Roman woke up in a white room. He had no idea where he was, or how he had gotten there. It took a couple of seconds for his eyes to adjust to the bright light. He rolled over on his side and looked into a pair of scared eyes.
"Seth?" He asked. "Are you alright?"
"Where are we, Roman?" Seth asked.
"I don't know," Roman answered.
"I'm scared," Seth whispered.
Roman reached a hand forward. Seth took it, and was pulled closer to Roman. It felt good to have his big brother there. At least he wasn't alone. They both sat up and noticed their third brother. Roman crawled towards him and shook him.
"Dean! Hey Dean! Wake up," he said.
"What the fuck's going on?" Dean's eyes flew open. "This isn't my bedroom."
"No, it's..." Roman looked around. "It's somewhere else. Do you remember anything from last night?"
"A couple of cute brunettes and a whole lot of alcohol. I think I was dancing on a table at some point," Dean said.
"You were," Seth laughed. "And that's actually the last thing I remember.
They all got up on their feet and looked around the white room. All there was in there were three doors leading to somewhere unknown.
"Where the fuck are we?" Roman asked.
"Do we try one of the doors?" Dean asked.
"No," Seth whimpered. "We don't know what's behind them."
"It's either stay here, or go through one of them," Roman said.
Seth and Dean didn't say anything. They knew he was right. A voice sounding from above took their attention away from the doors.
"Welcome," a female voice sounded.
"Who are you?" Dean snapped his head around.
"You know me very well. How much you remember of me is another question, but I remember everything," she said. "You're here to play a little game."
"Fuck you!" Roman sneered.
"This can either be the first day of the rest of your lives, or the last day of your current lives. Your choice," she said.
"Shit!" Seth stared at the ceiling. "Shiri? It that you? It's you, isn't is?"
Dean and Roman stared at Seth. That was a name they hadn't heard since high school. She had been the victim of bullying, and they had given her hell like everyone else.
"So that's what this is all about? Revenge from high school?" Dean sneered. "Fucking grow up, man!"
"Some of you were worse than the others. Some of you don't deserve to be alive. But I'm fair. If you make it out of here, you're free to go," she said.
"We weren't worse than the others," Seth said.
"Almost everyday you pulled me into the bathroom to grope me. All three of you. Touching me and laughing. My body wasn't your god damn playground!" She said angrily.
"We should have fucked you while we had the change," Dean taunted.
"That went to Rusev on the football field on prom night," Roman laughed. "He took her virginity on the wet grass and left her there. Remember how he bragged about it afterwards. He fooled her into thinking he actually wanted her."
"He didn't fool me," she said. "And took is the right word because I never gave it to him willingly."
A deep silence fell for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry," Seth said.
"No, you're not," she said.
"So what's the plan? Leave us here to starve, or have us fight each other until only one of us is left?" Dean asked.
"Pick a door each," she said.
The men looked at each other, and Roman nodded. They went to stand in front of a door each. Roman to the left, Dean in the middle, Seth to the right.
"When they open, you take your chosen path," she said. "Make it through the maze, and you're free to go."
"The maze?" Seth asked.
The doors opened, and they all stared into a maze of green plants with thorns that stood tightly together, so they couldn't see or walk through them.
"Now what?" Dean asked.
"Now we go," Roman said.
"Fuck!" Seth mumbled.
"We deserve this," Roman sighed. "Good luck. I'll see you on the other side."
"Believe that, brother," Dean said.
They all stepped into the maze, and the doors closed behind them.
"Can you hear me?" Roman yelled.
"Yeah!" Dean yelled back.
"I hear you!" Seth yelled too.
"Good, we're still close! We can do this!" Roman yelled.
They each moved forward, following the paths, turning corners whenever there was one. Roman turned a corner and looked at the two cute brunettes from the night before. He hadn't even thought about that they could be in on all this, but it made sense now. Shiri couldn't have pulled something like this off on her own. The two women had targetted them on purpose to spike their drinks.
"Peyton, Billie," he said coolly. "Nice to see your again."
"Roman!" Peyton giggled.
"We got the big one!" Billie giggled too.
He couldn't just walk past them. There was another door. Next to the door was a table with a black aquarium on it.
"So how does this work?" He asked.
"You kiss the frogs. Two of them are deadly, one of them is the key to the door. Better pick wisely," Billie said.
