Shadows in Light

The street was looked exactly like before, only without people chasing and shooting at me. It was quiet and unlike other areas I couldn’t see anyone moving around on the street, and the whole place still looked even worse having seen the rest of the Underground too.

I got over to where the wooden wall was and saw that while the broken section I’d made was still there, someone had now built a brick wall on the other side. I poked at the cement to find it already dry. That’s some impressive laboring. And annoying for me as I couldn’t get in. Tapping along the wood, I got the mild thud of a wall all the way behind it.

I started following the path I’d taken, reasoning it was probably the best way to go. I got time to really look at the place as I went along. The buildings were falling apart, and any repairs were overly simplistic. Wooden beams holding things up. Metal bars drilled in to stop other bits from falling apart. And now unlike when I first ran through here, the place was now seemingly empty.

Perhaps that was partially my fault for coming through here with everyone chasing after me. Still, I was sure someone would be around here. I had to hit a few of the ramshackle places before I finally found someone. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find, all things considered.

But it wasn’t a young boy. He was sat on a table facing the broken window, eating, well, I hoped it was a chicken leg or something. It was entirely probably that it, sadly, wasn’t. But I could dream.

He was still in the age before his puberty growth spurt, dressed up in ragged tracksuit bottoms, with a thick jumper that went down to his knees. He wore sandals on his feet. The cold didn’t seem to bother him.

He shifted to defend his meat as he saw me “It’s mine! You can’t have it!”

I held up my hands “I don’t want your food. I’m after information.”

He glowered at me suspiciously “What about?”

I pointed down the tunnel back to where the wall was. “About the wooden wall area.”

The boy hunkered over a little at my mention, looking at me. “Why do you want to know about that?”

“Friends of mine were being held there.”

“Oh. You’re not with them?”

I shook my head “No. I’m not.” I considered him for a moment, and then reached into my pocket. The boy jumped as I did “No. It’s okay. I’m getting some money out. I’ll give you one hundred dollars if you can tell me what you know? Or help me find out what I want to know?” I pulled the bill out and the boys eyes shot to it watching it wave a little in the wind. He was practically drooling.

“I can do that. Money first!” he insisted.

“I’m not giving you it till you’ve told me. I will however put it on the floor here.” I moved a little closer to him and put it under a brick, stepping back. It was about halfway between us both now. “You give me what I want, I take another step back.”

The boy between me and the bill, then nodded. “Happened a long time ago.”

“What did?”

“The wall. They declared it private territory, and had guards wandering up and down the street. Anyone who went in either got killed or severely injured. Then one night up went the wall. Then the screams, and rumors of things happening behind there. Started giving off bad energy. Everyone left one by one until only those left had no choice. Last few months, bodies started getting dumped all over the place. Rest of the Underground is ignoring them, but everyone’s thinks it was from that area.”

“When did all this start?”

The boy nibbled on his meat thinking for a moment, legs swing under the table before he replied. “Ten years or so Mama said.”

“Does anyone know who’s behind it all?”

The boy shook his head “No one wants to look. Those who tried ended up dead. No one looks anymore.”

I wasn’t surprised by that one. I frowned a little, thinking as I looked back towards the wooden wall. “How many bodies?”

The boy shrugged a little, “Who cares?”

Wow, that was rather brutal to hear from a young boy. But, then again, I guess life wasn’t quite so easy down here in the end.

“Has there been any bodies dropped recently?”

He chewed on his meat thinking, then shrugged again. “Dunno. Sometimes they’re gone fast, other times they’re around long enough to stink.”

“Is there anyone that could answer that?”

He pointed the way I’d run when I’d first been down here “That way. Two blocks, right then another block. Corner is a shop. Run by the Priestess. She can answer those questions.”

“The Priestess?” I might have been a little skeptical.

The boy merely looked at me “You asked, I told. She takes the bodies of those who die here. Makes sure they get a good sending off. Take it or leave it. I’ve upheld my part of the bargain. You should uphold yours.”

He looked young and faintly cute as you would expect a young boy, even ignoring the dirt that filled his lanky hair, and the mess all over his clothes. But there was warning in his voice. He was right, he’d given me what I wanted. I took a couple of steps back, and he hopped off the table, scurried over to the money, and scooped up the hundred dollar note and slipped it into his pants.

“Ta very much. Have fun. I’ll be here if you have any more questions for me. You’ll have to pay again for that mind.”

“Thank you. Will your mother be back soon?”

He shook his head. “No. She died last month.”

“Then who is looking after you?”

The boy smiled, but then his mouth continued widening until it went from ear to ear, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth.

“I am.” he hissed, before a long tongue lashed out, tasting the air.

I swallowed holding up my hands “Very well. Stay safe.” The boys laughed echoed after me as I walked off. I made sure I’d gotten a good distance between us before I let the shudder, I’d been holding onto run down my spine.

Following the boy’s directions, I used the chance to look things over as I went. The ceiling wasn’t too far above me, anyone approaching seven foot tall would have difficulty on this street. It was extremely strange looking in the purple/blue haze that my night sight provided, so I took out my cellphone and activated the torch light app, using it to look up.

It looked like someone had dug this street into a cave, then grinded and sanding the entire thing to a smooth finish. It was perfectly level going from one side of the street to the other. And in theory above that was the various utilities, and then the street itself, with cars and vehicles going above me.

