Lonely

Chapter 10, Sadie

He stopped in front of something. I couldn’t tell what, but I could feel dank air blowing onto me from somewhere. I wrinkled my nose. “What is that?” I asked. “There’s a shaft. I’ve never been down, in the entire eleven years I’ve been here. It doesn’t smell right.” He said. He sounded a little worried. “I don’t know what we’ll meet, or if we’ll be okay. I hope you make it out, though.” He said. I frowned. Not only did I not enjoy the thought of being eaten by Frankenstein or something, but I didn’t like the idea of Hanger being eaten or left behind. “How do you know it leads to the outside?” I asked. “I don’t. Just a guess.” he said. It wasn’t very reassuring. He momentarily let go of me. As usual, I didn’t hear anything. He moved silently all the time. Suddenly, there was a creaking noise, and really bad smelling air hit me like a slap in the face. I covered my nose with my hand.

“Ugh. It smells awful down there.” I complained. Hanger took my hand again and led me right into it. It was so bad, it made me want to vomit. It was like a mixture of rotting meat and rotten eggs, left out in the sun on a black top. Lovely, isn’t it? “There are some stairs here, so be careful.” Hanger warned me. I carefully stepped on to the lower plat form, following whatever way hanger led me. I held on tighter than ever to him, terrified we would get separated in the dark. The air became thicker and smellier, and harder to breathe. I got the feeling that we were very far under ground. Then there was the hundreds of tons of crushing rocks on top of us. Claustrophobia crept up on me like a prowling lion, waiting to strike at any moment. My breathing became quicker. Closed in spaces were probably right under the hatred of darkness on my list of hate.

A little while later, we were still going down stairs, and I was still panicking. At one point hanger had tried to comfort me, but he’s not exactly what I would call a people person. I wondered if my mom and dad were worried at all, if they had even realized I was gone. I didn’t care much. I didn’t miss them. Suddenly, the ground leveled out under my feet, and the air opened up a little more. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are we off those stupid stairs?” I asked irritably. “Yeah. Now the bad part comes.” Like I said, he doesn’t understand people much. If this was worse than the stairs had been, then this was literally going to be hell. Not even hell on earth, ‘cause we were under ground. Get it? “How long until we get out of here?” I asked, pausing on the “we” part, because I doubted he would be able to come with me. The thought was almost upsetting. I shook it off, but you’d be surprise dhow close you can become with some one in one day when your life depends on them. Hanger seemed to ponder the question. “A couple days, in your standards.” He said simply. I raised an eye brow in the glaring darkness.

“What are your standards?” I wondered. If he didn’t go by days, then what did he keep track of time with. “How many times I hear the noises in the castle. It only happens once a day, I figure, and it’s really loud. The rest of the time, the castle is silent.” He said as if I should have known that. I mulled this new fact over in my head as we walked. Suddenly, Hanger pulled off to the side and put a hand over my mouth. “Don’t even breathe.” He ordered. I immediately followed his directions and stopped all movements, including breathing. There was a sound sort of like scales being dragged along stones. Then I realized that’s probably exactly what it was. A massive tail being dragged along the stones. There was a hissing noise as the thing breathed. It grew louder and louder until it was right in front of us. My lungs were practically bursting, but I wasn’t going t breathe just to die. The dragging noise stopped right in front of us, and I felt Hanger stiffen next to me. A deep growl filled what ever place we were in, echoing down. The hissing noise came again, long and low and then a sniffing sound. Another growl and what aver it was continued down the hall, leaving a gross smell behind it. It’s nails clicked on the stones as it slowly moved away. After a moment Hanger removed his hand and I quickly took in a deep breath, light headed from holding my breath so long.

“What was that?” I asked breathlessly. Hanger began pulling me along quickly. “It was the lizard one. It basically looks like the swamp monster. I have that book.” Hanger said proudly. “Oh, the lizard one. Now that that’s all cleared up, I guess we can keep going.” I said hotly. “Sorry. I forgot. He’s awful. I hate that one. I have a scar from him. He’s mostly blind, and relies on hearing and quick movements from his prey, sort of like a t-Rex. I also have a book about those.” He said. I shook my head. That had been scary, but I found my self taking it like I would if I saw a bear in the wild. Which, as you may know, is scary, but doesn’t make your heart stop because it’s sort of a common thing. I doubted if seeing giant lizards like t-Rexes was normal, but oh well. “So, what do these things eat?” I asked, trying to take my mind off of things.

“Humans.” He said. When I didn’t answer he chuckled. “Just kidding. I suppose they eat rats and that sort of thing in the castle.” He said. “That’s gross.” I said. There was a slithering sound, and I guessed it was a snake. Hanger didn’t say anything, so neither did I. I was getting paranoid. I felt the space suddenly get tighter, and my breath caught in my throat. I promised my self I would sleep with the light on in my room from now on, as long as I never had to be in the dark again. “Duck your head a little. The ceilings pretty low for a little ways.” Hanger said quietly. I did as he ordered, and even then I could feel a damp ceiling brushing along the top of my head. I ducked lower and something wet dripped on my head. Something scampered off that was in front of us. “What was that?” I whispered. “Just a little one.” Hanger replied. A little one what? I shivered.

I don’t know how long we continued on with our heads ducked. Keeping track of time in there was impossible. I guessed it was probably half an hour of continuing deeper into the abyss of darkness and never coming out. You know that saying, “there’s a light at the end of a tunnel”? Well, this was not someplace to say that. You couldn’t look ahead and see a little speck of light. It was just black. I cant even explain to you what it was like. You know when you squeeze your eyes shut an press your fists into them, you get that pitch black with strange little patterns and bursts of light? Well, this was like that, except even darker. There were times where I would try and look far ahead in the dark, and would feel like I was falling. I had a moment where I was convinced that I was in a coma. I had fallen down that hole, hit my head, and gone into a coma, and they couldn’t wake me up. Thoughts like that drive you crazy. Hanger never said a worked except for “look out, there’s a hole” and some other warning. Although I continued to hear noises of all sorts, from deep growls to the sound of nails on the stones, Hanger never dragged me off to the side like he had before. I wondered what he was seeing. Was it like through night vision goggles, where everything is that electronic green and black color, or if he saw in black and white, or what. I didn’t bother asking Hanger. Again, I don’t know how long we walked. Hours? After a while, I began to get tired. I stumbled, grabbing Hanger so I didn’t fall on my face onto the grimy floor. Hell would be better than this. At least there would be light.