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

'So we just need to follow the tunnel to wherever it takes us and it will lead us to my father?'.

'It will lead you where you need to be Daniel, as I said the path can only be chosen by you and you alone, Please children I must insist you go now, every second longer you are standing here means your presence is felt more and more'.

So as the children made their way one by one into the start of the tunnel they each said goodbye to Lucas as they went past,

Lillie smiled as she turned towards the entrance, looked straight into Lucas’s eyes and said,

'Thank you Lucas, for all you've done, I hope we will see you again soon'

'I'm sure our paths may cross sometime in the future Lillie, and may you find what your heart is showing you' Lucas smiled and waved at Lillie as she stepped further into the darkness,

'Yeah, what she said…' Harvey didn't bother looking back but just threw an arm up, kind of waving as he set off after her,

'Goodbye Henry…' smirked Lucas, softly replying to Harvey as he drifted off into the blackness of the tunnel,

Daniel just stood inside the entrance looking at Lucas, kind of knowing they may never meet again,

'Thank you Lucas, it's been a pleasure meeting you, and thank you for the help you gave us last night, I'm so glad Lydia was right about you',

'The pleasure was all mine Master Daniel, now go and become your future, I just hope that you fulfil your potential' Lucas gestured Daniel towards him and placed his hand inside his pocket, pulling out a small bottle with some sort of powder inside it,

'This is for you, the contents of this bottle are designed to cause a distraction if you ever come into any harm, please take care and good luck on your journey Daniel',

'Thank you Lucas….I..I just hope that what we find from here on in is right for us, I need answers...so many questions to ask' He added as he started the journey into the darkness of the tunnel.

'Hold on Bucks I'm coming..' Daniel said as he walked further into the tunnel looking for Lillie and Daniel, Just as he started he heard the clunk of the locks in the wall turning, he turned round and was met with blackness as the hole in the wall was no more.

Daniel raced off into the tunnel, hearing Lillie and Harvey talking to each other, Lillie had lit her lantern now and was shining the path ahead so they could see what was in here, they were surrounded by nothing but stone walls, constructed in such a way as to simply show the path forwards.

On the walls were drawings of what looked like locals from Erwin and beautiful paintings of the town, seemingly drawn from memory.

It seemed that no one had been down here for a while as webs filled the corners of the walls, as the children moved further on dust from the floor swirled round their ankles like a dancing ballerina.

'Have you seen these drawings??, they are beautiful aren't they' Lillie ran her hand over them to see how fresh they were,

'What are they supposed to be of do you think?' Asked Harvey as he stared at the paintings long and hard,

'Well they look like the town to me, from what we have already seen I mean….'.

'In the middle of one picture which was of the town itself, you could clearly see the House of a Hundred Lights, all it's features visible to the children, the courtyard surrounded by the numerous rooms there, the shape of the building itself looking like a triangle surrounded by the circle shape of the town.

'It's so beautiful...wonder who painted these' Lillie smiled at the sheer beauty of what she was seeing.

'Whoever it was must have been down here a very long time!!' Daniel looked at each painting very closely when he spotted the initials S.R on every one of the paintings.

'Someone's put their initials on here guys, S.R, I wonder who they belong to?'

'Dunno Dan, I just want to get out of here..feeling a bit claustrophobic now' Harvey kept close to Daniel as they made their way along the tunnels beneath the town, every sound was amplified by the walls of the tunnels which scared Harvey just a bit more with each noise.

'Can you hear that?....and there it is again, sounds like someone whispering to me!!' Harvey stopped dead in his tracks, pulling Daniel back with him,

'Get off Harv, I can't hear anything apart from you moaning and whining, Lillie can you hear anything?' asked Daniel as he was now getting slightly fed up of Harvey and his chattering teeth behind him.

Lillie then all of a sudden stopped walking, held up her lantern and squinted to look into the distance,

'Shhh….' Lillie waving her hand at both of them to be quiet,

'W..what is it….is something there?' Harvey backed up against the wall as if he was part of it,

'Shhhh, can't you hear that, because I can!!' Lillie continued,

'What can you hear Lils??, Is something going to eat us?' Daniel bravely stood beside Lillie, ready to defend her from whatever it was she was talking about,

'I said quiet….It's definitely saying something…..sounds like…..Harvey..is..a..big..useless..idiot' Laughed Lillie out loud as Daniel smirked at her playing a trick on Harvey who was stood against the wall still trying to hide until it sunk in that Lillie was winding him up,

'Oh ha blooming ha Lillie, thanks for scaring me like that!!, you're so going to get it back I promise you!!!' Harvey angrily said as he stormed past Lillie, barging her as he went along the tunnel, muttering to himself about revenge.

