Fiction.

“You first.”

“What? No. Be a fucking gentleman. You go.”

“Look, Lite Brite, I’m not the one who can glow here. It’s probably pretty fucking dark in there, considering it’s underground. So, I suggest you get your ass in there.”

I turned away from James and Amelia to let them work it out on their own and faced Kaiser. He seemed to be pulling out of the daze he was in, shaking his head back and forth and blinking his eyes frantically. He looked around and the situation started to sink in. Quickly he pulled himself to his feet and scaled up the base of the monument. We had all seen the bum effortlessly lift that panel and drag Diana behind it, but Kaiser couldn’t make it budge.

“James!” he shouted. “Come here and help me!”

“Hold on one second, Kaiser. I’m in the middle of something here.” James turned back to face Amelia whose face had by then turned an undeniably angry shade of red. “If you think for one second I’m going to let some bartender whose only “talent” is to glow tell me what to do-”

” Getthefuckoverhere!” Kaiser grunted, still struggling to separate the iron panel from the stone it was wedged into.

“Hey, genius, why don’t you get Sweet Tits over there to help you? Remember that whole steel to aluminum foil incident a few hours ago? And honestly, I doubt I’ll be able to convince the panel to move and I don’t think Lite Brite over here will be able to put on a fireworks show good enough to distract it. Looks like Madame GoodRack is gonna be your best bet.”

Amelia looked at me. She nodded her head over towards Kaiser, silently and begrudgingly agreeing with James. I climbed up to where Kaiser was crouching down, trying to slip his fingers past the iron panel. I could see blisters and cuts already forming.

“Stop,” I said quietly. “Let me.” As he took his hands away, I placed mine on the panel. A sharp tingle traveled from my head and through my fingertips. The panel softened, allowing my fingers to push deeper and deeper into it’s surface. Suddenly it buckled into a flimsy, slippery plastic in my hands, like a tarp or a trash bag. I pulled the length of the plastic towards me, crumpling it into my arms to reveal an opening to what looked to be a long, dark tunnel leading down from the monument and under the street.

“Seriously, Lauren. That shit you do is useful!”

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. I turned to James and Amelia who had now gone to their separate corners, probably after too many boob comments.

“Amelia? Can you come up here, please?”

“Yes,” she said immediately and made her way to Kaiser and I.

“Great!” hollered James. “We just spent 15 minutes arguing about how YOU needed to go first and you wouldn’t do it. Why the hell are you going up there now?”

“Two reasons. One, she said “please” and two, you’re an asshole.” Amelia turned back to look at the gaping hole.

“Maybe there’s a ladder or something,” I said. “I mean, how else would he be able to get down there?”

Amelia reached one arm into the blackness and soon a dim, amber glow seeped from her fingertips. She slowly scanned the perimeter of the hole.

“Jackpot,” she whispered as she revealed a narrow ladder dropping down into a tunnel below. “It looks like a pretty long fall from the bottom of the ladder to the floor, but we can make it. Not sure how we’ll get back up, but I guess we’ll deal with that when we get there. Kaiser, Lauren, Asshole, let’s go.”

Amelia began to ease herself onto the ladder, the amber glow now coming from all of her fingers, when the tunnel was filled with a sharp, high-pitched scream. Kaiser shoved Amelia out of the way.

“DIANA!!!” Kaiser screamed into the tunnel, an undeniable note of desperation in his voice. The screams continued, but sounded like they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.

“I’M RIGHT HERE!!! DIANA?!?!?” Kaiser looked at me, just like he did earlier that night at the Byrd, straight at my face but completely through me. “It’s her! I can see her coming!”

“Is there anyone with her?” I asked, grabbing his arm. “Is he chasing her?”

“No! No, I don’t see anyone!” He laughed and called out, “We’re right here, Diana! Keep running!” his voice echoing into the tunnel. Soon the screaming mixed with the sound of frantic footsteps, slapping against the floor of the tunnel. The glow from Amelia’s hands strengthened just in time to reveal Diana’s face as she passed under the opening. She looked confused, terrified, and exhausted. She opened her mouth to speak but all that got out were relieved sobs at the sight of her own brother.

“It’s ok. We’ll get you out,” Kaiser said softly. “Is he behind you?” Diana shook her head and limply pointed back towards the tunnel behind her.

“Diana, can you reach the ladder?” Amelia asked. Diana stretched out to reach it, but the bottom rung was too high for her to reach. Without a word, Kaiser jumped down onto the ladder and climbed down to pull his sister back up. James, Amelia, and I managed to hoist the two of them out of the opening and onto the platform. Diana crumbled into Kaiser’s arms, crying shaking all over. He rocked her back and forth, whispering in her ears, looking like he was crying himself.

“Come on, guys,” said James. “Let’s get out of here. We probably should get her checked out, make sure she’s ok.”

“James is right,” Amelia nodded. “But first, we need to do something about that,” she said, pointing the hole. “Otherwise he’s going to be able to get in and out even more easily. Lauren, I guess you can just change the panel back and leave it where we found it.”

I gathered up the black plastic and was about to spread it back out over the hole when I got an idea. I reached down and touched the top rung of the ladder. Slowly the metal became softer, turning to liquid and dripping to a molten pool at the bottom of the tunnel. Carefully I spread the black plastic over the hole and felt it turn back to solid iron underneath the palms of my hand. I stood up, brushed my hands on my jeans, and turned to look at everyone else.

“Well, that ought to buy us some time,” I said. “At least for a little while.”

We all eased ourselves down the base of the monument and made our way towards the grass, the spotlights surrounding us pulsing with each step we took.