WFOL 2023 SEASON 3 ROUND ROBIN
Chapter 1
Mel
“Are we expecting
anyone?” Jacob Wells, known to most as Father, adjusted the sleeves of his
black suit and looked at the clock on the table. “Jessica said she would meet
me up in the park… in two hours.”
Vincent glanced up at
the pipes overhead and listened to the repeated message. “It sounds like
Diana’s sister and niece have arrived. I believe Jamie is guiding them down as
we speak.”
Father turned toward his
son, his brow furrowed. “Why are they coming here? I thought Diana was
finishing up a case at her loft.”
“She is, yes, but I
invited them,” Vincent explained.
Father stared at him.
“Why?”
“I wanted it to be a
surprise.”
“Ah, I see,” Father said
with a soft smile.
“And Susan seemed like
she needed some time away,” Vincent said.
It had been three years
since Diana had shared the secret of the tunnels with her sister. Her niece,
Alex, had seen Vincent. Since then, Susan and her daughter had become admirable
Helpers in their own right, despite their own struggles. Through Diana, Vincent
had learned of the death of Susan’s husband, Phil, roughly two years ago after
a battle with cancer. Vincent’s invitation was in part to offer Susan some
peace and quiet from the, as Diana would say, well-meaning but at times chaotic
Bennett Clan. While the tunnel family was small, they respected privacy if
someone desired it.
“Are you ready to go,
Father?” Vincent asked.
“Yes, yes.” Father
closed the suitcase and pulled it off the bed. “Will my grandson be seeing me off?”
Vincent shook his head.
“Not this time. He’s off with the other children, I believe.”
“Ah well, then tell him
I expect a great welcome when I return,” Father said as they strode from his
chamber and began the climb upward toward the city.
“You’ll only be gone two
days,” Vincent said. “Is Jessica showing more of her photographs?”
“Oh, I imagine she’ll
show me some, but it’s not a public showing this year.”
“I see,” Vincent said
with a smile of his own. Over the past five years, the patriarch of the tunnel
community beneath the streets of NYC, made an annual weekend trip Above to see
his old friend Jessica. Though the two had decided years ago that a romance
between them wasn’t in the cards for them, Vincent was grateful Father had
another strong friendship.
“Will you go to the
theater, do you think?” Vincent asked.
“Oh, I doubt that. We
barely have time together; why waste it going to see some show?”
“Ah. How long will
Jessica be in town then? Should I send her an invitation?”
“I will ask,” Father
said.
Vincent nodded. Even
after six years, Jessica, Mary, and indeed the whole community were still
eternally grateful to Diana for saving Father’s life from the revengeful ashman
Gregory Coyle, who had buried Father alive. And it wouldn’t seem right not to
invite Jessica when she was so rarely in town.
Father’s mind, it
seemed, had already returned to current matters in the tunnels. “But now tell
me, you’ll make sure Cullen and the others are keeping up their work,” Father
said. “We need those…”
“Hi, Father, Vincent,”
Jamie called.
Vincent turned toward
the two women and little girl approaching. Mother and daughter must have
Christmas in mind, Vincent mused, with Susan wearing a green coat and her
daughter a bright red. The red of the girl, Alex’s coat, was a sharp contrast
to the nine-year-olds dark curls, pulled back into a neat braid.
His gaze moved to Susan.
In the dim light, he might have mistaken the oldest Bennett sister for Diana.
But where Diana was fair-skinned with soft features and her hair a wild mane of
light auburn, Susan was the opposite. Her skin tanned from hours outside with
her daughter rather than sitting in a high tower above the city streets. Her
facial features were more angular, and her darker ginger hair had only soft
waves to it.
Jamie moved to converse
with Father on some matter while Susan and her daughter stood off to the side.
While Susan’s attention was drawn to the tapping overhead, Alex simply stared
at Vincent. Her brown eyes, however, weren’t filled with wonder and awe, as
other children would, but instead, it was more a matter-of-fact gaze that
reminded him very much of her Aunt Diana. His lionlike features were not out of
some mystical fairytale to her but rather a puzzle.
“It is nice to see you
both again,” Vincent said. “How are you doing, Alex?”
“I’m good, and you?”
Alex asked. Her tone, like her gaze, was simply matter-of-fact.
“I’m quite well, thank
you. I’m so pleased you could come.” His eyes rose to meet Susan’s. “Both of
you.”
“Thank you for the
invitation,” Susan said with a soft smile.
“I thought Diana would
like some of her family to be here.”
“Yes.” A mischievous
smile came. “Though I am curious. How are you keeping this a surprise? My
sister is known to sniff those things out a mile away.”
Vincent nodded. He knew
quite how Diana’s skilled mind worked. It was one of the qualities he loved
about her. “Yes, she is, but Diana is finishing up a case at the moment, and
Joe Maxwell says he has things to keep her occupied until next Sunday.”
“And I have asked Diana
to look through some old papers and records,” Father added.
Vincent glanced over at
Father, confused. He never let anything regarding their home leave the tunnels.
Was there something wrong, or was it merely spring cleaning?
Susan gave a low
whistle. “Good luck with that plan. If Diana feels played and given mere busy
work, I’ll tell you both to run now.”
“Oh, I have no doubts
about that.” Father chuckled and held up the suitcase in Susan’s direction.
“I’m already ahead of you. My friend Jessica and I are going to go see the gray
whales* instead.” Father inwardly chuckled, relieved Jessica had decided
to return to NYC instead of living on the opposite coast as she had once
thought to do.
“Ha, I didn’t think
those big whales could fit down here,” Cullen joked as he strolled in. Sawdust
and slivers of wood clung to the carpenter’s gray shirt. Realizing he had
interrupted, he quickly tried to brush off his hands. “I’m sorry… please
forgive me. It’s Susan, right?”
Susan took his hand.
“Yes. We met one Winter… your winter celebration.”
“Winterfest,” Cullen
said. His long, calloused fingers ran through his graying hair. A nervous
energy seemed to pulse through him. “Will you be staying long?”
“A week or so. Alex what
is it?” Susan asked, turning to her daughter, who had tugged on her sleeve.
“Where’s Jacob,
Samantha, Kipper, and the others?” Alex asked.
“They’re Above at the
moment, but they should be back soon,” Father said. “And speaking of being
Above, I don’t wish to be late.”
“Got a gray whale to
catch?” Cullen asked.
“Cullen, we have
children here,” Vincent reminded him.
Cullen’s grin fell into
embarrassment, and he made a hasty retreat while Jamie beckoned Susan and Alex
to join her.
Father glanced over at
Vincent. “You’re certain you’ll be all right here for two days?”
Vincent nodded, his eyes
following Cullen’s path. “Yes. We’ll be fine. Though I think Cullen may be
locking himself in his workshop for the next week.”
“Well, don’t let him. We
need those tables fixed,” Father said, turning to take the path up toward the
Park.
OoOoO
“No, no, no, humph!”
Vincent turned, his
son’s frustration calling him to investigate.
Why is he back here?
The other children had
either gone Above for the day or were in classes, but the mystic bond that
linked father and son led Vincent to the nursery chamber. An array of toys,
books, and other objects lay scattered around the floor, and in the far corner,
he saw his son kneeling beside one of the toy chests.
“What is the matter,
Jacob?” Vincent asked, entering the chamber. “Why aren’t you with the other
children?”
“I came back early.”
“You should have let
someone know.” Vincent surveyed the room again. “Have you lost something?”
The six-year-old pouted,
crossing his arms in frustration. “I can’t find anything good enough.”
“Good enough for what?”
Vincent asked, absentmindedly beginning to pick up the toys. The last thing
Mary or any of the other caretakers needed or deserved was to come back to a
mess. He remained conscious of his claws. He briefly wondered how many toys his
hands had unintentionally ruined in his infancy and early youth.
“For oh…!” Jacob clamped
his lips shut and looked down at the array of toys.
Vincent gave a soft
smile. “You may speak freely, Jacob. Diana is Above today.”
“She’ll know,” Jacob
said.
Vincent chuckled and
settled on the floor opposite his son. While Diana’s deductions skills were
legendary among the children, she was still a woman currently working up in her
loft on the final paperwork of a case. Her focus would be more on dotting all
the I’s and crossing all the T’s than her upcoming birthday next weekend.
“Well, maybe you can
draw her a special picture,” Vincent suggested.
Jacob shook his head.
“She has enough from me, and you said Elizabeth was going to make a painting,
not on the walls, but on… on paper?”
“On a canvas. It’s like
the one of your mother and me,” Vincent explained. The image of Kristopher’s
painting flashed through his mind. All the small details of his beloved
Catherine’s warm personality and her beauty captured in a stunning work of art.
He quickly blinked away his tears as he realized Kristopher had also given him
the only picture of his lost love that he had. He had given the portrait over
to Elizabeth, the artist of the tunnels, for safekeeping. While the crystal he
had given Catherine as an anniversary gift and the rose she’d given him had
remained locked away in a cabinet.
“Dad?” Jacob asked,
resting his hand on his father’s knee.
Vincent gently tucked the
memory and difficult thoughts away. The empathic look his son held had Vincent
wondering for the thousandth time how their connection affected his son. Jacob
knew the bare bones of the horrific and tragic nature of his birth. But
Catherine’s loss was more Vincent’s pain than his. Jacob could only remember
the love and support of those around him. Was it right that he also knew the
grief his father went through?
Vincent smiled and
patted his son’s hand lightly. “I’m fine, Jacob. I was just thinking about your
mother. But Diana will always enjoy getting a picture or anything from you.”
“You got her a special
present.” Jacob lowered his voice. “You said it would make us a family.”
Vincent smiled. “That
isn’t her birthday gift. I haven’t decided when I will give that gift, but you
are happy with that, right?”
Jacob nodded. “I love
Diana, Dad.”
“I know you do. Now to
your question, a person can receive similar gifts from more than one person.
Mary likes to give out blankets, and so does Rebecca sometimes. Or Grandpa
giving out books and so does…”
Vincent had to suppress
another smile at the blank, annoyed stare his son gave. It was one of the many
ways Jacob reminded him of his Catherine when she felt that she wasn’t being
taken seriously. His heart ached at the memory, but time and the support of his
family and friends had made Vincent come to cherish those similarities between
mother and son rather than letting the sorrow overwhelm him.
“But where would she put
my picture?” Jacob asked.
“She’ll find a special
spot for it,” Vincent said. Though he admitted to himself, some of his son’s
older works might find a new home in a folder, given the Jacob wallpaper that
covered Diana’s guest chamber and half a wall of her loft.
“And if you’re worried,
maybe Alex could give you some ideas if you want something special.”
Jacob’s pout lifted into
a smile. “Alex is here?”
“Yes. She and her mother
are getting settled in one of the guest chambers. You can go see them soon.”
Jacob jumped up and
started for the entrance, but his father caught him, playfully pulling him
back.
“I meant after you clean
up this mess,” Vincent said between his son’s squeals of laughter.
OoOoO
Up in the self-made art
gallery of the world Below, Elizabeth pursed her lips in thought. It had taken
her days to decide on the image she wanted to capture on the canvas. The smooth
walls she preferred had become a map of painted mosaics showing the history of
the world Below. But few people came to visit her and see all her hard work.
The one she painted on the white canvas would be seen by everyone. It was a
depiction of Diana’s greatest moment from six years ago, bringing Vincent and
his son back home. It was not the most original painting, Elizabeth admitted to
herself, as the story of Diana was still being told all over the tunnels. But
there was nothing wrong in adding another interpretation into the mix.
Vincent had been very
clear he wanted next Sunday to be a surprise, but he needn’t have worried about
Elizabeth. The painting was mostly finished and had been drying for the past
few days while Elizabeth pondered.
Only I can’t seem to get
the right shade for Diana’s hair, Elizabeth mused,
looking down at her different tubes of red paint. Diana’s physical appearance
was classic in artistic terms, but the right shade of red for her mane of red
locks seemed impossible to capture.
“Maybe if I mix… no,
that won’t work. What about… oh bah, that won’t do,” Elizabeth muttered. She
paced the tunnel floor. The dust beneath her feet clung to the beige clothes
she wore as she envisioned her work thus far.
The background was dark
gray and black, with some clever shades of yellow to give the illusion of
torchlight. Diana stood in the center beside Vincent as he cradled the infant
Jacob wrapped in white cloth. Vincent stood staring out at the viewer as if
daring others to come between him and the son he fought so hard to find. Diana
was posed with a bow and arrow notched, though pointed at the ground. A
suitable replacement rather than the gun she had used in real life to bring
justice to Catherine Chandler’s murderer, Gabriel. Elizabeth had drawn on the
mythology of Diana’s name.
It had taken some time,
but Elizabeth was pleased with her creation. In her normal work, she
liked to keep her art as true to the events as possible, but the story of Diana
and what she had done for Vincent, little Jacob, and the whole community had
become its own kind of legend.
Entering her chamber,
she froze. The sheet that covered her work had been thrown haphazardly to the
side, revealing the portrait slashed right between the hero and heroine of the
piece.
*Gray whales: Season 3,
Episode 55, Legacies.
Chapter 2
Cindy Rae
“Leg’s too short. It
wobbles,” Mouse said, rocking the worktable back and forth for effect.
“I know that, Mouse.
That’s why we brought it here,” Cullen said shortly, turning the offending
table on its side. He reached for his hammer, intending to pull out the nails
that held the too-short leg in.
“Can’t bring down the
tables in the big hall. Too big,” Mouse replied, watching Cullen work.
Cullen didn’t answer. He
wasn’t at his chore longer than a few seconds before he jerked his hand away,
swearing.
“Ow! Damn it!” he
exclaimed, examining his left hand. A huge splinter protruded from his thumb.
“I can’t do anything right today! And that’s not the half of it!”
He pulled out the
offending bit of old wood just as Mouse exclaimed in dismay. “Poor Cullen!
Splinters hurt! Mouse knows!”
Cullen frowned. He knew
he was bleeding all over his favorite hammer. “Look, just… just get me that rag
over there, will you?” Cullen asked. Mouse did as he was bid.
Cullen quickly wrapped
his thumb, and the bleeding stopped.
“Hurt bad?” Mouse asked.
It did, but Cullen was a
grown man, and this was hardly the first time he’d pulled a splinter out of his
hand. “Not that bad,” Cullen admitted after a few seconds. He’d been careless
and was using the wrong tool for the job, anyway. The crowbar would have been
better for this task. The wood was rotted on the bad leg. It would need to be replaced,
not just repaired.
“Mouse, get me my
crowbar. It’s next to the chisels.”
“Okay, fine.” Mouse
walked over and returned with the tool Cullen had requested. Cullen set the
tool to good use.
“So… what’s the other
half?” Mouse asked as the bad wood creaked and broke free.
“What?” Cullen asked,
tossing the termite-chewed wood aside.
“Cullen said, ‘Not the
half of it.’ What’s the other half?” Mouse asked.
Cullen recalled his
prior statement. He tossed the tool to the floor, where it made a satisfying
clatter. He knew he could either answer the question honestly or just tell
Mouse that it was an expression people used.
For whatever reason, he
opted for the former.
“Diana’s sister is here.
And her niece. I… I kind of like her.”
“Alex. It’s a boy’s
name,” Mouse replied.
“Not Alex, you dolt.
Susan. Susan is here. For maybe a week. I met her when they
came down for Winterfest. That is to say, I remember
meeting her. Probably better than she remembers meeting me,” Cullen
confided. “Then… well, I said something stupid, so I had to leave the room,
embarrassed.”
