Sunlight woke her up painfully, the woman throwing an arm over her eyes to try and make the forming headache go away. A soft groan left her lips as she turned over, succumbing to the need to wake up. Somewhere in the back of her brain, the whining over waking up commenced as if it was a habit but it was quickly drowned out by a violent wave of vertigo that bought a nasty nausea spell with it. Sitting up fully, Abney waited there for a beat or two before slowly lowering her arm to let her eyes adjust to the sunlight. And the field, apparently.

She was in the middle of a field. The field lead into a bunch of walls. Very, very tall walls. How… odd? How’d she get there? After a few moments of trying, she realized she could recall nothing. Not just of how she got there but couldn't even recall a name, birth day, nothing. Looking down to her arms and legs, she appeared uninjured but something was... off... missing. A stone of dread began to form in her stomach, eyes scanning the field to see a stone-like thing sitting there. Well better to start there. Pushing herself up, Abney walked over and looked it up and down, pausing at the words.

"’We are pleased to bring you this life changing experience with the ones who could be your best friends or worst enemies. We don't know, you figure it out......’" Abney read aloud, squinting at it as if the words would change beneath the scrutinizing glare. The witch held her hand up, a questioning look etching into her face as the words sank in. “How the fuck is this helpful?!” she asked, throwing both arms up in exasperation. Looking past the obelisk to see if she could find a more useful clue, she saw bodies. The dread got worse in a second. Oh no ... "Oh no no no," she grumbled aloud, rushing over to see if the other’s were alive. “Hey anyone home?” she called, gently shaking shoulders. Oh god what if they were dead?! 

Toni slowly woke as she heard someone else yammering on. With a groan she rolled over and immediately had to take a few deep breaths. The rolling feeling her stomach gave her let her know she had probably drank too much the night before. Being a bit more careful about her movements she sat up and put her head in her hands. Rubbing her eyes she looked up and around. She noticed the same landmarks that Abney had and then of course she noticed Abney herself. Well what the fuck? Frowning at the stupid looking girl Toni tilted her head. She seemed familiar but a great feeling of distaste came with the sight of her. It was probably just whatever had happened to her. Wait…. With a confused expression she knitted her eyebrows and looked down at her hands. Who was she? Well that wasn’t good. She couldn’t remember anything at all. Well nothing of complete importance anyway.

Standing slowly she made her way over to the same stone that Abney had and frowned at the same message Abney had seen. ”The fuck?” That didn’t make sense…. Shaking her head she walked around it a bit more looking it over and found more writing. We invite you to take on the three challenges that lie ahead. Trust each other, betray each other, rely on each other, or leave each other to die. Whatever happens, it must be destiny, right? We promise we’ll tell everyone that story if you stick to it as well.

Sorrowfully, we will not be allowing any emergency exits for today’s experience, not even death. So please do your best to enjoy all the work we’ve put into this! We recommend getting started right away. Remember to stay close to each other!

PS: If you see this stone message again, know that we will reset the maze to three new tasks for you so that it doesn’t become repetitive! We would truly not wish for you to grow bored!”

”What the hell do they mean emergency exits like death? You can’t come back from death!” she was so confused by this message and why did she say ‘they’ instead of ‘it’? shaking her head because it was starting to hurt. She rubbed her wrist subconsciously as she walked back to the other annoying looking lady and the still unmoving one. ”Hey, who are you and where are we?” she asked in a frustrated tone just staring at the girl obviously expecting an answer. 

Seeing the first woman, a brunette, open her eyes made relief flow through Abney. “Oh thank god, I thought you guys were dead.” she said, giving the other space to get up and breathe without Abney hovering. Hearing the other woman curse at the same lines she had cursed at only made her nod her head a bit too enthusiastically. “I know! It’s not fucking helpful at all. 'We don't know, you figure it out'!” Maybe she was just overly happy the other was awake… But that excitement turned to more dread as the other woman began to ask questions. Oh boy, here we go. “I - I don’t know. I just woke up here… and you guys were over here just past the stone of least information here.” Abney answered, crossing her arms. “I don’t know how we got here or anyt-” The words were abruptly cut off, the witch finding herself on her back with the third woman sitting on her, baring her fangs.

