A young brunette girl lightly runs down the corridor, her arm outstretched, gripping another young, smaller blonde girl's shoulder, pulling her along. Her face is hard, almost glaring into the unending darkness in front of her. Sweat glistens on her brow as she pushes forward, panting.

  The smaller blonde girl is weeping as she runs alongside the brunette. The sounds of her sobs carry off even faster than they are moving. She stumbles often, either into the brunette or the wall, bouncing off either and being dragged further on by her friend.

  Finally, she seems to have had enough and suddenly comes to a stop. The brunette is jerked back and spins around as she looks at the blonde, who almost falls onto her face.

  “Lady Elizabeth, please!” Lady Rosalee lets out a whining beg between deep breaths as she stares at the blonde girl exasperatedly.

  “I. Can’t. Go. Any. More.” Gasping for air, Lady Elizabeth collapses against the wall, sitting down.

  “We must go on! Max is trying to hold whatever that is back so we can escape. We have to keep going!” Lady Rosalee moves in front of the other girl, looking down at her, her hands on her hips as she tries to slow her breathing.

  “Ugh, that brute? Who cares? Let him do as he wants. I'm not moving.” Lady Elizabeth brings her knees to her chest, hugging them and burying her face in them.

  “Miss Elizabeth, please. If he cannot stop it or even slow it down, it will catch us.” Lady Rosalee grabs Lady Elizabeth’s shoulders and tries to pull her up.

  “So, what if it catches us. I don’t care anymore!” Lady Elizabeth ignores Lady Rosalee's attempts to pull her up and continues to cry into her knees.

  Lady Rosalee slaps Lady Elizabeth hard on her cheek. “Get up now!”

  The crying stops as Lady Elizabeth looks up at Lady Rosalee in shock. Lady Rosalee roughly pulls her to her feet before she can even respond. “Y-you s-slapped m-m-me?”

  Lady Rosalee glares into Lady Elizabeth’s eyes and says through gritted teeth. “Yes, Lady Grey, I did slap you. I will again if you do not start moving right this moment! What would Duke and Duchess Grey say if they saw the fit you are throwing now! What would Teacher Rees say if she saw you!”

  With every sentence, Lady Elizabeth flinches as if she is being hit. Her lips tremble, but she stops crying and reaches her hand out as her only reply. Sighing, Lady Rosalee takes her hand, and they continue running down the corridor.

  Lady Rosalee cannot help but glance back the way they came. Please don’t die. I know not who you are, but you saved us. You don’t deserve to die in a place like this. Closing her eyes to steady her mind and heart, Lady Rosalee opens them and glares forward as if the darkness itself were an enemy.

  The two girls run in silence after the little spat they had. It isn’t long before they come to a fork in the road. Lady Rosalee comes to a stop, and Lady Elizabeth stops beside her obediently. Lady Elizabeth is no longer sobbing but staring angrily at her friend as if she wishes to burst into argument at any moment, but holds her tongue. “I… I believe we came… from…” Lady Rosalee glances between the two paths, unsure of herself.

  “Oh, suddenly, little Baroness Braye doesn’t know what to do?” Lady Elizabeth snips at her, complaining and glaring at her even as she holds her hand.

  Ignoring her friend, Lady Rosalee closes her eyes and mumbles to herself for a moment before turning to the left. “It was left. I’m pretty sure it was left." An echo of a crash follows the path they took and reaches them. Lady Rosalee’s face whitens at the sound.

  “W-What was t-that?” Lady Elizabeth moves closer to her companion, following her gaze back the way they came.

  “It appears whatever was after us has reached Max.” Her hands shaking slightly, Lady Rosalee stills herself before handing the torch to Lady Elizabeth. “Hold this for a moment.” She pulls her hand free and begins taking her shoes off.

  They are dirty and damaged; she spares not a passing glance at them as she places one in the center of the left-hand path. Please find it. Standing, she takes the torch back from laying Elizabeth and begins to jog down the left path.

  “Wait for me!” Lady Elizabeth calls her eyes wide, chasing after Lady Rosalee, who left without taking her hand.

