Paper Hearts

Chapter 7: Trials

Screams echoed throughout the darkness.

Labored breathing has gotten even more fatigued by the moment.

It has been a full 3 hours ever since we started running away from that madman of a counselor. The weaving hallways looked seemingly endless, one after another, and what I was expecting? A fully lit hallway with frequently cleaned floors, walls, and ceilings? Probably not. It was the exact opposite.

The hallways were so dark that I could not see my 5 fingers outstretched, what seems to be the only thing that was guiding us was the grim walls that were filled with algae and rust. The sounds of rusted metal creaked beneath us, which hinted to us that we were in an abandoned facility made out of metal. Our blistered feet landed against the rusty metal, which some of them were so old and rusty that it threatened to give way if we put even more weight upon it.

"Simon...are we there yet? My legs..they are giving way," Mary was panting out the words, not even saying them, "I really do not want that psychopath to catch up to us, I cannot imagine what he will do to us when he catches us." Without looking back at Mary, I replied, "Well, that son of a gun Newton, has really fooled us up and over. Remember back at the hospital? Was he one of the doctors who pushed for me to be entered into an asylum?"

Mary thought for a while, then said, "Yes yes! He was one of them who was there, and pushed with such strong and logical reasoning for you to be pushed into the asylum that it eventually convinced us." I held Mary's hand tighter, "That son of a...he will pay when I see him next time. First, we have to get us out of here."

From what our ears heard, our footsteps seemed to be echoing not so loudly now, and the echoes of our footsteps seemed to be leading towards a huge space up ahead.

"Mary?" I said, she then squeezed my hand. "It is here, the first trial. Let us get through it together, no matter what the trial may be."

She squeezed my palm tighter, signifying a yes. Then I said,

"Let's go."

With the first of many steps being taken into the first trial, our eyes were blinded by the sudden light. In an attempt to block out the light, we covered our eyes using our hands, but what we saw next...destroyed us inside.

There was the gnarly sound of bloodied gears grinding against one another, the sound of human bodies being crushed up by the metallic gears down below, and two platforms built on one side and the other. The only thing that covers the distance between these two platforms was a thin string.

Just then, a loudspeaker crackled, "Hello hello! Welcome to the long-awaited Trials! Let me give a brief introduction, yet again, about what these trials are about. These trials are set by yours truly, and in order to have a fighting chance of you and your beloved partner getting out here alive, you will have to pass all of these trails. Needless to say, if you fail even one of these trials...

You are not getting out whole-bodied.

Now, let us BEGINNNNN!"

The loudspeaker crackled for a while more, then stopped.

I looked at Mary, "So, Mary, what do we do now? Who is going to cross first?" She looked at me and said, "Well...he didn't specify any specific way to cross it, right? So the safest way I think is to crawl on the string instead of standing up."

She was trying to put on a brave front, but it was evident that her voice was trembling, knees were shaking, and she did all she could to hold herself together without crumbling into pieces.

I held her hand, which then she let out a small squeak, "Hey Mary, I know you are afraid. Don't worry, I am here okay? We can get through this together." She nodded slowly while looking at me in the eyes and squeezed my hand ever the tighter.

We walked closer to the ever treacherous end of the platform, where one look down could cause your vision to spin. I stepped onto the edge of the platform, and I looked back at Mary, where she gave me an encouraging nod. I took my first step towards the rope and hesitated until I felt the encouraging squeeze back behind from Mary. I then steeled myself and took the first step on the tightrope.

The tightrope swung from side to side, with me precariously trying my best to balance and not fall over to the grinding gears that await my possible arrival.

I took one step at a time, suddenly realizing that my focus has all went to my breathing. With each breath, I could feel my body trembling, I didn't know whether it was because of my body fatigue, or was it because of the fact that I was completely petrified, or it can be because of the grinding gears below me which looked on in anticipation at whether I was going to fall and become their next meal.

With wobbling steps, I took one treacherous step at a time and finally made it across to the other platform. Now it was Mary's turn.

She attempted to imitate my method of making it across, and up till the halfway point, it was successful. However, in the end, she slipped.

A scream let out, and I just barely caught her by her hand as she fell, raising out her hand for me. When I caught her, I realize that the scream was not from her, it was from me.

The accumulated fatigue that rested in both my arms suddenly exploded out, and I lurched dangerously downward, letting her fall ever closer to the grinding gears below. With grunt after grunt, I slowly lifted her back up, and with all of my energy, I hoisted her up to the platform. We landed with a thud on the platform, panting.

Mary looked at me with thankfulness, "I have never had such a close brush with death before." I looked around, and saw a wooden comb there, "You mean a brush with death?" She looked at me as if I was the dumbest person she had ever met, then laughed out loud and smacked me.

"Come on! Let's go, we have a lot more trials to cover before this whole farce ends."

Thus, holding me by the hand, both of us slowly made our way to the next trial.