Shock flooded Abney’s system, staring up at the lioness-like woman who was hissing and growling at them to state purposes and demanding who they were. Though something in the back of her head was screaming to get the other off of her, Abney only laid flat and held her hands up in a surrender-like way, staring up at the other. The other woman was suddenly screaming, purple cracks forming much to the witch’s amazement, though it looked rather painful to be honest. The woman collapsed and Abney scrambled back, away from woman who just tried to choke her. “Best friends my ass! Lookin’ like enemies at this point.” the witch grumbled as she got up, looking at the woman writhing in pain. The witch couldn’t help but feel bad for the other, even as she jumped back with the intent to fight them despite her injuries. “Listen,” Abney tried in an attempt to diffuse the situation. “No tricks, we’re not trying to do anything. And there’s nowhere to go except back there.” Abney said, gesturing over her shoulder to the maze construct, unaware that the lioness couldn’t see it. “We just woke up here, same as you. We’re just as confused and lost as you are. Right?” Abney kept trying, looking at the brunette for back up. The last thing they all needed was to be at each other’s throats in the middle of, what looked like, towers of doom and despair. 

Toni raised an eyebrow as she saw the one who was previously unconscious launch herself up and tackle the stupid looking one. Asking pretty much the same question that Toni had just asked herself. Rolling her eyes she leaned to one side and crossed her arms over her nearly flat chest. It was strange seeing someone else with physical differences like this girl had but for some reason Toni wasn’t as surprised as she thought she should be. Desensitized maybe? Seeing and hearing the disfigured girl babbling Toni rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. Was she being punked right now? She would have the hides of whomever had set this up.

Her eyes flicked to the dreadlock lady when she finally recovered from being attacked and started answering questions. Reaching up Toni rubbed her temple. It made sense with the answers they all gave that none of them had any memories of who they were. ”Fine. Call me ‘A’,” pointing to Abney and then Illa she identified them. ”B, and C. According to that stone over there we are supposed to complete some kind of task or something. So if you want to come then get your ass up and let’s get going. Otherwise, I’m leaving you behind.” Toni didn’t care for deadweight and she didn’t want to deal with niceties with those she didn’t know. Granted she knew that it could prove to be useful to be nicer to them, but she didn’t care. She had the itching feeling that something was missing. Rubbing her wrists they felt naked or tingly as she turned and started heading away from the two girls. Looking over her shoulder briefly she glanced at the two of them wondering if they would follow her or if they would abandon her too. 

Rolling her eyes at the brunette, now A, she grumbled under her breath about the other being impatient. Offering a hand to the injured C, B watched her get up and gave her a forced smile, trying to be nice. Maybe it was being stuck together, maybe it was the hopeless situation they are facing, maybe it was because she didn’t want to make enemies - either way, B was just trying to get along with everyone. Too bad A seemed to dislike them heavily and C was too busy being guarded to really trust them.

Falling silent, B threaded her fingers behind her head only now feeling the dreadlocks, crystals and charms she had in her hair. Figuring the blue strands sticking out of the brown was much more fascinating than the situation, the witch kept to herself until she couldn’t see the blue anymore, drowned out by the darkness. Oh this wasn’t good. Slowly, painfully slowly, fire lit a path across a totally safe looking bridge suspended above pure darkness. C’s warning that it might fall and that there was magic here put her at more unease. "Just what we needed: magic." she mumbled sarcastically to herself. C decided to cautiously take the first steps and B frowned, heart pounding as she waited for the wood to snap, crack and the other to fall through. But it didn’t, it seemed… okay…? Something was still off, besides this whole thing being off. Besides the traditional creaking of wood, it seemed to be sturdy. “Be careful. As useless as that sounds now.” she grumbled right after the cautionary statement. Exhaling sharply, B slowly stepped behind C when the other got a few steps ahead, trying not to combine all their weight onto one section. So far, so good... just one step in front of the other... and we will get over this in no time.