  A scream sounds distantly behind them, and Lady Rosalee’s jog comes to an end. She looks behind her as Lady Elizabeth catches up to her. Lady Elizabeth bends over, gasping for air, looking up at her friend.

  How is she able to keep up this pace!? She is mad! Why does she seem to not even be tired while I’m dying? Lady Rosalee takes a step back the way they came, but before she can move any further, Lady Elizabeth grabs her by her dress. “He is dead.” The words leave her mouth seemingly without a care in the world as she looks at her friend.

  Lady Rosalee takes a step back as if she had been slapped by the simple comment. Glancing between her friend and the path they came from, she hesitates. She knows in her heart that her friend is probably right, but she wishes with all her heart that they are both wrong. “You don’t know that…” Lady Rosalee replies softly, trailing off.

  “You heard the crash and now that scream, he is dead. We will be too if we linger too long. You forced me this far; we cannot give up now.”

  “You are right.” Lady Rosalee’s head falls, and a tear hits the ground. After a moment, she turns past her friend to continue on. They both freeze as something hits the floor and slides into the area lit dimly by the torch.

  “Is that-”

  “A bone.” Lady Rosalee replies before Lady Elizabeth can finish her sentence.

  Two creatures around their size walk into the light. Their eyes squint at the brightness, and they chitter back and forth at each other. The needleleafs take in the sight of the two girls in the blinding light.

  Their mouths seem to curl into a smile as their maws slowly open. Drool pours out, and the needle-like teeth shine. Lady Rosalee pulls Lady Elizabeth behind her and steps forward. “Stay behind me.” Lady Rosalee imitates Max, taking the torch in both hands. She shakes slightly as she stares at the creatures getting ready to strike.

  ***

  The floor rushes up to meet Max. At the last moment, he manages to turn so he doesn’t land on his injured arm. This arm is just in the way at this point. Max turns over, lying on his back, trying to catch his breath.

  He has no idea how long he has been running or how far he has managed to get from the plant monster chasing him. Right now, that doesn’t seem to matter as much to him since he can barely breathe. His fight might not have lasted long, but it took a lot out of him.

  Pulling the pack off his back and tossing it to the side, Max sighs. Guess I really won’t be needing that. Food and water like that won't come in handy now. The girls are gone, who knows where, and that thing will most likely be here soon to turn me into a thin paste.

  Absently, Max reaches into his pocket, which feels wet, and pulls out a few smashed berries. Do I still have these? Max chuckles to himself, closing his eyes and eating the berries. It sure has been an awful few days. His mind wanders back to the past few days, ever since he heard Rosalee’s voice in the mall.

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  “Has it really only been what three? No, this should be the fourth day?” Max mumbles to himself before sitting up. “Well, I got my breath back.” Max continues talking to himself as he pushes himself to get back on his feet.

  The sound of the creature lumbering after him begins to grow louder again. Max turns to leave but instead reaches out in the dark for the pack, taking a second to find it. Slinging it on, he continues down the corridor. Max doesn’t even notice the spare torch has slipped from his pack; it now lies on the tunnel floor.

  The corridor is dark, and the sound of lumbering footsteps in the distance forms a rhythmic beat. Max continues to run blindly forward. He puts his faith in the two girls ahead of him and simply hopes they don’t branch off into an unknown direction he cannot see. Every moment, he prays to catch a glimpse of light ahead of him to let him know he is on the correct path.

  While his head is lost in these thoughts, he catches a glimpse of something before running chest-first into a small wall. Max falls to the ground, groaning. He grabs his chest, which is throbbing. Yup. That is a wall, Max, and it is quite solid. Good on you to check that.

  Continuing to groan, Max reaches below him and pulls something out from under him. Squinting in the darkness to try and make out what it is, Max asks to no one in particular, “Is that a shoe? What the hell is a shoe doing lying randomly about? Who left a shoe here?” Be it the exhaustion or possibly a concussion, Max continues talking to himself, questioning the darkness about the shoe.

