Later on that night we were all back in the vampire wing, the meeting was to be held but only with all the leaders of each wing. We were just waiting for Thad to get here, the only reason I had managed to persuade Jack to hold it was by leaving him in the dark completely, which was easier said than done.
Now that they were all here, in front of me I suddenly grew nervous. I had no reason to be as the people around me weren't strangers, but I felt like I was in the middle of something big. That after this there was no going back, but really, it's a little too late for that now. We've been planning to break out for a while.
I shake off my unease and take a calming breathe before I start. I can do this.
"You were right Vlad, there is something up with the guards I know this is going to sound weird, but hear me out. It turns out the guards have been brainwashed, I'm not sure by who but someone very powerful. When they meet up they were chanting to get pulled into some vortex, I guess. Then they were reporting to him, that they've done something to the ships. We need to find them!" I state going off tangent.
"Whoever brainwashed them found out about me and tried to stop me from leaving. I'm not sure how I left, but one of the guards Noel, helped me out. He confirmed that they had sabotaged the ships and their 'master' didn't want us leave Arston. It was while I was leaving that I got most of the scratches and bruises. We need to get off this planet as soon as we can."
"I agree," Jack states and he gives me a look that says 'I know you have more to tell me,' "after breakfast tomorrow we all meet in the werewolf wing, then we split up and the techs will inspect the ships we have and the rest of us will split up to look for the others."
"We have four days left until our projected lift off date, do you all agree to push that forward to three and if possible two days?"
After a chores of 'ayes' Jack rattles off a few more orders regarding the the roles of each group that needed to be completed, things they already knew but were needed to be done faster, due to the new departure date.
We leave abruptly after and if anyone thought it was weird that no one said anything, probably knowing they would would be fruitless.
"Tell me everything," Jack demands as soon as Warren has closed the door.
"There's not much more to tell, after I had spoken to Noel which I still don't know how that was possible, I woke up back here. Then I must have fallen asleep again as I had a dream about this lady, she gave me a choice and when I said no she gave me this tattoo. I mean, I didn't know it was a tattoo but, yeah. She said I had 100 days to find this animal. I didn't even know Phoenix's are real."
"I've heard of that before but I thought it was legend, clearly not. I think there are Phoenix's on Earth." Warren mentons. I look to Jack, who's gone too silent again, the silence that means something more than he's not just listening. Warren seems to have made himself scarce after noticing the tension in the room.
"Jack?"
"I'm sorry."
"What for?" I question, confused.
"I'm supposed to protect you! And all you end up doing is getting more hurt!"
I'm taken aback by his outburst, but only momentarily, before I start ranting: "It was my choice to follow the guards a few nights ago, my choice to help discover this prophecy. It is not your fault that my dreams go a little crazy sometimes, it's not your fault for anything."
"Anna, don't make excuses."
"I'm not making excuses you are! Jack, this is not your fault, you've been awesome just sticking beside me and helping me recover from everything. You need to let me do things for me, these are my choices and my repercussions." By now, we're standing eye to eye, he's looking down at me with such an intensity there aren't even words for, for once I can see all the emotions he normally keeps under wraps, in his eyes, the love, the insecurity, the anger, everything.
I can't help it, I close the gap between us and the moment our lips connect, nothing else matters anymore. The only thing I can think of is Jack and how perfect this feels.
Moments later we break apart, my lungs protesting due to the several minutes without air. No words are exchanged but I feel like we're having a conversation just by looking at each other, our eyes doing the talking.
He pulls me into a hug and we stay like that for sometime, just enjoying each others presence, the comfort of a hug with someone you love filling us. All too soon does the illusion will have to break, we have to get back to reality, due to the meeting tomorrow morning and the prep Jack wanted to do before that we had a very early start.
Morning arrived too soon, excitement making sleep scarce inspite of my suddenly absent dreams. I could only watch as Jack made teams to go on the ship scavenger hunt and gave each team sections to search, by the time it was breakfast he had assigned everyone, including himself a job.
Everyone had an itinerary, for the next two days Jack had planned every thing, including toilet breaks. Times like this reminded me of what a great leader he was, fair too, we had toilet breaks and down time. Despite the gravity of the situation he saw how important it was to not overwork ourselves, to keep everyone on top form. To continue to put their needs first and that made me love a little more.
