Welcome to the Games

My head was throbbing as I woke up in complete, utter darkness. Where was I? I tried to remember anything, just one thing- but couldn’t. My body ached as I reached above me to judge how tall this room was. Since my hands didn’t hit anything, I got up slowly.

After standing up completely, I found that the height of this room was one arm length above my head- and its width was my arm span. Exactly. My fingertips toughed the smooth wall when I spread my arms out. It was like this room was custom built.

I felt around the walls for a light switch- or just something- and when I found one, turned it on. The light burned my eyes and I had to blink them a few times to get used to the feeling.

With my new vision I looked around and saw, folded neatly on the floor, a piece of paper.
I bent down and unfolded it, reading the small handwriting:

Don’t ask questions- just read.

Your name is Zoe Smith. You are an author. We have captured you in order for you to fulfill some of our… requests. In a room beyond yours you will find nine of the most well known people in the world, in the same state as you. They don’t know anything. They don’t remember anything. You won’t tell them anything. We will know if you do.

Now, your job is simple- record everything they do. You will find an empty journal in your jean’s back pocket, along with a pen. Write down everything that happens, everything that is said and everything you think. Do not let them see what you are writing, do not let them know who they are. Get rid of this letter.

There will be obstacles, and your job will be to overcome them- play by the rules, or perish.

Oh- and one more thing:

Welcome to the Games.

The Nurse.

I had to re-read the paper a couple of times. This couldn’t be happening to me. For one thing, there was no door here- so how would be able to get out? But I checked my back pocket, and there was indeed a small black, empty book there- along with a pen.

I sighed, thinking. There was two ways I could take this; one, ignore it or two, do what the creepy letter says and maybe, just maybe, get out of all this.

I chose option two.

Folding the letter again, I put it in the journal and slid both that and the pen into my back pocket. Now, the letter had said in a room beyond mine… a room beyond mine… There was no door here- was there? I bent down and looked at the place where wall meets floor and tried to see any space.

First side- solid.

Second side- solid.

Third side- a very thin space.

I smiled. At least I knew where the other room was. The next question I needed to know was how to get out. I ran my fingers along the edges- and as I was coming to the bottom I found a small button. I was about to press it when I realized that maybe doing so with the lights on would be a bad idea.

Flipping the light switch off, I found the button again and pressed it. The door opened and I stepped out into more darkness, closing the door behind me.

“What was that?” I heard a frantic voice say.

“Wait, I have a flashlight!” I heard someone else say, and then a smacking noise and another voice saying:

“You had a flashlight and you didn’t bring it out sooner?”

A click, and then a beam of light shone around the room. “That flashlight is great and all,” I said, “but maybe if we find a light switch or something.”

“Good idea,” a chorus of people mumbled. I heard scrabbling around the room- which seemed to be much larger than the one I’d been stuck in.

All of a sudden, light was pouring into the room and loads of people groaned- shielding their eyes. I was already used to the feeling, and looked around; as the letter had said, I saw nine other people.

Five of them were guys; one with black hair, three with dark brown hair and one of them with dark blonde hair. The blonde one was tallest, and two of them had very curly hair. I also noted that one had prominent eyebrows and the black haired boy was very tan.

The rest of the group consisted of four girls; one with curly blonde hair, two with black hair and one with dyed brown hair. Again, the blonde one was by far the tallest of this group, one with straight black hair was the shortest and I guessed that the other black haired girl and I would be the same height.

By now everyone had gotten used to the brightness and was looking around the big, empty room. The silence broke and everyone started to panic.

“Guys, listen,” I tried to say over the frenzy they were making. There was no avail. “Guys!” I shouted. Everyone stopped talking and looked at me. “Thank you. Now listen, maybe instead of panicking we can get to know each other.”

“I’m sorry if you think this is some place to get to know each other,” the brunette girl said to me, “but if you haven’t realized- there’s no way to get out of here. I don’t really think getting to ‘know each other’ is the best thing to do!” Her voice was nasally.

The blonde girl came to my defense, “Well, maybe this girl is right. If we get to know each other we can work together to get out of this mess.” A chorus of ‘Yeah, she’s right’s ensued. “Now let’s hear what she has to say,” she said gesturing to me.

I never was good at public speaking- even if it only was nine people. But I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “Well, let’s all get in a circle- okay? Then we’ll say our names, ages and whatever else we think is important.”

The group did as I said and got into a circle. The nasal voiced brunette girl went first. “Okay, my name is Miley- I’m seventeen… and I wanna get out of here.”

Next was the blonde boy, “My name is Liam, I’m twenty- and I agree with Miley.” He shot her a look that got her to giggle.

I was next. “I’m Zoe, I’m also seventeen and even though I don’t know what’s happening, I want to see all of us get out of here alive.”

The tall blonde girl smiled at me and said, “My name is Taylor, I’m twenty… and I think we should have a leader. Preferably Zoe.” Everyone nodded. I smiled though I was scared to death. “Okay, well- I agree with our new leader.”

The taller of the black haired girls said, “I’m Selena. I’m seventeen- and I’m prepared to follow Zoe and help get us out of here.”

