My ears are assaulted by a horrible screeching noise that reverberates through the air at an unbearably high frequency. At first it sounds like the keen of a desperate bird, magnified to a deafening level. But then it changes slightly, morphing into a very human-sounding scream. It's the scream of ultimate suffering, the dying scream of a panicked creature.

I cover my ears with my hands, clenching my teeth and trying desperately to block out the sound. Then there's a swift whooshing noise, followed by a loud bang, like the sound of thunder, and a flash of light illuminates the cave. I look up to see the outline of Avis, the great Sphinx, but not as we saw her last. Her great wings are unfurled to their full, magnificent length, the wingspan large enough to block out the pseudo-sun, and each delicate feather slowly being consumed by the blaze of fire that surrounds the great creature. She lets out another screech, this one more desperate and painful than the last, and I feel my heart break for the demise of such a beautiful thing.

We all watch as her flight upwards stalls, and she begins to plummet back down to the labyrinth. Her wings go limp and her body still as she falls, disappearing from our line of vision. But I hear the crack and see the flash as she breaks through the electric barrier once again. I can only hope she was dead before she hit it the second time.

As we continue on through the turns of the labyrinth, my ears pick up the faint sounds of Gabriel's men cheering in the distance.

*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•

We run for about an hour before Kara begins to slow. I lift my head as her strides grow shorter and the rhythm changes. After a second she comes to a complete stop and sinks down into a crouch, her tail thrashing violently back and forth. About twelve feet in front of us are two heavy wooden doors, each with a set of ornate silver knockers. There are no door knockers. In between them is a statue of a beautiful woman, carved into the rock with her hands folded in front of her. The folds of her dress fan out around her, blending into the long waves of her hair. Whoever carved it was a true master. Or, I reason as I climb off Kara's back, created it with magic.

"Another dead end?" Chase asks, climbing off of the back of a giant bear.

"No," Morgan says, landing beside him as the bear Shifts back into Garret. "This is a challenge. Look behind us."

We all turn to see another stone wall blocking our path back. Once again, the moving passages have us cornered. Whatever the challenge is, we can't get out of it now.

Suddenly, the statue's eyes fly open to reveal two misty orbs beneath the lids. They have no pupils, however, just a milky white that seems slightly luminescent. It's unnerving, and I flinch back as her lips part and she speaks.

"Twin doors side by side, identical in every way. One leads to the Blue Amulet you have been searching for, and one will lead to fatal consequences. Make your decision, but just know that once you choose there is no going back." Then her eyes snap shut and she doesn't move again.

"We have to leave our fate to a 50-50 decision?" I ask after a second.

"If we choose wrong then all our work is pointless!" Chase exclaims.

I stare at the two doors, fear rising in my chest. One of them is the exit, and the other is the end. The end of our lives, the failure of our mission, and the waste of my parents' lives. We choose wrong, and it's all over. I study the doors, wondering which we should pick.

But then I stop. The others continue to talk around me, voices rising, as the statue's words flow through my mind. She said we had to choose, and that there was no going back. But she never said that we all had to choose, technically. Just that someone had to make the decision.

"We don't all have to go," I say quietly, looking over to Chase. The talking stops and everyone looks at me curiously.

"What do you mean?" Garret asks.

I keep my eyes glued to Chase, and I see his eyes widen as he understands.

"Only one," I tell them.

Realization dawns on all of their faces. We don't all have to choose. If one person goes through one door, there's a fifty percent chance that they will die. If they do then we choose the door they didn't go through. A sacrifice.

"You mean, one of us chooses a door and goes through it, to test to see if that door is safe?" Morgan asks. I nod gravely.

"If they live we'll go through that door and it's all okay, but if they don't. . ." Kara trails off.

This is just like the challenge with the Sphinx. Someone has to be sacrificed for the others to continue on. It's as straightforward as it is appalling; we must choose someone to risk their life.

"Who will go?" Chase asks. Silence. The tension is thick in the air. We all know what must happen, but we don't want to face it. I was wrong, this is different. This time, the chosen person's survival is based purely on luck, whereas in the Sphinx's challenge it was your ability to face the challenges post-separation. If you don't doubt your abilities then you are more likely to risk yourself in the Sphinx's challenge. Here, your life is completely out of your hands.

The silence stretches on longer, every second weighted. Finally Garret says, "someone must go. And if no one will volunteer then the job falls to me."

Immediately a chorus of shouts erupts from the two redheads, expressions panicked and fearful.

"No," Chase says. "That wouldn't make sense. You're our leader. Sacrificing yourself won't solve anything."

"But it's my job to make the hard decisions. The captain goes down with the ship, and so I will choose."

"No," Annalise states firmly, lifting her head and speaking for the first time in a while. "You have a family. You can't go. Same as Kara and Morgan. Chase, you're practically family to the Andersons, if wouldn't be fair either. "

"Me," I speak out. "I don't have a family. Not now."

