My head hurt. Everything went blurry for a moment, and I couldn't remember what had just happened. I looked around and saw walls covered in vines. In some places, roses had started to grow, contrasting beautifully with the green walls. I tried to stand up, but my head started to hurt even more, and I fell to my knees and almost fainted at the same time.
I opened my eyes again, and now it was light outside and my head no longer hurt. I got up and looked up—the vine-covered walls were incomprehensibly, incomprehensibly high; it seemed that if I started climbing now, I wouldn't reach the top in 10 years. I looked ahead and saw something like an entrance. I couldn't see anything above me because everything except the floor was covered with vines. The walls, which at first seemed very open and which I could imagine as a meeting place, gradually became much narrower. I looked behind me and saw another wall covered with vines... there was no way out, I had to go forward.
I soon realized the seriousness of the situation and was overcome with panic that I might be trapped here for a very, very long time. I took a deep breath, entered the passageway, and began to walk. I stretched my arms out in both directions and could barely touch the walls; it was wider than I thought. Soon I came to three paths, each leading in a different direction—left, right, and straight ahead. Without thinking, I chose the right path and continued walking. This happened a few more times, and I quickly realized that it resembled a maze, or perhaps something even stranger. I realized that the further I walked, the rarer the roses became. After what seemed like about 15 minutes, I stopped at another choice, the same three choices as before: left, right, and straight ahead. Not knowing what to do, I sat down next to a vine-covered wall, next to the right path, wanting to lean against it for a moment. As soon as I leaned my back against the wall, I felt a sharp, intense pain in my back. I lunged forward, trying to get away from the wall. On my knees, I looked behind me to see what had caused the pain and saw blood on the vines. I touched my back with my hand and felt wetness. When I looked at my palm, there was blood on it... and then I realized — the blood on the thorns was mine.
"What? When did these thorns become so sharp?" I asked myself as I got to my feet. The pain had mostly subsided, and I thought about what to do next. Perhaps the thorns remained sharp because I had chosen the wrong direction. I was about to turn around and go back when I heard voices in the distance. "Is anyone else here?!" I shouted, trying to get their attention. A woman's voice quickly replied, "Yes! There are three of us here! Follow my voice!" For a moment, I didn't know what to do, what would happen if I found them and they tried to do something to me. What this woman said was true, so including her, there were four people there. If they didn't like me, I wouldn't be able to do anything to them... but if I didn't do anything, would I get out on my own? After a short while, the same woman called out, urging me to come to her. I decided to trust her and started trying to find them.
A few minutes passed as I slowly and carefully walked in the direction of her voice, and soon we saw each other. As she had said, there were four of them—two women and two men... including me, three men. "Hi! Don't worry, we're peaceful," I quickly realized that the woman who said this to me was the one who had called me. She continued talking, "My name is Inga, what's yours?" "Stefan" "Nice to meet you. Maybe it's a little too soon, but do you know how we got here? None of us remember." Inga asked, and it was immediately apparent that she really hoped I would have an answer. After a moment, I replied, "No, I'm sorry, when I woke up, I had a terrible headache and almost immediately passed out again." "I understand, the same thing happened to us. Oh! I just remembered that I didn't introduce you. The other woman's name is Agnes, the man with brown hair is John, and the man with blond hair is Leo." I greeted them and asked Inga, "What next? Have you figured anything out?" Inga looked at me with sad eyes and shook her head no, saying, "Except that this is a maze, we haven't learned almost anything." I remembered what had happened with the vines and told them that in some places they remained sharp, and showed them what had happened to my back. Leo touched the vines that were next to him at the time, and nothing happened: "Everything is normal here, let's go to where you were when you heard us talking... Do you remember how to get there, don't you?" I replied, "I don't know if I remember exactly how to get back, but I can try."
I led everyone back and immediately noticed the bloodstained vines: "Here. This is where it happened," I pointed to the blood. Almost immediately afterwards, Agnes asked, "Don't you think it's narrower here than where we were just now?"... I hadn't even noticed, I stretched my arms out in both directions, this time I didn't even have to stretch them all the way, because both palms would have been completely entangled in the sharp vines: "You're right! Why do you think that is?" No one said anything until Inga suggested: "Could it be that the narrower and sharper the vine walls are, the closer we are to the exit or the middle?" ... We didn't know if that was really the case, but there was hope that we would then have a chance to escape.
Even if we knew, how could we get out? I had an idea that might help. "Look, if we use these sharp vines, they might help. When everyone looked at me, I showed them that by cutting part of the bottom of my shirt, we could get thin strips to use as ropes to mark the places we had already been. After my demonstration, Agnes suggested, "Okay, let's do what Stefan just showed us and split up so we can get out of here faster. We'll meet back here in about 10 minutes, okay?" We all agreed and went our separate ways.
Surprisingly quickly, I found a path that became increasingly narrow. Soon I had to walk sideways, and the walls became unbearably close. When I touched one of the thorny leaves, I realized how sharp it was — it felt as if my finger had been cut before I even touched it. I quickly pulled my hand away and tried to stop the bleeding. Then I looked into the distance and saw a strange but inviting light. At that moment, I realized that this was probably the way out. I thought for a moment about trying to get through myself, but in the end, I decided to follow the rope back and inform everyone that I had probably found the way out.
When I got back, everyone was waiting for me, and Inga asked, "Where have you been for so long? We've been waiting for you for a long time!" I apologized and told them what I had found. Agnes exclaimed enthusiastically, "Wow! Show us the way! We'll follow you!" I nodded, and as we followed my rope, I told them that the path was very, very narrow, that they had to be EXTREMELY careful, and finally, we were there.
I went first, showing the way and not seeing the order in which they followed me, but I knew Inga was behind me because right behind me she said, "I really hope we can get out..." I agreed, but concentrated on the road ahead. Everything was fine, and the light was getting closer and closer. Surprisingly quickly, I could already see the sky, but now I had to pull in my stomach to get out. Finally, my hand was out, but the exit was too narrow to get through without injury. I mentally prepared myself and jumped through—the pain was surprising, I was bleeding everywhere, but to be honest, I thought it would be worse... I was out! Immediately, I told everyone that they would have to jump through. Unexpectedly quickly, everyone jumped in order and was free. I got up and grabbed the hand of the last person - Agnes - to help her get out as quickly as possible, with the help of pulling... we were free... we escaped.