The Van Til House: STRAF SABBAT
Chapiter 13

Magisna took a deep breath.

And grab Hendra's body.

Magisna touched the soft cloth. Falling from his hand. He grabbed it further-and felt nothing but cloth.

Magisna. Then swallow. He tried to touch her again. A rat was aghast and squeaked, composed a giggling sound. Magisna flinched as a pair of tiny, cold hands grabbed her wrists - she screamed.

"What's wrong?" ask Novi-follow screamed.

"No pa-pa" he replied. "Old cloth only. Really old. It smells bad."

"Not a corpse?" ask Novi.

"Not Hendra?" alexza asked almost simultaneously. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Keep where that one motherfucker is?"

"Who knows?" sahut Novi's. "But we have to find him-he's the one with the match."

"It's kind of like yuk" Alexza said back in excitement, a little bit.

"Where to go, Shucks?" ask Magisna. He was surprised to hear his own voice suddenly calm. "We can't see anything!"

"The cave can," whispered Alexza, his voice still slightly trembling.

Magisna looked sharply into the darkness. Alexza is right, he said in his heart. There was a little now-light that was faint. Gushing on the tunnel wall.

"Red" said Magisna. "The light is red."

They noticed when the beam of light on the wall was getting brighter. Getting red.

"Is the fog burning in the dark?" tanya Novi horrified.

Magisna moved backwards until it hit the tunnel wall. He pressed his body against the wall-waiting.

All of a sudden, the red glow grew brighter. Flickering-like fire torch.

Hendra came out of the darkness, while running around the bend of the tunnel. The torch went up and down in one hand. In the other hand he held his knife. Misty eyes. His clothes were dirty to almost black.

It's covered in blood!

Magisna felt her own blood drain from her face. Mouth gaping. What happened to Hendra?

Hendra jumped over the old clothes and stopped suddenly until he almost fell. Alexza stormed and grabbed him.

"Ndra!" whining. "Gua can't believe this is really you. Still alive! Lt..." Alexza stepped back with a look of disdain. "Lu bedarah-"

"Lu's fine, right?" ask Magisna.

"This is not cave blood!" said Hendra.

"Whose blood is on?" Nova started talking.

Hendra gulped with difficulty between his breaths. "Blood of the Blood."

The three girls were screaming at the same time.

"Why?" tanya Novi almost screamed. "Where is he now?"

"That fog-that creature we took off.... Cave doesn't know what his name is, he's taking Dika." Hendra's face was completely wrinkled.

Magisna was ambushed by grief as she watched him. Hendra is no longer a brash hotshot guy. She's terrified. He saw his best friend hurt in front of his eyes - probably dead. He couldn't ask.

I can't take it anymore, he thought. We all won't be able to hold out much longer.

Hendra's sharp voice brought him back to reality.

"The fog slammed against the wall" Hendra tried to remember. "Ngebanting Dika bekali-kali." he recalled wryly. "The cave holds Dika's feet, but the cave is pulled as well. Then, the cave feels like it's like a cave. Cave intent, the cave can handle the creature megangasain cave. The cave hand. The cave had to take off Dika. And... Dika was taken away from nowhere. Suddenly Dika stopped tereak. The cave lost track of Dika."

"Geez...." Alexza groaning.

"Gua does not know Dika is still living what is not," hiss Hendra weak-fitting.

Magisna looked at the torch in Hendra's hand and felt her breathing return to normal. He can see again. Despite the darkness around them, he felt calm. As long as there is light, he can think.

"It's impossible" lamented Alexza.

"The cave doesn't believe me either, Lex." Hendra growling. "But this actually happened. And we'd better think of something as a piece. Because anything that strikes Dika will come to attack us too."

Alexza was silent. Bows.

Novi and Magisna exchanged looks. Then the two were also down-thinking.

They made a new torch. Hendra used a lump of old clothes, and the new torches lit up brighter than the first.

This time, Magisna made sure they all had torches. He won't fight this time.

After Hendra finished making the torch, he wiggled his can of lighter fluid. "empty," he said, throwing the can aside. "And that means there won't be any more torches if it's abis."

Oh, no, Magisna thought. I can't stand being in the dark anymore. I could die if I was trapped in the dark again. "We have to move quickly" he said.

All agree.

The first thing agreed all day, Magisna thought with a grim smile.

"Gua found a way that I think could take us back to the pool of water," Hendra told them. "Come on."

They walk fast. No one spoke during the entire trip.

Magisna tried not to think about that red mist. But he couldn't shake his memory of Dika.

The creature attacked Dika. It was a fog, nothing more. But he lives. Magisna swore that the creature was breathing. How can clouds breathe?

In the same way the cloud lifted up Dika's body, tied her up and kidnapped her.

What kind of creature is that really? A monster? A ghost?

I know it was us who let him go, he thought. He must have been trapped behind that wall for a long time, waiting. And Hendra moved enough bricks for him to penetrate out.

Magisna put that thought to rest, then began to wonder about the little girl who constantly bothered him while giggling. Did others hear it too? Why is no one talking about it? Am I the only one who sees it-hearing it-feeling it? Does that mean I'm just hallucinating?

Magisna sighed and tried to get rid of those thoughts as well. He concentrated on the direction they were going. The tunnels were all pointing left and right, forward and backward. The only direction he was sure of heading towards the exit was upwards.

There is no way up, he thought. I'm trapped down here. And probably will die here soon.

He gritted his teeth. He can't think like that!

It cannot be hopeless!

They have to get out. There's no other choice. There's no excuse. They must live!

But the tunnel seemed endless, go on and on...

"The cave wants to know, about what is above us," said Novi.

"Ceiling" Alexza said.

"Serious cave" said Novi. "If we understand geographically where we are, surely we know how to return to the place under the school that has stairs."

"So how does the plan understand where we are 'geographically'?" ask Hendra. "Lu want to unload that cement? Do you want to use that empty hand?"

Novi did not answer.

"Go on" said Hendra at last.

"Ready, Boss," grumbled Novi.

They entered a small room. The floor is covered in knee-high trash - more than any room so far. It smells bad not play.

"Oh, s I a l a n!" Hendra was about to vomit, he shut his mouth.