In a Maze of Fear and Loathing

Vizrokoth knew this was going to be fun. The most fun prey to hunt was the type that thought it was the predator, an experience she had enjoyed with entities far more powerful than mere humans. It's why she chose a different form to hunt Zachary in, one that she hadn't shown to the other contestants so far, and one that would be perfect for the location she had chosen to drop him in.

In addition to a different form, Vizrokoth had a very special present prepared for her current prey. The kind that would shatter his beliefs, and make him easier to mold for the role she had assigned him. After all, fear and self-loathing were excellent ingredients for many transformations she had in mind...

Zachary Hanson was in a very strange room, and with no idea how he got here. His last memory was entering the school gym after another pretty decent school day. Other than punishing Felix again for having tried to get him in trouble over a joke, there was nothing about his day. So how the fuck did he end up in a room filled up with a maze where every wall was a mirror, and where all the floors were made of concrete? Looking up wasn't helpful either, the ceiling was made of reinforced concrete, and covered in electrical lighting. Wherever he turned, he saw the same mirror maze with reinforced concrete floors and ceilings. The air was cold, like when someone cranked up an AC too high, and it made the place even more uncomfortable than its bizarre layout would suggest.

It was in that moment of confusion, where Zachary twisted around, looking for any of where to go, that he saw something very strange in one of the reflections. It looked like a figurine used in art class to help people draw the human form, lacking a face, or any identifying details. He could never get a clear look at it, but the glimpses he caught of it in his reflection were enough to scare him, and get him running. However, running inside a maze of mirrors proved more difficult than he liked to admit.

Everywhere Zachary ran, he just found more mirrors with the reflection of the strange figure, now more obvious and approaching ever closer. His run became a panicked sprint as he searched for a way out of this maze and the ever closer figure in the mirror. He started to smash into mirrors in his panic, sometimes on accident, and sometimes in the vain hope he could **** his way out, but it always failed. The mirrors, even when they cracked, would always repair themselves, reforming before any substantial damage occurred.

Somewhere in that chaotic run, Zachary was grabbed by that figure in the mirror, and dragged into the mirror itself. He found himself in a world he was helpless to navigate, not even being able to tell what was his own arm, or the reflection of that arm. Everything reflected back on itself in an endless cycle which made it impossible to tell where anything actually was. Trying to move, even just his hand or arm to try to figure out where it was, only made it worse.

Zachary could've stood there forever, unable to figure out where to go or what to do, but the decision was made for him. The figure from earlier returned and threw him out the mirror realm, and into another room with a reinforced concrete floor. Taking a breather, from feeling bruised all over, sliding across concrete, and still reeling from the mirror realm, it took time for him to notice what was around him. Looking up, Zachary saw hordes of mannequins, like the ones used in firing ranges or similar destructive contexts. That caused him to stand in a rush, as they all looked a bit too similar to the figure that had been haunting him in the mirror realm.

Once standing, Zachary got a much better idea of where he was. The mannequins were arrayed like soldiers standing in formation, and dominated much of the room. To his right was the mirror maze he had just emerged from, to his left was a set of metal stairs leading to a set of metal double doors that were chained shut. Looking around, he saw no exit from where he was standing other than back through the maze he had just been lost in. He was well and truly lost, in a way he had never been before in his entire life.

It was then that Zachary saw the figure again in a mirror, except it chose to come out. Reaching outside the mirror, and grabbing the floor, it pulled itself out of the strange realm that it was in previously. Seeing it make its way out, Zachary realized how tall this creature truly was, as even just part of the way out it was twice as tall as the nearby mannequins. It was also when he saw that this creature was covered, or maybe even made out of, reflective surfaces, as if a bunch of mirrors were fused together into a humanoid shape. By the time it made its way out of the mirror, it was so tall that its head almost scraped against the ceiling. And in that moment, Zachary didn't know what to do, because there was nowhere to run or hide either given the place he was stuck.

After a moment, where the reflective figure turned its face towards Zachary, it chose to walk towards him, nimbly working its way through the rows of mannequins to grab him. It was with that threat that Zachary got ****, and tried to charge it, desperately hoping he could break it. There was no way he could hide amongst the mannequins, his clothing and skin were too different in color, and there was nothing else in the room he could hide behind. However, before his charge could connect, the reflective figure made a single swipe with one if its long arms, and sent him flying through the nearby mannequins.

The pain was immense, as Zachary crashed through a couple of mannequins like a bowling ball. By the time he landed, his whole body was on fire with pain, but one of his knees was the worst hit. All he could do was cry on the floor in pain, and curl up in a fetal position hoping whatever this creature was wouldn't choose to end his life right there. Moments passed, and he dared to look out from the hands covering his face. When he did so, the creature was gone again, but he couldn't figure out why until-

"While this game has been amusing, it's time for your real test." A woman's voice, although it had an undercurrent of power he had never heard before.

When Zachary turned to see who was talking to him, he saw a very different creature than earlier. A demon with fire red skin, burning eyes, and silver hair. She still towered over him, although not as much as the creature from earlier.

"I'm going to offer you a deal," the demon said. "I'll take you back home, to your home dimension, and home city, if..."

The demon let the statement hang in the air, so as to build anticipation. "...you can convince your ancestor that I should let you go."

The demon placed down an urn in front of Zachary Hanson. She then summoned an hourglass and place it down next to the urn.

"You have until I come back to convince them you should be able to leave, but I warn you that ghosts aren't known for nuance or understanding bad behavior." The demon flipped the hourglass, removed the lid from the urn, and then teleported away in a haze of black smoke.

Felix still didn't know where he was. He sat next to Hailey and Noah, unsure what to say to them, if anything. Could he say her name? She warned there were horrific consequences for using her name poorly, but that only applied to people who knew how to use magic. That wasn't something Felix even knew was possible until a few hours ago, and he was pretty sure no one in this room knew how to use it.

"How did you get here?" Noah was the first to break the silence, albeit asking the question at a whisper.

"I woke up in a reinforced concrete hallway." Felix replied.

"So did I." Hailey said and then let out a breath she seemed to have been holding in for awhile.

"What were you doing before you ended up here?" Felix asked the other two.

"I was leaving school and right when I pushed open the gates to leave, I just found myself standing in a concrete hallway," Hailey said exasperated. "It was like I just glitched out of existence or something."

"That was just like what happened to me," Noah said. "I ducked into a classroom to dodge Zachary and then I just showed up here."

"That was also what happened to me." Felix replied. "I was walking to detention, but then when I stepped into the room and I was just standing on a concrete floor."

Felix and the rest then had a short conversation about what they had seen. Noah talked about the mess hall, and the bedrooms with privacy curtains instead of doors. Hailey talked about the kiosks, and the door with a timer on it, along with how she didn't get the chance to see much else before the demon nabbed her. And Felix talked about being in a hallway with an extremely high number of separate rooms shooting off it, none of which he understood the function of, whether it be one with a maze, a room with training dummies, one with some kind of obstacle course, and so on. By that point, Felix and Noah started debating what kind of facility this could be until Hailey broke it off by saying,

"Wait, why are we here in the first place?" Hailey asked. "That demon lady is almost certainly the one who grabbed us, but what the fuck could be interesting enough about any of us to her to justify the effort it took to nab us?"

That question caused the room to go silent again. Before they could discuss the idea in any real depth, a scream erupted in the distance. Knowing what that pertained, the group stayed silent, worried that the demon would punish them if she found them talking...