Woah! Finally an upload. I'd like to apologize profously for this delay. I can't promise another upload very soon. School is hectic. All I have to do is study. :@
I finally managed to take some time off for writing. Thank-you everyone for your votes and fans. I'll try to upload soon, I will :D For now, here's the tenth chapter.
Vote, Fan, Comment. (I'd LOVE some comments.) Don't forget the vote button out there, and remember- this story is up for the Watty Awards 2012. Looking forward to your review!
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Chapter Ten
The rest of the days, give or take a day, we did absolutely nothing. We got up, ate, slept, ate, then pointed at how beautiful the tunnel looked from the house, ate, and then slept again. The next day, we did the same thing. My stay in Pyropia was getting a tad boring, to say in the least. There was nothing I could do without Aiden constantly nagging me about how I had said a straight-forward ‘no’ to his entire dragon-dream shit. “Your time wouldn’t go waste if you agreed! Humph!” He chastised me every time. After a few days, speeches get boring too; especially when you know them verbatim. So this is how everyday passed, with no activity at all. Brandon used all this time to sleep. I’m telling you, that boy can sleep. There’s no such thing as forty winks for him. He’d usually wake up in the morning (late), eat, and go back to sleep. He wouldn’t even look at the picturesque tunnel every time I pointed at it.
So on a daily basis; I was left with a glowering Aiden and an oblivious Brandon. Oh what fun! I had enough of it. So one day, a thought suddenly creeped its way into my head- if we weren’t of use anymore, Aiden could send us back home right? I was about to point this out to Aiden but he abruptly stood up from his chair and made his way to the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I have some business to attend to.”
This was all he said before slamming his door shut and made his way towards the tunnel. What business could it be? Was he going to his boss and telling him about our outright refusal? What did he expect anyway, we wouldn’t just smile and go all ‘okay, we’ll save the world!’
The idea was unsettling, and even though I’d like nothing more than I thousand people, I couldn’t see myself doing it. I wasn’t strong like that; I’m even scared of dogs. Just imagining killing Agro made me shudder.
I couldn’t stay in this house anymore. I had to go outside. My muscles were cramped from all the sitting and my body begged me to work, to do something.
I told a sleeping Brandon that I was going for a walk and he barely looked up, only shrugging and going back to sleep. I yanked at the door, only it wouldn’t open. A push. The door refused to open again. It was then that I realized Aiden had locked us in. We were still his hostages. Then what did all the friendly talk mean?
My head started reeling again, wondering if he was a part of some other kidnapping gang. Maybe this was not Pyropia. Maybe he just gave Brandon and me some sleeping pills and then dragged up into the gang warehouse where they fooled all their victims. What did he want from us? Now I won’t deny our powers. I spoke to Aiden the other day when Aiden was sleeping. His got the dragon tattoo too. For him, it was on the shoulder blade. He admitted that he told one of his friends about it, who got completely freaked out and then complained to the Foster house’s head. She screamed at Aiden and even hit him a bit. He quit talking about it after that.
I nudged Brandon and asked him to get up. I needed to know more about his tattoo. What if we could get out of this together? He got up after a stronger nudge, okay, a pinch.
“What do you want?” He asked, squinting as bright sunlight filled his eyes.
“I want to know about what you went through when you got the tattoo. I just want to get out of here. Don’t you? Maybe we can find something in this house that will help us get out of here. What if this magic place is make belief?”
Brandon snorted. “Fat chance of it being some make belief place. I don’t think anyone can fake a swiveling of the earth bit. But maybe we can find something here that will help us get out…
Where did Aiden go? Were you not going out for a walk too?”
“The door won’t budge. Aiden locked us in and went out ‘to attend to some work’ of his. I think he’s involved in some bad business or something…I think he’s conspiring against us. It’s just a hunch though. We shouldn’t trust him…I really don’t know whom to trust and whom to…” My head throbbed and a few tears streamed down my face. I was going hysterical.
Brandon seemed surprised at my outburst. “And here I thought you had everything figured out. Really, with the brave face you put on, nobody could even tell you weren’t at home.”
Okay, I rarely cried. And even if I did, it never was a public show. It made me feel vulnerable. Brandon patted my back, trying to soothe me. He kept muttering an awkward ‘it’s okay’ again and again. But hey, a comforting hand was better than nothing. I quickly wiped my wet eyes and gave Brandon a weak smile.
“I’m okay now. Thanks. It’s just…the dam had to burst sometime. I miss my family, I miss my friends. I want to go back.”
“Me too, Carra. We’ll get home okay? It might not be today, but we will. Honestly, I think we’ll reach home faster if we start looking around. Get to know the place and all. It has everything to do with the chant Aiden uttered. If we can find out what that chant was…we can get back. “
I smiled. Why didn’t I think of that? It was a very simple idea, and if could possibly work. What got us here would get us back right? It was a classic formula.
“So we’ll look for the keys to get out first right? Then we’ll go and ask someone?”
“Let’s take one thing at a time. The keys. Let’s find them first. Then we’ll think of our next move”
“Okay, let’s check the bedroom, maybe we’ll find something in the drawers”.
We both rushed to the bedroom, Brandon pulling open the closet while I started opening one of the drawers.
