Deep into the passageway, way ahead of the professor and team, Divya was ferociously swimming forward. Somehow, she felt the presence of her teammates following her. ‘They are really early,’ she thought, ‘I need more time.’ Divya had reached the end of the passage. She mentally chanted an incantation after which their were tremors throughout the passage. She swam up towards an opening and climbed out of the water.
Read the first chapter : Goddess Hecate’s Curse – The Secret Key
Blocks of rocks started breaking off of the walls of the passage and this slowly crept up to the team. A huge piece fell in between Anita and the other two separating Anita from the group. The tremors settled down but the damage was already done.
“ANITAAAA!!!!” shouted Joanelle in her communication device hoping that the waves would reach her student. Unfortunately, the rock had left little to no space for any communication. She tried multiple times but still no answer. There was a small opening at the edge of the passage and a plastic sheet flew through there. Joanelle grabbed it and used her torch to see what it was. It was a dive slate page. She started reading what was written on it.
“Anita here. I’m alright. The tremors opened up another way out. I’ll try to come around and meet you guys.“
“Anita is fine”, said Joanelle. She took out her dive slate and slid a message to Anita saying that they are okay too and they’ll be continuing forward. Anita slid into a small crevice that opened up beside her after reading Joanelle’s message and the others continued down the same path.
Original Path
Anabeth started having difficulty breathing. She checked her airflow and discovered that her tank was leaking oxygen. A rock from the tremors pierced her tank.
“Professor! My oxygen tank is running low. There is a leak. What do we do now?”
“I hope we aren’t far from the end. My tank has plenty of oxygen for both of us. Let us share oxygen and breath judiciously.”
Once Anabeth’s tank was empty, they discarded it and started sharing oxygen. The tremor had caused all sorts of dirt and debris spread across the dark passage, making it harder to see where they were going. Suddenly a rock came rushing towards them. Anabeth quickly pulled the professor out of the way but their oxygen cylinder couldn’t be saved.
“Shit!” said Anabeth who has always had a hard time staying underwater without breathing.
“Let’s be strong, pick up the pace and pull through!” said Joanelle.
They picked up the pace but it was getting difficult for Anabeth every second. “We are almost at the end!” Joanelle exclaimed. But Anabeth was having difficulty keeping her eyes open. Joanelle started swimming up towards the opening and took a big gulp of air as she reached the top. After her breathing returned to normal, she realized that Anabeth never came up.
Worried sick, she dived back into the water with her torch on. She found Anabeth passed out at the bottom. She swiftly swam to her and pulled her out of the water. Joanelle gave Anabeth mouth to mouths and chest compressions so that she coughs out the water and starts breathing. After a few rounds, Anabeth coughed out some water and took a deep breath. “Thank you!” she said after her respiration returned to normal.
Sacred Carvings
Anita’s path was narrower than the original path. The path kept getting narrower but Anita could see an opening through which the water was pouring into an open area. After a while, she couldn’t control her direction because the current was too strong. She was thrown out of the hole into a huge pond like structure.
Her eyes could see a walkable area right beside the hole she came out of. She reached for it and climbed up. Her eyes adjusted to the place and she saw she was in a large hollow air bubble which had a cave like opening at the opposite end. She also saw another cave like opening a few steps to her right. Her ‘Fear of Missing Out’ kicked in and she decided to explore the cave closer to her first.
At the entrance of the cave was a wooden torch. She lit it and started walking inside the cave. The path was straightforward and lead to a shrine for Goddess Hecate. Pictures of her different forms were drawn all over the cave walls. There were animal and human bones scattered around the area. She saw different symbols, moon cycles, mythical creatures, etc. All the caricatures were focused towards a huge picture of Hecate in her three headed form.
Anita started deciphering some symbols. Suddenly, her wooden torch started burning brightly. The intensity reached so much that Anita had to drop the torch. The light on the torch was still burning bright. She couldn’t believe her eyes when the torch split into two and started levitating. “I guess Hecate is guiding me.” She thought, “I hope what I deciphered is enough to stop Divya! Let’s go.” The torches started moving slowly towards the way she came and she followed them.
To be continued in Goddess Hecate’s Curse – Hecate’s Grove.
