Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (15 page)

“Seriously, are you trying to sit on my lap?” Senka asked joking as Jack leaned over him. “Just
switch Jack.” Senka said squeezing under him and pulling himself into the back next to me.
He took his cell back and pulled my hood down and took the cap off my head and hooked it over
the drivers seat. “We're out now you don't need to hide anymore.”
“What's this town we're going to?” I asked.
“Brackelburn,” Rex said in a funny high pitched voice.
I looked at Senka. “Is he being serious?” I asked unsure.
“Yep, it's really called Brackelburn.” he replied.
I felt partly disappointed hoping we were heading to Heaven's Point. But any town was better than
no town if it meant a couple of hours away from the manor which was starting to feel more like a
prison.
Jack continued flicking through radio stations. “Signals crap down here tonight can't get anything.”
he complained.
“They've got really bad weather up there today it's probably messing with the signal. Just pick a CD
already.” Rex said.
Jack reached under his seat for something and a few moments later he popped a CD in. Loud and
unfamiliar hip hop music blared out the speakers but Jack didn't seem satisfied with the volume and
cranked it up another few notches.
“What's this town like?” I asked looking at Senka hoping he would hear me.
“It's probably not what you're expecting.” he smiled and gently pulled on the ends of my hair.
I watched out the window at the passing trees, the road was straight and seemed to go on forever
with only a few turns. I thought the trees seemed to be whizzing by faster than before so I looked
over at the speedometer and suddenly felt the need to hold onto the door handle. Senka leaned in
closer to me.
“He's not going to crash. We'll be there in a minute.”
I looked out the window and saw an old wooden sign sticking out the ground.
Brackelburn
was
carved into the wood.
Rex pulled the SUV over to the side of the road and into a dirt pull in, I looked through the front
window but didn't see a town in sight. I knew it was dark but I couldn't see anything. Senka learned
across me and opened the door.
“Why have we stopped?” I asked as Senka nudged me out the door.
“The villagers don't like us driving into their town so we park outside.”
“What, why not?” I asked confused.
“You'll see when we get there. Let's just say this town is a little old fashioned in their ways.” Senka
said taking my hand and pulling me alongside him.
I looked ahead in the direction we were walking and heard the beat of a drum. We followed the road
which was a straight dirty mud track. I could faintly see the outlines of the other two in front of us
and in the distance I could see two small lights that seemed to be flickering. Up ahead the sound of
beating drums grew louder. My eyes kept searching the trees and I found myself clinging onto
Senka with my other hand.
“Are we safe?” I whispered to him.
“Yes, tonight we are safe.” he laughed softly near my ear.
I wondered what he meant by tonight?
Jack let out a loud howl into the sky mimicking a wolf.
“JACK! What the hell man.....cut it out. That's not funny.” Rex said smacking him.
“Relax I checked the calender, full moon isn't for another four days.” Jack replied.
I looked up at the night sky. There was not one star insight, I was beginning to wonder if they even
existed anymore as I hadn't seen any since I'd been here and during the day the clouds always
seemed to mask the sun and even now the clouds covered the moon. Another thing I had questions
about. I was starting to question where I really was?
The dirt track swerved off to the right and we veered off and walked into the overgrown grass. The
sound of drums and other musical instruments grew louder and I could now see the lights in front
were actually two burning torches. We walked under the trees and into the forest. I was about to say
something and ask where on earth we were going when a pair of large wooden gates came into
view. The wooden gate had gaps in it and looked to be made out of thin trees, either side of the gate
had a tall wall of tree fencing that disappeared into the forest on each side. There was someone on
the other side moving around. Rex stepped up onto the gate and stuck his face in between a gap
peeking through. I saw Jack looking at me, he smiled and looked back at the gate.
“Err Senka where are we?” I asked. But before I got a response someone jumped out of a near by
bush.
“Show your faces?” a short man with a deep gruff voice shouted.
I jumped and stepped back into Senka. The man held a cross bow moving it back and fourth
between Jack and I. He had a thick red beard and mattered looking hair and was dressed in strange
old fashioned clothes and a pair of boots that definitely didn't look like they had been purchased at
any hight street store. He also wore a loose cape that hung down his back, it reminded me of the
way Cam dressed.
Rex jumped down. “Gunther,” he said to the man.
