Kyle Pisano
The Amulet
We pulled up to the monastery early on a Tuesday. It had taken us three days to drive up the narrow, crumbling trails of the mountain. It was bitterly cold, the hair in my nose froze as I inhaled, and defrosted as I breathed out. My breath was smoke in the wind in this place.
My friend, Anastasii, rolled down the window and yelled in his thick Russian accent, "Can you please be opening the gate?!" His voice boomed along the silent temple walls.
There was a long pause with only the sound of the engine idling. The gates to the monastery slowly started to creek open. A monk slowly became visible as the gate opened. He smiled and gestured for us to come in.
I shifted the old military cargo truck into drive, the corroded gears in the transmission ground together but the truck eventually kicked into gear and jerked forward. Many of the children starred at the truck and we eased to a stop in the courtyard and cut the engine. Most of them had never seen a vehicle before; most of the supplies brought up to them were by pack animal. We opened the doors and hopped out of the truck. I waved to the kids and they smiled.
Anastasii, being stoic as he is, did nothing and just walked over to the back of the truck and started to unload some of the things we had brought for the monks in return for letting us stay in the monastery. He grabbed 3 crates out of the back of the truck, each marked with their respective contents, blankets, incense, and a crate labeled "FOOD" which really just contained several sacks of rice and beans. We really didn't know what they would have wanted for food… so we had just bought non-perishable things.
Anastasii pulled the crowbar from the utility box in the back of the truck and prayed the crates open. He beaconed the children over as he set the lids down on the ground.
"Dhese things, dey are for you and your families, please take dem and be putting them in a dry place." The children took their new things and dispersed into the temple's various huts and buildings.
As we began to unload are things, the monk whom had let us in reappeared. "how long will you be here?" He asked in surprisingly good English.
I paused for a moment and looked at Anastasii, he wasn't going to answer, he was busy unloading. "Maybe a week… ten days perhaps." I replied confidently. 'After all… what we came here to find should only be 2 day's trek from the monastery.' The monk nodded and soon walked away into the temple to meditate.
I hopped into the back of the truck where Anastasii was making our beds and getting ready to put the door onto the back of the truck.
"It is going to be getting very cold in here… der is not much protection from the elements with dis canvas cover." He said with some concern.
"It'll be fine." I said reassuringly as he put up the door, causing darkness to fill the back of the truck. We slept lightly through the bitter cold the rest of the day and into the night.
I thought I heard wolves howling around midnight… but there are no wolves in these mountains.
The booming sound of a gong awoke my friend and I early the following morning. The morning rituals had begun in the monastery, meaning that the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon. Frost had invaded our makeshift home, Anastasii light an oil lantern and swore a few times in Russian as he warmed his hands by the small orange flame, cursing the ice for attacking our home. I soon joined him, there was much laughter. (Mostly at ourselves)
We opened the door leading the outside, which took some persuasion as it had frozen shut. We stretched outside and boiled coffee in the peculator on our travel stove, which was really just a gas burner with a cover attached to a one pound propane tank. The scent of fresh coffee filled our noses and the sun broke over the monastery walls, but was soon drowned out by the scent of frankincense and myrrh from the morning rituals.
"We should have brought some sugar" I said as I chuckled.
"Ehh, I like my coffee black." Anastasii said as he scanned the mountain sides.
We geared up and started our journey up the mountain. The monks waved to us as we began our hike. I looked back and stared at the monks.
"Why are they waving to us?" I asked as they rang the gong again.
Anastasii stopped and waved back to the monks, he smiled, but what he said surprised me. "Because, they do not expect us to be coming back."
Dark thoughts crept into my mind, 'what is he talking about?' "What do you mean? Why would we not make it back?" I said grimly.
"Do not be worrying about it my friend! It is nothing that we cannot… handle." He said he continued walking again.
I followed him, knowing that he was keeping a dark secret from me. He had convinced me to come with him to help him retrieve something off the mountain, but he had never told me what we were going to get. It had never concerned me before, but not I feared for our lives and so did the monks. 'I'm sure that he will tell me later.'
We walked for what seemed like a day before we reached the actual start of our trail. I looked back, we had gone disappointingly far. It felt like much further, but guess that is natural considering all of the weight we are carrying. It was already tolling my legs and back. We could no longer walk side by side. The trail was too narrow for such a luxury. Anastasii lead the way up the mountain side. Some of path crumbled under our weight, at one point we were pressed up against the side of the trail, as if we were kissing the mountain. As the rocks crumbled and fell, we could hear them smashing down below us.
