Shattered (11 page)

~An Ancient Riddle~

After a bit of searching, Logan found the entrance leading deeper into the cavern. Before setting off, he painstakingly studied the glyphs on that smooth wal again, trying to glean some hint of the right direction. There was none. He read to Laura what he could, and it amounted to a very fleeting mention of “the Proper path.”

The entrance deeper was tight, creating a claustrophobic feel with the two of them walking sideby-side. But Laura wouldn’t be separated from Logan if her life depended on it. He was her only chance of survival.

A mixture of satisfaction tinged with doubt flooded her at that thought. Here she was, in the depths of the earth, accompanied by a creature of near god-like power. Not only that, but he was sacrificing al that he was, al that he could become, just for her. For some inexplicable, unfathomable, and incomprehensible reason, he seemed to care for her. He had forsaken his race, his own kind… for her.

She couldn’t understand what led Logan to show her the dream world in the first place, especial y if he knew the risks it would entail beforehand. And he claimed he did. Knowing that he had taken on that risk for her – despite how it al had turned out – gave Laura a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stumbled a bit, but caught herself. She wasn’t getting woozy, was she?

No, she wouldn’t let herself be a slave to her emotions again. She had to focus on her current situation. On
surviving
her current situation. She carried a lit torch, which broke the darkness for a few yards in front of her. Logan was carrying more, as a backup supply in case hers died before they got out.
If
and
when
they got out, she thought somewhat gloomily.

She had no idea how long this tunnel was, and neither did Logan. So far, it had been cut straight into the rock, with no division or splits. But she would bet anything that that wouldn’t last long. For al she knew, it could take ages for them to find their way out. Abruptly, a thought occurred to her. “Hey,” she asked Logan, “what about the dream world?”

“What about it?” Logan replied.

“I was just thinking… if you take us into the dream world, like you did before, we’l be right in this tunnel, won’t we?”

“That’s right.”

“So, you said time flows differently there. We can explore the tunnels and find the right way out before coming back to our bodies.” She was critical y aware what the danger of getting lost down here, with no source of food or water, meant for her. “If we catch the dream at the right wave, we can be back in minutes. We’l know the right path, and there’l be no danger of us taking a wrong turn and getting lost down here forever.” She was also critical y aware of the hunger pains that were starting to attack her stomach.

“No,” Logan said intently, “we cannot do that. The elders are monitoring our dreams – mine in particular. If we enter the dream world, they’l know right were where are, and how to get here. They’re watching for our entrance to that world.

“And that’s not the worst of it. The elders have great power, great control, over the world of dreams. If we leave the physical realm, they can turn the entire dream into a never ending nightmare. They wil torture us, inflicting pain so severe that it cannot be matched in reality. We wil be trapped forever, with no hope of ever returning to our bodies. That is a sentence much worse than death.”

“But isn’t it possible to enter the world without arousing their attention? It must be!”

“I thought so when I went there with you.” He shook his head. “No, we cannot do it. It’s too much of a risk.”

“I’m not like you, you know,” Laura suddenly snapped. “I can’t just go without food forever.” Her hunger was getting the better of her.

“I know. I’l find a way out. I’l find the Proper path.”

His voice was determined, steely. Half to himself, he added with a whisper, “I know I wil .”

Laura prayed he would.

-They had been walking for what must have been a few hours when the slope of the tunnel started going down. The air was becoming damp, stale and heavy with age. Laura did not think anybody had been here for generations.

Slowly, the sides of the rock came closer together, until Laura couldn’t walk side-by-side with Logan anymore. She took the lead in front of him, and he let her go without protest.

A pang of guilt struck her for the way she snapped at him before. They had walked in near-silence since then, and she debated apologizing, but thought the better of it each time. In the dark, damp air of the cave, she wasn’t in the most tolerant of moods. Suddenly something caught her arms and legs, preventing her from moving. She tried to jerk them free, but they wouldn’t budge. She was trapped! She cried out, and struggled mightily against whatever was holding her. But the more she moved, the more restrained she felt.
What the hell
?

