Chapter 16

  Our footsteps echoed as we descended the stairs to the escape tunnel. The stairway was only wide enough for us to walk single-file. Raif was at the rear. Tara was positioned directly in front of him with Joan in front of her. Unfortunately, that left me at the front of the pack. While I was the first to be forced to confront the terrors that might await us in the tunnel, Raif demanded to be at the back so he could watch our female party members from behind. As disgusted as Joan and I both found Raif's attitude, we were willing to put up with quite a bit in order to keep him working together with us.

  While neither of us trusted Raif, I could at least tell that he didn't currently intend harm on anyone in the party. Joan didn't have the benefit of my Read the Room ability to highlight anyone intending to harm us, so she had to rely entirely on her gut. She also didn't know that according to my ability, Raif had never actually intended harm on our party. While I certainly didn't trust or even like our delinquent companion, I didn't see him as a big security risk. If anything, I felt he might refuse to join us in the fight unless his safety specifically required his strength. In our current situation, that level of participation was at least better than nothing.

  As we neared the end of the stairs, my imagination went wild with what might have been awaiting us at the bottom of the stairs. I thought through all of the examples of movies featuring tunnels to help give me an idea of what to expect. Sadly, most of the examples that flashed through my mind were horror movies. Even the more family-friendly pop culture tunnels that I could remember were from The Goonies and the Indiana Jones movies, which despite their family-friendly nature the featured tunnels contained an array of lethal traps. The reality of what my eyes scanned when I reached the final stair resembled some of the lower tunnels in As Above So Below than anything else in my memory. My initial impression was quite grim.

  The walls of the tunnel looked more like carved stone than anything that I would consider properly engineered for our safety. The tunnel was arched at the top, reaching around seven feet tall at its highest point. With Raif's spiked mohawk, he'd just barely be able to stand up straight even at the highest point.

  "Luckily you're so short, Clay. It'll give more mobility in combat." Joan's voice commented over my shoulder as she surveyed the stage of our final battle.

  "I'm five eleven and a half!" I protested, which resulted in a scoff from the back of our line.

  I turned my attention back to surveying the tunnel because it was important, and not at all because I was pouting and didn't want to have anyone else spread vicious lies about my height.

  The floor of the tunnel was damp and appeared to be comprised of earth instead of some sort of stone flooring. The ground itself was damp, which caused small patches of mud to stretch as far as I could see. To my immense relief, the bottom of the walls met the ground at a slight curve as opposed to a sharp angle. From what I could see, the length of the tunnel did not contain any corners that the Tindalos Hounds could access to enter this space. If we had been forced to battle with the Dimensional Shambler and the Hounds of Tindalos together, I didn't see even the slightest chance of victory, so knowing we'd be able to isolate the Shambler gave me hope.

  Along the right wall of the tunnel, roughly every twenty feet, were lit torches. I had absolutely no idea who actually lit these torches or how they remained lit. Mayor Night had implied that he never actually used the tunnel, which left the cursed townspeople as its only occupants. Perhaps Night had sent them with means to keep the torches lit, although I would guess it was just more lazy writing from that god. They needed the tunnel to be lit so it could be used but didn't bother figuring out how.

  Aside from the visuals of the tunnel, my other senses were fully immersed in the atmosphere of the tunnel. The strong smell of wet earth that filled the tunnel was surprisingly pleasant, reminding me of my childhood... You know, back when I still went outside frequently instead of only leaving my house when I was forced by others. The air was cool and moist, it might have normally been pleasant, however with my anxiety maxed out, it helped foster a steady stream of chills running over every inch of my body. Reaching out, the walls also felt damp, and the texture let me know that they were made from earth or some sort of clay instead of stone like I initially thought. I wasn't an expert on tunnels, but I wondered about the structural integrity of a tunnel that was entirely made by tunneling through dirt with seemingly no sort of support structure. Every few steps, my foot would feel the sticky pull of a patch of mud, creating a sucking sound as I freed it from the mud's grasp. I wasn't about to try to taste the tunnel, so that was really the only sense that wasn't fully immersed, however I assumed it tasted like dirt.