My team and I were on a mission, actually I think we all were, we had our objectives and now to and were now ready to fulfill them. Jack had given an amazingly inspiring speech at breakfast which was probably why everyone was feeling so pumped. It was an exciting prospect, the hope for light at the end of an endless tunnel.
Each team had two techs and an assortment of each race in each team as every race had strengths and weaknesses, to balance each other out. My team and I were on our way to the dungeons, a previously unknown area of the prison. I didn't even know but apparently the area down there is quite vast, but luckily I have Clark and Mick in my team and more vampires as they have awesome night vision.
As we descend into the dungeons on the most reliable looking ladder ever, note the sarcasm it was covered in rust and grime that I didn't even want to think where it came from. I know now why we all have gloves, it creaked as I made my way down. No one in my group had ever been down here before which was about as reassuring as walking into a dragon cave unarmed.
Totally not on my bucket list.
Which really if you think about it is a stupid name, why call it a bucket list? Where's the bucket? Humans are odd, which I can say without being accused of racism. And to think, in some days humans used to define racism as different skin colours, little did they know.
I digress purely because the dungeon is not the happiest place to be on this world and after having climbed down the ladder of death, we are plunged in complete darkness, well except for the manhole we came down. I fumble for my torch and flick the switch the beam facing towards the floor. Never have I felt as claustrophobic as I do now.
I take in a deep breath steadying my nerves, no this place is not going to swallow you whole, no you will see the light again, yes, everything will be okay. You are a part of a strong, capable team who will pull through whatever this godforsaken dungeon will throw at you.
And anyways, you've been through so much so far, this is nothing in comparison.
After giving myself a mini pep talk, I realise that everyone is waiting for me and I take out the rough map Jack's drawn for us, which was so amazingly done that it was a box that says 'basement'. Thanks Jack, so helpful.
"Looks like we're going in blind, do you want to split up? We'll meet up at this manhole," I was interrupted by a screeching sound from above, the manhole was closing, made sense really. "Change of plan, we'll all go together, can you tie this to the ladder? Somewhere visible."
I hand my torch to one of the fae and we set off in the direction of forward, the vampires keep themselves furthest away from the beam of light, night vision and bright light don't go together. We trudge in silence, not sure what were looking for exactly or how they got spaceship down here anyway but we would investigate regardless.
Every couple of meters one of the vampires would tie a florescent ribbon to make out our journey, but so far after seeing nothing but chains hanging from the walls we saw nothing. I had also instucted someone to attempt to draw a map from where we walking, not that the map that Jack had given us could be beaten but we could try.
It didn't take long for us to get ansty and frustrated, the further we walked and the less we saw the more our angst grew. It didn't help that none of us had been here before, that we, well so far I could only talk about myself, am getting increasingly scared of getting stuck down here forever.
I sigh internally, pushing forward regardless, I know it'll be more gratifying to sigh aloud but that would be too obvious. First rule of leadership is to act like everythings okay even when it's not, fake it 'till you make it.
Or in this case, act like you know where you're leading a group of your fellow inmates in an underground dungeon with no light and no idea where you're going until you either find where you're going or you find what you're looking for.
Or you die here alone, really slowly and painfully.
Dammit brain.
You feel the need to do this to me why, exactly?
"Did you see that, Anna?"
"See what?" I question, not noticing anything different in out surroudings.
I feel someone take my torch off me as the shine the light ahead but there in front of me is one of the ribbons that we've been using as markers. How is that even possible?
"Is everyone seeing this?"
I hear a few murmers of agreement ad decide to consult the makeshift map which doesn't really such me much.
Stumped, I ask, "Any theories?"
"Can I see the map? What if we walk around again numbering each marker we've put to gauge how much of a distance it is? Then we can section the area off and split it between us taking a look more closely to find any clues." One of the fae suggested.
"Awesome suggestion! Let's do it!"
After numbering the marker in front of us, we trudge with slghtly lifted spirits through the same path again, finding that the distance we had walked, although it felt like a lot, was actually just a few meters. Surely, the basement of such a large prison would be bigger than this? Even if it was simply used as storage or a docking port for the spaceships I'd imagine you'd need way more space than this.
