Dipping Into Together

Ch 18

I stopped, as if being waken up suddenly, and stepped back from the bloody mess of a man that laid sprawled out across the bathroom floor. His back was cut and bloody, but I knew that even though he was unconscious now, he wouldn’t be like that for long. He would be up, red with rage, sooner that I’d like, probably.

Thinking quickly, and trying not to panic I reached over and felt his pocket, feeling a metallic bulge. I reached inside his pocket and pulled out some keys. Gripping them, I kept the pipe in my hand and backed away. Once I was in the hallway, I reached over and shut the door.

Then I bolted.

Everything was a blur except the stairs under my feet. Practically flying, I raced through the house and out the back door, barely registering the fact that I had closed it behind me before I was tripping over my own feet scrambling towards the deep woods at the edge of the yard. Running through the trees, I scanned the area for a shed of some sort, nothing, nothing. C’mon! Where is it?

“JONAH!”

I knew it was stupid to try and yell, because he wouldn’t be able to hear me, nor me him. I groaned in frustration and kept running like a mad man. I had to find him.

I tripped and stumbled, but then, I saw it. Way  back, behind a gigantic oak tree, was a small wooden shed. I must have floated, because I didn’t even realize I was moving until I almost ran into the shed. I yanked the door, but it didn’t budge. Remembering the keys, I thrust the first one in and turned, nothing. The second, nothing. Third, click! It was probably the most beautiful sound that I had ever heard before in my entire life. Yanking open the door, I rushed in, instantly locating the iron door in the ground. The first key I tried unlocked it, and I hefted the door open, grunting quietly at the weight of it.

“Jonah!” I screamed, sticking my head down in the hole, darkness stared back at me, but there was no response. Maybe he’s sleeping, I thought. Hopping down into the hole I felt around for him. “Jonah?” My hands just hit dirt, dirt, dirt. No Jonah. “Jonah! Where the hell are you?” I practically screamed.

Silence.

“Shit, shit, shit.”  I kept feeling around. And then, under my fingertips, I feel something rough and thin. I grasp whatever it is and feel it. The ropes, Jonah’s ropes. Had he escaped? Where was he? Shit, why didn’t I bring a flashlight? 

“JONAH!”

Uncle is knocked out, I am free.

And Jonah is gone.

I quickly crawl out of the hole and lift myself back into the shed. Then I hear something that almost makes me wet myself, footsteps, heavy ones. Knowing that that’s not Jonah, I quickly get up and peek out the window. I cover my mouth to hide my scream as I see a very bloody Uncle running as fast as he can towards the shed. I know I can’t leave because by the time I get to the door he’d be there, and I couldn’t beat him twice, I just wasn’t strong enough. Seeing no other options, I slid back into the hole and scurried over into the darkness. Surprisingly, I didn’t hit a dirt wall, it just kept going, so I kept crawling. I couldn’t see anything, which was terrifying as hell, but I felt the dirt beneath my fingertips and my kneecaps and I knew that I had no other choice. I heard Uncle’s voice, but stayed silent and motionless. Now that I was still I could hear Uncle.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. “Where’d they go?” He paused, and then there was a loud thud.

He was in the hole.

Shit, shit, shit.

My eyes practically popping out of my head in fear, I stayed absolutely still as I stared ahead into darkness. I was almost positive that he couldn’t see me, but I had no idea, really, there was no way of knowing for sure since he was behind me and I couldn’t see him.

I somehow felt his presence, Jonah’s, I mean. I knew that he wasn’t near me, but something told me that he was okay, he wasn’t dead. But right now, that wasn’t going to help me at all.

Eventually Uncle raised himself out of the hole and closed the door, leaving me in complete darkness. Feeling an immense amount of panic coming on, I continued to crawl forward, trying for the life of me not to think about the situation that I was in. Did Jonah dig all the way out to freedom? It kind of sounds stupid, and I know that it’s probably impossible, given the fact that he didn’t have anything to dig with.

