The Twilight Zone

Chapter 2

Amelie took her hand roughly, pulling her into the darkness. Ellie found her body being pulled to the light, but the girl kept moving.

"Oh, no, that won't happen."

Ellie was confused.

"What won't-"

"Shh!"

Amelie kept moving down the squishy surface until it turned into hard rock. She let go of Ellie's hand and set her straight on the floor.

"You won't be stuck by the lampost and wither. There's just no light down here-" She shrugged, her shoulders moving up and down- "And you'll have to live with it. Sorry."

She didn't look very sorry. In fact, she looked simply bored, as if it wasn't peculiar that a girl had shown up near her home.

Maybe it wasn't, Ellie thought. She knew her village used to have the Monthly Sacrifices if there happened not to be a trial. Nobody knew where the Sacrifices went, but people had surely guessed. Ten years ago, when she was only three, they had ended abruptly.

Nobody knew why the Sacrificing went away, either.

But people had guessed.

Amelie watched Ellie process the situation...

"Where is this place, anyway?" Ellie whimpered, her homesickness beginning to tap in. Amelie looked around her, her face falling.

"I don't know." All of a sudden, Amelie's face hardened. "I know other things, though, rules, ones you-" She handed Ellie the glasses on her head, and whipped out a new pair for herself. A small, sharp sound rang through the cavernous walls around them, with a flash of light.

The glasses read Amelie Kray on their temples, carved in by some sort of magical source that neither of them could see. Ellie looked at her in wonder, and Amelie rolled her eyes. Amelie shoved them on Ellie's face, and the same reaction happened, this time spelling out Ellie's name. She looked down at the floor, and snapped back into army mode again, staring at Ellie straight in her eyes.

"Back to the rules." She stopped, turned to Ellie, looked her up and down. "Those glasses help you see. I mean, when you can't." It seemed utterly vague, her explanation, but Ellie knew what she meant.

In the dark. In the Twilight Zone. "And there are caves like this one-" She pointed up, the glasses magnifying her eyes and distorting their features, "-And... Urgh."

"What?"

"I mean, the squishy parts. They're..." Amelie shook her head, bringing her hands up and holding the palms to her temples. "Tongues. Masses of tongues, and I don't know why. They excrete saliva like you and me, but they aren't normal. Huge landscapes filled with tongues. You're lucky the ones earlier were asleep." She shook her head again. "This place is messed up, okay? Things here are... different. The lamppost? It's put there so people will sit and wait and they won't get up to eat or drink because that means no light... and eventually..." She shuddered, trailing off. "All I know is that you need to come with me." She turned, started to walk, but whipped around once more. "Stay close."