FIREWORKS

Chapter 8.

Diana's up early the following morning, already prepared for the day long before she needs to be, making her way downstairs pretty early this time.

The girl's not sure precisely which of the emotions currently battling within her mind spurred her out of bed; whether it was the light-hearted feeling of freedom at the thought of being allowed out of the mansion once again or the gut-churning fear that this will be where she fails and falls, the warnings she has received about the difficulty of this task are not ones that she is willing to ignore

Whatever emotion is pushing Diana forwards, however, she is glad for it.

She is awake, she is alert and, no matter what happens today, she is prepared.

Or, at least, the girl hopes she is.

Bounding down the corridor, Diana reaches the dining room in record time, not even bothering to glance around before taking her place, it's not until she's seated that she chooses to lift her head and observe the people around her.

It seems that Punz and Sapnap had gotten the same idea as her, as both are already down, digging into their breakfast whilst sneaking glances at the others.

Punz and Sapnap aren't in the seats next to her, but as the girl directs her gaze to the opposite end of the tableshe sees Dream and Badboyhalo, who wave and grin at her respectively, she grins back and waves at Dream.

They return to their food, and Diana's left to start on hers whilst the room remains reasonably quiet, the absence of one person lowering the volume from what it would usually be, that's not to say that the atmosphere is peaceful at all.

Whilst both Punz and Sapnap remain silent, the other residents of the mansion chatter amongst themselves as usual, and Diana finds herself dragged into the conversation on a few occasions, she pretends not to notice the burning look that Punz sends in her direction every time this happens.

Diana's almost finished with the portion on her plate, when George practically flings open the doors and saunters in.

"Morning, people," he says.

"Ready for today?"

Diana smiles when his eyes pass over her, nodding, she's ready.

The girl's worry makes the food she's eating taste strange, and she eats much less than usual, making her way back to her room, her feet draging behind her, feeling unusually tired, too tired, and she doesn't even get the chance to do anything before collapsing into her bed, her eyelids feel so...so heavy and, just before she succumbs to sleep, she realises why the food tasted so unusual.

He drugged us.

As the drugged haze clears from Diana's mind, she sits up to find herself in an unfamiliar place, the ground is cold and damp beneath her, tufts of grass dotted haphazardly around the area.

The others are getting up similarly, inspecting their surrounding much like she is, everything is eerily silent save for the shuffling of the group, and there's a gentle breeze that chills her to the bone.

It's still morning, and in the darkness the girl can make out treetops to her left, indicating that the forest is far in that direction, she gently pulls herself up to her feet to get a better look of the area.

"Today is going to be perhaps the hardest task you have faced so far. Up until now, you have been racing against each other or fighting against another enemy. Today, however, your only opponent shall be your own mind," George's voice echoes in the valley.

"As you can probably guess, the training shall be taking place, once again, in the forest behind me. I shall take you all to a position and give you a course, all you have to do is walk in a perfectly straight line in the direction I give you."