Hi everyone. Sorry for the long update… and I know I keep on saying that. I had trouble writing this one. I made it longer than usual, so happy reading!

EMMA

We came across the first fork in the path. Edison swiftly stepped into one corridor and sniffed the air. Then he moved to the other one and raised his head to sniff again. Moving back to the first one, he continued. I breathed the air too, just to see if I could smell the lotus scent he was following, but the only thing I detected was an acrid, noxious, sulfurlike odour. The bitter smell permeated the cavern and seemed to intensify with each turn we made.

We continued onward in the dark, twisting through the underground labyrinth. The torch cast a flickering light on the walls, creating scary shadows that danced in sinister circles. As we made our way through the tomblike maze, we frequently came upon open areas that branched off. Edison or Anik had to stop and smell each opening before choosing the one that they knew led us in the right direction.

I was getting antsy; I knew it because I was becoming nervous, wincing at the slightest sound. The previous test had left me extremely anxious and jittery; drowning was certainly not my ideal way of dying. Being trapped in the box was frightening enough. When it started rapidly filling with water, I just panicked and started screaming and thrashing against the invisible walls of the barrier. But Anik had responded carefully with logical thinking; it amazed me how he could remain so calm.

But then I bitterly wondered why I was so surprised. Anik had always been my rock, my centre point. The person who guided me out of my grief of my mother's death, who helped me be a substitute mother to Alyss. He was the one that had always been there for me. And now he had just saved my life.

I hardly even said thank you.

I studied Anik as he walked slowly in front of me, scanning the darkness for any sign of movement that would indicate the next trial. His ears twitched at the smallest of sounds, alert for anything. We continued walking until Edison and Anik suddenly froze, sniffing the air. That was when I noticed a faint mist, creeping slowly towards us. Slowly, steadily. Tendrils of pale, smoky vapour. I stepped passed Anik and Edison, who were awkwardly retreated away from the approaching mist and reached out to touch it as it swarmed around my hand. I glanced back at Anik and Edison who were now in human form as if to say, 'see? It's fine,' when everything went black and I felt myself tumbling to the ground….

'This is the test of honesty,' a voice echoed throughout my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to gain awareness of my senses. I could hear the intense sound of cascading water, and could smell salt and rain. I also felt like there was too much blood rushing to my head…. Not too mention I couldn't move my legs. Utterly confused, my eyes fluttered open – and I screamed.

I was dangling upside down a hundred feet in the air over a massive waterfall.

A long stretch of wire was suspended across one side of the waterfall to the other, a piece of rope tied to the middle with me on the other end, swaying precariously to and fro, the only thing keeping me from falling to my death was a length of rope tied around my ankles. I screamed again. As I desperately tried to heave myself up and cling to the rope keeping me alive, the voice spoke again.

'I have one question. If you answer it correctly, you will return to the tunnel and continue on with the other tasks. If you don't… the rope will lower you closer to the waterfall, where you will eventually drown.'

'What about Anik and Edison?' I shrieked.

'Same applies to them,' answered the voice, nonchalantly. 'Now, the question. What scares you the most?' I was still trying to reach the rope tied around my ankles.

'This is stupid,' I muttered, panting with exhaustion as my stomach muscles burned. 'Maybe, I'm afraid of FALLING TO MY DEATH!' I yelled in frustration, wiping the sweat from my forehead. Obviously this was the wrong answer because suddenly I was free falling, the waterfall rising up to meet me. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact… The rope tightened around my ankles and I instantly jerked to a halt, the air rushing out of me with an 'oomph.'

'That is false,' said the voice flatly. 'Try again.'

I struggled to find my breath, my eyes wide with panic. I had probably just free-fallen forty feet. I was swaying in the air, my arms feebly waving about, trying to grasp something to hold onto. 'What am I scared of, what am I scared of,' I desperately chanted to myself. I thought back to the time I had been most terrified; when my mother was sick and I knew she was going to die. When she held me in her arms and told me to be brave because she was going to leave me forever. I knew then that was what I was most scared of.

'Losing the people I care about,' I answered in a whisper.

'No,' the voice replied, and I tensed, waiting for the fall. It didn't come. 'That is the consequence of what you are most frightened of.'

I groaned in frustration. Stop talking in riddles, I willed the voice, annoyed. The blood was pounding in my head, making it hard to think. But I had to figure it out.

Okay; I was scared of the people I love leaving me. Like my mother did. I was horribly scared the same thing would happen to Alyss. To Edison… to Anik. I had always cared and loved Anik like a brother my whole life, and now that he had started to think of me as more then that… it made me terrified. Because I was incredibly afraid of what might happen if I allowed my self to love him, love him. Because then losing him would be so much harder, so much more painful. I had already experienced the loss of love with my own mother, and it had all but killed me. I was not prepared to live through that again. I would not – could not.

'I…' I began, swallowing thickly. 'I am afraid of the pain I will have to suffer if I let myself love someone in fear that they will be taken away from me.'

'You heart speaks true,' the voice whispered, almost sadly.

I awoke on the hard, dirty floor of the tunnel, gasping for breath.