  The tunnel itself wasn't completely straight, it seemed to curve right and left at random points. If this were a tunnel in the real world, I would assume the curves were due to the diggers encountering especially difficult patches of stone and having to dig around them. Since this were a tunnel made by that god, I would guess they had trouble drawing a straight line on the map and were too lazy to fix it.

  We had been walking in near silence for about five minutes before we encountered an opening along the left wall of the tunnel. The opening was an arched doorway carved into the side of the tunnel which led to a small room that might have been roughly the shape of a cube with seven feet on all sides. Inside were a couple of old wooden chairs and an old stained cloth laid out as makeshift bedding.

  "I wonder how many of the cursed townspeople slept in here after they were banished from the town." Instead of making a joke, I frowned at the depressing concept. "They did nothing wrong, but because it was inconvenient, the town threw them away. They must have felt so betrayed."

  I felt a warmth grip my hand. Surprised, I turned to find Joan at my side, doing her best to comfort me. There was nothing romantic between our contact, but instead it felt a comfort as if I was a child holding a mother or older-sister's hand. Maybe this was evidence of how things might be if wasn't constantly going off on tangents. I tried not to think to hard on it, because I knew that even with constant medication I had never been able to keep my tangents at bay. But still, this was nice.

  Turning to the others, I opened the conversation to review our strategy. "If I had to guess, we're either one quarter or one third of the way through the tunnel. There are likely one or two other rooms like this along the way. It would be best if we avoided these rooms if at all possible while waiting for the Shambler to show up. It would be the easiest way to get cornered."

  Glancing around at the others, Joan listened intently, Tara refused to make eye-contact, and Raif made sure to look as annoyed as possible. Despite Raif's apparent annoyance, he didn't interrupt as I continued.

  "Unless the torches change further down the tunnel, we can use the torches to orient ourselves if we get turned around during the encounter. So far, they have always been on our right side as we headed towards the settlement, so if you get disoriented, just keep the torches to your right."

  "How would we get disoriented? It's a straight line." Raif's irritation finally boiled over into criticism.

  "Unless you encountered something before we met, Clay is the only one who has experienced what it's like to have something cross into our dimensional space. He tried to explain how it felt, but he's really bad at descriptions so I can't even begin to imagine how it really felt." Joan interjected, doing her best to help.

  "You didn't need to attack my weak points, Joan. We're allies." I winced at her casual insult, suddenly reminded of how my only attempt at being GM for a table top campaign was ended due to my lackluster ability at making descriptions. Instead, everyone asked Kyle to take over... Similar to how Kyle took over handling Stacy when I was apparently inadequate. Here I was, trying to lead a group with three other individuals and it couldn't be more clear that I was the wrong person for the job. Why did Joan nudge me into this role from the start? She would have been much better. Even Raif would likely have been better suited. What if I let everyone down? What if someone died because I failed as a leader? The entire tunnel might as well have caved in, because I suddenly felt the immense pressure weighing me down.

  "Focus." The gentle warmth of Joan's hand in mine and the soft tone of her voice brought me back to the present. I wasn't sure how long I had been pulled into a tunnel of my own anxieties, but I was back to reality.

  "Are we really okay listening to this loser? He can't even function without holding mommy's hand." Raif snarled at my obvious weakness. I didn't blame him.

  "Clay, continue. It's ok." Her encouragement nudged me forward.

  "When the Hounds... When they came into our dimension everything around me twisted. I was sitting in a chair, and I had no idea of up from down. That doesn't mean we'd get lost in the tunnel, but I want to avoid any chance of one of us finding themself pinned against the locked door at the entrance with nowhere to go. Ideally the Shambler will appear between us and the locked door so we can flee if necessary. It's more important for all of us to survive than it is for us to win the fight." Tara's eyes briefly met mine as I spoke the last sentence. In an instant, they returned to staring at her feet.

  "That doesn't mean to run away before trying anything, but I agree with Clay that we can always try again tomorrow night. But if we lose anyone it will only be harder to win next time." With a slight squeeze to my hand, Joan reinforced my statement.

  "Yeah, yeah. That coward had better not leave me for dead." Showing no confidence, Raif continued to push back against the strategy. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he was pushing back specifically against me than the strategy itself.