“At Winterfest?” Mouse
asked, tugging out a rusty nail with a pair of pliers.
Cullen rolled his eyes
heavenward, exasperation in the gesture. “No, not at Winterfest. In Father’s
chamber. Today.”
“Oh. Father’s going to
see Jessica.” Mouse rolled the conversation along. “Going up top. Wearing
topsider clothes. Wants to see pictures.”
Cullen grabbed a set of
pliers and decided to pitch in.
“Yeah. I hope he has
better luck than I’m having.” Cullen sighed.
OoOoO
“Joe, you can’t be
serious. I just put the final statements in my last case file! I know you said
you had something you wanted me to look at, but this is… There must be four
unsolved cases here!” Diana exclaimed, looking aghast at the work Joe had
handed her… or was trying to.
He sorted through the
files. “This one has a witness who remembered something, these two aren’t that
old, and the last one has a candid photo of one of the suspects in the
background.”
Diana’s sharp eyes
snapped in his direction. In their line of work, a photograph was worth gold.
“A picture? How in the world did you end up with that?” Diana seized the last
file. Damn you, Joe. You always know how to reel me in.
“A good photographer was
doing a street shoot of New York life. Name’s Jessica, something or other. She
sent this over when she realized it might help.”
Diana stared down at the
black and white glossy. There was a note clipped to it that noted the time and
place it was taken. It was just a New York Street corner. But it was one where
an attempted kidnapping had occurred roughly five minutes after the shot was
taken.
“Does she still have the
negative? Can this be blown up?” Diana asked. The faces in the background were
somewhat blurry.
Joe sauntered casually away.
“Gee, I don’t know,
Bennett. Why don’t you call and ask her?”
Diana shoved the file –
just the one – into her bag.
“I’m going home. I’m
eating dinner. And not something out of a can. I’m… I’m looking at some stuff I
have at my place, and then maybe… maybe I’ll call,” Diana
begrudged him.
“Suit yourself,” Joe
replied, allowing his office door to close behind him.
Diana left the office
and hailed the first cab she could wave down. Outside its window, the busy city
whizzed past. It was full of people, and right now, it felt like all of them
were bothering her.
Diana knew that she was
exhausted, annoyed and wanted to go down to the tunnels just for the sheer
peace they represented.
She knew she probably
wouldn’t be able to do that today. There was too much on her plate. And there
had been Joe, trying to pile more. She purposely left the new case file right
where it was, inside her bag. Mostly because she knew if she opened it up and
started delving into it, she’d ride the elevator up to her loft with her nose
still in it, and she probably wouldn’t come up for air until after midnight.
Whoever Jessica was, she’d have to wait for that call. Diana was feeling
rebellious.
I’m going to relax
tonight. I’m going to take a long bath. I’m going to make Susan’s recipe for
mac and cheese. I’m going to hope Vincent comes to me since I can’t go to him,
and I’m going to try and get Father’s papers figured out, one way or the other! Diana vowed silently.
The cab pulled up in
front of her building. She paid the fare, turned toward the haven of her home,
and then felt all her good intentions turn to nothing.
“Hey. I was starting to
wonder how much longer I’d have to wait,” a familiar voice said. An equally
familiar form – though a long absent one - stood near her door.
There go any hopes of
seeing Vincent tonight, Diana thought.
“Mark?!” Diana asked.
“What are you… what are you doing here?” she asked. She hadn’t seen him since
she’d been working on Cathy Chandler’s case. That had been years ago. Though
they hadn’t parted on bad terms, they’d still… parted.
“I came to see you,” he
replied easily, holding out a box of pizza. It was from her favorite place. And
judging by the smell, it had her favorite toppings on it.
“Happy Birthday. A week
early, I know,” he said. “But I was in town, so I thought I’d see if you still
celebrated with double cheese and anchovies,” Mark explained.
Diana’s expression
looked dubious. “You flew in from Chicago to share a pizza?”
He hoisted the box a
little higher and opened it a crack. It smelled delicious. “C’mon, Diana.
Invite me up. I think you still have a jacket I left behind, anyway.” His smile
was a winning one.
OoOoO
“Elizabeth… who could
have done such a thing?” Vincent asked. The damaged painting was still torn
down the middle, and Elizabeth was still clearly upset by it.
Ancient hands went to
her equally ancient face. “I… I don’t know. I just… just can’t believe…”
Elizabeth’s soft voice faltered.
Vincent studied the
painting and the harm that had obviously come to it.
“It is a lovely gift,
and thoughtful. Perhaps there was some… accident? The painting fell, or the
canvas was… unsound?” Vincent asked. But even as he said it, he knew he was
wrong. A fall would have produced a jagged hole. Rotted canvas might have been
responsible, but again, so straight a cut was unlikely, even with that as a
given.
“It wasn’t an accident.
It was cut. Probably with one of these,” Elizabeth said, holding up one of her
palette knives. “I went to get a different shade of red. I was trying to paint
Diana’s hair. Oh, Vincent, I’m so sorry. It was meant as a gift!”
Vincent tried to console
his friend and placed a comforting arm around her slender shoulders.
“It will take some work,
but perhaps it can be mended,” Vincent replied, hope in his voice. The picture
of Diana as an arrow-wielding warrior was beautiful, and Vincent knew he wanted
to see it completed. The look in her lovely eyes was fierce and uncompromising.
Elizabeth might have to work on the hair, but every other part of this painting
is… extraordinary, Vincent mused.
“Do you… do you really
think so?” Elizabeth asked.
Vincent nodded.
Elizabeth thought. A
straight tear might be easier to mend than a jagged one, she realized.
“I suppose I could ask
Mary. Perhaps it can be mended from behind, maybe repainted, in spots,”
Elizabeth said, sniffing a bit. “But Vincent, that still doesn’t answer who did
this. How could such a thing happen?” Elizabeth asked.
Vincent eyed the
painting again.
“Elizabeth, is someone…
angry with you? Angry enough to do this?” Vincent asked, suspecting he already
knew the answer. Elizabeth kept almost entirely to herself. Mouse brought her
paint, and William brought her dinner when she was too busy to come by the
kitchen to pick it up on her own. Others visited. But no one he could think of
thought ill of her.
She shook her head. “No
one I know of. Pascal asked me if I might paint his father, and Sarah asked me
if there was a way I could memorialize Ellie, but I haven’t gotten around to
those. I’d been so busy with this. You don’t think they were cross with me, do
you?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m sure they weren’t,”
Vincent replied comfortingly. If this is not some… random act of
destruction, some unlikely accident, someone is either angry with you… or angry
with this, Vincent thought, looking at the slashed image. And
I’d rather find out which it is sooner rather than later.
Vincent gave Elizabeth’s
shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Call for Mary on the pipes. And Elizabeth…
please make sure you’re not alone in here. For at least a while,” Vincent
cautioned. He was taking no chances.
“But Vincent, I always
work alone!” Elizabeth protested.
“Perhaps it would be
best if you kept company for a time,” Vincent insisted smoothly. They both knew
he wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer.
Chapter 3
JessicaRae
“Must think of
something,” Jacob paced the floor of his father’s chambers, lost in thought.
Vincent sat in his chair, also equally lost, a troubled frown on his regal
face.
“If it were you, at my
age, what would you do? Dad?”
It was a long moment
before his question was acknowledged, and by the time Vincent noticed his son
had paused his pacing and was waiting; he had forgotten the vague understanding
of the request that had filtered into his thoughts.
“I apologize, Jacob.
What did you say?”
With a heavy sigh, the
young boy flopped down onto the tall couch of blankets where Vincent usually
slept. “I asked what gift you would give to Diana if this were you at my age.”
Smiling kindly, Vincent
leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands upon his knee. “Still trying to
come up with an idea for Diana’s birthday present?”
“Yeah.” The tone that
Jacob used reminded Vincent so much of Catherine that, at that moment, words
eluded him. For a moment, his face was twisted into something akin to pain, and
Jacob turned his head quickly to look at his father, feeling the momentary
sorrow. Vincent spoke quickly to distract his son from the empathy clearly
displayed on his young face.
“I think I suggested
before that you ask Alex. I think she is with her mother in the library. They
are all settled in and having tea with Rebecca and some of the other ladies.
There might even be a cookie in it for you. Mary is staying with Elizabeth for
a little while, so she won’t be there, and I know William is quite insistent on
dinner before dessert. But if you ask William nicely and tell him I sent you,
he will make sure you get one.”
Jacob smiled broadly,
childish happiness lighting up his morose face, and he sat up quickly and
launched himself toward the door, throwing over his shoulder, “Thanks, Dad!” as
he disappeared into the tunnel. Vincent smiled fondly and leaned his head back
against the smooth back of the chair, gazing up at the ceiling where the
dancing candle flames of the room played among the shadows. His hands found the
small box in his pocket, and he absently traced the outline of its edges
through the cloth.
“You said it would make
us a family.”
His son’s words echoed
in his mind, and his throat grew tight with emotion.
He never thought the day
would come, but here he was. He had imagined his world with Catherine to be the
world that saw him grow grey, old, and surrounded by children and
grandchildren, returning to stardust in the tunnels that he had both lived and
died in.
But that world wasn’t
meant to be, and by fate’s harsh design, it left him with a son to raise alone.
Diana had been there through it all, the search for Catherine having been the
catalyst that launched the worlds of Above and Below into the same time of
darkness. And it had never been Vincent’s initial intent to fall in love with
her. After all, he’d just discovered a son he did not know existed while at the
same time having his love ripped from him forever. But he found as time went on
that there was a place for Diana. While Catherine was brave, strong, and kind,
Diana was firm, bright, and wise. Catherine would have liked her; he was sure
of it. He hoped she would be proud of him too. Having raised his son this far
on his own, Vincent knew that Jacob needed more - every boy needed a mother,
and Diana had willingly stepped into that role. She didn’t have to. She could
have just gone back to her world Above and left them to mend their wounds and
try to move on from the past.
But instead, she had
stayed with them in the painful months that turned into years, listened to the
stories of the woman called Catherine, held the little ones when they cried
from the sadness that they could feel in the adults, sat beside Jamie at the
mirror pool as she shouted her anger into the cavern, walked beside Mouse as he
stumbled over his emotion-filled unintentional eulogy as he mourned the friend
that believed so faithfully in him.
So many of the other
tunnel folk had been touched by the companionship and kindness that Diana
offered their people, and after many months had passed, most didn’t even notice
that she wasn’t originally one of them.
Vincent let his mind
wander over the events of the day, happy that Jacob wanted to find the right
present for Diana. Those two were quite close, and it made his heart a little
lighter knowing that their little family was complete in all forms of the word.
Complete except for the
little box in his pocket.
OoOoO
“There, last one,”
Cullen brushed a hand across his forehead and tossed his hammer onto the floor.
“Hopefully, that doesn’t need to be done again any time soon because I am done
for.”
Mouse carefully stacked
the sandpaper into the toolbox and frowned. “Done for? Done for what? Table
done for Father, but Cullen done for what?”
“Never mind,” Cullen
sighed, running a hand along the smooth wood. “It’s just a phrase. These are
all ready to go. Father will be pleased. That took all afternoon, and I don’t
know about you, but I am done for today. Let’s pick up these tools and get
something to eat. I’m starving.”
Mouse nodded in
agreement and dusted his hands off onto his pants. “Time to eat sounds good.
Mouse clean up quickly. Cullen, go see Susan while Mouse finishes up?”
Cullen gazed at Mouse
incredulously. “Mouse, I am not leaving you to finish all by yourself. But hey,
thanks anyway.”
He moved to pick up his
hammer, and Mouse placed a foot gently on top of his hand. “No. Mouse serious.
Go see Susan. Mouse finish here. It’s okay.”
Cullen gazed into the
young man’s eyes for a moment and saw that Mouse was genuinely trying to be
nice. He smiled at the pure innocence of Mouse’s gift. “Thanks, Mouse. I owe
you one.”
Mouse frowned in
confusion as the older man began dusting the wood shavings off his clothes and
out of his hair. “Owe me what?”
OoOoO
Jacob burst into the
library in a flurry of motion, calling, “Alex!”
The group of women all
froze at the sudden interruption, and Jacob’s face turned crimson. “Hi Susan,
Alex. I was wondering if I could speak with Alex for a moment.” The manners his
father had taught him came rushing back to him, and he was rewarded with a kind
smile from Susan.
“Sure, Jacob. If she has
finished her snack, then she can go with you. Just don’t wander too far.”
“I am done,” Alex
responded.
Her mother nodded. “Then
off with you and be careful.”
Jacob and Alex ran off
eagerly, Jacob leading the way to the kitchen.
“Where are we going?”
Alex called after him, trying to keep up with his agile stride.
“To the kitchen,” Jacob
responded. “My dad told me I could ask William for a cookie.”
“Can I have one too?”
Alex asked shyly as they arrived at the warm kitchen.
“I thought you just had
snacks and tea and whatever a group of ladies does,” Jacob responded
quizzically, looking around for William.
“We had pound cake,”
Alex replied, in a tone that clearly indicated she did not like pound cake.
Jacob laughed.
“Here, let me show you
the good stuff. William?”
There was no response
from the kitchen, and Jacob looked around, brow furrowed in thought. “Odd.
William is always here. Well, I guess he won’t mind if I grab some and let him
know later. Dad said I could.”
“You sure?” Alex asked
in concern, stretching her neck this way and that, looking around as if William
would appear out of thin air. “William won’t be mad? Cause usually taking stuff
makes adults mad.”
“Of course not.” Jacob
pushed a chair close to the cupboard, where William kept the snacks out of
Arthur’s reach. Mouse’s raccoon was also fond of William’s peanut butter
cookies. Climbing on top of the chair seat, Jacob reached into the cabinet and
dug around for a moment, finally pulling out a small box labeled ‘Cookies.’
“William only gets mad if the ‘coon takes them. But not if Dad says it’s okay.
I know they are here somewhere. Ahah! Here they are. Come on, Alex, let's go
down to the waterfall. I have something I have to ask you, and it’s a secret.”
By the time they got to
the waterfall, Alex was tired of running. Jacob plopped down onto a rock and
opened the box of cookies. Alex sat down next to him, gasping for air.
“Jacob, the running is
going to have to stop. There is no fire down here, and it’s
unnecessary. What did you need to ask me, and do I get a cookie or not?”
Jacob frowned at the
box. “Well, they are all broken now. Guess I was shaking the box when we
were running. Here, have as many pieces as you want.”
He held out the box to
her, and Alex raised her eyebrows in surprise at the comical sight. While
there only looked to have been about four cookies in the box, they were now
broken into several pieces, and one could hardly tell that they had been
cookies in the first place. “Looks like the crumb topping on an apple pie.” She
took several pieces and walked away a few steps to sit down on a rock. “Okay,
go ahead.”
“With what?” Jacob asked
enigmatically, with both his mother’s mischievous spark and his father’s sense
of humor twinkling in his eyes.
Alex glared at him with
a frown that looked so much like Diana’s. “Jacob…”
“Fine, fine,” Jacob
nodded quickly, holding out the cookie box in appeasement. “I wanted to ask you
something. I want to give Diana a gift, and I wondered if you had any ideas.”
For a moment, the young
girl was silent, eating cookies and looking at Jacob, although her eyes were
looking through him, and she was thinking deeply.
“What were you thinking
of giving her?” she finally asked, handing him the box of cookie remnants. He
frowned down at the random pieces before selecting two and giving the box back
to her.
