Evry squeezed her eyes shut and released herself from the ceiling. She landed on Tang's back and covered his eyes with her hands. He screamed and let go of Keys. Face turned to see what had happened and a huge glob of mud hit him in the middle of his mirror face. The mud splattered outwards and covered the entire mirror. He stumbled backwards, shocked, arms flapping as he tried to regain his balance.
I stumbled to the front of the grave. "Push me out, guys! Push me out!" I jumped and hands grabbed my legs. My head and shoulders cleared the edge and I grabbed onto the ground. Another shove, some frantic clawing, and I was out of the grave. I rolled onto my back, twisted, and reached back down into the grave.
Z grabbed my arm. I pulled and D-rip pushed. He came up and out much easier than I expected. He kneeled and spun around and we both reached back into the grave. Then D-rip jumped and dug his feet into the walls as we pulled. He came right out. The three of us looked back down into the grave. Light was still sitting, his head in his hands.
"Light!" I called.
He didn't even look up at me.
"Just do as I say, Light! Listen to me!" I said.
Nothing.
"Do you hear me? Do as I say!"
His head bobbed once. That'd have to be good enough.
I turned and looked around the room. It was huge. The floor was dirt like the rest of the basement. But instead of being crowded with a maze of boxes and junk, everything was stacked along the walls. A naked bulb with a pull-string hung from a wire in the center of the room.
"Keys, are you okay?" I asked.
He nodded.
Tang stumbled around, blind, as he tried to pull Evry off his back. Face was on his knees about twenty feet away. He wiped his mirror one final time and looked at us. When he saw the four of us standing there he picked up his knife.
"You missed a spot!" D-rip said. He'd already made another muddy puddle and had his hand full of mud. He threw the mud, but Face dodged it.
Face started for us, knife ready at his side. I grabbed the shovel and we circled to the other side of the grave.
Across the room, Tang threw himself backwards against a part of the stone wall that wasn't hidden by boxes, smashing Evry against it. I heard her head hit the wall. Her body went limp. She slumped and fell off Tang to the ground.
Face reached the grave and jumped across it.
"We should've thought this through better!" Z said.
We shuffled backwards, tripping on each other, as Face slashed at us with his knife. Keys screamed and fell backwards into a stack of boxes. Z threw his arms in front of his face. The knife slashed across both of his forearms. He cried out in pain and Face grabbed him by the shirt and yanked hard. Z stumbled forward, tripped, and then fell back into the grave.
"Z!" D-rip said. He pointed his fists at Face and two huge jets of water shot out of them. The water hit Face with so much force that he stumbled a few steps backwards.
Tang lunged out of nowhere and tackled D-rip to the ground. They rolled over and over each other. They came to a stop, Tang on top. He pinned D-rip's shoulders down with his knees and punched him in the face.
I barely turned in time to see Face come at me. I stumbled backward and swung the shovel. The flat side of the blade hit him in the shoulder. He screamed in pain but only paused for a moment before continuing to come at me.
"Light!" I said, moving backwards as fast as I could. "Make it dark!"
Nothing happened.
"Make it dark!" I backed into a stack of boxes. I swung the shovel at Face, but he pulled back and I missed. It threw me off balance and I almost fell over.
Face was quick. He grabbed the shovel before I could fully regain my balance and yanked. The wooden handle pulled out of my hands, burning and digging splinters into my skin. He threw the shovel aside.
"Light!" I yelled. "Make it dark!"
Face shook his head. "Should've known better than to trust that bed-wetter."
And then the entire room went pitch black.
"What?" Face said.
I crouched low and threw myself forward. My shoulders smashed into Face's thighs and he fell backwards. Somehow, I managed to land on top of him and hold his arms down.
"Light! I need light!" I screamed.
The room filled with light and my eyes burned. I blinked away the pain and felt Face jerk underneath me. When my eyes adjusted, I saw that he still had the knife in his hand.
"I'm going to kill you!" Face screamed.
"Oh!" Z called out from the grave. "Is that what he's trying to do?"
I only saw Tang out of the corner of my eye for a split-second before he tackled me off his brother. We rolled once, twice, and then smashed into a pile of boxes. The stack tilted and then fell down on us. I twisted onto my stomach and pushed myself out from the jumble of boxes.
Face lunged, his knife pointed at me. I moved just in time. The blade caught my shirt and cut straight through it. He slipped and fell into the boxes as his brother stood up from them. I moved away, kicking the boxes out of my path. I needed to find the shovel, but I had no idea where it'd gone.
I scanned the room for D-rip. I'd lost track of him and hoped he'd come charging to help. Then I saw him on the ground all the way across the room. He wasn't moving. I didn't even see Keys.
I heard loud crunching and things breaking. They were coming after me. I didn't know what to do. "Dark!" I screamed.
The room went dark.
I dropped to my hands and knees. Someone smashed into me and flew over the top of me. I crawled through the boxes, feeling for the shovel or anything I could use to defend myself.
"Light!" I called.
The room lit up. No shovel.
"Dark!"
The room went dark.
I heard something behind me and threw myself backwards. I smashed into someone and knocked them over. We hit ground, me on top.
I twisted around and let it all out. I swung my fists as fast and as hard as I could. I felt totally out of control, totally insane. The body went limp underneath me.
"Light!" I shouted.
The light came back. My heart dropped.
Keys was underneath me, his face bloody, his mouth hanging open.
