A few hours later…

Twilight was once again sitting in her room alone, but this time she wasn’t reading a book whilst drinking a cup of tea. This time, she was shedding tears of sorrow into her pillow. She had known Zachary for a few months up to that point and yet he had already gone missing, possibly even dead and they still haven’t found him.

She got up, still with tears in her eyes and made her way to the bathroom to wash off her face.

“I got to get ahold of myself….” She said quietly. “I can’t give up hope. We’ll find him, alive! Hopefully, that blood on the jacket wasn’t his…” She shuddered, thinking about what could have possibly happened that caused there to be so much blood on it.

Whatever it was, she wouldn’t give up the hope that her son was still out there.

Twilight looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing her own bloodshot eyes and face wet from the tears and the water she used to wash them away. She was a mess.

“What am I going to do…?” She said, letting out a sigh, looking down at her faucet, turning it back on, continuing to clean her face. Suddenly, she heard some sort of weird noise from above her. It sounded like a soft breeze, even though there were no windows in the bathroom or anywhere else where it could get in. She looked back up, but instead of looking back at herself through the reflection, she saw something else.

She saw a bright campfire, flicking in the darkness around it. It appeared to be located in some sort of forest, but that’s not what most interested Twilight. That would be the person sitting at the campfire, who she recognized as,

“Zachary?!” She said out loud in shock, though something was different about him. He seemed to be… older, like he was in his teens. He was holding his hands out towards the fire as if to keep them warm. It didn’t appear that anyone else was around him, that was until three figures came out of the darkness and sat next to him, as they all started talking, though Twilight couldn’t hear what they were saying, however, she could tell by their movements that's what they were doing.

“How is this possible…?” Twilight said to herself, as she looked at the mirror, along with the people she was seeing inside of it.

“Twilight?” The loud voice of Spike got her attention, forcing her to take her eyes off of the mirror.

“Yeah, Spike?” She called back, as she heard little footsteps approach the door.

“Are you alright?” He asked behind the door, his voice filled with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just washing my face off…” She replied, sounding better than the last time Spike attempted to check up on her.

“Okay, I just wanted to see if you were doing any better,” Spike said. “Do you want me to do anything for you? Like go down to SugarCube Corner and get you a cupcake?” Twilight smiled, even though her little assistant couldn’t see it.

“That would be wonderful Spike, thank you.” She replied.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” He said, before running off. When Twilight heard the door slam shut behind him, she finally looked back at the mirror, which now only showed her reflection.

“Wait, no!” Twilight gasped, as she ran up to it, inspecting it closely to see if there was any sign, any proof of what she saw. When she found that there wasn’t any, she let out a heavy sigh.
“I must be seeing things…” She said quietly to herself, before exiting the bathroom.

“Where are you, Zachary? I miss you…” Twilight thought, before returning to her soft, warm bed.

Zachary shivered, as he looked around at the campfire and the dark woods he’s found himself in. The fire flickered in the dark, its brightness was consuming the darkness around it. The strange thing about it was that the fire didn’t get bigger or smaller. It just stayed the same, as if it wasn’t even burning the wood at all.

He sighed, as he held his hands out in front of the calm flames. It didn’t exactly help him though, due to his clothes still being wet. Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around swiftly and saw his newly found friends, Ash, Dwight, and Meg as they all sat around the campfire with him.

“Glad you didn’t get sacrificed on your first trial.” Meg started. “That’s what happened to me and Dwight since it was our first time and whatnot, we didn’t know what we were doing.” She gazed into the campfire, with an expression of pain. “Ever since that day, we’ve grown smarter and learned how this new world works..”

“Was it just you and Dwight on your first try?” Zachary asked and before Meg got the chance to answer, Dwight did it for her.

“No actually, there were also two others, Claudette and Jake,” He said, as the flames of the fire were finally chasing away the cold.

“Where are they?” Zachary asked, with a curious look on his face.

“They’re probably at another campfire that’s like this one, or in a trial…” Ash chimed in. “There’s a lot of people trapped her and unfortunately, I don’t think that we have any way to get out of here.” Zachary grew a worried expression onto his face, as he looked at the others.

“How long have you’ve all been here…?” He asked, still wondering the truth about the situation they were in.

“We’ve all lost count…” Meg said. “I wish I could go back to my normal life and see my mother again… if she’s even still alive.” The atmosphere changed from just being creepy, to also having a mix of sorrow.
“Yeah, I would do anything to go back and kick some deadites asses or something,” Ash said, earning a confused look from Zachary.

“What are deadites…?” He asked. Ash was about to explain, but Dwight started talking before he could, annoying Ash enough to make him just lean back.

