Chapter 5: Hollow Tunnels

I was livid and infuriated; red with anger and mortified. There was no way out for me now. I was never ever going to see my family nor my home again. In fact, maybe it's high time, I forgot about it and just accepted the fact that I was going to be in chains and ropes forever, thanks to Dan's extremely stupid move. I just could not bring myself to believe that he actually did this. 

Now we were in the fiercest of all the dungeons in the entire castle; where traitors were being kept to be die from flames later on. The loan shark had had Dan and I locked up in here. When he barged in to that cold room and saw us, he roared thunderously. 

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE? HMMM... PLANNING TO ESCAPE NOT SO? BUHAHAHAHA...GUARDS??!!!" He called out furiously and in a second, two heavily built men in khaki pairs had rushed in, doing a brief salute to the loan shark. I took a quick look at the loan shark's look alike who was still seated. He looked stiff like he could not move a limb even if he tried to but he looked the most terrified than Dan and I even looked. 

Then I got an idea of what could possibly be wrong with the man - the loan shark is in control of the poor man and had put him in a place like this so no one would ever come to his rescue because it would be hard for anyone to believe he was suffering since he was living in a luxurious place like this. He was trapped and I felt bad for him. 

"TAKE THESE SCOUNDRELS TO THE OUTERMOST PARTS OF THE DUNGEONS, WHERE THE FIRE BY THE EMBERS BURN THE HOTTEST SO THEY DIE OF HEAT!!" He ordered. 

Now we were here, sweating profusely for the past three hours or more. This place was scarier and atmospherically unbearable than the dungeons where I normally stayed. There was no source of air nor illumination in this place asides from that blue fire that burned so angrily by the embers.  

There were no doors nor windows. We had passed through the chimney to get to this place. He bear from the raging fire burned through my face as I pushed through the narrow chimney with ropes tied around my limbs. Dan and landed on the hot, hard ground with a loud thud from jumping all the way from the roof top into this abyss. 

I could not get a hold of myself since my hands and legs were tied to the ropes so I fell harshly on my butt end hit my head hard on the ground. I was sure a lump or a boil would have grown on my forehead. Dan was bound in the ropes too so there was no way we could save ourselves. 

The space around us was very wide and the little sir we were receiving from the top bed ceased. The chimney had been blocked. There was no air to circulate despite how wide the room was. The last gust of air that circulated had mixed with the poisonous gas the fire had emitted now which meant that I could only breathe in carbon monoxide into my nostrils. 

I was going to die here for sure. 

"Why did you take me to that man if you knew he had something to do with the loan shark?" I asked, making it the first time I spoke to Dan since we got to this horrific place. 

I had been ignoring him ever since whenever he tried to speak with me. I pretended to be concerned about the red marks and bruises on my hands by staring at them with an absurd kind of concentration or looking at the blue fire burning before me like it was something beautiful. I was really very mad at him but I did not want to shout at him too for some reason. 

My elder sister, Yemisi and my Dad always taught me very often to respect people that were older than I was. But did Dan deserve my respect at all? 

Maybe he did because he has been of great help to me up until now and perhaps that was the only reason want i was yet to express my burning anger at him yet. But that was soon going to be a thing of the past because I was going to burst very soon. 

Dan looked at me sorrowfully then he swallowed. "That man is the loan shark's brother and the loan shark shot him on both legs when he had caught him one day trying to help some slaves escape from the castle. He lost his ability to walk ever since. Hence why he is glued to that chair you saw him sit on. He lives by himself and suffers very greatly. He has no one to help him with what to eat nor any one who can help him take a bath. He stays in that cold castle, day in, day out. But somehow, there's something I heard he did in the past that still creates an avenue for slaves to escape. Only if that slave can fins whatever that is. I heard it's in a place though."

"I'm so angry with you! How are we supposed to know what that is now, when we are in a place like this? If the loan shark can put a person in a castle like that, is it not only obvious the loan shark would be watching over him more than he even watched over the slaves? Would be not watch him over him 24/7 to make sure he helps no slave escape any longer? Did you not think of that?" I snapped. Tears fell down my eyes in pain and frustration. I was tired of constantly moving from frying pan to fire.

"I honestly didn't think of that. I have been watching over that castle very closely and I don't see the loan shark visiting his brother for any reason." 

"Thats because there is something called a monitoring device like a camera. There is no use for the loan shark visiting his brother to keep an eye on him so long as no slave goes to meet his brother for escapades so of course, the loan shark must have seen us through his camera or binoculars or whatever he must have used and he must have seen us going to his brother's castle and then he came to stop us. It's that simple." 

"I created this mess." Dan sighed then continued "but I promise to get you out of it." He said, trying to inch closer to me with his hands bounds to the ropes, so he was shifting his hip to make a substantial movement. 

"Just how?" I gave him a look that showed just how angry I was with him. 

"First, let's try cutting these ropes away. We need to be able to move our bodies if we want to find a solution." 

