Trines

Trines (14)

Chapter 14

Somewhere inside the dark hall, Rebecca couldn’t keep up the flame any longer and they were encased by darkness. She didn’t bother trying to get it back up; she knew she wouldn’t be able to. It took significantly less time running back as they didn’t stop to examine anything. They were out of the darkness soon, and rounded the corner into the light.

Up ahead they could see Jennifer and Drew running to the entrance. Jennifer was paler than she used to be, her face was stricken and Drew looked almost triumphant. Alex refrained himself from yelling their names. He watched as they got enclosed in the dizzying darkness and disappeared.

Alex fastened his pace and he heard Rebecca do the same. Soon he found himself in the shadows. He felt along the mountain walls to locate the small entrance. He breathed out in relief when he found it and pressed himself through.

Drew and Jennifer stood on the other side, catching their breaths. It seemed they had run from something to.

“How long has it been?” Alex asked them when he got close to them.

Drew looked up at him, breathing in deeply before he replied. “An hour and a half.”

Alex gazed at him in surprise. Had it taken that long to walk that path? Where had the time flown to? He couldn’t believe they’d been in there for such a long time.

“Where are Ava and Aaron?” Rebecca asked when she escaped the cave too.

The little color Jennifer had left drained. She stood looking pale as a ghost. Drew put a comforting arm around her.

“We don’t know where Ava is, but Aaron was walking down the hall with an older black-haired woman,” Drew explained as Jennifer couldn’t get a word out.

“Ava’s black-haired,” Rebecca mused.

Drew shot her an annoyed look.

“It was not Ava. This woman was older, like forty or something,” he told her.

“I think we encountered them to then,” Alex said thoughtfully.

“What?” Rebecca asked surprised. “Do you think that was Aaron and a woman?”

“It was definitely a woman and a man,” Alex told her.

“Yeah, but that could have been anyone. I didn’t recognize his voice,” Rebecca argued.

“I didn’t hear anything, at least not enough to make out their voices,” Alex said.

“But what you’re implying is that Aaron is working against us,” Rebecca said.

All three of them shot her a look.

“Does that really surprise you?” Drew asked in a dead-pan voice.

“He was so nice,” Rebecca murmured.

“No, he wasn’t,” Alex denied.

Rebecca looked at them all, seeing they were all determined that Aaron was a traitor.

“He always knew everything, he seemed so sure of himself, and that has to be rare for a warlock his age. He’s barely eighteen. Obviously he got his information elsewhere,” Drew added bitterly.

“And what about Ava?” Rebecca asked, still doubting their theory.

Jennifer and Drew exchanged glances.

“She wasn’t with them,” Jennifer whispered.

"That doesn't mean anything. I knew we should have never trusted either of them," Drew said harshly.