Ok I have to be honest. Those stairs through me for a loop, I mean seriously adding stairs was just cruel. But we did it. When I had first seen the light at the end of the tunnel I had actually thought for a second that I was dying or something, but Leo shrieking in delight beside me had snapped me out of it. A giant smile adorns my face when I realize that what I'm actually staring at is the exit. Both Saber and I cry out in relief as we rush through the doorway our arms thrown into the air.

"WE DID IT!" We scream, and abruptly collapse onto the ground. I know that a bunch of the contestants were staring at us but I didn't care. The ground felt so nice… like I could just curl up and sleep forever on the nice soft grass….wait, what?

My eyes snap open, only for me to quickly close the again. "Bright!" I yell out, covering my eyes.

Squinting I slowly sit up, my body screaming in protest but I ignore it. I look around, we were outside, but I didn't recognize where we were. It looked kind of like a forest or swamp or something but there was fog everywhere so it was hard to tell.

"Talin! Saber!" I hear an excited voice say and I turn around, just to see Gon and Killua walk over to us. For some reason Gon had Leorio's briefcase, guess he was holding it on for him.

"You made it!" Gon exclaims happily, while Killua looks at us, surprise on his face.

"Wow, I didn't think you guys could do it."

"Hey!" At this Saber gets on his feet, pointing an angry finger at Killua. The two starts to argue but I ignore them, instead I get up and smile at Gon.

"Yah, and so did you guys that's good. When did you get here?"

"Hmm…" He puts a finger on his chin as he thinks. "Well Killua and I tried to have a contest about who would get here first and we both got here around the same time as Satotz, who says we both made it at the same time, though I still think I beat him!"

"Wha-" Killua ignores Saber who continues to rant at him, instead choosing to turn to Gon. "No way! I totally beat you!"

I stare in shock as the two boys argue, while Saber gives up in scolding at Killua and resigns himself to glaring. They made it at the same time that the examiner did? Are you freaking kidding me?

"…Monsters I tell you…you're all monsters." I mutter darkly.

They stop arguing when a shirtless and tired looking Leorio, and Kurapika show up, Kurapika had taken off his blue cloth thingy, and had on his white shirt and pants. He has a grey bag around his shoulder.

"Yes, we all did it!" Gon cheers as he excitedly runs up to two, who smile tiredly at him.

"Hey." Kurapika waves a hand. "Is this our destination?"

"No, it isn't." Gon answers, still smiling.

Huh? How did he know that? Geez, weird kid.

"I see." Kurapika says looking around, while Gon hands Leorio his briefcase, who quickly thanks him.

I decide to walk over and greet them. "Nice job, though…" I stare at Leorio curiously, who was only wearing his pants, shoes, and tie. His coat and shirt were tied around his waist.

He chuckles. "I realized I could pass, as long as I stopped worrying about how stupid I looked."

"…Oh…"

"And what the heck happened to you during the exam, you know you nearly crashed into us." Leo says, joining the conversation.

Gon laughs, and Leorio smiles tiedly. "Heh, sorry 'bout that."

"No worries." I smile. "You're determination actually helped us get to the finish line, thanks." Leo nods, a smile also on his face.

Leorio suddenly seems to get all shy, his face blushing a bit as he turns away scratching at his cheek. "Eh it's okay you don't have to thank me…"

I turn to Kurapika. "Nice to see you didn't fail blond boy."

He raises an eyebrow. "It's Kurapika."

"Whatever you say, blondie." I smile cheekily at the annoyed look he gives me.

"Oh, the fog is fading." Kurapika suddenly says, and I turn around to check and he was right.

Everyone quiets down when the examiner starts to speak. "The Numere Wetlands also known as Swindlers Swamp. We must cross these wetlands to reach Phase Two of the exam."

You have got to be kidding. We have to run? Again? In a fucking swamp?

"This place is home to many bizarre animals, many of them home to cunning, insatiable creatures who deceive humans and prey upon them."

This just kept getting better and better.

