Charlie rushed out to the hallway, fully prepared to sprint down the hall. However, a wall of ice cold steel bars stopped her. Beyond them, more walls of bars blocking off two rooms within each layer. One other door remained across that of the room she'd just escaped. A solid wall stood to her back. She turned again to the bars. She pulled on them. They weren't greatly thick, yet they were solid. The tops and bottoms seemed to be cemented into the ceiling and floor, except for the door, which came to ends on horizontal bars with only an inch between top and bottom. The door was securely fastened with a lock.

"What is this?" she said.

A speaker in the hallway crackled.

"Enter the room and pass the task to find your next clue and the key to move forward," the voice ordered.

Charlie's skin prickled as she stared from closed door to closed door. One down, five to go. What kind of horrors will they hold? Will there be worse than snakes?

"Open the door!" The loud voice was like sudden gunfire in a silent field and seemed to ricochet through her like an echo.

Charlie jerked the door wide open and saw darkness inside. The feeble light from the hallway did little for the black space beyond the door. A void in existence. She could step inside and disappear from the world. Blind. Vulnerable. The snakes didn't seem as bad now. Not as bad as this at all. Of all things she tried to avoid, darkness was definitely high on the list. Darkness reminds her of that long ago basement, where bad things happened. It reminded her of the day she fell for a little boy's trick, and ended up with a permanent reminder of how evil some people could be. Her hand floated up to the thin scar on her cheek. She shuddered.

"Inside," the voice ordered. When she hesitated, he warned her. "Don't make me hurt your friend again..."

"No. Please, I'll go," Charlie said. She took a deep breath and plunged into a nightmare.

For you, Shay.

As she stepped forward, the inky void seemed to reach for her, claw at her, welcome her inside where bad things happen. The door flew shut behind her, sealing her in the void. So dark. Like a cave miles under ground. She started thinking of all the sneaky, creepy things that lurked in caves.

"We're going to play hot and cold in here," the voice informed her, now speaking from speakers inside the room.

Charlie was slick with sweat. She held the metal pipe up, ready to swipe at anything that made the slightest sound of movement.

"You know how to play hot and cold, right, Charlie?"

Her breaths came in gasps and pants as she imagined creatures of the darkness coming at her, but she tried to focus. "Y-yes. If I'm far uh-uh-away I'm cold. As I get c-closer to the item, I get w-w-wah-warmer. R-right?"

"You're familiar. Perfect." There was humor in his words. "Except the original tis so boring. Luckily, this is my game, and I like to make the rules more interesting....more painful."

Charlie heard scampering feet running nearby and a little shout of shock broke her surface. She flinched. When she jerked backward, something sharp scraped her arm and she whimpered. The voice howled a dark, cruel sound of mirth.

"That's the kind of response I'm looking for," he said. "You're cold, Charlie." He made her name sounded like the croak of old, creaky hinges.

Her shirt was torn near her shoulder. She winced when her fingers brushed along the fresh scrape. What was that? she wondered. It was so hard to think in this room. The darkness was swallowing her, squeezing all logic from her brain. She didn't even realize she'd taken a step until she heard something crunch underfoot.

He stared at the night vision image on the screen. He saw Charlie's eyes shifting blindly in the dark as she fought to make sense of her surroundings. She couldn't see what he saw, all the sharp things. Some were strewn on the floor, small shards of glass in piles here or there. Jagged pieces of metal randomly protruding from the walls and poles he'd rigged up on the room. If she's not careful, she could walk into one and gut herself. His heart pumping hard, he thought of it. But how disappointed he would be if that happened so soon. There was still many things planned. More fun, more danger, more blood. If she dies here...well, then she was much weaker than he thought. Someone that escaped him once should be strong enough to go through his little games.

He thought of another girl, whose end came in the very room Charlie stood in now. She was stupid. She was too fast. In her haste, she'd run right into the wall. A sliver of metal had stabbed right through her eye and pierced her brain. She never used it anyway, he thought.

But Charlie will...at least, he thought she would. He was beginning to wonder, however. As he watched, she had no idea that she was standing only a few inches from a wide, sharp end pointing right at her neck. If she just moved to the right-

Charlie put her hands out. She'd use them as her eyes for now. Timidly, she stepped forward.