by Blair Drake
“He helps me,” she finally said.
Something didn’t feel right to Reese, the least of which was being stuck in a basement with a strange girl he’d never seen at the school. He looked around at the dark tunnel behind him, a place he just come from. None of it made sense, and he began to wonder if he’d been the one to hit his head and get confused.
He stared at the walls of concrete and then at the small lights drilled high into the concrete. There weren’t many lights, which accounted for how dark and dungeon like the basement seemed. They only provided enough light to see the path in front of him before the tunnel disappeared into darkness again.
The sound of something rolling on the concrete made him search the darkness.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes,” she said, suddenly more panicked than she’d been.
“Somebody is down there. We should go there and ask for help getting out of here.”
The girl shook her head quickly, and reaching out, she grabbed his arm. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
He nodded with impatience. “Yeah, I get that. I’m not looking forward to more trouble. But it’s going to find me if I don’t get back to the headmaster’s office and quick.”
He shrugged off her arm and then glanced at the tunnel, taking a step and then stopping quickly.
“Someone turned the lights on.”
The tunnel wasn’t bright, but it was bright enough for him to see more of what was in front of him, which turned out to be more of the same.
“I’m Reese. Reese Calamita. What’s your name?”
“Raven.”
The name fit her with her long dark hair that flowed down to her waist. She didn’t look as if she spent an hour every morning straightening it like most of the girls did. She wasn’t wearing a truckload of makeup either, which surprised him. Most of the girls did. It seemed to suit her. She was pretty even without makeup.
She didn’t say anything more and that left him with a feeling of dread he couldn’t ignore.
“Raven, how long have you been down here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have a watch. But it wouldn’t matter.”
“I didn’t ask you for the time. I asked… Why wouldn’t it matter?”
“Down here there is no day and no night. Not really. At least, things don’t completely shut down. Something is happening all the time. Time is just measured in bells. Days are just days.”
“Bells? Yeah, okay. If you say so.”
“Endel says so.”
He glanced back at the light in the distance. He could definitely hear sounds but he couldn’t make any of what was at the end of the tunnel.
“Maybe you could introduce me to this Endel guy.”
She shook her head. “He won’t like it.”
He felt his brows pull together. “How do you know? I’m a likable guy. People like me. Maybe he can help us.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said yet again
“Can we get past that already?” Reese asked impatiently. “I could say the same thing about you. How did you get down here anyway?”
“The same way you did.”
“Really? Then you can enlighten me while we find this Endel guy. To be honest, I have no freaking clue how I got here.”
She looked at him funny, as if she didn’t believe him. A fingernail of suspicion dug into his skin and poked at him as he remembered what had happened earlier. Jasper was talking about some new freshman who just transferred to the school. Said she was a beauty and he wanted Reese to get a look at her.
Her eyes widened. With the little bit of extra light afforded him, he could see that her eyes were pale blue, like the color of the sea next to the school on a sunny day. They were striking, and he now understood his initial reaction to her staring at him.
“We have to get you out of here,” Raven said. “It’s not safe.”
“We? Oh, you mean you and Endel. Safe from what? You mean whoever is down the tunnel?”
She shook her head and started running her hand over the concrete wall. “They’ll be coming soon. They always come.”
“Who?”
She frowned. “I don’t know what they’re called. I just feel it when they’re near. And they’re coming.”
She’d become increasingly agitated, darting her gaze down the tunnel where they’d heard movement.
“Come with me. Please,” she said, taking his hand and pulling at him, but stopped short when he didn’t move.
“I just came from that direction. There’s nothing there but more concrete. I think it might be a dead end. Damn, your hand is freezing. It’s colder down that way. We should see if there is—”
With a cautious glance into the darkness, she let go of his arm. “Better to be cold than dead.”
“What are you talking about? No one is going to be dead.” He suddenly recalled all those crazy stories about bodies in the basement. “Wait. Is someone trying to…kill you? Is that why you’re here?”
Something was buzzing, low at first and then it grew in intensity like a mosquito that escaped swatting but that continued to come back to taunt you by buzzing against your ear. It was there and then it wasn’t and then it was there again. He checked his pocket for the pin with the stone. It was dark and lifeless.
“What is that sound?” he asked, dropping the pin back in his jacket pocket.
“Something we don’t want to find us. We need to go. Now.”
“Go where? There isn’t any place to go?”
“You’re not safe.”
“You keep saying that. Hey, tell me. Is someone after you?”
Raven peered up at him with those pale blue eyes pleading to him. “No. They’re after you.”
