The Lost Heir

by Allison Whitmore

  “Izzy! IZZY!” Seth's voice seemed farther away. He must have spotted an exit to this freakish fun-house pool.

  Her mouth clammed open and shut. After several healthy gulps of air, she cried out, “I'm coming!” Before she started to swim, though, something swooped down above her head and then back up again. She listened and thought she heard a bird tweet. Birds get themselves into the craziest places. As if she could throw stones...

  She had just started to swim again when a loud cranking sound from beneath the water filled her ears. She dipped down to see some kind of boat emerging from a rock cave behind her. As it surfaced, she saw that it was no bigger than a dinghy. It approached her, a small light shone from on top. When it reached her, she grabbed onto the side of the boat, breathing heavily.

  “Please climb onto the vessel and keep your hands inside as we pass through the tunnel,” said a voice that sounded much like the one she'd heard in Renee and Sinclair's speakeasy room. She hoisted herself into the boat but quickly realized there was no paddle. She stuck her hands into the water and tried rowing it in the direction of Seth's voice, but for some reason, it would not budge. “We will now continue to our destination.”

  “Isabella!” Seth cried again in the distance.

  “No!” She realized the boat was moving in the opposite direction from Seth.

  What was she going to do? Jump back into that freak show? The boat continued. What if this crazy place was bouncing Seth's voice all around? She had no idea what to do. The dinghy lurched forward, and Isabella gulped. She had no choice but to trust the one thing she did not really believe in—her instincts.

  She jumped from the boat just before it reached the mouth of the cave's tunnel and swam as fast as she could in the direction of Seth's voice. A surge of courage pumped in her veins. This was right. It had to be.

  Before long, however, weariness pushed down on her shoulders, forcing her to stop and tread water. What direction had his voice come from? “Seth?” He did not reply.

  “SETH!” She coughed as water seeped into her mouth. Without knowing what else to do, she pushed up for one last gulp of oxygen and then dipped below the surface to gather her bearings. Beyond a few rocks carved into the shape of the old downtown Los Angeles skyline, she soon spotted several ladders side by side on her far right. She swam toward them, popping above the surface to breathe every so often before returning to the light below. She made it.

  Rung by rung, she pulled herself up from the depths of the bizarre lagoon and onto a rubbery floor. Before she had a chance to fathom relief, a gust of icy wind whipped around her body and then disappeared in the opposite direction. A sudden fit of raucous coughs consumed her as she shivered. “Seth?” she mumbled, eyes falling shut. She tried to walk, but her wobbly legs collapsed and sent her to the rubber floor.

  A warm, comforting presence soon surrounded her. Seth. “Shhh,” he said, throwing a big, warm towel over her shoulders. He sat her up and stroked her arms.

  “Where'd you get a towel?” she asked as her voice broke through the shivers.

  “It's okay. We're in some kind of underground amusement park, I think. They have a shelf full of towels inside that building over there.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward a stone walled building. “The weird thing is that this place still seems active. The lights are all off, though, so it's obviously not open. Who would build an amusement park this far underground?”

  “Where were you?” she asked, teeth chattering.

  “I couldn't see you. I thought maybe you'd gotten out first, so I went looking,” he explained.

  “Did you find Micah and the others?”

  He put his chin on top of her head, and the darkness that had been clutching her heart faded away. “No,” he whispered. “Can you walk?”

  For some reason, this question infuriated her, and she pushed him away. “Of course I can walk.” She got up on coltish legs and rejected any further help. Her body still shivered, but Seth had helped to warm her, so she mumbled a short, “Thanks.” She didn't want to seem like what her grandmother called an ingrate. Not that it mattered what Seth thought. “We have to find the lost heir.”

  “We have to find the others,” he reminded her.

  What she didn't say was she still believed the lost heir might be Robert's brother, Jack. Stupid maybe, but for some reason, she felt closer to him down here—a thought that both frightened and emboldened her. “Can we go now?”

  “Yeah,” he said, eyes raw and red. “We can go.”

