Phantoms of a Childish Mind

Darkness is just one of many unpleasant things you end up getting used to when living down here in the Underplace. Even though there had existed torches and lanterns in the upper quarters of the Underplace, their light was never enough to permeate the darkness that engulfed the lower quarters we called home. This kind of dark was a woven blend of absent light and Their depraved power, like tar matted in our eyes; a whole other darkness that hadn’t yet existed on our Earth till the Grand Fall-Out between the gods messengers and men. Life had been pitch-black for me countless years now, time meandering so indifferently one day was no more singular than the next or last. My eyes couldn’t adjust to the sort of ink that saturated the shadows of The Tunnels but my friends had always made sure I made my way around and really, after awhile, you can just feel the earth around you like some sort of living, pulsating womb, you can just know your way.




My friends, I could never actually see them but I knew they were down here with me. I could hear them, feel them around me and their spirit always lead me to safety when They were closing in on wherever our home was at the time, I just could never find them for myself. They were like an ever present amalgam of characters that only drew breath when they were able to help, never did they let me touch them and they never answered when I spoke; they always did the talking. At first I had been nervous, but Sully, Farah and the others had never led me wrong, so I accept what I must to survive down here, ever away from the healing sunlight of my kind.



Echoing down from one of the upper channels of The Tunnels I heard Sully’s booming baritone call out a warning “We need to go deeper again guys! I think They’ve found the minor channel into The Tunnel Proper! You know what to do.” Sully is wise, if he says They know where we are, than They do. His voice, though large and alarming, was calm, like that of a decisive military leader, or perhaps more accurately, a parent. Regardless of how assured Sully was in times like these, or how very often we had to re-locate, instantly fear gripped me, clutching my heart like a vice.



I wasn’t like anyone else in The Underplace, I hadn’t fled to the major underground networks like most humans did when the earth fell prey to more powerful beings; I got separated from my brothers in all the panic and was lucky enough to join a small group of humans also fleeing underground but unlucky enough to see them get slaughtered by some of the less welcoming beings of the deep earth. The thought of my life above ground, and even my time in the upper crust of the earth made me incredibly sad. I had been in love on the surface, and in love again below but here I was, in the eternal darkness with beings that, though they cared for me, I couldn’t even touch when I just needed a hug so badly. Shaking my head as if to fling the memories of another person’s touch from my mind; I whispered quietly to myself and opened up my hearing. “They’re coming.” I affirmed, I could hear with my newly attuned ears Their large claws scraping against hard earth and hefty gnashing teeth burrowing through tough gems and minerals, hoping to probe our shelter. I tried to silence the storm inside me, forcing down the bile that came with the nervousness and imagines of my once protectors being torn limb by limb and pigishly devoured by Them. I steeled myself, I may be human and just that, but I had wizened old Under-Beings on my side; so we hurried down the nearby connecting channels and smaller tunnels, gathering all of our friends. We may not have lived in the most heart-warming society but we never let one of our kind be lost to Them if we can help it.



I could feel Gust’s and Farah’s presence around me once we began moving, a very familiar weight on my heart and mind forming like it always did when they loaned me some of their inner strength. We all grouped together and raced down the southernmost tunnel, deeper into the oppressive darkness of an even more potent quality. It blinded our other senses and made the air feel heavy, I could feel the imprint of depression Their tracks always leave behind all over the cavern walls; they had been here before, so close to us and we hadn’t even known it. That was enough to bring up thoughts of the horrible things They would do to us, the sickening screams and squelching sounds of organs being torn from our bodies filled my head; I could only find solace in the fact I wouldn’t have to see it this time.



We knew we had to be quick, so we were. Impossibly fast we blurred down the corridors of stone and dirt, our feet easily learning the floor, our bodies falling into the similar motions of fleeing another place we thought so safe. The pressure began building the farther we fled, squeezing, and constricting the very breath in my lungs. . . I couldn’t take it, I was only human. I was glad the others were used to the clutches of the darkness, that even though the human race had always over looked them, they could maybe someday continue on the way they had always done; but I think I had overstayed my welcome as the shade began to take me, I was much too weak. Feeling the frailty crawl up my legs and soak into my bones, I felt another sensation I had for so long thought completely lost to me. “They’ve almost caught up to us! You must keep going, come on.” Gust gripped my arm and hauled me down the next tunnel. The feel of strong fingers locked tight around my forearm brought a wave of tears to my eyes, and even as I swallowed up more of the blackness, I saw light.