She’d already lost her father.
She would not lose the man she loved, too.
CHAPTER 29
Well-Versed in Awful Things
River had been wrong earlier when she’d said she wasn’t afraid of the dark. She’d made that claim before she’d experienced true darkness.
That was no longer the case. This tunnel was so dark, the lack of light so thorough, that it made River question whether light had ever existed.
Even the flashlights she and Arlo were carrying weren’t bright enough to make much of a difference. Darkness had enveloped them the moment they’d entered the tunnel, and it hadn’t let up since.
The air had been growing incrementally colder, a sure sign that they were going deeper underground, and River was grateful for her long sleeves.
The lack of light wasn’t as unsettling as the quiet that surrounded them. Their footsteps seemed unnaturally loud in this place of darkness. There was no wind, no breeze, no scurrying of tiny feet.
There was nothing at all.
River had checked her phone a while back, and there was no signal. At least now, she knew why she hadn’t heard fromNikhail. She wasn’t sure if that made her feel better or worse, so she decided not to think about that at all.
There were other things occupying her mind. Every so often, her flashlight caught on streaks of dried blood ahead of them.
It is unlikely that one individual could sustain this level of blood loss and still be alive,the medical part of River’s brain unhelpfully supplied as they passed even more blood.At the very least, they’d be unconscious.
River’s gut twisted painfully, and she forced herself to look away from the wall.
Not Nikhail, she prayed over and over again.Please, don’t let it be him.
The supplication was short and to the point, but it was all she could manage right now.
The longer they walked, the thicker the darkness became. They stopped a few times to drink water, and once to snack on dried jerky, but that was it. The words they exchanged were few and far between.
Then, River’s flashlight blinked. Once. Twice. She slapped the torch against her palm.
The light flickered, then extinguished.
“Fuck,” she whispered. The tunnel walls were so close, her words seemed to scream back at her.
Arlo glanced over, their face swathed in shadows. “You okay?”
No.
She was absolutely not okay.
She had no idea how far they would have to walk, no idea if Nikhail was even still alive, and now the darkness was creeping in on them, ready to devour them whole.
River could barely remember what it felt like to beokay.
Even so, she was determined to be strong. She couldn’t let a dead flashlight be the thing that brought her down.
She could cry about it later.
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
As fine as she could be.
They continued their trek. River had a newfound respect for underground insects because this was horrible. The darkness was pressing in on her, and the rocky terrain was growing more uneven with every step.