The Tunnel

“Come on! Hurry up,” Belle said from ahead of me. She crouched low to access the concrete tunnel ahead of us. If she had to get down to squeeze through, this was gonna suck for me.

I leaned down, hands on my knees as I peered into the darkness. The tunnel was featureless aside from a single metal pipe running on the left side of its length. It shot ahead, vanishing into the oppressive shadow.

Yeah. Nope.

“This is a terrible idea,” I grumbled.

Belle flicked her flashlight on and shone it back at me. I squinted.

“Yo, what the hell?”

“Are you gonna chicken out now, Ethan? For real?” Belle asked. I could barely make her out past the intense beam.

“I said I was gonna explore a house with you, not crawl around in satan’s asshole,” I said. “Could you point that anywhere else?

“Chicken,” Belle said. The light darted away from my eyes, and I had to blink a few times to readjust to the dark. She was turned from me, black hair bundled into her beanie as she looked up ahead. “This is the only other way into the house… unless you think you can climb over the outside wall.”

The wall she was referring to was tall, imposing, and topped with iron spikes. Someone more athletic could’ve probably handled it, but I took one look at it and had immediately said nope. Fortunately, Belle hadn’t seemed disappointed by that… unfortunately, it was because she knew about another way in.

This godforsaken tunnel.

“Why do they even have a secret tunnel?” I muttered.

Belle shrugged, “old house. I’d guess some kind of smuggling operation. Now, come on!”

“Absolutely not,” I said.

“Fine, go wait in the car then,” Belle said and started to creep forward, leaving me behind.

I straightened up, watching as the bobbing light slowly retreated from me. I’d agreed to come because I’d thought this was a good opportunity to get some alone time with Belle. I hadn’t expected her to be into exploring old, gross places.

Why couldn’t she be into shopping or whatever the hell normal hot girls did?

A sound whispered behind me. It was like a shoe pulling free of thick mud. The hair on my neck stood on end, and I whipped around, eyes searching the dark behind me.

We were in the basement of a dilapidated shed outside the property of the house we were trying to get into. It had been utterly empty except for a wide, metal plate. Somehow Belle had known shifting the plate to the side would reveal the ladder down to the basement.

Not that I was thinking about any of that stuff right now.

“Hello?” I whispered.

There was no answer.

That didn’t make me feel better.

I stared into the darkness, trying to get my eyes to pierce through its veil. Phantom shapes danced before me, becoming stranger as my heart beat faster.

“Belle?” I called out, taking a hesitant step back toward the tunnel.

There was silence.

Then from directly above me, a floorboard squeaked. It could have been the old shed settling; it could have been an animal creeping in for some shelter, but all my mind could see was someone standing in the room above us, aware we were down here.

A shiver ran through me and, against my better judgment, I ducked into the tunnel and pursued the distant light.

Belle hadn’t been moving very fast, so I caught up with her in only a minute or so. As I approached, she turned the light on me again.

“Gah! Would you stop that?” I said, raising a hand to shield my eyes.

“Oh good, you came!” Belle said. The thrill in her voice was almost enough to convince me this was all a good idea. Almost.

“I think we need to leave,” I said.

The flashlight dipped, and Belle pouted at me. Like literally sticking out her bottom lip as she stared up at me.

“But we just got here!”

“This is dangerous.”

“Isn’t that what makes it fun?” Belle asked with a wide grin.

“Fun?” I said, gawking at her. I continued, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Listen, Belle, I heard something back there. I think there might be someone else down here.”

Belle gave me a flat look and then shone the light down the empty tunnel. “See? There’s no one there. Now can you give it a rest?”

She turned and started moving eagerly forward.

“Yeah, but what if there is?” I protested.

Belle didn’t say anything; she just lifted her hand and waved around a small, pink can. It was a cutsie bottle of mace. Great. Just great.

Suddenly, there was that sound again. Like mud squelching underfoot.

I whipped around, pulling out my phone. My fingers fumbled, the screen lighting up my face as I put in my PIN wrong a couple of times. It took way too long, but I got the flashlight on it to flip on and illuminate the tunnel behind us.

And I swear to god, I saw something.

It was only for a moment, but there was a solid shape just outside of the flashlight's limited beam. It was crouched like we were, covered in mud and moving toward us. The moment the light touched it, it melted away.

I blinked a few times. What the hell was that?

“Belle?” I finally called out, not turning away from the darkness. “We need to leave.”

She didn’t answer.

“Belle?” I said again.

Light suddenly flashed over me from behind. Belle had turned her flashlight on me. Relief flooded through me; I’d been worried she’d left me again. I glanced over my shoulder and frowned. Her light was pointed at me, but it was too low. It was as if Belle had rested the flashlight on the ground and angled it up at me.

