In a heartbeat, you abandon the allure of the diamond and slip into the small maintenance room, the shadows within embracing you like a lover's secret. The musty scent of neglected cleaning supplies and old rags fills your nostrils, mingling with the desperation that clings to your skin, the fear of failure unbound.
Your breaths come in shallow gasps, your eyes ever-vigilant as you peer through a thin crack in the door, a single shard of visibility offered before you, the world outside obscured like the ever-narrowing visage of hope.
The guards lumber into view, the once faint footsteps now resounding in your ears like the hooves of the horsemen of your impending doom. Your pulse roars beneath your skin, a primal scream demanding attention, asking whether these men are harbingers of death to your dreams or a benign coincidence, swallowed back into the night as quickly as they appeared.
Your world suspends in an inhale, a single moment filled with dread and tension, as the guards pause mere steps from your temporary sanctuary. They exchange cursory words, their voices like distant thunder as they describe their patrols and mortal anecdotes. Your eyes dilate as they move closer, a choice forced upon you now, the limits of your hideaway threatening to betray your very existence. Fight or flee - the answer could spell the end of your journey or ensure your legendary victory.
The clock of decision ticks, each second cutting like a blade through the beating heart of fate, as you consider your options; ambush the guards, risking discovery, or remain hidden in hopes they'll simply vanish like a specter leaving relics of liberty and hope.