Lesson 75- Always chew your food properly.
I have seconds until my attackers get through. I have no idea what they plan to do with me but I seriously doubt it’s good. I can’t let them touch me. My eyes are drawn to the cracked open trap door. I have an insane idea. In fact I would be doing the one thing that Torin specifically warned me not to do, but what choice do I have? I take a deep breath to prepare myself, then I launch across the floor, ignoring the door flying open behind me. The trap door flies open the rest of the way. I don’t have time to hesitate or even to be careful, I throw myself into the darkness and hope for the best.
The trap door slams shut behind me and my first thought as I fall is ‘I hope this isn’t as far down as it seems.’ But sure enough, I’m only airborne for a few seconds before I hit the floor with a painful thud. Ouch! My back hurts, but luckily my head lands on something soft. It’s not until the ‘something soft’ moves, that I realise that my head is resting on one of Jane’s limbs. I sit up.
“Oh, thanks Jane.” I whisper. She makes her angry clicking noise.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to barge in.” I apologise. She repeats her clicking noise, but I feel something soft nudge my arm, it feels a bit like a cat bumping me with its head. I take it to mean that she isn’t upset with me. Thank goodness. Jane is still clicking angrily but It’s sort of comforting, at least I know she’s here. It’s completely black down here. I can’t see a single thing, not even my own hand in front of my face. I can hear footsteps stomping around above me. I hold my breath, absolutely terrified. The only reason I’m not completely hyperventilating at this point is because I’m not totally alone. Although I can’t help but wish Torin was here with me. I freeze up as someone pulls the trap door open. I expect the basement to fill with light, but oddly it doesn’t. I can see a square of light above my head. But it’s like the light just… Doesn’t make it into the basement. Two men are peering down at me, or just down in general. I don’t think they can see me.
“She’s down there, I can hear her breathing.” One of them says. Damn my asthmatic puffing. To my horror, one of them starts to climb down, hanging from the ledge. He drops down and I lose sight of him in the darkness. I want to move away from him, but I have no idea where he is. I watch as the other guy follows him down. I’m screwed, I’m so screwed. All of a sudden the trap door swings shut and the blackness is complete again. I sit totally still and try to hold my breath, my heart practically pounding out of my chest. I hear footsteps and then someone’s foot knocks into me. I squeal in fright and prepare to be grabbed. But it never happens. Instead I hear the man yelp, quickly followed by a fearful cry from the other guy. Before I can even start to consider what happens there is a strange wet, crunching sound. The men start to scream. The sound continues and something warm and sticky lands on me. Then the screaming stops, although the crunching sound continues. It’s obvious what just happened, but my mind is having a little trouble comprehending it. It’s not until the crunching sound stops and Jane starts to purr that I’m forced to face the truth. Jane just… Ate the intruders. Jane eats PEOPLE. I mean, I know she eats a lot of weird stuff… But PEOPLE? I want to be sick. Actually, I really might throw up, and not just because I’m grossed out. But the darkness has me so disoriented. I don’t know where the trap door is, I don’t know how I’m going to get out of here. It doesn’t matter right at his moment though. My knees are so weak that I don’t think I could move, even if I did have a plan. I think I might be in shock? How do you know if you’re in shock? I think I might pass out now. But before I do, there’s one thing I want to do.
“Thank you Jane.” The words come out as a breathless whisper. I’d say that after that everything goes black, but it already was. So instead I’ll just say that my eyes closed and my awareness fades away.
TORIN
I’ve just arrived home when my phone starts to ring. It actually startles me a little, it usually does. Not a lot of people call me. I check it and see that Laura is ringing. Maybe she’s sick or something, although she seemed fine earlier. I pick up the call.
“Yes?” I answer bluntly. I don’t bother trying to be friendly or make conversation. It will just drag out the call and make us both uncomfortable.
“Oh thank goodness you picked up. Something is wrong at the bar. I just felt the wards break. I don’t know how, but Rina must be in trouble-” I don’t hear anything else that she has to say because I’m already running back to my car. I need to get to Rina, now! Promised to protect her, she was supposed to be safe there. How could the wards be broken? I speed back to the bar, my return trip taking less than half of the time my trip home took. I can’t help but growl when I see the doors are wide open, the handles a melted mess of metal on the floor.
I rush inside to find… Nothing. It’s silent. There’s no sign of any intruder, no sign of anything at all.
“Rina” I call out, looking for her. I don’t hear an answer. My heart races. She has to be here somewhere, right? The spell wouldn’t let her leave. My heart sinks as I realise that the spell wouldn’t stop anyone from hurting her. Just from trying to take her away. I frantically search through the bar, one room at a time, but there’s no sign of her. I can’t find her, what the hell. I’m pacing the bar when a knocking draws my attention. The basement… Surely she isn’t down there… Right? I pull the trap door open and peer down. It’s like the darkness down there sort of parts and all of a sudden I can see her. She’s lying on the ground. Her eyes are shut and she looks deathly pale. She isn’t moving and… Is that blood?
I go to jump down and pull her out but it’s not necessary. The creature that lives in the basement carefully picks Rina up and lays her on the ground by my feet. I frantically check her for injuries. She doesn’t seem injured, but why is she unconscious? As if triggered by my thought, Rina’s eyes flicker open, she looks dazed.
“T- Tori. You’re here.” She croaks. I nod, picking her up and pulling her to my chest.
“I’m here.” I assure her.
‘“I… I’m sorry. I really did try to get some rest.” She whispers weakly and before I can respond, hey eyes fall closed again. I don’t know what the hell happened here, but I am going to find out.
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