CHAPTER 36

THE HOLOGRAM

"What was that?" Matt asked worriedly, coughing himself up to his feet and trying to find his bearing. Dust rouse all around, spreading to the four corners of the earth.

The others were also coughing, with uncertain looks etched on their faces. The whole place had quake, it was as if the earth was slammed by a mighty force.

"Oh my God!" Matt exclaimed with horror. The group followed his gaze and their stomach sank.

Right next to Matt was a crack on the earth that trailed blindly to the place where the door of the cellar should have been, only that now it had sunk inside and was covered with upturned earth.

"The door... Jeff...Ema..." Matt's voice was lost in the uncertain air. Save for the cracks and the dry sand, there was no trace of the cellar. Pinna's eyes were wide and Ham, who was standing next to her, was rubbing his eyes for a clear vision.

"What have you done to my friends?" Matt bellowed with remorse, rushing forward to Sandra, but Ham was in between them in a flash of seconds. He had move so fast in the night that any other day; Matt would have been impressed, but not now, not today.

"Matt, please let me handle this" Ham said placing his soft muscular palms on Matt's chest.

Matt looked up surprised, not because Ham had stopped him, but because Ham was angry, really angry. He could read the expression all over him, from the hand he placed on his chest to his glowing eyes. His eyes were glowing blue, deep dark blue like the color of a stormy sky.

"What have you done to our friends" Ham asked turning to Sandra.

His voice had changed too, and his hair was also glowing with blue colors that lightened the night. The Candanians were healers of the Blue linage. They could easily be mistaken as powerless but they are very deadly. They study the anatomy of the human body all their life, and know where all the joints in the body are, they know the perfect place to strike for a kill or the place to strike to make the whole body go numb. For that, most people tend not to get on their wrong side.

"You've killed them." Pinna accused. Her hair was glowing, turning deep red, and her eyes flashed its crimson gem like glass. She and Ham had their gaze directed to Sandra, who raised her hands in total submission.

"I don't know what happened. I can't explain it either, but I must assure you not to panic, something else must have caused the earthquake, not because your friends went through that door" 

Sandra said moving back with eyes flicking from one person to the next.

"What was it then? We trusted you and your friends, all for what, so you could betray us?'' Ham asked impatiently and took a step forward.

"I don't know what had happened believe me, I'm as confuse as you are. Raz said the door of the cellar should be shut once Jeff and Ema were in, and that the force holding the main fence would be activated immediately. He never said the whole world would be jerked at its core" Sandra explained. "But I think your friends are okay and until two days is over, there shouldn't be any course for alarm." She added immediately.

Ham and the others watched her expressionlessly, if they had believed any of the things she said, they didn't show it. They stood there staring at Sandra silently, none of them made a sound except for the racing heartbeat of Sandra. Her eyes still flicked from one person to the next and her hands remained in the air.

"How do we know they are not dead?" Pinna sobbed, missing them already. She was now kneeling over the place where the door of the cellar should have been, weeping. Nobody had seen her moved to the cellar, not that anyone cared.

Ham's glow was fading away and he was breathing slowly, an attempt to ice down his anger. He stared down at himself, at Pinna and at Matt, not knowing the best person to console at the moment.