“You know, I didn’t have any friends when I was living my normal life.” He said. “I’m pretty sure the reason I’m here is because of my co-workers…” Dwight sighed, as he stared into the campfire, reminding him of his burning hatred for those people.

“All I remember about how I got here was the morning I went on a morning jog.” Meg started. “I don’t remember what caused me to come here…” Ash suddenly sat up, ready to tell his tale.

“Want to hear my story?” He asked, with a smirk. “I was fighting this demon right? Then, after I threaten to kill her if she didn’t take me back to my friends, a fuckin whirlpool of a bunch of nasty shit opened up under me and sucked me in. Next thing I know, I woke up here, in this world…” He leaned back once again. “Stupid demons…” He muttered.

Zachary wondered why Ash was cursing all a sudden when he felt something pounding in his head.

“Argh…” He said, placing both of his hands on the side of his head, going to his knees as he started to remember what happened to him. He remembers a bridge, then something happened. He fell in, no, he was pushed in by someone into a fast running lake. Then he tried to escape but failed, then he woke up in this place. He remembered now.

“Hey… Are you alright…?” Dwight asked, as he got up and went towards Zachary.

“Yeah, I’m fine… I just remembered how I got here…” Zachary said, which peaked all of their interests. “I was walking home with my friend… I went onto a bridge, then these bullies came up to me. One of them pushed me into the river below. Then, I woke up here.” The group was silent for a moment before Meg broke it.

“Sorry to hear that, high school can be a real pain, especially when it comes to other classmates,” Meg said softly.

“Wait, what do you mean high school?” Zachary replied quickly, earning some confused expressions from the others.

“Well, you look like you should be in high school,” Dwight said. “Unless you’ve already graduated or if you’re still in middle school somehow.” Zachary just stood there, in shock. There was no way.

“Do you have a mirror or something so I can see my reflection?” He asked. Ash pointed his thumb backward.

“Yeah, there’s a small puddle somewhere over there,” He replied. “We sometimes use it to drink or to wash off the dirt on our faces, it’s somehow always there too.” Zachary nodded, before rushing over to where Ash had directed him. It didn’t take long before the puddle came into sight. Zachary ran up to it and gasped.

In the small reflection, he saw that he was older. Ever since he appeared in this world, he felt different and he even noticed that his voice changed. Now, however, he could confirm that he was indeed older. He had long hair, was taller, and he even had a mustache and different clothes, which luckily fitted him.

“What the…? How did this happen to me?!” Zachary said in shock, he could barely believe that this was happening to him. Suddenly, someone else’s reflection appeared in the water. It was Dwight. Zachary swiftly turned around, startled by his unexpected appearance.

“Are you doing alright? You’ve kinda been acting strange, even someone who isn’t a people person like me can tell...” Zachary let out a quiet sigh, before nodding.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Today’s just been confusing… Don’t other people act like this when they get here?” Zachary asked.

“Almost everyone that comes here is confused at first, but not usually when someone mentions that they might be in high school,” Dwight replied, with a smile, almost as if he took Zachary’s question as a joke. “Come on, we should get back to the campfire, another one of us is probably about to be chosen for the next trial.”

As Zachary got up and was about to follow Dwight back to the campfire, he suddenly felt dizzy.

“Ugh…” He mumbled to himself, as he started to lose his balance. Dwight noticed this and just stared, not moving a single muscle. Zachary then blacked out again,

Spike was sitting silently on the floor in the middle of the library. After he got Twilight her cupcake, she left to go search for Zachary but wanted him to stay here in case he came back. A deep sorrow filled Spike’s body, knowing that he couldn’t save Zachary and now because of that, he could be dead somewhere. Though Spike would never give up the hope that he was still out there, he just wishes that he could have done more to save him. One thing that kept coming back to his head was how it all even happened. How was Silver Spoon able to hold him long enough for Diamond to cause Zachary’s fall. Furthermore, why did Diamond get as angry as she did? It didn’t make sense, like sure she did get angry a lot and sometimes even yelled at others, but this one was on a new level that Spike had never seen before. It was odd, to say the least.

“Sigh I wish I had at least somewhat if an idea of where you ended up,” Spike said to himself, as he looked around at the all too familiar library. “Guess I should try and read something to take my mind off of all this,” He got up from his resting place, walking over to one of the bookshelves to try and find something that would catch his interest. Eventually, after looking through the ample books, finding one he hadn’t read yet.

This one didn’t have anything interesting for its cover, it was just plain dark and brown, though, since he’d read everything else. He flipped to the first page, then confusion replaced his sorrow once he saw what was on the page.

