The Forgotten Library

Chapter 2 - Falling off the Ledge

Nice to see everyone again. Do you like the new cover photo? My friend Lorena spent a lot of time making it for me and I am absolutely in love! I hope you're all excited to find out what happened to our characters. Let's get on with the story!

We fell for hours. Well, it was more like thirty seconds. While in the air, hands and feet flailed wildly, searching for something stable. Unfortunately for me, that something stable was my back, stomach, and head.

I fully expected to hit the ground and break every bone in my body. Instead, we all came to a whiplash-inducing halt that felt like landing on an inflated air mattress. A second passed, and we all dropped to the ground.

It took us all a minute to realize that we hadn't, in fact, been smashed into unrecognizable shapes. I tried to catch my breath, only to find the task nearly impossible with the amount of weight on me.

"Get off," I wheezed, and the bodies came to life. I heard them pushing and shoving each other as they tried to find their feet.

"Watch it, freak," snapped Andy.

"You don't even know how I am, jerk-wad," the random girl from the cave shot back.

"Did any of the headlamps survive?" Rei asked.

I sat up and pulled a fragment of plastic from my back. "Not likely, with that drop."

"I don't like the dark." Kiama's voice trembled with fear.

My hand flew to my front pocket where my phone typically lived. I pulled it out and sighed in relief when the screen turned on. I turned on the flashlight and shined it around. To no surprise, we were surrounded by a tall rocky surface on every side. The area we landed in was barely big enough to fit the five of us.

I shined the light on every face to check for injuries. "Rei, it looks like you're bleeding," I said.

"I'm fine," Rei replied. His hand was shaky as he reached up to wipe off his mouth. "Where are we?"

"At the bottom of the stupid cave, thanks to you idiots," snapped Andy.

The blonde girl shoved passed me and jabbed her finger into Andy's chest. "I've about had it with your 'better than thou' demeanor, mister. You and your idiotic friends are the only reason we are all stuck down here. I don't want to hear another word out of you unless your peanut-sized brain comes up with an idea to get us out."

Andy opened his mouth to respond, but any retort he might have had was cut off by Rei shouting, "guys, there's a passage over here!"

I pointed my phone in his direction. He was half standing behind a wall that looked completely solid when I saw it earlier.

"Should we follow it?" Kiama asked.

I approached Rei to shine my light into the corridor. I could only make out details about three feet in front of us. Kiama and the random girl came over to us and peered their heads around the corner.

"Does anyone else have a flashlight?" I asked.

Everyone around me shook their heads.

I pointed my phone at Andy.

Andy stood there, glaring at us with his arms folded over his chest. "There is no way in hell I'm wasting my battery life so you can play cave explorers. We need to stay here for when they come looking for us."

"Fine, then you can stay here." The random girl said. She spun on her heels and charged down the pitch-black corridor.

I hurried after her with the light.