AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay…now what?” Derik asked.
“Now,” Morgan said, stepping toward the blockade, “we goin.”
Without waiting for a reply from Derik, she approachedthe mine entrance and started to climb over the blockade. It was a challenge,but she managed to slip through a gap between the old concrete and wood where ithad worn away, certainly the same passage countless local teens and intrepid,immature explorers had used in the past. Derik followed her lead, and they bothmade their way into the mines.
The air inside was stale and musty, and the groundbeneath their feet was uneven and rocky. It was dark, too, but Derik hadbrought a flashlight from the car. He shone it ahead of them as they walked.
They made their way through the winding tunnels, theirfootsteps echoing off the walls. Morgan couldn’t help the nagging feeling thatthey were being watched. As they walked deeper into the mine, Morgan could feela sense of unease creeping up on her. It was as if the walls were closing in onher, suffocating her with their darkness. She tried to shake it off, focusingon the mission at hand.
She was surprised that there weren’t many passages thatbroke off from the primary one. She spotted two but they had been blocked offmuch more efficiently than the major entrance out by the river. For just amoment, she felt incredibly trapped—as if there would never be a way out ofhere. She recalled her father telling her how dangerous this place was, how somany people had gone missing in these tunnels.
A slow, calming breath was all it took to get her backunder control.
As they walked deeper into the mine, guided by theflashlight beam, Morgan started to notice the detritus of recent visitors.There were old soda cans and bottles, beer cans, even fast-food wrappers.
Morgan’s heart started to race. She knew they were on theright track. She continued to follow the tunnels until she saw what looked likethe end of the tunnel. They quickened their pace until they couldn’t gostraight anymore. Here, small pathways bent to the right and left away from thetunnel they’d been following.
“See this?” Derik asked, coming to a stop and pointingthe flashlight beam down to the ground.
She looked down and saw a dusting of copper by her feet.There was much more of it here than at the beginning. She was quite sure therewas copper in the walls, giving off a rather dull gleam in the glow of Derik’sflashlight.
With this new discovery, they opted to take the pathwayto the right and found that it was the right decision almost instantly. They bothstopped for a moment, looking into the chamber ahead of them. Derik uttered acurse under his breath.
The chamber was about the size of a small bedroom, butthe ceiling was at least twenty feet over their head. There were three smallwooden benches in the chamber, one of which was adorned with a variety ofcandles. Most were white, but two were red. They were all in various stages ofhaving been burned, the wax having pooled on the benches and the stone floor.
In the center of the floor, a perfect circle had beendrawn in what looked like white chalk. There was nothing within the circle uponfirst inspection. But a closer look revealed smudges of more chalk and thenow-familiar powder they knew as copper.
She turned her head to speak to Derik but saw that he hadgone completely still, his head cocked slightly in the other direction.
“Derik? What is it?”
He held up a finger and whispered, “Wait. I thought Iheard something.”
Morgan’s heart started pounding wildly as she lookedaround the chamber, her eyes darting from one corner to another. She couldn’tsee or hear anything other than the sound of her own breathing.
“Are you sure?” she whispered.
Derik nodded, his eyes scanning the darkness. “I thoughtI heard footsteps. But maybe it’s just the tunnels, playing tricks on—”
He stopped, and Morgan understood why. She’d heard itthis time. Definite footsteps, somewhere back out in the tunnel. When Derikmoved toward the sound, leaving the chamber, Morgan followed. It was a bitembarrassing, but she did not relish the idea of being left alone in thatchamber without their only source of light.
So she followed after him, but the pursuit lasted a veryshort time. She’d taken only two steps toward the chamber’s exit when Derik suddenlylet out a grunt. Morgan jumped backward in surprise and watched as he stumbledback, his flashlight beam flickering erratically.
He caught himself on the wall, the flashlight clatteringto the ground. The footsteps retreated, heading deeper into the tunnel. Morganlooked down to the floor and saw that not only had Derik been hit, but he wasstruggling to remain conscious.
But the footfalls of the attacker were fading, gettingfurther away. Hating to have to make such a decision, Morgan looked down at Derik.He nodded weakly at her, as if he perfectly understood the decision she’d made.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
Then, leaving the flashlight with him, Morgan took offinto the dark, unfamiliar tunnel ahead of her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
She understood right away that leaving the flashlightbehind had been a mistake. Within just several steps, she was pitched into puredarkness. Her eyes had adjusted somewhat, but she was wholly unfamiliar withthe tunnels…and she had to assume that the man she was chasing knew them well.
She thought of the candles in the chamber, and thesick-sounding thump she’d heard just before Derik had gone down. She was allbut certain it was their killer, and as she ran after him in the darkness, shewondered how often he’d come down here. Had he been using these mines as a lairten years ago when she’d been after him?
She kept her left arm outstretched, her hand skimming thesurface of the wall as she ran. When she felt it shift to the right, she adjustedher position so she wouldn’t careen off of the wall.
