THRIVE: Book One

As we make our way down the musty stairwell, we find ourselves in a huge room full of strange ancient objects. All of these things had belonged to the original family and were once collected here to await their return to the realm of the living. Chloe and I instantly recognize everything as we come in, but Carmen stops in amazement as she gazes over all of the relics. I instantly find myself drawn to the far corner and Chloe seems to follow closely behind me. I picked up a familiar dress and run my fingers over the red stitching. Holding it up to my body, it seemed like it could still fit. It was a miracle it was still intact after being in a musty basement for a few hundred years.

"How is everything here so well preserved?" Carmen asks as she makes her way over to us.

"That's honestly a good question. It feels like everything down here should be gross and moldy, but it's almost as if this place has only been sealed up for a few days." Chloe explains, looking over my old things. "You should take that with you." she smiles as she points at the dress. I feel embarrassed for a moment, but gently nod as I drape it over my shoulder. Chloe makes her way to the far end of the room and peers around the doorway.

"What's back there?" Carmen asks. I leave the rest of my things for the moment and follow behind them.

"The stuff we're looking for is far down through here, c'mon." Chloe waves us forward and we head down through the twisting tunnels. The further we go, the more they seemed to go on forever. It's hard to imagine why anyone would have wanted to come down here in the first place. Some of these stretches were so narrow that we could barely squeeze through. As if that weren't bad enough, parts of the ceiling were dripping down on us, I cringed every time a cold drop hit my face.

"How much further?" Carmen yells from behind me. Chloe squeezes through an opening at the end of the narrow passage and looks around.

"Just around this corner, we're almost there," she says excitedly as she pushes on. We make our way around the corner and suddenly stop dead in our tracks. It looks like a rockslide had closed up the way forward.

"What the hell...?" I ask as I stepped forward, sifting a few rocks out of the way. Chloe seems more concerned than before.

"Where'd all of this loose rock come from? It doesn't even look like it matches the rest of the cave?" Carmen asks, closely studying a small stone.

"I don't think this was natural." I state frustratedly "There was a lot more than just reincarnation rituals written down here, and it's like this was covered up." I lean against the wall and slide down to the floor.

"You think someone intentionally destroyed this place?" Chloe asks nervously.

"Yes." I sigh, uncovering memories I wanted nothing more than to forget "And I think I have a pretty good idea who could do it."

Gael had truly thought of himself as a god more than the rest of us. I despise even the thought of his name after everything he had put our people through. His obsession with me still send chills down to my bones, and knowing that he could have been here more recently than the rest of us terrifies me.

"I have no master, and what you did to me didn't make me yours, Nico," I say, spitting in his face. He seems to ignore it and comes even closer, his nose rubbing against mine.

"That's where you're wrong dearie, Dante may have chosen you, but only I have truly claimed you." He presses forward, almost touching his lips to mine, but then pulls back and stands up.

"You're insane," I say, I can feel every part of me scream with hatred for him.

"Why, because I am the only one who has truly understood what this all means?" He throws his arms into the air "The people worship us as gods because that is what we have become. The priestess granted us the great gift of immortality and I used all that extra time I was given to study. I learned what our ancestors had been trying to teach us all along. Eternal life was just the beginning of something greater, darling." he explains.

"What kind of god would kill nearly half of his people?" I ask furiously.

"The loudest moves are the ones people listen to."

Once we get back, Carmen and Chloe head back to Chloe's room to try and meditate more. Without the knowledge from downstairs, we were missing important information that could have helped us make this entire process easier. After going back to my room to rest my legs, I decide to slip on the dress I had brought back. To my surprise, it fit me perfectly. Once I'm dressed, I decide to go for a walk back up to the mountain shrine. The sun was already starting to set by the time I make it outside, I had forgotten how late I slept in. Even so, we must have been downstairs in the caves a lot longer than I realized.

"Val, wait up!" I suddenly hear Chris behind me. I stopped and wave back at him as he catches up.

"Where are you going?" he asks, out of breath. Suddenly he looks me up and down, and I'm confused for a moment until I remember what I had changed into.

"Just walking I guess." I shrug and sigh "I found this while we were exploring downstairs. I can't believe it still fits." I explain. "What are you up to?" I ask, hoping for some good news.

"Well, it looks really nice on you." He smiles "Anyway, I was keeping an eye on Viki for a while since she still seemed kind of off. But I guess she managed to sneak off somewhere and now I'm worried. Have you seen her?" he asks nervously.

"Not since I woke up, sorry. Why didn't you just hang out with her instead of trailing her all day?" I ask, and he seems embarrassed.

"She didn't sound like she wanted company, but with how depressed she seemed, I didn't feel right just leaving her alone, y'know?" he explains nervously.

"Oh, yeah?" I shoot him a glance to the side "How dumb do you think I am, Chris?" he stops in his tracks and his face goes pale.

"What are you talking about?" he asks nervously. I laugh to myself and shake my head.

"I can see how attached you've gotten to her. I don't think it's too bold of me to say that you-"

"Woah, woah, hey now. Just because I've been taking care of her doesn't mean that I feel that way about her." he sounds flustered "Marcus was my friend and Victoria, well, she needs me, and... would you quit looking at me like that?"

"Fine, I'll believe you." I wink at him "For now." he seems frustrated, but I can tell he isn't truly denying what I'm saying. Still, it was hard not to worry about Victoria right now. That girl was going through way too much for a person to handle, it wasn't far-fetched to believe that she could be slipping. I started to recall how she was acting when we ran into her in the throne room this afternoon, the way she was sitting was more familiar than ever. Realizing that she may be more connected to Scara than I first thought, I look back at the trail behind us and take a deep breath.

"What?" Chris asks as I stop walking.

"Well, we should probably go find her." I sigh as I start to head back.

"I've looked everywhere, where else could she be?" he asks frantically as he follows behind me.

"I just have a hunch," I say as I carefully go back down the hill.