Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

I regained my senses and walked over.

After going through the hole, I could see the entire floor covered with bodies of savage dogs.

These dogs... had to have been there to tear us to shreds. But why were they all dead? Unable to stand the stench of blood, someone climbed out of the hole and threw up.

"There’s a switch here. Once the timer is up, the door would open. Then, these starved, savage dogs would rush out and bite everything they see." Eason glanced at the mechanism. The wall would have open when it was time.

"How are they dead?" Zion was confused.

"Someone killed them." He analyzed the bodies on the floor and their knife wounds. "It’s hard to imagine that this was done by one person."

Twenty plus dogs in a room were all killed by a singular person.

That person was even scarier than these dogs.

"It’s Dexter..." My voice was trembling slightly. I kneeled down on the floor and retrieved a piece of cloth from one of the dead dog’s mouth.

It’s the same uniform they were wearing. Who else could it be if not him?

He’s not the killer....

He left before us to deal with the dangers and obstacles ahead.

"That lunatic... did he make his way to the first floor alone?" Joel said in disdain.

"Is he planning to find the guy before we all get killed?" Eason furrowed his brows. "He’s definitely hurt. We can’t let him move alone, we need to find him immediately!"

"There’s a marking here!" Quinn found an arrow drawn from blood in a corner.

"Sophia... You’re not gonna die, I won’t let you die. You’ll get out of here alive..."

I stood at the same place and stared at the blood on the floor. My body slowly stiffened.

I suddenly remembered what I asked Dexter when I first got to this place.

"Will we die here?"

He stared at me with determination and said no.

He said, "Sophia... I won’t let you die."

Is that why he’s pushing forward even though it’s incredibly dangerous?

"Countdown: 10, 9, 8..."

All of a sudden, the eerie voice rang out again. The voice of echoed across the entire floor.

"3, 2, 1..."

The countdown ended and the wall opened as expected.

But the starving dogs that were supposed to run out were all dead.

"Ha..." Juliet walked over to Damien and took his arm. "The person behind all of this isn’t that smart after all."

"Follow Dexter’s clues," Eason told us.

Damien glanced at me. Upon seeing how I’m glued to the floor, he dranted away by Juliet.

"You don’t need to care about her," She said. "She’s with Dexter, he won’t leave her behind."

I didn’t move an inch. Quinn and Carol wanted to tug me, but gave up after I didn’t budge.

"Sophia?" Violette called.

"This isn’t right..." I shook my head.

Dexter was also trying to find his way around. He wouldn’t just leave clues on the wall. Besides, a lot of the walls on this floor can be moved. It was like a moving maze.

Even if you left behind clues, they wouldn’t be accurate. Dexter wouldn’t make a mistake like this.

I swiftly marched over and looked at the arrow carefully.

The arrow was made of blood. It was sticky and wasn’t fully dried. Someone had drew it on when we weren’t looking earlier.

Dexter was helping us solve problems, but someone among us was trying to create new problems.

There was a loud snap.

As expected, the wall slammed shut after everyone followed Eason into the other room.

"Violette!"

"Sophia!"

Damien and Zion wanted to run over

door closed, but it was The last thing we saw their worried and panicked expression.

I was trapped on the other side with Violette while the rest of them were inside.

I laughed coldly. "They’re the ones in danger, it’s useless to be concerned about us."

Violette’s hand that was on the door stilled. She turned her head nervously and looked at me.

"What’s wrong, Sophia? Why are you suddenly so cold?"

She looked at me with a foreign expression.

"They’re too stupid," I said with a raised brow. I knelt on the floor and analyzed the ground.

Since it’s a moving maze, the walls and the floor must have some visible gap.

Based on the events on the 17th floor, some programs, like the timed poisonous gas release, the lights going off and the moving maze, must have been put in place beforehand.

Dexter went ahead and cleared parts of the obstacles along the way for us. Unfortunately, the killer was amongst us.

Naturally, he wouldn’t let us pass so easily. He still had other cards to play.

So, the killer drew a bloody arrow without anyone noticing, leading everyone to walk unsuspectingly into a dangerous area.

There was screaming and hissing noises from the other side of the wall.

As expected, they were in danger.

"Snake! There’s a snake!"

Violette hit the wall repeatedly in panic.

"Zion! Are you guys okay?"

There was no response.

They were obviously too occupied to reply.

"Do you know how to open this wall, Sophia?" She glanced at me nervously.

"Why would I do that?" I stared at her quizzically. "If I do that, we’ll die too."

We’re only safe because they’re inside.

"I can bring you to safety now that they’re occupied."

I got up and walked to a wall with a gap and knocked on it. It was actually a movable wall. "Follow me."

She stared at me in disbelief. "What’s wrong, Sophia? Zion and Joel and the rest of them are inside... We..."

"What good can the pair of us do? Why would you put your life on the line if it’s not a 100 percent chance?"

I didn’t really know what went on in Violette’s head.

If we can’t save them, wouldn’t going in just get yourself killed? Instead of doing that, wouldn’t it be better if we just left now? What’s wrong with that? Violette stared at me blankly and slowly backed up.

"You’re not Sophia... Who are you?"

My face fell and I raised a brow at her. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"The maze’s walls move at random. They triggered the mechanism. We can’t enter right now.

"So, you should follow me and get out of here. We’ll find the exit and wait for them downstairs."

She looked at me as if she was slightly afraid. She gripped the dagger in her hand firmly.

It was like she was certain I wasn’t Sophia.

I didn’t want to waste my breath. "Follow me if you don’t want to die. Eason might not be the brightest, but it’s not completely impossible to escape. "Besides... Joel is there. They won’t die."

She hesitated for a moment before following me anyway.

I walked to the edge of the wall and found the trigger for the mechanism. Then, I stepped on it firmly.

The person who designed this maze

was a genius. Using a brick tile as a

trigger made it easy for unsuspecting people to step on it by accident. This activated the mechanism earlier and moved the walls. .

I brought Violette to another space. It was so white it didn’t seem like there was a single speck of dust.

We’d just entered when the walls moved again and locked us into a different space.

"Stay where you are and don’t move," I warned.

She did as she was told.

I took my knife and stabbed the gap in the tile hard. The knife was bloody was I pulled it out. There was a mangled scream coming from the ground as well.

I scoffed.

That lunatic. What in earth did he have down there?"

As soon as I pick the wrong path, whatever that was below would swarm out. Then, me and Violette would probably be reduced to nothing but bones.

"Sophia... what’s... down there?" Her voice trembled as she asked.

Evidently, she’d also felt that there was something below us.

"Rats..." I answered coldly. "If I pick the wrong trigger, then we’ll both die."

There were man-eating rats below us.

Violette swallowed. The sweat on her forehead dampened her hair.

"Stay where you are and don’t move."

Violette didn’t even dare to breathe heavily.

"Sophia..." She was slightly afraid there was nothing she feared more than rats.

I shot her a signal to keep quiet before slowly lowering myself to the ground.

On the white and flawless ground, I drew a flat map of the maze, with the exit in the center.

The exit on this floor was located in the center.