Daniel and his sister were laughing at Harvey as they carried on through the tunnels. They started talking about meeting their father and what might be happening with them,

'I hope our father wants us around sis, and I hope Bucksy is safe, I miss him so much, hope he isn't injured or anything' Daniel hoped that maybe Bucksy was safe and had found his way to his father's side,

'I'm sure we will be fine Daniel' Lillie replied, trying her best to reassure her brother, 'I have a good feeling about this, don't know how but I just do, as for that dog of yours I'm sure he's ok, he's big and strong and too much of a scaredy cat to want to get into trouble here, now come on let's go find that idiot friend of yours before he hurts himself'

So as they picked up the pace they could still hear Harvey's voice muttering to himself somewhere in the distance so Daniel, who was a bit worried Harvey might get lost, called out,

'Harv...Harvey...slow down mate, we don't want to get lost in here'

But Harvey didn't answer back, he must have been too far ahead to hear Daniel shouting, a rushing sound could be heard ahead of where they were which may have been the reason why Harvey couldn't hear them,

Lillie turned her head to the side and craned her neck forward slightly trying to guess what the noise was and where it was coming from

'That sounds like water Daniel...maybe a waterfall or something, this way….come on let's go',

'A waterfall inside here?, that sound odd to me sis...hope Harvey’s ok and not fallen in, he can't swim!!' Daniel scurried off after his sister who seemed to be running rather fast lately,

'Lils...stop!!' panted Daniel as he eventually caught up with his sister who had stopped sharply in front of him by what seemed the edges of a pool of water, he put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath, Lillie was standing there with her mouth open wide as she was met with a sight as stunning as anything she had ever seen.

They had come across a large opening in the tunnel, bigger than any of the tunnels they had been in before, the room was round in shape with tall warrior type statues curving round the sides of the pools of water which were directly ahead of them, as if watching over this place.

'Look at this Daniel…' she gasped as the sight of not one but two waterfalls in front of them, completely see through and glistening from the light her lantern was giving off.

The waterfalls seemed to be coming from high up above them from two separate holes in the roof of the tunnel, cascading down into its own pool of water, a small path went between the waterfalls which meant that this was the way they were meant to go. It seemed to be hiding something behind each of the streams of water.

As they made their way along the small path laid out before them Daniel reached out his hands and ran them through the water,

'Oh wow this water's so warm Lillie...It feels strange to me, like no water I've ever felt before' Daniel let the water run over his hands then pulled them out, the water itself ran off his hands slowly unlike the water back home, and when there was no more left on his hands they were bone dry,

'How strange...it does feel kind of...a bit slimy?' questioned Lillie as she examined the water running off her hands now,

'My hands are dry...not a trace of water on them, best not drink it though Daniel, who knows where it came from'

As they got closer to the other side of the pathway they both looked down into the water and were met with the most crystal clear water they had ever seen, a seemingly bottomless hole which held no signs of life.

They both stopped to admire the beauty of the water, crouching down beside the water's edge when Daniel all of a sudden saw his reflection change to that of an older man dressed in what looked like the clothes of a warrior, within a few seconds it had changed back to his present self.

'Woah!!!...Lillie did you see that?, My reflection in the water changed...I just saw what looked like me but a lot older, then it just vanished' Daniel was reaching out to grab his sister who was reaching for him also,

'Mine changed too Daniel...I saw myself in the most beautiful clothes, and holding a child. What is this place??'

'I don't know sis but let's keep going, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, we need to find Harvey before he gets even more lost' Daniel snapped back into reality as he knew Harvey couldn't be that far away.

As the walked past the end of the waterfalls they were met with three paths, they all looked exactly the same.

'These must be the paths Lucas was telling us about, and how we must choose our own path…But which one??...and where is Harvey??' Daniel stood there trying to think about which path he felt the strongest pull towards,

'HARVEY….Harvey? Can you hear me??' shouted Daniel at the top of his voice.

A very faint shout of ‘YES’ could be heard from the tunnels ahead of them.

'Harv...which one are you in?? Stay where you are and we’ll come to you mate, don't touch anything either' Daniel gestured to Lillie to listen at the first tunnel,

'Harvey are you in the first one??' she shouted as loud as she could,

'First one….trouble…wait….' came the faint reply from what sounded like Harvey some distance in the tunnel.

'What did he just say? Is he in trouble?....Daniel, sounds like he's in this one...come on let's go' Lillie shouted as she started off into the first tunnel after Harvey.

'Lillie wait for me!!' shouted Daniel as he knew he couldn't let anything happen to Harvey, he shot off in hot pursuit of his sister, he could hear faint shouting coming from in the distance, he caught sight of Lillie’s lantern just up ahead, she had stopped because the tunnel split off in two separate directions,

'Why have you stopped??' Daniel asked

'Quiet…' Lillie added quickly,

'Why??...what can you hear?' Daniel was tugging at his sister's shoulder,