Chapter 5: Glowing Marble.

After some time of being unconscious, Reese slowly opened his eyes and proceeded to look around him, but it was so dark that he couldn't even see anything. Then Reese started to remember what had happened to him. The earthquake, the crumbling of the ground, and the horrified expression of his best friend Renz when he fell into the hole—the fear of death when he fell from the hole—were so vivid in his mind that he couldn't help but tremble.

'Is this the feeling of death? wet and dark? I mean, I understand the darkness, but wet? Who would have thought that death was like floating in the water?' Reese wondered while feeling sad about his death.

"Reese!"

"Reese!"

"Reese!"

"Reese!"

''Huh? Why could I still hear the voices of Renz, Rey, Mr. Yap, and Lian? Why is she calling me? This is getting weird,' Reese thought confusedly as he tried to ignore the voices of his friends.

As the time passed and he could still hear his friends calling him, he started to have doubts. 'Are my friends dead too? But that's impossible; I'm pretty sure I was the only one who fell from the hole,' Reese thought in confusion again.

"This is no use. Reese is still not responding to our call. When will the rescue team arrive? We've been waiting here for half an hour now," Renz said angrily.

"Rescue? So that means they are alive? If they are still alive, that means I'm still alive as well? But how?" He then tried to remember what happened after he fell. He looked at his surroundings and came to a conclusion.

"So that's why I'm wet; I landed in the water after I fell, and due to the life jacket, I did not drown." Relief washed over Reese when he thought he was still alive.

He started feeling his body to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. He then bit his hand to make sure he was still alive.

"Fuck! That hurt. Hahaha, I'm not dead. I'm still alive. Hahaha," Reese said while laughing hysterically, tears of joy rolling down his cheeks as he swam around to pinpoint the voices of his friends and teacher and started to call for them as well. 

Meanwhile, the group above was still very anxious and worried for Reese. "It's getting darker, and the rescue team is still not here. I mean, what are they doing to take them this long?" said Ben impatiently.

"It's understandable. It will take 30-45 minutes to reach the main road, not to mention another 30-45 minutes of walking to come back here." Mr. Yap cleared up the confusion of his students.

"This stinks; I hope Re." Before Renz could finish his sentence, Lian shushed him.

"Shhhh! Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Just listen closely."

"Please don't tell me there's something out there watching us."

"No, you dummy. Just listen carefully. There's someone calling us from below."

"It's Reese!" Renz said happily. The joy in Renz's voice was so obvious that it affected the mood of everybody; they started calling for Reese again below.

"Hahaha, thank God you're alive, Buddy. We are worried sick for you up here; I thought we were going to lose you," Renz said happily. "Yeah, Renz cried like a baby with snot and everything when he thought you were dead earlier. Hahaha," Rey teased Renz while laughing.

"Shut up, Rey. I don't listen to him, dude. I cried a little, but it was Rey who cried like a baby," Renz said in embarrassment. Reese just laughed at the banter of his two best friends.

"Kid, are you there? Why didn't you answer our call earlier?" Mr. Yap said.

"Yes, I'm here, Mr. Yap. I was unconscious earlier, which is why I couldn't answer your calls." Reese answered Mr. Yap honestly.

"What? You were unconscious? Did you hit your head?" Mr. Yap asked, worry showing in his voice.

"No! Only my right hand was cut when I tried to grab something when I fell. As for being unconscious, well, it's quite embarrassing, actually; I fell unconscious due to my fear of heights," Reese answered, a little bit embarrassed for himself.

He didn't want others to know he was afraid of heights. Especially Lian was there with them above. Renz and Rey just snorted at Reese's predicament.

"By the way, Mr. Yap, can you help me get out of here? It's really cold in here," Reese continued.

"Don't worry, Buddy. Mr. Yap already asked someone to call for help, but they are still not here, but I think they are on their way. We just have to wait." Renz reassured Reese's worry.

Hearing that the rescue was coming, Reese started to feel at ease.

"Good to hear that. It looks like I don't have a choice but to wait," Reese said while he hugged himself.

"By the way, Kid, can you see anything there? Like a rock you can sit on? You must stay out of the water or your skin might get damaged if you prolong your stay in the water," Mr. Yap said to Reese in a teacherly manner.

"Actually, I can barely see here, Mr. Yap, but I will try. I will let you know when I find a rock I can sit on," Reese said while looking around.

"Okay, Kid, you do that while we wait for the rescuer to arrive," Mr. Yap said as he found a place to set up for the group to rest.

Then Reese started to swim around the pond, looking for a rock, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find anything in the pond. Then something caught his attention in his peripheral view. On his left side, he could see a purple light ten meters away from him, but no matter how hard he focused, he just couldn't determine what it was.

'Don't tell me that there is some kind of creature in here.' Before Reese could stop his thoughts, it was already too late. Reese was getting nervous and alarmed the more he looked at the purple light. He then swam away from the purple light.

'Shit! I need to calm down. There's no way that purple light is a creature's eye. I've never seen any creature that has two purple eyes, let alone one. Maybe I was just hallucinating due to fatigue and hunger. Yeah, that must be it.' Then Reese rubbed his eyes. But the purple-light object was still there, floating in the water. He was definitely not hallucinating.

As the time passed, Reese's nervousness started to fade away, and it was replaced with curiosity. But he was still hesitating to go closer to the purple light. But soon enough, his curiosity got the better of him, and he started to swim closer to the purple light. As he got closer, he could see that the purple light was an object, and it was shaped like a marble. He then stretched out his right arm and grabbed the marble. As he inspected it carefully, he could feel that the marble was three times heavier than the normal marble that kids play with in the streets.

Reese was confused about why it did not sink to the bottom of the pond. As Reese looked at the marble very closely, he could see that there's a purple liquid inside the marble that's constantly moving.

"Holy sh*t! There's actually a glowing liquid inside of it? But how?" Reese was dumbfounded by what he discovered.

The glowing marble in his hand made Reese think of the movie he once saw before; it was about the sphere. It came from a movie called "The Day The Earth Stood Still," where Keanu Reeves was the lead and was portrayed as the savior of the human race, even though he was an alien in that movie. Aside from the movie, Reese doesn't know anything about the glowing marble.

As Reese inspected the glowing marble, he did not realize that the blood in his right hand was absorbed by the marble, and in a blink of an eye, it vanished instantly.