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Recently we’ve made a habit of having Max over for lunch or dinner on Sundays. Sunny always made too much food and Max loved to take care of that for us. He and Sunny got along so well that it was nice to have him by when he could. We planned to see him at lunch but as the minutes ticked by with no Max, we started to get worried.

“He hasn’t sent you a text, or anything?” Sunny asked.

Max had a cell phone for work but barely used it. I checked my phone already knowing there would be no messages. I shook my head and that caused Sunny to start pacing.

“It’s only a little bit after one. He might have gotten distracted by something. You know how he is.” I said but not really believing my own words.

Max might play around a lot, but he was good at giving us a heads-up if he was going to be late. I stayed on the couch with my phone in hand. Sunny paced around the apartment and fiddled with my uniform jacket. He kept checking it over and folding it. It was as if he expected a call to come through that got me out of the apartment. I didn’t plan on taking any more jobs on my days off for a while. I let him fuss about as I sent another message to Max hoping he responded.

A few minutes later my phone started to ring. I took the call without looking at the number.

“Max?” I asked hoping it was my friend.

“No kiddo, it’s Rufus. I borrowed his phone to call you.” Came the answer on the other end.

My heart sank for an unknown reason. Max was just late. Nothing bad had happened. I needed to keep telling myself that so I didn’t freak out.

“Are you busy today? I have something important to talk to you about. I would like you to come over to our place.” Rufus explained in a low voice as if he was also trying to stay calm.

Sunny peeked in from the doorway waiting for me to tell him what was going on. I doubted Rufus would beat around the bush if his son got in real trouble. I got up to start towards the door. Sunny followed behind, his hands nervously fluttering about unable to stay still. With his help, I got my uniform jacket on with the phone still up to my ear.

“I’ll come over. Should Sunny come with me?” I asked.

“No. It’s best if he stays home. He’s a bit weak for this sort of thing. I can create a connection to your apartment that’ll bring you here. I just need your permission to use your door.” Rufus replied, his calm tone cracking for a second.

Now I got nervous. Really, really nervous. I’ve heard a little bit about how connecting two doorways worked. It required a lot of magic to make one door lead to another. The Mailing company had no issues creating doorways to bring me to a Zero room and send me back closer to home at the end of each day. It could be any two doors. Even fake drawn-on ones. Belizas and Max had enough magic to create the occasional connection. From what I understood, Max and Rufus lived in a different world than myself. It cost a great deal of magic to create a connection to a door from between worlds. The further, the more magic. Whatever was going on must be a big deal for Rufus to toss enough energy around to get me to his world the easy way.

I gave him permission and soon heard a click at my front door. I hung up after saying I would see him shortly.

“Whatever is going on... Just be careful.” Sunny told me.

He cared about Max a great deal. If Max didn’t come back to us, I don’t know if Sunny could handle it. I gave my roommate a quick hug because I felt like he needed it. I promised that no matter what, we would be hanging out with our lovable dog friend soon.

I bravely opened the door unsure of what to expect. A strong breeze came with the smell of countless flowers. My foot sank into deep soil on the other side. With one last glance at Sunny and my apartment, I pushed on into a strange new world.

The door opened into what I assumed to be a greenhouse. A very, very large one. A dome of glass towered over my head and the place was covered in alien plant life. Outside the sky looked a deep navy blue as if the sun was just setting. I followed a path through the overgrowth and found Rufus making his way over to find me. It was the first time I've seen him out of his uniform. I almost needed to look away from him as he got closer. His top was just a very tight-fitting black shirt with no sleeves. A pair of baggy brown pants were tied to his waist with some sort of rope. I knew Rufus was stacked, but his uniform jacket did wonders hiding just how buff my friend was. For some reason, he appeared slightly more animalistic than normal. His teeth were larger and sharper along with his eyes that almost glowed in the low light. His arms were covered in fur that disappeared under his shirt. I could have sworn he was taller too.

His smile was uneasy when he stopped in front of me. I could tell he held himself back when he hugged me in the past. I now understood how easily Rufus could have crushed me in the past with a slightly over-excited hug.

“My wife would like to meet you. I wanted to talk to you first to tell you something. No matter what she says or does, if you don’t feel up to listening then the end result is not your fault.” He said but I was just confused by his words.

