'What? Where did she go?' whispered the youngsters as they looked around in astonishment.
The so-called Mentors rounded up their Watchers and started heading out of the main hall. Declan and Saleena led Lana and Emma down a tunnel they'd not been before.
'What was all that about?' asked Lana as they followed behind them.
Taking no notice of her sister, Emma was walking backwards trying to spot Diarmuid but it seemed he'd already left. She sighed heavily and turned back around, just as Declan chuckled in front of her, 'Don't worry, Emma, he'll be here tomorrow. You'll see him then,' he said.
Lana giggled too, as did Saleena. And Emma blushed from head to toe.
'He seems like a very pleasant young man,' said Saleena quietly over her shoulder and Emma grinned broadly, nodding.
'So what's going on now, Declan? What is this initiation? And where are we going?' Lana asked as they continued to walk down the darkly lit tunnel.
'Where's Joe?' Emma suddenly said, noticing that he was no longer with them.
'Don't worry about Josiah. He's been asked to stay away during the initiation. You'll see him afterwards. He's fine.'
They continued walking in silence, Emma thinking about what the initiation would entail. Lana thinking about Liam, the sexy rocker type Watcher she'd been chatting to most of the afternoon.
'Is it going to... hurt, Declan?' whispered Emma as her musings began to go into overload.
He smiled and shook his head. 'Don't worry, it's nothing like those horrible rituals they do to students at some of those scary college fraternities in America. You'll be able to do it easily enough. Just remember that you mustn't be seen using your special skills by the general public. That's all you need to know. Everything else will come naturally.'
'Here we are, Declan,' said Saleena as they stopped beside an archway that led up an old crumbling flight of stairs.
'Right girls, take this. Once you get to the top and out into the open, the door will be firmly closed behind you and you won't be able to get back in. You'll know what to do. Don't look so scared, Emma. It'll be a piece of cake. Good luck,' he said handing them an expensive looking envelope sealed with wax.
Saleena put her hands on Emma's shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks before doing the same to Lana. 'Good luck,' she said as the girls turned away nervously climbing the stairs. As they faced the old heavy door, they both took a deep breath before Lana leaned forward and unlocked it, pulling it open to reveal another dark tunnel up ahead.
As the door slammed behind them, they realised they couldn't see a thing. They stood in complete pitch darkness.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
'Now what do we do? There's no point in opening the envelope either, coz we can't see it!' said Lana who was starting to get a little annoyed.
'There's no point in getting irritated, Lana. We're in this situation, now we just have to deal with it,' reassured Emma.
'Yeah, I know that but how?'
'Let's just think... I don't suppose you've got any matches on you?' she joked. 'Okay, maybe not.'
The two stood for a moment in silence.
'This is part of it, isn't it?' asked Lana.
'What? You mean part of the initiation? Probably. I guess we should just try and walk down the tunnel until we see daylight,' suggested Emma.
'The only problem with that is we don't know how long that will take, it must be nearly seven 'o'clock now. It'll be getting dark around ten ish, won't it?'
'Well, I hope we're not down here for that long. Let's just try it.'
So the girls tentatively began taking steps in the darkness, one foot carefully in front of the other. But when Lana stepped on something a bit squishy she let out a startled shriek that bounced off the walls around them, echoing off into the darkness.
'No... I can't do this. What WAS that? Ewwww it could have been anything. We could be walking in the sewers. That could have been a dead rat or worse... it could have been someone's poo...' she wailed.
Emma tried not to laugh and steadied her sister.
'There must be something we can d...' Lana said, suddenly stopping. 'Oh My God, I just realised. Duh! Our special skills, Emma. It's you... you can light the way.'
'I can?'
'Yes, of course. What does your tattoo say?'
'Lux in Tenebris Lucet,' replied Emma with a grin, adding, 'Light shines in the darkness, of course!' she giggled.
'Okay then, so go ahead,' prompted Lana.
