“This is terrible,” Moira complained. “I never should have let my Aunt and Uncle host this stupid party.”
They had found nothing in the second tunnel but another narrow stone chamber like the one they initially fell into. Now, they were halfway down the third tunnel. Jeremy’s knees screamed at him. He did not think he would ever rid his nose of the smell of slimy, stagnant water. His phone battery was 45%.
“What do you mean?” He asked because talking was better than the eerie silence stretching on either side.
“Well, it was all their idea to throw a party like my parents always did. They wanted to use the Banquet Hall and everything. I thought…” Moira trailed off, “Well, it was a stupid idea because now look where we are stuck!”
“Why are you even having the party?” Jeremy asked, “What are you celebrating?”
“Nothing.” Moira muttered, “My parents used just to have parties all the time. They died last year.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Jeremy winced but did not have anything better to offer. His parents lived in a townhome. He visited them every other weekend. Moira sighed.
“It was…yeah. Anyway, my Aunt and Uncle wanted to keep up the tradition. They have a penthouse downtown, which wouldn’t be the same, so I let them use the banquet hall.”
“You let them?”
Jeremy’s hand slipped on a slimy bit of ground, and his palm dug hard into the gritty tunnel. He hissed and paused to look at it. Little white scrapes sliced across the skin, slowly beading with blood. He did not want to put an open wound directly onto the grimy ground, so he stopped and sat against the side of the tunnel.
“Ouch.” Moira peered at his hand, “And yes. I let them. This is my mansion now.”
“Oh.” Jeremy tore the loose strip of fabric from his arm and wrapped it around his palm. “Well, since it is your mansion, do you know what the hell all this is?”
“No.” Moira pouted, “Probably something from when they built the pond. I don’t know.”
Jeremy tied a little knot to secure the fabric around his wrist, then crawled forward again.
“They probably thought they were doing all this for me.” Moira continued chatting behind him.
“What?”
“My Aunt and Uncle. They probably thought holding a party like when my parents were alive would be nice. To cheer me up! I bet that is why they wanted me to bring a date. They think I’ve been lonely.”
She trailed off, and only the trickle of water and silent darkness accompanied their crawl. A prickle at the base of Jeremy’s neck crawled down his spine. He shivered. The tunnel ended a few minutes later in another narrow stone chamber.
“Damn.” Jeremy sighed.
They sat against one of the walls to give their knees a rest. Jeremy kept his flashlight trained on the tunnel opening.
“Are you lonely?” He asked after a while.
“What are you, my therapist?” Moira fiddled with something on her phone, “Is that some kind of pick-up line.”
“Jeeze.”
Jeremy might still have both his parents, but he knew a little about loneliness. His rules kept his life safe and structured, but they did not leave much space for meeting new people or taking advantage of opportunities. He knew this. He was tired of eating Chinese takeout alone, so he decided to take a leap and help Caleb out. Test the waters outside of the safe bubble he built himself. He wished he had trusted the bubble. Breaking rules led to being stuck in a tunnel with some fancy heiress who thought he was using pick-up lines on her.
“Let’s go back.” He said, “We should just head back to the original spot so your Aunt and Uncle can find us when they realize we are missing.”
“But there is one more tunnel.”
“I don’t think it will be any different from the others.” Jeremy groaned as he shifted to crawl into the tunnel.
When they reached the larger chamber, Jeremy froze. Moira bumped into his shoes and grumbled.
“Why did you stop?”
The strange inscriptions on the pillar pulsed with a faint blue glow. Jeremy opened his mouth, then closed it. So far, this pillar has been the only thing that did not fit with their guess that the tunnels somehow had something to do with the construction or hydrology of the pond. Moira grew impatient and shoved him out of the tunnel. He fell onto the ground in a sprawl.
“What is that?” She asked, climbing over him to inspect the glowing writing.
“Moira.” Jeremy hissed, “Come back over here.”
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She frowned at him. His focus was past her feet on the opposite tunnel, where a pair of big, round eyes glowed the same light blue color as the inscriptions. He blinked, but they remained in place. Moira followed his line of sight. She gasped and stumbled back.
“You see them too?” Jeremy asked.
“Yeah.”
“Fuck.”
The eyes emerged, and a creature like nothing Jeremy had ever seen followed into the bright white circles of light from their phones. It had no physical legs, just floating on shadowy tendrils resembling a betta fish's thin, flowy fins. They extended up from its back as well. The eyes were set into a jarringly human face, although it looked more like a mannequin or a drawing than an actual person. It came from the tunnel they initially fell into.
“Fuck that.” Moira threw herself into the final tunnel. Jeremy scrambled to follow. Something brushed against his ankles as he shoved himself through the entrance. His heart leaped into his throat again, and he gasped around it. Light flashed around wildly in his struggle to claw his way down the tunnel. Then, the touch wrapped around one of his ankles and dragged him back.
He shouted. Moira looked back in alarm, her eyes wide and lips parted. Her flashlight shone in his eyes. He glanced back in horror to see one of the shadowy tendrils wrapped around him, dragging him back even as the creature’s terrible, strange face drew closer. He kicked wildly, but his foot passed through the tendrils as if they were shadows. The one around his ankle remained firm.
