Call of Pandemonium (Open Novella Contest)

The Underground City

I was so disoriented after that run I could barely see straight. The first thing I saw once Kirby put us down was about a hundred different buildings jutting out over the horizon like rows of jagged teeth. 

I could already tell this place would be worse than in the last town. 

June and I collapsed on the ground, trying to get the breath back in our lungs. Somehow we were the ones exhausted even after we had been carried the entire way. When Kirby let go of us, I ended up half-submerged in a puddle of mud. June could not help laughing at that. 

She stopped laughing once I splashed some mud all over that pretty face. She was not too happy about it, splashing me in revenge. It went back and forth like that until we were both caked in mud, looking more like monsters than people. 

"Congratulations, now we get to march into town looking like we came from a swamp," I remarked. 

"You should thank me, the mud's an improvement," June replied. Instead of getting angry, I let out a short laugh. To my surprise, she started laughing too. 

A strange sound echoed all around them. There was something both happy and kind of unnerving about it. Someone was humming in the middle of this place. They were humming a tune so preppy and annoying it made me want to plug my ears. 

Where was that coming from?

An old man with a beard and razor-sharp horns appeared from the shadows. He had a scraggly goatee that reminded me of those old depictions of the devil. He was digging through the dirt, collecting worms that were hiding deep beneath the mud. 

When he noticed the two of us lying there, he gave us a wide grin that set off every alarm bell inside my mind. Then he gave us a toothy grin, showing an impossible sharp set of teeth hiding inside his mouth. 

"How's it going there children?" the man asked, in what was supposed to be a jovial way. I was not buying it for a second.

"I'm as old as human civilization, calling me a child makes you wrong," I shot back, not willing to give him the satisfaction of making me seem young. I guess it was a compliment, though, so I was a little bit flattered.

"My bad, I've been wandering this place for so long I can't tell what's what anymore," the old man mumbled to himself. "How long would that be?" June asked, getting curious. She was being a little too friendly for my liking. If there was anybody not to trust in this place, it was creepy old men wandering on their own.

I looked around, realizing I forgot something. Kirby was missing. He vanished as soon as they arrived.

"Hey, did you see a boy who looked kind of like a dog around here?" I asked, getting suspicious immediately. The man grinned mockingly. "He must have run away, you know how folks can be down here. Always deceiving, always cheating one another. It's like an art," he told them.

I knew that this was the time to start running from this guy. I grabbed June by the wrist and started dragging her away. Anything was better than listening to this guy talk for another hour. 

"I'd be careful out there kids, the worms are getting hungry tonight," he told them. I wondered why he even bothered to use the word night. Time was irrelevant here. The sky was a stone ceiling covered in stalactites. At least, I hoped that's what they were. They could have been the teeth of some bigger monster.

While I was doing everything in my power to get away, the old man got into a conversation with someone hiding behind a jutting rock formation.

"Why do you bother with people like that?" the old man asked. A child-like voice was the one to respond.