Without a Light

It was dark. But then again, it was always dark. Darkness lasted in December on the island of Redright for the majority of the day. The lack of light in the cold streets only added to the darkness. It wasn’t that the people liked the cold and dark - in fact, they hated it. The power had gone out - again - just about two minutes ago.

Two dark figures hurried down the sidewalk, one glancing nervously over its shoulder. Most people would be thought crazy to be outside in this weather. Without light or any kind of power in the city, the temperature usually dropped fifteen degrees, and walking even a half-mile was suicide.

One of the dark figures paused to look at a map it had drawn out of its pocket, then ran across the street. The other followed.

“Maddy! Do you really know where we’re going?” the follower asked.

Maddy sighed. “Yes, Caley. We’re here, actually.”

“And here would be where?” Caley asked impatiently.

“Just follow me,” Maddy replied quickly. There was a hint of exasperation in her voice - not too much, but enough to tell that she did not want to explain. She glanced over her shoulder again, then walked right up to an old iron gate hidden between two brick buildings and pushed on it. The gate swung open, surprising both girls. Someone had forgotten to lock it.

“That’s odd,” Caley muttered.

There were two staircases: one that led down and one that went up. The staircase that went down was lit every twenty feet or so by torches.

“I hope you’re not afraid of the dark,” Maddy said cheerfully. “We go down.”

Caley mumbled something about how humans were not meant to live in the underground as they descended the stairs.

“There’s three floors,” Maddy explained. “So it shouldn’t take too long.” She ducked down to avoid a spider web which, unfortunately, Caley walked into.

“Ah! Ew…this is why I hate traveling underground,” Caley said in disgust as she brushed off the webs.

Maddy laughed. “You’re lucky that there were no spiders in it. That would have been a lot worse.”

“I hate spiders,” Caley grumbled as they descended the last flight of stairs.

“Well, there aren’t any spiders here, so you’ve nothing to worry about,” Maddy replied, and then shouted, “Oi! Dean, are you here?”

The echoes were swallowed up eerily by the darkness of the passageway straight on front of the two girls. There was a second passageway, to the right. This one was very faintly lit.

Caley heard footsteps saw someone appear out of the darkness. Obviously Dean. He would be the only one here.

“What did you find?” he asked. “Or did you just come here to bother me again?”

“Um…we actually did find something this time,” replied Caley. “Probably really valuable, since we were being followed.”

Maddy dug something out of her pocket and held it out to Dean. “Here.”

It was a charm of some sort, possibly over a thousand years old. It was completely gold with some sort of writing on it.

“Wow,” Dean said. He took it from Maddy. “You can still see the runes on this.” He looked up at the two girls. “Where did you find this?”

“We…uh…sorta found it in a house,” said Caley nervously.

“You stole it?” said Dean incredulously.

“No!” said Maddy. “We found it in an abandoned house. No one lives there anymore, and no one even owns it, so it couldn’t be stealing.”

“Alright,” said Dean. He knew better than to argue with the girl.

“So…can you read it?” Caley asked.

Dean looked insulted. “Can I read it? Of course! The runes aren’t that old. But…I don’t have the decoder right now.”

“What do you mean you don’t have it right now?” Maddy almost shouted. Once again, her voice echoed eerily before being swallowed up by the blackness.

“I left it at the museum,” said Dean quietly. “I think.”

Maddy looked about ready to kill him. “You think?”

“I might have left it by the entrance…you know, over there.” He pointed to the darkness ahead of them.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” said Maddy. “Let’s go!” She took a torch from the wall and started down the hall.

Caley glanced at Dean. “Is this safe?”

“Only if you know where you’re going,” Dean replied. “I better go show her.” He ran silently over to Maddy.

Caley walked several feet behind the two, thinking about the charm. If she hadn’t noticed it lying in the dirt, then she would be back home and not wandering around a dark corridor that probably had spiders and tons of other creepy little things crawling all over the place.

“Watch out for bugs,” said Dean. “And spiders. Lots of spiders here.” Both he and Maddy grinned and then laughed quietly.

“Oh, shut up,” said Caley. “I know there aren’t any bugs here. You’re just trying to scare me…again.”

“Pay back for all the times you came down here to bother me,” said Dean.

The three continued walking for at least five more minutes. It was all quiet eerie: the torch cast jagged shadows over the walls, their footsteps echoed off the walls and then were silenced, the water dripping off the ceiling, and the darkness that seemed to close in with every step they took.

This is really like a maze, Caley thought. It was hard to imagine that people had used these passageways often. Dean had said that this place had been actively used up until the 1700s, and that was over three hundred years ago.

Maddy and Dean stopped and Caley almost ran into them. “What?” she asked.

“There’s a fork. One of them leads to the museum and the other leads to a different part of Redright. Both of them are quiet dangerous and…I don’t remember which one leads where,” he finished.

“Just pick one,” Caley sighed. “I really don’t like this place, and either it’s getting darker or the fire’s fading.”

“Right,” said Dean. “It was the right one. Come on.” Caley reluctantly followed him and Maddy. This is hopeless,” she thought. We are going to be stuck here forever.

Maddy suddenly jumped and dropped the torch. “Something just touched my hand!” she shouted.

“Thank you for dropping that,” said Dean sarcastically. “Now we have no light.” The torch had extinguished itself when it had hit the ground; there were puddles all over the place.

“You still have the charm, don’t you?” Maddy asked suddenly.

“No,” Dean admitted. “Thanks to your shrieking, I dropped it. Now we’re stuck here without a light and without the charm we came to decode.

Again, this is hopeless, Caley thought. Like the city above, we are without a light.