𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐌𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐗? | 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐦 𝐅𝐅 - HIATUS

chapter 15

TW: burns (mild)

yall this might be the sloppiest chapter i've ever done lmaoo i'm so sorry

The first person to take action was Dex, hesitantly reaching out. However, as soon as his fingers skimmed the copper of the watch, he immediately pulled his hand off, his periwinkle eyes starting to tear up in pain.

The pocket watch, still floating, lit on fire. A bolt of electricity from Dex's own body travelled to his hand.

Dex's hand was charred a nasty, ugly shade of dark red. Biana fumbled through her pouch, grabbing some gauze that Sophie had lent her - courtesy of Elwin, of course, and wrapped it around Dex's hand, after soaking it with an elixir.

"Tam?" The blond girl asked. "Can you see if your shadows can move it?"

The silver-tipped raven-haired male complied, shadows from the corners of the room stretching out to grab the watch. However, after a minute or so, his brow furrowed.

"It's like this watch is sprayed with some kind of anti-shadow stuff. As much as I'm commanding them to go to the watch, they just keep shying away." He said, letting the shadows fall - and usually, they just returned to their normal spots, but this time, they simply fell to the ground - and there was nothing casting a shadow that would cause this.

He tried to lift up the shadows again, but only got a twitch.

"There might be another Shade around," He eventually came to the conclusion of. "It would explain the fact that my control over these shadows are faltering."

Sophie frowned. "So we know they have a new Shade in their ranks after Umber's death. We also know there should be someone else around to levitate the watch.. So we know there's at least two people."

Biana shook her head. "Three." 

She pointed to the ceiling, and the three others in the room whipped around, spotting a figure in a cloak.

"But that could just be the Shade or the other guy," Tam pointed out. "We need to see.."

Something clicked.

These enemies had no interest in harming them. They were just trying to stop them. With the shadows no longer able controllable by Tam, his ability was useless. With no cause of emotion, Sophie's inflicting wouldn't be able to work.

Dex was out of the game - his invention had short circuited when he'd touched the watch.

And with the light shifting constantly due to the shadows, it would be hard for Biana to keep a constant vanish. Plus, they wouldn't be able to light leap away if the light kept jumping away from the crystal.

This was planned. They'd known about the Black Swan's infiltration, and had planned to stop it.

Of course, Sophie could still enhance them. This was one ability the Neverseen might not know about - but it was a risky move.

If she used it, then it wouldn't be a guarantee that they'd escape. But the chances were higher.

"Wait a second, why don't we just- walk through the door?" Biana asked, pointing to the still open door leading to the hallway.

"It's likely the Neverseen members are out there. This could turn into a full on battle if we do," Tam explained. "But I wonder how they managed to rig the watch."

"The only way is to either break the watch - and they could rig it so that causes a trap, or to just face the assault," Dex agreed. "We could also go back the way we came, but that's too easy. They've definitely planned for us to do that."

His hand was better due to the treatment Biana had given him, but he was still injured. Sophie shook her head.

"It's possible they want to capture us," She added. "If we face an assault, the chances of that are way too high. Even if they aren't planning to knock us out the minute we step out of this room, they have something else planned for sure."

"We're stuck in here with a time bomb," Tam finished. "This watch is definitely rigged to do something, whether it be explode, electrocute us, or bounce back the vibration in the air from the sounds we make and just crush us to death."

"Either way, it sounds like we end up critically injured or dead." Dex said. "But there has to be a solution. If the pocket watch didn't burn me, I could take it apart. Anyone got some gloves?"

Sophie tore off half of her cape and tossed it to Dex, who caught it and wrapped it around his hands as many times as he could without them getting in the way severely. This way he could touch it, but he'd have to work incredibly slow.

As Dex worked, the others spread apart, trying to find something hidden in the room that might give them a clue. A loose gem, a leftover map - anything that would tell them what this room was used for and what was in it and out of it. But the room was clean.

Nothing was left behind.

There has to be a solution. Sophie thought. Everything has a flaw. Otherwise, it's basically impossible.. Just think. What could we do that would cause the watch to fall..

"Wait a second! That's it!" Sophie exclaimed.

"What?" Tam, Dex, and Biana asked.

"If we keep trying to push the watch down and keep using objects to cast the shadows in different directions, we can tire out whoever's keeping watch on us outside to a certain extent. Best case scenario, we can make them pass out from the strain." She explained. "It's unlikely that'll happen, but we can wear them out."