Chapter Twenty
Contains swearing, guns... etc
Spoiler
A/N: I hope you all enjoy this chapter. The whole story was based around this, pretty much. ...I have strange dreams. ;] But, yeah, let me know what you think of it, ya know, plot development, where you think his may be heading, suspicions... etc, etc... Also, I have a question. Would you like me to create a group for this? Thank you for any reviews! (:
Vara was being torn apart.
The howling wind that wrapped around her spun her in every direction possible. Her ears became blocked by the mounting pressure building against her, making her feel like she was on a plane spiralling to the ground. Her cries were muffled, torn from the centre of her being and whipped away by the wind. The fingers clutching her arms dug in so deep they sent pain shooting up her arm. She could see frighteningly bright flashes of light against her eyelids and it felt more and more like the air was being sucked from her lungs.
Something crashed against the bottom of her feet, and she knew from the sudden yank of gravity that nearly knocked her down she’d stopped spinning in mid-air.
She’d landed.
For a moment, Vara just concentrated on sucking stale air into her lungs, but when she felt the fingers embedded in her arms loosening, she cracked open an eye.
The breath she’d only just got back left her in a sharp exhale. Her hands, which had been held protectively over her chest, fell to her sides. Around her, the others stared in wonder.
They stood in the centre of the biggest cave Vara had ever seen – and that included on the Discovery Channel. It seemed to stretch on for miles, so much so that the walls were nearly impossible to see. The size was nothing, though, compared to what filled the cave.
Jewels.
Thousands upon thousands of stones, glittering in the beams of light from torches roaming around the cavernous space. They were gathered in clumps, sprouting from the black slabs of rock like muscles on the bottom of a ship’s belly. Red, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple, brown… Every colour in the world was there, clinging to the rough rock. Every colour except…
Vara glanced down at the stone she was clutching in her hand. Slowly, she unfurled her fingers until she could see it. In the dark of the cave, the white stone appeared to glow.
Shouts made her head snap up. She squinted as the lights from the torches blinded her, and she realised that the light hadn’t come from them. No, no one would have had time to immediately hunt through their backpacks for a torch. There were people surrounding them, and they all had their lights trained on Vara and the others.
Luckily, Leo seemed to know what was going on. He held his hands up and brought them down in what was meant to be a calming gesture. “Hold your fire,” he boomed in a stern voice into the black, “or the master will have your balls for breakfast.”
Vara’s hand moved to hover over the gun hanging at her hip when no one responded, but then the lights were lowered to their feet.
Leo looked back and checked on the others. From the angle the light hit his face, it turned his features into hard angles, making his mug even scarier than usual. He didn’t look anxious at all, more annoyed. His eyebrows were drawn low over his eyes, which were, thankfully, hidden in shadow.
“That’s the back-up,” he told them in an irritated voice. “They’ve been securing the area, making sure there aren’t any holes to fall down into.”
Vara heard Emily whimper. She twisted her neck to peer at her and felt a thrill of satisfaction when she saw how pale and sweaty the girl had gotten. For some reason, she always loved it when Emily got a taste of just how far from sweet life really was.
“They’re going to be watching your backs while you’re collecting the stones, too,” Leo continued. “So don’t piss them off. Also, you heard what the master said: don’t make them do your job. They’ll only mess it up.”
“When did they get here?” Kerr asked, still sounding surprised.
“Not even an hour ago. So don’t worry – you haven’t been missing out on much.” Leo shifted his shoulders so his pack dropped to the floor. Quickly, he unzipped it and began to search for his torch. Some of the others began to do the same.
Omar stopped craning his neck at the cave ceiling. Throughout the whole conversation he’d been turning around, peering into the dark, kicking at the rock under their feet. Faintly, he said, “I thought the master was only joking…”
Leo ignored him, and instead said, “Darius, Kerr, I want you both to start over there.” Leo pointed directly in front of them. “Take three Guns to keep an eye on you. Gradually work your way back here.” Kerr nodded and began to set off, pointing his flashlight at the space just in front of his feet. Then he stopped and looked around for Darius.
The sound of retching reached their ears.
“Aw, man,” Omar groaned. Vara wasn’t sure if it was the light or if Omar was turning a little green at the noise.
Leo snarled, and Vara thought that if Omar was going green, Leo was becoming a frightening shade of red. “For fuck’s sake!” he cursed. “Maybe we should have got the girls from the Brownies to do this instead. God knows they wouldn’t be so weak.”
“Teleporting is a bit of a shock to the system…” Omar began to mumble, but shut his mouth fast when Leo turned to glare at him.
“You,” he snapped at Omar, “are going to the other side of those two. You’re over there,” he pointed behind them, “and making your way back to here. Have at least two Guns watching you.”
