Having Jesse upset over some event or object was one thing. Having Jesse upset at someone else was one thing.
Having Jesse upset over you was something else entirely.
Said woman was currently staring at her, eyes wide and hands clamped over her mouth. Everyone was staring at her with wide eyes, save for Petra. Olivia took a shaky step back, lowering her hand to grip her arm.
"What do you mean?" Her voice shook. Axel made a sort of coughing noise.
"What do I mean? Your hands are purple!" He reached forwards and grabbed her right hand; pain shot through it and she yanked it away, holding it to her chest with her left hand. Apparently the potion was wearing off a bit. "See?"
"Why didn't you say anything?" Jesse had only barely moved her hands enough to speak. "H-how did we not notice that?"
"What even is that?" Lukas eked out. Olivia glanced between them shakily, then caught Petra's eye. Petra very rigidly and quickly shook her head, then mouthed "later."
"I-" her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "I-I'll explain l-later."
"No, you'll explain now." Axel folded his arms.
"W-we need to find a way out." Olivia took a steadying breath. "Once we're not in danger of being sucked into the Wither Storm, I'll explain." The silence that followed her statement was tense, lasting a long several seconds, before Axel sighed.
"Fine. But you aren't getting out of this. Once we're in a safe place-"
"I know, I know. And I will explain. Just… Not yet." Olivia rubbed her arm. Axel made a face, but nodded and dropped his arms nonetheless.
"So how do we get out of here, anyways?" Lukas glanced at Jesse. "We have no way to open that bookshelf again. Magnus and Ellegaard are who-knows-where, so they sure can't help here…" Jesse tore her eyes from Olivia to look at the blond.
"W-well… We could try using…" She dug around in her pocket for a second, then retrieved an item. "This."
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Flint and steel? Are you suggesting we burn the bookcase?"
Jesse stuffed the object in her pocket again. "That's not w-what I meant t-to pull out… Uh… This." She pulled the amulet from her pocket this time. The red and green gems were glowing, but that began to fade away not long after.
"They're moving further away," Olivia sighed in slight dismay. Lukas reached forwards.
"Here, let me see." As he took hold of the amulet, Jesse shot him a glance, then hesitantly agreed and let go. He began turning the amulet over in his hands, trying to find a way to bring the lights back. Nothing he tried in the first few seconds worked, though; after a moment of hesitation, he started to try something else, when the white gem suddenly flashed to life. Lukas dropped the amulet with a surprised yelp.
Jesse moved forwards and picked the amulet up, looking the gem over briefly. "I-I think that's Soren."
"Find where he's closest to." Petra nodded at the amulet. "If we find the area closest to him in here, we can probably dig or something and find our way out." Jesse nodded quietly, holding the amulet in front of her and glancing around the room.
The rest of them separated, moving to wait in different spots around the room. Olivia moved to stand beside a weird sort of stand made of fence posts. Two golden swords were leaned up against it, and a decorative staircase leading to the wall past it. She shifted around and settled herself on the steps.
Jesse was currently making her way from the far side of the room to the corner, where Lukas had propped himself up. The amulet brightened as she moved, then dimmed about three feet from the corner. Jesse backtracked, hesitating where the light was brightest, then glancing towards Olivia, then at Petra.
"Right here." She motioned to the floor. "He's b-below us."
Petra approached her slowly. "Do we dig, then?" Jesse glanced at the floor.
"I guess. I-I mean, what else can w-we do?" She pocketed the amulet. "We should probably get s-started."
"Who knows how far down that goes?" Lukas scratched the back of his head. Olivia pushed herself up and moved over to join the odd circle, standing between Axel and Jesse. "I'm just saying, we could be digging until we hit bedrock."
"I mean, i-it doesn't hurt to try?" Jesse offered, smiling slightly. "A-at this point, w-we don't h-have much to lose. W-we're already stuck."
"I…" Lukas hesitated. "Guess that's a way to look at it."
With that, Axel suddenly jumped forwards, shouting "Pai-gow!" as he punched the floor. That single hit broke away one of the stone blocks that made up the floor. Everyone glanced at him in surprise, and he shrugged.
