The Beneath (2 page)

Lily hears the noise too, and looks at me.

“It’s nothing, just a banging escalator. This one does it all the time.”

“How can you be sure?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Maybe we should run then,” she says.

We set off up the steps as fast as we can. I nearly miss the top, where the steps suddenly go flat, and I stumble as I find myself on solid ground again. Lily drags me towards a low wall that runs across the room.

“We’re in luck,” she tells me as she pulls me through a gap. “The ticket barriers aren’t often left open.”

And suddenly everything is gone. There is no roof, no ceiling and the light burns my eyes. For the first time in my life I am Above.

CHAPTER 2

I don’t think I had ever been so relieved to get out of the Tube and into the late afternoon light. The rush hour was gathering pace along the road towards home and the noises I could hear were all ones that I could place – no more unseen creatures. That had been one of the scariest moments of my life, and for a fraction of a second I wondered if I had been set up, if the strange girl had actually been messing with me. I glanced sideways at her, as she’d barely said a word since we escaped from that disused platform.

She was standing stock-still on the pavement, the crowds jostling around her, staring up at the sky. I called her name but there was no response.

“Aria?” I tried again, reaching for her arm. “Are you OK?”

She didn’t look as if she had been messing with me. There was a bemused expression on her face and she still didn’t appear to have heard me. She seemed to be squinting in the daylight, even though it was pretty overcast, holding her hand up to protect her eyes. We were getting in the way of the people wanting to get into the Tube station, so I gripped her arm more firmly and pulled her to one side.

“I think you need a coffee, or sweet tea or something,” I muttered as she followed, still looking upwards. “Come on, this way.”

I could see the café on the far side of the road, and glancing both ways at the traffic I led her over the pedestrian crossing. Halfway across she let out an almighty shriek and ran back towards the Tube entrance. The large double-decker bus, which had been slowing to allow us to cross, sped up again, the driver shaking his head.

“What’s that?” she gasped, pointing at the retreating bus. “It was about to hit us both.”

“Not on the crossing,” I said, taking a tighter grip on her. “Come on, let’s go.”

She let me steer her over the road, but it was like trying to lead a skittish pony. Aria flinched as cars went by, and she was so engrossed in watching them that she nearly walked into a lamppost. We were attracting more than our fair share of curious looks. I could see another bus coming and felt her back stiffen, so swerved her into the
café as quickly as possible and sat her down at a quiet table.

“Phew, I don’t want to be doing that again in the near future. Right, I need coffee. What would you like?”

Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked at the display of cakes and sandwiches, and I could see her fingers gripping the table as she leaned towards them.

“Where did you get all those?” she whispered, her gaze never leaving the counter.

“You do ask some daft questions. Do you want something to eat as well?” I did a quick mental rundown of the contents of my purse. “Want to split a muffin?”

Aria said nothing, but just continued to stare at the food.

“Would you like something to eat?” I asked again, not sure if she had heard me.

She nodded mutely.

“What about a drink – what would you like?”

I hoped that she wasn’t going to choose one of the super-expensive hot chocolates with all the trimmings. For some reason the question seemed to confuse her.

“What?” she asked. “Water, of course.”

“OK, wait here and I’ll get it.”

I left her at the table, still clutching the top as if her life depended on it. Soon I was back with one plain coffee, one double-choc muffin and a glass of tap water, which left me with about fifteen pence. She gasped as I put the muffin down on the table and her hand darted out
towards it – then stopped. I pushed it towards her.

“Go on, you have it. I’m not really hungry.”

She shot me a glance that seemed pathetically grateful and, holding the muffin almost reverently, started picking at the top with her long, thin fingers.

I sipped my coffee and watched, almost embarrassed, as she ate. Her skinny frame was hunched over the table, the long dark hair falling forward, but not enough to cover her high cheekbones and perfectly straight nose. The dark eyes that continued to dart around the room were completely free of make-up. There was no doubt that she could be beautiful with a decent haircut and some proper clothes.

She devoured every last speck of the muffin. I’d never seen anyone eat with so much obvious enjoyment; every single chocolate chip was savoured, no crumb overlooked. I thought at one moment she was about to eat the paper case as well, but in the end she just scraped all the bits off it. There didn’t seem much point in trying to get her to talk while she was eating, so I nursed my cooling coffee and waited. Every few minutes I felt the phone in my pocket vibrate, but for once I felt strong enough to ignore it. Today I had better things to do than to read Jenny’s snarky comments.

Finally every particle of the muffin was gone, the only evidence remaining being a small smear of chocolate on Aria’s chin. She sat back, eyes half closed, and breathed deeply.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“No problem. You, um, looked as if you enjoyed that. Have you not eaten for a while?”

She lifted her eyes and looked directly at me for a few moments. Twice she looked as if she was about to speak, before thinking better of it.

I couldn’t stand waiting any longer. “Look, it’s obvious that something is going on. What were you doing in the tunnel? What on earth were the things that were chasing us?”

“I can’t tell you exactly. I just know that they are really dangerous.”

“In what way?”

“They’ll kill you if they catch you.”

“Sounds as if we were pretty lucky then,” I said, more and more convinced  that I had picked up someone with a severe personality disorder.

Aria slumped back in her chair, her hands falling into her lap.

“He’ll kill me anyway,” she said, playing with a button on her shirt.

“Who? Who would do that?”

“The Farmer. He obviously knows that I’m up here, and that’s not allowed.”

“I don’t get it. What’s a farmer got to do with anything?”

Her dark eyebrows knitted together. “I don’t understand you. There’s so much up here I don’t recognise. I didn’t think it would be this difficult.”

