Chapter 10
It’s low at first, almost just like the sound of wind through . . . well, through a zigzag hole, I guess.
But the sound of it, the tone.
“Oh, shit,” I hear Tara say under her breath.
Arrow? I type.
“I hear it,” he says, having frozen on the rock face. “It’s coming from the opening.”
“You need to get down,” Tara calls up to him.
I agree, I type.
“You didn’t lose your sister,” he says and pulls himself up a little farther. The scream gets louder the higher he goes. He gets his face up to look inside it, and the scream gets louder again. We see the loose curls of his hair tousling as if in a breeze.
“What do you see?” Tara calls up to him.
“Nothing,” he calls back. “It’s just black in there.”
The hole is wide enough at the bottom for him to put both arms inside and pull himself up. The screaming gets even louder. It’s not at god volume yet, but you can feel how easily that’s on its way.
“Don’t go inside!” Tara says, but it’s too late.
Arrow is already getting his knees into the bottom of the zigzag.
He can’t quite stand up all the way, but he crouches and puts his head in.
He quickly takes it back out and looks down at us, frightened.
“This is impossible,” he says, then looks back in it.
“What’s impossible?” Tara calls up. “What’s impossible, Arrow?”
And tendrils of burning fire reach out of the zigzag, grab a screaming Arrow by the waist, and yank him inside.