They stood in the small enclosure of trees, an eerie silence hanging in the air as the leaves offered no movement in this galeless place.

  Navin was sitting on a small stump, looking at his phone waiting for a reply; standing awkwardly to the side was, of course, Zain.

  It was still a mystery to him why Navin had told him to sneak out with him that night. His first assumption was that the boy wanted to drink again or cause trouble, but this departure from expectations proved to be slightly more unnerving.

  What were they waiting for? Was someone else going to join them? Zain would have asked these questions, but when he had raised a question upon his invitation, Navin looked at him with a serious face.

  It was so out of place on the countenance of a perpetual troublemaker, but he simply said: “You can’t be askin’ stupid questions from here on. Got it?”

  How was that a stupid question?

  Trying to decipher Navin was beyond his paygrade, so whatever. All he could really do right now was follow this kid. Knowing him, it was probably obtaining some more beer or something. Maybe he was meeting with the person who supplied the beer?

  A small buzz sounded from Navin’s phone, and he adopted a toothy grin. “Okay, it’s open now. Just need the outside key and prybar.”

  Without further explanation, he rose from the rock, then lifted it with surprising ease; the base was hollow, and underneath was a locked panel embedded into the dirt. From his belt, he took out a key to open the panel door. It opened with a slight cry from its rusted hinges, then Navin grabbed a strange looking crowbar and a hexagonal rod.

  After closing the panel and locking it once more, he moved the fake rock back, then turned back to Zain. “Here, hold this shit.”

  Before Zain could protest, the heavy iron was shoved to his arms, and Navin had already started walking back to the dorms. His pace quickened a great deal, causing Zain to be slightly annoyed by the boy's haste.

  “Slow down, why-” But before he could complete his sentence, Navin stopped abruptly, almost causing Zain to collide with him.

  Then, for some reason, he began to crouch around near the bushes, brushing his hand against some of the nearby trees. “Ugh, I fucking swear, they always make this shit so hard to find in the goddamn dark…”

  They were at the very edge of the treeline, not near any buildings or equipment, so whatever he was searching for was a mystery to Zain. Finally, after some scanning, he uncovered what he was looking for.

  “There it fucking is!” Navin traced a strange gem embedded into the base of a tree, which caused underlying circuits and lines to form. A faint breeze pulled at Zain’s feet, directing his vision to the sidewalk nearby. “Okay we can walk now.”

  They moved from the foliage and walked to the sidewalk; A strange low frequency hum could be heard on both of their sides and the outside scenery adopted a strange filter over it. As if looking through stained or warped glass, their surroundings warped and bent slightly, as if a faint illusion was at play. Zain gripped the metal rods in his hands, fighting some conflicting emotions at that moment.

  Ahead stood the small clocktower, with the metal sewer grate beneath; as they neared, static began to sound in his ear. It would seem the connection to the police informant was being interfered with here. Perhaps a barrier was preventing the signal from going through?

  The thought sent a chill down Zain’s spine, and he began to worry internally if it was really okay to continue. Navin didn’t stop, however, as he continued to walk nonchalantly to the grate.

  “Key.” Navin commanded as they stood over. Assuming the hexagonal rod was the key for the grate, Zain handed it over. The boy took it without question, then stared intently at it for a few seconds. After a short duration of time, bands of light lit up in the key. “Do you know how to manipulate your mana?”

  The sudden question caught Zain off guard, but he answered truthfully, “Nope. No one taught me.”

  This answer just elicited a small glance from Navin, but luckily his answer was of no importance. “Damn, guess you can’t use the key by yourself.”

  After all of the bands lit into the key, Navin placed it to the hexagonal center of the grate; Each band of light worked like a notch, as he pressed in the key to the first line, then twisted it, causing a mechanism to unlock itself. He did this for all of the bands, until the key was fully pressed in. Then, with one final twist, the grate unlocked fully, with lines forming, making the grate section into even slices.

  “Pry.” And with the final prompting, Zain handed over the final tool. Navin took it, then used the hooked end to lift one of the triangular faces. Once lifted, the others followed with a mechanical click, revealing a set of spiral stairs which led downwards.

  Damn…that’s pretty neat

  This advanced entryway was quite the site, but it made it clear that there was no way Zain or Brayden could have entered on their own. It was quite fortunate that Navin had access to the underground sewer system, otherwise, nothing would have come of this investigation.

  “Okay, let’s go.” Navin moved forward, starting to descend the stairs.

