Level Seven Continued: Trypanophobia & Algophobia

"You awake?" Camdyn whispered poking at my shoulder, but it was loud enough to make my ears ring, he just as well of yelled. I can't say that I blame him for that though, because he looked like he was suffering the same, or probably worse, if I have to admit. It's the aftermath or some kind of symptoms that come with the injection. It must be. Again, I have all the reason to fear those cruel things.

"Yeah, I think so," I answered, groggy and in a daze as I sat up. I had goosebumps on my skin from the cold floor, and my bones were sore for having to lay on such a rigid material. Blake and Shyrene were fast asleep on it, passed out you couldn't tell if they were dead or alive by their faces, but only until their chest would rise. "Should we wake them?" I asked Camdyn, not managing to look at him, but at the two of them in such a rare delicate state.

"If they're rested, they'll be able to support us better. Let them be, and we can search first. It's not like we're being timed for this, are we?" He stressed out everything he said, it's as if it was dragged out longer than it would've had to be.

"Camdyn," I paused, sighing, mixed emotions about having to bring my personal feelings about this up, but that's exactly what this was about. I have to. "I don't know if we're being timed, but there has to be something we don't know; something that that paper didn't say. It's not like I want to admit this Cams, but I've been freaking out the entire time and Blake and Shyrene haven't become our opposers. It might sound good and all, but I have the feeling this is more extreme. Like the level thinks it's going to be so hard that even if that duo are on our team, we'll still struggle, or like no matter whose team we're on, we'll all be on our own. I just have a really, really, bad feeling about this. We have to get out of here fast and we need all the help we can get."

"If you want them awake, you could've just said so," he didn't take me seriously, and had put his hands up defensively like I was being bossy about it. The idiot doesn't know the difference between bossy and sharing instinct. "Your wish is my command then, girly."

I held back on fighting with him, because if I was making any kind of request, that would be it, and he was cooperating. Plus, of course, because I didn't know the sick unjust rules of this level that contradicts everything I've ever known, and if an argument would push us all back to a restart.

Staying put on the opposite wall, I watched the two of the sleeping beauties stir awake, in as much of a daze as I was, but once they were fully there, we didn't have to fill them in on anything. They knew where they were for the most part, and what we were supposed to be doing.

"You guys haven't found the key yet?" Shyrene said tiredly, bringing herself up to a crawl to commute her way to the duffle bag. She checked for anything else that she might not have noticed before, and I began searching on the wall near to her, in case there was a hidden and disguised compartment that we couldn't see. I caught her glance from the corner of her eye, and from that she answered the question for herself, which she wasn't afraid to say aloud, with a heavy exhale. "I take that as a no."

"Just," I murmured, feeling awkward to be the one to try to hype anyone up, especially around people all likely stronger than me, and if annoyed can rip me to shreds, "keep looking." I kept it short, still searching, now along the border between the wall and the floor, in hopes something was loose. Nothing was. Every bit was tight and impossible to pull away without the proper tools.

"Where the heck can a key possibly be in a room that doesn't have any area to hide anything? It's bare in here! What you see is what there is!" Blake was getting impatient, and I think in the reality, we each were. He just had the no-filter in him that chose to verbalize it.

Because he felt the need to complain, I wanted to complain myself about a level that would lock us in a room and not provide us an actual way out especially since it would put each of us on the same page, but I had to wince at this light burning on my upper left thigh. Shyrene and Blake were reacting the same, and when I lifted my pant leg up enough to peek to see what it was, there was a cut about four inches long, perfectly straight, like a knife had went through it by hand. It wasn't deep, and wasn't incredibly painful. It must've been there the entire time, and the pain killer was wearing off, so it's only now that we noticed it.

Shocking, yes. Agonizing? Not really.

"Holy fricking mother of a god. This is some got-ran-over-by-the-tire-of-a-monster-truck kind of crap. What kind of sinners do you have in your head, Mars?" Camdyn bellowed. He had tripped over his own feet, at least that's what it looked like, and was pointing at the same location that each of us were cut. The landing meddled with a floor board that stuck halfway out of the ground, vertical instead of horizontal. I ran to his aid, even though I was assuming he was being OA about it, and decided on giving him attention he didn't deserve.

"Oh come on Camdyn, it's not that bad—," I said, lifting the sweatpants from his ankle up high enough to see what he was making a big deal about. I had a big smile through it, aware that he's been known for pulling on our legs and messing with people, but when I saw the cut, I couldn't smile anymore. He had right to be screaming like he was, and he was actually handling it better than I could ever. "What the heck happened to you?"

"I'd like to know that exact thing too, Mars. What a coincidence!" He mocked me, breathing heavily in agony after each word. Rolling my eyes at a time I shouldn't be, I noticed a glistening underneath the loose board, and I reached my hand down to grab whatever it could be. Camdyn was intrigued by my change in attention, expecting I would prove to have extremely good of a reason to drift off from his problem, which is understandable, honestly. "Why? What? Did you find the key?"

I felt around the item's edges. It couldn't be the key. It was much too sharp, and wasn't as small. "No," I said, lifting it up high enough so I could see it, but by time it was up that high, that meant everyone else saw it already too. Saying out loud what it was was stating the obvious. "It's a knife."

I lowered back down toward my lap, studying it further. It was covered in blood, which was dried to it by now, and everyone had gathered around to see it for themselves. "Why are you so quiet?" Blake asked in the silence. "What are you thinking?"

