It was a cold winter night. The city clock tower rang which signaled it was already midnight. Rye was tucked snuggly in her bed, dreaming away. The door to her room opened with a creak, a woman stepped inside. She walked towards the girl's bed, making a loud creaking sound every step she took. The girl opened her eyes, but before she could put together what was happening, she saw a jet of white light- and she blacked out.
"—I know what I'm doing!" a dark woman whispered angrily to her companion.
"I told you to bring them back safely," argued the other woman. "NOT stun them and bring them back here!"
Rye was stirring; she opened her eyes slowly and saw she was in a circular room. She wasn't alone, though. She was with four other kids— who looked like they were never stunned, but otherwise looked frightened to be here, wherever they were. The curly haired woman saw Rye sit up.
"SEE!" she said pointing at Rye, "She's fine!"
Her companion rolled her eyes and approached the center of the room. Rye noticed that a stage was located there now, but she could've sworn it wasn't there a while ago.
"As our other recruit has now awoken," She said indicating Rye. "We shall now begin the test. You will be joined by 15 other examiners through that door," She pointed at a brown, wooden door at the other end of the room. "At the sound of my whistle, please enter the room and close the door behind you." She paused for a second or two and blew her whistle.
Rye was confused. Why was she taking a test in the middle of Christmas vacation? Where was she? Who's that fat lady ordering her to do stuff?
But even though she had no idea who she was, she walked toward the door along with the other 5 kids.
"Hey," a kid with glasses said to Rye. "I'm Nina." She held out a hand and Rye shook it.
"I'm Pat, but I'd rather you call me Rye." She replied. "Have any idea what we're up for?"
Nina just shook her head. They reached the door and opened it together. They entered the room and saw the same woman they saw in the other. That couldn't be right. Rye thought to herself. Wasn't she just—. But before she could look back, the door closed behind them. The 3 other doors in the room opened and from each of the doors, emerged 5 kids, 15 more in all, like the fat woman said. Rye thought.
The woman cleared her throat.
"Please take your seats at the stands," She said. We all looked around; we couldn't see the stands she was talking about. And just as I turned my head right, the stands materialized right before our very eyes. They all stared at the stands, and slowly they filled the seats.
"I will call you each one by one," explained the woman. "Try your best to defend yourselves, if you feel you cannot do it anymore, just shout that you give up and Miss Aina will escort you back to your homes."
Perfect. Rye thought. I could give up even before it actually starts…
"Estrella and Flores." Rye stood up, along with another girl at the end of the row. They took their positions at the middle of the room, after about 5 seconds of waiting, the door infront of them burst open—a huge dragon was right there, staring at both of them. Rye was about to shout 'I GIVE UP!' but when she opened her mouth, no words came out, instead, fire did. The fire hit the dragon directly at the face. Rye couldn't believe what she just did. She didn't feel like giving up anymore, she felt like she knew what she was doing. She raised her arms slowly and pointed her palms directly at the dragon, again, fire came out and the dragon burst into flames and moments later, turned to dust. The Flores girl didn't even do anything; she just stood there, her mouth open, gaping at the sight in front of her. The crowd at the stands looked more like fishes out of water. Their mouths were all open as well, even Rye couldn't believe what she just did. The fat woman nodded and checked something on her clipboard; she then stood up and said:
"Ah, very well done Ms. Estrella, you may take your seat again. Miss Flores, Aina shall escort you back to your home."
Rye took her seat again, and Aina came forward to hold Flores' hand, for a moment they just stood there, and the next thing they knew, they vanished. But not even a minute has passed and Aina was back again. The tests continued on, each pair trying to fight off a different animal from the previous pair. By the end of the test, only 10 remained.
The fat woman stood up and clapped her hands rather slowly. No one else did anything, they just stared.
"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot my manners," She said as she stopped clapping. "I forgot to introduce myself, I, am Darah." She paused and looked around the room.
"But no need for further explanations right now, right now, you need to take another test."
ANOTHER one? What next, we're gonna kill each other? Rye thought. She could tell by the other kids' faces that they weren't too glad about another test either, but even though, they still followed 'Darah' to the next room.
"This test is rather simple really," Darah said as she turned to face the children. "You just have to go through the maze. The first one to reach the staircase and ring the bell wins." She paused. "Again, if any of you wishes to quit, you may shout the same words I have told you."
