Chapter 38: Overthinking and Anxiety II

C H A S E

Walking without a break makes my leg feel numb. Looking at Naomi, who is in front of me, she seems pretty calm, even if we are playing in the hands of an unknown person. A mansion in the middle of nowhere, inside of it is an endless corridor that forms a maze. Everything was painted with black, not a single piece of furniture or painting, and dim lights. An eerie place for a creepy person.

He and Naomi have similar tastes, but I bet she can't enjoy it right now. Being played by creep is not like her, is she plotting something again? She is the type to plot evil things in private, do things using her own ways, and manipulate everyone. This personality of hers is loved and secretly hated by the people.

Who would want a manipulative, evil woman as their queen, right? But, everyone still trusted her, the same goes for me. No matter how many times she tricked or manipulated us, we will still follow her. We chose her as our queen and gave her the burden, so we will stay by her side and do everything she wants. Naomi is a selfless person, she always thinks of what is better for everyone, and we trust her.

"Dead already?" Her voice drifts me away from my thoughts, back to reality. I found her staring at me as if I'm a hallucination or a ghost.

"I'm fine, just lost in thoughts. Is there something wrong?" I asked, a hint of worry in voice and eyes. It's scary how my mind works lately, but a jealous woman is worse.

"There is a door and I think we need to enter it. Also, there are cameras by the corridor, and I bet that at least one of our friends are already there. Probably watching us," she said cautiously as she turns the doorknob slowly. A clicking noise and creaking of the door was heard as we enter the room.

A monitor greeted us as it displays the letters, "UHVTP". It doesn't make sense to me, but it probably does to Naomi. Looking around, the room is also painted black, unlike the corridor, it's quite bright in here. There are also two doors in front of us, both have a mini-keyboard and monitor.

"Welcome! You're the first one to arrive here, so as your challenge, decipher the given code. Both of the doors accept the correct answer, but it could lead you either to heaven or hell. Good luck!" the same robotic voice from earlier said, leaving me dumbfounded. Even if we get the correct answer, only one of us can get the correct path. This is suicide.

"I can cipher it, but we have to split. Is that alright with you?" Naomi asked without looking at me. Probably focused on the code and thinking of a way to keep both of us safe.

"Don't worry about me. I'll do whatever I must and let fate decide. I trust you," I reassured her, and her shoulders relaxed. She quickly took a small piece of paper and pen from her pocket and starts to scribble things.

"Using the Caesar cipher, I got my own name as the answer. Should we try it out?" She asked after solving it. In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar's cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar's code, or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet.

"Sure," I replied then walked to the right door and typed her name. She did the same, then the doors made a clicking sound, a signal that it is open, at the same time. What could possibly be waiting for me inside? Naomi is probably enjoying the thrill, while anxiety is building up inside me.

Taking deep breaths as my whole body sweat and shakes, hundreds of thoughts fill my mind. "What do I do? What if I got the wrong door? or Naomi got the wrong one? What will happen to us behind these doors? Will we find the others? Will we see the real hell? Am I finally going to die? Will I still see the others if I enter? Why do I feel weaker? My anxiety kept attacking me ever since we entered here, is this place cursed? " Those questions are some of the hundreds of questions inside my head that was caused by anxiety.

Anxiety, frustration, fear, and helplessness begins to swallow me. Slowly, I let my hands travel their way up to my hair as I pull it because of frustration. Everything felt unreal and my sight became blurry. I feel like I'm going insane when I suddenly felt pain at the back of my neck.

As my body falls down the ground, I saw a silhouette of a woman with long hair before my consciousness was taken away from me.

---

Everything was black when I suddenly heard voices calling my name. "Chase!" they called me. As I turned around, I saw all of my friends, smiling at me. From black, the surrounding turned into an empty field. The wind brushes against my skin as it messes up with my hair. Seeing their bright smiles painted a smile on mine as I run towards them.

I kept running and running, but it felt like they were drifting away. "Why can't I reach you?" I shouted, hoping that they would hear me. They only kept their smiles as tears slowly fell from their beautiful orbs.

Their smiles fade away as their clothes became filled with their blood. From the windy grass field to a field of dead bodies as the scent of blood covers the air. Their dead bodies surround me, their hands reaching out to me.

"Weak!"

"Useless!"

"Coward!"

"Weakling!"

"Suffer!"

"You promised to save me!"

"Why did you let me die?"

"How dare you survive!"

"You should die!"

They kept repeating those words as invisible knives stabbed me. Please, no more. Just take me, take my life. I don't want to keep living like this, please forgive me. Someone, please save me...