Del was woken abruptly by something yanking her duvet off the bed. She opened her eyes to find a big man leering down on her. Startled, Del rolled away from him and fell off the bed, crashing on the floor below. The man offered a hand and Del accepted it pulling her to her feet. Burt, the burly man from yesterday morning, was stood there with a gentle smile on his face.

"Sorry to wake you. You've got a meeting with Mrs. Winterfield, the g-...matron of this institute," Burt corrected himself. "I've picked out some clothes ready for you, not really meant to do that so don't tell anyone. I'll wait outside while you put them on." Burt left to give Del some privacy. There was a crimson hoodie and some black trousers neatly laid out for her on the sofa. She whipped the clothes on quickly, her body awake but her mind still slow and not really processing what was happening. She opened the door outside where Burt was waiting for her. He escorted her down a different route to yesterday. The corridors all looked the same as one another, an endless labyrinth of purple and white walls. It was silent, the only sound due to their footsteps reverberating across the walls. Del managed to slip some shoes on today, just a simple pair of black trainers but still it stopped the cold.

They stopped their walk as Burt halted outside a large oak door. The wooden door seemed out of place in this container of metal that had now become her home. Her prison. Burt knocked gently three times onto the door.

"Please come in" chimed a rather posh sounding voice from the other side. Burt opened the door and gently nudged Del into the room. It seemed to be an office. Like her own room, the place certainly looked nice and comfy. There were white leather chairs sat on either side of a black marble desk. On the desk itself was a whole amalgamation of stationary, a pristine computer and a couple of intricately designed drinking glasses. Shelves were crammed around the purple walls to fit nearly a whole library's worth of books and a whole archive of files all colour coordinated. The room was basked in the natural sunlight which illuminated the sharp features of the woman sat slenderly on one of the two chairs. "Oh, please close the door Delilah or you'll let in a draft." Del did as she was instructed. "Now please take a seat."

Del sat down opposite the governess of Gamus Institution 494, who (as detailed by a silver plaque on the wall behind her) was better known as Victoria Winterfield. Victoria had curly white hair that stopped shy of her shoulders. Her face looked like it had been sculpted with sharp jawbones and a protruding chin. Her skin was smooth and without spot, scratch or scar. Her eyes were hazel and shadowed above by dark thin eyebrows. "Well then Delilah, may I be the first to properly offer you a warm welcome. Welcome to Nightshade Village. Do you prefer tea or water?"

"Uh water will be fine thanks." Victoria procured a jug from underneath the desk and started pouring a glass. Having not drank since some time yesterday afternoon, Del felt a rushing release of comfort as the ice cool water flowed down her.

"Straight to the point Delilah, have you come to realise that this place is actually an imprisonment facility?" Del, holding on to the belief that until she admitted she knew it was a prison to the people in charge, decided to feign ignorance. She painted on her best look of surprise.

"No, well I didn't have a clue what this place was. Really, a prison?" Safe to say Del was now sure she hadn't been an actress in her former life. Thankfully Victoria didn't seem to notice.

"Yes, this place is essentially a prison but maybe not like one you remember. I'm sure you can connect the dots Delilah but this place being a prison makes you a prisoner. Do you remember what you did to get sent here?" Del's mind worked like clockwork. This woman would know how she had got sent here, that made this question just an attempt to gage how much Del knew herself. Bella had said to pretend she remembered her past, but it's easier said than done. You can count on a governess knowing why someone was sent to prison and Del didn't particularly want to be caught lying to the boss on her second day.

"No, I don't remember."

"Perfectly normal, no cause for concern. When you arrive here, we give you a small prick. Not talking about Anita, no." Del let out a quick snort of laughter which she tried to hide as a cough. "Don't repeat that. No, we give you a small injection in the side of your neck. It contains fluid with a touch of a chemical called Bravo-Sierra. It induces amnesia, to wipe out the details of where you are, make it impossible to escape. To be safe, we always administer a bit more so usually people also lose the details of how they got here. You remember your past before that though, right?"

"Yeh, of course," Del claimed confidently, best to not be seen as a complete hollow according to Bella. God, she didn't like that word. Del could feel Victoria's eyes pressing into her, trying to examine whether she was being honest. Victoria typed something out on to her computer and then pulled out a laminated sheet of paper from a drawer in the desk.