ANIK

Crap. Crap crap crap. Oh my God. The pounding sound of rushing water made my eyes fly open and the first thing I did was yell in fright, jerking and twisting around as if to find something to hold on to. That was when I noticed I wasn't actually falling.

Confused, I glanced up and noticed I was dangling from a suspended rope that stretched from one side of the waterfall to the other. And that the only thing saving me from falling was a piece of rope tied somewhat securely around my ankles. I found the humour in it, even though I was not at all smiling. I was hanging on to life by a thread. Literally. What the f-

'This is the test of honesty,' I heard someone say, and I glanced around anxiously. Despite the voice in my head, I appeared to by completely and utterly alone. In the air. About a hundred feet from death. 'I have one question,' the voice continued, almost mockingly. 'If you answer it correctly, you will return to the tunnel and continue on with the other tasks. If you don't… the rope will lower you closer to the waterfall, where you will eventually drown.'

'That's a bit harsh,' I retorted. 'Usually it means we just get a 'B' on our school report.' The voice obviously did not find my comment funny, because it ignored me, and continued on with its speech.

'Here is your question: What scares you the most?'

'Where is Emma?'

'Safe. She passed the test. Now; What scares you the most?'

I sighed in relief and focussed on the question, staring at the rushing waterfall below. I gulped.

'Heights,' I choked, feeling incredibly queasy. Instantly it felt as if the rope had snapped and I was falling… and falling… until the rope pulled taught and I jerked to a halt, swinging like a pendulum.

'Jesus Christ!' I yelled. 'All right, all right! Let me think!' As my breath returned to normal pace I thought about what scared me the most. That was easy. When I thought that Emma could have drowned in that box. I remembered the awful feeling that chewed at my heart, the pure anguish I felt that there was a possibility she could die. That I might never see her smile again. Emma was my best friend in the whole world and it terrified me that friendship might be all she wants. But losing her scared the hell out of me even more.

'Losing Emma,' I said, and at that moment I realised Emma had become more important to me than I ever imagined. She was my life. I couldn't imagine one without her. And I knew that… because I loved her. So much. So much it hurt.

I was free falling again for about three whole seconds before I halted about thirty feet from the waterfall. I could feel flecks of water splashing onto my face and slowly soaking my clothes.

'That is not your greatest fear.' The voice said and I scowled, knowing it was right. I loved Emma enough to be merely satisfied if she was. I could live with losing her, if I knew she was happy. I thought about the curse, and the tiger that lives in my heart, shares half of myself. He was the vicious, wild, unpredictable part of me and I hated it. But not only did I loathe that part of myself, I was terrified of it.

'My greatest fear,' I murmured in defeat, 'is that I could let the tiger take control of me, and that I would have to live with it always. That I won't ever be able to get rid of it… that I will live half a life forever.'

'Your heart speaks true,' the voice murmured and -

The next moment I was lying facedown on the ground.

EDISON

I awoke staring into the mouth of a massive waterfall, my blood rushing to my head. I gritted my teeth and pulled my body upwards, reaching for the rope wrapped around my ankles.

'This is the test of honesty. You will pass the test by answering my question correctly. You will not be able to escape the simulation any other way, so you can stop trying to climb up the rope.' I flinched at the voice in my head, but then I scowled at myself. Hadn't I learnt not to be surprised at impossible things anymore? I slumped in defeat and swung upside-down, my arms folded.

'I have one question. If you answer it correctly, you will return to the tunnel and continue on with the other tasks. If you don't… the rope will lower you closer to the waterfall, where you will eventually drown.'

'Fair enough,' I muttered, rolling my eyes.

'The question is… What do you care about the most?' I frowned. That was easy.

'Finishing the quest and getting rid of the tiger,' I answered, and immediately I was falling through the sky, my hair whipping across my face. The rope pulled tight and I instantly stopped falling, the jarring impact making me groan.

'Try again,' the voice said, almost teasingly. Scowling, I thought about what I cared for most in my life. My mother. My father. Emma. Just three people, all equally important as each other. If I didn't have my family, I didn't have love. I would be completely alone. And if I didn't have Emma… I had no purpose, no friendship.

'I guess I care about people in my life that I need.'

I was falling again, but this time I yelled out because the waterfall was so close, a mere thirty feet away. One more wrong answer and I would plunge into the water, and surely drown.

'That is irrelevant,' the voice murmured once I came to a jarring halt. I frowned and breathed deep, considering why I cared about those three people. What did they have in common? They made me happy… they made me want to live life with them. They are people I would do anything for. I would even die for them. Is that what love is? Did that mean I loved Emma?

'I care about those I love,' I began, staring anxiously into the cascading water below, 'because they give me a purpose and give me reason to hope that there is a happier future for me out there.'

'Your heart speaks true,' the voice whispered.

I woke up with my cheek pressed against the ground of the tunnel, staring into Emma's anxious face.

'Are you okay?' she murmured. I smiled, knowing that my memory of her had got me out of the simulation.

'Yeah,' I replied. 'I'm great.' I now knew what Emma meant to me. And I wasn't going to stay away anymore. I was going to fight or her; fight just as hard, if not harder, than Anik.

Thanks for reading!

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