Fantastical Fiction Pt 2

Chimers! I’m back! And I’m still writing the story from the last post!

I’ve fallen into hyper fixation with this story idea, and you get to be the victims, I mean witnesses, of that fixation. So sit back, relax, and enjoy chapter of… well I still don’t have a good title for it.

Chapter 2

We walked a ways into the poorly lit tunnel in silence. I was too nervous to speak, almost feeling like any noise I made would trigger something horrible. After another few minutes, we came upon a table with electric lanterns on it. We each took one carefully and continued.

“Hi,” the girl whispered next to me suddenly. “My name is Morgan. What’s yours?”

I smiled nervously and replied “Evianna, but you can call me Eve.”

“This is all so crazy. I just wanted to talk to someone to make myself feel better,” she explained shyly.

“I understand. I don’t mind the quiet too much, if I’m being honest, so long as I have something to do.”

“I’m the same way,” one of the boys, a short red head announced. “I actually prefer the quiet to noise, helps me think.”

I felt very attacked by that statement, but I also felt that Morgan still needed to talk.

“What do you think this path will be like?” I asked her, trying to keep the conversation going.

“I don’t know. The banners and our clothes makes me think we might be getting wet, but I really hope not. I hope it’s more like a water slide than anything else. I can’t swim.”

That was confusing as fuck. 

“Why’d you pick this path, then?” the tall brunette behind us asked.

“The others seemed worse,” Morgan admitted.

I somehow couldn’t disagree with her. 

“I picked this one cause I was the best swimmer at my school, which might also be why I got reported. I’m Jacob, by the way. I caught your names earlier. The little angry leprechaun in front of you is Trevor, known him since second grade.”

“That’s kinda strange,” I said. “I haven’t seen anyone I know here.”

Tevor growled and responded, “We live in a really big town. Chances were higher that we’d see someone we knew.”

It made sense but he was so sour about it, it pissed me off.

A sound in the distance shut us all up. It was a roar that got louder the further we went. We silently continued down the path, listening for the roaring sound. We turned a corner and were faced with a fork in the path. On the left was the source of the roaring noise. A waterfall broke through the ceiling and continued down the descending, sloping path to the left. On the right was another straightforward path. Standing in the middle were the three other boys who took off at a faster rate than the rest of us.

“Hey,” one of them called back to us. “Nice of you to finally catch up.”

Trevor glared at them as we approached, a look I was becoming fond of if only to show off my own emotions.

“Sorry we can’t all be sprinters,” Jacob replied quickly before Trevor could.

“It’s fine, all it did was give us time to think. We can’t decide which way to go and none of us want to go on alone yet.”

“What’s the problem?” Morgan asked.

“Well, that one,” One said pointing to Two, “wants to go down the freaking water slide of doom, while we think it’s best to walk the path.”

“Why?” I questioned.

Three rolled his eyes and answered, “The path leads up so it should take us out a lot sooner than the slide that only goes deeper into the damn mountain. The goal is to get to the finish line before the end of tomorrow, but I plan on getting there first.”

I snorted, which earned me center stage. 

“If you really wanted to be first then why did you wait till half the room had left before getting started,” I reasoned.

Three glared daggers at me, and balled his fists. If I was a boy, he’d have hit me without a second thought.

“I’m going up. The rest of you can do whatever the fuck you want,” Three growled before storming down the path.

One followed after shooting us an apologetic smile, and too my surprise so did Trevor. I was going to miss his witty, yet curt, sense of humor… Not. Two stayed with us, though he seemed very sheepish about it.

“I’m Morgan,” my new friend introduced sweetly, “and this is Jacob, and Eve.” 

I was surprised to hear her call me by the nickname I preferred, it took most people a few tries to get it right.

“I’m Kevin,” the boy said meekly.