She was beginning to wind me up with her non-answers, but I didn’t want to give her a hard time, not if she was in need of some sort of professional help.

“OK, Aria, let’s do this one question at a time. Where do you live?”

“With the Community.”

“And where exactly is that?”

She lifted her dark eyes, and the intensity of her gaze startled me.

“Underground. We live underground, below your tunnels, below your world.”

I tried to keep the surprise from my face, and wondered if she was actually living with the homeless people who shelter in the Tube.

“So,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “have you been down there long?”

“No one knows. There are stories, but we don’t know exactly how long. It must be hundreds of years.”

I nearly spat my coffee across the table. “Hundreds of years?”

“If not longer. We have stories that go a long way back, but only the Elders are allowed to hear most of them. I’ll never hear them all now.”

From the wistful tone to her reply it was clear that she believed everything she was saying. But could I?

“So, you are part of a community that lives underground, right?” She nodded. “How many of you are there?”

“Not so many now, not after all the troubles. Maybe a few hundred.”

Every answer she gave me raised more and more questions, so I went back to the one that was most obvious to ask.

“And why are you here? Are you running away?”

I can still taste the sweetness of the cake on my tongue. I’ve never seen so much cake – more than enough for everybody, and she didn’t even bother to have one. Maybe they are as greedy and wasteful as the Elders say. I look around. No one is tucking into the huge platefuls of food, even though it is all just sitting there on the side. About half of them look pretty miserable. Most are drinking cups of a bitter-smelling brown liquid, including Lily. The room is so brightly lit that it hurts my eyes.

Lily is still looking at me. Shall I tell her the truth? I take a deep breath.

“I’ve just been told how I was going to be Assigned, and I don’t want to be what they want me to be.”

“What does that mean – ‘Assigned’?” she asks.

She doesn’t understand – why should she? She has even less knowledge of our world than I do of hers.

“In the Community, when you reach fifteen you find out the role you will take for the rest of your life.”

“What, like a doctor or a teacher, that sort of thing?”

She is leaning forward with her arms on the table and a frown on her forehead, struggling to make sense of it
all. I nod, not wanting to say too much, but enough to convince her that this is the real reason I’m here.

“And when do you start doing that?”

“On your sixteenth birthday.”

“And you do that forever? That is way too harsh. I’m not surprised that you’ve run away.”

She leans even further over the table and drops her voice. “So what was it that you didn’t want to be? What was so awful that you had to run away from your entire life?” she asks.

I am surprised as the tears come, tears that I’ve not shed since Carita was Assigned years before. I agreed to join Dane’s mission when it was clear I was heading for the same fate. Whatever happens now, there is no way they will keep even that Assignment. I am a lost cause.

I feel a touch on my arm, and flinch before I realise that it’s gentle – a touch of kindness. Her voice is gentle too.

“Please don’t cry, Aria. Whatever it is you don’t have to tell me. I was just curious, that’s all.”

I hear her leave the table for a moment and return a second later. She presses something soft and papery against my fingers.

“Here, wipe your eyes with these.”

She is kind and brave, this stranger whose life I have invaded. What would she think if she knew the whole truth?

I sat back and looked at the weeping girl opposite me.
She seemed at a loss with what to do with the napkins, so I took one and dabbed at her cheeks, mopping up some of the tears that were making tracks down her face. The waitress, who had been about to come over and clear our table, did a swift about-turn and tried to look busy somewhere else.

It wasn’t going to be possible to stay in the café all evening, so I had to work out what to do with her. I couldn’t make up my mind if I believed her or not. After all, living underground seemed pretty unlikely. But I couldn’t abandon her either – I had to make sure she was OK. I glanced surreptitiously at my watch; the café would be open for another couple of hours, but I had no more money. She didn’t look as if she had anything on her, so we were going to get thrown out soon enough. And in half an hour or so I was going to be expected home for tea.

“So where are you heading to now? I’m going to be off soon.”

“I … I don’t really know,” she said, finally taking the napkins and wiping her face before sniffing loudly. “Can I come with you? I have nowhere to go…”

What on earth was I going to do? I could hardly turn up at home with a complete stranger. Leaving her here was my only choice. I might have saved her from the track but that didn’t make her my responsibility. Anyway, I had more than enough problems in my life without inviting another one in, especially one who seemed so utterly
clueless about what was going on around her.

I was about to get up to go when my phone vibrated again, and Aria jumped. I hesitated before fishing it out of my pocket, feeling my stomach clench. Would it be a mundane one from Nan asking me to pick something up for tea, or another vile anonymous one? It still made me feel sick every time I turned the phone over. I took a deep breath and glanced at the screen.

It was from Nan, and I felt my shoulders sag with relief. She was popping out so we weren’t going to be having tea for a while. I was just about to reply when the phone buzzed again. Without thinking, I glanced at the little screen.

The spiteful message hit me like a punch, making me cry out loud. Aria jumped up, knocking the table and rattling the empty cup and saucer. She tensed as if ready for a fight, looking around her wildly.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, leaning over to put a calming hand on her wrist.

“You saw danger. I heard you. I just don’t know what the danger is…”

Her eyes continued to dart about, searching for something that wasn’t there.

“Sit down,” I said in a low voice, glancing at the café manager, who was staring over at us. He clearly thought we were up to no good. “Now!”

Aria sat back down with a thump, looking even more confused. “But you shouted. Why did you do that?”

“It was just a text.”

That made it sound harmless, but every day Jenny found another way to hurt me, to dig in the knife so expertly.

Aria stared at me blankly, and I knew I had to explain a bit more. “The text is a horrible message that I’m pretty sure is from one of the girls in my class, although she’s far too smart to send it from her own number.”