Chapter 19
Alex's Admirer

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets! We were in the crypt? Disgusting! I heard the other three gagging next to me.
 "Although, we'd better check anyway, you never know, if they've gotten this far, they must be determined!" the first voice said.
 I gasped when I heard their hand come in contact with the door nob. My arm instinctively reached out and grabbed the other side of the nob. I held on tight and felt the pressure as they struggled to open it on the other side.
 "It's locked!" the voice explained, confused.
 "Why? It's never locked! Here, let me try. Maybe you're not strong enough."
 The other three shot out their hands and we all grabbed the nob.
 "Damn, it is locked! Better call up a worker with some keys. This place could use a cleaning anyhow."
 "Oh! Can we get Alex up here? He's so cute!"
 "Casi! Guys are the root of all evil! Shame on you!"
 "But how can something so forbidden be SO handsome?"
 "Shut your mouth! Where'd you even learn such words?"
 "I'm sorry, I just can't help myself sometimes."
 "Well, I'm tempted to tell Godiva, but you're young, so I'll give you a second chance. But no more of this boy talk!"
 With that, the feet moved off down the hallway. When we were sure they were gone, Alex jeered "Did you hear that? She thinks I'm cute!" A second later I heard him stifle a cry. I'm guessing Stephanie elbowed him in the gut or something to the  likes of that.
 "Yeah, but they're gonna try and get a hold of you! They're gonna find out that you're not down there!" I whispered hoarsely.
 "Guys?" asked Frederick. "They're gone, can we please discuss this matter outside of the crypt?"
 I snapped back to the fact that we were in a room with decaying specimens, and held my breath. The stench seemed to be getting worse!! I turned the nob and flew out into the hallway. We inhaled in a long breath of fresh air. I ran a little further up the hallway and threw open a window. I stuck my head out and felt the soft breeze on my face.
 "Mmm," I muttered softly. I'd wondered why it hadn't struck me to do this earlier. We'd been in dark dungeons for quite a while now. I opened my eyes and the bright suns were shining in my eyes. The rays were warm on my cheeks. As my eyes finally adjusted to the sunlight, I caught my breath as I saw how high up I was from the ground! The ground was hundreds of feet away. There were tiny little dots moving around on the green grass. Probably robots, but much too far away to be sure. I was facing away from the city, out on to the water. The ocean was vast and there was no sight of land anywhere. The horizon was as straight as a needle. The view was very beautiful, and quite breath taking. It was a very nice day out, not a single cloud in the sky, and it really gave me a feeling of nostalgia. I sighed and brought my head back inside.
 "Hey guys?" I turned and looked at them, they were all staring at me.
 "What's out there?" asked Frederick.
 "See for yourself, it's amazing!" I replied.
 Frederick stuck his head out and after a few minutes brought it back in. "That's truly astonishing!" he remarked. "To think something that caused us so much misery, can have such fine qualities!"
 "My turn!" said Stephanie. She pushed Frederick aside and stuck her head out the window. "It's beautiful!" we heard her yell from outside. "I nearly forgot what the suns looked like!" she brought herself back inside. "Alex, you gotta see this, it's baffling!"
 Alex walked over to the window and slowly peered out. He drew his head back inside immediately. "Ohmygod!" he squawked. "The ground is so far away! We're up so high!" he started to wobble and grabbed the wall for support.
 "You have a fear of heights?" asked Frederick.
 "How was I supposed to know?" asked Alex. "I've spent my whole life working below grounds!" He looked back at the window and stepped back. "Can't you guys close that? What if someone falls out!"
 "Alright, calm down!" I told him, and walked over to the window. He shut his eyes as I grabbed the frame. I pushed down but it wouldn't budge. I shoved harder but it seemed stuck.
 "It won't go down Alex, c'mon, let's just keep going."
 He got up and stood flat against the opposite wall. He held Stephanie's hand and edged his way past the open window. Me and Frederick followed, down the hallway. I tired not to laugh at the poor guy, honestly, but I couldn't hold it in. I let out a little giggle, which only led to more giggles, until I couldn't stand it anymore. I burst out laughing and Frederick, who must have been thinking the same thing, joined in. Alex, who was ‘safely' on the other side of the window by then, glared at us.
 "Hello?" a voice yelled from down the hallway and around the corner.
 We froze on the spot and immediately stopped laughing. I grabbed Frederick's hand.
 "Who...who's down there?" the voice asked. "I'm warning you, I've got a stick! And it's a big one!"
 "Oooh," said Alex. "Not a stick!"
 "Hey! Shut up! What can you expect? Weapons aren't permitted up here! I had to grab this one off a plunger!"
 "Ha ha ha" we all chuckled.
 "Guys!" yelled Stephanie, who hadn't been saying much up until then. "We don't want to get caught.  We've gotta run!"
 We snapped back to reality. This was a bad thing, and no time to be standing around making fun of this person's plunger. We couldn't come this far and get caught now! Who knows what they'd do to us? We took off in the opposite direction.
 "Don't look back!" Alex yelled, and he sped off ahead of us. I was behind keeping up the rear, which consisted of supporting Frederick and poking Stephanie in the back when she slowed down. Despite Alex's warning, I stole a glance over my shoulder.
A young girl rounded the corner and looked up and down the hallway. She spotted us for a brief second, and began swinging her stick, running in our direction. She didn't have much time to get a good look at us though, because moments later, we rounded a corner and headed toward another staircase. She shouted threats after us. Things like "Godiva won't like this, you'll pay if you don't stop immediately!"
 We ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. None of us cared where they were leading us. The banister was quite dusty, so I figured no one had used this staircase in a while. At least we were less likely to run into some more characters at the top.