"WOAH! I didn't know you have a twin!" said Virgo.

"All in favour of making Hydrus tie another scarf around Virgo's mouth say I," said Taurus.

"I," said everyone except Virgo.

"Why do those two fight so much?" asked Ophiuchus.

"HE STARTS IT!"

"SHE STARTS IT!"

"You guys will have plenty of time to argue when we let you go," said Hydrus.

"What do you mean let us go? Surely you're not just going to untie us and let us walk away," said Sagittarius.

Hydrus shrugged. "Maybe."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, when he says "home" he probably means the galaxy because he's going to kill us."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT SO CASUALLY? I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" screamed Gemini.

"Yeah. It would be nice if we could live a little longer, eat a bit more cheesecake," said Aries.

"Wait. Do you know what he's going to do, Hydra?" asked Pisces.

"I know that he's going to kill you but I don't know how," replied Hydra. "He won't just walk up to you and chop your heads off, my brother enjoys playing games."

"Games? Like what kind of games? The loser of monopoly gets killed?" asked Aquarius.

"If my hands weren't tied I'd applaud your stupidity," said Libra

"Hey! You leave him alone. He asked for an answer, not for you to be mean," said Taurus.

"It's simple. I actually got the idea from Capricorn, Taurus and Libra. Know what I'm talking about yet?" asked Hydrus.

Capricorns eyes grew wide. "Are you talking about the time we pretended we were going to throw Virgo off a roof for a joke? You're not actually going to throw us off a roof are you?"

Hydrus facepalmed. "No. I suppose you'll see soon enough. Ophiuchus, bring out all of my equipement." Ophiuchus ran out of the room.

"WAIT! I have a theory!" said Cancer.

"Go ahead," said Hydrus.

"Was Ophiuchus the girl that you loved in the future? The one with the orange curly hair and blue eyes? And maybe she survived the blast of fire! But it heavily damaged her appearance, that's why she hides behind that image that she shapeshifts into!" said Cancer who was proud of herself.

"Wow. I'm impressed. I can't believe you actually got that ri- nah just kidding! You're dead wrong."

"Aww. Did you have to ruin my moment YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT! I WAS HAPPY AND PROUD NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID!" screamed Cancer.

"AHHHH! She completely changed personalities in two seconds!" said Hydrus.

"Hydrus, meet Moncer. Moncer, meet Hydrus," said Sagittarius.

"I THIRST FOR THE BLOOD OF ANGRY MEN!"

"Hey Cancer, can you break free? If you do that you can go at him," said Scorpio. Cancer tried to break free but the ropes were too tight.

"That chick is crazy!" said Hydrus.

"Pfffft! Who isn't these days?" asked Leo.

Ophiuchus returned. She wheeled two steel boxes into the room.

"What? Are you going to lock us in that box until we starve to death?" asked Virgo.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," replied Hydrus.

"REALLY?" asked Gemini's horrified voice.

"No."

Then Hydra opened the doors to the first box. Thirteen helmets were stored in there. Each helmet was connected to a bunch of wires. "Aww. One of them broke."

"So we only have twelve working helmets? Which one broke?" asked Hydrus.

"Hydra's," replied Ophiuchus.

"Damn. I wanted to watch Hydra play the game too. Oh, did I mention that I'll be watching you guys play the game?" asked Hydrus.

Ophiuchus pulled a helmet out of the box. It had the Gemini sign on it. Then she walked over to Gemini and placed the helmet on her head.

"Wh-what does that do?" asked Gemini. She could feel nervous sweat all over her body.

"It shouldn't hurt... much. Then Ophiuchus walked over and flipped a switch on the back of the box. The wires that connected the box to Gemini's helmet started glowing white. Then Ophiuchus opened the second, smaller box and pulled out a syringe.

"NOOOO! I HATE NEEDLES!" shrieked Gemini.

"There's no other way to put you in the simulation. Unless you'd rather we kill you now," said Ophiuchus. Then she walked over to Gemini and plunged the syringe in her arm. Moments later, Gemini's eyes closed.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?" demanded Pisces.

"She's in the game. You'll all join her momentarily." Then Ophiuchus pulled out another helmet and repeated the process.

***

Gemini was lying on the cold, hard floor. She opened her eyes and sat up. She was in a white room. The walls, ceiling, and floor were white with nothing else. No doors, no windows, nothing. Then a flash of light appeared by Gemini. Gemini jumped back. Aquarius appeared beside her.

"Woah. Are we dead? Is this heaven?" asked Aquarius.

"No, you monkey! We're in the game!" replied Gemini.

"Oh right. But there's nothing in this room. Seems like a boring game to me," said Aquarius.

"For once in my life, I agree with you. I hope something is going to happen!"

A flash appeared beside Aquarius.

"Huh? Where are-"

"LIBBY!" Aquarius wrapped his arms around Libra.

"Why are we in an empty room?" asked Libra.

"I've been here barely longer than you have," replied Gemini.

Then one of the walls started moving to the left, as if it were a curtain being pulled away. Behind the wall, there was a metal wall that contained a few weapons. The weapons included a sword, a pack of knives, an axe and a mace.

"A-are we going to be forced to kill each other or something? This better not be the fucking hunger games!" said Libra.

Aquarius grabbed the sword. Libra grabbed the pack and knives and Gemini grabbed the mace. Then the axe locked in place and the white wall slid back to its original position.

"Does Hydrus expect us to kill each other? Because that's not happening," said Aquarius. Then the ceiling opened up and a piece of paper fell down.  The air signs read it.

Dear soon-to-be victims... I mean air signs,

Your weapons will be used for self defence. Once you leave this room, you won't be safe anymore. You will have to face monsters. Originally we'd make you kill each other, but that's too cliché, thanks a lot Suzanne Collins! Anyway here's the rules:

-You guys can't be harmed in white rooms. By white rooms, I literally mean rooms that are white like this one. Geez, is it that complicated to understand?
-When the game starts, this room will turn black. So you can't hide in here the whole time
-Leave this room, battle monsters and find white rooms if you want to rest
-White rooms contain beds, food and water
-You can only eat food in white rooms. If you eat food from a different coloured room, you'll die. Actually please do that. The sooner y'all are dead the better for me. But I guess that wouldn't be entertaining. I WANT TO WATCH YOU GUYS SUFFER!
-The point is to survive, since you'll all be killed eventually. Serves you right!
-If you die in the simulation... EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE I'M NOT TELLING YOU THAT PART! But you won't die in real life. But if you all die here, well... there will be no one left to break y'all out of here
-the only way to exit the simulation is by killing all the monsters
-I'll sum it up for you idiots since this is probably confusing your tiny minds. Leave room. Kill monsters. Find white rooms. Don't die. But you will die anyway.
-Your best friend Hydrus. I'M DOING THIS SO YOU WON'T GO CRAZY AND KILL MY FUTURE FUCKING WIFE YOU PIECES OF SHIT!

"So, how do we leave this room?" asked Libra. Then a bunch of black mist appeared on one of the walls. When the mist disappeared, there was a white door. The door had a blank screen on it. Gemini tried to open it, but it was locked.

"How do we leave this room if the door is locked?" asked Gemini.

"We have to wait for the game to begin," replied Aquarius.

"What does that even mean?" asked Gemini.

"I guess Hydrus has to press start or something. I'm getting pretty anxious," replied Libra. Then the screen on the door lit up. It displayed numbers. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... the door opened. The walls turned black. The air signs hesitantly stepped out of their room. They were in a hallway that branched off into multiple different hallways. The walls were grey and so was the ceiling. They were in a maze.