"WAKE UP!" Tom screamed into my ear, shaking me awake.

"What's going on?" I asked groggily.

"Saron, you need to wake up NOW," he said yanking me up.

"Tom, what's- where the fuck are we?"

I looked over to see Crexus, sitting up against glass, looking more dismayed than ever.

"What's wrong with him," I asked Tom.

"I don't know and the others are gone."

I looked around, finding us stuck inside a room made of glass. Outside of the glass was water, an endless amount of water as if we had been dropped in the ocean.

"Is this a dream?"

"If it was a dream, I don't think you'd be here with me just as confused as I am. Plus I can feel you," he said pointing to my arm that had been clutching his.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I remember passing out..." he said, clutching his head as if he was trying to force his brain to make sense of the situation.

"I remember that. You passed out, then Jeremy. The rest of us passed out after you. It must've been that blue fog. We thought it was harmless, but it wasn't. Now we're trapped here."

"Crexus, can you hear me?" I said, kneeling in front of him. He gave no indication that he knew I was in front of him, let alone where he was.

Crexus, wherever you are I need you to wake up.

I frowned, standing up before turning to Tom.

"Since he's not going to be any help, we need to figure out something," he said.

"We need to start by breaking out of here," I said, punching the glass as hard as I could. Tom joined in, running into the glass, punching it, kicking it. It was useless. It wouldn't budge.

Resigned, I walked over to Crexus, sliding down the glass to plop down beside him. Tom started pacing, not willing to give up so easily.

I rested a hand on Crexus, gasping as I saw a flash of unspeakable atrocities. Endless blood spilt, gruesome murder a murder, the horrors of war, crying babies and mangled bodies. I pulled away quickly, my heartbeat racing from what I had seen. If this was what Crexus had in his mind, no wonder he wasn't a talker.

"What happened?" Tom asked, rushing over to me in concern at my distraught face.

"I saw something, a- a glimpse of his mind," I said shakily.

"What was it?"

"Dark and bloody," I said, shivering involuntarily at the recollection of it.

"Is that why he won't wake up?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly, looking up at him in realization.

"What are you thinking?"

"If he's lost in his mind, it would explain why he's not here with us. It might also explain why we're trapped here, like he's trapped. Maybe if we help him to get out, we could get out too."

"What can we do?" He asked, his eyes lighting up with hope.

"The only thing I can think of is going in his mind and bringing him out," I said, ignoring the trepidation creeping into my voice as I thought of what horrors might be waiting for us in his mind.

"Let's go," Tom said decidedly.

I grabbed his hand tightly before using my other hand to grab Crexus's as I entered his mind.

We walked forward, towards the door of his mind which was dripping in blood. If ominous was a door, it would be this one.

"This'll be fun," Tom said sarcastically before pulling the door open slowly. The more he opened the door, the louder it became as the screams of women and cries of babies grew louder. It was enough to make me want to slam the door shut and walk away.

Tom grabbed my hand before I could, pulling me in.

"We walked down a hallway, covered with rats and roaches of all sorts feasting on crumps and pieces of meat, or were they flesh? I didn't want to know. I tried to focus on what was ahead of us rather than our surroundings as I felt bile start to creep up inside of me.

"We need to find him and get the hell out of here."

He nodded, walking forward as we heard a woman's scream grow louder than the rest. I stopped, turning behind me to walk towards it.

"No," Tom said, pulling me back.

"There's a woman. We have to help her."

"We're in his mind Saron, these are memories. There's nothing we can do for her. We need to find him and get out."

I nodded, following him reluctantly as I heard the woman's screams continue, wincing with each wail.

We walked quickly ahead, the woman's screams growing quieter as we got farther and farther away. Despite the lessened screaming, I could still hear her cries of desperation echoing in my mind haunting me.

"Here."

We came to a white door, with not a scratch or smudge on it. It was the cleanest, purest thing we'd seen since entering his mind and my body relaxed as I walked in. It was short lived considering what we were about to witness inside.

There he was, Crexus with nothing on but undergarments. Without his armor, he seemed so normal, so vulnerable. His skin was scarred with deep slashes on his back, his arms, his legs, even his face. His blood flowed down like a waterfall with his flesh hanging out. I had to force myself to focus on his eyes for if I focused anywhere else, I was sure I would burst into tears.

He turned around, his eyes widening in fear as he yelled, "LEAVE, NOW."

"No. We're here to save you," Tom said, his voice shaking.

"You can't save me."

"Yes we can," Tom said, tearing off his jacket and covering his back and arms with it. I peeled off my jacket as well, giving it to Tom to wrap around his legs.

