19 The Ex And His Whys

"You know me, Jess." I glanced at Jess and saw her completely frozen, her face is covered in total shock and recognition. Theo who was ready to kill the stranger in front of us earlier has now calmed down, probably realizing the stranger's identity.

"Take off your mask and show me your identity." As the man slowly revealed his identity, I could see Jessie's tears streaming down her cheeks. Happy to finally see the man that got away from her.

Jessie and Colt were one of the couples in Hellviana that were always looked up to, but at the same time, their relationship was also very envied by many. They were the IT couple on campus and due to their popularity, mainly Colt's, many secretly wanted to destroy their fairytale-like love story, including my best friend, Theo, who had a crush on Jessie since we were kids. Although both Jessie and Colt were strong, and they loved each other, they were still young especially Jessie.

Jessie didn't mind that she's dating a very popular and handsome senior, she also didn't mind the countless whispers and rumors of the other girls on the campus, since she knew it wasn't real, but she is very well aware that many wanted her boyfriend. The idea of a sudden betrayal by her boyfriend aches her heart, since Colt was his first serious relationship, she was paranoid and was filled with insecurities. Over the past months, she wasn't very active in our little group anymore, she changed herself both internally and externally for Colt and for the general public who sees her, at that time, as a "nobody freshman" who was genetically blessed and was "lucky" that a very well known senior was attracted to her. The general public basically sees her as a pretty face with no character, and she hated that.

After Colt's betrayal and their very talked about breakup, Jessie changed for the good. She changed her mindset about following the public's wants and needs into something that we all want from her, to love herself. She then ran in the school election as the school's secretary and won it with ease. She once again became active in our group and became sort of like our mother.

Everything was fine and we were all happy at first, but then it all changed when the news of the graduates after their graduation. The disappearance of the seniors shocked everyone and it further gets worse when the school didn't do anything about it, and we Hellvanians, especially Jessie, were left with unanswered questions.

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"Colt w-what happened to you? Where were you all this time?" Jessie falters as she cries and fell in Colt's arms. Colt hugged her tightly after seeing Jessie in tears, he smiles at her and kissed her forehead.

"I'll explain everything if you all let me." Colt said. We looked at each other, for a while debating through our eyes if we should trust Colt or not but we eventually agreed to listen to his story. We decided to sit down on a secluded and hidden part of the maze Colt apparently saw when he was wandering around.

"Where do you want me to start?" He sighed.

With a firm and confident look, Jessie replied, "From the beginning. After graduation to this moment."

"Okay, it's a pretty long story but I'll just shorten it up since we don't have that much time left." Colt said looking up at the sky.

"After graduation, we were woken up in the middle of the night. There were these guards surrounding us around like we were prisoners living in a prison." Colt started.

"Do these guards have this leader called Pave? Short, muscular, brown hair and has this very intimidating aura?" Theo suddenly interrupted.

"Yeah, I think?" Colt replied and continued his storytelling of his disappearance.

"Anyways, we were later forced into a bus. A white bus with these tubes and vents around it. We were all scared and confused, we didn't know where were we or where were we heading since it's the middle of the night and all I can see outside is darkness." Colt explained, his voice shaky and trembling. It must be that bad of an experience that THE Colt Summers is trembling out of fear.

"I smelled something bad and somehow fell asleep after that because the moment I opened my eyes, I was in a room. This dark and scary and blood red room and all of my classmates and batchmates were hanging with these tubes and wires all around them." He added, quivering in fear. Jessie rushed and hugged the trembling Colt, reassuring him that everything is fine now that they're together. I quickly looked at Theo who was staring at them, pain was visible in his eyes.

"The red room in the attic." Octavia commented.

"What red room?" James quickly asked. I forgot that we didn't tell him about that room.

"It's a long story James, but we found this scary room in the attic at the old building." I said to a confused James Lao. He unexpectedly intertwined his fingers around mine.

"Tell me more about this room when you have time. I need to be informed to you know." He requested. I blushed due to this sudden sneak attack.

"I saw you, Jess, I saw you moments after I woke up." Colt suddenly spoke.

"What? W-Why didn't you come to me?" Jessie stuttered.

"I wanted to, believe me I really wanted to, but I saw you terrified and I backed away and pressed on a button that was on the wall. It blared out this earpiercing siren and then suddenly the floor opened, I fell down to this huge and dark tunnel underneath the building. The next thing I knew, I was in here. In this place they call a maze where I stumbled, and wondered around for days, eating grass, mice and dead monsters." Colt explained.

"And is that how you saw us?" I asked, something about him feels off to me.

"Yeah. To be honest, I was actually playing your game because I thought that if I qualify, I might finally be able to leave this place." He said. We all looked at him. Everyone of us had the same realization.

"Wait, does that mean you have tags with you?" Octavia chirped.

"Yeah, I have two actually. You were supposed to be my last but then I saw who you were and-" He was interrupted from speaking when we all jumped on him and hugged him. With his tag combining to ours, all of us can form into a group and finally leave this maze.