Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (14 page)

“Awww! He's adorable.” I said looking at the creative potato. Tallen snorted a laugh and Ryu just
shook his head and carried on eating.

After dinner Kenzie left with Ryu and Tallen and I went back to my bedroom.
I opened my bedroom door surprised when I saw Senka already waiting for me, I thought he was
going to come down later. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a black sweatshirt with a vicious
looking dog on the front.
“What is that?” Senka asked looking at the potato man in my hand.
“That is my cute little potato man that Kenzie made for me.” I said putting it down on the table.
“That thing will probably be shrivelled and dead in a few days. I thought he could have done a
better job at finding you a pet.”
“Don't be mean,” I said patting the potato man on the head. “he can hear you.” I added smiling at
Senka as I walked into the bathroom.
I didn't know what plans or ideas he had for us tonight but I wanted to make sure I didn't have any
food in my teeth. As I brushed my teeth, Senka appeared in the mirror behind me. He leaned back
against the wall with his arms crossed watching me in the mirror.
“You two are as weird as each other, I don't think there are many people that get Kenzie the way
you do. It's good for him, he used to spend a lot of time on his own down here. He definitely smiles
a lot more with you're around.”
“Hmm, maybe I just have that affect on people?” I said before spitting in the sink.
I came back up from the sink and Senka had moved closer. I put my toothbrush back in the pot and
he pushed himself up against me from behind, I held onto the sink so not to fall forward. He swept
my hair to the side of my neck the way he had done earlier and I tilted my head to the side eagerly
awaiting his kiss. His fingers brushed over my shoulder moving the top of my dress off my
shoulder. He softly kissed my shoulder and worked his was up my neck, I had to hold onto the wall
for support. He stopped at my ear and kissed me gently looking at me in the mirror.
“So what's this surprise?” I asked trying to steady my breathing.
He slipped the top of my dress back onto my shoulder, took my hand and pulled me out of the
bathroom and spun me around to face him.
“I need you to take your clothes off.” he said pulling at my dress.
“What?” I laughed. I can imagine I would have happily taken my clothes off for him if he asked
nice enough.
“I need you to change into something else.”
“Um okay, what did you have in mind?” I asked. My eyes flickered to the bed before I could stop
them. He softly laughed and looked at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Not what I had in mind but we can revisit that idea another time,” he said leading me into the
closet. “Is there anything in here that isn't so so...” he pulled at the fabric of one of the dresses.
“something that isn't like this, something maybe with legs?”
“You mean trousers?” I asked curiously. He nodded.
I looked around and shrugged. “This is it I'm afraid. Trust me I'd love some trousers, I hate wearing
dresses. I have asked about it but apparently ladies don't wear trousers.” I said fidgeting in my
dress.
“Well tonight I need you not to be in a dress, I need you looking more or less like me. Trousers, Tshirt and we can hide this under one of my hoodies,” he said gently tugging on my hair.
“Why, what are we doing?” I asked.
Senka's eyes connected with mine and a playful smile appeared on his face.
“Tonight I'm breaking you out of here.”
“What?” I replied dumbly.
“I really thought you'd be more excited at the idea,” he said stepping back.
“What, no I am. But what about Cam? What if we get caught? I don't want you to get into trouble
because of me.” I said speaking far to quickly it hardly made any sense.
“Ruby stop,” Senka said taking my hand trying to calm me down. “Cam's not here. It will be okay,
no one will even notice you're gone. Emmett has gone upstairs and won't be back down for a while.
Kenzie's gone out with Ryu and Tallen and Grayson has locked himself in his room. I already
checked. You've got twenty minutes to decide. Jack and Rex will be waiting for us in the garage all
we need to do is find you something to wear.”
“I don't want anyone to get into trouble...”
“No one is going to get into trouble and if anyone asks where you have been you can say you've
been upstairs in my room.”
I thought about it for a few minutes. “Okay.” I said.
“Okay. Now we need to find you some clothes.”
“Why what's wrong with this? Where exactly are we going?”
“The dress is fine but the guards at the gate are going to be a little suspicious of a girl leaving the
manor at this hour. The servant girls only travel during the day and usually only on market day. So I
need you to be dressed like one of us.”