  "We don't know anything about its actual combat strength compared to our party, so it would be best if we didn't take too many chances. Test out different methods and abilities until we find something that works, but don't do anything that would put you or the party at a disadvantage. I know there are some abilities that have negative consequences after use. Without me actually knowing what either of you have in your arsenal, make sure to take any negative effects into account when using abilities. Okay?"

  Nobody spoke up in response to my question. Joan nodded, Raif grumbled, and Tara continued her silent avoidance.

  In the rush to get everything moving forward, we had not been able to take advantage of Joan's Ramen Chef ability to give us each +5 to our strength, constitution, and dexterity. I really hoped that my failure to plan time for that wouldn't be the difference between victory and defeat.

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  "Our best chance of victory is to get as close to the halfway point of the tunnel as possible. At that point, we stand back to back, two by two. Joan and I will face one direction, Raif and Tara face the other. We have more experience fighting in those pairs, so there's better chance of effective teamwork and less chance of accidental friendly fire."

  "Speak for yourself. You'd be the only one dumb enough to attack the wrong person." Once again, Raif decided to criticize me while I laid out the plan.

  I chose to ignore him. I definitely didn't make a failed attempt at an insult that resulted in an argument that derailed our efforts until Joan was able to restore peace.

  Raif and I passed dirty glances as Joan kept the distance between us. "Come on Clay, let's finish up and get moving."

  "Right." I nodded to Joan before continuing, "If we stand back to back, it will prevent the Shambler from appearing behind us. And if we position ourself closest to the halfway point of the tunnel, that would give us plenty of space to move in either direction. In a worst case scenario, the Shambler would appear on the side blocking us from the settlement exit. But we would still be able to have plenty of time to find a way to get past it to safety. If we stood with our backs to the entrance to the settlement, we might find ourselves cornered and forced to retreat into the settlement. At that point, the space would be wide open, enough for the Dimensional Shambler to attack from any direction. For our own safety and to maximize our chances of defeating it, we need to remain in this enclosed space. Until a point where we are forced to retreat, we need to stay in this tunnel."

  I made sure to repeat the importance of keeping the tunnel as the setting for our battle. We were at a disadvantage no matter what we did against a beast like the Dimensional Shambler, but if we tried to fight it out in the open we'd be completely helpless. I didn't want to add that entering the settlement would also open us up to the likelihood of being ambushed by Tindalos Hounds as well.

  "Yeah we get it. Can we get going now?" Doing nothing to hide his annoyance, Raif continued to prod me.

  "Unless anyone has any questions or things to add, we can get moving." I looked around at the others. Their lack of response either showed acceptance of the plan or disinterest in the entire situation. "Tara and Raif, do you want to take the lead, or take up the rear?"

  "You guys go on ahead. Let's just get this over with." Raif's urgency gave me some hope that he might be willing to follow the plan so we could end this quickly.

  With a nod to Joan, we exited the small room and entered the tunnel keeping the torches on our right. We stood side by side, ready to slowly make our way forward. I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

  "Overpower!"

  Suddenly my legs gave out from under me, causing me to crumble to the ground. No matter what I did, my body failed to respond. It was as if I was a prisoner within my own body. Aside from my eyes and my mouth, my body refused to listen to my commands. Glancing to my side, I was horrified to see Joan in a similar state.

  "What happened?" My voice was weak.

  Slowly I felt the the tunnel moving around me. No, it wasn't the tunnel that was moving. My body was being dragged. Dragged back into the room.

  Raif bent down and lifted my body, sitting me in one of the chairs. Although I wasn't able to move my head to properly look at him, I could see a wide grin across his face.

  "Tara, hand me the chains."

  Obeying his orders, Tara started to remove some chains from her outfit. What I had thought were decorative elements of her punk attire turned out to be actual chains meant for restraint. Efficiently, as if practiced, Tara used the chains to secure my wrists and ankles to my chair.

  "You asshole! We trusted you!" Joan did her best to chastise Raif with her weak voice. My head rolled to the side allowing me to watch as Raif secured Joan to the other chair.

