Chapter 17: Challenge
For a second there, he almost got me. I mean, he was good. Godly. What a comic, this guy. Introducing, Dante.
Yet the more I looked onto his face, the more I saw his reaction, the more I realized that he was, in fact, not kidding me at all.
Balking, I took a step back. What the heck did he want me to do again?
Dante pressed on as if I didn't pause. "Swim from this point until the other end of the lake, and I will take you to our Elder," he said.
"Butâ"
There was that word again. My life, it seemed, had consisted of hesitancy, ridiculousness, and it was only the beginning.
Dante, who had never let his gaze off the water, shook his head at my response. "No buts," he said. "You might have gotten away with that on the surface. Back from where you came from. But down here the laws are strict."
Stricter than being chased by men with guns?
The water rippled from the middle, as if a cauldron that was beginning to boil.
"Or perhaps you want to find Audra by yourself?" Dante got my attention back to him. "In which case, we'll return you to the sewers, exactly where I found you days before this."
I bit my lip. He was really good at convincing people, wasn't he? "So. . ." I said, "Nothing else? Just cross the lake, and I pass your little challenge?"
"Just cross the lake, yes," he said.
I began to remove my Converse, then the other one with just a budge of my foot. Without looking down, I could feel the coldness of the ground, the rough rocks underneath my socks, saying that all of this was real and I should take it seriously.
And so was me being away from my group. There was no other option. I had to do this for them.
Dante, without a word, placed a hand on my back.
I took a big, deep breath. Then jumped.
Splash!
The water was cold. Freezing. I resurfaced with a gulp, trying not to let the pins and needles wrapping me all over bother me at all. But still I quivered. It was like being stabbed with a knife.
Above me on the surface, Dante started to move to the left, his face betraying how pleased he was. "You've made your choice, Pax. Now you can't go back up if you need to. The only way is out."
I kicked my legs, simultaneously, wiping the wet and heavy hair plastered on my face. He was right, though, I thought as I gazed around. I didn't notice it before, but the land that encircled the lake was way up high, so unless Dante threw a rope, or extended a ladder down to me, I wouldn't be able to get up by myself.
Unless. . .
I twisted myself around, squinted at the exit.
My goal; my end point for this challenge was so much farther, yet I could see that there was hope there. The land I had to reach was touching the water. If I swim up to that point, I would manage to haul myself out.
So that was his plan?
Dante continued moving to the left, then to a corner where he could go nearer to the exit himself.
"Swim, Pax! Go!" he yelled.
"I'm on it!" I said. "There's no need to rush."
My arms started moving. This was a pretty easy challenge. Not as hard as I thought when I first got in. To be honest, I didn't know why anyone would bother.
Dante, on the side, began to clap his hands. "Faster, Pax! Faster!"
"Okay, geez! Are you keeping a scoreboard, old man?"
I paddled. With my head just above the water, if I just imagined that I was in the school pool, then everything would be alright.
Something just in front of me started to gurgle though.
"Go, go, go!" Dante screamed from the side. Meanwhile, I stopped and looked at the bubbles. Large. . . They were getting larger by the second. Was Dante seeing this or what?
"Just half more, Pax. You can get there!"
Man, I wish he would just shut up. But the more that he screamed, the more the bubbles continued appearing on the surface. It didn't take long before something wet and slippery slithered on my leg.
My whole body froze.
"It's coming, Pax! It's coming!"
Huh? I turned to Dante. What was coming? What the fruck was he talking about?!
Dante was running ahead now, cupping his hands around his mouth, giving me a warning. "Crocodiles! The lake is full of crocodiles! Swim!"
Water splashed on my face, yet I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Crocodiles? Did he just say that the lake was infested with them?!
Something touched my leg, and I didn't think twice and started paddling like crazy.
"Swim!"
No kidding! On the side, Dante was cheering me on. But why couldn't he just help me instead? Was this like a game to him, like I was a gladiator taking on a lion?
