285 Skollwood Adventures Part 7: Snakes For Hair

Their bodies disappeared into thin air after being turned into stone, likely indicating that they are out of the game. Before Michael would ask another question, he heard the hissing they all were dreading, followed by a sinister voice. 

"I can hear your heartbeats~"

Vy grabbed onto Michael's hand and ran down the hallway, taking a left turn to enter a room. She did not look up, in fear that a Medusa might be in here with them. She lowered her gaze towards the ground. Once she was certain there was no one in there apart for the two of them, she locked the door and heaved a sigh of relief.

Something did not feel right.

"There are two? Two of them?! How is this possible! I thought there was only one!" Michael exclaimed in a hushed voice. 

"There's probably more than two," Vy commented as she scanned the room. 

"More than two?! How is this supposed to be a fun scavenger hunt! To think this is my first challenge…"

Vy turned to look at Michael, her stunned expressions as written all over her face. 

"This… this is not your first challenge?" he asked. 

"Nope, second." 

"Well, some luck I am having," Michael mumbled to himself. 

Vy scanned the room until she found a pan with a reflective surface. She picked it up in her hands and held it up to see if it would work. He quickly noticed what Vy was doing, he wondered what she needed the pan for. 

As soon as he saw his own reflection on the surface of the pan, it clicked in his mind. He began to formulate their plan of action. 

"Now all we need to do, is to wait for Medusa to pass us by and we can sprint towards the exit! Easy! With the reflective pan, we would be able to see or figure out where she is which would give us the advantage!"

Michael continued to hype himself up, "Yeah! Yeah, this is going to work."

"No it won't" Vy quickly shut him down, "I don't think that was the exit, the placement does not seem right."

"What are you talking about? That set of doors clearly led to the outside!" he argued. 

Vy mapped out the ground they had covered on the ground floor. From the layout of the space, she was certain that the set of doors they had seen was the entrance. That meant the real exit was in the opposite direction. 

"The exit should be through the kitchen and out the back." she theorised. 

"What kitchen? Are you insane? I am not going with you," Michael crossed his arms. 

Vy shrugged her shoulders and approached the door. She did not care if the man was going to follow her or not. She got her own plan and she was going to trust her own instincts. Vy slowly turned the doorknob and listened closely for any sounds. 

But instead of continuing to follow her, he made his way towards the set of doors they had previously seen. Lucky for him, the coast was clear and Medusa was nowhere to be seen. The doors were right in front of him. 

As he approached it with glee, his excitement soon turned into worry. Michael noticed the details around the door, the potted plants, the statues for decoration, the carpet that lined the ground. Vy was right. This did not look like an exit. It was more of an entrance. 

Gritting his teeth, he turned back around but Vy had long progressed on her own through the hallway. He was on his own now. He had to forge his own path. 

Vy had successfully located the kitchen. She carefully made her way through it, careful not to make any noise or sound that could attract any attention to herself. Just as she was about to come to the end of the kitchen, she could hear a hissing sound coming from beyond the door. 

It was closing in fast. She swiftly found a place to hide behind a wall. Vy could hear her heart beating in her ears as she observed her surroundings with the help of her other senses. Moments later, someone entered the kitchen. The hissing intensified. 

Vy held her breath for as long as she could, but it was not enough. She did not look up, keeping her eyes glued to the ground. Vy watched as the shadow grew larger and larger until she could see a snake body slither by. 

She did not make a peep. Much to her surprise and relief, the snake body did not stop in front of her, it slithered on. Just as Vy assumed she was out of the woods, the snake body stopped moving. It turned back around and moved closer towards Vy. 

Just as it was about to find her, a noise in the distance caught the attention of the Medusa. 

"Pesky intruders!" the Medusa hissed as she slithered away in haste to trace the source of the noise. 

Not taking any risks, Vy made sure she heard Medusa leave before she got out of her hiding spot and went towards the door. From the kitchen, she went down another hallway that eventually brought her to what seemed like the servant quarters. 

With the exit in sight, Vy did not waste any time as she made haste for it. She placed the pan down on the ground before walking through the exit. 

The next time she opened her eyes, Vy was back in the corn maze with a green gem piece in her hand. This was her second one, she had two more left to go. Although she wondered if Michael made it out, she had no time to waste. 

Vy sprinted off to locate the third challenge. 

Up in the sky, announcements were being made. 

"As of this hour, none of the participants have made it to the final challenge! It seems like our Medusa challenge knocked out quite a few participants. We are down from three hundred to one hundred and seventy-eight participants!"

Vy stopped in her tracks, panting for air. As she looked up at the route she had taken, Vy could not help but laugh at herself. In her haste to exit from the second challenge, she had completely lost her bearings. 

She did not know which way to go. But this was not going to stop her either. With two challenges down, all she needed to do was complete two more to claim her prize. Invigorated by a new source of adrenaline, she continued making her way through the maze.