  "Why?!" I pleaded, still unsure what exactly was going on. Aside from obvious betrayal, I didn't understand.

  "You said it yourself, these rooms are the perfect place to get caught off guard by that creature. So I figured I'd just stack the deck. If we use you for bait, then it'd be that much easier to attack it and make our escape." Incredibly proud of himself, Raif explained his plan. Not an ounce of guilt showed on his face.

  "That doesn't make sense. At most you're just helping yourselves escape, but sacrificing us won't help defeat it." My mind reeled at the illogical situation.

  "There is no intention in leaving both of you here as bait. That would be a waste. If we leave the weakest one of us here to lure out the beast, I'm sure the other three could defeat it easily." Raif leaned forward, his wild eyes were inches from my own. I could feel the spittle from his manic speech on my face, but I couldn't do anything to stop him.

  "I don't understand. If you're only sacrificing me, then why is Joan tied up too?!" None of this made sense to me. It was all too much.

  "That's the fun part! I wanted you to watch your girlfriend betray you. I want you to sit right there and watch as she begs for us to leave you to die so she can escape." His wild laughter erupted in a way that I had never experience outside of a villain from a movie or television show. I suddenly realized that his actions had nothing to do with his safety, he just wanted to torture me emotionally before having me killed off. He wanted to take Joan away, he had always intended that, from the moment we met he had propositioned her. How long had he planned this?

  But something seemed off.

  Joan had a very clear red outline around her as she glared at Raif, but Raif had no outline. There was no way that Raif would not be triggering my Read the Room ability with his malicious intent. Yet, I couldn't deny what I was seeing directly in front of me. Why couldn't my ability read his intent?

  "So... Sexy, why don't you come with us and leave this loser behind?" Raif stood with his legs on either side of Joan in her chair while pushing his face against her neck. Joan couldn't move at all in resistance as the punk sat on her lap and forced himself into her space.

  "Leave her alone! She's not your plaything!" I shouted with all of the power I could muster, sadly whatever Raif had done to me continued to make even my voice refuse my commands.

  "And you think she's yours?!" He took a big whiff, his nostrils flaring grotesquely as he inhaled the air around Joan. "I can smell it. She wants me. You disgust her, but her body is screaming out for me. You can't satisfy her like I can!"

  Joan shut her eyes tight, desperately trying to get away, but just like me her body was completely useless.

  "She's nobody's! Joan can make her own decisions, and she sure as hell isn't your property!"

  Raif let out a booming maniacal cackle as he gripped Joan's face roughly in his right hand. His face pressed close enough that his lips brushed against hers. "Did you hear that? That loser thinks he's your knight in shining armor! You must have really used him to make him think that he had any chance with you. You're one twisted little slut! I wonder how far you let that loser get so that you could keep using him."

  Joan's eyes remained tightly shut, unable to pull away.

  "Shut up! Leave her alone! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" My words were betrayed by the inevitable weakness in my voice.

  "You'll kill me? Even if you weren't chained up like a little bitch, there would be nothing you could do against me. You're a weak loser, and you always have been. That's why your little whore is going to choose to come along with me and leave you to die. The sooner you understand your place, the better."

  "Tara... Please..."

  A powerful impact struck the side of my face causing my chair to topple over. I could barely see Joan and Raif from my new position on the floor.

  "Don't you dare talk to my woman! You're lucky that I'm forgiving, because anyone else would have beaten you to death for trying to sweet talk their girl. You're disgusting. I'd ask you to apologize to her, but I don't want you to even speak in her direction." His voice grew more manic by the second. He couldn't even see the hypocrisy in his words and actions.

  "Leave Joan alone. She doesn't like what you're doing." Even from the floor, even with a voice that could hold no strength, I refused to back down. "No matter how much you hit me, I don't give in."

  "Oh that's hilarious! You think I hit you?! I didn't touch a hair on your disgusting little head. That was all Tara. Wasn't it, babe?" Raif couldn't contain his laughter.

  "Yes. I hit you." Tara's voice contained even less strength than my own. I couldn't understand it at all. Why had she hit me? Was she really so caught up in Raif's web?

  "Now, Clay... If you really want to act like the hero, you'd tell your girlfriend to come along with me. There's no reason for both of you to die just because you're too weak to defend her."

