Chime Of The Bell-Chapter 14

(Dishani’s narration)

I woke up on the cold stone floor right next to the alcove. In front of me were the debris of the collapsed ceiling and my grip was still tight around the knife. A few fresh rays of sunlight had doused in through the holes and boy! I would have enjoyed the sunshine to the fullest if it weren’t for the hideous woman standing right in from of me. Her wild eyes protruded from her dark hollow eye sockets, her messy hair fell all over her face like some lunatic and her teeth gritted with pure hatred for the person who stood right in front of her. Unfortunately, that person was me.

“W-W-What is wrong with you Rileena?” I asked trying to sound warm and consoling.

“YOU ASK ME WHAT IS WRONG? YOU…YOU ASK ME WHAT IS WRONG- YOU-THE ONE WHO BROUGHT US HERE…YOU…YOU”, she took a step forward and ultimately slapped her forehead in frustration and stamped the ground hard.

“What is wrong with you?”, I asked as I crawled backward as far away as I could go from her. “Why are you acting like this?”

“I AM HUNGRY.”

Food can make a monster out of a person. I have heard the saying many times but it was the first time I experienced it and Rileena being Rileena knows nothing better than food. I wanted to laugh but now that she said it, I suddenly realized how hungry I myself was.

“It is all your fault. Do you hear that? IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT”, she cried.

And that was when I totally lost it(no one likes to be spoken roughly to in the morning and besides, I was hungry) So there I went rough on her. “Yes! Yes I know it was my fault. I know I am the one who brought us into this mess. What do you want me to do? What Exactly do you want me to do? Do you want me to sit on this spiky chair to pay for my sins?”

“I want you to get us out of here.”

“And how do you expect me to do that. Is there anything we haven’t tried?”

She gazed at me for a moment trying to find something to say. The staring game was on again. Finally, she looked down clinching her messy hairs with both of her hands. “I don’t know”. She shook her head as she repeated “I don’t know. Maybe you can kick ourselves out of here. After all, it is your stupid kick that brought us here.”

As ridiculous as it sounds now I really took her words at face value. “Fine, you want me to kick and here I go”. I stood up facing the wall and kicked it hard. The metals hanging from it rattled but that was it; nothing else. Then I kicked the wall harder hoping to bring it down with one superkick. Of course, it didn’t break but something strange happened- the wall appeared to move back. I had to give it another superkick to confirm that the wall really moved and it did!

I looked at Rileena. She stood there holding her temple not realizing what had just happened.

“Did you just see that!”, I asked, almost bursting in enthusiasm.

“See what? How stupid you look kicking that stupid wall? Ha! I totally see it”.

“No, not that. This wall actually moved!”

“Oh yes it did”, she said rolling her eyes.

Then with my hands, I started pushing it. “Come on give me a hand here.” She was about to say something ‘stupid’ before I added: “Unless you have better things to do other than rumble about how we are going to be stuck here forever.”

“Fine...” she grumbled and walked down the debris noisily. She gave a rough push on the wall but it did not budge. “See… I don’t see it moving. Do you?”

“But how is that possible? It just moved…Maybe you are pushing the wrong side”

She sighed briskly “Ok”. She pushed me aside almost making me lose my balance and fall. Then she gave the wall a hell of a push. A chained handcuff and a small instrument looking like a flower(which I later learned was a Pear of Anguish) fell off the hook. But most important the wall moved revealing something dark behind it. “A secret passage!”

“Awesome!”

I literally jumped in excitement. “Maybe this is our way out. Come on let's go”, I said picking up our little backpack and pulling out a small flashlight.

“I thought we were out of batteries”, said Rileena in a normal tone. The new discovery had deviated her mind from the pangs of hunger.

“Yes, we were. I was just saving this little one for an emergency. Now hurry up, its battery may run out any minute”, I threw the light inside the passage as I spoke. It was more of a room than a passage filled with cartoons. I entered the room to have a closer look. Surprisingly the boxes didn’t look centuries old. In fact, they looked quite new!

As I continued to go deeper I heard Rileena swear that this is the last secret passage she is ever getting into. I chuckled.