She wiped her mouth and pushed herself upright. The time had passed to mourn her decisions. She must act, must take control of this situation. Failure was too horrifying to consider. She stumbled back up the tunnel toward the basement of the church.
Chapter 31
“We must be over halfway through with the tunnel,” Jerom said.
“Good,” said Miranda.
“I don’t think I’ll ever want to walk through another tunnel again, ever,” Brynn added.
They could feel the floor start to angle up.
"We're headed up, out from under the river. That was really creepy with all that water overhead and around us in the tunnel," said Jerom.
Up ahead they could see the big tree roots again. It was like they were going backwards. Instead of dry ground to rootlets to roots to water they were going from water to roots to rootlets and hopefully to dry ground and a way out. Jerom stayed in the lead and they all had to twist and bend to get around the roots in their way.
None of them felt much like talking. Brynn could hardly put one foot in front of the other. Calling the water spirits drained so much of her energy. She let her mind wander, trying to escape the oppressive feeling of having been underground for so long. There were no happy thoughts for her though. She couldn’t seem to recall anything good that had ever happened to her, and her mind went back to the water spirits. She saw them again with their gossamer gowns and spider web hair flowing around them. She relived in her mind the way they turned one by one and called her name and the way the water thickened and crushed the demons.
She used to know who she was. Her life was simple. She was ignorant of the very real monsters in the world. She had plans for the future, now she didn’t know what to expect in the next few minutes.
She had these powers, but they didn’t seem all that reliable. She didn’t even know the full extent of her powers. If she could call on water spirits, what about other elementals? Earth, fire, air, could she communicate with them? Would they respond to her? She had been on the run for a full day or more. Is this how life was going to be from now on? Trying to avoid death, running from demons, and when there is no place left to run, turning to face them? Facing death?
Thinking about it made her shiver as she plodded along behind Jerom and Miranda. She couldn’t tell how long they had been walking, minutes, hours, she didn’t know. She did start to notice the earth surrounding them was drier. She ran her hand along the wall and dry dirt sifted down underneath her fingers.
They were getting closer to the surface. There were more signs of humanity around them now. Names and dates were scratched into the walls.
“These must be from the smugglers. The dates look about right. Although, I’m not sure why you would leave your name in a smuggler’s tunnel if you didn’t want to get caught. What do you think, Miranda?” Jerom was trying to draw her out. Miranda was shaking and she wasn’t responding. The glow from her witch light was dimming.
Her arms hung straight down from her shoulders and her head was bowed. She didn’t make a sound, no reply to Jerom. Brynn put her hands on her shoulders, trying to give some comfort, but Miranda startled and shook off her touch. Miranda turned to look at her and Brynn was shocked. Her face was so pale, ghostlike and her eyes looked just as haunted.
“I have to get out,” she barely whispered. More like Brynn read her lips.
“Jerom, she can’t do much more. Can you put her to sleep? We could carry her maybe.”
“Yeah, okay. Let’s do that.” He placed a hand on her forehead. She squirmed under his hand, trying to get away from him, but Brynn was holding her from behind. Incomprehensible noises were all that escaped her lips. She was too incoherent to speak. Jerom wrapped his other hand around the back of her head and again placed his hand on her forehead, murmuring the spell that would give her some relief. Her eyes closed and she relaxed back against Brynn. The witch light went completely out. They were in complete darkness.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t think ahead, did I?” Jerom said and created his own light.
“Thank you. I can breathe again. I’m right on the edge myself and if we don’t have light I think I might be joining Miranda. And, I’m not sure you want to have to carry us both.”
“That would definitely make things more difficult.”
He bent down and picked Miranda up, throwing her over his shoulder.
“Can I help? What can I do?” Brynn asked.
“I’m good. She’s light, and I think we’re close.”
He turned, repositioned her on his shoulders a bit, and then started forward. The tunnel was a little wider here and turned to the right, a slow steady curve and then it straightened out. They walked another half hour or more and then Jerom stopped.
He gently eased Miranda to the floor and laid her out on her back. She threw her arm out and snorted once then rolled onto her side. Brynn let out a short laugh, and then Jerom started laughing too, which made Brynn laugh even harder.
“I am so sorry,” Brynn managed to get out. “I don’t mean to be making fun of Miranda like this.”
“It’s okay. I think we needed that. It probably has more to do with still being alive than my sister’s sleeping habits.”
“You must be exhausted from carrying her,” she pulled the water bottle from the side pocket of the backpack and handed it to Jerom after taking a drink.
“Yeah, I need a little break. Hey, that was pretty cool, what you did back there with the water.”
“Thanks. I’m just glad it worked. When I called my angel and he didn’t come…I don’t know, I guess I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in my new powers yet.”
“When I first started using my powers, sometimes they would work and then sometimes, usually when I really needed them, nothing.
