by A M Lopez
Allison groaned, hiding her worry with annoyance. “Tell me it gets better.”
Aaron’s free hand clenched into a fist. “Nope, it gets worse. Apparently, he had just found out that the flowers they were getting are sacred in that dimension. Plucking, gathering, or taking them in any way shape or form is against their laws and the perpetrators are brought before the people’s judges, their gods. Their gods only judge for a certain time though, so if the perpetrators are caught not during that time two things can happen. One, they’re put in a cell until the judging hour. Or two, they are killed on the spot.”
Allison let out a shaky breath. “That’s super specific. Is he sure that is correct?”
Aaron’s face was monotone, just like her voice when she said, “He’s sure. He got the data from a woman who had her lover killed for trying to pick a flower for her. She lived on a secluded dimension, so while she shared the information it didn’t spread that widely.”
Allison looked at the beautiful sky, its amazingness dulled. Suddenly, Oyder stopped, causing the two girls to almost run into him. They were going to ask why he had stopped when they saw the lake. During their conversation, they hadn’t been paying attention to their surroundings. The two girls shared a look, silently agreeing to be more careful.
Allison stepped next to Oyder. “Why have you stopped? Are the crystals here?”
Oyder shook his head and raised his hand, one finger pointing to a blue patch on the grass. “The crystals are there. I cannot go any further, it is against my tribe’s laws.”
Aaron put her hand on his shoulder. “You won’t have to. Thank you for all your help.”
Oyder smiled at her. “It was no problem. Now go, you came here in a hurry so I guess you must leave soon. Good luck, misses!”
They smiled at him before sharing a look, walking toward the blue patch. The walk wasn’t too long but it was enough to set them on edge. Once they reached the patch, their nervousness was replaced with awe and giddy surprise.
Allison couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that the crystal? Oh my gosh.”
Aaron tilted her head, hope in her eyes. “Getting to it doesn’t match Arthur’s information but it looks like a crystal.”
Allison started jumping in joy, fist bumping the air. “Heck yeah! Everything is gonna be fine!”
When Allison landed from one of her jumps, her foot hit the crystal. Both girls froze, looking at it. Allison slowly removed her foot, sighing when she was back on land.
Aaron held a hand to her chest, letting out a sigh of relief. “You have to be more careful, Allison. You scared me.”
Allison sheepishly ran a hand through her hair. “At least we are okay— Ah!”
Suddenly, the ground around the crystal fell apart, sucking the girls in. Their screams were the last thing to be heard before silence fell across the lake.
Chapter Eighteen
Shuffle, shuffle.
Eva's foot dragged against the dirt floor, making it float around. Eva's hands and feet were shackled to the wooden wall, prohibiting her from making any large movements. She had tried to break the wooden poles, with no such luck. It seemed as if the wood was harder than the ones on Ranison. Eva groaned looking over to Connor, who was silent and had his eyes shut. The drugs had worn off hours ago, allowing them to regain their ability to move. She had tried to use her watch, with no such luck of contacting anyone. The watch was not working.
"Connor." She whispered to him, not wanting anyone to hear.
His black hair moved out of his face as he raised it and opened his blue eyes to meet hers. He raised an eyebrow.
"Should I try using the knife in my boot to hack away at the vine cuffs on your hands?" She had remembered the compartments Goldie had inserted in her suit.
Connor widened his eyes and shook his head as if saying, have you gone nuts?
Eva rolled her eyes and said lowly, "I can do this, what happened to the trust?"
He glared at her and looked away.
"Come on, we have to get out of here." She scrunched her brows together, trying to coax him into letting her potentially kill him.
He let out a sigh, and tried to drag his hand as close to her foot as possible. They grunted and shifted, the vine shackles not allowing them to get too close. Eva whispered a command that had the knife shooting out of her boot, embedding into the vine. Well, at least trying to. As soon as the knife touched the vine, it broke and fell from her foot.
