The three looked at each other, still puzzled. Charlie stepped out first, and introduced herself. “I’m Charlie.” She said as she shook hands with the girl and the boy. The girl spoke next, “I’m Vivian,” then she turned to the boy, “and this is my brother, Kyle.” Kyle nodded and folded his hand across his chest.
“Well, I guess we should head on to the first mission.” Charlie said as she gestured towards the door. The siblings agreed and headed to the door. Kyle opened the door, and stepped into it without any hesitation. The girls looked at each other, then quickly followed.
White lights blazed as Charlie stepped into the door, blinding her for a few moments. The next thing she knew as she opened her eyes, was thundering roars of thousands of people next to her. As her sight came back, she looked around the new area. She did not expect to be on the spectator seats watching a running competition. She looked around the seats, and spotted Vivian 3 rows above her. She stood up and walked to Vivian.
“Hey! What’s going on? Where’s your brother?” Charlie shouted to her over the roaring of the crowd.
“I don’t know! I think my brother is missing!” Vivian replied, sweeping the seats with her sight, trying to find her brother.
Suddenly, the crowd screamed as a man raced past the finish line. Charlie winced and covered her ears. After every runner raced over the finish line, a loud speaker started, “Congratulations number 80! The 5-mile race for boys 18 and under will start in 10 minutes. Take this time as a break and relax until the next event!”
“Hey!” A man called to Charlie and Vivian, “You girls! Aren’t you friends with Ken? Ken is looking for you guys!” The man gestured at the girls to follow him. Charlie and Vivian were both confused. Who was Ken? But since nobody was around them that the man might be looking for, the girls followed the man anyways.
He led the girls down the seats and into where the athletes waited for their competition. Sitting in the corner was Kyle, looking like he had no hope in life anymore. Vivian walked up to Kyle and asked him what was going on.
“Well, I think my role is to win this running competition. I’m going to run in just less than 10 minutes. I’m not good at running at all! Not to mention it’s 5 miles.” Kyle looked up at the girls in a sad and helpless face. His casual shirt had changed into a racing outfit that strangely enough had the bold letters “KEN” written on it. Charlie frowned, but turned her attention to the information Kyle just said which seemed more important.
“How do you know that your job was to win the race, and not lose it for instance.” Charlie questioned Kyle. “It said on the phone. Don’t you guys have one?” Kyle grabbed a phone out of his pocket. There were 3 lines of text written on it. The first one was “Win the competition”, the second one was “Find key to the winner’s dressing room”, and the third one was “Stop the killer” . On the bottom, there was a small line written in red: Complete all the missions and you will reach the next level.
Winning the competition was the easiest to understand. The other people also gave lots of hints to Kyle that he must attend the competition and win. The other two missions were rather confusing. Who was the killer? Why would a killer be involved in a running competition? What was in the winner’s dressing room?
After silence, Vivian and Charlie decided to each take a mission to complete, and work separately. Vivian volunteered for the killer mission, since she was excellent at fighting, and Charlie took the other one.
“I think these missions are like some kind of a mystery that ties together in some way.” Charlie stated, “I think we are supposed to solve the mystery so we can get out.”
The siblings agreed, and Vivian headed to the finish line of the race. “Come on Kyle, I believe you!” She said as she patted her brother’s back. Kyle signed, and looked towards Charlie.
“I don’t think the mission is as simple as just a mystery.” He said with a meaningful glance.
“Kyle! Go get ready!” The man who led the girls to Kyle shouted from afar. Kyle dragged his glance as he quickly walked towards the man, finally turning away when the man shouted his name again.
Charlie was confused and suspicious about the glance, but she had a lot to do, so she gave up on thinking about it thoroughly.
She went over her mission again inside her head. Find the key to the winner’s dressing room. The main question is, which winner is that line mentioning? She picked up the list of all the events that Kyle had left behind. There were more than 20 events, so that means there would be more than 20 winners. How would she figure out which one the mission is talking about? Not to mention there would be a killer, so there definitely would be a time limit for her search.
Charlie placed the list into her backpack, then walked slowly around the athletes’ lounge. As she approached a corner, a map pinned onto the wall caught her attention. She quickly scanned it for the dressing rooms. Suddenly, she noticed that only 3 dressing rooms were small and separated from the large one for everyone. These must be the dressing rooms for each athlete. One of the three must be the one the mission was talking about.
She closed her eyes and retraced the path in her mind, then headed to the separate dressing rooms at a quick pace. The one-person dressing rooms were all packed together, which was extremely convenient for Charlie.
As she arrived at the rooms, something quickly caught her eyes. On each dressing rooms’ door were name tags. The one to the left was Harper, the one right next to it was Jaden, and the one on the right was Ken.
“Ken?” Charlie thought, “Why would there be a separate dressing room designed for Ken?” Her mind turned, and suddenly came up with an idea. Since the first mission mentioned that Kyle had to win the race, if he had accomplished it, wouldn’t it also make sense that he’s a winner too? The man called Kyle “Ken” and the name was also written on his shirt. Maybe Kyle was supposed to be named “Ken” in this world and this changing room with Ken’s name written on would belong to Kyle.
With this hypothesis in mind, Charlie only had to figure out the other 2 people who won a race before. She pulled out the list from her backpack, and scanned it for Harper and Jaden. She quickly spotted Jaden. His event was way before Kyle’s. She found Harper in the event right before Kyle’s. In the list, everyone’s names, sequel numbers, and photos were printed. “I have seen this race.” Charlie thought.
She quickly referred to her memory for number 78 and a vision of a man with bright golden hair came to her. She remembered when the crowd screamed, she had glanced towards the finish line. After thinking hard, she still could not come up with the face or number of the winner.
Suddenly, she remembered when the loud speaker had said. “Congratulations number 80!” Her eyes brightened. So now she eliminated Harper as the winner the mission was talking about. Now she only has to figure out if Jaden won the race. As if someone heard her thoughts, the door labeled Jaden opened suddenly. A tall man with black curls came out, looking confused as he noticed Charlie. He was Jaden, Charlie instantly recognized. This was the best chance!
“Hello mister!” Charlie said to the man, “Did you win your race?”
Jaden was visibly confused, but then shook his head and shrugged, “Nah, I got 4th place.”
“Thank you!” Charlie replied as she sprinted towards the lounge, leaving Jaden puzzled.
She knew that she needed to find Kyle and Vivian to tell them about her discoveries. She also needed to make sure that Kyle wins his race so the logic would work out.
After reaching the grass area around the racing track, she spotted Vivian shouting to someone in the corner. She quickly walked towards her, and saw that she was arguing with Kyle.
“You’re telling me that you want to quit now? How are we going to get out of this fictional world then? The killer’s target might be you or me!” Vivian was furious, and her brother, much taller than her, now seems small at this very moment. Charlie slowed, as Kyle replied to his sister with a serious frown, “I have a very bad feeling about this. I’m not going to make it.”
“Well, whatever bad feeling you’re having, can’t make you give up! You don’t want to stay in this world forever do you?” Vivian shouted again.
“Hey,” Charlie said as she approached the two, “Kyle, Vivian is right. No matter how bad you don’t want to compete, you have to win this. It’s mentioned in the missions, no one will know what will happen if you fail.”
Kyle’s frown grew deeper, then signed as he finally nodded. “Thank you.” Vivian said in a sarcastic voice, “Now get ready for your race.” Kyle took a deep breath, then headed towards the starting line.