Not Really A Date, Not Really Reality

From afar, the ruins were nothing but a triangle thing, but up close, the structure was impossibly large. The fact that it was even here was surprising. Honestly, for as much as I didn’t care much about the history behind it, the structure itself was pretty cool.

But if anyone was enjoying this small trip more than me, which wasn’t a hard ask, it was Ze’Seki.

“That’s so cool!” she exclaimed while running her fingers across the grooves of the ruin walls.

The fact that we were allowed inside was completely unexpected. Apparently there was a part of the ruins that wasn’t entirely broken, or at all actually. It was entirely behind the pyramid-shaped part of the ruins, but it wasn’t any less impressive.

“You would think these parts would be off limits,” I said while trying to read the inscriptions on the walls. Seeing as it was written in another language, I wasn’t going anywhere with that.

“The walls are made of an almost unbreakable material,” She knocked on the wall, “And there’s a layer of plastic protection on top too.”

“So it’s safe?”

“No, they just let us in here hoping for us to die.”

“I knew it.”

“No! of course it’s safe!”

I guess she wasn’t one for bits. Note taken.

Anyway, the path we were walking through was wide enough to fit ten people side-to-side. The ceiling was tall and rounded out. Everything around us, down to the floor, was made of smooth beige rock.

For a date location, I couldn’t say it was the best.

Speaking of which, that joke was really falling flat right now. Not a single date-like thing had happened our entire time here. I hadn’t even been able to tease her about that. I don’t think I’d even accomplished my goal of making her hate me less yet.

All around, a non-productive day.

I sighed.

“What, are you bored already?” Ze’Seki asked.

And so an opportunity graced me. I quickly answered, “No, it’s just that we haven’t done anything date-like all day…” I trailed off with an exaggerated sigh.

“I-I told you it’s not a date!”

“I don’t know, it sounded like you really wanted to go on this date.”

“No I didn’t! Why would I ever want to go on a date with you!” She scowled. Her furrowed brows really were selling what I could only imagine were her genuine thoughts.

“Ouch,” the emphasis on the ‘you’ was especially hurtful, but I got the hint.

Her expression quickly turned from anger to worry. Whatever was going on in her mind, she was obviously conflicted.

But apart from that, in this cave-like environment, the low light made Ze’Seki’s golden eyes especially radiant. Without a doubt, they were emitting actual light. I just had no idea how or why that was.

It wasn’t my place to ask, so I just kept that in the back of my mind before asking, “Well, did you want to see anything else? We have a few more hours before we have to go back.”

I checked my phone.

I was half looking for an excuse to change the subject and the other half genuinely asking. We had to be home by 18 and it was already 16:21. We still had one hour and thirty-nine minutes so we could spend another hour here max.

Ze’Seki snapped out of thought and looked at me, “I guess there was one more place…”

We began walking deeper into the ruins.

Our footsteps echoed throughout the cavernous inside. The few footsteps of some tourists mixed in with our own. But as we headed deeper, the footsteps lessened until only two pairs could be heard.

“Where are we going?”

“Right over here,” she sped up before coming to a stop at a dead end.

The wall ahead of us was, like most others, engraved with text. However, the difference was that this one had a design accompanied by it. A large wide circle was carved with a square at an angle inside of it. Inside of that was a small upright square with the text written inside.

It was a weirdly simple design for a place like this, but I’m sure Ze’Seki would be just as impressed.

“Woah…”

And there it is—

But her reaction, although exactly what I thought it would be, was also much more than that. Her smile was softer, almost warm.

“And it’s just another wall.”

“It’s not just a wall…” she trailed off.

Ze’Seki raised her hand, and like she had before, passed her fingers over the engravings.

Brkr

The wall made a concerning sound. I thought I felt the ruins rumble for a second, but I couldn’t process it in time because the wall suddenly burst into white light.

Like a vacuum, a strong gust of wind flooded into the new opening.

Ze’Seki, being closer to the opening, got sucked in. She screamed for a moment, and by instinct, I reached out for her. But as I did, I was sucked in too.

Couldn’t I have a normal day anymore?! That was my last thought before we were both thrown into darkness.

It wasn’t empty darkness though. It was like we’d reached a slide made of smooth rock. We slid down until we hit the bottom after a few seconds with a loud thud!

“Ugh,” I held my head. There was no pain, but the sudden shift from nothing happening to, well, a lot happening was like a whiplash.

I looked around, or at least tried to, but it was nothing but pitch blackness.

Tapping the floor I felt rock, so we were probably still in the ruins. I tapped around a bit more and felt the rough wall to my left. There was no ceiling close so my hands came out empty. Then I reached out to my right—

Squish

Huh?

That wasn’t hard. Actually, it was quite the opposite. I took a firm grasp on the round object and squished it once more.

Squish Squish

Okay, running through the possibilities I had come up with a few things. There was the lie I had to tell myself, and the very possible truth.

The lie. Someone had thrown something squishy down that slide at some point and I was just finding it. For that to work, there had to be a lot of ignoring most of what happened. But the other option—

A dim light covered my hands. It wasn’t enough to see too much, but it was enough for me to know my worst nightmare was coming true.

I looked up—straight at the two golden rings staring at me.

Huh, so her eyes definitely, one hundred percent, emit light.

