...
"No way out." Tina scanned left and right with a sigh.
"Bright side"—Dee crouched beside the water flora Brandon had sensed—"At least we made it."
Throwing a decent-sized rock in the large lake, Tina grumbled as she quickly lost sight of it. "Please, tell me y'all can swim." The group nodded.
There is a god, she inwardly cheered.
"Trying to drown us?" Brandon asked.
The bent-over Protected smirked and pulled back from the foggy water lapping at her cheek. "The average person can hold their breath for anywhere between thirty seconds and two minutes." A pensive moment passed. "I'll play test dummy."
"No," Brandon said decisively.
Tina turned to her Guardian, caught off guard. "Maybe I can find an exit," she said with a risen brow.
"It's too deep," Brandon argued.
"We don't know how deep it is."
"I just watched you. It's deep enough where you can't touch the bottom." He looked at her wet arm.
"It could level out."
"No."
"The current's weak. A novice could outswim it." Tina stood her ground with her hands on her hips.
"The water looks... questionable," Dee interjected.
Reaching in her bag, Tina pulled out a pair of goggles. Throwing them around her neck, she searched for another pair to offer a curious-looking Denzel. "Underwater caving is more popular than you might think. Most times, cave water can be drunk because of its low salinity." Handing Dee a prescriptive pair of swimwear, Tina winked. "It should be fine"—she turned and swatted Denzel's cupped hands down—"Don't drink it!"
"So, safe?" Dee asked, confused by Tina's mixed signals.
"I didn't say that."
Now, it was Denzel's turn to interject. "It'll be pretty dark down there. Will ya be alright?" He pocketed the borrowed eyewear.
"The goggles will help with visibility," Tina answered and puffed from, at last, prying Brandon's clasped hands apart. "Stubborn!" she said as she slipped the strap of his goggles in his grip.
"You know that's not what I asked," Denzel chided.
"You're stubborn, too"—Tina exhaled—"When I get in, I might cause a silt-out and lose sight. If that happens, you and Dee lighting my path would help a lot."
"We gotcha." The duo gave her a simultaneous thumbs up.
Tina giggled as she took down her bun and stripped off her footwear and jacket. She left her leggings and tank top on, knowing the items would protect her in the chilled water. Putting her hair in a tight ponytail, she joked morbidly, "If I'm not out in five minutes, I'm probably dead."
"Don't play like that!" Denzel screeched as Tina put her belongings away.
"You're right. Bad taste"—she stretched—"Sorry." After a few more stretches, the teen moistened the seal of her goggles with a bit of drinking water. "I'm ready," she turned to the group. Denzel and Dee clicked their lights to the highest setting with determined expressions. Tina contemplated for a second... "Brandon, take my light."
"I can see fine in the dark."
"But I can't."
"The lamp's waterproof. Take it with you."
Retrieving the thing from her bag, Tina pouted. "It'll slow me down." Frustrated, Brandon took the offered spotlight. "Thanks," she praised him. "Five minutes," she repeated with a look at Denzel's wristwatch.
After wetting her googles one last time, Tina slapped them on and walked along the shoreline. Carefully stepping into the water, she waded until about waist-high, and then, with a deep breath, dove beneath the surface.
With her group's lights guiding her through the murky water, Tina stroked steadily until she reached a beautiful underwater archway. On its other side, she noticed a tiny beam of light.
That way, she thought and swam through the gate until she was woozy and realized her helpful lights had disappeared. Damn time warps, she thought while trying to ignore the pounding in her head.
...Whoa... She searched her aquatic paradise of enormous, craggy rock formations and arresting animals one would likely only see on a tropical vacation.
As picturesque pufferfish and magnificent manta rays lived their lives, the alien air-breather felt an unusual tickle at her waist. Looking down, she noticed a school of flamboyant butterflyfish using her as a glorious divider. Tina smiled before she caught something slithering opposite her, near the water's deeper edges. Squeezing her eyes together, she spotted a few lengthy barbs.
Stingrays... If I stay clear of them- Shit. Got to breathe!
Searching for an air pocket she could exploit, the young girl identified some artsy angelfish, and in between them, her giant saviors, some green sea turtles.
Bless! She followed the air-breathing reptiles to safety, never more thankful for that one elementary school marine project than now. Thank you, Mrs. Espozo!
...
"Let me go!" Denzel yapped.
"She's fine." Brandon flung the older man back as he planted himself between him and the lake.
"She's not! You said that she went through a warp!"
"Yeah, our bond says she went through a warp, not that she died."
Rolling her pants past her knees, Dee carefully trudged into the water with her spotlight.