“I don’t know. Maybe a
picture, but that seems too childish. I want to give her a real present, like a
blanket or a scarf or a basket or something.”
“What about some of the
rocks from near the waterfall?” Alex asked curiously. “They are usually worn
really smooth, and she could use them on her desk as a paperweight. Adults like
stuff like that.”
“That’s a really good
idea!” Jacob nodded approvingly. He glanced at the swift water near the falls
and frowned. The children were never to play near the falls, but Alex wouldn’t
know that, and he would look really brave and cool going in for just a couple
of rocks for Diana. No one else would be giving her smooth river rock
paperweights, and his gift would stand out and be special.
“Stay here, and I’ll
grab a couple,” he said smoothly as if it were an everyday event. Alex frowned
as he made his way to the river’s edge and eyed the best place to enter the
water. The rains had come Above, and the water running through the caves
that fed the river Below was slightly higher than it typically was. The
Catherine side of him was cautious and told his brain to consider. The
adventurous Vincent side told him it was probably risky, but Diana would love
those paperweights.
Making his decision, he
dove in and instantly realized the water was far too rough for this kind of
adventure. Fear gripped his heart, and his brain went blank on the best method
to get back to shore. He tried to reach for the larger rocks near the shallower
water, but the current pulled him away, and his feet left the ground, which
sent him tumbling through the water with no sense of which side was up. Between
mouthfuls of water, pride gone in the moment of panic, all he could think of
was to yell, “Alex! Go get help!”
Even as she tossed the
cookie box to the side and bolted toward the tunnels, not so far away Vincent
was already running too.
Chapter 4
Margret Owens
Jacob awoke to darkness. He blinked
and rubbed his eyes grudgingly. He must have fallen asleep. But then, why
was he so cold and wet? Shame and nerves heated his face. What six-year-old
still wet the bed? No one had better tell. But he didn’t hear the usual noises
of the other children sleeping in the nursery.
“Dad?”
Silence.
Jacob sat up; a cold shiver ran
through him. Memories of his folly as he jumped into the water for Diana’s gift
ran through his mind. How could he have been so stupid? A wave of panic swept
through him, fearful for his life.
Jacob closed his eyes as if he could
block out the panic coursing through him. He was alive, cold, lost, and wet,
but alive. Why was he panicking this much? For a few moments, he simply lay
there, trying to ride out the intense emotion.
It’s Dad. The
realization slowly eased the tension inside himself. Instead, he tried to
redirect his emotions to his father to let him know he was alive and reasonably
well. His dad, and indeed, the whole community, would be out looking for him
and would find him. Except it was impossible to tell how far down the river had
carried him.
If only he knew where he was.
Slowly, he stood and tried to remember what Diana had told him about collecting
one’s bearings in a strange place. All the familiar voices and constant banging
on the pipes overhead had been swallowed by the near pitch-black darkness. Even
the roaring water of the falls had faded into the calm river he sensed beside
him. While his eyesight in the dark was keener than other children his age, he
also knew sheer drop-offs were possible.
Carefully he held his hands out in
front of him and shuffled forward, away from the water, until his palms rested
on a wall. Rough, cold rock and an eerie quiet surrounded him. No pipes ran
overhead to signal anyone, and there was no way he could swim back upriver.
A groan from somewhere deeper in the
black void cut through the silence. Jacob stilled and listened, trying to
determine his next move. Like all the children, he knew other adults and even
some kids lived within the tunnels while being outside of their community. Some
were homeless or used drugs to ease their suffering. For safety reasons, the
tunnel children weren’t allowed to go near them unless another adult was with
them.
But as the painful grunting
continued, Jacob felt his manners as a Helper and his kind heart take over as
he slowly crept closer. His footsteps light so as not to startle the person.
“Hello?” Jacob asked tentatively.
The shadowy shape turned in his
direction. The cook’s familiar voice called back. “Jacob? What are you doing
down here?”
Relief surged in Jacob as he
stumbled forward but then froze. The scent of blood filled his nose as his
stomach churned. While his father tried to shield him from most of the world’s
unpleasantness, Jacob knew that coppery smell. And there seemed to be a lot of
it. William lay on his side.
“William, are you okay?” Jacob
asked.
“I’m fine, Jacob. Got myself banged
up and lost, is all,” William said.
“What happened?” Jacob stepped
closer. His keen eyesight noted that the green sweater Mary had given him had
been ripped to shreds. It was now haphazardly wrapped around William’s stomach
to stop the blood. Jacob didn’t know exactly, but if he had to guess, it looked
like a stab wound. “Are you okay?” he repeated.
William shifted and let out a moan.
“I’m… okay, boy.”
“What happened?”
“I was on my way back from
delivering Elizabeth her dinner when I saw someone dressed in black exiting her
chamber. I… thought it might be Narcissa or someone else who liked to paint… so
I didn’t raise the alarm.”
“Narcissa rarely visits anyone,”
Jacob said.
“I know... I…” William shrugged
helplessly and shook his head, ashamed. “It was stupid.”
“And whoever it was hurt
Elizabeth’s…”
“No… I’m certain she was fine,”
William said, concerned.
Jacob nodded. “She’s okay, but her
painting isn’t. Someone ruined her work. Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know, boy. Maybe they don’t
like the idea of your father and Diana together.”
“But Diana’s great,” Jacob
protested.
“I know, boy… ah!” William gripped
his side as he shifted again.
“Can you get up?” Jacob asked,
bending down next to him.
“No… I twisted my blasted ankle when
I was chasing the fiend.”
“Oh…” Jacob frowned and tried to
ignore the growing fear building back up. How was his father meant to find him
now if William hadn’t found his way back?
OoOoO
“What’s with all these pictures?”
Mark asked. The array of crayon pictures had made a mosaic of the wall. “I
don’t remember Alex being much of an artist when I last saw her.”
“No, she isn’t. They were made… oh!”
Diana cursed as the coffee scalded her hand as it overflowed her mug. “Damn,
hot.”
“Are you okay?” Mark asked, stepping
over to the kitchen counter.
“Yeah, just the stupid coffee,” Diana
said, grabbing a paper towel to clean up the mess and stifling a yawn. It’s
one of those days, ugh. It seemed today was going to follow the same
track as the day before of the little things bugging her and going wrong. Even
her sleep had been disrupted. Spurts of dread had awoken her throughout the
night though she couldn’t tell where they came from. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Nothing says comfy like a pullout
couch bed. But as far as those go, it was fine. If a little lonely,” Mark said.
Diana’s eyes lowered to the cup in
her hands. Last night had been a fun enough time as they caught up on their
lives over her favorite pizza. Mark had found a new teaching position in
Chicago and seemed to be thriving. And she couldn’t deny she still cared about
him as a dear friend, but if he was hoping for more, he would be disappointed.
But then that was what led to their breakup in the first place: him wanting
more than she was willing to give.
She heard a smile in his voice as he
went on. “My dog, Billy, sleeps with me every night, so it’s odd not to have
him. He’s an Airedale.” He opened his wallet and showed her a picture of him
and the new puppy. Mark’s hair seemed to merge with the dark brown of the dog
as they cuddled together.
Diana chuckled lightly, picturing
that image. “Well, he wouldn’t have fit on the couch anyway.”
“True.” Mark leaned against the
counter and pointed back over to the paper and crayon-covered wall. “But you
didn’t answer my question. Who’s the artist? It’s the same style and
everything.”
“My so… um,” Diana cleared her
throat. Bennett, Jake’s not your son… not in that way. “My,
you certainly know a lot about art.”
Mark laughed and grinned. “One of my
many new interests. Do you want to check out the Met before I leave? And I can
show you my new knowledge?”
“When is your flight back?”
“Not for a day or two. I wanted a
few more hours to visit my old haunts.”
Diana grinned as she pulled her hair
back into a ponytail. “I don’t think the Met counts as one of those.”
Mark bowed his head sheepishly.
“Guilty, but then last I knew, the only wall you ‘decorated’ with pictures was
that one.” He pointed to her now clean blue workboard. “But I admit the crayon
ones are nicer than all of those crime scene photos.”
“Oh, let me just do this.” Diana
went and collected her bag. While last night hadn’t been the relaxing escape
from work she had planned on, at least she had managed to keep work separate,
until now. She pulled out the file Joe had given her and pulled out the photo.
She had to admire the skill of the photographer for capturing a slice of New
York City life. What would her other photos manage to portray?
“I thought you said you had just
finished a case,” Mark said. “And don’t you usually get a small break between
cases? Besides, you gotta do something fun this week. Do you even have birthday
plans?”
“No plans; last night was fun,
thanks for that, and this isn’t a 210 case. The DA asked for a favor,” Diana
explained as she tossed the file on the counter and grabbed the phone. “And he
won’t stop pestering me if I don’t get an answer.”
“Are those also for the case?” Mark
asked, eyeing the stack of papers. “They look old.”
“No, they aren’t for a case. Just a
father in a previous case I had wanted me to look through them. I just haven’t
gotten around to it,” Diana explained.
“Maybe I could.”
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s
private stuff. Client privilege, you know, that type of thing,” Diana said as
she dialed the number of the hotel.
She tried to ignore the pit in her
stomach as she spoke to the hotel. It was as though she was watching history
repeat itself as Mark watched her work. While Vincent was happy to let her work
and amuse himself, Mark, though he understood the importance of her job, had
always seemed impatient for her to be done so they could resume their fun. And
it seemed years apart hadn’t changed much.
Turning her back to him, she asked
if she could leave a message and hung up with a sigh of frustration.
“Did the photographer skip town or
something?’ Mark asked.
“No. She’s just not answering her
phone, and I wanted to get this done quickly.”
Mark glanced over at the clock.
“It’s only eight-thirty. She might have had a fun night and is sleeping it
off.”
Diana shrugged and stretched,
wishing she could crawl back into bed herself. “Yeah, maybe. I’ll swing by the
hotel in an hour or so. See if she has the original negative, and then we can
meet for lunch at…”
“Our old haunt?” Mark grinned.
“Exactly.”
An hour and a half later, Diana
knocked on the photographer’s hotel door. Only a few minutes later, the door
swung open to reveal a woman in her mid-70s dressed in a turquoise shirt and a
long brown overcoat. Unlike Diana’s wild mane of red locks, the woman had a
style to her hair.
“Hi there,” Diana began. If the
woman was on her way out, she didn’t want to drag out introductions. “My name
is Detective…”
“Diana?” the woman said, a smile on
her face. “It’s good to see you.”
“Do I know you?”
“We met once years ago.” She pointed
down, and Diana guessed she meant lower than the ground floor of the hotel.
“You saved Jacob… both of their lives.”
Diana blinked as the memories came
back to her of her other grand achievement, which had solidified her place
within the community Below. She had been trying to solve Father’s whereabouts
after he had been attacked by Georgy Coyle. Jessica Webb had been there… a good
friend to Father.
Diana smiled. Why had she not
connected the name and photographs before? “Jessica, it’s good to see you.”
Jessica Webb’s own smile grew.
“Please come in. I got your message, and I was just about to call myself, but…”
“Jessica, are you sure you… oh my!”
Well, I didn’t need that image in my
head. Diana couldn’t help the simultaneous laugh and
groaning that ran through her as she saw Father standing half-dressed in front
of her.
Chapter 5
Deborah White
Well, not half dressed, she had to admit to herself. He is fully clothed but
very… informally.
Father looked like the
grandfather or elderly neighbor out of some 50’s sitcom: dark pants, white
shirt with the sleeve rolled up to his elbows, and suspenders.
Father wears… or wore…
suspenders? She stifled a laugh.
“Father, fancy meeting
you here.” She knew it was lame, but it was all she could manage.
“I could say the same
thing,” he said with a wry smile. “What brings you here? I didn’t know you knew
Jessica was in town.”
“Well, I didn’t, not
really. At least I didn’t make the connection. Joe asked a favor and gave me a
photo that Miss Webb took,” she reached into her bag and pulled out the photo
and handed it to Jessica. “We think that a suspect in a case might be in the
background, and I came to see if she had the negative. I’d like to borrow it to
see if we can have it enlarged so we can see the faces in the background
better.”
Jessica took the picture
and looked at it closely.
“Yes, I sent this to the
police because they were saying that they needed pictures like this taken
around this time in this particular spot. In my note, I told them that I have
several that might be helpful.”
“That’s great. Would it
be possible for me to borrow the negatives?” Diana asked eagerly.
“Even better, I made
copies of the negatives and already enlarged several of the photos. Let me get
them for you.”
It was a two-room suite,
and Jessica left the front sitting room, leaving Father and Diana, both feeling
a little awkward.
“I forgot that you knew
Miss Webb,” Diana began, then she chuckled. “Hell, I forgot I knew her.”
“Not surprising,” Father
told her. “There was a lot going on back then when you met her.”
Jessica was back before
they could say anything more. She handed a Manila envelope to Diana, who opened
it and looked inside.
“Thank you, Miss Webb. I
have a feeling this will advance this case a lot. And Joe might even leave me
alone for a while.”
She started for the door
when there was a knock.
“Busy around here this
morning,” Jessica commented as she opened it. They were all surprised to see
Mouse standing there.
“Father has to come,” he
blurted out. “Emergency. Jacob is missing. Alex said he fell into the river.”
He turned and started to rush off when Diana reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Can Vincent find him?”
she asked. She noticed that Father had already grabbed his coat and was rolling
down his sleeves, preparing to put it on.
“Says he knows where
Jacob is but can’t figure out how to get there. Says Father might know… from
before.” Mouse said. She could tell he was anxious to leave. She let him go and
turned to Father.
“I’ll go with you,” she
told him. She shoved the envelope in her bag and headed for the door.
“So will I,” said
Jessica, following Father, who was right behind Diana.
OoOoO
“Is there any way to get
to that part of the tunnels?” Cullen asked as he and Vincent pored over one of
Father’s maps.
“I seem to remember
something that Devin said. But we were children at the time. But he was sure
that the river that is fed by the falls is the same river that we all call the
Nameless River. It runs very deep.”
“And you’re sure that
Jacob is okay?” Cullen asked carefully.
Vincent nodded. “After
the initial panic, there was a period of unconsciousness, but he seems fine
now, concerned but unhurt.”
“Alex said he went into
the river at the lookout in the Chamber of the falls. Are there any maps of
that river?” Cullen asked, looking through the stack of charts and maps.
“None that I know of. I
don’t think anyone has mapped the entire river, just the tunnels that go to the
river. We may just have to search each one and hope one comes out in the right
place.
OoOoO
“Are you sure
you’re all right, William?” Jacob asked as he helped the cook to his feet.
“I will be. This is only
a flesh wound. Sometimes having all this extra,” he gingerly patted his large
stomach, “is a good thing. It’s painful, but I think it’s already stopped
bleeding… Now… I wish I had a flashlight.”
“Wait,” Jacob started
patting his pockets and quickly pulled out a plastic-wrapped package. It
contained matches, a piece of candle, and a small flashlight. “If this didn’t
get wet…” he inspected everything, then suddenly, there was a small light. “We
can use the flashlight, and if the battery goes dead, we can use the candle,”
he told William.
“Your father taught you
well,” William said as Jacob moved the light over the walls.
“Since there is only one
tunnel leading to this place, then it must be the one you came in through,”
Jacob said logically, sounding much older than his six years.
“That makes sense. Lead
on Macduff,” William said as Jacob headed toward the tunnel opening.
“Macbeth?” asked Jacob.
“I thought it was ‘Lay on, Macduff.’ At least, that is how Dad and Grandfather
read it,” he added as he walked forward, playing the light over the walls of
the tunnel.
