling don’t you think? There’s something up there. Jasmine watch it while I look around” Mikey states standing to brush off his clothes and helping Alex up.

“I’ll look around for some other clues.” Alex says. Mikey studies the room,

“Drawers and Doors are sealed” he informs.

“Not this one, it’s locked from the outside.” Alex says over to Mikey.

“It has a keyhole; we must need a key.” Mikey says trying to look through the keyhole. “Uh guys, I hear something” Jasmine yelps as a huge bag slams to the ground. Jasmine

stares at Mikey as he inches to the bad, he slowly pulls the string as thousands of keys fall out.

“Well we’re F-“ Jasmine kicks Alex’s leg cutting him off,

“Language Alex, there’s kids’ reading this!” she yells sternly

“Alex start trying keys, Jasmine keep looking. I have a feeling this isn’t all…” He demands, Alex let’s out a long groan, and Jasmine warmly smiles and looks up at the hole investigating it. Mikey looks all around the room and notices an odd looking pack of salt and pepper. He walks to the other side of the room, to closer examine the shakers, he reaches over and shakes his hand over them to see they have a shadow. He picks up the salt and pepper simultaneously. He rattles them, softly and flips them over. Nothing falls out and no noise is made. He smashes the glass against the table. The others jump and stare at him,

“What did you find?” asks Jasmine staring at him. “I don’t know yet.” He says, softly. He reads the note in his head, “You’re better than them, stop wasting time. Take the other item. For yourself. Don’t tell them, I’ll add more keys. You’ll never escape. Have fun friend” He shoves the note and item into his pocket.

“Decoy” he chuckles awkwardly.

“Something to throw us off, huh?” Says Alex warmly as he tries another key, then CLICK the door opened. The three jumped in excitement. Alex sticks his head through the door, everyone waiting for his response.

“Guys, we’re gonna have a big problem…” Alex sighs. The three walk over, Mikey’s eyes widen and Jasmine let’s out a long sigh.

“I think this is where it gets bad”

The trio, walk out into the cold, humongous dome shaped area. The entire room is filled with trees the size of sky scrapers, grass up to our knees and fog that lays an inch or two over the grass. As Mikey studies the scene a duffel bag lands in front of the three, with yet another note. Alex looks up but the top is way too high, Mikey opens the bag and Jasmine keeps an eye out. “What’s the note say Mike?” Asks Jasmine. He clears his throat,

“” You passed part one of three good job. Now for the fun part; all across there is a scatter of bags and crates, each filled with useful items. The objective; Survive, you’ll know when you can move on. The bag you received is customized so no two bags are alike, they’re filled with food, weapons, and tools used to survive along with three bands you are to put on your arms. You are the Royal Blue team. There are two other teams Teal and Navy. Also, when you hear 3 consecutive rings. Run. P.S Only two teams walk away. Best of luck friends” Jasmine’s eyes widen; Alex looks at the bag.

“There’s all sorts of tools and weapons in here. We have to be careful.” Mikey orders.

“I think we should go to the top of a tree, there's a platform; we’d gain an advantage” Offers Alex.

“He’s right, anything in there for that?” Jasmine asks looking at the bag.

“Well we don’t need to climb the tree, we can climb the mountain, there’s one hook, rope, and four of the tools to climb Alex and I can climb and Jasmine can hang off of me and keep an eye out. Jas I’m sure you’re familiar with a .50 cal. Pistol.” He says tossing her the fully loaded pistol.

“This guy, of course I do how else would we have gotten this far?” she chuckles, in the back you can hear Alex laughing.

“Shut up, and get ready. If we scale up through here we can jump onto that tree, it seems to have a small plank across for support.” He says looking around at the path he carved out in his head. Mikey has a mental condition called, low latency inhibition. Which makes the brain treat familiar sceneries, people, and things as new things. He sees everything in more definition and his brain is more exceled and complex. Which allows him to see things differently than the others. He begins creating a plan on scaling up as Alex helps Jasmine rope up and latch onto Mikey. Mikey hooks her on and tosses Alex the tools.

“Let us go first, after all she’s our defense” Mikey says staring around.

“Sure” Alex shrugs.

“Let’s begin” Mikey says looking over at Jasmine. Jasmine nods her head as Alex makes the first strike, the tool slides in easily. He shakes himself a bit and starts striking until the Mikey is roughly 8 feet higher than Jasmine who is 4 feet off the ground at this point.

“Guys, isn’t it strange that nothing in here has shadows except us?” Alex asks getting himself ready.

“This is all weird” Jasmine says having a feeling of being watched, she clenches her gun as she narrows her eyes and focus’ her instincts. Jasmine has heightened hearing and seeing ever sense she learned how to focus her mind and use her senses in a new, innovative way.

"Shh, I hear something. Alex start climbing...Fast" Jasmine orders scanning the area. "You got it sis?" Mikey asks climbing. A loud rustling noise from the knee high bushes. Jasmine clenches the pistol as she stares around. The noise gets louder, she slowly pulls it out from it's hoister. Light whispers can be heard,

"You got our backs Jasmine?" Alex whispers worriedly.

