THIS IS IT.

This is the end.

Nick nearly dropped her map. Oakley had been hunting for scraps of paper for the last hour, and had already tackled Nick twice. She then screamed for half an hour until she was too tired and hoarse to talk. She now took to snarling and making strange animal-inspired faces at Nick and the party.

“This is it,” Nick breathed staring at the room they stood in. She knew more than anyone else that the end was probably fake. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop her from feeling a wave of accomplishment that she finally got to the end. She unraveled her map again, looking toward the top where the big X was.

Room 63, Nick thought, End.

She looked up from her map, into the darkness of the room. This one wasn’t lit, perhaps to make it more difficult. Nick could not see across the room to door 24, where the end to the torture supposedly lay.

Nick sighed and glanced back to the hallway she left and sighed. Of course she couldn’t leave yet. She should wait for the doctor. A prank shouldn’t be taken too far.

But the end was tempting her…

I suppose it would do no harm just to look at it, Nick decided. After all, I’m sure exiting won’t be as easy as it looks.

She glanced behind her again, as if she expected the doctor to pop up any second. Then she turned around and shook her head. It was ridiculous. She didn’t even need to mark which door she came from. She was certainly never going back.

Carefully avoid Oakley (who had taken to becoming a wildcat and prowled on the ground, snarling and snapping), Nick edged across the darkness of the room, hugging the wall and counting the archways. Several times she nearly fell into a hallway, but at last, she managed to arrive at the opposite side of the room.

She began shuffling over archway 23, half expecting some sort of rabid creature to jump out of the darkness and pounce on her. But as she moved away, no creature bit her, and no creature moved. She breathed a sigh of relief, moving to hallway 24…

There was no arch. Of course there wasn’t. There was only a smooth wall.

Of course. The map must have been a red herring, to throw her off track. Hallway 24 was only a mirror.

As Nick lowered her hand in resignation, her palm hit a hard metal object. She recoiled, biting her tongue to keep from howling in pain. Cautiously, she began moving her hand back to where she injured it. Her hand touched the smooth surface of a round sphere…

A doorknob?

It was a doorknob! Of course. The end was just a door. She seized the knob and began to twist it.

It did not budge.

Hoping it was just because of rust or some other factor, Nick grabbed on it with her other hand and began tugging at the knob, growing more panicked by the second. Perhaps she was turning the wrong way? Perhaps it was a pull door? Perhaps there was another knob? Nick moved to the door feeling around it until she touched the hinges.

No. It was obvious. The door was very locked.

Nick slid to the floor in disappointment. In all honesty, she never expected something different. How cruel of the rabbits, to give her a map to the end, which only led to a locked door that may or may not be the exit.

“I wonder how long I’ll survive,” she muttered.

“For you? I believe the answer is three or four days, without water.”

As if the room was a giant lightbulb, it turned on with blinding light, searing into Nick’s eyes. The darkness converted to the bright light of the sun. Nick squeezed her eyes shut in fear of damage, tears trickling out from the sudden brightness.

“But it would be awfully boring to watch you dehydrate. Though it would be a very intriguing science experiment, I suppose. Would you shrivel up like grapes? Or does that effect only happen when you are soaked in water for too long?

“But forgive me, I’m off topic. In terms of entertainment, watching you die in a black maze for three days can get very tiring quickly, and frankly, I don’t want to think of some way to make it more interesting. All this pretending has been very trying on me, and I was hoping I could end it now. So let’s start with proper introductions. Hello Marine, my name Ilder.”

“My name is Nick,” Nick said weakly, trying in vain to force her eyes open. She caught a glimpse of the ferret’s white coat.

“Is Nick your first name?”

“It’s my nickname. Call me Nick.”

“If it’s not your name, why should I call you it?”

“My name is Nick.”

“My name is Ilder. Your name is Marine. Now that we’ve agreed on that, allow me to continue.”

Nick struggled to sit up, waving her arms blindly to swing at the ferret. The ferret slipped nimbly through her clumsy fingers.

“What do you want?”

Much to her surprise, these words did not come out of Nick’s mouth. The cold, flat voice undoubtfully belonged to Exflibberaguil, but the tone seemed so out of a place coming from him that Nick didn’t completely believe it.

“Nothing,” the ferret said with a hint of glee. “I was going to ask you the very question.”

“I want out!” Nick screamed, finally opening her eyes. She pounced on the ferret, trying to catch it and smother it under her. The ferret easily jumped away.

“My, did Exflibberaguil here manage to tell you why I’m doing this?” the ferret asked tauntingly.

“Because you want to kill us and then take over my planet?” Nick guessed. “Which, by the way, I’m not giving you permission to do.”

“Ah, so you didn’t tell her,” the ferret said with a strange animal smile, “shall I do the honors then?”

“I saved them for you,” Exflibberaguil replied coldly. “I thought you’d enjoy.”

“I don’t want an explanation! I want to get out!” Nick screamed pulling frantically at the door.

“Nonsense,” the ferret chided. “There is always a time for a story.”

“I already know your story! You just slaughtered a bunch of Mustela!”

“The rabbits slaughtered. I did not.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Sit,” the ferret commanded, and Nick, against her will, was forced to the ground along with the growling Oakley and frozen-faced Timothy. “There is always time for a story, and you are going to hear mine out.”