Nightshade Academy (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 15.2

"I'm late!" He screeched as he bolted through the trees.

"Late? Hey, wait up!" I yelled as I chased after him. He was a quick little devil that was for sure. As I clambered through the overgrown bushes and wild underbrush with quite some difficulty, he breezed through them with ease. He was graceful as fuck the way he leaped and bounded over fallen trees and pass loitering rocks just waiting to trip me up. My lungs felt like they were on fire when I finally emerged into a small clearing of some sort. I was panting pretty hard, trying to catch me breath, as I scanned the area for Dakota. My eyes immediately fell on a giant boulder sitting in the middle of the clearing.

The Boulder was like none I had ever seen before with smooth, grey stone and the most intricate carvings of various monsters strewn on all sides of it. I realized the front of the boulder held a stone door left slightly ajar. I caught a quick glimpse of Dakota vanishing behind it before I raced forward.

"Dakota!" I yelled as I reached the entrance. Looking down, I could see a spiraling staircase leading deep underground. I hesitated feeling a cold, forewarning breeze rush up to meet me from the open door. The air smelt like moist earth, calming yet strangely final. I took a deep breath before hurrying down the endless flight of stairs. Torches lit the way as I quickly chased after Dakota.

"Dakota are you there?" I called as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I glanced around, finding myself in a circular room with three closed doors. Looking up, I could see above each door a symbol had been etched into the stone. I could make out a mountain face, a crescent moon, and a slumped weeping willow. I walked cautiously around, trying to open each door as I did, but found them all to be locked. Huh.

I heard a rattling and glanced down. There, I spotted a small door no bigger than my thumb embedded into the door with the moon displayed above it. I got down on my knees and tried this handle. It too was locked.

"I'm late!" I suddenly heard Dakota's voice call, though it sounded very far away. It was as if he were calling from somewhere below me and behind this door. I stood up and pressed my ear to the wood. Silence. I turned back around in search of something that could help me possibly pry the door open or pick the lock, when I noticed a small table sitting in the middle of the way. Hm, I didn't recall that being there before...

I walked forward and saw a small glass bottle resting towards the middle of the table. It looked like the bottles of oils Dakota had shown me before that his mom had made. Looking inside, I could see a little blue leaf floating beneath the brown cork. A tag was tied around the bottle.

"Drink me." I read aloud. I shrugged and popped the top before taking a small sip. I scrunched my face up and coughed slightly. This tasted very sour. Suddenly, a tingling sensation spread throughout my whole body. It prickled my skin and made me feel all warm and queasy.

"Oh God." I covered my mouth, feeling like I was going to throw up just as the room started to spin. It spun and spun making my nausea much worse. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying this would end soon. Finally it did. The feeling of my insides being swirled up passed just as quickly as it had come. I sighed in relief and opened my eyes. Wait...

I glanced around feeling confused. Everything seemed so much...bigger. No, it didn't seem bigger, it was.

"Oh Lord..." I breathed as I peered up at the ginormous doors around me. They could be whole mountains with my sudden small size. Did I drink a shrinking potion or something? Was this some kind of a joke left behind by Dakota? I looked to my left and saw the small door was now normal sized, or rather now I was the size to fit through it. I raced forward and tugged on the handle. Locked, right. Well now what? I glanced around the room frantically.