15 A Path Unknown

The light flickered a few times and came to life once again. In front of me, there was the old man, Mr. Engin. He looked at me and smiled after fixing the light with his hand.

"Hello, young one!" he said. "Pretty scared there, weren't you?"

I wasn't expecting to be asked about that.

"Uhm... I just felt a bit, like, you know... I wasn't scared... No, not exactly..." I was having a very hard time lying. Why I felt the need to lie about being scared, I did not know.

"Oh, well..." the man laughed a bit. "But you will be. Surely, you will be, soon enough."

He walked over to the table and took a look inside the metal pots. After smelling every kind of food there was, he suddenly turned around.

"I would like to join you, but unfortunately, I have things to take care of. That light going out is never good..." he said.

"Wha- How, why?" I asked.

"You may have some potential, boy." the old man said. "Much unlike your friend."

"Mr. Engin?"

I couldn't ask anything else before he disappeared. Once again, I was left alone with my thoughts... and all the food on the table.

I had initially liked both Sena's mother Ms. Saka and grandfather Mr. Engin, but now, they were frightening. Something was feeling off about these people, apart from all the 'magic powers' that is. Maybe we should have never come here.

I couldn't wait. I couldn't handle myself, so I stepped into the tunnel to get down to the lower floor of this cave-like structure.

At the end of the spiralling tunnel, there was a room much larger than the one I was coming from. Actually, it was more like a hall instead of a room. The walls were decorated by various colorful and shiny stones. Yellow, light-emitting particles were falling off from the ceiling like snowflakes; slowly gliding to the floor while illuminating the interior.

I could see no one around.

In the middle of this hall, there was a perfectly shaped square pyramid structure, most likely made out of stone. There was a door to get inside the pyramid; however, I couldn't see the interior since the door was closed.

I walked into the room after inspecting it from the end of the tunnel for a while. The hall was chilly, almost a bit too cold. When I walked closer to the pyramid, I started hearing a faint ringing. It was barely there, but I could notice it's pitch changing every few seconds. I listened to it for a while, but couldn't detect any repeating patterns.

More interesting things started happening after I stood by the pyramid for a while. My vision faded darker, and I started seeing the world in black and white. I could also hear my heartbeats and breathing very clearly. I started panicking a bit, but I was curious as well. It was a bit like getting drunk, but I didn't know if it had any harmful effects.

I started getting dizzy and weak. My body lost it's power, and I fell on my knees.

The pyramid's door opened and Ms. Saka came out. She looked at me carefully, and ran back into the pyramid. In a few seconds, all the weird effects vanished; except I was still feeling very weak.

This time, Mr. Engin appeared.

"You should have told me." he said.

"Told what?" I asked.

"I didn't know." Ms. Saka said. Only then, I understood that the question was not directed to me.

"Hey." I said. Ms. Saka turned to me, and sighed.

"Well, this is the truth. He is not here for such quest. He and Sena simply lost their ways and ended up here."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"It is too late." said Mr. Engin. "They already know more than enough."

"Can you please stop ignoring me!?" I shouted in frusturation.

"We can not force anyone into this." said Ms. Saka.

"In that case, you will have to allow me to erase their memories." said Mr. Engin.

"Impossible!" yelled Ms. Saka.

"How dare you raise your voice against me!" Mr. Engin's eyes glowed red as he uttered those words.

Ms. Saka looked down.

"I am sorry, I apologise." she slowly said.

"Will you talk to me?" I tried my chance once again. Ms. Saka looked at me, but didn't say anything.

"He is overwhelmed." Mr. Engin said. "Take him inside. I can feel his irregular vibrations."

"My... what?" I asked.

Ms. Saka just nodded to her father and helped me get back up on my feet.

"Please get inside." she said.

"No." I said. "I am not taking another step before you tell me exactly what is going on here!"

Mr. Engin sighed.

"Look, most precious one..." he started his words. "It is a long story, but you asked for it, so I shall tell. You may want to sit down. You surely have lots of questions in your mind."

I sat down on a nearby stone. Mr. Engin did the same. Ms. Saka silently returned into the pyramid, getting out of my field of view.

"But first things first, let's get something straight. We will need to trust each other if we want to communicate properly." Mr. Engin said.

I nodded.

"Very well then. Now, to start with, why we are here, inside the mountain, might be a good question."

"Indeed." I replied.

"The truth is, we are not the first ones here." Mr. Engin said. "When I came here, there already was a certain individual here, residing in and taking care of this place. And before him, there was someone else, and also before that person... I think you get the idea, the cycle has been going on for a while."

"Yeah, but why?" I asked. "What were those people doing here?"

"That is the main question that will require a lot of explaining." Mr. Engin said. "And, I think it would be better if you learned all about it from the original source."

"The original source?" I asked.

Ms. Saka came out of the pyramid again. She was a bit angry.

"Father, you are making him follow a path he didn't chose!" she said.

"Obviously a mistake brought them up here, I understood that much... But perhaps that mistake was a part of his destiny, perhaps he was meant to come here and be a part of this quest." Mr. Engin said. "There is one way to find out."

"He is not ready for it!" Ms. Saka shouted.

Of course I didn't understand a word of what they were saying.

"Come, this way." Mr. Engin said, pointing at a wall.

"Which way?" I asked.

A small chunk of the wall started moving, revealing a hidden, dark room.

"Please step inside." Mr. Engin said.

I looked at Ms. Saka. She was worried, but she was trying to hide it. She looked away, and so did I.

Mr. Engin was still waiting for me to get inside the room.

I reluctantly went in and took a few step forwards.

Suddenly, the wall behind me shut violently. The hidden passage from the hall to this dark room had disappeared.

I could not see anything, and if I was not mistaken, I was alone.