The door of Hades

In a dark jungle, there was a tree house. A group of six high-school students were gathered there, to celebrate the end of their final examination.

The tree house was cozy and spacious with Wi-Fi signal, so they were enjoying themselves. Two of the girls were making TikTok, two were cooking, while the two boys were playing video games.

Mabel's POV:

It was a really fun and warm place. Callie and I were making TikTok, as we found the perfect, wooden aesthetic background for it. Suddenly we heard a loud thud from the kitchen, and we couldn't help but roll our eyes. It must be Valerie, she’s a clumsy girl.

"Is everything alright!?" Callie asked, just to confirm.

"Yes! It's just that Valerie dropped a little cutlery!"

It was Sam, who replied. She was a great cook, so she was cooking today, and since it's Valerie's tree house, she was helping her with the ingredients. We just chuckled, being clumsy was so Valerie. She was only good with books and Judo, otherwise no one was clumsier than her.

Soon after, a maddening fragrance came from the kitchen and our stomachs growled in hunger.

"Is the food ready!?" Alaric yelled, tossing aside his gaming console.

"Just a few more minutes." Sam replied.

Alaric whined dramatically, as we couldn't help but laugh at him. After around 10 more minutes of starving, Sam and Valerie finally served the food.

As we sat down to eat, Devin suggested something extremely crazy and exciting.

"Let’s go out for exploring tomorrow!"

We were all about to agree, but Valerie didn't seem happy with the suggestion and smacked his head.

"Are you dumb? It's a jungle outside, and mountains at the back. Any wild animal can attack from anywhere." She spoke.

"C'mon, don't be a coward!" Devin argued.

Before they could debate further and start fighting, Alaric interrupted, suggesting eating first before and then discuss. We were thankful to Alaric for stopping them,, or they might’ve started fighting.

After the dinner, we sat around the couch to discuss, whether to go exploring or not. Valerie tried to explain how dangerous could it be, as it's a wild area. I agreed with her point, it was very risky, but also thrilling.

"Val, ya, don't be so boring, let's just explore a little." Callie spoke up.

After debating on it for a few hours, Valerie finally agreed to explore, but only at the near areas. We understood her concerns and agreed.

As decided, we all were ready by 6 am to go out. We all wore tracksuits and boots, with a backpack for all the necessities. We all had small backpacks, but Valerie had a huge tracking bag on her back.

"Val, are you talking the whole tree house along?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's dangerous outside, I don’t trust you idiots with survival." She replied.

I wanted to retort, but it was kind of true. Even though Valerie was the clumsy one, she was still the one who solves the problems we get ourselves into.

We walked out, locking the door behind us. As we walked forward, the trees kept growing. I was also starting to feel a little uncomfortable in my chest, as if something is going to happen. I instantly went beside Valerie and held her arm, which was a lot more comfortable.

Valerie's POV:

The jungle is very deep, with many wild animals here, the mountains are even more dangerous. I didn't want to come out here with them. I had done survivals here with my grandfather, but these five aren’t really that good with it. It's dangerous for them, but they just wouldn't listen.

As Mabel held my arm, I instantly knew, she was feeling uneasy here, which was very normal. Devin, however, was having too much fun for his own good. He just kept going further and further.

We had been walking for half an hour, and were already too deep in the jungle that the sky had turned into leaves. Mabel held my arm even tighter and I patted her back in reassurance.

Soon they all got hungry, and being dumb as ever, Devin suggested we eat right then and there, in the middle of nowhere. As this point, I really wanted to slap him really hard.

"Are you dumb!? What is some wild animal came here, attracted by the smell of food? Huh!?" I yelled at him.

"Nothing would happen! Stop overthinking!" Devin replied and pulled out a pack of snacks.

Before I could scold him, we heard a loud roar from behind the bushes. From the roar, I was sure it's a leopard. Devin, finally felt scared as I shot him a glare. I could see Callie trembling, Mabel has gone pale, Sam was trying to act tough, but her legs were shaking, Alaric picked up a stick for defense and Devin froze in his place.