The tan boy nodded. “Me too. My name is also Taylor, and I’m seventeen.”

“Wait!” Miley said, “How’re we gonna tell you two Taylors apart?”

“Call me Swifty,” the blonde said. “My last name is Swift.”

We all nodded and one of the boys with curly hair continued the name game. “I’m Kevin, I’m twenty two. And I know that Joe and Nick are my brothers.”

One of the other brunette guys said, “I’m Joe- I’m twenty. And as Kevin said, he and Nick are my brothers.”

The girl with straight black hair said, “My name is Demi. I’m seventeen- and I’m going to do what Zoe says.”

The last boy with curly hair said, “And I’m Nick. I’m seventeen- related to Joe and Kevin. I’m putting all of my faith in Zoe.” When he said my name he looked at me, his dark brown eyes intense in my hazel ones.

“Okay,” I said, pulling my eyes away from him, “now that we know some things about each other, how about we all split up and try to find any exits.”

There were murmurs of ‘Okay’ as everyone split up. Miley and Liam went together to one wall, the three brothers and Demi went to another and Swifty, Taylor and Selena went to another wall. I was by myself for the last one.

But for some reason, I wasn’t surprised. The note had said something about these other people being well known. Judging by their ages that probably meant they were celebrities. And judging by their looks, I guessed that they were either actors or musicians- meaning they had all probably met each other at some point.

Also remembering what the note had said, I was an author. That made sense- authors wouldn’t get the same kind of fame as actors or musicians or whatever. It had also said that they didn’t remember anything. That seemed true as well. I couldn’t remember anything- but that had to be because of a drug; surely the effects would wear off. I woke up not knowing anything about myself, but in that circle I seemed to remember my age and name.

But if they couldn’t remember anything, why had they already formed into groups? Again, I had to guess that they must sense something- didn’t those three boys know that they were brothers?

And what about the person who had signed the letter- The Nurse? What was up with that? Hopefully when we all get some more of our memory back we can try and piece that together.

“Need any help?” I turned around and saw Nick.

I could feel my cheeks grow warm. “Uh… um, yeah, thanks.”

He smiled and small smile and began to run his hands up and down the wall, as I had been doing. We reached the ends and walked back to the middle.

“You find anything?” he asked me, scratching behind his neck.

“No, nothing. You?”

“Nothing.”

We began walking back towards the middle of the room. “Thanks,” I said. “For coming to help me.”

“Well, we had four people at my wall, and you were all alone. It seemed like the right thing to do,” he said. “Besides, I think we should all be thanking you- for agreeing to be our leader, you know.”

I was about to say something when Miley and Liam turned up. “Nothing on our wall,” he said in his Australian accent.

“Or on ours,” said Selena with a grim smile, Taylor and Swifty behind her.

We all looked over at the last group- where Demi was on Joe’s shoulders feeling the top of the wall. Kevin turned around with a grin on his face and said, “We found something!”

All of our heads shot up as Taylor and Nick ran to help the three with the magic wall. I smiled, knowing what they’d found wasn’t the wall from where I’d come from. That was good- we were getting somewhere.

“I almost… got it!” Demi said triumphantly. She shifted something in the ceiling and wobbled dangerously on Joe’s shoulders. Taylor and Kevin positioned themselves so that if she were to fall, they’d catch her as Nick steadied Joe. Demi slowly got off Joe and looked around.

Since we’d all been too preoccupied with the two of them, everyone had failed to notice the door that had appeared on my wall. We all whipped around at the sound. A grin spread across my face, “You guys did it!” Demi and Joe smiled, high fiving each other.

“Now,” I said, more to myself than anyone else, “the real question is how do we get it open?”

I walked towards the door while everyone else stood back, like they were afraid of it or something; or maybe just letting me through because I was their ‘leader’.

I ran my hand across it- the wood was slightly rough. I knocked on it- the wood was fairly thin. I noticed a knot in it, I knocked on that part of the door; it seemed hollow. I furrowed my brow. How is this thing supposed to open?

“Zoe?” I turned around and saw Taylor. “If it doesn’t open, I can take a whack at it- I used to do martial arts.”

I smiled at him. “Give me a minute, then maybe we can try your way.”

He nodded, and took a few steps back to the rest of the group.

I turned back to the knot in the wood- something was there. I knew there was, just behind the- gotcha! My thumb met the center of the knot and pushed in- revealing something silvery. I took the shiny thing out of the compartment and looked at it.

It was a simple chain, a small key attached with the number ‘1’ on it. Nick came up behind
me.

“What did you find?”

“This weird chain.”

“Here,” he said softly, taking the chain from my hand, “lift up your hair.” I did so as he put the chain on me. “There you go, now you won’t be able to lose it.” It came out as a whisper.

“Thanks,” I said, turning back to the door swiftly. Nick’s cheeks had become pale pink.

I went back to the knot- and as I had expected, the chain had been on top of something. It was a tiny red button. I smirked and pressed it. Whatever these people had been thinking- it was a bit easy.

The door swung outwards as I led the group into a new challenge.