"You found it."
Cassie froze in place, recognizing the voice. She didn't open her eyes even with the blindfold but the hearing was all she needed. "How did you get up here so fast?" she asked. She clutched tighter on the rope.
"We shot the snakes and they scattered. The big one was the most difficult one to take out."
They shot at the snakes to scare them away? How come I didn't hear any gunshots?
"Were you using suppressors?" she asked to confirm her suspicions.
"Bingo," Heisenberg said with a cheerful voice.
"How did you follow me?"
"We heard a gun go off and we followed it."
It must be from the gun I dropped and went off when it hit the ground. Damn it.
"I can't see you but I do know where you're at. I can feel the rope." He proves his point by smacking the rope as hard as he could, creating a vibration like when a fly gets trapped in a spider's web. "I can already tell that you are standing near the pedestal where the stone is."
Damn, he even knows my position.
A plan hatched into her head.
I have an idea, I think I have a plan to take out Heisenberg once and for all. It's going to be tricky but it's the only shot I have at surviving and not letting Heisenberg get his hands on the stone.
"Grab the stone for me," he ordered, "And don't try and trick me; I know that you're a strategist."
I'll cast the line and see if he'll go for the bait.
"Heisenberg, if I touch the Philosopher's Stone, then I will become immortal."
"If that's the case," he reached down and unsnapped his hip holster to his pistol. "Then I'll just kill you afterward."
I was expecting him to say something like that, Cassie smiled.
"Heisenberg, I'm a slippery one, which means that once I touch the stone, there's a high chance that I'll escape."
What is she up to? Heisenberg wondered, Is she really that sly?
"In that case, I should just kill you and get it over with." He drew his gun.
He's drawing his gun, I've got to move on with the plan if I want it to work.
"You can't open your eyes because the snakes will turn you into gold so how can you shoot me without shooting the Philosopher's Stone?"
She does have a point, he thought, If I'm shooting blindly, I could destroy the very thing I came here for.
"If you want the Philosopher's Stone, you're going to have to get it yourself."
What is she up to? Is she really that sly?
He turned his head over his shoulder. "Giovanni, Luciano, restrain Cassie."
There's mercenaries with him, this makes things more complicated. I have to be careful. Best case scenario: Giovanni and Lucianao are the only mercenaries with him.
"Wrap the end of your grappling hook around the pedestal so I know where to go."
Cassie does as she is told and makes sure the end of her hook is wrapped tightly around the pedestal.
"Walk forward using the rope as a guide."
"I know how to walk."
She slowly walks forward, remembering that there was a snake in front of her. "There's a snake in front of us."
Heisenberg takes out his gun, and shoots at the ground in front of him. He hears the startled hissing of a snake that fell into the pit below them.
"Your welcome," he said as he holstered his gun.
That's right, he has a suppressor. I can use that to my advantage.
Cassie and Heisenberg met halfway at the rope. Cassie bumps into him, her hands going to his waist area. He pushes her behind him and she freezes.
I did it...I got it!
She climbs the rest of the way back to the entrance, where she was expecting there to be at least two mercenaries waiting for her.
She raises her gun and pauses at the hole. She listens carefully for the two mercenaries to unsnap the holsters to their guns and she uses these sounds to determine where they were standing.
She blindly aimed to her left and fired off three suppressed shots. She heard the mercenary on her right gasp and she quickly shot him. Both men tumbled onto the ground and made a loud thud as they did.
Heisenberg reaches the end of the rope. He grasps around the pedestal and feels up for the top.
Cassie quickly climbed out of the hole and once she was clear, she listened for more sounds of mercenaries. There were none. She turned and clutched the rope as a way of aiming.
A bullet tore through Heisenberg's chest and hit the Philosopher's Stone off the pedestal and into the snake pit. He yells in agony and blindly reaches for his gun to find it gone.
Cassie fired two more times, emptying the last two bullets into both shoulders. Upon hearing the infamous click, she grabs the grappling hook and yanks with all her might. The end was tied to the pedestal so it went falling forward and crushed Heisenberg's leg.
He screams in pain.
It worked!
"Help!" Heisenberg called out.
Everything went according to plan. My plan: Convince Heisenberg to reach for the Philosopher's Stone itself, get him to unsnap his hip holster so I can pickpocket his gun from him. Then, I would kill the remaining mercenaries and shoot Heisenberg. If I ran out of bullets, I would yank at the end of the grappling hook and pull the pedestal over. By my calculations, the stone would fall into the snake pit while Heisenberg would either fall in with it or die from his gunshot wounds.
She heard him screaming.
Judging by the sounds of his screaming, he survived the gunshot wounds but is in agony. Did the pedestal crush him or something? He's calling for help. A possible scenario occurred to her. Oh shit, what if he did indeed touch the stone and is now immortal? If that were the case, then why is he screaming? I've heard that the Philosopher's Stone could heal wounds but not grant complete immortality.
He screamed again.
