Underland(3)

Kira grunted. She finally had a view of the speaker, but a long weathered hood covered his face. She could only see his pale hands.

“It’s human! You brought a human down here. How dare you go against the ban from scavenging the surface world? The penalty is a month in lockup or worse—the games.”

“Eh, what Grater doesn’t know won’t hurt him or the price none, if you keep quiet.” Alpo stood up and the skiff rocked back and forth. “You don’t plan on making trouble do you?” He cracked his knuckles threateningly.

The hooded cloak swerved Kira’s way and then looked out over the river of sewage they were floating on. “No. I could get in trouble just by association. Risk your necks, not mine.”

They were quiet, and only the occasional sound of an oar correcting their course interrupted the silence. Lights flickered across the cavern ceiling as they picked up speed. The skiff skimmed the water smoothly until something large knocked against the bottom of the boat.

Vic, his face twisted in worry, reached for the bucket of dead fish. She heard the knocking again, and something bulky slammed into the boat. It swayed and tilted, letting sewage spill over the side into the bottom. Kira lifted her feet to avoid the reeking water that ran towards her body, but she couldn’t avoid it. Cold soaked into her clothes, and she gagged at the smell that now permeated her khaki pants and t-shirt.

“Dang it, Vic. Are you going to toss in the chum, or are you waiting for the thing to ask you on a date first?” The cloaked man snatched the pail and tossed the dead fish into the green depths.

The knocking stopped, followed by a splash and a deep bellow from beneath the water.

Alpo peered over the edge of the boat, searching the water for movement. “Is it gone?”

Vic, visibly shaken, wiped his sweaty brow with a rag. “I don’t think I will ever get used to the city’s new gatekeeper. I think I preferred Horace.”

“No, thank you. It is way easier to acquire dead fish than wrangling live cats for Horace.”

Alpo looked over the water and shrugged. “But why does she have to get so orn’ry?”

Vic stood straighter. “Yeah, Nessie’s been PMSing ever since somebody spotted her in Scotland and the gods demoted her. She’s the only one desperate enough to take the job,” he laughed cruelly.

The cloaked man leaned back and stared Alpo down. “She takes her job to protect the city seriously, unlike some. Don’t pay the toll, and you’ll learn what it’s like to be fish food.”

A humongous gray tail rose thirty feet out of the water and came crashing down next to the skiff, missing Vic by inches. The boat rose, almost capsized from the weight of the cresting swell. Sewage water soaked all four passengers. The sound of a groaning submarine under pressure rose from the depths—Nessie’s laughter.

The immense tail made Kira wonder about the sea monster’s actual proportions. Had she really heard them right? What in the world was the Loch Ness Monster doing living in the sewers of Portland?

Were they even in the metro area anymore? The cloaked man looked towards Kira, and she glared heat his way.

He was the first to drop eye contact. She smirked.

“Do you have a name?” He asked her.

She simply stared in return.

“Not a talkative one, are you?”

Kira turned to study the glittering cavern. The skiff had entered an enormous chamber with more torchlight than she’d seen before. Here, what she’d thought was a reflection from the water really seemed to be sparkling diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. The torchlight made the gems dance and sparkle. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

“It’s pretty isn’t it?” The man spoke. “There’s more diamonds in our walls than in all of Africa. It won’t do anyone any good though. It’s cursed—the price we pay for anonymity. If mortals make it past Nessie, they lose all thought of searching deeper when they see the jewels.” Kira believed him, because she found it almost painful to pull her gaze away from the diamonds.

She closed her eyes and looked away but found it hard to breathe; she gasped and felt herself begin to shake. It was as if she was addicted after only one glance and was suddenly in withdrawal, worse than any heroin or meth addict.

Alpo swore. “Forgot to cover its eyes. It ain’t gonna catch us a good price if we don’t do something quick.”

Kira’s body began convulsing, and her tongue felt twenty times larger than her mouth.

Vic searched his pockets but came up empty. “I don’t got any. I wasn’t expecting it to be awake already.”

Kira couldn’t believe it. She was going to die for looking at a stupid wall covered in diamonds. Just when she felt as if her heart was going to explode, something warm and soft touched her tongue. Chocolate. As soon as the sweet flavor reached her taste buds, her body relaxed.

“Chocolate is the only cure for madness,” the man said. As he held her in his arms and leaned over her body, she could see the bottom of his chin. Maybe it was because she was still drugged with greed, but Kira really liked that chin. There was something hard and soft about it at the same time—it even had a dimple in it. My cousin would call that a butt-chin. The thought made her chuckle.

Alarmed, the man dropped her, and her head hit the bench with a thud.

“Ow! That hurt!” Those were the first words Kira had spoken to her kidnappers—not her ideal choice for a starter conversation. She would have preferred a slew of words that would make her grandma cringe. But at this moment, Kira didn’t have full control of her faculties. The whole thing was pretty hilarious, really. She giggled harder and then laughed loudly.