We nodded our hellos and made our way closer to the waterfall. The rocks were slippery, rubbed smooth by the force of the water. It looked like a better ride than any water park I’d ever been to, but, then again, I could only see a few feet down the path thanks to the poor lighting. I couldn’t tell if it came to a smooth stop or if it fell into a shallow and deadly pit. These issues apparently weren’t going to stop Jacob, who stepped right up.

“Wish me luck,” he said, as he prepared to continue.

“Wait!” I called, suddenly thinking of something.

“What? What’s up?” Everyone asked.

I took a closer look at our electric lanterns. While they were water resistant, they weren’t quite waterproof, not while on. They had to be off and fully collapsed within themselves, the only way to seal off the water, in order for them to be waterproof.

“You’re going to have to go down blind,” I announced.

“How do you know?” Jacob asked.

“My dad used this style to take me camping. You have to turn it off and collapse in order to preserve it,” I explained.

Jacob cussed low in his throat before doing as I told him.

“Okay, let’s hope I don’t die,” he said instead and then he was gone, slipping down the smooth stone.

Kevin followed shortly after him, leaving me and Morgan standing at the fall.

“I don’t know if I can go down in the dark,” Morgan whimpered.

“What if we go down together?” I offered.

“I still don’t know. It seems really dangerous.”

I sighed, slightly frustrated with her, but I understood her hesitation.

“Honey, it’s now or never. We can either go down together, or you can follow the other path. Maybe you could even stay here or go back until you find help.”

Morgan thought about it, then she stepped up to the waterfall.

“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed, tears running down her eyes.

I joined her next to the slide, one step away from a very dangerous ride. She turned off her light and slid onto her butt, preparing to scoot her way forward. I sat down next to her, wrapped my arms around her, and then I turned off my light, plunging us into complete darkness. We scooted ourselves forward, and then we were off on the most terrifying ride of our lives.

Unable to see the twists and turns of the path was like walking through a haunted house. I knew jump scares were coming, but when and how bad only made the fear grow inside me. When they finally came, they were so much worse then they could have been. Every movement had me screaming, my heart racing and my limbs weak. Morgan had such a tight grip on me, I thought she was going to strangle me at one point. Not knowing when it would be over made the whole thing so much worse. 

Then, out of nowhere, we were free falling. Everything to me was in slow motion. I felt Morgan’s grip on me loosen and disappear as she reached for anything to stop her fall. Then I felt something pulling on me. Not a physical object, but an energy, cool and crisp and so damn refreshing. I grabbed Morgan and covered her mouth. I felt her take a deep breath, I plugged her nose, and then I held my own breath, and not a moment too soon. We plunged feet first into chilling water. It took a second for my brain to tell me I should swim rather than just float through the water. Then I started kicking for all my life while holding tightly to Morgan. We breached the surface gasping for air, and Morgan holding onto me for dear life.

“We almost died!” she screamed.

“We survived.” I tried to tell her calmly.

“I thought we were dead!”

“But we’re not.”

I still had my lantern locked tightly in my hand, but I could tell Morgan didn’t have hers. She was screaming all sorts of horrors of what she thought was going to happen to her.

“Morgan! Morgan, shut up!” I yelled silencing her. “I’m going to hand you my lantern. Your only job is to turn it on and hold it above the water. Do you think you can do that?”

“No! No, I’m going to drown.”

“No you’re not, I’ve got you. I can get us both somewhere if you can just give me some light.”

“Do you promise?” she cried.

“Yes, I promise. Now turn it on!” I yelled, giving my lanturn to her. 

I turned her around so her back was facing me, and then I laid back myself, so that she was resting on my stomach with her hands and head well above water. She turned the lantern on then, and I saw that we were in an underground lake, lake being a very generous term. It may have been deep, but it wasn’t very large. The shore wasn’t but thirty feet from us. I kicked my feet gently, propelling us towards the shore. When we reached it. I pushed Morgan onto it to keep the lantern on, then I crawled out after her.

“Okay, this looks like the only way out. If we hurry, we might even be able to catch up to the guys,” I told her.

She shuddered violently, but got to her feet and walked with me through the tunnel.

