Hero Vs Villain (BoyxBoy)

Somethings Off With Vandel

Ridley

I had stepped out the room when I suddenly realized Vandel wasn't behind me.

I stopped suddenly, looking back. "Vandel....?"

He was still sitting across from Odna and the two seemed to be having an extremely hushed conversation. I looked away quickly, I probably shouldn't be listening to whatever they were talking about.

I simply stood there, awkwardly staring down at my feet hoping he would hurry. We didn't have much time before the passage closed.

Finally Odna and Vandel's voices returned to normal volume.

"Do with the information as you like, I just thought it was something you should know," Odna said slowly. I couldn't make out Vandel's reply.

Finally he stepped out next to me, his gaze dark. "Let's go," he said quickly, his voice softer than normal. He looked pale. There was something incredibly off.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking him over worriedly. "What did she tell you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Vandel mumbled. He quickly averted his gaze from mine. "Can we just...can we just go...please?" Vandel had just genuinely said the word please. Now I knew for sure something was really wrong. I tried to smother my worry. We needed to get out of here first. Then I could deal with all of this.

"How much time do we have left to get out of here," I asked suddenly.

Vandel's mouth tightened into a thin line.

"I thought you were keeping track."

"I thought you were."

"Shit."

We both took off running down the path full speed, practically pushing past each other to make it back into the tunnel. As we began to clamor towards the exit we saw the hole in the wall. To our horror it was getting increasingly smaller.

"SHIT, FUCK, SHIT, FUCKING DAMNIT!!!!!" Vandel practically screeched, racing forward in some desperate last ditch attempt to get through before it closed. He made it only a second too late and ended up slamming into the wall instead, falling back. A few months ago I probably would have laughed at that but now for some reason I found myself immediately running to his side.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I offered him a hand to help him get up but he brushed it away. "I'm fine." He sighed heavily, running a hand through his dark hair. "The real issue is what the hell are we going to do about that?" He gestured to the wall.

"Yeah...that certainly is a predicament."

"What did I say about getting out after one hour?" A voice said suddenly. Vandel and I both stiffened. Standing there was the Ancient who had let us inside.

I swallowed hard, bowing quickly.

"Uh...sorry...we kind of messed up and miscalculated the time limit-"

"It's fine, " the Ancient said, cutting me off. "Missing the time limit isn't a big deal."

I blinked, confused. "But I thought you said that...err...I mean...you got all serious when you were talking about it." I laughed awkwardly, relieved. "I thought we were going to be trapped here or something if we missed it."

The Ancient smiled thinly. "Oh...you are trapped here."

My jaw nearly hit the floor. "What?"

The Ancient chuckled. "Don't worry. It's only till tomorrow. We can only open the entrance once a day. I just make a big dramatic deal out of it so we don't get too many unwelcome visitors."