The Rusted Keys

The Final Layers

"Well great. He's the only one of us that is smart," Steve said, crossing his arms. Skadj knelt in front of Apollo, trying to help him at all.

"What is going on?" Platy asked, confused as to why Apollo was having that reaction.

"Something in the room is making a high pitched noise. It's clearly such a high frequency that only an animal-err hybrid-can hear it," Steve said, having always loved animals. He had been fostering a dog before he had ended up moving to Texas.

"Make it stop," Apollo managed to get out. Skadj glanced at everyone, looking almost confused and panicked.

"Over here," Platy called out and Ze walked over with Steve close behind. They both peered at what Platy had found. There was a black circle, glowing. With a sickening thought they hoped that this wasn't the way to make it stop.

"Oh no," Steve whispered. He glanced at the others, nobody moved for a moment. Slowly Steve did, what did it matter? He technically wasn't close like the other four in the room, and the only two people he considered himself 'close' to had been turned to stone.

Nothing happened though, and confusion shot through everyone. "What?" Ze asked, and he stepped onto it next to Steve. Platy joined them a second later, and a voice seemed to speak in their head.

"The closest is the furthest," was all it said and Skadj looked up and over at them. His face told them he heard it too, and Apollo gripped onto him while trying to cover the wolf ears.

Skadj shushed him gently, and slowly the other three approached. Apollo flinched away from everyone, and Skadj made the hybrid let go. Apollo watched while covering his ears, and Skadj walked over to the circle.

He looked back at everyone else for a moment, and then stepped forward. Apollo stared with wide eyes as the ringing stopped, and Skadj slowly turned to stone. Nobody moved, and for once Apollo didn't flinch away from Ze and Platy when they hugged him.

Steve watched Apollo's ears pin back, eyes filling with tears. He slowly made his way over to Skadj, looking almost emotionless. Steve cast another glance at the three behind him and stood in front of Skadj.

"No, stop. This isn't how it's going to happen," Steve said, and the black magic stopped. "I've already had everything taken, at least I think so. And that's not happening this time. Whatever you are, controlling this. Take me," Steve said, like he was face to face with the controller.

It was a dark flash, and when they all opened their eyes, Steve was stone. Skadj stared at him and Ze booked it to his brother, hugging him tightly. Skadj pulled Ze close, standing there for a moment and trying to steady his racing heart.

Apollo finally jerked away from Platy and walked over as the ground started to split. They all ran up the next ladder, pausing as the floor sealed up after them.

"What the hell?" Skadj finally managed to say,

"I don't know but I don't think we wanna know. Can we just...hurry this up?" Platy asked and moved closer to Ze. Ze placed an arm around Platy, watching as Apollo held Skadj close to his chest, tail flicking in almost a threatening way.

Platy was looking around the room, when he noticed that there were four circles, and four statues. All the statues stood behind a circle, and each one resembled one of them.

"Dudes," Platy finally said, eyes wide as he took a breath. He moved out of Zes grasp, and walked over to his statue. He stepped onto the circle and froze, eyes widening. It glowed a light purple, like his suit and key color. Then it stopped.

Ze walked over to the one that looked like him, seeing Skadj and Apollo do the same thing on their own. When all four circles had been stepped on, the statues started to move. They combined in a flash of brilliant light, into a faceless statue.