  Isabella turned from Seth. “Let's see if there's anyone here, or something in here that might give us a clue as to where we are,” she said. Looking around, darkness engulfed most of the area. Shadows cast along the stone wall. The floors squeaked as they walked and the big freak-house pool still loomed beside them. There were park benches and tall wastebaskets lining the big walls of the building. She thought it looked like a community swimming pool recreation area, if they had such things in Hell.

  “I think saw a couple of doors that lead into the building over there,” Seth said quietly. “Should we check them out?”

  They'd gone couple of paces before a grayish-blue light slammed into Isabella's body without warning. She crumpled to the floor.

  “Izzy!” Seth cried, attempting to help her up as she choked and struggled to regain her footing. Without warning, a grayish-green light bore down on Seth. He screamed in pain as it seared his skin until he could stumble out of its way.

  Isabella's nerve endings screamed as she mustered the will to fully stand, but before she could do so, another blue light charged at her. It looked almost like lightning, but it wasn't lightning. It had emerged from midair. Isabella flipped over on the ground, curling up her body so that it missed her. Her lungs heaved as she finally ambled onto her feet. She heard Seth curse and, relieved to hear that he was conscious, turned in his direction in time to see him roll away from a second blast of the green light.

  “Someone's attacking us!” she shouted, rushing to Seth's side, instinctively pressing her right hand to the charm on her chest.

  Their voices bellowed as if the jaws of Hell had indeed welcomed them inside, and then the blue light formed itself into an ugly twister.

  “Run!” Seth shouted, grabbing Isabella's hand.

  Her nails dug into Seth's skin as they searched frantically for an exit. The blue twister turned black and icy, howling as it ripped stones from the walls and split the floor apart, destroying everything in its path. The wind whipped around them, burning her skin with its frost. A stroke of lightning emitted from the twister. As they ran, the lightning bolt struck the ground before them, forcing them into a vicious game of hopscotch.

  Isabella spotted a bench and tried to pull Seth in its direction, but the twister knocked them off course. Their hands were ripped apart. Fear shone in Seth's eyes as Isabella moved farther and farther away from him.

  Lightning bolts multiplied, and he fell to the ground. The bolts seemed to pierce his body, but she couldn't tell for sure—he had fallen out of her line of sight. She pushed back a sob and gathered up as much courage as she could. She got to her feet but then screamed as the twister knocked her into the water. Her lungs lost oxygen as the menacing wind moved into the water with her, creating a whirlpool. Even with her blurred vision, she saw bolts of blue lightening as it rushed at her body. She clutched her necklace and shut her eyes. Instant warmth enveloped her body.

  Images of her parents blinked off and on in her mind as she faded in and out of consciousness.

  Then, a body pounced on hers in the water; arms encircled her waist, and delicious air filled her lungs. She unfolded onto the rubbery floor again as she coughed up water and phlegm.

  “Iz, come on. There you go.”

  “Seth.” Isabella burped up more fluid. “Sorry.” Her voice cracked.

  “That's pretty gross, dude!”

  She sat up and shrugged. “I said I was sorry.”

  “I guess I'm kinda glad you're
alive, kid,” he said as she noticed a small light illuminate the floor and could finally see him.

  “Kid? What's that supposed to mean?”

  “Exactly what you think it does,” he said, helping her onto her feet.

  “Whatever, Seth.”

  “I gotta get the rest of this crap off of me. Are you sure you're okay?”

  She noticed a dark cloud forming a few feet in front of them. She gripped Seth's hand as he looked at her and the air in front of them.

  “What?” he asked, apparently unable to see the cloud but gripping her hand harder in return.

  The cloud disappeared, and Isabella frowned as she let go of Seth's hand. “Nothing. I just don't understand where clouds and all this crap come from underground. And then I saw all that lightning hit you. How did you survive that?”

  “It never touched me. I swear—the weirdest freaking thing I ever saw in my life. I could have sworn I was gonna die. I saw all of it strike down and snap at me. But it never freaking touched me, though.”

