Island Has Ghosts

Chapter 12

They walked in complete silence and as hurriedly as they could in the darkness. It was so quiet that Vsevolod could hear Violet's breathing. On the one hand, he was grateful to her for not asking questions, because any led to 'explosive' topics. But on the other, the grave silence of the underground cemetery was becoming too unbearable.

"Where could the dog have disappeared to?" He couldn't stand the silence. Because of the terrible discovery, they had forgotten about the dog that had shown them the way on the way to the tower. There was no other way out of the cellar, and the deadbolt on the tower door could not be opened by the dog, but he was not in the tunnel.

"Is that what you're thinking, too?" Violet responded with obvious eagerness. She was afraid, desperately afraid, but she hid it carefully. No wonder she was afraid, if he, who was not a fearful man, was uncomfortable! And yet she was a good girl: she did not complain, did not wail, did not shriek, even though she knew what lay ahead of them. Or, on the contrary, like him, she doesn't know, which is even worse. If Angela had been walking down the tunnel with him, she would have long ago pestered him with whims, cries, and demands to do something.

"Yeah. A dog can't just disappear into thin air. Unless it's a ghost, of course..."

The joke was a bad one, Vsevolod realized it at once. Even without seeing Violet, he felt her increased fear.

"I think there's another way through here that we didn't see," he added hastily. "We'll have to keep our eyes peeled to see if we miss it."

"This island is riddled with underground passages," Violet said.

She was walking so close to him now, after his joke about ghosts, that he could feel the warmth of her body against his back. And it did not irritate, but, on the contrary, liked it. So much so that Vsevolod could barely resist the urge to turn around, put his arms around her and kiss her again, only not roughly, but gently and long. Maybe he would have done so, if Violet, who had no idea what he was thinking, had not spoken again:

"This all sounds familiar to me somehow. Deja vu! Don't you think this isn't the first time we've traveled through tunnels like this? Not counting the way to the tower, of course."

"I think so," he agreed, "except that there were no bodies. And no stairs."

"We didn't come by boat. We came on our own," Violet supported, "it really could have been an excursion - for example, to see the underground passages and caves. I remembered that there were brochures scattered on the reception desk, and one interested me..."

"There's a hole!" interrupted Vsevolod, noticing that behind the tree roots overhanging into the tunnel, a large black spot on the wall. He knelt down and studied the hole. A large man, let alone a slender girl, could squeeze through. But it was low, so it would be a crawl. Violet stood behind him, silently studying the tunnel entrance. Her doubts were clear to him.

"We have two ways," Vsevolod said, straightening up, "or we go forward, through the dead. We know where we'll go, but it's a long way. Or, alternatively, we can try this tunnel. But we'll have to crawl through it, and we don't know what lies ahead. Take your pick!"

"And if the tunnel is blocked?"

"Then either we move back or we clear it. I brought a hatchet from the hospital."

"You only crawl under the ground," sighed Violet, "no bandages, no antibiotics..."

"Lying in bed and clicking the remote control is not an option either," Vsevolod parried. First of all, she was not worried about the fact that they might have to meet dead people, but cared about his well-being. "I'm fine. Better than yesterday."