No Trespassing - KEEP OUT

Jon put his head against the chain link fence and looked through to the other side longingly. Every time he was told to do something or follow some rule his body and mind begged him to do the opposite; he couldn’t help himself. What untold secrets and wonders lay just out of reach behind this flimsy metal fence? All he had to do was figure a way to slip past the guards and he would be able to go exploring on the other side to his heart’s content.

“It’s a stupid idea,” He heard Aubrey say. He turned away from the fence to see that the class was already out of sight but that she had stopped to wait for him.

How out of character for her, he smiled.

“Aubrey, when was the last time that any of my ideas were stupid?” He asked her innocently. “As a matter of fact, I seem to recall that just this morning I had one of my most brilliant ideas yet. Don’t you recall?”

“Now that you mention it I do,” Aubrey scratched her chin and narrowed her eyes in mock thought. “You asked the excursion chaperone Melanie out on a date this morning; remind me again how that went?”

“She’s just shy,” he grinned from ear to ear. “I’m just waiting for the right time and place and then I’ll ask her again, just like she wanted.”

“Jon, she stuck the business end of her dagger against your nethers and threatened to castrate you in front of the whole class,” She retorted good-naturedly. “She said, and I quote, ‘Ask me that again if you have the balls.’”

“A woman after my own heart,” He returned to staring at the ruins while Aubrey laughed and made her way back over to him. He grabbed the fence and sighed; it would be there in the back of his mind for the rest of the weekend unless he found a way in.

“You know I give you a lot of shit in front of everyone else, but you’re not so bad Jon,” She smiled and looked through the fence beside him. “If you tell anyone else I said that though, then you’re a dead man walking.”

“Hey Darius–” Jon began to call at the top of his lungs. Aubrey socked him in the stomach and he doubled over, gasping for air.

“You’re an idiot,” she laughed and helped him up. “You just can’t help yourself, can you? Why do you want to get in there so badly, anyway? It’s just a pile of rubble, a burned down and collapsed tower.”

He pointed to the no trespassing sign and Aubrey nodded her head. “Wow, you really can’t help yourself it seems.”

“I have a problem,” he nodded and wheezed. “Since you’re not interested in the ruins, give me a piggy-back ride over to the Bell Tower? You did a number on me.”

“Quit faking you baby,” She chuckled. She quickly looked around and checked to see if anyone was around listening. “Besides, who said that I wasn’t interested in going to check it out too? You think that we can get in?”

“What about Darius?” He asked her. “Won’t he be lonely without us at his side?”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” she told him. She grinned mischievously. “It will be our little secret.”

“If I didn’t know any better I would say that you’re coming onto me Aubrey,” he grinned right back. He watched the guard round the far corner and disappear out of sight. “It would never work out between us though.”

“Boost me up dumbass,” she told him. “The guard is gone, now’s our chance.”

He put his back to the fence and interlocked his fingers to make a stirrup with his hands. Aubrey stepped on it and he heaved the short girl up to the top of the fence so she could hoist herself over. He quickly scrambled after her and reached the top slightly winded.

“Damn girl, you kinda thick,” he teased his friend as he poked her muscled stomach. She sent him tumbling three meters to the grass below and he groaned as the wind was knocked out of him again. “Okay, I deserved that one.”

“Here I come, you better not drop me,” she told him as he got to his feet. He widened his eyes and scrambled to get underneath her as she dropped from the top of the fence. He caught her in a princess carry but with the lack of strength in his scrawny arms she knocked him back to the ground.

“Let’s go!” She whispered excitedly. She didn’t bother to wait for him as she got to her feet and scrambled across the manicured grassy lawn to reach the safety of the tower’s base.

He gasped for breath, grumbling as he got to his feet and hurriedly took off after her. They reached the base of the ruined tower and Aubrey poked her head over the lip of the concrete foundation to see if there were any patrolling guards.

“And the adventure is over before it begins.” She sighed in defeat at the unmoving guard who was stationed in front of the main door. “How are we going to get inside?”

“Don’t worry my lady, I’ve got this…” he bent down and picked up a loose stone from the pavement, hefting it up and down in his hand as he got a feel for its weight. He peeked his head over the lip beside Aubrey to see the location of the stationary guard. “Right, so I’m gonna throw this over to the other side of the plaza. The guard will hear it and go investigate, yeah?”

