Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Book 1: Chapter 2:
The Secret Club House

Amadeo awoke with a cold chill creeping deep into her, and was... wet? She was chilled to the bone, but sweating. No doubt from the terrible nightmare she had just awoken from. She glanced out the window, and saw it would be hours until daybreak. So she decided to take a little trip, somewhere that few now knew of, and where some of the neighborhood kids came to plot their next acts of mischief, or just to get away from the humdrum of everyday life.
She got out of bed, trying not to make any noise, dried off, and went to her wardrobe. She was currently in a white cotton night gown that wasn't much different than the dresses she usually had to wear, only much lighter and more comfortable to sleep in. She didn't bother changing out of this though, but instead threw a similar two piece outfit made of a soft brown canvas, with a couple of pockets on the lower skirt part, over her gown. She also put a few leather belts on, one to hold the skirt up, and the others a little loose, just for looks. She also put on a pair of knee high leather boots she had hidden in the back of her wardrobe, then topped her head with a style of hat that a rich university kid might normally wear. As a final touch, she crawled under her bed and came out with a small black canvas messenger bag that she used for various purposes. Now her disguise was complete. She then crawled out of her bedroom window, thankful she still slept on the first floor, and headed to the front gate.

At the gate, Amadeo slowly peeked around the corner, not taking note that the gate had been left open for some reason. Watching as one of the Bobbys on night patrol just rounded the far street corner and out of sight, she briskly walked towards the opposite street corner, but ducked into a nearby alley before she hit the first street lamp. She continued down the alley for a few minutes, only passing a couple of homeless people, still down for the night, until she came up behind an impressive looking buiding.
She stopped in front of a short double door that was recessed down into the ground a little ways, and knocked. There was a rustling sound behind the door, then a coarse voice asked surprised "Who, who's there? Whaddya want?" The girl then replied back "It's me Amadeo." The old man took a moment then cracked the door open, and saw the child at his doorway. He then asked, "So? Whaddya want?" She then told him in a playful tone "I'm here to travel through the portal! There is a foul plot afoot, and I must gather the forces!" The old man grumbled a bit then let her in, grumbling "It's too early in the morning to be playin' games little boy. Just gotta say you're up to no good, short an' simple, and I'll let you use the tunnels..." He paused to look the girl over better, then at her face. "Why are you in a dress? You ill in the head boy?" She only replied, "No, you crazy old man. It's me, Amadeo!" And she tilted her hat back a little to let some of her white locks fall down in her face, and took off through a back door and down a set of stone stairs into the darkness below. The old man just shrugged his shoulders, closed the doors, and went back to sleep.
At the bottom of the stairs, she pulled out a small hooded lamp, and a jar of oil, and lit it. There was instant light, almost blinding in the near pitch black tunnels around her, revealing an ornate corridor, with old mosaic tiling on the floor, and a few pipes running along the floor on either side, ancient looking, but still in use. She followed a pipe with a small painted X that was nearest her, and continued down the way for what seemed like twenty minutes to her, until she finally reached another staircase that led not up, but further down into the depths of the earth. Following this for a few levels, she finally came out from an elaborate archway, revealing beyond it a large cavern, very dark except for a little bit of the early morning moonlight that happened to be shining through a large hole in the ceiling. The place was a ruin of some past age, once having buildings all along the walls, though hardly any of them still stood, and an old dock that still floated over a small underground lake.
She held her breath for the sudden smell of algae overwhelmed her for a moment, and she pulled a scarf from her bag, and wrapped it around her face, then set off along a path that led up to the only sturdy looking building up high on the back wall of the cavern, facing the lake. Up at the top, she knocked on the door, and it shook slightly on it's rusty hinges, but made no noise as it suddenly swung open and a girl flew out and embraced the new arrival with a hug that she could not wriggle free of.
"Whoa, leggo of me!" The girl did, and as they parted, Amadeo saw the face of Qote, completely soaked with tears. "What happened? Why are you here? I haven't called anyone down yet!" She then led the girl back inside, and saw that most of the children from the neighborhood were there, and a few faces she didn't recognize. She suddenly went a little tense, and looked around and saw two of her best friends, Owl and Esqall, standing at the head of an old gray table, and looked towards them for answers, her eyes looking very cold, and strict in the dim candlelight that filled the room.