Nothing was said for most of the way up the mountain until dawn. "It is far too dangerous to hike up the cliff side at night, will have to be stopping to make camp, my friend." Anastasii said as he dropped his pack to the ground.
We had reached a small plateau on our way up the mountain, just large enough for us to pitch our tent. The earth cracked and bulged as the steely stakes were pounded into the land. A lantern was lit inside the tent to give us heat. We slept in an awkward silence. He did not tell me what we were doing on the mountain and the wolves howled.
I awoke the following morning with a note stuck to the door of the tent.
Я, беряфотографиикдокументунашепутешествие, вернусьчерезчас.
How easily he forgets that I cannot read in Russian. Hell, I cannot even speak it. 'I wonder where he went…' I unzipped the door to the tent and found that the fire was still going. The peculator was bubbling with the left over coffee that Anastasii had made this morning.
I walked over to the fire and poured myself a cup. The steam wafted up from the cup into my nose, undoing what the cold mountain air had done to my respiratory system. I sat down on a rock next to the fire and enjoyed my coffee and stared at the path. Anastasii's footprints indented in the frosty covering of the trail, indicating where he had gone. I stood up and slowly walked over to the path. I squatted down by his tracks and look up the path. A short way up the trail his single set of prints became two. I stared at them for a brief moment, but only assumed that he had been pacing there. (If only I knew what I do now I would have pursued him.) I head back into the tent and packed up my things I had taken out of my pack that night.
Footsteps were heard outside the tent. "Are you awake yet my friend?" Anastasii said as he approached the tent.
"Oh, yeah I'm awake, where did you go?" I said as I opened the tent and tossed my pack out the door. It landed on the ground with a loud thud.
"Did you not read the note I wrote you?" Anastasii said as he propped the pack up against the rock I had been sitting on.
"WELL, I tired to, but you wrote it in Russian, you know I can't read Russian." I said somewhat agitated.
"OH," he exclaimed as he hit it forehead, ",how could I be so forgetful? I am sorry. I had gone up further on the path to take some photos." He said as he held up the camera.
"Eh, don't worry about it." I said as I put by pack on. "Are we ready to leave?"
"Da, almost… we just need to take the tent down." He tossed me a hammer, which I barely caught because I was still half-asleep.
It took us only a few minutes for us to take the tent down and pack it away. We soon started up the path. Much of our walk was spent in silence. The further we ascended the colder it got, and it was then at the point that if we opened our mouths it hurt our teeth. The path got narrow again and Anastasii signaled me to hug the mountainside. I looked over the edge of the trail. A vast landscape unfolded in front of me. The mountains blocked much of the sky; mist clouded my view of pretty much anything below the monastery. Everything below us was so small. The monastery, which was so close yesterday was now far below us, barely visible. I stepped back from the side of the trail, and fell.
My feet came out from underneath me. I tried to regain my balance but it was no use; my pack made me off-balance. I reached for my climbing pick and struck the path. The pick split the ground and ice beneath it, but in doing so made the path unstable, and it crumbled under the force of my falling weight.
I screamed.
My pick, which was the very tool that should have saved me, now caused stone and ice to follow me down the side of the mountain. My mind raced. I saw myself as a child, as I was a few years ago… as I am now. I am 24, what am I doing climbing this mountain; I am blindly following my friend.
Luckily, Anastasii was able to catch my pick. He swooped down and grabbed my climbing with his hand. He grunted as steaming blood tricked onto the jagged tool. "Hold on my friend… I'm going to pull you up!" He grasped the side of the trail with his free hand, bracing himself. I could see the pain in watery eyes. "Just…. Hold on…" he said as he pulled up. My pick dug further into his hand. The blood that now soaked his hand froze upon contact with the sub-zero air. The thin stone beneath him cracked as it compressed under our combined weight. His arm and face trembled with agony.
It only took a few moments to pull me up, but it seemed like forever.
We sat together on the pathway in silence for a bit. We looked at each other, recovering from what had just happened. Suddenly we just started laughing, just because we were thankful that we were both alive. He stood up and offered me his good hand, "Let us get going, we will be late."
I took his hand and gestured for him to go first. He laughed, "Жаль, что мне придется убить тебя." He had laughed, but his voice was cold and hollow. "What did you say?" I said as we started walking.