I opened my mouth to ask him to explain, but decided to just nod. I would find out what he meant shortly. Asking him now just delayed things. I followed behind him, my mind buzzing with questions. And my phone also buzzed in my pocket. Because it had been given to me by the Mailing Company, it worked in different worlds. Vicky sent me a message asking if everything was alright. Sunny must have sent her a text asking if she knew about anything that was going on. He also had a phone through work but used it less than Max did.

I put my phone away not wanting to get distracted by the messages. We left the greenhouse behind into an oddly empty room. Florescent lights flickered above us. Rufus’s claws against the hard cement flooring were the only sounds.

As we walked, I could make out a person sitting in a chair in the distance. I squinted and then blinked trying to see better. All of a sudden Rufus was in front of me. I slammed into his back and he quickly spun around to catch me before I fell.

“This is the human that my little boy gave his name to?”

The voice came from nearby. I looked up seeing that somehow, we stood a few steps away from the person in the chair. Her voice held a slight Russian accent. She stood, her form taking my breath away.

She was taller than Rufus which was a feat. Her black heels may have helped with that. She wore a low-cut black dress that shone with scales. The fabric with one cut up her right leg and the bottom of the dress spilled onto the floor. Her hands folded in front, sparkling sharp claws shining in the light. Her hair looked much like long white ribbons that moved slightly behind her. Dark eyes looked down at me as she stuck up a sharp nose at the sight of the human before her.

If Rufus married her because of her looks alone, I could understand that. I’ve yet to see someone with every feature as perfect as hers.

“Toby, this is Kytiva. She’s Max’s stepmother.”

I nodded unable to speak due to her icy glare in my direction. I knew she didn’t think highly of me. She and Rufus weren’t alike in the slightest. I didn’t even know how she was the mother of all the nice sisters I’d met. Everything about her told me I wasn’t wanted there. So, why bother asking me to come to speak with her?

“Boy, I do not believe you fully understand what it means for a creature to give away their true name.” Kytiva started to speak.

I suddenly got heated. She and Sterling both assumed I didn’t know how important true names were. But I did. I doubted either of them ever had been trusted with someone’s entire soul before. They were trying to tell me I didn’t understand something they didn’t have a clue about. Thankfully, Rufus placed a hand on my shoulder stopping an argument. I calmed down enough to listen.

“I gave you and Max a little bit of time together. That was a kindness on my part. By him giving up his name, he has adopted you into our family. However, I do not approve of that. I do not know what a weak human like yourself did to get my son to hand himself over to you. I refuse to accept you. I am kinder than others, so I shall let you prove your worth.” She said with her arms crossed over her chest.

Rufus started to crack a little. A nervous bead of sweat ran down the side of his face. I didn’t know what kind of test Kytiva had in mind, but it didn’t seem good. If I refused, would I never be able to see Max again? Did she have the power to do that?

“Sweetheart, Toby is human. What you planned is too much.” Rufus brought up, his voice meek and out of character for him.

“Don’t you sweetheart me! This boy should have expected such a thing to happen! And besides, I am only tossing him into parts of The Maze. We are standing in it at the moment. For this test, I removed a few sections. The human is only required to travel through and reach my little boy. Fully reach my boy. This is almost the same as his job.” She answered back slightly annoyed.

I looked around realizing this place did feel a lot like The Maze. With it changing so often, it was hard to tell when you were inside it besides the odd air. Kytiva needed to be pretty powerful if she could take pieces of The Maze. No wonder Rufus got nervous talking back to her. I looked between them wondering just how hard this test turned out to be.

“What happens if I refuse? Or if I fail the test?” I asked, my stomach twisting.

She didn’t need to say the answer. I already knew it.

“Then Max shall die.”

My body turned cold and it felt like I started to sink into the ground. Rufus did say that if I refused, then he wouldn’t blame me. But that didn’t make it better. Max still would be dead if I walked away. My knee-jerk reaction was to snap at her and demand why a stepmother would endanger her child's life, but I held back. After working with creatures, I sort of understood the reason. Max gave up his name. He tied himself to a human and that made his entire family appear weak. If I didn’t prove I had something of value, then it meant Max didn’t either. And with some supernatural families, weakness wasn’t permitted.

