Storybook Island

+ Average, Average, Average...

"Underground? In Uncle Charlie's park? And he doesn't know? Someone had to have put in the pipes and stuff underground, don't you think they would have stumbled across whatever that thing is?"

"Not necessarily."

"So they missed it by a stroke of luck?" She crossed her arms skeptically, raising a brow at me. Sure, it seemed impossible, but people get lucky all the time. As unlikely as it seemed, coincidences do happen.

"I guess," I shrugged, walking around the stone, examining the blue light. 

Meghan rolled her eyes, plopping down on a bench next to the stone. Lots of parents sat on that bench daily, waiting for their kids to give up trying to loosen the sword. 

"Well, why haven't the security guards noticed?" She questioned, kicking her feet up on the armrest of the bench. 

"I'm sure they have, but they probably just thought it was part of the park, just like we did."

"Abby, there's nothing underneath. Besides, even if there was, what would it be? Uncle Charlie's super-secret meth lab?" She laughed, shaking her head. "And why is this the first conclusion you draw? Really, I think you've been reading too many fantasy books."

"Well that's all Uncle Charlie has in his library," I joked. True, but I still loved reading them anyway. Fantasy was my favorite genre. 

I examined the sword again for a moment. Part of the blade and the handle stuck out, golden and elaborate, with engravings all along it. The sword was very pretty, Meghan had helped Uncle Charlie pick out the designs for the welders and engravers to put on it. That felt like a long time ago, but it couldn't have been that many years before now. 

Then I bent down to look at the stone. It was just a regular old rock that the bottom half of the sword had been melted into so that it wouldn't budge. I ran my hand along it, everywhere, circling until I got to the backside of the stone. My hand brushed something weird, something not made of rock. I bent down to look at it, but I could barely see in the darkness. It felt cool and slick. Metal. 

"Meghan, do you have your phone with you? I need the flashlight." I called from my crouching position, keeping my hand on the metal. 

"Yeah, but it's almost dead. I'm not wasting battery on this," she answered, getting up from the bench and walking over to crouch beside me. "Why? What did you find?"

"I don't know."

She put her hand beside mine and batted me away to put her hand over the metal. Her hand rubbed the metal and fiddle with it for a second. "It's a switch." She moved her fingers and I heard a click. Nothing happened. 

"Well that was anticlimactic," I muttered sarcastically. Meghan stood up, brushing her hands off and nodding in agreement. 

I looked the sword over again. That couldn't be all. Fully expecting it not to work, I took hold of the sword and yanked. Like every time anyone tries to pull it out, it didn't budge. 

"Seriously?" Meghan smirked, watching me slump defeatedly. "Did you actually just try to pull it out?" 

One more idea crossed my mind. An idea that probably wouldn't work. I grabbed the handle of the sword once again, but instead of pulling, I twisted it. There was a metallic click as the sword rotated 180 degrees around. 

Stone scraping stone echoed around us as the stone holding the sword started to sink into the ground. It disappeared into the wall of the hole and spiral stairs, metal and rusty, came out to lead to the bottom. The blue light was much brighter, lighting up the way.