  Zain lingered for a moment, taking a longing look back at the apartments, slightly wishing he could just go back to sleep. But wishful thinking was useless now, he had to continue on, he wouldn’t get a chance like this again.

  The stairs were narrow, and could hardly fit a full grown person. Even though the grate outside would lead one to believe this was a normal sewer system, the true appearance below was completely outside of these expectations. .

  Recalling the underground houses and city when he had chased the cat, Zain could see the similarities here. However, instead of houses, there seemed to be individual rooms and open spaces. It resembled a marketplace or townsquare, with small individual rooms used for smaller shops and the like.

  Viney overgrowth and water damage kept most doors sealed shut, encapsulating remnants of daily mundanity of days long past; Since everything here was made of stone, the doors would have to be pulverized in order to gain entry to any specific room.

  The two boys continued down the watery path; myriad passageways intersected and diverged, creating an ancient labyrinth city. As far as the eye could see, the city appeared to encompass everything. It was strange that no one tried to occupy these spaces.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Why don’t people live here? There’s so much room.” His curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn’t help but extend this question.

  “I fucking told you no stupid questions!” Navin immediately rebuked, irritation clear on his face. After scrunching his nose a bit in annoyance, he decided to answer. “This place floods a lot. It’s not safe to live here. Now, that is the only question you get to ask. I’m fucking serious, don’t ask anything else! Unless you wanna die!”

  The uncouth response satiated Zain’s thirst for knowledge for the moment, but he could tell that wasn’t going to be the end of his curiosity.

  They continued to walk, Navin navigating the corridors using muscle memory alone. The walk wasn’t too long, when they finally came upon a room.

  Unlike the others, this one had a door untouched by moss or vines; The hinges looked rather new, and the door design was slightly different from the others.

  Navin jogged slightly forward, taking out his key chain once again. Before he inserted the key, however, he crouched down at the adjacent wall. Amongst the engravings etched in the wall were a few marble looking orbs; Navin began touching them in a particular order, causing them to light themselves after the sequence was entered. Then, once all were lit, a slight oscillating hum could be heard followed by a faint sound of shattering. Again, a pull of wind could be felt at Zain’s feet, leading him to surmise that an invisible barrier had been dispelled.

  Once he had dispersed the barrier, Navin got up, then inserted the key into the door.

  Zain began to sweat, his nerves taking hold as the door slowly crept open.

  The room was illuminated by light stones embedded in the wall, and even though time had clouded them, they still functioned to a satisfactory degree. Moss still covered the floor, but some had been cleared through the wear of human activity. Antique tools were strewn about, some unable to stand the tests of time so their original state would be difficult to discern.

  In the middle of the room was a table, miscellaneous items laid unorganized on top. Sat around were several men, who looked at the two boys entering the room with malicious glares. In their hands were several cards, leading Zain to believe that they had interrupted their game of poker.

  Without even hesitating in the tense atmosphere, Navin stepped forward “Yo, I’m here. Y’all ready?”

  The men looked at one another, one casting a suspicious glare their way, “And who’s that kid? You got fuckin’ permission to bring him here, or he gonn’ end up black then blue?”

  “Course I got fucking permission, ass! You think I’m fucking stupid or somethin’?”

  “I don’t know, you pretty fuckin’ stupid, Navin.” Someone immediately retorted, causing all of the other men to break out into boisterous laughter.

  This, of course, pissed off Navin who was just stewing in his fury. Angrily, he took out his phone, then thrusted it in their faces. “See! Now shut the hell up!”

  The men stopped laughing, then read the receipts; this was enough for them to shrug off the issue. They gathered the cards at the table, then one of the men walked up to Navin. He wrapped his arm around his shoulder then shook him lightly. “Ay, Ay… We just checking! Don’t get your panties in fucking twist. Look- I’ll give you two cases of beer this time! How’s that?”

  The anger had not subsided, but Navin was at least placated enough to silently nod. He clicked his tongue, then pushed his way into the room; The ground slightly squelched as he moved deeper into the room, a mixture of grit and moss clinging to his sneakers.

  “So, where’s the stuff? Let’s get this over with.” Crossing his arms and tapping his toes, Navin gave a slight glare to show more of his impatience.

  All the men returned exhausted huffs, as if they were dealing with a sassy child; the eldest appearing man pointed to a corner of the room, “It’s over there.”

