The Last Emerald

Chapter Nine

As we continued to walk down the hallway it got narrower and narrower until it forced Clara to walk in front of me. The normal mine sounds were ever present, the occasional drip of water, the scurrying about of animals, and the tapping noise was coming back into play.

“Is there ever an end to this?” Clara whined, shuffling her feet.

“Maybe you should go ahead and find out.” I said sarcastically.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be so crabby.” She retorted.

“Maybe you should learn how to read price tags.” I saw her face fall and I rolled my eyes. “I’m kidding.” I continued flatly.

“There’s a turn up here, maybe there will it will finally lead somewhere.” Clara sighed.

“Or not.”

“Be positive.” She rolled her eyes.

“No.” I scowled, kicking up some dust with my shoes. We rounded the corner and entered a room.

There was stuff all over the place, a wooden desk with  something shiny and metal on top of it, papers strewn everywhere, and an unlit lantern in the corner. The tapping noise was coming from whatever the metal thing was, and I walked towards it cautiously.

Clara picked up one of the papers and made a sound of confusion. I turned back around. “There’s nothing on the papers.” She murmured. I shrugged and turned back around towards the table. As I reached the table I saw something flashing on the metal object.

It was a timer, each second counting down. The timer only had three minutes on it. “Clara!” I said in alarm. She walked over quickly and gasped.

“What is it?” She asked. I winced.

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. She picked it up and shrieked when the tapping noise became a loud beeping. I noticed some markings on the side of it and pointed it out to Clara.

“What is it?” I asked. She dropped the metal box back on top of the table.

“It’s a bomb Callie. It says that it’s going to blow up!” She screeched, backing away quickly.

The timer reached one minute.

59

58

“Is the emerald in here? We need to get out now!” I shouted. Something flashed in Clara’s eyes and she bolted right towards the wall.

55

Instead of plowing right into the wall she passed right through it. I nimbly followed her.

52

The room was only about ten feet wide and piled high with boxes.

Clara’s Point of View

The tiny voice that had only just appeared in my head encouraged me to grab the box that was on the bottom of the pile. I grabbed it out quickly, steading the pile that was now tipping towards me, and opened the box.

There was nothing but cloth at the top.  

‘Look in the bottom.’  The low voice demanded inside of my head. I shook my head quickly and dug into the bottom of the box.

49

My hand enclosed something smooth and I pulled it up. In front of me was a beautiful green emerald.

“Is that it?” Callie asked from behind me in a trembling voice.

47

“Let’s go.” I said, shoving the emerald in my pocket and bolting out of the secret room that the voice mysteriously knew about.