The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (best short novels of all time .TXT) 📕

hear her but it was all smudged. Had Cecilia moved at all? He looked so close. She decided to try to swim. As she did she felt a resistance to push against, a bit like moving through jelly, but it wasn’t sticky. She knew she didn’t have long until she would need to breathe, so she tried to keep swimming—if you could call it swimming.

She heard a clicking sound echoing about her and wondered what it was. It was a creaking pattern that made the gelatinous substance wobble. Her lungs were starting to pull on her chest for air. What would happen if she did just try to breathe in? Cecilia began to feel weak and light headed when there came a forceful tug on her leg, and she was yanked deep, deep down as it all went black.

When Cecilia came to she was lying on a bed of dry moss, looking up at a ceiling bedecked with what looked like tiny stars. She wasn’t cold any more and although she could feel the atmosphere was damp, she felt herself to be quite dry at least. She could see her rucksack hung up over the wall and she sat upright, climbed off the mossy bed and went over to check her belongings were still there. She held the marble in her hand for a moment, feeling relief, then put it back. This didn’t look like the work of Jacques d’Or: he wouldn’t hang her rucksack up for her and she didn’t appear to be imprisoned. As she searched the room, Cecilia discovered that she was standing in a small, glittering cave. A serene sound came to her, like a whale or a dolphin call. She didn’t know the language of the sounds that it spoke, but somehow she understood its meaning and recognised it as the sound that had come to her through the Deep.

“The substance on the walls—it’s a type of bioluminescence… living light.” The words of the soft, smooth voice were being transmitted directly into her head.

“Oh,” said Cecilia out loud. She wasn’t feeling very well. Whoever it was standing in the doorway was just outside of view.

“My name is Doltha and I belong to a small community of Divers who live here. I have some broth for you, it should help with the decompression sickness you might be feeling. Here you are.” From the shadows she held the bowl out. “It should warm you up too. I thought you might be hungry.”

Doltha stepped forward to reveal a dorsal fin, flippers, a tail, and arms and legs, all covered in a smooth pinkish complexion. Her eyes were quite human, but almost entirely black. Cecilia had to save herself from gasping. She was quite beautiful.

Doltha placed the small black wooden bowl in Cecilia’s hands. “Try some,” she said encouragingly.

Cecilia brought the bowl up to her lips and instantly felt at ease. She sipped it slowly. It was delicious: it tasted like a concoction of mushrooms and raw peas and clams; it was warm and soothing like Doltha’s voice. Her eyes were kind, and as Cecilia looked into them, they seemed to invite her trust.

“You’ve been through quite a lot. It’s been a long time since anyone has entered the Deep, and usually they’ve been pushed or thrown in to be disposed of, but it’s been a very long time since someone actually had the courage to choose to face it themselves. You did well.”

“I didn’t know what else to do.” Cecilia sat down on the moss-covered bed, looking sadly into her bowl.

“You trusted yourself and your instincts. You did the right thing and stayed true to yourself, even if it was hard. The Deep is only as boundless as you let it be,” said Doltha.

“Doltha, if I may… where am I?” asked Cecilia.

“Ah ha,” she said. “Think of the Deep as a window. You’ve done the hardest part; you are now on the other side of that window.”

“Oh.” Cecilia left a long pause. “Doltha, it’s all gone terribly wrong. You don’t want me here, I’m nothing but trouble.” Cecilia held back from crying; she wasn’t sure what Doltha would make of it.

“I had to leave my friends,” Cecilia continued. “But what will come of them? I have to get back to the Black Forest and get them out of the Nest. I have to help them, Doltha, please? I can’t stay here and do nothing!” Cecilia stood up.

“Drink some more broth, it will make you feel better,” said Doltha.

Cecilia sat back down and drank the rest of the broth.

“I sense that you don’t believe what’s happening to you.”

“Sometimes I have moments when I know where I am and what’s going on, but then everything changes again. It’s a lot to take in. I just want to go home.”

“Until you accept your situation and the nature of the environment that you find yourself to be existing in…”

“Oh, sorry, my name is Cecilia…”

“…Cecilia,” Doltha continued, “then you can not expect to change it. I think you need to accept the circumstances you have found yourself in so that you can move forwards. We can help you do that and help find your friends but first we will need to discuss what action to take.”

Doltha looked at Cecilia knowingly and picked up the empty bowl. “I’ll be back to get you shortly. There is a deepsuit hanging up on the wall for you. It will keep you warm and dry. I’ll leave you a little while to get changed and inform Gaia that you are awake.” With that, Doltha left.

Cecilia did as she was told and got changed into the deepsuit. It was fitted her well. It was chocolate brown and covered in a soft fuzz. She folded up her dress and went to her bag to try to stuff it in alongside her own clothes and Luke’s hoody. Cecilia reached into her coat pocket and retrieved the marble once more; this time she took it out and held it in her