I moved on, continuing down the streets, watching my way as I went. I felt like I was close to Dave’s exit by the time I’d followed all the directions given. But I ended up on a short dead-end street which was blocked off at the end by a brick wall.

There was a large set of windows to the left of me, with a large double door in the middle. It was lit up by gas lamps that hung on either side of the door. Despite the surrounding area I’d just walked through, this street was well kept and felt safe to be on.

The walls were covered in old looking stone bricks, the windows were glass although you couldn’t see inside. There wasn’t any sign on it, but I walked up to the door and as I was about to knock a voice called out from inside.

“It’s open, come in.”

I couldn’t see anyone watching me, but in the end I stepped inside. The place was laid out like a waiting room, including a counter. There was a lot of seating for people to sit down in arranged in exact rows. There was one door to the left that was just a curtain entrance. Another ahead that was a large wooden door, and one behind the counter area.

Behind the counter was a woman with long gray hair, and bright blue eyes that looked at me. She was looked elderly, but her face had a cheerful look to it that helped her retain an essence of youth. She had worry lines etched onto her face, but they didn’t detract from her cheerfulness. Perhaps something I’ve not seen before was the fact she was dressed in a full body robe belt on, which had several pouches on it, and a sword within easy reach of her hand.

She looked me over, and her cheerfulness diminished. “I’ve paid my dues.” I noted her hand moving closer to her sword a little.

“Sorry what?”

“My dues? To your boss? They’re paid up. If someone’s sent you here to collect them.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was told to come here by a boy?”

She glanced to the door for a moment, then me again “What boy?”

“Looks like he’s about ten. Wool top. Tracksuit pants. Oh, also has needle sharp teeth.”

“Oh. Him. Right. Why?”

“It was about the bodies that were being dumped around the place.”

She narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously, “Why would you care about that?”

“I’ve got my reasons. I’m primarily interested in the recent ones.” I wasn’t liking that I had to tell everyone everything.

She didn’t seem happy about that, but after a few moments thought about it, drumming her finger on her belt, she nodded a little. She moved out from behind the counter, waving a hand lazily at the door behind me causing it to slam shut, the bolts clacking shut “Follow me.” she said shortly

I don’t know if she noticed that I jumped into the air like a firework when the door slammed shut, but I followed her as the door ahead opened without her touching it. We entered a large corridor with more corridors leading off it, doors here and there. I realized quickly where I was: A hospital. Just one underground for everyone who lived down here. I followed her through a couple of corridors until we reached a set of metal doors. She waved her hand over it and the doors unbolted with a clanking and then opened.

“There’s some left, I haven’t arranged them to be taken to for burial just yet. Do not touch them.”

I nodded, a little spooked by what she was doing, and where I was heading. The morgue is never a place anyone wants to go.

Again.

Why do I keep ending up in them?

The room gave off a blast of cold as we stepped over the doorway, despite no sense of it before I entered. The walls were iced over from the level of cold that was inside this room. Inside were bodies laid out under cloth covering, and there was a surprising amount of them here. By my count there was ten bodies currently.

The Priestess led me down to midway and stopped in front of one of the coverings, lifting and moving it off the body. She looked her over critically for a moment before she spoke in a business-like fashion to me.

“This is one of them, mortal, found three weeks ago dumped in one of the buildings. I’ve run every test I can think of and found no cause of death. Her body simply stopped. I do note however there is a complete lack of energy that should have been there regardless of her death.”

I looked the body over. It was faintly sickening to see a young girl laid out like this, she was dressed in party clothes and her face was still made up from her night out. She’d been out for a night of fun and ended up dead. I looked up at the Priestess, swallowing to ensure I wasn’t sick. It wasn’t manly to throw up.

“How comes you didn’t just ensure her body was found somewhere up on the streets?”

She looked at me for a moment, “I’m not allowed by the Underground Laws of course. All bodies found here must be dealt with by us. This just means that they’re left on the rundown streets until someone brings them to me, or the other places that are like me. Sometimes someone else might ensure they’re dealt with properly if it’s someone they know, but mostly I have to rely on someone’s generosity to get these taken and buried.”

I looked to the body again, thinking hard. “If she’s devoid of energy. Does that mean Angels got her?”

The Priestess spoke with a clipped tone, an anger showing up as she looked at the body.

“When Angels drain someone after death, they leave a trace. It’s easy to find as they don’t bloody care about anyone finding it as there are few powerful enough to stop them. But this body, and many others of the ones I’ve found are devoid of any trace. Which makes me think it’s unlikely to have been Angels, and that someone else did it.”

She covered the body again, “I raised this to your Leader, but he rejects my theory. Because there’s only one group that in my view COULD do it like this. But of course, they wouldn’t do that according to Mr. Ortiz.”

I could almost drown in the sarcasm in her voice as she spoke about Ortiz.

“Have you had any girls show up in the last week?”

She shook her head moving away from me looking down the room at the rest of the bodies “No, actually no one at all. A rare week, normally I get two or three a week, and they’re all like this. All the bodies that are dumped out there and the surrounding area. And I must keep dealing with them. Is that why you’re here? Sniffing around for your Boss because of my theory?”

She snapped around looking at me “Well tell your boss if I have to keep paying my bills, I need him to help me get some help to take the bodies out. I’m tired of dealing with this and having to pay and getting no benefits from it.”

She pointed a finger at me “Demons. You’re all full of shit”

Wait. What?