Depthless: Under The Library

Chapter Seventeen// David

David’s POV

The moment Skye disappeared down the chasm, an astonished silence settled upon the thick crowd present, gathered at the edge of the death pit. The moment passed, and I hear a high-pitched shriek from somewhere in the crowd. The people shifts, and a dark skinned girl pushes her way through the sea of people.

Nikki’s usual preppy, twinkly almond eyes now brim with tears. “Skye!” She wails.

Seeing her cryng for her best friend, the dread I had felt is now washed away by grim determination. Gripping myself in one shape, I stagger towards the the opening. This time, it’s Stella who pulls me back. “No, don’t stand. Don’t look down.”

She’s staring down as she speaks. My eyes trail towards the pit, and I see what she is talking about. About fifty feet wide in diameter, standing atop the opening of the chasm, I feel suspended, as if with the slightest push, I’d plunge straight into its pits. From this high, the void looks dark, stretching with a giddying jaggedness of rocks, leaving me with a light-headed feeling. The feeling is similar to being hypnotized, well, I’d never been into hypnotism, but this is the feeling I’d imagine it to be.

My stomach churns, gazing down into the bizarre emptiness, the dark pit, so absurd, so gigantic, leading to the depths of the Earth. Suddenly, my lunch is threatening to make a reappearance. I gulp. “What are we going to do?” I whisper, struck with fear.

To my surprise, Stella remains a calm attitude. She lowers herself onto the ground, and lies on her stomach. Motioning me to follow suit, she wriggles towards the opening of the chasm. I had no choice but to drop to my stomach, however awkward that position seems to be. With some difficulty, I wriggle to the edge of the opening.

“It’s easier to lay on our side and gaze down.” Stella informs me, her voice lone and lost in the extreme vastness of the space stretching downwards from where we lay, on our bellies.

I find that what she said is actually true. In this position, I could gaze into the pit without feeling that I’m going to topple over with the slightest gust of wind. My sense of balance is improved, I’m more stable laying like this. Gingerly, I creep to the edge and look down, unsure of what I was going to see.

As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I mentally prepare myself for a grotesque scene, involving smashed bodies and tons of blood.

“I can’t see anything.” Stella’s voice strains. She crawls to the other side of the chasm, straining her neck into the dark void.

“Niko!” I call out, as loud as I could. We waited. And waited. It was a tense situation.

All of a sudden, I hear a whimpering noise, barely audible.

“Over there!” Stella points to the left. “Niko! Are you alright?”

A small, strained voice wafts upwards, one word, ringing clear in everyone’s mind:

“Help.”

My gut feeling told me something is wrong, terribly wrong with Niko. My stomach twists at the thought of crawling in there and hoisting the injured boy up. God only knows what happened to Skye.

I throw Stella a desperate glance. She returns with a determined expression. Her eyes shone fiercely, and she gripped the edge of the chasm tightly. “We need to get there. Reach him.” She says.

Dumbfounded, I respond, “And how are we going to do that?” It seemed impossible. For all we know, Niko is hanging suspended, holding onto some lucky weed at the side of the pit. Skye… she could be anything from unconscious to… I don’t want to think about the possibilities.