The Tunnels Below Read online

  They shared a moment of silence before Kuffi said kindly, “It sounds beautiful, Cecilia. I’m not sure what happens out in the Black of Beyond but the few fellows that do return to the tunnels—all, I’m sorry to say, have similar stories. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, though.”

  Cecilia went to sit back down and found she was sitting uncomfortably on the marble Hester had given her. She got up and took it out of her pocket.

  “What’s that you have there?” said Kuffi curiously.

  “It’s just a marble, a birthday present from my sister, Hester…” she said, her words tailing off.

  “What is a marble?”

  “This,” said Cecilia, thrusting the object towards him.

  “Me, oh, my,” Kuffi exclaimed. “Well, I never. A marble, you say? You are lucky to have been gifted such a thing.” His eyes were bright and fiery.

  As Cecilia plopped it back in her pocket, Kuffi stood up. He seemed excited and smiled widely, smoothing out his rather snug-fitting navy suit and smart pillbox hat, he walked over to the kitchenette, picked something up and returned to where Cecilia was sitting. He held out a sharp, shard-like piece of broken mirror that gleamed as it caught the light.

  “I’m sorry to have to do this to you, Cecilia,” he said gravely, brandishing it like a knife.

  4

  To Market, to Market

  Kuffi moved closer to Cecilia, flashing the slice of broken mirror. She looked up at him, terror stricken. He recognised the picture of fear on her face, looked at the shard he was holding and stopped himself. “Oh dear,” he chuckled. “It’s OK,” he said reassuringly. “I would never hurt you, it’s just very rare to see someone walking around with buttons used as adornments or fastenings. I don’t know where you got that coat but we need to remove the buttons; you can’t walk around with all that wealth stuck to you now, can you?” Kuffi held out his hand for the coat and Cecilia took it off and gave it to him.

  Cecilia watched as Kuffi went to work. The coat had several buttons down the left hand side—six, to be precise—and two smaller ones on either side on the top pockets. Kuffi explained that only those held in high esteem adorned themselves with buttons; he personally thought it was quite vulgar. Buttons were best used in exchange for goods at Market Square. Kuffi’s own clothes—he demonstrated by adjusting his top collars—were fastened with little hooks. “Clever, huh?” he said, tidying his green polka-dot cravat. Cecilia knew it was a cravat because her grandpa had worn one, and he had explained that it was neither a scarf nor a tie but something in between.

  Kuffi collected the buttons together and handed them to Cecilia. “You’re going to need these to feed the monster in your stomach,” he joked. “Come on then, enough idle chat. Let’s go and get something to eat!”

  Kuffi checked all the doors and switched on a red neon sign in the window, which read OUT, and they exited the room through a back door.

  The two walked for some time along a dimly lit narrow passage. The ceiling was low and seemed to be made of compacted dirt. They came to an opening and it became quite bright. The space before them was flooded with orange light thrown out from a criss-cross of fluorescent tubes overhead. At the centre of the clearing there was a vehicle on two parallel tracks pointing towards an opening. The vehicle was similar to a dune buggy but had bicycle wheels with no rubber on the tyres. It had a small engine in the undercarriage and motorbike handlebars. Kuffi was clearly very proud of this piece of equipment. He walked around it, examining it and polishing up the badge.

  “What is it?” asked Cecilia.

  “What is it!” Kuffi exclaimed. “Only the best track rider you can get. What is it, indeed!” Kuffi scoffed, clearly offended.

  Cecilia was beginning to feel a little bit exasperated but instead of showing it, she had an idea and decided to join in. After all, there was no point fighting her circumstances; she needed all the help she could get and Kuffi had a wealth of knowledge to share.

  “I meant… What a beaut! Woweeee, soooo shiny and all!” Cecilia could see that Kuffi was flattered.

  “She sure is,” Kuffi said with a swagger in his step as he polished the handlebars with his furry hand. “Top of the range: Wasp 75, best model to date. Bet you haven’t seen one like this before?”

  Cecilia looked at it; the shape of the handlebars and the headlights, made it look a bit like a wasp.