Eva's mouth fell open and she huffed. "That was my favorite knife!"
Connor gave out another deep sigh and retreated his foot back close to him, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.
"Well, that's it? You're just going to give up? Are you even trying to escape?"
He finally spoke, though his eyes were closed. "I have a plan."
Eva gave him a bewildered look. "What? Since when?"
"Since we got thrown into this place. If you ever bothered to ask me instead of freaking out and doing things on your own, you could've saved a lot of stress."
Eva opened and closed her mouth. Then she opened it again, but kept gaping like a fish. Eva was silent for a few minutes before muttering, "Connor, do you have a plan?"
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask!" With that, he opened his eyes and started to explain. "There's no way for us to leave here right now. When they come to judge us or whatever, as soon as they unlock us, we have to fly and punch everything and everyone in our way."
Eva looked away. "Okay fine. What of the bee?"
"What do you mean? Leave that stupid bee here, grab the flowers, and go."
She looked at him and rolled her eyes. "How do you suggest we find the flowers, all powerful knowing master?"
He finally caught her gist and groaned. "Fine. We find the bee, and then get out of here."
She nodded and decided to close her eyes, laying her head back to wait for judgement day.
~
"Psst. Eva, wake up. They're here."
Eva automatically opened her eyes, glanced at Connor whose eyes were closed as if he was sleeping and immediately closed them again.
Strong footsteps sounded around the corner as Eva prepared herself for the encounter. The door creaked as it swung open, and the people set foot inside.
"So, the prisoners are asleep. Cute." A female voice sounded out, almost teasingly.
Eva felt a head get closer to the side of her's. The person breathed out, almost causing Eva to gag. Their breath was horrible, possibly capable of knocking out strong men. Eva stayed firm.
"This one is out cold." A man's rough voice came from Connor's side.
The head close to Eva's backed away and a gruff voice said, "Same here."
The female's voice laughed. "Great. Makes everything a lot easier, unhook them and let's go."
Eva felt large hands grip hers and somehow take off the shackles, doing so to her feet also. As soon as the last shackle was taken off, Eva burst open her eyes and headbutted the man in the face. His brown eyes widened in surprise, but quickly recovered and tried to grab her. This time, Eva was prepared and kneed him in the gut, causing him to bend over.
On her other side, Connor was fighting the man that was with him. Not taking time to evaluate his situation, Eva jumped over the man who was down and ran towards the red- haired woman who was already ready for her.
Eva grabbed her hair and slammed her down, but the lady had wrapped her legs around Eva's waist to drag her down too. Eva automatically rolled over to be on top of the tall woman, her eyes set in determination. The woman grabbed her neck and started to try to choke her, but Eva had her hand's on the lady's shoulder and disabled her movements.
She started to protest, but Eva knocked her out. Eva looked up and saw that Connor had already tied up the two men and was preparing another set for Eva's captive. They tied her up and stood, breathing heavily.
"Okay, we have to find the bee." Connor crossed his arms and looked to her. "Any idea where it is?"
"I saw th
e man with the bee walking inside a red building, that's the best hint I have so far."
Connor nodded slowly, carefully looking outside the wooden door. "We need to get out of here, any ideas?"
Eva followed him and saw a large hallway down, with many doors. She quickly stepped out and examined the small hallway. There was no guard, no one to protect the hallway.
She raised a brow. “That doesn’t seem right.”
Connor nodded, slowly advancing down the hallway. He stopped every time he reached a door, scanning and then pressing his ear against it. After a few seconds of hearing nothing behind the door, he tried to turn the knob.
He called out to Eva. “The hallway is too long to keep doing this. We’ll get caught by the townspeople, they’re probably already wondering why we aren’t at the judgement yet.”
Eva groaned, looking around. She spotted their prisoners, eyes narrowing.
Connor had been walking back to her, stilling when he reached her and saw the look in her eyes. “What’s the plan?”
