ACT II  SCENE XLV
POLYIDUS

   QUESTIONS STARTED to form in her head and streamed from her consciousness like a gushing stream. Cassandra quickly made her way towards the other girl who continued to look at her with those piercing green eyes. In more ways than one, she reminded her of Teresa with the way she held herself. There was an inner confidence that she exuded.

"I know you," she breathed out when she was close enough. "How?"

Rachel shook her head. "I guess it's residual memory."

"Aris said you died." Cassandra looked at the girl in front of her as if she was a ghost. "He told us that Beth stabbed you with a knife."

The redhead frowned in apparent confusion. "I remember that happening...but WICKED managed to save me somehow. I woke up just a couple of days ago and they told me that it wasn't my time yet. They sent me here, told me to wait for you."

"Wait for me?" Cassandra's perplexed expression mirrored the girl's.

"They said you had the key." Rachel gestured to the cave entrance behind her.

She took a step to the side so that Cassandra could see what lied behind her. There was a door that glowed an eerie green that she had failed to notice before. Both girls exchanged apprehensive glances with one another.

Cassandra licked her dried and cracked lips. "Did they...happen to mention what was behind the creepy glowing door?"

Rachel shook her head. "They only told me what I needed to know, so I assumed you'd know what to do."

"Well, I'm just as clueless as you are," she mumbled unhappily.

"I don't want to sound like a crazy person." Rachel reached out and held onto her arm. "But if we don't find a way to get inside that thing, they'll kill Aris...they took him just a while ago."

Cassandra's eyes grew wide when she heard what the girl had to say. Threatening the lives of the people most important to them did sound like something WICKED would do. Cassandra clenched her jaw as she turned back to the glowing door and bit her bottom lip. She could taste blood from a small tear beneath her teeth. It didn't seem like either of them had a choice.

"Okay...um..." She tried to rack her brain for anything that could be useful. "Did they say anything else to you? What's the key supposed to look like? Maybe it's a code?"

"They said it was a prophecy," Rachel told her.

"Yeah, that sounds like something they'd say too," she responded before gasping. "Prophecy..."

Cassandra patted around her pants for the correct pocket before pulling out the capsule that she had forgotten about until that very moment. So this was what it was supposed to be for. She turned the capsule around between her fingers before looking up with a raised eyebrow.

"How is this a key anyway?" she asked.

Rachel shrugged. "Maybe there's a bar code or something. Look, there's a scanner beside the door."

Cassandra strained her eyes through the dark and found the scanner that Rachel was referring to. Taking a step closer, she steeled herself before raising the capsule to the scanner. There was a brief pause as the machine detected the row of letters that made up the word PROPHESY on the capsule's surface. Then there was a beep as the red light on the scanner turned green. A hiss resounded next to her as the lock on the door disengaged and tendrils of mist seeped through the widening crack.

"I don't think...there's anything inside," Rachel whispered next to her, voice filled with apprehension. "Wait, what's that?"

There was the sound of mechanical whirring, as if someone had just switched on a power source. Another green glow lit up from the very back of the cavern, illuminating what seemed to be a large room. The light was coming from a lone computer terminal, exactly like the one that was meant to input the code words back in the Maze underneath the Griever Hole.

Cassandra groaned in exasperation. "Not another damn word puzzle."

"Should we..." Rachel started hesitantly, "check it out?"

Cassandra walked closer towards the terminal and cocked her head to the side. There was a keypad built into it and the screen was completely blank. Next to the keypad were a switch and hole that looked like a socket for something.

"The key," Rachel urged. "There must be something inside it?"

Cassandra started to examined the capsule again, finding a thin crack midway through its length. There was a button on the bottom. She pressed it and there was an audible click as the capsule popped into two sections. One end of it had the shape identical to the pattern of the socket on the computer terminal so she carefully inserted it inside.

There was a series of beeps from the computer and code started to run itself across the screen. She stared in awed mesmerisation as the program booted itself back to life, thousands of letters flashing across the screen too quickly for her eyes to catch any decipherable meaning from them.

Then everything stopped and she was prompted to press the enter key. She wondered what this entire thing was all about as she reached up with her finger and pressed the function on the keypad. The green glow was suddenly replaced with red and four words flashed across the screen in large black capitals.

YOU WERE A MISTAKE.

Then she felt a sharp tug at the back of her head as someone pulled her hair back.

A strangled cry escaped her mouth as she stumbled backwards, face scrunching up in pain as the claws pulled harder on her hair and scalp. Cassandra started to curse out loud as she flailed her arms, trying to find whomever it was that held her and beat the crap out of them.

Rachel hushed her. "Don't be scared."

Cassandra was shoved to the hard ground, causing her head to rattle and cutting her arm along a sharp edge of a protrusion. Blood immediately started to flow freely and drip across the metal floor. Rachel grabbed a fistful of her dark hair once more and she felt something prick her neck.

Then it suddenly clicked and Cassandra gasped as the realisation finally sunk in and saturated every fibre of her being. She should have recognised her voice sooner. Everything had been a meticulously choreographed act and she fell right into the palm of their hands.

Rachel had been the mysterious voice in her head the entire time.

"Damn it." Cassandra tried to struggle but she was paralysed from the neck down.

"Don't waste your energy," Rachel told her with a bemused smirk. "The toxin lasts for a couple of hours."

