Lost In Time

Chapter 4

“We’re just sitting watching TV, when a really bad smell came up from the basement. It smelled horrible. We walked down the steps, and there was a humming and a glowing blue light and we blacked out. When we woke up, we’re lying in a damp cell with mold, growing around the tops of the walls, and that same really bad smell again.”

“How did you get here, to my lab, and did anyone follow you?” Alden asks.

“We sat in the back corner, as far away as the gate to the cell as we could, when there was a grinding sound and stairs opened up, going down, and when we got to the bottom, we followed the tunnel. The tunnel took us here, and I don’t think we had been followed.” I say. Alden then makes us a cup of tea, and we sit down around a wooden table, that is covered in papers. Alden tells us that Natalya back on Earth, is getting people to help her, Nikkita; Alden’s trainee, and a boy name David. He also tells us that Natalya is planning to come to Areom, and then go to the other worlds, get help, make an army. Also then come to help Areom battle Aaron. We can’t speak or think, we’re too worried about Natalya. But then I think about how strong, and brave she is and my worries melt away like snow in a warm summer day.

            “So what should we do now?” I ask.

            “Well Lily, I’ve been trying to find a way to talk to my trainee, but so far I’ve had no luck, but there’s a room they call it the “Boiler room.” We use the boiler room to store our energy system. I can transform the radio, into a device that will contact Nikkita if it’s on the right channel.” Alden explains.

“Ok, but where is the boiler room?” I ask.

“It’s somewhere down here, and the only way to get to it is through the tunnels, but there’s another way in the Palace, also down here, but I don’t think we should go in there just yet.” Alden explains. After that he gives James and I a map each of the tunnels, and a lantern. Then we split up, James and I together, well Alden goes by himself. We go and search all the tunnels on the map, but before we can go down each, we become too tire. At this rate we’ll never find the boiler room! I think to myself. James and I decide to go back to the lab, and try again tomorrow, first thing in the morning. It is heard though to tell time down here in the darkness. As Lily and James slept, I, Alden work on my machines; I put a leather notebook down on the floor where the beam will be. The notebook I found on the bookcase with another copy just like the first one. In both notebooks I found something that looks like a prophecy. I don’t know what the prophecy means, nor do I try to figure them out. I want a challenge for Natalya and see if she is indeed smart. I had written on one and on the other copy the same sentence appeared. I take a step back towards the control panel. I had not told Lily or James what I had been working on when they had showed up.

I pull a lever down and there is a humming and a blue light and then it is gone just as quickly. Lily mutters in her sleep, and rolls over, but doesn’t wake up. I look back at the ground and the book is gone. I hope that I had repaired the machine right and on Earth. Nikkita has been on Earth for two days, but hasn’t been an Areom for three days. I shut down the computers and machines, walk over to the wall facing the door out into the tunnels, and knock twice and spoke “Omera,” the password that nobody would guess in a whisper. People only use that name for rituals, and speaking at the festival. There is a crash like heavy chains hitting the floor, a click and a wide door swings out.

I look back over to Lily and James’ sleeping forms, and step through the door, shutting the light off, and closing the door behind me. I grope along the wall next to the door and hit a lantern. I take it off the hook it is on and switch it on; I don’t dare use a real one in this room. If the room burns, the people and I of Areom would be in deep trouble. I walk down the long dark, damp, rotting corridor, till I reach a wooden door; I knock three times, and it swings open. Before I step in I run my hand through my hair pulling hard at the roots, trying to make it stick up all over the place. Through it isn’t hard to do since it’s always in a mess, and I rub my hands together trying to get them even more blacken. I then rub my face with my hands getting it all dirty and try to make it look like I’m a madman, and I switch off the lantern and step through the door, it closing makes a bang that rings through the darkness. “Hello? Are you there?” A voice came out of the gloom. “Please help me whoever you are!”

In a deep voice I reply cold, and menacing. “There is no mercy here!” I laugh like a madman.

“Please let me go! I won’t do you any harm!” The voice ends in a coughing fit.

“You sound thirsty do you want any water?” I ask in a low voice almost a whisper.

“No! Dust had just flown into my mouth please!” The voice wavers. The voice, his captor and torturer is silent for so long he thought he had left. Then he hears a low laugh that turns into a laugh of a madman. “If you’re sure: I don’t want you to die of thirst!” The captor laughs. There is a bang and a click that sounds like the door. And just a little square of light filters into the room so the capture boy can see five footsteps from the doorway. But the man is nowhere in sight. The light blinds the boy and for a few seconds, and then his eyes adjust to it. “I’ve come to check your chains, and to let you see what you’re missing because of what you had done.” The captor says in a low voice off to the left somewhere.

“I am sorry sir! I was just doing what I was paid to do!” The boy in chains pleads.

“Well, it’s too late for that!” I say. I stick to the shadows so the boy can’t see me and I tighten the chains a little bit more. Then I step back towards the wall and inch my way to the door. I clap my hands three times, too quietly so the prisoner can’t hear, and the door swings close with a slap. I walk up to the boy till I can feel his hot dry breath on my face. “So who made you do this? Are you in the Dark Lord’s army?” I whisper and laugh loudly when the boy flinch.

“Yes! I’m terribly sorry sir! But they threaten my family with death if I didn’t do it they’re probably dead by now.” The boy says his voice wobbling like he is about to cry.

“Oh man up will you boy! If you’re in the army you shouldn’t be so soft! I can’t believe they let a wimp like you be in the army!” I laugh.

“Are you going to kill me sir?” The boy asks.

“Sadly no, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” I whisper. For a second the man sounds like a wounded young man. The boy got a rare glimpse of the real man, who wasn’t driven mad by the loss of his trainee. But in that second I recover. I walk by the door, and slowly walk along the wall, till I kick a metal dog bowl. I pick it up fill it with water and walk back to the prisoner. I hold it up to the crack lips and let him drink till the bowl is empty.

I put the water bowl back by the wall, walk to the doorstep where I will not be seen or heard, and I knock three times and it swings open. Again the boy is blind for a second, and that is all I need. I slip through the cracks, clap three times, quickly, switch the lantern on again and is halfway to the door, before the boy can see again.