'Erm, I don't know how.'
'Well, just concentrate.'
Standing dead still and closing her eyes in the darkness, Emma concentrated hard on creating light, but nothing happened.
'Well?'
'Nothing's happening,' said Emma with a sigh. 'I just don't know how to do it.'
Lana sighed heavily as she tried to think of something that would work.
'Think about what happened before, concentrate on what happened when you were in the water. Maybe that'll work,' she suggested as Emma closed her eyes once again and took herself back to that morning when she'd thrown herself into the Thames. As she fell beneath the surface of the water, she recalled the feeling that filled her body. It was like adrenaline pumping through her veins and she'd felt so completely alive.
Suddenly, Lana began laughing and clapping her hands together like a child.
'You're doing it, you're doing it,' she shouted loudly, her words echoing throughout the tunnel around them.
Sure enough, Emma opened her eyes to find light emanating from every pore of her body. She was like a human light bulb. The feeling warmed her as Lana hugged her tightly before they both investigated their surroundings. A thin tunnel led ahead for quite some distance, with several built-in ladders positioned at various locations along it.
'What do you reckon? asked Emma.
Shrugging her shoulders, Lana glanced around, avoiding looking down, she really didn't want to see what the squishy thing was that she'd stepped on. 'Let's open the envelope. It might give us a clue.'
Emma removed it from the back pocket of her jeans and unfolded it before she popped open the red wax seal. Inside was a blank piece of paper.
'Great, now what?' she said as she showed it to Lana who tutted angrily.
'How the hell are we supposed to know what to do now?' she said.
'Let's just walk down the tunnel and maybe climb some of the ladders until we find our way out. At least we can see now,' Emma suggested.
Half an hour later, the girls felt like they'd walked miles. Every ladder they'd climbed had led to a locked hatch and they were getting increasingly irritated.
'I need a drink.'
'Here, I've got some water in my bag,' said Emma as she pulled out the bottle and handed it to her sister.
In the meantime, Emma was looking more closely at the blank piece of paper, hoping for some kind of clue to appear but it was just blank, plain and simple.
A loud noise in the distance made Lana spit out the majority of the water in her mouth, drenching Emma's face.
'Great, Lana, thanks!' she said, wiping her face with the sleeve of her cardigan. As she did so, she noticed something on the paper. A couple of letters had appeared.
'Lana... look.'
'Huh? Didn't you hear that? It's freaking me out... what if that... oh,' she said as Emma waved the piece of paper in front of her face.
'It's the water. The paper needs water to reveal what's on it.'
Lana carefully flicked little spots of water onto it and they watched as words began to unravel before them.
Excitedly, they waited to see what would be revealed.
'Stamus Contra Malum'
'Is that it?' Lana reeled. 'We already know what that means... jeese...'
'Wait, it's not finished yet. The words are still forming.'
And sure enough, the paper revealed more for the girls to try and figure out.
Have you found your way yet? London is a big place for two small girls in the dark.
> But fear not, for losing yourselves is the best way to find yourselves and become who you are truly meant to be.
Fear not of the dark, for you have light
Fear not of the water, for you can swim
Fear not of the heights, for you can jump
Fear not of the evil, for you are Watchers
The Guardian and the Mentors await your return with new found courage,
new found strength and new found passion for the work of Praxos.
'Well what's all that meant to mean?' sighed Lana, feeling as though the paper did nothing to help them.
But Emma smiled, 'It means that we shouldn't be afraid of anything. Whatever comes our way, we can rise above it all. Come on, let's go.'
'But go where? We don't even know that. We don't know how to get out.'
'Sure we do, we just have to keep going until the exit reveals itself, Lana.'
'I'm glad you've got the point of all this,' sighed Lana as she followed the light in front of her.
Two ladders later, Emma laughed as she pushed against the hatch and found it opened easily in her hands.
'See?' she said, 'I told you so,' she chuckled as Lana scrambled up the ladder after her.