  The indicated corner was empty upon first glance; This was until the old man walked over, then ran his hand along the wall causing a disruption to its image. Like running his hand through mist, the wall warped and distorted, which then dissipated, revealing a small closet filled with stacked small packages.

  The man grabbed the hover cart, which all of the packages were all stacked on, then pushed it towards the boys.

  Navin grabbed it, twisting it towards the exit. He carried on conversation with the men, discussing where they were going and the time of delivery of the packages.

  This nonchalant attitude left Zain within his own thoughts. His lips parted, ready to ask the obvious, but he caught himself. The thing Navin had said before replayed in his mind.

  Biting his lip to silence himself, he simply stood in silence as he asked himself:

  What is in these packages?

  The other men were watching him closely; he could feel their eyes boring into his back, as if they were waiting for him to do something that would reveal his traitorious nature. Zain steadied his breath, and tried to calm himself.

  The sound of his heart deafened the voices around him. He was in deep now. There was absolutely no turning back. Even after this investigation, would he be able to go back to normal?

  His teeth silently chattered and sweat began to bead at his forehead. Navin began walking, pulling out his phone and holding out in front of him.

  “Don’t forget. An hour, and the passcode is-”

  “Yeah, yeah. I remember. We’re going.” Navin interrupted as he pushed the cart forcefully towards Zain. “You push.”

  They exited the room, closing the door behind them.

  They walked down the halls, Navin using his phone to navigate and light the way. There weren’t definite directions like a usual navigation app, instead his phone acted more like a sensor: There was a dot that brightened when they got closer, and shifted on the phone screen if they turned away from it.

  The corridors were long and winding, some ended abruptly while others forked into multiple paths. What did not help this labyrinthian forgotten city was the fact that some of the pathways were fake.

  Using his phone, Navin was able to differentiate illusionary dead ends from the real ones, they were able to navigate somewhat easily.

  Fake pathways were not the only hurdle, as there were traps laid down to disorient anyone who was not welcomed there. There were specific illusions that Navin had knowledge on how to dispel: From having to walk in a straight line to combat a twisting corridor to having to hold their breath when cutting through a particular room.

  All of these small details made it obvious as to why the police had not been able to find their base of operations; the layers of convolution were almost to a sociopathic degree. Navigating this maze would make finding their hideout an insurmountable task.

  Not only that, they were walking for almost an hour before they reached their destination. It brought to question how vast this city truly was, but towards the end of their journey, he was too tired to ask.

  When the final room opened, it was completely empty except for an embedded jewel in the center of the floor. They pushed the cart over the jewel simply leaving it there; Once the gem was covered, the cart drifted down on the floor, turning off by itself. Navin moved a panel which was on the floor, which revealed a small keypad. Zain couldn’t see what was typed, but as soon as the sequence was entered, small circuits within the room brightened, and a small hum sounded all around them. Navin got up and turned around, ushering Zain quickly out of the room. As soon as their feet left the doorway, the door slammed behind them.

  This was all routine to Navin, as his face did not reveal any surprise or change in emotion this whole time. The layers of security had Zain utterly confused, though.

  Navin turned off his phone, then stretched a bit as he let out an exhausted sigh. “Okay, now we gotta go back.” He pulled out a regular flashlight, presumably to save on battery life for his phone.

  Having to take this trek back did not sound appealing, but what was more confusing was the fact that Navin was not taking his phone out again. The boy simply strode forward with the utmost confidence that he was going in the correct direction.

  Zain still didn’t ask questions, seeing that Navin had done all of this before. Unlike before, where they had to go through illusions, there were none this time around. Apparently, the illusions added length to their path the first time around as the trip back was only a fifteen minute walk.

  Honestly, that was some bullshit, because it felt like Zain was tired for no reason. He pushed these thoughts down as they made their way back to the initial manhole entrance. Before they exited, Navin walked over to a specific wall. Pushing a bit on a specific brick, a small compartment hid some packs of beer. Navin gave a small grin as he pulled them out, then motioned for them to continue on their way.

  After they exited the underground and relocked the grate, they walked back into the forest, with Navin making sure to take down the barrier surrounding the path to the clocktower.

  They had not uttered a word besides the necessary comments on their situation up until this point. Once everything was said and done, Navin returned to his usual demeanor as he flashed his usual smile, “So you wanna drink some beer?”

  Zain rubbed his eyes, fatigue and exasperation making him want to pull his hair out. “Hell no!”

  Then he turned sharply on his heel, towards the dorms; the overwhelming desire to wash his hands moving him forward.