“Exactly like your
father… and your grandfather,” grumbled William as he followed.
OoOoO
The methodical search
had gone on through the evening and the night by the time Father, Jessica, and
Diana arrived.
“Any word?” Father asked
as they all rushed into the study at almost eleven the next morning.
“Not really,” said Mary.
“They’ve been searching all the tunnels marked on the maps that are known to
lead to the river but haven’t found anything. But Jamie came across a tunnel
that wasn’t on any of the maps. It goes in the right direction, and Vincent is
on his way to her now; they will check it together.”
Susan and Alex were
there with Rebecca, and as usual, Mary had a pot of tea ready, and she urged
everyone to sit and have a cup. Everyone else complied, but Diana paced.
“How long has he been
missing?” she asked Mary.
“Since yesterday
afternoon. Alex came and spread the alarm as soon as she could. They’ve been
searching since a short time after.”
That might explain my
bad dreams and feelings of dread, Diana thought as
she paced. There has always been a connection there. Too bad I don’t
have that connection with his dad.
“And it seems that
William might be missing too,” Mary added, almost as an afterthought. “No one
has seen him since he went to deliver Elizabeth’s dinner last night. We aren’t
sure if he’s out looking for Jacob or if he’s missing too. He hasn’t answered
any calls on the pipes. Everyone fended for themselves for dinner last night,
at least those who weren’t out searching.”
The chamber was quiet;
even the pipes were quiet. Pascal must have put out an “all quiet” order.
Diana paced, and the
others sipped their tea. No one spoke.
Then suddenly, there was
a flurry of tapping on the pipes. Jacob was found, and William was with him.
Then there was a follow-up message for Mary to meet them in the hospital
chamber.
Mary and Father were
both on their feet.
“Someone must be hurt,”
someone said as the others followed Father and Mary out.
It wasn’t long before
what seemed like a dozen people trooped into the hospital chamber where Father,
Mary, Jessica, Susan, Alex, and Diana were waiting. Actually, it was only
Vincent and Jamie supporting William between them, Jacob and Cullen.
Father shooed most of
them out to wait in the corridor.
While Father was
treating what actually was a superficial wound, albeit a painful one, William
related his story about seeing an intruder, giving chase, and being slashed for
his trouble.
“Was he coming out of
Elizabeth’s sleeping chamber or her workshop?” Diana asked, shifting right into
detective mode when she heard that a painting had been vandalized.
“I delivered her dinner
to her workshop since she’s usually there or in the Painted Tunnels at that
time of day, but I saw him coming out of her sleeping chamber when I passed it
on my way back.”
“Where was Elizabeth?”
“She was in her
workshop. Mary was with her. I actually took dinner for both of them.”
“Has someone stayed with
her?” asked Vincent, suddenly looking up from the quiet conversation he was
having with his son.
“We both came back to
the study when we heard that Jacob had fallen into the river,” Mary said. “She
went back to her chamber a few hours later. Sarah went with her.”
“Has anyone seen either
of them since then?” asked Vincent.
“I saw Sarah in the
dining chamber when I came back to grab some breakfast,” Jamie put in. “But I
didn’t speak to her.”
Cullen stepped into the
corridor, and they soon heard a call go out to Sarah to respond with her
location. When she responded that she was in the kitchen, he sent another
asking the same of Elizabeth. But they all knew that she seldom heard any
messages directed to her; she was often in her own world.
“I’ll go check on her,”
Cullen called.
OoOoO
William was stitched up
and bandaged by the time Cullen returned.
“She’s not in her
chamber, the workshop, the painted tunnels, or the kitchen. I checked with
Sarah, and she said that Elizabeth was with her in the kitchen until a little
while ago. She didn’t notice when she left. I asked everyone I passed if they’d
seen her. No one has. I sent a message on the pipes asking if anyone has seen
her to let us know. No one has responded.”
Chapter 6
JessicaRae
For a moment, there was
a terrible silence in the small room as each person’s mind thought back to when
they had seen Elizabeth last. Most had not known about the slashing of her
painting, and now everyone was at a loss to know what to do.
Father moved to Jacob’s
side and examined his head. Vincent hovered, sensing his son was okay, but
needing confirmation. “Just a bit of a bruise, son, perhaps a small concussion.
You need to rest and take it easy. Lots of Mary’s cooking for you and no more
swimming for a few days.”
“Yes sir,” Jacob replied
sheepishly.
“Jacob, why were you
down there anyway?” Mary asked, her motherly concern evident on her drawn face.
Jacob looked up at his
dad, who had the same question on his face. How could he tell them it was to
try to get a present for Diana?
Alex stood in the
shadows, near where her mother was sitting. She turned to Susan for comfort,
her small face long and morose. She watched Jacob closely, trying to figure out
if he was mad at her. It had been her idea, after all, to give Diana a river
rock.
Jacob was saved from
responding by a new arrival.
“Is it true that she’s
gone?” A gentle voice asked behind them, and they turned to see Sarah enter,
her hands clasped tightly before her. “I heard from Cullen. She was right there
with me in the kitchen only an hour ago, I don’t know where she was going when
she left; I never noticed she was gone.” She sounded so distressed that Father
extended a hand to usher her into the room and herded her to a chair.
“We do not know her
location at the moment,” Father replied diplomatically, trying to make her feel
better. “We are trying to find that out now. And we will. We will begin a
search. Cullen put teams together immediately. Does anyone need a map?”
“I am sorry, Father. I
should have accompanied her back to her chambers. In all of the chaos, I forgot
that someone was to stay with her. Mary had relayed that information to me, and
I simply got distracted when we were in the kitchen. If something happens to
her…”
Cullen stood next to
Susan’s chair and laid a hand on her shoulder in what he hoped was a comforting
manner. His hands were shaking, but he hoped only he could feel it.
“Sarah, it is not your
fault that she is missing,” Vincent spoke up, his voice commanding. “I was
hoping to avoid this outcome, but someone has ill intentions for Elizabeth.
That would have happened regardless of whether you were with her or not. The
person is dangerous, which William can attest to. Perhaps it was better so we
did not have two of you injured. I do not know. But we will search at once.
Father will see to William.”
“I will be fine,”
William grunted, waving them all away. “You go find Elizabeth, and when you
find the guy who did this to me, let him have it and tell him it’s from me.”
“I can help!” Jacob
offered, tugging at his father’s cloak.
“Me too!” Alex
exclaimed. Susan immediately shushed her and shook her head. Alex stuck out her
lower lip in a pout, then ran to Mary, who held out her hands for a hug.
Vincent turned and laid
his great hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Jacob, you have given me one worry for
today. This is too dangerous for you. Elizabeth is missing, and William is injured.
I wish you to remain here until I return. You need to get into dry clothing
right away. You could have died, and we must be sure there are no ill effects
from your time in the river.”
“But Dad, I know the
tunnels really well. I can help!”
“Jacob.” Vincent pulled
the boy aside gently, away from the chattering crowd, and knelt to his level.
“You were nearly lost today,” Vincent replied softly. “We will talk about that
later. I know you have much knowledge of our home. And one day, you will have
more. But today… today, I need you to do the most important, manly thing I
could ask of you. Can you do that for me?”
Jacob gazed up at his
father, unsure of whether he was being scolded or praised. “What is it?”
“I need you to stay here
with Diana and guard her. Do not let anything happen to her.”
Diana immediately turned
wide eyes toward Vincent, fully intending to insist that she was joining the
search too. She was a detective; she couldn’t help the draw of adrenaline that
she felt from hunting for clues. But one glance at the pleading in Vincent’s
eyes as he caught her gaze was all it took to change her mind. “That would make
me feel so much better, Vincent,” she said quickly. “To have a strong young man
beside me to keep me safe. Vincent, thank you for sparing Jacob to protect me.
You know I have the utmost confidence in his protective abilities. He is a chip
of the old block, after all.”
Vincent’s eyes were full
of mirth as he patted his son’s shoulder. “Old block, Diana?”
Their banter would have
potentially continued if Cullen had not raised his voice at that moment,
calling different names to join the groups of searchers.
“I must go, Jacob, but
stick by Diana every moment. Can I trust you to do that?”
“Why can’t you stay with
her, and I go? Jamie gets to go, and she’s still a kid.” Jacob asked
pleadingly; then, as soon as the words left his mouth and he saw his father’s
face, his own face turned slightly dismayed. “Never mind, Dad. I’m sorry. I’ll
stay with Diana and guard her with my life. You have my word.”
Jacob's question had
immediately evoked sadness in Vincent, and he had glanced at his hands, which
had answered Jacob’s questions immediately. Vincent had to go because he was
their knight, their Trojan Horse, their tank, their weapon. He was their strength.
A terrible savior, to be sure, but a necessary evil that they had all resigned
themselves to.
Vincent patted his son’s
head and turned to Diana. She pulled him into a hug.
“Thank you for going
along with that,” Vincent said softly.
“Don’t feel bad, Vincent,”
she whispered in his ear. “Anything for you and Jacob. He… he meant well.”
“I know.”
“Be safe.”
“You as well.”
Jacob moved to stand
beside Diana as the small groups took their maps and made their way out into
the corridor and into the different tunnels. For a moment, their voices could
be heard in the distance, then they faded, and the chamber was silent.
“Why don’t we all move
to the library,” Diana recommended. “The children can all come, and I’ll tell
them stories.”
“Bless you,” Mary said
softly. “Thank you for being here. I’ll make tea and get cookies.”
“I’l come with you,”
Sarah offered, her face still drawn and forlorn.
“As you wish, my dear,”
Mary replied. “Rebecca, would you be sure that the children are all in the
library straightaway?”
“I will,” Rebecca
nodded. “I’ll have Geoffrey and Kipper round them up.”
“Good. I’ll be there
shortly. I must get Jacob back to his chamber to change and I’ll bring some of
Vincent’s books too. And Mary, get something for Jacob to eat. He has been gone
since yesterday evening, I daresay he must be starving.”
“Can I go with Jacob?”
Alex asked, looking at Susan.
Susan shook her head.
“No, the last time you went with him, he ended up in the river. Let’s let him
get changed and fed. You and I need to talk.”
Jacob and Diana saw no
signs of intruders during their short walk to Jacob’s chamber.
“What were you doing,
diving into a river?” Diana asked, her tone so very mom-like. Jacob pulled on a
dry shirt and sighed.
“Is it okay if I don’t
tell you?” he asked, tugging on dry shoes.
Diana chuckled, sitting
down on the bed. “Jacob. Either I or your father need to know.”
“Which means you both
know,” Jacob commented, glancing at her.
His face looked so like
Vincent’s at that moment that Diana felt her heart warm with love for the boy.
He really was so much like his dad. In her heart, she knew that Jacob had not
intended to cause problems.
“All right, Jacob, we
won’t talk about it anymore.”
“I wanted to get you a
present,” Jacob blurted out, flopping onto the bed beside her. “I couldn’t
think of anything good enough! Alex was trying to help and recommended a river
rock, and stupid me decided I would get you one of the really smooth ones by
the waterfall. The water was just too fast, and I couldn’t fight it. It wasn’t
her fault, I guess I was kind of – showing off – and wasn’t really thinking.”
Diana smiled fondly and
brushed a hand across his hair. “Oh, Jacob! At least you are honest about it.
But you are the perfect gift for me. You don’t have to give me anything, I am
content to know you all and be part of what you all have here.”
“But Dad has a gift for
you!” Jacob argued, then his face paled at his revelation, and he sat up. “I am
hungry. Can we get food now?”
Diana caught the
inadvertent confession, and her heart began to race. What kind of gift did
Vincent have for her? Now she felt like a kid at Christmas, shaking their
present, wanting just the slightest hint.
But one glance at Jacob
told her that he was giving no more hints, and she patted his shoulder.
“Sure, Jacob, let’s go
get something to eat.”
OoOoO
“I don’t like any of
this,” Father spoke confidentially to Vincent as they made their way toward
Elizabeth’s chambers. “Something bigger is going on here than a simple slashed
painting. Someone is in our tunnels, and they appear to be determined to prove
how handy they are with a knife.”
“It appears so,” Vincent
responded. He listened carefully before stepping into Elizabeth’s bedchamber.
Nothing had been
disturbed that he could see. There were small pots of paint on the table, with
scattered brushes and palette knives. Elizabeth was a painter through and
through; it was her life. It angered Vincent that someone would try to destroy
it, and for what reason? They had to find the intruder.
“She couldn’t have gone
very far on her own,” Father spoke softly, awkwardly standing at the door of
the chamber. “She hasn’t the fastest gait, and these tunnels are difficult to
navigate the further you get from the inner chambers.
“I know,” Vincent
stepped out of the chamber slowly, his keen gaze upon the ground beneath their
feet. “Father, do you see that?”
“What?” Jacob Wells
stepped back quickly as if the floor he had been standing on had been hot coals
and bent down, looking closely at the dusty rock. “What am I looking at,
Vincent?”
“Here, see? There are
bits of still green grass in the dust.”
Father touched a green
strand and picked it up, hardly daring to believe what he was seeing. It had
begun to shrivel and die, indicating it had been here for some hours. There was
no grass in the tunnels, not even by the rivers. The grass was nearly
completely dry. That would fit with the timeframe that William had chased the
suspect into the tunnels.
“Vincent?”
“Whoever was here came
from Above.” Vincent’s face was dark and worried. “They are not from down here.
They had bits of grass stuck to their shoes, and the rough terrain scraped it
off.”
“But William chased them
off into the tunnels after he saw them,” Father remarked, looking up at his
son. “Why would they run into those tunnels if they were from Above?”
“I know,” Vincent
replied. “Perhaps they did not know where they were going and thought that
William would give up the chase before they got too far back in there. If they
were from Above, and William chased them all the way into those far tunnels
that even we had to have a map to navigate, then they are in serious trouble.
Both as an intruder and a human being. Father, we must find them, intruder or
not, before they die down there past the Nameless River.”
Chapter 7
T'Mara
Elizabeth walked slowly down to the lower levels of the tunnels. A while ago,
she had suddenly remembered having seen some reddish sand in a cavern down here
when she had ventured down to consult Narcissa some time ago. Maybe if she took
some of this sand and ground it into really fine powder, she could either mix
it with one or several of her red colors or sprinkle it on the still-wet paint
to achieve the desired effect of reproducing Diana's red hair really true to
life.
“Sarah, how long have we
been gone already?” she asked, turning back to face her comrade – and froze.
Sarah was not there; she was entirely alone.
What had happened? Had
Sarah somehow gotten lost on their way down? That seemed unlikely since Sarah
knew the tunnels very well. Or...
Elizabeth considered the
other possible explanation. Had she herself forgotten to tell Sarah that she
wanted to go look for that red sand and to ask her to come with her? She had
been so sure that Sarah was walking right behind her, but she also knew pretty well
that she was used to her rather solitary life, that she typically did not have
to communicate her intentions to somebody else. This arrangement that somebody
had to be with her at all times was new to her. It, therefore, was possible
that she had forgotten to let Sarah know what she was planning to do and that
Sarah, while putting away their dishes, had not noticed that she was leaving.
Elizabeth shuddered. If
she had deducted correctly, this meant that nobody knew where she was right
now, that she was alone in the tunnels, and maybe at the mercy of a violent
being who had not had any qualms about damaging her work. And in this
particular area, pipes were rare, so she could not even let Sarah and the
others know where she had gone.