"Here is your daily timetable Delilah," she stated handing Del the sheet. "It runs from Monday to Saturday; no trial will take place on Sunday but otherwise it's the same. You'll be in the morning set, so your first mandatory requirement will be your trial running from nine to twelve.," Victoria pointed out the relevant parts of the timetable as she went through this. Everything was colour coordinated. Your outdoor and social time runs from one until three. There will then be an hour of solitary confinement until four. Welfare and visiting hours then go from six until nine. The rest of the time can be spent in your room. Mealtimes aren't compulsory but are at eight in the morning, noon, four and a light snack is served at nine. Any questions?"

"Lots," blurted Del honestly. Victoria gave a little chuckle.

"I'm sure. Right on to the trials themselves. Now, forgive me but I'm going to cover them from basics, I'm sure you remember a lot of this from before but there's a lot of myths spread about them that it's best if I just go from the top. I'm sure you remember the Hedgeback riots?

"How could I not?" lied Del. "They were awful."

"Hmm. Well as you know, there were mass arrests that day. This was of course when Gredgling was prime minister and not lord president or whatever he is now. He didn't think prison was enough for them questioning his leadership, wanted something more punishing, more humiliating for his enemies. So, him and his council devised these new Gamus Institutions and placed them all around the United Kingdom. He wanted them to be put through hell, so that's what happened. Daily ordeals, dreamt of by military generals, expert psychologists and codebreakers. All made, with the intent of making the prisoner learn something, help them become a better person. Or more like Gredgling himself anyway. He gave them a simple tease, if they could complete three tasks consecutively, they'd be set free. That principal has remained. Delilah you will be carrying out these trials too, and if you win three in a row, get three ticks as it were and you're free to go.

"So a serial killer could just beat three of these games and they'd be let off?"

"Theoretically, yes but it's not that simple. This is prison and life isn't fair. Not all trials are of the same difficulty, they're graded on a scale. We use shapes to make it simple. I forget what they all are but it goes from a blue circle to an orange square to a red pentagon." Del thought back to last night's notification and the vivid yellow triangle. "Anita oversees task allocation and obviously we're going to set a more challenging task for a murderer than a thief. So yes, the whole idea at the time was just three ticks to leave but things grew more advanced with time. The tasks grew more ambitious both in concept and in design. Some of them, including yours today actually, incorporate augmented reality technology." Maybe that was meant to be a hint but to Del it didn't provide any comfort.

"So, while the number of Gamus institutions grew with the ingenuity of the trials, Gredgling himself was getting more powerful. You remember, I'm certain how he stood for breaking down local government so he could sap its power. He grew more authoritarian as he went. We became less free for better or for worse. As people rebelled, arrests soured, and prison numbers skyrocketed. These Gamus Institutions weren't built for it and became overcrowded. Conditions were dire. But Gredgling wasn't going to go back to the old system now. That would look like defeat. Instead, he proposed a solution." Victoria laughed to herself. "It all seemed radical at the time, but he suggested or mandated might be a better term, that some of the trials had a chance of death associated with them. He also added, to make sure prisoners kept trying, that should someone fail three consecutive tasks, then they were to be executed." Victoria let out a loud deep sigh. "Well, regardless of my personal opinion, that element has remained. If anybody...yes, including you fails three tasks in a row here, we are legally obligated to kill you. There is no real way to say that nicely. I'm sorry, it's rough but that's what it is."

Delilah didn't really know how to respond to any of it. She couldn't remember one iota of what she was being told but the words sounded true all the same. All this history, why did the injection have to go wrong for her?

"Is the injection you gave me fault proof?" Delilah asked with trepidation.

"Is anything Delilah?"

"What happens to the people who don't remember anything?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. I'm sure you learned that while you were studying philosophy, right?" Delilah gave a tentative nod. Victoria stared back at Del, her eyebrows raised. "No Delilah. You were a criminology student. How much do you really remember?" Del sat stunned, her brain working overtime trying to think of a response to get this woman off her case. "I've done this countless times before, I can spot how much someone remembers quite easily, please do not offend my intellect."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Winterfield," blurted Del. "The truth is I..." Bella's advice played in her head, should she stick with the lie? "I don't remember anything about who I was before I came here." Victoria was positively beaming.

"I never told you my name Delilah"

"Well it was just written on the plaque behind you"

"Oh I know, its not rocket science but it shows you have some observation skills if nothing else. That's enough to convince me you're competent enough to continue with the programme."

"Th-thank you."

