Chapter 4

Lost In Planning

For the past hour, Kass, Cody, Lara, and Todd had just sat in the dark and damp sewer-like room which the trap door had led to. No one had spoken a word, for everyone was thinking of the same thing: how they had let Casey go. Kass and Cody were both feeling horribly guilty for not reacting fast enough, for maybe if they had, Casey would be sitting there with them.

Lara was also feeling guilty, except for different reasons. She too had held back Todd in his attempts to save Casey, but not only had she let her friend down, she had forced her brother into insanity; or, so she saw it.

Todd was now muttering to himself and would every once in a while raise his head to look at the door above them which seemed to now be unmovable; presumably another box had rolled on top of it during the skeleton’s rampage.

Lara sighed and pulled herself off the wet floor. She walked over to where Todd was and knelt down in front of him.

“Todd…Todd, I’m so sorry.” She said, trying to get him to look at her. But he refused.

“Save it Larissa.” He growled, using her full name as a threat.

“Look,” she said, getting frustrated, “I know that you wanted to go after her, but I had to make a choice: loose my brother and my friend, or loose my friend. I had to save at least one of you! And just think; she’s not dead! It’s not like we’ve lost her forever. There’s still a chance that we can get her back-”

“And what are the chances of that?!” he yelled, getting to his feet as he did so. “Who knows if she’s still alive? For all we know, those things could have killed her, but that could have been prevented! I could have gotten to her…I could have…but I…you had to…” His voice trailed off, now muffled by his hands which had covered his face.

Kass looked back at the ground miserably as Lara sat down next to her brother and tried to comfort him. No one knew what to say…what was there to say to an inconsolable person? She stood up and walked over to the opposite end of the room to take in their surroundings.

The room itself was about the size of a large closet. The walls were covered in a damp moss and stone, both of which looked like they had been there for centuries. It seemed as though this room had been made before electricity was discovered, for the walls were covered in torches and lanterns. No chords or plugs were to be found within the room. Kass started to think that maybe this room had been here since medieval times or earlier even.

Just then, she looked up to find a small, crystal like object wedged in behind one of the lanterns on the wall. She pulled it out and found that it was a crystal skull on a leathery rope. The skull was almost a miniature version of the skeletons that had appeared earlier today. The thing that caught Kass’ eye the most though, was that the crystal was glowing faintly, giving its features a sense that the necklace was alive.

Since Lara and Todd were still sorting things out, Kass signaled for Cody to come over.

“Look at this,” she said, showing the necklace to Cody.

He reached out and picked it up. The moment Cody touched the pendant however, it stopped glowing, as though he had hit the skull’s off switch.

Cody raised an eyebrow at this and continued to look at it. Once he had taken in all its details, he gave it back to Kass.

“Well,” he began, making sure not to interrupt Lara and Todd’s argument, “it definitely has something to do with those creatures, I mean to say, what other creatures have a skeletal structure like them?”

“Good point.” she said, noting the glow which had returned once back in her hands. She ignored it and reached up behind the lantern once more to see if anything else was left back there. She felt something cold and hard and pulled.

Next thing Kass and Cody knew, they were falling fast down a dark tube. Mingled screams and thuds from hitting its edges echoed around the area. Then, after what seemed an eternity, they hit the hard ground with a booming crash and a yelp from Kass, whom had landed on something sharp which had stabbed deep into the palm of her hand.

“Shit…” she cursed, sitting up while trying to look at her hand, though without any luck, seeing as though the room was pitch black. Then she remembered the glowing skull which she had lost somewhere down the tube. She felt around with her uninjured hand and after picking up a few large stones, she found the skull. It lit up immediately and after taking a quick look at her hand, which was now bleeding profusely out of an inch long hole in her palm, she held up the light to find Cody.

“Cody?” she called, shining the light around her, but still there was no sign of him anywhere.

She then turned around carefully to see if he had fallen behind her when something flew out of the walls and halted directly before her face. It was a human skeleton, bloodstained and still decaying, it was angled so its skull was directly in front of Kass’ forehead. Kass let out a scream, jumped up and turned around, then flew directly into another body and screamed again. A hand reached up and covered her mouth.

