INFERNO: The Fiery Inception

CHAPTER 21 : part 1

At the entrance of the cave stood Julian and Jacob, both smiling and waving at us. Carefully watching our reaction.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, rooted on the spot I was standing on. Jacob and Julian were on another mission near 15 dimension and we had lost all contact with them. Some had told us to move on, that they won't ever come back. Tears pooled my eyes and heaved out a breath and looked down. I had really started to believe that they won't ever come back and it hurted. Jacob ran towards me and hugged me. I evaded that easily and pulled his ear.

"Ow...ow...my beautiful ear. Charlie wait! What did I do?" He cried out.

"What happened there? Why did you take so long to come back" I asked Jacob.

"You know a 'welcome, back Jacob' would have been enough. I would have understood that you missed us, and cared about us. You didn't have to hurt me though." he said and I let go of his ear, he hugged me, and I let him this time. I hugged him back tightly. I was happy, ecstatic that they were here, alive and in one piece.

"Something very weird happened there" Julian said walking into the cave. I noticed the bandage that cover his arm disappearing under his sleeve.

"What do you mean? And how did that happen" I asked Julian pointing at his wound.

"This? Nothing major, it will heal soon" he said dismissively. I looked at Jacob.

"It's a touchy subject" Jacob whispered. Which apparently Julian heard and sent a glare at him. Ah! Brothers.

"They tricked me" he said and pursed his lips.

"What did they do?" I asked.

"That is not what is important, I saw the people there, the one's Eric said were attacked." he said and that caught Eric's attention, he watched then, listening.

"Who attacked them?" I asked. As much as a part of me agreed that it will be them another part told me that killing their own people would do them no good.

"The patroling was really high there, so someone from the outside can't do that much damage. It has to be them, but the people thinks otherwise. I saw the fear in their eyes once they saw us." He said.

"They are attacking they're own people and making it look like someone else did it? It would be a great disadvantage to them. Power in number wouldn't work" Claire asked and I could tell she didn't believe that nor did I, there had to be a better explanation.

"I know it sounds weird, that's what I said. You wouldn't understand unless you are there." Jacob said.

"We'll talk more about this later but now Charlie and Eric need their rest, maybe you guys should too. We are on watch" Alex said to which Julian shook his head.

"We are fine"

"I am not, I need rest. I need to get my beauty sleep" Jacob said and walked towards the rock I was looking at a while ago. When he saw what's behind it his eyes widened.

"What is this?" He practically yelled. The rest of them ran towards the rock. There was huge, dark bottomless pit there. Dark spots danced in my eyes and the day I was falling came to mind, the day when I went to the portal. I held onto the rock to stop myself from collapsing. I took some deep breaths and looked around.

"What's wrong?" August asked keeping a hand on my shoulder.

"He wants us to jump" I said. August, understanding what I said rose his eyebrows and pointed at the cave and I nodded.

"Are you sure?" He asked, concerned. Which mirrored in every faces presented there.

"I am. If he wants us to jump it must be what we are supposed to do" I said.