We knew from the second we came down here that we had made a mistake. We walked through the vast gates made from mossy cracked stone into the dimly lit depths. I remember as we walked in Josh and Sarah were so full of life and eager to adventure somewhere we had never gone before we often did things like this but by far this would be our biggest adventure yet. We walked through the thick brush that had grown up around and partially into the entrance. As we slowly krept into the labyrinth that unbeknownst to us lurked below just trying to not draw the attention of the crestfallen that we knew were just around the corner. It starts to get even darker the deep we descended into the expanse below however as we got further into the cave it went from dirt and shrubbery to perfectly cut granite blocks on the floor with the most ornate carvings in the walls. They all featured the story of how the crestfallen came to be the horrid monsters we knew. Josh while holding our torch up to the walls to see the carvings asked “Guys did either of your parents ever teach you how these monsters even got here?” Sarah said “Josh you know just as well as i do they have always been here since the dawn of time it has been humans versus the crestfallen.” obviously this is what everyone was told we didn’t go to school anymore like you read about in books but still we knew a little bit about our history and everything said the crestfallen have always been around. Right as we finished our exchange though we all hear this loud scratching noise and a rumble in the floor like the earth is getting ready to cave in below us we start sprinting back to the entrance just to get there as we see the once moss covered doors in the entryway shut tightly with no light coming through anymore. None of us had anything to say we knew we were in a bad situation. On the back of the door where we couldn’t see until now there was a phrase wrote in more languages than i knew existed that said “BRING THE HEART OF THE CRESTFALLEN LEADER” at the very bottom of all of these inscriptions was a interesting flat stone table with a spiral design that went all the way to the edge of the table and ran down the sides and into the floor. We all stared at each other until I finally spoke up “Josh I think-“ before i could finish my thought there was just no sound able to escape my throat anymore I can see Josh and my sister both trying to speak but no sound from anyone. We decided to sit and wait for a while which if i knew what i know now we would have just stayed home but here we are. We all started down the path for a while until we hit a crossroad one path left and one right all the while looking at the carvings on the wall so far all it had shown us was the crestfallen exiting a cave but at this intersection the carvings go in either direction with a different story depending on which way you went and not knowing the true story behind the crestfallen meant we would be exploring this labyrinth aimlessly. Despite being unable to communicate we came upon the agreement that Josh would lead the way with the torch which was already burning pretty thin at this point with Sarah in the middle and me holding up the rear with a little knife I had kept been keeping in my boot. The little bit we knew about the crestfallen was they looked almost just like we did but slightly off, somehow different than we did almost as if they were made out of plastic with a slight upturn at the edge of their lips. You could always hear them from the woods and the outskirts of town every now and again they would snag a lone wanderer heading home from the tavern or your beloved pet. We kept hugging the right as we wandered further and further in but to no avail after hours of walking it felt like we hit a dead end and had to turn back thankfully though in Sarah’s bag she had brought some snacks our mother had pack for us that morning some drinks and a small stack of paper and a pencil so she was making a rudimentary map for us. As we seemingly started going the right way the story of the crestfallen seemed to start to make more sense it showed a group of three kids who looked just like us wandering in this same maze but it showed that once they made it to the center their was one old plastic looking man sitting there with a plethora of food for the three young kids. He shared his food with them and let them sleep there for the night before he started to show them a way out of the labyrinth, a way back home to their parents who were certainly worried about them probably just as much as ours were. Right then the carvings stop there was no more for us to look at but for the first time in what felt like days we started to hear again I said in a very raspy voice primarily just to myself “What the hell is this place” and to my surprise they both look at me. “We can finally talk thank god we can finally talk” exclaimed Sarah “Guys i really don’t think there is going to be a way out all these carvings are starting to scare me and i just want to go home” Josh replies for the first time since we got down here “Let’s just keep going and then hopefully we can reach the other side and go home I don’t want to do any more of these trips after we get out of here” and then we just returned to walking in silence. No words were said and there were no more carvings on the wall it sounds like our footsteps aren’t hardly echoing anymore almost like we are about to reach a deadend. We step into a long hallway with a right turn down at the end we reach the turn and there is a just a small door that looks strikingly familiar to me and right as Josh reaches for the handle it hits me this is the door the three kids from the carvings found but before i could say anything Josh flings open the door. Right there just as the inscriptions was a slightly plastic man who speaks to us in a soft voice so inviting “You have finally made your way back to me”. I step up with in front of Josh and Sarah with the knife held out and ask “What the hell do you mean made our way back we’ve never been here before and what did you do with the three kids in the carvings on the walls?” “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding made your way back came here the first time it’s all the same those carvings are of you and us this is the beginning and the end. The start and the finish.” We start towards the door whenever he speaks out again “You can leave I won’t stop you but either you will return or you will be back for the first time again this is inevitable let’s have something to eat, a good rest and then I will lead you out of here on one condition” as he says all of this i really start to notice the plastic skin and the slight upturn in his lips. “Josh, Sarah we can’t trust him he is a crestfallen we need to leave now” “And so are you or you will be I may be the first on this planet but you will be who takes it to the rest of your people I have been here forever and never before much have you this is the beginning of time and the end no matter what happens here you can escape here unless i let you” Sarah speaks up “What do you mean we are too we are not and we will never let you make us one of you” as this whole conversation happens i can’t help but to feel my head spin as i kneel to the ground the old plastic man starts again “this labyrinth of mine exists outside of time as you know of i am a higher being this form you see me in is just to make things easier on you this maze that you are in has always been here but never been at the same time and whenever i let you leave here you will be what you refer to as the crestfallen now eat” and somehow we ate it was most likely the fact that we hadn’t ate for days our food ran out on our descent down here. We tried to hold out as long as we could but there was no was we were starving but the longer we stayed here the more i noticed we started to resemble the plastic monsters we had feared so much for so long. The nice old man was true to his word as he took us through the labyrinth back towards the exit he never did touch us the food he gave us wasn’t poisoned or anything he was a great host but as we got closer and closer i couldn’t help but remember how ugly and wrinkled we used to be. How before this adventure everybody around us was just so ugly and they couldn’t understand our true beautiful now but one day they would one day they would get to enjoy our new home underneath the surface. Josh Sarah and I got lead to the entrance we came in from as the old beautiful man pulled the door open I couldn’t help but notice that it was somewhere new but I wouldn’t never be lost again i always would know how to make it back home with my new hideously wrinkled friends i would make. I would bring them back here kicking and screaming if i had to just so they could feel how it feels to be so perfectly smooth, beautiful, and happy. Always smiling