“Right.” Omar gave a mock salute, then hesitated. “We’re just putting rocks in bags, right?”
Leo narrowed his eyes at him and said in a voice colder than a serial killer’s heart, “Don’t let the rocks touch each other. If you do, I’ll shoot you on the spot. Am I clear?”
“Undeniably.”
“Good. Off you go, then.”
Omar glanced at Vara and Emily before he headed toward two of the Guns on guard.
Leo turned to Vara and Emily. “Vara, take Emily with you-”
Vara gritted her teeth.
“-And learn to play nice.” Which was rich, coming from him. Less than twenty-four hours ago he’d pinned her to a wall by her throat. “Vara, you’re here to do your job – so do it. Emily – the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can think about finding Kieran.”
He was a brilliant liar. That’s what that calm tone of voice was – a lie. Vara was pretty confident that he’d rather be collecting these stones than searching for a scumbag like Kieran.
As Emily began to argue with Leo about how important it was finding Kieran – if he was still alive and blah, blah, blah, Vara bent over her rucksack and grabbed a torch. She clicked it on and checked what was inside. There was the bulky, rough canvas of what had to be a tent, some tinned food, several water bottles, spare ammunition and a huge number of small, velvet bags. No wonder the pack was so heavy.
Suddenly Emily crashed into Vara, making them both land in a heap on the ground. Vara blinked and struggled to push Emily off her, while Emily tried to get back up. She was clutching her cheek, her eyes small slits of fury. She pushed up off Vara and shot to her feet, thrusting her face in Leo’s.
“You just hit me,” she hissed.
Vara stared at her, open-mouthed. This was Little Miss Timid? Little Miss Spineless? As soon as the thought entered Vara’s mind, Emily seemed to remember herself. She stopped standing on tip-toes and forced herself to calm down.
“You were irritating me,” Leo said casually, picking up his rucksack and turning his back on them.
Vara got to her feet and checked Emily’s face for blood. There wasn’t any, but from the way her cheek was glowing red, she was going to have a nasty bruise.
“Come on,” Vara sighed, gripping Emily by the arm. “We’ve got work to do.”
Emily yanked her arm out of Vara’s grip. “But he hit me.”
Vara scowled at Emily. “Yeah, well, you are kind of annoying. And if you haven’t noticed, things are going to be different now.” She started to set off in the direction Leo had pointed in, knowing that the best way to get Emily moving wasn’t to force her, but to make her chase after her.
She was right. Emily stumbled after her, trying to catch up with Vara. “Hey, wait. What do you mean things are going to be different?”
Vara swung her torch light across the lumps of rock coated in stones. Worried she might trip and lose the white stone she was holding at the moment, she slipped it into her pocket. She took her time replying because it would irritate Emily more. “We don’t have to lick your ass anymore,” she said at last.
“W-what?” Emily nearly fell as she tripped. “Ow,” she hissed suddenly. Vara looked back and saw Emily clutching her hand. She must have cut it when she tried to steady herself.
“You’re here now,” Vara continued. “Stuck with us. Going nowhere. That’s all we need from you. Now we can treat you how you deserve to be treated without having to worry about you running off.” She smirked to herself. “At last.”
There was no reply from Emily. Vara turned around again and saw that she wasn’t behind her anymore. Unable to keep back a snarl of frustration, she doubled back to look for Emily.
Soon enough, her flashlight fell on the pale-haired girl. She was standing with her back to Vara, her hands reaching out to touch a clump of orange stones. Emily’s trembling fingers lightly brushed against the tops of them, and she slowly lowered her head.
Vara set her bag down against the rock and scooped out a few velvet bags. This was as good a place as any to start. Besides, trying to usher Emily around was hard work; Vara could do with the break.
She set the torch down on the stones, positioning it so that her hands were bathed in light and she could easily see what she was doing. For a moment she paused, wondering how she was going to work the stones loose. They didn’t have a hammer or pickaxe to help, only the bags for each individual stone. But when she started to tug at one, it came loose almost instantly.
“Here.” She handed a couple of bags to Emily. The girl jumped, looking like she hadn’t even noticed Vara standing right next to her. “One per bag. Don’t put two in the same one – even if you can easily get two in. You know what the master wants. And the stones come off easily; you’ve just got to yank at them a little. Hand the bags back to me when you’ve put the stone in and I’ll put them in my pack.”
“What does he want them for?” Emily whispered, shivering a little.
“He wants to give them to someone,” Vara answered, working loose another stone.
“Who?”
Vara shrugged. “It’s not my job to question the master.”
“Even if what he’s doing is wrong?”
Vara paused and scowled to herself. Then she placed the stone in one of the bags and reached for another. “How is this wrong?”
