Chapter XI: A fun little game

Riddle awoke the next morning to loud chatter and the smell of bacon being cooked. They groan quietly but sit up, immediately regretting that decision as their back popped loudly in many different places. "Should have just kicked them out.." They mumble under their breath as they stand, grabbing their stuff.

Heading to their room, they open the door and toss their stuff on the bed. As the getting ready for the day they hear and unfamiliar ringing, realizing it's from the rotary phone they hurry to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Ah good you're awake! I need everyone in the gardens in ten minutes, make sure you have everything you think you might need." The headmaster says then quickly hangs up to call the next sector.

Riddle sighs then loudly yells, "Get your asses in gear!!! We have to leave in ten minutes!! Make sure you have everything! Shades included!!" Loud running and scrambling can be heard as they others trip over themselves trying to get to their rooms.

Riddle laughs lightly. "Can they not get ready in ten minutes?" They wonder to themself as they quickly get changed and grab a smaller version of their duffle bag. This one is about the same size and shape as a small book, it's basically just a book as a bag.

They grab everything they may need and shove it inside, including their main weapon which currently was about the size of a pocket knife despite not needing to worry about space. Grabbing a few potions and other items they quickly head out the door, waiting for the others to get themselves in gear.

Once everyone's collected their things they begin to make their way to the gardens. Once they arrive they see the headmaster sat outside the hedge maze sipping a cup of tea at one of the wire tables.

He stands quickly, finsihed his tea and tossing his cup somewhere. "Ah good!! Right on time!!" He exclaims joyously. "I need you all for a special assignment! There's something inside this maze that I need you to get for me."

Riddle glares at him, too tired for his bullshit. "And why can't you get it? You have two legs and a beating heart."

The headmaster laughs, brushing off their rude comment. "Because! I don't want my life to be taken from me! But I'd have no problem if it were to happen to one of you!" If one didn't know him personally you'd think he was joking and that's exactly what most of the group thought.

Maribelle chuckles softly at his joke. "Very funny sir, now what exactly would you like us to retrieve for you?"

The headmaster's eyes sparkle with mischief as he hesitates on his answer. "Well, there's an important item inside that belongs to our.. special.. museum.."

Riddle cocks his head at this. "What specifically?"

If the headmaster could smirk he most definitely would. "Nevermind that, I just remembered actually. There's many.. items inside that you'll need to retrieve. You each must find an item that's important to you in some way. Once it's found you may exit the maze and return it to me. You will not be aloud to keep these items."

Riddle glares daggers at the man's skeletal face. "So basically you want us to find the items for our own blackmail?"

The headmaster nods enthusiastically. "Yes!! That's precisely it!"

Maribelle laughs softly, guiding Riddle behind herself gently. "How…. Fun, thank you sir.."

The headmaster's eyes sparkle with joy as he nods. Oh how he wishes he could smile. "Yes yes of course!! I'll send each of you in there at the same time so at least you may help each other if you so desire." With a snap of his fingers, and the screams of his students, they all get teleported into the dead (haha) center of this maze. All, except for his derelict favorite who stays exactly where they are.

Riddle growls at him. "Are you serious right now!?"

The headmaster chuckles and nods. "Have fun~" The skull headed man said teasingly as his figure disappears in an array of smoke and leaves.

Riddle screams loudly to express their frustration. "Gods how I wish I could kill him!!!" They exclaim, their voice full of anger as they stomp towards the maze entrance.

They weren't really sure which way they should go. Their ultra sensitive hearing gave them no clues as to who or what lied inside the mass of prickly brambles ahead. Riddle knew, deep down they knew they should find someone first. After all there's safety is numbers right?

Instead of trying to find someone they opted to find this blasted item first. They had an idea of what they were looking for, they're were only a few things out in this world that could be used as blackmail (to their knowledge at least). In their mind it could only be one of two things, their engagement ring (which was impossible, they had it on right now. They could feel the sharp thorns digging into their finger) or a photograph.

Those were the only things that came into mind for them, so they figured this would be easy since they knew what they were looking for. Riddle's heavy footsteps traveled through the foggy maze, breaking small branches and twigs along the way. Their ears twitched with every quiet sound, unsure what to be aware of and what to disregard.

Riddle smirked as a thought crossed their mind. "I could just summon Xena to find it for me. Obviously." They exclaim aloud, slight relief in their voice. They appeared to be relieved until footsteps were heard behind them.

They spun around quickly, shifting into a fighting stance as they do. A annoyed laugh can be heard as Riddle comes face to face with a rather pissed looking Vincentius, his face scratched and his favorite combat gloves torn revealing a familiar bright pink design on top of his hand. However the fabric wasn't torn enough to see exactly what it was.

