Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 23

(Blue)

“It’s locked,” Red said in surprise.

Green glared at him. “Well, what did you think it would be? Wide open with a Welcome sign and sparkly balloons?”

“Uh, no. But I wasn’t expecting it to be so…empty.”

After about an hour of wading through the grassy field, the terrain had changed, the grass growing shorter and more sparse. Soon after that, the ground had dipped into a wide, rocky valley, with a huge sign that read “KEEP OUT.”

Needless to say, we completely ignored the sign and walked in anyway. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

And were immediately met by a barbed-wire fence that stretched for miles in both directions.

There was no sign of human life. No sign of any children, enslaved or not.

Orange stepped forward and inspected the fence. “Electrical.”

I asked, “So what happens if I throw water on it?’

“Don’t. It could short-circuit it, sure – but then again, the fence could be designed to send a message if it’s messed with. Green, could you grow a plant over the wall?”

“What type?”

He shrugged. “Any. The easier to climb, the better.”

Green tapped a foot on the ground, and a daisy blossomed, rising and bending over the fence. She studied it for a second, then sent up a second and a third, arching over the electrical wiring like a green and yellow rainbow.

“It should be easier to climb over if it’s wider,” she explained. “Who wants to go first?”

Red strode forward. “Me.”

“Be careful,” I warned, glancing at the area behind the fence and swallowing nervously. The words stuck in my throat, and I had to force them out. “It’s not designed to keep you out.”

He nodded, understanding, then dug his fingers into the stem of a daisy and began to climb. With a hesitant look at the others, I followed.

Something about this doesn’t feel right. Something doesn’t fit.

I pushed the thought away. There was no room for doubts now. We had to concentrate on finding Violet.

Get inside and find Caelin. That’s all you have to do. Quit worrying so much.

Easy to say. Not so easy to actually do.

I slid off the petals at the end as quietly as possible, Green and Orange behind me. The valley was eerily silent, with no sound except for the soft noises of our feet and breath. I wanted to say something, anything, to get rid of the unreasonable dread that flooded me, but I couldn’t get the words out. There wasn’t anything to say.

“I don’t like this,” Red muttered. “It’s too quiet.”

His voice sounded tiny, muffled by the blanket of silence that hung over the rocky valley. I nodded in response, not trusting my voice.

Green shrank the flowers, and we walked away from the fence, the bright sunlight beating down on us. Not a breeze stirred, a startling contrast to the cold and chill of Rogue City. I was sweating buckets because it was a Water day, and Orange and Green didn’t look much better. Only Red looked fully comfortable, probably because of his magic. I envied him.

The valley was dusty and dry, the wind sending sand and dust into our faces until we all had our shirts pulled up over our noses and mouths. I would’ve washed it off, but I was pretty sure water would make the next wave of dust stick even more. Everyone except Orange was squinting against the dirt and bright sun.

“This isn’t right. There’s no one here,” I murmured, biting my lip. “Why isn’t there anyone here?”

“It’s the middle of the day,” Green replied. “They’re probably in the mines.”

But she didn’t seem sure of herself, and she kept looking around worriedly as if we were going to be attacked at any second. (A suspicion I was beginning to believe in more and more by the minute.) Red’s hands started glowing with heat, which was probably his way of releasing nervous energy. Unfortunately, this only served to raise the temperature until Orange hissed at him to quit it.

Just when I thought I was going to pass out from sheer tension, something came into view.

It was a tunnel, leading down into the ground. The entrance was propped up with moldy, splintering wood that looked as if it was going to collapse at any minute. All around it, little green specks of liquid that I assumed was oil or something similar dotted the ground. Above them, an old sign hanging crookedly by one nail off the wood warned us to “KEEP OUT.”

Green stared at it. “We walked all this way for that? Everything about it screams ‘TRAP!’”

“It’s the only thing we’ve come across so far,” I pointed out. But the uneasy feeling was even stronger now, and it took everything I had to ignore it.

There’s something here that’s not right. Something here isn’t right. What is it?

Red grabbed Orange’s arm and pulled him to the front. “You lead. You’ve got the compass.”

Orange gave him a sharp look and pulled away, but silently walked into the tunnel. The interior was about ten degrees cooler, which was a serious relief to everyone but Red. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was wet, too, with little puddles of water everywhere. (Hopefully there was more water wherever Caelin was. I had a feeling there was going to be a fight, and that’d give me an advantage.) Deeper in, we started to see little differently colored veins of rock, and a series of clanging sounds reached my ears. The workers.

“Almost there,” I whispered.

Orange suddenly stopped. “Hold on. That sound isn’t real. It’s recor – ”

At which point, the entrance decided that now would be a good time to collapse with a huge CRASH.

Half the tunnel we’d just gone through followed its example, effectively blocking the only escape route we had.

Red stared at it, his mouth open in shock. “Crayik.”

“Trap?” Green asked, eyes narrowing.

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” Orange warned. “The entrance didn’t look like it was going to last another day. It probably just didn’t.”

But then we heard the footsteps. Only one pair of footsteps, instead of the hundreds there would be if the kids were actually in the mines at the time.

I swallowed and confirmed it. “Trap.”

“We need to get out of here,” Green said urgently. “Orange… I mean, I know I shouldn’t ask, but can you… Will you…?”

Orange considered whatever it was she was suggesting for a few seconds, then shook his head, not looking at her. “There has to be another way out of here.”

“RT, we really need to skedaddle, like right now,” Red hissed. He’d removed his sunglasses and was staring at the rocks, which were beginning to glow orange – but not fast enough.

The footsteps rounded the corner and stopped. Desperate, I fired off a blast of water at the rock wall blocking the way, blasting it as hard at I could, but it didn’t even budge.

“Well, well, well. Are you little darlings lost?” a creaky voice purred.

I froze. That didn’t seem right.

“What the…?” Red muttered, obviously baffled by whatever he was seeing. I turned, and blinked in confusion.

Whaaaa…?

The woman standing in front of us had to be at least seventy, with snow-white hair and a sweet smile. She leaned on a cane, studying us through her spectacles.

“And who are you, my dears? Surely you know that this mine has been closed off for years.”

No one replied. We were all too busy being in shock.

“Stay on guard,” Orange mouthed after a full ten seconds of staring. “Just because she’s old doesn’t mean she’s not harmless.”

“Eh?” The lady held a hand to her ear. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but you’re going to have to speak up. These ears of mine aren’t what they once were.”

“Uh-huh,” Red whispered back. “Completely dangerous.”

Green rolled her eyes at them and stepped forward. “Forgive me for intruding, ma’am, but what are you doing in the mine if it’s been closed for years?”

“Oh, I like to do a little spelunking now and then,” she replied airily. “Tom – he’s my late husband, by the way – he was a miner. Always digging around and showing me little bits of rock and things. I guess he got me into the craft.”

She eyed the now nonexistent entrance. “Only now, it appears we’re trapped in here. No matter. I know a way out.”

Red looked at me, eyes lighting up. His expression said, Guide.

Green looked at me too. Her expression screamed, TRAP!!!

I stared at both of them. Well, which one is it?

Red rolled his eyes at Green and pointed to Orange, which made next to no sense at all. I really had to ask them sometime what exactly his abilities were.

The old woman squinted. “Are you kids doing some new kind of sign language? I’m sorry, but you’ll have to use just plain English. I don’t understand.”

Red raised his eyebrows at Green and folded his arms triumphantly. She glared back, hands on her hips.

Who knew how long this silent exchange would’ve gone on if the lady hadn’t shrugged and told us, “Well, I’m leaving. You kids going to be following?”

Red said, “Yes” at the exact same time Green responded with, “No.”

They both glared at each other some more.

Orange slapped his forehead, exasperated with the whole affair. “We’re going.”

And that, of course, was the final say in the matter.

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