“One of you, you mean dressed like a boy?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“It's just to get you out of the gates. Maybe you could wear something of mine, maybe we could roll
some jeans up.”
“Are you kidding? I have seen how tiny your jeans are, even you struggle to get them on. I doubt I
would even get one leg in and I have hips.” He scratched at his head. “I have a better idea, wait
here.” I said leaving the closet.
I crept along the corridor hoping Senka was right about Emmett being up in his room.
I opened the door and switched the lights on and weaved around the shelves to the back of the
room. The trolley hadn't moved from where I'd last seen it and everything seemed to be in exactly
the same places as I remembered. I doubt anyone had even been in here since then. I lifted the piles
of fabrics to the side and searched for the clothes I had seen before. One by one I pulled out all the
pieces of clothing and piled them up on the floor. I wrapped them over and over inside a piece of
fabric so if the servants were looking it would look like I had a bundle of fabrics.
I hurried back to my room and attempted opening the door but my hands were full and I ended up
dropping everything. Senka opened the door looking down at me.
“I really don't think fifteen minutes is enough time to stitch together a whole new outfit.”
“Shut up,” I laughed. “Move, before anyone sees.”
Senka squatted down and pulled one of the hi-tops out of the pile and looked at me.
“Where did you get this?” he asked while picking up the bra in his other hand. He moved back and I
pushed the rest of the clothes along the floor until the doorway was clear then I quickly closed it.
“I found these a while ago in the sewing room. It's the weirdest thing they are all in my size.” I said
watching him, waiting for him to give something away.
He looked at me and shrugged. “Well get dressed then.” he smiled sitting back on the bed.
I picked up the clothes and grabbed the bra from him that he was dangling in the air.
I went into the bathroom and quickly changed. When I came back out Senka was trying to figure
out the Rubik cube.
“Wow!” he said looking at me. “Just one more thing,” he said jumping off the bed and grabbing a
cap that was on a hook on the back of my bedroom door.
“Kenzie's I presume,” he said walking over to me and placing it on my head. He nodded in approval
and took my hand.“Come on,” he said leading me out onto the balcony.
Outside had turned to darkness and a cool breeze whipped hair around my face. We stood at the
edge and he leaned over and looked at the ground below.
“How good are you at climbing?” he asked.
“You do realise the last time I went climbing I apparently fell and hit my head which left me
unconscious for eight months.” I said looking at the floor below.
I knew it wasn't true. I hadn't been in a coma from falling out of a tree. I remembered Senka had
said something to Cam about fading with me. I think whatever Cam had done with me this
fading
had left me in a coma and messed up my memory.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” he said swinging his leg over the wall so he was straddling it.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Well we can't take the front door with you dressed like that, so we'll take the trellis.” he said
swinging his other leg over so he was standing on the other side with his feet in between the gaps in
the balcony wall.
“Senka that's not funny, get back here.”
“It's okay, stop panicking. Now get over here.” he laughed holding his hand out for me. I reluctantly
took it and stepped over to him so the balcony wall was between us.
“I do this all the time.”
“Do what all the time? Climbing the down trellis or climbing off my balcony?”
He smiled and spun me around and pulled me back to him and lifted me up so I was sitting on the
wall. “I'm not going to let you fall.”
I nodded and lifted my legs onto the side and put one over like he had done.
“Put your foot in the gap, and lift your other leg over.” I did as he said, holding onto the balcony
tightly.
Senka's arm looped around my waist holding me tightly against him.
“You're not afraid of heights are you?” he asked.
“I don't know?” I replied.
I honestly had no idea whether I used to be afraid of heights or not.
“Well just encase don't look down. Now put your arms around my neck.”
“Why?”
“You didn't think I was going to let you climb down yourself did you? I've seen how clumsy you
are?”
“Am not.” I replied without needing to think about it.
“You would say that.” he laughed. “Ready?”
“Hmm,” I said briefly glancing down below. I moved my hand across his back and over his
shoulder and held on tightly then I slowly let go of the balcony and put my other hand on his
shoulder. He leaned forward and I climbed onto his back hooking my legs around him. I suddenly
felt like a child having a piggy back.
“Now all you have to do is hold on tight and don't let go.”
“I'm too heavy we're going to fall to our deaths.”