Vincentius shakes his head to what Riddle had said only moments ago. "Can't. I already tried that. It's bullshit. What's even more bullshit is I don't even know why the hell I'm here!? He already has enough shit on me to last a lifetime!!"

Riddle laughs and shakes their head. "Of course he wouldn't make it that easy." They sigh, rubbing their temples. "Well, you look like shit."

Vincentius rolls his eyes, shoving them in their shoulder lightly. "That bastard teleported me right in the middle of a group of fucking monsters!!! Of course I look like shit!" His tone had a joking tone atop to hide how pissed he was.

Riddle laughs. "Of course he did. I'm not even surprised. Any idea what those monsters were exactly? It might help us." They say as they continue to walk in the direction they were going, Vincentius following behind.

Vincentius shrugs, his more relaxed demonour returning. "No fucking clue. I had to do different shit to get them all off my back. Like one I had to dead stare at like I couldn't blink at all. One of 'em attacked me when I wasn't close to it. The other was weirder than that though, it would just follow me? Like it wasn't harmful or anything. It just followed and stared. It had only just disappeared when I heard your voice so I'm guessing it doesn't like groups?"

Riddle nods. "Could be.. I doubt they're the only ones around."

Vincentius nods. "Yeah. Headmasters a fucking bitch for doing this. Fucking lazy ass."

Riddle shakes their head at all his cussing but hey, they're just as bad so they can't say anything. "I feel you there." Their ears twitch as they hear a deafening cracking sound ahead, causing them to flinch and jump back. "Damn. I'm guessing that's one of the monsters?"

Vincentius shrugs. "No clue. Probably. I don't think any of us can make a sound that loud." The noises caused him to flinch but he didn't jump back like Riddle did. When you work at this school long enough you kind of just get used to weird sounds.

Riddle rolls their eyes. "No duh dipshit." Technically speaking they could but he doesn't need to know that.

They both completely freeze as they heard more deafening sounds. Not of cracking branches this time but of…. Static?...

"Okay. What in the flying FUCK is in here!?"

To be completely honest, Maribee wasn't sure what the actual hell had happened. They could tell you what the ate for breakfast, (a bowl of oats with apples, blueberries, and raspberries but who really cares). They could tell you what her and Cerelia were doing after Riddle woke up (throwing berries at each other). Hell, they could even tell you how they got to the maze but what they couldn't tell you was how in the actual fuck they ended up being chased by this large tree looking thing in the middle of this stupid maze with absolutely no way to summon Ginger or to find any of her friends.

Having the absolute minimum of combat experience has helped her slightly but it hasn't helped her figure out how to fight what's behind her. What it has helped her with however is dodging, thankfully this things attacks are slow and far between so she's been able to dodge them fairly easily.

Despite having both elf and witch heritage she's absolutely terrible with magic, especially the elemental kind so there's absolutely no way she can burn this thing.

"This is it! I'm gonna die here! I can't out run it, I can't burn it, I can barely dodge it!! I'm gonna die!!" Her mind races with thoughts as she continues to run, she quite honestly can't do anything else. "I knew I should've paid attention when the villagers were training!!!" She yells as she dodges another incoming attack from the tree man.

She really has no idea what she was gonna do. All she can think of right now is to run, she knows deep down that if she stops that's it. It's all over for her. She knows she can't die yet, there's too many things she wants to do!! Like see the gorgeous sights of Ria or taste the amazing food of Helenzi. Most of all, there's one thing she knows she has to do before she dies if she doesn't, she just knows there's no way she can move on.

She can feel that she's losing ground. She knows it's catching up by how the ground vibrates. She knows that this is it. She takes a large breath, pushing herself to run as fast and as far as she can. "I can't die like this… I can't… there's still so many things I want to do.. I have to live, I have too. If not for myself then for everyone else…" Despite these thoughts she can feel her legs start to give out.

Her steps slow as she runs out of stamina. Her breath catches in her throat as she struggles to breathe. She grasps onto the wall of thorns for support only to end up scratching her hands. Her chest heaves as she coughs, trying and failing to capture some air into her lungs. "This is really it huh…. This is how it's gonna end…" Her legs give out after pushing themselves as much as they can. She screams out in pain as the brambles slice her hand further. Tears drip down her face as she continues to struggle, her chest heaves, her legs shake, she can feel it getting closer. Soon it's shadow finally towers over her weak form.

Then, just as fast as it begin. It was all over…