"Why don't you just throw me a rope?!" I screamed.
"I don't have one! And we've tried that before! It didn't work!"
Didn't work?!
He meant, people were actually eaten?!
My arms continued paddling like hellâ I was going too slow. I needed to get under the water if I was to be faster.
But wouldn't that be to the crocodile's advantage?!
"The end point is near now!"
"Help!"
"Just make it to the other side!" Dante screamed. "All of this would stop! Just pass this!"
I tried. And tried. The water was splashing on my nose and mouth now. It felt like I was wearing glasses because everything was fogging down. I couldn't see as clearly as I did before. Some water got in my mouth and I coughed.
"Behind you!"
My legs were getting tired. My whole body was beginning to cramp. It seemed like the things that were happening to me were outdoing themselves. One by one. This was lunacy. Regardless, I still swam.
And swam.
And swam, until something caught my right foot and tried to tug me down.
"It got me!" I screamed.
"Then swim!"
A massive shadow bore down on me before I could move. Ack!
"Congratulations!" someone said, just when I was about to panic and kill someone, or kill myself by accidentâ these things happen in real life.
My foot was released, followed by another splash on my face. Then a full-throated chuckle from someone.
"You've passed the test!"
My head bobbed above the water. What was happening? What was going on?!
Around me, on the surface, torches of light were being opened up, or being brought onto the chamber altogether, the people holding them coming in bunches.
Someone tapped my shoulder; a guy wearing a snorkelling mask, grinning at me. "Let's get you out of the water, girlie. Come on."
It felt like I was watching myself from a distance as I was ushered from the lake, straight to the shore, where the people were waiting. A lot of them.
They were all holding torches, were in different age groups, and were wearing some long-sleeved t-shirts and pants. But my eyes were getting blurry, my ears ringing loudly to notice what color.
The peculiar wooshing noise in my head only stopped when Dante, the only one I recognized, bounced onto me and ruffled my wet hair. "See?" he said with a smirk. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
I stepped on his foot before I knew what I was doing.
"Ow!"
But that wasn't enough. I gave him a shove too, then a slap, which barely did anything as he was still standing.
"You asshole!" My voice echoed over the cave. My eyes became wet, so I had to wipe them fast.
"What?"
"I thought I was going to die!" I screamed.
Dante scratched at his beard, then lifted his hand, as if apologizing. "You see, that's where the confusion comes from," he said. "You thought you were going to die. But all this time you weren't."
But that didn't give him a right to scare me like that. All of them! I was getting sick of this.
He shook his head and my shoulders sagged. I tried to control the fast beating of my heart, yet my jittery legs kept betraying me. This whole thing was incredibly stupid. From start until finish. Why did people constantly toyed with me?
Dante patted my shoulder, looking sympathetic for once. "There, there, little one," he said. "A lot of bad things that happens to us, happens for a reason." He shook his head for the second time, his expression changing to that of proud. "But at least now we know that you're someone we can depend on. Welcome for real to Conduit."
"Welcome," someone said behind me.
"Welcome." Some more people echoed in the chamber. "Welcome, girl. Welcome."
My gaze rose to them. I had nearly forgotten about all of these people. All of them were looking at me now.
I cringed. This was so embarrassing. I wanted to hide, to never show my face again. Yet quickly, Dante was somehow explaining something that I barely could comprehend, what with everything that happened.
"I'm sorry, but you bathing for real and changing out of those clothes are out of the question for now," he said, before motioning to the exit, now so much closer it seemed, as none of the dozens of people who came to welcome me had even bothered to block it. "We need to show you to the Elder as soon as possible, Pax. She's dying to meet you, you know."
I slowly blew a breath. What was new? Everyone was dying to meet me these days, then trying to kill me soon after.
But for my friends, I would do anything.
We left the chamber as quickly as possible, Dante not even bothering to introduce me better to the people. Yet judging from their faces as we passed them, all of them knew that I was the newcomer. The new kid on the block, so to speak, just ripe for the picking.