“Like this one time, I was trying to impress this girl, so I pretend to pick the lock on the door to the indoor pool at the high school. It was during a baseball game and they open the gym so people can use the bathrooms, right, and the pool is at the other end of the gym through these doors. So, I open the lock with my powers and we sneak into the pool. We leave the lights off. The only light comes through these skinny windows at the top of the walls. It’s only moonlight too, so it’s pretty dark.
“Now, I only meant for us to walk around the pool, I was really only trying to show her what a bad dude I was that I can pick locks, but she ends up tripping on something ‘cause it’s so dark and in she goes, right into the pool.”
“No way!” Brynn said. “What did you do?”
“Well, she’s actually on the swim team, so she’s a really good swimmer and she gets back out of the pool, no problem, but she is totally soaked through and I’m getting a little freaked out because if anyone sees her, they will totally know we’ve been in the pool. So, she tells me, get me into the locker room, I have some other clothes in my locker I can put on. So, I go to try to unlock the door and my powers totally leave me. I don’t know if it was because I was nervous or afraid to get in trouble, but no powers. None. She’s dripping all over everything, and I can’t get the door open.
“You were totally locked in there?”
“Uh huh, if it wasn’t for the janitor, who happens to like me, I would have been totally screwed. He’d been cleaning the guy’s locker room. He comes out of the locker room and startles us. We had no idea he was there. The girl I was with screams and then he screams and I’m trying to get them to shut up before someone hears us. He was cool about it all and she got her clothes and he never did tell anyone about finding us in there. Of course, he’s still blackmailing me to this day. I have to pick him up a latte every day before school.”
Chapter 32
Jerom stood up signaling to Brynn that break time was over. He picked up Miranda and they moved on. They walked another twenty minutes then the tunnel just ended.
“That’s weird,” said Brynn.
“What?” asked Jerom.
“I don’t know, I guess I was expecting a bi
g sign or something because it just seems so abrupt. Here’s the tunnel and then right in front of us is a door,” she said waving her hand at the door.
“Yeah, like there it is freedom on the other side of a door. It’s kind of making me a little nervous.”
Jerom approached the door with caution, setting the still sleeping Miranda down against the wall beside the door. They both hold out their hands to the door, feeling for some indication of what was on the other side. Warmth, coolness, wetness...something, but it just felt like a door, nothing unusual. The door itself, though, looked old. The wood had shrunk around the joints and you could see between them in some places. Jerom placed his eye to one of the splits.
“See anything?”
“Nope. Too dark.”
Jerom still running his hands over the door asked, “What do you think, open it?”
Brynn pulled back from the door and stood up. “Well, I’m really sick of this place. Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
He nodded his head and twisted the old, tarnished metal knob. He pushed and sent the witch light through, and they saw that the door opened into a large room similar to the one under the church. Brynn went through while Jerom picked up Miranda. There were shelves in the room, but they were mostly empty. The few glass jars on the shelves had exploded a long time ago. Brynn noticed some cloth on the shelves opposite from where she was standing which turned out to be a few old quilts. She reached out but the fabric shredded when she touched it.
“Those might have been pretty valuable if they were still in good condition,” Jerom used Miranda to point at the quilts.
“I’m sorry, it can’t be easy carrying Miranda the whole time and here I am looking at old stuff.”
“It’s okay, but…” he motioned with his head and she noticed the stairs at the far end of the room.
“Be careful, the wood might be rotten,” he said as she put her foot on the bottom step and then pulled it back up. She tried again, putting her weight on the step and it held, so she continued up the stairs stepping on the outer edges of the stairs hoping that they were sturdier there. There was another door at the top. She twisted the knob and pulled to reveal a beautifully constructed and very solid brick wall.
“You have got to be kidding me, after all this, a brick wall, seriously?” Brynn practically screamed. She just wanted to let loose and rail on the world. She sank down on the top step and started crying.
Jerom put Miranda down, and climbed up the stairs. They complained with every step he took, but Brynn didn’t look up. She was just too tired and angry and hurt. He didn’t say anything, just scooted her over with his foot. She glanced at him, but he wasn’t looking at her, he was inspecting the wall, pressing on it with his hands.
“Maybe there’s a hidden latch or something,” he moved his hands over the bricks, “like on the shelves in the basement of the church.”
She felt him push out with his mind, feeling for any changes in the surface of the wall. Finally he pulled back, with his body and his mind and started down the steps.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
He passed down the staircase to the floor. Brynn wiped her tears as best she could using her filthy jacket and followed him down. They both collapsed onto the floor with Miranda.
“We’re exhausted,” he said.
“And disgusting,” she said.
“Let’s try to sleep for a little while and then maybe we can figure a way out of here.”
Brynn stretched out beside him on her tummy and rested her head on her folded arms. He rolled over and leaned his back and shoulder against her. The warmth and comfort of his body helped to release some of the stress she felt and she drifted off.
