A Dark Secret

Chapter 8

I could feel the cold ground, uncomfortable, yet relaxing at the same time. I could tell I was laying on my back, and I did a quick response check, wiggling my toes, fingers, hands, arms, and legs. Satisfied that I had no injuries and was not restrained, I focused on my main question, where was I? Then it all came back. Someone had deliberately knocked me unconscious. But why? Was I at the right house? I'm sure I am, I triple checked before transporting from the zeta-tube. Maybe this was Wally's idea of a funny prank? No, Wally pranks, but not this far. Maybe they were Wally's neighbors? Well, if so I should warn Wally he has very evil neighbors...Wait...Wally! He was the whole reason I came here anyway. The thought that my best friend, my brother, could be in danger made my blood run cold. I forced myself to open my suddenly very heavy eyelids and become face-to-face with...

Darkness. Searing darkness. I willed my eyes to adjust to the dark, which only took a couple of seconds because Batman had trained me to adjust to difficult conditions easily, and realized that the reason the room was so damn cold was that I was in a basement. A rather large one too. There was open space where I was laying, now sitting, and past that was rows and rows of shelves, lined with all sorts of things, candles, flashlights, medical kits, blankets, a pile of rocks, batteries, and more medical stuff. It looked like Wally's private lair. Maybe it was.

I looked around, seeing nothing rather dangerous, I walked around the room, feeling the walls for something, anything to get me out of here, wherever here was. There was no light switch, rather, no light switch that I could find, which was odd considering the fact that this was a basement, and dark, and someplace a regular human being would want a light switch for. But then again regular human beings don't go around knocking out random kids that show up at their doorstep and lock them in large basements. Also, I had no matches for the candles and found all battery boxes to be empty. Woo hoo, no light for me.

Finally, I found what I was looking for, a door. I tested the handle, it was a pull handle. I grabbed it and pulled. The door didn't budge. I re-adjusted my hold on the door and pulled, still nothing. I re-adjusted my hold for a second time, this time throwing all my weight against it and yanking back. Nothing. Then I heard a small noise and a voice.

"I-it doesn't w-work Dick. I t-tried already. They l-l-locked us in from o-outside."