"Stop! Watch out!" Angela grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. The CRYPT wall cracked and crumbled, leaving the ancient key hole behind a mountain of rubble. Their torches sent light swimming through the dark mist.
She pulled off her glasses and wiped her forehead. "Great."
That was their ticket out.
"Maybe we should try a new ANGLE." Tadashi stopped to THINK. He brushed off his armor with stony hands and tossed down his sword.
Angela still couldn’t believe she was talking to a statue, especially a RONIN. She looked at her right hand again. All stone, now past her elbow. She was getting weaker. The amulet around her neck still glowed, but it was starting to whimper. And Tadashi 's own amulet was getting brighter by the minute. The two were PAIRS. Once her light went out, she'd just be a stone relic of this ancient labyrinth, lost forever, and he'd be flesh and blood. If either one took off their necklace, they'd both die.
Ancient curses suck.
"What's that sound?" She said, hearing more cracks in the wall.
Tadashi sniffed at the air. "It smells ..."
"MINTY," Angela finished. Distant cracks echoed down the corridor. "It's back!" she yelled. "The FUNGI!"
Soon the walls oozed with green fuzz, and particles floated through the mist. Pointy vines grabbed for the amulets, to return what had been stolen.
Tadashi pulled her down a dark hall. "This way!"
They bolted in the dark, and the vines slithered after them. Magic amulets, a talking samurai statue, deadly spores, this was definitely not how she thought she'd be spending her time in Japan. Would this be the end? She could only think back to simpler times, behind a desk watching market trends, investing in MUNIS, complaining about her boss with Jill. Why did she leave it all for archeology? She had LOVED the dream, but this was definitely not what she signed up for. She promised she’d no longer be a CYNIC. Curses were real. Her vision got blurry. They had to make it out of here. They had to …
With her amulet no brighter than a candle, she collapsed with stone legs, and just heard Tadashi’s echoed screams of her name.