The Woven Lines of Elements & Designs

Chapter 4

They all stared at me as if I had just grown a third eye. I suppose it was fair- you wake up in some random place only to find that you had superhuman abilities and then someone up and says you're not on Earth. 

"What makes you think so?" Jason asked. 

I gestured with my hand to the forest. "Go over there and listen." 

All three of them did so, turning up ears and making differing faces. 

"She's right…" Casey said reluctantly. "We've been to forests before and there was always some sort of sound… but there isn't a single sound here other than the ones we're making." 

I followed her thought with: "if this was really Earth, then I'd be able to feel it. It's wrong. It's… off. I can feel it, sure, but it's not the same as whenever I was around rocks before. These are real trees and plants, but anyone could plant a forest in the right conditions." 

Alex and Jason nodded as we talked, thinking over what we said and agreeing in the end.

"I have an idea, though it's probably stupid.." Casay said slowly.

"Any idea is a good idea, Case. What is it?" Jason asked.

"By the waterfall, it felt like it was under the rock, I could feel more electricity. Maybe we should check that out."

"Well that's a good start, though how do you propose we do that?" Alex asked.

Casey's brows creased as she thought, growing deeper before they shot up and she turned her gaze to me.

"You could go down the water and see if there's anything behind it!" She exclaimed.

Well, that's not a bad idea, but I have no clue how to control my powers, and I said as such.

"Just try!" Casey insisted, taking my hands in hers and looking deep into my eyes. "You can do it. I believe in you."

She said it with such earnesty and sincerety that I couldn't help but believe her.

"Fine. I'll try." I said reluctantly.

I walked away from the forest edge, towards the waterfall. When I got near the edge, I put my hand flat on the rock and felt for it... down the path and searching.

I felt a hollow space.. maybe there was a cave behind the fall?

I continued on my way, towards the edge of the cliff face where the river fell into a lake below. The view was beautiful, a deep blue freshwater lake about 200 feet down, surrounded by more of the same forestry.

I took a deep breath, and stuck my feet into the river and started wading my way to the edge.

As I walked, I followed the water path in my head, willing the water to hold me as I got to the edge. The water had stilled, like I intended it to. I peered over the edge, and water was frozen in place as droplets.

As an experiment, I put one foot on the first droplets, and my foot stayed. I put the next one down, and got the same result. By now, my heart was in my throat, my breaths coming quickly and loudly. I stepped through the droplets, making my way down, closer and closer to the lake. As I descended, I kept in check with the Earth path, searching for the hollow rock.

I didn't see anything. I got halfway down the waterfall, and didn't see a single divet in the rock. There were some protrusions, one about a third of the way down looked big enough to build a small house on, but no caves.

I started making my way back up, only to see that Alex was sitting on one of the protrusions. Namely, the biggest one.

"How the hell did you get there?!" I screamed, fearing for if he fell.

"Oh yeah forgot to mention; my power is telekinesis. Floated myself down to keep an eye on you just in case."

Relief flooded through me- he'd be ok if he fell.

I urged some of the water to make a path to the edge he was sitting on, and started to crouch down to sit next to him -this stopping water business was tiring- when I felt what I had been searching for- the hollow rock.

"CASEY" I screamed.

"Alex stay here!" I said as I started making my way back up the fall.

"What? What is it?!" Casey asked the second I got back to the top.

"I found it! The cave! But it's covered by more rock. I don't think it's that thick though I could probably move it if I tried!" I explained in a rush.

"Alex!" I called down, "can you help Case and Jason down to that spot?"

"Yep!" He called back.

"Okay okay go go go!" I urged the both of them.

Alex got them both safely down to the protrusion, and I followed after them, using the water droplets.

When I got there, Casey was feeling along the rock, leaning more towards the left side.

"Weird..." She said under her breath.

"What is?" Jason asked, still somehow calm despite everything around us.

"It's definitely muffled, which isn't surprising given this is under rock, but I feel a lot of electricity under here... like a lot. It's concentrated, too."

She felt around a bit more, all of us watching her like toddlers watch cocomelon.

Her head tilted, and she pushed her hand into the rock, and the rock pushed in too.

Great big groans emerged from the rocks as an invisible seam pulled apart, revealing a dark room made of metal. Casey went inside without another thought, and Jason and Alex followed after her, and so did I, despite the bad feeling I had in my gut.

When we had all passed the threshold, the rocks slammed shut, leaving us in complete darkness.

"Thirty-eight minutes and nine seconds."

Well that's a new record." A woman's voice says slowly from the corner behind us.