3 CHAPTER 3

" That's beautiful . " Elise whispered as her eyes trailed off to the chest infront of her .

It's ornate carvings a sight to behold .

Looking both sides , she made her first step forward , immediately retracting her leg as she expected spikes to pop up , but nothing seemed to happen .

Her leg seemed fine .

Again keeping her leg on the same step , she moved her right leg forward , heat coursing through her feet as she moved back .

" Shit . " She cursed as she looked at the place she had stepped onto . Maybe that was it . The heat was the trap .

Making slights pats on the floor with her shoes , Elise deemed which ones were hot .

Slowly she made her way towards the chest , making sure to step onto the cold spaces .

She wondered what lied underneath the rest .

Was it lava ? Elise didn't know and she surely didn't want to spend enough time in here to know .

Reaching the chest , she smiled , relaxed at the fact that she had reached till here as safe as possible .

Opening the chest , she was not very surprised to find that there was absolutely nothing in it , just a hole in which she could barely stuff her pinkie in .

Someone might have already took it , that is if there was something to be took . Elise carefully walked back . She had memorized her steps .

Walking further towards the spiked exit , she turned around , panic flooded as she heard Niall's scream , piercing the air .

" Shit . " The torch in her hand fell to the ground as she turned around .

Running as fast as her legs could take her , Elise dashed towards the direction were Niall was at , only the dim light of the fallen torch there to show her , her way .

There there was Niall . He was standing behind something huge . It's greenish blue back was the only thing that was visible to Elise .

Niall's torch also layed on the ground , the torch light directed towards the creature .

With ragged breaths , she stood . Her legs shivering as her thoughts raced .

Shifting her attention onto the rope on her shoulder , she took it .

Shouldn't it have heard her already ? The question paced through Elise's mind .

Opening the rope , the girl charged forward , jumping onto the creature as it turned its head back .

She took not time to rethink as she attacked the creature .

It looked similar to a lizard , it's teeth bared as it snarled at her . It's red eyes scared her even more .

Elise tightened the rope around its neck as it used it's hands trying its best to take her off of it , but Niall moved faster , taking out his knife , he slashed the creature in its chest , blood splattered towards the floor .

It's hands retracted as it now went to Niall .

Niall moved back , his hands in front of him as he stared right back at the creature , it's eyes merciless.

Niall was on the verge of tears as it's hand came down to him , trying his best , he moved the knife in his hand up .

Gasping , he stared at the creature , who seemed to be processing what had just happened .

The boy had successfully chopped off its fingers , surprising himself with what he had done .

The creature shrieked in pain when it realised . Elise couldn't help but let go as she fell to the ground , her hands covering her ears as it's ear piercing cry echoed through the cave .

Niall couldn't help but smile .

The fifteen year old's smile immediately faltered when he noticed how much more aggressive the creature had gotten .

It was raging as it charged towards Niall , who immediately turned around to run , reaching the wall , he turned back , staring at the creature as it neared towards him .

The boy couldn't run back anymore , so he ran forward , praying this would work . Closing in towards the creature , Niall ducked as one of its hands came towards him , slashing it's leg with his knife , he ran towards Elise who had stood up by now .

The creature let out another cry , the rope was still hanging from its neck , only if he was able to get his hands onto it .

The creature had turned around .

As if it had forgotten Elise , it charged towards Niall . Elise held in her breath as she saw Niall running away from her .

Elise froze back , as she stared at the two .

Luring the monster towards him , the boy waited and when it was as near as possible , it's mouth open as it tried biting Niall's head off , he stabbed it in the eye with his knife , which unfortunately he couldn't take back .

The creature fell , blue blood pooling onto ground

" Why the fuck won't it die ? " He cried out as he kept his leg onto the monster's face trying to pull out the knife as it tried to bite him .

It was far too busy to use his other hand to take out Niall as it held onto it's face .

Noticing the opportunity Elise dashed forward , tightening the rope again , the creature gasped for air .

Leaving the stuck knife , Niall's eyes searched for another weapon as he stood on its face .

He was desperate and the only thing he was able to find was his stick .

Grabbing the stick as carefully as possible , he did the only thing his clouded brain helped him to do .

Niall sticked the stick up the creature's nose .

He had just stabbed a creature in the nose so hard the stick came out through it's skin , blood and mucus flowing out as he jumped off its face , disgusted at the sight .

