Survive the Labyrinth (Open)

[Klaus Williams]

It was the silence that woke Klaus. The last thing he could remember was sound, so naturally the absence of it, is what woke him from his slumber. His eyes starved for light, hoping to adjust quickly to his moonlit surroundings. Instantly Klaus’ hand moved to the place where he kept his wand. Empty. Klaus mentally cussed to himself still not sure where he was, or what kind of predicament he had gotten himself into, and figured that silence would be best till he could get his surroundings.

Grass, that was obvious enough. It wasn’t particularly cold, but chilly enough that fog was hovering close to the ground. He was in a place he could only describe as a alleyway. High walls on two sides each covered in what looked like was foliage. Klaus continued to scan his surrounding area. Nothing moved, and the erie silence persisted. He rolled over, the indentation of where his body was, looked like a shadow frozen in place.

If he hadn’t been looking for his wand Klaus might have missed the polished surface of a wand that was not his. The wood was dark almost as if it were part of the shadows. Klaus was no expert on wand lore, but this wand was not his. His was a pale wood, and fit comfortably in his hand.

“Point me” Klaus whispered placing the wand in his outstretched hand. Nothing. Klaus could only assume that the wand was as stubborn as the witch or wizard that used it. He doubted that his wand would work for anyone else as well, which could prove both in his favor and not at the same time. Without a wand he was pretty much defenseless. Fortunately he didn’t need a wand to be an animagus.

The change took over his body immediately. In one fluid movement he launched himself toward the sky, but as he rose the walls seemed to rise with him. After a few tries to beat the ever climbing walls Klaus gave up, deciding to fly with the alleyway. Flying seemed to be a safer bet than being on the ground. A part of Klaus hoped he would find someone who could help him or the owner of the wand that resided in his pocket. He wasn’t sure why but a feeling of dread seemed to follow him as he flew.

[Eric Dobson]

Eric woke up slowly at first, reaching blindly for blankets that he presumed had been kicked off at some point during the night. When his fingers met grass, however, he sat straight up. This was definitely not his bedroom. He blinked rapidly, as if that might help his eyes adjust more quickly to the dark (it didn't). His mind searched for a reasonable explanation for why he would be sleeping outside. He remembered going to sleep in his bed, so he couldn't have somehow fallen asleep here. His first thought was some sort of practical joke, but it was a long shot.

Once his mind had cleared a bit, Eric patted his clothes down, looking for his wand. He now noticed that he wasn't wearing the t-shirt and shorts he had fallen asleep in, but rather a set of plane black robes and there was no wand to be found. Growing desperate and more confused, he searched the ground around him and to his huge relief, his fingers found the smooth handle of a wand. Upon closing his fingers around the handle, however, he realized that it was not actually his wand. Until now, he had never realized how well he knew the feel of his own wand and this definitely wasn't it.

"Lumos!" he tried, succeeding in producing a low light source. It felt ridiculous to fail at such a simple spell, but using someone else's wand was a whole different game. If he needed to perform anything more advanced he was going to be in for some major trouble. He looked around, seeing now that he was flanked on either side by some sort of high wall. The light wasn't strong enough to illuminate the passage anymore than a few feet in front of him, so he couldn't even see where it might lead.

He had no idea what to do except so started moving. He seemed to be beyond panic. The entire situation was so surreal, so dreamlike, he couldn't even hypothesize about what had happened, he simply continued walking forward. After a few minutes, he came to a point where the passage broke off into two. With no plan, he simply went to the right. Another couple minutes had passed by when he heard something ahead of him. It wasn't loud, but everything had been so silent until now that Eric's heart beat finally started to quicken at the mysterious sound. He raised the wand, trying to make out what it was, but the light was too faint. In a few seconds it would be upon him.

"Stupify!" he cried, shouting the first spell that sprang to mind. The expected jet of red light did not burst from the wand. Eric tried to quickly retreat, but stumbled over his own feet, falling backwards onto the ground, both hands raised in front of his face.

[Brian Dente]

As he tossed and turned, in what he thought was his bed, Brian could feel the soft tingle of a blade of grass underneath. He sat up bolt right after a few moments. When did he go outside? And why was it so foggy? He hadn't fallen asleep right after Quodpot practice, and he thought he had fallen asleep in bed. To the best of his knowledge, he was certain he wasn't a sleep walker.