This time, Rye didn't want to quit at all. She made it this far, why would she quit? She really didn't know why she didn't want to quit, after all, she didn't even know what this test is for-
"Let us start of with Mr. Sebastian and Ms. Ocampo." A handsome looking blond moved forward together with a curly haired, short girl.
"You may enter the maze at the blow of my whistle." She looked at the two children first for a second, and then blew her whistle at once.
About 10 minutes passed, still, they heard no bell. Rye thought that maybe those two were just too stupid to get there. The maze couldn't be THAT hard… She thought. Just as Darah looked at her watch, they heard a girl screaming from the maze, the Ocampo girl gave up. Aina disappeared from sight, probably to go get her.
"We have one official member," Darah said, clapping her hands together. "Those of whom who will pass this test as well, will join Mr. Sebastian at the other end of the maze."
"Let's get back to business, Ms. Delacour and Ms. Estrella, if you may come forward please." Rye stepped forward immediately, the Delacour girl stepped forward rather reluctantly. Darah blew the whistle, and they entered the maze. At first, it was bright, it was easy to see, but as Rye got deeper into the maze, fog came along, darkness poured down. She could hear Delacour from the other side, running. She looked straight again; a figure in a black cloak was standing in front of her. It said words Rye couldn't understand, probably another language. She thought, then, as the figure stopped talking, Rye felt an intense pain growing all over her body. She fell to the floor, then, as if by magic, she felt like she was glowing, she slowly stood up, feeling the energy coming back to her, spread her arms and an orb came rushing out of her and hit the hooded figure. It collapsed to the ground; Rye stepped over it and went running. She didn't want to encounter another one of these things, whatever it was. It felt weird, like all the happiness was getting drained out of her and worse, she felt like her soul was being removed. Just then, she saw a hint of gold in front of her, she ran faster and faster. Moments later, she was infront of the bell, she rang it furiously and moments later, she was in another room with the Ryou guy. He stood up and faced Rye.
"You passed too?" He asked her.
Rye wanted to say 'No, I'm here because I was sent to watch over you in case you get into trouble.' But thought it was too rude and nodded instead.
"I'm Ryou," He said, holding out a hand. Rye shook it. What is it with these people and handshakes? "I'm Rye." They sat down near the fireplace, waiting for more people to come. Rye looked at the clock every 5 minutes or so, 10 minutes passed. She and Ryou heard the familiar sound of a bell ringing, moments later, Nina joined them in the room.
"THAT WAS THE FREAKIEST TEST EVER!" she said wide eyed. They both murmured their agreement. Sebastian introduced himself to Nina, who went to the bookshelf immediately to read. Rye was getting bored of waiting. She grabbed a book and flicked through the pages, not even bothering to read them. The book was even upside down. Sebastian noticed this and laughed quietly to himself. Moments later another one appeared. Her hair was sticking out in all places, her glasses were lop-sided, she was soaking wet…
"WERE THEY TRYING TO DROWN US OR SOMETHING?" They all stared at her; probably no one else had to go through a pool.
"You didn't have to go through a sea?" She asked confused. We all shook our heads.
"Then what DID you guys go through?" She asked.
They all recounted their stories of what happened to them in the maze. Nina encountering a giant spider, Sebastian going through a dark forest full of snakes and Rye's encounter with the happiness sucking demon. The girl introduced herself as Kaye. Kaye took a place near the fire place, trying to dry herself off. Rye took back to flicking through pages of an upside down book. Moments later the very last member appeared. Awkwardly, she looked calmer than ever. She looked around the room and her eyes stopped at Sebastian.
"H-h-hi!" Was all she could say.
"Um… hi?" Sebastian said.
The girl shook her head and came back down to earth.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Fine by the way."
"We could all see that," Rye said. "You look perfectly calm."
"No, no, no." Fine said shaking her head. "I'm not fine. Well, okay I am. But my name is Fine." It took a while for them to get that her name was actually Fine. But by then, Aina had appeared.
"Congratulations to all of you," She said looking around the room. "You will meet Mr. Dumbledore later at dinner time for further explanations." She said.
Dumbledore? Rye thought. She could've sworn she saw that name in one of the books a while ago. She shared this to Sebastian, who just said she couldn't have, for or she was flicking through the book upside down. Rye just stuck out her tongue.