“Jesus can’t see a fuckin’ thing down there.” B mumbled, more to herself while looking down. Seeing a floor, spikes, a river of lava or poison would have almost been better than seeing nothing but pure, thick darkness. Seeing her fate would have been better than an unknown. 

Toni wasn’t sure why she thought they would abandon her. She kind of heard C say something about duty and a charge. Rolling her eyes Toni wasn’t sure what to make of it but she could tell they were at least somewhat following her. The dark room that they stepped into made Toni hug herself tightly. She wasn’t exactly a fan of the darkness and let out a sigh of relief as the torches started lighting themselves.

She scanned the bridge herself as C said there was magic there but that they could fall. Well everyone knew magic wasn’t a thing so there was no fear of that. B seemed to agree with Toni for once, which got her an appreciative nod from Toni. As the first two started their way across Toni paused and looked the bridge over feeling again that something was missing. Rubbing her eyes it felt like phantom limb or something. ”Probably a good thing.” She muttered in response to B saying that she couldn’t see a thing down there. Taking hold of the rope railing and a step onto the plank Toni could have sworn she felt the board sag under her weight and feel the rope fray a bit more in her hands. Was it just a really dusty bridge? ”Can you two move a bit faster so we can get across this piece of shit?” she complained and yelped slightly as she felt the bridge sway under her. That was because of their movement right? 

B gave an agreeing nod to A’s comment about it probably being a good thing that she couldn’t see anything down below. “Right. You’re probably right.” she informed, giving another glance to down below before focusing on C’s back as they went. One breath, one step at a time and it’d be fine! Right? A seemed to despise being on this bridge and B couldn’t blame her but rushing didn’t seem like the way to go. “Yes let’s rush across a bridge we can’t see across. That’s brilliant, stellar idea. Ten out of ten do not recommend.” B said mostly in sarcasm, falling back on humor in a panicking moment. But it didn’t seem to help, the wood underneath her snapping just as she took another step. With a startled yelp, B rushed the next few steps just as A gave a similar yelp. Was this thing collapsing on them?!

The bridge was now swaying, fraying, creaking and groaning around them. This had been a terrible idea but it had been their only way across… right? Gripping the ropes, C tried valiantly to get them to balance but the swaying seemed to get more violent. “We’re trying! If the damn wood would stop snapping under us!” B assured C, who was trying to get them to stop panicking and balance out. That’s when C grabbed B’s arm and threw her. Full on lifted her up like she weighed nothing and tossed her across the bridge. B would be highly impressed if it weren’t for the blind flying through the air. “What the - what-” Was all B could manage before screaming and flailing as she flew, landing on harsh ground. “Ow.” she groaned to herself, A landing next to her. The bridge collapsed some time between them landing and getting up, making a dread settle in her stomach. “You okay?” B asked A, making sure the other was fine before beginning to look for C. By god she hoped the woman managed to get across the bridge before it fell… It didn’t take long to find poor C, clinging to the sides and straining.

B grabbed onto her wrist without hesitation, trying to ease some of C’s strain so she didn’t fall into a bottomless abyss. But, let's face it, pulling a humanoid cat person up wasn’t as easy as it looked. “A! I need help please!” she called, making this a group effort to get C onto solid ground and move forward together. B shifted, laying on the ground and using her free hand to grab another part of C’s arm to prevent her from slipping than anything. “It's gonna be okay! I got you,” B assured C, trying to give her some comfort in this harrowing situation. “This is quite an adventure, huh?” B almost jokes, giving a small laugh. Honestly this was an adventure and, save for the more harrowing parts of said adventure, it was pretty fun too! It would be more fun once they got C up and avoided any more terrifying bridges.