He tried to grab his wand from his pocket, but, it was missing. Glancing all around him, he tried to find his wand. Crawling on the ground, his hand gripped a wooden handle. Instantly, he could tell it wasn't his wand. Was he the practical joke of a stooge with someone else's wand? He certainly hoped not. 

"Lumos," he tried to cast, but nothing came out. "Lumos." Nothing, again. Sighing, he stuffed the wand in his pocket. Glancing around himself, he noticed that there were walls on either side of him. Kind of like a maze. Was he in one now?

Quite frankly, he had to do something, and standing around wasn't going to help. There had to be some sort of reasoning for this. Reluctantly, Brian trudged forward, unable to see much in front of him due to the fog. There were no sounds, nothing to help him determine where he was. 

Turning a corner, he finally heard some noise. Someone tried to cast stupify. "Who's out there?" He called out, heading towards the noise, unsure of what to expect. The fog was still too dense to see, a shadow was barely visible.

[Frankie Beckett]

The first word out of Frankie's mouth when she awoke was a swear. The grass underneath her felt unfamiliar - the ground on which she slept was too hard, completely unlike the soft mattress in her dorm room. She had a crick in her neck and her back and she rubbed her eyes blearily, adjusting to her new surroundings. This was definitely not her room.

She whipped her head around in an attempt to figure out where she was, wincing at the pain in her neck. Where was her wand? She patted her pocket - empty. A wave of fear washed over her, her chest tightening and nausea taunting her stomach - she had lost her wand. Frankie stood up quickly, looking frantically around her for the dark, almost black wood of her wand. "Where are you?" she muttered, her eyes scanning over the ground.

The wand she spotted was not her own, but she picked it up anyway. It felt wrong in her hand, much too light. Frankie had grown used to the heaviness of her own wand. She waved this one around, trying to get a feel for it. No sparks - nothing. "Lumos," she said, half expecting the wand to backfire on her and burn her somehow - only it didn't. It didn't give off the bright glow like it normally would have, but a dim light that was reminiscent of a child's nightlight. Frankie frowned. This was as good as it was going to get, she supposed, until she found her own wand.

She set off forward, the high walls of shrubbery dictating where she was to go. Frankie held the wand aloft to try and see better - the fog was certainly no help. "Hello?" she called as she turned a corner, looking back behind her as she walked until she bumped into someone and shrieked, holding the wand in front of her.

[Klaus Williams]

After two left turns and a right, Klaus finally saw the glow, that let him know that he was not alone in this maze. He picked up his pace, hoping that it wasn’t just an illusion. Being an animagus had its perks, even from far away Klaus could tell that the figure was human, and that there were beasts in the maze but picking out where they were was another story. The entire maze seemed to block his abilities. It smelled like the magical creatures were everywhere, and they had been here for a long time.

Eric’s stupify broke Klaus’ concentration. Klaus’ instinct as well as the animal in him took over. The hallways of maze didn’t allow him much room to maneuver but he managed to do a totally unnecessary barrel turn and again launched himself into the sky, arching backward into a large loop, bringing him lower to the ground about 20 feet away. Where he changed back to a human running forward, bringing the useless wand up, stopping a short distance away. He was still prepared to change at a seconds notice, that was until he noticed the other boy

“Eric? Is that you?” Klaus said faltering, hoping that this wasn’t another trick of the maze. He didn’t want to take any chances “Prove you are who you say you are.” He finished.

[Giuseppe Accardi]

Signor Accardi had been in his bed. His bed had been comfortable. Now he was on the ground. The ground was not nearly as comfortable. Signor Accardi had been in his nice pajamas. Now he was in a black robe. It was not so nice. His wand was not next to him, on his nightstand. Then again, he was not next to his nightstand. The former quodpot player was very glad to see a wand a few feet away. He lunged and took it. A lot like his own, but still it felt awkward and foreign in his hand.

A voice from a distance away made Giuseppe jump to his feet. He had not expected to have other people around. "Who was it!?" He needed to get a bearing, and attempted to light his wand. It worked, but still he did not get the brightness of his own wand. It would do. "Dannazione..." Giuseppe made his way toward the voices. "Speak!"

