Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER TEN: BACK INTO THE MAZE
*****
The group was silent and tensed as they made their way through the corridors of the Minotaur’s maze, which was feeling even more oppressive than before with how dark the place was, which was why they all were carrying torches that they’d found upon their reentry earlier, and because of the howling storm overhead, it was making it difficult to determine where the Minotaur was currently lurking within the maze itself.
*****
Eventually they all reached the center of the maze, where they found three podiums waiting for them, and each had a picture of the Parthenon on them so that Alex, Esther, and Colleen could consult while building the structures.
“Ok,” said Matt, who’d memorized the instructions from the note, “so, Nikita, Benny, and I have to search through the maze for pieces. Alex, Esther, and Colleen, you three have to put those pieces together. Whoever builds the Parthenon first…” he trailed off, not wanting to say what would happen to whoever failed to build their Parthenon first.
“If you build it first, you win,” Nikita finished, and Benny nodded.
Alex, Esther, and Colleen all responded with noises of affirmation.
And just like that, the challenge began with Matt, Benny, and Nikita sprinting off in different directions to locate the pieces while Colleen, Alex, and Esther shouted encouragement after them, hoping against hope that the trio wouldn’t get caught by the Minotaur.
*****
Matt ran along the path he chosen, using the torch to guide him, and he soon came upon a bag that held some of the pieces that Colleen would need. He snatched it up and ran along the path, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for any trace of the Minotaur while finding a second bag of pieces, and he was determined not to fail like he did back in Everlock with Jc.
*****
Benny ran along the path, checking openings while he searched for the pieces, and, after finding two bags, started making his way back to the center.
‘I’ll get these to Esther,’ he thought, having a close call with the Minotaur, and bolted down a different path. ‘Whoa! Not again! Ok, get these to Esther and then go back to look for the rest!’ He didn’t know how many bags of pieces would be needed, so he was going to back into the maze as many times as needed to make sure that the Lounge Singer had them all.
*****
Meanwhile back in the center of the maze, Colleen was about to ask Alex if he was good at puzzles when Nikita burst back into the scene and dropped a bag of pieces in front of Alex.
“Oh, God,” the Aviator gasped, not expecting her to return so fast with a bag of pieces. ‘I guess…despite what she thinks about my attitude, she’s one heck of a hard worker, and I respect that.’
Nikita was panting. “I think…that’s all of them.” And then she disappeared back into the maze to double-check.
Barely a minute later, Benny arrived with the two bags that he handed to Esther. “Here, you can get started,” he told her, “and I’m going to check to see if there’s any other bags.” And he dashed back into the maze.
“Hey, Matt!” Colleen yelled, starting to feel a bit worried when Alex emptied his bag onto the podium. “Might wanna hurry up!”
The Aviator checked the example picture. “Okay… I got…okay. This is what it looks like.” And he started to build the Parthenon.
‘I can do this,’ Esther thought, piling the pieces of the first bag onto the podium to start building while using the example picture for comparison, ‘I can do this.’
*****
Meanwhile, Nikita was searching around, finding another bag of pieces, proving her wrong that she hadn’t found all of the pieces for Alex, and was giving herself a pep talk at the same time.
“You’ve never lost before,” she lectured herself as she dug the bag out of the ivy. “You’ve never lost! Even though you hate this guy!” And she knew that she and Benny both had an upper advantage of having been in the maze before, and while Matt was a little bit smarter, she seriously doubt that smarts was going to get them out of this situation.
Yeah, Nikita was going to win this fight.
*****
Colleen was feeling her panic start to rise as Alex and Esther worked on their puzzles, getting a serious head start, and she was worried that this was how she was going to die a second time when Matt darted into the center with four bags that he immediately handed to her, just as Benny came back with two more bags to give to the Lounge Singer.
“I got you! I got you!” the detective exclaimed, seeing the limited progress made by Alex, who’d already run out of pieces from the sole bag, and that Esther had a decent lead thanks to the Marine. “Here!”
“Thank you! Omigosh!” the duchess exclaimed, accepting the bags. “Thank you! Ok.” And she set down all but one of the bags on the ground so she could open the first bag of pieces, eager to start building and catching up.
Matt wiped some sweat from his brow, hoping that he’d managed to find all of the pieces, and gave her advice of how to start, glancing at the example picture to make sure she was doing this right. “Start with your edge pieces. We got a good one.”
Colleen nodded, finding that the detective had managed to find practically all of the pieces for the Parthenon, and did as he advised, feeling hopeful.
Benny was giving Esther some useful pointers, and Alex was starting to panic this time since he was waiting on Nikita to get back with the remaining pieces.
“Ok!” he shouted, wondering where the darn Troublemaker had gotten to. “I need more!” And he did since the puzzles were a lot bigger than even he’d expected, and he was falling behind with every minute that passed.
Where the heck was Nikita?!