Just because things didn't go as planned doesn't mean we should sit in our room sulking the whole day. So we left the hotel, mom had given me 200 dollars as the allowance for the week and 50 dollars to Leo because he started complaining about how he never gets anything just because he is young. He handed me his money to keep it safe and we were on our way to the parking lot. We found our bicycles parked in a row with other bicycles similar to it with other people's name tags.
Atlantica had more bicycles and scooters than cars on the road. Most people walked while some had scooters and many had bicycles. We were out of the parking lot and we took a small ride around the block. The whole block was filled with hotels. Atlantica is a huge tourist attraction. We moved to the side and checked our map. Sure enough, it had a huge list of places to visit. Leo suggested that we stick to the ones that are closest to the hotel for today since we are already tired from the ride here and since it was already 3:30 pm.
"So... where do you wanna go first? There are a few places that are close to our hotel. Atlantica seashore? The creep museum? Central park? Termite swamp? Hafnius's magic store?" I asked reading out the names from the tourist map.
"Huh? What's with the creepy names like termite swamp and the creep museum? And how is a magic store a tourist attraction?" Leo asked with a confused look on his face.
"I dunno!" I just shrugged. "It says here that the magic shop has some really cool tricks that we have never seen before in our entire lives and the termite swamp is a place for horror adventure. So is the creep museum."
"How's a museum supposed to be scary?" Leo asked.
"You wanna find out?" I asked in a teasing way as if challenging him to it.
"Uhh... I guess yeah. What would be so scary about a museum? Probably a bunch of wax monsters and stuffed ghosts." Leo said while climbing onto his bicycle ready to go there.
We arrived back in the room after 6 pm and Leo still looked pale. Apparently, a museum can be scary if it has life-like horror stuff in it. It was like a long tunnel with monsters on either side. They even had an actor play Frankenstein and chase random people. I guess that actor saw Leo as an easy target and decided to chase him for a while. I, on the other hand, had a good laugh seeing Leo run away from a hired actor in a costume.
We had our dinner in a restaurant nearby with our parents and Cleo and we told mom and dad all about what we did today. After dinner, we went to our rooms and slumped onto our beds tired and ready to doze off into dreamland. That was a fun day. I can't wait to do that again tomorrow. I started to doze off but Leo's voice made me wake up, "Lera?" He called out in a shaky tone.
"What is it, Leo?" I asked back in a sleepy tone.
"Can we do something less scary tomorrow?" Leo asked getting up and looking at me with puppy eyes.
"We can discuss that tomorrow. We will have a look at the map, okay? We will find a nice not-so-scary place to go, don't worry." I said as I rolled to the side and shut my eyes. I could barely keep them open.
I had a dreamless sleep... At least I think it was dreamless. It was pitch black, but I kept hearing something. Someone was calling my name as if whispering it, 'Lera... Lera...' and then I heard Leo's name being called out. I woke up startled from my dream only to realize it was only 2 am. I went back to sleep. This time, it wasn't pitch black, I was in a cave. But the cave was bright at the beginning of the dream but slowly turned darker and darker. In the end, there was only a small circle of light around me. And then the circle of light on the ground turned into a hole and swallowed me.
YOU ARE READING
The Whispering Caves
Short Story6 paths and which one will lead outside? Lera and Leo go exploring around Atlantica on their own because their parents were busy at work on their vacation. They lose their way and in hopes of finding people that could point them the right way, they...
