A Life and A Lie

I am the darkness, the darkness is me

Tams cover of darkness showered over her as they made it past the Mesmer. If they can't see me they can't control me. She was working so hard to level her emotions in case they brushed past an empath.

On their way out they passed a Keefe happily munching on candy. He waved the air and coughed a few times. "Man, fosters emotions just get stronger and stronger" he walked off without another word. Sophie almost snickered, but she couldn't afford to make a sound.

Across levels they went, tam seemed to have to perfect solution to all their problems, just wait for someone else to open the door. It was long and more importantly boring. But it worked, and Sophie would take some good luck right now.

Finally, after what seemed like hours they reached the last door, some guy with green spiked hair opened it. He then proceeded to tap dance out of the room while singing some song about the taste of mallowmelt. While Sophie could agree on the sweet-savory flavor of the gooey dessert she made a mental note to avoid the strange hair guy.

Tam led her out, covering her with the shade of darkness he's submerged around them. Over yonder, she saw a giant barnacle the size of a 4 story building, on it were words of inspiration such as "if it seems too hard then kill everyone in the room" or "never leave a place without at least 3 casualties" which explained a lot. She walked around it to find a large ladder, the polls giggled like jelly and made a quiet "oogly, boogly" as she put her hands on them.

Really? She asked tam. He shrugged and climbed up, frowning at the oogly boogly sound. Sophie shortly joined them. Almost falling off 3 times in laughter and surprise.

After an extremely boring and tiresome climb, they reached the top. It was covered in slime with a giant slide leading down into a hole. It led to pure darkness, but if Sophie looked hard she could see the faint outline of names surrounded it. As she walked closer she could see words on the beginning of the slide. "We lower ourselves to their layer and maybe a bit lower because why not"

Is this even a real organization?

"Keefe's idea" tam shadow whispered to her. Sophie wasn't surprised.

Tam wrapped his cloak around himself and with a completely straight face, slid into the darkness. A quiet "I am the darkness" could be heard.

Sophie steeled her shaking nerves and plunged into the darkness. She screamed (in her head of course because she was in an evil organization that kidnapped her) and flailed her arms around (not in her head). She slid down the tunnel faster than expected and hit tam.

"Owe!" He shouted. "Did you not wait until the light turned green!"

"Did I what?"

"Never mind! No time! Go go go!" He ushered her along, making Swift time across the tunnel.

"How long until we reach the end?" Sophie asked.

"I Don't know maybe 5 days" the team responded.

"5 days!" Sophie shouted.

"I meant hours"

"I swear to Alden tam, I will hurt you" Sophie's mind flashed to do not worry. But she waved away Alden's catchphrase.

"You cannot hurt the darkness" his cloak whooshed as he disappeared and reappeared behind her. She ended up falling and landing in a pile of bones.

"AH!" she shouted and jumped into tams arms. He looked at her unimpressed, then dropped her.

"Ah that's where Larry went" he patted the bones affectionately.

"What"

"Never mind, keep walking" he pulled her along.

The wall was uneventful for a while after that. Tam would occasionally shout some creepy line about the darkness that concerned Sophie but they made good progress.

Of course, Sophie couldn't bear the lack of conversation so she asked the one question pulling on her head.

"Why did you join the neverseen?" She asked tam. He was currently trying to help her which means he has good bones in his body. Tam glared at her and continued to walk. After 5 minutes he answered, startling her.

"Every year they take a couple of 7-year-olds and train them in the neverseen. I was one of those boys" Sophie's mouth went wide, she was about to speak when he continued. "Took me away from my twin. Always wondered what happened to her. I never liked it here, I've been trying to escape for ages and you may be the key."

Sophie however smiled as a realization popped in her head.

"Wow thank you for your sympathy miss smile,"  Tam said, walking a bit faster.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I just thought-" tam cut her off.

"It's fine Sophie, I'm kidding, and to answer your question no that's not what happened to Keefe" Sophie frowned and kicked the dirt.

"Really?" She quietly said. Tam only nodded leaving Sophie to look down at the dirt as she walked. Tam sighed and turned to her.

"Alright don't ever tell rat-hair I said this, but he's a genuinely good guy. If it weren't for his mom being one of the leaders of the neverseen I would never imagine him being apart of this. They often hide stuff from him as well. He has a pure heart, he's just a bit... misguided" Sophie's heart tip tapped and she nodded.

Sophie was about to speak again but the sounds of footsteps rang around the room. Tam gasped and melted into the shadows, then quickly returned and frowned.

"They followed us, must have used the short cut" Sophie didn't have time to register the whole there was a shortcut thing through all the panic moving around her.

"What do we do!" She whispered.

"We will never outrun them in time" tam winced and grabbed a really large stick. "Sorry for this, I can't help you if I'm locked up" Sophie frowned.

"What do you mea-" tam swung the stick and hit her on the head. Oh, that's what he meant. She crumpled to the ground.

"I got her guys!" Tam yelled as the neverseen rounded the corner. Her vision faded as they nodded their heads approvingly.

Well, there goes that escape plan.