Eva looked at him, smirk lining her face. “We don’t know how to get out but they do.”
Connor nodded, thinking. “We search them first. If we don’t find anything, then we wake them up and do what we have to.”
Eva nodded back grimly, only now realizing the direction her plan was going. She should have known they wouldn’t talk without motivation. Seeing Connor’s face become emotionless, she began to regret voicing her plan. There was no backing out now though, they had a mission to complete. Getting lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize Connor had already started their work.
“Found it.”
Eva was snapped back into reality, shaking her head to disperse the rest of her thoughts. “What did you find?”
As Eva got closer to his crouched form, Connor raised his hand. “A red key.”
Looking over it, she realized the key wasn’t red. The key itself was brown, but the substance on it was red. It didn’t take a genius to realize what it was.
Connor stood up, cracking his neck. “I thought I saw a door down the hall that the key could fit into.”
Eva raised a brow, disbelieving. “It can’t be that easy.”
Connor glanced at her. “That’s what they want you to think. Come on.”
Eva sighed, following Connor down the hall. They continued passed the point Connor had stopped at before and kept going. They reached a dull yellow door, the handle and lock brown with splatters of blood. Ignoring the uneasiness, she gave Connor a look, silently asking how he had seen the door from so far away. He pointed at his eyes, smirk wider than it had been all day. She glared, crossing her arms and huffing.
“Curse his amazing eyesight, the stupid hawk.”
Connor snorted, almost dropping the key. Eva froze, face turning red when she realized she had said that sentence out loud. She ripped the key away from his laughing form, putting it in the lock and turning the key. A click sounded out and both friends froze, sharing a look. Now was not the time to be silly, they were deep in enemy territory. Quietly opening the door to glance out, the two saw they were at the back of the haunted looking house. Eva sneaked out the door first, heading to the side of the street where the red building was. Connor close behind her, prepared to fight but knowing it was a bad idea. They could take out a couple of the people, but the whole town? They already knew the answer to that, and would rather not have it repeated.
Reaching the edge of the house, Eva looked around the corner to see the whole town gathered further down the road. Glancing back ahead, she gestured for Connor to follow her. Taking one last look at the townspeople, she sprinted to the side of a building. Now, Connor was at the edge and looked at the people. Turning back to Eva, he nodded, silently telling her they hadn’t been spotted. Eva nodded back once before sneaking behind the building, seeing no one. Suddenly, a townsperson began to complain about how long the other three were taking. Her and Connor shared a look, sprinting behind the houses to get to the red building as fast as possible.
Stilling next to the building in a crouch, the two quickly caught their breath. Looking around the two tried to figure out how to get in, no doors in sight. Their only chance was the windows, so Connor lifted Eva on his shoulders and she tried to open it. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. Glancing down at Connor, Eva pulled herself through and into the building.
Climbing in after her, he said, “I guess you don’t need to worry about intruders when you could probably lift a boulder.”
Eva rolled her eyes, the corner of her lips twitching up. Scanning the area, she realized they had landed in a waiting room. On one side of the room was a counter, grey like the floor. Next to it was an opening in the wall, the bottom of a staircase barely visible. On every other side of the room were some versions of chairs, couches, and even beanbags. The walls were white, making the room look like a hospital.
Connor seemed to think so at least. “Why would they put our stuff in a hospital?”
Eva shook her head. “I don’t think it is a hospital.”
He raised a brow. “Then, what is it?”
She looked at him. “No idea. Let’s find our stuff and get out.”
No one was near the door on the side of the room, sharing a look the two went toward it. Just as Eva was about to peek out, noises were heard on the other side.
“I can’t believe you forgot to grab the hurflegrud.”
“I have a bad memory! I don’t know why you guys always expect me to get it anyways.”
“Oh, just shut up.”
