Read Online The Pure: Book Three of the Oz Chronicles by R.W. Ridley - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: R.W. Ridley
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They come from all around me.
All light is gone now. I cannot see
anything, but I can feel movement all around me. I stop. It’s pointless to go
on. Something brushes against my leg and I can feel movement beneath my bare
feet. I reach for the wall to my right, but it’s not there. I reach to my left
and feel a cold, damp raised surface. It is a rock.
I hear more clicking and what sounds
like water dripping. The stuffy air of the hospital is gone. The air is cool
and damp. A sliver of light appears above me, ten feet or so. My immediate
surroundings become illuminated. I am in a hole... no, it’s a small cave. I can
see the rock wall to my left, but the right wall is out of sight. A small creek
clicks and gurgles and burps on the cave floor to my right. It disappears
underneath a wall of rocks in front of me.
There are a series of footholds leading
up to the sliver of light. I climb and only then spot the source of movement
beneath my feet. The cave floor is covered in millions of bugs, some of which
are still clinging to my feet. I frantically shake them off and climb as fast I
can.
The sliver of light is a tiny crawl
space. I cannot tell how long it is, and there is just barely enough room for
me to fit. I look back and see that the bugs are now making their way up the
cave wall. I push my way through the opening and hoped the crawl space either
gets bigger or leads to an opening I can fit through, because it is apparent I
could not go back.
I crawl on my belly, pushing myself
forward with my elbows. I can hear the bugs entering the opening of the crawl
space. Their tiny legs make horrendous scrapping noise as they make their way
toward me. I crawl faster, my back now touching the top of the crawl space. It
isn’t getting wider. It is narrowing, and the source of the light is no closer.
I flatten myself as much as I can. No
longer pushing myself forward with my elbows, my arms are extended forward, and
I’m pulling myself with my finger tips. My butt is wedged. I can no longer pull
myself forward. I feel the bugs probing my feet. A slight stinging around my
ankles as I imagine some have begun to bite.
I feel something grab my wrists. I am
dragged forward. This is not a bug… I hope. Because if it is, it is enormous. I
look and see... mud covered hands pulling me through the opening. I am pulled
with such force, the crawl space is expanding all around me. That’s when I
realize the space is made up of a sludge like clay.
I burst through the opening and fall to
the creek on the cave floor. I have made it through to the other side. I sit up
on my hands and knees. I am covered in mud. I turn to watch the bugs flow
through the opening like water coming out of a faucet, but they never appear.
I stand, anxious and breathing
irregularly. I am in an enormous chamber made of clay walls that are some forty
feet high. Bright fires are peppered throughout the cavern making the
temperature considerably hotter than on the other side of the crawl space. I estimate
the square footage of this place to be about 1,500 to 2,000 feet. It is the
closest thing to a naturally formed grand ballroom that I have ever seen.
A silhouette of a man stands in front of
the nearest fire. He is scrawny and crooked. His posture suggests a feeble old
man, but given the strength of this grip I know that appearances can be
deceiving.
“Who are you?” I ask.
He does not answer. His white eyes shine
through the
darkness. Strands of long, thick hair
hang from his head.
“You arranged for this... You wanted me
to come here.” I say. A snicker is followed by a grotesque hacking.
I move to the right trying to get a look
at his face. I see purple faces peering out of the darkest corner of the
cavern. Startled, I fixate on them.
“You are the key,” the old man says.
My attention back to him. “The key to
what?”
More hacking. “Must you ask the same
questions every time?”
Confused I say, “We’ve done this
before?”
“A thousand
All light is gone now. I cannot see
anything, but I can feel movement all around me. I stop. It’s pointless to go
on. Something brushes against my leg and I can feel movement beneath my bare
feet. I reach for the wall to my right, but it’s not there. I reach to my left
and feel a cold, damp raised surface. It is a rock.
I hear more clicking and what sounds
like water dripping. The stuffy air of the hospital is gone. The air is cool
and damp. A sliver of light appears above me, ten feet or so. My immediate
surroundings become illuminated. I am in a hole... no, it’s a small cave. I can
see the rock wall to my left, but the right wall is out of sight. A small creek
clicks and gurgles and burps on the cave floor to my right. It disappears
underneath a wall of rocks in front of me.
There are a series of footholds leading
up to the sliver of light. I climb and only then spot the source of movement
beneath my feet. The cave floor is covered in millions of bugs, some of which
are still clinging to my feet. I frantically shake them off and climb as fast I
can.
The sliver of light is a tiny crawl
space. I cannot tell how long it is, and there is just barely enough room for
me to fit. I look back and see that the bugs are now making their way up the
cave wall. I push my way through the opening and hoped the crawl space either
gets bigger or leads to an opening I can fit through, because it is apparent I
could not go back.
I crawl on my belly, pushing myself
forward with my elbows. I can hear the bugs entering the opening of the crawl
space. Their tiny legs make horrendous scrapping noise as they make their way
toward me. I crawl faster, my back now touching the top of the crawl space. It
isn’t getting wider. It is narrowing, and the source of the light is no closer.
I flatten myself as much as I can. No
longer pushing myself forward with my elbows, my arms are extended forward, and
I’m pulling myself with my finger tips. My butt is wedged. I can no longer pull
myself forward. I feel the bugs probing my feet. A slight stinging around my
ankles as I imagine some have begun to bite.
I feel something grab my wrists. I am
dragged forward. This is not a bug… I hope. Because if it is, it is enormous. I
look and see... mud covered hands pulling me through the opening. I am pulled
with such force, the crawl space is expanding all around me. That’s when I
realize the space is made up of a sludge like clay.
I burst through the opening and fall to
the creek on the cave floor. I have made it through to the other side. I sit up
on my hands and knees. I am covered in mud. I turn to watch the bugs flow
through the opening like water coming out of a faucet, but they never appear.
I stand, anxious and breathing
irregularly. I am in an enormous chamber made of clay walls that are some forty
feet high. Bright fires are peppered throughout the cavern making the
temperature considerably hotter than on the other side of the crawl space. I estimate
the square footage of this place to be about 1,500 to 2,000 feet. It is the
closest thing to a naturally formed grand ballroom that I have ever seen.
A silhouette of a man stands in front of
the nearest fire. He is scrawny and crooked. His posture suggests a feeble old
man, but given the strength of this grip I know that appearances can be
deceiving.
“Who are you?” I ask.
He does not answer. His white eyes shine
through the
darkness. Strands of long, thick hair
hang from his head.
“You arranged for this... You wanted me
to come here.” I say. A snicker is followed by a grotesque hacking.
I move to the right trying to get a look
at his face. I see purple faces peering out of the darkest corner of the
cavern. Startled, I fixate on them.
“You are the key,” the old man says.
My attention back to him. “The key to
what?”
More hacking. “Must you ask the same
questions every time?”
Confused I say, “We’ve done this
before?”
“A thousand
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