“I never knew you were that smart.”, said Sue as They walked in the hallway to the next room. “Are you kidding me? She got 153 on the IQ test I gave her.”, said trinity. “Oh yeah. Now I remember.”, said sue. “Hammie, On the other hand, got voted most likely to learn the words most likely any day now.” “Hey! I may be a moron, but I’m not stupid.” They all laughed. Betty didn’t like that. “HEY! No laughing. I intended for you to be terrified, you shouldn’t have a good time. Oh! Exactly! I have an Idea!” A wall appeared suddenly at the other end of the wall 5 feet away. Buttercream fell through a trapdoor into a hole. They all looked at each other in silence. “I’m sorry.” Was what trinity would have whispered if she wasn’t immediately dropped down too. Sue was next. Hammie and Zoe were hugging each other to make sure they couldn’t be separated when a hole clearly meant for Hammie dropped both of them. They fell on a green floor. Zoe noticed something. There were thin- thin things decorating their tunnels, but they seemed to show the color just well in 2d. Betty was clearly having a tantrum in the background, although her mic was off. She turned back on. “Ugh! That was my last hole! I’ll just have to make it harder for you two.” Zoe stepped forward. There were symbols on the tiles now. Some had two lines, some were a v, some were an a-like shape, and some were one line. Zoe decided to step back. “Yeah. The theme of this is separation. Being alone. I think only the v’s and two lines are correct because the v splits, the two lines are separated, and the a is coming together.” He kneeled down and poked an a tile. It fell down and brought down the tiles with it into an appropriately sized hole of nothingness. “You were stepping on an a tile.” Zoe was staring at Hammie because she was so confused. Hammie was the dumb one! Hammie’s eyes went wide open. “Umm... I mean... step on the red one. I don’t know anything.” Zoe had to ask. “Hammie. Were you pretending to be dumb?” “Umm... Yes... But don’t tell anyone.” “Only if you tell me why.” “Because a certain someone... No. I can’t.” Zoe knew everything by the look on his face. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell. Now let’s solve this puzzle.” “Only if you take all the credit.” “Okay.” They solved the puzzle. A few steps, okay, maybe a thousand, and then four big tiles. They selected the a because this was the end, they were coming back together. + + + The others were shaking. They were probably more terrified than them. They started to wonder if Betty went easy on them. They were each muttering three different things. Buttercream: ‘Spiders’ ‘Spikes’ ‘Oh god’ Sue: ‘Ghosts’ ‘Clowns’ ‘Is it over?’ Trinity: ‘Serial killers’ ‘Dungeons’ ‘Why?’ And although they all learned their lesson, Betty made sure that the two learned the lesson the others hadn’t. We’re better when we work together.













