Mckensie was doing slightly better at navigating this time. We had to backtrack maybe once or twice but after a lot of walking and a long sleep Mckensie claimed we were getting closer. Opal was tired, Miriam was tired, Mckensie was tired, the only person who wasn't tired was Penelope and I'm starting to doubt if she's even human. She's all work, keep moving, don't eat, doesn't sleep, there's no way she's just a normal human. Maybe she's a demigod or something. I bet she'd be like…an Ares kid or something. She's weird like that. Is that too harsh? Maybe the dehydration is getting to me, that's probably why my head goes all fuzzy when I stand. Mckensie peeked her head around one of the corners, letting out a small hum of thought. "I think this is it…it looks different but there's flags so it's probably it…my memory's kind of bad though," She admitted. Penelope turned the corner "I'm sure this is something at least, hurry it up," she commanded. Gods she's bugging me today. I feel like a spring and every word that leaves her mouth winds me tighter. I'm not sure how long until I snap. At least we were finally here, or this was a completely different hallway guarded by a sphinx with thirteen different flags. Either way this could be really good…or we were all about to die horribly. Yay. I took a moment to glance at the flags, they were all on the smaller side, colorful triangle shaped flags with a collection of different patterns and designs. I got lost for a moment in a blood red flag with a deep black heart, in the center of the heart was an eye that almost seemed to be looking back at me…creepy. I tore my eyes away to look at everyone else. Penelope was studying the flags as well, her hands on her hips. Although her hands were placed a little high for me to say that, it was more like hands on ribs, which is a weird saying but a very comfortable pose. Opal was spinning slowly, not studying the flags as hard as her sister but still taking them in. It took me a moment to find Miriam but eventually I did. She was leaned up against the wall, gently rubbing her leg. I took a few steps back to lean next to her. "Does it…hurt?" Of course it hurts…I don't know why I bothered asking. Miriam nodded, sighing "Yeah, not that bad but it still stings. I'm just glad I can walk." I was glad too, not being able to walk would be a serious disadvantage. There was a comfortable sort of silence for a moment, I enjoyed those few seconds before the inevitable mess up. Today's mess up was Mckenzie climbing up and tearing a flag off the wall. I didn't hear her take it but I certainly heard the scrape of stone against stone. It was an ear splitting noise, worse than the usual sound of the walls moving. This passage clearly hadn't been opened in a long long while. My head shot to the sound, Penelope stood there looking guilty and holding one of the flags. Miriam moved before I did and I was quite impressed with how fast she went from trying to soothe her ache to acting. I jogged leisurely behind her to join the crowd around the passage. It was dark but just light enough I could see a few platforms spaced out. Penlope pulled the flag out of Mackenzie's hands and clutched it tightly, her eyes boring into the cloth as if it would grow a mouth and start answering her questions. "Why the hell would you do that?!" Penelope's gaze snapped up to Mckenzie, who shrunk away in fear. "I-I didn't mean to!" she argued " I was trying to get a closer look but when I reached up it just ripped, it's not my fault the things ancient!" It did look pretty old, I could believe Mckenzie had torn down the flag by accident. "At least now we've got somewhere to go, maybe this path leads us to the thing we desire or whatever that paper said," I shrugged. I enjoyed bothering Penelope quite a lot. "Or maybe it leads us to our death," Penelope snapped back, scowling. "At least it would be something," Miriam sighed. I could tell she was…a little stressed. Which was pretty fair because we could literally die at any second and stuff. I stole a glance at the flag Mckensie had torn off. It was a dusty copper with a dark blue design on it. What the design was, I couldn't tell. It looked like a bunch of platforms and levers which made sense because I did see a lot of platforms down the hallway, but then what about the levers? "Maybe we should go in, that way we at least know what's down that way," Opal suggested, leaning closer to the platform. Penelope tensed visibly. I didn't know why she didn't snap this time, then again Opal is like…a child. She seems kind of hard to yell at, and I hate kids! Well I don't hate kids but I don't really like babies…or toddlers, they're all loud and sticky. Also kids are very expensive and having kids would mean being with a man, not happening. Wait why is Opal already halfway down the hall parkouring like a little boss, being an overthinker I hadn't even noticed. Penelope watched her younger sister carefully, when I scanned her face she looked worried. Not the kind of worry I'd been used to seeing in the maze, that kind of worry was all 'oh no I'm going to die, runrunrunrurn' this was more 'I can't do anything okay don't panic don't panic don't panic' you get the vibe. I was surprised she wasn't following behind Opal but that would be even more dangerous-wait, no. Mckensie was holding Penelope's wrist gently, not tight enough to pull or be overly controlling, more a warning. Mckensie knew that two people trying to fit on any of the platforms would be bad, Penelope knew she knew that and somewhat understood, and Mckensie knew Penelope knew so she didn't need to say anything as much as she just needed to hold her there. I think I'm going insane. Opal started to fade out of view, disappearing into the shadow like my brain cells when there's a math test. That's a joke by the way, I'm great at math. I could feel the tension grow as we all tried to get as close as possible without falling off the edge. Miriam held my wrist again but she wasn't warning me like Mckensie, she just wanted to feel something familiar. "I think I see a leaver!" Opal called out, her voice echoing a little. "You should pull it," Mckensie suggested, which was probably a good idea because we had nothing else to really do. Penelope contested "Don't, we have no idea what it might do". I could hear Opal let out a small hiss of breath, barely audible in the distance but definitely there "I already did," she admitted. Well that's wonderful, I hope at least something interesting happens. My ears were treated again to the writhing, horrible, scratching sound of rock on rock. I wondered how long it had been since anyone but us had opened these doors. Down the path was…nothing. Wait, no, there's a small colourful box on the floor. I hadn't heard Opal making her way back from the leaver over the sound of rock until she was right behind me and the scratching had stopped. Miriam moved closer and I followed cautiously. The box was made of wood and covered in chipping and peeling paint, the thing looked ancient. There were a few holes in the side I couldn't see through but I wasn't sure if I wanted to…the thing gave me the creeps. It clearly didn't rub Mckensie the same way because she excitedly stumbled closer, tripping over her own feet. "Oh I know this game! It's…older definitely but we have one of these in my science class," well that was very helpful. "What's it for?" Penelope questioned, still tense with frustration. She was still pretty pissed off from…well everything that had happened today. Mckensie kneeled down next to the wooden box as she spoke "We used it for a kind of identification game, you stick your hand in and you have to feel around until you find something, then figure out what it is". Miriam tilted her head to the side "If i had to guess, that's where our special item is. Can you pull the items out?" she questioned. Mckensie nodded "Yeah, it's a little hard but it's manageable…only issue is I have no clue what's in there this time, for all we know…" she trailed off. "It could be something dangerous?" Penelope finished, scowling. Mckensie nodded again, her expression blank. Opal kneeled next to Mckensie "I guess there's only one way to find out," she reached out towards the box but Penelope stopped her. I looked up at her face, studying her mismatched eyes. I saw her worry again, worry for her younger sister, worry for people in general. Penelope kneeled down and stuck her own hand in the box silently. I waited with baited breath for something…anything to happen. Reaching out I met Miriam's hand, interlocking fingers I could feel how badly she'd been sweating. Her palms were wet and warm but I didn't mind. Penelope reached into the box until she was about elbow deep, I could hear her moving items but she didn't pull any out quite yet. Then she stopped moving, based on her expression Penelope had found something interesting. She slowly pulled it out and…let's just say I didn't think it was nearly as cool.
