There were once 40 of us, now only 24. The 6th grade homeroom was partly destroyed. There were 12 glass rooms in a circle. Down the middle school hall was a door. Whoever went in, came out as a different person. Shaky, jittery, untouchable, scarred. The Circle, as they call it, was right outside of our Science Lab. It's been a week without food, only water. Cameron just came to tour the school. He ended up as my ''roommate'' in the 12th glass room, next to Kendall & Logan on the right, and Joseph & Maddie on the left. I drank some of the water they gave me this morning. It was probably around 9:00 in the morning. Cameron was sleeping at the other end of the room. I sat back and watched him. The wake-up alarm rang and all of us were forced to cover our ears. Those sleeping normally would scream. Cameron jumped up, looking around. His icy blue eyes were wide in fear. I always knew him as a tough person who always tried to annoy people- make people laugh, but now he seemed to have his courage sucked right out of him. I got up and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He hugged me against his chest. His breaths were abnormally uneven and heavy- like he had just finished a race. I squeezed him tighter in a hug.

"You're okay." I said quietly.

"I had a dream," he said panting. I noticed he was a little sweaty, too. "That you died." he says, finally.

"Well, it's over now, okay?" I whisper gently. A Peacekeeper opened a tiny listening hole in each room and stood in the middle.

"Today," he said, he kept shooting glances at Amelia & Reed, in room ten; odd. "You each will be connected to a machine in a room that will take your worst fears, and make them real. How this will work, is that a heart shaped table connected to an arm will have three, painless needles on it. They will go in your back and send a fluid into it that will show your fears. The room of course behind the door is glass, so everyone will watch. One room per day." he pointed to the room behind him. I felt like he should have a wicked grin across his face for saying that last sentence. Was he trying to make us suffer?

The room in which all the younger children came out haunted. I grabbed Cameron's arm and looked around. Some people were shaking, some crying, some not doing anything but standing still, like us. The man went on.

"Name's Drake." he added. "We will go in backwards order, unlike your other tests for information."

I felt a pit in my stomach. I felt my face go pale. I felt fear. Kendall and Logan were neutral as if they had done this before. They had their arms crossed with a blank look on their face, unlike Brittany, who was clinging to anything she could to cry on. Parker, her roommate didn't flinch to her at all. 'Hmph' i thought to myself.

"So." he walked briskly, too briskly toward us and put his lips right in front of the listen hole. His breath smelled like rotten fish guts. I felt like gagging, so I tried not to think about what I had for lunch.

We both stepped back as he said, "So, who's going first?" he quirked his eyebrows at us.

I stuttered for a minute. I knew spiders would be there. I kept stuttering.

"Me," Cameron said, stepping forward. His voice was still squeaky, probably in remembrance of the dream he had earlier.

"Great!" Drake said, clapping his hands with a demented smile on his face. He pushed both of us out the door, as well as the others. Cameron offered his hand and I grabbed it. I felt my sweaty palm and let go, wiping my hand off. I felt my cheeks turn red. I looked up and noticed he had a small curl at the end of his mouth. A smile? Not surprised.

'Nice job, Dee.' I scolded myself. We entered the room where we would watch Cameron as he was in his landscape, and I felt my throat clench. The room was bright bubblegum pink, with hot pink furniture. I hated pink, and I knew Kendall must feel like shooting the walls down, too. I looked back to see her scowling. It looked like Cupid's bedroom. Inside the room, there was a glass wall around half of the room. Inside of that, there was a small heart that looked like it was supposed to be hidden inside the wall. I could see three small circles, where the needles could be inserted from another room. Cameron's nails dug into my palm and I squeaked.

"Sorry," he mumbled. I looked up at him, but Drake had pulled him away before he could look back. I walked up to the glass. Everyone was in a crowded line, watching what they thought was just another kid touring the school that was hijacked with the rest of us. I knew him more though, and i hoped it wasn't anything deadly that he was scared of- like me. The heart popped out of the wall as he stood in the middle of the section of the room. I pressed my forehead against the glass and watched. The needles went into his back. He was looking at me, staring at me. He kept his eyes on me until the needles left him. Then, something happened. Opaque fog covered the Fear Landscape. I tried to press my face closer and squinted my eyes. He was staring at me. Not me, but someone who looked just like me; a decoy.

"Hello." Decoy me said.

"Dee?" Cameron squeaked weakly? The Decoy pulled out an old, rusted dagger.

"This is for you, Cameron." She said gently. She plunged it into her stomach.

"NO!" Cameron screamed. He stared at the decoy fell to the floor. He fell with her, just staring. Cameron just sat there, maybe for five minutes. I could see his light blue eyes fall in sadness. Fog came back. I was there again, but I looked really angry. I had never even seen myself this angry before. What was he scared of? Me when I was angry? i didn't think i was scary. The decoy started yelling at Cameron about how inconsiderate and stupid he was. My lips formed into a line and I looked away, only listening to everything she said.

"You don't care." Decoy said in a quivery voice. She began to scream more unintelligible things at Cameron. Soon she stormed off, and then something strange happened. She fell; like there was a secret, invisible hole there, and she was gone. Kendall stood beside me and touched my shoulder gently. I turned around, unable to look at him. He looked miserable, like some abandoned, kicked kitten. The next one seemed more realistic. As the fog lifted, the room transformed. It looked like he was standing on an unstable bridge over a canyon. Cameron's eyes were glued to the endless abyss beneath him. There was a landing a few feet away from where Cameron was standing. He takes a small step and falls to his stomach as the bridge painfully creaks. He moved forward like an inchworm, slowly but surely nearing the landing. Cameron was falling in an instant. The bridge has snapped, and Cameron began falling to an unknown ground. Cameron lands face first onto the ground, but he's unharmed. He breathes a sigh of relief, but the torture wasn't over yet. Water begins to rise from an unknown source. It meets his calves, and continues to rise until it's at his chin. Cameron visibly begins to struggle to breathe as the water reaches eye level. Barely "alive", he begins to sink, losing consciousness.

"Cameron!" I shouted. Kendall clamped a hand over my mouth as Drake came over.

"There's no need in helping him," Drake said. Anger and fear mixed together bubbled up, wishing I had the power to kill the man behind me. A barred hole appeared, washing out the entire body of water. Cameron began to cough as the water uncovered his face. A Peacekeeper stormed in and dragged him out a back door. I stopped his fall as the Peacekeeper shoved him forward.

"Is t-t-that really you? I'm s-so cold.. That water was more like ice," he sputtered. Cameron coughed up more water while I tried to comfort him.

"It was all fake." I felt like a hammer was hitting my stomach. Had he believed I had really said all of those insults?

"You must know all of that was a lie." I say while I help him to sit up. Cameron's cold, blue eyes stared at me.

"Don't- don't go in there." he said. His brokenness, his insanity, all of it just by a room of his fears.

"We can't avoid what's coming." I said gently. I waved him off and a Peacekeeper guided me through a maze of hallways that led to the same large room Cameron was in. I already felt my stomach twisting in fear; it was a horrible feeling. The needles came out and pricked my back. Drake was right- painless. When the fog entered the room, I felt myself losing oxygen as it was sucked out of the room. I choked on my own breath as the fog lifted. Air circulated through the room as I had only a moment to catch my breath. A group of roaches was sitting in the corner. They were facing me. I turned to look at them. I felt my heartbeat grew faster, and my palms grew sweaty. What I didn't notice, was the spiders in the corner diagonally across from them. The roaches somehow started to grow in numbers, as did the spiders. They came charging at me. The roaches reached me first, crawling onto my feet. I screamed, jumping back, only to crunch on top of-

thousands… of… Black Widows…