“It was about twenty years ago... there were four of us, my adopted brother, Jacob, my younger sister Sheila, and there was Sinister,” told Ted Grey to Charlie as they sat there discussing his story of how he came to the Underground. “Jacob and Sinister were both in our senior year at what used to be the high school in East River. I was in my junior year, and Sheila was only 13 at the time. We were always looking out for her and we told her it wasn’t a good idea that she joined the circle.”
“Circle?” questioned Charlie.
“Well, it was a spiritual sort of group,” replied Ted. “Before my family adopted Jacob, he used to tell me stories of how his family had pretty much gotten him brainwashed into all sorts of very dark and powerful black magic.”
Charlie stared into Ted’s vacant expression, seeing a combination of fear, sadness, and guilt all at the same time in his eyes. Charlie was extremely just blown away by what Ted was telling him. He could tell at this exact moment that what the man was about to tell him now was going to be something very interesting....
“Jacob told me his father used to be into all sorts of rituals and bought all kinds of books based on the darkest magic in history. Every night he would walk in on his father performing something dark and twisted enough to provoke extremely powerful spirits known as Soulites, demonic spirits of those who have used the most secret and powerful book for dark purposes only, those who have worshiped certain gods, from a book only a small percentage of the population have heard about -- The Book of the Underground.”
“So the book is intended for dark purposes?” asked Charlie.
“For dark purposes, no,” answered Ted. “It is the key to unlocking another dimension, some may say, the key to defeating evil, but made by evil. If it is used in the wrong context, one can go about opening a portal to this world known as the Underground, which isn’t a safe place for those who aren’t determined to be here for a task left unfinished by mankind - a task someone has started years ago, a mission left for the destined: to be the chosen one to finally put an end to Dultona before he is strong enough to begin war with the world we know, before evil rules over all of mankind.”
Charlie became nervous knowing how severe this was becoming to him, and how unsafe every living being on Earth would be if Dultona found out where the book was. “And what happens when he finds the book?”
“You’d better hope he doesn’t.”
“So what’s going to happen? Are you going to try and stop all of this, I mean, why are you still here? Why haven’t you left?” Charlie was frustrated over the fact that he had so many questions.
Ted looked down, sad. “I haven’t told you yet,” he said. “How I got here...”
“So how did you get here?”
“I found Jacob in his room one night studying the Book of the Underground with Sinister, his best friend from school, and that’s when I first actually met him... “Sinister was his nickname. He was a really strange kid. He kept everything to himself and I always had the feeling that there was some sort of dark secret that he wasn’t telling anyone.
“Anyway, I was listening to my brother and him talking from out in the hall one night, and I suddenly became deeply interested in what they had been saying about opening the portal to this underground world.
“One day, I confronted Jacob and Sinister in the bedroom and told them how I had been secretly listening to them every night, and that I was interested in joining them. He soon agreed to finally let me in on all of the details... as long as I didn’t tell anyone.
“So we talked on and on about hidden gods, monsters, the Soulites, the Black Cave, the Dark Master’s plans, the Destined, dragons, treasures, and secrets that no one could know about as long as we were in the circle. Then the day finally came that we were ready to open this mysterious portal to the Underground...
“There were three of us and we needed four to create the portal. It took us a while to decide who that one last person was we were going to let in on our secret. We didn’t know anyone we could trust to not let the word get out... until little Sheila entered the room one day and said to me, ‘Ted, why is there a shadow person in the hallway?’
“Shadow people. One of the few of the creatures we conjured in the house. We were sure we had gotten rid of the monster, but one rainy day the entity came in and sat in the hall between our room and Sheila’s, looking sick. To our surprise, Sheila was unafraid. She sat there and comforted the creature, and afterward she came and told us about it. All four of us together then conjured it back into the Shadow Lands where it would reunite with its family of shadow people.”
“That sure is something,” commented Charlie.
“It is something,” said Ted. “It was that night that we let Sheila into our circle as long as she didn’t let anyone else know about it. She swore she would keep it between the four of us.
“After a few weeks of getting her to know all of the important details of the book, we were finally ready to enter the Underground. We needed a place where no one would think to look, where it could be kept only between the four of us, and then we thought of it...the well at the town library.”
“That’s where I entered the Underground,” responded Charlie.
“Of course,” said Ted. “It’s been there the last twenty years.”
“Oh.”
He continued with his story. “So one night we attached a rope by the well and climbed down. To our surprise, we discovered a big empty room at the bottom of the well. There had been rumors around town about the room being there, and we just had to find out for ourselves.
“Anyway, the four of us together had used the Book of the Underground to create a portal, and after a short and powerful ritual, the portal was made right there in the secret room in the well. Even though somehow the secret was let out to a few others in town, who decided to make a joke out of it.”
“That would explain all of the graffiti in the well,” said Charlie. “Pointing to the portal.”
“Ah, yes, my brother is the one responsible for that,” responded Ted in disappointment. Charlie then thought of his next question to ask. “Why are you still here?”