“Fine. Show me where to start.” I told her steeling my resolve.

No matter what, I was going to save Max. I refused to die during this test. I promised myself that we would make it out of there alive and back to the home waiting for us. Rufus let his face drop. He couldn’t stop his wife from sacrificing one son for their family's name. But he didn’t want to lose another person he cared about on the same day. I didn’t blame him for the lack of confidence in me. I didn’t believe in myself either. I just refused to believe that anything was going to happen to Max.

Kytiva nodded and turned her head towards a doorway that wasn’t so close before. With The Maze, anything could happen. I was tempted to send a message to Sunny but didn’t want to upset him. If I died then Rufus needed to break the news to everyone. I felt a little bad leaving him that task.

With one last deep breath, I stepped forward into the dark doorway unsure of what awaited ahead of me. My foot landed on a soft feeling that I recognized. One that I never wanted to feel again. I covered my mouth and nose with my hand trying to fight back the smell of the room. I’ve seen one like this before way back on my first day.

The door behind me disappeared the moment I walked into the room leaving me trapped inside the space covered with gore. The carpet soaked through and the walls were painted a deep red. Some blood dripped downwards from the ceiling in a sporadic rhythm. My body screamed to run away. I didn’t want to see this. My shoulders tensed up as a dark shape the same shade as the blood start to rise from the floor. A person came from the carpet, covered in gore and they weakly reached for the only other one in the room. I dropped my hand and pushed them both inside my jacket pockets to hide the trembling.

“Hey let’s go....”

I started walking, my voice weak in a whisper of a song. I’ve gotten through this once before. I just needed to keep walking.

“I’m happy as can be...”

As I moved more of those blood-covered people came from the floor. They stayed inside the gory carpet and half out reaching for the terrified person near them. I kept my pace steady and walked around any of them making sure I stayed out of arms reach.

“Let’s go w-walking you and me.”

An arm shot up and tugged at my leg. I shook it off and didn’t even stop singing. Well, I wasn’t really singing. Mostly just saying the lyrics out loud in order not to scream.

“Ready set, come on let’s go.”

More hands came up grasping my clothing. So many of those arms came from the ceiling and the walls. I heard them moving behind me but I refused to look back. I pushed on, feeling as if I was walking through deep snow. My shoes stuck to the carpet with each step. In the distance, I barely made out a door. I just needed to keep pushing. Just a little bit more.

“Over the hill-”

My words got cut off as my footing came out from under me. I slammed down onto the ground. The moment I landed; those hands swarmed me. I struggled in vain trying to get away. My legs getting pulled down into the floor as if it was made up of nothing but bloody arms all grabbing. I kicked getting nowhere. My hands grasped at anything, but I still kept getting dragged down. A bloody hand fell into my own causing hot pain to travel up my arm. I let out a scream as the flesh on the back of my hand slowly started to burn off. If these creatures got my uniform off, I would have my skin melted off like them.

I gritted my teeth against the pain. This was only the first part of the test and yet I was already going to die. With all the effort I could muster, I pushed up with my elbows and gained some ground back. In a matter of seconds, those hands would be able to drag me further down. I searched my brain trying to figure out what to do and how to stay alive.

Just as I thought I was going to die; something grabbed the back of my jacket and lifted my entire body out of the floor. Those bloody creatures let out displeased cries when their target got stolen away. I rolled and recovered to look over to see if I needed to deal with a new threat. But hope came to my chest because I knew right away who had just arrived.

A massive wolf stood in the middle of the room, eyes blazing and claws sharp. When he stomped a paw down on the ground, grass and other plant sprouted up taking over the bloody floor. Vines crawled up each leg as flowers bloomed. Expect on one differently colored back leg. With a great howl, the beast tossed out power that knocked back the bloody shapes, but only for a few moments.

“Go!” The word came as mostly a deep growl that echoed through the room.

“Rufus... Thank you!” I wanted to tell him a hundred other things as well.

We didn’t have time for that. I just ran leaving him behind to deal with the blood room so I could try and stay alive in the next part of the test.

