We Start At the End

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"You'll fall if we go anywhere, just look at you." Claude shrugged his arms, Rose tucked away in his lap her body shrugged with him. "Not unless you want me to carry you around."

It was an option, sure, so long as she didn't mind being treated like a child. They had to get out though, they both knew that. Claude hadn't seen any good exits, nor any cracks in the walls to give them some small insight as to where they were inside the tunnels. He knew that they were deep down though, there'd been no inclinations on the paths, and after their fall, they both knew that the sky was far away. He leaned his head back against the wall and shut his eyes. He didn't have a plan, other than to just keep going.

"I can go look around, alright?" Claude started to pull Rose out from under him. "I'll take a torch and come back if I find anything. I'll leave one with you in case you get cold."

Gods, he hated to leave her though. She shivered in the dark, a preface of her illness that they still couldn't identify. They'd eaten the same foods, gone the same way, it stumped him. Especially since he didn't believe, refused to, in curses, Claude wouldn't attribute her sudden sickness to any temples curse. Like he'd said, it was usually nothing more than an old wives' tale.

"Stay here. Stay warm, and don't move away."

Claude tucked the blanket around her once more, but it didn't look enough. He pulled his jacket from his back and draped it around her shoulders. The man would be fine for a time without it, especially with the flame to guide him. Without so much as a final parting he was off, his footsteps disappeared into the tunnels around them.​
 
Splitting up was the last thing she wanted to do, especially now. But it was ludicrous to actually make him carry her everywhere. It would tire him out much faster and the process would go slower. She was sure if he just supported her by helping her keep steady, maybe by holding her shoulder or something, then she might be able to walk for quite a bit. But it would go faster if he first explored on his own. Claude could more easily check for traps and find all pathways that leads to a dead end so he knew where they shouldn't go if she wasn't with him. Then he could get her and take her as far as he knew it was safe and then continue in the same fashion until they got out or until she got slightly better and could start walking again.

Another alternative was for Claude to mark all the ways he took and then come and get her once he had found the way out. That would certainly take much more time, but it would probably go faster than if he would come back for her and move forward a little bit before continuing forward on his own and then come back again, etc. If he proposed it, then she wouldn't complain. But she wouldn't suggest it. She didn't want to be left alone for that long. What if he never came back? Would she die down there all alone then?

Rose gripped the edges of the top of the jacket and tried to wrap it even closer around her shivering body. "Don't forget to mark your way. You don't want to get even more lost." She told him and tried to laugh at the end. It didn't sound right though. Both because she was afraid he would actually get lost and not find his way back to her, and because her throat started to hurt so much so her speech seemed to take damage of it. The weird laugh was also followed by a horrible cough.

Then she sat there, in the dark, all alone. She could lit the torch, but she figured it was best to save it. They didn't have many left. They would need to be careful with how they used them. Rose waited for her eyes to get used to the dark. It seemed to take much longer than what it usually took. Probably because she was so sick. Once she could see somewhat in the dark, she brought up one of her hands and tried to examine it. Of course it was impossible to see any details, all she knew was that she was shaking far too much, even for a sick person.

"Why now..." She whispered, already feeling tears leaving her eyes. This was supposed to be the job of their life. It would secure them forever, giving them all the money they would need. And now she might not even survive to see it. It was easy to tell Claude that she would be fine, and she had even believed it herself. But when she sat alone in the dark, feeling as if her lungs were about to explode, it was hard to see anything from the bright side.​
 
Claude returned to where the path split, the two tunnels facing the far wall seemed to lead the same way, and yet, they didn't. He took some time down one of them and encountered a dead end, a rock slide sealed the tunnel and with it, one possible exit. If this was the way out, they were far from well off. At least along the way he'd managed to find a lone torch. Firstly, he had to pry it out of the hands of a dead man who wasn't fully decomposed. That seemed to worry him a bit, people had been coming in only to die at least somewhat recently. The skeletons could have been years old, but the still flesh covered man concerned him most. At least he was lucky enough in making it past the falling floor.

In his hands, aside from the torch, was a piece of charcoal. When Claude lowered his torch to see what else he could loot he had to stifle a cry. Scrawled, over and over in the dirt were three heartbreaking phrases.

Always watching.

No way out.

