A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

to take their progress was halted by the banging from inside a house just ahead of them, so they slowly crept up to the side of it, leading them into the dark alley beside it which was blocked off like so many of the streets they had encountered so far.

They crouched down enough so they could pass under the window above them just as it swung open, spraying the alleyway ahead with light from within which scared Harvey and Daniel to almost give themselves away to whoever was inside.

'Hhhuu….' A scared sound Daniel was seemingly frozen in fear as he waited for whatever was inside to pop it's head out, Lillie had spotted Daniel was looking very scared and nervous that she reached across to him, lay her arm across his chest and mouthed,

'Shhhh' putting her other finger to her lips, Daniel instantly calmed down as he realised that the person inside must of just opened the window for air, but just as he breathed a sigh of relief a plate of eaten food was thrown out of the window which slopped against the house next door with a ‘THUD’, luckily Harvey was at the darkest end of the alley as he would of probably screamed out in terror at seeing food fly past his head.

All of a sudden as the trio crouched in total fear the alleyway darkened as a figure revealed itself against the wall opposite, looming out like a giant ready to pounce, arms stretched out wide then…. it let out a rather large ‘YAWN’ followed by a ‘BUURRP’, the figure stood there just looking out of the window for what seemed like a lifetime with Daniel and Lillie still stuck underneath the opened window.

Then, before the figure turned and closed the window, it spoke,

'Well that's the last of that I guess, see told you there was nothing to worry about, probably just those blooming animals again, this will stop them rummaging through the rubbish!'. And with that the window slammed shut and all was dark again.

Lillie and Daniel both looked at each other with a look that shouted

‘We need to go!’, but as they turned to Harvey they realised he wasn't there any more,

'Harvey….Harv!!' whispered Daniel into the thick darkness at the end of the alleyway, waiting for a reply which never came.

'Where is that boy?' Lillie quietly muttered to Daniel as they searched the end of their hiding place but couldn't feel a thing down that end of where they were standing, then suddenly Daniel felt a hand grab him on the shoulder causing him to spin around in panic only to be met by a hand straight over his mouth and a voice shushing him.

It seems Harvey had somehow appeared as if from nowhere,

'What are you guys still doing here?, look what I've found!!' Harvey said getting slightly over excited as he finally felt he was being useful for a change,

'I've found a sort of passage thingy right in the corner here, look!!'. Lillie and Daniel crept along to where Harvey was standing, right by the corner of the wall which seemed to be at a dead end,

'What are we looking at Harv?' questioned Daniel as he felt Harvey was pulling his leg,

'Watch this guys!' as Harvey gently felt his way along the wall into the darkest part of the alley. He pushed the end of the bricked wall until he heard a ‘CLICK’ from behind the wall itself and what sounded like numerous locks moving and clanking, it seemed like there was some sort of secret panel which was big enough for them to get through completely hidden out of sight and only known to the people of the town by the looks of it, their eyes adjusted to the darkness as they peered into the darkened passageway which had opened up before them, they moved slightly along towards the edge of the tunnel to be met with what looked like some sort of escape route stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions.

'It seems to go right towards the centre of the town guys, right along the back of all the houses, it's big enough for us to all get down!, I wonder where the other end goes to?' Harvey said as he had already started to explore the tunnels before he jumped out on the other two.

'Are you sure it's safe in here?, seems a bit odd that there's this tunnel thing hidden away, what's it hidden away from? And I hope we don't get caught!' Daniel nervously feeling his way along the walls in the heavily darkened tunnel, with Lillie not too far behind him, holding onto his shirt as they edged their way further into the passageway,

'Where do you think this leads guys?' asked Lillie, hoping that someone would be able to give her an answer.

'Who knows but I bet it leads somewhere cool!' Harvey laughed as the sound echoed all around them,

'I wish there were some lights in here, I'm sure I've just trod in something nasty, Urrgh' Lillie groaned at the thought of what was in the tunnel with them, Then all of a sudden as if a switch had been flipped a stream of wall lanterns lit up along both sides of the passageway walls, creeping past them like a snake sliding through the grass and off into the distance.

'Whoa, who done that?' Daniel asked inquisitively as he turned to Harvey, who raised his upturned hands and shrugged his shoulders knowing it wasn't him,

'Wasn't anything I done Dan, maybe ask your sister, maybe she's a witch! Ha-ha', He said to his bemused friend who then turned to Lillie who was now scowling at Harvey with a look that could take down a large elephant.

'Did you do this sis?, What did you say?' Daniel had to ask as he knew it wasn't him,

'All I said was that I wished there were some lights in here, and then those lanterns lit up all around us'.