"Yeah, I got this." She aims toward the rustling noise and takes one shot. A loud shriek let out, followed by loud yelling in the distance.

"Jas, start swinging onto the platform" Mikey demands, struggling to keep hanging. Jasmine starts swinging her legs and Alex gets a bit higher to jump. The distant screams get closer and the person in the bush falls down beneath them. It's a tallish girl, brown hair. Her leg is bleeding rapidly. Her and Mikey make direct eye contact as her eyes close. A loud thud follows Alex saying,

"Jas, you're turn. Just jump I'll catch you." She shakes and nods no, her body is sweaty and she's nervous.

"Do it Jas, I can't hold you for much longer I'm getting weak." He yells in pain as he gets a cramp in his upper arm. She prepares to push off the wall and jump. Just as she pushed off, silence...

As she jumped, Mikey's muscle tore and Jasmine jumped and missed. She fell, landing next to the other girl. Mikey looked down and within seconds, the other group was there. Alex looks over to Mikey as he grabs a gun. A loud bang is heard followed by running and the two girls gone. Mikey trembles as he jumps onto the platform next to Alex. His face dripping with sweat, and grime from the dirt and rock c***tail that fell onto him from the wall.

"We'll get her man. Don't worry. How's the arm?" Alex says trying to avoid feeling stressed out. Ever since the trio was little, Alex had a crush on Jasmine. He adores her.

"I think.. I tore my muscle" He gasps out in pain. Alex begins looking through the bag. "Water, Food, Medical Supplies... Um, let's see. Bandages and Pain Killers?" He suggests.

"No no, I was just gonna let the readers listen to me suffer. Of course I want the pain killers idiot!" He yells. Just as he took the pills, loud yelling, like war-cries rang throughout the entire dome. 2 Loud booms followed the yells and a severed limb landing in front of Alex. It was

blood covered, with a coat of dark brown dirt. Their ears ringing, Mikey pushes the foot off with a twig, Alex looks at him.

"This is getting serious Mikey." Mikey nods, then his eyes widen,

"BEHIND YOU!" Mikey yells, Alex ducks and runs over to Mikey. His shadow however did not follow, it lingered there. Then, it slowly moved up as if it were 3-D. It gargled as it inched toward Mikey, then without a second to respond it threw itself at Mikey, who quickly dodged it.

"That was clo-" he says finishing with a yell as ten sharp claws scratch down his back, tearing up his shirt leaving him in a puddle of his own blood,

"Mikey!" Alex yells. The shadow figure sharply turns and looks over at Alex, it gurgles. Then vanishes. Alex quickly rushes to Mikey's side. Out of breath Mikey says,

"B-Behind you" just as the shadow like figure jumped atop Alex and pulls him back, Alex's head dangling over the edge off the platform, the creature slowly makes a light incision on Alex's neck just as Mikey uses a stone that creates a bright light. The whole dome filled with this bright white light that seemed to have purple streaks. The shadow was gone, teared apart by the light.

"W-what... Just happened?" Alex asks breathing raspy.

"I found it" Mikey replies weakly. "My neck's fine. How's your back?" Alex asks. "Bleeding a lot... Give me your shirt. I need something to wrap it in so I don't get infected." Mikey asks looking dizzy.

"You've lost a lot of blood man" Alex tells him pulling off his shirt, handing it to him. "Thanks, but right now the goal is to get Jasmine back" He replies, wrapping the shirt around his torso. Alex shook his head respectively as he grabbed the rope from the edge and unraveled it.

"I know how to land Alex" he says leaning forward.

"Alright" Alex shrugs rolling the rope into the bag then slinging it over his shoulder. The two jump down then a loud screech noise rings every where and a loud, bright flashing light fills the dome. A card fell in front of Alex, He opened it and read,

""One team down, one to go. Hope my little friend wasn't too much. I decided we were going to play a little game next round. Best of luck, Friends." Mikey shudders,

"Let's just make our way to the door and find Jasmine there" Alex nods and the two start walking to the radiating door.

"This looks like the door we came in through." Alex points out.

"Indeed" Mikey agrees. The two wait for the other group. Suddenly there were loud rumbling noises that vibrated the ground. The two looked at each other. The walls began to shake. Then, a large, dark colored boulder begins rolling toward the door, fast. The two start running toward the door, almost inches away the dive in the doors. They turn around to see no boulder and the doors slam shut.

"I feel like Indiana Jones." Alex chuckled.

"Not the time Alex." Mikey scowled. The door abruptly re-opened and the other group poured in. Only two of them though. Mikey looks to Alex and nods, slowly walking to the other group. They lay on the floor breathing heavy, unknowing of the others in the room.

"We're in Sloan" the girl says high-fiving the tall, broad Hispanic.