"Please be honest with me in future Delilah. No matter what Anita says, I'm the one who decides what happens to you here. Let me help you. This is reformation not retribution. Now Delilah, you must be off. Good luck this morning!"

Delilah walked back down the corridors on her own, first confused by the seemingly endless labyrinth of violet walls. Upon hearing some chatter, she decided to follow the noise and found herself in a canteen where they appeared to be serving a lavish breakfast. It was a welcome change from the frankly crap food served yesterday. There were mountains of croissants and pastries piled high. An assortment of cereals sat on a counter waiting to be chosen. The smell of toast and jam lingered in the air. Suffice to say, from what she remembered about prisons, which was just the broad strokes, this seemed suspiciously good. Del realised why it seemed suspicious. It was entirely plausible that for some people this could be their last meal. They had to make it special.

Curious of the time, Del asked one of the ever-patrolling guards. He told her it was half past eight and that they'd be getting ready to move shortly. The man was not wrong. Del just had time to scrape down some cereal and a pain au chocolat when the guard yelled telling everyone to follow him to the trial area. She got up and joined everyone else walking out the canteen, some nibbling on pieces of fruit or toast in their hands as they went.

The atmosphere as they walked surprised Delilah, it wasn't solemn or sombre. To the contrary, people were laughing and deep in conversation with fellow inmates, predicting what was going to happen today. Well, most people. There were some silent, anxious faces dotted around. Del might have gone to comfort them if she had had any inclination of how to do so. She saw a familiar face among the crowd: Theo, the cute guy with the brown hair. He was with Olivia, who although wasn't smiling didn't look quite as dour as yesterday. Theo gave a grin as he saw Del approach.

"Alright Del, how was Victoria?"

"She was alright I suppose, wait how did you know..."

"You wouldn't be coming to do a task if you hadn't had the talk with Victoria," interrupted Olivia. "We've all been there."

"Never call it the talk again," insisted Theo.

"Why?" Interrogated Olivia. "Has someone got a crush on Mrs. Winterfield. Aw, bless you." Olivia smiled at Theo, avoiding eye contact with Del. Theo's face grew a dark shade of red.

"Ew no, she's old enough to be my...No!" Del couldn't help laugh. Still, she couldn't help but notice that that face grew cuter when his cheeks were redder than a tomato. Olivia gave a little snigger at Theo's discomfort.

"So what do you two think of Victoria then?" Del asked.

"Not really the important question right now," sighed Olivia.

"Be nice Olivia, she's new. In my humble and often correct opinion," Theo started as Olivia sighed. "Victoria seems lovely, doesn't she?" Del nodded her head in agreement. "But what you've got to consider is the standard. Compare anyone to madame Dynamite and they'll look like a saint. She's alright though, all things considered. What trial have you got anyway?"

"Oh...uh something called the Scarlet Sphinx, whatever that is"

"Ah yeh," responded Theo with an appreciative nod, "Chevy said he's got that one too, don't know where he's gone now though come to think of it."

"Wait we have got the same one? I thought they were all different"

"How would that work?" Tutted Olivia, "there are hundreds of people here, you think they're gonna waste time making you your own bespoke trial."

"What she meant to say," Theo jumped in with a quick stony glare towards Olivia, "is that there are three or four of them that run on any given day, and a lot of them repeat too. We all end up doing the same ones, of course you are not meant to talk about them. What difficulty is your trial anyway?"

"Difficulty?" asked Del.

"Circle, square, triangle..." interrupted Olivia, getting impatient.

"Oh it was the triangle, what about yours?"

"Red pentagon," she said. Theo gave her a quick look of surprise that even Del noticed.

"That's the hardest one right?"

"Yes, blue circles the easiest, then a green semicircle. Yellow triangle is medium, orange squares harder still and a red pentagon well...good luck," joked Theo. The crowd stopped walking as they reached a very large purple hall and were shuffled in by a grumpy man dressed in white.

"Hurry it along there," An infamous nasal voice grumbled, shooing people inside with his hands. Typical, smaller prison than she thought. Del looked down to not let him see her and because she didn't want to be met by that wave of foul breath. As they moved in, the sheer scope of the hall was revealed. There were hundreds of people all stood around in luminous hoodies. The floor was smooth, hard and highly polished. On the wall opposite were large painted numbers at regular intervals along the length of the hall. White painted numbers from one to four visible from anywhere in the room. The noise had died down a tad now, no longer a cacophony of chatter but a murmur of muttering. A loud speaker blared over the room, causing her to jump and the room to fall quiet.