He's screaming in agony, meaning that he really is hurt and that his wounds aren't healing. I've shot him three times at least and I think I crushed him under the pedestal so he'll be bleeding out. I don't have to worry about the Philosopher's Stone because, by my calculations, it's already in the snake pit.
He turns around, taking her grappling hook back by yanking it off the pedestal with all her might. She placed it back at her hip and turned to leave.
"See you later, Heisenberg," Cassie said loud for Heisenberg to hear. "Like Walter White, you'll die surrounded by the one thing you love."
Heisenberg nearly lost consciousness from blood loss and made the fatal mistake of opening his eyes, forever becoming a trophy and a meal for the golden snakes.
Cassie had nothing but her memory to rely on. She kept her eyes on the ceiling but rolled to the back of her skull. When she reached the end of the hallway, she saw the monkey bars and swung across as she did previously. She then remembered hearing the mercenaries say something about scaring off the snakes but she didn't want to take any chances. She reaches the end and leaps towards the doorway. She made haste down the stairs and nearly slipped. She still lost her balance and went falling forward and she hit her face against the wall.
"Ow," she exclaimed, "What does it take for a girl to stop bumping into things?"
She rushed down the rest of the stairs but stopped when she remembered the snake she landed in front of. She heard the infamous hissing and froze. She remembered what happened last time and walked around the snake. Then came the room with the snakes placed evenly around the room. She bounces up and over the snakes.
She reached the hallway where she had to follow the snakes and she ran in the opposite direction. She risked opening her eyes only to see if the door she came through was still there and much to her luck, it was.
She ran down the stairs that led to the first floor and she froze in place when she realized that this is where she left the mercenaries and the queen of snakes.
She blocked both eyes with both hands, even with the blindfold, and listened carefully to the sound of the queen snakes hissing at her. She could feel the snake nearing her head and eyes directly on hers. She could feel the snake lick its tongue on Cassie's forehead but other than that it did nothing more than hiss in her ear. It was getting harder and harder for Cassie to keep her eyes shut; the temptation to look was getting stronger and stronger. It was almost painful.
She slowly moved to the side, one foot to the left followed the second as she sidesteps the snake. She imagined that it was over but a loud noise startled her into almost opening her eyes. She felt an explosion and the heat rose up to her face and nearly burned her eyebrows out. She blindly ran off but tripped over something and fell. She caught herself on her elbows (painfully) and continued running after she picked herself up.
She runs forward and suddenly bends forward upon feeling herself connect to a table. Her stomach felt like someone kicked her and she groaned. She just moves around the table while keeping her hands on the table.
When she reached the end, there was a vibration that ran throughout the ground that made her fall to the ground once more. The vibrating ground became violent, shaking hard like an earthquake.
"What the hell is going on?!" she exclaimed.
"I did that."
Derek…
"They're all dead, Drake."
That's not Derek, but with that French accent...it has to be-
"It's me, Marcel."
Cassie opened her eyes slightly and saw the front of a man's boots inches from her face. Her eyes drew up and gazed at the cultists as he looked down at her. He had an RPG-7 with him and he dropped to the ground in exhaustion. His left shoulder had a gunshot wound in it and he was pressing his right hand to it to apply pressure.
"I'm going to die regardless," he said calmly and panted, "As long as you don't look at the snake's eyes, you'll be fine. You don't have to keep them closed."
Cassie was about to say something but the ground shook once more and she heard the cries of the snake creature behind her.
"I hit a vital spot in the snake with an RPG-7," he said as he looked up towards the snake. His eyes were pointed downward so they weren't looking directly at the snake. "I've studied this creature during my time growing up. It's a mythical creature known as the Basilisk. It can turn you into gold with a single glance as you may have guessed. It was created by the alchemists as a last line of defense with infant snakes at the top. Only sorcerers have an immunity to it because they used a special kind of magic as a shield for the eyes. Even so, the snakes do have a backup plan in case they can't take out the trespassers. One, they can bite you and turn you into gold and two, spending prolonged time around the snakes will result in the same thing. I've hit a vital spot so it should be bleeding sand in a few minutes."
He turns ducks down and holds a hand for Cassie to grab. "I promise that I will get you out of here."
"How did you get a gunshot wound on your shoulder?"
"One of the mercenaries got hysterical and started firing blindly at the snake. He ended up hitting me as a result. My friend, Pavel, got hurt. He got bit by the big snake and turned into gold right before my eyes."
Cassie grabs his hand.
"You are no longer my enemy," Marcel stated, "I am the last living member of Vita Longa. Once I die from blood loss, Vita Longa will be no more." He collapses to his feet.
Cassie helped him up and put his arm over his shoulder. "We'll get out of here together."
"Then," Marcel began, "I'll give the order to the Three Mercs to release your friends."
I'm just glad Derek and the others didn't have to get involved in this.
"That sounds like a plan."
A pillar in front of them collapsed, nearly crushing the two in the process.
And just like that, history repeats itself.