Toni gritted her teeth in irritation as the two of the ladies in front of her seemed to pause and not move any faster. Did they not understand that the sooner they got over the bridge the better off they would be? Especially as the bridge started swaying a bit more and bouncing. She had completely stopped moving but still there seemed to be motion. Again why the fuck didn’t these two move? She was about to tell off C for her comment when the bridge sagged again. Letting out a growl she moved forward just to barely see B go flying through the air. Then the next thing she knew she was being grabbed and hurled through the air. With a surprised yelp and curse she sailed not able to see where she was headed. That was until she hit a wall with her back and then fell to the ground. With the wind knocked out of her she lay there motionless for a moment.

A call pushed it’s way through the pain and fuzzy confusion. Shifting with a grunt and pushing herself up she tried not to cry out in pain as she looked around. Spotting B she was confused as she saw her dragging something or someone up over the side of the cliff. As things came back to her she figured it was C. Something in her told her to help pull C up. Quickly making her way over to B’s side she reached down and grabbed ahold of C’s other arm. ”We’ve got you. Can you brace your feet and walk up?” Feeling like she’s loosing her grip Toni could just barely see C’s tail fwipping around like some random cat who was angry. So reaching out with her free hand Toni grabbed the tail and bracing her feet she pulled hard to get C up onto solid ground. As soon as she was Toni let go and collapsed panting. Looking between the other two women she realized she wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for C throwing her. So even though it had hurt she was ya know… still alive. B aka Bitch…. Was annoying but she had immediately jumped to help C. So she couldn’t be ALL bad right? Rolling her eyes after a few minutes she rolled to her feet and stood stretching.

”Alright… Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.” Once again she led the way out of this part of the maze through the door that had a torch next to it. The hallway was a bit cold made of stone but the weirdest part was the distinct water smell. Which was explained as they came out of the tunnel. Before them they could still see the maze walls but there wasn’t a dry path. The path dipped down and became submerged. Off to the right a dock with one pedal boat for all of them, two seats on each side to hold up to four people. The side that was backwards though would have to pedal backwards. Frowning Toni waited until the others caught up to her before turning to them. ”I guess we go by boat now.” She pointed to the boat that looked like something out of a carnival. Walking over to the dock she looked down at the boat before her eyes adjusted and noticed the movement in the water. Frowning she tilted her head. ”Looks like something is in the water… An eel? Maybe a snake?” She hopped into the boat and peered at the water curiously. 

Teamwork prevailed, with some tail grabbing, and they got C up. Abney hadn’t thought to grab her tail but honestly, it was funnier to see A just snatch the fwipping appendage and yank her up like that. Abney tried not to laugh, she really did. But once C was safe, she let out some giggling. “Teamwork prevails!” she cheered with humor. They weren’t exactly willing teammates; C seemed to be wary of them at every turn and, honestly, A seemed to dislike them entirely but the witch still tried to find the humor in everything.

After a spot of rest, they got up and moved on to the next room. It boded about as well as the bridge: a boat in the middle of dark water surrounded by darkness as well. “Oh this is gonna be great.” Abney mumbled, scrunching her nose at the water after A mentioned something was in the water. Abney climbed into the boat next to A, trying to peer at what the other was seeing in the water and hoping that A wouldn’t shove her in for kicks and giggles as she looked around. There was a ‘hah!’ and a splash behind them, Abney whipping around to the source of noise. Was it an enemy? Was it something that was going to harm them?

As it turned out C was just being a cat, grabbing an eel right out of the water with her tail swishing in happiness. “I see that!” the witch assured to C’s declaration that there were eels in the water. Of course the slimy creature tried to fight back but it seemed to not affect C in the slightest. “Food?” C offered and Abney forced a laugh, lightly scratching her nose as she tried to decide on how to politely decline. “Ah no, I - I’m good. I don’t typically eat raw fish from questionable waters. But you rock on kitten.” she encouraged, watching C shrug and down the whole thing in one go.

Okie dokie then.

