Chapter 9: 8 || To the Castle

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“Shhh.” Li Bao held her finger up to Rev’s mouth as she heard an unknown amount of footsteps going by. Although the rabbit made no noise, they couldn’t be sure the maze only had a rabbit in it.

 

They were both hiding in the hedges and watching out for the source of the sound when they heard the familiar voices of their group.

 

“Guys!” Li Bao shouted and waved at them. Lars looked a bit surprised to see Hailey still hanging off of Li Bao, but he quickly hid his expression. Li Yan also sent a curious glance to Hailey. She noticed both of them and stuck her tongue out while holding onto Li Bao.

 

“There’s a rabbit-” Li Bao began to explain, but Lars cut her off and told her what happened to them. Li Bao nodded and let out a few words of encouragement before they all decided to leave the maze.

 

Unfortunately, leaving the maze wasn’t as easy as entering it. Lars’ marks disappeared and they had to try to find the way out on their own.

 

“Hide!” Li Bao whispered to them, and they all tried to push themselves into the bushes. The mechanical rabbit stopped near them and stared for a bit before silently leaving. They all walked through the maze to the other side with the idea that if they kept walking in a straight line they’d reach the end.

 

They peaked through to the other side of the hedge maze’s pathway, but saw the rabbit quickly coming down the path from the corner. “Go now!” Li Bao took the lead and rushed them all across the passageway to the other side of the hedge.

 

Except, instead of going into the leaves like they normally did, they were stopped by an invisible force.

 

“Why can’t we go through?!” Li Bao muttered, pushing against the hedge that felt like a solid wall.

 

“It’s probably to stop us from cheating and leaving the maze.” Lars explained.

 

“The rabbit is coming, what do we do?” Nikolas asked, looking around quickly. The way they were at was a corner that was at the edge of the maze, so they couldn’t walk through. The hedge that they just came from formed thorns since they were in there for a while, so they had little options on where to go.

 

“If we just stay still it will ignore us. It senses motion.” Li Bao explained. “No, that’s not right. It senses motion, but its sensors are too intense. You can’t hide from it unless you are dead. The only way is to hide in the hedge since it can’t go in it.” Li Yan added.

 

“Either way, I would rather not risk it!” Ji-Yoo said, as he started running off with Soren. They all started to run, and the rabbit behind them also accelerated, almost as if it was dead set on eating at least one of them, it gave its all into the chase. With Soren leading, he found a patch of hedges that they could all throw themselves into, and so they did. Li Yan was naturally the slowest runner, but to help him out Lars pulled him in the hedge before the rabbit was able to bite off his head. Successfully securing all of them as safe for another few minutes.

 

The rabbit’s face was awfully close to the hedge, and it desperately tried to bite them, but similar to how they faced an invisible barrier, so did the rabbit. They all tried to travel as far as they could, but the rabbit always managed to catch up. They eventually ended up running until they were back in the middle somehow. All of them sighed in exhaustion and sat down while watching the rabbit stop at the edge of the entrance to the middle clearing. It also appeared to not be able to enter this area.

 

“What do we do?” Ji-Yoo huffed. “I’m so tired of this maze! I hate mazes.”

 

“We could follow the edges of the maze, but the rabbit will be an issue.” Lars commented.

 

“Can’t we just run along the hedges?” Nikolas asked.

 

“Haven’t you noticed? The longer we stay in the hedges, the quicker the thorns come. They already come faster than before, so if we tried to do that we’d eventually get poked to death.” Lars looked towards the four possible exits of the middle of the maze, trying to search for a good way to go. After getting the piece of the key, the rabbit had become a lot faster and managed to find them quicker than before leaving the group at a loss.

 

“Maybe this means we are getting close to the end? After all, we have 4 pieces.” Li Bao suggested.

 

“4 pieces aren’t enough.” Lars shook his head. “I already tried putting them together, we are still missing a bit.”

 

“The only place left is the rollercoaster.” Hailey added, playing in the dirt.

 

“We should get out of here fast then.” Li Yan said. “I feel like the third day has a pit that we could fall into.”

 

Everyone else agreed, and they went the opposite direction of where the rabbit was and started running. Lars led the way since he had a better memory, and Li Yan ran behind him sometimes helping him. They occasionally hid from the rabbit, but their time allowed in the hedges were getting shorter and shorter. The rabbit seemed to feel this, and began to chase after them more vigorously, making them quite anxious.

 

“Ji-Yoo!” Nikolas called out as they ran away from the rabbit. “Please help!” This time, since Li Yan got a headstart he was no longer last, but Ji-Yoo and Nikolas ran last instead. Ji-Yoo was naturally a big-hearted person, so he grabbed Nikolas and tossed him ahead as he ran in the back.