"L-let's, uh…" Jesse looked back at the hole. "Let's get t-to work, then."
The rest of them started working on making a hole, but Olivia stepped back. There was no way she could do anything like with that potion wearing off. She could barely touch anything, let alone punch through stone. No one said anything about it, all she got was a worried glance from Jesse at one point. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she had tried to help, the others would've stopped her.
Besides, everyone but Jesse stopped pretty quickly anyways.
Jesse was now deep in a three-by-three hole; Olivia cautiously peered down into it to see her crouching on a single block, looking down into a pitch-black hole. So there was something down there.
"Are we cool?" Axel called down to her. Jesse glanced up at them.
"I-it's a hole," she called back. Axel blinked.
"Does that mean we're cool?"
"I-I'll find out." Jesse looked down again, using the amulet to light up underneath her.
Olivia didn't really see what had happened, but Jesse suddenly said something to quietly for her to here, and the amulet clattered against stone. This was followed almost immediately by squeaks and rapid flapping, which caused Jesse to yelp. A couple of stray bats flew up through the hole, and Olivia took a step back, as did the others.
It took a minute for the bats to disperse, and when they had, Jesse called up again, voice shaking slightly. "I-I think it's s-safe now." Olivia looked warily down the hole again as Jesse eased herself off of the block she was crouched on to the floor below.
Lukas was the first to begin jumping down, followed by Reuben. Olivia tentatively followed them, hopping from block to block in their odd little staircase. She could hear someone following her, but couldn't bring herself to stop until she reached the bottom.
She landed on stone stumbling a little as the momentum vanished. As she regained her bearings, there was a yelp above them, and Axel landed right on top of Lukas. She flinched, as did Jesse, and Axel was quick to stand up. As Lukas got to his feet, rubbing his torso with a hand, Petra hopped down. She apparently landed oddly, as she nearly toppled over.
"E-everyone okay?" Jesse was watching Petra as she spoke.
"Just slipped." Petra's response was immediate. Jesse took a second to look to Lukas, who nodded.
A horrid smell hit Olivia's nose, and her face scrunched up reflexively as she put a hand over her nose and mouth for a moment.
"Eugh, what is that awful smell?" She uncovered her mouth a bit, trying to wave away the smell with her other hand. Petra straightened and glanced back at her.
"Just… Breathe through your mouth." Olivia nodded, coughing a couple of times.
"Axel already does that." Lukas grinned. Axel glared at him.
"Hey…" Lukas had to visibly force down laughter. Petra rolled her eyes.
"Lead the way, Jesse." The redhead partially motioned to the rest of the tunnel. Jesse nodded once, holding the amulet ahead of her like a torch and making her way down the tunnel.
It, unsurprisingly, took no time for Axel to fall into step beside her. "So-"
"Still a bad time, Axel." She didn't need to glance at him to know what face he made. "We're in a dark tunnel that was filled with bats not five minutes ago. I don't really see this as a safe place to discuss it."
"... Fine." Axel looked away from her. She folded her arms, following Jesse down the walkway. The other's pace had slowed, growing tenser as she whispered something to Reuben.
She could see very dim light ahead of them. Jesse continued forwards at a hesitant pace. Olivia moved to walk beside her, stopping beside her as they reached an edge. She looked down.
Below them was a gigantic grinder, tunnels and walkways running down the spanse of the machine. The entire cavern was at least a hundred-meter drop from where they were, and there was a lot of space above them already.
Lukas let out a little yelp, and Axel stared down at the space with wide eyes. "Whoa…"
As Jesse pocketed the amulet, Olivia began to back away from the edge. "We have to get out of here."
"What?" Lukas glanced towards her.
"We have to get out of here!" Jesse glanced at her warily. Axel made a face.
"But we just got here," Axel pointed out. Olivia shook her head.
"You don't understand. This is a grinder!"
AN: oooh she got out of it this time
also sorry again for the crazy late chapter, school's kinda stressing me out ;v;
until next time!