Fools Gold

‘Why are you glaring at me like that? You look like I just ate the last cookie without asking.’ Phoebe said without even looking back.

‘I'm hoping you'll spontaneously combust.’ I replied snidely.

‘Ha! I saved your life you know, where's all the gratitude?’

I laughed sarcastically this time, my words coming out in a rush as I had to suck in my gut to squeeze through an alarmingly tight gap. I noticed Dion throw us an exasperated glance before idlly wondering just how our bodyguards had managed to fit through such a small space.

‘You pushed me off a building.’

‘Eh, close enough.’

I was about to make some sort of retort when we froze at the sight of what we thought must be the artifact that had been reported to us, sitting squarely in the centre of the cavern. Five black voids in the walls indicated corridors into endless tunnels that made up the cave system, none of their shadows could be illuminated even by the light the artifact was chucking off like a bonfire.

On the cave floor, shining and glittering like some sort of fairytale, was a huge chest filled with beautiful gold pennies, all spilling out over the sides and scattered over the grimey floor. My mouth dropped open and I'm pretty sure Phoebe laughed maniacally.

‘Shiny shiny, gold… floor, there… in front,’ the words tumbled out of my mouth in a rush of exhilarated excitement. The urge to touch it was unbearable, to reach out a hand and pick up just one… tiny… shiny… piece…

‘Twix!’ Dion snapped, ‘you touch a single piece and i’ll remove your hand.’ His tone was scathing but his eyes held genuine concern. Looking down at myself I realised I had begun to creep towards the pile, my hand outstretched as if I would pluck some from the ground.

‘My name is Moxie,’ I grouched, blushing furiously, as I straightened and walked back to stand by Phoebe, who, while still looking star struck, seemed to mostly have gotten over the shock. I wasn't avaricious by any means - money generally meant little to me - but cash like that still made my head spin.

‘Yeah, of course, cuz money is the cave’s money yanno.’

I tried to ignore the confused looks shot at me by both my peer, my teacher and every guard within ear range.

‘You ok there?’ He asked, almost looking genuinely interested in the answer, but my snapped reply quickly wiped the look from his face.

‘I'm under no obligation to make sense to you sir.’

Instead of responding he shook his head and knelt down next to the gold. I smiled with saccharine sweetness and watched him shift a piece with the end of his pen as I cursed myself internally. Forgetting our interaction entirely, a confused expression spread over his face, one I wasn’t accustomed to seeing on my teacher and that made a nervous feeling coil low in my body. It was only worsened when he snapped,

‘No one touches a thing till I know what this is.’

Squirming because of the intense silence, I leaned towards Phoebe covertly.

‘Can you hit him with your knife?’ I whispered through my wooden grin. Phoebe smiled but was mostly as intent on watching Dion as I was, though she likely had more educational reasons for it than watching the satisfying way his forearms looked with his shirt sleeves rolled up.

‘I believe the technical term is “stab”’

‘Hey, you're already a criminal, I'm not hardened enough for that stuff.’

She snorted, ‘Moxie, you're probably the most ruthless one in this room.’

I laughed but was interrupted by Dion once again glaring in my direction, I glared back.

‘Besides,’ Phoebe trilled, ‘you don’t really hate him. Not since he force fed you chicken soup that time you were sick but refused to admit it.’

I grimaced at the memory, ‘That was assault.’

‘You damn near fell in love with the guy.’

I punched her in the arm firmly, laughing light heartedly when she smiled up at me. Suddenly Dixon’s voice rang through the cave with severity, making me start.

‘This isn't some sort of play school field trip, Twix. If you can't shut up and learn you'll be dismissed.’ I went to snap a reply but he interrupted me, ‘No, none of the snarky comebacks today. Save that shit for the classroom. Now, I left my notebook in the jeep, I want you to go get it, if you haven't cooled down by the time you return you'll be waiting in the car till the rest of us are done. Got it?’ I nodded my head gruffly and headed towards the exit. As I began to squeeze through I stole one last glance at the money on the floor. Inside me something writhed uncomfortably, urging me to go back and take some, to touch it just once. But as I walked farther away the feeling eased and I let out a relieved sigh, perhaps the cave air was getting to me but it felt as if I'd been suffocating in that room without even realising it.

Back at the car I found Dion’s book quickly. Still feeling slightly bruised I knelt against the car door and flicked through it, the worn black leather soft in my hands. I tried to ignore the bored looking guard who had escorted me down, disliking the reminder that a guard was necessary. Not that I thought I could handle a fight. No way. Hastings I could tumble with, he was about as skilled as a kitten and Id even try my hand at fighting Ivah - Phoebes parole officer and trainer - but I wasnt stupid and I didnt have a death wish. Anything I met out here beyond the wards was something I was running away from.