"Camdyn," I turned to him to tell him directly, even if the other two were listening in, but I couldn't get myself to tell him my thought with my eyes open, or my breathing steady, that I blurted it out too fast to sound compassionate. "I think the key is in your thigh."

"What? Saturn Marie," on top of everything I saw that I didn't want to see, and him of all people using such a name to call me, my spine felt paralyzed, and I felt unable to move. He didn't notice, and I couldn't make a big deal about it because he had a pain of his own. He was pretty blinded by it, nothing would stop him from ranting. "The pain killer had already worn off, and even if it didn't, I can't open that wound back up. That's insane, even for me! Besides, what if you're wrong? What if it's not? Then I'd be in worser pain for nothing."

"I'm sorry, Cams. It's the only explanation," I replied. I wanted to respond 'logical explanation' but nothing about any of this has ever been logical, and that hasn't gotten better as we went along. "I have no idea where the key is but we have these cuts on—."

A knock hit the door twice, and like it commanded us to turn our head, it devoured our attention. There was no sound, no talking or any kind of way to distinguish what was behind this door, besides that swiftness of another piece of paper finding home with us, after flying from in from underneath.

Blake retrieved it this time, also clearing his voice like Shyrene did before, to prepare himself to begin reading it:

"You would be correct, Ellie. The key is in his thigh. It's a pretty general level because just about everyone has some fear of pain, even if it's in moderation or kept well enough in it's place." Blake eyes widened as he scanned the sheet, and it frightened me. I just knew that the worse of things was yet to come. I could tell. "Should I be apologizing, little girl? Your bones have been trembling since you got here because of the injections fright, but I chose to let you and your life-representatives be. Yes, I let you be a team because I'm lenient. I'm sure you're afraid, with as human as you are, of watching someone else be in pain, but you're not going to have much choice. You have one minute to get out of this room, or it's going to collapse. Ell, I have one rule for you: don't cry. Camdyn, are you ready?"

"This has got to be a sick prank," Camdyn shook his head.

"Wish it was," Shyrene answered, but her reassuring ended there, her hand outstretched towards me, behind her. She was locked on the deep cut, and didn't look away for one beat of her heart. She refused to. "Ellie, give me the knife."

"What?"

"Give it to me now! We don't have much time, and there's no one else that's going to step up and do this for us, is there?"

Her stare was stuck on me, and her stubbornness and strength, though the girl herself was on my side, was doing me wrong. I didn't want to have anything to do with the key incident, even if it was something as basic as this, but I gave in, as she wanted from me. "Camdyn, I'm sorry." I told him, like it would change anything. It definitely wouldn't.

Oh — did he scream. He screamed so deafening that his lungs inflated and deflated so quickly it's pop like a ballon. He screamed so deafening that glass could be shattered in no time, and he screamed so deafening that the metallic and copper taste would climb throughout his throat and into his mouth.

Blood was running wild again, a ton of it too. I know I was warned not to cry, but the blood came rushing like water from a hose that you'd undo to wash the dirt from your feet after a long hike, dripping more than I could guess the body to hold, and I started to understand how much color makes a difference in things. In the movies, during the sad scenes, the lighting is always dark and depressing, and in the happier ones it's bright and easy-going. Now, a clear puddle on the floor would mean the happiness from a great outdoor adventure, but the red puddle meant death, and we'd be lucky to get anything better than that.

One tear broke free, falling down, and I hated that I couldn't complain. I cried from my eyes, but he cried from his veins.

TWELVE OF SIXTY SECONDS REMAINING

LEVEL SEVEN FAILED

Blake yanked the knife from Shyrene, that was still dripping of Camdyn's blood, holding it up to his throat. It was so out of nowhere, that I couldn't get myself to attempt to make him calm down. I've already watched so much happen, I didn't know how much more I was capable of handling.

Shyrene did it anyway. How she still had that strength left in her — only God knows. "What are you doing? Why would you do that? Quit. Get a hold of yourself."

"They'll always take a life representative from a level if it fails. Usually, there's a death in the level that counts for the offering, but because none of us died, we have nothing to sacrifice. Whose taken will be chosen at random, and there's a twenty percent chance that it's going to be you, Shy. It's not that unlikely, and you'll be gone." He told her, the knife up to his throat. He didn't relax. "But they haven't confirmed the level to be over or that it'll restart, so if I die now, it'll automatically be me. I'd have three of me left to spare anyway."

She held the knife gently, hoping that with a lighter grip on it, it would move him to put it down on his own. Holding it too tight made him want to fight it, and because of his emotional high. go through with his decision. "Blake, we've already been through with this. You heard what I told you. This isn't what I want. Trust them a little more!"

"There's nothing you can do to change my mind," he answered firmly, and in a flash, he collapsed, droplets of scarlet dotting his collarbones, and in between Shyrene's fingers and fingernails.

ONE LIFE OFFERING ACCEPTED

LIVES REMAINING: FOUR

LEVEL WILL SOON RESTART

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE

Shyrene facepalmed, again, kneeling beside his body, whispering. It was sad that that was getting too familiar. "Why do I love you, the most stupid man to ever exist? And why can't I actually say that what I'm worried about is that in the real world, you'll go too crazy protecting me, that you'll leave me behind? The real world doesn't have lives. You only get one. Life nor love is promised. You have got to stop doing this stuff, idiot."

My lips formed a thin line. I didn't realize she thought that way. It should've been easy for me to piece it together, but even so, I didn't notice.

She is right though. I have to give her that.