Qote saw and started, while trying to dry her eyes, "It was awful. I was trying ta sleep, I really was, and my parents hadn't returned home from the night shift yet..." She burst into more sobs here, and Esqall opened his mouth to finish, but was cut off by a rather round looking boy with very ruddy clothes and a high voice, saying, "We all had the same dream. Why are you here? Did you have it too?" He then drew back a little as another larger and older boy cut in, "It was a nightmare, it's true. We've just started talkin' about it before you came in. It wasn't nothing like normal though. Never been scared that out o' my senses, and then there was this feelin' over us, like somethin' real bad was about to happen. And for some of us, it did." He let that last part hang, sadness creeping into his expression as he turned away, not wanting to continue for fear he might start to cry too.
It was finally Owl who approached her and continued, "It, well... some people," He moved up to Amadeo's right ear, so Qote wouldn't hear him, "You had a dream, right? A real bad one?" She nodded, a quizzical look replacing her previous harsh stare, but saying nothing as he continued, "Some people lost their families tonight. Some of the other children here found their parents not to long ago, and, well, a child should never have to see anything like what they saw." He had to pause there for he looked a little queasy at the thought, and seemed to slightly change the subject all of a sudden, "Some of the others though, they just got scared and didn't now where else to go." He gestured slightly to a small group of three children, no older than five, huddled together closely, but otherwise, not as traumatized as some of the older children present. Amadeo then spoke, slightly skeptical that the dream really had anything to do with what he just told her, and asked, "Well, that doesn't explain some of these kids here, and that still doesn't really tell me what happened. Did someone... No, it's just coincidence, right? There's no way a dream can do that!" She almost started a minor rant about how that was impossible, but finally, Esqall, not the oldest looking of the kids gathered, but one of the most distinguished, and the most unaffected by the happenings, spoke up, and the whole room went silent. "What these people are trying to say, is not that a dream did something bad, but that you all had a vision of what was already about to take place. If most of you hadn't come down here tonight, you would have been subjected to the same fate as well." Many of the children looked up in shock, while a few of the older ones just looked back in minor disbelief. But he continued, "As you all have avoided telling her directly, people have died. It is of no coincidence, and you all are closer to each other than you may think. I could go into details right here and now," He took in the room with one sweep of his eyes, stopping at the really young children who broke out in tears at the mention of death, and resumed, "but many of you wouldn't understand. I would like two of you to take the children back up to the church above the streets, and tell the priest there that I sent you. They need a better place to spend the rest of the night than in a cold and dank place like this." Two of the older boys, one of whom had spoken earlier, started rounding up the children as they were directed, leaving only a few who were already homeless, or were mature enough to stay. Esqall told one of the boys as he started to follow the group out the door, "In the morning, find their families, those who have any still, and get them back to their homes where they belong. Anyone who you can't help, just leave with the church, and they should be able to handle it from there." The boy shuddered a moment, then nodded, and headed out the door to carry out the orders he had just been given.
Once they had gone back down the wall to the staircase, Esall once again spoke, this time with more authority, and clearer than before, making everyone flinch from the sudden change in tone, "Any who already know what I am about to say, please take a post outside. I don't feel we are safe even here. Tell me if anything comes up." Five of the boys, three of them in their late teens, the other two just maybe ten or more, and one girl about the same, stood up and walked outside, gently closing the door behind them. Esqall looked about the room at the people left, taking in a head count, maybe half of the original number that was there only minutes before. He then pulled up a chair and sat in it backwards and pulled out a large leather case from beneath the table, and set it down in front of him, but didn't open it. Not yet anyways. It wasn't time.


To be continued.............