Withered

Chapter 7

The white light shines brightly, snatching all of our attention. Well, the other's attention. I'm trying ignore my left arm twisting in pain, still calming down from the fight with Ivor. And desperately trying not to panic when I feel the limb stiffing up, not sure if it's just the muscles or the purple roots claiming more and more of me.

I wave it around, the light dimming and brightening in some directions. Forcing a grin at the others, a flutter of relief echoing throughout my hallow body when hope lifts their spirits, I follow it.

To the dread of my exhaustion, the amulet glows the brightest above a certain spot on the floor. Of course Soren's below us, of course we have to dig for him. Although I probably should've have expected more when Ivor the scumbag trapped us in here.

"This is the spot." I wince at my words, trying to quietly clear my throat again. The phlegm just doesn't want to get out, and the urge to cough is rapidly groaning.

Axel meanders over, clear distaste at the thought of digging at that. "Maybe."

I raise an eyebrow at him, waving the amulet flashing white at him. "This is definitely it."

"Yeah, but who knows how far down that goes?" Okay, well, I certainly didn't succeed with making Lukas feel better. "We might end up digging until we hit bedrock. We're aren't really equipped for this."

"We are digging here!" The snap flies from my mouth, partly to get myself motivated too. "With are hands if we have to!"

Lukas's eyebrows shoot up. "Yeah, okay, I'm with you Jesse. I just want to know what we're getting into."

"This! PAI-GOW!" Axel shouts, smashing one of the blocks. I sigh, just one of many.

"Let's get to it then."

Pocketing the amulet, everyone gets to digging. As much as I would love to calm down concern about my arm and prove that it's fine, very little in this world will get me to punch stone with that arm. It even hurts more than my right, which is the one punching everything!

Petra and Axel by far do most of the work, since when the hole gets too crowd for anymore than two people, they're the ones who keep digging down. I wish I could be with them... but man, the meager work I did was exhausting. If it could, I think my both of my arms would go into hibernation and never be used again.

The purple parasites flash through my mind, and I'm sure they're worse by now. Crawling up my arm, eager to dig into more of my body. Those agonizing purple roots spreading all over my limb, clamping down on it....

I forcibly shake the thought out, reminding me of the tight pressure throbbing in my head, and with a soft whine Reuben pushes against my right arm. The limb twitching to life and gently petting him.

Sighing, I focus back down on my friends in the hole. They've gotten pretty far now, I really hope that Lukas wasn't right. That we aren't going to be digging down into bedrock.

They burst down another layer, and I squint to see it. Although instead of getting a clearer picture, my sight blurs. I can see the closer objects just fine, but I can't tell what's below my two friends.

"We got a hole alert people!" The fuzzy Petra peers down it the blackness, my thoughts still buzzing on getting my eyes to work properly again.

"Woohoo!" Axel jumps down I think, and with a frustrated grunt, I strain my eyes to look at my friend. If he needs help then I gotta know about that.

"Axel!" Olivia shouts down at him. "You shouldn't just jump down into holes."

"Nah, there's nothing scary down here. I mean, it's dark, yeah. But-"