I nearly tripped into the next area. My feet stumbled over each other causing me to stop running when I got through the next door. The smell of blood disappeared to be replaced by old car oil and gasoline. I stopped to get my footing. The next room was an empty parking garage. Stone pillars and painted on yellow lines far as I could see. The area I stood in had some weak fluorescent lights flickering overhead. The dim orange light faded off into darkness just a few feet away.

I carefully took a few steps forwards expecting anything to jump out. The blood from the other room that soaked my clothing slowly faded but the burn on the back of my hand remained. I blocked out the pain to keep going. My nerves fried. When a slight noise above came, I jumped out of the way knowing that something was about to drop down on my head.

I made the right call. A creature landed on the ground just as I moved away. It caught me with a swipe of a long tail sending me hard into a stone pillar. It knocked the wind from me but without my uniform on, the attack would have broken a few ribs. My eyes landed on the creature as I tried to find a safe path to get away.

The dark thing was made up of countless shining steel wires I assumed to be hair at first. Each wire a deep black instead of a shiny grey. They all twisted into each other making up a skinny cat-like body with a tail that trailed behind. The face was nothing but a ball of wires that cracked open into a gruesome smile.

It let out a loud ear-piercing screech and a white light started in the creature’s mouth. I ducked behind the pillar as protection. Seconds later a blast of hot white light shot around the stone blinding my eyes for a few moments. The powerful blast melted away half the pillar. If I got caught by that, it would be all over. I ran around the pillar trying to get to the next one. The creature spotted me and got down low.

The light started in the ball of wires again. I didn’t have time to get to the next pillar. The first one wouldn’t survive another blast. Even if I curled up, my uniform didn’t cover everything. I made a split-second decision that saved my life.

In a flash of movement, I took off my jacket. With it in hand, I charged at the monster and wrapped my jacket around its head as tightly as I could. It attempted to get away, the head shaking nearly making me lose my grip. I held on tight. The light came from under the uniform and I felt a sudden force against the fabric. The powerful blast could not get through the uniform and backfired. The white light traveled through the creature’s neck and exploded the stomach outwards.

I collapsed, my arms stinging from the pressure of the attack. The creature’s corpse smoking next to me. I didn’t have time to recover as another one of them dropped down. I snapped my face forwards. By sheer luck, I brought the jacket up in time. With some effort, I wrapped it around this other creature’s head the same as the first. It nearly got away but I stood up and wrapped both arms around the thin neck.

I took a hold of the head and using all the strength in my arms, I start to twist it. Sweat dripped down my face and my muscles burned from the effort. I didn’t stop until I heard a sickening crack and the creature stopped moving.

I stopped again needing to take a break. Off in the darkness, I heard more of those creatures moving ever closer. I didn’t have time to sit and recover. I need to make a run for it before they got over here. I wasn’t going to be lucky forever.

I got up reflecting on how a year ago I would not be able to run this much. I’d improved a great deal, but I was only human. In the middle of running while putting my jacket back on, a creature dropped behind me. I only got one arm through the sleeve when the wired claw grabbed my foot.

With brutal strength, the thing lifted me off my feet and slammed my body against the hard cement. I heard ribs cracking and my leg breaking in multiple places. I didn’t have time to process the pain as the thing brought me up again to hit my other side on the ground. The one arm inside my uniform was the only limb saved from being broken.

Everything hurt like hell. My vision swam and I thought I was already dead. Through everything, I noticed a small object within my reach. Without thinking I grabbed it and flicked the switch. The Sunlight that slipped from my pocket flickered on evaporating the creature and others hiding in the darkness.

Because I’d used it recently the light wasn’t as powerful as before. It faded after a few seconds leaving me in darkness and pain. Blood flooded my mouth making me choke. I was unable to tell if my eyes were closed, or if I was dead.

I thought I felt someone lift my broken body off the ground and my head rested on something soft. Voices came but I didn’t know who they belonged to, or what they said. My mouth got forced open and someone tearfully apologized for the pain that was going to come next. My body was already broken all to hell, what could be worse than this?

I very quickly found out what hurt more than getting most of your bones broken. Them mending back together caused so much pain I thought I might not make it. A burning flooded over my entire body and I felt each bone move back into place. I knew I was screaming but wasn’t aware of anything but my erratic heartbeat.

