Deadly Nightmares (The Last Guardian, Book One)

SIXTEEN

"UH," WAS THE FIRST THING THAT TAMARA HEARD when she found herself in the waking world again. It was Carissa's worried voice. "Um. Guys?"

"Haud yer wheesht, lass," Aurelia muttered sleepily, somewhere to her right, her accent somehow enhanced.

"You guys seriously need to wake up," Carissa said, sounding panicked.

Tamara cracked one eye open to find Carissa looking pale. She sat up groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, feeling like her lashes were stuck together.

When she finally did open her eyes, she jolted.

What in the fucking hell?

"What? Why're you being so loud in the morning?" Aurelia asked grumpily, to which Tamara replied by shaking her by her arm.

"We got a problem," she muttered as calmly as she could, not wanting to scare Carissa. "Wake up."

Aurelia cracked an eye open and sat up, stretching her neck and cracking her neck bones before she turned around and saw the cause of all the commotion. "Oh, fucking piece of shit."

"How'd we get here?" Carissa whispered.

They were in the Ruby Room. And in the center, on the podium, the Ruby was lit up eerily. There was a bang outside which made them all jump.

"Guys! What the hell did you do?" Francesca's voice was heard.

Tamara shuffled to go near the wall where she heard the voice. "Frannie? What happened? How're we here?"

"Hell if I know!" She yelled, the panic evident in her voice. "I don't even know how you guys figured out how to open this thing!"

"That might've been my fault," Nainika said, holding her head with one hand. "I'm good at magic lock stuff."

"Okay, first of all," Tamara said, holding a hand. "What time is it?"

"It's one in the afternoon," Francesca replied from outside.

"Okay, well that tracks," Tamara muttered. "Um, can you open it from outside?"

"Tried thrice, it isn't working for some reason," she said.

"What about some kind of override?" Aurelia asked.

"Nope. It kinda lessened the risk of it being stolen."

"Maybe I could open it from inside," Nainika murmured thoughtfully, walking towards it when Carissa sucked in a quick breath.

"Stop. That wall will kill you if you go towards it."

"Okay, well," Tamara said, her thoughts regenerating at a rapid pace as she shuffled away from the wall. "No one can get out or come in, so I think we only have one choice now."

Everyone looked at each other as they realized they were locked in. Then they looked at the ruby. Then at the man still lying in the water, somehow still not decayed and smelly.

"Well, then," Aurelia said, sitting back down on the floor, leaning her weight back down on her palms on the floor. "S'pose we just have to wait and destroy the damn thing."

Carissa swallowed loudly, her hands fiddling with her rings.

"You alright?" Tamara asked worriedly.

She nodded shakily as she stuck her back to the left wall and sunk down. "I don't like being locked in," she said, her breaths getting shallower as Nainika sat down beside her to offer her some comfort.

Tamara turned back and looked at the wall with her hands on her hips, knowing Francesca was standing out there, worried and upset.

"Frannie, you should go back to your office," she said firmly. "You've got work and sitting outside isn't going to help you or us."