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"What are you doing down here." I asked again. My arm was starting to ache hardcore and it was painfully obvious. Tanis ran his fingers through his hair, and I watched his jaw set in a line. His piercing eyes set on mine and as he opened his mouth, the ground shook, causing both of us to go sideways. Once again, I landed full force down on my arm and cried out as my flashlight rolled away from me. A great moan came from the ceiling above and dust rained down, flecked with bits of rock. What in the hell was going on down here?
I exhaled the breath that I had been holding and pushed myself up onto my knees, clutching my arm. I could feel fresh blood seeping through the bandages and I closed my eyes and took another breath before attempting to stand up. This place was doing a number on me. In one swift movement, Tanis had wrapped his hand around my arm and pulled me up-and I let him. When I opened my eyes, I saw him staring back, his hand still lingering on my arm. He moved it when I glanced down-and that's when I noticed something else.
"How do you know my name." I glanced back up to him as he was in the process of getting my flashlight and gun. I wasn't nearly as worried about them this time around. When Tanis had moved his hand from my arm, I was reminded of when I woke up outside the pyramid-"Molly, I need you to wake up now." I couldn't recall exactly how the voice that spoke to me had sounded, only that it was definitely male...but those hands. I remembered those for some reason.
"How do you know me, Tanis?" I pressed my question again, the pain in my arm as far away from my mind as possible. He knew my name. He knew me and I had never met him in my life...I would remember someone like him. He didn't seem to mind my glare as he walked back to me, my gun in his hand.
I could practically see the gears in his head turning as he turned my gun over in his hands, contemplating his answer. "I don't know how to answer that right now." He handed my weapon back to me before stepping back, giving me a small smile before looking around. "You know, "he commented as if I hadn't just asked him the question "this place looks so different from the last time I was here." He spun in a circle, flashing my light about until he stopped on an entry way. He glanced over his shoulder. "you'll get your answers this way..." his face bunched up as if he wasn't sure "..I think, at least. I could be wrong. It's been a while." I just stared at him with what I was sure was a blank look.
How was I supposed to feel at this point? Angry? Upset? Furious, maybe? Because I wasn't any of those things. I was confused-so very confused....and a little upset. At myself mostly. I looked down on my gun wondering when it was a good idea to let my guard down before realizing that if he truly wanted to hurt me, he would have before...and not have handed me my weapon back. I took the bullet out of the chamber before putting the safety back on and maneuvering it back into it's place against my back. More upsetting to me was the fact that despite everything my father had ever taught me, before Tanis had even given me back my gun, I knew he wouldn't hurt me. Somehow, I knew that thought had never even crossed his mind...and that bothered me a lot.
Tanis cocked his head to the side a moment before flashing me another breathtaking smile. I gave him the same face my dad gave me when I asked him stupid questions and it only elicited a laugh from my new companion. "You were on the right track, you know" he stated as I readjusted my arm back against my chest. It was getting pretty stiff at this point and the pain was welling up to the point where I couldn't hardly stand to move it much anymore.
"On the right track to get out of here?" I grumbled as I reposistioned my backpack and tightened the strap across my chest, my fingers shaking pretty bad. It was embaressing.
"Sort of. Hey, do you want your light back?" he asked completely blowing off my question.
"You can hang on to it for now." I replied and he flashed me a smile that would have made the Cheshire Cat angry then nodded for me to follow him towards the corridor that he had the light trained on. With one last glance around I followed him.
Unlike the hall I had practically climbed to get to the Ballroom, this one was a little bit more wide and the stairs weren't as narrow. I listened to the sound of our footsteps a moment more before I asked another question to kill the silence. 515Please respect copyright.PENANA3tSo3RE2jN
"What was that thing?" I hugged the wall again as I felt my balance wavering. "That thing that tried to attack us, I mean."
"A Chimera" He replied like it was the most casual thing in the world.
"A Chimera..." I repeated. "You can't be serious?" I wanted to laugh but I honestly didn't have it in me. What with the fall, my arm and what I was pretty sure was an earthquake, laughing felt so far away. Exhaustion was much closer, coupled with my curiosity to find out just where the hell I had fallen.
"As a heart-attack." I could practically hear him smile and I grimaced. I decided that whatever question that I decided to ask him, he would either dance his way out of it, or just give me some far out answer that didn't make any sense-like a chimera. So I decided to not ask anymore questions and instead focus on putting one foot in front of the other, since it was becoming increasingly harder to do so. Even though the climb wasn't nearly as steep, I was still having a hard time breathing. I wondered how bruised my ribs were... Just as the walls opened up into another room, the ground started to shake again and quick as a whip Tanis shot his hand back, grabbed my shirt and yanked me up the rest of the stairs as I started to stumble back. I clutched at his arm as my boots brushed the stairs. Once again, I was pressed against the wall, with Tanis acting as my human shield.
This time around, I hardly noticed the ground shaking...and felt my face flush red as I noticed just how built this guy really was. I tried to ignore the heat that rose in my cheeks when his arm came from around my waist as the rumbling stopped. His face came back around and for a moment, he stood there just staring at me. His jovial demeanor was replaced with a more serious one. His shining eyes bored into mine, waking up something I wasn't even aware was there. Just for a moment, I was over whelmed with Deja-vu, grasping at a moment playing at the edges of my mind. His body against mine felt too right. I saw it in his eyes-he felt it too...but the Deja-vu ended and I glanced down only to realize that I was the only one still holding him to me. Embarrassed, I let go of his arm and pushed away from him. I saw something I could only describe as hurt briefly cross his flawless face and then it was gone. He turned his back to me, bringing the light in an arc around the room.