"Be very careful." He warns. "If you let them fool you…you're dead."

Right when he's finished saying that disturbing bit of info, the doors suddenly start to close. A guy who is crawling up the steps starts to panic.

"Wait! Wait for me!"

The doors shut mercilessly. I flinch, that's just harsh.

"These wetland creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey." The examiner continues. "An ecosystem in which creatures obtain food through deceit…hence the name swindlers swamp. Stay very close to me so you wont be deceived." He turns around and looks like he's about to start walking again.

Leorio scoffs. "Heh, what a joke, how can they fool us when we're expecting it?"

"Don't let them fool you!" Someone suddenly yells.

Leorio rolls his eyes. "I just said they c-" He stops staring in surprise.

Confused, we all turn in the direction of where the voice came from. Leaning against the door is a guy who doesn't look like he's in the best shape. "D-don't fall for it! He's lying to you! He's an imposter! He's not an examiner, I'm the real examiner!"

"…Say what?" I mutter as everyone starts whispering in confusion.

"An imposter?" Leorio says, turning to look at Satotz. "What's going on?"

"Then who is he?" A bald guy from the crowd asks.

"Look at this!" The beaten up guys suddenly drags something from around the corner of the building. It's a… a monkey with satotz face?!

Gon gasps. "He looks just like Satotz-san!"

"And I thought things couldn't get weirder…" Saber mutters next to me, staring bewildered at the monkey-person-thing.

"It's a man-faced ape, one of the creatures dwell in the wetlands!"

"A man-faced ape?" Leorio says in confusion. I couldn't blame him. If anyone knew what was going on, well, well for them 'cus I certainly didn't.

And this whole time Kurapika was just watching calmly. Seriously, does nothing shake this guy?! Damn he had a good poker face…note to self never play poker with blondie…

"Man-faced monkeys love the taste of human flesh." Beaten up guy explains. "However, their limbs are long and thing so they're quite weak."

"…Huh…?" I mumble to myself, and Saber glances over. "If they're limbs are weak then there's no way Satotz is an imposter…"

Saber's eyes widen in realization. If he was really a human-faced-monkey thingy than there would be no way he could have ran that whole way!

"That's why they disguise themselves as humans." Beat up guy continues talking. "They trick humans into following them into these wetlands, where they team up with other animals to kill and devour them!" He points dramatically at Satotz. "He intends to trap every single applicant!"

"Bastard…" I turn around, to see Leorio glaring at Satotz. I sweat drop, he didn't really believe him, did he?

"He certainly doesn't walk like a human…" Bald guy from crowd says. Well, I did have to give him that. That guy did walk super weirdly. And he also didn't have a mouth… he wasn't a human-face-monkey-thingy, but maybe he really wasn't human…

I'm snapped out of my thoughts-dang, I really have to stop zoning out- when the beaten up guys suddenly falls to the ground, dead. Three playing cars stabbed into him.

I turn in shock, just in time to see Satotz catch some playing cars between his fingers before they stab into him.

"Huh?" Leorio, Saber, and I all say at the same time. What the actual fuck is going on?!

I hear a strange shuffling noise and turn to look at…oh. Of course. It's the clown creep's fault. OF COURSE IT IS. Knew that guys was bad news…

He laughs. "I see, I see…that settles it, you're the real one."

Both Saber and I jump, startled, when the monkey thing which was supposedly dead suddenly gets up and runs back into the forest making panicked noises.

"Examiners are hunters," Creepy clown guys explains. "Selected by the committee to perform this duty without pay. Any hunter bearing the title we seek, would have been able to block that attack."

"I shall take that as a compliment." Satotz replies, pretty camly for a guy who nearly got killed via playing card. "However, should you attack me again, for any reason, I will report you for taking on a examiner and you will immediately be disqualified."

Leorio scoffs. "Not like it's his first time."

I glance back at him as the two talk. "What do you mean?" I whisper.

"This guy named Tonpa told us that last year he was definitely going to be a hunter, but nearly killed an examiner just because he didn't like him. He immediately got disqualified." He glances down at me, a uncommonly serious expression on his face.

