By crawling through the worm hole in his past, had he also moved his body in the present?
The possibility was mind-boggling.
Why had the onslaught ended? By his passing out, by slipping back in time, did the Shadows lose its connection to him? Was that the reason it hadn’t been able to detect David when he was down here; because David had been in a coma? Tom didn’t know, but he stored the little nugget of information away just in case.
In front of him, a small mound of mud blocked his way.
Tom reached out and used his fingers to rake it to the side of the tunnel, out of the way. He pulled himself along, his stomach scraping along the bottom, his feet scrabbling in the dirt. Before long, he hit another blockage and had to repeat the process. And then again. And again. And again.
Weariness took hold, his fingers raw, the nails split and bleeding.
His hand reached out once again, but instead of his fingers clawing their way through more dirt, they grasped only thin air.
Tom’s hopes jumped, but he forced them back down. He didn’t want to jinx himself. Carefully, he edged forward, ever too aware that he could still bury himself, even this close to the end, but still he met with no resistance.
His head broke through the last of the mud and he looked up. Ahead, the total darkness ended and a faint green glow of the phosphorescence lit the space.
The end of the wormhole.
Tom put his face down in his arms and sobbed with relief. At that moment, he realised a part of him hadn’t believed he would make it out alive.
Desperate to be out, to finally get away from the horrific claustrophobia, he moved arm over arm, pushing with his feet, propelling himself forward. He moved so fast he almost fell out onto the same ledge he’d balanced so precariously on when he’d first entered the wormhole. He remembered how narrow it was and reined himself back. He pulled himself out on his belly so he lay face down on the stone surface instead.
Tom sat up. The feeling of space around him was dizzying. He felt as a man must who has been in prison for a life’s sentence only to be released into open air. He sat still, waiting for the feeling of vertigo to subside.
With shaking legs, he cautiously got to his feet. The drop fell away into a vast void and he balanced unsteadily. His ears strained for any signs of life in the cavern above him, but he couldn’t hear any indication of the two women he had left behind.
Tom took a deep breath, filling his lungs.
“Hey!” he yelled, praying they waited for him still, praying they were still alive. “I’m down here!”
Tom held his breath, waiting. At first he thought they either hadn’t heard him or were no long there, but then the slap of running footsteps came from above.
Sky’s face appeared over the edge above him, grinning down at him. “Boy, am I glad to see you.”
“Same,” he said, managing to smile back. “But you need to help get me up, or otherwise I am staying down here.”
The distance between the ledge and the floor of the cavern was just a little too high for Tom to pull himself up on his own. Sky lay on her stomach and reached down and grabbed his hand. She was so much smaller than Tom, but she offered enough leverage to allow him to half-climb and be half-dragged up onto the cavern floor. His foot found a nook in the rock and he managed to boost himself up while Sky pulled and dragged him up onto his stomach.
Tom got to his feet and brushed himself off.
“Jesus, Tom!” Sky said, amazed to see him. “What the hell happened down there? And what happened to your hands?”
He looked down to see his fingers smeared in blood. He had left red rings around her wrists like handcuffs.
“That’s not important.”
“Did you do what you were supposed to?” she asked.
Tom shook his head. “It was never me, Sky. The Watchers got the whole thing wrong. I never did anything. It was my mother. She made a deal with the Shadows right before she died.”
Sky’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“My mother sent the Shadows back, not me. I was just a kid and she wanted to save me.”
The implication of what this meant dawned in Sky’s eyes. “So you mean the Shadows are still out?”
“Yes, but I think I know how to send it back now. This is all about David. The Shadows are using him like a vector, a vessel to pass itself onto the rest of the world. If David dies, it’ll be released to the surface. But if we save David, the deal will be broken and I think the Shadows will go back to where it comes from.”
Footsteps came from behind Sky and Tom glanced around to find Samantha standing behind her. She looked pale and fragile, but otherwise still herself.
“Save the boy? Save the world?” Samantha uttered weakly, managing a smile for him.
He nodded and smiled back at her. “Yeah, something like that.”
“It’s good to see you,” she said. But Tom knew how bittersweet his return must be. He had not done what they’d hoped for, something that may cost her life.
“You too,” he said, a pang of guilt clutching his heart. “How are you doing?”
She glanced at the ground. “Not so good. I can feel it here,” she lifted her hand, hovering above the back of her skull, “in the back of my head. It’s trying to push me out, but I’m fighting.”
Tom pressed his lips together, trying to stem the emotion welling up inside of him. Everything seemed so unfair—David, Samantha, Otto, Billy, Jo. All those people had been taken or were being taken, and for what? Some ancient, evil thing?
He took a deep breath. The clock was still ticking. They still had a chance of sending the Shadows back beneath the earth and couldn’t waste time standing around talking.
Tom pushed his nerves to the pit of his stomach and forced out the words he’d been dreading saying to Sky, “I learnt something down there, something about myself.”
“About your mother, you mean?” Sky asked.
Tom shook his head. “Not just her.”
