Abnormals underground 01.., p.34
abnormals underground 01 - one to five, page 34
“I can't see like you can,” Xavier said.
“Sorry,” I said. I was being a jerk to him and driving him further away, but we couldn't worry about that now. That was something we'd only have to do if we survived this. I got on my hands and knees, setting my sword down, and I pounded on the ground again and again, listening for any hollow sound. They had hidden the entrance to the underground very well, so much that not even scientists studying this site could find it.
I pounded...and pounded...while Xavier got down and tried to help. But at last, after I was about to give up, I hit a part of the ground that made a very faint hollow noise.
“I found it,” I said, sitting all the way up and eyeing the patch of ground. It looked just as dusty and smooth as the rest of it...except for a tiny indent in a barely exposed stone. “I found it!”
“I still can't see,” Xavier said.
“There's a handle here,” I said, hooking my fingers underneath the indent. “They don't want anyone to find this. I bet the regular employees here don't even know about this. They probably walk over it all day.” I had barely found it with my enhanced senses.
And when I pulled, the ground rose a bit in a four-by-four ring, exposing pure darkness below.
“I think I see,” Xavier said. “I'm not sure if I'm ready for battle. I think it's best if we go down there and stay out of sight as much as we can. We should really take the coward's way out and see if we can snatch the body, as much as that thought gives me the creeps.”
That was the least of our worries. “I agree,” I said, not sure how we were going to accomplish that. “But if we run into Thoreau, we kill him and get our parents back. We can't forget about that. How strong are you now?”
“A little less than average,” Xavier said. “I think I've absorbed most of those calories into my system. I might feel a little stronger in the next few minutes, but after that it's as good as it's going to get.” He drew close to me like he was unsure of something, and then he turned away. “Let's get down there,” he said. “If we survive, we need to have a serious talk.”
“If we survive,” I said, feeling as if I had died already.
I lifted the hidden trapdoor all the way up. It reminded me of the concrete-covered ones in Cumberland that led to the Underground, the disguised ones that Normals couldn't find. A part of me wondered if Thoreau had gotten the idea from those, but he couldn't have. This was an ancient door with an equally old stone hinge. It had been here long before the Underground was even a thought. Maybe it had even been here for as long as the ruins, or nearly as long.
Xavier and I climbed down the ladder inside, an ancient stone thing with rungs carved into the rock. Xavier closed the door above us. My gray vision snapped into place. The tunnel went down...down...so much that I wondered how the tour guide had convinced anyone to come down here or even if they had come down here at all. I couldn't see the bottom.
“How far down?” Xavier whispered.
“A long way,” I admitted. “This is probably so far down that those radar surveys or whatever they did didn't find the chambers.” The dread was worse now, worse than ever. I wanted to scramble back up the ladder. I only had a sword to defend myself with. This old Gaozu guy seemed like he could manipulate the atmosphere.
But we had come this far, so I climbed down. A bit of Xavier's energy coursed through me, but it wasn't as strong as it had been after the good meal he'd had at the mall. We had a sandwich wrap between us. I wasn't sure if I could lend any strength to Xavier and I wasn't going to count on it.
The stone ladder was hard to grasp and we headed down...down. I couldn't make out the bottom yet and I thought we might be headed into a void, but then I realized there was a faint black fog hanging around us. It was as if the dread itself were taking on a real form. It sent a sensation of black pulses through me like some Shadow Wraiths were nearby.
“I don't like this place,” Xavier said. “We should head back.”
“We can't now,” I said. The memory of all those Wraiths closing in on me and Xavier filled my mind. If they appeared again, there would be no building for us to jump from.
“We have to,” Xavier snapped. “I can't Transpose in a place like this. It's full of evil magic, and not just Dark Magic.”
“I'm not leaving those people,” I said, aware that by going down here, I was forcing Xavier to as well. “You're going into one of your moods again.”
The fog cleared—or more likely, I got so close to the floor that it seemed to. The dread feeling remained as bad as ever. I reached the floor and a hallway made of very old brick stretched out in front of us. My gray vision snapped into existence. The bricks were little more than a bunch of rocks packed very tightly together with a minimum of shaping. The people who had built this hadn't had very many tools, probably just some primitive stone ones.
“I know I am,” he said. “You don't understand. It's not something I can control.” He glared at me as if it were all my fault.
“Then what's doing it?” I asked, sniffing the air. The oil smell was still there, but very faint, and the hallway split into two ahead with both ways curving out of sight. Which way had Gaozu and the guide gone?
“I can't tell you that. It would complicate things.”
“Then let's go,” I said, angry that he wouldn't share this vital piece of information. “We need to hurry. There's no time for this.” I grabbed Xavier's hand and he flinched as if my touch were hurting him.
“Leave me alone,” he muttered as if he were talking to someone else. Xavier seemed so distant, so...gone.
I would ask about it later. I guided Xavier along, smelling his adrenaline which threatened to mask the burning oil smell. I couldn't believe it had diffused so fast down here.
A tiny bit of light flickered down the right tunnel, then vanished. I was playing a game of hot and cold again, so I guided Xavier down that one.
