The Time Witch

The Art of Destruction pt. 4

"Great, lock-picking-crab-cactus thing," George huffs. "Come on," he pulls on Rose's hand.

"But it's a dead end," Basel protests.

"It's dead us if we don't find a way through," Rose retorts. "Come on!"

The shadows blur and shift in the red glare of the torch as they hurry down the narrow passage. Soon they were on their hands and knees, crawling when the tunnel had dwindled to a crawl-space. Rose shudders at the thought of the creature catching up to them. It was a cactus-crab toad monster with a gazillion legs, she very much doubted it wanted to have a civil conversation about weather.

"See, the roof's caved in," Basel hisses.

"Then we have to dig ourselves out," Rose retorts. "Or do you fancy letting pincer-features have a go?"

George and Basel push past Rose and start moving the packed pile of rubble

"Yes!" Rose cheers quietly as they pull a large chunk of rock away, reaching into the clear the smaller stones it had loosened up.

George, however, stops when he realizes that it was quiet: "oh, Merlin," he whispers. "That thing's turned off the barrier..." he trails off.

"It'll be coming," Rose pales and the three of them double their efforts.

Rose's nails were breaking, her fingers bleeding as they work in terrified silence. Finally, another large slab of stone comes free.

"That's enough for us to wiggle through," George grins. "Go on, Rosie," he orders.

"You go first," Basel agrees when Rose goes to argue. "Then if one of us get stuck, you can pull us through."

Rose groans quietly before jumping through the narrow hole they'd made, feeling the rock dig into her shoulder and scratch her upper arms. Rose sucks in her stomach and squeezes through, her heart beating hard in her chest. She gives a sigh of relief when the tunnel starts to open a bit.

"Quick," Rose calls, walking forward and seeing the tunnel curl around to the right. "Come on, you two!"

Rose turns to see George pop his head through the gap and then his shoulders, but she frowns when he stops suddenly and gasps in pain: "has it got you?" she asks worriedly, rushing over.

"My wand's digging in," he groans.

"Never mind that!"

"You don't know where it's digging in!"

"It'll do a lot worse if you don't-" Rose grabs a hold of his arms, pulling on him. "Get! On! With! It!" she gives one more hard tug and George flies out of the crevice with a yelp. "You ok? Did it hurt you?" she kneels by him while Basel comes through.

"Fine," George groans, pulling his wand from his front pocket with one hand and readjusting his pants with the other. "Fuck, that hurt..."

Basel falls to the ground with a grunt of pain and Rose hurries over when she sees a bleeding gash on his bare leg: "that thing got hold of me," he tells her shakily as George comes over and heals him up. "Thanks... almost took my ankle off, what the hell is-"