Die. Die. Cannot die.

Claude's stomach fell along with his hope. Whoever this man was, he wasn't sending forward any good signs. He'd been alone, with the single torch in his hand, and Claude wanted to attribute his failure to that. However, the urgency of the message threw him off. What man would spend so much time trying to scrawl a message in the floor instead of trying to leave? A dead one, only a man who knew he was on the verge of death would bother leaving a message for any other unfortunate travelers.

"Oh no..." He muttered. Claude cursed loudly, swivelling on his heel as he tried to calm himself. "Non! Non, non, non!"

It took some time to calm himself, and when Claude awoke, he was curled in a ball next to the dead man. Rose, he thought briefly. He'd left her all alone and then fell asleep. Claude was up on his feet, charging back in the direction he came. So much for getting any exploring done, all he'd managed to find was one empty, blocked off tunnel.​
 
Why was it taking him so long? Rose fell asleep so many times, but woke up again almost immediately with the feeling that she was suffocating. After hours and hours of waiting, she was sure she would die if she let herself fall asleep. If she kept sitting down, she would certainly not survive.

She rose from the ground and leaned against the wall. Claude would come back. Until he did, she had to keep herself sane and alive. Her legs could barely hold her up. Every time she took a step forward she stumbled another five as she tried to save herself from falling down. Her head started to spin violently and she fell back to the floor, only twelve steps away from her original position.

Something was terribly wrong with her body. Her head hurt. Her stomach hurt. Her arms and legs hurt. Her chest hurt. What didn't hurt? It was such a pressuring pain it felt as if something was trying to make its way out of her body. If she didn't get it out it might kill her.

Even though it was an irrational decision, Rose still started to scratch herself, trying to make holes in her skin for whatever it was that pained her. It had to get out. She couldn't even feel the pain when her arm started to bleed from the wounds she made. When it didn't work to scratch it out through her arm she started to scratch her chest. It did make sense. Her chest hurt the most. "Get out.." She cried.

As her skin started to peel off, she could finally hear footsteps. She stopped her scratching and listened. "Claude?" She asked and started to crawl towards the footsteps. She weren't even sure if the noises were real or not, but if they were, maybe he could get it out. He had the light, he could see where the pressure came from and use a knife to carve it out. Without knowing it, the fever was starting to overcome her, causing delusions. "Claude.. Get it out. It's crawling under my skin." Rose cried, trying to pull herself forward, which got her only a few inches at a time.​
 
Claude could hear her from down the tunnel, anxiously calling his name, she begged him to get something out from under her skin. In a whirl of panic he rushed to her side and set the light near her hands. Nothing. He moved the torch up towards her face, so he could see her, pale skin met his eyes and it was covered in sweat from the fever, but there was nothing else. Claude set the torch on the ground for a moment and pulled her hands away from her arms. Something slick greeted him, and he could feel the warm blood slipping away from her. He was going to be sick, she'd been clawing to peel of her own skin.

"Rose, there's nothing there." Claude tried to calm her, again he pulled her up and wrapped his arms around her frame to stop her from shaking. "It's not real, alright?"

There was still a hint of panic evident in his voice. He reached into his pack and pulled some of his water from it, there wasn't much left, but she needed it worse than Claude ever would. He handed it to her with steady hands, holding it near her face so she might take a sip or two.

"You're delirious, drink." He all but commanded her to drink. In the time he'd been away she'd not improved one bit. She was still shaking like a leaf, her skin had faded to a ghastly color, and now the delusions and mind tricks were starting with the fever. He feared what he might find if he touched her forehead, Claude could almost feel the heat radiating off of her skin now, whereas it had been so cold earlier. Something was wrong, she had to have become sick from something, and there was no explanation now as to what. They'd ruled out what they could think of, and it left one painfully obvious solution, which still didn't make one bit of sense.

The artifact. It had to be it. That thing with the devilish eyes was the only thing that was different between Rose and Claude as it stood.

"Don't scratch yourself, you'll only bleed."​
 
Rose could not believe that nothing was there. She could feel it crawling under her skin. She could feel it trying to find a way out, pushing, eating. It had to get out immediately, otherwise she might die. Had it not been for Claude's arms being wrapped around her, she would most likely have continued to peel off her skin.