  As much as I wanted to argue, that was the first statement Raif made during the entire exchange that held some truth. There were two options. Either Joan went with Raif and Tara, leaving me to die alone, or Joan stayed with me to die a senseless death. Only one option gave her a chance to live. I wish I had the strength to tell her to leave me for dead. But I didn't want to be alone. No matter how much I wanted to be brave, I couldn't ask her to leave me behind. It wasn't for her sake. It was because I was afraid.

  My silence said everything.

  "If you don't make this slut come with me, you will murder her. It's all on you! Why do you want to kill her, Clay?! Are you so selfish that you'd kill someone just because you don't want to admit she'd be better with me? You act like I'm the bad guy here, but you're the one who's going to kill her. I'm the one who's trying to save her, and you're trying to stop me. You're a monster! You're evil, Clay! Why won't you let me save her, Clay?! Why do you want her to die so badly?!" As he spat his cyclical manic arguments, my soul was crushed with each word. Did I really want to let her die? Would I really kill her for my own sake?

  "...ck you..." A weak voice escaped Joan's lips. It was too quiet to be heard over Raif's shouting, but it was enough to get his attention.

  Raif leaned his ear close to Joan's lips. "What are you saying babe? Are you ready to give yourself over to me?"

  "Fuck. You." As clearly as possible, Joan spoke those two words with her weakened voice.

  "You're both crazy! Can't you recognize a good thing when you see it? You'd never do better than me, bitch! You're just going to throw your life away? For what?!" Raif glared at Joan, his eyes burned with rage. I couldn't understand what was stopping him from hitting Joan, his face clearly showed the intent even with no red outline it was obvious to see.

  "He's... Mine." Joan's words made no sense, but her eyes burned with a rage that put Raif's to shame. His rage was hollow, but she was staking her entire life on her words.

  "You're a disgrace! You're a loser, just like him! I don't want you! I was doing you a favor, but you're too stupid to see it! Slut!"

  Raif leaned in, running his disgusting tongue from the nape of her neck to her eye. Her eyes winced with the violation of her body.

  "I swear. I will kill you." My chest burned with rage at Raif's actions.

  But Raif didn't even give my weak voice the time of day. "You are disgusting... Just how much makeup are you wearing? You taste as disgusting as you look. What's wrong with your face?! You're a freak, just like him! Is that why you want him, because you're both freaks?!"

  Raif hopped off of Joan's lap, looking at her with disgust. He wiped his tongue on his shirt sleeve as he turned to Tara.

  "Come on, woman. Why didn't you tell me she was a freak? I wouldn't have wasted my time." He stormed out of the room, leaving Tara behind.

  Before leaving, Tara kneeled next to me. "I'm sorry." A drop of water dripped from somewhere onto my cheek.

  Obediently, Tara rose to her feet and followed Raif out of the room. We were left alone. Left in silence as neither of us knew what to say.

  A few seconds after we were left alone, strength returned to my body. Starting with my fingers, my body once again was under my control. But I was still chained to the chair, unable to lift myself from the ground. I could see that Joan was also regaining use of her body, however her newfound mobility couldn't free her from her chains.

  "Joan..." Even though my voice should now have strength, it still contained weakness. Unlike before, the weakness was a reflection of my cowardice. "I'm sorry, Joan."

  Joan turned away from me, hiding her face from me as if she didn't want to look at me. She had chosen to die by my side, and I had nothing better to say than I'm sorry. I'm really the worst.

  My world twisted, my heart ached, everything felt cold.

  It took far too long for me to realize that the sensations weren't caused by an internal struggle. I had felt that way before. Something was coming.

  I couldn't see properly from my position on the floor. Just out of the corner of my eye, something was beginning to form, something that did not belong in our world.

  A dark, overwhelmingly malign presence came into existence just out of my field of view. A thick miasma permeated from whatever had come to take Joan and I away.

  I wished there was something I could do.

  I wished for some new ability that would save us from this situation.

  My wish never came true.

  Even though my rage overflowed from every pore on my body, I was completely helpless.

  The malevolent presence came for me first.