While falling thomas felt like he went through different dimensions, with his body stretching, disintegrating and coming back together.
Thomas hit the ground, the impact knocked the air from his lungs but he didn't die. The ground felt cold and wet. The silence afterward was thick—almost sacred. Then came the screaming. The confused shouting. The shuffle of people around him.
He looked around.
A massive room stretched in every direction—with pulsating purple light that stretched out like viens on the walls. Which gave a faintlight to the room. There were no windows, no sky. Only doors. Dozens of them. Some crumbled. Some sealed shut. All covered in cryptic symbols he recognized from Volume 3: The Labyrinth of Sorrow.
"This is the Maze," he whispered to himself.
Suddenly, a static sound rippled through the room. Then a mechanical, cold echoing from somewhere unseen.
"TRIAL ONE INITIATED: The Hollow Among You."
"You all have been placed in a group, one among you is no longer who they claim to be. One is Taken. Find the impostor, or die. You have three hours. The Maze will shift every thirty minutes. Fail to move forward... and you will be consumed."
Panic bloomed immediately.
"What the hell does that mean?" a bald man with a muscular build yelled, "Taken? What does that mean!? I only just bought the book from a bookstore I normally visit, I didn't even get the chance to read it" he says with his hands on his head.
"It's a hollow" a voice whispered in the far corner of the room.
"Oh I recognise her, it's the woman who was beside me earlier" Thomas thought to himself.
"So what's this Hollow?" The bald man asked.
"A 'Hollow' is a human vessel possessed by an eldritch parasite—intelligent, patient, and slowly consumes its host's soul. It can mimic memories, voices, even emotions…"
Thomas quickly explained.
"but there is a way to find it. There was always one inconsistency. One thing it got wrong." Thomas thought to himself.
"Hi mate the name's John" the bald man introduces himself.
"My name is thomas" Thomas says in a friendly tone.
"Hey bald guy, you're really unlucky I'll give you that" a soft female voice says while approaching the two men.
"Hi thomas and John, my name is Sara james" approaching them was a girl with blue eyes and thick long black hair, having a very beautiful shape with a military jacket.
"What do you mean?" John asks confused.
"You don't know shit and you were dump in this hellhole.. if you aren't unlucky, I don't know what you are" Sara says almost mockingly. "Well I guess we are dying together eh".
"What do you mean die, no-no I don't want to die... please someone help!!" another voice cries out. Thomas recognized him, he was the boy who knelt down and started praying earlier before.
"Well there is no way of knowing or finding the Hollow among us, in the book it was never stated it. So I guess we start running, let luck lead the way... and strangely i remembereverythingi read in the book" Sara says raising her shoulders and hands in disbelief.
"How many chapters did you all read?, I'll start... I read up to volume 10, your turn" Sara said.
"I read up to volume 5" a man in glasses said.
"Volume 2, I didn't even like the story.. so why me??" The boy who was praying earlier says.
"I read up to volume 9, the book had no main characters just details of the death and survival of different groups in this bloody game... no one suvivied more than 10 tests" an older man says visibly distressed.
"Volume 1" a kid looking barely 14 says.
"Volume 8, I just read it in my private time when I was done putting my kids to bed..." the pale woman said.
"I just touched it man!!! D*mn it" John said.
"I just read it in my private time" Thomas said.
"Can't let them know I was a fan of it, reading all 15 volumes, and studying it too" Thomas thought to himself.
"We need to move," Thomas said, scanning the doors.
A group of eight now clustered near one side of the chamber: the pale woman, the praying boy, the man in glasses, the girl with a military jacket Sara, John the baldy, an older man, the young kid and thomas.
One door opened with a low groan. A single word above it in Old Tongue: λήθεια.
What the hell does that word mean? John asks while touching the door.
"alētheia, it means truth... it's an ancient Greek word" the man wearing glasses explains.
"This was the first real door in the book, the others are fake" Sara says.
"After many struggle we found the real door, it was a door with a silver knob and the word truth on top of it'... it was written in the third Volume: survivor" she further explained.
"Let's go," Thomas urged.
The group shuffled toward it, but something tugged at him. A flicker of memory. A choice that hadn't yet been made.
In the last volume only he read as he was obsessed with the book. Volume 15: 'The Blood Gambit', one of the main characters discovers that the Maze had another path. One not marked by words, but by the symbol of the Ash-Eyed Serpent—a terrible test was taken there, an unimaginable power as a reward of passing.
' No one knew about the door, and those who found out was already in the later stages.'
And there it was. Half-hidden beneath collapsed rubble, at the opposite directionof the main door. A cracked, narrow door marked by a faint, glowing serpent curled around the knob.
He hesitated.
"Go with the group—help identify the Hollow, survive the normal route and get the minor power given or risk everything."
Thomas clenched his jaw. "If I die here, it's meaningless. But if I win, I get the power to protect myself..."
He turned, heart thundering, and sprinted for the serpent door.
"Hey where are you going" Sara asks shocked by his sudden movement in the opposite direction.
"Maybe he has become mad and want to die quickly, let him go... I think he is the hollow, with how secretive he is." the man in glasses says while opening the main door.
One by one, they quickly enter the main door, disappearing into what seemed like a black fog. John and Sara instead of following along, decides to run after thomas.
"Hey what are you doing?, come on this room is about to collapse" John quickly pulls on thomas right shoulder.
"You go, there is something I have to do" Thomas says continuing on to his direction.
"Ok then I'm coming with you, I've been observing you and it seems like you know more about this world than anyone of us"
Sara says following him.
"What the f**k are you guys doing?, let's just go with the others, do you guys have a death wish?" John says visibly distressed.
"Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen" Sara said.
"We die" John replies.
"It's here" Thomas says clearing out the rubbles in the floor.
In front of them was a small door with no name, and a serpent knob.
It hissed open.
Inside was no corridor—only a slide of bones and blood-soaked stone. They were pulled in instantly, sliding into darkness. The door sealed behind them.
The last thing heard before silence returned was the mechanical voice again:
"PLAYER THOMAS WREN,
PLAYER SARA JAMES
PLAYER JOHN PHIL
---HAS DEVIATED."
"INITIATING: HIDDEN PATHWAY – TRIAL OF THE ASH-EYED."