Elise looked at Niall one last time , before screaming .

" RUN . "

The cave was collapsing , Elise could hear the rocks crashing to the ground .

Holding Niall's hand she ran as fast as she could , the heavy bag being the only thing , slowing them down .

" Niall , leave the bag . " She screamed as she ran forward . Elise could see the cracks forming onto the cave wall above .

" No . " Niall screamed back as he left her hand , running faster that Elise .

" You fvcking idiot " Elise screamed .

Halting immediately he was stunned as a huge boulder fell right infront of him , blocking his way . Running around it , Niall looked back a second to see if the creature was still at it to get them .

Maybe it had died .

Looking front , he ran faster with Elise tailing him .

Elise could hear the cave walls falling to the ground behind her as the path cracked . She ran , hoping her legs wouldn't get stucked between them and was even more scared than before when one fell right behind her , an inch closer and she would have been crushed underneath .

Screaming she ran faster , taking over Niall she was the first to get out the cave immediately falling to the grassy ground .

Praying internally , she was incredibly happy to notice how the spikes had disappeared and the ground was back up again .

Then came Niall , as he ran more than her . He was far too busy to notice Elise who fell .

They had fucking made it .

They were alive .

~

[ Today evening : On the way back ]

Elise knew very well why they were ignoring majority of what had happened . She was supposed to be angry , raging actually but here she was trying to be as positive and calm as they could .

Niall's love for adventure had almost killed both of them , again.

They had fought a hideous monster , well mainly Niall and had escaped a cave with booby traps and all of that was for a stone they never got .

They were walking back home as if they were coming back from school , heck that walk held more panic that this one .

Reaching infront of her home , she walked towards her garden . Washing her hands , she walked towards her house . Standing near the door , she waited for Niall to follow .

Today was the exact opposite of whatever she had expected .

Nice . That was what she had said . Today was not nice and an ice cream wasn't enough for that .

She did not take back everything she had said . The damn book was fucking cursed and Niall was just too blind to see . That was what was happening .

Opening the door , she waited for Niall to enter inside .

Elise couldn't help but note one thing . When they had entered the cave , it was early morning , but now it evening .

How was that possible ? Afterall all she hardly felt was a passing of three hours , maybe four .

Either time was really fast in the cave or she was extremely bad at calculating . Something was wrong , she knew.

She made an even creepier note mentally as she noticed that the blood that was supposed to be on their clothes had disappeared .

Eyes wide , she walked into the house and was immediately greeted by her mother who was sitting on the leather sofa , her phone in her hand as she stood up immediately at the sight of the kids .

" So how was fishing ? " She questioned , her eyes searching for a bag of fish .

" Great . We caught absolutely nothing . " Elise spoke , itching with irritation.

Fishing . That was what she wanted to do today and she had did everything except fishing .

" Oh that's ok . What else happened ? Where were you both till now . Time's almost five . "

" We went to the municipal park . Heard there were new swings added . " Niall spoke this time , smiling ever so slightly as he tried his best to avoid Elise's gaze on him .

" What about lunch ? I called you both , but none of you picked up . "

This was what Elise's mother did every day . Even though , she found it a bit tiresome , she knew why her mother asked such questions .

She cared for them a lot and she couldn't hold back her questions .

" Our phones were on silent . We also thought of going trekking , but yeah that didn't work . " Niall spoke as he opened his bag to show her mother the glow sticks he had.

" Ok . What about lunch ? Don't tell me you didn't have anything . " She spoke turning to walk towards the kitchen counter , immediately taking out a packet of bread .

" We actually ate . We ate sandwiches and ice cream " Elise spoke hurried .

" Thats a weird combination . Isn't that right Niall ? " She spoke as she kept the packet back at her daughter's words.

She knew she could trust Elise with her words about food . Elise was almost always eating . She would never be able to seperate herself from it.

" Yeah . " Niall replied , tapping his shoe onto the hardwood floor , waiting to be let free from questions .

Noticing her mother smiling , Elise held Niall's arm as she walked up the stairs , dragging him towards her room .

Closing the door , she whisper yelled .

" Where . is . the . blood ? "

" I don't know but guess what I brought ? "

A stone in his hand , Niall stood there as he smiled at Elise .