I flipped nonchalantly through the pages of neat diagrams and scribbled words, all so classically Dion. He rarely let us touch his notebook, a running research log he kept to store his findings in before he could write them into an official book. The book itself was probably worth as much as the pile of gold lying in that cave to any of the rich and politically devious back in Belmont City, who would be more than willing to use any of the right facts and magical artifacts to get what they wanted. But I admired Dion, because no matter what, he was objective about his work. He believed that anyone who wished to know should be allowed full access to the truth, even if that truth wasn't so pretty. It made him honest, sometimes painfully so when you didn't really want to hear it, but I trusted him with my life.

I was about to shut the book and begin the trek back to the cave when a diagram caught my eye as one of the pages flipped over. Pausing, I scrambled for the right place, using the very end of my pinky finger to catch the gap and open it up.

There, on the page, was a sketch of a pile of gold, almost exactly the same as the one I had just seen on the floor in front of me moments ago. Confused, I scanned the notes on the page, my heart sinking. At the top was the subheading ‘Fools Gold - Demons of The Breach.’

‘The Breach’ was a technical term, used by archivists and historians, to refer to the period of time that the barrier, between this world, and the world of shadows and magic had remained open - an event thousands of years passed. During this short amount of time magic had flooded back into the world, but so also had a lot of horrible creatures. The borderlands, the land outside of warded settlements like Belmont City, had gone on as normal when the demons and monsters had flooded through the barrier thousands of years ago.The trees and the rivers had stayed the same but anyone who valued their life had fled within wards. They weren't demons like Dion, whose most terrifying traits were his terrible taste in black tea and the glare he gave you when you touched something you shouldn't. These were real devils created from the darkest, most horrific parts of Pandora's bloody box. Things that would tear innocents to shreds in seconds without pause, beasts who could fell an angel as easily as a daisy. They were the monsters of nightmares.

Skimming the words jotted down in small black ink, my face drained of colour and my fingers went numb.

“Fools Gold, a class B demon. The creature generally resides in cave systems and subterranean lairs with links to the surface. The creature uses a mirage of some form of wealthy treasure to lure in its prey. Once the victim touches the mirage they lose all cognitive function and a form of manic psychosis takes over. The subject is then driven to move towards the demon's resting place where it resides much deeper beneath the earth. This creature is extremely dangerous, a victim has no chance of recovering from the psychosis without external help and medical treatment. Perhaps the more dangerous aspect of this demon is the other demons it attracts. Due to the extended process of reeling in its victims, smaller and more viscous scavengers often reside in the same area to pick off some of the blinded prey before they can reach the Fools Gold itself.’

Unable to read any more I slammed the book shut and sprinted as fast as I could back up the path. My mind flashed back to the image of Dion poking at one of the coins with his pen and the suspicious expression that had stood out in the dark, my heart spasmed in fear and I pushed my legs harder, my breaths pounding out of my lungs.

Careening around the bend to the cave's mouth I threw out a hand to stop myself from tripping, ignoring the way the rock bit into my palm and ripped the skin away. I leapt over the rocks on the uneven floor of the cavern, fear and adrenaline making me surprisingly agile. I squeezed through the gap, my heart in my throat, trying not to panic when my frantic motions seem to make the fit even harder.

But what I found on the other side once again stopped me in my tracks. The cavern was empty, the light from the gold gone - replaced with a mouldy pile of old coins - the shadows extended into threatening shapes on the walls. There was no one in sight, not a single hair or breath, as if there had never been anyone there at all. A small cry escaped my lips, utter despair washing over me. I barely even noticed my escort and another guard finally catching up with me, their harsh and urgent words washing over me like a torrent of waves.

I said nothing, did nothing, but stare into the endless black of one of the corridors. It was so dark it was like looking into an abyss. And my friends were in it, in the dark, out of their minds and defenseless, walking towards their certain bloody doom. I looked down at the notebook in my hands, now in my care, its wealth and importance like a rock in my stomach. It was worth at least 20,000 dollars. A fortune… But that was nothing compared to the man who had written it, my very own teacher… my Dion.

And so I did what any sane person wouldnt do. I grabbed the nearest torch and plunged into the pitch darkness, trying to ignore the suffocating feeling of the thousands of feet of winding, twisting cave system before me. Because all that mattered was that I found them before anything else could. Or we'd all be dead.