"Ughh." I grunted as a pushed my way past all the brush in front of me. "William, are we there yet? We've been walking for like, five hours already. Even bet even Ryan is tired.. where is he anyways?"
"First of all, Alice, it has not been five hours." Will paused for a second before turning back to look at me. " More like four and a half. Ryan is up ahead and to be honest, I'm quite lost.."
"I-What?! You've gotten us lost already?! I thought you knew these woods! Now you're saying that I'm gonna die here alone and afraid with so much of my life yet to be discovered? I haven't even flown in an airplane yet and you're telling me I'm going to die?!?"
"Wooaah, chill. I never said you were going to die here although that is a big possibility. Maybe we should ask Ryan. I mean he's smart, right?"
At the sound of his name Ryan poked his head through some thick leaves up ahead. "You called? If you're lost, I found an opening up ahead. I wanted to come back to you guys to see if you wanted to check it out. Maybe we can find it on the map." Ryan was always the logical one.
"Oh really? C'mon Al, lets go check it out." And with that Will ran off after Ryan. I groaned. A change in environment would be great since all I've been seeing for the past few hours is just trees, trees, and more trees. It was really starting to get on my nerves. I quickly caught up to them a we all entered the clearing one by one. It didn't seem like anything special: a few weeds here and there, long grass, and a large pile of rock near the middle. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so I stepped out of the thick forest to explore the plain. I approached the large piling of rocks some meters away from the edge of the grove, but I soon began to realize that they weren't just simple rocks. They seemed to be some sort of stone chipped into a rectangular shape and formed into a rough circle. It looked like those destroyed castles that you would see on T.V. Torn tapestries lay on what I assumed was the inside of the castle. The carpet weathered down by, well, weather. I called to Will and Ryan to come over and examine this with me. They looked up from the useless map that none of them could decipher before deciding to walk over to where I was.
"I'm like ninety percent sure this place is not on the map." Will exclaimed coming over. His eyes fastened on the stone structure. "What is that?"
"I don't know. I was sorta hoping you would tell me." I looked at Ryan to see a similar look of confusion in his eyes. "Hm. Well, since none of you guys know what it is, I guess you all should help me find out. I'm thinking destroyed castle. What about you?"
Will just grunted in reply and walked around the rocks, further examining it. Once he walked out of sight, I looked around me. Ryan had sat on one of the rocks. I sighed and plopped myself next to him.
"Do you think he'll find anything?"
Ryan scoffed and shook his head. "There's barely anything here. The castle looks extremely old. Everything should've been destroyed by now. I mean, what could last this long?"
"Uhhhhh, guys?" Will said from over the rocks. "You might wanna come and check this out?"
Ryan and I looked at each other briefly before getting up and walking towards Will's voice. He was deep inside the castle. Very deep inside the castle. A long hallway led us to a large courtyard, and in the middle stood Will. And in front of him, stood a tree like structure, glittering gems located at the end of each of the "branches". They were all different colors: pink, white, blue, orange, yellow, and purple.
Will looked back at us and after a pause said, "I'm gonna touch it."
"Will, I don't think that is a very wise choice." Ryan said next to me. Will just scoffed, brushing Ryan's remark off his shoulder before turning around, hand outstretched towards the white gem.
"Will..." Ryan warned. But still Will did not stop. Ryan quickly ran up to Will with me not far behind. He put his hand on Will's shoulder before saying, "Will, seriously. Don't touch that. We don't know what it is or what it could do. This is really unnatural.."
"Oh, come on. What could we possibly be afraid of?" Will smirked before grabbing the white gem and tossing it to Ryan who caught it in nervous arms. He then picked up the orange one for himself. The room was tense before he spoke up. "See? Its okay. I told you nothing would happ-"
A bright light illuminated the whole room, forcing me to shut my eyes. By the time I opened them, both Ryan and Will were gone.
My mouth lay agape as a stared at the space where my two friends once stood. I was alone. My mind was slowly processing what just happened. It wasn't possible. I was in shock. I had no idea what happened or what to do next. People couldn't just disappear into thin air. But it had just happened right in front of me. I looked down to see the two stones that Ryan and Will had held in the exact place where they had stood. They looked the same but their shine wore off a bit. I slowly sat down, still trying to process what had happened. I was still here so that means that whatever happened to my friends must've been because of the two stones in front of me. I was alone. No one was here. I was miles, maybe days, away from any sort of civilization. I had come on this trip looking for any sort of adventure, but I think this was a bit too much. It was a pity that there was no one back home that would come look for me. My whole life basically revolved around my friends. Theirs too. We were three lone wolves that joined together to form a pack. We were a family. And my whole family has just disappeared before my very eyes. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't stay here. I relied on them. Taking a deep sigh, I shakily tried to compose myself. What would I do now? I mean, I could follow them; touch a stone for myself and also be thrown into the world of the unknown. But I didn't know what the stone did. Maybe it just vaporized my two best friends into mid air. My eyes began to water as I imagined a life without them. I made the hasty decision that I would follow them. I roughly stood up, shaking away the tears from my eyes and walked up to a stone. It glowed a blue hue. I frowned at it and grabbed it harshly off its pedestal. "This is your fault!" I shouted at it. And as a the light of the stone grew brighter and brighter, I realized my mistake. I had made a stupid decision. I didn't know what would happen with the stone. What was I thinking?? I began to panic but there was no turning back now. I dropped the stone to try and shield my eyes from the blinding light. But as soon as it started, it stopped and I began falling.
My eyes shot open from the adrenaline coursing through my body. All around me was a dark blue colored plane. I could see no distinct landmark except for the occasional swirling of blue tones. Was I dead. Had the stone killed me. As a frantically looked around a notices a bright white dot. The clique light at the end of the tunnel. 'Oh, I'm definitely dead. I bet that's heaven.. Huh. Didn't think I'd make it into heaven.' As the light quickly shone brighter and brighter it was getting hard to bear. I closed my eyes and curled up into a fetal position, fearing the unknown.
And that was the last thing I remember