For a moment, none of us had any idea what to do. We stood there, almost motionless, staring at a scene that looked as if it came out of our worst nightmares. It didn't matter if we were pros or rookies. When faced with the sudden potential demise of one of our comrades, we weren't ready to deal with it.

The first instinct that moved us to act was panic. Amy and Corwyn backed away from the railing, trying to stand as far away from the bottomless pit as possible. Rogier did not say a word, but I could hear his heavy breathing. It was clear that although he appeared calm, something about this deeply troubled him. The most radical reaction, however, came from Gier.

"No... No, no, no, no!" he yelled and backed away from the railing.

"Gier! Deep breaths!" I tried to help him as best as I could. Needless to say, when you yourself are scared beyond measure, it's more than difficult to try to calm down someone else.

"No! We need to help her!" I watched as Gier rushed down the stairs to the lower level without even giving us a warning.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Rogier shouted after him.

"I will not let anyone else die just like that! Not again! She can still be saved!"

"Are you nuts?! She's at least on the ninth floor! A fall like that will fry your insides!"

"We don't know that! She was a deep delver, so she must have some resistance to the descent!" Gier kept shouting while heading down another flight of stairs, now arriving at the fourth floor, from which she fell. "Holy shit..." he gasped.

"What? See something?" I asked.

"Yeah. The railing here is... well torn apart. It's like something pushed her through it. I will keep going and let you guys know if I find something else!" Gier's voice was becoming increasingly distant. He must've been at least on the fifth floor now, and still, he was managing to withstand the effects. Other than his increasingly heavier breathing, he seemed to be handling it just fine. "When I get to her, one of you will... get me a rope, okay? And we will pull her up. So get ready... on the other side!" We heard his voice again, this time taking pauses in between some of the words as he needed to catch his breath. Without a moment to waste, we circled around the centre again.

"Amy, do you have a–"

"Rope? Here!" she interrupted my question and immediately handed me what I wanted. The few glowing green strands woven into it were a sign of excellent quality. Enchanted ropes were a lot less likely to break.

"G-Guys, should we really be... umm... just waiting here?" Corwyn asked, nervously looking around while we awaited Gier's words.

"Relax. We're in the middle room. Guardians can't come here. It's safe," Rogier tried to calm him down.

"Wait, but didn't Gier just say that the railing in the middle was damaged down below? Wouldn't that mean that Cristina was... attacked in the middle?" I asked. The quiet that followed was soul-crushing. Nobody said a word and the only thing we could hear were the echoes of Gier's distant footsteps as he descended the stairs.

"Rogier?" Amy asked, almost whispering.

"Yeah?"

"You were here a few times already, right?"

"Yeah. Quite a few."

"So..."

"Don't say it."

"I have to."

"It brings bad luck."

"It is an objective judgement."

"It's horrifying."

"Rogier..."

"Fine. Go ahead," he said, his voice suddenly going quieter.

"Could it be Them?" Amy said and for a moment, our old friend silence returned.

"If it is, what would that mean?"

"Well..." Amy spoke and I could see her hands trembling. "I heard some Deep Delvers give a lecture on Them before."

"What did they say?"

"That if you run into Them... there's about a 0.02% chance of survival."

Rogier looked at the ceiling. "Well, shit," he practically whispered. "We need to leave."

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Don't you dare abandon us!" I yelled at him when I saw his hand reach for the little carabiner of his safety rope. There was much more I wanted to say, but he grabbed me by my tunic and pulled me closer.

"You want to stay here?! Do you have any fucking idea what we're up against if Amy's right?!"

"N-no?" I mumbled. "Who are They?"

"Guys! I made it!" we all heard Gier shout from below. That made Rogier finally put me down. "She's alive! Possible fractures and some, ugh... bleeding, but we can definitely get her home. Lower the rope!"

Without a second to waste, we tossed it down and waited for Gier to safely tie the rope to her body.

"You never heard about Them?" Rogier asked me and I shook my head. "And you, rich boy?" he turned to Corwyn, who gave him the same response. "Shit. They really don't tell the rookies everything. Well... there is not much to say. Nobody really knows what They are. It is said that some delvers reported seeing yellow eyes in the darkness. When they looked away, they were gone. And then, out of nowhere, a bloodbath."

"S-So who survived to tell the tale?" Corwyn asked probably the most important question.

"I could count all the survivors across history on the fingers of one hand. And all of them were so severely injured that they either died soon after or lived only with the help of medical machines."

"She's secured! Pull her up!" Gier shouted. But be careful! Don't let her get hit by the edges of other floors, okay? Do it slowly!"

We all did as Gier asked and gradually began pulling the rope up.

