Chapter 46: Chapter 46

THE MARVEL

The Marvel

Kitee, North Karelia, Finland

Aku stared out at where the creature had just disappeared. "Should we go look for it?"

Aatu's eyes narrowed and a confused look appeared on his face. Maybe he would actually give in and let Aku come with him on the hunt, if there was even going to be a hunt. However, no words let his mouth.

"Aatu?" Aku asked, moving closer to him. "Are you okay?"

Aatu nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Everything is going to be okay." There was something in his tone that told Aku that everything was not going to be okay.

Aku frowned. "Why are you lying to me? Why doesn't anyone tell me anything? Why do you have to always sugarcoat everything?"

Aatu gave Aku a long look, but it wasn't a hard one. "I'm not." He took a deep breath. "I'm not trying to exclude anything from you. I just want you not to be worried or anything like that."

Aku rolled his eyes. "You do know that by not telling me, it does mean that I am going to worry about. I'm just letting you know that."

Silence filled the air. Aku did not think that fighting was going to get them anywhere, but it would at least get everything out in the open.

"Okay, so whatever that thing was, we do actually need to track it down." Aatu's gaze drifted out the window. "It is something that is a threat, probably one that the humans could come across."

"Do you really think that?" Aku's voice came out harder than he thought. The look Aatu gave him made him feel so small. "I mean, I get that we need to go look out for it and go from there before it does anymore damage."

"Nice save," Aatu muttered as he started out through the door.

Aku followed Aatu through the door, not giving the Alpha a chance to stop him. It was kind of strange to be traveling through the house like this. They didn't get a chance to see if anyone could actually seen them, but it was still just strange.

Outside the air was cold, but at least it had stopped snowing. The early morning sun and the blinding snow made it next to impossible to see what was right in front of them. Aku winced as the snow crunched under his feet, sending sensations down his spine.

The tree line was empty. The closer they got, the more the hair on the back of Aku's neck stood up. There was just this strange sensation in the air that did not belong. It was like he was the first deer to step out in the open, knowing that the hunter was waiting.

"Look," Aatu whispered, causing Aku to jump.

Aku followed Aatu's gaze on the unmarked snow. That was the problem. Where the creature had been, the snow was completely untouched.

Frowning, Aatu bent down, guiding his hand just above the snow, like he thought footsteps would just appear. Aku pulled his thin sweater around him, regretting not grabbing something heavier before walking out.

"Feel this," Aatu whispered.

Aku knelt down, running his hand over the snow like Aatu was. There was nothing to feel but the snow.

"It's weaker over there than it is here," Aatu muttered. "I don't remember there being a cave or anything here."

"How can you tell it's weaker?" Aku asked. "Are you connected with the earth or something?"

Aatu smiled. "When you've been around as long as I have, you learn a few tricks of the trade."

"I see." Aku still didn't see how that would allow Aatu to find a weak spot that was covered by snow.

Aatu was carefully, but quickly wiping the snow off the top of the where he claimed the weak spot was.

"Look," Aatu whispered, pointing to the ground.

At first glance, it looked like normal ground, but there was something else. Aku looked closer at it. There in the ground was a small piece of metal that would have gone unnoticed by the untrained eye. It really was a simple piece of work, the border overlapped with what looked like a design down the centre. However, at a closer glance, Aku saw that it was not a design, but a snake.

Aatu tugged on the metal. It did not come out of the ground like Aku thought it would. Instead, it opened, almost like a door.

It was a door!

The earth opened up with a slight groan.

Aku peered down into the dark tunnel as a wave of musty burned in his lungs. It couldn't be…There was simply no way there could be a door out here. The breeze sent even more chills down his spine. There was no way…This just simply was not possible.

He looked over at Aatu, who was busy pulling a torch out of his back pocket. "Are we really going to go down there?"

Aatu flicked on the torch, shinning it down on the tunnel. The steps looked pretty unsafe. They were cracked and it even looked like that more than one of them was missing. "Why wouldn't we?" Aatu asked. "It can't be that bad. Besides, aren't we trying to stop this?"

Aku gulped as the torch flickered. It was really dark and really unsafe looking. "We can't even Shift if something does go wrong."

Aatu smiled. "Do you really think I'm foolish?" He pulled out a pistol. "Does this make you happy?"

Aku stared at the pistol. "You do know that guns do run out of ammo at some point and they don't kill everything?"

Aatu sighed. "You really do know how to ruin a party, don't you? Maybe I should have left you behind so you can think about what you did to that boy."