“Stop moving,” Logan laughed behind her. “You’re in a giant cobweb.”

“ A
cobweb
?” Laura hated spiders, hated anything to do with them, and the thought of being entrenched deep in their disgusting sticky thread was petrifying. She tried to pul back, to jerk herself free with more force than before, but ended up only feeling more trapped. She could feel the gluey substance on her arms, on her face, in her hair.

“I said, don’t move,” Logan chuckled. “I’l help you out.”

Laura felt a jerk above her, heard a tearing noise, and dropped to the ground unceremoniously. She stared daggers at Logan.

“Why didn’t you tel me it was coming?” she demanded. “You must have seen it, with your eyesight!”

“You were in front,” Logan shrugged, “I figured you would have a handle on things.”

“A handle on things?!” Laura was furious. She ripped the threading from her arms, from the front of her dress, and out of her hair. And she threw it al at Logan. Deftly, he caught it, and tossed it back at her. It landed right in her arms. Emitting a high-pitched screech, she shoved it away and scrambled back. And he laughed.

“Don’t you
dare
laugh at me!...” she began, but suddenly realized the humor in the situation. Either that, or Logan’s laugh was so overpowering it had affected her. She started to chuckle too, and soon broke out into a ful laugh.

“So you’re not mad at me?” Logan asked.

“Mad? Why would I be made?”

“You haven’t said a word for the past hour.”

Laura stared in amazement. Was he real y so sensitive as to how she regarded him? Here was a paragon of an man, with superhuman abilities and otherworldly powers, and he was worried if she was
mad
at him? None of it made any sense.

“No, I’m not mad,” she told him gently.

“Good,” Logan said. “In that case, you wouldn’t mind if I take the lead? We can avoid any other nasty cobweb incidents then.”

“I think I’d like that a lot more,” Laura replied kindly. They kept going, marching on in the darkness. Laura noticed the floor started to curl up a bit, hopeful y signaling that they were done with the descent into the earth. The light from her torch had grown weaker, but she didn’t want to replace it until it was ful y extinguished.

In the distance, Laura started to make out a widening of the tunnel. As they got closer, she realized that there was a fork in the path. The two holes carved into the rock were completely identical –

neither gave any indication of where it led.

“Which way now?” Laura asked.

“Hold on,” Logan replied. He walked a few paces into the first split, turned around, and walked the same distance into the other one. After a moment’s pause, he nodded. “This one,” he told her.

“How do you know?”

“The air is fresher here.”

Laura breathed in deeply, and coughed. The air was not fresh no matter what he said.

They continued on for a long time, coming across no other divisions in their path. Abruptly, the tunnel curved left sharply. When they walked across the corner, Laura saw the tunnel split into two again. But thick steel bars barred one way.

Laura walked up to them, and shone her torch inside. Shadows swal owed up the light in the distance.

“What do you think is past here?” she asked.

“A prison,” Logan replied with unexpected

conviction.

Laura shivered. “For who?”

“I don’t know.”

Just as Laura was about to turn back, she noticed her light reflect off a smal white surface. She looked down – and stumbled back when she realized it was part of a human skul . And scattered on the floor lay broken bones that had been snapped at unnatural angles. Laura had a flashback to what she’d seen when she touched that tower – the screaming faces, the hanging bodies. Had it been done here?

She was breathing heavily, and her eyes were darting from side to side. Every lingering shadow around her could hide anything–anything at al . Suddenly she wasn’t so sure they were al alone down here after al .

Logan caught her by the shoulders, and turned her around to face him. “Don’t worry,” he told her soothingly, as if reading her thoughts, “the remains you saw are ancient.”

That calmed her down a little. She didn’t know if it was the sound of his voice, or the feel of his strong hands on her that did it, but he made her feel slightly less frightened. More at ease.

