ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 21

"Separated again," Aknon grumbled under his breath after hissing in pain. I'd landed on top of him, but I swear that wasn't the cause of him breaking his ankle, if it was broken anyway. It didn't look good, nor did it sound good when he landed on it. I had quickly put him down on the floor and tried to examine his foot, but it was difficult to see, which was a very strange situation for me to be in. It wasn't normal that I couldn't see in the dark.

"You've got a broken limb, and you're complaining about being separated?" Senka asked in confusion as she popped her head out of my coat. "Focus on the big things, get your priorities right."

"Usually, people get killed when they're separated," Aknon retorted with a sigh. "Just help me up so we can see if we can climb up to the top again."

I nodded wordlessly and stood, pulling him to his feet, or foot. He held onto my shoulder tightly, putting most of his weight on me as I looked upwards.

"I can't see the top," I informed. "I don't think that we could get back up." I used my free hand to touch the wall, my nose wrinkling when it came off wet.

"We better be able to get back up," Senka screeched. "I will fight whoever caused this if we can't." I didn't know how she'd be able to fight anything, but I didn't let her know that.

"Surely they'd be shouting down by now?" Aknon asked. He also looked up, but he didn't seem to be able to see anything either. "How far below are we?"

"I don't know. It didn't feel like far though." I frowned and began walking forward, keeping a hand on the wall, despite my distaste. Aknon was grunting as I moved forward, muttering under his breath. At least this showed that there was nothing wrong with his head. "We just need to find a way out of here, there has to be one."

"There doesn't have to be one," Aknon denied as he raised his other hand, letting a ball of light appear in it and illuminate our surroundings.

"You could've done that before," I pointed out with a sigh of annoyance. The light showed that we were in a very small tunnel, the walls were thick with dark green slime. I didn't know what the slime was, but it made me even more disgusted. "Can you see the entrance?" I looked up once again.

The light in Aknon's hand raised, but it only went around four foot higher than it was originally, which was confusing because it was where we had just been when we fell, but the light was being pushed against a ceiling, it couldn't get any higher because it pushed against a large veil of blackness, which kept us trapped in here. We were in a singular room, and that ceiling must've dropped as soon as we fell.

"This was a very good trap," Aknon complimented the effort the people had gone to in order to keep someone in. I didn't think that the praise was necessary, since we were alone in this very strange room.

"If it's good, then that means we won't get out," Senka pointed out with a huff, wriggling in my coat until she was out and able to climb onto my shoulder. "Is there anything below us?"

Aknon moved the light to our feet, and unfortunately, we were standing near skeletons. I'd seen skeletons before, in many different states of being, but the skeletons here seemed to be corroded. Their bones were full of holes, as though it had been eaten away by something similar to acid, and the skulls were barely identifiable as human anymore.

"This doesn't bode well for there being a way out," I said, as I felt my breath being stolen from me. "What's on the walls?" I wondered if that had anything to do with the state of the skeletons, and I quickly retrieved my hand from the wall and wiped it on my trousers.

"I don't know," Aknon admitted, and I knew it took a lot for him to say that. "It's nothing like I'd seen before."

I frowned and my shoulders slumped, which he didn't like, considering he was leaning on my shoulders. "Why don't you use your book?" I asked him. "It'd be a shame for you to have that magic book and not use it."

"We need fire for it," he pointed out with a hiss. "Besides, it's not exactly the easiest thing to do right now, we should scout the area."

"What area?" Senka asked. "We're in a small room with green goo, and a low ceiling, and dead people. We're not going anywhere anytime soon."

Aknon frowned, which looked very unsettling in this lighting. "You have a point." He looked around as though he didn't know what to do before sighing again. "Acer, take the light." He then threw the ball of light at me.

"What?" I asked before comprehending what he said, my hand reaching out hurriedly to catch the light, subsequently pulling Aknon to the side. He wasn't too pleased by my actions, but it was his fault that my movement was so jerky and quick.

Aknon then reached into his bag and pulled out his book, leaning heavily on my shoulder. He used his head to flip through the pages and shifted so that the light was on the other side of a page, causing the page to be translucent. His eyes began moving from word to word, or at least I assumed they did as they ran across the page.

"So, do you have any important information in there? It doesn't give us a step-by-step guide on how to get out of doorless, windowless, holeless rooms?"

Aknon grumbled under his breath. I was sure that he was telling me to shut up, but he was focusing so much on his book that he couldn't reply in a coherent voice. The room was silent for a good few moments, before he replied with another sigh. He looked up at me with a shake of his head. "We're helpless."

"What?" Senka and I asked at the same time.

"It can't just say that," I argued. "You have a magic book, and you are being told that we're ultimately helpless?"

"Well, the information that we've got here is absolutely useless." He snapped the book closed and glanced around. It was as though he thought that someone was watching us, but I couldn't see anything at all. It wasn't unusual, but he looked even more paranoid than he had when we were first told that we were being pursued by someone.

"Aknon, there's nobody here," I told him in a voice which I hoped was reassuring. "We're fine."

Senka looked up at me as though I was insane. "We are trapped in a small gooey room with skeletons which have been corroded, underneath an abandoned house in a place which looked like it hadn't seen people in at least a decade." I figured that was a pretty good summary. "How are we fine?"

"We're together, we can think, and that means we can find a way out." I wasn't usually an optimist, but in this case, I felt like I had to be. We couldn't be trapped under here forever. It would be stupid of someone to build this place without having some kind of feature to bring the person back to the surface. Maybe one of the skeletons down here belonged to the person who made this trap?

Aknon looked like he was beginning to panic once more. "Give me the light," he demanded.

Before I could answer, he took it out of my hand and crouched down, looking at the floor with the light. "Hey, what are you doing?" I asked with a frown, needing to lean forward as he moved because his arm was still around my shoulders. "What did you see?"

"I didn't see anything; I'm looking for eyes." He was beginning to sound rather mad as he limped forward, pulling me with him. "Like the eyes we saw in the field."

"So, you don't think we're alone," Senka murmured under her breath. "Your marbles must've fallen out of your head when you fell."

I couldn't help but laugh at her comment, but I began searching as well. My brother wasn't known for jokes or doing unnecessary things. If he was searching for eyes, then there must be a good reason.

After a few minutes of searching, I stood up again. "There aren't any eyes here," I informed him plainly. "What did your book say? Come on, there's no point in keeping secrets."

He sighed and turned to look at me, leaning completely on his good foot. "The book said our pursuers are here, they're going to capture us."

"The book said that?" Senka asked, before promptly wiggling down and cuddling up to my chest again, trapping herself in my pocket. "Nice knowing you."

I understood that Senka knew exactly what that book was, they came together, so she must know the purpose of the book. If she was reacting like this, then it suggests that we were doomed.

"So, do we just wait here to get captured?" I asked, moving away from some of the skeletons.

"You won't have to wait long," a voice said from behind us.