“Yeah. Go ahead. Good luck getting back through that room, though. And as for these tunnels, from what I’ve seen they’re a maze.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t know.” He sat down against the wall opposite her and stared down at the floor. “I didn’t do anything. I just did what the box told me. I solved the puzzle, that’s all. I didn’t know anything like this was going to happen or I wouldn’t have. You were right. I should’ve just thrown the damn thing away.”
Brandy lowered her eyes to the floor as well and remained silent.
Albert felt the silence drag on for nearly a minute before speaking again. “I am sorry. I couldn’t control myself in there either, you know.”
For a moment he did not think that she would reply, but then she did. “I know.”
“Good.”
“What do we do now?” she asked so softly he almost didn’t hear her.
“I guess we push on.”
She looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go back in that room.”
Brandy lowered her eyes again and slowly nodded. She couldn’t argue that. Besides, their clothes were missing. If he was telling the truth, he found her glasses and the flashlight up ahead. Maybe there’d be a trail to lead them to the rest of their things. Hopefully it wouldn’t lead them to anything bad.
“There is someone in here with us,” Albert said after a moment. “I swear to you it’s not me. I didn’t come here to hurt you and I won’t let anything else hurt you. I think I’ve done enough damage already by talking you into coming with me in the first place.”
“You didn’t talk me into it,” she said. “I came because I wanted to. It’s like Grandma’s basement. I never could resist the adventure.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“I know.” She looked up at him with eyes that were now more hurt than hateful. “I want to believe you so bad. I need to believe you. If I can’t, then that means I’m all alone down here.”
Albert nodded. “You’re not.”
“But all I know is that you brought me the box, you figured it out, you solved all the puzzles and brought me here and… And when I woke up just now, you were gone and so were our clothes.”
“Yeah, I guess that does look pretty bad for me.”
“I thought for a minute that you’d just left me there.”
“I’d never.”
“But I thought you did. I couldn’t think straight. My head hurt. Everything hurt.” She glanced to the side as she said this, embarrassed, and Albert knew what she meant by that. His genitals hurt after the furious sex they’d shared. Her womanly parts probably hadn’t fared much better. “I didn’t think about the reasons,” she went on. “I just knew that something strange happened and I was naked and alone.”
“I meant to be back before you woke up.”
Brandy said nothing.
“You can have the flashlight. I meant that. Yours broke when you dropped it. If it makes you feel better, keep it.” He placed it on the floor and slid it over to where she sat. She grabbed it and clutched it against her. “If nothing else I guess you can club me with it if you feel like you have to.”
Brandy gave him a humorless smile. “Maybe I will.”
“Good.”
“I’m scared.”
“Me too. But remember, just because we’re not alone doesn’t mean we’re in danger. Whoever it was had the opportunity to kill us both in there, but didn’t.”
“Maybe he’s playing with us.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m not a virgin.”
Albert looked up at her suddenly, shocked at this sudden confession. She was staring at the flashlight. He could still see the wet trails her tears had left upon her cheeks.
“I mean I wasn’t before, you know.” She looked at him now, her blue eyes shimmering. “Please don’t think you took that from me. I gave that away when I was fifteen. I regret it, but I can live with it. Just like I can live with what we did in there just now.”
For a moment Albert could only stare at her. She didn’t hate him. That was what she was telling him. She did not hate him and, at least for the moment, she did not blame him. Whatever happened in there was no different than rape, but at least it hadn’t robbed her of her first time. It was one small shred of comfort that she was allowed.
“I’m not a virgin,” she said again, as much to herself as to him.
Albert looked down at his hands, not wanting to look into her eyes. “I was.”
Brandy forgot the chill she felt. All of the tension that filled her body rolled off of her in an instant. She forgot about trying to hide herself. She stared at him as he sat there, his muscular legs bent only slightly, his belly softly folded by his posture, his shoulders slack. He looked very pale in the shadows. She suddenly felt very selfish. “I’m sorry.”
But he shook his head. “Don’t be. Strange or not—intentional or not—it was kind of nice. I mean, weird. But you know. Nice. I guess I’m glad it was someone like you. I honestly can’t think of a nicer person to... You know… Randomly fuck.” He could feel himself blushing now.
She forced a smile through her fear and anger. “You’re nice.” He was too nice. Suddenly she felt like such a bitch.
“I think the flashlight might have been pointing the way we’re supposed to go up ahead,” Albert said after a moment. “I think our clothes might have gone that way.”
“And if not?”
“Then we’re screwed. Whoever it was took my backpack and the box.”
A sudden realization struck Brandy like a slap to the face. “Shit! And my purse!”
“Yeah. And my wallet.” He stood up and turned to the passage on the left. “How about I lead and you follow with the light?”
Brandy stood up and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Okay.”
Chapter 11
Beyond the point where Albert found the flashlight, the corridor did not branch off. It went straight about a hundred yards into the darkness and then made a sudden left turn and went on for another forty yards before turning back to the right again. Albert walked several paces ahead of Brandy, squinting to see into the darkness. He wished he was still carrying the light, if only so that he didn’t have to follow his own shadow through the gloom, but he’d promised Brandy she could have it and he meant it. He needed her to trust him. She’d said that without him she’d be alone and it was no different for him. But the limits of his courage were being tested. At every turn of the tunnel, he expected something to be there, something dark and sinister, something monstrous, something with teeth and claws and appetite and hate, but turn after turn there was nothing. Their progress remained unhindered, but their anxiety grew. He felt as though they were walking through a carnival funhouse and waiting for the next monster to leap out and startle them. He had to keep reminding himself to breathe.
After perhaps ten minutes, although it felt like hours, the tunnel made a sharp right and brought them face to face with a waiting figure.
Brandy screamed and stumbled backward, even as she recognized it as another of those faceless statues.
Albert too was startled, but more by Brandy’s scream than by the sight of the sentinel. He gazed at it, taking in every detail. This statue was on its knees, the smooth surface that was its face turned up to the ceiling, its hands upturned and lifted as if in offering. From its long fingers hung his backpack and Brandy’s purse.
“I’m sorry,” said Brandy, meaning for the scream.
“It’s okay,” Albert assured her.
“What does it mean?”
Albert shook his head. “Good question.” Behind the statue, the tunnel continued on, but its floor began to slope downward, ever deeper into the earth at a shallow, but discernible angle.
“A peace offering, maybe?”
“Or a trap.”
Albert stared at it. “I don’t know. Seems too easy. After all, I’d call that last room a trap.” He stepped toward it, beginning to reach for them.