Sintra was seeing red. Literally.

The colors of her clothes, the torchlights, the gems, her skin. Everything had been tinted scarlet and she couldn't tell if it was just her eyes or the room.

"W-who said that?" Sintra asked, scoping the cavern to find the owner of the voice.

She rubbed her eyes while blinking rapidly as she tried to get rid of her newly colored vision.

"I'm a ghost," the voice replied, a British accent echoing throughout the room.

Sure enough, a transparent figure shimmered as it emerged from a dark corner of the cavern, grabbing the attention of the quartet as it seemed to float over the floor of remains.

She had brilliant orange hair or at least it looked that way to Sintra who had no real idea since her vision had turned scarlet.

The woman was wearing a tank top and jeans, her shoes missing and her cheek slicked with blood all the while a ghostly bedazzled dagger stuck out of her chest, the same place her heart was located.

"We can see that," Jesse snorted before holding a hand up at an excited Felix. "Don't start with the I told you sos, Granger or I will wax you."

"Whatever you say, little Miss Buck." He snickered.

"That's a new low even for you!" Jesse hit him.

"Jolly lot you are," the ghost woman said. "It's a shame really. You're all actually friends."

"What are you talking about?" Vante hissed at her.

"I was a participant in Elevate. Just like you. This was the second task for me. I was all by myself as my teammates had drowned in the Caribbean sea. They couldn't swim you see," she said, her eyebrows furrowing as she seemed to recall the memory.

"I found a topaz with my pass. Brought it inside and placed it there on the stone tablet. I killed myself a moment after since I was the only one here," she finished, her tone melancholic.

Sintra was confused. She had long passed the stage of being surprised at anything during this game. There were so many other incredibly terrible and unbelievable things that had happened to make a ghost actually seem somewhat normal. It pained her still, that she herself had decided to drive a dagger through her own heart. The pain must have been horrible.

"How would you know?" Jesse asked. "How would you know we'll turn against each other? You said you came here alone."

"Because she's seen it," another voice said behind them.

Sintra's head snapped around so quickly, she was sure to have a crooked neck by the time this was all over.

"Great! There's more of you! Where did you all come from?" Jesse questioned.

"We were always here," the man said as he looked around the floor of the cavern, his light colored hair matted with blood.

For the umpteenth time, fear rose inside Sintra's throat as she too took a glance at the corpses again, realizing what the man was hinting at.

"She saw us—my team and I that is. All 4 of us made it to the 3rd round. All 4 of us turned our blades on each other. My own sister bashed my head in with the handle of her torch," he finished.

"I was stabbed in eye," another voice echoed within the room.

"My throat was slit," said another.

"Strangled."

"Burned."

"Beaten."

"Mutilated."

All around the room spirits echoed the cause of their deaths, filling Sintra's head with endless agonizing and disgusting visions of murder, blood and gore.

"Stop it!" She finally shouted and the room fell silent, the spirits shimmering in and out of existence ever so slightly.

"I'd want you to win," said the ginger headed woman. "But those gems have cursed energy inside them. As long as you've held one your fate is sealed. It won't be long now til you start tearing each other apart."

"What about the passss?" Vante hissed at her. "How do we get it?"

"It'll appear when the gems on the alter start glowing. By then, you'll be dead though. Just like us," she answered.

"How are you so sure?" Sintra squinted at her.

She didn't feel any different, apart from her crimson tinted vision. She didn't want to kill her friends and she trusted that they felt the same way. All they had to do was wait for the pass to present itself, grab it and then get the hell out of creepy corpseville.

"Because we're here," the bloody blonde man said. "And the grudges we bare against the living is why you all die!" He finished, drifting inside Vante.

Sintra's brows furrowed as she watched Vante clutch his head, wailing in agony. He was flailing so fiercely that they had to back away from him so they wouldn't get knocked over by his erratic movement.

Suddenly he stopped, his head rising to look at his teammates and that's when Sintra noticed his snake pupils had turned blood red, his breath jagged as he stared at her with contempt.

No wonder they had been off their games the entire journey here. These ghosts were capable of doing much more than just floating around since they were clearly messing with the group's sense of perception. It must've been them tweaking with their sight just like they were doing now.

"Vante.." Sintra said, backing away.

