Page 30 of Fallen Star

The walls screech, grown, and begin to close in.

And the ceiling is in on the action, lowering slowly onto us.

We will soon be squished like a marshmallow in a S'More if I don't get my ass in gear. I dash to the other side of the room and study the sliver of a crack in the wall. A small ridge extends out, like a saucer or a shallow bowl. A riddle is carved into it, but not in a language I recognize. I call Dean over. "Can you read this?" I ask him.

He nods. "It says, 'only the sly may enter'."

The water is rising, flowers sticking to my body as it reaches my chest. The walls and ceiling are closing in, and the four of us are pushed into the center with only an arm's length separating us from our bloody, broken ends.

I repeat the riddle in my head. There's something tickling the back of my mind, but it's so out of context I can't quite reach it. I close my eyes and focus, ignoring Levi's urges to hurry up, ignoring my mother's pleading eyes, grasping on to the confidence I see in Dean's face. He believes I can figure this out. I know I can. I must. Too much depends on it.

Only the sly… the sly… "Sly!" I scream, my eyes popping open. "Sly, from the Black Lotus. The door wants an offering. A flower. Quick, everyone, search the waters for a black lotus. Hurry!"

My words pump adrenaline into everyone, as the water threatens to overcome us in short order. We splash through the water, ducking beneath it, searching amongst hundreds of flowers that must be magically induced to stay in perpetual bloom. I toss aside a red rose, a blue carnation and a silver daffodil that's actually quite stunning, but definitely not the point.

"Found it!" Dean says, holding up the black flower in triumph.

The dark petals of the lotus brush against my skin like velvet as he hands it over to me and I study it. The water is now too high for me to stand. Dean, being taller, still has a few inches, but I'm forced to tread water to reach the door, while delicately cupping the lotus so as not to crush it. I place the flower on the small stone dish with the riddle inscribed, and I cross my fingers.

The flower glows darkly, submerged in the dirty water. The smell is noxious—like rot and mildew, and it permeates my skin, though the leather outfit Iris provided seems to be doing a good job of keeping that portion of my body protected. I might just have to upgrade my wardrobe, assuming I survive this.

The walls push into us, forcing Dean and me into Levi and my mother. We are completely submerged now, without any room to come up for air. The pressure builds, pain flaring as bones and joints are bent against the unyielding stone. Levi attempts to use the shards to shatter the walls, to no avail.

And then, as suddenly as it began, it stops. The walls halt. The water begins to drain. And the crack where I placed the flower groans to an open, with just enough room for us each to squeeze through.

We step into the next cavern looking like drowned rats. Levi is furious, but silent as he wordlessly propels us forward into a space that is once again filled with dead children, this time covered in spider webs like the ones we fought through in the first hall. These remains are different, however. There are no stones in the mouths, no iron on their eyes. They are not wrapped in cloth. And their bodies haven't decomposed at the rate one would expect. They look relatively fresh. And there are no infants. All these children are at least ten to twelve years old, and all perfectly formed. Except that their eyes and mouths have been sewn shut. I shudder at the sight of it. This isn't something I've ever seen before.

"What is this?" I ask into the silence.

Dean stands beside me, studying them. "I have no idea."

"It doesn't matter," Levi says, shoving into us. "Find the shard."

In the center, a huge web is wrapped around something that is waist high. I walk carefully towards it, my axe out, studying the shape. "Help me," I tell Dean, as I delicately cut through the sticky white tendrils.

As we pierce through layers, a white glow pulses through what remains. In the end, we reveal a pedestal with the final shard resting on it.

I step back, sweat mixing with the vile water coating my skin, my eyes burning.

"There you go, Levi. It's all yours."

Dean looks ready to object, but I caution him with a glance and he stays silent.

Levi just laughs. "Do you think me a fool? It's likely trapped. You fetch it and bring it to me," he says from the spot we first entered through.

Eh. It was worth a try.

I use my gifts to see into the space, to identify the connections and networks, to read the room, as it were.

This one can't be claimed with a simple trick, like replacing it with a bag of rice. But I'm not seeing another way around this. I know it's trapped, I just don't know how.

I approach it cautiously, holding my hand out to touch the shard.

As I make contact, a vision overtakes me. One that upends my entire world, my entire existence. One that finally locks into place the last pieces of understanding. Tears fill my eyes as I lift the shard, almost against my will, my hand acting of its own accord. When the vision fades, I am faced with a new and shattering truth.

I open my eyes and find everyone staring at me. I look down and realize I am glowing. Levi, in fury, races towards me and grabs the shard from my hands. As he does, the tomb comes alive. All the dead children rise in unison, pushing past spider webs, their eyes and mouths still sewn closed. They move towards us and begin emitting a strange, dark sound, guttural and evil. And then tiny spiders emerge from their mouths, their ears, their eyes, crawling over their faces as they approach us.

Dean raises his sword and slashes at one of the dead children, severing it in two, but more keep coming, swarming him as they leap through the air like small, violent, acrobats, latching on to their victim. The vampire goes into rage mode, tearing them apart one by one as they clutch him, small hands winding around his throat in a desperate attempt to choke out his life.

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