“Kass…Kass, calm down. It’s me.” Cody’s voice hushed as he removed his hand from her mouth.

Kass felt her legs turn to jelly and she fell back down on the floor as a combined result of shock and loss of blood. Cody knelt down beside her and began tearing off a piece of his sleeve to use as a bandage. After getting a long enough piece, he began wrapping it around Kass’ wound as tightly as possible so to stop the flow of blood towards the cut. It still bled, but most of it was now coming to a halt within the fabric so she tried to forget about it long enough to figure out where they were.

“Where are Lara and Todd?” Cody asked, staring around.

Kass had only just realized that they were alone. The tube they fell though must have not stretched out to consume Lara and Todd as well, and for all they knew, they could be miles underground. For all they knew, they could be there forever.

“Where now?” Kass asked him, as they started to wander throughout the tunnel, letting the skull light their way.

“Like I know?” he replied bitterly.

Kass looked over at him. “What did I do to deserve that?” she asked, confused by his attitude.

Cody stopped and stared down at her. “You know what you did.” He snapped, completely bewildering Kass. “You just couldn’t keep your nose out of other people’s business! You couldn’t resist following Nate to see what he was up to and in doing so, you almost end up getting killed by him, not to mention becoming the main target for these…these things!”

Kass stood there, rooted to the spot. Cody had never been so angry in his life. Heck, he hardly spoke compared to the rest of them. Now here they were, under ground, lost, and injured, and there he was, yelling at her for being the sacrifice. Something didn’t make sense, but Kass couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.

“Look,” she said quietly, but her frustration was not missed in her voice, “I’m sorry that I followed Nate. You’re right; I’m too nosy for my own good. But becoming the sacrifice is not something I begged and pleaded for! You think I want to die?! You think I want to watch my friends be taken away by these monsters?! If that’s what you think I want, then you’ve never really known me!”

As Cody stood there with a saddening expression on his shadowed face, Kass took off, running as fast as she could though the tunnel, completely ignoring Cody’s cries for her to slow down. He would never know...never…not after that…

She reached a point in the tunnel where she could no longer hear Cody’s voice. There, she sat down against the dirt wall and hid her head between her arms, now wrapped tightly around her knees, crying.

How could she be so stupid! He’s right; she thought to herself; it was my fault that they chose me as their sacrifice, my fault, all because I couldn’t stand Nate being up to something without me knowing. She also knew it was her fault for Casey being taken. If only she had split up with her friends…the skeletons would have never followed them if she wasn’t with the others. Cody was right…she wasn’t thinking…

She heard footsteps coming and knew that Cody had eventually found her. She didn’t look up though; she didn’t want to see the look of disappointment and anger in his face.

He sat down next to her in silence and waited for a minute or two, hoping, Kass could tell, that she would say something first. When she didn’t, he gave a loud sigh and began to talk.

“Kass…look, I’m so sorry for what I said back there…you’re right. You would have never wanted to put you or us in danger; I was stupid to even think that in the first place. You were wrong about one thing though.”

Kass snapped her head up, her face tear stained and flushed. “Oh yeah? What?”

“You were wrong when you said that I didn’t know you.” He said quietly. “Back there, when I said all those horrible things… that wasn’t me not understanding you. That was me worrying to death that something was going to happen to you.”

Kass stared at him, trying to take in what he was saying with great difficulty.

“I mean, what if those skeletons actually did use you as the sacrifice? What ifNate had strangled you once he found you? We could have lost you back then and I’m not gonna let them take you this time. You’re either with me, or I’ll lock you and Lara together; she’ll make sure you don’t run away to act noble.”

Kass managed a small laugh and gave Cody a grin. “I can’t promise you that I’ll stay put during all the action,” she said, but then continued quickly, “but I can promise you that I won’t let them get to me or any of us as long as they’re here.”

Cody sighed. “Promise me you wont let them get anywhere near you.”

She looked at him tremulously, still unsure about what to say or do. Cody grabbed her hand and whispered, more fiercely, “Promise me.”

“I-I promise…” she sighed, staring him in the eye.

He gave a small sigh of relief and helped her off the ground.

“Alright.” He said, staring ahead at the dark tunnel. “Let’s go find a way out of here.”