My Life In Ruins

31. Follow The Yellow Brick Road...Oh, Wait! It's Gold!

Skulls.

Human skulls. 

“Alright,” I said, my voice a little shaky. 

Why in the heck did you think about doing this, Callie?  Are you freakin’ crazy?

The answer:  probably yes.  Well, not probably.  Definitely.

“Drop me,” I said, looking back up at Max. 

“What?” he yelled.  “I’m not dropping you!”

I rolled my eyes.  “There’s water down there about ten feet down.  It’s deep.  I’ll be okay,” I said. 

“Callie…”

“Just do it before I change my mind and realize how crazy this is!” I yelled. 

Max looked at me for another long moment before I didn’t feel his hands grasping onto mine anymore.  And then I was falling until I hit the surface.

The water was warmer than I expected for it to be.  I just stayed still in it for a moment before I kicked my way up to the surface.  When I breathed in the air, I gasped and choked. 

“Callie!  Are you okay?” Max called down from above, sounding frantic. 

“I’m fine,” I called back up.  “I’ve got to get the flashlight, so don’t freak out!”

I took another deep breath and dove down.  My eyes couldn’t see clearly in the water, but it was enough for me to find the flashlight as it sat at the bottom of the pool.  When I tried to reach for it, my hand hit something else.  Something long and thin. 

My heart hammered in my chest when I realized it was a bone.  I quickly grabbed for the flashlight, which was sitting right beside it, and pushed off from the bottom and up to the surface again.

“Oh, my God!” I gasped, pushing my wet hair out of my face. 

“What?  What happened?” Dad called down.

I shivered in the warm water.  “There are bones down there.  Human bones!” I said. 

Shivering once more, I kicked myself over toward what looked like a small landing between the water and the wall.  When I reached it, I pulled myself up, placing the flashlight beside me. 

“Can you climb back up?” Brielle asked. 

I stood, grabbing the flashlight again, and shined it up the walls.  There were places on the wall that looked sturdy enough for me to climb back up, but what was the point when there was no other way out from up there.

“How about you climb down?” I asked.  “There might be something down here, a way to get out.”

After a few minutes of debate, I finally won.  It took them longer to climb down, mostly because I was the one who got the pleasure of free falling into the water.  But once we were all on the stone landing, we were able to look around some more. 

“There’s nothing,” Dad said, flashing the beam of light everywhere around the circular room. 

“Nothing above the surface,” I said, shining my flashlight down at the water. 

Below, I could see something glittering on the bottom of the pool. 

“I’m going down again,” I said, stepping back up to the edge of the water. 

“What?  No!” Max said, and tried to pull me back.

I looked at him and then flashed the light back down.  Whatever was down there glittered again.  And this time, he saw it.