OoOoO
“We must double our
efforts,” Vincent informed the search party. “It is not just Elizabeth we must
find; we have reason to assume that the attacker came from Above. In this case,
he would not know his way around here very well, and when William chased him,
he may have gotten lost in the tunnels. It is our duty as human beings to
assist him or her despite the attack on William and on Elizabeth's painting.”
“What makes you think it
was somebody from Above?”
Vincent turned around to
face Diana and his son, who were passing by on their way back to the library,
where they would meet with the other women and children.
“We found dried grass in
the sand in front of Elizabeth's chamber,” Vincent explained. “And since there
is no grass in the tunnels...”
Diana frowned. “That
could, of course, mean that the mysterious attacker came from Above,” she
admitted. “But...”
“But?” Vincent eyed her
curiously – and a bit nervously. He had been so relieved to find out that the
person who had vandalized Elizabeth's picture could not be one of them. What if
he had been wrong?
“So many of us come and
go,” Diana pointed out. “The children were Above yesterday when Father went to
see Jessica; Father was Above with Miss Webb, and so was I; Mouse went to fetch
Father, and my sister and niece came from Above. There may have been others.
Therefore, there may have been grass all over the tunnels and it may have stuck
to anybody's shoes, like William's or Mary's or Sarah's, at any given time and
thus ended up near Elizabeth's chamber.”
“But the grass looked as
if it had dried just enough to have ended up there around the time William
surprised the intruder,” Vincent objected.
“Maybe, maybe not,”
Diana countered. “How much experience do we have with grass drying in the
tunnels? There is no exact data on how fast grass dries. It depends on so many
factors, like the species of grass we are talking about, humidity, temperature,
etc. The grass could have been there before the intruder arrived or ended up
there after he left.”
Vincent had to admit
that Diana had a point. While it was still possible that the attacker had come
from Above – but if so, how could he have come down unnoticed? There was also
the possibility that it had been one of them, or maybe a Helper, whose presence
might not have alarmed the guards.
“We still have to be
careful,” he finally said. “We have no idea where Elizabeth has gone; our
priority is to find her. It was her picture that was damaged, and the intruder
was surprised by William near her chambers. We, therefore, have to assume that
she is a target. And it is possible that the attacker is somewhere in the
tunnels, maybe lost, possibly in the vicinity of the place where he attacked
William.”
Diana shook her head. “I
doubt you will find the culprit there,” she said. “Once he had incapacitated
William, he had no reason to blindly run. He could have just gone back the way
he had come. Even if he had not found his way back in the dark, at first, it
would have been easy to follow William and Jacob out at a safe distance once
those two made their way back.”
“Yes, I had my
flashlight on; we could see very well,” Jacob chimed in. “If he was behind
us...”
Vincent shivered at the
thought while at the same time sensing that his son had just realized that he
and William might have been in close proximity with the person who had caused
William's injury.
“You may have been near
him,” he tried to comfort the boy. “But it is much more likely that the
intruder had been long gone when you arrived. After all, you and William
figured out how you could get back; therefore, it is highly likely that our
culprit did the same and was long gone when you found William. After all,
William had been there a while; he had already managed to bandage his wound and
find out that his ankle was injured as well. Plenty of time for his attacker to
go back the way he had come.”
Vincent turned to Diana.
“I see that Jacob has changed into dry clothes Therefore, I'd say the two of
you head straight back to the library while we continue to search for
Elizabeth.”
He twinkled at his son.
“Make sure you keep Diana safe, Jacob,” he whispered.
OoOoO
Once Diana and Jacob had
left, Vincent once again turned to the search party.
“As Diana has pointed
out, we do not know who the attacker is,” he said. “It could be anybody, either
from Below or from Above. Somehow, I cannot believe that he is one of us, but
on the other hand, I am not quite sure how somebody from Above could have come
down unnoticed, not once, but twice. We need to split up; one group should
check out the tunnel where William was injured to make sure the attacker is not
still there, unable to find his way back. Another group should guard
Elizabeth's chamber. We do not know what the attacker was looking for or
planning to do there when William came across him and whether or not he had
achieved his goal before William's arrival. If he was not able to finish his
task, it is highly possible that he may come back. The third group will look
for Elizabeth.”
“Who is going to be in
which group?” Jamie asked.
Vincent considered the
question for a moment, then formed three groups and assigned the tasks. Kanin's
group would search the tunnel near the river, Cullen's group would guard
Elizabeth's chambers, and he himself would lead the last group, searching for
Elizabeth.
OoOoO
When Diana and Jacob
arrived at the library, they found most of the tunnel ladies and all the
children there. Among the ladies, Diana also spotted Jessica and her own sister
Susan while she saw Alex sitting next to Samantha and eagerly talking to her friend.
Diana shook her head.
She had, of course, seen both Susan and Alex when she came Below earlier, but
she had been so preoccupied with Jacob that she had not realized what a strange
coincidence it was that these two were here.
Her thoughts were
interrupted by Mary and Rebecca bringing in steaming teapots and beginning to
fill everybody's cups.
Once Diana had secured
tea for Jacob and herself, she approached Susan.
“Hey there,” she teased
her sister, “how come you are the one lingering around down
here when normally that would be me?”
Susan blushed. The
original plan of her being here as a surprise for Diana's birthday was now
ruined.
“I am sorry I didn’t
tell you that Vincent invited us to come down for a few days,” Susan began her explanation,
“but it was supposed to be a surprise. For your birthday, you know?”
Diana frowned. “But my
birthday isn’t until the weekend,” she reminded her sister. “Didn’t you expect
me to come Below before that?”
Susan's face was now
definitely crimson. “Vincent and Father wanted to make sure you wouldn’t be
able to come down before that,” she admitted.
Diana laughed. She now
understood why Father had handed her this huge stack of documents the last time
she had been Below, asking her to look over them.
“So, there is no hurry
or maybe not even a real need for me to check Father's documents?” she asked.
Susan shook her head.
“No, not to my knowledge,” she admitted, “and I think they also asked the DA
for help...”
“Joe?” Diana grinned.
She should have known! All those additional cases that Joe had tried to dump on
her had been a bit unusual. “He's going to pay for that!”
By now, everybody had
finished their tea, and the children were asking for a story.
True to her earlier
promise, Diana began.
“Once upon a time in a
kingdom far away...”
OoOoO
Vincent and his search
group were trying to decide where to start looking for Elizabeth.
“Pascal has asked
everybody to alert him in case they spot Elizabeth or to at least let him know
if they have seen her within the past hour, but so far, nobody has reported
anything,” Vincent told his people. “That probably means that she is nowhere
near the busier parts of the tunnels. So, the question is, why has she left
those parts, and where could she possibly have gone?”
“Maybe to the
waterfall?” Jamie suggested. “It is an idyllic scenery that she might find
inspiring.”
“You could say the same
thing about the Whispering Gallery,” somebody else chimed in, “but I doubt she
would have gone there!”
“The Great Hall is
closed since it's not Winterfest,” came another suggestion.
“Why has she not
contacted us?” asked another one.
Vincent looked up. That
was the question they had to ask themselves. “There are two possibilities,” he
finally realized. “Either she is unable to do so, because the attacker has
caught her, or she has injured herself, or....”
He once again considered
the alternative. How likely was it that Elizabeth would venture so far down
alone when she knew she might be a target?
“Or,” he continued after
a pause, “she went further down, where there are no or only very few pipes. In
that case, she would not even have heard Pascal's message and might not even
know that we are looking for her.”
Everybody agreed that it
would make sense to look for Elizabeth in the lower tunnels, especially since
the places where the attacker would most likely be located were already covered
by the other two groups. Had she gone there and run into him, one of those
groups would most likely find her.
“And even if we don't
find her down there, maybe Narcissa could help us locate her?” Jamie suggested.
OoOoO
Cullen and his men had
cautiously approached Elizabeth's two chambers, the sleeping one and the
working one, but once again found no trace of the intruder or Elizabeth.
“We don’t want to chase
him away should he come back,” Cullen instructed the others. “He shouldn’t
realize that the place is guarded; we should hide. I know it’s boring to just
sit and wait, but stay alert, guys! If he returns, we must be
ready for him!”
They all promised to
concentrate on the task and then looked for hiding places.
Time passed slowly for
them. They were not even sure anymore how long they had already been waiting;
had it been one hour, two, or more?
Suddenly Cullen thought
he saw a shadow moving. He looked over at the boulder where Mouse was hiding,
to see if the latter had noticed anything unusual. Mouse seemed to get excited,
so Cullen quickly put a finger on his mouth to signal to Mouse to keep quiet.
In the meantime, the
shadow had approached Mary's bedchamber and was about to enter. Cullen quickly
jumped up, Mouse right behind him, and the other members of his group followed
suit.
The shadow suddenly
found himself surrounded by eight or ten men.
He cursed under his
breath and pulled a knife out of his pocket. As he had hoped, some of the
tunnel dwellers were intimidated by this and recoiled.
“Don't let him get
away,” Cullen shouted while jumping at the shadow. The impact brought both men
to the ground. During the fall, the attacker's knife made contact with Cullen's
left upper arm, resulting in a heavily bleeding wound. Despite his injury,
Cullen managed to pin the other man down and to keep the arm wielding the knife
at a safe distance.
“Quick, restrain him,”
he ordered. The other men went to his aid, and in no time at all, they had
secured the attacker's knife and had his arms and legs bound.
“Someone, please send
out a message on the pipes that we caught him,” Cullen asked while nursing his
injured arm.
“Mouse will do, okay
good, okay fine,” the youngster promised and quickly began to relay the
message.
Almost at the same time,
another message came through the pipes. “We found Elizabeth; she is fine. We
are on our way to the library,” Cullen deciphered it.
“Okay, then that's where
we are going as well,” he decided. He pushed their prisoner to make him walk
where they wanted him to go. Now that they had their torches and lanterns out,
he could see the man's features clearly. To his relief, the culprit was not one
of them. So, he had come from Above after all. But how? And why?
When the group reached
the library, the other two search parties had already arrived. Elizabeth was
holding a steaming cup of tea in her hands and profusely apologizing to Sarah
and everybody else that she had left on her own, causing them a scare, while
Jamie was handing her a pouch with the reddish sand that she had collected at
Elizabeth's request.
“Here we are, and here
is our mysterious stranger,” Cullen announced. He was so caught up in the
moment that he failed to notice the shock in Susan's eyes when she caught sight
of his injured arm.
The prisoner was pulled
into the library for everybody to see.
Both Diana and Elizabeth
drew a deep breath while staring at Cullen’s prisoner, the teacup fell from
Elizabeth's hand and shattered.
Then almost at once,
both women voiced the same name.
“Mark?”
Chapter 8
Barbara Anderson
The message that the
intruder had been captured was disseminated on the pipes. By the time the
search party with the prisoner arrived, a large number of Tunnel citizens had
already gathered in Father’s chamber, or the Library as some liked to call it.
At the sound of Diana and Elizabeth’s exclamation, the room full of shocked
faces turned toward them. “You know him?” many asked in unison.
Ignoring the question,
Diana approached Mark, her expression of shock turning quickly to anger. “It
was you? You’re the cause of all this trouble? You’re the one who attacked
William? Why would you do that? What are you even doing here?” she demanded
loudly.
Mark’s face was flushed
red as he struggled with his restraints. His expression was more of contempt
than contrition. “I could ask you the same thing, Diana!” he yelled, lunging in
her direction. “What are you doing here? And just how
long have you been doing it?” he demanded loudly.
Taken aback, Diana
responded, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Mark Aaron Rafferty!”
Elizabeth exclaimed sternly as she approached the two.
The room was silent as
everyone looked on with piqued curiosity.
As Elizabeth stepped
between Mark and Diana, her diminutive figure was dwarfed by them both.
Pointing her finger at Mark, she began. “How dare you speak to a woman in that
tone, young man! Your mother would be absolutely mortified if she heard you… if
she could see you… like this! Diana asked a perfectly reasonable question. Is
it true?” she demanded. “Are you the intruder who slashed my painting and
attacked William?”
Mark’s expression showed
a little more contrition at the rebuke of the old woman. “I’m sorry, Mrs. K…
Yes… it was me. I’m sorry I wrecked your painting… but when I
saw it…” his fists clenched. “I was so angry… I couldn’t see straight. But
I didn’t attack those men… They came after
me. I swear! I was only defending myself!”
Father came from behind
his desk and made his way over to the small group. “What do you mean ‘those
men?’ Do you mean to say that you have attacked someone other than William?
Who?”
Before Mark had a chance
to answer, Cullen stepped forward. “I… I think he means me, Father.” By this
time, Cullen’s shirt sleeve was completely soaked through with blood, and it
appeared to be dripping from his fingertips. His face was deathly pale. He
winced in pain and began to sway a little from side to side. He might have
fallen except for Kanin, who quickly stepped up to steady him.
Father’s attention had
been so focused on the intruder that he hadn’t noticed Cullen’s bloody wound.
“Good Heavens, Cullen!” Father exclaimed. “Were you just going to stand there
and bleed to death? You should have said something right away. Kanin, can you
help me get him to the Hospital Chamber? Mary, I will need your assistance as
well.”
As the small entourage
headed for the chamber exit, Father turned to the crowd. “This discussion is
tabled until I return,” he barked. “Is that clear?”
The room was silent as
everyone watched Father and the others disappear in the direction of the
Hospital Chamber. Mark became nervous as, one by one, they began to turn their
gazes in his direction. A crowd of menacing angry faces formed a semi-circle
around him, slowly inching closer.
“What are we supposed to
do with him now?” Sarah asked.
“He should go to jail,”
Geoffrey suggested. “He could have killed William and Cullen,”
“Can’t go to jail,”
Mouse said. “Up Top laws no good Below. Even Mouse knows that.”
“Maybe we could lock him
up in one of the storage chambers,” Samantha offered as she squeezed through
the crowd to get a look at the culprit. “A couple of them have doors with locks
on them.”
“If we keep him locked
up down here, we would have to keep him for the rest of his life. The last
thing we need is another mouth to feed.” Sarah reminded them.
Jamie spoke up. “We can’t let
him go back Above. He’s seen too much… What if he tells people about us… about
all of this? What if he brings the police down? It will be the end of… everything.”
“Maybe we should just
throw him into the Abyss and be done with it,” William bellowed. He winced in
pain from his still-healing wound.
Despite their own
personal grievances with Mark, Elizabeth, and Diana moved to shield him from
the people in the crowd as they inched ever closer.
OoOoO
Kanin guided Cullen to
the bed as soon as they entered the Hospital Chamber and helped the nearly
unconscious man to lie down.
Father quickly cut off
the sleeve of Cullen’s shirt. “Are you wounded anywhere else?” he asked. Cullen
shook his head no and mumbled something unintelligible as he lost
consciousness.
“Mary,” Father barked.
“I’m going to need a…”
Mary handed him a
tourniquet before he finished his sentence. She had worked with Jacob Wells for
so many years that she could practically read his mind.
“We need to get this
bleeding stopped before I can determine how serious it is. He’s clearly lost a
lot of blood. Mary, please check our blood type index. He may very likely need
a blood transfusion.”
“Mary?” he asked when
she didn’t respond. He looked up to see Mary already holding a single index
card with Cullen’s name written boldly across the top. “What is it?” he asked.
Mary’s eyes were wide,
and her face had gone frighteningly pale. “O negative,” she replied, her voice
almost a whisper.
“Is there anyone else in
the index with that blood type?” he asked, fearing he already knew the answer.”
Mary shook her head.
“No… Cullen is the only one.”