When the face got close enough, his heel cracked against its nose. Jeremy was stunned that he had landed a solid hit. The creature reared back and let out a chilling rattle. Hands wrapped under his arms and dragged him away from the creature. He kicked his feet, finally freeing his ankle. Moira dropped him, and he turned around to crawl away on his hands and knees.
The creature hissed and rattled. Its tendrils flailed wildly, but it did not seem inclined to follow. Jeremy did not look over his shoulder to check. He was focused on moving as quickly down the tunnel as he could, even though he knew it was a dead end.
It turned out not to be a dead end. The stone corridor it led to was partially collapsed. Moonlight streamed through the rubble through a small hole overhead. Moira scrambled up the rockslide, tearing her dress and sending stones down onto Jeremy’s face. He climbed after.
As soon as he hauled himself onto the ground, he scrambled away from the hole. Grass scraped against his palms. They were at the far end of the pond, across from where the mansion's lights stretched out across its surface. To the left loomed the gazebo, still dark. Jeremy only had eyes for the hole, though, staring at it to wait for the creature to emerge. It did not.
“Oh.” Moira panted, “That is where that leads. About two months ago, we had that earthquake. You remember? Anyway, it collapsed part of the back lawn. Must have been because of those tunnels.”
Jeremy gaped at her. The rush of blood past his ears gave way to the rustle of wind through the cypress trees. He still could not hear any frogs.
“We need to let somebody know so that none of the guests fall like we did!” Moira stumbled to her feet and brushed off her tattered, ruined dress. She wobbled a bit. Jeremy realized that she still wore a pair of strappy heels, now sinking into the grass.
“How are we going to explain that monster to anyone?” He muttered.
“What monster?” She grabbed him by the bicep and tried to haul him to his feet. She would have managed it if she were not struggling with the heels.
“The…that thing down there.” He sputtered, “How can you act so normal?”
“What are you on about?” She huffed and let him fall back down, “Did you hit your head?”
Jeremy’s mouth dropped open.
“Come on. We need to tell someone to bring out some caution tape to section off the bridge,” She shook his arm, “And we need to make sure you don’t have a concussion. And I need to take a shower.”
Going back to where there were lots of people and light was not a bad idea. It would not be normal. These wealthy families were far beyond Jeremy’s normal, but at least they would be humans. He pushed to his feet and offered Moira an arm to help her as she tried to keep her heels from sinking into the earth.
“Thanks.” She muttered, “I should just take them off, I suppose.”
Jeremy glanced at the hole from which they emerged. It yawned dark and cavernous behind the crush of cattails and high grass that their desperate escape knocked into the ground. He looked forward to the path that led around the opposite side of the lake from the bridge.
“There is a path right there.” He said, “Then you’ll be fine.”
She was fine once they reached the path. His arm, offered in support, became a lead for her to pull along as she marched them back to the mansion. They nearly reached the pools of light spilling from the windows when a voice called out to them.
“Hello! There you are! We were so worried.”
Aunt Angie approached from across the lawn in all her bright red glory. She waved a hand over her head as she called out to them. Moira waved back.
“We fell down a hole, Aunt Angie!”
“I see.” Aunt Angie glanced Moira over with pursed lips and tutted. She also wore heels but walked with perfect poise through the grass. “How did you find your way back out?”
“The collapsed part of the backyard.” Moira waved in the direction from which they had come. “There are a whole bunch of tunnels under the lake! Did you know about them?”
Bright red lips broke into a blinding smile, “Why…yes!”
Jeremy’s stomach flipped. The red seemed to crawl around her, pulsing as the inscriptions on the stone pillar down in the tunnels had. Drifting near her throat, he could also make out writing similar to the characters carved into the stone. Maybe he did have a concussion.
“Well, they are a danger to the guests.” Moira went on, “Since they started collapsing, we need to section them off for the night, and in the morning, I need to call someone to come out and inspect them.”
“You’ve been gone for a while, dear. All the guests have left by now.” Aunt Angie patted Moira on the shoulder.
“Moira, honey,'' a new voice spoke right beside Jeremy. He startled and looked to the side. Uncle Howard stood right next to him, grinning at Aunt Angie. The same red aura curled around him, coalescing into more opaque symbols near his chest like the ones near Aunt Angie’s throat. Jeremy rubbed his eyes.
“If you knew a portion of the backyard collapsed, why didn’t you let us know?” He said, “We could have fixed it for you.”
The red around Uncle Howard intensified, bleeding into his eyes and condensing into new symbols near his hands as he lifted them. They hung suspended in the air for a moment before fading away.
“Well, I forgot about it, but it’s a good thing it was still collapsed. Now more of the tunnels are collapsing, like at the bridge…” Moira trailed off. She stared at Uncle Howard with round eyes. Jeremy wondered if she could see the weird symbols, too. Then she began to fall to the side and into Aunt Angie’s arms.
Jeremy tried to open his mouth to ask what the hell was going on, but his jaw would not move. Then he realized his entire body was frozen. His eyes flicked toward Moira. She lay slumped in Aunt Angie’s arms. Jeremy began to slowly tip. Uncle Howard caught him and hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“There now.” Aunt Angie said, “Let’s put you both back where you belong.”