A cruel laugh rang from her lips as the redhead sat down in front of Cassandra. She played with a knife in her hands with an expression of smug gratification. "Finally...I can have my revenge. You should have died instead of him."

She recognised those words as well and Cassandra twisted her head to look at her in irritation. "So you keep saying, but who the shuck are you talking about?"

"You don't even remember him." Rachel sneered. The knife pressed against Cassandra's throat and she felt its sharp edge dig dangerously into her skin. "Helenus. Do you remember now?"

"I don't—" She cried out when a hand struck her across the face. Rachel threw her back down onto the floor and kicked her hard in the gut. Cassandra cried out in pain.

"He died because of you!" Rachel shrieked and kicked her in the same spot. "It's all your fault! It should have been you! You should've died instead of him!"

She drove the knife straight through the middle of Cassandra's hand and she screamed as her flesh tore apart. Tears finally leaked out from her eyes at the excruciating pain and black spots erupted in her vision.

"Scream," Rachel ordered. "Scream for Minho. Let him hear you. Then you'll know what it feels like to lose somebody you love too."

Rachel let out a demented laugh. Then the girl twisted the knife in Cassandra's hand and she wailed in agony.

"Where's Minho now, Cassie?" Rachel mocked.

She pulled the knife out and drove it back into her hand. Aching sobs started to fill the room and it took Cassandra a moment to realise that they were coming from her. "I don't know what you're talking about!" she yelled angrily.

Her nerves were ablaze with pain coursing through her entire system. She still couldn't move a muscle save for her head and it was taking all her concentration to just focus on breathing.

Then she noticed it, a figure approaching them at a fast sprint. She recognised him by the way he moved alone and her heart ached with fear. No, she sobbed quietly. How could he had known she was here? She hoped that if she tried hard enough, she could shout into his mind to warn him but she knew it was hopeless.

The frantic footsteps drew closer until they stopped right at the threshold of the door. Cassandra opened her eyes and felt like her entire world was about to end when she saw him panting in front of her, his chest heaving with effort. Minho raised his hands in a display of surrender and took a step inside the room. Then the door closed shut behind him, enveloping them in complete darkness.

The green glow came back, illuminating the room with a sickly radioactive atmosphere. Cassandra could feel the blood running down her arm and hand, sticky liquid staining her clothes and the floor beneath. Minho's eyes glanced at her injury, then to the blade pressed against her neck and finally to the culprit that was the cause of it all. The muscle in his jaw twitched angrily as he concentrated his searing glare on Rachel.

Cassandra was afraid to speak, her sharp shuddering breaths suddenly the only sound in the entire room. Anxiety and horror filled her to the brim and if her muscles could contract, they would be wound tightly as a coiled spring. Rachel stared at the boy in front of her, as if waiting for him to make the first move. Her piercing gaze followed him as he shuffled from the door to the opposite wall.

"Let her go," he finally said.

Rachel merely laughed at him and pressed the knife closer to Cassandra's throat. A bead of blood trickled onto the silver blade.

"Why are you doing this?" Minho asked icily.

"Don't you want to know?" she scoffed. "Why don't you tell him, Cassie? Tell him what you did."

"I didn't do anything," Cassandra spat.

"She killed him," Rachel hissed acidly then turned back to Minho. "If you want her to live then do as I say. Take out your knife and put it against your throat."

"Minho...no..." Cassandra begged but there was no hesitation in his action as he pulled out his knife.

"That's it..." Rachel grinned cruelly. "You know what to do..."

Minho looked at Cassandra. "Stop hurting her then I'll do it."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Rachel hissed, grabbing hold of Cassandra's hair once more as the blade sunk just a little deeper into her throat. Cassandra whimpered at the sharp sting. "Do it."

Cassandra tried to shake her head fervently as she peered up at Minho. His knuckles were bone white as he clutched his own knife, the blade inching towards his neck. It was like a scene out of a nightmare.

"Do it!" Rachel shrieked impatiently.

Minho shook his head. "I said stop—"

Then a sharp gasp erupted and Rachel's voice sputtered. Cassandra felt the grip on her hair become slack and the knife against her neck wavered slightly. Rachel grabbed at her own throat, as she seemed to suffocate on the very air itself.

"No, it isn't my—time—" the girl rasped. "I won't—"

Minho's eyes widened as he finally found the opportunity he'd been waiting for. He quickly lunged forwards, knife clenched tightly in his hand as he raised it above his head. Cassandra gasped, then felt something tearing at the same time as Minho plunged the knife into Rachel's chest.

She fell to the floor again, liquid suddenly filling her throat as she tried to take a breath. Blood, so much of it, everywhere, its coppery scent overtaking her senses. Minho yelling, his hands stained, holding her, covering her as if she was spilling all over the floor. She choked and it felt like she was drowning.

Then the pain, searing and hot and wet, as her head spun with confusion.

Everything happened too quickly.

Rachel was lying on the floor unmoving.

Minho was yelling.

The scent of blood was everywhere.

The eerie green glow made everything look distorted. It looked like there was a pool of ichor beneath her head. Minho's voice sounded distant even though he was right beside her. There was a hiss, tufts of smoke filling the chamber they were in and her eyes slid close.

The pain faded away to a distant memory.

The smell of gas, reminding her of aerosol and hospitals.

Her mind slipped away from consciousness.

Minho...