'Wait,' she said, 'Don't step out yet... your light. You need to switch it off.'
'I'm not a light switch, Lana,' laughed Emma.
'You know what I mean.'
Extinguishing the bright light just as she pushed the hatch open, Emma let out a low groan as she realised they were simply going from one to tunnel to another.
'What? What is it?' asked Lana as they both emerged into the darkness once again.
'Switch it back on please Emma,' she sighed.
About two hours later, the girls had followed five different tunnels and had climbed about 30 different ladders until eventually, they came out into fresh air.
Laughing out loud as they emerged, the two had barely climbed out before they realised they weren't at street level but were far higher than they'd imagined. Somehow they were standing on the rooftop of a particularly high building in the centre of the city, with no apparent way down.
'Right, I guess it's over to you now Sis,' said Emma as she sat down to catch her breath back as she took a swig of the water from her bag.
Handing it to Lana, she looked around, mesmerised by the view. Lights were beginning to switch on throughout the city as dusk began to settle in.
'It's impressive, isn't it?' asked Lana as she joined her sister on the floor. 'Look, there's Big Ben, the wheel, the Gherkin. You can see for miles up here.'
'Yeah but don't you think it's a bit weird how we got here? I mean, we were in tunnels under London all this time. At no point in our walk did it look like we were in a building, yet here we are, climbing out on the top of one?'
Emma nodded, 'It is bizarre, but the past few weeks have been bizarre haven't they? We're children of angels, for goodness sake. Our real parents are either dead or upstairs - whatever that means. We've got special powers, we're doing some weird initiation thing for a weird foundation that we were destined to belong to. It's all got weird written all over it,' she sighed.
'We met some cute guys though,' laughed Lana.
Emma laughed loudly and nodded, 'They are super cute aren't they?'
'And I noticed you already seem to have bonded with that Diarmuid guy. Cute.'
Emma playfully punched her sister on the shoulder. 'You'd make a cute couple. I'm serious,' she said as they giggled.
'So do you and Liam. With him you'd be like a rocker chick or something and that's right up your alley,' Emma laughed.
'Yeah well maybe, we'll see.'
The girls sat quietly for a while, still taking in their surroundings when they heard Big Ben chime in the distance. It was 10pm already and almost dark.
'Have you decided how we're going to do this, Lana?'
Biting her lip, Lana shrugged, 'I guess we just have to take a leap of faith, literally. I just hope I'm strong enough to hold both of us,' she said swallowing hard.
'You will be, don't worry,' reassured Emma.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They waited until the city was as dark as it was going to get, which wasn't actually that dark considering all the millions of little lights that twinkled from all around. Luckily for the girls though, their building had no lights on it at all, and the area where they were going to jump looked almost pitch black.
'Are you ready?' asked Lana as she held tightly on to Emma's hand.
Nodding in response, Emma grabbed on to her sister's back while she swallowed hard.
'You can do this, Lana. It's up to you now. Fear not of heights, for you can jump.'
Listening to her words, Lana took a deep breath and leaped from the side of the building.
With the wind rushing through the girls' hair, their eyes began to water as Emma gripped tightly on to her sister's back. She caught her breath when she realised they didn't seem to be slowing down.
'Fear not of heights, for you can jump,' she shouted again when all of a sudden, they seemed to appear weightless. Emma let out a deep sigh of relief as Lana laughed out loud, the two floating the last few metres until they landed softly on the ground.
'I knew you could do it, Sis,' said Emma as she hugged Lana tightly and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
'For a split second there I didn't think we were going to make it. Thanks for having faith in me, Em. Right, where are we?' she said as they looked around in the darkness. 'Can you give us a little light please?'
Emma responded by letting her body very gently light up the area surrounding them. They'd landed within an inner courtyard, surrounded by tall brick walls and just one heavy looking wooden door in front of them.