She drank the water offered to her, but as fast as it reached her stomach, she jerked her head away from him and threw it all up. For a second, while in an awful cough attack, she actually thought what a waste of water that had been. They couldn't have much left now, and she didn't do it much better by not being able to keep it down in her stomach. Laughs joined in between the coughing, and she leaned her head onto Claude's chest.

"I can't.. I can't get it out." Her voice now turned into some mix between cries and laughter. "It's crawling. It's crushing me." She almost hissed out the words. "Cut it out. Claude, cut it out, please. It hurts." Now it was just a pleading despair left. "Cut it out of me. I can't breath. It's crawling in my throat." What was inside her? Whatever it was it had to get out. She couldn't stand the pain much longer. If they just could get them out, then she would be fine.

"I'll get better when it's out. It's trying to kill me, Claude. It wants to eat me."​
 
Claude honestly didn't see anything wrong with her, but he panicked. She was panicking too, the way she screamed at him. He was not going to cut her open though, his instincts screamed for him to keep her safe. What was really safe? Cutting her open seemed to put forth all the wrong ideas, if he did that she'd just bleed out. Then what was the point?

"I'm not going to hurt you!"

But she begged him, begged and cried for him to cut whatever was inside her out. Rose laughed, and it sounded pained, full of hysteria. Claude honestly didn't know what to do, he was at a loss. His hand went down to the blade at his side before he jerked back to attention. He couldn't do it. Rose would be fine, she just needed to rest and keep something in her stomach. It was dehydration, he told himself. She was hungry, sick, that was all!

That had to be all!

"Please, Rose, you've gotta drink something." Claude tried again to bring the water to her lips, fearful she would spit it back out, vomit it up onto the floor. "Please. I'm begging you, do not hurt yourself. There's nothing there!"

He really had no way of knowing, and that's what made him most fearful. Something was undeniably wrong and he couldn't fix it. The only way to seemingly do that was to grant Rose her sweet relief, and carve into her lungs, but he would never.​
 
Drinking just seemed to make it worse, no matter what she couldn't keep it down. The hallucinations became worse and worse, not only did she believe there were things crawling inside of her, soon she became convinced that someone, or something was standing right in front of them. Sometimes she screamed at Claude to make the pain go away, other times he told him they had to run because the demon was looking at them and would kill them, in the next moment she could be shrieking, believing she was on fire.

It took almost an hour for Rose to calm down, which was purely due to exhaustion. She was too tired to scream, instead she could only make a weak mumbling when she saw something. Her breathing became more and more compromised, and she didn't have the strength to cough up whatever started to clog her airways.

Who knew how much time had passed when the girl started to shake unnaturally. Gasping for air, she gripped Claude's shirt. For a few moments Rose came to her senses, but only to realize that it was too late. She couldn't breath. She was dying. I don't want to die. She thought, her mind screaming. She tried to cough or puke out whatever was closing her airways, but it was futile. As her vision started to fade, she looked up at her companion. Was this the last time she would see him? Then it all turned black.
 
When Rose started to vomit again, Claude didn't know what to do. Thick curled chunks of blood and God knew what came forth from her mouth, and he wiped it away without a second thought. She grew still, the motions of her erratic breathing slowed, and he was left alone. It look him a while to realize she wasn't breathing. Claude shook her lightly, he called her name in the hopes she would say something back. Even if she spoke of the demons haunting her, he'd take it. He'd take anything which proved she was breathing.

"Rose?" He called her name again. "Rose, can you hear me?"

Nothing. Nothing but the slick blood around the edges of her mouth. She didn't scratch at her bleeding skin or follow shadows around the room. Her eyes were glazed over, he didn't know what to do but call her name again. Over and over. Nothing woke her from the sleep.

"No, no Rose please." He begged her. "You cannot die."

Still not a word escaped her crimson lips.

Claude set her flat on the ground, shock began to seep through his veins as his responses dulled. He pressed his hands against her chest in an effort to revive her. Every thrust down, he could hear the subtle groan of her bones, they protested his weight, and begged him even to stop. He leaned down, breathed air into her mouth, but nothing gave. Everything was blocked by the same bloody substance which had suffocated her. Claude tried again, this time with more fury. She couldn't die, he told himself. They'd only just began their descent, and he hadn't figured out what had happened, she could not die!

