Numb to the core, I wander the halls of the castle.

My eyes burn with repressed tears, limbs shaking and struggling to support me under the weight of my fear and heartbreak. Empty corridor after corridor with no one inside and alone without Demetri to guide me.

I don't know how long it's been before the familiar, large archways greet me and I enter a room with a few contestants and their Reapers. Searching for my own handler, I instead find Noah, David, and Atticus in a corner.

They pass a few words between them but ultimately shut up.

My legs carry me over without thought and I nod at the men before me. Noah and David greet me with their own small gestures, but Atticus sizes me up with a raised brow.

Suddenly a knowing and furious look washes over him. "He told you," the Reaper practically growls.

My eyes widen and I stammer in shock.

While David and Noah look confused, Atticus grabs me by the forearm and starts hauling me off to a different corner of the room. As weak as I am, I barely fight. Tingling spreads through my arm where he holds me, a pressure weighing on me, heavy with grief.

"You do not tell anyone, you understand me?" He snaps in my ear, a small scoff following. "He had no reason to hurt you in such a manner. I knew that dumbass would gut you by getting so close."

My eyes squeeze shut in frustration, fighting off all the emotions raging inside. "Why is this a trial...?" I ask softly.

Atticus rests a hand on my shoulder and shakes his head. In nothing more than a black tee shirt and tight black jeans. Dark chains hang from his waistband, looking more like a Hot Topic employee than someone working with the dead. The blond hair spikes up in the front, flattening in the back but light in the torchlight.

A similar look I'd once seen on Demetri's face takes over his features. "You cannot possibly imagine the number of times our lives have been at stake, Holly."

I frown. "But why... Why does it have to be this way? Does he not value any of you?"

"My Lord holds favor over a few, yet none enough to avoid risk. He is not in a position of love, he is in a position of power. Even we are pawns. He attempts to train us to believe as such. While I understand that he told you out of care, I do not support disrupting your mental state before a trial."

My eyes darken in realization, my hand covering my lips ever so slightly. "He acts as if he wants to die."

"Do not fret over such things, Holiday."

"Atticus, would he let me kill him?"

The Reapers facade falls for a split second, a deeper depression showing through. "I'd like to believe otherwise."

My mind begins to race but Demetri steps into the room armed to the tooth. With knives and various other equipment tucked into pockets and slots, I don't remember ever seeing such a hard look surrounding him.

A fierce aura that only worsens when he sees us together alone.

With a predatorial grace, Demetri closes the distance between us. Atticus drops his hand away from me, passing an apologetic look my way before rejoining David and Noah.

I can tell their wondering just what we were talking about, it would appear Noah even has the balls to ask.

But Atticus doesn't open his mouth again.

"What did he say?" Demetri's eyes narrow in on me, something colder than I've ever seen from him.

"Nothing I don't already know..." I mutter, shoving past him.

I feel him go to reach for me, yet he flinches away when Death steps into the room. His lengthy cloak vanishes behind him as Demetri's once had. This leaves nothing but an average dark tunic with the hood still intact.

"Yes well, aren't you a sad lot," Death snickers to himself. "Shall we just begin then?"

No one moves.

"So boring, this silence. Perhaps a change of plans then," the Wraith rises to his feet and heads for an exit, opening a door. "Let us try this then. My Reapers and I shall leave you to find your own way out. Those who make it, shall join me in a final round."

Lifting a gloved hand, we watch as all the doors grow small and bury themselves beneath the floor. His throne disappears, as do the other fixtures in the room. The glossy black marble covering everything in sight.

Demetri looks frantic underneath the calm exterior, Atticus and the others leaving casually. I can't force myself to make eye contact, not knowing when or if he is gone until the door seals itself closed.

Darkness wraps around the five of us, torches spread yards apart.

A small breeze brushes against me. I know before he speaks that Noah has found me. "We should stick together."

"I thought you were Mr. Independent," I smirk, amusement barely breaking through the sadness I'm so desperately attempting to set aside.

"Wouldn't you rather it be us in the end?" He whispers.

I nod. "Yes."

"Even the door they left through is gone," David calls out, a faint outline against the eastern wall.

A gravelly sound starts to rumble through and shake the room. Powder flutters down from the ceiling and I swallow roughly. "I think the roof is coming down on us."

The ground quakes so hard my legs are knocked from underneath me. I can barely see Noah bracing himself on the wall and looking around wildly. A slam disrupts everything, something large and heavy cracking the marble beneath us.

A small abyss forms in the middle of the room, pieces falling out from underneath me.

I hear a quiet scream and Lyric goes down, fingers curling around the ledge. Each time she gets a grip, the ground breaks away from her.

