Different.

Chapter 5: Down the rabbit hole

And who knew? Maybe he was some deranged homeless teenager on a plethora of drugs and he lived here. Not exactly a comforting thought. But then again, he looked and even smelled incredibly healthy. I doubted he'd be that sturdily built if he had an addiction to meth.

He leaned down close to me, interrupting my thoughts as he whispered, "It's not too late to hold my hand."

He stuck out his large hand towards me, but I smacked it away angrily, and his eyes widened. Clearly he wasn't expecting me to be so upset, but I was sick of his degrading jokes.

He stopped, and shortly after I did too, but I still didn't look at him.

"Are you alright?" He asked quietly, and there was something about the softness of his voice that made me turn.

For a moment his face didn't seem so intimidating. For a moment he actually genuinely seemed concerned for me, not like before when he had to fake gentleness. This was the real thing, and there was something sad in his golden eyes.

"I-I'm fine," I stuttered, all my fury leaving me at the sight of him like helium hissing out of a popped balloon.

He smiled the tiniest bit, but it was a real, honest smile, and nodded. "Alright. Well we're almost there, don't worry."

We walked down the rest of the hall in silence, our footsteps cracking over the splintering wood the only noise I could hear.

When the seemingly endless hallway finally came to a stop, it was just that. A stop. No turn. No doorway. No crack to crawl through. Just a dusty gray-green brick wall that had been chipped and scuffed and left to sit for god knows how long.

I looked up at Alexander with so many emotions swirling through my mind I wasn't sure what was most prominent.

Irritation. I thought he knew where he was going?

Fear. Did he purposely lead me here so he could finish what he started in the forest?

Confusion. (Shocker, I know.) Why did I follow this possibly psychopathic druggie stranger in the first place?

My erratic thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sharp sound of...the wall being moved?

Glancing up, I saw the massive brick wall being forced aside, though not without a great amount of effort, even for him, to reveal a gaping hole in the wall.

A hole that stretched deep, and far, and was-as far as I could see-entirely pitch black.

Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't afraid of the dark, but going down there was practically begging to be murdered.

I was seriously considering just turning around and running for it, when Alexander stepped a bit into the darkness and pulled out an unlit torch.

I raised a brow. There was no way in hell he was being serious.

"You have got to be shitting me," I scoffed.

He just laughed and lit it, holding it up proudly.

"You're not shitting me..." I half whispered, shaking my head.

What had I gotten myself into?

He held the torch towards me, and I took a half step back.

Narrowing his eyes a little as if trying to figure out an abstract puzzle of some sort, he tilted his head to the side and said, "Clearly you don't trust me nearly enough to walk down a dark passageway with me, so you can hold it. If in theory I were to try anything, you would have the upper hand."

I glanced at him, then at the torch uncertainly.

Noting my reluctance, he added on, "But I should warm you. Once you go down this path, there is no turning back."

I took a moment to take everything that had happened recently in.

Then I thought, Hell, I came all this way, I might as well.

I snatched the torch out of his hand before he could change his mind, and motioned for him to lead the way.

I may have had the light, but clearly he knew where he was going.

Internally I was still mulling over the fact that I was holding an actual torch, but externally I said in a voice more firm than I had expected,

"Try anything and I light your head on fire."

Though he didn't laugh, I could hear the amused smile in his voice as he replied, leading me into the menacing darkness,

"I'm sure that you will Kaylee."