“Would you stop pointing that thing at me?” I said, trying not to snap.

The light didn’t move.

“Belle? Knock it off!” I said. I looked back at where I’d seen the shape. There was nothing there. I slowly crept toward Belle.

“Come on, this isn’t funny anymo—” The words died in my mouth. I’d finally gotten close enough to see past the brilliant light of the flashlight.

It was just lying on the ground, pointed down the tunnel.

Belle was nowhere to be seen.

A thrill of fear raced up my spine, but I didn’t move, unsure of what to do. Belle had left me again, but why’d she drop her flashlight? It was too dark to wander without one. A sickening thought came.

Had she been taken?

I’d barely processed the thought when I suddenly heard the sound of feet slamming against the ground. Someone was running toward me and they weren’t trying to hide it.

Panic seized me and I took off. I kicked Belle’s flashlight as I rushed by, making it spin in wild circles for a moment. Weird shadows danced around me, and then there was a crunch before the light died.

I kept running as fast as the awkward crouch allowed me, the pitiful glow from my phone barely revealing more than a few feet in front of me. As I moved deeper, the ground turned from dirt into mud. The mud slowed me, making each step a chore that made a loud, squelching sound echo all around me.

And behind me, I could hear them still chasing me.

I came to a fork. My brain froze, and I wasted a precious second trying to decide where to go.

Light suddenly flooded from the tunnel to my right.

That was all I needed. I ran toward it, breath coming in short gasps, body shaking violently.

Thud thud thu-

The sound of my pursuer cut off as if they’d vanished midstride. I didn’t care; I kept running toward the light, my panicked mind screaming at me to run.

As I got closer and closer to the light, I saw the shape of a person past it. For a brief, sickening moment, I had a thought that maybe this was all a trap I’d been pushed straight into.

“Ethan?” The figure said.

I came to an abrupt stop. Belle?

The light lowered, revealing Belle. She was just ahead of me, head cocked, brow furrowed, flashlight in her hand.

Her flashlight.

“You brought an extra?” I asked, surprised. My voice hardened as I realized what was going on. “Was this just a prank? Who’d you put up to it? Hm? Well very funny, you really got me.”

“Ethan! Wait!” Belle said, sounding desperate.

“Let’s just leave already,” I said, irritated. I turned and started walking back. I could just imagine one of her friends at the fork in the tunnel laughing their ass off at how well they’d scared me. I flushed with embarrassment and anger.

“Please, Ethan, stop! We’ve been looking all over for—” Belle’s voice cut off.

The light behind me clattered to the ground.

A chill rushed over me. I turned, slowly, and looked back to where Belle had just been standing. The flashlight was on the ground, just like before, angled up to shine in my face.

“Belle?” I whispered, horrified. I crept forward, afraid of what I’d find. And again, Belle had disappeared, leaving only her flashlight.

How the hell was she gone?

“Neat trick,” I said, my voice shaking. “What? Is there some kind of secret passage or something? Is that how you’re doing it?”

I grabbed the flashlight and shone it on the concrete walls. They were smooth with no visible breaks. I ran my hands along it, but didn’t find anything. I tried not to think about the fact that even if there was a secret passage, Belle didn’t have time to open it, dip inside, and close it before I turned around.

But what else could it be?

“Come on, Belle, knock it off!” I yelled.

There was a scuffing sound from behind me. I whipped around.

“Seriously, you’re done,” I said, channeling my fear into anger. “Stop it or I swear to god I’ll swing on you.”

There was a pause.

Then footfalls started hammering up the tunnel. A chill raced through me, my grip white-knuckled on the flashlight. The beam trembled, piercing deep but not deep enough.

Thud thud thud

“It’s just a prank,” I said.

Thud thud thud

“It’s just a prank,” I said again, my legs trembling.

Thud thud thud

“It’s just a—” my mouth ran dry. A figure burst out of the dark. I screamed in terror and fled. I took only three steps before my foot sank into a hole hidden by the thick mud. The lip of it slammed against my ankle, pitching me forward with a cry of pain and surprise. I slammed face first into the muck, getting a mouthful of it as I fell.

I dragged myself up, retching. It was far too slimy and tasted like decay and putrid water. I barely noticed it though, as the sudden, crushing darkness took immediate priority. I’d dropped the flashlight, and it must have broken because it wasn’t on anymore. I tapped at my phone, desperately trying to get it on.

It was broken too; I could feel the jagged edges against my finger.

It was then I realized how quiet it was. Moments ago, someone had been charging at me, but they’d apparently stopped. The oppressive darkness pressed in even more as I realized that they could be standing right in front of me and I wouldn’t know.