Briefly, I saw something that looked like a podium in the middle of the room-but he had moved the light so quick I wasn't sure. I did, however, see a groove in the wall. As Tanis completed his circle of the room, I pressed my palm to the wall, feeling around to see if that groove extended the length of the room-which it did. I held my hand out, and catching my drift he placed the mag light back in my hand. I grabbed it and then went back to the wall. The indentation in the wall was about four fingers tall and the width of my hand. With a quick look to see the inside, I saw it was filled with the same substance that the sconces were filled with below.
I stuffed the light in my mouth and crammed my good hand in my pocket and felt around until I felt the smooth surface of the cardboard box of matches against my fingertips. I pulled it out, struck a match and dropped it in the black substance. The flame caught instantly, and rushed around the room surrounding us in a soft glow of ambient light. This room was smaller than the ballroom was and was more square in shape. The walls were covered in more hieroglyphs. The two figures I had seen before were here too....only they were separated this time at opposite ends of the room, both reaching out towards the other with something extending from their outstretched hands. Matching the square structure of the room, there was a smaller square smack in the middle that had a stone column that extended up from a small dais in the ground creating a sort of Bulls-eye effect. One small step connected a bridge between the dais and and the outer edge of the room...but it was covered in a clear liquid that looked like water. I glanced over the edge and grimaced. Skeletons. Clearly it wasn't water. I walked past Tanis, who was now staying decidedly quiet and watching me from the entrance, to get a better look at the statue closest to me.
The man was now depicted as barefoot, his warlike garb replaced with a kilt that reminded me a lot of roman culture especially with the scarf that extended across his chest with two glyphs emblazoned on his shoulder where the scarf connected. In his outstretched hand was a spherical half. His beard and hair were still in braids that I assumed were ceremonial...and his face was still so very stoic...images danced across my minds eye, too fast for me to make any sense of them...but suddenly there was a name on my tongue.
"Adim..."
As if someone had struck a gong, a metallic hum resounded through the room and I watched in wordless wonder as the statue came to life. Tanis yanked me back as the statue stepped down from it's podium, walked to the edge of the pool and stepped down into it. The water sizzled as he waded to the podium, and then set his half of the circle down on top of it. He brought his hand back down to his side and stood there, waist deep just staring straight ahead at the other statue.
"What. The . Hell!" I breathed. My mind was racing, I knew that there was no possible technology that would ever have allowed that. "Are you kidding me?" I tried laughing but it elicited a pathetic cough. I turned and looked at Tanis expecting a grin. A small one played at his lips and he stared at me like a mother amused with her child. I ignored him and went to the other statue across the room- the one of the woman. Her long hair was pulled back in a braid as well that extended down her back. Her dress was different than before-it extended across her chest connecting much like the other statue's did at the shoulder with two glyphs. Her face was soft and a smile played at her full lips. In her hand was the other half of the circle....and just like before, images flitted across my mind filled with laughter and languages that I didn't understand....and a name.
"Edin..."
Once again, that metallic hum sounded and I stepped back and watched as she too stepped down from her podium, into the liquid and waded to the dais where she set her half of the circle. I moved to where Tanis was standing at the center and watched as both statues brought one hand to sit where their halves had made a full sphere and raised the other hand until their palms touched. The same blue light that had been on the sensor outside of the pyramid came up below the sphere, bathing the room in an eerie glow. A high pitched noise filled the room as the sphere sank down into the column only to be replaced by another sensor in the shape of a hand. Below, there was a knocking noise as the liquid drained from the pool, leaving the bridge open to cross.
"Is it safe?" I asked out loud, eyeing the residual puddles that had been left on the bridge.
"As safe as it's going to get for now." Tanis responded. He glanced at me and smiled again "I can go across first, Molly."
"I won't fight you." I replied. He chuckled as he stepped onto the bridge and walked across, stopping at the column and looking back at me with raised brows that said "your turn."
I rolled my eyes at him and carefully stepped across the small bridge. I was surprised that my balance didn't plunge me off the side, quite honestly. I stepped up the one step until Tanis and I were side by side. In front of us were two hand sensors this time. Like before, I set my right hand down into it's designated spot and before I got a chance to wonder if I should place my other hand down, Tanis set his down instead. A high pitched sound filled the room as the blue light dimmed. The eerie light disappeared along with the sensor. The column collapsed into the dais and we turned around as the bridge retracted. The high pitch sound was replaced by the familiar sound of ancient gears turning-The small step that had connected the bridge extended down into the depths of the pool until it came to a rest at the bottom. The outer walls of the pool moved back until they merged with the walls of the room, revealing a wide arch at the bottom-another doorway.
I don't know why, but I glanced up at Tanis's face to see his reaction...and it wasn't at all like mine. His face was devoid of emotion, like he was purposefully trying to keep himself from showing anything at all. He practically glared down at the archway, as if it had wronged him somehow and that worried me. I hadn't known him for twenty minutes it seemed- but I felt like I had known him a life time, and this seemed way out of his character. "What's wrong?" My voice had grown hoarse in my excitement.
"Nothing." he said in a voice that matched his face. I stared a moment longer before proceeding down the stairs. I didn't know what was up with his sudden change in character but I was too excited about my surroundings to worry too much about it. As soon as I reached the bottom, the stone slab that had blocked off entering the new room opened. Like I was on the event horizon of a black hole I felt a pull unlike anything I had ever felt in my life and I kept the flashlight trained in front of me as I crossed the threshold.
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