"We made it Lexi, we need to find Mer." Sloan says to the short, perky girl laying next to him. She nods yes in response. Alex and Mikey stand over them,

"we lost someone too" Mikey says, holding his arm up. The two bounce up and scatter against the wall. Sloan was covered in blood and what seemed to be dirt, his face had some

gashes & cuts that applauded his facial features, he had what looked like a bullet wound in his upper arm. Lexi's hand had deep incisions that looked as if someone tried to cut it off. Her back was covered in claw marks.

"Back up!" Sloan yells with a crazed look in his eyes. Mikey clutches his gun and looks at them,

"You good?" He asks, sharpening his eyes on them. Sloan stands up then takes one step, sticks out his hand and says,

"Friends?" Mikey takes his hands off the gun and shakes Sloan's. Sloan looks down and smiles wide. Then leans in quickly and takes a chunk out of Mikey's arm. Alex runs over and just as he grabs the pistol Lexi kicks him in his genitals. Alex falls to the floor slinging the pistol across the room, Lexi jumps on his back and starts screaming. Alex and Mikey's ears ring, their ears start to bleed lightly. Mikey punches Sloan in the jaw, dislocating it and tearing some flesh, Sloan groans unable to talk. Sloan slings himself at Mikey who quickly dodges.

"Good over there?" Alex yells to Mikey who is avoiding hitting Lexi.

"Dart for it Alex, the guys down!" Mikey orders. The two start running down the thin path, each movement gashing their arms against the wall. Sloan stands and starts to follow, Lexi is inches behind Alex, leaps onto his back, digging her nails into his shoulder to hold. Alex yelps as he continues to run. Mikey ahead of Alex looks over his shoulder to see Alex being attacked. The path gets thinner, Lexi's skin on her arms are being shaved off with each hit against the wall. She let out a loud cry as her open wounds scraped against the sandpaper-like wall.

"What are we gonna do Mikey?" Alex pants.

"Go sideways when I tell you." Mikey yells responding. Okay. All right. When the path gets thin enough in about 5 seconds, just yell. I can do this. The path narrows and Mikey yells out,

“Now!” Alex turns to the side, Lexi bangs her head against the rough wall causing her to fall and bleed. Sloan rushes to her side as they continue on. The path starts to get thinner and long as if someone was pulling at it. As the continued, they had to slow down because the path was only a foot wide.

“Light breaths, the end is close.” Mikey says to Alex.

“Ok” Alex says lightly. Come on. Just a little bit more. She has to be on the other end! Mikey yelps lightly as the wall scratches his scalp and forehead. He turns his head to the side and continues, His clothes are drowned with blood, sweat and dirt. Alex however was just hoping to pass to see Jasmine. The path came into an eerie silence, which soon after had been broken. A hard rumble shook the ground as debris from the rocky ceiling fell.

“Something’s coming. This doesn’t feel like any earthquake.” Mikey stated.

“Feels more natural” Alex opined. Mikey begins to think to himself, is he an idiot? After being attacked by his own shadow we have to expect something like this. Based on the rumbles it feels like foot-steps. As one ends, another goes up. You can feel it in the ground.

“I don’t think so man… They feel like steps.” Mikey opined in response. Then, just as he predicted a hand slowly started to reach through the other slip (the entry). The end of the path was a few feet away. Mikey and Alex simultaneously say, “This is gonna hurt.” Mikey starts to power through, each movement scraping off skin, his legs and arms had little to no visible skin. His face looked like he was dragged across the street. Alex however, was sopping in blood. His own skin was hard to see, practically non-existent. Mikey yells in pain as one rib cracks, then a fracture in his arm and a dislocated shoulder. But just as Mikey escaped the path… Lexi and Sloan appeared. Except it wasn’t them. They had black and purple streaks practically radiating

off them and seemed to have no apparent pain. Sloan’s jaw hung in place still undone. Mikey snaps his shoulder back into place and yells at the top of his lung. Tears streaming down his face, he grabs Alex’s arm, pulling toward himself. Just as Lexi jumps toward him clawing his face and slicing open Alex’s eye. The slice was precise and straight, Alex screams enough to echo across the entire hall (which was roughly 100 feet). Sloan leaps from under Lexi and bites a chunk the size of a mango out of Alex’s lower leg muscle. Sloan stays back to eat it as a delicacy almost. Alex, passes through limping in pain his face riddled with tears and blood. He is blood covered from head to toe. Lexi jumps up and then a loud BANG rings throughout followed by a shining light. Lexi’s body thumps as it hits the floor. Alex falls just under Lexi who had dug her nails into his shoulder making his bone visible. Sloan, almost sensing Lexi’s death begins sprinting, blood splashing, skin tearing. Another shot runs through the halls, this time making Mikey’s ears ring. Another shot. This one landing through Mikey’s leg to Sloan’s head. Mikey falls to the floor and looks back. He sees jasmine on the floor next to what he assumed was Mer. Jasmine, Alex and Mikey began crawling to the center to meet each other. Then a loud cackling noise.

“You did it. You won. You’re prize however. This!” A loud crash followed by a spray of blood. The trio was smashed by a boulder. No one wins. The end is here. The man walked down and looked. Two shadow creatures at his side. The man was... All 9 of their fathers.