I gap in horror while Saber's eyes widen.

"What? And they let him back?!" He angrily whispers.

Kurapika hums in agreement. "It would be best to stay away from him."

"Well no shit!" I say sarcastically, making blondie send me an annoyed look. Again. Seriously, sometimes I just couldn't stop my mouth.

A bunch of ugly giant birds start to peck at the guy's body and I cringe in disgust.

"Nature can be really brutal to watch…" Leorio comments.

"So he was a man-faced ape as well." Kurapika nods.

"He was attempting to confuse the applicants, to lure some away." Satotz says.

"We cannot relax our guard." Killua mutters, and Gon nods.

"Yeah."

Satotz explains to us that we will face deception many times if we choose this life style. He says that he guessed a number of us were nearly fooled, at this Leorio chuckled nervously and rubs his head.

After giving us another scary and depressing warning about getting lost in the wetlands, he turns and starts walking.

oOoOo

I try to ignore the dampness in my shoes as I run, it was way harder running in slimy, wet mush than on cement ground. I don't really know how long we had been running for, all I knew was that I would kill for a shower right now!

"Tsk, another marathon!" Leorio grumbles. Kurapika and Leorio are on my left while Saber is on my right, Killua and Gon are somewhere near the front.

"My feet are going to fall off…" Saber complains.

"And we're running through marsh this time, running on wet ground requires more energy." Kurapika adds.

I groan, and keep running.

oOoOo

There was forest all around us and I swear I could feel something watching me… well obviously they're were other contestants but I mean I could feel like they're were things watching us from the forest. Creepy. And I couldn't even check because I swear this stupid fog was getting even thicker! What was this, a horror movie?!

"The fog is getting thicker." Kurapika suddenly says, as if he could read my thoughts. Horror movie, I tell ya.

I bite my lip nervously looking around, and suddenly I hear Gon's voice through the mist. "Leorio! Kurapika! Talin! Saber! Killua says we should move up!"

"Moron!" Leorio yells back, in the general direction since we could hardly see five feet in front of us. "If I had the strength I'd already be there!"

"Why does he want us to go in front?" Saber huffs out.

I shrug, not wanting to waste energy on words. I really hated this.

"Don't worry about us!" Kurapika calls out.

But as the fog get's even thicker I start to think that maybe we should worry. It was probably just the creepy setting or whatever but I was starting to get a feeling that something very b-

SHIT! WHERE THE HELL ARE THE OTHERS?!

I swivel my head left and right but I can't see anyone, I can feel myself start to panic. I breathe deeply in and out, trying to calm myself. It's okay, it's just a little fog, it's oka-

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

Suddenly I hear screaming coming from all around me. Well, there goes not panicking.

"SSSSHIIIIITTT!" I scream as I run through the fog blindly, hoping that I won't die. I had no idea what direction I was going in, I was just trying to go away.

I really hope the others were alright.

BAM!

I crash face forwards into something and fall on to my back, instantly getting water and mud on my clothes. My eyes widen and my blood runs cold, what did I hit? Was this the end?

I stare in horror at the tall shape in front of me, it was…it was…

…A tree?

I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry, I just smashed face forwards into a fucking tree. Which hurt by the way. I rub my noise as I quickly get up and take off again, this time putting out a hand blindly.

A couple minutes go bye and I'm really starting to get scared. Was I really going to die in this stupid swamp?

"Be quick and follow me! Right this way!" I suddenly hear the examiners voice call out in front of me.

Nearly cheering with relief I start to run forwards, and I can see a very faint outline of people in front of me. Yes! I found the group!

Suddenly the people in front disappear, and I hear them scream before they suddenly and abruptly stop.

"Wha-?!" I stop dead in my tracks and stare in horror and what I almost ran into. There was a giant hole with spike on the bottom, and above it flying around was a black bird.

"Follow me!" It shrieks.

No way, it could imitate human speech?!

