ONE (Book 1 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 33

This was the worst day of my life. I decided that very sternly as soon as I laid eyes on Onyx's mother. Onyx, as excitable as he was, was rather bi for a dog, which always made me assume that he was an adult. However, he must be a little puppy in comparison to the giant dog which we came across.

The giant dog, Onyx's mother, wasn't introduced to us at all. Actually, Senka seemed to have the same feelings towards her that I did. Those thoughts were that we should get out of her presence as soon as we possibly could. The mother seemed to be patrolling the middle area. The 'middle area' was where we were apparently meant to be. But the big dog was not taking our presence kindly.

I didn't understand the behaviour between the dogs. Onyx was jumping up and down in front of his mother, whilst she glared and growled at us.

"Oh, that's adorable," Sarphi said with a slight squeak. "Look at how adorable they are." She began walking in their direction, pulling myself and Prina after her.

"Sarphi, that's not a good idea," Senka warned and shook her head frantically. "Come on, let Onyx distract her, that's his job here." It sounded as though she believed this was his only job.

"But they're adorable." Sarphi argued with a childish pout. "I just want to go and say hello."

"Sarphi, if you pet her, she might bite that arm off." Aknon reached over and pulled Prin's arm, causing us all to stumble back a little. "Let's just focus on what we're doing."

Sarphi let out a frustrated groan as she spun around to target Aknon. "What's wrong with you? You've been rooting for this for four years, had a few minutes of wanting to give up, and now you're back on track? Now that I want to do something, you're trying to get us to hurry again. Do you just want to do the opposite of what we want to do?"

"Guys," I said to try and get their attention, but Sarphi was on a roll, and Aknon wouldn't take this with silence.

"Of course not." Aknon denied. "But now that we're here, we might as well get this over with."

"How can you say that? We don't even know what this is." Sarphi raised her hands, causing me to raise mine in the process. "We could go into the middle of this place and die immediately. We could get answers which make us mad at each other. We could get injured, trapped, tortured, or anything like that."

"Guys, I really think we should go." I tried interrupting once again.

"But we won't," Aknon replied, jaw clenching. "Senka and Genesis both say that we've got to come this way."

"This isn't exactly a cave, Aknon," Prin pointed out quietly, probably remembering what we'd told her about what Genesis had said. "But she's got a point. Why do you want us to continue now, when you were against it earlier."

"Please just listen to me," Senka pleaded, her eyes locked on the same thing mine was. "You're all going to get out of this alive, once you get your answers from the middle of the realm." 'Middle of the realm' caught my attention, but I didn't turn to look at her.

My eyes were trained on the giant dog behind my two arguing siblings. She didn't seem too happy that we were here. The dog looked familiar, but that could also be because she was a large dog made of shadows, just like her son.

"Not now Senka," Sarphi said in a lighter voice as she turned back to Aknon in order to begin arguing.

Prin suddenly tensed up and began pulling on Sarphi's hand. It was about time she paid attention to the large dog. But that meant that Sarphi turned around at once to see what Prin was after.

Prin pointed at the mother dog with a shaky hand. It was then the dog decided to bark loudly, causing the ground to shake under our feet. I felt fear run down my spine at the loud noise. It was horrendous, like it was full of fear and a promise of despair.