Page 4 of Fallen Star

So, now you know. Hopefully we can still be friends. Cuz I dig you.

Get it?Digyou. Little archeology joke there.

So back to the orb. It's singing to me. Telling me its secrets. Showing me where I can find the last piece. But before I get the whole story, its voice is silenced.

As Trevor yanks it out of my hand.

I open my eyes and glare at him. "What the hell?"

He's now staring at it wide-eyed. "What makes it glow?"

"You know how rude that was?" I reach to take it back, but he pulls it away from me.

"Just give me a sec," he whines—and there is nothing more attractive than a grown man whining, am I right, ladies? "Besides, shouldn't you figure out a way out?"

Well, he's got a point there. If I rely on him, we'll die together in here, and I'm not spending the rest of my life—and all of my afterlife—with a one-night stand.

I glare at him a moment more, my instincts screaming at me to take the orb back and tuck it away safely where it belongs. But he's been working hard to find this thing, and I'm going to be ruining his career when I steal it from both him and Global Tech, so… whatever. I'll let him have his moment of glory.

As he said, I need to find a way out. Preferably one that doesn't require us scaling the wall we climbed down and crawling through the hall of bugs again.

I'm guessing there's another trick that will open a door. So I study the tiles and put my thinking cap on. Meanwhile, Trevor's eyes are glued to the orb piece.

I have a lightbulb moment and wonder if it's too simple to work. But worth a try, am I right? I reverse my walk on the tiles that opened the secret compartment, and the middle tile returns into the ground. As it does, a piece of stone wall grinds against itself, peeling open a door that hadn't been there before.

Voila. We have an exit. I hold out my hand for the orb, and Trevor gives it back to me reluctantly then follows me to the door.

"Careful where you step," I say. "There are likely many booby traps still lurking around here."

"I'm not an idiot, Alex. I know what I'm doing."

Someone's getting testy. But I hold my tongue. See how diplomatic I can be? But of course, as he steps out of the chamber, pushing in front of me to do so, he nearly triggers said booby trap. One of the tiles is a different shade than the rest. I grab him and pull him back, then point. "That could have killed us," I tell him harshly, all patience wearing thin.

"You don't even know that's a trap," he says with more whine. Want any cheese with that, dude?

"Do you want to risk it when we're this close to getting out of here?"

He frowns at me. "Are we really that close?"

I nod and point down the corridor we just entered, showing him how this is where we started. "Just down that hall is the ladder we climbed down from the surface."

He smiles, and there's a glint in his eyes I don't like.

I don't see the knife in his hand until it's too late.

Until it's pushed into my gut. "Sorry about this, Alex. But I can't let you get all the credit, or turn this over to Global Tech. There are buyers willing to pay big for whatever this glowing bit is, and I intend to retire in wealth."

He pulls the artifact out of my pocket and pushes me backwards, onto the discolored tile I just warned him about.

Then he runs, coward that he is. He runs down the path I had to point out to him, while I fall, a knife sticking out of my gut. He makes it out just as my heel pushes on the tile unleashing the trap I knew was there.

Rushing water fills the cavern.

Oh joy. I love the suspense of how will Alex die today? Blood loss, internal injuries, or drowning?

Alex Stone

It's not as fun as you might think, being right all the time.

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