"Nothing, just… having a 'reality check'." He said as he looked at his watch. A troubled expression crossed his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned for my friend's mental health.
"It is nothing, my hand is just hurting. Dat is all." He said as looked around the corner of the path. A gust of wind bellowed down the path. "Dis way my friend… we will be there by tonight." He rounded the corner, "Be careful my friend, it is very slippery." I followed.
Our new path was not as narrow as the one we had come up on, nor was it carved into the side of the great mountain. It was about half the width of a single lane road back home in the 'States. Dead trees loomed over our heads, frozen in time by the bitter mountain top winds; it looked as though they had been dead for hundreds of years. Ice patches frequented the ground as we walked slowly up hill, a fall here wouldn't mean death, but it would be a worse fate if you broke a leg or an ankle way up here; no one would be coming to save you. I looked through the preserved forest and I saw a man standing behind a tree off in the distance.
"Anastasii, does anyone… live on the mountain?" I asked as the hairs on my neck stood up.
"No, nobody has lived up here for a long time. Dere used to be a man that lived up here long ago… when all these trees were alive, so they say. But he is surly dead now. Why are you asking?" He said as he turned around to look at me.
"Because… there is a man standing a ways off in the woods!" I said completely freaked out. I looked away for a moment to look at Anastasii.
"What?!" he said, freaked out as well. He glared out into the woods. I pointed to where I had seen it.
Minutes passed.
"My friend… there is no one there… but… I feel that we are not alone on this mountain…" he said as he started walking again. "Come one… we should be getting moving before whatever that was decides to show it's face out here on the path…"
I trailed Anastasii closer than before. Terrified of what might be watching us. I looked off into the woods again, and it was true… nothing was there.
We walked until sunset up our frozen road, it was even colder up here on the top of mountain, we had to stop several times to breath from an oxygen tank that Anastasii had brought so we could catch our breath. We made a mighty fire that night out of dead branches from the trees that night. Its true that the wood was frozen, but it wasn't wet. Orange and blue flames illuminated our faces that night, and kept us somewhat warm inside our tent.
I felt protected by our burning guardian; I had convinced myself that whatever was in this dead place wouldn't come near the fire… how naïve of me.
Anastasii looked at me gravely, "Do you believe in ghosts, my friend?" This was an odd question coming from him. We were great friends, but he rarely ever brought up anything to do with opinion or beliefs.
"Well…" I started, "I guess I've never really given it much thought. It has never been all that relevant to me." There was a short pause. "I think that given the options between believing and not believing… I would choose to accept that there are such things as ghosts."
Anastasii smiled at me through the darkness and pulled out a flashlight and light his face from the bottom up as if he were telling a ghost story. "Dey say that there is an evil spirit that lives on dis gora… dis mountain, as you would say. It walks through the forest in the evening, searching for its friend; A friend who betrayed it. It wanders tirelessly examining everyone, and everything that comes onto this gora," he suddenly yelled and lunged at me. "It wants vengeance!"
I was… startled by this sudden outburst and I pushed myself back into my sleeping bag, away from my companion. He laughed.
"Ohhh…. my friend." He chuckled. "You haven't changed a bit. It is good to know that you are still the same person that I became friends with. Do you remember back in college, dat year we went camping in the Rocky Mountains?" He smiled.
I smiled, "Yes 'Stassi, I remember that trip, you scared me half to death down at the creek because I thought you were a bear." I laughed remembering how terrified I was that that moment. "It was so dark that night I thought for sure you were a bear."
He chuckled and raised his hands up like bear paws, "Grrr!" We laughed and soon we were asleep. The night was peaceful, Nothing but the howling of wind through the dead trees, breaking of branches and the crackling of burning wood.
I awoke the next morning to find Anastasii red in the face as if he had been crying. "What's wrong?" I asked sleepily.
"Today is a sad day for me, but thank you for your concern my friend." He stated with a grave voice. He quickly got out of the tent and put on his pack. "We need to go now; you can drink coffee and eat something on the way over there." He started to walk away from our tent.
I hesitantly put on my pack.
"Don't worry about the tent, it can stay here… we wont be going very far." He said reassuringly.
We left as the sure rose, walking head on into the horizon, the sun larger than I had ever seen her before. Despite how cold it was, and the fact that it was the middle of winter, the red glow of earth's star felt warm and soothing. A welcome relief to the hellish cold we had been living in. The snow compressed quietly beneath our feet, warmed by the sun, and soon as we approached the dark silhouette of our assumed destination, the snow became more and more shallow. Soon we were walking on green mosses and grass. A lush green coated the ancient stone columns and walls of what appeared to be a forsaken temple. As we stepped through the crumbling entryway and into the temple courtyard Anastasii smiled.
"Ahhh! It is true! My friend, it must all be true! Feel the air! It is warm here, and yet there is no roof! No heat source, and yet des plants are growing as if dey live in the tropics!" he said excitedly as he casted away his backpack and stripped is coat off.
It was true, I hadn't taken my gear off and I was nearly drenched in sweat. I too tossed my gear aside and sat on a moss covered stone. "How is this possible?" I questioned aloud.
I looked up the sky and saw flurries of snow higher up, but as soon as they would reach the top of the courtyard they disappeared. I became lost in confusion, trying to wrap my head around whatever was causing this phenomenon. We spend about five minutes just sitting in the courtyard; I soon noticed that there were small birds chirping.
Anastasii walked over to me, "As much as I would like to stay here and relax, dere is something we are here to be doing. I need you to examine the walls of the yard, we are looking for anything that may be a sort of… lock or a maybe a… a….." he stopped speaking and he looked at the floor. He knew English well, but sometimes words escaped him and made his train of thought come to a crashing halt. "A… uhh…" he was clearly becoming frustrated with our language barrier. "Forget it… just… just be looking for a lock type thing. "He said angrily and stormed off to the opposite wall.
I turned round and ran my hand over the foliage encrusted walls. Such pristine vines and delicate flowers hid what was held behind them. They would need to come off if I was going to find what I needed to see. I drew my knife from its sheath on my belt. I stared into the blade for a moment, its gleam catching the sunlight that was now peeking over the tall walls of the temple. I ran the knife through the vines on the wall with care, I did not want to ruin the blade upon the stone but I also felt bad that I was ruining such raw beauty. The plants were so fragile that they severed from wall with almost no effort. They floated to the ground, separated from their bodies and doomed to die.
There was nothing behind the vines, only the cold and now bare stone wall. I had stripped its beauty for nothing. I moved over to another section of the wall and repeated my heinous act against nature. We did this for about an hour, cutting, stripping, and searching. Eventually, we met in the middle of the room. "Anastasii, can't find this 'puzzle' that you said to look for." I said discouraged.
"I know… I cannot find it either my friend. It has to be in here… it's just a question of where…." He scanned the walls of the room. I too looked around the room. The sun now shone brightly over the walls of the courtyard. A pool of water existed quietly in the middle of the yard, I had over looked it before, but it was now obvious that it was there with the golden rays of sunlight reflecting off of its smooth surface. I approached the pool and stared down into it and found that it was surprisingly deep.
"'Stasii , I think I found what we are looking for." I said containing my excitement. He rushed over to me and looked down into the water as well.
"Hmmm… I think you are correct, but how are we going to be getting down der?" He asked, scratching his head. Before he could finish I had stripped off most of my clothes. He laughed, "Well, dat answers my question." He reached into his pocket, "Here, take dis key." He grabbed my hand and put a smooth, notched stone column into my hand, it looked like a big stone key. "You need to hurry my friend. I am running out of time." he said distraught.
I looked at him confused, "What are you talking about?" He ignored my question, "Don't worry about it, just go!" almost shoving me into the water.
I went in feet first into the freezing cold water, painfully cold. I wanted to scream, the muscles in my body all screamed at me and my heart beat became irregular. There was no room to try to swim down; I needed to exhale to sink. I let the air out of my lungs and I sank to the bottom of the pool. I felt around the walls, trying to find the hole that I had seen before. I was running out of time, becoming light headed from lack of oxygen. I opened my eyes. It burned. I rapidly searched for the lock. It seemed like forever but I found it. I shut my eyes and thrust the key into the lock. My only thoughts were of getting to the surface. I climbed rabidly up the rough walls of the pool, I was no longer buoyant and I sank every time I lost my grip. I neared the surface, I wasn't going to make. My panicked mind accepting the fact that I was going die in this pool of freezing water, in tropical garden, in an ancient, on a mountain, above a monastery. Just as I was accepting death, a pair of hands reached in from above the fading surface and pulled me up.
I lay on the floor, gasping for air and shivering. Anastasii dried me off with some spare clothing we had, he was saying something to my but I couldn't hear him; my ears were ringing to loudly. I sat up against the warm walls of the temple like it was a giant heating pad. My friend came over to me and covered me with my clothes. "Its going to be alright, no matter what happens just be doing what I tell you to, okay?"
I nodded my head but I was too disoriented to realize what he was really saying.
Three men came walking into the garden. Anastasii starred at them. They looked around the garden. "A nice little place this is, huh chaps?"The man that appeared to be in charge asked his colleges. They nodded their heads. The leader glared at Anastasii and yelled at him, "Why haven't you killed him yet?!"
Anastasii took out his handgun and squatted down in front of me. "Just stay down, do not follow us… I am sorry." He whispered to me as a tear rolled down the side of his face.
A gunshot echoed throughout the temple.
I stepped back and watched as my friend slid to the ground clenching his side and groaning, try to cope with the pain.
"Good job Anastasii!" my contractor mocked, "Now we don't have any loose ends to worry about."
I frowned in regret and put my gun back into its holster as I turned away from my dying friend. "Just be hurrying up, I have no want to aid you. The sooner we finish the better."
My temporary 'Boss' chuckled, "All with good time, now… did he open the lock before you shot him?" he asked with a quickened voice.
"Da, he did. " I walked over the pool of water that was now almost completely empty. A doorway had opened up at the bottom.
One of the henchmen of my contractor unfurled a rope ladder and anchored it into the ground with a few metal spikes. "You first, mate." He barked as he gestured to the ladder.
I came to the end of the ladder to find myself in complete darkness. I looked up from where I had come. It was a very long ways up. The ladder that was supposed to reach to the bottom of the emptied pool only reached about a third of the way down into the darkness; the bottom of the pool has disappeared and as I took my first steps in the dark it was apparent where all the water had gone. I reached into my backpack to reach for my flashlight, only to realize that I didn't have my backpack. I had taken it off when I was in the garden with Felix.
I collapsed in the darkness onto the soaked floor and I burst into tears. I couldn't believe I had just shot my best friend. We had gone through so much together over the course of a few years, and I just blew him into the next world. I held my head in my hands and just cried.
Minutes passed, and I could cry no more. I could hear the voices far above me, "How deep do you think this hole is?" one of them said.
"I dunno… but he must be to the bottom by now." The other said.
I heard nothing from our boss. I looked back up at the hole and yelled for a flare. It fell from the sky and landed somewhere in front of me. I knelt down on the floor and felt around for the flare. I grabbed it and yanked off the cap. The sensation of crunching and crumbling resonated through my hand. I dropped whatever it was that I had been holding and brushed my hand off on my pants franticly. I started feeling around in the darkness for my flare again. Upon finding it, I quickly lit it so I could see what I had grabbed.
Bones, everywhere; my spine shivered. The walls here were very wet, and the smell of mold, fungus, and decay filled my nose. It was nauseating. Some of them were human… others were far too large to have been human; the water was actually a thick green slime.
"It's safe!" I yelled to them.
Little bits of stone soon started to come down from the wall the as the rock face was disturbed, I had to step back or be hit in the face. They started to come down that ladder, all at once. The ladder's grip began to slip as the men came down. I said nothing. I just let the ladder slip off the wall, with them on it. Unfortunately they didn't fall very far.
The man who had been on the bottom of the ladder was crushed underneath the other two men, that and he was crushed between them and some bones on the ground. He bled for a while, squirming on the ground. We left him there, screaming, as we delved deeper into the temple.
We slowly walked down a dim corridor lit by torches, the sound of dripping water fading away as we separated ourselves from the death ridden chamber. There was no natural light in here, and as we proceeded further down the corridor, a loud humming noise filled the air. At one point it was almost deafening… but we didn't know what it was. Eventually, after a surprisingly easy stroll we came to another chamber.
"What is this place?" The remaining henchman said quietly as we entered the chamber.
"I don't know… but whatever it is, I feel like we are being watched" our boss said as he slowly surveyed the room.
I looked around too. The blank stone walls only held torches that dimly lit the room. There was a red glow coming out of pit or a hole on the other side of the room.
Our Boss was too busy investigating what looked like a gear puzzle on one of the walls. I approached the hench, "Hey… are you all right komrade?" I asked him as I put my hand on his shoulder.