  “Erm, no,” said Cecilia, smiling to herself—it wasn’t as if she were lying. If this was top of the range, then imagine what Kuffi would think of the cars, trucks, boats and planes where she came from.

  Kuffi flung her a helmet. “Catch!” he shouted. Cecilia laughed as she whipped the helmet out of the air. “Nice one,” remarked Kuffi as Cecilia put her helmet on.

  “Be my guest!” Kuffi said as he helped her up onto the Wasp 75. He climbed on in front of her and pulled a cord much like the light switch in her bathroom at home and the Wasp 75’s engine began to gurgle. Kuffi twisted the grips on the handlebars and revved the engine, which let out little bursts of roaring sound. “Hold on tight,” he shouted above the noise and Cecilia grabbed his waist, and with that they zipped off down the line.

  It was thrilling riding through the tunnels. Almost immediately the pokiness of the tunnels transformed into lofty caverns in an array of colours and sizes. For a while Cecilia was absorbed in the moment, utterly forgetting the distress of how she had ended up down here in the first place. There was so much to see along the way. There were tunnel dwellers who lived in a kind of collective hive: hollows had been dug into the surface of the walls, one on top of the other, and there were various ladders and pulley systems constructed to help those who didn’t have the gift of flight to get to the higher levels. The dwellers themselves were creatures unlike any Cecilia had ever seen. They were different shapes and species, composite beings of various creatures she recognised from living above ground but human-sized: mice, rabbits, frogs, and there were birds too, lots of birds. All of the dwellers had human attributes, but they didn’t have skin—their arms and legs and torsos were covered in fur and feathers, hair and scales. It was a bit unsettling at first. Cecilia felt the dwellers might be wearing masks or costumes. However, up close you could see that that was how they were made. There were dwellers dotted all about the place, high and low, leaning out of windows and doorways. It was so strange but also strangely familiar. There, underground, these creatures were going about their daily business, chatting, hanging out with one another, playing games and living a seemingly ordinary existence. It was a comfort to see them getting on in such a way and reminded her of back home. But she’d never wanted to sit on the doorstep with Benny Frinks, the boy who lived next door to her, more than she did now. Cecilia saw a pug-face and a sparrow-face playing a game of chess. The sparrow-man was even smoking a pipe, or at least that’s what it looked like—the smoke was pink—but they were speeding by too fast for a second look.

  At last Kuffi and Cecilia pulled into a parking lot with loads of other track riders. Kuffi pointed out some of the other models as they looked for a parking spot. From there it didn’t take long to walk to Market Square and by now Cecilia was ravenous.

  “Here we are, little thing,” said Kuffi as they passed through an elaborately carved gateway. “Let’s get some grub and you never know—maybe seeing the hustle and bustle of Market Square will jog your memory a little bit too.” He pointed to the square that contained the underground market below them. “Voila!”

  “Whoa! Kuffi, it’s MASSIVE!” Cecilia and Kuffi stood at the top of some limestone steps overlooking the market. It was a sight to behold. Hundreds of citizens—dwellers—working at the stalls and carts below them: bellowing, whistling, cooing, grunting, shoving and pushing to get the best deals and peddle their wares.

  “Remember this place now? Pretty hard to forget, hey?” Kuffi said hopefully, as if he were trying to convince her.

  Cecilia didn’t remember it, of course, because she had never in her life seen anywhere like i
t before—but she lied because after all what was the point in arguing? Anyway, in such a strange place, it was better to have a friend who could show her the way; she daren’t scare Kuffi off because she liked him. He made her feel safe and she wanted him to like her back so she pretended. It was best for both their sakes.

  “Kuffi, there is something coming back to me.” She pointed to the most obvious feature at the end of Market Square: a long platform, lit up with tiny lantern lights above and below. There, in the middle, was a podium and a large banner acting as a backdrop with a handsome golden bird-like man featured on it. Corvus Community–Carpe Noctem was embroidered beautifully underneath him.

  “How could I ever forget that guy?” said Cecilia.