"Trust me, kiddos. The moment we pull her up, we're leaving. Who cares that you'll fail your entrance exam? You can try again in some time. It's better than kicking the bucket here."

I took a deep breath, ready to respond and agree to his proposal when suddenly, the rope got significantly lighter, so much so that the sudden change in weight almost made us fall backwards.

"W-What was that?!" Corwyn muttered.

"No! Tell me that isn't happening!" Rogier yelled, but his voice was overshadowed by some terrible noise of cracking wood and squeaking metal.

"Gier?! GIER!!! Can you hear me?!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, but no response came from down below. The awful noise had disappeared and the uncomfortable silence returned once again.

We did not hesitate for one second. All of us rushed out as a single group, heading over to the other side of the middle room to hopefully get a better view of what was going on. The only things that could be heard were our steps and frantic breathing.

When our eyes finally landed on the floor far below us, the worries that weighed on our hearts suddenly became even heavier. Amy screamed and backed away, followed by Corwyn. I, on the other hand, could not stop looking at it, too shocked to move or say anything.

A faint "Fuck..." escaped Rogier's lips as even he looked at the place where instead of our friends, we only found a wide splash of blood and a severed hand, whose fingers dangled just over the edge.

"This isn't happening... This can't be happening!" Amy was muttering somewhere behind me. I heard her sit down, but I couldn't force myself to turn around. If it wasn't for Rogier, who forcibly tore me away from the sight, I would probably stand there for hours.

"We're leaving! Now!" Rogier commanded us.

"But..." A single word escaped my lips, quickly interrupted by the book hunter's slap.

"No protests! It's Them! And They will be up here soon. So get going. Rookies go first!"

Corwyn did not need further persuading. He grabbed the carabiner on his belt and gently tugged on it a couple of times, until the green rope of light finally manifested, leading from the carabiner all the way to the hole in the roof. About a second later, someone began pulling on it, lifting Corwyn off the ground and carrying him high above the bottomless pit.

"Don't look down!" Rogier yelled after him.

"Right. Not looking! Not looking!" He replied and squinted his eyes shut.

A second later, a massive metal clank echoed throughout the library. It was a sound so powerful I could feel it reverberating in my chest. A massive metal hatch slammed shut over the entrance above us, cutting Corwyn's rope.

"What?! Falling! FALLING! HEEEEELP!" He screamed.

I watched as Rogier climbed over the railing. He was hanging over the bottomless pit, with one hand clinging onto the metal bannister while the other reached out for Corwyn.

"Amy! Hold him!" I yelled at her and ran over to Rogier to help him hold on just in case his hand would slip off the railing. Amy, however, did not respond. She continued sitting there, quietly muttering something.

"Gotcha!" Rogier exclaimed when he managed to catch Corwyn's hand.

"Pull me up! Pull me up!" he yelled and we didn't waste a moment to do as he asked. When he was finally safely away from the pit, we both fell to the ground, absorbing the shock of his near demise.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Rogier yelled at us and the whole library began shaking.

"What's going on?!" I said just as the ground around us began tearing apart.

"The Shuffling!" Corwyn screamed.

"Yeah! It's happening!" Rogier assured us.

I quickly looked at my watch, unable to understand. "But I still have about thirteen more minutes.

Corwyn did the same. "I have seven."

"And I have twenty-one. Damn it! That Guardian played us! It looked like a clock, so it must've been doing something with time. It scrambled our watches!" Rogier slammed his fist against the railing.

"W-What now?" Corwyn asked.

"Gather around Amy! Don't get separated!" the hunter instructed us. "And don't fall! Under any circumstances!"

We all did as he told us and gathered around our friend, who still seemed too shocked to even move.

"We're gonna die here..." Amy whispered through her tears.

"We're not!" I assured her, even though the crack in my voice did not make me sound very convincing.

The ground continued breaking and soon after, the whole library got torn to pieces, which were now levitating in the air, including the tiny island that carried the four of us.

"Hang on!" Rogier yelled.

The shaking became even worse as cracks formed even in the very air around us. It looked as if the reality we knew was but an illusion, which was now being shattered, revealing a rapidly swirling mix of colours behind it. Very soon, the rest of the library disappeared and only our small patch of ground and an adjacent bookshelf remained, flying through the crazy rainbow.

"Close your eyes!" Rogier instructed us and we did as he asked. "And try to stay calm! We should all wake up at the same place!"

"Wha– Haaaaaaa?" I tried my best to speak but it was as if someone stole life from my body while still leaving my brain in the skull. I fell limp to the ground and felt the weight of Corwyn's body on my back soon after. Every word I said only came out as a single sound, not reminiscent of any word or phrase. I tried my best to mumble at least a simple message before my own consciousness vanished.