  “You serious?” she asked.

  “Yeah! There was like an invisible shield around me, like a purple light thing. It was crazy. I've never seen anything like it. You know, this whole thing is kinda freakin' me out. I thought I was about to die.”

  Isabella looked at Seth and then at their surroundings, spotting a wide-mouthed opening to their left. “We gotta get out of here. Maybe we can find a way back to the speakeasy room and try to get in touch with Theophilus in jail somehow, instead of going on this wild goose chase where bolts of lightning try to kill us.”

  “No. The others followed me, remember? We have to find them.”

  Just then, a thin gust of wind rushed over their heads. They both looked up. It was a gray bird, and it flew straight into the tunnel they'd been eyeing.

  “What's a bird doing down here?” asked Seth.

  “It probably knows where it's going. Let's follow it,” Isabella said, taking off in its direction.

  But when they reached the tunnel, they could no longer see it.

  “It's probably already smelling fresh flowers and twirling around in some garden,” said Seth. “Can't even trust a bird down here to help you out.”

  “At least it's not attacking us.”

  “Yet,” he said. “Watch it come back and shoot projectile missiles of blue and green light at us!”

  “That'd be perfect. Let's go.” They stuck together as they walked on, but before long Isabella wrinkled her nose. From a small vent, whispers filtered into the cavernous tunnel.

  “Do you hear that?” she asked Seth.

  “Maybe.”

  “It's coming from there.” She boosted herself onto a wide rail to listen through a black, rectangular orifice. “Yeah, it's two people. Men. Shhh.” She waved her hand behind her for Seth to join her on the rail and listen.

  “I don't understand,” one of the voices said. “I had him in my target.”

  “It's her fault,” said the second man. “I know it was...”

  “I say we follow and kill them off.”

  “Agreed.”

  Isabella peeked through the grooves of the vent and saw two silhouettes in a dark room.

  A smooth baritone voice spoke, seeming to catch the others off guard. “You will do no such thing.”

  “Oh, Master! They started toward the Avenue. We will be able to catch them now.”

  A dark cloud moved over the two silhouettes, tossing them headfirst onto floor. One levitated in the air, screaming. The other writhed beneath him.

  “Why did you disobey me?” The smooth tone of his voice unnerved Isabella as she listened intently.

  “Forgive us, Master. We thought you'd be pleased.”

  “I never asked you to do any of this.”

  The man in the air choked on his words as he struggled to speak. ”Tell us what to do.”

  The ominous cloud hovered and then formed into a humanlike figure. “Behold!” the master said, spinning a violet sphere of light in his hand. “This element is only the key to what the last diadem will bring. For now, stay quiet, listen, and wait.” The master's voice echoed and then the figure was gone; so were the two figures.

  “What was that?” Seth asked.

  “Do you think they were talking about us?”

  “What would they want with us?”

  “I don't know. Let's just keep moving.”

  Isabella felt the stream sloshing around her ankles as she waded through the darkened tunnel with Seth. Only his breathing competed with the sound of their feet stepping through the water. The tunnel appeared endless.

  “I'm getting tired,” said Isabella.

  They heard another sound of a bird tweeting.

  “Hey, bird!” yelled Seth.

  “Hey, bird!” the sound of his voice returned from the end of the tunnel.

  “Was that the bird, a person, or an echo?” Isabella asked.

  “I think it was the bird.”

  She stopped in her tracks. There was something very unsettling about that creature. “I don't think it's just a bird,” Isabella said, pulling him back.

  “Don't be crazy. It is only a bird.”

  “You have to listen to what I have to say sometimes.”

  He turned to her. “I do listen.”

  “Right,” she said all of a sudden dejected. Not about Seth but about everything. He must have caught onto her emotions, because he poked her shoulder.

  “Come on, dude. We totally rock. Look what we've been through so far—we're awesome. Ooowee! We rock! Yeah!” He clapped his hands together and started gesturing and gyrating his hips.

