Forget the Forgotten

Chapter Seventeen

First of all, they made themselves new torches. Nick used the old clothes lying around, even though they stank. The new ones burned better than the old ones. This time Amelia made sure everyone got one. She didn't want to have to fight about it again. When Nick finished, he shook the can of lighter fluid.

"Empty," he said, and threw it away. "That means there'll be no more new torches after these."

*Oh, no,* Amelia thought. *I can't stand this darkness again. I'll die if we are stuck in the dark again.*

"Then we'd better get going," she said aloud.

No one protested.

*This is the first time today that we all agree,* thought Amelia with a grim smile.

"I saw a cross passage that will probably lead us back to the water puddle," Nick said. "Come on."

They walked with quick steps. No one spoke.

Amelia tried not to think about the red mist. But she couldn't get the images of Tom out of her mind.

That thing had killed him. It was just a kind of mist - yet this mist was alive. She could have sworn that it had breathed. But how was that possible? What was that cloud? A monster? A ghost?

*Anyway, we set it free,* she thought. *It must have been trapped behind that wall for a long time, waiting. And when Nick moved the stone, it could break through the wall.*

Amelia blinked to dispel those thoughts and focused on the path. To the left and to the right, countless tunnels and passages went down. All she could say for sure was where up was.

*And there's no way to get there,* she thought. *We're trapped down here. And we'll probably die down here too.*

Amelia gritted her teeth. She shouldn't have thought that way! She couldn't give up hope. Somehow she had to find a way out of here. They had no choice. They had to survive! But the tunnels would not stop.

"I'd like to know what's above us," Jacob said.

"The ceiling," Veronica replied dryly.

"I'm serious," Jacob replied. "If we could find out where we are and geographically, we could more easily return to the room with the ladder."

"Oh, and how do you intend to find out where we are geographically?" Nick asked mockingly. "Are you planning to pierce the cement and dig with your bare hands?"

Jacob did not answer him.

"Just keep going," Nick finally said.

"Yes, sir," Jacob growled softly.

"Amelia should be useful and use her twin telepathy to locate her sister," Veronica said seriously. Amelia stopped in her tracks and looked at Veronica's back. Did she really just say that?

"Stop, Veronica. Don't mention that. And also it doesn't work like that", Jacob replied annoyed. He looked back to Amelia and gave her a short smile.

"How would you know?"

"Because it is a myth. Nothing more. And I've known Amelia since we were little! Now stop talking about it. Please." said Jacob.

"You have a twin sister?" Nick now entered the conversation.

"Yes. Can we get back to our real problem now?" she said, looking down the tunnel, looking if the mist was already following them.

"Is she as pretty as you are?" Nick whispered to her, but Veronica heard it.

"Nick!," she snapped at him.

Amelia blushed and could not wipe off a grin. Meanwhile, they came into a small chamber. The floor was covered with garbage up to knee height - there was more here than in any other room they had discovered so far.

The stench was unbearable.

"Oh, man!" Nick choked, and he put his hand over his mouth.

"Great decision, Nick," Jacob muttered to himself. He tore up his shirt and held it in front of him.

"Keep it up if you want to end up upside down in this garbage," Nick said threateningly.

Amelia ignored them both. She could not stop staring at the walls. They were made of the same grey cinder concrete as the other walls of the maze. But they were all covered with old, faded graffiti. Red, yellow, blue, green and black colors. From floor to ceiling the same words were smeared over and over again:

LET'S PARTY! LET'S PARTY! LET'S PARTY!

It seemed almost hypnotic.

"Cool," whispered Nick.

"It's sick," contradicted Amelia trembling. It seemed to her as if a madman had written the same words on the walls over and over again.

"Why would anyone want to party in a shithole like this?" Jacob asked.

"Think about it," replied Nick. "No one to bother you. No complaints about too loud music. No cops. 100% privacy."

"If you survive," Amelia dryly remarked.

Her comment silenced the others.

"Let's get out of here," Veronica finally said. "This room gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, let's not stay here too long," Nick agreed with her.

On the opposite wall they discovered an entrance to another tunnel and went on. The stench of the littered chamber accompanied them and rose like steam from their clothes. Amelia had to breathe through her mouth to suppress the nausea. Her ankle hurt again and the limp exhausted her even more.

She could not understand why she had not yet found another way out of the maze. The ladder under the assembly hall of the school could not have been the only entrance.

There's just gotta be another way out of here. Amelia imagined how she would lift a manhole cover in the middle of the city and the traffic would come to a halt with squealing tires when four teenagers covered in dirt and blood emerged from the underground.

But she wouldn't mind. She wouldn't even mind coming out in the middle of Mr Grey's office. As long as they were safe.

"Slow down," Nick whispered. Amelia looked around. She had just entered a new room. It was bigger than the others and had a low ceiling. All around her was a pile of smashed furniture. A strange smell came into Amelia's nose. Somehow putrid...

"I know that smell," she thought as panic ran through her body again. She had first noticed it when the brick wall exploded right in front of them. Just before Tom finally...

She heard Nick gasping for air in fright.

And then she saw it, too.

The red mist.

Paralyzed with horror, Amelia watched as it gathered in the opposite corner as if it felt their presence. The stench was getting stronger. Amelia's neck hairs stood up as she heard the eerie sound of breathing.

"Oh no," she whispered.

The murderous red mist came towards them.

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1054 words

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