 

Soren looked back and made a disgusted expression at Nikolas and was about to go to Ji-Yoo, but he noticed the rabbit suddenly accelerated! His heart clenched as he reached out to Ji-Yoo, and Ji-Yoo seemed to notice and looked back instinctively.

 

“JI-YOO!” Soren yelled, attracting the attention of the others to look back as Nikolas ran ahead with his eyes clenched closed.

 

Ji-Yoo looked back but it was too late, all he could do was try to dodge and have the rabbit bite a less fatal place. He thought quickly and used his hand as a sacrifice, grimacing as his hand was bitten cleanly off by the rabbit. He wanted to crouch down in pain and let himself get killed, but Soren came quickly and pulled him up.

 

With the rabbit only a few feet away, Soren quickly began to rush back towards the others who already found a place to hide in the hedges. Soren quickly pushed Ji-Yoo in before stuffing himself in just in time for the rabbit to miss him by a hair.

 

Ji-Yoo grunted in pain while holding his hand while the others also looked on in a bit of horror. Their allowed time in the leaves was short, so they soon were pushed out by the thorns, and they once again stood in an open pathway.

 

Soren anxiously looked at Ji-Yoo’s wound, but luckily Li Bao’s voice rang out from ahead.

 

“I think I see the exit!” Li Bao shouted motioning at them to run. Soren grunted and pulled the bleeding Ji-Yoo with him towards the exit.

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Li Bao was correct, and the exit was just around the corner from where Ji-Yoo’s hand was bitten off. They finally got out just in time for the rabbit to run into the barrier. They all took in a deep breath and sighed, turning their attention to the injured Ji-Yoo. Soren let out a loud huff and gave Nikolas, who was trying to help, the cold shoulder.

 

“Don’t make it worse than you already have.” He looked at him as if he was gum under his shoe, hinting at Nikolas to back off. He backed off, holding his hands up as a sort of peace-making sign, but Soren didn’t appreciate it. He continued to tend to Ji-Yoo, who just gave a pained smile to Nikolas but said nothing more.

 

“Here.” Lars passed a white bottle to Soren who thanked him and used it on Ji-Yoo immediately. Nikolas looked away in guilt, and he would slightly pale a bit when looking at Ji-Yoo’s hands.

 

The bottle seemed to stop the bleeding on Ji-Yoo, and Soren used part of his shirt to cover the now missing hand. Luckily, Ji-Yoo was left-handed so with his right-hand being bitten off things weren’t too bad. They could also try to find an item to help get his hand back later on too. Soren finally was able to relax knowing Ji-Yoo was okay.

 

“Won’t the injury heal?” Nikolas’ voice trembled a bit, his guilt finally outweighing his fear of Soren’s wrath. Soren glared at him coldly and didn’t answer. “The injuries and issues from earth heals, but not from IER.” Lars answered for Soren before he decided to fight.

 

Nikolas kept silent and looked down while Lars glanced around to look for the next place. “Rollercoaster.” He pointed to a huge castle which had a big arrow pointing to it. Li Bao nodded in confirmation. “That’s it.”

 

They all made their way over there, the atmosphere a bit stiffer than before. After Ji-Yoo got hurt, everyone was a bit down. Ji-Yoo, who usually tried to make the atmosphere more upbeat, was also silent as he stared at the empty place where his hand once was.

 

The rollercoaster wasn’t far from the maze, and as they arrived the lights flickered on. The sign in front lit up which read “To the Castle.” Fittingly, there was a huge stone castle in front of them which was extravagantly decorated according to the colors of the theme park. In front of the castle was a pathway led by hedges to the front entrance, and the castle itself was the waiting area for the rollercoaster which seemed to go underground to a fully decorated story retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The castle was also decorated in the four suits of playing cards: spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. Whether it was through trimmed hedges or just the gigantic versions of the cards themselves, they were still incorporated. Instead of the traditional red, white, and black colors, they were all matching the theme park's colors of purple, yellow, and pink making for a more unique looking combination.

 

They all explored the waiting area of the castle a bit but found nothing of importance except some seats with newspapers. The newspapers unfortunately had no useful information on them, so they were a bit disheartened. They were already into the room a fair amount, but they still had little to no idea of the background of this world. They had no choice but to get on the ride which consisted of a big pink heart in the front and back with the sides being made of playing cards. The seats were made of a comfortable lilac velvet, and the rails were all a golden color, giving off the feeling of elegance.

 

Each cart held two people each, so they all divided up and sat down. Li Yan and Lars sat in the front followed by Li Bao and Hailey, and then Ji-Yoo and Soren. Nikolas sat alone in the last seat, and when he was about to ask to change, Soren’s fierce glare made him shut up and sit in silence.