She gripped him in an iron hug, and he wrapped his arms around her too. “Logan, I’m scared,” she mumbled into him. She had been fighting her fear before, fighting against the unease and uncertainty that emerged from being in this unfamiliar, completely foreign situation. But saying the words out loud made her admit it even to herself. “What if we never get out?”

“Laura.” He pul ed back so he could look in her eyes. “I promise you, I wil get you out. We
will
survive this, and we’l emerge stronger. That, I swear.”

She sighed. Hearing the assurance in his voice, it… summoned the courage within her. “I know you wil ,” she said softly. And this time, she truly believed it.

They ventured further into the cavern, coming across more divisions in the path. Each time, Logan would come into each entrance, sniff the air careful y, and then decide which way to go.

The ground had tilted down again. Which meant that they were straying deeper and deeper into the earth. Laura hoped it would slope up soon.

They walked a long way in silence. Laura was alone with her thoughts. For better or for worse, she had to embrace the situation she was in. Everything about it was unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and it al started from that journey into the dream. It seemed to have happened ages ago. And the incident with Brady, in the hal s of her school, where Logan first defended her… that seemed to be an entire lifetime ago.

She missed her family, her friends, her dog. She missed home. But she also recognized the harsh reality of it al . She would never be able to go home, never be able to see anyone she knew again.

Logan was walking a few steps ahead of her, and Laura watched him. He had been her only constant since leaving only a few days ago. She realized now that she was with him to the bitter end.

He walked on, and she watched. She admired his posture, his gait, and the way his skin was so perfectly smooth and beautiful y white. His hair, his manner of being, the way he talked. And his laugh. She hadn’t noticed it before, but she now realized that his laugh was absolutely amazing. She loved the way he laughed – she knew it would fil up a room. She hoped bitterly that they would live long enough for her to hear it again.

Suddenly the tunnel opened up into a smal cavern. The rock above her head became much further away, making the enclave feel spacious. They walked right into the middle of it, and Laura waved her torch around. To her amazement, she saw two other ancient torches, stil enact, bolted against the wal s. She lit them, providing light that covered the whole space.

She heard the sound of dripping water, and turned towards it eagerly. A smal stream, barely the width of her forearm, flowed across the floor. She jumped to it, kneeling on her hands and knees to drink the sweet liquid.

“Wait!” Logan hissed at her, but she swal owed it greedily. She hadn’t had anything to drink since entering these tunnels, and was parched. Suddenly she felt Logan’s hands on her shoulders, and was being pul ed away.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“You don’t know if it’s safe to drink,” he said sternly. Laura realized he was right. “Let me try it, first.” She nodded.

He dabbed a finger in the stream, and brought it up to his mouth. After a few seconds, he nodded at her.

“It’s fine.”

With only a little more composure, Laura dove back down to gulp up the water. When she was done, she looked over at Logan, who had taken a seat beside her.

“It’s getting late,” he said, “and we’ve had a long day. I think we should spend the night.”

“What, here?”

“Why not? Better than sleeping in one of those cramped tunnels.” Laura could see the logic there, and realized that she
was
getting tired. She agreed, and they set up camp in the enclave. Which consisted of little more than arranging some of the rocks in the ground to make room for a spot to lie down. The earth was cold, and Laura shivered.

“Here,” Logan said, taking off his shirt to give to her as a blanket. “It might keep you warm.”

Laura huddled into it, and watched Logan as he sat back. He had a perfectly shaped chest and chiseled abs, and the muscles in his arms were lean and hard. And there were three wide scars, almost like claw marks, stretched across his torso They looked old, faded.

“How did you get those?” Laura asked.

“An accumulation over the years,” he replied simply, looking down at himself. “Memories of another time. They never healed quite ful y.”

“Did it hurt?”

“I’l tel you another time. You better get to sleep for now.”

Laura wondered what would be strong enough to get close enough to a vampire to harm him like that. She wanted to ask more, but could tel he didn’t want to say anything on the subject. Her heart went out to him. She wished she were there when it happened, so she could nurse him back to health, tel him that everything would be alright.