"Wake up." He begged her again.

Claude was all but pounding his hands into her chest, trying to get her to breathe again with more forced air through their connected lips, but she wouldn't take it. Rose was gone. Claude gripped the sides of his head and bowed over her body. Nothing in all his years prepared him for losing a partner like this, especially not Rose. They were almost there, almost to paradise because of this one simple task, and he'd failed her. Damn the gold, she could have it all if she'd only wake!

"Rose." He screamed her name. "You cannot leave me just yet."

It was too late. He scooped her up and sat against the wall as he cradled her body in his arms. The light of their torch faded, and he was left in the dark, alone.​
 
What would come after death? Darkness, heaven, hell, re-birth? Some people believed that there was nothing, others believed in an afterlife where you would continue living either in a complete bliss or torture. Some thought you lived many lives, both as animals and humans, and others believed you simply re-lived the same life over and over again. Whatever was the truth, you would have to die to find out.

Gasping for air, Rose found herself on the floor. She could breath again. What was even more remarkable, she didn't feel sick anymore. Except for an annoying beep in her ear, she was feeling fine. But only a moment ago she had fainted because she couldn't breath. The memory was fresh in her mind. The suffocating feeling hadn't left her, though she could breath perfectly fine. Had it all been a dream? The red haired girl tried to put the pieces together, as she sat up. That's when she noticed the altar.

When had they returned there? Hadn't the floor fallen behind them, making it impossible to return? Confused she looked down and noticed a small totem. It laid in the same place as when she had fainted there the last time. But.. That didn't make sense. It had been in her backpack ever since she woke up again. Could it be that she only had dreamed everything up after fainting? She had never been able to dream after having fainted before though.

With a shaking hand she picked the totem up and looked at it. What was happening? The beeping in her ear finally ceased and she could hear her surrounding again. Not that it was much to hear at that point. Claude! Where were he? Suddenly her head turned every which way until her eyes found him. "Claude." He was there. She wasn't dead. Logically it must have been a nightmare no matter how real it had felt. Even so she was still afraid. "I.. What happened?" She asked him. Her guess for now, she had fainted when touching the totem and then started to dream far too realistic before waking up on the floor. Please let that be the truth, she thought to herself.​
 
The darkness which had followed the faltering light suddenly dissipated into nothing. Then, there was light. Ten new torches found Claude, holding him under their grasp as he took a step forward. The last thing he remembered, he'd been sitting down holding Rose. However, things were all too different now.

She had the totem in her hands again, they were back in the room where they'd found it. There was a dim light around them from the torches, which he'd failed to notice before somehow. His own was in his hand, added some glow to the pair who stood so close to the center pedestal. Rose looked like she'd only just woken up from a nap, and his head was throbbing harder than ever. He brought a hand to his head to find that the wound had somehow gotten worse, as if he'd gone back in time to when his forehead had first been cut.

"Rose?" Claude responded, equally confused.

His first reaction was to take her face into his hands. He stared her down, going from her messy red hair, to her eyes, her lips. Nothing was bleeding. Claude wiped his thumb along her chin before examining his own hands. There was no blood, not a single drop between them. How was it possible that she was alive again? He'd watched her die, a horrible death, she suffocated on her own bile.

"You died." He said in surprise. "I saw you die, how is this possible?"

Claude stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the totem in her hands. He grasped it free and placed it back on the pedestal, it sat there, watching them with its ruby eyes. After the events which had unfolded, Claude never wanted to see it again. Not ever. Only, now that they knew what it was, they had to bring it back. Was this all some sick game? They were sent on a suicide mission for a totem which hardly looked anything valuable.

"Don't touch it. That's it, we're getting out of here, I can't do that again." He was shaking his head.​
 
Claude seemed equally confused, if not more, and his actions did not seem rational. All that had happened was that she had fainted, right? But if that was the case, why wasn't she taking his hands off of her? Why wasn't she telling him he was overreacting? That's what she should be doing knowing all she had done was dreaming and all he had done was watching her faint.

But she need him to hold her. The dream might have frightened her more than it should, but she needed him close. She felt like a little girl again, wanting her dad to hold her close when she woke up in the middle of the night. She weren't going to confess it to him, but she was happy he was overreacting. That was until he spoke.

