“It could be worse, there could be rats too.” Bruno adds.
“Don't tell me ‘The Professor’ is afraid of rats!”
Bruno looks at her with mischievousness for a few moments and starts to justify himself when nobody agrees with him.
“Okay, whatever, they're disgusting. Alright! Did you know that they transmit twenty-six diseases?! Twenty-fucking-six! All of them worse than the next!”
“That's a myth!” Sarah laughs.
I wonder why she called him ‘The Professor.’
Is he a teacher of sorts? Perhaps she's a student of his.
“I don't want to be a buzzkill, but I think we should go in now.” I say, looking down to the black hole.
Both of them go back to their serious frowny faces and start descending using the ladder. Amira hands over the child as she comes down and I follow last. As I imagined, the tunnel is absolutely dark, and you can't see anything.
“Wait! There’s an emergency kit hidden in the laundry room, it’s the only one with a flashlight in it.” I climb back up and return with a small flashlight that I hand over to Bruno. At least now we can see what we are stepping on. The tunnel seems endless, a red imperfect stone surrounds us from head to toe. Spider webs cover the whole ceiling, and I can feel them on my body as I walk forward.
“Follow me as close as you can and step where I step,” Bruno commands.
We quietly continue walking through the tunnel until we find another ladder, just like the one we used to climb down. Bruno stops and looks at me, waiting for my input.
“I don't think this is it, the master's mansion is much further away,” I warn him.
“Could you not call him master any longer? It makes me sick to my stomach.”
“Sorry, old habits die hard. It's hard to call him by his name.”
“No need to use his name, you can always call him ‘the son of a bitch that ruined my life’ and I will understand who you mean.”
A snicker comes out of my throat without me noticing.