“What could possibly go wrong?” Aubrey quipped.

“Ye of little faith,” Jon shook his head from side to side. He lobbed the rock in the direction of the guard and excitedly watched it sail through the air noiselessly. It smacked the unaware man in the side of the head and he crumpled to the ground.

“Hmm…” Jon licked the tip of his index finger and tested for the nonexistent wind while Aubrey busted a gut.

“Yeah, that’s about what I expected,” she wiped at her eyes as her laughter died down. “Let’s check and make sure you didn’t kill him I guess.”

They scrambled onto the plaza and raced over to the man; Jon held his breath while Aubrey checked his pulse. “He’s fine, still breathing. Let’s drag him inside the door though so no one accidentally finds him while we’re inside.”

With a good amount of effort the two of them were able to drag the overweight security guard inside the first floor of the burned down tower. They gently rested him against the door frame of the entranceway and then turned to survey the dilapidated room around them. Rotted and burned planks lay strewn haphazardly in piles or jutting out of crumbling ashy walls. The light of the late afternoon sun poked through an assortment of holes and made odd shadows dance across their vision. He closed his eyes momentarily and would swear that he could faintly smell burning embers all about him. Jon felt his heart begin to hammer in both fear and excitement and he glanced over at Aubrey.

“You know hundreds of people have surveyed these ruins already,” she whispered reverently. “And no one has ever found anything of note.”

“You’re such a killjoy,” he told her, making his way over to read the inscription on the plate that was in front of them.

And so these twin towers stand as a testament to Sun and Sky. Illuminate our paths as we chase the horizon. Shepherd us home when all feels lost.

“Hmm,” he grunted after finishing the inscription. He carefully picked his way in between the pointed sharp ends of cracked wooden beams and ran his hands idly along the wall. The floorboards creaked ominously as he walked around; as Aubrey had said, decades of foul weather and decay had left everything weathered and worn. He sighed, lamenting that there was nothing interesting around and turned to ask her if she was ready to go.

New hope blossomed in his chest as he saw her beckoning him over to the other edge of the once grand entrance hall. He carefully picked his way across the creaking floorboards; many had fallen away and he knew he was just one wrong step from falling into some dank and dusty cellar.

Finally he reached his friend, “Please tell me that you found something cool. All of this rule breaking can’t have been for nothing!”

Aubrey shrugged and pointed out the first few steps of a crumbling staircase that led down into inky darkness below. “Are you stupid enough to try them?”

“I am,” he absentmindedly agreed, too excited to bother coming up with a quip. He sniffed the air all around the staircase. “Aubrey, do you smell that?”

“What?” she asked with an edge to her voice. It pleased him immensely to know that he was able to unnerve her so. “I don’t smell anything.”

“It’s the smell of adventure!” he grinned madly. Before she had the chance to punch him or inflict some other violence upon him, he lit the flashlight on the end of his PokéNav and took the first step towards the darkness below. The wooden stair groaned in protest under his weight, droning and creaking unceasingly and he held his breath expecting the thing to collapse at any moment and send him falling downwards.

“Well, that took a year off my life,” he wiped the sweat from his brow as the wood settled and he shone his torch into the darkness below. He couldn’t see the bottom of the staircase and his heart beat madly in his chest in anticipation. He looked back at Aubrey who was frowning at him but that only made him smile even wider. “I hope I’ll see you at the bottom.”

He took the next step and then the next, gaining speed and confidence with each stair that he took. He counted them off in his head, five, ten, but no matter how many steps he took he still couldn’t see the bottom. He heard the groaning stairs behind him and he felt some amount of relief; the adventure would be a lot more fun with Aubrey by his side. Finally his flashlight shone onto the stone floor and after an even fifty stairs he stepped off of the wooden steps into what appeared to be a storage room. He shone his light around the room, scanning the dusty boxes and crates while he waited for Aubrey to reach the bottom of the stairs.

She collapsed to all fours onto the concrete ground and gasped for air. Jon laughed at her, “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad. I even went first!”

She nodded, “That’s the only reason I’m down here. You would have been the first to fall into whatever trap or bottomless chasm lay waiting for us.”

“Love you too,” he mumbled as he helped her to her feet and then began to walk around the room. “What do you think is in these boxes anyway? Anything good?”

