Cards and Keys

Chapter Nine: Truths and Lies

Lucy POV

The rest of my night on the airship unfolded rather uneventfully. Hisoka and I had fallen asleep on the windowsill, with my head rested in his lap. My face flushed scarlet when I realised our position, but luckily I'd woken up earlier than Hisoka, so I moved before he noticed. I could only imagine much he would've taunted me if he knew I fell asleep on him...

At dawn, the airship landed at our destination. A great concrete tower, hundreds of feet tall, sitting upon a man-made mountain.

"Welcome all applicants, to trick tower! Your only objective for this phase is to get to the bottom of the tower, that will be all." The little green man instructed us as he ushered us off of the airship, before leaving with the other examiners.

I peered over the edge of the tower, jumping off would mean instant death. I wasn't one to be scared of heights, but the idea of falling from up there still made my stomach drop.

I turned to Hisoka, "So do you think we climb-"
Abruptly, a hoard of winged creatures swarmed the tower and picked off those who'd already begun climbing- sending them tumbling to their doom.
"Ah, never mind then." Climbing was definitely out of the question.

"What now?~" Hisoka hummed impatiently, tapping his heel against the concrete.
"There must be some sort of secret passage way. The best course of action would be to split up and find them." Illumi answered, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Illumi's plan was the only one we had, so we all agreed and went our separate ways.

I wondered around for a while, making sure to stay away from the edge. Thanks to the mist up there, it was pretty hard to see anything, so I was having no luck finding any secret passages. But after a while, I bumped back into Hisoka, who was kneeling on the ground with a quizzical look.
"Did you find something?" I asked, getting to the ground alongside him. He pointed out a crooked floor tile. "Take a look~ It's a trap door."

I pushed my hand against the tile and it shifted slightly. He was right. I felt around the floor a little more and found that the tile next to it was loose too. "There's two of them!"

"Perfect~ Shall we go together dear?" Hisoka got to his feet, ready to jump into the trap door.
"What about Illumi? Isn't he apart of your 'team' too?" I raised my eyebrow at him, but he nonchalantly waved his hand in return.
"I'm sure he can handle himself for a while~"

The two of us agreed and jumped, the ground falling away beneath us. We'd only fallen a few metres before being met with the cold, hard, unforgiving floor.
"Ouch..." I groaned, brushing off the dust and staggering back to my feet.

The room around us was cramped and dimly lit, with a table in the middle and a speaker on the wall. The only way out was a door that was currently barred up.

"Hello applicants 345 and 44!" The speaker buzzed to life, a playful voice sounding out of it.
"You two have fallen into the route of two! It's rather fortunate that you're already acquainted with each other- taking this route with a stranger would be a death sentence aha!"

Why were all the examiners in this exam nuts? That guy was enjoying himself way too much.

"This door will open once you put on the wristbands provided on the table, they'll tell you how much time you have left to pass this phase!"

Hisoka and I put on the wristbands, which currently read 72 hours. Then, as the voice said, the door opened.
"How exciting~" Hisoka purred and went through the door.
"If you say so." I murmured, uncertainly following him.

We walked through a dark corridor for a few minutes before reaching another room. This one was much larger than the last, though just as poorly lit, and it had two machines that looked like they belonged in a hospital in the centre.