I think I died for a few seconds. Or at least my heart did stop beating. I came to, gasping for air as someone sat above me doing chest compressions. I knew the face but never thought she could ever look so upset. I wanted to speak but the sight of a wire creature right above us ready to strike made me react first. I sat up and covered her with half my jacket just in time. The creature’s claws grazed my forehead creating a long cut but didn’t dig into my savior's flesh.

We didn’t have time to move and thankfully didn’t need to. Another person came up, her hair blazing as she landed a punch on the monster that knocked it back into the darkness.

“Thanks...” Vicky said her voice still strained with tears.

Belizas looked down at my bleeding forehead. She bent over and ran a fiery hot fingertip over the cut to close the wound. I let her know exactly how I felt about that but she didn't care.

“I’m going to go punch some more stuff!” She said which was to be expected.

I let her run off and almost felt pity for the creatures in the darkness. Almost.

“What...” I tried to speak but my stomach twisted in pain so suddenly it made me double over.

Vicky reached into her pocket and pulled out some energy bars which I gladly took from her. I’ve never felt so damn hungry in my life. I could eat ten pounds of garlic bread and still want more.

“We gave you some vampire blood. It’s compatible with pretty much every species and burns off magic to heal wounds. But you’re human so you don’t have magic to burn. It fed off your body fat and some muscles. I pushed some of my magic through your body to make sure the blood didn’t kill you trying to burn up resources.” Vicky explained over the distant cackling of Belizas.

I shook my head trying to get past the lingering pain. I looked down at my arms shocked at how thin they were. My clothing hung off my now small frame. Thank God for Sunny. If he didn’t cook so much, I would have died trying to heal.

“Was Alty the one who gave you some blood? And why couldn’t you use your magic for the blood to feed off of instead of it burning up my body?” I asked just trying to stay focused on anything but the stiffness in my muscles.

“I could only let your body take in so much. Human bodies can’t deal with that much magic or they suffer from blowback. It's the same with creatures. We can’t absorb unlimited magic. It can kill us. I did my best with what I could give.” She said with a small regretful smile.

I knew Vicky didn’t want me to suffer as much pain as I did. But at least I wasn’t dead so I owed her more than I could ever repay. Belizas suddenly came rolling near us. A creature got a good hit in on her knocking her back. But it didn't seem to do anything to her besides get her excited. She turned her head towards us, flashing sharp teeth.

“You should keep going! We’ll take care of this!” She happily said.

I nodded fully trusting them both. I stood with Vicky needed to help support my weight for a second. Before Belizas ran off again, I told them exactly how I felt about them coming to help.

“Thank you. I love both of you girls.”

It was nice to say those words and for them to know I didn’t imply it romantically. I truly loved every single one of the friends I’ve made over the year. Monster or not. Belizas wasn’t expecting something so sincere. Her cheeks started to burn as a sound much like a kettle boiling over came from her direction. With a scream of embarrassment, she took off leaving flaming footprints behind.

I pulled away from Vicky ready to head towards the next door I just spotted. She stopped me for a second.

“Wait, here. I got you this. It's a day late though.”

She held out her hand for me to take something small. She placed an enamel heart-shaped pin in my hand. The pin had a band of black, grey, white, and purple. It took me a moment to piece together what the colors meant. I blinked away tears as a happy feeling filled my chest to the point it might burst.

“Happy Birthday Toby.”

I’d completely forgotten my birthday. It had been a year since I met Vicky, hadn't it? I never would have expected the girl I wanted to try and hook up with would be handed me an Ace pride pin a year later. I put on my jacket and weirdly enough, the pin had no issues going through the fabric. I never understood the pride the different flags brought until someone fully accepted the one that described who I was.

I left Vicky to head to the next area feeling much more hopeful about my chances. I didn’t know if getting help would mean my test would be voided. All I cared about was reaching Max and staying alive.

I shot through the door and into an open space. It still felt like The Maze but didn’t look like how I’d seen it before. A ruined city sat, skyscrapers on their side, crumbling. Off in the distance, I saw a pristine glass dome. I assumed that might be where to go next. I didn’t wait around to see what was going to come at me.