“It's pitch black down here,” he complained.
“Not to me,” I said. If anything, my senses were sharper now that I had taken what I needed from the bus driver. “There's nothing near us.”
“There might be,” Xavier said.
I checked, but no wraiths bled out of the cracks between the stones. The black fog remained, blocking our view of the ancient ladder, but I caught no movement inside of it. This was the sort of place Shadow Wraiths would love and it felt like they were around, ready to spring out at any moment. I could fight one or two of them, but it was terrifying when just the touch of one could sentence you to become one of them.
We followed down the right tunnel. The light flickered again. It was yellow. Electrical. The tour guide still had the flashlight. That told me that Gaozu must not have the vision that I did. The more I learned, the better.
The tunnel remained as stony as ever and some of the rocks became mixed with animal skulls as we walked. I hoped they were hunted animals and not sacrifices, and that I wouldn't see any Normal or Abnormal skulls in here. Low voices echoed towards me, but they sounded like they were from another building, like a muffled argument you'd hear from another house. They spoke in a language I didn't know. A faint breeze blew against me. There was some larger opening farther down the tunnel.
“We're coming up on something,” I said.
The light came a few more times, then died, only to be replaced by a faint, fiery glow up ahead. A sense of doom crept up on me, stronger and stronger, but I forced myself to keep going, to take step after step.
The hallway curved again, and before me, a very large chamber spread out and my color vision returned.
“Whoa,” Xavier said as we stopped and stood in the dark hall, taking in the scene.
The only thing that had stopped us from being spotted was the fact that we still stood in the dark. The chamber must be the size of Xavier's entire underground home, even though I wasn't sure how large it actually was. The black fog was gone here, allowing me to see the entire thing.
I had expected a dome, but this chamber was more like a giant room in a large cave, with huge stone teeth hanging down everywhere as if it had been here for not thousands, but millions of years. They dripped with moisture and a cave smell that reminded me of Dark Mages filled the air along with the burning oil and a hint of sewage. The floor was flat and carved. I spotted the tour guide out in the chamber, trying to light a torch on the wall with a simple lighter. Other tunnels broke off from the main room and lots of other torches already burned low on the walls, as well as around a dark symbol etched into the floor in the center of the room. I sniffed again, catching a hint of the old man I'd been sitting next to on the bus. There were prisoners in here and I had the feeling the Dark Council wasn't going to let them go soon. Or ever.
“The tour group is here somewhere,” I said.
“You smell them?” Xavier asked, sounding normal again. “Or do you hear them?”
I listened. Very faintly, a woman begged in another language. I didn't have to understand it to know what it meant. Let us go.
I also caught the stench of embalming fluid.
“Both,” I whispered. “Leon's body is in here too. We have to revive him when we're done with all of this.”
“How?” Xavier asked.
“There must be a library in here,” I said. Allunna had mentioned we could find the rite in this place. “If we don't do it, we die.”
I crept forward and Xavier held onto the back of my shirt. The light in the hall still wasn't enough for him, even though it was good enough for me to see in color again. His energy pulsed through me. He was stronger now, almost full strength. More of the room came into view and I stopped again.
“Thoreau,” I hissed.
The demonic mayor of Cumberland stood out there, decked out in his best suit and fully in human form. Even from this far away, I could make out his black eyes and his sewer stench. He hadn't bothered to put on cologne or sunglasses. He had no one to hide from down here. Thoreau's bald head reflected the fire light of the torches. His red mark, the lightning bolt, was plain and very visible there. Gaozu stood next to him, robes shimmering, and the two of them were deep in conversation in some language that I couldn't even guess at. There must be ancient tongues even older than the magical one Xavier used sometimes.
The tour guide scrambled around, lighting more torches, but that didn't distract me from another disturbing fact.
There was a cell on the other side of the room to our left, sunk into the wall of the chamber.
Behind the old, metal bars were the tourists. Their metallic fear mixed in with the burning oil and the smoke and Thoreau's stench. I couldn't stand it. These were people who had only come to the ruins to take some pictures and now they were down here, missing forever, ready to participate in some grisly ritual—probably the one Gaozu and Thoreau would use to extract the magic from Leon's body. There must be two dozen people in the shadows, more than the number who had been on the trapped bus. These people had been collecting people from other tours as well.
And Leon.
The body lay there very close to the ritual circle, just outside of it and near a mounted torch. The black etches inside the circle looked like a bunch of moving snakes. It was the shadows dancing, but the sight creeped me out. The symbol inside the circle looked like a star with a bunch of other symbols etched inside of it. This might be the heart of the dread we'd been feeling.
“I thought there were five in the Dark Council,” Xavier said.
“Maybe three of them are late,” I said, tensing. “It looks like they'll be here soon. So far, we have a demon baron and some guy we don't know the nature of. Sounds like a great fight. This might be our only chance, Xavier. They're going to do the rite soon.”
Thoreau and Gaozu continued to speak. They stood very close to Leon's body. Neither one of them must have a good sense of smell. Not only was the embalming fluid bad, but other things were starting to kick in as well. It was revolting.
