Lost in the Dark

I walk down the hall, following the loud rummaging. My mind races, predicting something dangerous will happen. I see one door cracked open, with a dim and warm light shining through. I slowly peek into the room and see a tall figure frantically looking all around the room, digging through every box and pile. 

“Where is it?” A rough and deep voice shouts. The voice seems almost familiar. He slams his fist on the table, knocking a few objects down. The loud noise makes me jump. He whips his head around and locks eyes with me. I can almost hear my jaw hit the floor when I see his face.

"Mason?" I say, getting more curious. "What are you doing here?" I’m Jaycee, by the way, and Mason and I were best friends. We’ve always loved engineering and building things, I loved the mechanics, and Mason loved the technology. Together, we were an unstoppable team. We would always build crazy inventions together, until one day when we built our best invention yet, we got into a fight. It had been taken by our parents, they said it was “too dangerous”, though we didn’t know it at the time. They had hidden it in an office building, and we didn’t know where. We each blamed each other for taking it, and when we found out the truth, we never had the guts to apologize.

"Oh, I'm just... looking," He says innocently.

"For?"

"A thing..." Right, a 'thing'. Just as helpful as he always was.

"Mason, just tell me what you were looking for, maybe I can help you find it," I offer. He seems to think that my offer was funny because he immediately laughed.

"I highly doubt that," He says.

"I'm looking for something too, maybe it's the same thing," I add as I start looking around the room.

"I've already searched this whole garbage can of a room, it's not in here."

"That's what you think," I snap. I look around the room, observing all the flipped over boxes and spilled out containers of all sorts of machine parts. Mostly screws and nails, but the occasional interesting find. Clearly, none of them were what Mason was looking for, or what I was looking for. In the corner of my eye, I see a bookshelf. It's nothing special, just a normal old and dusty shelf. I go over to it and start pulling out all the books. Mason watches me like I'm crazy, but trust me, I know what I'm doing.

"You don't even know what I'm looking for, J, what makes you think it would be in that ancient bookshelf," He's always called me 'J', we always thought Jaycee was too formal. I finish clearing the shelf, and just as I suspected, there was a small, but noticeable, red button. I push the button with confidence and the self slides to the right, revealing what seemed a never-ending tunnel of a dark staircase.

"Shall we?" I ask. His face was in utter shock.

"How did you do tha-"

"Don't ask questions, I'll explain on the way,” We start down the dark tunnel, me leading with no fear in my mind, and Mason slowly trailing behind me. We walk in silence for who knows how long, and then Mason says,

“I’m looking for our magical cube. You know, the one we made so long ago, that made us fight? I came looking for it, so we could apologize and maybe even add on to it. It was our favorite invention, and I really want to find it. We could be the same unstoppable team we were all those years ago,” I stare at the floor and stop walking.

“Mason, that’s what I was- am- looking for, too. I always think about our fight, and regret it every single day,” 

“How do you remember the cube?” He asks in shock.

“We made it together, Mason, how could I forget?” I admit. “I’m looking for it so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. If it did it could be really bad,”

“I agree, that’s why I’m looking for it, too,”

“Well, then I guess we’ll just have to protect it together,” I say with a smile. We keep walking until we reach a giant pit, lit with torches all around it. At the bottom, there’s a bright light shining up at us from underneath the lid of a box. It feels inviting, yet risky. A long and haunting staircase spirals around the side, leading to the mysterious light. Halfway down the staircase, there’s a giant gap, the edges crumbling like ancient ruins. I look up, and right in the center of the ceiling, hangs a long rope, leading all the way down to the floor.

“Shall we?” Mason asks with a smirk. I roll my eyes and say,

“We shall,” We both laugh and I jog towards the stairs, and hop down them two at a time. I notice that Mason doesn’t follow, and looks challenging-ly at the rope. “You’re not going to…”

“Oh yes I am,” he says. He takes a couple of steps back, and sprints off of the side of the pit, and leaps toward the rope, grabs on and wraps his legs around it. I reach the gap in the stairs and Mason comes swinging around in big circles and scoops me up. I hold on tightly to the rope, and we slowly slide down and drop to the ground.

“I never would have thought that you could do that!” I exclaim.

“Yeah, well, I’m full of surprises,” Mason responds. I slowly creep up to the box and pull down the goggles on my head, to cover my eyes from the light. I slowly lift the lid, and see the cube, just sitting there, looking so peaceful, but full of energy. I look at Mason and then pick the cube up. It grows in my hands and turns four times as big. I hold the large, bright, green cube in my tired hands, shielded by my gloves. I touch where two of the lines meet, like a seam in a dress. It glows bright yellow, blinding my eyes despite my goggle. The whole world turns white, and then, like the flip of a switch, goes black.

I wake up, surrounded by dull colors. All the things I see are shades of brown. All the things I see are old. All the things I see are strangers to me. People walk right past me as if I don't exist. I try to speak, but no sound can escape my tired voice. I stand up and try to tap on a man's shoulder. My hand falls through him as if he was a cloud of gas. I frantically turn, desperately reaching for things around me. I'm alone, yet surrounded by people. I knew something like this would happen. I let my curiosity get the best of me, again. I never learn from my mistakes.