I instantly grabbed the snacks from Devin's hand, and shot him yet another glare. He had a pack of chicken nuggets in the wild. The leopard roared again, and I threw the pack of chicken nuggets far away. As expected, the leopard jumped put from the bushes to chase after it.

"Seriously! Chicken nuggets, in wilds!? Did come here prepared for death!?" I scolded him.

"I... C'mon now, nothing happened in the end, right!" He retorted.

I was about to slap him, but Alaric got in between again. I huffed loudly and looked away, while Alaric and Sam tried to talk sense into Devin. Meanwhile, Callie also came by my side to hold my arm.

"Devin, don't you dare do anything this dumb again!" Sam said to him, as he begrudgingly agreed.

I suggested going back, but they still wanted to explore further, which frustrated me even more.

Alaric's POV:

This was intense when we heard the leopard's roar. We're all very thankful to Valerie that we survived it, or god knows what could've happened. Devin would never listen to anyone, he was stubborn, and it was annoying Valerie a lot.

I know the decision to go further is even dumber, but I too wanted to explore a little deeper. What I didn't expect was, that the leopard would come back and with his friend.

As we walked deeper, we heard that roar again, louder. We froze on the spot and looked at Valerie, who literally glared back at us. She signaled us to not speak a single word and run as fast as possible.

She pushed Mabel and Callie towards us, as we ran. It might be stupid, as the leopards are the fastest animals, but no, it wasn't, as Valerie stayed back. The four of us were concerned about her, but Devin didn't even look back once. We ran until we found a hiding place behind a huge rock.

Time passed, minutes then hours. It had been three long hours that we have been waiting for her, but she was still nowhere to be seen.

"Why isn't Valerie here yet?" Callie asked, her lips trembling as she spoke.

"Must've gone back, leaving us here. That coward." Devin snorted.

This was enough of his nonsense. I finally glared at him, not just me, the girls glared at him too. It was all his fault that we were stuck here, in the middle of nowhere, without Val, and yet he had the audacity to blame her.

"Enough! She had told us not to come. It was you who argued, it was you who got those nuggets and attracted the leopards, it was you who didn't even look back once when we ran from the danger, leaving Valerie. She warned you multiple time, she even stayed back to give us the time to run, yet you dare call her the coward, while you're the one being spineless!!" Sam burst at him.

He was speechless and couldn't say anything at all, as it was indeed what he did. Just as he finally found some words to speak, we heard a ruffle from the bushes behind.

We finally saw Valerie's tracking bag and soon her too, as she walked up to us. Her arm was injured and clothes torn, as she was covered in blood.

"Val!" We all yelled and helped her to us.

Mabel started crying seeing her. Callie couldn't hold back her tears either. Sam just smiled bitterly, and I held her.

"Relax, don't cry, I'm fine. Nothing happened." She comforted us, and pulled out a medical kit from her bag. Something we all didn't think of keeping.

"Hey... I'm sorry." Devin finally mumbled.

Valerie just brushed it off.

"By the way, now we'll have to wait for a while before going back. It's dangerous." Valerie told.

We all got scared hearing that, we didn't want to go any deeper. Looking around, we were probably on a mountain already, and it was also starting to get dark.

"Then... should we explore more to find a shelter?" Devin asked, and we glared at him.

But we didn't have much of a choice either. We all looked at Valerie to get her approval. After thinking for a while, she finally nodded and got up.

We started walking very carefully. Every few minutes, I kept glancing at Valerie. She was very badly injured, yet she was walking just fine, as if nothing happened. I couldn't help but admire her.

She kept giving us some glucose candies and snacks, that didn't attract wild animals but kept us going. I checked my watch, when we got out of the tree house, it was 6am, and now it was almost 4pm.

After walking for half an hour more, we saw a huge, dark and abandoned building and walked up to it. There was an enormous metal gate, and the headboard said, "Sheol The Ivory Tower". The metal bars of the gate seemed weird though. As if it said something.

Valerie's POV:

I glanced at the gate with narrowed eyes, and my heart skipped a beat. Its bars were in a way, that if one noticed clearly, they can read it say, "Door of Hades".

We were in big trouble...

