The Underbelly (First Draft)

The Lift

I felt a cold apprehension settle over me, now that I was getting closer to my goal after all of these years I could not help feel like all of the little moments that made up my life led up to this point. Then another startling thought walked over to me, if this is what I had been waiting for all of this time what happens after? Does this mean I think I'm going to die?

To distract myself from the crippling thoughts, I turned my attention to the lift I was in. It was not very pretty, I was pretty sure I could see a dark crimson stain that did not look like paint splattered against the wall to my left. The panel of buttons that indicated the levels of this building were worn and flickered feebly in the bleaching glow of the light overhead.

I could see my guardian looking at the puckered steel door with an expression of indifference but swiftly shifted to an expression of snarling defiance when he caught my gaze and growled, "what are you looking at?" I felt terror skitter across my heart but I refused to let it show in my face and returned his hostile gaze with a cool one of my own before continuing to look around the lift. Suddenly the lift jarred and I almost lost my footing. We had arrived.

The worn and weary doors pulled themselves apart, like they have done so for years and we stepped out and the doors closed again with a relived sigh, thankful it can return to its slumber. My first impression of the Underbelly was that there was a strong scent of strawberries on the air. The next was that it was a very cold place, almost like a ginormous fridge. The blonde man stalked ahead like a ghost eager to leave this world behind to begin anew and I could hear the quick pitter patter of my feet as I hurried to keep up with him.

We walked in silence for a moment as he led me down tunnel after tunnel and I began to find reassurance in the fact that I had a gun strapped to my leg and a pair of knives strapped to the inside of my wrists. They were not my real weapons of course but it still felt nice to know that I had hard cold metal alongside my warm flesh and that it can also be used to defend myself.

Though the tunnels were cold and dark, they were at least dry and that was to be thankful for. Although I did see flashes of red light from rats that live down here from the hanging lights that dotted the tunnels every so often. I tried not to think about them.

Every so often a breath of air would hurdle down the tunnel and instead of stale air flooding my nostrils, it was always the scent of strawberries. The blonde man must have noticed my confusion because he said in his gruff voice, "the boss does not like the stench of rotten rubbish and so demands that fresh strawberries be brought down here every day so that it smells nice down here." I nodded in silence and we quickly fell back into our customary silence.

It was not long before I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and I knew from the strength of the glow that it was not a lantern hanging from the ceiling that was waiting for us. The blonde man quickened his pace even more and I was practically trotting to keep up with him.

We arrived at a door that looked far too out of place among the ancient flagstone walls of the tunnel, it was sleek and polished steel. It also looked far more secure than the rustbucket that we came down a while ago and I knew that we had arrived. Sure enough a slot of the door pulled back seamlessly and revealed a pair of dark eyes. "Who's there and what do you want?", came the questions fast and sharp. The blonde man stepped forward and spoke in a low voice, "Jeffery and I'm bringing this girl here to meet the bossman." The man's eyes seemed to darken but it was difficult to tell in the gloom. "Very well Jeffery, bring her in but no trouble, you hear?" Jeffery laughed his strange laugh and grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me through the door. I yelped without meaning to and the two men began to chortle in a raucous manner. I felt my calm façade slip slightly and I felt my cheeks burning but I stiffened my spine and walked ahead. They won't have the last laugh.

Jeffery overtook me soon enough and began to navigate me through the crowds in the Underground Belly. I was expecting there to be a lot of people here but the throngs here were far bigger than I had imagined, a whole new city beneath another. Over the decades the Belly had attained a fearsome legendary status of how the worst people and the most talented criminals all lived in this sprawling metropolis and that to enter uninvited was to invite certain death. I had never really believed the high tales about this place, I had known it was dangerous but to think that it was death incarnate was a bit over the top for me. Looking at the sheer number of people here though, it was clear that I was wrong at least in one respect, that I had thought that there were not this many people here. I just hope I was not also wrong about it not being death incarnate.

Jeffery led me up through the Underbelly and I began to feel claustrophobic as the houses began to cram in together and with no sky it was easy to imagine to imagine them toppling on me and crushing me beneath a flood of stone. Thankfully however, it was not long before we left the residential area and entered the market area, there were more people here obviously but there were also more open spaces. What stood out however were the mounds of strawberries, glistening as though they had just woken up from the long night and coated in dew.

People of all descriptions bustled back and forth as they peered at the plundered treasures from the surface, it was surreal to see the severe contrast between goods on the same stall. There was one hawker who had a marble bust of Julius Cesare and arranged in neat piles beside it were magazines and it was hard to put them together in my mind but it was clear that other people here had no problem and looked at all goods with a sharp eye.

Jeffery kept moving up and I followed him, soon we stood outside a grand house. It was resplendent in its majesty. It seemed to have its walls made up of white marble and the roof was made up of emerald copper. It was a little intimidating. Jeffery was obviously not so as he walked up without breaking a step and knocked on the onyx black doors. It opened without anyone behind it. I stepped inside to the cool embrace of the stone house. I was now in the lion's den.

I was brought right up to the stairs and Jeffery stopped in front of a plain wooden door. He took a breath, the first sign of any nerves I had seen all our journey and that did not do much to help mine. We stepped in after we heard the summons. One more breath and I followed Jeffery.

There was a man sitting in a swivel chair in front of a mahogany desk with his back to us gazing into the fire that was purring as it ate the logs contently. Jeffery snapped to attention and said with his voice full of respect, "sir, this is Georgina, the woman who said she wished to speak with you." The man chuckled, "Jeffery, this is not a woman called Georgina, her name is Merissa." Jeffery looked both terrified and confused and his voice broke slightly, "sir?" The man chuckled again, "I know her true name because I was the one who gave it to her." The man finally turned around and a face I had not seen in fifteen years swam into view and I felt my spine stiffen and I felt my voice come out constricted as I said, "hello father."

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