"Stop trying to push through me," Brandon growled as Denzel tensed.
"But it's been seven minutes!"
"She's a strong swimmer."
"Exactly! She's not part fish!"
Brandon's grip on the borrowed flashlight tightened. "...Three more."
Denzel's pupils constricted with his shout, "But-"
"I said give her three more minu-"
"Guys!" Dee squealed excitedly. "She's back!"
"Really?!" Both men ran to the water's edge.
Using their spotlights, the three led Tina back to shore.
Tina pulled herself from the water just enough to lay down without the fear of being swept back out. "Hell."
"Told you she was fine." Brandon flicked his light off and crossed his arms with a cocky smirk.
"You said five minutes!" Denzel screamed with a jerky flashlight as Tina worked to catch her breath.
"Sor-Sorry." Tina rolled on her back to soothe the burning in her lungs.
As her friend fought a coughing fit and waterlogged gasps, a worried Dee frowned. "You don't sound good." Getting on her knees, she helped Tina roll back onto her stomach.
Tina gave a weak thumbs up as she looked off to the side and gasped violently.
As the much drier trio exchanged glances, Denzel couldn't help but ask, "Somethin' happen down there?"
Brandon sighed at his Protected's silence. "Hey, woman." Tina turned in her Guardian's direction. "Did you find a way out?"
"Classy." Dee scowled at him.
"I-" Tina coughed a bit more.
"So much for not swallowing the water," Brandon muttered.
"I found another labyrinth."
The Guardian took a moment. "...Let's set up camp."
"But the time-"
"You're not swimming again."
"Classy," Dee said a lot softer this go-around.
"We can spare some rest"—Brandon looked at his Protected—"You get four or five hours, maybe a meal, and then we'll head out."
"But why-"
"I didn't say ask questions." Brandon turned his back on the group with a growl. "Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll rest."
As Denzel and her Guardian prepared their sleeping arrangements, Tina inwardly thanked the observant man for knowing she was in no condition for a second swim.
"Don't thank me." Brandon suddenly did an about-face and squinted. "You better remember the way out."
Seeing that Tina couldn't even muster the energy to roll her eyes, Dee placed her fingers on her upper back and helped her to her feet. "Let's get you fixed up." She helped her behind a rocky wall. After peeling off her wet clothes and covering up with a long blanket, Tina heard Dee chuckle. "You look like a burrito."
"I see Denzel's not the only foodie," Tina tried to joke as she wrung her curls with Dee's help.
After a few minutes of rubbing the blanket all over to speed up warmth, Dee led Tina to an unfamiliar tent.
"No," Tina protested as Denzel checked the tent's integrity. "I can't," she said when she realized the pair were giving her their tent.
"You can and you will," Denzel nearly demanded with a solid blush speckling his cheeks.
Tina eyeballed Dee.
"What he said," the Guardian echoed as she made sure Tina was securely wrapped.
"But I have my own tent." Tina tried to reason and go for her bag.
"We can use that." Dee quickly snatched the bag up.
"Yeah." Denzel smiled as he caught the tossed shelter. "I don't mind switching."
"But my tent's small, a single"—Tina pouted—"This one's for a couple."
Before Dee could gag or Denzel could tangle himself in tarp, a head of shaggy hair popped out the other standing tent. "You're wasting valuable rest time arguing. It's only for a few hours."
"What he said," the unified panda duo repeated.
"Fine." Tina, too tired to do otherwise, took her friends' kindness and was out like a light as soon as she zipped up her sleeping bag.
...
Tina grumbled at a sudden pain and cracked her eyes open. Groggy, yet feeling a lot better than earlier, she registered nothing but the strange way the surrounding darkness calmed her.
"Ah, you're finally awake," the black shape pinning her wrists mumbled in a distorted voice.
Tina squeezed her eyes together with a few hard blinks. Shaking away her sleepy haze, the woman caught a glimpse of the ominous red door she'd seen weeks prior.
"The creepy void..."
"Why... exud-exuding... pheromones," the voice asked from above.
Gawping at stark white teeth settled in one of the most genuine smiles she's ever seen, Tina welcomed the feeling of déjà vu before her memory fuzzed at molten amber.
A few seconds passed before the voice mumbled again, "Forever silent then?"
"Huh?" Tina tried to remember the voice's question with a shake of her head.
"That's not an answer."
Pheromones, she remembered.
"...Pheromones... My period," she attempted.
"Lie," the dark voice stated matter-of-factly.
"Wha-"
"Good no-nose... -ould smell blood."
"Wait, what?" Tina sputtered one octave short of screeching.
