I stared in amazement. Although this wasn’t the first time I had seen Arabella do this, it never got less mesmerising. The crystals spun around her in the cold, tight cavern, though somehow not shredding her skin, as if she were at the centre of a whirlpool. Spots of rainbow light danced on the walls and our skin making me dizzy. Bell was in a trance which had now become routine when on our quests. She was sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, with her head tilted upwards at the crystals. The rise and fall of her chest was so faint, I sometimes questioned whether she was actually breathing. She had told me that this was the only way to see what the crystals were showing her, I wondered that if I zoned out like she seemed to, I would be able to see what the shards were saying. But she told me that that wasn’t how that worked.

The swirling slowed, signalling that the message had been given, before it ceased abruptly and Bell was shoved into the wall behind her, sobbing and panicking. I ran to her side.

“No, no, no, no, no. . .” She panted,

“Hey, Bell, Arabella, what happened? Are you okay?”

“May, oh May- “ her voice broke and she collapsed into my arms.

I stroked her hair and tried to steady my breathing as instructed. The Crystals often showed her the horrifying scenes of her near future and was so dizzying that when it’s over, her body went into fight or flight mode. She told me that I should keep myself calm and keep my chest close to her so Bell instinctively tries to match my breathing pattern and to stroke her hair. It was something her mother used to do and it always managed to calm down. I was unsure whether it was working this time. She was still shaking and hyperventilating, her tears seeped into my jumper.

In the soft glow of the now still cave, I managed to locate my phone. It had fallen out of my pocket at some point and the screen was scratched, but still usable. I managed to send Aron a half-coherent message explaining the situation and that we might be longer than normal. He hasn’t been in our group for that long, I didn’t want him worrying.

“I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” Bell choked.

“It’s okay, you haven’t done anything wrong. You did what was necessary.”

“I saw. . . I can’t, I just-“

“Shh, don’t share yet, it’s okay. Aron isn’t here and I don’t want you to have repeat or hear it twice, you can tell us when you’re ready. Focus on your breathing and calming down.” Unfortunately, I already had my guesses as to what she saw. The last time she was this panicked, it was about 2 years ago on our second quest. To make a long story short, our other quest-mate, Salem, died. It was tragic although I don’t remember much of the details. I feared that on this quest, a similar event may play out.

I managed to ease her out of the Crystal Cavern and into the fresh air. Aron had a cup of water and her teddy bear out and gave it to her before we moved to a nearby patch of moss. The moss was warm even though it was in the shade of a large willow tree. How such a tree managed to grow into the small valley I’ve not the slightest clue. The drooping branches acted as a curtain around us, which was comforting, it was almost possible to forget the horrors we had faced, and were most likely about to face. Almost.

“I’m ready,” Bell croaked, her voice raspy from the crying, “uhm, it was kinda confusing but I knew what they was saying. They told me. . . They told me that the odds were not in our favour this time. There was a scale and, and there was us on one side and something of the other. I’m sorry, I don’t remember what. But, uhm, we outweighed it. It reminded me of the second part a soul’s judgment process in Egyptian Mythology, where the person’s heart is weighed against a feather, and if the heart is heavier then it was consumed Ammit.”

“I hope it has nothing to do with that.” Aron thought aloud.

Bell nodded, “Then, the scene changed. I was in my body, I was wearing my shoes, and looking down at you both. It was gory, I don’t want to describe it, I’m sorry-“ she buried her head into her knees and sobbed.

Aron and I stared at each other in shock and disbelief. Tears welled in his eyes. I felt sick.

I tried to take my mind off my inevitable death by comforting them. I stroked Bell’s hair and gestured for Aron to sit next to me and I held his hand. We sat in a solemn silence.