Chapter 12 - Bullying inanimate objects is fun, yippee!

It was a while before anything happened, I had been carefully watching the mosaics on the walls to make sure we were going the right way. Then we ran out of string, I guess this answers the question of how long the string could go. Penelope frowned, looking over at Miriam "Well…that's not good.". "That's not very wowie zowie if I do say so myself" Miriam grumbled. Miriam was right, that wasn't very wowie zowie. "Like dudeski, you had one job" I gestured at the string, annoyed, "It couldn't even do that" Penelope added. "Can we fire a ball of string?" I asked, looking over at the two, Miriam thought for a moment "We totally should" I decided "Yeah sure why the heck not, you ball of string" Penelope gestured at the ball of string. "You're fired, so uh…go home and tell your wife ball of string" She put her hands on her hips, clearly not one hundred percent sure what to do but doing it pretty alright. "What if the ball of string likes dudes?" Miriam joked "Or if it likes some other gender of string, we can never know" I shrugged, holding back laughs. Penelope looked confused, likely not getting the joke for a good while "Uh yeah…okay, go tell your partner ball of string and little baby stringlets" I cut Penelope off with my laughing "Stringlets" I chuckled. Penelope looked at me before quickly continuing "Go tell your baby stringlets that you've lost your job and are going to lose the house" She joked. We all burst out laughing, first Miriam cracked then me and Penelope couldn't hold it back anymore. We all just stood there laughing with each other and taking our minds off of the impending doom that awaited us. "So…what's the plan?" I asked, breaking the laughter after a few moments, Penelope sighed "I'm not sure" She bit her lip in thought. "Are you sure you know the way? Because we should be able to just keep going if you think you can lead us" Miriam mentioned. I looked back at where we had come from "I'm not sure…I think I know where we're going but…should we really risk it" I asked, rubbing my fingers together, a nervous twitch of mine. "Addie, we need to keep moving, this might be our shot out. If you think you can lead the way, then we need to take that chance" Penelope decided, an authoritative tone in her voice. Miriam and I exchanged a glance, Miriam's stormy gray eyes were tainted with worry. I assumed I looked the same, I crossed my arm over my chest, clutching at the side. My fingers curled around the smooth white fabric of my dress, splattered with blood all over the front by my chest. "Alright let's just…be careful, okay" I took some deep breaths, Miriam took me by the hand. I pulled her a little closer, wrapping my arms around her arm in a way that made me unsure how her arm wasn't starting to turn white. Penelope could clearly see me freaking out but she didn't seem to care all that much. "Let's go" She started to walk off "Uh Penelope , we need to go that way" I gestured to the left path, the opposite direction of where Penelope was going. Penelope paused, turning on her heel and starting to walk down the left path, I led the way, practically dragging Miriam. She was still making that distinct sound while she walked, a repetitive clack, clack, clack clack…clack clack over and over as I dragged her along. I did have a habit of dragging people when I walked, I just walked pretty fast, I think it's because I have long legs or whatever. I focused, resting my fingers along the familiar mosaics, my fingers trailing on the smooth colorful tiles. There were a lot of brown and beige tiles but there was a whole rainbow of colors. All sorts of patterns, ranging from animals and creatures, to former rulers and the Gods. A copper smell attacked my nose, that mixed with dirt and general grungy vibes. "What is that smell?" Miriam asked, covering her nose "Blood, definitely blood" I nodded recognizing the metallic smell from way too many times being an idiot. Penelope frowned "We should go check it out" She instructed leaving no room for debate, Miriam and I shared another look though this one had a completely different meaning. We were both in agreement that Penelope was really bossy, and I've met some bossy kids. She wasn't just some kid trying to be a leader though, she just wanted us all to do what she wanted us to do. I could almost hear Miriam asking me I'm not the only one getting bad vibes right? I nodded in agreement, I was getting pretty bad vibes from Penelope right now. But I was unfortunately quite the curious cat and had a bad habit of following my nose, especially at the smell of blood. I looked at Miriam, silently asking her if she was okay to go. "Alright I guess" She mumbled "I'm okay with it if Miriam is" I decided, we started to head off in the direction of the smell. "Let me borrow your dagger" Penelope instructed me "Why?" I asked, a little worried. I stood in front of Miriam protectively. "I'm going to carve something into the wall" Penelope gestured at the passage we were about to turn down "Smart" Miriam smiled at her. I begrudgingly passed her the dagger, Penelope carved a notch in the corner as we continued to walk. She did that at every corner until we were almost there "Ready?" I asked, just as we were about to turn down the corner. Miriam and Penelope both nodded though I could tell Miriam seemed nervous. I took a deep breath as we rounded the corner.