Registration

The huge gate looked very dark and haunted, it was also very weird as behind it, they could only see smoke, thick and dark.

Out of the blue, an old man walked over to them, wearing a dirty, wet, rough overcoat, looking like a beggar. He had a stick in his hand that supported his steps. Sam looked at him and was very suspicious that how can someone be here in such a deep jungle.

"Be very cautious. Do not tell your real identities no matter what." Valerie whispered to them.

Understanding her concerns they all nod while Devin snorted. The old man, noticed Devin's expression and smirked.

"Kids. How come you're here, on a high mountain in deep forest?" The old man asked in a deep growling voice.

"We just came to explore but then encountered some leopards on the way. So to find a shelter to spend the night, we ended up here." Devin replied casually.

Alaric and Mabel wanted to beat him up for spitting out everything, Callie and Sam were also in rage, but Valerie signaled them that it was alright. The old man's smirk widened in a creepy way, and he walked forward.

"Ah... So you want to spend a day here?" He said, walking closer.

"If we can..." Devin said.

"Oh, sure you can~ but, do you know what Sheol The Ivory Tower means?" The old man asked.

"We don't want to know, just tell us we can stay or not?" Devin said, growing impatient.

"Alright, come in, I'll take you to meet someone, they will tell where you can stay or not." The old man said.

All six gave each other wary glances but decided to walk along. Callie and Mabel held closely onto Valerie, Alaric and Sam also stayed by her side as she was still injured. Devin on the other hand, kept walking forward.

As the passed through the gates, a dark and uncomfortable feeling surrounded them, it was so foggy that even seeing one's own hands seemed difficult.

Mabel's POV:

This place is very dark, I don't like it at all, and that old man, he... he is literally so creepy. It's all because of Devin that we got stuck here and now, even Valerie agreed to get inside this spooky place, and what's with its name?! Sheol stands for Hell, how could anyone name a place as 'Hell'... how is Devin so eager to go inside.

Clinging onto Valerie, we walked in through the fog. Soon a big building came in view, the old man took us inside it. The interior was luxurious as we all looked at each other in shock, as we were led to an office. The head chair turned around, revealing a gorgeous looking lady with a very creepy smirk.

"Oh~ Who do we have here?~" The lady spoke, looking at us as if we were meals.

"These kids want to stay here for today." The old man told that lady with a smirk.

"Of course~ why not. Well, myself Richa, the principal of this school~" She said very arrogantly in a rich Australian accent.

We were all stunned to hear that this dark place was a school. Then it clicked in our heads, 'The Ivory Tower' means University or High-school in earlier times. Just as we were about to say something, Richa pulled out a form from her desk and placed one in front of each one of us. The form only asked for four things, name, age, gender and signature. This was when we remembered Valerie's warning from earlier, 'Don't reveal your real identities no matter what.'

"Well, well, since you'll be staying here for the day, just register your names, so we have a record." Richa said.

Being dumb as ever, Devin filled in the form instantly. While we all looked at Valerie, she again reminded us not to reveal our identities and just fill in a fake form. We all understood, I wrote my name as Julie along with a fake signature and referred my age as 19, a year older than what I actually was. Sam was, Olivia. Alaric was, Thomas. Callie was, Kate. And Valerie was, Isabel. We all looked at Devin, hoping he had entered a fake name too. He laughed awkwardly before speaking.

"I wrote Jacob..." His voice was hesitant.

We looked at him suspiciously but then believed what he said. The registration was done, and now Richa took us towards her dorm area and gave us a room with two partitions, one for boys, the other for girls.

Olivia (Sam)'s POV:

Richa showed us the room, and to be honest, we were quite pleased with it. We first helped Isabel (Valerie) sit on the couch as she was injured. Richa finally noticed it and immediately called over a nurse who bandaged her properly and also helped her change into fresh, comfortable clothes that Richa gave.

"Oh sweetie, since you're injured, I'll advise you not to go out after 7PM." Richa said to Isabel.

"Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Every night, from 7 PM to the next sunrise, we celebrate Foul Play." Richa spoke darkly.

"What is Foul Play?" Isabel asked coldly.