C climbed into the back, stating she’d take the back and watch from there. “Okay that leaves me and you to row. I’m good with that.” Abney said, smiling a bit at A before taking a seat and grasping an oar. It took a moment for her and A to find a rhythm but they got it eventually and off they went, slowly but surely going over the water. The dark, deep water. With random, unseen creatures thunking against the boat. Abney peered over the side of the boat at almost every thunk with a frown. She trying not to be paranoid, trying not to jump over every single noise but she failed. Every sound made her think they were in danger and, frankly, it sucked. What if there was a shark under here? Or, worse yet, a Loch Ness monster? Just waiting for them to fall in so it could eat them. Oh that was not helping the paranoia; she forced herself to stop peering the water and fixated her gaze on the floor. “So uh. This is fun. A nice… fun challenge.” Abney said, breaking the silence of the row just a bit. 

Toni rolled her eyes as she sat in her seat on the boat. Of course the water was inhabited. She had just said that. Watching C out of the corner of her eye she was slightly surprised when the girl reached into the water and pulled out an eel. Wrinkling her nose Toni almost stuck out her tongue in disgust when she was asked if she wanted any. Shaking her head refusing the food, she tried to block out the sounds of C eating. She may or may not have thrown up a little in her mouth. After all C didn’t even gut the creature before eating it. So she had in fact eaten all organs and by-product of those organs.

As B joined A in the front Toni had to breathe out a sigh. She really needed to work on her anger management. She wasn’t sure why she just felt this unending anger towards people. It seemed to be in general. Was she naturally an angry person? Frowning at that thought Toni focused on getting into rhythm with B and getting them out into the water. The further out they got the more Toni’s warning bells were going off. They were completely open out in the water. Sitting ducks. As if on cue a loud sloshing sound could be heard and it felt like something bumped the under side of their boat. Looking down she couldn’t see anything. Giggling nervously she looked back up and then over to B. ”Uh guys. Let’s pedal a bit faster. I really don’t want to find out what that was.” looking around them at the distant horizon there was a small smudge to A & B’s left. Point at it Toni and B nodded to each other before angling the boat. ”C keep an eye out for whatever the hell that thing was!” 

Something bumped under their boat and all Abney could think, borderline hysterically, is: holy shit I was right! It was the Loch Ness Monster and it was there on some kind of twisted revenge scheme. C held on for dear life, visually okay so Abney didn’t bother voicing the concern, much to focused on whatever was bumping into them. “Yeah - I agree!” Abney said too quickly to A’s suggestion of peddling faster.

C warned them that, whatever it was, it was big right before they were crashed into again. “C hang on!” Abney voiced that time, not wanting the other to fall out into the murky waters. It’d be impossible to find her in the darkened liquid with some ‘big’ creature hunting after them. Abney held tighter to the paddles, swearing that she’d slap whatever it was as hard as she could if it tried to take her paddles… Somewhere between the terror of whatever it was and the adrenaline of the situation - the concept of slapping whatever it was in the face with a paddle was quite amusing.

“We must be reaching land.” C said and Abney twisted in her seat for a moment, looking behind her at the shadowy figures becoming bigger. “Fucking bless.” Abney grumbled, focusing on rowing toward land. By god she hoped whatever it was didn’t like land.

Then it howled. It fucking howled and Abney internally screamed more explicits that she couldn’t find herself voice.

Of fucking course it wouldn’t be scared off of land! Why would their luck be any different?! C’s ears flattened against her skull and she probably thought something similar, Abney making a soft groaning noise in despair. C noted the bodies around and pointed out that the bodies would have been dragged below if it was purely a water creature and, honestly, it made Abney feel a bit better. Land creatures they stood a chance against, better than being yanked into the water to be drowned.

C said it was following them and Abney just frowned at that. It seemed as if everyone was instantly more on edge, preparing for something they couldn’t see. It was nerve wracking and only got worse when the boat hit the biggest island that looked as if it could hold a potential to escape in. Abney got out, feet sinking into the sand and made sure A and C got out with her before she began to quickly take in their surroundings. Bones, old armor and weapons littered the sand and made Abney that much more nervous but it only got worse when she actually saw the creature, crawling toward them from the water.