  “Is that supposed to be dancing? You're not funny.” She smirked.

  Then Seth's cheering turned to a bloodcurdling yelp when the ceiling opened without warning and sucked them up. “What the f—!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mimi & the Avenue

  “Oh my God!” Isabella cried as a blast of air thrust them forward down a tube in a wild zigzag. Seth's shouts filtered into her ears as they whipped left and right. Then, without warning, the tube spat them out onto black asphalt. “Ouch!” Isabella rubbed her behind as she looked around them. “This looks like an alley or something.” There were black-brick walls on either side of them, and above their heads, warm light spilled from what looked like a blue sky.

  “That can’t be the sky. We didn’t go that far up,” noted Seth.

  “But it looks like it, and that definitely feels like the sun,” she replied.

  They looked around, spotting lots of trash bins and decaying fliers taped to the walls. They heard what sounded like a train whistle followed by a loud rumble. Then, voices peeled into the alley, and above their heads, a little gray bird tweeted the calls of the train whistle and then repeated the rumbling noise. “It’s a mockingbird,” said Isabella.

  “So that’s where he went.”

  The bird flew a figure eight in the air and then, without warning, dive-bombed Seth’s head, missing it by a hair. “I told you it was going to attack!”

  Before she could respond, the bird swooped by Isabella and into a doggy-door-size opening in the brick wall in front of them.

  “Look! It went in there.” Isabella got up and moved toward the opening.

  “Oh, no,” Seth said, scrambling up behind her. “I’m not going back into another dark hole.”

  “But that bird saved us,” said Isabella.

  “It just attacked me,” Seth reminded her.

  “It led us out here, didn't it?”

  “It was just getting itself outside. We happened to head in the same direction. It’s not like it waited around for us.”

  Before the rest of their argument could play out, commotion emanated from the bird’s hole. “I don’t think a mockingbird could make that much noise,” said Seth. “Something else is in there.” They both stood fixed in front of the small opening, like two deer about to be run over by a semi.

  “I was actually a gray catbird,” began
a teenage-sounding female voice. “But sometimes I do a black catbird or just a plain ole lil’ black cat. Depends on my mood. Technically, I’m not allowed to go feline, so I keep that under wraps.” She was still talking, but no one had appeared. “Oh, no!” the voice cried. “I think I miscalculated something. I’m stuck. Frickety frack! Help, please! I can’t change unless I’m upright.”

  Unsure of what to do, Isabella looked at Seth.

  “I’m not going near that thing. Let’s go,” he said.

  “Just move the boxes to one side, and I can get out. Please!” the voice implored.

  Isabella, ignoring Seth’s protests, knelt down in front of the hole and pulled free several pieces of cardboard. She immediately jumped back to her friend’s side, afraid that she’d made the wrong decision. If she thought about it, she knew her instincts rarely led her astray. Of course, she felt a little different down there: frightened and confused but also calm and less chaotic. She really could not explain the contradiction.

  “Thanks so much!” the voice said as she crawled from the hole and stood before them. She was a girl. A short girl who looked to be no more than thirteen. Her hair was the color of rust and stuck to her head in loopy curls, and her eyes were a haunting sort of gray. She wore a ratty velvet coat, a too-big dress, and thick boots. “So, as I was saying, I do like to do the kitty thing when no one’s looking. It’s fun to curl up into a ball and roll, but it’s not safe to do that outside, really, and my mother would kill me.”

  “Why’s that?” Isabella asked, curious, forgetting for a moment that the conversation was absurd.

  “Well, I’m supposed to morph into a raven like the rest of my line, but nobody likes ravens. They have really bad reps, ya know?”

  “I guess,” Isabella replied.

  “So I do the catbird. I just don’t like the way they sound,” the girl babbled, exposing a row of teeth about half the size of a normal person’s. “I do admire the mockingbird’s ability to mimic, so I’ve mastered a way to morph the two. It’s a rare skill, but I can do it because I’m… well, me!”