“Oh God…you’re not serious are you?” I yelled at the skies, hoping whoever made this messed up place heard me. Jinju pulled me by the arm over to the stairs.

“Don’t yell. It’s annoying and doesn’t solve anything.”

“This is just insane! We just got to stage, what, I think five and now this happens? Tch. I hate the guy who put us here.”

“Don’t complain. I don’t know how many of these stages there are or who made them or even if we can get out of here, but this is all we can do for now.”

“But Jinju! What the hell is this?!” I pointed to the stairs we found at the beginning of the level instead of the end. They weren’t the normal kind of stairs we were used to seeing, but they were at the very start of the stage and led into water. We were in a place where the sky was blue rather than the black ceiling we were usually in and the stairs went underwater to God knows where.

“Let’s go.” She grabbed my hand, dragging me down the few stairs that were outside the water. I groaned, but knew that we had to go anyway. “I don’t know what’s under here, but you can swim, right?”

“For the most part. You?”

“Yeah.” We just stayed silent for a moment. “Well, let’s get this started.” We both bent down, crouching next to the water line on the last visible step. The water was a reflective gray color; we couldn’t see what was under. Jinju put her foot in hesitantly. “It looks o--” Her eyes widened when she dropped the rest of her leg in. She gripped my arm tight. “Myungsoo, there’s something under there.”

“What?!”

“It’s pulling my leg.” She was calm, but I could see the terror on her face. “See you later, hopefully!” She said as her legs were literally yanked into the water, dragging her under.

“Jinju!” I jumped in without a second thought, diving straight in. My eyes got used to the water quickly, seeing…just…oh God. I didn’t even see Jinju. What if that thing ate her?! It charged towards me, but I dodged it, swimming upwards. Ah. I hit a solid surface, pressing my hands up against it. This…this is insane!

I looked at the creature once more, just swimming away as fast as I could once I realized that I couldn’t go back above the water once I had entered. I can’t hold my breath forever. Jinju must have swam away so fast after she was pulled in because of this or for all I know, she could have been eaten by that furry creature. I frantically moved my arms and legs, being able to actually hear this mammoth-like beast chasing after me. When you can hear something like this underwater, you know that you better not turn around to see.

I kept going, starting to get tired, but still freaking out. I saw a darkened line in the distance. I had no idea what it was, but it might help me right now. I swam as fast as I could after I felt that thing’s touch along my leg. I saw that suspicious black rectangle as my beacon of hope.

I touched it, feeling it’s icy quality freeze my body.

.

“Myungsoo!” I opened my eyes to Jinju, accidentally smacking her in the head from the shock. She rubbed her head, using her other hand to feel my neck. “You should be fine.”

“What happened?” I looked around, seeing a new environment; a much more elegant, Victorian manor.

“After I was pulled into the water, there was this massive creature, so I swam away, reaching some black line. I touched it and woke up here. You followed suit and I just woke you up.” She said standing up. “From what I can see, this place is like a mansion. I didn’t go any farther from here since you were unconscious.” I got up too.

“Why? Were you scared?” I teased.

“Tch. That’s nice to say to someone who saved you.” She retorted back.

“Saved? You said I just landed here.”

“I had to give you mouth to mouth resuscitation. You had stopped breathing.”

“Really…? Thank you then.” I took her hand, pulling her along through the mansion. I don’t really care about the methods she used to revive me, I’m just glad that I’m alive. I’m interested in this place and want to see more of the stages. Although they can be annoying and dangerous, they are intriguing and make my eyes twinkle in delight.

I glanced back at Jinju. I don’t think she felt very nervous with me. Most people should be all embarrassed and blushing after using and receiving mouth to mouth, but I don’t think either of us really cared. I like that about her.

“Ah, Myungsoo.” She let go, going off ahead of me. She looked up at something, but then her eyes widened a little. “Hey. Do you think we took a wrong turn?”

“What?”

“The goal of the stage is to use the stairs to move on. The stairs were at the beginning of the stage and we left them behind.”

She…

She’s right.

The floor began to shake and I pulled her over to me before we both got hit with picture frame falling off of the walls. “Do you think we can get back?” I asked, both of us running as the ground quaked more furiously.

“Let’s try.” We had reached the area from before, seeing that there indeed was a black line near the ceiling. I immediately grabbed a table, lifting a few onto each other to make a ladder of tables to climb. It wasn’t high enough, but Jinju pulled me over. “Climb.”

I just obeyed since the ground underneath us was starting to make the tables sway. We both climbed to the highest stop and then I bent down, letting her climb upon my shoulders. That’s another thing I like; we have the same thoughts when we need to.

She pressed her feet into my clavicles, attempting to reach up while I gripped her ankles. “Just reach!” I tried my best to boost her up farther without falling off the tables. The ground was tremoring viciously now. “Jinju!” I screamed as the glass tables shattered.

.

She hit my chest quickly, trying to get my attention as our faces shocked by the sight of that creature again. It was waiting for us, knowing that we went the wrong way. In the few seconds before we both reacted, I saw that it really looked like a prehistoric , wooly mammoth. I went above it and her under, confusing the stupid animal.

We swam near each other, flailing our arms when Jinju dove farther down. Ah. The stairs continued down below and were made along the bottom of this body of water. The stairs led into what looked like a water cave. I didn’t care where it went or if this was another wrong turn because if I hadn’t dove down and followed her, that animal definitely would have got me.

The cave was not narrow and the creature followed us in, starting to use its legs to go chase after us even faster. My breath was diminishing quickly and I could tell that Jinju was starting to get more reckless. We both caught up to each other, me right behind her when we both felt the scorching touch of the black line on the tips of our middle fingers.

“Player 54 and player 21, pass. Move onto the next stage.”

The scorching touch was too much for me to bear after the shock of our situation and I felt like fainting on the spot, falling right after Jinju. Ah…we aren’t fainting. We’re just falling. In general.