The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter fifteen:

Clarity released a nervous breath. She was relieved beyond words that Alex hadn't questioned her further. She didn't want to think about the strange episode anymore. She wanted to believe that it was all in her imagination, but the whole thing had been so real. Was there really a possibility that she was a mutant?

She shook her head, trying to dislodge the disturbing thought. Her parents would have told her if she had the potential for a mutated gene. Unless they didn't know... No, no. that couldn't be possible. This was stupid and she was being stupid just for letting that kind of thought into her head.

She followed behind as Alex led her to the living room where the others were. She didn't meet their gazes, lest that prompt them into asking her about what had happened. But they were bound to ask anyways.

"Where did you find her?" Clarity didn't have to look to know that it was Clara that had spoken.

"She said that she never even left the kitchen. I must not have seen her." Alex replied, running his hand through his hair. He didn't sound very convinced.

She looked up to gauge the reactions around the room. Thankfully, none of them looked overly suspicious. Hopefully, that would be the end of the whole thing.

"Anyways." Alex broke the short silence with a deep breath. "We don't have to stay up here. There are cleaner seats downstairs."

"Downstairs?" Clara frowned slightly.

"The- um... the basement." Alex explained. It was a shorter explanation than the one he'd given Clarity, but it would still work just fine.

"Sounds good to me." Sam.

"Better than this anyway," Rachel muttered. Clarity could barely make out what she had said. Sam chuckled in agreement.

Either Alex didn't hear, or he chose to ignore the comment because he simply nodded and turned around. His footsteps could be heard thumping through the house. He obviously wasn't bothering to go easy on the worn and rotting floor.

Clarity didn't want to talk to anyone about what had happened, so she scurried after Alex. She didn't hesitate before going down the stairs. There wasn't anything down there that could hurt her, or at least that's what she thought...

She pushed the thought out of her head. Of course, there wasn't anything down there. Alex would warn her if there was anything that would even remotely be an issue. Or he would be fighting it by now. But either way, she had nothing to worry about.

She plunged down the second half of the stairs without thinking too deeply about it.

The underground room was illuminated by a few flickering lamps and one dim light in the middle of the ceiling. To her relief, the walls were made of a solid layer of concrete, instead of the packed dirt like she had expected.

There were cabinets lining three of the walls. A few solid-looking wooden chairs were scattered around the floor. One was knocked over onto its side. Both the cabinets and the chairs looked to be handmade.

She went over to one of the chairs and sat down. She had a dull headache. She pinched the bridge of her nose and wished it would go away. That was the last thing she needed.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and snapped to attention, her spine going rigid. It couldn't have been Alex, because he was tinkering with a lamp that had stopped working altogether... and he was on the opposite side of the room.

The corner where she'd seen something moving was buried in shadows just deep enough to block her sigh.

Her heartbeat sped up as she imagined all of the horrible things that could be lurking in the long-deserted corner. What if they'd cornered some rabid animal that had made its nest in the long-abandoned basement?