Yet strangely, that didn't even bother me as I trudged after Dante, straight onto another dark and narrow tunnel.
Audra. Hanz. . . They were all that mattered for now. I should just get over myself if I were to be reunited to them.
"We're almost there," Dante said, as if he knew that my mind was going elsewhere for the moment. "Are you excited to find your friends with our help?"
"Yes."
"So am I. So will everyone be after what you'd shown us, Pax. You really pulled through the challenge."
"About that," I trailed, feeling the confusion wash over me again, clinging to me like my wet clothes. "What was all that for? Seriously?"
"We wanted to know if you're serious about finding your own people."
"And my bullet wound?"
Dante stopped. And as suddenly as he did, he swiveled to meâ I was so surprised that I gave a squeak. "Bullet wound what?" His voice was a pitch lower.
"Myâ"
"Cause far as I'm concerned, none of that existed," he said. "That is an ordinary wound if anyone ever asks you. You get me, don't you?"
Nope. Not at all. Anyway, I still nodded to him. Instantly, his lips quirked up.
"Good," he said, his voice returning to normal. "We're just a few meters from the mouth now." Dante resumed his walk.
He really was a guy I couldn't quite figure out. For now, at least.
Yet none of that mattered as we broke through the final chamber. At last. We were here.
I knew that we had gotten into our destination, for none of what I had seen so far in the place could ever compare to this. Yes, not even the waterfall from before.
My eyes widened at the sight. It felt like I had stepped through another time and place entirely. What he was showing me was unbelievable.
Huts. Dozens, even hundreds of them were scattered down below; Dante and I were surveying them from a short overhang like a couple of explorers.
I had never even seen one before except on pictures. Yet here, now, the huts were all below, made out of straws, wood, branches, like the tale of the three little pigs, though I highly doubted that a blow from a wolf's mouth could easily put them down. Everything looked pretty stable to me.
"This. . . is the dwellings," Dante said, as if I had asked him. "And that," he pointed to the middle of the bunch, "is our Elder's house. Come on, I'll introduce you."
The journey towards the dwellings was forerun by a steep, yet oddly, easily trekked down path.
There were no stairs nor road to get us down, and looking high above, I saw that like the area where the waterfall was, the dwellings didn't have a ceiling as well. But with the light on the sky, it could have been twilight.
My gaze flitted to the huts again. They were beautifully coated in this mesmerizing orangey-purple color now, courtesy of mother nature's light.
"Almost there," Dante said yet again, his repeating lines over the course of an hour.
I took a deep breath once my feet began to walk on the even ground below. Looking around, the huts were so much taller now, bigger than us. It didn't seem much earlier from above.
"Through here," Dante said, guiding me in-between a couple of houses. "Were you surprised that the dwellings could be as big as this?"
"Completely," I said, trying to peek through the homes.
Dante chuckled in front, as if he knew and could see what I was doing though. "Nobody's home yet, little kiddo. Everyone from here, apart from those who welcome you earlier, are still doing their jobs, and so should we."
"What kind of job? What kind of place is this?" I asked.
"I told you, it's the Conduit."
I frowned. Patience. Patience, Pax. Soon, everything would be revealed. I only had to humor Dante for a while.
A couple of minutes more; and me being almost out of breath, we stopped in front of an even larger hut, yet this one, I think, was made of even grander materials. Almost like a cabin's. There was a strange artwork hanging on the door, though. If I looked better at it, I could pass it off as leaves encased in this thin glass. Odd, really, for something to show off.
Dante turned to me before gesturing to the door. "Our Elder is quite. . . old," he said. "I'd appreciate it if you were gentle with her. No loud talking. No teenage babble. And especially, no swearing under any circumstances."
"I don't swear," I said.
His brows cocked up at me.
Alright, maybe once or twice. But being tried to be killed sometimes even had its merits.
Anyways, Dante, taking on a serious expression, pushed the door open with a hand.
And in we go.