CHAPTER 9: THE EAST TUNNEL
1031 Words
The door burst open.
Lyra stumbled backward as the hidden room filled with flashing red light. Caius immediately stepped in front of her, blocking the entrance.
But nobody stood outside.
The tunnel was empty.
Completely empty.
Only the emergency lights glowed along the walls while the alarm echoed underground.
RETURN HER TO THE CIRCLE.
The distorted voice repeated endlessly through hidden speakers.
Lyra’s pulse raced violently.
“This place is insane,” she whispered.
Caius didn’t answer.
He stared into the tunnel carefully, jaw tight, shoulders tense.
Like he expected someone to attack at any second.
“We need to move,” he said quietly.
Lyra grabbed his sleeve before he could walk away.
“No.”
He looked back at her.
“You keep saying things that make zero sense and then acting mysterious. I’m done with that.”
Another alarm blared overhead.
“We don’t have time for this.”
“Then make time.”
His gray eyes locked onto hers.
For a second, the underground silence felt heavier than the alarms.
Then quietly, he said:
“The Circle watches everything.”
Lyra frowned.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means there are cameras everywhere. Hidden microphones. Secret files on students.”
She blinked slowly.
“That’s impossible.”
“You think the messages, blackmail, and disappearances happen randomly?”
Her stomach twisted.
No.
Nothing about Blackthorne felt random anymore.
Caius moved closer slightly.
“This school was built to control people.”
Lyra stared at him.
“Who controls it?”
His expression darkened.
“That’s the problem.”
Another loud metallic bang echoed somewhere deeper in the tunnels.
Closer this time.
Lyra flinched.
Caius grabbed her wrist gently.
“We’re leaving.”
This time she didn’t argue.
They hurried into the underground hallway together while the emergency lights flashed around them. The old lockers looked terrifying now beneath the red glow.
Most locker doors had slowly opened again.
Every single one.
Dark empty spaces lined the hallway like open mouths.
Watching.
Waiting.
Lyra moved closer to Caius unconsciously.
He noticed.
But said nothing.
As they turned the corner, Lyra suddenly froze.
A figure stood at the far end of the tunnel.
Tall.
Still.
Wearing a black hood.
The same figure she saw earlier.
Caius stopped instantly.
The hooded figure tilted its head slightly.
Then slowly lifted one hand.
Pointing directly at Lyra.
A soft crackling sound echoed from hidden speakers nearby.
Then the distorted voice returned.
“SHE REMEMBERS.”
The lights flickered violently.
And the hooded figure disappeared.
Gone.
Lyra’s heart slammed painfully against her ribs.
“How are they doing that?”
Caius looked grim.
“Those tunnels connect to almost every part of the academy.”
“What?”
“There are hidden doors everywhere.”
That explained too much.
The whispers.
The photographs.
The constant watching.
Someone could move through the entire school unseen.
Suddenly footsteps echoed nearby.
Real footsteps.
Fast.
Several flashlight beams appeared around the corner ahead.
Security guards.
“Stop!” one shouted.
Caius cursed softly under his breath.
“They can’t find us down here.”
“Why?”
“Because then they’ll know you reached Locker 316.”
Lyra’s confusion only grew stronger.
“What’s so important about that locker?”
Caius looked at her carefully.
Then quietly answered:
“It belonged to your mother.”
Everything inside Lyra stopped.
“What?”
“She used it when she attended Blackthorne.”
The security footsteps grew closer.
Flashlights swept across the tunnel walls.
“Split up,” Caius whispered suddenly.
Lyra stared at him.
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s safer.”
“No.”
Another flashlight beam appeared around the corner.
Caius grabbed her shoulders quickly.
“Listen to me. If they catch you with me down here, everything gets worse.”
“How could this possibly get worse?”
“You’d be surprised.”
The guards were almost there now.
Panic rose sharply in Lyra’s chest.
Caius pointed toward a narrow side tunnel hidden behind broken pipes.
“That passage leads back to the library staircase.”
“You’re coming with me.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
His expression hardened slightly.
“Because someone has to make sure they don’t follow you.”
Lyra opened her mouth to argue—
Then suddenly remembered something.
The old photograph.
Her mother standing beside Kael Mercer.
Not Caius.
Kael.
“You knew my mother,” she said quietly.
Caius froze.
The silence between them changed instantly.
“You knew her,” Lyra repeated.
His eyes shifted away briefly.
That alone was answer enough.
“How?”
Before he could respond, a flashlight beam swept into the hallway.
“THERE!”
The guards spotted them.
Caius reacted instantly.
“Go!”
He shoved Lyra toward the hidden side tunnel just as several guards rushed forward.
Lyra stumbled into darkness while voices exploded behind her.
“Stop him!”
“Where’s the girl?”
She looked back once.
Caius stood between her and the guards, blocking the hallway.
One guard grabbed his arm.
Caius punched him hard enough to send him crashing into the lockers.
Another rushed him immediately.
Lyra’s eyes widened.
Caius fought like someone used to violence.
Fast.
Precise.
Dangerous.
A third guard pulled out a taser.
“Caius!” Lyra shouted.
His eyes met hers briefly.
“RUN!”
She did.
The narrow tunnel twisted sharply through darkness while shouting echoed farther behind her.
Lyra’s breathing became uneven.
The underground air smelled damp and metallic.
She kept running.
Left turn.
Another staircase.
Another hallway.
Then suddenly—
The tunnel ended.
Lyra stepped into an old underground room filled with dust-covered furniture and broken shelves.
It looked abandoned.
Ancient.
A single weak lamp flickered near the center.
And someone sat beneath it.
A girl.
Long dark hair covered part of her face while she calmly flipped through an old book.
Lyra froze immediately.
The girl slowly looked up.
Pale skin.
Dark eyes.
Beautiful.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
Lyra’s stomach dropped.
The girl looked exactly like the missing student from the yearbook.
Evelyn Cross.
The girl who disappeared last year.
And she was smiling.
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