Dreams do come true// Ian Lightfoot x OC

13. The Curse (P1)

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Ian POV:

"The tile down there has the same shape as the opening!" America yelled as she points to the roof.

"Maybe we were supposed to step on it?" Barley say swimming around.

"What?" I say with general concern.

"I got it" Barley diving under and tries to swim to the bottom of the room where the circle was.

"No, Barley!" I yell trying to stop him. In an instant the top of the ceiling started to open up. I smiled with delight.

"Oh! It's working!" Ameri yells with a smile. But then it suddenly closed with a loud bang that echoed through the tunnel.

"It's impossible no one can hold their breath that long" Barley says coming up to the surface. Suddenly all of our faces lit up. We all had the exact idea.

We push our dad under the water and tried to guide him to the very surface of the circle. He walked around the bottom and tried to find it. Suddenly the water was at our chins. We all took on big inhale of the air as the water had made it to the very top of the tunnel.

We were now underwater with no oxygen. We had to guide dad to the button before we all ran out ''''of breath. I pulled dad using the leash that we had attached to him. I pulled the leash up which pulled him upward and his two feet landed on the button. Luckily the roof started to open up and just in time. I reached the surface a gasped as air filled my lungs.

Barley popped up and then Ameria. They were ok. We quickly scrambled out of the water and onto dry ground. We chuckled as we pulled dad up to the surface.

"We made it!" America said with a smile.

"The Phoenix Gem awaits beyond this door"

"Shall we?" Barley says with a smile as we started climbing up the ladder to the surface.

"We certainly shall!"

"Dad, we have followed the quest, and it has led us to our victory!" I yell as I unscrew the lid on the ceiling. I pop my head above the surface. I was expecting to a phoenix gem but what I could only see the front off the school. Disbelieve chilled my body.

"We're back home" I sighed standing in the middle of the road. Barley and Ameria were standing with me.

"No, that doesn't make sense. We took the Path of Peril"

"We followed the ravens, we went to the end of the water... Unless the X meant stay away from the water. Or it could be, like, a campfire?" Barley said turning the stone all over the place.

"It's okay. We can figure this out" Ameria says trying to make the situation a bit better.

"Figure out what? We're back where we started" I say with frustration. I wasn't trying be rude to Ameria she hadn't done anything wrong.

"I mean, it has to be here. There was a gauntlet. I mean, unless that gauntlet was for, coincidentally, some different quest" Barley said passing around with his hands going all over the place.

"That's a possibility..." Barley said with a worried look on his face as he stopped walking around.

"What?" I yell.

"No, no, no. This has to be where the Phoenix Gem is, I followed my gut"

"Oh, no" I say slowly.

"What?" Ameria says placing her hand on my shoulder.

"The gem is in the mountain the mountain we could have been to hours ago, if we just... if we just stayed on the expressway" I say as my grip on my staff stiffens. America notices and backs off.