"I don't trust this. We may be in a place our parents called secret, but you never know if there's something lurking around somewhere." Alexander took out his handgun, the other's following in suit. Adrian and Milena were the only ones who pulled out daggers, two each. The leader immediately turned the safety off, the other's waiting to see if it was necessary.
"I'll go ahead." Spoke Nicholai, pushing his glasses up with his gun.
"Careful." Spoke Alexander, feeling on edge. Nicholai shot him a smile and stepped softly down the hallway. Twenty minutes passed before someone spoke.
"Something doesn't feel right." Muttered Flavia, scanning the room before taking a deep breath.
"Nicholai!" She yelled, immediately getting a hand over her mouth.
"I wouldn't do that." Muttered Yan-Ting, "Nicholai knows how to take care of himself. He'll come back." Everyone was tense, waiting for some sign of life. Two minutes later a figure stumbled into view, clutching his stomach. Nicholai raised his head, his face portraying a mix of relief and pain as he realized that he'd found them. His glasses were clutched in his hand and he seemed a tad bit disoriented.
"Shit." Muttered Sung-Ha walking towards Nicholai.
"What the hell happened?" Alexander wrapped an arm around Nicholai's waist to stop him from collapsing. The leader's face hardened as he saw the blood dripping from a cut on Nicholai's forehead.
"It's a maze. There's traps everywhere." Coughed Nicholai, allowing Alexander to help him into a sitting position against the wall. Sung-Ha lifted Nicholai's sweater, revealing black and blue bruises, wincing at the sight. He pressed down slowly, muttering an apology every once in a while. Soon after Sung-Ha concluded nothing was broken, simply bruised.
"Can you be more specific as to what happened?" Asked Alexander softly, hoping to get some kind of insight as to what they were about to face.
"I'm not sure. I took a couple of turns but then the passageways ended up mixing together, I didn't know where I was going. I got thrown into a wall by something. There was glass. I don't remember much else, it's kind of hazy. I'm sorry." Nicholai looked down, avoiding his leader's eyes. Alexander knew that Nicholai felt like this was a test, a test he'd failed. So he gently touched the younger's chin, forcing him to look up, and spoke,
"Hey, it's okay. We'll figure this out somehow. For now, no one is going to go in there. I'm talking specifically to you Santiago and Milena." The leader narrowed his eyes at the two people who seemed to be itching to get into the hallway. Milena raised her hands, feigning innocence, while Santiago just rolled his eyes.
"Wait so, there was no physical opponent. It was all just traps and shit, right?" Flavia looked at Nicholai, who nodded. Then it dawned on Alexander.
"That means these traps were made by our parents. It's some kind of test; we need to figure out how to either turn the traps off or pass by them." Alexander looked up at Flavia from his position on the floor.
"We'll head into the garage, see if we can spot anything unusual. Can you stand?" His last question was directed to Nicholai, who responded with a hesitant nod. Alexander kept his arm wrapped securely around Nicholai's waist when he noticed the younger wincing. Warily the group headed back to the garage.
"So what are we even looking for?" Asked Santiago, clearly impatient.
"Anything that resembles a way to stop that maze." Replied Alexander shortly, placing Nicholai one of the rickety chairs, which looked very out of place in the blinding white room. They spent the next half an hour searching every nook and cranny, every box, every wall. Soon enough, everyone's patience started to wear thin.
YOU ARE READING
Blue Rose
Teen Fiction"We're all bad people. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others." After their parents' death, Alexander and the 7 other company heirs will have to continue what was started. But when it turns out that there is much more to their parents l...