"Hey what the—" Sintra heard Jesse say, cutting off as soon as another spirit drifted inside her.

Before she knew it, Felix was taken over as well and they all looked between each other with seething rage and hate that made Sintra anxious.

"Don't possess her," the ginger haired girl told the other spirits. "It'll be fun watching her fight her friends knowing that they're going to kill her."

As if on cue, Vante pounced on her and Sintra fell backwards unto the bones of a partially decayed man.

Screaming, she got up and ran, only there was no where to run since they had been locked inside the cavernous room waiting on the pass to show itself.

Vante was still hot on her heels, his dagger swinging on Sintra as she tried to escape his attack. She didn't care if she ran through the ghosts as she ignored the chill radiating through her body when she did, her hardened scales doing nothing to ease the numbness of the cold.

Finally backed into a corner, Sintra drew her dagger before pointing it at Vante, sweat beading her forehead as she sucked in the tears that threatened to fall.

"Stop this, Vante! It's me!" She tried to reason but instead he sliced at her, cutting a hole in her buttoned down shirt with ease.

Near the alter, Sintra caught sight of Felix and Jesse fighting. Felix slammed Jesse's head into the ground as he held on to her horns while Jesse forcefully ripped out his long fur, earning a howl from the werewolf man.

"Maybe with your death, your company can be mine!" Vante hissed.

"You're not thinking straight!" Sintra told him, ducking as he sliced at her face.

Sintra kicked him in the chest, running back towards the alter in an attempt to stop Jesse and Felix from killing each other.

"Make them stop!" Sintra shouted at the ghostly girl.

"Why? Why should you all get to live and us die?" She argued, her voice laced with venom and hate.

Her spiteful tone made Sintra wonder if the cursed energy inside the stones only affected the dead. Perhaps it had corrupted the spirits, keeping them prisoner inside this dank cavern with their rotting bodies and old bones. Who wouldn't be bitter?

"We didn't cause your death. The people responsible for Elevate did!" Sintra reasoned, dodging another of Vante's attacks.

"What does it matter? You must've heard the rumors of what they promised. Why should you be able to reap the rewards?"

Sintra couldn't help but think that no reward was worth losing her humanity. Before this game she was a hero to kids all around, now she was nothing but a shell of her former self— a woman who had gone against everything she stood for simply because she wanted to survive.

"I'll be honest with you!" Sintra shouted, parrying Vante's blade. "We don't deserve shit after everything we've done in this damn game."

Vante grabbed her throat, squeezing with all his might just before Sintra kicked him in the groin.

"Sorry, Vante!" She apologized, running over to Jesse to kick her off of Felix so she wouldn't gorge his eyes out.

"But these game masters have to pay for what they did! That's why we're trying so badly to win," Sintra said as Jesse got to her feet, eyeing her like a raging bull.

Pun intended.

"I don't know if we'll win to be honest," Sintra told her, sparring with Jesse while she held her off.

Jesse struggled against Sintra's grip which was unlike her since she could actually fight. Sintra alluded it to the spirit controlling her body.

"But we have to try so all your deaths don't go in vain!" She kicked Jesse in the stomach.

Something shimmered in the centre of the room and a pass suspended from a shining light at the alter appeared just in time.

Pushing Jesse aside, Sintra ran towards it, jumping over a wrestling Vante and Felix to grab it.

"I want to die a hero!" Sintra  shouted, grabbing the pass before putting her two fingers in her mouth to whistle.

Catching the attention of her teammates, they all got to their feet, staring at her like a sheep that had stumbled into a wolf pack.

The room rumbled, pieces of glittering stone falling from the ceiling as it shook violently.

"Don't let her get away!" The ginger haired girl said but Sintra had already been heading for the door during the shaking of the room, her teammates hot on her tail.

She dodged the ghosts trying to possess her, pulling the door open with all her might before she tumbled out into the pathway.

Rolling out of the way, her teammates collapsed on each other in the same spot she had been in as the ghosts possessing them were left standing at the door, unable to cross over the salt.

"You're a genius, Felix!" Sintra celebrated, holding on to the wall as the cave shook. Her vision had returned to normal and so had her skin besides a few faded patches.

"What happened?" Felix asked as Vante protested for him to get off him.

