Progloue 5 End of this life

Andreas excused himself since he had a bruise now on his right arm. I went along with the people I was close with, Joa and Charles. The other people just nervously stood away.

Joa, who was here for three years, put his hand on a stone wall. It rumbled like it was made out of magic and a secret tunnel led down into a basement. That was quick.

"Isn't the security quite loose?" I said.

"Well, I mean for most people it's not really worth stealing the painting after going through so much trouble. I mean males can't see it and only females who are from this school can see it so yeah. Plus the room is sealed off with some cool ancient magic which-"

"Ancient magic? That stuff is actually real? And it still freakin exists?" I asked in disbelief.

"No ones so sure. It was written on the cravings."

"That's fascinating." I said.

Chares, who was claustrophobic, decided to stay put at the entrance of the tunnel. We forged in.

We walked for quite a long time. Long enough for me to start getting chills from the damp cold tunnel.

Finally Joa said: "Up ahead is the room."

I saw a faint glowing golden light. It was quite faint that I thought for a second it was my eyes playing tricks but as we came closer I realized it was actually glowing.

"Do you see it?" I asked.

He just shook his head.

"Just take a look in and come back. This place is creeping me out bro." he stood out as he took out his phone. Probably to check the news. A habit of his.

I stepped inside the room. It was strangely warmer than the tunnel. The glowing golden light was clearer here. I stepped closer to the painting. I gasped.

Her face looked quite familiar. I turned around only to see Joa waving at me frantically. I stepped out of the room.

"What's wrong-"

Joa pulled my sleeve. "We have to go now. An Earthquake just happened in Loreal and Dale. it was a big one we have to move before-"

The floor started to vibrate. I knew the exit was quite far away and I knew we wouldn't be able to make it before getting crushed by stone or rubble. We had to find a closer exit.

He broke in a sprint, so suddenly that I nearly tripped. Luckily he held my hand tightly. I frantically looked around as the ground trembled very dangerously. The surroundings looked awfully familiar. I stopped in my tracks. Joa turned to me sobbing.

"Come on!" he cried.

"No, just follow me!" I shouted hoping he could hear me. I grabbed his hand as I sprinted. The ground started shaking really dangerously. Jao tripped over some rocks but thank god for his physical body and for his fast reflexes because of the situation we are in, he quickly regained balance.

The walls started cracking. It was really hard to stand up.

I cursed myself for asking Joa and Chares to take me here. I cursed Mother Nature for why it had to be today. I wanted to curse God for why the innocent people had to die. I felt like strangling my friends, demanding why they wanted to escort me there instead of just drawing a map. I didn't need a friend at this moment who was so scared of dying! Now because of him I had to suffer by finding an escape exit.

The exit. I found it!

Unfortunately the ceiling was slowly raining some sand on us. We had a minute or three minutes till it came crashing down. But I had an instinct that the door wouldn't open. Joa, who rubbed his eyes, saw the exit and dashed towards it. He actually sort of crashed into the door, but the door didn't even budge.

I racked my brain trying to find a solution. A sudden idea popped out.

I started to randomly push some sections of the walls around the door. My hand suddenly sunk into a section and my hand touched something cold. Metal or liquid? I pulled it out and it was a key.

"Joa! Key!" I tossed the key to Joa.

He fumbled it and unlocked the door, and pushed against the door. The door seemed to not even move. Was this even a door? More like a wall.

I looked down in frustration, and saw some cravings that were engraved on the ground. There were also some steep lines around the place where we were standing. More gravel and sand rained upon us. We had very little time now, maybe a little less than a minute. Then another sudden appearance came out: what if, just what if the door was a camouflage and the actual door was that ground you saw? Usually I just ignore my instincts, and later I would always regret not listening to my instincts. This time I decided to listen to it for at least one time in my life.

I pushed more sections in the walls. My arm sunk in deeper than last time and the floor rumbled and Joa looked up to me.

"Go! It's an emergency tunnel!" I shouted.

I pushed a little more just to speed up the process.

The ceiling cracked really loudly. As Joa fell into the exit, the rubble came crashing down.