“The stones feel strange,” Emily answered. “Alive.” She held up one of the amber stones to the torchlight. The yellow light made the amber glow even more. To Vara, it looked like Emily was staring at a piece of lava. Its reflection shimmered in Emily’s eyes and Vara nearly shivered. There was something in Emily’s expression, something twisted and almost …hungry.
“Well, they’re not normal, are they?” Vara scoffed, trying to push away her unease. Emily looked away from the stone and back at Vara.
“What will he do with them?”
Vara was about to say that she’d already answered that question, when she realised that Emily was just thinking out loud. She was staring at the stone again, bringing it closer and closer to her face as she squinted at it.
A startled shout rang out.
Vara grabbed the torch and aimed it in the direction the noise had come from. Her heart began to pound in her chest and she tensed, expecting to see something lunge out of the dark and come straight toward them. All that she saw, however, was shadowy figures running toward something, their shouts echoing in her ears.
Vara cursed and scooped all the bags into her pack. “Keep behind me,” she growled to Emily as she reached for the gun hanging at her hip. “We’ve got to help them.”
Emily moved so that she was just behind her. Vara was about to take a step forward when she felt the ground begin to tremble. A growing rumbling filled the stale air of the cave, mixed with the crashing of rocks splintering and falling to the cave floor. Something brushed against her face and as she moved the flashlight, she saw clouds of dust falling from the cave’s ceiling. The ominous creaking it made sounded like it was going to crash down on them at any moment.
Vara lunged backwards and grabbed Emily’s hand before she began to dart around the shuddering clumps of black rock, heading for where Leo and the others seemed to be. Pebbles began to clatter down from the ceiling and all around them the stones were shaken loose from the rocks, skittering everywhere.
When the beam of light from her torch found Leo, she saw him raising his gun at Omar. It was nearly impossible to hear what he was saying, the roar of all the stones falling nearly drowned him out, but Vara caught the words “fell”, “knocked them together” and “now they’ve touched”. Then she realised why Leo was pointing the gun at Omar and why Omar was waving his arms at him, sounding so desperate as he cried, “It was an accident!”
He’d tripped and had somehow caused the stones to touch each other.
Confusion tore through Vara. That couldn’t be the reason the cave was about to collapse in on them, could it? What did it matter if the stones did touch each other? They were only freaking stones!
Emily’s voice whispered through her mind. The stones feel strange. Alive. Then Vara remembered her response: Well, they’re not normal, are they?
But then again, when she’d said that, she didn’t think that they could have caused an enormous cave to come crashing down on them in a matter of minutes.
Leo’s finger tightened on the trigger. His face once again nothing but a mixture of harsh angles in the flickering torchlight. As he pulled the trigger, Vara thought she saw him smile.
Emily screamed, and then screamed again as Omar crashed to the ground, his face carved in by the bullet that had torn through him directly between the eyes. Emily’s piercing shrieks and Omar’s pooling blood made Vara feel like she was trapped in a nightmare. She was almost numb, unable to believe that the somewhat soft and reliable giant she’d known for nearly ten years was lying on the cave floor with a bullet in his brain.
Leo turned his gun on Emily.
“Shut up,” he snarled. “Or you can join him.”
Vara forced her heavy legs to move, to bring her between Emily and Leo. “The… the master…” her voice was faint so she cleared her throat and tried again. “The master doesn’t want Emily dead.” Yet. “She’s needed to find Kieran.”
Emily began to sob bitterly. A pebble punched Vara on the shoulder and she glanced up at the roof of the cave. It was cloaked in darkness, but Vara knew it wouldn’t be long before larger pebbles – boulders – began to rain down on them.
Leo’s top lip pulled away from his teeth in a sinister snarl. His pale eyes looked white in the torchlight and the way they were trained on Vara made her want to shiver.
Then he suddenly got distracted by something skittering around their feet. Vara glanced down. It was the stones, rolling around the cave floor like leaves caught in the wind. For a brief second, Vara wondered how they could do that when they didn’t seem light enough, but Leo’s rough bark grabbed her attention again.
“Everyone, let’s go.” He bent down and grabbed one of the stones flying about their feet. He tossed it to Vara and she caught it reflexively. Absently, she noticed that it was red. “Vara, you know what to do.” He grabbed Kerr’s hand and Vara saw Kerr wince. Darius took hold of Kerr’s hand and the hand of one of the guards. And so everyone began to form a wonky circle.
Vara turned around and spoke as soothingly as she could to Emily, “Emily, you’re going to have to take my arm and hold it tight.” Emily numbly obeyed, not even looking at Vara. “Tighter,” Vara said. Emily’s fingers locked around Vara’s arm. One of the guards took Emily’s other hand and another grabbed Vara’s other arm.
The last thing Vara before the blinding, red light made her shut her eyes was Omar, sprawled on the cave floor, buried under the dust of the swirling stones.
Good, good.
sniffff :'(