Harvey had heard enough and was making his way along the passageway as he shouted back to the others,

'Come on guys, let's see where it goes' and off he shot leaving the others in his wake.

'Harvey...wait for us!!' shouted Daniel as he set off in pursuit of his friend closely followed by Lillie.

The passageway seemed to go on forever until eventually it came to a dead end with Harvey pushing the wall like he did to get into it.

'Oh come on just move!!' puffed Harvey as he used all his strength trying to move the wall,

'Let's try together you two, see if we can get out of here before we are heard in here' Lillie said as they all faced the wall, hands spread wide, they began pushing with all of their might but it wouldn't budge an inch. They all stopped eventually and sat down against the wall totally worn out,

'Harvey was panting heavily, trying to get his breath back as he moaned,

'Why won't this thing just OPEN!!' no sooner had he finished what he was saying then all of a sudden the wall swung open the other way leaving the trio lying on their backs upside down in some kind of underground room somewhere in the depths of the town,

As their eyes became accustomed to the darkness and the dust from inside settled they were met with the sight of a darkened room, wider and much larger than the passageway they were just in, cracks of light were shining in from between the floorboards above them, lighting up unopened boxes stacked against the wall, ripped and ruined pictures were scattered around the room, some hanging half off, in the corner of the room a set of wooden stairs climbed up towards a heavy looking wooden door, as the trio ventured forwards further into the room all of a sudden the wall behind them swung back shut with a ‘THUD’ followed by the sound of locks clicking back into place.

As they stood in the middle of the room totally confused with where they were now no one dare speak a word at first until Lillie thought she would see if what happened in the passageway with the lights would work again,

'Lights….' She muttered, closing her eyes tight as if too afraid to look, hoping that her words might light up the room they were all in.

Harvey and Daniel looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders as they were still standing there in the darkened room, then one by one, in the cracks of the wall lights started appearing from everywhere, bathing the trio in a brilliant white light, their shadows appearing on the walls as if dancing with every new light that appeared,

'I think I know where we are guys!!' Daniel broke the silence as Harvey stood there in awe of their surroundings,

'I'd say we have found the House of a Hundred Lights!!, Ahhh maybe we were looking in the wrong place, This must be where we can find that Lucas guy!!'.

Harvey was too busy counting the lights he could see to hear what Daniel was saying,

'Sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven…' He counted slowly pointing at each one individually,

'AWWW great, I've lost count now!!', Harvey went to start again but Daniel gestured at him to stop,

It's ok Harv, I think this is the right place so no need to actually count them!!'

'So how do we get out of here without being seen?' Harvey enquired as he looked to the stairs,

'Well let's try the door up there first then eh, might lead somewhere', Daniel pointed to the door at the top of the stairs, just as he said that they heard a clicking sound coming from the door, his head swung round so fast almost causing him to fall over, then followed the sound of someone banging at the door hard, it seemingly stuck in position as every part of the door creaked and groaned as whoever was behind it was trying to force it open, the trio looked at each other in total fear as they searched the room for somewhere to hide but the only places were the small boxes leaning against the walls that had no chance of hiding them all, Harvey had the idea of trying to get back into the tunnels, so he ran to the wall, as the door upstairs was still stuck shut and now being banged against,

'OPEN' Harvey confidently shouted at the wall but nothing happened, the wall stayed exactly how it looked, not one part of it moved or looked like it was going to,

'Open….please!!!' Harvey tried again this time sounding more panicky than the last time, once again the wall didn't budge or make any kind of sounds so Harvey turned to face the others who were standing there hopeful that he could get them into the passageway beyond the wall but nothing was happening,

'Guys...I don't know what to do now!!' He continued now sounding ever so scared, just as he went to move the door at the top of the stairs flung open, banging hard against the bricks on this side of the door with a ‘DONNGGG’ as the metal handle slammed hard against wall. Lillie, Daniel and Harvey all screeched out loud and jumped back in total fear as the sound and sight of footsteps could now be seen and heard clomping down the wooden stairs, they scattered to the nearest boxes, trying their best to not be seen...but to no avail,

'Children...I know you're there, there's no need to be afraid, please...step out from behind the boxes, I can see you' the manly voice called out to them as the children stayed silent, hoping that whoever it was would go away thinking that there was no one down there but the voice carried on talking to them,

'My name is Lucas Deverill keeper of the House of a Hundred Lights, I'm presuming you are Daniel, Lillie and Harry…'

'Harvey!!!!!' Came the squeaky reply from behind one of the boxes