  A dim light casts over Max lying upon the ground. Max squints, the light seeming far brighter after being in the darkness for so long. Lying on his back holding the shoe above himself, Max tilts his head back and looks in the direction of the light.

  In the gloomy light, two figures emerge. Max recognizes the two girls as they approach and notices their condition. “What happened to both of you? Why are you heading this way?”

  Max’s croaking voice makes both of the girls jump. Lady Rosalee runs her hand down her now knee-length dress subconsciously as she takes in the sight of Max lying on the ground holding her shoe up. She stops tilting her head to the side. “Why are you just lying there holding my shoe?”

  “Your shoe?” Max replies, completely confused, before looking at his arm still raised above himself, holding a shoe. “This is yours? What is it doing here? Why isn’t it with you?”

  Lady Rosalee seems almost stunned by Max’s reply and looks at him as Lady Elizabeth giggles lightly beside her. “I left it there in hopes that you would notice it and find the path that we took. Are you okay?” Lady Rosalee moves around Max and squats down a little, reaching out her free hand to help him up.

  “Oh yes, that makes complete sense. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I was just confused on how a lone shoe ended up here.” Max giggles a little, taking Rosalee’s hand and sitting up. He moans loudly as he sits up, “Uh, my head, I think I hit it pretty hard.”

  Lady Rosalee moves around him again and brings the torch closer, touching his matted hair. She winces as he yelps; her hand comes away with a little blood on it. “You hit your head very hard, I see.”

  Max nods, groaning, his out-of-focus eyes focusing for a second. “It's getting closer; it will be here soon. We have to go.” Trying to get to his feet, he takes Lady Rosalee’s hand again and pulls himself up before leaning on the wall he ran into. Only now noticing the state Lady Rosalee and Lady Elizabeth are in does he ask, “You’re hurt, what happened?”

  Brushing his question off as if it is of no matter, Rosalee simply responds, “We took the wrong path and ran into some trouble; I took care of it. What is getting closer? Did you get a good look at it?”

  Shaking his head, Max mumbles, “Oh, that wasn’t such a good idea.” Taking a few long blinks, he finally looks over at Lady Rosalee.

  “Some sort of plant zombie thing. It has a sword and shield. Doesn’t move much like a person, though,” Max giggles for a second before getting an almost nauseous look on his face as he remembers the shoulder tearing apart. “Bashed its head in, I did, didn’t really seem to do much though. So maybe not a zombie, a corpse plant? Is that a thing?”

  Lady Rosalee puts her arm around Max and begins to lead him down the path that her and Elizabeth have yet to take. Lady Elizabeth silently follows the pair while glancing behind at the growing sound. “A plant zombie or corpse plant?” Rosalee repeats, trying to make sense out of what Max is babbling on about.

  Trying to focus, Max tries again to explain. "Looked like a person, only dead. There was this plant thing going all through it. I guess the dead person wasn’t controlling it, but the plant. I smashed the person's head, and it kept fighting. The plant pulled the body apart as it got upset. I threw the cinders of your dress into it and ran. It really didn’t like that. By the way, what happened to your dress?” Max’s attention wanders as he looks down at Lady Rosalee’s torn dress.

  “We, no, I thought we should go left. There were needleleafs, those little plant guys with all the teeth. I managed to kill two of them, but me and Lady Elizabeth didn’t get away unscathed.” Lady Elizabeth grumbles something under her breath, but Lady Rosalee ignores her and continues. “The torch got banged up like yours did, and I used some of our dresses to try and keep it lit. What happened to your torch? Or was it a club now?”

  Max’s face drops, and he says in a very serious voice. “It broke, then I lost the pieces.”

  Rosalee is at a loss for words until Lady Elizabeth pipes in, “That sound, it is getting closer. It sounds really close.”

  Max looks at the two girls and pulls away from Rosalee, using the wall to support himself. “You two need to go on ahead. I’ll be fine and right behind you.”

  Lady Rosalee shakes her head immediately. “You are not fine, and we are not leaving you behind again.”