“Good question. I have made it through what they refer to as the Black Cave, a place set up for those either looking for a way out of the Underground, those seeking to destroy Dultona’s plans to become powerful, those who seek challenge, or all three.”
“So it’s a way out?”
“Charlie, the Black Cave is a very dangerous task. While in the cave you are given three challenges. Upon completing each challenge, you are given ownership of an object, whether it may be a ring-” Ted pointed to a mysterious blue ring he was wearing. Charlie didn’t seem to really notice it at first. “A sword-” He pointed to the Blue Sword hanging above the fireplace. “Or a way out.”
Charlie became unsure whether this is something he would eventually decide to take part in or if it was too risky of a challenge, leaving him forever in the Underground.
“You also have the choice after each of the three challenges to decide whether or not to leave there and go on to the next,” Ted continued. “I’ve mastered all three.”
“So what are they?”
“Well, the first two I’ve been told are very different each time through the cave. But the third challenge, once you have acquired both the ring and the sword, is usually a dragon guarding the portal leading back to our world.”
Charlie felt somewhat more comfortable in Ted’s hut than he did at first, now knowing he was talking to a man who can not only give him answers, but protect him from any harm.
“So the only way out is to master the Black Cave?”
“The only way I know of.”
Then Charlie remembered. “Wait, when I was captured and brought through the portal in the well, I entered the Underground somewher
e in the castle.”
“That’s because they planned to capture you and be brought directly to Dultona. The Dark Master has his ways.”
“Oh. Well where did you enter the Underground?”
“The portal in the Black Cave. I have access to it whenever I choose. Once you master it, it’s yours.”
“Then why can’t you take me with you?” “Because you must master the cave yourself, Charlie.”
Charlie became frustrated, realizing that it would take a lot out of him to go on such a dangerous mission. He then asked, “What about the first time you entered the Underground? Where did you enter then?”
“The portal was once in another home. But let’s not go there right now.”
Charlie decided not to question it. He then stared down at the ring Ted was wearing. “So what’s with the ring?”
“This is the Blue Ring. It not only warns you of enemies, but it wards off most enemies of the Underground. There are though a few enemies who are actually immune to the ring, and the majority of them are Dultona’s followers and Dultona himself. It doesn’t affect them at all.”
“So what ever happened to your brother and sister… and Sinister?”
“My brother, sister, Sinister and I, soon after escaping Dultona’s headquarters, eventually found an old abandoned sort of building made in the middle of what they call the Witch’s Woods....”
Ted looked deeply saddened at the mention of this building. “We had no idea if it was safe, until we found all of the old spell books and symbols on the walls. From that moment on we knew that we were in the home of the witch, who had left for some time, and we were unsure when she would be back.
“We called it our home for the time we were there, afraid that the witch would be back soon, and that’s when one day I left Jacob, Sheila and Sinister on a journey of my own to the Black Cave in hopes to find us a way out of the Underground. “I left with what they call a grouch, goblin-like creatures who like to build. His name was Bolwick. I just called him Grouchy. He actually was the one who built the witch’s hut, and I made a deal with him that if I were to master the Black Cave, I would share with him the sword, and he would build me a hut.
“So after I mastered the cave, he built me the hut, and I shared with him the sword... until one day when the witch found out about the deal and murdered him.” Ted’s eyes watered a bit. “She walked right up to my hut, along with what appeared to be a black cat, which I imagine she conjured at one point from the human world to adopt as her own. There was nothing she could do to harm me, though. Witches were the first to flee from anyone who takes ownership of a Blue Ring.
“Now that I knew the witch was returning to her woods, I realized that Jacob, Sheila and Sinister were in danger. So I went on my way to make it back to them before the witch found them... and there was Sinister. He walked up to me with no sign of fear in his eyes, a vacant expression I’ll never forget. He wouldn’t tell me anything.
“‘What happened? Where are my brother and sister?’ I asked. No answer. And then I remember watching him disappear deep into the woods with what appeared to be two dark entities similar to the Soulites in the deepest waters of the Lake of Souls. He had betrayed us and went with them that night.”
“I eventually made it to the witch’s hut to discover Sheila missing, and there was my brother Jacob, lying there. He was dead.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” responded Charlie. He could see the emotion in Ted’s eyes.
“From what I remember, there was the witch’s black cat, staring up at me from atop of Jacob’s body with its beady eyes. It looked like it was trying to tell me something...then the cat disappeared into the night as well, and I haven’t seen the witch nor her cat ever since.”
“You never found out what happened with Sheila?” asked Charlie.
“Oh, she’s out there somewhere.”
“What about Sinister? Did you ever hear anything of him after the night he disappeared?” “I’m not too sure about him.”
Charlie thought for a moment for any last bit of information he thought he could get from Ted. Then he thought of it. “Ted, what was Sinister’s real name?”
Ted answered, “Joseph Henry James.”
Charlie could not believe what he was hearing. “But that’s my father. He’s dead.”
After hearing these words, Ted didn’t know what to think. He just stared uncomfortably into Charlie’s eyes as if he didn’t hear the horrible truth that he was sitting there with the boy of a man who left his brother and sister behind.
Chapter 10