How did he know about her dream? How could he have seen her dream?... He couldn't. That was impossible. But still, he knew about it. He had seen it. Her heart suddenly drummed in her chest faster and harder than it ever had before. Had it truly happened? Had she died? Shocked to hear those words coming out of his mouth she just sat there on the floor while Claude forced the totem out of her hand.

"You're.. Overreacting." Rose eventually said, not really believing her own words. She stood up, still a bit shaky and looked at the totem that now was placed on the pedestal. "It must have been some kind of dream." She tried to rationalize. "Or some kind of drug in the air that made us see things that weren't there, that's all." That was the only explanation, how else would she be alive otherwise? "It was probably some kind of drug that made us go through what we least wanted to. I told you before I would rather kill myself then to suffocate in a dark catacomb, and that's what happened." It hadn't happened exactly as she had imagined, apparently her imagination could make it worse than her worse nightmare.

"It's not like I would be standing here alive if any of that had been real." Somehow Rose just wanted to hear that it hadn't happen. No matter how real it had felt she needed Claude to say it. She didn't want to go through it again either. It had to have been a dream.​
 
"But I felt it, Rose." Claude didn't mean to hurt her when he said it, but there was an obvious pain in the truth of his words. "I held you when you died, saw your eyes go dark, don't tell me I didn't feel that, didn't see it. That couldn't have been a dream. I tried to bring you back!"

His voice started to raise out of fear. It wasn't a dream. She wouldn't admit it out loud but there was no way Claude had gone through that alone, in some hellish nightmare. His own mind wouldn't allow him to think of Rose dying again, so why had it happened in the first place? When he had approached the pedestal he was fine, he stood on his own two feet and hadn't fallen asleep in any way, because he was standing when they came back. It couldn't have happened. If they'd dreamed, he would've fallen to the ground instead.

"It's that thing." He spat. "It's cursing us, cursed you already!"

He was hardly making sense. Claude needed to take a breath, calm down, but his head throbbed harder than before. He reached up to touch the numbing pain, it was still raw, unlike when they'd been past the room they stood. It had healed somewhat, but now it was back to being a raw and jagged cut on his head. That wasn't normal. There wasn't a force on earth that could turn his healing wound back into a gaping one without another smack to his head.

"Rose, I know you don't want to believe it, but we've got to get out of her then." He decided for them both. "We can take the totem, but don't touch it with your bare hands again. I don't know what it's doing, but I just want to get out, get the reward, and never see this place again."​
 
Rose wanted to block his words out. Of course it couldn't have been a dream, of course it had felt too real. But how else could they explain it? People did not die just to come back moments later. It didn't make any logical sense whatsoever. Still they had both felt it. Lived it. Even know she could feel her body go ice cold from the fever even though she knew it was no longer there.

"Don't touch it you say? We already did, both of us, just seconds ago." She reminded him. Curses didn't exist. There had to be a logical explanation to all that had been going on. But what could logically explain what had happened to them? She couldn't find any no matter how hard she tried to think about it. If it truly was a curse, were both of them going to die this time? Who would go first?

Rose did know that they had already touched the totem, but still she obliged with Claude's wishes. They were both upset and confused. It was better if they didn't fight about such things now. She ripped off a piece of cloth from her shirt and covered the statue with it before putting it down in her bag. If Claude's theory was correct, then they would both die for having touched it. If he was wrong, then they would come out rich. It was already too late with the touching part, so they could as well take it.

"Let's find a way out before something more happens." She finally agreed with him and started to walk. "I do hope the reward is worth all of this." She mumbled, not sure anymore. Would she have taken the job if she had known what would happen? If she had known that she would end up getting out, then maybe. But going through her own death just for a lifetime in riches? Maybe she wouldn't have taken the offer. Now it was just to hope they could get out and forget.

"Did you see any signs of an exit from the other side of the fallen floor?" Rose then asked. If it had only been dreams, then that section might not even exist. But considering they both believed it had, even though she tried not to, she still wanted to make sure. Maybe she hoped he would say that he had no idea what she was talking about. She hoped for that answer. That would prove that their experiences had been slightly different, and it could have been a dream.​
 
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