  Lady Elizabeth tugs at Lady Rosalee’s arm, her eyes wide and her whole body shaking. “He says he is fine, let's go! I don’t want to meet whatever that plant zombie thing he talked about.”

  Lady Rosalee Glares at Lady Elizabeth. “Elizabeth, he’s hurt!”

  “Even more of a reason to leave him, he will slow us down!” Lady Elizabeth stomps her feet, glaring right back.

  Before the two of them can continue to bicker, Max puts his hand on Lady Rosalee’s shoulder. “Okay, I might not be fine, but I’m well enough to go straight. You and Liz go ahead and see if you can find a way out, just don’t branch off without me. You’ll be faster alone, and I can still stay ahead of that thing. Please, go.”

  Lady Rosalee looks into Max’s eyes, biting her lip before taking Lady Elizabeth's hand and running off down the corridor. Max notices he is still holding Lady Rosalee's shoe and tosses it to the side of the passage before trying to run after the girls, using the wall to keep from falling over.

  ? ? ?

  The sound of the lumbering footsteps continues to grow until they sound as though they might be upon Max at any moment. Max steels himself for the possibility of running into the plant zombie again. He leans against the wall, bending over, trying to catch his breath and keep from vomiting.

  He tried his best to keep his word and keep up with the girls, or at least keep them in sight. His condition is worse than he gave himself credit for, and he just can’t keep up. Max pulls the dagger out of his belt and looks into the darkness to where it should be in his hand.

  Like this thing will do anything at all. Max sighs, wishing he had any other weapon. The footsteps seem to be upon him, and Max readies himself to jump aside. He realizes it is futile since he cannot even see if the creature is preparing an attack, but he has to do something. The seconds pass, and the footsteps seem to be moving away past him.

  It didn’t attack me? Max is confused for a second until panic takes him over and he begins to rush after the girls once more. If it got past me, it will be heading for them. I can't let it get to them. I have to stop it somehow. Max’s pace is erratic, but he tries to keep going as fast as he can. In the distance, a flickering light starts to grow larger.

  As the sounds of Max panting and frantically running reach the girls, they look at each other. Lady Rosalee turns and leaves Lady Elizabeth, running over to Max. Seeing Lady Rosalee, Max lets out a sigh of relief, “It didn’t get you!”

  Lady Rosalee is confused by Max’s words and puts her arm around him. He slows his pace, and they walk toward where she left Lady Elizabeth. “What's wrong? What didn’t get me?”

  “The creature! The plant guy! It sounded like it ran right past me. I thought it was going after you two, so I tried to catch up to it to stop it, but I never saw it.” Bewildered Max looks over at Lady Rosalee.

  “Oh, that. Yes, I could see how that might frighten you.”

  “Frighten me? How did you two fight it off? Where did it go?”

  “Do you remember when you ran into the wall?”

  “The wall? Yes? But…”

  “There was a second path. Its footsteps have been growing more and more distant; you can barely hear them anymore. You probably weren’t too far from where the paths branched off. You heard it go down the other path. It didn’t run past you.”

  Max stops and points back the way he came, his mouth moving but no words coming out. He closes his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them, his appearance instantly calming down. “It could see in the dark. It wouldn’t have run past me. Also, those stupid flowers.”

  Lady Rosalee smiles, seeing Max’s panic dissipate. As they reach Lady Elizabeth, Lady Rosalee holds out the torch to her. “Would you mind carrying this for a little, it is starting to get heavy.” Lady Elizabeth takes the torch but waits for Lady Rosalee and Max to move down the corridor first before moving close behind them with the torch. “Stupid flowers, you say?”

  Max lets another sigh out. “They glowed in the dark. When it first appeared, I could barely make out what it looked like; the flowers helped the little burning cloth you left in, letting me make out what it was. The one on its back was the brightest, but it had some all over it. Even in the dark, if it ran past me, I should have seen the flowers. I am so stupid.”

  Laughing lightly, Lady Rosalee shakes her head. “You are not stupid, you just hit your head very hard. You will be fine in a couple days.”