Seeing a horse first, her breath seized in her chest at the rotten, muscled corpse-like thing but seeing a man’s torso made it worse. It very much was not the Loch Ness monster. “G-guys.” Abney managed to mumble, blindly reaching behind her and catching onto someone as Abney shakily chuckled. The head attached to the torso was… grinning with teeth exposed and arms long enough to reach the ground; it wasn’t a lovely sight. “W-we should be fucking running.” Abney mumbled, backing up slightly, having a staring contest with a one eyed horse.

It made to charge and Abney was shoving the two to go, screaming ‘go’ as she went, forcing them to start sprinting into the thick cuts of trees. It was fast, screaming after them as it dashed into the thick woods and the witch thought fast. Twisting around and grabbing the first thing on the ground, which happened to be a breastplate, Abney threw it at the horse in an attempt to show it down and give her team some time to get ahead. The horse howled again when it was hit, stopping for just a moment and stepping back. Letting frustrations get the better of her, Abney picked something else up, a spear, and threw that with all the anger and frustration of the day. The spear sank into the thing’s torso and it let another pained howl and stumbled back further. Abney then picked up a trident that landed in it's head with Abney making a triumphant sound. Had Abney had her memories, she would have cackled over throwing a trident at something but for right now, she was way too happy to have stabbed the thing twice “Ha! And fuck you dude!” she screamed at the thing over her shoulder as she ran.

Toni did her best to ignore B. The constant humor was grating on her nerves. However, she knew some people needed it. The water seemed to be getting more and more violent the farther they went. When she pointed out the thing that hit under their boat she had to stop herself from scoffing when C said it was big. Well that was kind of a given. Either way they peddled faster to make it to the shore of the island that she had seen. It was a rough go trying to reach land stable enough for them to get out onto. The smell was not something Toni wanted to remember.

As they got out onto the land it didn’t take long for the creature hunting them to follow them. It was a terrifying sight with the black goo oozing out of it’s orifices as it rose from the waters and onto the land. Toni could feel someone shoving at her but she couldn’t take her eyes from the gruesome creature until someone screamed ‘GO’ and shoved her. Without another thought she turned and ran. She felt rage deep inside of her. Something was missing and it was making her vulnerable. Cursing the lost memories she could hear one of the other girls screaming behind her but she continued to run towards an opening she saw in the maze walls.

With a triumphant yell she crossed into this split in the maze and followed the short pathway that was just outside of it. It was gradually getting lighter as if they were entering an area where a sun was setting. She could still hear the other two near her as she came to pause in a somewhat open area. With the light of a setting sun she could see papers floated all over the area stuck in bushes, trees, and randomly in the grass around them. Panting she leaned forward as she saw a sign. Quickly reading it she cursed. 

Quote:

Your group must collect three pages, they have stories about each of you to give you a clue as to who you were. Will you be able to figure out who the story goes to? Hurry and find the stories quick. The creature from the lake hasn’t eaten in a while and you look like tasty snacks. Because we don’t want to starve our poor pet we will give him a speed boost every time you collect a note. Good luck and don’t get eaten! Or better yet save us the food bill and get eaten.

What the hell was going on? They had to find stories about each of them? Grunting softly she dashed out and grabbed a paper before it flew away. In irritation she read the page before realizing it was just a page from a nursery story. Crumpling the page she threw it away. ”Find a page that has a story about one of us! For every page we find that thing is going to get faster!” she darn near screamed rushing for the next closest page. It was also an old rhyme from her childhood. Frustrated she frantically searched near a bush and jumped to grab a page from a tree. Reading it she didn’t recognize it. So reading it out loud she yelled for the others to hear. ”I found one!” 

I have discovered something interesting about humans. They are weak, slow, and unable to defend themselves. However, they are unrelenting as I have learned from Markaz’s constant visitations. He brings me gifts and tells me about the world.