Taking a chance, I slide out a little bit, trying to grasp at her hand.

Gut-wrenching hope fills her eyes when I get to her. Destroying me as her hands spring out in my direction, the ledge caving completely. The pads of her fingers clutch and scrape into my forearm, my hands locking down on a few hairs.

I'm left with nothing but her DNA and a piercing scream.

"Holly, get away from there!" Noah yells at me, yanking the neckline of my uniform away. He chokes me but keeps me from plummeting to my death after her. "People are dying, come on."

I stiffen, closing my eyes and trying to fade into the air. Nothing happens. My throat tightens and I gasp. "Why... Why is this happening?"

"What?"

"I-I can't use the crystal..." I stammer. "It's-it's too dark in here..."

"It's an evasive power, find ones that aren't..."

Remembering Demetri's words from earlier, I swallow and take a deep breath. My hands reach out, clenching every so slightly. I focus on the feeling buzzing inside of me and look for it outside.

It swarms around my skin, filling the outer corners and crevices beneath and behind objects.

Yanking backward, the darkness is torn from the room like a blanket. Wisps of smoke rage like a fire and condense themselves into a tight orb hovering just above my palm. Sweat drips from my forehead, my lungs feel tight and shallow breaths escape me.

Noah stares at me in shock but I glare harshly in his direction. "You should be looking... For an exit..."

Flinching, he nods and paces the length of the room.

David is also watching me in awe, but goes back quickly to pounding on the wall the Wraith once dwelled in. As if he could break through thick marble encased with cement.

Lyric is dead, that just leaves...

My eyes glue onto Seb in the center of the broken room, several pillars holding him up on a platform. The cowardly panic fills his eyes in an instant as he spins to look for a way across the tremendous gap.

With each breath becoming more and more shallow, I pray that Noah finds something soon.

Yet, a new sound penetrates the air. Groaning. Low-pitched, slow moans of malcontent and hunger.

A shiver runs down my spine, bile pooling up in the back of my throat.

Gray hands heave themselves out of the abyss, tens of hundreds of undead beings crawling out from the hole, crawling up the breaking walls. Every time one makes it up a little farther, some fall deeper back. Though they never give up.

Slowly, humans of rotting, decrepit flesh find their way out of the hole. "Noah!" I cry out, slowly backing away. "Please tell me you found something!"

"Not yet," he calls back, clearly frustrated.

Seb's platform starts to break as pieces from the center of two pillars give out. If only we knew what was coming next.

The giant two-headed dog bursts through the leftover marble and throws Seb flying through the air and scraping against the floor.

My body begins to ache and cry out, begging me to release the billions of atoms bursting and collapsing in my hands. The ball of energy expands slowly, my control waning.

"Noah," I warn him through a deep pant. "You're running out of time."

Turning to face him, I see him fighting off a bunch of undead bodies. He breaks off body parts and smashes them to pieces, destroying them completely. Noah gives me an incredulous look until he seems to notice something. Perhaps it's how pale or exhausted I am.

But I'm dead wrong.

Gross arms lock onto my ankles and hold me in place, fingers attempting to climb up my pants.

David tries to muscle his way over to me, slamming through the crowd of zombies and kicking the one at my feet so hard it splits in half. The noise is sickening.

I'd vomit if all of my energy wasn't necessary elsewhere.

I sigh gratefully. He fights monsters off while Noah looks for more ways out.

Seb is gathering himself from the ground, beheading a bunch of the undead in large swoops. They're dead in a flash, I can't even see what's happening. Even then he ignores us, looking for his own way.

It feels like hours in just a matter of seconds, the number of bodies crawling everywhere only multiplying. I slip and lose control slightly, darkness flashing for only a second.

Noah and David are getting overwhelmed, overrun with fighting off the Cerberus like creature and several Frankenstein messes.

Focusing deep on the force in my hands, I let my anger and pain manifest and grow. Daggers.

I want a vacuum of daggers.

My face hardens and I slam the energy outwards with all the strength I have left. Dragging and forcing all of the undead straight back into the abyss, impaling them with, decapitating them, and dismembering them with every ounce of shadow until we fall into darkness once more.

I take a few deep breaths, looking around to see if anyone else is hurt. I don't hear anything. The lack of sound bothers me more.

Going in again, I strain myself, pulling all the darkness back again.

Time freezes.

The two-headed dog seconds from my throat. 

Total Word Count: 19,861

Oh my god! So close to 20k! But we're not done yet folks. I have a plan!

Thank you all for motivating me to get this far. It absolutely means the world to me. I know I'm updating a lot, really fast, but I hope you are enjoying the story unfolding so fast. Don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoy the chapters. 

Have a great day everyone!