Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 8.2- The Ruby

"Are you okay?" Sam asked worried and Kyle's eyes darted open.

"Is it broken?" Jimmy asked, shining a flashlight on Kyle's arm, but he pulled back into the darkness.

"I'm alright. It's just a bruise," he said.

"Then let me see," Jimmy insisted.

Kyle rolled his eyes, but took his hand off his shoulder. He was right, it was only a bruise. A big purple bruise with green, red and yellow spots all over it and a bloody gush right in the middle. Sam turned to the others worried, but Jimmy and Tom didn't seem to think it was a big deal and Jerry was looking away pointedly as if he had now decided that he didn't want to talk to Sam anymore either.

"I can't believe we got out of this one!" Jimmy laughed and Sam stared at him.

Before he could ask what was so funny, Tom and Kyle started laughing, too, the kind of laugh that exuded pure joy. And they weren't stopping. Jimmy had his arms around his middle while Tom had leaned against the wall.

"What on earth is so funny?" Jerry asked as outraged as Sam felt.

"We're alive," Tom said between hiccups.

"Yes, but we're in a dark corridor in the bowels of a temple filled with traps."

"Who cares?" Jimmy asked wiping away a tear. "We're alive." And the three continued laughing.

Sam gawked at them and his heart ached. As he looked at Tom, he wanted to be him, to laugh so carelessly. For the first time in his life he wanted to be someone else. Someone who looked exactly the same but could laugh out loud at just the thought of being alive. He could join them, but it wouldn't be natural. Just an imitation of someone he wanted to become. Maybe he would, in time.

"You know, I keep wondering," Tom said, trying to regain his composure. "How the hell did you smash through that wall?"

"I don't know," Kyle said between rounds of laughter.

"Will you at least now acknowledge that you might be a bit..." Sam paused, searching for a proper word. "Not normal?"

"I never claimed I was normal." Kyle finally stopped laughing and frowned slightly. "I've never noticed anything abnormal about me before. Maybe the wall was old and flimsy."

"Um, no. We've been pushing it before you smashed it and there was nothing old and flimsy about it," Jimmy said.

Kyle shrugged and everyone was once again aware that they weren't out of the woods yet. They faced a foreign tunnel that could lead anywhere. Though Sam was convinced it was an escape tunnel.

"Let's use just one flashlight to save our batteries and walk in a single line," he suggested.

They all agreed and started off through the darkness with Sam in the lead. There were crunchy things on the floor that fell apart under his boots, but he couldn't say what they were and he didn't want to know. All he wanted was to see sunlight again.

They walked for about a half an hour, talking amongst themselves, wondering where Snitch Gravel was, if the professor and Herrison had managed to dodge him and Sam couldn't help but congratulate himself for suggesting they set up camp further away from the temple, in a secluded spot.

He suddenly stopped because his flashlight flickered and turned off. The light had become steadily weaker, but he hoped it would last a bit longer. He reached out his hand for another flashlight but hit something that appeared to be dangling from the ceiling. The crackling sound it made, as if bones had hit metal, made the blood freeze in his veins. How could he have missed this?