The Secret Beneath The Waves

Chapter 23: The Power of Light-Up Skechers

**Picture of Adri and Shawn at the top. You'll see why these two are so sad in a minute. :) From now on, just wanted to let you guys know that Authors Notes will be at marked with a "**", so that you can skip them when reading, if you don't want to read them. This chapter is written in a couple smaller paragraphs, just because the ideas are a little more jarring, and the events don't flow as smoothly as they do in previous chapters. Sorry for the slow updates, school is just being stupid. Anyways, I'll shut up now and let you guys read.

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This chapter was originally called the following, but Wattpad said the chapter title was too long again:

Chapter Twenty Three - "It's at time like this that you wish you never outgrew light up sketchers."

Spencer had no idea how long she actually waited in the dark. A few minutes after Jane had left and she had returned to the room Tony had been occupying, there was a long creak from somewhere in the house. and the room resumed the darkness it had held earlier.

Why are they keeping us waiting? And where the hell is everyone else? They better not have ditched. If Jane doesn't want to tell us anything, then why don't they kill us? She pondered, the silence and emptiness of the room giving way to her thoughts. The neutrality she felt towards the idea of dying scared her. A year ago she would've been horrified by the thought. But now, now she didn't know anymore.

"Tony?" she called into the darkness.

"Hmm?" He hummed in reply, his voice coming from somewhere on her far left.

"Are you scared of dying?" Spencer heard him chuckle. "We're not gonna die Spencer. At least not here." he added.

"I know that."

Silence.

"Not personally, but...yes?" he trailed off, clearly uncertain of his own answer. He sighed. "I'm not a big believer in the afterlife. Once your dead, your just gone. However, the impact of your death on others is what I'm scared of. People I know would be saddened, but what if there were people that would be glad? People that-that I'd known all my life who were just acting." Tony mused, clearly upset over the idea. Spencer was pretty sure Tony had forgotten she was in the room right now. In his mind, it was just him and his thoughts. She kept silent, waiting to hear what else he had to say.

"At least I wouldn't be there to know it." He concluded.

There was a bit of shuffling and a sharp click. Tony's face came into view, from his spot in the corner, a cigarette in his mouth. Spencer rolled her eyes. "You'll stuff up the room." she whined like a baby, wrinkling her nose in disgust for full effect. Suddenly an idea dawned on her and she marvelled at her own stupidity. "Give me your lighter." she instructed. Wordlessly Tony slid the lighter across the marble floor to her and she pressed the button, the flame much brighter than the faint orange embers from the cigarette. The entire room was illuminated-though dull- and Spencer could see the slight shine from the steel garage door, which had been their entrance into the room. Spencer's silhouette could be made out on the door, except extremely distorted so it looked more like a sea lion with a baseball cap.

They sat in a calm silence once more, Spencer's gaze solely on the moving flame, and the small speck of blue at the base of the flame. They waited some more until the flame flickered out. Spencer watched silently as the flame grew dimmer and dimmer, the blue section seeming bigger in comparison. The sea lion grew darker and darker too, melting back into the steel door. It was pitch dark again, and Spencer heard Tony's shoes squeaking against the marble floor. It sounded like he was stomping his feet on the ground.