The Night Walkers

by Elaine McGregor-Dawson

  She laughed, "you'll have to wait and see," and before she knew it she had whipped away into the crowd again. Everyone's eyes returned to their conversation as Kit's stomach began to feel uneasy with nerves.

  "Hey Kit!" came Sally's voice from the crowd of people. She had to utter "excuse me" a few times before she was able to completely make it towards where Kit stood in the doorway.

  "Hey Sally," Kit returned with a smile on her face as she watched this relatively small girl bound up towards her. "Guess you're taking the test as well then, are you as nervous as me?"

  Sally was a very genuine girl and Kit had come to like her over the years. She had soft features and a delicate mix of pale blondes towards her hair with a pale skin tone to top it off, but she always wore red lipstick which made her features a lot prettier.

  "I'm seriously nervous," Kit said with all honesty. "Are you as nervous as me?"

  "Hells yeah I am!" she returned with her same energetic voice. Sally began smiling and Kit kept hoping that she had made the poor girl less nervous. Sally opened her mouth to say something when Headmistress's voice cut in through the shattering voices of the large room.

  "Attention everyone!" she started, waiting for all the voice in the room were silent before she continued, "we are going to announce a few names from each level before we can decipher the remaining two. Out of everyone today, we will have two champion's that fight and think alike."

  There was some chatter from the crowd.

  "From the initiate level could we please have the following," and so she started naming names and then some more names as the crowd began to decrease slowly. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of talking to Sally and hearing about what she found in her bathroom this morning – which was extremely out of the ordinary – Kit got called up.

  "Could the following students from the Prefect Level could we please have the following students – Vance Helmond, Kit Stone, Levi Larkson and Aria Pargasite."

  Kit's heart began beating so hard and fast that she was sure she felt it in her throat. Sally stood there with an encouraging smile as Kit walked towards the main doors, watching the four others as they did the same. She noticed Levi among them – she's spoken to him very few times before even though they were the same age – but she'd always liked the way he picked himself up.

  Not to mention his good looks....

  "Hello," greeted Headmistress as they all walked towards the two main doors. Headmistress stood between the two doors with a clipboard between her hands. "I am dividing all of you into equal groups, a boy and a girl with both verse each other and, in this case, I have put Kit and Levi verses Aria and Vance. Kit and Levi, your team one and you two will go through the right door, team two will be Aria and Vance, you two shall enter through the left door. Once both teams verse and we sort out the winners, then they will both be put into consideration for the ultimate winners. Best of luck and remember to never expect the expected."

  With her final words and her short plastic-looking smile, she gestured for everyone to enter through their associated doors.

  Kit nervously looked at Levi and he proudly looked back at her. Suddenly his expression vanished. "Hi," he said as they began walking through the doors, "you're Kit right? Interesting name."

  She nodded – feeling more nervous to be talking to him than anything else. Then she was pretty much lost in his flawless features from his long dark lashes that would have made a perfect bat, bat, bat if she listened closely to his soft cheekbones and his muscular build.

  "Ah, yeah," she laughed, "I am. You're Levi, right? Interesting name..." she trailed off, feeling her cheeks warm slightly as they went through the automatic doors.

  Levi laughed as a piece of dark hair fell in front of his dark-brown hair. She almost felt like pushing it away but decided against it.

  "I am," he smiled slightly with a slightly perplexed expression folding over his face. She realized a moment later that it was due to the odd room they now found themselves in.

  It was dark and there were only a few flashing lights on either side of the walls. Everything else showed no signs of any objects at all. There was one large metal door that looked like it could only be automatically opened.

  "Hello teams," came an unknown voice from the loudspeaker that stood tall in the corner of the narrow room. Behind them the door they'd came through closed, concealing them in darkness. "In a few moments we will open the door and you will have to find your way through the maze working with one another, this will test whether you (a) communicate well and (b) show that you can understand each other and (c) go with your instincts. You will have ten seconds before the doors open. This will determine who the best team is."

  And so, the loudspeaker began counting down seconds, "ten, nine, eight," it started, and she began staring at her shoes and then up at Levi who towered a good head above her. His face always looked ready for anything. "Four, three two," nerve-racking bites of her lips because she knew that each year the school held this, it was always different, "one."

  The doors burst open, revealing a large bright room ahead. The speaker never specified what type of maze it would be. The room was completely white and there was not much else other than a white door.

  Kit creased her eyebrows and she strained her eyes to see after being in such a dark room. Everything was so bright.

  "What could this mean?" Levi asked a moment later.

  Kit shrugged her shoulders, "we have to open the door and I doubt this will be like Alice in Wonderland where we have to shrink ourselves down..." she trailed off.

  Levi chuckled cutely as he went around the room to expect everything. There was a large normal-sized couch, a lamp, a saw, a screw, an air vent and a few bits-and-bolts but nothing that she thought would help them much.

  "What the hell could this mean?" she asked Levi who looked just as confused as she felt. He walked over to her, crossed his arms over his chest and inspected the room.

  "We have to think of something. To start off with, the door is made entirely of wood, but there are no matches to burn it down and there are no fancy objects to break it. What the hell could a freaking couch do?"