Aku shook his head. "Um, it probably is best that I come along. The more eyes on something, the better is seems to go, right?"

"That's what I thought you would say."

Aku stared back down into the tunnel. It was oh so terribly dark and there were probably things down there that could kill him. He took a deep breath. He was not a crowd. He could and would do this.

"Are you ready?" Aatu asked as he started to descend.

"I guess," Aku muttered as he fell in step right behind Aatu. He was not about to be the first one down there.

The light breeze blew all around them. As they made their way slowly down the steps, Aku fond that they were actually a lot safer than he first thought. They were, he would venture, probably stronger than the ones in the house.

They reached the bottom of the steps and were now standing in a passage. They found it to be cool, but dry. When Aatu's light shone against the smooth wall, Aku could see that they were covered in cobwebs and nothing else. There were no windows. At the end of the passage, there was yet another set of stairs.

Aatu started toward the other set of steps. There was no way they were going to be able to see anything, but Aku did not feel as nervous. Everything was so quiet. It was like this place had been left for the dead and forgotten about.

Aatu lifted his torch higher as they crept down the other stairs, their footsteps leaving a wake in the dust. The only thing Aku could think about was how easy they were making it for someone to follow them.

Several more minutes passed. Aku's eyes kept drifting over to the walls. They remained free of markings or engravings. It just seemed completely pointless to him to have all of these tunnels if you weren't going to do anything with them. It was just disappointing.

They reached the bottom of the stairs. They were deep that it was hard to remember that up above their heads, there was an actual world attempting to move forward.

Aatu came to a halt, driving the torch up and down in front of them. Frowning, Aku peered around him. In front of them, there were three more tunnels. Each of the looked just as threatening as the other. Where the hell were they?

Even though he knew it was no use, Aku looked at the ground. The dust was just as untouched as where they hadn't walked. "Now what?" Aku whispered. He was afraid to speak any louder than that, afraid of what it could draw out.

Aatu's eyes drifted upwards. Aku knew how these things tended to work. Anything that could kill them did tend to be lurking just above their heads, but it was empty. Aku felt his heart slowly go back to its proper place.

Aatu's eyes drifted back down to the tunnels. All of them had a gentle breeze coming out of them. "We need to go down the middle."

Aku frowned. There was really nothing special about the middle one. "Why?"

Aatu started down the tunnel, leaving Aku in his wake. Aku blinked several times, knowing there was no way that he was going to get out of this one. There was still nothing all that special about the centre tunnel. None at all!

Aku ran up behind Aatu. "How can you be so sure that this is the right one?"

Aatu paused, letting the light of his torch bounce against the wall. "I'm not sure, but I can feel a pull coming from this one."

Aku gave him a long look. There was no pull. Aatu was just relying on his guts.

The death of silence gave them no hope, no other option. In all of the movies Aku had seen, there had always been something, some kind of sign that something was either the right of wrong way. Aku's eyes drifted back to the wake they had left. At least, he could always find his way back out if and when things went wrong.

The breeze was actually a little bit heavier down this tunnel. It wasn't anything that was going to knock him down, but it was still enough that Aku did feel it against his skin. He pulled his clothes closer to himself.

Aatu's torch seemed to be flickering more than it ever had. It's gentle light bounced against the walls, creating a flickering flame.

Aku kept his eyes trained above them. There was still nothing there, but judging by the fastness of the creature, he did not doubt that it could appear at any given second.

It was still very strange to him that there were no markings on the tunnels. They were just so strange and so empty.

A sudden breeze came up behind Aku and pushed him forward. It caught him so off guard that he had to force himself to stay upright.

Aatu slowly looked back at Aku. "Are you coming?"

Aku looked back over his shoulder, but was only greeted by darkness. "Yeah," he said, his voice slow. "I'm coming."

They reached the end of the tunnel, coming to yet another fork. This time no breeze greeted them, only the silence.

"Which way?" Aku asked, suddenly finding it rather difficult to breath. It was like the air was slowly being sucked out of his lungs.

"I'm not sure," Aatu whispered, his voice also coming out in gasps. "I don't feel anything like I did before."

"Should we turn back?" Aku asked, panicked.

Aatu shone his torch around the tunnels. "I don't that's wise either."

Aku was now wheezing so hard that it was getting next to impossible to speak. "Are you sure you don't feel anything?" He moved to stand directly next to Aatu. The small movement alone almost sent him falling to the ground.

Aatu nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Aku gasped, the burning sensation in his lungs was getting to be too much. It was like he was attempting to breathe through a straw and not gaining anything in the process.

They were going to die down here. That was the mission of it all.