[completed - under editing]
[last chapter edited - 8 | setting a trap for yourself]
"You're told all your life that you're broken, insane, mentally ill. And then you're told that you are going to repair the world."
᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽᯽
Thirteen...
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Pisces
The coppery scent of blood reaches my nostrils. It's faint, but I can single it out against the smell of mildew. Oh yeah, this place definitely has mold. Really, it's the prime of hospitality.
"Who's bleeding?" I ask, abandoning my sarcasm in concern as I twist my head around. A small square of light outlines the door, which nobody can reach unless they're exceptionally tall. Like, eight feet or something. None of us are even close to eight feet. I don't even think any of us are six feet here.
"Me," Leo whines sadly. I'm sure he's pouting. "It hurts."
"It'll be okay," I say with a huff, "I'm guessing nobody can reach the door." I stand up shakily and a stab of pain lances through my ankle as well as my shoulder, but I think I'm fine otherwise. I pride myself on having a high pain tolerance.
"Yeah," Nia says from somewhere further, "I'm 4'10", there's no way." Nia's the shortest of the Thirteen. And yes, that's her height. Seriously. We all joke about it. Gemi, who's somehow 5'4", likes to lean on her and use her head as an armrest. Still, he's short too, so we all use his head as an armrest too.
I pace towards the wall as my eyes get used to the dark, attempting to puzzle this out in my head. "If this is a trap, it can't possibly be as simple as this."
Ari groans, "You just jinxed it, you fool, Pisces."
"Since when were you so superstitious —" I look down and I see it. Something crawling on the floor. Something vaguely spidery. "Oh crap it's a spider!" I yell, jumping away. My back collides with the wall. It's a big spider, too. I normally can tolerate spiders, but big spiders? No. And it faintly glows green. It scuttles towards me, pauses, turns, and expels green liquid out of its rear end. I frantically skip to the side, but too late. The green liquid strikes my leg and burns right through my pants. And my skin. The pain is unbearable. I scream curses as blood drips down my leg and stomp on the spider. Bad decision. Very bad decision. The spider explodes in a mess of acid and spider parts. Acid splashes over my skin and eats away.
"Holy crap!" I screech in agony, "The spiders have acid!"
"It's okay, we can get out!" Nia calls. I can hear heavy panting from the side and assume it's Gemi. He's never been good with small spaces.
A moment later, I hear a triumphant squeal, a crash, a curse, and an explosion of acid. "Are you okay?" I scream.
"Only a bit got me! There's a ladder but it snapped. The part that's still intact is too far up for me to reach."
"Coming!" I call. I might just be the tallest person here. I try not to step on any spiders, and to just avoid them in general. I reach up, standing on my tip–toes, and grab a rung of the ladder, pulling myself up. It creaks. But it should hold. Probably. I hook a leg onto the rung and slowly grip the next rung. It creaks again more insistently. I know it'll break. I carefully climb, trying to put as little weight on the rungs as possible. My head brushes the ceiling and knocks against solid wall. The ladder creaks again, and this time it's the unmistakable noise of it breaking. I slam my hand into the ceiling and it trembles. Moldy, weak wood. I silently pray that it will give as I hit it again. Summoning my powers, I try to make the wood as damp as possible, just as Ari summons a flame and lights a room populated by spiders. Gemi's eyes widen. His back is pressed to the corner.