Chapter 33
Jessica stepped out of the cheap molded plastic motel shower, wrapped a towel around herself and another around her hair. Her eyes were red and swollen and she moved as if every step was painful. She lowered herself to the bed. She didn’t even have the strength to get under the covers even though Raymond was watching her.
“They got away… again,” was all she said.
“I felt the death of the constructs. How are you?” Raymond asked. He sounded unusually concerned for her which made her suspicious.
“Hurting.”
She almost said “it’s bad” but stopped herself. Giving any extra information away, even to the one assisting you, could have dire consequences, when you worked for the Master. She couldn’t trust anyone.
Raymond stood up and walked over to the bed. Giving her his hand he helped her stand then he pulled down the covers and she sat down again. He unwrapped the towel from around her head and used it to gently dry her hair. “What’s next? The Master isn’t going to be happy,” he said.
“I have an idea,” she said. “Let me rest and we’ll talk about it in the morning.” She pulled her feet inside the covers.
Raymond adjusted the bedspread up under her chin tucking her in. He went and sat in the chair against the only window in the room.
“Are you going to tell the Master?” she asked suppressing a yawn.
“You know I have to. He felt them die. He’s going to want to know what you are planning next.”
“I’m working on it. I just need a little more time.” She said then turned over on her side ending the conversation.
Chapter 34
Brynn slowly rolled over to her knees and stretched her back. Every muscle felt tight and painful, but she got up anyway. The dried mud and she refused to think of what else, cracked as she flexed her hands. She walked around a little trying to get her blood moving. She heard Jerom start to move. He stretched and stood up.
“I’m so ready for a shower and some clean clothes,” she brushed ineffectually at her clothes. “Hey, do you think you can sense what’s above us?”
“I can try.”
He walked toward the staircase, trying to shake off some of the gunk stuck to him. He climbed to the top and pressed his hands against the brick wall concentrating.
“I feel a basement, I think. Let me see if I can follow it up.”
He stopped talking and closed his eyes. “I think we’re under a house. They must have blocked up the door when they built it. We are completely blocked off, no way out through here.”
“How about pushing through the wall into the basement? We pulled over a huge stack of cars, how hard can this be?”
“Well, we can’t just break into someone’s house. They might be home.”
“Oh, I didn't think about that. Do you have any other ideas? Going back through the tunnel really does not sound fun,” Brynn asked, hoping he could come up with something.
He sat down on the lowest step of the staircase and looked around the room. He seemed to spot something and walked over to the wall rubbing his hand over the rough dirt. “You know…you called up a water spirit, maybe there’s an earth spirit.”
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The water spirits made a water tunnel. I bet earth spirits can make earth tunnels. Get us out of here. The walls in this room are just smoothed out dirt.”
“Huh, do you think it might work?”
“Well, we need to do something and I’d really like to have a plan worked out before I wake up Miranda.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”
She wasn’t sure how convinced she sounded, but she was a little excited to see if earth spirits would listen to her.
“Which wall do you think? Ending up in their backyard probably isn’t great either.” She turned and looked at Jerom, waiting for an opinion.
He looked around and then touched all the walls in turn and picked the one opposite the door.
“This one. This is our best option,” he sounded convinced.
“You sound so sure.”
“What do you mean, shouldn’t I?”
“Well, my Dad used to be able to do that. Sound totally sure of something when he had no idea. It usually ended up with us in trouble with
Mom.”
“Oh, um, well I’m sure.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
Brynn put both hands on the wall, and pushed outward with her energy. She pushed into the packed earth of the wall hoping to feel some sort of intelligence. All she could feel were a few earthworms and maybe a mole. She was happy to be feeling anything though.
She tightened her focus, trying to imagine what an earth spirit would look like. Her mind pulled up an image almost unaided, like something remembered from a long time ago. She saw a figure, slender and tall, a beautiful chocolaty brown color, covered in clothes that looked like little rootlets all woven together.
He seemed to flow in and out between the rocks, dirt, roots and burrowing animals. A space opened up around him as he glided, almost like he was swimming through the ground, and then closed again behind him. Brynn called out to him in her mind. She pleaded for his attention and his help. He stopped and looked at her and then changed direction to come towards her. His face was crumbly, like freshly turned soil and his eyes were dark and expressionless.
“Bringer, what is wanted?” She heard him speak to her in her mind. His voice was dark and deep, soothing, but at the same time a bit rough.
“We are trapped in this room. Can you help us to the surface? Make a small tunnel, maybe, please?”
“It is not natural, this breaking of the earth making a tunnel, but I think I can help,” he said, much to her relief. “Clasp my hand through the wall.” She opened her eyes and saw a long, thin hand appear through the dirt of the wall. A little of the wall sifted down to the floor. She heard Jerom suck in some air behind her in surprise.
“There are three of us,” she told the spirit.
“Everyone clasp hands.”
The Bringer Page 14