The fire cracked and wheezed a little. The room grew hotter. I could feel the salty liquid of tears mixed with sweat on my lips. It was now hard to tell if it was day or night as it was perpetually dark in here. 

I looked around the room just like Dan did. There was not even the tiniest piece of glass we could possibly reach for to untie the ropes we were bound in. The ground was as clear as day. I was beginning to loose faith in Dan very rapidly. He was no longer giving me joy, instead he was adding to my pain and frustration.

"This is stupid." I huffed in frustration. 

"No. These people who tied us in ropes are the stupid ones. They did not think we would be smart enough to untie each other." 

"It still does not make all of the things you've been doing less stupid anyway." I fired. He said nothing instead he wiggles his butt locomotively to meet me, he was willing to help untie my hands. 

** 

Dan woke me up from a sleep I had arrived to acquire amidst the terrible, existent heat which made me very annoyed. He had wasted my time already before I could even sleep. After we united ourselves from the ropes which involved a lot of effort and struggle, we spent hours looking for any clue as to how we could get out of this airless place but found absolutely nothing. I got so tied and dozed off while he insisted that he would keep searching. 

Now he was waking me up after I had decided to succumb to my fate and was tapping at my arm in a very alarming manner. Like he wanted me to see something quickly. Like some bird that was going to fly away very soon. 

"What is it??" I asked as I sat up, wiping the sweat off my forehead, as I opened my sleepy eyes slowly. Dan was sweating profusely like he had just finished digging a grave under the hot sun. 

"There is a freaking tunnel beneath this room!!" 

"Huh? What is a tunnel?" I asked, confused. 

Dan huffed, like he had expected me to know the answer since I was smart or rather, was too impatient to explain in details to me but he did anyway because I had to know of what he had to tell me was worth him waking me up in a hurry. 

"A tunnel is a pathway built under the ground most times where people or even cars can lass through depending on the size of the tunnel. 

"Oh my God! So you mean there is really a tunnel on this room where you can not even see anything but the fire??" I asked, my eyes widened on surprise and elation at the same time. 

"YES. and we have to go now. It's either the guards locked us up in the wrong dungeon or this was the place the loan shark built the tunnel on to help slaves escape and I know it's the latter which makes me have the feeling that the loan shark is going to come running after us very soon because I know he would threaten his brother to open up about his schemes. You know he ordered the guards to lock us up while he discussed with his brother. That means we have to get down this tunnel very very fast."

"Oh my..." I gasped, taken by extreme surprise and shock but soon the poisonous gas from the fire burning very fiercely had began to affect me and as I exhaled sharply in reaction to the things Dan was saying, I started to cough abruptly. 

I went on coughing and coughing for minutes till I started to feel weak. If I don't leave this place in the next few minutes, I would die from suffocation, I've had too much of intake of poisonous gases ever since I even became a slave and I was sure my lungs were nearly damaged now. 

"Where is the tunnel?" I asked quickly when I got the chance to talk before proceeding to my coughing spree. Dan helped me get to my feet and ran his hands down my back in a consoling pat. I was no longer angry with him of course now that there really was a way for us to get out of here which meant that he had been tight after all with all he did. It made sense now. 

"I guess I never noticed that piece of rag that was spread over the dead end of this room because the flames in the embers burn in blue colors which barely gave me a chance to see everything clearly. If they burned in bright red, orange like normal fire, I would have seen it since, after you fell asleep, I kept walking round the room even when I could not see well and felt like piece of rag. I took it out and put it aside then I saw something like an open part of the ground that was not cemented. It's wide enough for us to enter into. I looked in through the hole for a bit and I saw a structured tunnel. Let's go now." He whispered the last sentence, holding me by the hand in a hurry. 

We got to the dead end of the room where the hole was and Dan held me gently as I dipped my legs into the hole, my body going through the voidness till I slipped in completely and was now out of the avid room. My feet immediately landed on a step like some stair way and I clutched on to the  walls, waiting on Dan to follow right after. 

"Are you okay?" He whispered, looking down at me from the hole. He was still above me. I nodded quickly as I had already stopped coughing now but my chest was beginning to hurt. I knew he needed to get me in here first because I was choking and more so, it was me who needed the escaping the most between the two of us but I feared that the loan shark would catch us before we got to leave. 

"Just come in already." I urged him, stretching out my tiny hand. My heart was racing madly. I could not believe this was happening. It felt too good to be true. I could not believe I would finally get to see my family. The day was here at last yet it was still a probability. God, I can't bear the thought of actually being caught and having to go through something worse in this deadly place. 

"Shh. I—" I could not get to hear the rest of Dan's word now as the sporadic, roaring of a canon ball had fired though. My heart raced very speedily now as I stared at Dan in perspiration. Dan's eyes were widened in fear. 

The loan shark....

He is here....

***************

Psalms 55:12-14 - "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng."