7 - DECLAN
Iblink my eyes. Then blink them again. “Where the hell did they go?” I spin in place, holding the lighter up, looking all around. But all I see is a gray wall of smooth stone. “Aric!” I yell.
“I’m right here, bru. You don’t need to scream like a little bitch.”
I whirl around and find him on the ground, holding his head.
“Why are you just sitting there on the ground like a lazy fuck? They just disappeared!”
He gets to his feet. “No shit. I was here, remember?”
“Why were you on the ground?”
“Something…” He sighs. Then takes a breath. “Something… knocked me over.”
“What do you mean,something? What are you talking about?”
“I…” He looks around, his eyes all narrowed in suspicion. “I don’t know.”
“Was it Quaid?”
Aric looks in the direction where Quaid was, then shakes his head. “No. It wasn’t Quaid. I saw them disappear, then everything went dark?—”
“Yeah, the lighter was burning my thumb.”
“Well, when everything went dark something… hit me.” He looks at me now. And this look is, well, it’s not fear. Not exactly. But it’s definitely concern. “It hit mehard, too.” He puts a flat hand on the middle of his chest. “Right here. Knocked the fuckin’ wind out of me.”
“What are you talking about? What kind of something?”
He looks around again. “I’m not sure.” And now he’s whispering.
Which, not gonna lie, concerns me. So I hold the lighter up and look around as well. “What is this place?”
Aric doesn’t answer, just keeps slowly spinning, like he’s expecting an attack.
I sniff the air. “What is that stench? Is that you?”
Aric shoots me a look, offended. “Shut the fuck up, would you? Do you want it to attack again?”
“It? What is this ‘it’ you say attacked you? Because I didn’t experience an attack and I was standing right here.”
But he’s not looking at me. And he doesn’t keep the argument going. Which also concerns me, because in my experience, a good-natured argument is a nice way to defuse a stressful situation and someone who is sharing that stressful situation with you should appreciate this.
“Give me that lighter.” Aric grabs for it, but I pull it back.
“Get your own fuckin’ lighter.”
He stares at me, his eyes blazing with anger now. “What are you, fourteen? Give me the fuckin’ lighter!” Then he just snatches it out of my hand, flicks it back on, and starts walking.
“Where are you going?”
“Look,” he says, pointing into the darkness. “It’s a… hallway. Or maybe…” He looks up and around. “A tunnel, maybe.”
I look up and around too. “A tunnel? Why the hell would we be in a tunnel?”
“I have no fuckin’ idea,” Aric sneers. “I’m not the one who brought us here. You are.”
Which is true, so I don’t really have a comeback for that.
