The Elephant Secret

Chapter 18

It’s dark. I don’t know if my eyes are open or not. I pull myself to sit up. My eyes get used to the darkness and I’m able to see darker shadows of people lying around me. It must be late. I look at my arm but there is nothing to see. Just a big black shadow around it. I lie back down and close my eyes.

            Someone nudges my shoulder and I open my eyes to see Drake. He’s all dressed and ready to go. “We’re leaving soon.” He says with a soft smile. “It shouldn’t be more than a 30 minutes. Walking.”

“Grate.” I say and put my hand out for him to help me up. He pulls me up and helps me find my balance. When my head stops spinning I start folding the blanket and stuff it in my back pack. The arm aces slightly but I shake it off. When the sun is half way up, we start walking. The streets are as empty as Satan’s hart. I look around to find myself staring at abandoned homes. Homes tuned houses, tuned shells. We walk by a big meadow with memorial stones on it. My sister’s stone is there. I used to go there more than I do. For six months I went there every day. The first month I went alone. The second my dad came with me, every other day. For the third one my mom came. They stopped coming after three months. When I went alone I would sit there for hours. Just talking to her. Telling her what I did that day. What I ate. What I thought. How mom and dad wore. Everything and anything. When I started losing it I stopped going. I once went there drunk and mad. I was going to destroy the stone, but I couldn’t. When I got there I broke down. Kneeled to the ground crying. That night I fell asleep there and when I woke up I looked at my old phone. I sold mine for dope. On the screen was a photo of her and her teddy elephant. My dad put it there. Thinking it would be a wakeup call. It was. That day I bought my dose, from Ash and headed to a place called the Ink. And I got the elephant on my side. It hurt like hell but it was worth it.

            As I look at the meadow I get a warm feeling in my rib. “Hey guys I need to do one thing just keep going. I’ll catch you.” I tell them before jogging onto the meadow. My sister’s stone is in the far left corner. I sit down on the dry grass and take the old dead flowers my mom must have put there. I throw them over the stone to a root of a tree. Her stone is grey and has her name written on it. Ibha June Benson. Bellow her name is carved: Your memory lights a spark in our life. I run my fingers down the letters. She would have hated this stone. I wanted a colourful stone for her, but mom and dad said that it would be inappropriate. “Hey, sis’ I got shot.”  I tell her and smile like a stupid idiot. “So… that happened.” I miss her so much. The wind starts to pick up speed as it blows through the trees. “I miss you.” The silence is my answer. It hurts not to hear her voice like I used to. “I know it’s been a while since I last came to talk to you. I’m sorry. If you haven’t heard there is a war going on. Mom is missing. I’m trying to get her back. Dad too. He’s at work, working on finding her. I’m going there now to help him. I know he’s not going to let me go after her but I’ll find a way to find her.” I tell her the plan and what has happened. I’m not sure if she hears me at all, but I like to think that she’s here. I like to think that she’s with me and my family when we need her. “I wish you were here. I got to go. I love you.” I kiss my fingers and touch the stone. “Bye.” I stand up and run to find the others. Looking back at the meadow I know that I will never come here again. Hopefully I’m wrong. 

            It only takes me ten minutes running to catch them. “Did you have a good talk?” Drake asks as I run up to his side.

“It was okay.” I tell him and smile. “Kind of one sided though.” I say sarcastically. He laughs and so do I. surrounding us now are high buildings that make dark shadows on all of us. I look around at them and see a sudden movement in one of the windows. I sharply turn my head to face Drake and see a red dot on his shoulder. A laser dot. My body reacts before me and I pull him towards me. Throwing him and Henry into a corner before hearing the sound of the gun going off. I scream at the others to come our way. They run to us unharmed.

“Shit that was close.” Tiffany says. There was only that one shot fired. “Is it safe to go out?” She asks and I question the same thing in my head. Ash thinks before me.

“Does anyone have a mirror?” He asks. Mainly looking at me, Tally and Tiffany. Tally thinks about it before taking out a small makeup bag from her backpack.

“Here.” She says and hands him a sparkling heavenly blue makeup mirror. He looks at it with a smirk and then at Tally.

“Really?” He asks and then I see what he means. On the lid of the mirror is written in silver letters: Cinderella. I smile and look at Tally.

“You have a problem with that?” She asks. I wonder sometimes how weird we are, I mean we are all walking around in a middle of a war, and here we are, close to snipers and bombs and we are just laughing at each other. Is that good or bad?

“Not at all princess.” He says with a smirk. He opens the mirror and sticks it around the corner. “Fuck!” He breaths. “They are everywhere.”

“Who?” Sam asks.

“I don’t know who they are, but they are pyscho bastards with guns so I wouldn’t call them heroes.” He jokes.

“We can’t stay here forever.” Tally says and I nod.

“Well we can’t go out there, they’ll kill us in a heartbeat.” I look around us and see the solution, it’s under our feet. I look down and see a big metal cap. I move off it and bend down to try lift it. It’s too heavy and I order the others to help me instead of just staring at me. When we get it off the hole stares black at us. Filled with thick darkness. “I’m not going down there.” Ash says and shakes his head. “Not a fucking chance!” He denies.

“It’s the only way.” I argue. “Now stop being an arsehat and get down there.” I tell him and he shakes his head looking down into the pit. I grab a flashlight and turn it on. “I’ll go first.” I say looking at the white faces staring at the open hole to shit. “Okay, hope to see you follow me.” I climb down the stairs. It doesn’t smell as bad as I had assumed. “Are you coming?!” I shout. As my word eco through the tunnels of shit the net figure comes down. Henry. “Good job buddy.” I tell him and give him a high five. “Now, he’s seven and got down here, so you should be able to go down here without help.”

“We’re coming!” Ash shouts back at me. Next down is Tally and after her comes Tiffany.

“Wow.” Tally says as she lands in the ankle deep dark coloured water. “It’s not as bad as I imagined”

“It’s even a little warm down here.” Tiffany adds and we all laugh. A big splash lands in the water as Sam stumbles and falls down and into the water-mixture.

“I think I might be sick.” He says looking at us. His cloths are all wet and dirty. We laugh and I help him up.

“What happened to him?” Drake asks as he comes down and sees Sam standing up, covered in shit.

“Life!” Sam says irritated. “Life happened! This is why I’m single!” He adds making us laugh. “I’m covered in shit.” He says looking down with a fake frown.

“No, you’re just very dirty.” Tiffany says causing another wave of laughter to irrupt in the tunnels.

“What’s funny?” Ash asks from the opening of the hole.

“Inside joke for those who are inside the sewers.” Sam shouts back and I shake my head before I climb up to meet his eyes.

“Ash, get your ass down here.” I order. He shakes his head.

“I can’t.” He says with a serious look on his face. I’m about to argue when Tally picks my calf.

“Let me try.” She says and climbs up. “You guys just go on, we’ll catch up with you.” I nod and let her deal with him.