I shook my head, stunned into silence. This was crazy, I was going to hurt him even more...

"Maya. Come on. Please!"

There was nothing else I could do... I sat on the edge of the door and let myself slip down, trying to ignore the pain caused by the smooth rocks bruising my back. It only took seconds before I felt Ron's hands on my waist, and we tumbled to the ground together.

I kissed him, giggling stupidly, too happy that we both made it down, and soon we would be outside, there was only one key left. I stood up and helped Ron to his feet, making him wince.

"What is it?" I asked, all mirth forgotten.

"My leg." He said. "I'll come with you as far as I can but then you'll have to leave me and go on."

"No, no, no!" I called, kneeling next to him, pulling up the fabric of his pants. His ankle was swollen and he hissed with pain as I touched it. There was a long, bleeding scratch under his knee too.

I pulled at the edge of my wet and dirty blanket but my hands trembled so much that I was not able to tear away a piece of the fabric to at least stop his bleeding.

"Ron, help me!" I called finally, on the verge of tears.

After I improvised a bandage he pulled me to my feet and hugged me. "Hush." He whispered into the messy cloud of my hair. "You mustn't cry. Let's get out of here."

I nodded, and wrapping my arm around his waist helped him limp out of the cave. We found ourselves in a forest, surrounded by trees so tall and thickly-grown that it was impossible to see enough of the wintery November sky to tell what time of the day it was. But it was a day, which meant...

"It must be Monday already." Ron said, giving voice to my thoughts. "We haven't drank anything in twenty-four hour at least, eaten nothing since Saturday... And we still have one key. We must hurry."

I nodded, noticing just then a path leading from the mouth of the cave into the forest. It was so overgrown with vegetation that it was a miracle that I saw it.

We limped our way along until the faint light started to become even fainter. Then we reached a tall stone wall, most likely enclosing a large portion of the forest.

"I need to rest." Ron said. "You should walk along the wall for a while and see if you can find a gate matching the last key..." he tried for a smile but it was more of a pained grimace.

Nodding, I took the keys from him, and helped him to sit down, his back against the wall.

Before I found the gate, the night had fallen. Luckily the clouds that hung above the forest had vanished and the silvery light of the full moon appearing in the gaps among the trees above my head was all I needed to unlock the gate. It opened on a long driveway.

I made my way back to Ron as fast as I could, finally kicking off the destroyed slippers but when I found him sleeping, I decided to leave him to rest. After I covered him as well as I could with the torn blanket, I ran for help, using my last strength and the adrenaline that now ran through my veins, urging me on.

I was thinking that the driveway would never end as I stumbled along, barefeet, when I noticed flickering, red and blue lights in the distance. Ignoring my bleeding feet I started running again then, and when I could not take another step forward I called for help, hoping that someone would hear me.

They did.

Soon I was encircled by policemen and paramedics, making me drink, checking my body for wounds, asking questions.

"Ron... There is a gate in the wall somewhere along the drive..." I muttered.

I only caught a glimpse of the front door of the house through which we entered days ago, beyond the veil of flickering lights, before everything faded to black.

Later I was told that the police found Ron in no time.

They broke into the house next, finding Eric in the kitchen. His leg was broken-- he saw the door closing behind him the moment he entered the room and tried to get back... The sliding door shattered his thigh bone, only pausing long enough for him to pull it back.

It took the police a whole day to find the others though-- Yvonne, hidden in a crevice in the wall behind the bathroom. She... did not make it out alive. Apparently, the part of the wall slid open while she was in the bathroom, she walked inside, and got trapped there, without air. None of us heard her calling for help...

Sara, somehow, got back inside one of the bedrooms which had been shut when we tried the doors. She stayed there, in shock, certain that Eric was dead...

Matt... disappeared. Like the short man who gave us the keys and others around him.

That's what the inspectors told us-- the small company he founded had several escape houses around the country. The police noticed them when some people in different online chat rooms started talking about their friends coming back from a 'weekend experience' seriously injured. What was not mentioned online, at least not in connection with the company who owned the houses, were the few deaths...

Both Ron and Eric think that Matt must have been involved with the company owning the escape house all along. It would explain the missing clothes, Eric's blood stained t-shirt that nearly cost Sara her sanity, and the pool of pig blood in the bathroom...

I... hope he wasn't. I hope to meet him again at some point and ask... if whatever he did, was worth it.