“Could be anything. Food, clothes…” Aubrey mumbled from his side. He saw her white teeth flash in the darkness. “Maybe the treasure that you’re looking for?”

“I’m not really here for treasure,” He ran his hands along the dusty boxes and rubbed his fingers together, “Because the real treasure is the friends we make along the way, Aubrey.”

“You’ve always got something to say, don’t you?” She laughed. “You know–”

Her voice cut off and Jon turned to see why she had stopped. He was about to ask if she was okay when he heard a frantic rustling and squeaking coming from a far corner. Raising an eyebrow at Aubrey who shrugged in response, he began to wind his way through the maze of boxes, the squeaking getting louder and louder all the while. He rounded a corner to see a group of Rattata attacking one of their own, the smallest and weakest of the bunch.

“Step back–” Aubrey started again, but Jon didn’t listen to her and ran headlong into the fray.

“Get off!” He yelled as he reached the nearest attacker, kicking it in the ribs and launching it into the stone wall where it collided with a splat. The rest of the mob turned their red eyes onto him and hissed menacingly. “Shit… I didn’t think that one through, did I?”

“Aubrey!” He wailed, turning and running back to the safety of his companion and her Chikorita who was now out of its ball. He could feel the gnashing and clicking of teeth behind him. “Do something!”

“Razor Leaf!” She commanded her Pokémon and Chikorita launched a barrage of wickedly sharp green leaves at the surging horde. Many of the leaves cut Jon’s legs but he winced away the pain as they flew by and scattered the Rattata with deadly effectiveness. He slowed and turned to watch them scamper away through the cracks in between boxes, back to whatever hidey-hole they came out of.

“Thanks Chikorita,” Jon told the little green dinosaur. He bent down to give her an encouraging pat on the head but she turned her nose at him in disdain and stood on Aubrey’s other side. He chuckled and stood back up.

“Are your legs okay?” he was surprised to hear the genuine concern in Aubrey’s voice. It was a nice change.

“I’m fine, thanks for the save,” he waved away her concern, deciding now was not the time to aggravate her.

“That was foolish,” she chided him. She recalled her Chikorita back to its Pokéball. “You could have been seriously hurt by one or more of those rats. Rattata have a nasty bite.”

“I know,” he sighed, and turned back towards the Rattata who lay collapsed on the ground. “You know me though. Sometimes, well a lot of the time, I don’t think.”

“Do you think it’s okay?” She asked as she walked over to check on the injured rat. Jon followed her and the two of them bent down to inspect the wounded Pokémon. He could see the steady rise and fall of the small Rattata’s chest and breathed slightly easier knowing that he had at least saved it from being cannibalized by its starving cousins.

The little rat perked up and they quickly backed away from it, worried that they were about to be attacked. It cocked its head to the side and then scampered off, down the row of boxes where it paused and looked back.

“Does it want us to follow…?” Jon mumbled as the rat chittered and squeaked. It came back a few steps and waited again so they gave each other a sidelong glance and then began to pick their way towards the waiting Pokémon. They reached it and the Pokémon turned a corner and scampered down to the next intersection where it waited again. Jon’s heart began to beat quicker and he grinned and picked up his pace as he all but sprinted down row after row of boxes.

This is it, he thought to himself. This is why I came down here.

They continued to follow the Rattata until they rounded the next corner and stopped. It was nowhere to be seen. There were no more intersections in front of them, it had led them to a dead end.

“Well that’s kind of a bummer,” Aubrey lamented. “Why do you think it led us all the way here?”

Jon said nothing, walking to the end of the path and standing before the unremarkable stone wall. He ran his hands along it, begging for something to be out of place.

“Anything?” Aubrey asked, coming to stand beside him. He shook his head and she clicked her teeth in frustration. “Dumb animal…”

She turned to leave but stopped and widened her eyes at him. They had both heard it, the drafting of wind. Jon could hardly contain his excitement. “There’s a tunnel on the other side, there has to be. Shine your light on the wall!”

Aubrey turned her light onto the wall and the two of them began scanning every inch of it, looking for something out of place. Jon ran his hand along its entirety, every blemish tricking him into believing he had found some hidden lever that would reveal the wall’s secret. Just when he was about to give up, he ran his hands along something that caught his attention. In the lower corner of one of the stones a Pokéball had been carefully engraved. He pressed it, the small circle sinking into the stone wall, and then he quickly took a step back and wrapped his arm around Aubrey and squeezed her shoulder. She was too stunned at the gaping hole that had been revealed to try and wriggle out of his grip.

