(Joshua’s POV)
The corridors shift around us, twisting and warping like they have a mind of their own. One minute we’re with the others, and the next, it’s just me and Dillon, the fog swallowing up everyone else like they never existed. I don’t know how we got separated, but here we are, alone in this fucked-up maze, and my head’s spinning with a thousand thoughts I don’t want to have.
The walls of the labyrinth loom tall around us, ancient stone covered in strange symbols that pulse with faint, eerie light. It’s quiet—too quiet. The kind of quiet that makes your skin crawl, like the world’s holding its breath, waiting for something awful to happen.
“Where the hell are we?” Dillon mutters beside me, his voice tight with frustration. He’s been acting like he’s in control this whole time, trying to play the leader, but I can tell he’s just as freaked out as I am.
I don’t answer him. I’m too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on in my own head. The fog isn’t just messing with my senses anymore—it’s dragging shit out of me that I’ve been burying for years. Memories of my family, the dysfunction, the way I’ve always been the invisible one. And now, on top of all that, I’ve got Dillon. Dillon, who’s standing here with his perfect life, his perfect fucking face, acting like he knows what it’s like to be me.
And it pisses me off.
I don’t even realize I’m grinding my teeth until Dillon glances over at me, his brow furrowing. “What’s your problem?”
My temper flares, and before I can stop myself, the words spill out. “What’s my problem? You’re asking me that? Look around, man! We’re lost in some supernatural fucking maze, and you’re acting like it’s just another day at the beach.”
He stares at me for a second, like he doesn’t know whether to be confused or pissed off. “I’m just trying to keep it together.”
I scoff, my fists clenching at my sides. “Yeah, of course you are. Because that’s what you do, right? You just waltz through life, thinking everything’s going to be fine because it always is for you. You’ve got your rich parents, your frat, your girlfriend—”
“Stop,” he snaps, cutting me off. His voice is sharp, but there’s something else there, something I haven’t heard from him before. “You don’t know shit about me.”
I laugh, but it’s bitter, full of years of pent-up anger. “Oh, I don’t? Look at you. You’ve got everything handed to you on a silver fucking platter, and you want to tell me I don’t know you? You don’t know what it’s like to struggle, to fight for every scrap of attention, every bit of recognition.”
Dillon steps closer, his eyes narrowing, and for a moment, I think he’s going to hit me. Part of me wants him to. Maybe if we just fight it out, all this tension will go away, and we can stop pretending like we’re not being fucked with by this place.
But he doesn’t hit me. He just stands there, glaring at me, his chest heaving with anger.
“You think my life’s perfect?” he says, his voice low, dangerous. “You think just because I’ve got money, that means I don’t have my own shit to deal with? My parents barely know I exist. My dad’s more interested in his career than he is in me, and my mom—fuck, she’s so wrapped up in her own world that she doesn’t even see me. And Samantha?” He laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “I don’t even know why I’m still with her. We don’t connect. Not really. It’s all just… comfortable. Safe.”
I freeze, his words hitting me harder than I expected. I’ve always thought of Dillon as this golden boy who’s never had to deal with real problems. But hearing him now, seeing the frustration and hurt in his eyes, I realize maybe I’ve been wrong.
But that doesn’t make me any less pissed off.
“That’s your big sob story?” I ask, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Your parents don’t pay enough attention to you, so now you think you can relate to what I’m going through? You don’t know what it’s like to be invisible, man. You don’t know what it’s like to have your entire family ignore you while they worship your fuck-up brother like he’s some kind of hero.”
Dillon takes another step closer, and suddenly, we’re face to face, the tension between us crackling like electricity. “I know more than you think,” he says quietly, his voice rough around the edges. “And if you’d stop acting like the world’s against you for five seconds, maybe you’d see that.”
I want to yell at him, to shove him away, but something stops me. There’s something in his eyes, something raw, and it makes my stomach twist in a way that I don’t understand.
I open my mouth to snap back at him, but the words die in my throat. My pulse is racing, not just from the anger, but from something else. Something I’ve been trying to ignore since this whole fucked-up trip started.
And then, before I can stop myself, I close the gap between us.
The kiss is hard, rough, and full of every bit of anger and frustration I’ve been holding onto. It’s raw, like something we’ve both been trying to deny for way too long. For a split second, Dillon doesn’t move, and I think I’ve fucked everything up. But then his hands are on me, pulling me closer, and suddenly, we’re both caught in it, like there’s no going back.
It’s not soft, not romantic. It’s desperate, like we’re both trying to prove something—to each other, to ourselves. My heart’s pounding so loud I can barely hear anything else, and for a moment, everything else disappears. The fog, the maze, the danger—it’s all gone, and it’s just me and Dillon, standing here in the middle of this nightmare, clinging to something real.
But then, just as suddenly as it started, it’s over.
We break apart, both of us breathing hard, staring at each other like we don’t know what the hell just happened. My mind’s spinning, trying to make sense of it, but I can’t. All I know is that everything feels different now, like we’ve crossed some invisible line that we can’t uncross.
“Fuck,” Dillon mutters, running a hand through his hair. His face is flushed, his eyes wide with shock. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, my voice shaky. My heart’s still racing, my thoughts a jumbled mess. “I… I don’t know.”
We stand there in stunned silence, the weight of what just happened hanging heavy between us. I can’t even look at him. It’s like if I do, I’ll have to face everything I’ve been trying to bury for so long.
But before either of us can say anything else, the ground beneath us shifts.
The labyrinth stirs, the walls moving again, twisting and turning like they have a mind of their own. The fog thickens, swallowing up everything around us, and the supernatural forces that have been toying with us this whole time make their presence known again.
“We need to move,” Dillon says, his voice tight with urgency. He’s already pulling away, snapping back into survival mode.
I nod, still dazed from the kiss, but there’s no time to dwell on it. The maze is changing, shifting beneath our feet, and if we don’t move now, we’ll be trapped.
We take off running, the walls closing in behind us, but my mind is still stuck on that kiss—on the way Dillon felt against me, on the way everything seemed to fall apart and come together all at once.
But this isn’t the time to think about it. Not now. We’ve got bigger problems.
Still, as we run deeper into the labyrinth, I can’t shake the feeling that what just happened between us is only the beginning.
And that scares me more than anything else in this fucking maze.
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