Jacob had a feeling of
dread in the pit of his stomach. “Let’s at least start a saline drip. That
might buy him some time.”
Mary had already
anticipated his order and was gathering all of the necessary supplies. She
reached into an ancient-looking icebox and retrieved an IV bag.
“I’m O positive,” Kanin said.
“That’s close, right? Can’t I donate my blood?”
Father shook his head.
“No… You can’t. You can take his blood, but Cullen can only receive O negative.
Anything else would kill him.”
Kanin caught his breath.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“When was the last time
we updated that index, Mary?” Father asked desperately as Mary hung the IV
bag. I know I’m grasping at straws, but there might be a slight chance,
he thought.
Mary thought for a
moment. “We updated it a little over a year ago. Do you think one of our newer
residents might…”
“I don’t know… but it’s
worth asking.”
Father turned to Kanin.
“Go back to the library… quickly… and find out if any of our newer citizens
have O-negative blood. If no one there has it, put a message out on the pipes.
There’s got to be someone down here with it. Make sure they know it’s a matter
of life and death.”
Kanin nodded. Turning on
his heel, he ran all the way back the way he had so recently come.
OoOoO
“You can’t just throw
him into the Abyss!” Elizabeth exclaimed, horrified that any of her Tunnel
friends would ever suggest such a thing.
Diana had a look of
panic on her face as the crowd drew closer still. “That would be murder. We
aren’t murderers here.”
“It’s not murder!”
came an anonymous voice from the crowd. “It’s the death penalty!”
“Yeah! It’s the death
penalty,” several in the crowd agreed loudly.
Several of the children
in the chamber began to cry.
Diana and Elizabeth
stood their ground. “Mark hasn’t done anything that would warrant the death
penalty!” Diana said in Mark’s defense. “Are you seriously ready to convict him
without any kind of trial?”
“We already know what he
did,” William said. “What do we need a trial for?”
Vincent had kept to the
shadows of the chamber in an effort to keep the intruder from getting a look at
him. But as he observed his Tunnel family turning into a violent mob, he
realized he must do something.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” he roared above the din of the crowd.
The room was instantly
silent. The crowd slowly parted to reveal Vincent at the rear. People cowered
as he made his way to the front. He reached Diana and Elizabeth and turned to
speak.
“Dad!” Young Jacob came
running out of the crowd and threw his arms around his father’s waist.
“Everybody’s real mad, Dad. They want to hurt that man.” Jacob pointed to Mark,
who was standing behind his two protectors.
Vincent looked directly
at the prisoner. He tilted his head a little as if he was sizing him up.
Mark had already seen a
depiction of Vincent on Elizabeth’s painted tunnel wall. And then, in the
painting he had slashed. But nothing could have prepared him for seeing the man
(If that’s what he is, Mark thought) in the flesh and in living color.
Looking back to the
still silent crowd, Vincent’s voice was frighteningly calm. “Father told you
all that this discussion was tabled until he returned. Are there any of those
words which you failed to comprehend?”
There was only silence.
Vincent shook his head.
“I have always considered all of you my family… but at this moment, I don’t recognize
any of you. I’m so ashamed… I don’t even know what to say. You should all be
ashamed of yourselves… Not only have you spoken of killing this man without due
process, but you have done it in the presence of these children.”
The air was charged as silence
continued to fill the room. Everyone hung their heads in shame at Vincent’s
rebuke.
In the quiet, Kanin’s
quickly approaching footsteps announced him before he arrived. Coming to a
sudden stop at the top of the chamber steps Kanin tried to catch his breath.
“What is it, Kanin?”
Vincent asked. “Is Cullen all right?”
Kanin shook his head.
“He’s lost too much blood. Father says he needs a blood transfusion. He said
it’s a matter of life and death.”
“I’ll donate blood,”
Sarah said, stepping forward without hesitation.
“Me too,” Kipper spoke
up for the first time since entering the room.
Several others raised
their hands.
Kanin shook his head.
“No… Cullen has O-negative blood. Father says it has to be someone
with O negative. Anything else will kill him. Do any of you have that blood
type?”
Every hand went down,
and people looked around at each other, but no one else came forward.
“I’ll put a message out
on the pipes,” Vincent said, moving toward the exit.
“I have O-negative,” a
voice came from somewhere in the room.
Vincent turned but
didn’t see anyone coming forward or raising their hand.
“Who said that?” Kanin
asked. “Come forward.”
Two bound hands were
raised behind Elizabeth and Diana. “I can’t come forward. I seem to be a little
tied up at the moment,” Mark said.
Vincent and Kanin
approached him. Kanin pulled Mark’s own pocketknife out of his jeans. It was
still stained with Cullen’s blood.
As he reached to cut the
ties that bound the prisoner, William stepped forward. “How can we be sure he’s
telling the truth? Maybe he just sees this as a way to finish Cullen off.”
Kanin stopped and looked
into Mark’s eyes. “Are you sure you have O-negative?”
“Why would I lie?” Mark
met Kanin’s eyes with a steady gaze. “If your friend dies, you’ll all throw me
into the Abyss, for sure.”
“You’ve got a good
point,” Kanin concluded and released Mark’s hands and feet. “Come with me.”
As Diana and Elizabeth
began to follow, Kanin said, “No, I just need him. You can stay here.”
Diana laughed
sardonically. “Oh no, we won’t! I’ve got some serious trust issues right now,
and I’m not letting Mark out of my sight until this is all resolved.”
Vincent noted the
passion in Diana’s voice as she fiercely protected this man. It made him wonder
what this stranger meant to her. It doesn’t matter now, he
told himself. There are more urgent matters that need to be attended
to.
Vincent placed his hand
on Kanin’s shoulder. “It’s all right, Kanin. Let them go with you. I’ll take
care of things here.”
Once they were gone,
Vincent turned to those who remained.
“Samantha and Geoffrey,”
he said. “I need you to see the children to their dorms, help them prepare for
bed, and stay with the younger ones until someone relieves you. Mary will
likely be helping Father in the Hospital Chamber until morning.”
They both took the
assignment seriously. Samantha and Geoffrey had grown up in the Tunnels, and
even though they were both 17 years old, they often felt as if they were still
treated like children by many of their elders. They happily accepted any
responsibilities that would prove to everyone that they truly were adults.
Kneeling down to his
son, Vincent said, “I need you to go with Geoffrey and Samantha, all right?”
“Ahhh, Dad! I wanna stay
with you,” he insisted. “I’m not a baby like them,” he insisted, even though
several of the “children” were twice his age.
Overhearing Jacob’s
protest, Geoffrey came up to him. “Hey, Jake, I don’t think I can wrangle all
these kids on my own. Do you think you could do me a favor and be my
assistant?”
Jacob’s chest puffed up
with pride. He looked at Vincent and scolded him. “See, Dad; even Geoffrey
knows I’m not a kid anymore!”
“Thank you,” Vincent
whispered to Geoffrey as the boy left his father’s side to accept his new
responsibility.
“No problem,” Geoffrey
replied with a grin.
Vincent turned his
attention to the rest. “Father will likely be in the hospital chamber for
several hours. Nothing will be happening here tonight, so you should all return
to your chambers. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail after everyone has had a
good night’s sleep.”
There was a fair amount
of grumbling as people reluctantly went their separate ways. It wasn’t until the
chamber was nearly empty that Vincent noticed Jessica, Susan, and Alex.
“My apologies,” he said
as he approached them. “In all the excitement, I forgot that you three were
here. I wish you hadn’t witnessed all of that. Our community wasn’t showing its
best qualities tonight. And Jessica…” he said with a tinge of regret. “I’m so
sorry that all of this has ruined your time with Father.”
Jessica laughed a
little. “No need to apologize, dear. I know this world will always come first
with Jacob. I must say, it’s never boring down here, is it? If I didn’t
know better, I might wonder if you all plan these escapades to keep Jacob and
me apart.”
Vincent smiled
awkwardly. “Well, at any rate, it’s far too late for you to go above tonight.
There’s an empty guest chamber next to Susan and Alex. I’ll escort you all
there and see that you’re settled.”
“Lead on, Vincent,”
Jessica instructed as she slipped her arm into Vincent’s and turned toward the
exit.
OoOoO
As Father finished
stitching the wound on Cullen’s arm, he sighed heavily.
Mary could see the deep
worry lines on his face. “Will he be all right, Father?” she asked as she
replaced the IV bag.
Father looked up at her
and shook his head. “I don’t know, Mary. He’s lost a lot of blood, and the
wound is deep. There could be nerve damage. His chances would be much better if
he could have a blood transfusion.”
“Perhaps Kanin has found
someone—”
Father shook his head.
“It would be a miracle,” he said doubtfully.
“Well,” Mary said
hopefully. “Ever since I met Vincent, I’ve been a firm believer in miracles.”
Just then, Kanin came
into the room. “We found someone!” he said triumphantly.
“Well… don’t just stand
there, my boy. Bring them in!” Father exclaimed.
“YOU?” Turning to Kanin,
Father asked, “Was he the only one you could
find?”
“Yes,” Kanin confirmed.
“He was the only one,”
Mark shrugged his
shoulders. “Take it or leave it, Doc.”
“I’ll take it,” Father
said without hesitation. It was then he noticed Diana and Elizabeth standing
just inside the chamber entrance. “I’m sorry, ladies, you will have to wait
elsewhere. You too, Kanin. I can’t have people in here contaminating
everything.”
As Kanin was walking
them back to the Library Chamber, they met Vincent coming in the opposite
direction.
“What’s happened?”
Vincent asked. “I thought you two were going to the Hospital Chamber.”
“Father kicked us all
out,” Kanin said.
Elizabeth huffed loudly.
“He said he didn’t want us contaminating everything! Can you
imagine?” she asked as she huffed again.
“Vincent, I’m worried,”
Diana said, stepping closer to him. “Father and Mary won’t be able to stop that
mob if they decide to come for Mark.”
Vincent’s heart went out
to her as he saw the worry on her face. Again, he wondered, What does
this man mean to her that she so passionately defends him?
Quickly brushing the
thought aside, he put his hand on Diana’s shoulder. “I’ve dispersed the crowd.
I sent them all to their chambers. I told them this won’t be resolved tonight.”
He tenderly brushed a
stray lock of hair from her face, lightly caressing her freckled ivory skin.
She leaned her face into the palm of his rough hand; she closed her eyes as a
current of electricity coursed through her at his touch.
“If it makes you feel
any better,” he whispered tenderly. “I will go and stand watch over the
Hospital Chamber. I promise you, Diana. I will keep him safe.”
“Thank you, Vincent.”
“Why don’t you and
Elizabeth use my chamber to get some rest? We will all need our heads to be
clear in the morning.”
“Thank you for the
offer, dear,” Elizabeth said kindly. “… but I don’t need your chamber. I’ll
sleep much better in my own, especially now that I know there are no intruders
with knives coming after me.”
“Very well, then,”
Vincent replied. “Kanin, would you please walk Elizabeth to her chamber? Just
to be on the safe side.”
“I don’t need an
escort,” Elizabeth protested, fiercely protecting her independence. “I can find
my own way.”
Kanin smiled. “Well
then, you can escort me. I have sentry duty over on that side
in an hour, and it would be great to have the pleasure of your company for part
of the way.”
“Well, when you put it
that way, it would be my pleasure,” she said, accepting his request.
As they watched them go,
Vincent turned to Diana. “I’ll escort you to my chamber, and then I’ll go to
the hospital chamber.”
“If you don’t mind,
Vincent, I’d prefer to stand watch with you,” Diana suggested.
Vincent knew that
arguing the point with this stubborn woman would be a waste of time. So, he
held his hand out to her, and they headed back toward the hospital chamber.
“Don’t you trust me to
protect him?” he asked as they walked.
Diana smiled and laughed
softly. “Of course, I trust you. I’d trust you with my life. But I feel a
personal responsibility to make sure that Mark is safe. I can’t help feeling
that somehow all of this is happening because of me.”
“Did you show
this man the way in?” Vincent asked in earnest.
“No.” She shook her
head. “At least… I don’t think so.”
Vincent was hesitant to
ask the question that was burning in him. He tried to hide it from her, but
even without the bond he had once shared with Catherine, she was more
perceptive than anyone else he knew.
“I can tell you want to
say something, Vincent. Why don’t you spit it out before it kills you?”
Vincent stopped walking
and turned to ask it face-to-face. “What does the man mean to you, Diana? Why
do you feel the need to protect him so fiercely?”
Diana’s face flushed.
She inwardly kicked herself. You’ve really stepped in it now, Diana, she
thought. You should have known he would wonder. Just tell him! You
idiot!
She took a deep breath
and began. “Mark and I… we… I used to be his girlfriend. We were… lovers. We
broke up several years ago… Until this week, I hadn’t seen or heard from him in
years.” You see, she told herself. That wasn’t so bad.
“And what happened this
week?” he asked.
“A couple of days ago,
he showed up on my doorstep… out of the blue… to wish me a happy birthday. We
had pizza… talked about old times.”
Do you love this man? He desperately wanted to ask. You have no right to
ask that! He inwardly berated himself for even thinking such a
question.
“Is that all?” Vincent
finally asked.
Diana nodded. “I was so
surprised to see him here in the Tunnels… I was afraid for him. I
still am. What they’re accusing him of. Vincent, the Mark I know…
or used to know…he would never… I felt he needed someone to stand
up for him.”
Vincent nodded,
accepting her words at face value. Diana took his outstretched hand, and they
continued to the Hospital Chamber,
“Will Father be angry
that we came back?” she asked.
“No,” he said simply.
“We will stay out in the corridor. We can watch for any sign of trouble, and if
we are quiet, Father won’t even know we’re there.
OoOoO
Mark lay on a bed next
to Cullen’s, watching his own blood flow into the man who had attacked him.
Father sat next to
Cullen’s bed, carefully bandaging his wound. “How is it that you know
Elizabeth?” he asked quietly.
“Mrs. K?” he asked,
surprised that someone was actually speaking directly to him.
“Is that…
what you call her?” Father said.
“All the kids used to
call her that. But the adults called her Betty. We lived across the hall in the
same apartment building. Her son was a few years older than me, but I really
looked up to him… That is until he ran away when he was a teenager. His dad,
Mr. K, was a real piece of work… always drunk…always yelling and beating on
them. Mrs. K. was nice, though… a real sweet lady. Everybody liked her. She
disappeared not long after her son left. Her husband told everyone she died of cancer…
But we all suspected he’d done something… if you know what I mean…
He was a garbage man, so everyone figured he’d put her body in a trash truck
and dumped her in the landfill. He just went on with his life.”
“Good Heavens!” Mary
gasped and held her chest. “Poor Elizabeth! No wonder she never spoke about her
life Above!”
“My folks moved us out
of there as soon as they saved enough money. They didn’t feel safe living that
close to someone who might’ve killed his wife. They insisted I go to college…
you know… so I could make a good living and never have to live in a hole like
that again.”
He stopped
speaking. These people actually live in a hole, he realized. The
last thing I want to do is offend them. But as he observed them, they
didn’t appear to be offended.
“I’m confused,” Mary
said. “If you thought she was dead, then how…”
Without letting her
finish, Mark answered. “I saw her by chance… up in Central Park a couple of
years ago. I live in Chicago now, but I come back to visit my mother. One day,
I was walking through the park, and there was Mrs. K going through the trash
collecting old newspapers. When I called out to her, she was just as surprised
to see me.” He smiled at the memory. “Boy, was I glad she wasn’t dead after
all.”
