۞ The Undercity ۞ by Nathaniel Crawford (digital e reader .txt) 📕

Prologue

Death was aroused inside of me.
I took a final look around the room full of strangers, wondering which of them would help me escape, and which would try to kill me. I knew them, some of them, at least. Their eyes full of emotions under there long black cloaks that stretched towards the ground. There, in the lonely dungeon cell, stood myself and two other strangers, both teenage boys. The cell had a small window that would let in the moons light, and metal chains that hung from the walls.
Until a few days ago, they were just strangers to me, people I would never take a glance towards. Now though, they were my only hope from surviving another night, another hour, another second. They called themselves by names I had not been able to comprehend. They whispered, never spoke in loud voices, and always closed their eyes when they would speak. One was known for death, and the other one was known for life. Both were immortal, or so they told me. With one, his eyes illuminated a silver white color that made me think of my mother, and the other, a deadly venom red, the one that made me think of my mother’s killer.
Suddenly, within the darkness of the cellar, the boy with the red eyes slowly stood up, took a deep breath, and walked over towards me, his footsteps making less then inaudible noises as he walked towards me. Without taking a glance towards me, he sat down next to me and looked away. I looked at him for a few moments, and then turned away as well.
“You’re scared,” said the boy after a few moments, “Aren’t you?”
“A little,” I said turning to him and letting out a deep sigh.
“Don’t be,” said the boy, “Fear is just an illusion in the mind.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, being intrigued by his answer.
“You see,” said the boy, “Mortals, such as yourself and all the others of your kind, fear too much of what is to come. But what they need to realize is, what is to come is nothing more fearful than what has already begun.”
I looked at him as he turned his head away again, looking out the window once more. I knew this boy was different, but how so? That was something I would have to figure out. He was unlike any person I’ve ever meet. There was something dark, something mysterious about the way he talked, the way he acted that made me a little uneasy, yet still intrigued.
Then the cell door burst open with an array of bright white lights.
“This is it,” I thought to myself, “This is the day I die.”

“I don’t want to die Fox, I want to live.”

Publication Date: 12-04-2011

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