All in all we had three sections to cover so after equally dividing both members and supplies across the teams, I ensured that the skill set of the different species would remain equal throughout, we also created a short code of words that let everyone know, if they had found anything or if there was any danger.
Clark set up the stopwatch, as he was one of the few people who could actually see the numbers, and each team had one hour in each of their designated sections before switching. This was both for strategy and to keep our sanity.
We worked in silence, our focus on the task at hand then getting the hell out of here asap. It was on our second switch that I noticed an anomaly, there were small etchings on a few bricks. Taking a closer look I couldn't figure out if they were hieroglyfic style and were telling a story or if they were the alphabet of some language.
I break formation, to study the wall I had previously looked at again, just to see if I had missed any etchings. After checking my suspicions I only find those etchings on the middle wall, and just to ensure I'm not deluding myself into thinking this was some kind of big discovery I ask a few vampires to check if they recognised the language, eliminating the possibility that this was some poor prisoners' bored etches.
I was beginning to freak out a little, nobody in our group could see the etchings but me, I had attempted to draw a few out but everytime I did the lines became fuzzy and rearranged themselves. How that was possible I do not know, where was a magician when you needed one?
I was a few seconds away from either banging my head against the damn wall or pulling my hair out. Everyone in my team had looked, double looked and some had even felt the bricks I was pointing out to understand these symbols. We were huddled around the area with a few of the members giving me looks that clearly showed they were questioning my sanity.
At this point I was too.
Until Mick said, "Wait, what if it's like what happened the other night? Where we couldn't see how the guards dissapeared? But Anna could. That makes more sense, since the guards are supposed to have hidden everything away. This would be the best way to hide it, keep it humans only, narrow the chance of finding it right down."
The relief that surged through me then was unreal, like finally, something that made sense, and didn't make me feel like I was going crazy. I turned towards the bricks with renewed determination, examining each one carefully to see if there were any clues as to what I should do or where they would lead.
Where they supposed to be like a trasure map and point me to somewhere? Or were they a code? Or did I have to push to activate a ladder or open a door?
The possibilities were numerous, I have to look at this logically, all in all there are five bricks with etchings on them and as this is the only wall with these bricks I can presume that this wall would activate something. Or I would hope, mainly, it's the hoping that I've got going for me now.
Tentatively I press down on one brick, testing if anything would happen. To my great surprised the brick illuminated and blinked, once, twice before going back to normal. I guess I would be trying out my code theory, I press another, the thought having just struck me that if I was to do this wrong it could potentially mean disastrous consequences for all of us.
This could be a trap, which really was what I needed at this moment, more pressure being put on me. The brick flashed three times, maybe if I tried all the bricks, kept a note how many times each brick blinked then I could press them all in order?
I didn't bother asking if anyone could see what I was doing or if they had any suggestions as I knew they wouldn't be able to see anything, I was more than thankful that right now they were letting me do my own thing. Once I had noted it down I tried out my theory and to my dismay it didn't work.
What else could the flashes of light mean for each brick, if not chronological order?
Hmm, normally it would be the guards that woul be opening this gateway. if it was a gateway how would they do it? Well, first things first there wouldn't be just one guard down here – how many guards were there?
If my memory served me well, which normally it didn't there would be at least five I don't remember how many I saw leaving entering the portal that night but it was more than five for sure. I wonder if any more have been 'gifted' like Noel had since then?
If so, wouldn't whoever's behind this need a minimum of guards to take care of business?
That's it! What if the bricks and flashes of light represent one person? That way, there would only be five people going into where the spaceships maybe, the less people who know the better, right? Just incase someone has a change of heart, or if they were 'gifted'?
"Guys, can you just hold onto these bricks for a second, on my count just push it, like a button."
They didn't question me, instead they readied themselves and awaited my command, I picked up a few last minutes supplies and faced my brick.
"One.....Two..... Three!"
We all pushed, a deep rumbling sound came from the other side of the chamber. It grew louder and louder, until it was so deafening I couldn't even hear myself think. Just as I thought it couldn't get any louder, any worse, it grew to a crescendo, shrill and piercing. The others were having a hard time holding on, this was effecting them so much more than it was me.
With one final inhumane shriek, and a flash of blinding light we toppled into darkness.