He moved over to the aquarium and looked down in it. It was split into three parts, separated by glass walls, with a frog in each.
"This is so iconic!" Peyton giggled.
Her giggling had sounded cute last night when he had been drunk and horny, but now he was annoyed by it. He continued looking at the frogs and shook his head.
"I'm not touching any of those," he said.
"It's the only way through," Billie said.
"They're all poisonous! It's a fucking trap!" He shouted and pointed at the aquarium. "Golden poison dart frog, dyeing dart frog, phantasmal poison frog. I know this shit. Guess Shiri didn't count on that, or she thought Dean or Seth would pick this route."
Dean and Seth. He suddenly felt scared for them. What if they came across the exact same thing? Not with Billie and Peyton of course, but there could be other people in here helping Shiri. They wouldn't know they were all poisonous.
"Fuck!" He started running back. "Don't touch the frogs! Don't touch the frogs!"
Seth heard Roman yell, but he couldn't start thinking about any frogs. He had turned a corner and frozen in his tracks. Further down was a weird creature. Half man, half bull. It was making weird noises as if it tried to speak, but that wasn't important. What was important was the axe it was holding. Right now he would rather deal with frogs than the bull-man.
"Fuck this!" He growled. "I'm out!"
He turned around and sprinted back as fast as he could. Soon he reached the door to the white room, but it was still closed.
"Open the door!" He pounded on it. "I'd rather starve to death than be axe murdered! I'm sorry, Shiri! I'm so fucking sorry!"
Dean's piercing scream stopped Seth from pounding on the door, and Roman from running. Dean was screaming right next to Roman on the other side.
"Dean?" He yelled.
"I stepped on a bear trap!" Dean yelled back. "It fucking hurts!"
"I'm coming!" Roman yelled.
He couldn't care about being cut open by the thorns. He had to get to his brother on the other side. He pulled up his hood to shield his face as much as possible, and then started pushing through the bushes. It was hard and exhausting. He felt his hands being cut, and his clothes being ripped, but he didn't give up. He finally made it through to see Dean sitting on the ground with his foot caught in a bear trap.
"Get this thing off me, Roman," Dean cried and pointed to his left. "And stay on this side. I don't know how many more of these are hidden below the dirt. It was clear up until here."
Roman moved over, denied the pain in his own body from his meeting with the cruel bushes, and pushed down on the bear trap with all his strength. It opened, and Dean removed his leg.
"Let me see," Roman pushed the leg of Dean's jeans up. "You're lucky. The metal didn't go through. You'll get some bruises for sure. Does it feel broken?"
"No, just fucking painful," Dean said.
During this time Seth had swallowed his fear and moved back into the maze. Dean's scream had scared him, and he needed to know his brother was okay.
"Dean? Roman?" He yelled.
"We're here," Roman yelled back.
"I'm okay, Seth!" Dean yelled.
Seth stopped on the other side of the bushes. His brothers were so close, yet so far away.
"We got bear traps in here, and poisonous frogs on my side. What have you got?" Roman yelled.
"A bull-man with an axe!" Seth yelled.
"A bull-man? What do you mean?" Roman yelled.
"It's the body of a man with the head of a bull!" Seth yelled.
"Minotaur?" Dean yelled.
"What?" Seth yelled.
"Come on, Seth! Greek mythology! The Minotaur in the maze!" Dean yelled. "Am I the only one who remembers that story?"
"Shiri always read stuff like this," Roman remembered. "How does the story end?"
"It was killed by Theseus," Dean said.
"I'll go fucking Theseus on its ass!" Roman growled. "We're coming, Seth! Your path is the only one that can lead to freedom!"
He pulled the hood up again, once again forcing his way through the thorns. He heard Seth force his way from the other side too. Hands finally grabbed him.
"I'm here," Seth said.
"Move back," Roman said. "Come on, Dean. Can you walk?"
"I can crawl," Dean said.
"Then fucking crawl through behind me!" Roman growled.
They finally made it through after a long struggle. All three of them were covered in cuts from the thorns, and their clothes looked like something a homeless person had worn for years.
"Help Dean," Roman said.
They grabbed an arm each to support Dean who was hobbling due to the pain. They finally turned the corner that showed the Minotaur further down. It really looked like a man. He wore a dark brown cloth around his crotch, but other than that he was naked. His head was that of a bull, and he held an axe in his hands.
