The Rise [1]

| XVI. FAMILY BONDING

xvi. family bonding

Amber's eyes wandered from Seth to Ben. Her brother stood silently, waiting for Seth to bring out a word, but the Gecko brother seemed to be too bewildered to respond properly. Finally, Ben cleared his throat. "You need to go", he announced, looking down to his sister.

"What?" Amber face went blank, her eyes widened. She had believed for over 5 years that Ben was dead and now here he was, standing right in front of her ― and he wanted her to go?

Ben placed his hands on top of her shoulder before looking into her eyes, so intently that it almost made her tear up again. "I need you to go", he repeated. "It isn't save down here for you. For any of you."

"You can't do that", Amber brought out, shaking with confusion and objection. "You can't leave me again!"

"I'm not-"

"Then let me come with you", Amber pleaded, her eyes remaining on the person she had long believed to be family ― but now, he felt like a stranger to her. Amber didn't want to leave it at this point ― the least she deserved was an explanation from him.

Ben sighed, before looking up to the others standing in a group not far away. "Where are you heading?"

"The exit", Seth stated the obvious, venom slipping into his voice while his dark eyes switched between Amber and Ben. He had switched his mood from perplexed to irritated in a course of a few seconds.

"Get over to that wall", Ben told them ― Tanner being the only one who felt addressed. The professor slowly moved over to the wall and put his hands on the cold wall.

"It's the inscription, isn't it?", he asked, pointing at the wall. "It's the beginning of the ancient words. It's a reference to the creation myth in the Popol Vuh. Rebirth. Renewal."

"You do know a lot about this place", Ben observed with narrowed eyes.

Tanner gave him a smug look before he touched the carvings in the stone wall, sliding with his hands up and down while continuing to repeat the same words. "Rebirth. Renewal."

"What are you doing? Don't touch things in her, please", Seth snapped, but Ben nodded his head.

"He's doing it right."

Suddenly, the wall Tanner was touching started to vibrate and the tunnel was experiencing somewhat like an earthquake. It was the one wall that had been the dead end of the tunnel that now moved and finally created a new passageway. Tanner let out a laughter in triumph.

Seth stepped closer to the passageway, examining the possible exit. "There's stairs. They go up." He pointed at the stairs leading up into the darkness. "Up is good, right?"

"It's better than down", Jacob said.

"It's the exit", Ben announced, causing a wave of relief to overcome the group. And even though the exit was exactly what Amber had looked for for so long now ― she wasn't ready to go, yet.

"Yeah, fuckin'- A", Seth muttered as the Fullers started to climb the stairs. He turned his head to Amber, waiting for her to come. "Bambi?"

Amber looked up at her brother, before her eyes wandered over to Seth again. She could see how slowly and painfully realization took over his features. "I will stay here", she stated after gathering enough strength. It was not easy to speak out those words ― there was a part of her that didn't want let him go; that told her that after all they both went through, she shouldn't leave him.