  Kuffi bowed his head a little. “Yes. You’re quite right, hard to forget him. Jacques d’Or and his community of ever-present guards. Carpe noctem: Seize the night! You’d think that lot had invented the dark, the way they harp on about it.” Kuffi had forgotten himself and became aware that he was in public. “I beg my pardon, what am I saying?” He corrected himself, clearly uncomfortable. Kuffi heaved a sigh, which seemed to hang there a moment, and once again his whiskers twitched as though they had a life of their own. Kuffi tried to lift the mood. “Let’s go get some grub!”

  The two descended the steps and entered the fray. It was a bit like being on holiday, going to a new city and everything seeming a little bit strange, then an hour or so later you’ve adjusted and feel quite at home. In the end, most folk are pretty similar, Cecilia thought, even if they look a bit different or speak a different language. “Everybody’s got to eat,” as her granny said.

  Kuffi stopped at a stall with the word GRUB painted in fluorescent green, rather untidily, on a piece of rotting old wood. A woodlouse popped out and scuttled across the letter G. It was pretty busy but somehow Cecilia and Kuffi pushed their way to the front of the queue. Cecilia felt a bit embarrassed about this—she’d never been one to push, although Hester often got away with it.

  “All right, Robbie!” called Kuffi.

  “Koof, matey, you up for some lovely grub?” Robbie chirruped happily.

  Robbie couldn’t have been more beautiful; he was a robin-face, a chap of miniature proportions, probably about as big as Hester, with a sweet voice and jovial disposition, and despite his size he made a lot of noise. He flitted about the cart to and fro passing small wooden bowls of grub to the folk below, in exchange for buttons.

  “The usual?” he twittered, his red breast bursting through the top of his shirt like a hairy chest.

  “Times two.” Kuffi gestured to Cecilia.

  “What ’ave we got ’ere then, Koof?” he whistled, managing to stay still for a split second.

  “This is my new friend, Cecilia.” He leant over the counter and whispered into Robbie’s ear.

  “Oh, right,” Robbie twittered knowingly. “We’ll soon set you right, lovely.” He handed Kuffi two wooden bowls and Kuffi gave him a big blue button. “Keep the change!”

  “Thanks, Koof. See you tomorrow!” And with that he darted off to serve the next customer.

  Kuffi carried the bowls over to some benches where the two smushed themselves in next to the other occupants, sitting opposite each other. Kuffi got stuck in straight away but Cecilia looked down into her bowl cautiously. At first it looked like mushed-up rice, but on closer inspection she could see that there was something else mashed in with it. She dug around in the mush with a little wooden spoon, genuinely repulsed.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Kuffi through a mouthful.

  “What is it, Kuffi?”

  “It’s grub, Cecilia,” he said, chomping away hungrily.

  “Yes. But what is grub?”

  “Potatoes, onion, mushroom, a sprinkle of dirt and… earthworms,” he replied, merrily shovelling another spoonful into his mouth.

  Cecilia gulped. “Earthworms. Right, sure. I don’t have to eat them though, Kuffi?”

  “Why, yes, of course. They’re fresh! That’s when they’re at their most nutritious, you silly potato face!”

  “I’m not sure I like to eat earthworms, Kuffi.” Cecilia was trembling. She tried to hide it by tucking her hands into her sleeves.

  “What’s not to like?” he asked.

  Cecilia was a rational kind of person with a scientific mind; she knew this wouldn’t kill her. Anyway, she thought, I like trying new things… but eating worms? She frowned. All sorts of questions came flooding to mind.

  “Are they definitely dead, Kuffi?” she asked. She couldn’t stand the thought of them wiggling about in her mouth.

  “Yes, Cecilia. Now eat up or that monster might get the better of you. Besides someone else will have it if you don’t hurry up!”

  Cecilia paused, looking into her bowl.

  “Look, it’s the cycle of life,” Kuffi went on. “You eat that up quickly now and it will become part of you, keep you going and that kind of thing. Then it will come out of the other end and it will get eaten by—guess what? More earthworms. Full circle. We are all energy transferred, just in various forms! What you consume becomes a part of you, at least for a while. Surely it would be far worse now that this food has been made and put before you, not to eat it and let the earthworms and let their lives be wasted? They’ve no where left to go but your belly.”

