Inside

Chapter 13

Thirteen

"Finally!" I gasp when we arrive to the green tunnel. The brown tunnel was filled with roots and I tripped so many times that I lost count. Crome had to keep pulling me up and helping me step over the roots. He grabbed my waist and pulled me up gently, since I told him my left hip still hurts. It should be better by now, but it must be badly bruised. Hopefully the Outside doctors can fix me up.

Crome slowly lets go as he looks into my eyes through the mask's clear plastic, checking if I'm ok. I nod and he lets go completely.
"It's not over yet," Jathrel says. I know, I know: map, knife, black, brown, green, and yellow. That's what Josh said, and he's been right so far.
"Tis one's filled wit webs," Tive smiles. "And crreepy crrawling spiderrs!" He approaches me moving his fingers fast, trying to scare me by imitating the spider's feet.
I back off and raise an eyebrow. The spiders may be scary, but he isn't. At all.
Tive's smile disappears and his arms flop down next to him. He frowns and mumbles as he walks away. "Ridiculous," I think as I watch his pencil-like figure trudge away.

"Gah!" Dublin jumps back placing his foot ontop of my right foot.
"Dubllin!" I yell as I push him hard away from me. He trips forward and falls, but quickly stands and gets away from the wall.
"Look!" He yells pointing a shaking finger forward. Crome raises his flashlight and big, round hairballs crowd the wall. I tense up and watch all the dots move around, up and down the wall. They walk ontop of each other when there isn't space on the wall to walk on.

"Those would be the spiders," Jathrel says nonchalant and continues to walk.
"They're not piosonous or... dangerous, right?" Dublin asks with a shaky voice.
"Uh..." Jathrel hesistates. "No. But I'd keep my distance from the walls."
Sure, spiders are totally safe.
After that, I step closer to Crome as we walk. I even start to lean on him a bit trying to get as far away from the walls as I can. Also, I use him to steady myself whenever I step on moss. It's all around the floor placed in random patches. I guess that's what Josh meant by 'green tunnel'.
Crome staggers to the left a bit and then moves abruptly from my left side. I stumble sideways when I have nothing to lean on and am about to fall when he appears on my right side and pulls me up.

"Why did you-" I begin to ask, but he points to the wall. He got in the middle of me and the wall, which makes me feel less tense. I look up at him, and I think I catch a faint, tiny smile.
"Thank you," I say nodding once. He holds my gaze and I can't seem to look away, though I can't see him clearly because of the dim light. But I do see his eyes. They're dark now, since the light isn't hitting them. I want to see how he looks at me. I want to know what he sees. I want to know what's so captivating about me that makes him stare for so long.
Suddenly he stiffens up, and looks around nervously. His sudden lack of bravery makes me afraid, so I look around too. No one looks back at us. I look back up at him worried.

"What?" I ask.
"You're not going to tell me what happened the other night?" He asks, whispering angrily at me.
"What?" I wonder.
"When you had a nightmare," he says.
"Oh..." I thought no one knew. Who else knows?
"You're not going to tell me?" He asks again, but softly without anger. Almost as if he sounds hurt.
"I didn't think anyone noticed," I explain. It's the only thing that comes to mind.
"I did. I was right next to you!" He says a bit louder. "I didn't wake you. I didn't know if I should. I was right there, why didn't you tell me? I mean..." he looks away ashamed and breaths in deeply.
"Crome?" I say still worried. I didn't know he cared.
"It's fine. You don't have to tell me."
"No, I'll tell you. I don't mind," I say slowly.
He looks at me for less than a second, and I didn't catch what the look on his face was. I have no idea if he's mad or sad or hurt or plain curious.

"It was a memory, kind of. I felt like I was reliving it. It's weird, but just listen." He nods, so I continue.
"I was young and we were in a classroom. The teacher was saying the same things as any other day. There was nothing different. Until a girl stood up and told the teacher she was lying." Crome stiffens up next to me, then sneaks a quick look at me. I Ignore his reaction and continue, focusing hard to try and remember every detail.
"She told the teacher something about the buildings not being home. Then they argued and the girl started crying. I turned to her, to try to help her, but she started asking me if I remembered. She started naming other kids that weren't from the buildings. It was strange. It didn't make sense. Then she asked if I remembered trees. And the craziest thing is... that I did. And I still do. It's not clear, but I do remember. I don't know exactly where I remember it from."