"Come on," he said, sliding his arm around Crexus's waist before helping him stand. Crexus could barely stand, wobbling uneasily until I went to his other side, helping Tom hold him up.

"Hurry. Before he returns."

"Who?" I asked, looking around in confusion.

The door slowly began to turn as a man with a long white beard and wide rimmed glasses walked in. He was dressed in all white with a large black cross secured around his neck. I looked at him in horror, realizing he was a priest.

I looked at him in anger, my magic quickly building up inside of me as I shot a blast of magic at him, making him collapse to the ground.

"Let's go!" Tom said, hurrying forward as the priest was scrambling back up.

"Tom, go!" I ordered, pushing him out the door before standing between them and the priest. The priest ran his eyes up and down me, hungrily making me gag as I watched him approach. My fingers began burning with fire, quite literally as my anger reached astronomical levels. I ran straight at him, wrapping my hands around his neck, burning him as he screamed in pain. I pressed harder, burning straight through his flash until his flesh had melted off, leaving his neck exposed and unprotected.

"SARON, we need to go NOW!" Tom screamed, grabbing my attention. I tossed the priest down before flitting towards Tom. I wrapped my arm around Crexus's waist, clutching Tom's hand tightly as well before I darted forward, narrowly missing the woman who was advancing on us with a chainsaw in hand. I kept going, pushing as hard as I could until we made it to the bloody door, walking out and slamming it shut.

I shot forward, releasing an ocean of vomit on the grass.

Surprised, I looked up to see we were back in the forest. I looked over to find Tom panting as well, with his own pile of vomit beside him.

"Thank you."

I turned around to find Crexus, seated upright on the grass. After seeing his scars, I now I understood why he was so heavily armored and refused to take it off. Despite the helmet, I could see the deep pain in his eyes that was so vast even he couldn't hide it. I reached over to him, pulling him into a hug. I didn't care that his hard armor was poking and prodding at me painfully. I didn't care that he didn't make any effort to hug me back. I wished I could take away those memories of pain and suffering but I couldn't. In that moment, all I wanted was to make Crexus feel better. Even if it was just for a moment.

"You're very welcome," I whispered back.

After I pulled away, I noticed Tom watching me with an odd emotion hiding behind his eyes. From the way he was avoiding Crexus's gaze, I could tell even he was at a loss of words on how to comfort him. It wasn't fair for one person to have to carry that much pain.

"If we ever see any more fog, I'm running," he joked.

I laughed, nodding in agreement as I noticed Crexus's eyes crinkle in amusement. If I could see his face under the helmet, I could've sworn he was smiling. Or maybe it was just me being optimistic.

"We should look for the others," Tom offered, jumping up before offering me a hand. I look it, standing up before looking around.

"You think they were trapped too, like us?"

"Probably."

"They're strong. Don't worry," Crexus reassured us.

I nodded, focusing my sight as I scanned the forest.

"Let's fly, it'll be easier to find them from the air," Tom offered.

Cruxus, now fully healed rose up off the ground before either of us could invite him to climb on our wings.

"That's so cool," I said, watching Crexus glide through the air easily without wings.

"It is," Tom agreed.

We must've been in the air flying for almost an hour before we finally spotted Zion, squatted near a pond with Jeremy.

"Hey!" Tom yelled excitedly, flying down towards them quickly.

Crexus and I followed him, quickly descending to meet them.

"It's about time," Jeremy teased before running over to us.

"How long have you guys been here?" I asked.

"Not long," Joel answered, looking between Tom to me to Crexus.

"You three were stuck together?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah, you two?" Tom asked.

"Yeah." Joel nodded.

"What happened to you guys?" I asked, curiously.

"We were stuck in a maze," Jeremy answered.

"A maze?" Tom asked in a "that's it?" sort of way.

"Yeah, we actually crashed into each other running from a dinosaur," Joel said, laughing.

"How'd you guys get out?"

"We had help," Joel said, motioning to a girl on the opposite side of the bank, scooping and lapping up water.

"Who is that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her suspiciously. She had short jet black hair, barely longer than her chin. She had a narrow face and brown eyes. Her complexion was like sand, a good few shades lighter than my own. There was something oddly familiar about her, something I couldn't place.

"You don't know her? She said you were a friend of hers," Joel asked, perplexed.

"I've never seen her in my life," I said, my brows narrowing in confusion.

"What's her name?" Tom asked, noticing my confusion.

"Esat."

I turned to look at Joel, my face paling as I realized who she was.