Through the Tunnel

We're in a tunnel, a dark tunnel.

'We' is probably not the right word to use here. I don't know the three people surrounding me, and the don't know me. They probably don't know each other. I know I am in this tunnel for different reasons than them, but I don't know what reasons.

We stumble through the dark, bumping into each other once in a while. I knock into one of them, a 20-year-old man with a polyester vest. I expect to feel the fibers of the vest, rubbing my skin, making a soft squeaking sound, but I don't.

"Who are you?" I ask the man, when I muster the courage to.

For five long minutes he paces, not saying a word.

Then, finally, he says, "I am Roster".

His voice sounds demonic, and his hair spikes as he pronounces each syllable of his name.

"Do you know them?" I ask, pointed to the others. One of them is an 8-year-old girl in a frilly dress and the other is a 15-year-old boy with messy hair.

"They are yours," he says, and it seems to make him weak, "I am

yours."

"What do you mean?" I ask. Tears escape his eyes. He does not answer my question. After a few moments in the silence, he beckons for me to follow him, and I do. The others join us. The little girl giggles at me, and the older boy hushes her. They look like siblings.

"Do you know her?" I ask the boy, to test that theory.

"She is yours," he says, matching the tone of the man completely. These people seem to think I'm some sort of a tyrant, as if I treat people like objects. And I hate that.

"What's your name?" I ask the little girl sweetly, as a last resort. She stares at me inquisitively.

"Lil-" she starts but the boy stops her with a glaring look. Now I'm sure that he's her brother.

"Lilly? Is that it?" I ask. She nods, despite her brother's look.

"That's a pretty name. My name is Angie." I tell her.

The boy looks up from her sister at me. He pulls out a bottle with a strange liquid in it.

"No! Dale! What're you doing?" Lilly screams at her brother. Her face floods with tears.

"She's not a Seep, I'm sure of it! Don't hurt her! Please!" she whimpers. Her brother, Dale, doesn't listen.

He speeds towards me, pouring the liquid all over me. The moment it touches my skin, I feel a burning. My eyes water. The pain is agitating. I can feel my blood coursing through me. My body burns up like I'm walking through fire.

Then my lungs feel as if they're filling up with water, I hold my breath for as long as I can. I cough up a mixture of sea water and blood. I can feel the water in my organs.

For the longest minute of my life, the pain attacks me.

I fall, but I'm not dead. There is no water or fire anywhere.

"You aren't a Seep. You can be trusted." Dale says. His sister cries next to him. Just the sight of me writhing in pain traumatized her.

I am too weak to even speak and the 20-year-old man pulls out a folded blanket from his vest pocket. He wraps me in the blanket and tells me to lay down, which I do. I rest for a while under the pain washes off me as if it all it had just was filth my health and not hurt it. As soon as I'm well enough to, I charge towards Dale, furiously.

"You-You said that I could be trusted. You. I didn't ever even lift a finger around you and you-you burned and drowned me! You have absolutely no right to 'test' me if that's what you were doing, you almost killed me, you put me through so much pain!" I say, leaving out the fact that the pain was temporary, though Dale looks like he knows that perfectly well, "And even if you do 'trust' me now, I have absolutely no reason to trust you."

"Understandable," he says, "Goodbye." His sarcasm makes me even angrier.

"You had no reason to hurt me but you did, and now you're acting as if it's nothing!" I scream.

"See, this is why I thought you were a Seep. You know basically nothing, I thought it was some sort of act. Come here." he tells me.

He leads me to a corner out of Lilly's earshot.

"There's an evil force in this world. They are called the Seeps. Did you know that?" he asks. I shake my head.

"Then this is what you need to know for now. This tunnel leads to the Seep dungeon. Seeps suck bravery and willpower out of people and leave their zombie-like bodies in the dungeon. The Seeps can come in any form, they can manipulate people, animals and plants They can be killed with Conjis Solution, but it kills innocents too. So, most people don't use it that often, so they don't end up killing a normal person who they thought was a Seep. But I created a modification of the solution. The trick is that Seeps don't feel fear. Our bodies release hormones when we're scared, and I made the chemical easily diluted by them. It's just science, not some sort of black magic. But the Seeps, I don't know what they are. For the last 3 years, I've been injecting the chemical in anyone I meet, and I've killed at least 200 Seeps. The problem is there are 10 billion Seeps and only 3 of us. Well, 4 including you. I don't know how you got here, but we need all the help we can get. Here, take this needle. Its filled with the modified Conjis Solution. You need to stab this in everyone you meet. Everyone here has already been treated, even Lilly. She was so traumatized, she blacked out. She didn't remember the injection and we didn't want to remind her, but we have to tell her now. She saw that you survived." he says, and thinks for a second after the last thought.

"Well, this dungeon is filled with Seeps and we have to kill them." he continues, "And we would appreciate your help."

"Okay," I say, "I'll join your army."

We walk back to the other two. Lilly is crying, and the 20-year-old man tries to comfort her. Dale quickly rushes to Lilly and pats her gently.

"I haven't asked," I said to the man, "What's your name?"

"I go by Fret." he replies. I shake his hand and then walk to Lilly and Dale. Lilly seems to be better now, though she's still afraid. We start walking towards the dungeons which our needles ready.

After a few miles, we see the shapes of moss on the dungeon floor. I remember that Dale told me Seeps can even take the form of plants and I inject it quickly. The moss wilts a little, but stays alive.

"Ok. That's not a Seep." I say. We walk over the moss and keep walking.

Other than plants, there isn't much in the tunnel, but we're still careful.

After a while we see the door to a dungeon. We open it as cautiously as possible.

"The Seeps could also be disguised as prisoners," Dale warns us.

As soon as we enter, we see around a hundred people, each with dead-looking eyes. We inject each one of them, and all of them die.

"The Seeps created a fake dungeon just to trick us," Fret says, "I didn't think they were that clever."

We continue, now more aware than ever. We find another dungeon, and enter. We see another 100 prisoners and we inject them. This time they don't die.

"Are you trying to poison my food?" a demonic voice asks me. The voice cackles.

We turn to see a creature that looks like a mosquito. We try to inject it but nothing happens.

"You can't kill me fools! I am the Emperor of the Seeps!" the creature laughs.

There's a flash of light and I feel like I'm plummeting.

After a while I hear a voice calling, "Wake up!" and I see my mother.

"You're going to be late for school," she says. The room is illuminated by sunlight.

"Sorry Mom. I just had a nightmare," I say.