Chapter 7

Oliver stared at the black obelisk, running his fingers along the cold, smooth surface. "What do you think it is?"

It stood on the edge of the clearing, the jungle seemed to start up immediately behind. It was tall - maybe as tall as their house.

Willow pushed her glasses up her nose. "I'm not sure. It looks like it could have some sort of religious function, which implies a civilization once existed here." She leaned in closer. "I don't recognize the markings, and I'm not sure what it's made of, either." She seemed to notice something. "I wonder what this is..."

Whatever she did, suddenly, the markings along the surface all began to light up. She immediately backed away, almost stumbling.

Oliver pulled his hand away from the suddenly warm surface. "What was that?"

"I have no idea."

Their mother stared at the obelisk. "Maybe we should get as far away as we can, in case it's dangerous."

Oliver nodded. "That gets my vote!"

Oliver and his mother immediately started running - back towards the cave. Almost half-way there, Oliver stopped. He shouted at his mother to stop running. "Mom! Where's Will?"

His mother stopped. "Maybe she fell down," she said, panting. "Let's go back to get her."

Exhausted, they started walking back towards the obelisk. When they arrived, there was no sign of Willow, except her glasses, lying on the dirt.

Oliver picked the glasses up. "Where did she go?"

His mother got more caught up in worry, circling the obelisk, calling out her daughter's name. "Willow! Willow!"

"I'm here," she said, coming around from behind the obelisk, rubbing her eyes.

Their mother ran up to her, giving her a big hug. "Where have you been?"

She pointed at the obelisk. "Inside that thing, I think..."

"Inside?!" Oliver walked up to his sister, handing her the glasses he'd picked up. "Here, put these back on."

"Thanks," she said, brushing her long brown hair out of her face and putting them on.

Their mother walked around the obelisk, and found no sign of any entrance. "How did you get in?"

"Once I ... activated? ... it, it kinda pulled me in."

Oliver considered the obelisk. "It's kind of small. It looks cramped."

"It's bigger on the inside, or something. Here, I'll show you." She started fiddling with the outside of the obelisk again.

"Willow Alexandra Richards, stop fooling around!"

"Geez, mom. We need to find out what is up with this place, right?"

Their mother sighed. "Okay, fine. Show us."

"Well, I activated it like this, I think," she said, putting her hand on a particular symbol - and the obelisk lit up again.

"Now what?"

"Just wait, dummy!"

A few moments passed, and then things started to twist and shake - it reminded Oliver of the strange events that happened as they arrived. It knocked the glasses off Willow's face, and almost threatened to knock the bow off Oliver's back, but he grabbed it in time.

Instead of a bright light, it felt like there was a brief flash of darkness ... and then the three of them were standing in an unending stretch of black. There was a ... table, of sorts, kind of like a control panel. It had symbols on its face, similar to the symbols on the outside.

"Okay, dork," Oliver said. "Now how did you get back out?"

Willow frowned and squinted as she started to find her way around. "Well, at first I was just looking around. Then I heard you guys calling for me, and one of the buttons started glowing red." She shrugged. "So I pressed it. I think it was this one," she said, pressing it. Almost immediately, she vanished.