Test and Sacrifices

Frogs

The creature’s eyes widened. "What?" It simply spoke again." I have Ryan and he's alive and safe." Julia said through shuttered breaths "Where is he?" The creature asked while freeing her. " He's in the bedroom but let me approach him first. He doesn't recognize you." Julia said.

The creature nodded and picked her up off the table. "I'm sorry for hurting you. I thought you killed him." The creature said softly. Before leaving the creature grabbed his sledge hammer. “We might need this for the next rooms” The creature commented. When they reached the bedroom Julia walked in first. "Ryan, come outside with me please." Juila said calmly. Ryan quietly followed her and stepped back around seeing the creature. His eyes filled with fear. "Ryan, it's me Joseph." The creature said while rolling up its sleeve to reveal a shoulder tattoo of a koi fish that had the name Ryan under it.

Ryan ran and hugged him tightly. "Big bro, it's really you. Where were you?" He said. "Oh Ryan I tried to save you but I couldn't escape." Joseph said. Owen then stumbled out of the room to see what was going on. Owen took one look at Joseph and yelled "Julia! How could you bring that monster here?" "Owen, he's Ryan's brother." Julia responded. "I don't care. That thing is a monster." Owen yelled back at her. "Owen, please listen." Julia pleaded

"Look man, I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I thought you killed my little brother. He's everything to me and I can't stand anyone who hurts him." Joseph said. The remorse could be heard in his voice even though it was messed up from screaming.

" That's no excuse to be so cruel! How do you think I feel about you? You hurt me and almost hurt Julia! She is like a sister to me and you threatened her! You are not a victim! You are just a monster and will never be anything more than that!" Owen snapped.

"Owen, that is so messed up of you to say." Julia corrected him. " Oh.. I'm messed up! At least I don't beat people without thinking! That THING! is a monster!" Owen yelled back at her. " You are so double sided Julia! Go cuddle up to it and get yourself killed!" "He is not an it." Julia said angrily " Joseph is a person who lost so much. He is not a monster, he is a brother who loves his brother more than anything.If someone killed me would you be okay?"

"No, but I wouldn't assume someone killed you. Also people don’t have demon horns. " Owen responded. “Let’s just get out of here.” They all began to walk to the exit. “By, let’s get out of here, I didn’t mean it could come. That thing should leave” Owen said harshly. “Well you are not the boss and majority rules that he comes.” Julia snapped back.

Joseph felt awkward as the two argued about him. He understood why Owen didn’t want him around, but he wasn’t going to let anyone separate him from Ryan ever again. They made it to the door rather quickly due to Joseph’s knowledge of the maze. Once they did Owen spoke up again. “If anything comes after us we should let the monster be the sacrifice, since it's just a monster .”

Joseph felt a little annoyed by Owen’s words but remained calm. He knew he deserved it for beating Owen so badly. Julia on the other hand was fed up with him yelled. “Enough! If you’re going to treat him like that, then might as well do the same to me. I’m also considered a creature and I’ve done some terrible things as well. Do you remember when we met? I almost killed you ”

Joseph spoke up "I understand his anger. He's right I not just a victim. I’m a monster filled with wrath. I’ve hurt others so bad that no amount of apologies would make up for what I’ve done.” He said calmly.Julia nodded but still glared at Owen. The door opens with a turn of the key. Joseph walked in first, while clutching his sledge hammer tight. Julia was behind him, then Ryan, then Owen. The room they walked into was cold and damp and it looked like a tunnel.

Spiders crawled up and down the walls. So far it was silent other than their footsteps. Julia picked a stick up off the ground and pulled Ryan closer to her. Owen lagged a little behind and it worried her. “Owen stayed close.” she whispered. He ignored her and she sighed in defeat. Julia walked backwards in order to keep an eye on Owen. Her heart was racing as she felt like she heard another set of footst but she wasn’t sure. Sure enough they could hear thudding and croaking. “Oh come on, it's probably just a bunch of frogs.” Owen commented. “We clearly can’t trust that thing. It's a maniac.” “Shut up and stop calling Joseph an it or that thing.” Julia snapped. Owen rolled his eyes at her. “You see nothing is happening.” Owen said. “It’s just frogs.”

Julia just glared at him. She then heard a thud, followed by a squishy sound. She turned around quickly and saw that Joseph was now fighting with a bunch of frog-like goblins. “Now that maniac is killing frogs!” Owen yelled “Those aren’t frogs.’ Julia said as she turned to help Joseph fight them.

The frog-like goblins were twice the size of an average pug. They were round and their brownish-green looked very slimy. Tiny needle shaped teeth filled their big mouths. Their ears look like pig ears and their webbed feet had claws.

She jabbed them with the stick she had picked up earlier. They snarled and kept coming at them. “Don’t let them bite.” Joseph instructed. Owen stood watching. He didn’t know what to do. Julia pushed Ryan towards Owen. “Protect him!” She yelled at Owen.

Owen grabbed hold of Ryan. He really didn’t know what else to do. He wasn’t in a condition to fight. Meanwhile Joseph and Julia were slaying the goblins. The goblins’ blood was green and gooey and smelled terrible. Ryan was crying and clinging to Owen in horror at the sight of the goblins. “Cover Ryan’s eyes,” Joseph shouted. He then handed Julia the sledge hammer and took a deep breath. A ball of white fire began to form in his hand. By the way he winced it was obvious that it burned. He threw the ball of fire at the goblins. They screeched at first then quickly disintegrated as the fire burned out. “Ryan is afraid of fire, so I tend to keep him away from it, but my element is fire. That’s why before I got the key I had gloves shackled to my hands. Also I rarely use my element because it makes my hand feel like it’s melting.”

“Element?” Julia said questioningly. “All experiments in the section I was in have an “element”. The elements include wind,water,fire,plants,and electricity." Joseph explained. The type of fire is very useful because the white flames work under water but it comes with a lot of pain. Owen slowly released Ryan, who then turned quickly to his brother. He ran to Joseph and hugged him tightly. “Where did the monsters go?” Ryan asked. “We scared them away.” Joseph responded warmly. Joseph took the sledge hammer back from Julia and the four of them continued down the tunnel. It was getting darker and colder the further they walked. Soon it was almost pitch black. The air now felt icy, like the breath of a harsh winter. It was eerie and uncomfortable but at least they weren’t having to deal with one of X’s sick creations or challenges. The ground began to feel like ice was covering it, and slowly the area turned into the dark side of a stereotypical winter.