Escaping Death [Watty Awards]

Chapter 37-Gwen

“No problem.  Looks like you need it there, kid.”

“I’m not a kid.  We’re the same age.”  I sound like a defiant child.

“I’m actually two years older than you.  So, yes, you are a kid.”  He laughs.

“Fine.”  I stick out my tongue at him which makes him arch an eyebrow.  Well, if that didn’t just hurt my whole argument about being a kid then I don’t know what else would.

“You guys ready to go back?”  Calder asks.

“Shortcut?”  Gabriel says.

I look back and forth between them and then ask, “What shortcut?”

Gabriel starts walking deeper into the woods and away from the path.  “C’mon.  We’ll show you.”

He reaches out for my hand and I take it.  Gabe begins to walk away from the path and into the woods.  He helps me walk over the fallen branches and watches that I don’t accidently trip over a branch and fall.  Calder follows silently behind us.  “I discovered this the first few weeks that I returned.  I was out on a run and I stumbled across this path.

“I decided to explore and came across this.”  We stop in front of what looks like a trap door hidden by leaves on the ground.  “It leads to my backyard.”

“How is that even possible?  What’s down there?”

“Nothing.  It’s empty.  There’s only spider webs but that’s about it.  It was created by my great ancestors to travel from the house to the forest or so forth.”

“Why?”

“Haven’t figured that part out yet.  My dad didn’t have a clue either.”

“Well, let’s go then.  I’m ready to kick your ass while we spar.”  Calder says.

“You wish.”  Gabriel says, laughing.  “You don’t have a chance my friend.  It’s your ass that will be kissing the floor.”

Calder arches his eyebrow.  His eyes light up in amusement.  “We’ll see.”

I can’t contain my excitement.  Personally, I want to see Gabriel win but that’s because I don’t want to see him get beat up to badly.  “Don’t worry I won’t hurt him too much, Gwen.”  Calder says.

I shake my head and smile.  “We’ll see.”  Gabriel says.  “I don’t think you should be worried on my behalf.”  He whispers into my ear.

Calder pulls open the trapdoor and Gabriel descends down the old wooden stairs first.  I follow after into the pitch darkness that engulfs us as Calder closes the door behind him, leaving us with the dim of a torch light that has appeared in Gabriel’s hand.

*****

It’s dark.  I hold on to Gabriel’s hand, not willing to let him go for a second.  I feared that there would be a spider that would just pop out of nowhere and scare the bejezzus out of me!  I prayed that nothing like that would happen because then surely I would have a heart attack.  There was the sound of squeaking and I imagined that they were rats with their scrunching noises and long whiskers and their beady little eyes.  I shivered and grasped Gabriel’s hand tighter.

“Relax.”  He said.

It didn’t work.  I was as tense as I had been from the beginning of our decent. I heard Calder’s steps behind me as we walked down the tunnel, slowly treading his way.  Gabriel was right.  There was nothing done here in the tunnel.  Just a path made of bricks and lots and lots of spider webs.  Less than ten minutes later, I started to see a set of wooden stairs.  We had reached the end of the path.  Gabriel handed me the torch as he climbed up to open the trap door.  The stairs made a creaking sound as his weight was applied to the old wooden stairs.  He reached the top of the stairs and pushed up the trap door, shedding light on us.