Chapter 9

Once we were down stairs, about three thousand and eight hundred stairs down, was another door. Opening it, Chelsea revealed three hallways. You could go straight, right, or left. She turned left, and we followed. At the end of the ice hallway were two more hallways that branched off.

"Huh… OH!" She turned right.

Oh. Another door. She opened it and we gasped. Treasure!!!! The ice walls were completely encrusted with the most precious jewels. Diamonds, sapphires, aquamarines, lolites, white jade, grey-blue jaspers, lapis lazuli, some onyx, moonstones, opal, pearl, quartz, tanzanite, turquoise, zircon, white coral, chalcedony, beryl, agate, and an occasional amethyst. It was so beautiful!!! On the floor were umpteen jewels of all dark colors, not encrusted, but scattered in random piles.

Chelsea walked to the eastern wall and opened a door… again. Darn. I liked this room. The worst part was that there were more stairs.

"What is up with you and stairs?!" Newel asked rudely. "My legs feel like they aren't there!"

"Sorry." She apologized, still jumpy. "We're almost there…" She murmured.

We went down about two hundred more steps and came to another hallway. This time there were no more branches. Chelsea kept walking straight with a certain face on. I turned my face and stared at the floor. She was so pretty it made me jealous.

She opened a door and walked about twenty more steps. She came to a stop at a door that wasn't made of ice. It was the same color as the trap door that led to the very first room. There was a dial on it. She turned it about eighteen times. Then the door swung open.

"Hurry, everyone in." She rushed.

We crowded the big room. The entire room was made of that mysterious material. But the color was a lapis lazuli. You could see your reflection. The ceiling and floor were sunstones that illuminated the moon's shine. Chelsea's skin looked brilliant in it.

"Wh-what is this place?" Lana asked in her trilling voice.

"The safest place on this preserve. And probably the planet… Nothing can cut through these walls or that door." She indicated the door we came from.

"Why did we have to talk in here though?" Seth asked.

"Because it is sound proof. We can hear everything on the outside, but no one can hear anything from the inside who's on the outside. Stefina's annoying screech could be in here and you wouldn't hear it if your ear was next to the door. I trust my servants, but not all of them."

"So why did you jump at the sound of the Sphinx's name? I mean you never leave this place so you couldn't've heard he was the leader of the Society of the Evening Star. "

She cringed when Seth said "Sphinx". "I always knew he was a traitor. I tried to tell the people who placed me here. They didn't believe me, but they saw enough fear in my eyes to not tell him about this place. You see, I was placed here centuries ago. And I do believe you that he could come through here. I mean the only way you guys came through was by obviously killing Stefina, Sylvester, Silwia, Shunnareh, and Syllis. And if you guys can, the Sphinx and his stupid army could surely. But he is more dangerous than meets the eye and/or ears. I remember, before I came across Jack, the Sphinx tried to make me part of his team. Apparently he didn't realize I had a special power that could read minds. I knew he was Rhodes. I wasn't as dumb as he thought. When I refused, he threatened to kill me. That was when Jack came in." She had an almost half-smile on, but mostly pain in her eyes.

"Jack fought off the Sphinx. He eve--"

"You know, I know the whole Jack story you told us earlier but… Is he really real? I mean really? Or are you just some psycho whose obsessed with him?"

"You don't know anything do you?" She said accusingly with hate in her eyes.

"Sorry, go on." Grandpa apologized for Seth.

"Yes, as I was saying, Jack carried me to rescue. And ever since then, not only has the Sphinx been hunting down this preserve, but he has also been hunting down me. See, I am not a vampire. But I am immortal and the only way to kill me is to put a stick through my chest."

"But you're, what? Ice Person?" Asked Seth.

"Yes, I am completely composed of ice. Including my heart."

"Then, how does staking you kill you?"

"Fire is extremely powerful. One of the most powerful parts of the world, one of the four elements. But, that doesn't always mean it can be more powerful than ice."

"So, fire won't harm you... At all?"

"Not at all."

"So you're terrified of the Sphinx?" Elise asked.

"Yes." She looked down. "I thought you guys would have been on his team."

"We're not. We'd never…" Trask said.

"We don't blame you for thinking that though… You can't really trust anyone these days, huh?" Mara pointed out.

"(she scoffed) You're tellin' me." Chelsea said.

We all froze. Footsteps sounded near the door. BANGGGGGGG!!!!!! It wasn't a gunshot, but sounded like the biggest boulder on Earth collided in the door. But the door didn't shudder.

"(gasp) No…" Chelsea barely whispered.

"What?" We all asked in unison.

"Come on!!"

"Whatever that was, why do we have to leave, I mean you said nothing could crash into this place." Seth pointed out.

"JUST FOLLOW ME!!!!!" Chelsea became impatient.

So we did.

Wouldn't want to get frozen. I thought as I stepped around everyone.

We followed her to the center of the room. She stopped at a certain sunstone. She put her icy index finger on it and then dragged it across it in swirling motions. Each time she dragged it there was a thin layer of ice there. She put both hands there closed her eyes, then as she said something in an unintelligible tongue, the stone grew brighter and brighter until it matched the color of a blue moon. Suddenly in a blurry motion, she removed her hands and stood. The trapdoor swung open.

"Come." It was an order.

She jumped in the hole in another blur. Actually, more specifically, she crouched and pounced in it.

"Whoa." Grandpa said uncertain.

"Come. It's not that far down." She said. Her voice was a strange echo.

"Okay, me, Tanu and Warren will go first and then we'll help Stan and Ruth down." Trask planned out.

They agreed. When they were finished the rest of us went down. Newel, Zolie, Doren, Narinda, Tanu, Ulline, Elise, Stefan, Caroline, Seth, Lana, Mara, Vanessa, Verl. I stood for a few minutes.

"You coming down?" I heard Verl ask, concerned.

I looked back at the door. The same bang we heard earlier happened again. For some reason, I don't know how, but it sounded closer. All of the sudden, I saw a humanoid shadow pressed up against the wall run across.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!" I yelped inhumanly loud.

I thought Seth was the shadow charmer!!

"What?!?" Verl asked it sounded like he was about to climb out.

I heard a growl from where the shadow ran.

"Who are you?" I asked. I doubted it heard me though, I couldn't hear myself.

"My name is Faust…" He whispered in the most sinister whisper I've ever heard.

I gasped real loud. Suddenly Verl was at my side. I think he saw the figurine because he also gasped looking in the direction of where Faust was. He grabbed me and ducked in the hole. I practically fell and he caught me. He cradled me while running toward the others.

"What?" My grandma asked alarmed.

"G-g-g-ghost……" I tried to stop shaking.

"No…" Chelsea whispered again. "Follow me. NOW!"

She started running. My grandparents didn't struggle keeping up. We ran to a room. She opened another trapdoor and ducked in. We all followed, but faster and with no pause. We must have been running and walking for about twenty minutes. Door after door, stairs after stairs, step after step. We finally came to a stop.

Chelsea looked uncertain. She bit her lower lip and stared at the floor. "I was wrong. He came…"

"Who was it?" Ulline demanded.

"Let me tell you about him…"

"That would help."