“Nothing in here.” I called out. The drawer was empty with a large layer of dust settled on the brown wooden shelf. I sighed. It was going to be a long day.
“Nothing except clothes in the closet either.” Brandon said.
“Check the-“
“I checked the pockets, if that’s what you’re asking.” That shut me up.
“Where can it possibly be?” I moaned.
There are only so many places in the bedroom. Brandon was still muttering ‘it has to be somewhere’.
“Okay, okay! I got this.” I paused, “If you were some crazy, psychopath kidnapping teens, where would you hide the top secret gate-away shit?”
“My closet?”
“Too predictable. Even teens can get it.” Brandon smiled. He had a very comforting smile. It was like the sunflower blooming on a raining night. I couldn’t help but smile back.
“I got it!” Brandon jumped and clapped his hands in glee.
“Err, no offence but your celebratory dance is sort of...-I finally settled with- funny.”
Brandon turned deep red. “Okay, you did not just see that. But, I got it! It’s obviously under the mattress!”
“Of course it is!”
We both ran towards the bed and lifted each side of the mattress. “Ooof! Okay, hang on. I’m going to look down for the key now.”
“Aah, hurry!” The mattress was thick. And heavy.
Brandon bent his head between the lifted mattress and the wooden panel of the bed.
“Okay, I can’t see anything in there.” He groaned. “Put it back down, careful though, you don’t want to hurt my head now.”
“Wait, I’ll check too. Double check you know. Key’s are tiny.” My head touched the smooth wooden surface. I couldn’t feel anything. No pair of keys. Nada. Just as I was about to call it quits, my hand ran over a bolt. I yanked it back as a reflex action.
“Why, is there a bolt in the middle of the bed?” I asked to no one in particular.
Brandon scrunched his nose for a bit, thinking. “Hang on, let’s just lift the mattress and keep it on the floor. Then we can look into it.”
We groaned and moaned for a bit, and then finally, both of us lifted up the mattress in sync and dumped it on the ground.
“Aiden will be here any minute.”
“Well we’ll have to hurry then.” He grinned. Brandon was turning out to be someone completely different than I thought. So there was more to people than their appearance.
There was something different about the bed . Right in the middle, there was some sort of a channel which divided the bed in two. The sides were joined all right, but there was some sort of a hinge attached to that gap. I got it then. One side of the bed opened. You could store something inside it. Brandon got it the same time I did. We both grinned and I let out a squeal.
“Okay, let’s hurry. Open it at three”.
A minute later, the storage box –I’m going to call it that- stood open, right in front of us. Only, it had no ending shaft. The ends of small rods had been attached to the box. It was a secret passage. Our salvation. Only, it didn’t look very appealing.
“Go!” Brandon hissed from behind me. Aiden will be here any moment. And, it’s sort of heavy.”
“Sorry!” I squeak. This was the first time I heard Aiden used a tone which could be described as aggressive. I quickly went inside the box, my hands holding the bar while my legs looking for support, clinging to the top of the second bar. This was fun! Only, there was no light. And it was sort of stuffy.
“God, woman! Hurry!”
“Okay, okay! I’m going as fast as I can”.
A few seconds passed. “Okay Brandon, you can come down now.”
My feet touched the ground with a thud. There wasn’t light here either, but a little light reflected here from somewhere ahead. My insides were ready to burst with pride.
“ Um, Carra, move a bit, will you? I can’t see you. What if I jump down on you or something?”
“Done”. I shuffled my feet towards the source of light.
“Okay, I’m here now. I can see things a bit. Come on.” Brandon whispered from right behind me.
“Why are you whispering?” I whispered back.
“Let’s just not take any chances okay?”
I gave him a thumbs up. Our feet barely made any noise as we walked forward. The light was closer now. This wall too, was decorated to fire graffiti. Only, the dark shades looked more malicious.
We soon reached a point where the cave bifurcated into two. Both were dark and gloomy. Brandon did the ‘inky-pinky-ponky’ and thus, we ended up entering the luckier street.
Voices echoed. Brandon sighed in relief. “Maybe they’ll be able to help us.”
But they wouldn’t. The voice that replied unquestionably belonged to Aiden. The deep baritone couldn’t belong to anyone else.
I inched closer to the voice, my back stuck to the wall of the cave. Brandon mirrored my actions. We inched closer. Not one of us breathed; we didn’t want to be heard.
“What do you mean they refused to help? Didn’t I make it clear to you? What I want you to make them do?” The voice was raspy, almost…slithery. It had malevolence coated all over. This was Aiden’s boss, I realized. I couldn’t see him. I would be able to, if I inched a bit more towards the turn, but I couldn’t risk us being caught. Not now.
“Yes, sir. I get it. Your wishes will be fulfilled this time.” Aiden bowed. I could see his back.
“I don’t want you to ask them. Order them to. They have no choice.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll do that.”
“You better.” A spear touched Aiden’s chest. His breath was ragged.
“And, if they still refuse to cooperate, do this for me,” A pause, “ Kill them”.
There was complete silence for a second. And then Aiden’s deep baritone echoed all over the room. “Yes, sir. I’ll kill them”.