"Close call." I hear someone mutter, and I turn to my left, and nearly jump when I realize that three contestants, brothers I think, were only a few feet away from me.

One of them looks over and spots me, giving me a hard look. I sheepishly raise a hand and start to inch away, making sure I don't fall in the stinking hole.

After I run away from the terrifying trio, I try to follow where I think the group would have gone. Which is pretty stupid since I really had no idea but what else was I supposed to do? Just standing there would be a death sentence. I kept hearing disturbing sounds, probably made by whatever hell spawn was lurking around me.

But I hear something a little different to my left, voices? Human voices? I stop. Should I go towards them? It could be the group…but it could also be another one of those ravens…

"LEORIO!"

Wait?! Was that Kurapika's voice?! Praying that it wasn't a stupid raven I take off in the general direction. I hope I won't be too late.

I run as fast as I can, which isn't really that fast since I was dead tired but…I reach a clearing and stare in horror. It was the clown freak! AND HE WAS HOLDING GON BY THE NECK! And lying in the grass a few feet away was a beat up Leorio.

I had to do something, the kid looked like he was choking! But what? I had to come up with a plan…but I didn't have any time!

Acting on impulse I grab a rock off the ground and with all my might I whip it at the clown…and It lands harmlessly on the ground a few feet away from him. Wow, I need to work on my aim. He didn't even glance at it, too focused on Gon being in pain, freaking sadistic.

I can feel my blood boiling, I was so angry. The look on his face…he was enjoying Gon's pain!

"HEY! YOU ASSHOLE!" I roar, and finally Hisoka turn to me, and Gon opens an eyelid, staring at me in surprise.

"LET HIM GO YOU CLOWN FREAK!" I scream, marching into the clearing. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was pissed.

To my surprise he actually does, and Gon collapses on the ground, coughing. Poor kid. Hisoka starts to walk towards me slowly, a look of…curiosity on his face. Well shit.

"Stay back!" I yell, but I didn't sound very convincing.

Suddenly he disappears, no literally like he was there one second, and gone the next. What the he-?! I gasp when he suddenly appears right in front of me. My eyes widening I stumble back but I suddenly feel something sharp pressing against my neck, a playing card.

"Well, well, you have spunk."

I glare at him, feeling extremely uncomfortable at our close a proximity. I would rather be far, far away from him. Like, maybe a country away, or probably a couple just to be safe.

"Yah, and you have mental issues." I scoff back, probably wasn't very smart to insult him but… he tried to kill Gon! Not cool!

To my surprise he laughs. He had a very creepy laugh that made my skin crawl. "You are also unripe…but perhaps with time you can flourish…"

…Uh…say what now?

He smirks, and I glare at him, unnerved. What was this guy's problem?!

"Do not worry." He surprisingly says. "I shall not kill your friends. You all passed." He states as he turns around and walks towards Leorio.

A strange beeping sound coming from his pockets, and he takes out a radio. I can't hear what he says, only watch in horror as he lifts Leorio up and walks away, but not before saying something to Gon that I couldn't hear. I was frozen to the spot. My hand brushes my throat and I feel wetness, blood.

"GON! Are you all right?" I hear someone yell and I turn around, just to see Kurapika running towards us. Where the hell was he when we needed him?!

Oh. It had probably taken him a while to find us in this STUPID fog.

His shouting helps me snap out of it and I rush over to Gon, quickly neeling down. "Holy crap kid, are you okay?!"

He just kind of looks at me, panting. Oh shit, did he hit his head really hard or something?!

"Talin?" I hear Kurapika gasp in surprise.

I lift a hand wearily. "Hey. I heard shouting so…"

"Thanks." I hear Gon whisper, and I turn back to him. Poor guy looked really shaken.

I smile softly. "No worries, come on let's get out of this hell hole."

"But how can we find our way out?" Kurapika asks. Damn, good point, I had no idea where we were.

"I can lead us there." Gon says, suddenly standing up. I raise an eyebrow, but take his word for it and follow him into the woods.