"Time when everything is allowed, without any rules." Richa replied vaguely.

Isabel just nodded, but something was going on in her head for sure. While Jacob (Devin) seemed excited to explore this so-called Foul Play. But to be honest, hearing that everything was allowed, and no rules, I was a little excited too.

Guess we're in for some fun...

Stuck Here

Kate (Callie)'s POV:

We all sat around Isabel (Valerie), discussing whether she was able to walk or not. She was just being herself in meanwhile, spilling water while drinking, clumsy as ever, keeping the tension light despite her injury.

After a little joke, we all changed into comfortable clothing and settle down. After a few minutes, some staff got us a nice meal, which Jacob (Devin) started eating instantly while Isabel hesitated. Even I did, as it is an unknown place, and they're being unusually kind. Isabel slapped Jacob's arm to stop him.

"What Now?!" He yelled at her.

"How can you be so careless?!" Olivia (Sam) spoke before Isabel.

"I'm just hungry, okay!" Jacob said in annoyance.

After a little argument, Jacob, as usual, didn't listen and continued eating. Seeing him eat just fine, we started eating too, but Isabel, of course was too cautious and instead ate some snacks that she had on her. She was injured, so I wanted her to eat some normal food to recover, but she couldn't care less.

After eating, we were all exhausted and decided to take a nap and went to our beds. There was a partition wall to separate the area of girls and boys, which was actually quite convenient.

As I laid on the bed and closed my eyes, I heard a loud scream from the window and jolt up instantly. Olivia and Julie (Mabel) heard it too, however, Isabel was still laying comfortably as if it was nothing. I don't know how could she be so calm after being way too cautious about just food. We kept up for a few minutes, but then exhaustion sat on our eyelids, making them heavy, as we fell asleep.

After around an hour, I started feeling uneasy and got up. My heart was beating fast, making me worry that something bad might happen. The feeling was eating me inside. I checked the time, it was 5:48PM. I looked around, and the others were sleeping quite peacefully, so I didn't disturb them and went to the bathroom to wash up and clear my head a little.

I took a nice shower of half-n-hour, feeling all fresh again, but the uncertainty won't leave my chest. I tried to ignore it and went out in the living room. As I sat on the couch, Thomas (Alaric) also came out. He looked extremely cozy over here.

"Hey, why are you sitting here?" He asked as he dropped himself beside me on the couch.

"Couldn't sleep anymore." I replied casually.

"Let’s go out for a walk then, should we?" He asked.

The idea sounded fine, as I did need to clear out my mind and distract myself. However, this place was unknown and weird, making me a little hesitant to go out so casually. After thinking a little, I decided to just take a stroll, besides, we are two and Thomas is a nice, strong and brave guy, so things can't possibly go too bad.

We both walked out of the room, in an empty corridor and started roaming. The decor looked classic and neat, but it was too quite and empty... well, makes sense as it is so deep in the forest and on a high mountain too, so probably very fewer people know about here.

As we walked, we found stairs and went downstairs to the ground floor. Upon reaching here, we finally heard some noise as we decided to follow it. The sounds led us to a dining hall, which was filled with many teenagers of our age. The scene shocked us, as we didn't expect to see so many people here in such a... hidden place.

"They're wearing uniforms." Thomas whispered to me.

"Yeah... guess it really is a school as Richa said." I whispered back.

Knowing that it's a school let our nerves relax a little, as we can't be harmed in a "school" can we? I don't think so. We thought about approaching them for a talk or something and walked in. As soon as we entered, all eyes were on us and a heavy silence filled the air. Their eyes were all narrowed, full of suspension and slight disgust too. Well, that's very rude of them.

"Um... Hello." Thomas spoke with a wave.

None replied, literally none. In a normal scenario, I'd have laughed at him for getting so badly ignored, but here, it was very uncomfortable and unusually quiet. I could even hear someone's breathing if they breathe a little loud, it was that pathetically quiet.

"Let’s go somewhere else?" I said to Thomas.

Thomas nodded, as we were about to leave, but then came a voice from behind.

