The Darkness in the Light

Chapter Twelve

Finding Gemma was harder than anticipated. In the end she was the one to find us. We'd been wandering the markets, asking around for anyone that had seen her. Finally, someone pointed us towards the outskirts, and we headed that way just in time to see her running towards us.

"Leader!" she called, surprising us when she barely gave me a second glance. She reached us, doubling over to catch her breath, which was very much unlike her. She was a dancer, and she was fit.

"Gemma? What's wrong?" Jax asked her, concern marring his voice and his eyebrows creasing.

"I need your help. Now."

Before he could say anything else, she was off again, running back the way she had come. He glanced at me, and I met his eyes, both of us confused and concerned. Then we started racing after her.

She led us to the very edge of the canyon, down into the ditch that ran the outside and acted as drainage for the bottom floor. Rather than crossing the ditch, she leapt down into it, seeming to disappear. We jumped down after her, and as soon as my feet touched the moist floor I realised where she'd gone. There was a drain here, covered in metal bars that had been bent apart, revealing a gap big enough for most people to get through. We slid our way inside, Jax then me.

Gemma barely waited for us to follow before she was off again, racing up the drainage sewer.

"Gemma, what's going on?" Jax called after her.

"Toby's rat went missing down here, so I helped him look for it. But then he went down a tunnel chasing after his rat, and I couldn't fit to follow. Then he started screaming."

Tears were streaming down her face as she raced through the dark. As the tunnel took us away from the canyon, it quickly got too dark to see by, and she grabbed a flashlight, pointing it at her feet as she ran. She glanced back at me once, seeing I was still following.

I could tell she wanted to help me keep up, not knowing that I could see without the torch. But worrying about me wasn't important in that moment, so she raced on.

We reached a spot where a smaller drain split off from the main sewer, this one covered in bars that were still intact.

"He fit through those."

"Toby?" Jax called, instantly drawing darkness around him.

The tiniest sob echoed through the drain, and Jax disappeared from between Gemma and me.

"How small is Toby?" I asked aloud, shocked anyone could fit through there.

"He's four," Gemma whispered. She was still crying silently, tears streaming down her face. I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug as we both watched the drain, waiting.

He's okay, sort of. Jax spoke in my mind, and I sighed in relief. Gemma glanced at me, confused at my sigh.

" ," I relayed. She nodded, but my words didn't do much to relax her stance.

We are coming back, though I won't be able to fit out the bars. I don't even know if I can fit all the way down this tunnel. His thoughts mixed with the feeling of pressure all around him, the weight of the city above us pressing in from every angle as he pulled himself along the concrete tunnel by his elbows.

"Toby's coming. Call out to him Gemma, he knows your voice," I urged.

"Toby? Come on mate, this way," she called calmly down the tunnel, somehow hiding the urgency in her voice.

There was shuffling sounds, and a moment later a little face appeared in the darkness, wincing at the bright torchlight where it shone down the drain. Shadows of bars striped his tiny, pale face and I couldn't believe someone so tiny had been allowed to explore the drains after a pet rat in the first place. Where were his parents?