Cleo stood breathlessly in a bizarre abyss. The place was like an Escher painting that had been torn into pieces and scattered in every direction. There were stairs leading nowhere, doors that connected to themselves and odd windows that looked into parallel universes. It hurt her head to think about the area too much, it obviously was not meant for normal minds to comprehend.

She looked over at her friend on the nearby stairwell and shouted over “It’s okay Winoa! The jump is easy to make, gravity seems to be really odd here.” Her friend looked nervous at the massive gap between the two stable platforms then took a running start and jumped. Her jump through the void was serene and graceful, as if time had slowed down for her. Finally she landed on the edge of the platform, and Cleo grabbed her hand to make sure she did not slip off.

The two of them had become firm friends after they were paired together during the second floor testing room. It turned out that once Winoa had been forced to get over the stigma of Cleo being a fourth child, she discovered they actually got on well. They were as different as oranges and apples, but they were both members of Chaos clans and knew that life in the clans could be hard.

Winoa looked almost the opposite of Cleo, where she was thin, Winoa was muscled. Cleo was tall for her age, while her friend was short. She was fair and flaming, while Winoa was dark and windy. Yet they were friends. They had become friends and companions through strife and it held them together tighter than blood ever held Cleo to anyone. It was a new experience for her and she loved it.

Together they had reached the third floor testing room together and had been confronted with this crazy maze. Only one of them had to complete the maze for them both to pass, but if they both failed then they would be stuck in the zone forever. They were told in the introduction that this area was endless and one could only leave if they went through five doors labelled one to five. Each door was situated in a region of this weird space where the rules of physics seemed to have gone on holiday.

In front of them was a staircase that seemed to lead back to the start but was the only way to progress. There was no other route in any direction for them to follow, so they did the only thing they could and progressed. After about twenty minutes of going round in circles Cleo could not take it anymore. She screamed at the world, the stairs and anything else that would make her climb up those steps again. Winoa on the other hand was frowning.

“What are you thinking about, Win?” Said Cleo.

“I am pretty sure we aren't going round in circles.” Winoa paused and surveyed her surroundings, sitting down and sticking her thumb in her mouth to help her think. “Well we are, but it has a purpose.”

Cleo stopped screaming at inanimate objects and turned towards Winoa. “Other than to drive me mad? What is it?”

“Well I am not exactly sure, but I swear that every cycle we have gone through had moved this platform closer to the second door.” She stood up and said “Wait here. If I don't show up in ten minutes then run the loop. I am going to do that now, and will wait on the other side. If I don't show up again then we are going into different but similar looking rooms, If I do then the platform should move closer to the door. Unfortunately I don't know which is the right answer yet.”

“I understand.” Cleo replied, “I will follow you after a count of six hundred unless you show up again.”

“Alright then, let's do this. See you on the other side, sister!” And with that Winoa was off. She summoned wind beneath her feet and sprinted over the gap in space to the door. Opening it she went through without a moment's hesitation.

That was something Cleo loved about Winoa. She was so used to having to decide whether her actions would impact people's views of her that impulsiveness was not a trait she often showed. She always admired the freedom that people had, that she lacked because of her father, and Winoa had that freedom in droves. To Cleo it seemed like everything she did was for her sake and no one else's. She idolised her first friend.

Less than ten seconds after Winoa left the room the entire place dimmed. The platforms began shaking and Cleo lost her balance. She immediately lay down on her front and rode the platform as it began moving towards the exit door, edging ever closer until finally it stopped moving with the door hanging mere inches from the platform. The room lit up again and Cleo threw up over the side of the platform. She may have been a Saint but the vibrations disturbed her stomach in unimaginable ways.

As her vomit flew off into the void Winoa returned. “You look like death, Cleo. What happened in the five seconds it took me to reach here from the door?”

She wiped her mouth and pulled a flask of water from within her storage ring. “You were gone for a few minutes. The platform was bumpy. I threw up into the void.” Each sentence was punctuated with gulps of water as the young girl desperately tried to wash out the acidic taste in her mouth. Once she succeeded, both of the girls took a look at the door with the big number two on it.

After what felt like an hour, the two girls decided to just open the door and jump through to the other side. With their hearts in their mouths they flew through the entrance and landed in a black and white checkered world. On the floor in front of them was hundreds of tiles, each alternating in colour. The pattern on each tile made it look like they were a hole, and there was void underneath. It was confusing for both the girls, because they could not tell whether the tiles were real or fake. Eventually all they could do was step forward.

Cleo took the first step forward and put her foot on what looked like a black tile. She did not fall through, so assumed that the black tiles were safe. Once Winoa saw her land on the tile safely she quickly followed and took the initiative to try and jump on the next black tile. Once again she landed, but just missed the edge with her back foot and felt herself begin to slip into the void. She summoned a gust of wind behind her to push herself forward, finally landing on the tile safely.

“Cleo, the white tiles seem to be the fake ones. Let’s pick up the pace, I can’t even see the door yet.”

“Alright, but something about this seems too easy.” Cleo responded, then jumped forward two tiles safely.

They continued forwards for about ten minutes when out of the corner of Cleo’s eye she seemed to see a black line in one of the tiles, but before she knew it she had passed the line. Winoa jumped forward and once again landed on the black tile, and now it was Cleo’s turn to progress. She hopped over the white space in front of her and dove onto the tile, but the tile was just more space. Winoa just saw her friend quickly disappear into the tile, so before she could even think about what she was doing she lunged towards her and caught Cleo by the wrists before she would plummet into eternity.

Cleo was too shocked to even scream, but when she got her bearings and realised she was safe, she pulled herself up onto the white tile that was now their safe spot. She brushed herself off, neatened her red dress and then fell to her knees and began crying. It was the closest to death she had ever come and she had no idea how to deal with it. All she could do was cry. Winoa tried to console her, but eventually the young girl could cry no more. She wiped her eyes with a small hand and a determined look showed upon her face. This place had made her cry in front of her new friend, and she would get it back for that.

She ignited flames on her fingers, they were pretty little lights that flickered around each digit that seemed to jump with joy at being summoned. With these flames she would find out if a tile was real or not. Not even thinking about it for a moment Cleo began to fire off the little flames towards the platforms in front of her and within seconds they had a path that led forwards by over a hundred tiles. To compensate for her fear she would pass this exam quicker and better than anyone else.

The two girls began sprinting towards the exit, every one hundred or so tiles they would stop and Cleo would burn a path for them, but within two minutes they were at the third door. Without batting an eyelid Cleo opened the door and stepped into the room beyond.