“Stop that. You feel as light as a feather to me.”
“Ha ha.” I knew I wasn't that light.
Senka started moving down, I kept my eyes firmly shut and held on tight.
“What if someone sees us?”
“They won't, not unless the guards are hiding in the bushes below. It's dark no one will see. Stop
panicking.”
I counted in my head I had no idea why I was counting but it seemed to distract me from wanting to
look down every few seconds. I'd only counted to twenty five when I felt Senka's hands on my
arms.
“Ruby you can let go now.” He laughed.
I opened my eyes and let go dropping to the floor. Senka pulled my hood up over my head and took
my hand. We crossed the grass and stayed off the path. We were nearly at the gravelled drive when
we both heard crunching on the stones. Senka pulled me behind a tree and I couldn't help giggling.
Senka grinned and covered my mouth with his hand, but it didn't help much.
“Stop it!” he said trying not to laugh. “We're meant to be sneaking out remember?”
We both heard male voices and I was still trying my best not to giggle. Senka moved closer to me
and pushed me back against the tree and pressed his finger to my lips. “Shhh!” he said quietly.
Having Senka in such close proximity seemed to distract me temporarily and soon enough the
voices were gone. We hurried across the grass and jogged along the drive until we came to the
garages. There were eight double garages and we stopped at the fourth one. Senka knocked on the
garage door and gave me a cheeky smile just before it started to open. He pulled me out of the way
as the door lifted. The fluorescent lights spilled out onto the ground.
I followed Senka around the corner were a large black SUV was parked. There were two guys
inside the garage, one leaning against the car and the other one stood by the door switch, I
remembered his name was Jack but I didn't know about the other one.
“Ruby this is Jack,” Senka said looking at the boy near the door switch. Jack had floppy brown hair
and was dressed casually in jeans and a varsity jacket. “And this is Rex,” he said smirking at the
other boy.
Rex had shaved black hair, stretched ear piercings and colourful tattoos that were visible on his
hands and neck. Normally I would have been a little hesitant or even frighted of someone that
looked like that but his outfit made him look less intimidating.
I looked over at Senka. “Don't ask,” he laughed opening the car door for me.
“What? It's really comfy.” Rex said putting the hood up on his black cat onesie.
I sat in the back and Jack climbed in next to me, there was another row of seats behind us. Senka sat
in the seat in front of me and Rex climbed in behind the wheel. Rex reversed the car out and we
slowly made our way along the drive. My hands were clammy and I felt like I was coming out in a
cold sweat. A million different thoughts were going round in my head about how badly this could
turn out.
Senka turned around in his seat and looked over at me. “Ruby, relax it's going to be okay.” he said.
Jack handed me a pair of black shades. “Put these on, push your hair back and keep your hood up.”
I slipped them on and looked at Senka. “We're nearly at the gate, take this and pretend you're
looking at it and they shouldn't bother you.” Senka said handing me his cell.
Senka spun back around and I could see the lights from the gate up ahead. I pulled the hood further
over my head and slumped back into my seat. The main gates were tall black iron gates and were lit
up with large overhead spotlights. On this side of the gates there was a tall square building, with an
open window where someone sat. The top of the square building was a look out where another
guard was posted. On the other side of the gates there was a small guards box with two more
guards. Rex rolled down his window and pulled up next to the building.
“Hey, what's up!” Rex said leaning out his window talking to someone. I quickly looked back at the
cell forgetting I wasn't meant to be looking around. A torch light flashed through the car but I kept
my head down resisting the urge to look up at whoever was flashing the light on me.
“You guys headed to work or into town?” the guard asked.
“Err town tonight.” Rex replied.
“Well the town is celebrating tonight. There was a wedding earlier today.”
I heard crunching on the gravel as the guard walked away. I carefully looked up to see the gates in
front opening. I couldn't believe I was going to be on the outside for the first time and headed into
town. Maybe it was this
Heaven's Point
that Mack had mentioned before?
Rex steered the car right and onto a road which had dense trees on either side. He speeded up and
the trees soon whizzed past the windows. Rex made a whooping sound and Senka turned round in
his seat to look at me. I removed the glasses and went to hand them back to Jack.
“Leave them on the door, for when you come back.” he said as he leaned into the front trying to
reach the radio controls.