“And just how did you
find your way down here and cause all this… this… mayhem?” Father asked,
clearly still angry about the whole situation.
“I didn’t mean to cause
any trouble, Doc… really, I didn’t.”
Jacob began to examine
Cullen. He shined a light into his eyes, listened to his heart, and then
examined his fingernails carefully. “That’s enough blood. Mary, could you
please finish up here? I need a minute.”
Mark watched as Mary
worked to remove the tubes from the arms of both men. She looks like
she’s homeless, he observed, but she obviously knows what she’s
doing. There’s clearly more to these people than meets the eye.
“Is that it then?” Mark
asked. “He’s done hearing my side?”
“Don’t worry, dear,”
Mary said gently as she pressed a cotton ball to his arm. “He’s just washing
up.” After wrapping his arm tightly, she explained, “This will have to stay on
for a while,” she said, patting his arm. “We wouldn’t want it to start
bleeding. Now stay right here; I’ll be right back.”
She returned quickly
with a glass of Tang and a package of knock-off Oreo cookies. After placing
them on a small table, she helped him sit up. “Don’t get up too fast. We don’t
need any more patients tonight. You need to drink this and eat these cookies.”
“Why are you being so
nice to me?” Mark asked. “Everyone else is ready to have me thrown into the
Abyss… whatever that is.”
“Pish-tosh!’ Mary
scoffed. “Nobody is going to be thrown into the Abyss. Anyway… you can’t be so
bad. You just saved a man’s life.” She looked at him intently. “You didn’t have
to do that, you know. You could have just kept quiet and let Cullen die. Nobody
would have even known.”
“I would
have known,” he reminded her. “I never intended to hurt
anyone. You have to believe me. I certainly couldn’t stand by
and let him die.”
She busied herself
cleaning the room. “Mark?” She looked up. “May I… call you Mark?”
Mark nodded as he
munched on the cookies.
“How did you
find your way… down here? This place is a very closely guarded secret.”
Mark nodded again.
“That’s what Elizabeth said. She insisted I make a solemn promise to keep quiet
about it before she brought me in.”
“Why did she bring you
in the first place?”
“I was worried about her
living on the street. The way she was dressed… she looked like she was living
pretty rough. But she insisted she was well taken care of… that she was happy.
When I wasn’t convinced, she showed me her painted tunnel. But I was still
skeptical. After all, I wouldn’t consider living in a cement sewer pipe being
‘well taken care of.’ But I guess it was better than the way she was living
before. Anyway, she showed me what she calls her chamber… told me about all of
her friends who help her. I can only assume she meant all of you. She made me
promise I would never go any further than that chamber. After that, I made an effort
to check in on her whenever I was in town. I always brought her a bag of
groceries… sometimes paint or new paintbrushes. You know… things she likes.”
Just then, Father opened
the curtain that separated the hospital beds from the main office. He was drying
his hands with a well-worn towel. “If you promised Elizabeth you would never go
any farther than her chamber… why did you break that promise?”
A shadow crossed Mark’s
face. Finally, he answered. “I was coming to check on her the way I always do
when I’m in town. She wasn’t painting in her tunnel where she usually is. So, I
decided to check her chamber. We have tea there sometimes.”
“But she wasn’t there…
was she?” Mary asked.
“No…” Mark’s face was
grim. “but that painting was. When I saw her…
Diana… with him… that freak-man… and a baby in his
arms. I was so angry… I must have lost my mind for a moment. When I came to
myself, I saw what I’d done. I’ve never been that angry.
“When I left the
chamber, I started to go out the same way I’d come in, but then I felt so bad
about destroying Elizabeth’s painting that I came back. I was going to wait for
her and apologize. But that man came running out of her chamber and after me.”
“William?”
“The fat man with the
beard… I don’t know his name. He came after me like a raging bull. His face was
all red… He moves amazingly fast for a man that large, by the way. Anyway, I
took off… I ducked into the first tunnel I found. I didn’t know where I was
going… I just knew I had to keep ahead of him. But he kept coming.
I finally came out at a river or something. There was nowhere else for me to
go… so I took out my pocketknife and turned to face him. He came charging out
of the tunnel and straight into my knife. I never had a chance to warn him or
anything. When he went down, I turned around and ran back the way I’d come. I
wandered around for a while. I finally came out near Elizabeth’s chamber. I was
so relieved! I decided I better get out of there before someone else came after
me.”
“You left William lying
there?” Father asked. “He could have died!”
“No… I don’t think so,”
Mark said, shaking his head. “It was only a pocketknife. And no offense, but
that man has a very thick layer of fat on him. There’s no way my knife could
have gone deep enough to do him any serious harm.”
Mark searched the face
of the man people called ‘Father.’ Hoping against hope that he would believe
him.
My gut tells me this man
is telling the truth, Father thought. But
I’m still not sure. “What about today?” he asked. “What made you come
back when you were so afraid of William? Why did you attack Cullen?”
“Him?” Mark asked,
looking at the man who lay unconscious on the next bed. “I never attacked
him either. I felt terrible about what I did to Elizabeth’s painting. She
didn’t deserve that. She’s never hurt anyone in her whole life. I came to
apologize… to see if there was something I could do to make it up to her. As I
was about to go into her chamber to see if she was there, a gang of them jumped
out of the shadows and surrounded me. When I flashed my pocketknife, several of
them backed off… but not him. He jumped on me like a tiger. He must
have gotten cut when we were rolling on the ground. I was only trying to defend
myself. I thought they were going to kill me for sure.”
Father sighed and ran his
hand through his hair. “How can I know if you’re telling me the truth?” he
asked. “Anyone in your situation would tell his side to his own advantage.”
“He’s tellin’ the
truth,” a very groggy Cullen admitted. “That’s… that’s exactly how it
happened.”
“Cullen? Are you
absolutely sure?” Father asked, but Cullen had slipped back into a drug-induced
slumber. “Cullen?”
Father quickly used his
stethoscope to listen to Cullen’s heart and respiration while Mary checked his
blood pressure. He looked questioningly at Mary.
She smiled a little and
said, “His blood pressure is one-sixteen over seventy-two.”
Father sat down in the
chair next to Cullen’s bed. “He’s going to be all right,” he said, breathing a
sigh of relief.
“Thank heaven!” Mary
said. “Thank you, Mark.”
Father nodded.
“Yes, Thank you, young man. Without your blood… I don’t think he
would have made it through the night.”
“You’re welcome,” was
all Mark could think of to say. “So… what happens now?”
Father cleared his
throat. “I believe we owe you an apology. You must understand that… in the
past, intruders who have breached our sentry posts… have inflicted great harm
here, even killed some of us.” He paused for a moment and stroked his beard
thoughtfully. “In this case, however…it appears that we… may have overreacted.
All of this trouble could have been prevented had someone simply asked you why
you were here… or how you managed to find your way in… before they…”
Mark could see that the
man was struggling to find the right words. “Hey, it’s okay. I guess you were
all just trying to protect yourselves from a perceived threat. Is it okay if I…
go home now?”
“Yes.” Father nodded.
“I’ll find someone to lead you out.”
Mark stood and began to
carefully put on his black leather jacket over his bandaged arm.
“I do have one more
question, Mark,” Father said.
“Yeah, what’s that?’
“You and Diana… My
impression is that you know each other. Is that right?”
Mark took a deep breath
and nodded. “Yeah… I guess you could say that… used to anyway.”
“Do you mind telling me
how… or what… your relationship is exactly?” Jacob suspected that he already
knew the answer.
“We used to be… a thing.
We dated for a few years. We were lovers. It was pretty serious. I really
thought Diana was the one, you know?” He shrugged his shoulders and
smiled sadly. “We broke up about six years ago. But I still love her,”
he stated boldly. “I thought she loved me too… once…” He huffed a little. “I
might have been wrong about that.”
“Oh dear,” Mary said,
placing her hand over her heart. “Oh my.”
“After we broke up…” he
said, trying to clarify himself. “I left New York and tried to forget about
her. But I can’t. I came back this time to see if there might still
be… I don’t know… a chance for us… to get back together? I knocked on her door
a couple of nights ago. I thought I’d surprise her for her birthday. I brought
her favorite pizza. I thought it was a good sign when she let me in. It was
just like old times. We ate pizza, drank some wine, and reminisced for hours.
She even let me spend the night.”
Mark smiled wistfully
and shrugged his shoulders. “I thought everything was going great… and then I
saw that painting…”
OoOoO
Vincent and Diana had
been standing in the outer tunnel long enough to hear nearly all of the
conversation inside the hospital chamber.
Leaning against the
tunnel wall, Vincent stiffened visibly when he heard Mark say that he had spent
the night with Diana. Turning to look at her as she stood by his side, he could
see that her eyes were wide, and her face and neck were bright red with… what? he
wondered. Is she embarrassed? Is she angry? I wish I could feel what she’s
feeling…
She began shaking her head.
“Vincent,” she whispered, not wanting those inside the hospital chamber to hear
her. “It isn’t what it sounds like… I mean, we didn’t…” Pull
yourself together Diana! She inwardly screamed. “Nothing happened,”
she whispered insistently. “He slept on the…”
“Diana,” Vincent said
quietly. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”
Diana stopped. What
does that mean? she wondered. Does he mean it doesn’t matter
to him one way or the other?
Vincent had heard
enough. He certainly didn’t want to hear any more. He pushed himself away from
the wall and away from Diana and walked into the Hospital Chamber, trying to
act as if he had only just arrived.
“Father?” he asked as he
entered the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt. How is Cullen? Is he…”
Father turned around and
nodded. “He’s doing much better,” Father assured him. “He’s going to make it…
thanks to Mark.”
Vincent looked at Mark
and nodded. “Thank you… Mark… for offering to share your blood with him. That
was very generous.”
Mark nodded in return,
squinting curiously as he took in the sight of this incredible and
unique-looking person.
“Are people still
waiting for us in the Library Chamber?” Father asked.
“No.” Vincent shook his
head. “They were becoming… Let’s just say things were getting out of hand. I
told them all to return to their chambers, and we would resume in the morning
after everyone has had a good night’s sleep.”
“Good… that’s very good,”
Father said appreciatively. “Then would you be so kind as to escort Mark back
to Elizabeth’s painted tunnel? He knows his way out from there.”
“He won’t be staying for
the meeting?” Vincent asked, implying that he had no idea of the conversation
between Mark and Father.
“There’s no need. I am
adequately convinced that this entire… uhm… unfortunate affair was a tragic
misunderstanding… caused by a breakdown in communication on our part.”
Then looking at Cullen, who was still asleep, he said, “We are all very
fortunate that there has been no lasting harm from the whole thing.”
Vincent nodded. “Are you
ready to go?” he asked, looking in Mark’s direction. At Mark’s obvious
hesitation, Vincent added, “Diana is waiting outside. She will be going Above
as well. She’s been very worried about you.”
“Mark!” Diana said as
they were reunited in the corridor. “I’m so relieved to see you’re all right.”
Mark reached out to give
her a hug. “Thank you! Thank you, Diana, for defending me back there.”
“Well, what was I
supposed to do?” she asked, laughing nervously. “…let them throw you into the
Abyss?”
Before either could say
anything else, Vincent said, “If you will both follow me, I’ll show you the way
out. We will have to be very quiet. If anyone wakes up and sees that we are
releasing you, they might not understand.”
It was a long, quiet
walk to Elizabeth’s painted tunnel. Vincent led while Diana and Mark followed
behind him. As they finally reached a tunnel that looked familiar to Mark,
Vincent stopped. “This is where you go out.”
“Yes, I recognize it,”
Mark said. “Thank you, Vincent.” He tentatively reached out to shake Vincent’s
hand.
Vincent readily
accepted. “Mark,” he said. “I don’t think I need to remind you that these
tunnels… are our home. If anyone out there were to know about this place… or
about me… we would…”
Mark held up his other
hand. “There’s no need to remind me. Elizabeth has reminded me many times. I’ve
kept her secret… and I promise… I’ll keep yours. Despite all that’s happened,
I… I believe you’re good people. Elizabeth and Diana wouldn’t be a part of all
this if you weren’t.”
With that, Mark stepped
into the painted tunnel.
“Mark,” Diana said. “You
go ahead. I’d like to talk to Vincent for a minute.”
“Sure thing.”
As Mark disappeared,
Diana turned to Vincent. “Vincent, I need to explain… I need you to
understand…”
Vincent shook his head.
“No… you don’t.”
“But I…”
“It’s late, Diana. We
all need rest… more than anything else. You need to go home
and sleep,” Vincent insisted. “Anyway, you probably need to have a
talk with Mark as well. There will be plenty of time for us to talk when you
come on Saturday for your surprise party.”
Diana was shocked. “You
mean… you’re still throwing me a party… after all that’s happened?”
“Of course we are.
Diana… you must know that you are an important part of this community… an
important part of our family. Although it won’t be much of a surprise
now… I have it on good authority that Alex and Jacob are looking forward to
having a slumber party with Aunt Diana. So, bring your pajamas and plan to stay
through the weekend.”
“Okay, then.” Diana
smiled and nodded. “I guess I’ll see you Saturday.” She leaned in and lightly
kissed his cheek. “And Thank you, Vincent… for protecting us tonight.”
Vincent reached into his
pocket. Watching her disappear, he wrapped his hand around the small box he had
been carrying there for several days. It was a long, quiet walk back to his
chamber with only his thoughts to keep him company.
Chapter 9
Janet Rivenbark
Diana and Mark walked in
silence for a while, and Diana was startled when Mark finally spoke.
“You and that… ah…
Vincent, an item?” he asked,
“Yeah, kinda… sometimes
I’m not sure,” she said with a shrug.
“How can you not be sure
about something like that?” Mark asked.
“Well… It’s
complicated,” she admitted.
“Isn’t it always?” he
replied.
“Yeah, but this is
different. Remember that case I was working on before you left?” she asked.
“The murder you were
obsessed with? How can I forget?”
“Well, that was the
Catherine Chandler murder. Catherine and Vincent were an item back then before
she died.”
“And that little boy,
Jacob… he’s theirs?” Mark deduced.
“That’s right. It’s
taken Vincent quite a while to get over her death. To be truthful, I don’t
think he will ever truly get over it, but he’s learned to deal with it…
Sometimes I think that he’s ready for another relationship, then other times…
like tonight… I wonder… Like I said, it’s complicated.”
They’d reached a fork in
the tunnel, and Diana turned to the left.
“Where you going?” asked
Mark. “Isn’t this the way out?” he pointed to the right.
“Yeah, but that is
longer and comes out in an inconvenient place. This way,” she pointed left,
“goes to a threshold in the Park. From there, it’s just a short walk to Central
Park West and the 72nd Street Subway Station.”
“You want to take the
subway at this time of night?” he asked.
She looked at him and
all but rolled her eyes.
“I’m not looking for
trouble,” she told him, “but I am a cop.” She patted the large tote bag she had
on her shoulder. “And I’m always armed. I think I can take care of myself… and
you.”
They started walking
again, and when they came to what looked like a dead end, Diana reached up and
pulled a lever, and the round door moved to one side. She pushed open the iron
gate, and they both stepped through.
“You go on; I’ll catch
up,” Diana told him.
She watched him halfway
down the tunnel before she reached up and pulled a hidden lever, and the door
closed. She pushed the gate closed and followed Mark out.
He was waiting for her
at the mouth of the culvert, and she was pleased to see that he checked to see
if there was anyone around before they exited.
“I saw what you did,” he
said as they headed for the street.