"Well, well, look who we have here~"

It was... Richa. We both turned to face her instantly. She was sitting among some other... teachers probably, having some snacks.

"We didn’t mean to interrupt. We were just taking a stroll and got here." Thomas spoke.

"Oh, no worries at all. Grab some snacks if you want." She offered.

"It's fine. We're not really hungry right now." I refused politely. But out of the blue...

"But I am."

I and Thomas turned towards the doorway, and there she was... Isabel. With her arms and legs still covered in bandages, under her clothes. She stood there in loose joggers and a loose top. Her hair were tied up in a messy bun, and for shoes... she was BAREFOOT!? The hell is wrong with this girl!!

"Bell! Why are you wearing slippers or shoes?!" I yelled at her.

"Oh that... I forgot." She said and let out an awkward laugh.

"How to forget wearing shoes?" Thomas said in disbelief.

"Either ways, let's get to the point. I'm hungry." Isabel shrugged.

"Sure dear, we have varieties of snacks that you can have." Richa spoke, and pointed towards the food counter.

I can't believe this girl, she literally wasn't even willing to eat the lunch they served us, was now in their cafeteria to have some snacks. WOW.. Isabel then walked towards the counter and just looked at the snacks. There were cupcakes, waffles, noodles, fries, pizza, burger, dumplings and many soft drinks, even beer. Isabel saw them all and came back.

"What happened?" Richa asked.

"Can I give my honest opinion?" Isabel asked.

"Of course." Richa smiled.

Thomas and I literally held our head, because her 'honest opinion' is never good, and gosh, she wasn't even caring that she's a guest here.

"Ewe." Isabel said with an eye roll.

"Huh?" Richa looked confused.

"There is verity in food, but zero quality. Who even eats that? No wonder animals don’t come here to steal food, because it's literally crap." Isabel said with a disgusted face.

"What do you mean?!" Richa stood up, abruptly.

"The food is too oily, and it stinks!" Isabel replied.

"Bell, let's not go too far." I said to her.

"Why? They can spy on us, but can't hear a little truth?" Isabel said arrogantly.

"Spy on us?!" Thomas and I said together.

"Don’t accuse us dear." Richa spoke up.

Isabel just nodded, then put her hands in her pocket, and one by one, took out miniature devices from it. Three cameras, audio recorders, even a speaker.

"Care explain these?~" Isabel said to Richa.

"How... did you find them?" Richa asked, she looked shocked.

"I'm smart." Isabel said cockily.

"What really happened Bell?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, I got up to drink water and stumbled upon the speaker, it had a scream sound in it. Then, while trying to wash my face, I accidentally tripped and fell on the hand shower, it broke along with my back. Ouch! That's how I found the audio recorder, I thought there'd be more, so I searched and found these." Isabel explained.

Thomas and I facepalmed ourselves. She was too clumsy, but it kinda helps. I saw Richa facepalm herself too, she definitely didn't expect something 'this' stupid to catch her.

"How... clumsy... are you?" Richa couldn't help but ask that.

"Just as much to die a very funny death." Isabel replied solemnly.

I could see Richa and all others get utterly speechless, and I was trying very hard to control my laughter.

"Bell, let's ignore these for now. We'd be leaving tomorrow morning anyway." I spoke.

"You wish!" Isabel snapped.

"Why? What happened?" I asked, confused.

"That bloody JACOB, oops! Devin. That fucker, despite me reminding him wrote his real name and the signature." Isabel replied, sounding annoyed.

"Um... so?" Thomas asked.

"So! This pathetic place has a system, once someone gets in, can NOT, go back!" Isabel told.

"What nonsense." Thomas rolled his eyes.

"So much nonsense, that the gate we came from is now an electric wall." Isabel replied.

"Bell... it's not real... right?" I asked, worried.

"It's as unreal as the oil in their food." Isabel replied, solemnly.

I couldn't help but rush out to check for myself. Thomas ran after me, as we both rushed to the absolute location where there was supposed to be a gate. So... we really are stuck here... there, there was supposed to be a gate... We walk towards the enormous wall and try to bang on it, but it gives back an electric shock, as Thomas and I yelp in pain...