The Demon in the Pastry Shop

17: Going Postal

 Tunnel after tunnel and Kit was no closer to finding the light. As she stumbled through the ever increasing darkness, she recalled Luca telling her how he got so lost in these caverns once that he had to drink from the streams and eat the bugs. Kit didn't want to eat bugs (especially not a dog-sized ant), but she would if she had to.

Jude put himself in harm's way to make sure she went free. She would get free. For him. She would eat a bug for Jude.

Soon the cavern tunnels became more rounded and the fountains from the rocks became drips from the ceilings. Kit heard scratching on the floor, sometimes coming right for her. Her flashlight could never find the source in the dark, but the alternative to running into the creature was running right back to Silus. Kit pressed on.

She winced, swallowing down a balled-up emotional rag soaked with guilt and shock. Silus said that Jude was alive, but nothing else. Was he shot? Would he stay alive? Would they hurt him? She hated roaming these tunnels alone.

Her anxiety rose when she stepped out into a room with many tunnels leading away in all directions (up and down included). Kit bit her nails and took the ground that sloped up, knowing it might be deceptive.

By the time it was far too late to turn around, the creature she had been hearing made noises coming for her. The scratching of its feet wore away at her nerves as she froze in the middle of the darkened tunnel, hundreds of miles under the ground.

Hands shaking, Kit took a fighting stance and wielded her flashlight like a bat though it deprived her vision of its illumination.

An armadillo taking up the whole passageway almost trampled Kit to death. She fell back and her flashlight went rolling to the ground. Kit slapped her hands on the ground to grab it back and attack the animal, but when she got her light back, she realized the giant armadillo had stopped its trek for her.

With the utmost caution, Kit rose to her feet before the armadillo. Upon further investigation, she noticed a cart behind the armadillo and a string tying the cart to the armadillo. She blinked through the stress as her brain caught up to the moment.

This was a messenger. From the Armadillo Post. It was a vast network of caves and tunnels that spanned through several In-Between realms. Somewhere back in the maze, she must have traveled from the Realm of Inspiration's territory into the postal network.

She stared at the armadillo. It stared at her.

Then the armadillo backed out of the tunnel, allowing Kit to continue forward. The narrow passage opened up into another chamber of many path choices but the armadillo hauling its cart pivoted and headed in the opposite direction it had been going. Kit was squinting into the other tunnels when it came back and stared at her. As though it was offended she hadn't followed it.

To her knowledge, armadillo postal creature were harmless. On top of that, Kit was exhausted. So when the armadillo sacrificed its route and strode down a tunnel, Kit walked on after it.

The way was quite labyrinthine. Kit was thankful for a guide. On her own, she would've gotten lost and possibly died of thirst before finding her way out.

The armadillo brought Kit to the end of the postal network, where all the letters and packages were sorted and distributed. A whole army of large armadillo doing the work for the In-Between with no words exchanged. It was still underground, but there was a map here. Kit crept toward it, keeping out of the way of the workers. She shoned her flashlight at the wall where the map was hung.

Then from behind her, came a voice that made her heart stop, "huh. The armadillos don't usually deliver people."