You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 1

Chapter 24: Dissolving Hope

 The walls shook violently, jarring me from my sleep. I bolted upright, panting and darting my head around in an attempt to figure out where that sudden rumble came from. We almost never got earthquakes around here, and when we did, they weren't severe enough to shake the entire Academy. Five, somehow, was still fast asleep, hugging Delores close to his chest as he slumbered right through the momentary panic. The tremors stopped just as quickly as they started, but that didn't mean there wasn't cause for concern. I pushed myself up and threw open the door, joining an equally confused Klaus and Diego out in the hall.

"You guys felt that, right?" Klaus asked, looking around at the ceiling. The corners where the walls met now had hairline cracks running along them, slightly threatening their stability.

"Yeah... what the hell was that?" Diego shook his head, still staring at the little fractures.

"More importantly, what caused it?" I tapped them on their arms, heading toward the stairs.

"Let's get a look around, make sure nothing else in the house got damaged."

I unfurled one of my silks and slid down, beating my brothers to the bottom of the stairs. Nothing in the foyer looked like it had been damaged, but dust had piled up on the floor, shaken down from above. The same went for the drawing room and the rest of the hallway: nothing had been knocked down or damaged, but the union of the wall and the ceiling had been riddled with cracks. I turned to Diego and Klaus as they made it down to the bottom of the stairs, both shooting me unamused looks.

"What? We need to figure out what's going on. I just had an advantage." Their faces remained unchanged. "I know this doesn't help, but like Dad said: I adapted."

"Weren't you the one he was saying that to? When you accused Five of cheating during our training session?"

"Not important," I snapped. "Nothing's been damaged here except the ceiling, just like the top floor. I'm pretty sure that's the extent of the damage in the house, but we should check downstairs, just to be sure."

The three of us rushed over to the staircase that led to the bottom floor, and strangely enough, there wasn't any damage whatsoever. It seemed whatever happened only affected the floors above-ground. Considering how intense the quakes were, that seemed near-impossible.

I turned the corner, when my eyes rested on something strange: the doorway to what appeared to be an elevator. I'd never seen this before, never even knew we had one in the house. I supposed Dad could have had it built after we all left and he started to get older, but that would mean he actually left that office. Besides, the button next to it only went down. I didn't even know there was anything else below the house.

"Hey, guys? Did you know this was here?" Diego and Klaus made their way over, staring at the machine.

"No..." Diego muttered.

"Why would Dad need an elevator that only goes down? There isn't anything below this house but dirt." I glanced back at Klaus.

"Obviously that's not the case. Dad put something down there and didn't tell us."

"What do you think it could be?" I took a deep breath and reached for the old button encased in cracked plastic.

"One way to find out."

The dated chime rang just moments later, opening the doors to whatever unknown abyss awaited us. None of us spoke a word, attempting to keep silent trembles and fears in check for the sake of the others. The natural lights slowly faded away, and instead shadows were now cast by an ethereal, blue light. Patterns of dark and light flashed over our faces the further down we descended, until finally, the elevator landed with a definite 'thunk'. All three of us stumbled a little at the harsh landing, resting our hands on each other's shoulders for balance. None of us wanted to be the first to move, but we couldn't just stay in here forever. Daring to solve the mystery, I took the first steps into the dark, dank tunnel, wary of every place my feet landed. Water sloshed below me, dampening my flats and further weighing them down.