“What do you mean?” she
asked.
“I mean, I didn’t see it,
not how you closed the door, but I noticed that you sent me out to make sure I
didn’t know how to get in from that place.”
“The fewer thresholds
you know, the better,” she told him. “Old habits, as they say… So, where are
you staying? I never asked.”
“Little hotel not far
from your place,” he told her.
OoOoO
Vincent’s chamber was
quieter than normal, with Jacob not there.
But he often stays in
the dormitory, and he’d be asleep by now, anyway, he told himself, as he glanced at the little side chamber where
his son usually slept.
He went to the table,
sat, and pulled his journal and pen out of the drawer. Then he took the box out
of his pocket and set it in the middle of the table.
The dark blue
velvet-covered box was old and just a little bit worn, but what it held was
new. And only two other people knew what the box held; his son and Abe, the
jeweler who helped him find it.
He wasn’t sure if it
qualified as an engagement ring or a wedding ring. He popped the box open and
stared at it. It was just a simple gold band made in the shape of a Celtic
knot.
He’d instinctively known
that Diana wouldn’t want anything flashy, and when he’d seen this ring, he’d
known that it was the right one.
Now he wondered. The
ring might be the right one for Diana, but was he the right one to give I to
her?
He closed the box and
put it in the drawer he’d just taken his journal out of. The pocket where he’d
carried it for so many days felt empty.
OoOoO
The subway car was
almost empty when they boarded, and Diana was surprised when Mark took a seat
facing her from across the car.
Just as well, he’s
keeping his distance, she thought.
“So, did you say when
you were leaving?” she asked.
“I think I’m going to
change my ticket,” he told her. “I’ll go see my mom tomorrow and then head to
the airport and see what I can get to Chicago.”
They were quiet again
until they reached their stop. Once on the street, Diana stopped.
“Which way?” she asked.
“I about a block that
way,” he told her, pointing to the left. “But I’ll walk you to your place.”
“Don’t worry. I’m only a
block that way.” She pointed right. “That was one of the reasons I chose that
place: it’s close to the subway.”
“All right then… Maybe
I’ll see you again next time I come to see Mom.”
“Yeah.” She would have
normally offered a hug, but after what she’d overheard in the hospital chamber,
she didn’t. She stuck her hand out to shake his.
He hesitated, then took
it and shook it.
“Have a good trip,” she
said, but Mark had the feeling she meant “Have a good life.”
OoOoO
Vincent met his son at
breakfast the next day.
“Where’s Grandpa and
Diana?” Jacob asked.
“Grandpa went back Above
with Jessica this morning. He needed to get his things. He’ll be back this
afternoon or maybe tomorrow morning. And Diana took Mark out last night and
then went home.”
“We still having the
surprise party?” Jacob asked.
“The party is still
happening, although it’s not much of a surprise anymore. I told Diana to bring
an overnight bag, since you and Alex were looking forward to a slumber party.”
“When is she coming?”
“She said she’d be here
Saturday, as originally planned.”
“Is William going to
make a cake?”
“William is still
recovering from his injuries, so Mary and Sarah have taken over the cooking
duties. And Jessica said that she’d get a birthday cake at a bakery Above.
She’ll bring it when she comes back with Father.”
Satisfied that he knew
everything that was going on about the party, Jacob dug into the hearty
breakfast on the table in front of him.
He must be in another
growth spurt, Vincent thought as he
sipped his tea and watched. He’s eating more than me.
OoOoO
“Do you really think it
can be repaired?” asked Elizabeth, looking from Mary to Sarah.
“Absolutely,” Sarah
assured her. “I talked to a Helper who works in the restoration department at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She’s never done it, but she’s watched the
experts do it many times. She described the process, and I’m pretty sure we can
do it.” She held out a basket. “She even gave me what we need to make the
repairs. It will need to dry overnight; then, you can touch up the paint in the
morning. We just need to be careful with it when we move it to the dining
chamber for the party.
OoOoO
Father and son walked
back to the chamber they usually shared, and Jacob went into his little side
chamber for his schoolbooks.
“Dad, do you have a
pencil I can have?” he asked as he came back.
“In the drawer in the
table,” Vincent said absently as he also collected what he needed to teach the
class they were both attending.
Jacob opened the drawer
and was surprised to find the little blue box that he knew his father had been
carrying with him for the last two weeks.
“Why is the box in here,
Dad?” he asked. He remembered feeling some strange feelings from his father the
night before, just as he was falling asleep. Seeing the box in the drawer
didn’t seem right.
“I’ve been thinking
about it, Jacob. And I think it might be best if I wait,” Vincent answered,
turning to look at his son.
“But Dad, you promised!”
“I know. I promised, but
I can’t make Diana go along with our plans. And I really don’t think that she’s
ready. Maybe sometime, but not right now.”
Jacob looked almost as
if he was about to cry, but he didn’t argue. But he did start to formulate a
plan.
OoOoO
“Did you decide on a
gift for Diana?” Vincent asked Saturday morning at breakfast.
“Yes!” Jacob’s face lit
up as he reached for something in a bag he was carrying. Mary suggested that I
give her a cookbook of some of her favorites of William’s recipes. I’ve been
working on it since Thursday. William gave me twelve recipes that he knows
Diana likes and let me copy them.” He handed a handmade book titled Diana’s
Favorite Recipes from William’s Kitchen to Vincent.
The recipes were all
neatly copied out in pen, and each page had a crayon drawing of the dish in the
recipe.
“This is wonderful,
Jacob. I’m sure she will love it, and I’m also sure no one else will be giving
her a gift anything like it.”
OoOoO
Promptly at 11:00 that
morning, Diana was met at the threshold she used by Geoffrey and Samantha.
Those two seem to be
inseparable these days, she thought.
“Vincent asked that we
give you this,” Samantha said, handing her a folded paper.
Diana,
Everyone Below still thinks that this is a surprise party. Susan,
Alex and Jacob know it isn't, but no one else does.
All the children are looking forward to surprising you. Would it
be possible for you to pretend to be surprised? Please?
V~
Gonna test my acting
skills, she thought with a
grimace as she pocketed the note. I hope I can pull it off.
“Vincent said to take
you to the guest chamber, then he will meet you in the dining chamber,”
Geoffrey told her.
She chatted with the
children as they walked.
“I really don’t need an
escort to the dining chamber,” she told them when they reached the guest
chamber. “I know the way.”
“That’s okay. We’ll
wait,” said Samantha, and they both went out to wait in the tunnel.
OoOoO
The children were
getting a little impatient as they all waited in the dining chamber. A few
minutes before, there had been a message that Diana had arrived Below.
“She will be here in a
few minutes,” he assured everyone. “Everyone should quiet down and prepare to
jump out and shout Surprise! as soon as she comes in.”
He was surprised at the
sudden quiet, and he looked around the chamber. The cake Jessica had brought
sat prominently displayed on a table in the center of the chamber. It was an
impressive cake, a flat sheet cake that looked like it would serve everyone in
the room and still have some left over. The words ‘Happy Birthday, Diana’ were
spelled out across the top, and there was a drawing in icing of a spiral
staircase. There were some small gifts from the children stacked on the table
around it, and behind the table was Elizabeth’s painting, covered with a cloth.
They were ready.
He heard the pipes
announce that she was on her way. And a buzz of conversation went up around the
room. He raised his hand for quiet, and it stopped.
A moment later, Diana
entered the room, and everyone leaped to their feet and shouted, “Surprise!”
Diana’s feigned surprise
was impressive.
“Oh! Goodness! What in
the world?” she exclaimed, smiling ear to ear.
People were shouting,
“Happy Birthday!”
“Thank you!” she said.
“Thank you.”
Geoffrey and Samantha
escorted her to the table where Vincent, Jacob, Father, Jessica, Susan, and
Alex were, to the side of the table with the cake.
“Your acting has
improved, Sis,” Susan whispered as she hugged Diana.
“I aim to please,” Diana
said with a grin. She looked over at the table. “Where did that cake come from?
It’s huge.”
“Jessica brought it down
when she heard that William wasn’t feeling up to baking a cake.”
“How is William? And
Cullen?” she asked, trying to change the subject and direct it away from her.
“Both are on the mend.”
Vincent pointed out Cullen sitting with Mouse and William sitting as close to
the kitchen as he could get without actually being in it. Mary, Sarah, and
Olivia seemed to be in charge of the kitchen for the time being.
Mary came out of the
kitchen and called for everyone’s attention.
“Lunch will be served
first,” she told everyone. “Then we will cut the cake, and Diana can open her
presents. Everyone just line up at the buffet table, and we will get started.”
Diana was surprised when
Susan came back to the table with a tray that held enough food for two people,
but then she saw Cullen following her.
“Sit down, Cullen,”
Susan said. “I have this.” She started setting plates out on the table in front
of Cullen and her own chair. Alex had moved to sit with Jacob.
“I really can carry my
own food,” Cullen protested.
“I heard Father tell you
that you shouldn’t carry anything with that arm that weighs more than a pound,
at least until he takes the stitches out. Something major was nicked and you
are just lucky you didn’t bleed to death.”
Diana was hiding a smile
when she glanced over at Vincent, who was also watching them and smiling.
“I guess she told him,”
she whispered to Vincent, who nodded agreement. “That’s the same way she used
to talk to Phil when she was trying to get him to do something that was good
for him… Come to think of it, that’s the way our mother talks to our dad.”
Has Diana ever spoken to
me that way? He wondered. Would
she?
The conversation around
the table covered the events of the last few days.
“Where is that guy?”
Cullen asked. “Mark?”
“Back in Chicago, as far
as I know. He said he was going home earlier than he’d planned.” Diana glanced
over at Vincent to see if the fact that Mark had left town and that she didn’t
care, had registered, but he was talking to Father.
The children were
getting anxious for the cake and presents since they’d all eaten quickly to get
to it sooner. It took much too long, in their estimation, for the adults to
finish their lunch.
Finally, the dishes were
cleared, and stacks of plates were brought out for the cake.
“The birthday girl is
supposed to blow out the candles and cut the cake,” Mary announced.
Diana went to the table
to comply and was happy to see that there was only one candle on the cake.
Thirty-eight wasn’t old, and she still didn’t have any gray in her hair, but
she didn’t necessarily want to share her age with everyone. The children
considered anyone over twenty-five ancient.
She blew out the candle
to the sound of applause and “Happy Birthday” being sung. She took the large
knife Mary handed her and made a cut to even more applause; then Mary took over
cutting and serving the cake.
By the time they were
done with the cake, the children had moved all the gifts to the table in front
of Diana.
Most of them were
wrapped in much-used gift wrap, newspaper comics, and some homemade paper with
crayon drawings on white or brown paper. She got to Jacob’s, which was in a
brown paper lunch bag with drawings on one side. The other side had the
inscription:
TO DIANA
FROM JAKE AND VINCENT
She looked from Jake to
Vincent, then back at Jake.
“Open it!” Jake said
with a grin.
The top was folded over,
and when she opened it, she pulled out Jake’s homemade book.
“Wow! This is great,
Jake! These are all my favorites that William makes. I can’t wait to see if I
can pull them off at home. You’ll have to come and try them out. Thank you!”
She reached out and hugged the boy.
“There’s more,” he
whispered to her as he returned her hug.
She looked into the bag
and sitting at the bottom was a rather beat up, blue velvet box. It looked like
a ring box. When she lifted it out of the bag, she heard Vincent gasp.
When she looked over at
him, he was deep in conversation with Jacob.
“Jacob. Why would you do
that?” she heard him ask his son.
“You said it would make
us a family,” Jacob explained, on the edge of tears. “I want us to be a
family.”
“But it shouldn’t have
been done in front of all these people,” Vincent said. “You shouldn’t have put
her on the spot like that.”
She put her hand on
Vincent’s arm to get his attention.
“I put it back in the
bag. No one saw it. I wasn’t put on the spot. We can talk about it later.” She
put the book back in the bag and set it to the side, and went on to open and
exclaim over the remaining gifts.
The last one was the
painting, and when it was unveiled, Diana was stunned.
“It’s beautiful,
Elizabeth!” She couldn’t take her eyes off the painted Vincent. “Thank you!”
“It isn’t just from me,”
Elizabeth told her. “I had help. Someone found the canvas, Cullen made the
frame, Mouse brought me paints, Jamie helped me get your hair color just right,
and Mary and Sarah repaired the damage that was done when Mark slashed it.”
OoOoO
The children helped her
carry all the gifts back to the guest chamber afterward. She carried the large
painting to keep it safe. Vincent had taken Jacob aside, and she wasn’t sure
where they were.
She propped the painting
against a wall, then took the box out of the bag and, still without opening it,
went back to Vincent’s chamber to wait.
When Vincent arrived
back at his chamber, Diana was sitting in his chair, and the box was in the
middle of the table.
“I’m sorry Jacob put you
on the spot like that, Diana,” Vincent started when he saw her.
“I told you, I wasn’t
put on the spot. No one knew that it was in that bag except Jacob and me… and
you. And I still don’t know what is in the box.”
“Perhaps it’s better
that you don’t know what is in it.” He reached for the box, but Diana beat him
to it and put her hand over it.
“But it’s my birthday
gift,” she pointed out.
“But I told Jacob that
it wasn’t meant as a birthday gift. When I put it away, he went behind my back
and took it to give to you without my permission,” he said, sitting on the side
of the bed.
“Did you intend to
give it to me?” she asked. She was pretty sure what was in the box, but she
wasn’t going to name it just yet. She needed to get to the bottom of this
reticence.
“I did, but then…”
“Then Mark spent the
night at my place, and you overheard what he said in the hospital chamber,” she
put in when he hesitated. “I told you that nothing happened. Do you
think I lied to you?” There was an angry edge to her voice.
“I know you didn’t lie,
but it made me think that perhaps I was wrong in my thinking.”
“We can’t know that if
you don’t tell me what you are thinking!” she pointed out.
Bennett’s tended to be
loud when they argued, and she was trying to keep her voice down.
That finally got through
to Vincent. Catherine had said the same thing a few times; said that she wished
that the Bond that he had with her went both ways, so she’d have more of an
idea of what he was feeling. He had no Bond with Diana but he was making the
same mistakes he’d made then. He was shutting down for fear of being hurt. But
as Chaucer would say, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” He needed to remember
that.
“It’s a ring, Diana. A
wedding ring or an engagement ring; I was going to ask you to marry me.”
At his first words,
Diana’s heart sped up, but when he got to the last phrase, “I was going to ask
you to marry me,” the word WAS stood out like a sore thumb.
“WAS?” she questioned.
“You’re not anymore?”
“Would you accept?” he
asked, still aware he was protecting himself too much.
“You’ll have to ask me
to find out,” she told him, then looked away. If she looked at him much longer,
she would start shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and sound like Meg Ryan in that
movie.
Vincent surprised her by
moving quickly. Before she realized it, he was on his knees in front of her,
and he’d put his hand over hers where it still rested on the box on the table.
“Diana,” he said,
reaching up and gently moving her head so that he could see her eyes. “I love
you. Will you marry me?”
Then she threw her arms
around his neck and did her best impression of Meg Ryan, and she almost
embarrassed herself by bursting into tears, but she managed to avoid that, even
though she saw tears in Vincent’s eyes.
She cradled his face
between her hands.
“And I love you too,”
she said, then kissed him.
OoOoO
When they arrived at
dinner a few hours later, Diana was wearing the ring. When Jake saw it, he ran
up and hugged her.
“Will we be a family
now?” he asked.
END