I'm not one of you <Frans>

CHAPTER 13: Determination

Time: unknown.
First day in the underground.

I awoke with a start, jolting my entire body up swiftly, causing some miscellaneous things to fall out of my hair. My heart was beating fast, and my breath quickened as my shallow intakes of air were echoes around me in a blank space.

The pillars and old, mossy, columns stood tall and powerful, hovering over my sitting figure. I looked up, eyeing the cavern ceiling and the ledge I had been pushed off of. Looking under me, I had noticed a soft bed of golden flowers had broken my fall. It seemed like they were acting as a soft pillow to guard me from sitting the hard rock that was surrounding the patch of flowers.

My head...

All I could do was groan. "God damn it." I wined, holding me head in agony. It pounded as it mimicked my pulse, feeling like rhythmic beats were compressing my head more and more. Ever so slowly. "What—?" I tried to ask, my memory had failed me for just a short second. Jut as I had begun to ask the question to myself, it hit me.

Everything from the last time I was conscious flooded back into my memory like a sea of emotions. I could only drop my hand from my head and into the soft flowers. As if my head had never hurt in the first place, my eyes darted around the cavern, looking for a possible exit. "Chara?!" I yelled, standing up frantically. "Chara?! Where are you?!" I yelled, the tears were near, they filled the brims of my eyes in fear. "Chara?!" I yelled, my voice was echoing like crazy in the emptiness of the cavern.

No! No! No!

"Chara! Please!" The first tear threatened to fall as I collapsed back into the patch of flowers, knees first. "Don't leave me here.." I cowered, remembering the way she had looked at me for the last time before she pushed me into the oblivion I called a hole.

I could remember falling for what seemed like forever. Just awaiting the sudden impact of the hard ground to crack my skull open across the cavern floor. I was waiting for the relief of death at that moment, the only LOVE I could have possibly wanted from this point of betrayal. "Don't go.." My voice cracked, the first tear finally fell, after trying to keep my composure for so long.

I have no food. I have no water. All I have is this device and a bunch of files!

I started to cry again, somewhere deep inside of me hurt so bad. Maybe my heart hurt, from losing my best friend, or maybe even something else of a greater meaning. I felt the golden flowers' petals for a small grain of comfort, petting them and feeling the soft, delicate organisms with the tips of my fingers.

If I keep crying I'm going to dehydrate myself even more. What's the point?

I smiled slightly, the great stress of my heart was somewhat lifted, and I looked behind me. "I guess you're as good as me." I chuckled to the small flower I was touching with my left hand. "You're gonna die without sunlight or water. So I suppose we're on the same boat." I said.

At least the flowers are more contained than me.

I looked up to the ledge where I had fallen, a long distance, I must say. It was Incalculable.

I looked around the room with swollen eyelids. My tired, dehydrated eyes looked around hopelessly. My eyes immediately took me to a doorway. A man-made doorway! The civilization down here could probably help me escape the underground. I could get back to the surface and continue my work.

I started picking up the papers that had scattered around me due to the fall and impact. They were all shuffled and mismatched, bent and ruined. The neatness of my notes had been smudged by the few on some of the flowers. I sighed, Standing up wobbly, my sneakers crushed the flowers beneath me. I walked off of the mound of peacefulness and Immediately, I was overcome with the feeling of fear and dread once my foot came close to the darkness of the cavern. I ran my fingers through my hair, catching any leaves or petals that might have gotten tangled inside it and throwing them out.

I'm going to get out of here.

"Hello?" I called, walking into the doorway. It was pitch black, a corridor, probably. "Is anyone there?" I continued to ask as I walked though the empty room.

The only thing that lied in the middle of the dark room, was a pile of dust. Just one pile of dust.

Good thing there isn't much of a draft. Then there would be dust flying all over the place. How did all of this dust collect into one small pile?

I looked around, pulling out my device and analyzing the strange, random pile of dust. The dust read the same readings as the other small bit of dust that Chara has brought back to the lab. There was a dent in the dust pile here at the top, this pile could have been the sample Chara brought back.

I pondered slightly as to what my options were. This dust seemed to be heavier than the average dust bunny up on the surface. As if the dust was made of something more.

Maybe I'll learn a bit more if I trek further into the cavern.

Slowly but surely, the small cavern turned into pillars and ruin. Buildings and catacombs emerged, and the once darkened cave then turned into a well-lit area. It looked like people had once lived here a long time ago.

I looked at the structures with awe, the red leaves scattered across the ground, and the cracks in the purple bricks of the tall structures. Small, cracked buttons laid on the floor, already pressed down in an orderly pattern.

These tiles are obviously either solved or broken.

I looked towards a cracked stone plate, reading the fine, chiseled words carved within the stone. Still prominent after all these years.

'May only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both not walk along the middle road.'

The shadows that loom above me...

Filled me with determination.

But it still felt like something was missing. Something ... important.