Both women frowned at him in confusion. Suddenly, Samantha slumped to the ground, her shoulders rounded, her head rested on her knees, as though someone had cut the strings on a puppet.
“Samantha!” Tom reached towards her, but Sky put a hand on his arm.
“It’s okay. She does this. The Shadows are taking hold.”
“Okay,” Tom said, uncertainly. “What do we do?”
“There’s nothing more we can do.”
Her words hung over him, as though she was accusing him of failure.
“Did you know about the baby?” he asked.
Sky started in surprise. “A baby? Are you saying you found a baby down there?”
The memory of the doll tottering towards him on its dislocated legs flashed through his head, but he shook the image from his mind.
“Not this time. But when I came out as a child, when I was supposed to have sent the Shadows back, I am pretty sure the Watchers found me holding a newborn baby.”
Sky frowned, scrunching up her pretty, elfin face. “How do you know that?”
“I remember. My mother died giving birth to her and I carried her out.”
“A little girl? The baby was a little girl?
“Yeah.”
“So you have a sister?”
“I think that baby was you, Sky”
Sky’s mouth dropped open. “I don’t have any family! My family are all dead.”
“I thought the same until a few hours ago. But think about it. I know now that I had a baby sister, I was there when she was born and you’ve been down here your whole life and never known where you came from. How old are you now?”
She narrowed her eyes in mistrust, but answered him anyway. “I just turned thirty, or I’ve been told.”
“And I am thirty-seven, so that’s seven years between us, exactly right. The baby looked like you, even as a newborn. She had your eyes.”
“It’s not possible. I don’t believe you.”
“It is possible,
Sky. I need you to believe so we can stop this thing.”
Tears trembled in Sky’s blue eyes, a muscle in her chin trembling. “But why wouldn’t Otto and the others tell me?
Samantha’s voice made them both jump. “Maybe they were trying to protect you?”
“From what?” Sky said. “From my only family?”
But Samantha was gone again, lost inside herself.
“Sky, listen to me,” Tom said, pulling back her attention. “If I am right and you’re my sister, do you understand what that means?”
She was looking at him with new eyes, as though she had never really seen him before, and shook her head.
“If you’re willing and a match, you can be a bone marrow donor for David. You can save his life and stop the Shadows from getting out into the real world.”
“Is such a thing possible?”
“Yeah, if we reach him in time.”
“How much time do we have?”
Tom shook his head. “I’m not sure, but not much. The sooner we get moving the better.”
An uncomfortable silence hung between them. Neither wanted to say it—Samantha would only slow them down.
Sky peered up at him, her eyes imploring. “We can’t just leave her here.”
Tom bit his lower lip. The last thing he would ever want to do is abandon Samantha, but if he had to choose between Samantha and David, he didn’t doubt where his loyalties would fall.
Still, Tom didn’t think they’d reached that point. He crouched down beside Samantha and put his hand on her shoulder. She lifted her head at his touch.
“We need to get out of here. Do you think you can walk?”
Samantha nodded and he held out his hand and helped her to her feet.
“It’s okay.” She managed a half-smile as Tom tried to support her and then gently knocked his hand away. “I haven’t broken my leg. My spirit is damaged, not my body.”
Sky reached out and gave Samantha’s arm a squeeze. “Your spirit seems pretty good to me.”
Samantha didn’t say anything, but her eyes filled with tears.
The daggers of stalactites hung above them like a threat. Tom had seen what the Shadows were capable of when he’d nearly been buried in the wormhole. He didn’t want to be caught here if the same thing happened again. If the ground started shaking again, the whole lot would come down on top of them.
To get out of the cavern, they needed to climb back up the chute Tom had fallen down with Billy.
Together, their arms wrapped around each other’s waists for support, they crossed the cavern.
The hole Tom had fallen through—and the others had jumped from—sat a good six feet above their heads in the cavern wall. He boosted Sky up from the bottom. She was as light as a child and he had no problem shoving her up. She scrambled up into the chute, then twisted around and leant back down.
“Okay, ready,” she shouted.
Tom turned to Samantha. “Ready?”
She nodded. “It’s a good thing both of you are helping me, instead of someone else. Anyone else would be too scared to even touch me.” She bit her lower lip, her face to the ground. “And they’d be right to be.”
He couldn’t answer. She was right. If anyone else remained with them, Samantha would be left behind to prevent her spreading the evil inside her. Part of Tom questioned whether he was doing the right thing by taking her back with them. After all, he was only helping the Shadows if they came into contact with any other people. But then, he also believed she deserved a chance. If they could cure David and send the Shadows back, perhaps all the people it infected would be cured as well. Surely Samantha deserved as much of a chance as David.
Tom laced his hands together and Samantha placed one foot on his joined hands. She used his shoulder to steady herself.
“One, two, three…” Tom counted, and hoisted her up.
She was heavier than Sky, but still easy enough to lift. From the hole, Sky reached back down and grabbed Samantha’s hand, pulling her the rest of the way up.
Tom’s climb up would be harder, but his height helped. Sky reached down again and supported him as he pulled himself up, much in the same way she had pulled him up off the ledge and into the cavern.