"I doubt he's friendly," Dean said.
"I wasn't planning on talking to him," Roman said.
They moved towards him. The second he heard them, he started swinging the axe wildly. Weird noises left him, once again as if he tried to speak. He let the axe do the talking for him instead.
Roman and Seth let go off Dean. They had to battle their way through this monster. Roman ducked down and threw his body forward, shoulder and arm connecting with the monster's ribs. Seth ran in and stomped on its head to try and knock it out. It dropped the axe, and Dean quickly grabbed it.
"Move!" He shouted.
Roman and Seth rolled away, and Dean planted the axe into the monster's chest. It laid completely still after the impact.
"Is it dead?" Dean asked.
Roman crawled to the monster again and studied it.
"Fuck," he tilted the bull's head back and pointed at the area, where the neck met the shoulders. "Stitches. Someone sewed it on him."
Seth pulled the axe out of his chest and handed it to Roman.
"See if you can use this to cut him free," he said.
Roman worked as steadily as he could. The bull's head finally came off, and they looked at a man inside with his lips sewed shut too. That was why he had been making noises rather than speaking. He couldn't speak.
"It's Rusev," Seth said. "She made us kill Rusev, so she wouldn't get blood on her hands."
"You didn't kill him," Dean said. "I did."
"Dean, no!" Roman got up and wrapped his arms around Dean. "This is not your fault. You didn't know. You can't let this eat you up inside."
"I killed a man, Roman," Dean said lowly.
"He couldn't see," Seth said.
Roman and Dean looked at Seth who had the bull's head on his own head. He pulled it off again and looked back.
"He couldn't see," he repeated. "It's all black in there. He heard us coming, but he couldn't see or speak. He must have been so scared, so he started swinging the axe. We didn't say anything. We didn't let him know who we were, or that we weren't a threat."
"She used us to kill him," Roman said. "This was a setup. Either we died, or he died."
"Or we all died," Dean said.
"Well, fuck that!" Roman sneered. "We're getting out!"
Roman and Seth helped Dean move forward again. They turned another corner and stared at a door. The door opened, and they stepped into another white room. This one had three doors too, but only this one led out into the maze. The others were leading in other directions.
"What now?" Seth asked.
One of the other doors opened, and a creature looking like half a woman and half a spider stepped out, clapping her hands. She was wearing black clothes. Spiderlegs hang out from her back. Her head was covered by a black mask, so they couldn't see how she looked.
"Arachne. The mortal weaver," Dean chuckled. "You're really all about the Greek mythology, aren't you?"
"I didn't know you shared that interest," she said.
"Shiri?" Seth asked.
"Well done. You made it out. You're free to go," she said.
"Just like that?" Roman asked. "Fuck you, bitch! We killed a man in there. You're not getting away with that."
He took a step forward, but stopped when she pointed at something behind him. He was about to turn around when something pierced his neck and sent him into a world of blackness. Dean and Seth looked at the dart in Roman's neck. They spun around fast, only to see Peyton and Billie had come through the third door. They both raised their blowguns, and a second later Dean and Seth fell down with darts in their necks too.
"Thanks for the help, ladies," Shiri said.
Roman, Seth and Dean woke up tangled in between each other. They were on a bed somewhere. They felt groggy and in pain.
"Where are we?" Roman asked.
"My bed," Dean sighed. "We're home."
"Was it a dream?" Seth asked.
Dean raised his leg, pulled up his jeans and looked at his bruises.
"I'm afraid not," he said.
"Is that the tv I can hear?" Seth asked.
They all stumbled into the living room where the tv was running on a news channel.
"This morning Alexander Rusev was found in his home, brutally killed by an axe. Police has arrested Aiden English. The two men go way back. Neighbours tell how they could always hear them fight, and that they heard it again last night. Aiden was asleep in Rusev's bed this morning when Rusev's girlfriend Lana came by and found him. Aiden claims he can't remember anything, but his fingerprints are all over the axe."
"Aiden," Roman sighed. "That fucking little creep. He would always write these creepy poems to the girls."
"Do you think he was in on it that night at prom?" Seth asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Roman answered. "There must be a reason she's letting him take the fall. You're free, Dean."
"Free?" Dean sneered. "I still killed a man, Roman, and I have to live with that."
"And she walks away," Seth said.