  Hmm, maybe it didn't have something to do with the door.

  But then it struck her as being a stupid idea.

  She shot him an amused look. "Maybe we could smash the lamp?"

  "Are you serious?"

  "Ah, yes, wait, no. Actually, yes I am. Wait-"

  "Alright!" he looked at the ground with a smile at the corner of his lips. "Maybe we down need to get through the door," he mused.

  Kit looked at him with surprise. She'd been thinking it but never had she expected that the big door – the most obvious answer to everything – wouldn't be the answer. "That's what I was thinking as well. Maybe we could tilt the couch on an angel-"

  "-Use the saw to cut open to air vent-"

  "-Climb our way up and through and maybe that would lead to the next level." They both smiled at each other.

  "Let's test it out then."

  And so, they both walked over and tilted the couch on an angle. Although it strained her arms a tiny bit because she was relatively small compared to him and had no idea how he was managing to effortlessly hold it upright.

  "You can climb up first and when you're up, I'll hand you the saw and then you can help me through whilst I try to balance on it. I reckon it might be low enough."

  "Okay, I hope there's no time limit to get this done," she said as she began climbing up. It was quite difficult, and, in the end, she decided to use the left-over bolts to cut enough holes in the couch to help her up. With one final pull she managed to stand up. Level delicately threw her the saw which she immediately grabbed and began cutting the hole in the air vent.

  The door would have been too thick to cut anyway, but with a specialized saw like this one it was hard not to be able to cut it.

  "Everything running right?" he asked.

  She nodded in return, "yep, I've nearly got it." Fin
ally, the vent was cut completely through and she pushed it, so it allowed a clear opening. Kit took one rough and ragged breath before she pulled herself up through the air vent, feeling the hardness that came with it. Already she was slightly tired but hopefully with her supernatural abilities it would ware off soon. "I'm up!" she called down to him.

  He pointed a thumbs-up in her direction before he pulled himself up with ease. Suddenly Kit felt slightly weaker against someone like him.

  "You're pretty good with that," she observed, watching the way his smooth and vivid motions abled him the accuracy to be able to balance his way to the top. The couch slightly turned on and angle and by the time he reached the top the couch nearly fell.

  He gripped the edge of the air vent and began hauling himself up with his muscular arms. He was muscly without being overly muscly which she liked.

  Suddenly the couch fell from under him and he was left dangling in the air. She breathed in sharply and held her hand down for him to take it. He grabbed it slowly as she helped him up.

  "Thanks," he said, breathing a bit more now. "Hopefully we did the right thing and didn't completely ruin it." They both started laughing and Kit felt like she could already get along with him.

  "We better get going to the next one," she inquired a moment later. They crawled through the remained of the large air-vent which made for a quick route towards the next room. "This is it, you ready?"

  "I think so."

  They stepped through the end of the air vent and found themselves in another black room which resembled the first one they were in before reaching the first room.

  "Well done team one," the loudspeaker called over her mixed thoughts. "You have successfully completed level one. Now is the next level which will be a bit tougher than the previous one. Best of luck."

  Finally, the second door opened, revealing another room which a lot was different from the other one. It stretched out into a series of mazes. They were made into hedges the colour of green. There was a very high ceiling. Halfway towards the ceiling were two balconies on each side of the massive room and from it shone a massive spot light.

  "We have to get through the maze without being seen by the spot light." Kit said, figuring out the puzzle. "That may be difficult presuming the many tactics it's going to take to get to the end."

  Levi nodded, feeling then doors behind him close. "Yeah, I'm sure we can manage."

  There were two ways that they could each go, over – meaning they climb over the top of the hedges and risk being seen – or they could go under the maze – meaning they wouldn't be as easily detected.

  "Are we looking for risks or not?"

  He smiled at her, "I think we should risk it. I'm always in a risky mood, you know, I think taking risks makes everything a lot easier in a way. If I get caught, so be it, if I don't, well, that works for me."

  She smiled at that, "how brave of you then."

  "Nothing brave about a mad man," he said grinning as he launched himself towards the high hedge. She saw him jump and there must have been a short three seconds when he was in the air before he landed with his hands gripping the leaves of the hedge, already a good halfway up. "Are you coming?" he asked, turning around to face her. "I'll help you up."

  She positioned herself towards the hedge as she pushed off from her two back feet. She was speeding towards the hedge and finally, as she neared it, she kicked off with one large ounce of energy and sprung herself through the air until she was just below Levi.

  He peered down at her with an impressed look. "Not bad," he inquired, "guess you might not be needing my help then."

  She pulled herself up using the branches in the hedge and before she knew it she was nearly at the top. With one second of waiting she began pulling herself up when Levi gently pulled her down by the arm.

  "This is a test. You have to make sure to look around before you start, remember that Kit, it'll come in handy." He began watching the scene before him, noticing how the lights from the two giant beams shone in a pattern.

  "It goes to the right corner, to the middle and-"

  "-back to the left corner," he finished for her. She smiled over at him, feeling her heart gently beat in her chest. Kit knew she wasn't accustomed to being with a boy – partly because all she did was train and partly because most of the guys at her school didn't pay much attention to her. All she could so was observe them.