Approaching the door, Lana turned the handle and it opened easily. With a grin she turned backwards, 'After you,' she said as Emma walked into the darkness. Her glow lit up what looked like an empty warehouse. Walking through it, they could hear the gentle trickle of water. That's when they noticed the curve of the floor. It wasn't flat, it seemed to be at an angle.
'I bet I know what's coming next,' whispered Emma as they continued walking. Turning the corner, they saw where the sound was coming from: a huge hole in the ground.
'Are we going to have to go down there?' breathed Lana as she screwed up her face. 'But I don't have the skills you have,' she said, panicking.
'I'm sure we'll be fine,' reassured Emma as she peered down the hole, lying on the floor. 'Its pretty dark, it's an underground river or stream or something. It does look like the only way out though.'
'Great, just what I wanted, to get freezing cold and my hair all wet. It's gonna go all frizzy.'
'We don't have a choice and your hair will be fine. Come on, let's get it over with.'
Sighing heavily, Lana watched as Emma carefully lowered herself into the water, her handbag slowly soaking it up. When she disappeared, Lana followed, screeching at the water temperature. Within moments her teeth were chattering.
'Hold on to me. If you start to struggle and we can't get any air, give me a tug. I know I can breathe for us both. I don't know how, I just know.'
Lana nodded with her eyes wide open, but she tried not to panic.
Taking a deep breath, they both ducked down under the water and began to swim, Emma lighting the way ahead. They followed the course of the river as it delved deeper and deeper below ground.
But after just a couple of minutes, Lana tugged on Emma's arm and she pointed upwards. It appeared that she wouldn't have to breathe for her sister after all. Swimming upwards towards a light, the girls eventually pulled themselves out of the freezing water into a large bright room.
Shivering, the two girls stood and shook off as much water as possible. With her teeth chattering, Lana looked pale, as if she might pass out.
'I have an idea,' said Emma as she gently placed her arms around her sister. Closing her eyes tightly, she began to concentrate.
'Close your eyes, Lan
a. This might get a bit bright.'
The sound of her teeth chattering together began to ease as Emma's light began to shine brighter and brighter, bringing with it an intense heat which warmed them both, lightly drying their clothes. Standing there for another ten minutes, Emma's light began to fade and they both opened their eyes.
'Are you okay?' Lana asked as Emma stumbled backwards slightly.
'Just a little weak, that's all,' she smiled. 'I'll be fine.'
A worried crease indented Lana's brow as she helped her sister sit down. 'Let's take a break. It looks like you need a rest.'
'I'm fine... honestly. Well, okay then, but just for ten minutes and then we should get moving.'
Leaning against the smooth plastered wall with their legs outstretched in front of them, Emma leaned her head backwards and closed her eyes temporarily while Lana looked around the room.
But it wasn't an ordinary room, it was more like a dilapidated hall with plaster peeling from the walls all around them. It was easy to see that it was once probably a grand hall, perhaps where the wealthy would dance and entertain themselves. Looking upwards, Lana noticed the fading grandeur of intricately sculpted plasterwork, cherubs with missing wings and beautiful ladies with only one arm or leg. Further down the hall were several large archways, partitioned off with huge pieces of board, clumsily nailed to the walls. Only one archway remained open, a once elegant large wooden door beneath it.
That's our way out, she thought as she too closed her eyes... just for a moment.
An eerie drifting sound made its way across the floor. The soft gentle strum of classical instruments pervaded her ears and she sighed, letting her head drop to one side in her slumber, Emma quietly slept beside her.
The sound continued. Violins, harpsichords and harps striking up music of a bygone era. Then the gentle chatter of conversation, the sound of feet moving across the floor, dancing to the rhythm of the music. Laughter permeated the room and intermingling odours of tobacco, sweat and perfume tickled her nostrils when suddenly she woke up. Eyes wide open, she looked around the hall expecting to see a scene from a party, one from long ago. But there were no sounds, no smells, nothing.