Chapter 65 - The golden calf

Chapter 65

The tunnel shook violently as it was deteriorating. 

Chunks of the loose stone and rock broke loose from the ceiling, crashing down in a cloud of dust. 

"MOVE, WATCH OUT BECKY!" Kaysi shouted, shoving Becky forward. 

The team ran as the tunnel collapsed behind them; their only escape route was cut off. 

The deep rumble I go through the passage. Dust and debris filled the air, making it difficult to see and breathe. 

Evan coughed and squinted into the darkness. "Damn, that's it—looks like we're trapped!" 

Josh pressed his hand against the wall of debris, feeling for any vibrations. Nothing. There were no tremors, no movement—just dead, oppressive silence. "Does it look like it's going to budge? We need to find an alternative solution. It doesn't appear that we have the option to turn around now. 

"Nah," Evan said, being a smart-ass, "You think?" 

Josh and Evan glared at each other as if they were ready to fight. 

Kaysi stepped in the middle. This is not the time. She said, gritting through her teeth. "All we can do now is push forward and see if we can find another exit! I have to find a way back to the others. They need our help." 

"Yeah, okay, I understand," Evan said passively. "Kaysi, your ankle has probably been cut because of that rock slide. Put your leg here," Evan said as he grabbed Kaysi's foot and put it on his leg. As he knelt on the ground, he retrieved the first aid kit from his bag and began to bandage Kaysi's cut. "Doesn't it hurt? It looks bruised as well?" 

"No, I'm fine; it's just a small scrape—ouch—until you did that!" Kaysi grimaced in pain. 

"Sorry, I had to sterilize the room before." He said as he continued to pour the antiseptic on Kaysi's open wound. "They're all your fixed better than new." 

Josh scooted over, purposely interrupting the somewhat romantic moment between his brother and Kaysi. "I got a boo-boo here too! Showing Evan a small scratch on his finger that looked no bigger than a paper cut. 

"You're asking for it," Evan said as he balled up his fist and pulled it back, ready for a punch. 

"Let's go, guys," Duke interjected and walked between the brothers. "We can't just stay in one spot. We need to get moving before the demons catch up to us. We need to get to them before they get to us. Or did you numbskulls forget that they can smell blood? You said flashing the boys is a fatherly glance of disapproval. 

Evan scrambled to his feet and pulled Kaysi up as well. Oh yeah, that's the right time to go. Evan said in a quick, high-pitched voice, then cleared his throat. 

Becky laughed at how quickly Evan's and Josh's demeanor changed. 

As we pressed on, the deeper we went, the stranger things became.

While shimmered as if made up of liquid. Shadows moved, dancing with that light. The tunnel became more stuffy, heavier, and unnatural. It hummed, vibrating against their bones. The torches flickered in an unseen wind.

"I think we're getting closer to a portal," I shouted up ahead to the people in our team. 

"Well, that was our goal—we might not be able to get the other group, but we can still get rid of this portal," Duke shouted back. 

— A whisper.

Becky froze. "Did you hear that?"

The others halted, listening.

The whisper came again. Not a voice—many voices. Echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"They're watching, and they know we don't belong here. Becky whispered. 

Josh's pulse hammered. "That's not creepy at all."

"We keep going!" Duke told us. "We close this portal and find a way out." 

The tunnel ended just as a large gust of wind nearly knocked us over.

We stumbled into a vast underground cavern.

A monstrous doorway stood at the center. This portal was not the same as we had seen before.

I think that's the portal, the state of the time, I shouted over the wind to the others.

It pulsed, shifting between blue-green light and shadows darker than night. The air hissed and swirled around it like the winds of a tornado. You could feel the heat waves pulsating from it. The stone beneath their feet was cracked and broken, veins of glowing energy spreading like roots across the ground.

Josh exhaled sharply. "We found it."

Evan stepped closer, eyeing the swirling mass of energy. "Now we just have to destroy it."

Then—the whispering stopped.

A deep, guttural growl echoed through the cavern.

Becky's breath hitched. "We're not alone." 

She turned—

And the shadows moved.

Something loomed behind her.

A rabbit demon, its elongated limbs twitching unnaturally. Its hollow eyes burned red.

Becky froze.

"Becky—MOVE!" Kaysi shouted. Becky dodged just in the nick of time. 

How did we not see it or feel its presence? The chaos from the portal must have distracted our senses. 

The demon's clawed hand lashed out—ripping a hole in the fabric of reality and creating a time warp.

Josh and Evan lunged—but the moment stretched. Their movements slowed like wading through thick honey.

The demon's claws glowed bluish-green like the magical lights from the portal as they slashed toward Becky's throat again.

And then—

Becky flickered.

She phased—vanishing, then reappearing five feet away and in her previous spot that we had just come from. The demon's claws sliced through empty air.

She staggered, her body still glitching between times.

"What—just happened?" She stammered.

Josh tried to grab her arm. "You're flickering in and out of reality." 

Becky was unable to maintain a stable form, shifting between the past and the present as if only a few moments ago. 

"When the rabbit demon's claws slashed earlier, she must have been affected by a wave of the time distortion. We need to destroy the portal fast before she fades." I yelled, looking over at the others. 

The portal compressed and exploded a pulse of waves. The cavern distorted and lurched sideways. Knocking all of us to our knees. Time in reality was shaking.

A new sound rose from inside the portal.

Footsteps slowly Immersed with the chilling air, cold to the bone.

A figure stepped from the darkness.

Columbus—

His golden eyes gleamed, his body half-phased between the states of time. His form glitched, shifting between younger and older, between human and what looked to be a different form of his bull demon.

"You're too late," he murmured.

His voice echoed, stuttering and distorted—like it came from different points in time at once.

Josh tensed. "What the hell happened to you? You were locked up!"

Columbus smirked.

"You don't understand—the portal changed me. Do you think I was captured? No, you were very wrong!"

His skin rippled, shadows crawling beneath the surface.

"You cannot begin to imagine," Columbus continued, stepping forward. "The portal isn't just a doorway—it's a force. A will. It doesn't just summon demons and warp the reality of time and space."

His eyes darkened, his smile widening.

"It uncontrollably consumes it." 

They backhanded Becky through the portal!