Zee kept muttering to himself as the bird led them down the passageway into the main Mall corridors. They went through the middle of the Mall, through the LEGO land, past the Ferris wheel and the roller coaster and the water ride thingy. Empty carts decorated with pictures of peanuts and cotton candy, and booths hawking ice cream and soda dotted their path. Zee seemed to have entirely forgotten about the purpose of the journey and was simply gawking at all the awful, beautiful excess.
Charlotte hadn't forgotten. She couldn't help notice how quiet everything was. It's after hours, of course it's quiet, but shouldn't there be security guards? Alarms? Something? She followed the bird resolutely as they wound their way out of the amusement park and to the other end of the Mall. They walked past stores, sleeping behind their gates, then turned down a small, dark corridor that Charlotte-despite her many, many visits to this particular Mall-had never noticed before. Next to her, Zee inhaled sharply.
The bird disappeared into the corridor. Slowly the cousins walked down together, letting the darkness wash over them.
They reached the end, their eyes adjusted, and they saw in front of them a very plain door, on which there was a very plain sign, which read, very plainly: NO ADMITTANCE.
Zee gasped. His hand reached out suddenly for the doorknob as if by instinct, and he quickly pulled it back.
The bird landed on the floor right in front of the door and danced and squawked.
Zee reached for the door again, more slowly. Charlotte closed her eyes. A simple twisting sound, and the door was creaking open.
A musty smell washed over them; cold, wet air blew at them; and in front of them there was nothing but black. "I guess we should go in," Charlotte said.
"Let's go," Zee said.
The two grabbed hands, and together they walked into the blackness.
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 19
DID I SAY BLACKNESS?
Yes, blackness.
Cold blackness. Wet blackness. Slimy, icky blackness. The sort of blackness that would make you want to turn around, run home, and hide under your covers, never to get out again.
But, with trembling hands and brave hearts, Charlotte and Zee stepped into the cold, wet, slimy, icky blackness – for sometimes, as scared as you are, as much as you would like to run, you really have no choice but to go forward-and the door slammed shut behind them with a certain finality that Charlotte did not like one single bit.
They were in a very narrow tunnel made of rock, that much they could tell. The air possessed a certain chilly hollowness that gave Charlotte the feeling that the tunnel wasn't going to end any time soon. When they stepped forward, their footsteps made muffled clunks against the hard stone floor.
"At least we have the bird," said Charlotte.
"Squawk," said the bird, who suddenly flew off ahead of them, his flight stirring up the dust of the ages. He disappeared into the blackness, but they could hear the beating of his wings. It went on and on and on for what seemed like miles, getting quieter and quieter, until it faded away. Charlotte and Zee stopped and waited, but the sound did not return.
"Or not," said Charlotte.
"I guess we're on our own," Zee murmured.
They moved on, the light from Zee's watch the only thing keeping them from perfect blackness. The cave quickly became too narrow for them to walk side by side, so Zee, ever the gentleman martyr, took the lead. Charlotte held on to the back of his sweater.
Oh, it was cold. The type of cold that travels through your warm sweaters, your shirts, your undershirts, your skin, your muscles, and hits you right in the bone. The type of cold that makes you shiver from your inside, the one that goes beyond chilling your body into freezing your very essence.
"Wow, it's cold," Charlotte muttered.
"Yeah," said Zee, his voice shaking a bit. He stopped and turned to glance at Charlotte, who was trembling. "Maybe… well… here." Tentatively he reached out toward her, putting his hands on her arms. He began to rub them up and down, with a strange combination of chivalry and uncertainty, but all Charlotte could feel was the warmth in his hands. She leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around her and warmed her back.
"Better?" he said.
"Yeah," said Charlotte.
"Okay, let's keep going."
And they did. On and on, through the darkness, stopping occasionally to warm each other, forgetting their awkwardness in the need to stop trembling. Every once in a while something flittered by them on the walls, on the ground, or in the air, but Charlotte opted not to think about that too much. Their eyes adjusted a bit over time, and they could see a few feet in front of them, but the view was always the same-craggy rock, slanting down, leading them deeper and deeper into the earth.
And deeper they were going. Charlotte could feel the pressure changing, as if the weight of the earth were above them, which in fact, it probably was. Her breath felt labored. She noticed Zee seemed to be just fine, which, she supposed, happened when you spent your afternoons running back and forth on a soccer field. She'll suggest that to the gym teacher as a slogan when they get back- Get in shape! You never know when you'll have to descend into the Underworld! It's a looong way down!
Though as they continued to make their way downward, even Zee seemed to labor a bit. As one, they stopped and leaned against a rather slimy wall to rest.
"Oh, man," said Zee, catching his breath.
"Yeah," said Charlotte, catching hers.
He nodded toward Charlotte's backpack. "Do you have any water in that magic bag of yours?"
"Oh!" Charlotte slung her pack off her back and unzipped it, bringing out one of the bottles. They each took a few sips. Charlotte wanted to drink the whole thing down, but she had a feeling it might be a wise idea to conserve. Which reminded her:
"Hey, Zee… when we're down there? Don't eat anything. Like fruit from the trees or whatever."
Zee made a sound through his nose. "I assure you," he said, "that I will not."
Charlotte grinned. "I suppose that was pretty obvious. Persephone did it, though. She ate some pomegranate seeds, and that's why she had to stay."
Zee shook his head. "Next you're going to tell me not to drink the water."
"Well, yeah," she smiled. "Don't do that, either." She took a sip from her bottle. "You know… you can be funny when you put your mind to it."
Zee gaped at her. "Can I?" Was Charlotte mistaken, or did he sound just a mite sarcastic? Really, she was just trying to help.
"Yeah!" Charlotte said. "Once you've, you know, relaxed."
Zee let out something between a cough and a snort, then grabbed Charlotte's hands, looked into her eyes, and said, "Charlotte, I promise you on my life that once we get out of the Underworld alive, I will be the funniest person you've ever met."
Charlotte blushed. "Okay, okay. It's just… you know. What you said before. About not knowing what to say. I mean, all the girls at school are totally crushed out on you."
Zee dropped her hands. "They are?"
Charlotte nodded. "Most of them, anyway. Ashley and Audrey asked me if you had a girlfriend."
"They did?"
“Yup.”
Charlotte watched as Zee contemplated this for a while. Then something seemed to come over him. He looked away and muttered, "Well, I don't. Have a girlfriend."
His tone seemed to end the conversation. Charlotte offered him a last sip of water, then screwed the top back on and put the bottle in her backpack. Zee was still staring at something indefinable off at the other end of the tunnel. He exhaled and then said quietly, "There was a girl, though. In London… Samantha…"
Charlotte looked up. "Oh! What was she like?" Some sort of large, spiderlike thing crawled right by her foot. She glared at it. She was finally getting something personal out of her cousin; no Underworld spider was going to make her shriek.