All I see is the grassy fields expanding out to the horizon. Soon, dusk is starting to come as pink and orange rip through the once blue sky.

Slowly, I’m getting more and more dehydrated and hungry. Out of the peripheral of my eye, I spot a light. I turn my gaze and I see a ginormous mansion. Behind it resides a maze that seems to be neverending. One blink and I’m already at the mansion’s doorstep.

I take the little fancy golden door knocker and knock it twice. The door slowly creaks open.

“Hello?” I ask as I slowly make my way inside.

The interior of the mansion is fancier than I have imagined. The god contrast with the dark color outside. Just thinking about how a really fancy mansion would look is how I would describe what I’m seeing, but more medieval in some sort.

I go for is the kitchen. My feet stop themselves from walking before I realized it. Then I hear a voice. I take a risk by inching closer. I cautiously peek around the doorway and then see a boy and girl. His back is facing me while the red-headed girl was facing my direction.

“You’ve got to be more careful,” he says with concern. “I thought you would remember. Especially from what happened the other night.” The boy was gently putting damages on the girl’s bloody wound located right in her abdomen.

The girl doesn’t say anything, only remaining silent and looking sorry. Then shifts her gaze at me, and points. The boy spins around and he just stands there, bandages in hand, trying to process what to do next.

I didn’t know what was coming next, and neither was he. I feel something metal-like bash against my head. The world starts spinning, slower and slower.  My eyes try to regain focus but fail. My face starts inching closer and closer until all I could see was the flat surface of the floor. The floor feels cold against my face until I black out immediately. 

here’s a ringing in my ear as my eyes regain focus. The boy is hovering over me. I can feel ice resting on the side of my head.

I sit up and rub my head where it hurts. It’s bleeding. I look at the boy and ask, “What happened?”

“You got knocked out,” he replied, not looking at me. He was too focused on going through the cabinets.

“With what? I felt metal. Maybe iron?”

The boy spins around and I could get a full look of his face. Tall for someone of his descent. Close to black hair, kind of messy, and friendlier looking than me. He wraps some bandages around my head and says, quite flatly, “Ginger hit you to with a frying pan,” he gives her a look. All she did was face the window and pretend like she did nothing.

“Anyway, we better get moving if we want to get out of here,” he motions to the doorway. The boy and girl must know this place more than I do so I don’t say anything. They lead me outside where the maze is and seem to know the path well. We’re at the end of the maze when I accidentally go through a door that takes me back to the beginning, it takes me back to the mansion. Thankfully, we fully know the path and it didn’t take as long to reach the end.

The boy tells me there’s no point of escaping until we find the source. He says he’s been trying to find it for months but never had. We ask the girl if she knows anything about the “source”. She stays silent, focused on concentrating. Then her face turns emotionless. She points to me than her.

“I don’t understand,” I say.

She yanks the knife out of my hand and aims it at herself.

Terrified and in shock, the boy takes yanks it out of her hands. “No, we are not killing you. There’s another way, right?” There is incredulity and fear in his voice.

The girl nods. She takes the knife and gives it to me. She keeps pointing  “I can’t,” my voice is strained. I haven’t known her until now. Though I know for a 

fact she deserves better. Better than this. She gives me the knife and is telling me to do it. I close my eyes as I stab the knife, ending her for real. I don’t dare to watch her fall, breathing her last breath, seeing the starry night sky for the last time. The last people who she actually considered friends.

I wake up in a hospital, in a bed. Beside me is another bed. There lies the boy. The doctor comes in for a moment and says we’ve been unconscious for a few months. We’re not in any state where we are unable to move, so I sit up and sit on the side of my bed.

“We were unconscious the whole time?” I ask. “Then it was all just an illusion.”

The boy nods. “I think so.” He turns his gaze to the nightstand placed between our beds. There was a note written in dripping red letters. The boy reads it aloud. “‘Dear Vera…’” he pauses. His name must have filled in the gap where he stayed silent for a moment “I didn’t realize it until the loop. I didn’t know I had to die to let you go. I’ve been trapped there for years. I thought I would be like that forever. Silent. Only allowed to speak when I scream. Thank you for letting me feel alive one last time.’”

He hands me the note. I scan through it for more than once. So she was a ghost or an illusion of some sort. I look back to where the letter starts. His name was Aaron or was it. There were a bunch of random scribbles before Aaron was right behind it. Then I look at the end. From, Elle.