Trying to keep my breathing quiet, I slowly pulled myself backward, eyes uselessly searching the dark. Every shift and scuff I made sounded deafening in my ears. There was no way they couldn’t hear me, but for some reason they hadn’t moved to stop me. That made it worse, somehow.

“I just want to go home,” I whimpered.

As if in response, a light appeared in the corner of my eye. That shouldn’t have been possible. There were no side passages here, and yet, there it was. I turned, that tiny flicker a brilliant beacon calling me to it.

I didn’t have time to think; that guy chasing me could jump on me at any moment. I lurched forward, moving as fast as I could. I needed to get away from here before it was too late. I’d only moved maybe ten feet when I was abruptly at the end of the side passage and near the light I’d seen. It didn’t make any sense; that had all seemed hundreds of feet away, but here I was, standing in a room.

It was the basement we’d come in from. There was the ladder leading out in the middle of it. Across from me was the tunnel we’d gone down.

To my relief, there were two people there now. One slipped inside the tunnel, the other hesitating back. I was overjoyed the nightmare was coming to a close. I stepped forward, my feet squelching in the mud.

The person turned around at the sound, nervous and jumpy. I froze in place, mouth falling open in shock.

The person standing at the entrance of the tunnel… was me.

I barely had time to register this when a creak from overhead caused this… Other Ethan to turn and flee into the tunnel.

“Wait!” I yelled, but if Other Ethan heard me, he didn’t react.

I ran after him, desperate to catch up and make sense of what was happening. The sound of my approach made Other Ethan turn suddenly. He fumbled with his phone as I got closer.

“Please, you have to leave.” I had barely gotten the words out when Other Ethan activated his phone’s flashlight and shone it at me.

God, it hurt.

I stumbled backward, the light burning my eyes. My bad ankle caused me to fall to the ground. My head snapped up, watching in horror as Belle literally vanished and Other Ethan crept toward her light.

None of this made sense.

I got up and started running after Other Ethan, my feet stomping loudly through the tunnel. Other Ethan took off, moving much faster than me.

“Come back!” I yelled. Crack. The tunnel plunged into darkness again as I stepped on Belle’s flashlight. I tried to keep up with the bobbing light of Other Ethan’s phone, but he was too fast. In moments, I was left in the dark again.

I stumbled forward until I finally came to a fork in the tunnel. I’d been here before. I looked and saw Other Ethan. I needed to get to him, needed to stop whatever was happening. I started running toward him.

Other Ethan stood there, trembling in terror as he yelled out challenges into the dark.

“Just stay there!” I said to him.

But it was like he couldn’t hear me.

The moment I stepped into his light, Other Ethan’s face blanched, and he turned to run again.

“No!”

I watched as he stepped forward, tripped, and once again, we were lost in the dark. I knew I was close to him. I just had to get there. I crouched low, running my hands along the mud, trying to find him. But it was like Other Ethan had vanished the moment the light had gone off.

What the hell was wrong with this place?

I rushed forward, abandoning all caution. There was a turn here; that’s how I’d found the basement again. All I had to do was find it, and I could catch up again.

Instead, I found a door.

It shouldn’t have been possible. I should have seen it from far away as ambient daylight was filtering through its wide slats. It simply wasn’t there one moment, and then it was there the next, a door framed by the concrete of the tunnel as if it had always been.

I didn’t question it. I ran forward, eager to escape. I grabbed hold of the door and pushed it open.

I paused.

In front of me was the inside of the old shed. The wooden floorboards, the metal slab pushed aside- it was all here.

And down past the hole in the ground, I heard voices.

It was me and Belle.

It wasn’t too late.

I stepped into the shed through the impossible door. My movements were slow and required way more effort than before. The floorboards creaked under me as I moved toward the hole. Down below, I heard myself calling out to the Other Ethan. I heard the running and the shouting, but I was moving too slowly.

It was then I noticed my hands. They were thin and ancient; they shook with a tremor so severe I thought they would vibrate right off of my wrists. I brought my hand to my face, touching the papery skin, feeling the impossible wrinkles. My breath became ragged as my fingers traced the wispy hair on my scalp.

“What the hell?” I said, my voice quivering with age.

Horror washed over me. I needed to stop this. I rushed toward the hole, my body offering only an awkward shuffle despite my urgency. By the time I’d gotten to the middle of the room, I was out of breath and shaking violently.

But I couldn’t stop.

I climbed down the ladder, each rung taking too much effort. My weak limbs could barely hold me up, and there were moments I almost slipped and fell to the ground below. Despite that, I pushed myself on with determined momentum.

Finally, my feet reached the bottom, the smells bringing a now familiar panic to my mind. But all that was brushed aside as I swept my vision across the basement. All I saw were four sturdy walls.

There were no tunnels down here.

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