We never caught up to the guys. Not too much farther down the tunnel was a rapid river. I wouldn’t be able to carry Morgan through this one.

“You should go on without me,” she decided as tears streamed down her face.

“I think you’re right,” I sighed, “but you should keep the lantern. I can’t swim and hold the lantern.”

She nodded gratefully, and I made my way into the river. It pulled me along quickly, but I managed to keep myself straight in the water. For some reason, I felt at peace like that, with the water rushing around me. My heart rate slowed and I felt almost as if I was taking a weird bath rather than floating down a river.

Then it happened. It was gradual as is normal, or fuzzy, and unclear. I blinked my eyes while calmly floating, and suddenly I could see everything in crystal clear detail. I could see the lazy streams of water that ran down the roof of the tunnel, I could see the fuzzy white mold that buried itself in crevices. And I could see where a secondary tunnel broke off above water.

I swam towards it quickly, just barely grabbing the edge of the opening with one of my hands. I pulled myself up and through the opening as quickly as I was able. Once through, I jumped to my feet and hurried along. This tunnel was smaller than all the rest. I knew if those boys couldn’t see like I suddenly could, then they wouldn’t be able to find the tunnel.

The tunnel wasn’t very long. It took all of two minutes to get through it and into the next tunnel over, which had a lazy little stream soaking the bottom up to my knees. I felt that following that tunnel would get me out of the mountain for good. So I followed it happily, wanting out of the damn mountain.

Then I lost my footing, and plummeted down a new, previously unseen, water slope. The slow, gentle slide filled me instantly with so much terror I thought it would eat me alive. Something wasn’t right about this path. I could feel the weight of the worst misstep in my life on my chest, so heavy I thought I would stop breathing. A bright light at the end of the tunnel blinded me momentarily, and then I was air bound again, falling through nothing as I grabbed for something. With no warning, I plunged into ice cold water, freezing me to my very core.

My arms and legs went numb fast, the cold sapping away at my energy. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything to save myself. My lungs burned as I held my breath, but the thought of drowning started to sound better than slowly freezing to death. Black spots covered my vision, my brain ached and pleaded. I was slowly fading, no idea when I would succumb, hoping it was soon.

I broke the surface of the water quite suddenly, and very confused. I gasped for fresh oxygen, my body returning to a somewhat normal function, my sight clearing and my arms and legs moving freely.

I looked around frantically for what happened, but I didn’t see anything, well, nothing that would have been able to save me. Not far from where I was treading water, however, was a mostly submerged ferris wheel. Only four carts were completely above water, so I started swimming towards it as fast as I could. I reached for the lowest cart, using the bars as a lever, and pulled myself up and out of the water and into the cart, panting and thoroughly exhausted.

I was in the center of a massive hole in the mountain. I was surrounded by steep tall cliffs, ones I wouldn’t be able to climb up. From where I sat, I couldn’t see any way out. There weren’t any nice breaks in the walls for me to crawl through other than where streams of water cascaded down the rocks. I wondered if there was a path or tunnel now submerged under the growing lake, but that didn’t make sense. If there were tunnels or paths or whatever, then logically, all this water would go somewhere, right? Unless of course it A) only had one tiny escape hole for the water to trickle out of while there were easily thirty waterfalls adding to the reserve, or B) any tunnels under the water led to other bodies of water.

“Fuck!” I yelled in frustration

The sun began to fall behind the rock walls, casting dark and terrifying shadows across the lake. Hunger pains and torrential thirst tormented me for the next few hours until I succumbed to the exhaustion of the day’s events.

And this we reach the end of chapter 2. Hopefully this inspiration to write doesn’t fade out any time soon, if only because of how much I’m loving this story.

Please, if you wouldn’t mind, like, subscribe, and share with your friends. It doesn’t really change what I’m doing, it just makes me feel good about it. In the meantime, you can comment through any of my linked social media accounts (you can find them if you know where to look), and have a wonderful life! Kisses, and fly high, my chime!