Samantha had already begun to crawl up the chute—the space at the entrance hadn’t given her much choice other than to make room—and Sky and Tom followed after her. The going was slippery and each of them lost their footing, having to cling onto the sides of the walls to stop from sliding back down the chute and into the cavern.
Finally, one by one, they climbed out of the chute and back in the part of the tunnel that had filled with water.
With the phosphorescence gone, total darkness surrounded the small group. Tom was horribly aware that they had left Jo’s body propped up against the wall. No one spoke, but Tom guessed the presence of the corpse played on each of their minds. Being stuck in the dark with a dead body was enough to creep out the steadiest of people.
Sky handed Tom a torch. He flicked it on, but the light was waning. At first, he could not even bring himself to shine the light anywhere other than the ground, but then he decided to face his demons. Cautiously, he scanned the beam to where they had left the body.
The torch lit nothing but bare rock.
“We must have left Jo somewhere else,” Sky whispered, shaking her head in disbelief. “There must be a mistake.”
Slowly, his heart in his throat, Tom scanned the walls and then the floor. There was no sign of the body.
Tom groaned. “This is not good, not good at all.”
“I don’t understand,” said Sky. “Did someone move her? Is someone else down here with us?”
Samantha had disappeared back inside of herself. Tom thought that was probably the best place for her. He hated the cold chills working down his spine and the dread that had settled in his stomach. He didn’t want to say so out loud, but his gut told him the Shadows had something to do with the missing body.
His whole body tensed for danger, his ears straining for the now familiar sound of whispers. “Maybe more water came through and carried the body away,” he suggested, not believing the words himself.
Sky raised an eyebrow. “And we didn’t notice?”
He shrugged. “I suggest we keep moving. Try not to think about it.”
Sky snorted in derision, but she started walking again.
Tom put his free hand around Samantha’s waist. She walked like an elderly person, compliant and submissive. In these periods, she no longer seemed to be present, the body still responsive, but with no soul to guide it. Tom wondered how much longer she’d have before she disappeared completely, leaving them with nothing more than a shell?
What would happen then? Would the Shadows take over and animate her itself? Could it make Samantha attack them or do something else to stop them getting back?
Tom didn’t want to have to use force to stop her. He couldn’t even imagine it, he had never been physically violent towards a woman—or anyone else for that matter—and he didn’t want to start with Samantha. But it wouldn’t be her he’d be fighting, it would be the Shadows.
The question was, could he make himself remember that if the time came?
Chapter 26
A LITTLE FARTHER up the tunnel, they came across the ledge where they had stopped to rest. This time they didn’t have time to take a break. They needed to keep pressing on.
Past the ledge, they reached the ladder they had used to get down from the crawl space above. Tom felt as though the climb had happened a lifetime ago. He had no intention of heading back up there again. They’d only entered the crawl space because of the main tunnel being filled with water.
They found themselves in uncharted territory now however, a part of the tunnel Tom hadn’t been in before. He took comfort in the gentle upward slope, knowing each footstep took them closer to the next level. Despite the Shadows having already infiltrated the sewer tunnels, he found increasing the distance between them and t
he black sea beneath their feet made him feel safer.
As he walked, his thoughts remained with David. He hoped his son had reached Abby without the Shadows doing something terrible to him. He hoped they were both safe.
The light from the torches started to fade, any new batteries long since used.
“Let’s alternate torches,” Sky suggested. “Keep one on and when that dies we can use someone else’s.”
It wouldn’t be much light for the three of them, but any light would be better than nothing. Samantha barely held her torch anyway. The flashlight draped from her fingers, the light trailing on the ground at her feet.
The small group stopped for a moment. Samantha showed no sign of understanding what was happening, so Sky plucked her torch from her fingers and dropped it into her own bag. Tom threw his own torch in after.
The light from the solitary bulb barely lit the way ahead. The darkness behind pressed upon Tom’s back, hiding all manner of evil things. Before, Tom could have argued the dark held nothing but wicked fairy tales, but his eyes had been opened to the truth.
They kept walking. Samantha dragged her feet, her hair hanging in her face. Her presence made Tom nervous. He kept expecting her to do something—for the Shadows to take hold and force her to act for it—but she remained silent and unresponsive.
Something moved in the tunnel behind them.
Tom froze, his heart hammering. He reached across and grabbed the torch from Sky.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, but Tom ignored her protests. He spun around and scanned the tunnel behind them. It was empty.
“Did you hear that?” he said, his voice low.
Sky frowned. “Hear what?”
“I’m not sure. It sounded like something heavy being dragged.”
As he spoke the words, he realised that was exactly what the noise had been like.
Sky stood still as well, her head cocked to one side, listening. But she shook her head.
“I can’t hear anything. I expect it was just a rat.”
Tom knew the thing had sounded too big to be a rat, even for one of the track rabbits down here, but he wasn’t going to argue. He was probably getting spooked—the lack of light, the dark tunnels, everything he had been through. It was not surprising he felt jittery. Everything remained still, so they carried on, now having to drag Samantha along with them.
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