"Haven, you. . . You didn't choose this mission. We did. We signed up as sacrifices the day we left headquarters. Besides, Chase will mourn you, and you'll mourn him. We're not blind, you know," Kara says.

Morgan glances over at the two of us, eyes wide. Obviously some of us may be more oblivious than others.

"I don't have a family," Anne continues. "They were all murdered. I am the only one left, and I'm not family here, not like the rest of the Clan." She takes a step back and to the right, out of our circle of communication, and we turn to watch her.

"Jonathan is dead. He's gone to. . . To heaven I guess. And he shouldn't be. He should be here. Haven?" She asks, taking another step back and looking into my eyes. I feel dread in the pit of my stomach.

"Yeah?" I ask, and her face softens.

"I would forgive you, but there's nothing to forgive."

Her words make me freeze, that and the tenderness of her face. It's because of this that I'm too slow to stop her from throwing open the rightmost door and stepping through into the mist beyond.

It's the same fog that took my dad.

I watch her with bated breath as she turns back towards us. For a second we wait quietly, worried and anxious. But nothing happens. Anne's shoulders slump with relief and I see a tiny smile curl at the edges of her mouth. She choose right. By some miracle she beat the challenge.

But then her face falls, and her eyes widen with fear and trepidation. The mist behind her starts to swirl and turn like a vortex, and the wind begins to gain volume as it increases pace. Tendrils reach out for her from just behind, and I see her take a step forward and reach out a hand in front of her to escape, but she hits something solid and invisible.

I run up to her, reaching for her hand, and my fingertips glance off the surface. It feels cold and smooth, like glass, and hard as diamonds. Frantically her hands scrabble against the surface, not finding a breech. She looks up into my eyes, her hand lining up with mine like she's my own reflection. For a second all I can see in her face is horror. But as the tendrils reach her arms it drains away completely, replaced by resignation.

"Jonathan," she says tenderly. "I'm coming for him."

I shake my head, making a fist and slamming it into the glass in the hope that it will break. She nods once, her eyes shining with tears. "Make our deaths mean something."

And then the mist pulls her away, yanking her back wards into nothingness. I leap out of the way as the door shuts with an ears plotting bang, muffling the noise. Then, through the door comes an ear piercing shriek, like one thousand nails on a chalk board, screeching and howling with anguish. And just as it comes to a horrible crescendo it stops abruptly as all noise ceases and everything is silent once more.

For a second we stare after her, at the door that swallowed her whole.

"Anne?" Kara asks, stepping towards the door. But of course, no one answers.

"Dammit!" I yell, pounding my fist against the wood. "I thought she'd chosen the right one! If it had been the other door. . ." I trail off, stepping away and letting my head hang low.

Morgan stands up straighter, centering herself and blinking back tears. Kara stands apart from her, leaning her forehead against the wall. Garret and Chase both stare furiously at the door that took her away.

Five. I think somberly. We left for Paris with eleven, and now only five of us are left alive. Less than half of us are left alive. And Gabriel's right behind us. Who knows how much time we have to spare. . .

"Everyone," Garret says, addressing the clan. "We must go, quickly. There will be time to mourn for Annalise, but for now, we are feet away from our final destination, a position we might not be in if it weren't for her. So let's honor her sacrifice by not wasting any more of the time she's given us, agreed?"

"Wait!" Kara calls, gazing towards the passage behind us. It must've reappeared while we were talking. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone is silent, listening. We wait there for a second. No one says anything. Then Chase says, "I don't hear any. . . Wait."

We all start to pick up on the rustling, the whispers, the collective stomping of a thousand feet pounding on the stone. I turn to Chase as the sound gross louder and louder, increasing until we can hear the shouts and cheers of the great army behind us. They're here.

"Go!" I shout to them, and we all collectively run towards the door that leads to the Amulet, the one Anne didn't choose. I let the others run ahead of me, looking back towards the rest of the maze as they enter the doorway. Kara, Morgan, Garret, they each step through, disappearing as soon as they cross over the threshold.

"C'mon Haven!" Chase calls, one hand on the doorframe, holding the other out for me to take. The words of their shouts are almost audible now, echoing across the cavern. I remember the fall of Avis, how they drove her to try to escape them, and how she was shocked and burnt by the field in the process. They didn't need to kill her. They're monsters for destroying such a magnificent creation.

I take Chase's hand, stepping through the doorway. But just before the flash of light takes me too, I see the first of Gabriel's men tear around the corner. The Flyers shoot through the air and the Mages gallop on their Shift animals, fire and lightning crackling from their fingers as murder dances in their eyes.

Alllllllright! So we are on the final stretch! If everything goes as planned, we should have about three chapters left! I would love to get my book to 2k by the end, so please read, vote, recommend ext. I hate doing this, but it's just 100 more reads to reach 2,000! Thank you!

-iambibliophilic