"No time to explain! This place looks like it's going to collapse. We have to go!" She shouted pushing them through the pathway they had came through before.

Before entering herself, Sintra turned to the ghosts, the ginger haired girl staring at her with hateful but envious eyes.

"I'll make them all pay for it. I promise," Sintra told her.

"You better, Sintra Magnus." She said, smirking at her confused expression.

"Come on!" Vante said, his pupils starting to return to their normal size and color.

Grabbing her hand, he lead her down the rattling path as she stole glances at the ghosts until they were out of sight.

They followed the markings Sintra had left towards their elevator, bits of hard rock falling in their path ever so often as they jumped over them in a hurry.

"We can't go back to our elevator!" Felix shouted. "The path's blocked."

"Head to ours!" Vante responded as they swiftly bolted in its direction.

The cave walls shuddered as they cracked, the shimmery coats of opaline rock splitting as it slowly started to tumble down.

Sintra and Vante's elevator was now in sight, Jesse and Felix arriving first to beckon them in.

Practically sliding in just before a large chunk of the ceiling blocked them inside the elevator, Sintra scanned the gray pass, the doors shutting shortly after as they caught their breaths and shot through the magical shaft.

Another close call, Sintra thought. But it wasn't over yet as floor 20 was the final place to arrive.

The brown light had turned gray, like the pass and Sintra and Vante's eyes found each other, the two gulping loudly as they exchanged anxious looks.

Neither of them knew what the gray light meant, just that it meant something.

"Now that my memory serves me again, a cave in New Zealand had shimmering walls," Felix exhaled.

Sintra could still see the smirk on the ginger haired girl's face, recalling how she had known her name. Just another eery experience she had had in this dreadful game.

Vante held her closely, earning a few wondering glances from Felix and Jesse who did well to refrain from asking questions.

Stroking her hair, he whispered apology after apology for attacking her, all of which met Sintra's forgiveness as she held him close.

"I never asked," Sintra then said, her head still buried in Vante's chest. "Why were you two in group counseling?"

"Well, Jesse's a retired army vet turned delinquent and I'm her group counsellor," Felix answered nonchalantly.

Slowly turning to them, Sintra's eyes twitched in disbelief.

"Ugh ah, that explains the dynamic," she nodded.

"What dynamic?" Jesse hissed, just as the elevator dinged at floor 20 before opening to reveal a gray stone wall.

It was hard to exit the elevator but once they did, Sintra's mouth hung agape at the devastating size of the mountain before, the top vanishing in a pillow of gray clouds.

"Holy mother of God," Felix said, his neck craning upwards to look at it.

"I hope they don't expect us to do what I think they do," Jesse scowled.

Sintra was relieved that they had all somewhat returned normal as both her and Vante's scales had finally vanished while Jesse had only two little stubs for horns, Felix with a little fur peeking out from his shirt.

"You know they do," Felix replied.

"These assholes really are trying to kill us," Jesse cursed.

"What confirmed it? Throwing us into the middle of the ocean or having a deathworm chase us across the desert. Or maybe it was the having ghosts possess our bodies so we could kill each other that really sealed the deal." Felix said sardonically.

Slapping his arm, Jesse walked along the side of the mountain as she examined the rock. Sintra watched her place a had into a groove in an attempt to climb, checking if it was sturdy.

"I hope to God this is the last time I'm asking this but now what?" Jesse questioned, turning to the rest of them.

"Welcome geniuses and congratulations!" The robot woman said.

"Burn in hell you evil motherfu—"

"Language, Jesse!" Felix scolded, walking over to her.

"You've now arrive at the final level of Elevate! This was no easy feat. You should all be proud."

"What do they mean all? It's just the four of us,"Sintra said lowly but Vante's sudden turn caught her attention as her stepped away from them.

Sintra had not surveyed her surroundings when they arrived at the mountain since the colossal monster rock had captured all her attention but as she turned to see what had gotten Vante's, her hands that were previously folded swung hopelessly at the side.

Suddenly, the gray clouds seemed eery, thunder roaring above them with promises of rain.

Across from them, another elevator door opened, more players scampering outside but it was the scatter of mountains across the rocky floor of the land, all identical to the one before them that blew Sintra's mind.

"Vante," Sintra called. "I don't think we're on earth anymore."