Suddenly, I heard sirens pierce through the air. The police! They were here! They would save me! Crawling quickly over to the ceiling door, I pushed on it. It was locked. Shit! I started to panic.

“HELP!” I screamed. “HELP! HELP! I’M IN HERE!” I strained my ears, trying to listen. I heard something, I didn’t know what it was though. “HELP ME! HELP! HELP!” I banged on the iron door. I shouted and screamed and thrashed about. “HELP ME! HELP! HELP!”

Then, suddenly, I fall silent. I don’t move; I don’t yell; I don’t anything. Like I’m a balloon, I deflate. A long, ragged breath escapes my lips and I slump against the dirt wall. Yelling won’t help, crying won’t help. From somewhere within me, a little voice is screaming that I need to keep going. But instead, I just push myself up and kneel on the ground, clasp my hands together, and pray. I pray like I’ve never prayed before.

When I was finished, I decided that the only thing I could do was continue crawling into the darkness. So I turned around and did just that. I hadn’t gotten very far before my hand brushed up against a something cold and hard and smooth with sharp, rough edges. Pausing, I delicately ran my hand all over the metal object. It was circular. It was just a circular slate of metal. What was this? Then, while running my hand along its surface, it suddenly became bumpy. Writing, maybe? I found where the engraving started and felt the grooves of the first letter. It was curved but had straight lines as well. It didn’t really feel like any letter that I knew. Maybe it wasn’t even a letter. Growing frustrated, I moved on to the next one. Feeling it, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the movement of the letter. It was all lines, no curves. Three lines all connected to one longer line.

E!

But wait, no, E’s face the other way. A realization dawned on me. I was reading it upside down. Duh! Feeling along the edges of the slat of wood, I hefted it up and rotated it so that the letters were now facing me. It was hard to do in complete darkness, all of this. All of it was hard. Before I started to panic about my whole situation, I felt along to the actual start of the word. All curves, like a snake. That one was easy. It was an S. S and an E so far. That could be a lot of things. Alright, next one. All lines again, another E. Next. Lots of sharp turns and points. Down, up, down, up. W! S-E-W. That’s the start of a lot of words. Alright, next one I already know, another E. So, SEWE. Hm, no bells are ringing. Sighing, I move onto the last one, tracing it, breathing slowly, my eyes closed. Curves and straight lines.

I knew the word.

Sewer.

Of course! This was the lid to the sewer! Which means…there had to be an opening somewhere close that would lead to the sewer!

Taking a deep breath, I thought about what I knew about sewers. One, they contained enormous amounts of crap, which was a downside. But right now, that didn’t even matter, really. In bigger cities they lead to septic tanks. Racking my brain, I tried to think if I ever had a discussion about where the sewers here lead, because that would be immensely helpful at the moment.

I decided it didn’t matter where it lead; I was as good as dead if I didn’t go. So, feeling around in front of me I continued crawling. I was feeling along for what felt like only seconds, sweeping my hands to and fro across the dirt, when suddenly the dirt gave way to air, and I fell forward, my face hitting the dirt, and my shoulder falling into nothing. Wrenching my arm back up, I righted myself and stared down into darkness. I had found it. I suppose I should’ve been ecstatic, but I didn’t even know if there was any water in this sewer, maybe it was an old sewer, and if so, there would just be concrete beneath me, and I didn’t know how far I would fall, I might break my legs. If I break my legs, I’m dead.

I sit back on my butt and scoot my legs forward hanging them down into the hole. Then slowly, griping the edge of the hole, I lower myself down, down, down, until I’m hanging in midair. My feet touch nothing. I hang there, trying to get the courage to drop. My hands are sweating, making my fingers slip against the metal ridge. I’m losing my grip. Panicking, I look below me with wide eyes. But it doesn’t matter if my eyes are opened or closed.

Because all I see is black.