Aimilios wouldn't have thought this possible, but the tunnel was colder and darker than it had been outside. She kept on squeezing Castor's hand, attempting to keep the feeling in her fingers, which had gone numb. The siblings were following Corinna deeper and deeper underground, trying to remain upright on the damp steps, the darkness engulfing them almost completely. Eventually, the stairs stopped, and Aimilios walked straight into Corinna. 'Well done Twinkle-Toes.' The younger girl said, looking more amused than annoyed. 'Sorry.' She mumbled, letting go of Castor's frozen fingers, and flexing her own. 'Why have we stopped?' Asked her brother, his voice strained and panicky. Guilt suddenly crashed down on Aimilios, how could she have forgotten? Castor was claustrophobic, and this confined space deep under he city probably wasn't the best environment for him to be in right now. Before Aimilios could point out the situation to Corinna, there was a clicking sound and the groan of old hinges, a door had been opened.
The room was bare and grey, made of concrete. Lining the sides were metal racks, holding black trays containing old nails, hammers, even a gun or two. 'This is the entrance room,' Said Corinna 'any weapons you have will have to be left here.' Aimilios' hand instinctively flew to her pocket, gripping the leather handle of her knife, a small ball of metal was tied to the handle, used to make fires. 'Why? What if we need them for self protection?' Corinna laughed, although it was devoid of much humour. 'You're new, you won't need any weaponry, apart from the kit we give you. Just hand over any recognisable weaponry you have on you, and we can get out of this claustrophobic hell.' Aimilios didn't hesitate, she pulled out her knife, and placed in the small, empty tray that the younger girl was holding out. 'You?' Corinna asked, rounding on Castor. 'Got nothin' on me.' He said, putting up his hands after turning out his pockets, an empty packet of jelly-beans fell to the floor. 'Apart from that.' He blushed and bent down to pick up the wrapper.
'Well then, follow me.'
'What else were we supposed to do? Tap Dance?' Mumbled Castor. Aimilios laughed and trailed behind the two of them, noticing odd things like the way that Castors claustrophobia had hardly shown in the time that they had been down in the tunnel, and how Corinna was ignoring the boy almost completely, sneaking glances at him now and then. She smirked and stopped behind them when they reached a door at the end of the room, brown, with a rusted silver handle. 'You two better not try anything funny down here.' Said Corinna, taking Aimilios by surprise at the sudden change of tone in her voice. 'Why would we do that?' The girl didn't answer, she just gave Aimilios a look that said very clearly she didn't want to talk about it.
Corinna opened the door, to reveal something the two siblings thought they would never see again. Slouching on a blue sofa in the middle of what looked to be a bomb explosion site, watching football on a television, was a boy of about sixteen. You could only see half of his face due to the angle of the sofa, but Aimilios could still make out his features; he had short, messy brown hair that looked like it needed a serious comb, and green eyes
Corinna cleared her throat in a somewhat embarrassed manner and pushed Aimilios and Castor through the door. The boy's head snapped around, and Aimilios saw that there was a thin scar running down the left side of his face, giving him an almost permanent scowl. Almost permanent, because when he say the group, his face lit up into such a smile that anyone would have thought it was his birthday.
'Well hello there sister, good looking guy you picked up there!'
Aimilios' eyes widened, and she quickly looked over at Castor to see his reaction. It was priceless; he had gone completely ridged, his eyes looking to his left at Corinna, who was staring at the boy with a look of murder plastered across her face.
'Wait' said Castor, coming out of his state of shock 'sister?'
The younger girl sighed and walked towards the boy on the sofa and turned to face the two siblings. 'Castor, Aimilios, this is my brother Joshua. Joshua this is Aimilios and Castor.' She said in a monotone. Joshua smirked and nodded, his smirk widening when his sister started off to the table football in the corner of the room. 'Ok then,' he said 'who wants pizza?'
