A College Seeress' Diary

Route

Dear Jesus,

The first thing Mike did when the tremors began was to wriggle his hand out of the occultic bracelet he'd been wearing.
In the heat of the battle for dear life, I had no moment to spare for looking at his signature accessory.

Mike tried to get back on his feet fast, but he groaned in pain and had to do it slowly.
Of course, after the physical whirlwind torture his former demonic parasite had inflicted on his body and the fall, he was bound to feel the pain of sore spots and hurting bones.

"Are you okay?" I asked, concerned. At the same time, I had to shield my eyes from the shower of dust that was darkening the space even more. I had switched back to physical display only.

"I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth. With the way he staggered when he stood, he was perfectly fine indeed. 

"We have to leave now. It's the curse. Since no sacrifice was made, the altar would be marred."

He made his way down the altar, went to a corner where a table I hadn't noticed before was, and pulled out a long robe with many pockets which he used to cover his bare body.

I used that time to go get John so we could leave together.
He was growing weaker by the minute, sliding in and out of unconsciousness and he couldn't stand upright anymore.

By then, the shaking and crumbling had gotten more pronounced. Larger chunks of rocky stalactites began to break and fall. It was only by your grace that we weren't ground to mush.

I began to cough. John stiffened and fainted.

I tried to revive him.
"John? John! Stay with me. Wake up, John."
It was no use.

This was bad.
How were we ever going to get out of this place fast with an unconscious body?
You bet John was as heavy as an oversized sack filled with large tubers. I mean, what had he been eating? Maybe working out had its disadvantages too.  

Mike came to my side and handed me a wet cloth to cover my nose with just like he did.
I was suspicious at first but didn't have the time to even protest and it was a great relief from the gulps of dust I had been inhaling.

He then paused, remembering something.

He ran back to the altar where his uncle was sprawled on the ground in the initial state of Rigor Mortis, looked at the dead man with sad eyes and knelt by him. He rummaged through the man's waist. I don't know where exactly it was, but Mike came up to us with a bunch of keys and a handy flashlight.

He and I heaved John upright. With Mike on the right and I on the left, we moved at Mike's leading towards the only entrance at a snail's pace.
The way out slightly sloped downwards so we had to be extra careful to get our footing.
Oh, I never knew John weighed so much! Maybe it was because of exhaustion on my part.

The intensity of the rumbling, and the fact that we had to dodge many flying stones and cover our eyes from dust, made the movement excruciatingly slow. We all sustained scratches and bumps but nothing too major.

We were a few metres to the entrance when bam! A giant rock right above the entrance got dislodged. It missed hitting us by just a hair's breadth. The giant rock then rolled down and effectively blocked the entrance, cutting us off from the outside world.

Mike utter a foul word under his breath and kicked a stone. The guy still has a lot of unlearning to do.

"Don't panic," I said, trying to sound brave, "Isn't there another way out?"

"There's no other way out, Radiance. Even if there is, I was supposed to discover the deeper, more intricate levels of the Scar labyrinth only if I had been coronated tonight. What are we going to do?"