Page 60 of Brody

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“Are you sure?” he asked once he stood beside me.

“Positive. Look, you can even see pieces of collapsed support structures.” I kept hauling rock aside until, eventually, I found exactly what I was looking for. Beneath the rubble lay the entrance to a tunnel leading deeper underground. It wasperfectly square with clear support structures running along the walls.

“See,” I said, pointing toward the tunnel that was just large enough for a person to walk through without hunching over. “This was manmade. That concrete slab that we assumed was an old building foundation must have been sealing off the entrance.”

Now equally invested in our discovery, Magnus also inspected the support structures around the mouth of the tunnel. “Okay. But why? That concrete was old. It had obviously been here a long time. What’s the point of building a tunnel like this if you’re just going to seal it up?”

“I don’t know,” I said as I pulled a keychain from my belt that had a small flashlight attached. “But there’s only one way to find out.”

Pointing the light down the tunnel revealed that it was straight and mostly flat with only a slight downward slope. I took a few steps into the tunnel, careful not to hit my head on the ceiling. The tunnel had been built for an average sized man to pass through easily, but the original architects clearly hadn’t anticipated someone of my size.

“Is it safe to go inside?” Magnus asked, even as he followed me. He was also forced to hunch, and his broad frame blocked most of the light coming in from the mouth of the tunnel until my small flashlight was the only thing illuminating the space.

“I wouldn’t go much farther without proper supplies,” I assured him, nodding down at my insufficient flashlight. “But these inner support structures seem stable. I’m not seeing any signs of damage or corrosion. The ones near the entrance must havebeen damaged when the cops dug up that coffin, but the rest of this is practically pristine. Whoever built this knew what they were doing.”

The sound of shifting stone caught our attention. Magnus and I turned back toward the entrance of the tunnel, where Ellis and Trent had also climbed down into the hole and were now peering inside.

“Um, guys,” Ellis said as he stared down into the dark, unable to see us in the shadows despite being only a few feet away. “I think you should come take a look at something.”

Although only a difference of a few feet, the stark contrast of daylight compared to the darkness of the tunnel was blinding. I had to squint and wait for my eyes to readjust before I could see what Ellis and Trent had found.

Most of the broken support structures that lay scattered over the ground were in so many pieces they were barely recognizable, but a few sizable sections remained. One of the pieces, which Ellis and Trent were pointing at, still had its decorative carving.

Three familiar flowers formed a wreath carved directly into the rock.

I slapped Magnus upside the head. “How did you miss that?”

Scowling, Magnus brushed his ponytail back out of his face. “Hey. You missed it, too.”

“Yeah, but you’re the one who’s obsessed with plants. Normally, they’re the first thing you’d notice.”

Magnus tried to punch my shoulder, but I dodged out of the way. “Well, excuse me for being distracted by the big fucking hole that just appeared in the middle of our home. I’m starting to wonderif these cults are right. TheMothers of the Mountainreally are witches, and they’ve cursed this particular patch of land.”

He said it as a joke, but there was something in his eyes, a raw emotion that begged me to prove his words were false.

“Witches aren’t real, and this place ain’t cursed,” I assured him, turning my flashlight back to the dark tunnel. “There’s just… a lot of mysteries.”

Now that I knew what I was looking for, it was easier to find. Along the top of the tunnel, wreathes of roses, lisianthus, and poppy flowers had been carved right into the keystones of each support structure. It was clear who had built the tunnel, though I doubted the three sisters had constructed it themselves. They must have had help from their cult of followers. So many people working together to construct such a strong and elaborate tunnel, it must have led somewhere important.

The question now was, did it still lead anywhere?

Or had this tunnel been buried simply because it was no longer any use?

And why had they buried a body when they sealed it?

“Go get some more flashlights,” I said as I stored my little keychain light back on my belt. “This isn’t going to be enough.”

Magnus was immediately onboard with the plan, and climbed out of the pit to go fetch flashlights from our houses. Ellis and Trent were more hesitant. They continued questioning me about whether the tunnel really was secure. Yet, in the end, their curiosity won out over their caution. When Magnus returned, they each took a flashlight from him.

The size of the tunnel meant we had to walk single file. I took the lead, with Magnus bringing up the rear, and Trent and Ellis in between us. Directly behind me, Ellis held his flashlight in one hand, swinging it around so quickly I doubted it was actually doing him much good. His other hand, which wasn’t holding the flashlight, remained latched onto the bottom hem of my shirt.

Since meeting him, I’d gotten used to Ellis constantly clinging to me. The man was the calmest when he had a constant reminder of my presence. If he were anyone else, I would have found it smothering.

I surprised even myself when, instead of being annoyed, I merely found his clinginess endearing. The fact that Ellis found my presence so comforting brought a certain sense of pride that I could easily get addicted to. It was already clear that I was never going to push him away, and if I wasn’t careful, I would probably just end up spoiling him and encouraging him to depend on me more.

In fact, that didn’t sound like such a bad idea.

Just as I’d noticed before, the tunnel had a slight slope to it. While it looked straight at first, it was soon clear that we were heading farther underground. The air became cooler, and the shadows more oppressive. The flashlights we’d brought were of a decent quality, but even they could only do so much. The limited circles of light illuminated our path, but anywhere the flashlights weren’t pointing was nothing but an empty void.