The torchlight flickered as I realized what was happening.

It was just me and Felix. Everyone else hadn’t made it past the trials. They all were eliminated on the fourth trial.

And now I stood, knee deep in water, infront of him. The one who teased me whenever I did something stupid but held me when I had cried. The one who acted like he hadn’t kissed me like the world was ending when fake gas tricked us.

This was the last trial. Either we would drown or figure out the way before we died.

My heart pounded as I started feeling the walls. Nothing in the walls, not a crack or a button.

Felix had been checking the floor and ceiling. The water was up to my elbows.

I looked to him for some sort of confirmation there was a way out. His eyes said it all.

We weren’t getting out.

They had tricked us.

We were going to die here. In this watery room. Our new tomb.

I held Felix’s bright green eyes, waiting for him to tease me and tell me I was being an idiot. Waiting for him to make a flirtatious comment. Or maybe even just the quirk of a brow.

Nothing.

I felt hot tears fall down my cheeks. I didn’t want to die. I had to win. I had to see my dad again. I had to see Izzy. I had to go home.

I can’t die. Not yet.

“You won’t die,” Felix was hugging me. Had I said that out loud?

“You’ll just go to a different place. That’s all. And soon after you’ll be accompanied by your family.”

“What about you?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, “Are you going there too? And what about your family? Aren’t you scared they won’t make it without you?”

“Eliza, my family is gone. They’ve been gone since I was a child,” He watched me with those piercing green eyes.

“I don’t wanna go to that place if you’re not going too,” I felt more tears drip out of my eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming with you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

The water was almost to the top.

We were treading.

With the final flicker of the moist torch, I knew I had done everything I could to save us. We took a deep breath.

The water was at the ceiling and we floated there.

Our lungs burn. Our eyes are swollen shut. Our bodies have stopped functioning.

And yet we’re still alive.

The Game Makers come and take our dead bodies away and leave our alive minds. We sit as they harness our power.

We sit and yearn for the other. Waiting for the day when we cross to that other world. To peace.

To where we can be together.

To paradise.

And until then, it is just nothing.

N o t h i n g

Nothing.