Nova burst into laughter. He cackled until his sides hurt. "I like that bet," he straightened up. "I'll bet the same then. I bet that you will also survive, no matter what."
"What happens if we both survive?"
"We'll just have to survive if we want to find that out."
The moon had just risen into the night. Everyone was in a bad mood due to not having eaten anything the entire day. Lucas had zero patience, and the others also wanted this torture to be over already so, on they moved. Xerxes, Lucas, and Nova were the only ones available for free labor. Bailey had to look out for Elise; obviously, there was no one else who could do her job. Savannah did offer to participate, but Lucas strongly refused any help from her. As for Kai...
No one wanted free child labor.
The three of them pulled along the ladder as they headed out for the mountain.
"Say, what if Gerald is hiding somewhere just to avoid doing anything, hoping for a free pass? He wasn't much help to begin with, but we could at least use him to pull the ladder with us," Nova suggested convincingly.
Such a possibility never crossed Xerxes's mind, but in all honesty, he didn't care either way. If Gerald wanted to go, he could go. If he had really encountered something tragic, there was no way to save him anyway, making any reasoning for Gerald useless. Lucas also gave zero fucks about Gerald; he was only focused on his own and Savannah's survival. Caring for others right now was the last thing on his list of priorities.
The rest of the way was quiet since none of them replied to Nova. When they finally reached the mountain, Xerxes's lower back and shoulders were starting to hurt. He was never a gym rat. He occasionally strolled in parks, that's it—his physical condition was in absolute tatters, as was the case for most office workers. Oh right, he was unemployed right now.
"Why do we have to carry the ladder? Let's just drag it on the ground with us." Hearing the idea, both Nova and Lucas paused.
They dragged the poor wooden ladder the rest of the way up the mountain. It was sturdy enough not to break; however, it was in rough condition from being dragged on the rocks and dirt. They were taking turns dragging it. The last person was Xerxes when they reached the peak of the stony mountain.
"How are we supposed to do this? The ladder clearly can't reach the moon."
Lucas unfolded the ladder. It was about twice as tall as Nova, the tallest person in the group. He guessed to Nova, "Let's just follow the storyline. If the dad could go to the moon, we should be able to, too." Lucas held the ladder by the rails in the air, because there were no walls this high on the mountain. Nova quickly held the other side of the rail. They both stared at Xerxes innocently in anticipation.
Xerxes knew, even if they didn't say it, that he was the one who had to climb the ladder and serenade the moon. As always to gain some courage, he needed some comfort. He took out the last source of comfort left in the dungeon: the last sachet of instant coffee.
"What are you doing? If you had coffee with you, why didn't you make it when we were in the house with the water?" Nova was eternally confused by Xerxes's strange actions. But that wasn't all—Xerxes tore the sachet from the corner and downed the raw coffee like a shot of sweet expensive alcohol, leaving Nova's jaw wide open.
"..." Lucas probably.
Xerxes felt the bitter taste of life, which was somehow comforting to him. He threw the empty packet. "I always have one in each of my pockets. That was the last of them, though." He began climbing the ladder, which was surprisingly steady. It didn't shake as he had thought.
Xerxes ascended the rungs of the ladder, step by step, cautiously for what seemed like a long time. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he strangely couldn't reach the end of the ladder no matter how much he climbed. He was sweating profusely, and his hands were becoming slippery, so he stopped for a break.
Xerxes wanted to see how much he had actually climbed, so he looked down the ladder. It was unbelievably far up in the sky. He couldn't even see a speck of Nova or Lucas from this high. He fearfully dryly gulped, tightening his hold on the rungs.
Can't fall down from this height, or I'll be damned.
Xerxes could only climb, and that's all he did for a prolonged period of time. Finally, he reached for the last rung of the ladder. From there, he only saw the bright full moon, bathed in a soft white glow. The stars around it looked exceptionally humongous and sparkled with a golden hue, which reminded him of the lovely walls of the bedroom in the house.
I should say my lines now.
Xerxes was so focused on surviving—breathing in general—that he had forgotten to take the page of dialogues from Lucas. Kai had specifically written it down for him.
Curse my bloodline! What do I say now?
Xerxes had read it once before Lucas took it, but if he had such excellent memory, he would have the script in his hands right about now. He couldn't go back down and get it from Lucas; he would probably die if he had to climb up all those steps again, so he crossed that option off. That left him with the last option.
Well, I think it went something like this...
Xerxes, in a cold sweat, cleared his throat. "Oh moon, I must take you with me." One of his hands reached for the moon. "But you see, you're too big to come with me... Should you reduce your size, I'll take you back with me."