Delris laid on his bed glaring at his ceiling, panting erratically. Beads of sweat trickled down his body, drenching his clothes. Delris reached up touching his forehead while rising in his bed. 

An intense migraine sent sharp throbbing pain through his mind, his lips quivered as a groan of agony escaped his mouth. Delris's eyes darted around, trying to find a source of relief until suddenly a series of knocks reverberated through his door. Followed by a powerful voice.

" Hey! It's time to wake up, Delris. "

The moment Delris heard this voice, he instantly recognized it as the tan girl from the classroom. Slowly, Delris slid his feet off the bed and wobbly stood up on his feet, making his way to the door with unsteady steps. Eventually, he made it to the door leaning on the doorframe as he opened it.

Exactly as Delris predicted, the tan woman could be seen standing in front of the door with her arms crossed, she grinned at him before asking a question. 

" So? How was your first night? "

" Umm? Is a huge spider, the regular in this place? "

" Oh? You see a spider, that's gross. But everyone in this place sees some type of monster. Unluckily for you, yours is a spider."

" Really? And y'all don't question it at all? " 

" We did. But we quickly realized that they're just illusions, even though we've been here only a week, we figured quite a few things out. But don't worry you'll get used to it. "

Said the woman grabbing onto Delris's shoulder before pulling him out of his room, Delris stumbled forward, staring at her confused until she spoke.

" But you need to hurry and get to the classroom. You don't want to be late to class on your second day here. "...

Several minutes later, inside the classroom, the seats were full. The students waited patiently for Rebecca to start speaking. Rebecca was currently writing something on a chalkboard. She elegantly wrote a phrase smoothly moving her wrist, and with the sound of a single tap, Rebecca stepped back revealing the phrase. 

" If you're not confused, you're not paying attention. "

The students stared at this quote, trying to understand what it meant until Rebecca spoke while leaning on the chalkboard. 

" This quote is about yesterday, I saw that the majority of you were confused about the equations from yesterday. But not a single one of you asked me a question. So, with this quote, I'm trying to tell you that it's okay to be confused. It means you're trying. " 

" So, in a few hours. When I start going over the equations from yesterday, please feel free to ask me any questions. But at the beginning of the day, like always. You will go outside and clean the shabby huts. So, please be safe and enjoy it. "

As soon as Rebecca said this, she clapped her hands together and let out a warm smile, David stared at the smile before scoffing and standing up from his chair, heading towards the door. David pushed open the door exiting the building as everyone else quickly followed behind. 

Delris walked down the stairs glancing around at the thousands of shabby huts until Julia spoke walking next to him.

" We clean the huts closest to the school, so we're going to head left and you'll see the huts we've been working on. "

" Is this the only thing we will do? She also mentioned cleaning yesterday. "

Julia nodded her head before responding. 

" Yeah, for the week we've been here, we only cleaned huts and then headed inside to learn about those math equations, but the cleaning isn't too difficult, especially with Sarah's ability. "

" Really? What is her ability? " 

" The ability to produce water out of her glands. Very similar to sweat, but luckily it doesn't smell like sweat. Or she would have probably gotten kicked out of the class by now. "

Julia said chuckling to herself, as they took the final step in unison before heading left. Delris stared forward at the huts they were approaching, immediately noticing that the scattered towels and tools lying on the floor weren't present, the wooden frames were still drastically weak however, the huts were for the most part spotless. 

Julia and Delris kept walking side by side until the tan woman glanced back and spoke to Julia in a commanding tone. 

" Julia, you and Delris take one of the houses to the right, we've basically cleaned this entire quadrant. David and I we'll finish up this zone, while Sarah goes deeper into the huts. "

Julia nodded her head, as she and Delris walked towards a hut, the hut's shingles were loose, and several towels could be seen hanging next to a dirty window, with cracked glass panes. The towels were connected to a dangling wire that was attached to two wooden beams that supported a gable roof.

Delris walked towards the towels, reaching out grabbing onto them, and yanking them off before throwing them onto the ground creating a pile. Julia walked past him, walking through a doorless doorframe, stepping onto a muddy grass floor. Julia stepped into the hut before letting out a loud sigh.

The hut was filthy, covered in moss and mucky walls. Several tools could be seen propped on the walls, the tools were unusable, the majority of the hilts were missing and dark orange rust covered the metal. Julia glanced around trying to find out where to begin until the sound of footsteps and she turned around, right in time to see Delris enter the hut with his hands behind his head. 

"It's disgusting, right? " 

Said Julia with a slightly annoyed grin on her face, Delris just shrugged his shoulders before responding.

" Honestly, it's not too bad. At least it has a roof- " 

Before Delris could finish his sentence, he glanced up and saw a massive hole in the roof. Delris let out an inaudible scoff before Julia spoke while crouching down grabbing onto a rustic hammer. 

" I know it isn't fair to ask you this question, but I'm guessing Sarah has told you her plan on escaping right? "

" Yeah, she has? But I figured she told everyone her plan, why would it be unfair for you to ask me this question? "

" Because in your opinion who's going to be the one she will sacrifice? "

As soon as Delris heard Julia's question, he looked up, staring through the hole in the roof pondering, until after several seconds his lips moved, speaking.

" It'll probably be you if I had to take a guess. Out of everyone here, you seem to be the smartest, of course, I've only been here a day. So take everything, I say with a grain of salt. "

" No, I have to agree with you. Sarah doesn't like me in the slightest, and it's mainly because our goals are different. She wants to escape this place and I want to solve it. "

" Solve it? What do you mean? " 

" In my opinion, this place is one big puzzle that we have to unravel. Whoever runs this place is trying to bait us into escaping. Why else would they make the dome around this place invisible to give the illusion that you would be able to escape? So, even if you don't side with Delris, please keep this in your mind. Everything Rebecca says has some type of deeper truth to it. Don't ever take anything she says at face value. "

" You do know the Majesty runs this place right? Or at least funds this place. "

" The Majesty runs it? How would you know this? "

" Because she hand-picked me at the auction? "

Right when, Delris said this, Julia's eyes widened as she stared at him filled with confusion before she spoke. 

" What auction are you talking about? "

" Were you not picked at an auction and transported here by a box truck? "

" No, I just woke up here and quickly met Rebecca and the others. I remember falling asleep in my bed and reawaking at this place. "

Julia and Delris stared at each other both perplexed until suddenly, a noisy crack penetrated both of their ears, and a wooden beam abruptly snapped from its elderly condition. Splinters flew out wildly as the wooden beam came crashing down, forcing Delris and Julia to dash back in unison. They came to sliding stops as the beam slammed into the dirty ground making a loud bang.

Julia stared down at the beam with sweat pouring down her face, she glanced up from the beam seeing Delris intensely focused on something, she stared at him confused until he suddenly spoke. 

" Hey, there's a piece of paper embedded into the wooden beam. "...