Eva and Connor looked at each other with wide eyes as the voices and footsteps got louder. Connor grabbed Eva’s wrist and dragged her out of the room through the opening in the wall, being as quick and quiet as possible. They heard the door knob twist just as they reached the stairs, rushing up them. The two were in a hall, multiple labeled doors on each side.
Lights flicked on downstairs.
“Look! The waiting room got new chairs!”
“You ordered them, idiot.”
“I did?”
“Yes! Now, let's get the hurflegrud upstairs and go.”
Eva and Connor paled as footsteps sounded again, shadows beginning to peak out of the opening in the wall below them. They both quickly scanned the doors hoping to find one that would lead them to their stuff. Thankfully, luck was on their side. Eva pulled Connor toward a door labeled ‘spoils of war,’ the two rushed inside and closed the door quietly behind them. The room was filled with miscellaneous objects, ranging from weapons to rubber duckies. Along the wall were multiple lockers, their doors bending outward slightly from being so full. There were tables everywhere with things thrown on top of them, no order to the chaos. Looking around the two spotted their stuff, footsteps on stairs rang out in the background. They smiled at one another racing over to their things, relief filling them.
Before they could reach their things, one of the previous voices said, “Which room is it again?”
The other voice sighed. “The spoils of war room, dingbat.”
Turns out, luck wasn’t on their side and just liked getting their hopes up. Eva quickly changed directions and dragged Connor behind a locker, the door opening.
“Where is the hurflegrud, stupid?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“You are the only one who can navigate this room!”
“Oh yeah. I think it is over here.”
The blood in Eva’s veins froze when a single pair of footsteps came near them, glancing at Connor. He had grabbed a mace that was leaning against the wall beside them, keeping low to stay out of sight but ready to strike. The man’s shadow grew larger and for a second Eva wasn’t on Airie, she was in her old home hiding in a closet. For a second, she wasn’t 18 years old, she was eight. The man who killed her parents was coming near, obvious by how big his shadow was becoming.
Suddenly, Eva was snapped out of her flashback as the locker her and Connor were hiding behind was opened.
“There i
t is!”
“Finally, let’s go. The others are probably waiting for us.”
“Okay!”
The two members of Astrolabe stayed in their spot, even as the footsteps descended the stairs. They only moved when they heard the faint sound of the door downstairs being shut.
Connor moved in front of Eva so she would meet his eyes. “You okay?”
Eva took a deep breath about to lie when his concerned face made her feel guilty for the thought of doing so alone. “No, but I will be.”
Connor smiled, worry still evident as he stood and held his hand out for Eva. “Thanks for telling me.”
She smiled, taking his hand. “I try.”
He pulled her up and the two looked at each other for a second longer than necessary, before heading toward their things. Connor grabbed his holstered gun, putting it back on his belt, while Eva grabbed her knife, placing it in the compartment at her hip. They slung their packs on and Eva headed for the door, ready to get out of there as soon as possible. She made it to the door and glanced over her shoulder at Connor who was moving things on the table.
She raised a brow. “What are you doing?”
“Hold on a sec.”
Connor crouched and shuffled things under the table. “Ah ha! Found ya!”
Standing up and turning to face Eva, Connor proudly held out the bee in the jar.
Eva’s eyes widened. “I completely forgot.”
Connor smiled, understanding. “You got distracted by the guys, so I got him.”
Eva smiled, glad Connor wasn’t pushing to know why she had frozen earlier. “I thought you didn’t like the bee.”
Connor made an offended face, mouth wide open. “Excuse me! There is no proof!”
Eva snorted, gesturing him to follow her as she opened the door. “Come on, you dork.”
He quickly followed her, going back downstairs and through the window they used to get in. Sharing a look, they nodded and got back into their rhythm of sneaking behind the houses. The street was empty, not a soul in sight. The ghost town unsettled the two, but they kept to shadows just in case. Reaching the last house at the edge of town, the flower field was too far off in the distance to be seen.