Page 44 of Land of Monsters

“Opie…”

Click!

The door gave way, and we stumbled into the dark room. I shut it behind us, listening for anyone calling out our location. Seeing us enter.

“Can we stop with the close calls?” Dzsinn huffed. “Brownies aren’t usually this loud and annoying.”

“And to that I say, you are welcome, sir.” Opie bowed, showing the parchment fan on his head was singed at the edges.

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Dzsinn muttered, moving deeper into the space.

Chirp!Bitzy stuck up her fingers at the genie.

“Everyone be quiet,” I muttered, already scoping out the room. The house was probably once the groundkeeper’s, left mainly abandoned with just threadbare, dusty curtains and a large rug. I searched for any cuts in the wood panels, uneven sections, or a trap door that could lead to the tunnels.

“Shit.” Dzsinn’s low voice pulled me to him, following his attention to the far wall.

I blinked.

“Fuck.” I stood straight, taking in the top-grade rifles decorating the entire wall. “Sonya’s got some connections.”

“They’re Russian-made.” Dzsinn’s brown eyes met mine. “Military issued.”

“Kapd be a faszom.”Suck my dick. I muttered, not wanting to think about the implications. The very people pretending to play nice with the Unified Nations, trying to become allies, were giving weapons to Sonya? Was this a one-time transaction, or were they working together?

My stomach knotted at the notion the same people hunting Raven were also tied to Sonya. Did she already know who she had in her prison? Was I too late? Anxiety bubbled up my throat, a desperation to find my girl.

“Cauta pe camp!” Search the field!a voice boomed from outside, whipping us around, drilling more panic into my bones.

“The entrance to the tunnel has to be somewhere here,” I spat. The building was old, but not as old as the castle. The tunnels would have come first. “Check the floorboards.” I dropped to my knees, Opie leaping down next to me on the ground, searching as my fingers ran over the planks.

Dzsinn kicked at the rug, pulling it away from the floor, but nothing looked different, no hidden trap. “There’s nothing here.”

The door to the house rattled and my heart stopped, my head lurching up. The door handle twisted, only seconds away from people entering, finding us here.

Dzsinn and I moved at the same time, bolting across the space to a closet near the gun wall. Swinging the door open, I stumbled forward, my foot not finding purchase. A full step down, my boot hit a stone stair, my body slamming into the wall with a thud.

Dzsinn rushed in after me, Opie slipping in right as our door shut and the outside door opened.

Darkness enveloped us, the clunks of boots moving right next to us, squeaking the wood floors. I could hear them grabbing weapons before running out again, the door slamming behind them.

Taking a deep breath, I sought to calm my beating heart, my eyes trying to adjust to the pure darkness, feeling Opie crawl up onto my shoulder.

“Does it smell like rat cum to you guys, too?”

“What?” Dzsinn choked at Opie’s words.

Chirp!

“I don’t know personally, I wasjustasking!”

Chirp! Chirp!

“Not true! That’s a total misunderstanding!”

“Both of you shut up.” Digging into my pack, I yanked out a flashlight, the beam defining the small stairwell we were in. Uneven and worn, the steps curved around, taking us to a low basement. The stale air held a timeworn smell of rotting soil, vegetables, and oats, like this was once used to store food. Before refrigerators, most basements were used to keep things cool. They came back in style after the wall between worlds fell twenty-two years ago when electricity frizzled out all human-made appliances, the system not able to bear the magic.

Dzsinn pulled out his own flashlight, moving to the opposite side of me, both of us searching the dingy room. Nothing much was in it except a stack of wooden crates at one end. Trudging to them, I shoved them over, my torch illuminating the ground where they sat, landing on a change in the foundation, a cut in the stone.

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