Trials and terror [The trials fanfic]

[CHAPTER THREE] CLEANING

In the previous chapter: "Whoa, getting a job already?!" exclaimed Bobi with a smile

"Yeah" the blonde shrugged

Jessica gave her a pat on the shoulder and said "Well, good luck Spork!"

Eye snapped his fingers to redirect her attention back to him "Alright, follow me"

...

Minutes had passed as they walked through the facility, Spork was wondering what this first task would be; surely it wouldn't have been something big but she was hoping for something that wouldn't be physically taxing.

"We're here" Eye spoke, they were inside a black room along with other employees, there was a TV that was turned on.

"Welcome mediators! It's time to clean phase 1..." someone said through the TV

"...grab the utensils and get to work"

There were plenty of sponges, water filled buckets, broom and so on... even a large dumper. Then a door opened from the wall, which lead to a bigger room, the mediators stepped in but to Spork's horror there were dead bodies on the floor!

"Oh no! What happened to them?" She asked as soon as she had noticed, pointing at a corpse who was laying just before an open crate

"You see, our business consists in uh, games that people play...but if you lose...you die. And that's exactly what happened to that person over there" Eye explained, now everything made sense

"And that's the norm?" "Exactly" he didn't bat an eye.

"That's- that's insane-" Spork began only to get muffled by the other guy "Shh... Don't say that... Trial master's watching"

"Hm hm-" "Okay, I'll get my hand off your mouth, but promise me to not do that ever again"

Spork nodded and after a second was free to talk again

"Let's go to Horse Race, come now" he said.

The two went inside an elevator of some sort. When the door opened, Spork could see collars lined up and a giant sign

"Zel's fun factory?" she thought out loud "It's a section in this phase"

The duo entered through a purple door and there, another body to clean up; this one was not as bloody but still, they seemed to have died in an horrible way nonetheless.

"See the collar on their neck? It electrified them after they failed the trial" Eye explained, when suddenly another mediator entered the room, adjusting his hair before speaking

"Hello there"

"Hi" greeted Spork

"Nice to see you Xhc".

The mediator came closer, looking down at the dead participant

"Do you need help with carrying the body?" he later questioned them

"Actually I was just showing Spork around" Eye replied

"Oh, she must be the new mediator then"

"Yes, I'm glad to meet you" she smiles.

After saying goodbye to Xhc, they proceeded forward to the second part of the fun factory. It was a maze, tall purple walls were making paths and fake palms and flowers were adorning this place. Even with all those colours, it was still a bit ominous, probably because the fun music wasn't playing.

At this point, Spork was starting to grow curious of the phase so she walked forward until she had found the exit but there was no way to the next trial, or so she though.

In the meantime Eye caught up, "You seem eager to see all the trials, Spork" he told her

"Yes, but there's just a big pole here... How do we proceed?"

Then the TV outside the room lit up, the voice spoke "Do you need a ride?"

"Yes, please" "Alright"

Out of nowhere, the pole started coming down, it revealed itself to be some sort of circle with seats on it.

"What now?" Asked Spork "We have to ride it, take a seat" replied Eye

and after both of them sat down the carousel started coming up again; it was like a fun amusement park ride, expected that it wasn't, for the participants at least.

The exploration went on, first of trigger finger, then light switch and so on. The new mediator saw other workers cleaning the stages and making sure that the machines worked okay.

Later, they arrived at the winner's room. There, another mediator was placing down something on the table

"Hello?" Spork tried interacting, the girl turned after placing the ring down

"Oh, hello. I've never seen you before girl" she said

"Yeah, because she is new. Her name is Spork" Eye explained

"Nice to meet you! I am Liz, been workin' for 3 months approximately so I'm kinda new too" The two shook hands

"You probably don't know about the rings, right?" Liz continued

"No, I don't" the other girl responded

"So technically, these ' 'phases' ' are series of challenges that participants have to complete. Whoever wins gets the ring"

"And then?" "Once you get all rings you get your desire!"

Spork was very confused, how can rings give you a desire? But mid way explanation, the speakers started going off

"Attention mediators, another wave of participants is incoming. Please exit the phase within the time limit"

A timer started counting down, ten minutes. Everyone went back to the secret opening in match a lock, but while our mediators were going back to their dorms to relax, some other workers were headed somewhere else, a theatre room, to be exact:

That place wasn't accessible to everyone, only so called upper class, overseers and the trial master himself can go in there.

Majority of the mediators don't know what exactly the theater room was for or why it was such a restricted place...

...but one thing was certain...

Whoever had access wouldn't want to miss out on the show.