[Eric Dobson]

Eric looked around wildly for the flying thing, but the feeble light emitting from the wand made it very difficult. He heard something hit the ground near him and then what sounded like running footsteps. He quickly jumped up, spinning around on the spot to face oncomer. He still held his wand out, as if readying to cast a spell, despite the wand clearly being mostly useless to him. What he would do if the person attacked him, he had no idea. Luckily, it wasn't necessary to come up with a plan, because the person who was now illuminated by his wand light was none other than his legacy mate.

"Klaus?" Eric moved a few steps forward, regarding Klaus carefully. "Was that you? Are you a... ?" he faltered at Klaus' demand, trying to think of something only he would know. It was strangely difficult. "I once had to drag you back to our legacy because you got drunk and fell off a barn roof." It might have been funny, under different circumstances, but Eric, unnaturally for him, delivered the line without laughing.

"Now you," he said. Either Klaus was an animagus or this was some sort or weird shapeshifter. Eric was hoping for the former, even if it meant that his friend had never shared something this big with him. He was briefly distracted by a few voices coming from the passage behind him. Stepping back, Eric glanced furtively behind him, trying not to turn away too much from Klaus. From the tone, it sounded as though the voices were coming from more lost people, but he couldn't be sure. This maze, or whatever it was, might be capable of playing all kinds of tricks.

[Brian Dente]

It was too eeirely quiet. The only sound that he heard were faint wing flapping. This just felt all too real for him to be dreaming. Everything just felt so real. It just felt spooky, and a rather strange predicament to be in. He didn't think he could possibly have caused this on himself. After all, it was hard to mispronounce a spell while sleeping. Actually, it was hard to even cast a spell while sleeping.

Just as Brian was about to head towards the faint shadow, something bumped into him. Then, there was a loud shriek right near him. He stumbled, quickly regaining his composure. He held the foreign wand up, just in case. "He...hello?" He called out, stepping forward a little bit in a vein attempt to see better. Despite the dim light from the other wand, he could make out only a little bit of the person near him. "Frankie ... Is that you?" He called out, hopeful to be correct.

Right after recognizing Frankie, he heard yet another voice shouting out in the fog. Hearing the Italian word added to the shouting, he already knew who that person likely was. "Coach?" He called out, surprised that he would be apart of this mystery.

[Iris Pratt]

It was too cold. In her half-awake state she thought Patricia had left the window open. Why else would she feel the chill of a wind on her cheek? As she tried to tug her blankets tighter around her, she slowly started to wake up.

This wasn't her bed. In fact, this wasn't a bed at all. As she realized that she was actually outside, with walls towering to both sides of her, her first thought was that the Stooges had played another prank. But they wouldn't do something like this to her. She was Az's brother and he wouldn't let them scare her like this. Then... Was it the sins again? Barely had the thought crossed her mind before her throat started to tighten and her eyes fill with water. Was she going to die like that boy from the stables?

At the sound of voices, her heart jumped in her chest. Following her instincts, she got up from the ground and ran the other way. She kept looking back over her shoulder to see if anyone was following and completely missed the two male students blocking her path. All of a sudden she was on the ground again, looking up angrily at Eric and Klaus. "So it was you", she accused the boys. "This is not funny. Get me back to my room!" she demanded. Now that she 'knew' that it was just another Stooge prank she was more annoyed than relieved that it hadn't been anything actually scary.

[Giuseppe Accardi]

Giuseppe could now see the others. Two he recognized; one from quodpot, the other from racing. No, not from racing. From the racing tryouts he knew this girl. He did not remember her being impressive, and now she was making too much noise. "Yes, 'Coach.'" He sized up the others with him. As assets, it would be good to have strong wizards. These children, though, they looked like, well, children.

"Silenzio, signorina." He felt that he was too loud, and lowered the volume of his voice. "They did not put you here." Giuseppe did not know that, but he had a feeling. And he wanted her to be quiet. "We need to get out. You!" He pointed his lit wand in the direction of the tallest one, the one who had demanded proof from the other one. "How long has it been here?"    

[Frankie Beckett]

Frankie had no idea what was going on. She had recognized Brian's voice from near her in the fog - she had assumed it was him she had bumped into - and now she could barely see the shapes of others approaching her. They weren't threatening shapes, but her hand gripped the strange-feeling wand tighter. "Do you know what the hell is going on?" she asked the figure closest to her, who she assumed was still Brian. Frankie could hear the clipped Italian accent of the quodpot coach and she frowned. How had they all gotten here? And why them?

"They who?" she asked the coach, placing a hand on her hip. "Who put us here?"