My sharp teeth and claws do threaten him. My reputation as that as killer beast does not phase him at all as he sits with me, totally distracted by the telescope in his hands and pointing out the stars and their names.

I had once thought names were meaningless, however, Markaz explained to me their importance and named people that he said had done amazing things; people in the city, the gods, the scribe, even a sphinx who guarded the entrance had been given a name by the humans.

If I receive a name can I do amazing things too? 

Toni sighed in relief but it was short lived as the creature cried out obviously having made it’s way to the maze exit where it was. It wouldn’t take long now for it to make it the short distance to the part of the maze where they were. 

Abney practically skidded to a stop behind A, quickly reading the note as A did and cursing almost in unison. “Save us the food bill?! Man!” Abney grumbled harshly before all three women split up again, each to find one paper. Most were jumbles of recipes, stick figure drawing, riddles, crude maps of, what Abney assumed, was the forest. Not that it did the previous persons before them any good, they were still piles of bones and worn armor.

A shouted out she found one, shouting the words out as she continued to frantically look. Granted the stories were fascinating and interesting and all that jazzy jazz shenanigans, but there is a skinless, angrily screaming creature hunting them down that probably wants to eat them so the interest would have to wait.

C was next on the list of lucky, shouting out the words to her page as well. True to the words of the note in the beginning, the creature screamed again and it was close. Clouds rolled in and Abney started to get a little nervous as she frantically dug through papers. These pages wouldn’t hold up to water. Moving around as fast as possible, she spotted a page that looked like it had words on it. Snatching it up, just as the first droplets fell, Abney almost screamed in relief. “I found the last one!” she called, beginning to shout what was on the page so the note would be fulfilled. 

Entry 56783,

Watching Mother this evening I felt inspired. She and Father were again fighting over if I should have anything to do with mechanical things. Father says it’s not very lady like and that I already look like a boy. Mother is so very beautiful. I can tell from the way Father looks at her that he adores her. He wishes I had either been a boy, or that I look more like Mother. Her hair is a beautiful ebony color that reaches down to her lower back. She has beautiful blue eyes and full lips. I really do wish I looked like more like Mother.

School was difficult again. Lance thought it would be funny to carve ‘freak’ into my desk. The teacher really didn’t do anything besides replace the desk. She said she was going to talk to his parents but I really don’t think that would do anything. I’ve been taking my time learning this new language. I hope it helps to distract me from jerks like Lance. 

Abney had to shout the words quickly and loudly over the now torrential downpour of rain. The rain got harder by the second, killing the rest of the pages in the area before a loud ‘click’ drew Abney’s attention just as the thing got closer. Blinding, white light poured through a crack that got larger and larger as the seconds went and it could only be one thing! “Door!” she shouted, pointing and trying to usher them toward it. But wading through soaked pages with a murderous, skinless thing chasing you wasn’t the easiest experience she could have been through.

Eventually they made it to the door, Abney falling face first into onto a floor, having expected another solid surface under her feet. She was mistaken. Quickly, the witch pushed herself over and onto her back, staying out of the walkway so the other two could fall in, hopefully less painful than Abney’s entrance. The doorway led them into an empty hallway, party-like noise off in the distance and Abney wondered what the trial was for on this one. It took a moment of looking around before creeping memories started to come in, slowly at first then all at once, leaving her dizzy and disoriented. Suddenly she remembered where she was and knew one of the two women she was with and suddenly everything made sense but, at the same time nothing made sense.

“Oi Toni, lady C - you guys okay?” she asked, shakily and slightly weak. Somewhere inside her, she wanted to make a joke that this was the second time she's faceplanted into a surface of Heartless but Abney ignored it. Her phone chimed but she ignored it in favor of confirming the safety and, mostly, unharmed state of the other two. Traumatic events aside, of course. Once she saw that they looked okay, the witch made to dig the device out, finding that it still, somehow, worked even after the downpour. “Oh hey there’s a check in party. Good! Glad we’re not the only ones.” she mumbled, flopping back onto her back with a groan.