It was just a picture of a human, looking around at his surroundings with no words telling the ready pf what was happening.

“Wait a minute… Is that…?” Spike suddenly recognized the teenager. He was Zachary, though he looked a lot older, Spike still recognized him. “What the heck…?” He mumbled with confusion. He flipped to the next page. This one showed Zachary crouched next to something, with another person, who was in all blue and wore a white hat of sorts.

On the next page, Zachary was on his feet and was backing up. He had a look of terror on his face, worrying Spike as to what would happen next. When Spike turned the page, he saw a man stab Zachary. This one looked like he was wearing some sort of white mask, with some sort of black clothing, though Spike was more concerned about the fact that a man just stabbed Zachary with a sharp-looking knife.

“Wh-what’s going on…?” He muttered with confusion. The next page showed the man picking up Zachary and holding him on his shoulder. Then, the other one in blue ran up to him, and threw an object next to them down, forcing him to drop Zachary. On the last page, it showed both Zachary and the man in blue running away from the one wearing that mask. The rest of the pages were just blank.

“What just happened…? Why did the book show me those things…?” Spike wondered in confusion. Suddenly, the front door opened, as Twilight walked in.

“Hey, Spike… We didn’t find him…” She said, with a tired, yet sad expression stuck to her face. “I’m sorry…” She said, but as she was about to walk away, Spike stopped her.

“Twilight, you’ve gotta see what’s inside here! I think it’s hinting at what happened to Zachary!” He said, instantly getting Twilight’s attention.

“What?” She asked, looking at the plain book in Spikes claws. When he opened it to show her, however, the pages were blank.

“But, but they were here!” He shouted, flipping through the pages, each one was just blank. “H-how…?” Twilight put her hoof onto his shoulder, making him look up at her.

“I believe you,” She said, shocking Spike. “I need you to tell me exactly what you saw,”

“Why do you believe me?” Spike asked, and Twilight sighed.

“Because I also saw something earlier.” She said. “I think you’re telling the truth.”

"Ugh..." Zachary said, as he finally had woken up after fainting, though now it seemed that he was once again in a different place. "Where am I now?" He muttered, looking around the area. He appeared to be in some sort of cornfield, it felt like there was an ugly yellow filter over everything, almost made him want to throw up.

He heard a crack as if someone was stepping on a large, yet fragile branch. He turned to the source of the sound and saw some of the corn shuffling around. He felt the tension rise inside him, but then he remembered that if it was anyone dangerous, he would feel and hear his heartbeat. Eventually, Zachary could see what was causing the shuffling.

He looked like a teen from the '80s, he had brown eyes and was white. He was wearing a blue notch collar t-shirt with some white stripes. He wore an ascot around it, he also had blue shorts, along with a hat that said "Ahoy" on it.

"Hey, are you new here?" He asked, with a rushed tone.

"Uh, yeah... This is my second time being in one of these things," Zachary replied. The other man nodded, before pointing back.

"Okay, I need your help to fix this gen," He replied, whilst gesturing him to follow. "My name is Steve Harrington by the way and you are?" Zachary and Steve finally got to the generator, before Zachary replied with.

"I'm Zachary Baker," Steve nodded, as they both started working on the generator. Suddenly, he felt something cold that wasn't the generator parts. It was like a chill shivering up his spine. He felt like he needed to get out of here, and Steve noticed the sudden change in behavior.

"You okay?" He asked as Zachary started backing up until he was near a pallet. Suddenly, he felt extremely weak and heard a loud noise that he couldn't describe. Then came the pain in his back, which knocked him to the ground instantly. He managed to look up and saw his attacker. He was wearing a black and grey tactical jacket, with some small drapes floating around him, all attached to his jacket. He wore a hood and a white mask, which had an abnormally large black mouth, almost as if he was screaming, with two eyes that were so dark that he couldn't see the person behind the mask.

"Oh shit!" Steve said, once he realized what had happened, the terror radius finally kicking in after the man attacked. His fatal flaw, however, was picking up Zachary near a pallet. Once he was on the man's shoulders, Steve rushed in and threw the pallet down, forcing him to drop Zachary.

"Ahhh..." The man seemed to sigh with frustration, as Steve and Zachary began to run away.

"Thank you for saving me!" Zachary said, as they finally got away from the killer.

"No problem," Steve said, out of breath somewhat. "I'm kind of a babysitter back where I'm from." Zachary just nodded, as they both spotted a generator that hasn't been worked on yet. "Come on, we have work to do." Steve said as they both started working on the gen.

Author's Note

This is a short chapter, wanted to add more, but my schedule is screwy, so this was the best I could do before the deadline. Sorry...