"Good morning to you all, now listen up carefully," a woman's voice echoed around the hall. "Those completing the Ice Train today please make your way to gate 1. That's gate 1 for the Ice Train," she repeated, and a group of people started shuffling towards the left hand side of the wall where the number one was painted, Del looked around and saw that Olivia was no longer standing with them. "Now anybody who got assigned Hunting Ground go to gate number two and we will need a signature of agreement for that one." Another crowd of people moved, Theo gave a quick nod towards Delilah and jogged over to the second gate. "Gate number three is for Leap of Faith, and we are a bit late starting with that one so could I ask that you all go over there promptly. Finally, gate four is for the Scarlet Sphinx. Good Luck everybody, have fun!"

Del was not really seeing the fun as she walked over towards the massive white four with the others. There were about fifty of them there in total, most of the people there looked reasonably young which she found odd, expecting a range of ages at the prison. Come to think of it she had not really seen anybody over about forty in this whole place. A man dressed in white with a mullet came up to her, clipboard in hands. He let out a little cough on to the paper then spoke.

"Hiya, what's your name?" His voice was very chesty.

"Delilah Cherie," she answered giving a little false smile at him. She didn't know what she was feeling right now but she wasn't happy. It did not feel like fear or anxiety either even though her mind was telling her to be scared. The whole situation though was just too abnormal, making prisoners play grandiose games... She didn't have any detail on her past life, but the overwhelming impression left on her mind was that this was weird. It didn't feel like life, didn't feel normal. It was far too weird to scare her.

The man was still stood there scanning his clipboard using a pen as a marker, probably looking for her name. After an eternity, he struck his pen like a knife across the page and gave a little smile.

"Got you, he yelled triumphantly. "You're my little star girl aren't you?" Del knew what she was feeling now, confusion.

"I...what?"

"Star girl, look here," he said showing Del the clipboard which had a long list of names, some had been crossed through with the pen. "There is a star by your name. It's your first trial today, don't worry you'll get used to it."

"You've never done a trial so you wouldn't really know, would you?"

"Touché, you know what that's a fair point star girl."

"I go by Del actually, what is your name anyway?"

"Irrelevant"

"Oh... what were your parents thinking naming you that?"

"Gallows humour," he said gleefully pointing his finger at Del. "My sort of girl." Del tried to internally roll her eyes, so he couldn't see. Quite an arduous task. "I like you Del. The name's Trevor. Anyway, what I'm meant to be asking you is whether you'd rather do this task sooner or later." Del thought for a second, right now she was too shocked and confused by the whole thing to be scared, but if the last day had taught her anything it was that her feelings were changing like the tide. Why let anxiety have the chance to attack?

"Sooner," Del announced firmly. Trevor scribbled a little mark on his board then went up to the next person. She looked around the crowd for any familiar face. Chevy was nowhere to be seen. She looked up and around the hall, as time grew slower and slower. It was boring more than anything else, waiting there with nobody to talk to. Not that anybody else was chatting anymore really, they were all in their own headspace. Some were uttering little words and phrases, a girl behind Del was saying something about Egyptian mythology.

Soon, they started collecting people and one by one they started walking through the gate. Some looked confident, some looked scared. After about ten minutes Trevor came back over to tell Del it was her time to go and so she walked over to the gate right under that big bold number 4. A man dressed in blue opened the door for her and she stepped forward. Inside stood a woman in a white knee length skirt and lab coat with short blonde hair. On her face sat a blue surgical mask.

"Hey there Delilah," she chirped. "I'll make this quick for you, just take a seat." The room was fragranced with a powerful smell of bleach that offended the senses. Delilah could not understand what the room was for, there was just a wooden chair and a table with a mirror on. It felt like a dentist's surgery on a budget. Del pressed hard hoping she had just remembered something even if it was just the dentists. Nothing came. Del did as the woman asked and sat down on the uncomfortable chair. Was this a part of the trial?

The woman approached and removed from her pocket a small wipe which she proceeded to wipe around Del's face. The wipe was cool and relieving, Del not realising how hot the hall had been. Next, the woman applied a powdered brush to Delilah's face for some reason. Then she giving a smile, pulled out a brush from her lab coat and began carefully brushing Del's hair. Del still did not have a clue what was going on.