  “OK, that’s true,” she said, nodding. “Eventually they’ll go back to the ground and nourish it for other earthworms.”

  “Exactly. Try it. If you don’t like it I will eat it,” he said, licking his chops. “Look, they’re delicious.” Kuffi slurped up a worm like spaghetti. “Scrum-diddly-yum! You’ll see and then you’ll wonder why you were ever worried about eating this lovely grub!”

  “OK,” Cecilia whimpered. She lifted a spoonful to her mouth. Birds eat worms, she thought, and they’re just fine. Besides, what’s the difference between eating this and some chicken. It was all over very quickly and although she did not like the texture of worms in her mouth, the dish tasted mostly of potatoes and onions—and in the end she finished the lot. Cecilia looked down into her empty bowl and wondered if she’d ever go back to where she came from and if she did, whether Hester would believe she’d eaten worms to survive! Hester would probably love it and come up with some silly name for her, like “worm worshipper” or “wiggly-worm eater”. She chuckled to herself as Kuffi collected the bowls.

  “There you go,” he said. “I know it’s hard. Things might seem a little bit strange at the moment but it will get better. It’s just, well, we want you to fit in, don’t we?” It was almost as though Kuffi was trying to tell her something. “To be honest, we are all alone, wandering through the dark at various points in our lives.” With that, Kuffi got up out of his seat.

  Cecilia watched him walk over and chat to Robbie. Things seemed to have calmed down quite a bit at the grub stand now and the two of them were laughing and joking together. She watched a while and considered that things could be worse. At least she had made a friend.

  5

  Ducking and Diving

  As Cecilia sat there digesting a stomach full of worms, she noticed a young lad in a hood, with a pair of antlers jutting out of two holes ripped in the top. She watched him carefully and realised he was watching her too. He beckoned her to come over to him with a motion of his head, but she quickly turned away, shoving her hands in her pockets and pretending to be preoccupied to avoid looking at him.

  “What are you looking for in there, then?” came a youthful voice from behind her. It seemed she had company. Cecilia turned and found herself staring up at the stag-faced boy, the very creature she’d been trying to avoid. He had come to her.

  “Sorry?” she said, acting dumb.

  “Don’t be. What have you got in there? I know, let’s play a game. Whatever it is you’ve got in your pocket, I’ll buy it off you!” he said, looking at her with black eyes that shone like tarnished silver.

  “But you don’t know what it is. What if it’s just a piece of rub
bish?” Cecilia replied, baffled.

  “What’s life without a little bit of a gamble, a little bit of risk? You just have to believe you’re lucky and it usually works out!” he said confidently.

  Cecilia sat there listening to him talk boisterously, feeling quite intimidated.

  “Whatever it is, I’ll buy it. Come on! Two buttons?”

  “I haven’t got anything,” she lied.

  “Ooohweeee, would you look at that?” said the stag-faced boy, pointing at the lights above. Cecilia brought her hands up to shield her eyes from the lights as she stared high into the hollows of the Market roof.

  “Oldest trick in the book,” he said, whipping the marble out of her pocket. He cupped it in both hands and brought it up to his eye. He peered into it. His jaw became slack and Cecilia watched him mouth the words “gee whiz”. He was so distracted she managed to grab it back out of his hand.

  “That’s mine. Thief!” she said, just shy of shouting.

  “Takes one to know one,” he said childishly.

  Just as the words left his mouth, Cecilia found Kuffi at her side.

  “So, I see you’ve met Luke. Right rascal, this one, quick and witty.” Kuffi pointed at his head. “My, your antlers have grown, Luke.” Kuffi laughed. “He’s harmless really, Cecilia.” Kuffi laughed again, trying to embarrass the poor young buck.

  “Sorry, Koof, I didn’t know she was with you.” He reminded her of any other surly teenage boy, like the boys that hung out in her local park getting into all sorts of mischief, but in Kuffi’s presence he seemed humbled.

  “Well, now you do. Off you go, son, and say hello to Jasper for me. Let him know we’ll be popping in on him later, will you?”