Chapter 2 The Crown part 2

"Uh..." Andrew felt the pain that surged throughout his forehead; it felt like it was frozen in ice for hours.

"Where..." Andrew tried to open his eyes. But it only made things worse. He was in some kind of museum. He could see through the darkness because there was a rather big hole on the roof. Shining some dim light on what seemed like glass cases... in each case held a small ancient artifact. There were ripped banners that hung from the ceiling which said: New Exhibits!

This seemed like what could've been a museum. Was this what they were searching for, this whole time?
"Oh hello." That same voice he had heard before appeared, and echoed throughout the building, only this time, it didn't hurt. Andrew could see something, something moving in the shadows.

"It's okay..." An old-looking man came out of the darkness. He was wearing an old brown suit and what dangled from his pants was what seemed like a golden crown... encrusted with what seemed like, three rubies.

"Who are you...?" Andrew couldn't help but get scared; this was the same man he had seen before he lost fainted. "What do you want from me?"

The man slowly crept closer, and Andrew nearly gasped. The man's skin was a light blue, and he had a long pointy nose which protruded from his white beard. He was also wearing spectacles.

"Don't worry..." The man sniffed. "I scared off the monster that attacked you."

"Y-you... scared away what exactly?" Andrew continued to sit down on the cold floor; he could see his breath because of the cold. "Who are you?"

"I'm..." The man paused for a moment. "I'm human, like you. The monster froze your friends... and for that, I ask for your forgiveness. My name is... Si... Simon Pertikov." He held his hand in the direction of Andrew's, expecting a handshake.

"I'm Andrew." Andrew grabbed Simon's hand and shook it. His hand was extremely cold, it felt like ice.

"Can you move to the left a little?" Andrew gladly moved to the left, and soon, Simon was sitting right next to him."Thank you."

"Do you live here?" Andrew asked, yes, it was a silly question...

"Hahaha..." Simon couldn't help but smile a little, showing off his pointy teeth. "When a criminal is caught... he is sent to a prison. Now, can you say that a criminal lives in a prison, if he will only stay there for a week?"

"Well..." Andrew paused, to think about it. "No... I don't think so."

"Well then." Simon sniffed. "I am like a criminal, sent away, here, to stay. But only for some time. Then to your question, I say no."

"But!" Andrew was surprised to see Simon continuing the chat: "A person like me owns all of these artifacts, and a criminal is stripped away of his belongings before he enters the prison. I can say now that, I am not a prisoner for I still have my belongings, and to your question I say yes."

"Wait..." Andrew couldn't help but scratch his head in confusion. "Yes or no."

"Yes and no." Simon said finally.

"You're crazy..." Andrew shook his head. But something was still making things harder to explain, how exactly did he get trapped inside this museum of a building with some crazy lunatic? That's when he realized something that he could never explain.

He was sitting inside his tent, sitting by his bed...

"How in the world..." He couldn't finish the sentence, because of what he was seeing right through the fabric of his tent. Their was some sort of red liquid flooding at the right side of his tent... and there was a silhouette of a man's body just beneath the towering drops of what seemed like blood.

"No one..." He heard the somewhat familiar voice that he had heard so many times before. "No one leaves..."

Andrew rushed outside, hoping that his boss and all of his other co-workers were alive. Maybe...maybe Simon and the entire museum was all just a dream, and maybe, there was a perfectly good explanation as to why there was a dead person right outside his tent. He kept on thinking to himself... this is just a... terrorist attack!

Andrew, just at the edge of his tent's exit heard the sound of gunfire, and at once he fell on the snow, crawling through the cold and harsh blizzard that was coming his way.

He couldn't see a thing through the thick snowfall, he didn't care, the only thing he wanted to do right now was get far away from all the mayhem, and go home, go home and hug and kiss his wife. He wanted a sign, that everything was calm and quiet, a sign that everything was over.

He couldn't see any of those signs, that's when it hit him.

He wasn't getting any farther from the mayhem, from the chaos... he was nearing the battlefield, the Dig site was a mass of dead bodies and massive craters. It was a horrendous sight to be seen, some of the dead people were frozen almost completely.

"You!" Something cold grabbed hold of Andrew's back and tossed him into the air. Landing face down on the icy ground was incredibly painful, Andrew felt his entire body freeze up completely as again he was grabbed, grabbed by two cold hands... blue hands.

Andrew looked at the face of whoever was holding him. "S-Simon!" Andrew yelled. "Stop!"

"How dare you..." Simon's voice was ice cold, he might've been old but he was somehow lifting Andrew off his feet. Andrew then noticed something different about Simon. His skin was a dark shade of blue, his nose was pointier and his snow white hair and beard was longer than last time. "How dare you call the King of Ice and Snow, Simon!"

"Simon..." Andrew gasped for air, as Simon was beginning to choke him. "Simon... take off the crown!" He didn't believe in things like magic... and he certainly didn't understand how taking of the crown would make Simon less crazy, but he had no other choice.

"I trusted you!" Simon's eyes were slowly changing, from the usual blue eyes to extremely white ones... "I let you stay in my home for a while... and now, you're friends took everything inside it." That's when Andrew realized something. Simon was crying. "All I wanted... was a magical place... a place filled with mystery and joy, with my Betty! I continued to stay in my museum for years, waiting for her to return! Eighty long years... I've waited for her!"

"Step away from him!" Simon looked back and Andrew heard the painful sound of a gunfire. The sound of a bullet piercing flesh. Andrew looked down and saw blood gushing from Simon's chest. Simon's grip loosened and he fell on the snow. The crown rolled off of his head and Andrew knelt at his side.

Andrew could still feel Simon's grip on his neck, but it wasn't at all painful. And he could feel the painful feeling of anger. He looked at who shot Simon one more time. Hunson Abadeer, was holding a pistol. That's when Andrew realized it all. Hunson and his crew took all of the artifacts from Simon's museum. It wasn't Simon's fault that caused all of this to happen, Hunson Abadeer was the one that caused the chaos, caused everything to start. He was greedy, selfish and he'll do anything to become the richest man in the world.

Even through the hard snowfall, Andrew managed to see Abadeer holding what appeared to be a shiny red amulet.

Andrew slowly placed Simon's crown on his head and walked away. Towards his waiting boss. "Andrew, I got here in the nick of time huh?" Hunson smiled, still looking at the amulet he was holding. He quickly wrapped it around his neck and at once he smiled evilly. Andrew could somehow feel Hunson becoming rather chaotic.

"I quit..." Andrew walked away, into the blizzard.

He could still hear the warnings Abadeer yelled at him: No one leaves! No one leaves the Nightosphere!"

That was the name of this whole project. Project Nightosphere.