“I…I will give you two seconds before I cut off your hands…”

A generous proposal.

“I appreciate it, ma’am,” I quickly let go of Ze’Seki’s chest.

I couldn’t very well see her expression, but I could easily imagine it. The darkness was really saving me from something worse.

I cleared my throat to change the subject, “What even happened?”

A flick resonated through the darkness before Ze’Seki said, “I…don’t know. I just touched the wall.”

Stating the obvious I see.

“So much for ‘almost unbreakable material’ huh.”

“I swear that’s what that is!” she argued. “It was so strong that historians still have no idea how the ruins were destroyed in the first place. Even with our technology, it takes about—”

“Look, if I wanted a history lesson, I would’ve stayed in school longer and paid about as much attention,” I tried looking around again like an idiot, but I still saw nothing. “How do we even get out of here.”

I thought I heard her murmur “Asshole”, and by thought I mean she definitely said it, but she quickly added, “There’s a ledge right here.” She tapped somewhere in the darkness.

“Very helpful. Thanks.”

“Do you have to be sarcastic every ten seconds?”

“Weren’t you sarcastic not five minutes ago?” arguing here was pointless. I took in a breath. “Anyway, I can’t really see—so lead the way,” I motioned for her to go.

We both stood, and Ze’Seki turned towards the wall. I thought she would begin moving, but all I heard were grunts and a whole lot of struggling.

“Are you…making any progress there?”

“Uh…” her eyes turned back to me, “…I can’t pull myself up…”

Of course she can’t.

I sighed and walked up to her, “Where is the ledge?”

“Right here,” I tapped around where she did before finally feeling said ledge. It was slightly above my head so very far away from hers. Adding on the fact that she didn’t look all that strong, it probably made it a harder ask.

I considered leaving her behind as a joke, but that was going a little far. Instead, I walked behind her and put both hands around her armpits.

“W-What are you—?”

“Lifting you, what else?”

Squish

My fingers were once again against her chest. I guess I never noticed that grabbing a girl from here could end up like this. I’d only ever done this to Kokoro and you’d be hard pressed trying to grab her chest…

“You’re grabbing—”

“Just get on,” I tried to act like I hadn’t noticed what I was doing, for both our safety.

After a moment of hesitation, her weight was lifted from my hands and she, presumably, made it over the rock ledge.

“D-Do you need help?” She asked.

“Yeah…no.”

I easily grabbed the ledge and pulled myself up with ease.

For the first time, I was grateful for all the training Kokoro had made me go through most of my life. And the more training I got from my aunt too.

Anyway, wherever we were, it was much more promising than whatever hole we’d landed in. I still couldn’t see a thing, but it was progress.

“Alright, now lead the way.”

Ze’Seki turned away from me, and I immediately saw a problem—or I guess I didn’t see, which was the problem.

She basically disappeared.

“Hey, um, Ze’Seki.”

“Yeah?” the two golden rings appeared once more.

“I can’t really see when you turn, you know?”

“Oh…right. What do you propose then?”

“Holding hands?” I joked.

Her long silence was telling me she wasn’t taking it as such. Before I could mention I was joking, I felt her soft hand wrap around mine. Her grip wasn’t strong, but it sent a nervous shock through my body.

“D-Does that work?”

Nervously clearing my throat, I answered, “Yep. I guess it does.”

Now hand in hand, we began walking deeper into the darkness.

Our footsteps echoed similarly as they did in the earlier ruins, but there were plenty of things wrong with this place compared to earlier. For one, no lights, obviously. But the weirder part was that our phones weren’t working.

We’d neglected our phones at the beginning, but after trying to turn them on, we discovered they simply wouldn’t. Even holding the power button did nothing but let out a hum.

“Could it be that technology just doesn’t work down here for some reason?” I’d asked.

“No. That can’t be it.”

With that vague response and no elaboration, we continued down the corridor (?).

It’d only been a few minutes, but it didn’t feel like we were going anywhere. I’m sure that Ze’Seki didn’t feel the same since, being a Terranyx, she could see in the darkness.

That was one trait that I wish I had inherited from my Pantherian lineage—night vision. Unfortunately, a slightly better hearing and reaction time was all I got.

“You see anything up ahead.”

Ze’Seki flinched and squeezed my hand.

“N-No. It’s just a long corridor.”

“Of course it is.”

Her hand squeezed down again.

Although I hadn’t thought about it much, I was becoming acutely aware of the feeling of that hand holding mine. I’d held Kokoro’s hand more times than I could count, but I couldn’t very well compare the two and say they felt the same.

Kokoro’s hand was rough, and her grip always threatened to snap my bones into pieces.

Ze’Seki was the complete opposite. Soft, smooth, and with just enough grip to hold on.

If I had to be honest with myself, it was a nice feeling.

“Your hands are really sweaty,” I decided to tease her to cut through the silence that was forming.

“W-What?! No they’re not!”

She quickly let go, dumping me back into the directionless darkness.

“Hey, I still can’t see.”

“Good!”

I should probably calm down with the teasing before she leaves me in this void for good.

Before long, she grabbed my hand again, and I tightened my own grip around hers.

---

[ So it has started ]

A wide booming voice spoke, violently shaking the space around it.