"Don't mind the mask, I'm not meant me to be inhaling any of the fumes from in there," she said pointing towards a door on the other side of the room.

"What about me?" said Del with genuine concern.

"Ah it's only a grade two carcinogen you'll be fine," Del didn't know how to react. "I'm joking, it's harmless. It's what allows your perception to be altered, so the trial can work."

"I'm sorry my perceptions to be what..."

"And there we go, you're done," interrupted the lady. "Go through there then choose any door with a green light. Good luck."

Delilah got up and moved towards the door. She opened it and with one final smile back at the woman stepped through it. Del found herself on a dark corridor. Along the corridor were a set of robust looking metal doors like the one in her room. Above each one there was a bulb casting red light on the floor. Del looked for the first one she could find with a green light like the woman had said. Turns out there was only one available at the far end of the corridor. She tried the door. It was stiff but it still opened. Del stepped through and closed the door behind her.

It was a medium sized room shaped like a cube. The walls were white, the floor and ceiling were black. The room was bright, but the light must have come from the walls themselves as there were no bulbs or LEDs to be seen. Del wandered to the centre of the room and looked around anticipating something happening. She didn't have to wait long. A loud reverberating sound like that from a bass guitar shook the room. On the wall Del was facing, a bright yellow triangle started to appear. It grew more and more vivid as the base boomed louder and louder, piercing her eardrums. Then it went quiet.

There was a gentle hissing noise and suddenly a crimson red vapour leaked into the room sprawling across the floor like fog on a cold day. Del tried to shuffle away from it but a dizzy sensation came over her. Closing her eyes to reorient herself, Del opened them again to find the walls were no longer a snow white but a light grey. The red mist started creeping up the walls, the smell from it was becoming clear now. That scent of bleach infuriating her nose yet again. The walls around her were growing darker and darker, the red smoke becoming harder to see as the light from the room was lost. Soon Del was left in total darkness and total silence.

Delilah pushed one leg in front of the other and stepped forward. The surroundings changed so fast that it caught Del by surprise, she tripped and fell to the ground. A cold breeze slapped her in the face. She was outside in the dark. But it was the morning, how was it dark already? Something was digging into her back. A tree roots. Del looked around to see tall trees clawing up at the sky, the trees surrounded her like soldiers. In the distance the sound of wings fluttering, and leaves shuffling disturbed the quiet. This was a forest.

It must have been the augmented reality Victoria was on about. Del lifted up her hand and rested it on the tree. The tree bark felt like how it was meant to. She traced the intricate patterns on its surface with her fingers. Very real. Del pushed herself up on to her feet and noticed a layer of dirt covering her hands, dirt from the forest floor. It looked, sounded and felt like a forest. Del tried to smell the air, but no scent came to her. Still, if nobody had told her it was augmented reality beforehand Del would not have doubted it.

Delilah walked around the forest a bit, leaves squelching beneath her feet. She moved around the trees to find something that wasn't so natural. There was a tall stone brick wall in front of her, mossy and overgrown. It was made easier to see by lanterns hanging on the trees around it giving off a fiery orange glow. Delilah approached the wall cautiously; she lay her hand against it. Damp. Looking to see what she was meant to be doing, Del reached for the moss. That was when it happened.

A loud roar cracked the forest like a whip. Then a pause before something smashed through the wall sending a brick or two flying and causing Del to jump. Dust flew into the air obscuring her vision and when the dust had cleared Del found herself jumping in the air yet again. In front of her was a hideous stone face, scarred and disfigured...but alive. The eyes, grey pupils beneath the stone were moving around, glancing at the surrounding forest before settling on Del. The hideous stone lips creaked into a smile. A bit to either side of the face were great big red claws scratching the stone. Claws looking much fleshier and more natural than the stone face. Each of the hands had razor sharp nails protruding from them. The creature gave another low grumble before speaking.

"Up to puzzles and a mental hijinks, kneel before the might of the one scarlet sphinx." Its voice was very deep and bounced off the trees, but Del was more weirded out than scared.

"No thank you," Delilah chimed. The gargoyle ignored her.

"I ask you these riddles three. Get just two right and there is a tick for thee." The gargoyle paused before letting out a loud roar that caused a few more bricks to topple off the wall. Delilah looked horrified at the monster in front of her known as the Scarlet Sphinx. This was too weird for her. A talking statue asking riddles in a forest that was not real. Del had just one thing to say...

"What the f*ck!"