“Catch it!” She screamed hysterically. I leaped forward as hard as I could and caught it-when it burned me. I dropped it right away and as it rolled away unharmed, my hands had become bright red and felt as if I had just stuck them into a raging fire. My glasses fell off from the force of the fall and my vision blurred. I swayed while hearing a voice inside my head that was not mine. Join me…you will join…It is your destiny. I regained my composure just as Lymara scooped up the orb with an irritated look on her face and motioned for me once again to follow. Picking up my glasses, I followed her.

Join…join…you know you want to…it is your destiny. The godforsaken phrases kept repeating in my head. I knew that orb was cursed. Ever since I had touched it, the weird voice would not stop. Panting heavily, I begged for Lymara to stop.

“No, we must keep going. It’s just a little further, come on.” Out of breath I went after her, but it seemed all the more tedious because I had to ignore the voice in my head at the same time. No matter what I tried, the voice would not go away.

Joining will bring you peace of mind…you will never be bothered by these voices again…join…JOIN! The last word was loudest, but it was not inside my head. I opened my eyes to see that I had stopped moving and that I was the one who had yelled the word. Lymara was staring at me like I was insane, which I thought I was.

“Are you…alright?” She whispered, as if afraid that any loud noise will cause me to start yelling random words again.

“I…don’t know.” I answered honestly, hanging my head.

“Well, at least you’re being honest. Let get going. The sooner we’re out of this place, the better.” Once again I tiredly followed the girl whose energy supply seemed to be limitless.

We had gotten to a hallway which, like the whole castle, seemed to go on forever. But as I looked down the hallway, I noticed a figure standing at the end. Fearing it was Lymara’s father, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

“No! We cannot go that way. Your father is standing at the end of the hall, can’t you see? Come, we must find a different route.” I tried tugging on her wrist as hard as I could, but she just stared at me with that incredulous look in her eyes again.

“Andrei…there’s no one there.” I looked once again and could see that she was right. But I had been so sure that there was a man in black standing at the end of the hall…

I shook my head, trying to clear my vision. Despite my glasses, my eyes had just made my see double for one second. That is what the glasses are for; to help clear it up.

“Andrei…you can keep going…right?” Lymara looked at me with wide eyes.

“Yeah…yes, I can keep going.” Her eyes showed disbelief, but the look was gone in an instant; so fast I was not sure if it had ever been there.

So we started running again until we finally reached the front door. After the long hallway there had been many twists and turns, causing us to get lost numerous times, but all with the same result; us turning around and going back the way we came. As Lymara reached for the door we heard a loud crack of thunder and the whole room shook. Lymara’s hand retreated swiftly as I turned around and saw the evil wizard standing behind us.