“We know Thoreau's fire can't hurt me,” I said. “We don't know about the other guy. Xavier, you attack Gaozu. I'll take Thoreau.”
“Are you serious?” he asked.
“Time's running out. They're going to start the rite soon, once the others are here.” If Thoreau and Gaozu smelled this bad on their own, I didn't want to imagine what the other three members would reek like—or even what they were. “If anything, we take out Thoreau. He's the biggest threat.”
I hoped that I was right.
“Agreed,” Xavier said. He gave my free hand a squeeze. “We free those people and then we take out Thoreau. Alyssa, let's do this.”
Chapter Seventeen
The time was now. Xavier and I crept forward towards the sacrificial chamber, staying as quiet as we could. I could barely hear his footsteps. The talking outside got louder and more animated. I felt like Thoreau and Gaozu were speaking two different languages, which must not be a problem for ancient beings who had time to take every Rosetta Stone course.
I peeked around the corner of the chamber. Thoreau had his back turned and he and Gaozu walked closer to the cell, where the tourists all stood at the bars. Some of them shrank back as the two approached, as if they could sense that something beyond the obvious was way less than right. There were more people trapped inside the cell than I thought, even a younger girl who must not be any older than ten. I remembered hearing that Thoreau had murdered children before and would have no problem doing it again. They'd been collecting tourists for longer than just the last hour.
Every smell got worse. The tour guide moved to stand in front of the cell like a dutiful little servant, but the two powerful Abnormals ignored him. Thoreau spoke and ran his hand down one of the bars of the cell as if admiring his prize. It was disgusting. If anyone deserved to die, it was these two in front of us along with the Normal guy who had roped these people in. I wanted to fight. I wanted to kill. I could hear every utter of fear in those Normals and every cry of terror and it was tearing me apart inside.
Thoreau said something to Gaozu in his special language and the two of them exited the room, walking towards another tunnel and into the darkness. The torch light flickered and left the chamber empty.
“They must be off to grab the sacrificial dagger,” I said. “What do we do about the one guy?” I wasn't worried about him as a threat. I was worried about him yelling for Thoreau and Gaozu.
Now a woman inside the cell was arguing with the fake tour guide in what I guessed was Turkish. She spoke louder and louder, losing control of her emotions, but it was providing the distraction Xavier and I needed. He had his back turned. I crept into the chamber first, staying close to the walls and in the shadows. The stalactites shielded us as we tiptoed forward, keeping us out of sight of the prisoners who wouldn't know that we were there to help them. Xavier and I had to get those people out of there. That mattered more than Leon's body right now. If they were part of the rite, they had to leave.
We passed the middle of the room and the death smell got worse, threatening to make me cough. I moved as quick as I could as the woman gripped the bars and tried to rattle them. The fake tour guide would be easy to take out. I might even bite him just so he could see how it felt to...no. Not in front of Xavier again. He was still freaked out over the bus driver and I was at full strength, anyway.
The adrenaline smell overtook the death. I crept behind another stalactite and another, until I passed another dark chamber entrance that smelled of ancient books and paper. It must be the library that Allunna had mentioned, the one we'd need to use to bring her back to life. It was another thing we'd have to survive.
But right now, the people were what mattered.
The fake tour guide spoke again, talking quickly and in a low voice like he was trying to calm the woman down—hey, being sacrificed won't be so bad—when one of the prisoners, the ten-year-old girl, trained her gaze on me. I emerged from behind stone and held my finger up to my mouth to tell her to remain silent. She did. Thoreau's and Gaozu's words were still floating down the tunnel towards us, but a quick test of the air told me they were still headed away, deeper into the underground.
The girl looked away from me, watching the woman instead. Xavier's energy burned through me and I stepped forward, sword ready, in view of the prisoners, creeping towards the fake tour guide. Even though I was no longer hungry I could smell his blood. It was spicy. I might kill. I had come close before but I would not resist now.
“Do not move,” I said as I seized the man from behind with one hand and pressed the sword to his throat with another.
He sucked in a breath while Xavier caught up with me and rummaged through the man's pockets. The guy sucked in a breath. The adrenaline smell spiked. His pulse quickened. Keys jingled and Xavier pulled them out, old brass things that were rusted. He went to work trying the lock on the cell door as I dragged the fake tour guide towards the shadows, sword at his throat the whole time. He had the same fire tattoo on his neck, the one that signaled he was Bound to Gaozu.
“What is Gaozu?” I asked.
The man muttered something, but I pressed the blade closer.
“What is he?” I repeated.
He showed no signs of understanding. The bus driver might know multiple languages but this man didn't know the one I was speaking. He took another sharp breath. He was ready to call for his master.
I didn't let it happen. With the quick slice of my blade, I made my first kill.
I let the man fall as he bled on the floor, filling the air with spice. A sense of satisfaction rose inside of me, something I had hoped I'd never feel from this, so I focused on Xavier unlocking the door and opening it. People poured out, all silent like the knew that noise would be the end of them. No one screamed. A phone flashlight clicked on and illuminated the chamber in more detail, illuminating the inside of the library for a split second. Old leather-bound books and glass cases protecting papyrus documents flashed for a moment in full color before going to gray.
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