"I know I excite you," the masculine mass's vocal cords took on a familiar sound. "Your mouth lies, but your body doesn't." The force engulfed Tina with its deepened voice, causing a pleasurable sensation to shoot through her.
Worrying her lower lip to silence her whimpers, Tina suddenly felt that she knew what cornered prey felt like.
Swallowing her trepidation, she fixed her lips to lie again when her breath stalled. The thing's voice echoed in her head.
"You should know there's no use in trying to fool me. You're," the shadow paused and lowered itself before finishing with assurance, "wet." Hands, smooth as silk, moved to unzip Tina's pesky obstruction.
As her fabric-covered sides were stroked, the woman's breathing deepened. Finding herself completely entranced by milky eyes, she sighed and let her defenses fall.
Spurred on by the positive sounds slipping past perfectly shaped lips, the inky and slowly solidifying figure moved its feather-like touch to the woman's shoulder. As it separated her blanket from her shapely mold and skirted a juicy thigh, it noticeably breathed in her scent.
"...Do you want me?" the predator that was beginning to look recognizable around the edges growled in an all too familiar way, shocking Tina back to her senses enough that she swung... "You, insolent little brat!" the re-blackened being rebuked with a guttural growl and crushing pressure to Tina's small forearms. She screamed.
A flash went off.
Suddenly, Tina shot up in her sleeping bag, wide-eyed. She examined her wrists, and noticed, though they weren't marked, they hurt like hell.
Time to go! she thought. As her body buzzed like it was on a highwire, the woman speedily traded her blanket for her somewhat drier clothes and left her borrowed tent.
"Oh,"—Dee stared Tina down from around a dying fire—"I was just about to wake you."
Looking around, Tina realized everything but the tent she'd slept in was neatly packed away. "Are we heading out soon?"
"Yeah"—Dee rolled a ball of dirt toward the fire—"We were ready to go like an hour ago, but Brandon wouldn't let us near your tent."
Tina raised a sculpted brow. "How long was I out?"
"'Bout eight hours," Denzel answered as he tossed his own ball of dirt.
"Eight hours?!" Tina's jaw dropped.
"You're the only one who knows the way out." Brandon rounded a bulging wall. "It'd be no good if you drowned from exhaustion before showing the rest of us."
"Sheesh, so I'm only useful as a map..."
He smirked. "Take it or leave it."
Outside a few random cave passages...
"Wanna bet Kyle and them got lost, too?" A shivering Denzel turned to Brandon with his flashlight.
"No," Brandon said, dripping cold water like the rest of his group. Sensing eyes on him, he turned toward his Protected and shrugged before sparing Denzel a second glance. Expanding his answer with a smirk, he grunted, "I'm not a fan of losing. They have Connor's telesthesia on their side."
Dee laughed. "Being a walking binocular isn't much help when it's dark."
"Which way?" Denzel sighed as his flashlight lit various pathways.
Brandon pointed one out.
"You smell freedom?" Dee teased.
"I picked it at random."
"Seriously?" Tina asked with a hand on her hip.
"Would you believe me if I said it's the only opening that doesn't reek of death?"
...
"We're alive!!!" Denzel finished his barely lit climb with an exuberant shout.
"Told you." Ashley smiled outside the trailer beside Roscoe as they ate reheated takeout with Mr. Raven, Hailey, and Monáe atop some folding chairs.
"Looks like you win the pot, Hailey," Mr. Raven said in a defeated tone. "Breakfast?" He offered the returned students some foam containers.
"You bet on us?" Dee asked, a bit out of breath as she allowed her eyes to adjust to the rising sun's brightness.
"Of course," Hailey spilled with her hands behind her head.
"And the bet was?"
The tall brunette giggled. "Can't say."
"Irritating"—Dee turned to Mr. Raven and took a cold container—"How long were we gone?"
The professor looked at his watch. "Just under thirty-five hours."
"Not too shabby." Denzel smiled as he approached the portable table and microwave.
"Not good either," Dee grumbled and whacked him in the back of the head.
Tina jumped to her friend's defense. "Remember, weird timelines."
Dee pursed her lips.
"Do I get a sorry?!" Denzel sulked. Dee blinked at him and took both their containers to heat up.
As the pandas continued their bickering, albeit quieter than normal, Tina asked the lynx and sheep Guardians about their original bet.
"We were out an hour before midnight." Ashley winked in that sensual way of hers.
"Nice," Dee commented, her argument forgotten as quickly as it'd started.
"I'm so ready to bounce," Hailey whined. "I want to go home."
"Unfortunately, we must- Oh, speak of the devil," Roscoe said.