  With a guy like Levi though, she couldn't stop thinking that he was different. He wasn't how she thought he was at school, unless he was just being like this around her. A bit more time alone with him would decipher whether he was like this.

  "Ready," he started, looking at the beam lights. "I see the end just down there, if we can get through the gaps in the maze, then maybe we can get out without much trouble."

  "There's never a way out of the labyrinth." She looked away as she said it and watched as his eyes flickered towards hers.

  "What do you mean?"

  She opened her mouth to reply, only to close it with a shrug. "I'll have to tell you later." She flicked her eyes back towards the beam which blazingly cascaded across the blank darkness, opening a million questions pulsing in her mind. Finally, as the beams travelled to the right, exposing enough time in the middle of the room they both began to yell, "go!" at the same time.

  With one fluid motion Levi stood up like the bolt of lightning, pulled Kit up after him and began running. He was pulling her along with him and she felt her feet struggle to run on the maze. They were running in a specific way, so they wouldn't run through the gaps in the maze.

  He was pulling her with him wherever he wants, and she felt her cheeks begin to turn slightly pink as she felt her small hand in his large hand. They were running, fast as the lightning and he was being careful.

  "This way!" he shouted towards her and she followed. She'd gone through so much training and as they jumped through a large gap – feeling the wind whipping back her dark hair – she didn't feel scared. She didn't feel scared because she was with him.

  Before she knew it, they were out of the room and at the end. They'd finished it, she thought in her mind. Kit looked towards Levi as they stood in the exact same room that they were in before they'd gone through the maze.

  "Well done," he breathed.

  "You too," she said back to him, a shy smile on her face. He'd let go of her hand a moment after they'd slipped through the finish door. The lights flickered on and off.

  "Well done team one," the loudspeaker boomed, "you have successfully completed the first two levels. Now we welcome you into your third and final room. Teams will be decided based in the skills they have displayed with one another and then we will see which team wins the absolute majority. Best of luck."

  The last door opened. Kit's stomach did an involuntary flip in her stomach as she watched the final room as it stretched out before her, long and winding. It was a plain black room and right at the start of the door stood a woman whose face resembled a plastic doll.

  "Hello," she said, "I have to inject you with this needle that is designed to trigger your greatest fears into place. This will decide just how well you can both cope with your fears at the same time as helping each other to the end."

  Levi stepped forwards, "our greatest fears?"

  "Yes, young man, your greatest fears." She smiled just like a porcelain doll.

  Levi's face paled as he stepped towards the woman, exposing his upper arm as he pulled up the sleeve of his black tee-shirt.

  "Wait!" Kit cut in, her voice low and worried.

  Levi stopped, turned around and stared at her. "What? Don't tell me you're too scared Kit, you can do it, its fine."

  She shook her head, pulled her hand out to draw him away from the scary looking woman. She bit her lip, knowing in her heart that something was not right. "This is a test right. We are supposed to think everything out." She investigated the long black room. "What if it's a trick?"

  Realization began to dawn on Levi's flawless face as
he turned to the plastic-looking woman. "You're right," he stepped away from the woman until he stood next to Kit, looking down at his shoes. "It is a trick. We have to keep going."

  The woman started laughing, but Kit payed no attention to it as she pulled Levi with her through the black room. Everything was so dark. It was so dark that Kit strained her eyes to see properly, even with her cat-like eyes designed to help her see properly.

  Suddenly, without a warning a massive light shone in her face. Kit strained her eyes to see and beside her she could only just see Levi grimace as he covered his eyes. Finally, as everything cleared, they both watched as the light exposed a small air vent – even smaller than the first they'd seen.

  "What does that do-"she began to ask but was cut off as a pink-y gas began flooding out from the vent. Kit skidded to the far wall, pulling Levi with her. "What the hell is that?" she asked as the room started filling with the pink gas.

  "It must be poison," he observed. "Run!" He was pulling her by the hand, running from the pink substance with a thousand thoughts chasing them. Their feet skidded to a halt as they turned corner.

  She ran into Levi, "sorry," she whispered, cheeks once again a bit pink.

  "No matter." He was staring at the two different tunnels before them. "Left, or right?" he asked.

  Kit turned her head to look behind her. The pink gas was following them. "Don't get caught by that stuff. Go left! Left is my lucky right."

  "What?"

  "Don't worry! Keep going!"

  "Fine!"

  They started running down the dark tunnel like a shadow in the night, feeling the thrum of their heartbeats as they cascaded through the many twists and turns. Suddenly a ladder folded in front of them.

  "Climb up," exclaimed Levi and made Kit go first. He followed behind her as they climbed up the ladder. Once they firmly landed on a floor, they watched a flight of stairs as it stretched out before them.

  "Go up, quickly. We may not have enough-"

  Suddenly the wall behind them began closing in – looking as if it were trying to squish them. Kit yelped, grabbed Levi by the upper arm and began racing for the stairs. "Hurry! If we die I really hope I don't have to blame you."