Never Cheat With Fire; Permaforst Book 2

Light at the End of the Tunnel

"Ready?" Lucas asked, looking over at Angelica who was re-tieing her hair back. She tied back her fringe too, though strands of hair still hung on out.

"Don't even talk to me." She grunted. He watched as she just jumped into the snow, no hesitation.

He took a deep breath before jumping in too. He knew what he was doing for the most part but the anxiety of the unknown sunk in. His vision blurred as the last remaining light disappeared from view. He held onto the walkie talkie tight.

He suddenly fell to the floor, he moaned as he looked up. Angelica was already up, looking around the new environment. Lucas sat up and glanced around, holding in his gasp. The were standing on a raised part of stone which lead to the floor of a large cavern.

Water seeped in onto the floor, probably icy cold. Stalacties hang from the ceiling, ending in a point sharper than a knife.

Lucas gasped as he noticed a terrifying detail. "Angelica, look." He whispered, pointing to a spot on the wall. "The graffiti from upstairs, it's everywhere."

"We can look at the pretty art later." She pointed at the three tunnels, one to either side of them and one down the middle. The middle one had water running down from it into the cavern. "That must be the exit, so maybe Cole, Ian and Kasai are split up in the other two."

"Right. I'll head for the left one, you go for right." Just as he started to walked down the path he felt a sudden tug on his shoulder.

"Not so fast. Look down there again." He squinted into the water. Small wooden platforms covered in snow crossed the water.

"Oh no snow." He rolled his eyes.

"You idiot." Angelica hissed. "It's moving, and how would snow even get down here? Unless that's our culprit."

"Snow? Really? You've lost it Angelica."

"Says the guy who almost chocked me to death." Angelica's words rang around in his head.

He felt the walkie talkie's warmth taken out of his hand, bringing him back to reality.

"Kelsi? You there?" Angelica whispered into it.

"I am here, over." Crackled through the speaker.

"You don't have t- never mind. I think we have a problem."

"Can you describe the problem? Over."

"There's snow down here. It looks as if it's moving. Do you know anything about alive snow?" Angelica sighed, now she'd really lost it.

"Uh I'm not aware, we can go to the library's computer lab and look it up. It's possible, over"

"Please do, and get back to us quickly." Angelica said before putting the walkie talk away from her face.

She sighed and sunk to the floor, waiting for the response.

"Wait so we are just going to sit here?!" Lucas whisper-shouted.

"Yes. Unless you want to blindly walk in there and get everyone in more trouble then we already are. Then be my guest." She snarled.

He sighed, she was right. No point having whatever was happening to those guys happen to them too.

"Guess it's just us two for a while."

"Great observation Lucas."

...

"Anything you want to uh talk about? To pass the time?"

"Can you just leave me alone?"

"Right, right. Sorry."

...

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Really cause I can sense it and I don't want there to be an awakward silence so-"

"Fine." Angelica sighed, giving in.

"Why did you cheat on Kasai anyway?" She traced some shaped into the dust with her finger. "It doesn't make sense. If you really did love her like you say then why go off with someone else?"

He chuckled, "It's not that easy Angelica."

"We have time. I mean you've had a whole term and a bit but I guess you can't help being a asshole."

He sighed. Guilt eating him up from the inside. For some reason Angelica could always make him ticked off.

"It's kinda... personal. I'd rather tell someone I'm close with." He muttered.

He watched as Angelica stood up, brushing dirt of her pants.

"Then I guess we'll never know. Considering you throw away anyone you're close with."

She took out her walkie talkie again.

"Any updates?"

"Well actually, I found something but it's not that reliable, over."

"Why so?"

"It's a urban legend, about snow that comes alive at night. It's really vague though. The picture of it is just a question mark, over"

"That's helpful. Anything else about it, does it 'live' in our area?"

"Lemme check... Yes, it lives all over Crystal Springs, and a few neighbouring cities along with other places around the world. Over."

"Is it dangerous? Can it see things?"

"'It often tricks it prey, small children, into falling into it's trap by taking the form of a normal pile of snow, though when touched it will suck in you in much like quicksand. The few survivors of these attack report being taken to caves underground and being greeted with an indescribable creature.' That's about it, over."

"Lovely. We'll keep each other updated."

She turned back to Lucas, he was staring into nothing as if he was lost is thought.

"Coming?" She said, bringing him out of his head space. He stood up next to her.

"You said you were going left? Try and stick by the water and don't step on the snow." She explained before jumping off the cliff, landing on both feet.

Lucas ran down the slope, it lead up to the wooden bridge covered in snow. He ignored it and traced around the growing pool of water. He eventually reached the mouth of the tunnel, a few feet up from the ground.

He caught onto some loose rock and pulled himself up. His hands chaffed on the rocks as he heaved up into the tunnel. It was almost pitch black except for the amethysts in the walls, emitting a soft purple glow. As he ventured further in he noticed another light source. It was orange, and burned brighter than any of the others.

Realisations struck and he began running down the tunnel. He stopped as he reached a small cavern. Metal bars stopped him from entering, a metal door with a padlock was in front of him, guarding whatever was inside.

"Hello?"