The Underground City of Cinders

Chapter 4

The ride to his city was mostly silent but after a while, Dimitri broke the silence, "I hope you will like it there. The city really is a marvel."

I nodded only half hearing what he said, still absorbed in my thoughts. He continued to talk to me but I was only listening occasionally. I was consumed with thoughts of what the city would look like and how I would feel when we got there. I looked out the window and watched as the trees whooshed by. Swirling colors of greens and browns painted the landscape and it was peaceful. I smiled and soon the car started to slow and gradually it came to a stop.

I looked over at Dimitri and noticed a tollbooth right outside his window. The man outside the car recognized Dimitri almost immediately, "Welcome home Dimitri."

Dimitri nodded at the man and eased the car through the now open gate. After going through the iron gate, the car entered a tunnel. For the first couple hundred yards the tunnel was pitch black except for the headlights on the car. I couldn't see much except concrete and the occasional steel support beam on the side of the tunnel. I gazed into the complete blackness ahead of us and soon I could see tiny lights.

It wasn't long before the tunnel began to widen. I was astounded by what I saw. The whole inside of the tunnel was a city. Buildings and houses were built into the tunnel walls and there were roads and stoplights everywhere. I was even more amazed no one has ever found this place.

Dimitri looked over at me and smiled at the look of astonishment on my face. He chuckled, "You like?"

I nodded, unable to say anything. After a few seconds of recovering, I managed to say, "Wow. This place is amazing."

Dimitri laughed again, "So you're going to be staying then?"

I looked over at him with a look of growing concern, "Dimitri... don't get me wrong, this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen but... this is a little too much to process at one time."

He nodded in understanding, "I felt the exact same way when I first came here."

I stared at him for a moment, "When exactly was that?"

He was silent for a second, lost in deep thought, "I was brought here on the anniversary of my twentieth birthday so February 8."

"Of this year?"

He shook his head and chuckled, "No. I came here in 2000."

So that means Dimitri has been a vampire for a while. "So you're a teenager in vampire years?"

As we pulled up to a stoplight he threw his head back with laughter, "Oh no Elizabeth. I'm quite a few years older than that."

"Twenty?" I ventured. He shook his head at me and pointed up at the roof with his thumb. Older? "Thirty?"

Pulling into a parking lot, he switched off the car and shook his head in amusement, "Liz, if you keep guessing like that we are going to be here all day."

My face scrunched up in confusion, "A hundred?"

Dimitri smiled, "Closer."

"Two hundred?"

His smile widened, "Ah you're close enough. I have been a vampire for two hundred and eighteen years."

I nodded not quite comprehending what he was telling me. "Where were you before you came here?" I asked tentatively.

Dimitri shrugged, "Oh you know...here and there. I mostly bounced around from city to city. Coven to Coven."

"What's a Coven?"