 

“How does the ride start?” Li Bao asked, but right as she said that the ride began. The others all looked around in slight interest rather than fear, mostly due to the fact that all that was left was veterans and two newbies.

 

The ride started off showing Alice, except instead of following the traditional plot of Alice in Wonderland the story was set in the modern day. The ride was calm, and most of the focus of the players were on the story that was being played out by cardboard figures as the cart passed by.

 

 The story began with Alice, who was left at an orphanage with her twin sister Bunny. The twins were similar to the newspaper clipping Li Yan saw before except younger and they both had the same names too. Since he could make this connection, so could the others. This ride must be telling the backstory of the theme park, is what everyone thought. So, they began to pay more attention to it for clues.

 

Alice and Bunny grew up normally in the orphanage, with Bunny being the more mature and level-headed one while Alice was more timid. There were many times where Bunny would stand up for Alice, seemingly to be a very close pair of siblings. A theme park soon opened down the street from the orphanage and the owner invited the kids to play for free. Unlike the other characters who appeared as black silhouettes, the owner appeared as a big heart shape with the words “Mr. Heart.” printed across its chest. Mr. Heart was seen constantly taking care of Alice and Bunny, even more than the other kids, and purchasing anything that they wanted, including food and toys.

 

As the ride got to this point in the story, the cardboard cutouts that were originally the characters began to grow mold, the light in the already dim rollercoaster area began to darken further and a red glow emerged from the floors. Lars noticed that the sides of the cart had gray fingers from children beginning to reach for their legs, to which he kicked away. He also tapped on Li Yan and pointed down.

 

Li Yan couldn’t help but break out in a cool sweat and began to swat away the hands in a violent manner. The others seemed to be entranced with the story, so Li Yan had to turn around and wave in their faces for them to follow in his movements.

 

Suddenly, they could all hear the sound of fire and looked up towards the story area again. The cardboard cutouts were now on fire, and big red X’s were put over the twins’ faces. A big pink piggy bank fell from the sky, pieces of the ceramic went everywhere, and the players in the cart had to bend down to avoid them.

 

The word “Greed” appeared coming out of the piggy bank, and then it showed the cardboard cutout of Mr. Heart being cut by the shards of ceramic. The story appeared to be saying that these two girls got too greedy and something had happened to the owner. The security guard in the shape of a crown with the name “King” written across it also ran in to help Mr. Heart, but got injured as well.

 

Mr. Heart seemed to be getting increasing bite marks all over himself and many more injuries appeared. The story seemed to say that Alice and Bunny began to fight him because he would no longer give him money, and the security guard, King, got involved as well.

 

“What a nonsensical story.” Li Bao muttered, pushing more hands off the cart.

 

“It’s not over yet.” Lars said, as they watched King grow in size and also trampled Mr. Heart, turning on him.

 

“Is this also due to greed?” Hailey asked, watching the cutouts in interest. “Perhaps.” Lars answered, focusing his attention on the story.

 

The cutout of Mr. Heart was pushed by King, and King also pushed down Alice and Bunny. Mr. Heart was lucky only to get knocked out, but Alice and Bunny’s bodys were impaled on some of the toy props in the background. Thick red blood began pouring from the cardboard cutouts, almost as if they were alive.

 

“Isn’t that in the gift shop?” Ji-Yoo frowned looking at the familiar background. He was still in a bit of pain, but it was better than before.

 

As if it was a signal, the cardboard seemed to actually come alive. They began to rapidly change their facial features, and the ones of Alice and Bunny turned into the two mascot bears. Alice being the one with a heart on her right cheek, and Bunny with the X on her left cheek.

 

“The bear who chased us was always Bunny, then where exactly was Alice?” Li Bao threw out this question randomly, but the two cardboard bears seemed to hear her and both turned. Bunny gave her a wicked smile while Alice hid behind Bunny and slowly merged into her.

 

“Bunny ate Alice?” Li Bao looked on in slight surprise.

 

“No.” Lars shook his head, but didn’t further elaborate.

 

The bears started to charge at the cart, but before they could get any closer the cart dropped. Nikolas let out a scream as they all fell, while the rest were looking around and finding a way to secure themselves on the ride.

 

The drop wasn’t too deep, and they landed back on a track, except this track was no longer the track for the ride that they were previously on. Instead, it seemed to be a kind of junkyard filled with old toys and deformed products of the theme park. The building gave off a chilling feeling as everything was silent, the only lights were some flickering lights on the ceiling. The big square building was filled with piles of trash, making it hard to see if there was an exit.

 

The hole they fell through was now closed by some device, so even if they wanted to try stacking things to get back up it would no longer work. Now, they all sat in a roller coaster cart on top of a pile of haunted looking toys with no idea of where to go.

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