Alligator Eyes

Chapter 9

"Great...." Jinyoung squeezes his eyes shut, only opening them when it seems like their current situation isn't going to spontaneously improve. "I'm in a hole with a Reaper and without my brother"

"Not a hole, a tunnel" Mark ignores the reaper part, figuring that at least he didn't put any malice behind it this time. "And I'm not happy about this either"

Jinyoung moves the torch out to arms length, seeing how far the light reaches. Not far, but at least they can see that there is space to move, that can maybe lead to a way out.

"This stupid castle must be full of traps, no wonder half the raiders died trying to take it."

"Seems like the easy solution to that, would have been to not raid our temple in the first place"

"I wasn't there, don't put this on me!"

"Then don't blame me for a bunch of murders dying in some tunnels!" The ground shakes a bit and they freeze, hoping this whole thing isn't about to cave in on them. Without thinking, Mark reaches for Jinyoung's hand, squeezing tightly. "Maybe we shouldn't shout"

"Yeah I think that's a good idea"

The argument over, they walk quickly but cautiously down the tunnel. The bricks are like gold in the fire light. Mark can't help but run his hand along a few, thinking that his ancestors built this place.

They stop when they see a few skeletons in armor piled against one side. Jinyoung sets down the torch in one skeleton hand and picks up a long thin sword, passing a gold amulet that was hanging inside a rib cage, to Mark.

"This feels wrong" Mark whispers, holding the amulet at arms length as though it was cursed.

"Treasure is treasure" Jinyoung shrugs, rifling through a bag he found next to a pile of bones. "Will you let go? This isn't easy with one hand"

"Sorry" Mark wraps his arms around himself, the amulet now held tightly in his palm. Jinyoung pockets some gold and tucks an interesting looking dagger into his belt before standing up.

"Okay, lets keep going" He takes Mark's hand again, picking the torch back up—with the hand still attached—and on they go. The tunnel seems to get smaller or maybe their hope of getting out is dwindling as they keep going on a level plane with no signs of doors or lights or other tunnels for what feels like a very long time.

Until the tunnel suddenly turns left and shows some stone steps they were beginning to think they would wander until they starved to death. The walls change here, turning from the gold bricks to painted sandstone panels, images of people, eyes, trees and alligators decorate one long strip on both sides.

"Interesting paint job, what does it mean?"

"I don't know" Mark spreads his fingers over one image of the alligator in wonder. He's never seen depictions like this.

"Let's keep moving, maybe we can find the others" They climb still more steps until it seems they must be above where they fell but they still don't see any way out and they haven't heard anyone calling to them. They reach a large stone door, but have no idea how to open it.

"Does it slide? Do we push it over? Is it broken?" Jinyoung asks these questions more to himself than to Mark, studying the door.

"Feel this," Mark holds their hands by one side of the door, a small cold draft blowing. He then moves them to the other side. "Nothing, I think we can push the door in that way somehow"

"Do you see any hand holds? A rope?"

"There has to be something—" He stops, looking down at the ground. Sticking out of the stones is one brick that's taller than the others Mark looks up at Jinyoung, putting his foot over the stone.