"Gowuld Evurehywhur!" The Hench said as he twitched and approached a hole at the other side of the room. I felt no distain for the hench as I did our boss, he was just a man doing his job, like myself. He spun around, striking me on the side of the head, exclaiming that it was all his. He began to froth at mouth and he ran for the hole. I sprang up and grabbed his ankle, he fell to he floor like a falling tower. He squirmed on the floor screaming, I struggled to try to restrain him.
"What are you doing?! Get a hold of yourself!" I yelled in his face and I laid on top of him. I slapped him. He continued to froth at the mouth and he flailed around grabbing his hair jerking it out of his skull. I looked over my shoulder for our Boss, but he had disappeared. A sharp pain filled my arm and my shoulder.
I looked down in horror to the man rabidly biting my arm, I grabbed his head pushed him away. I sprang back and leaned up against the wall in agony. I looked down at my bleeding arm I grabbed one of the larger wounds and pressed to prevent it from bleeding profusely. A scream, another scream and a sizzle; I looked up and I realized it was just me and the boss now.
I stay with the wall for what seemed like a long time. I stood there staring down the hole in which he had burned. A laugh, a chuckle of a menacing nature filled the air. I broke into a cold sweat. Whatever was in here… it was Just the boss… me... and it now.
A loud clunk came from the wall that was behind the hole. Chunks of stone popped out of the wall and perfectly covered the hole, as if it was never there. The wall receded and split into sections, collapsing into the floor. Dust that burned my eyes and lungs filled the chamber and I fell into a coughing fit. A cold, slimy tentacle coiled up my leg and jerked me to the floor.
More followed. They stripped me of my possessions. My knife, the emergency flares that were on my belt and the medical kit that was in my pant's pocket. I was picked up and thrown against the wall and they receded.
I awoke to water dripping on my head.
Its voice leaked into my shattered mind.
I know who you are. I know your past, your present… your future. I know how you began. I know how you end. I know every repercussion your meager existence has caused. I have seen your failure; I see the regret in your heart.
Walls of red flames engulfed me, demonic faces laughed and screamed at me. I flailed franticly, panicking, sweat dripped from my face and my heart beat pounded in my head like an explosion. I started running through the fire, screaming. An exit at the end of the corridor, but I could not overcome its ever extending distance.
Why are you running Anastasii? Hmmm?! Don't you like it here? It's perfect for a man such as you. You, who would slaughter their best friend for money and some words on paper, you are an atrocity, worse than I perhaps.
I leapt for the doorway; I fell through the wet and slammed to the floor. I reached forward, trying to pull myself out. Away from my mental agony. All of the screaming. The hate. I was grabbed and rolled over onto my back.
Why? Why did you kill me?
A transparent figure of Felix stood before me. I laid there, speechless. I burst into tears and I could say nothing. I could not bring myself to release the truth, I could not release the truth, I could not release the truth. I laid there speechless. Felix starred at me, disappointed.
Allow me, 'Friend', to return the favor!
I knew how it felt now. I trembled and I was made to be put at the mercy of my own mind. One shot loaded into the chamber of the black revolver as Felix pulled the hammer back with a wretched grinding noise like nails on a chalk board. He grinned, I cringed and it laughed.
The shot of the gun resonated in my mind. I gasped for air as I curled up on the ground, holding my insides. The flames subsided, the screaming stopped, the sand turned to stone; the dripping of water resumed its ever continual metronome.
Enjoy your respite.
The voice faded from my mind and I lie cold and sobbing on the floor; The ever maddening, steady dripping of water slowly past the time.
I sluggishly stood up, almost falling over, and I rested myself against the wall. I looked down the passageway I had just lived though. It seemed perfectly normal now, well as normal as am ancient, haunted, decrepit temple hallway could be. I grabbed a torch from the wall. The warmth from its flame felt comforting on my face.
I turned away from the wall and stared into a room lit by torches that sustained by oil reservoirs that had lasted thousands of years. I took a few steps closer to the prize the glistened in the light. I had come so far to claim this ancient artifact, sacrificed so much. I stepped closer to the amulet, the floor cracked and small bits of stone came down from the ceiling. I froze, hoping that my stilled movement would prevent this chamber from imploding on me. My hopes were in vain; the floor continued to crumble. If I didn't do something I was going to be crushed, and all of this would be for nothing. I sprang forward, lunging desperately for the thick pedestal that the objective rested on.
I grasped the edge of the pedestal. I was dangling above a pit of stalagmites. I looked at a few of the remaining tiles on the other side of the room. Now realizing that the floor I had been trying to walk on was a farce.