"Well, it looks like everyone passed." Mr. Raven sipped his soup as he watched the spider, bee, and frog pairs crest the hill.
"Whoop-de-doo." Hailey leaned back.
A few days later...
Since passing their cave exam, much of the G/Ps' free time consisted of studying.
Whilst Roscoe sat in the middle of Tina's living room, foregoing the delicious bowl of popcorn between them to droll on and on about extraterrestrials, she tried to review Bishop's earlier lesson regarding grimoires and Goetia, the practice of invoking angels and demons...
"Okay, yeah, this isn't happening." Tina suddenly jolted and slammed her text close.
"Pardon?"
"Sorry." Tina blushed and twiddled her fingers. "I just... I can't focus."
The man removed his glasses to massage the bridge of his nose.
"You should stop thinking so hard," she suggested.
"I thought we were about to talk about you." Roscoe stretched his tense neck, halfway wishing that his girlfriend hadn't had to attend the Guardians' mandatory assigned handlers meeting. "So, why can you not focus?"
And, with that, the dam broke.
"Jamie asked me out," Tina gushed, looking every part the teenage schoolgirl.
"Congratulations." Roscoe cracked his neck as his beloved friend beamed and recalled the moment Jamie shot his shot.
"I mean, a date with someone I fawned over for years seems too good to be true."
"I thought that you said, as of late, your texting had become more flirtatious?"
"True, but- Wait. How'd you know that?"
"Ashley is anything but subtle."
"Speakerphone?"
"Speakerphone."
"Ah."
"I believe I am lost. If the attraction is mutual, why are you so," Roscoe paused to find the right word as he searched his glasses for smudges, "jittery?" He came up short.
"I can't help that I'm nervous." Tina wrung her hands together. "Ugh, I don't even know what I'm going to wear, and it's almost dark. I'm running out of time!"
"Where are you going?" Roscoe remounted his lenses.
"Not sure"—Tina peeked through her lashes—"Jamie wanted to plan everything."
Roscoe smiled. "A romantic surprise then?"
Tina blushed. "Don't say that! I'm already a nervous wreck!"
"Would you prefer premeditated murder?" Roscoe teased until he saw Tina's cheeks puff up with emotion. "Fine, fine. Talk to me." He turned into a shoulder. "Maybe I can help."
"I'm worried about looking too eager"—Tina tried regaining her composure—"I'm getting lost in my head about the little things. Being unsure about if we're doing casual or dressy, alone, is driving me insane." She started talking more to herself than her friend, "Maybe I should mix it up, wear a pair of tights under a flowy dress and maybe my bomber jacket. No clue about the shoes."
Roscoe coughed suspiciously. "Something heavy."
"Excuse me?"
"You never know; he may get handsy and need a good kick in the cojones," he switched to his native tongue.
"You're joking about male anatomy"—Tina chuckled at his puzzled face—"It's odd when you act normal." She snickered and shook her head as she looked beyond her window to the sluggishly setting sun. "But he's not like that... I just don't know what to expect. Like, ugh, I want to be normal and think of this as another one of our old-time hangouts, but-"
"Now hormones are involved." Roscoe flatlined.
"You're irritating,"—Tina rolled her temptatious eyes—"but I won't deny having had a lewd thought or two."
"I am not Ashley"—Roscoe turned to a random page of Tina's book to bury his face inside—"Speak to her about these things, please."
"You started it!"
A few hours later...
His Protected's constant buzzing was driving Brandon up a wall. As she rushed back and forth, from her bedroom to the bathroom, he finally broke and asked a studying Roscoe why she was dolling up.
"She is going out." He answered with a sip of warm tea and a page flip.
"Jamie and I have a date." Tina winked Brandon's way in her more than delightful mood.
"Wait," he said with a skeptical expression. Pushing his laptop farther onto the coffee table, he shut it and unnaturally twisted in the recliner. "That guy asked you out?"
"Yep." Tina slipped into the hallway to put on her earrings.
"And you said yes?" he questioned.
"Uh-huh." Tina nodded happily.
"And you're wearing that?" He looked her up and down.
"Nice, right?" Tina did a little spin, too high on cloud nine to remember who she was showing off to before she, again, dashed to her bedroom.
"Nice enough to knock him dead," Brandon grumbled, knowing Tina wouldn't hear.
"As life forces us to stumble upon different realities, we learn that we don't always know what we need," Roscoe read his book aloud, "Discovering ourselves is so much fun, don't you think?"
**********
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
So, um, that dark space, red door thing was interesting, right? ...Why do y'all think that happened?
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