A Small Town

Chapter Thirty-Two\ Run

Bax ran through the pitch black tunnels dragging Lisa behind him. He held his other hand out in front to protect himself but when they came to the first 'T' junction it did nothing to stop him from crashing into the far wall.

He rubbed his head where it had hit the hard surface of the tunnel and checked his pockets hopelessly. No matches. Bax thought hard trying to remember the route they had taken to the LeTourneau farm but realized almost immediately that retracing their steps in the dark by memory alone would be impossible. He ran his hands over the rough surface of the walls that made up the three-way intersection but either he missed the marker or his fingers were not sensitive enough to distinguish the difference between it and the wall itself.

Sighing he gave Lisa's hand a reassuring squeeze and pulled her decisively down the right-hand tunnel hoping she would believe he knew exactly where they were going.

"Bax?"

Lisa's voice seemed incredibly loud and echoed around them in the darkness.

"SHHHHH!" Bax hissed, terrified that at any moment his outstretched hand would come up against Teddy or some other monster that lived in the pitch black of his imagination.

Lisa spoke again, but this time her voice was a dry whisper behind him.

"Bax... am I dreaming... is this really happening...?"

Bax didn't answer – couldn't answer. The terror in her words seemed to constrict his vocal cords and he swallowed involuntarily.

"... I was out in the forest," Lisa was sobbing now. "...and then... I almost... like Agathe LeTourneau did... with the tree..."

"No..." Bax choked out the word and she fell silent. He staggered forward pulling her with him into the blackness. His arm brushed the wall, sending a fresh wave pain and nausea through his core as the motion pulled the long cut there open further and sticky blood ran down the back of his hand.

"BAX-SHHH... BAx-shh...bax-shh... baxshh"

They stopped short, breathing hard from exertion and adrenaline. Teddy's slurred call echoed madly around them and for a moment Bax could have sworn he was standing only a few feet away. Just ahead there was a man-shaped shadow – darker than the darkness that surrounded them. Bax stared at it intently and then Teddy called again.

"Sssh-stop running Bax. I don't want you... jusssst the girl. Sss-she belongs to me... I need her!"

The voice was coming from behind them, Bax was sure of that now. But it was close, very close. He wanted to scream back. To tell Teddy to go fuck himself... to vent his fear and anger and frustration... but he bit down on the words. If he answered he would only give away them away. Teddy might not know which tunnel they had taken. That was their only advantage.

Bax turned away from the sound of Teddy's calls which continued in earnest and moved quickly and quietly along the tunnel with one hand on the wall. Lisa was matching him stride for stride now, her fear having gone to her legs as the reality of their situation hit home.

Bax had no reference of time in the complete darkness but he was sure they must have been moving through the tunnels for at least an hour when suddenly he realized he could see. Just shapes at first and then the black turned to purple and he could make out the walls of the tunnel and the floor and ceiling. Without a word, both he and Lisa turned right at the next branch of tunnels and the light grew until they could see everything.

Once again they were at the bottom of the well. Bax stared up at the circle of night with its glittering stars longingly and tried to decide what to do.

Finally, he turned to Lisa, "I'll climb out and then lower the rope bucket down and pull you up."

Lisa nodded her understanding and Bax turned to the curved wall of the well and began searching for handholds. He slipped his fingers into a crack and pulled himself up a few inches. Finding a chink in the mortar his braced his foot and pushed up another half foot then reached with his other hand. Slipping his fingers into a convenient hole he pulled with all his strength and... the wall buckled as the brick pulled out of place with a wet sucking sound.

Bax fell back and three more bricks dislodged and clunked to the ground. The wall was nothing more than mud. It would never hold his weight. Never the less he tried again with the same result. He threw a handful of mud and crumbling brick to the floor in disgust and was about to try again when Lisa put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's no good Bax," She said quietly. "It'll never hold you... let me try."

He opened his mouth to protest, then closed it knowing she was right. "Okay," he sighed. "But be careful..."

She nodded and moved to another part of the wall that was still intact. Her long thin fingers slid easily between the bricks and into the soft mortar. She pulled herself up and then found a foothold and began to ascend. Bax watched in amazement as she rose steadily towards the circle of night sky far above.

Twice bricks came away as she tried to use them for support. The first missed hitting Bax by less than an inch as he dove out of the way at the last second. The second found its mark striking him in the thigh as he peered down the tunnel leading away from the well at some imagined movement.

Bax screamed in pain and then clamped his jaw shut. He waited, holding his breath and then just as he had started to believe Teddy had given up the call came.

"I hear you, Bax-shhh! I'm cominggg" Teddy's voice had a sing-song cadence to it as if he was playing a game... perhaps it was a game to him.

Once again Bax did not answer. Instead, he counted to five in his head and looked up to see how Lisa was doing. She was only a few feet from the top when she slipped.

Lisa's left foot suddenly lost its purchase on whatever lip or hole it was using for support and flailed out into nothingness. The force of the movement pulled her left hand away from the wall and she hung there twisting in the wind with only the first two fingers of her right hand holding her entire weight. Lisa twisted her body and her bare left foot brushed against the wall but then her momentum swung her away.

Bax watched in horror as she slipped further down the wall, her fingers now dragging downward through the muddy wall itself. As she swung back, she kicked fiercely at the stone interior, sinking her toes into the soft surface and stopping her slide. She jammed her left hand into the wall and heaved herself up another foot and continued climbing that way, ramming her bare feet and hands into the mushy surface until she was at the top.

He watched her feet disappear over the edge and gave a sigh of relief. As he waited for the bucket to come down, he decided that Lisa wouldn't be able to pull him up. No matter, he was sure he could plant his feet on the wall and use the rope to walk up the side like a mountaineer. Not that he'd ever done anything like that before.

He stared up at the circle of sky, but still, the bucket did not come down. Where had Lisa gone? Had she abandoned him? He almost couldn't blame her, after all, Teddy was after her not him.

"Bax-shhh..."

He turned around at the sound of Teddy's voice. At the end of the long straight tunnel behind him the half tree half man thing was forming again. Trunk-like legs writhed out of the dirt floor and that jagged opening called his name again.

"Bax-shhh.... Where is she?"