"No!" I got off him and shook him by the shoulders. "Keys! Keys, are—"
A rope was thrown around my neck and I was pulled backwards. A fist connected with my head and the world spun. The rope pulled so tight that it felt like it'd cut through my throat. My vision swam and darkened. They pulled my hands behind my back and tied them together. My feet were tied next.
The rope around my neck loosened, but it was still hard to breathe. It felt like my throat was crushed shut. What little air I managed to suck in burned like acid.
They dragged me across the floor to the edge of the grave and then pushed me up onto my knees. Tang held me up from behind and Face stood over me, knife in hand.
He shook the knife at me and then laughed. "You almost had us. Almost!" He looked down into the grave and pointed the knife at them. "I want you to watch! This is what's going to happen to each of you!" He turned back to me. "Hold him tight, Tang."
Tang yanked on the rope around my neck.
"Hold him tight!" Face said.
I tried to get free, but I was too weak. My lungs burned and my vision blurred in and out.
Face brought his face in front of mine. I expected to see something gruesome, but it was only my real reflection. I saw the rope digging into my throat, my face red, my mouth opening and closing like a fish suffocating out of water.
"I want you to watch your own face while I cut you open," He said. He let out a long scream that filled my head like he was blowing up a balloon. It got louder, the pressure of his scream got worse and worse. He pulled back the knife, and just as he was about to shove it into my chest, a shovel swung out of nowhere and hit him in his stomach.
Face dropped the knife and doubled over. The shovel raised high and then smashed onto the back of his head. There was a crunch of glass and he fell to his knees. He almost fell forward, but he caught himself and straightened up on his knees. Tang let out a strangled cry.
Three cracks ran down Face's face. Red beads lined each crack. He tottered on his knees for a moment. Then he fell backwards and landed on his back with a thud.
Sobbing, Tang let go of me and rushed to his brother. He threw himself down at his side and pulled him up into his lap. Face didn't move at all. He was entirely limp.
I turned and found Porcelain holding the shovel. She dropped it and picked up the knife. She walked over to me, her face blank in a terrifying way. She hovered over me for a second and then leaned down. I was sure she was going to stab me. Instead, she cut the ropes off of my wrists and ankles.
"Get everyone. Get them out of here," she said. She reached down the front of her shirt through the neck hole and pulled out a skeleton key on a yarn necklace. "Take this. It's Keys'." She pulled the yarn over her head and then slipped it over mine. She let the key fall. It smacked against my chest, bounced, hit it again.
Porcelain picked up the shovel. She went over to Tang and watched him sob over his brother. Face's whole face was now an oval of pooled blood. A single drop fell to the dirt floor.
With one eye on those three, I scooted over to the grave, flopped onto my stomach, and reached down into the grave. Light looked up at me.
"You did good," I said.
He shook his head. "I didn't do anything."
I smiled even though I'm sure it made me look even more exhausted. "You saved all of our lives." I noticed the air around him. "And, look, you're not even making anything dark right now."
He looked around himself as if to check.
"Imagine that," Z said. He'd taken off his shirt, ripped it into strips, and tied them around his forearms to stop the bleeding. Blood was already soaking through. He patted Light under the chin. "He's growing up."
"Come on," I said. "Let's get out of here."
After those two were out of the grave, I went over to Keys where he lay on the floor. He was just waking up. One eye was already black and swollen shut. One nostril was crusty with blood.
I kneeled next to him. "I'm so sorry, Keys." I helped him sit up. "I didn't—I thought—I was—I didn't—"
He waved a hand at me and shook his head with a grimace. He looked over at Face and Tang and Porcelain. "I know. I know."
"We got your key back," I said, hoping that'd make it up to him. I pulled the key from around my neck. "Here you go!" I handed it to him.
He took the key and stared at it. There were still chunks of flesh on the end from where it was torn off his hand. "Thanks." He didn't sound happy or grateful at all.
I helped Keys to his feet. He could barely stand, so I had him lean against me. Z and D-rip came over to us. D-rip had a big gash on the side of his head.
"Guys," came a voice from behind us. "Wait for me."
We turned to find Evry getting to her feet. "I woke up a while ago, but I was scared. I hid under the boxes. I'm sorry."
I held out a hand. She rushed over and grabbed it. "You did perfect," I said. "You don't need to apologize for anything."
"I had a feeling something was wrong, so I came down," she said.
I squeezed her hand. "And you were right. Thank you."
She nodded and I let her go.
Beaten, sore, and bleeding, we moved toward the door. The hallway was dark, but Light started to glow. He touched the side of his face that had the broken discs. They weren't glowing.
"It looks like there's a hole in your head." D-rip said.
"Looks like we finally have something in common." Light said. "You got one in yours, too."
D-rip reached up and touched his gash. He chuckled. "I guess I have a new twin."
"Brain-damage twins," Z said. "Have fun with that."
Before we left, I turned to get one final look at the three we were leaving behind.
Tang cried softly, still hunched over his brother's chest. Face hadn't moved at all. A dark puddle had formed in the dirt underneath his head.
Porcelain stood next to the two brothers, shovel in hand, the blade in the air. It almost looked like she'd claimed them, like an explorer who'd just discovered a new territory. She turned and looked at me. Our eyes met.
I felt like I needed to say something—thank her for saving our lives, ask her to come upstairs with us. Before I could, she turned away. She didn't say anything, but I had a feeling that she was apologizing, thanking me, and telling me to just leave all at the same time.