Decades of stale and moldy air drafted out of the tunnel and Jon covered his mouth and coughed after taking a big inhale of it. The two of them stood rooted to the spot, transfixed by their accidental discovery of a secret passageway. Loud shouts from the far end of the storage room broke them from their trance; apparently the shifting wall had alerted some guards to the presence of an intruder.

“Only one way to go now,” Jon said to himself, but loud enough so Aubrey could hear. He took a step forward into the tunnel and she quickly fell in line behind him. As soon as the two of them crossed the threshold the wall slid back into its original place with another great rumbling. “Hopefully no one figures out how to open the door.”

“We’re facing expulsion for sure if we get caught.” Aubrey agreed. The two of them had idled again now that their pursuers were lost. “What do you think is on the other end of this tunnel anyway?”

Jon gathered his wits and shrugged. “Let’s find out.”

They walked along the unbranching path in near total darkness as the minutes ticked by. Jon soon had to crouch, and then Aubrey did as the tunnel continued to shrink, and eventually the two of them were on their hands and knees, crawling forward in a line. Jon’s breath was becoming shallower the more narrow the tunnel became. Just when it felt as if the walls were going to collapse in on him, the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. He didn’t know how far they were underground but half wondered, half hoped, that he would be able to spy another exit as lit torches illuminated the room before them.

The underground room immediately reminded Jon of the cathedral in Goldenrod but this one was far more grandiose. Massive stone arches had been carved into the rock to support the ceiling and rows of great pillars bigger than Jon’s wingspan ran from one end of the room to the other. The room itself was massive, hundreds of meters long, it extended to the edge of his vision and beyond. Stone pews grew upwards from the floor, carved and inscribed with more detail than Jon could take in. All along the walls windows of stained glass were tiled and laid with the utmost care. Behind them stood not a glimpse of the outside world but great and mighty braziers, roaring to the ceiling above and illuminating the many pictures of Pokémon and people depicted in the glass.

Jon realized he hadn’t taken a step; so awestruck was he by the unmolested tranquility of the scene in front of him that he felt unworthy of being anywhere near this place. He turned to look at Aubrey and saw that she had the same slack-jawed look on her face.

“Where are we?” She licked her dry and cracked lips and Jon immediately realized he tasted blood on his own lips. He hadn’t realized at first, but this room was hot; hotter than anywhere he could ever remember being.

Trespassers. You are unworthy of this place, a regal voice spoke into Jon’s mind and he immediately collapsed to his knees as his mind was invaded. I know not how you came to this place, but you are not welcome here. Not as you are now.

Jon raised his head and saw that Aubrey had collapsed into unconsciousness beside him. He looked forward to the front of the room and felt his heart in his throat at the sight that was before him.

The silhouette of a great and shaggy beast lying on the altar filled Jon’s vision. It stood, embers cracking and popping as it shook the slumber from its bones and fur. Ash and cinder hung in a regal mantle about its back and shoulders and when it yawned the already stifling temperature of the room became unbearable. Sweat gushed from every pore on Jon’s body and just when he thought he could tolerate no more, the beast turned its eyes upon him.

Brilliant orange infernos pierced the darkness and cut into Jon’s being. He shut his eyes and grit his teeth against the pain, the flame and light too powerful to bear witness to. His breath was gone, his lungs felt as if they had burned to ash in his chest and he screamed in pain and wrenched open his eyes.

He was outside the ruined tower in the plaza, the sun hanging low on the horizon. The quiet evening air calmed his frayed nerves and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, quickly trying to commit everything that had just happened to memory.

“What happened!” Aubrey shouted as she flailed about and regained her consciousness.

“By the Mother, you just gave me a heart attack!” Jon clutched his chest. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, why?” Aubrey asked. “And where are we by the way?”

“What do you mean?” he asked her. “We’re at the ruins of the Brass Tower. Do you not remember?”

“Remember what?” she queried.

“Hey! What are you kids doing in here!” Jon heard a guard shout from across the lawn.

“Come on!” Aubrey laughed and pulled him to his feet. “We gotta get out of here!”

They took off racing towards the fence, laughing and taunting the slow guard who they both knew would never catch up with them.