“Rex,” he replied, resting his cross bow over his shoulder. “I was just practising. It helps the night
pass quicker.” Gunther said, his eyes jumping back and fourth between us all. “And who do we
have here?” Gunther asked eyeing me up and down.
“This is Ruby. She's just one of the servant girls from the castle.” Rex replied.
“Servant girl huh, a rather pretty one as well. I still haven't found me a wife,” he said in his thick
accent.
“Err...” I said not sure where he was going with that sentence.
“Sorry Gunther this one's already spoken for.” Jack said winking at me.
“Well no harm in asking. Seems everyone else is getting married but me. Our little Mary Ann got
married to William today that's what all the noise is, they're still celebrating but you are quite
welcome to join in.” Gunther said smiling at me which showed a missing tooth in front. He walked
over to the gate.
“Oi Ronan.....Ronan wake up you useless rat.”
“Huh....what is it?” replied the boy.
A young teenage boy with dirty blonde hair appeared at a gap in the gate looking at us.
“Ronan make yourself useful and open the gate for our friends.”
“Yeah yeah...” Ronan said lazily sounding as bored as he looked.
One of the large gates opened inwards and Ronan stood holding it open for us.
Jack and Rex walked straight through, but I was still standing on the same spot wondering where
we were. Senka grabbed my shoulders from behind and steered me through the gate.
As we moved further away from the gate the music in front started to grow louder.
“What's with all the security?” I asked Senka.
“They're just careful about who they let in. It's a very closed off town they don't like strangers.”
We walked along a row of wooden buildings that looked like homes, some had flowers and herbs
growing outside in pots. We followed the boys in front as they cut in between two of the homes. We
came out onto what looked like a small street but there was no road or cobbles just bare ground.
There were wooden houses on both sides, most of them had been built off the ground on wooden
stilts and had steps or ladders to access them. Some were taller than others with small windows,
most of them were dark but a few had some light coming through the windows. It was as if we had
stepped onto a movie set. Everything looked simple and hand made. Torches had been placed along
the floor lighting the way. Outside one of the homes was a few small wooden pens which had two
pigs in it and there were a group of chickens sitting close by on a wood beam sleeping. We came to
a larger opening where there was an actually well in the middle of the floor. Two girls dashed out of
a small house, they were wearing long dresses with braided hair, one had a dark cape over her
shoulders and flowers in her hair. The pair of them stopped in front of Jack and Rex, giggled and
ran ahead of us.
I looked sideways at Senka, he was watching me carefully. He didn't say anything and neither did I,
I was too busy taking it all in. The little street came to an end and turned off to the left but to the
right I could see burning torches and people standing around. We stopped at the edge of the crowd
and I suddenly felt completely out of place wearing jeans and a hoodie. I would have blended in
better wearing one of my dresses. Jack ducked through the crowd and I lost sight of him. Rex
looked back at us and stuck his thumb to the right and took off in that direction. Loud chatty girls
came up behind us and stepped around us, a couple of them looked me up and down and the other
girls were smiled at Senka as they passed. I looked up at him, he was returning their smiles.
“Come on,” he said ducking down to my ear level.
He steered me through the crowd of people that were clapping and laughing then he pulled into the
middle and we zigzagged around dancing couples, girls and small children. I looked back and saw
where the source of the loud drums was coming from, a group of men sat playing them over in the
corner. We kept walking and passed rows of tables that were laid out with candles and different
kinds of foods. Senka held my hand and kept me close by his side. We passed many different faces,
some looked at Senka while others completely ignored him. Some tried to avoid him but most of the
girls were giggling and smiling at him.
“I think I would have blended in better in my dress.”
“Probably, but I don't want to lose you and I don't want some farmer boy running off with you.”
“I doubt anyone would want to run off with me.”
“Wanna bet?” he said smirking at me.
“Senka where are the lights?”
“What do you mean?” he asked looking at the tables with the candles on.
“There's no street lights anywhere. Why are there only torches?”
“There's no electricity down here.”
“What? We get electric back at the manor.”
“That's because we are directly under Emmett's....err....” he said stuttering. I looked over at him.
“Directly under what?” I asked.
“Look out,” he said quickly pulling me out the way of a group of small boys running towards us.
We carried on walking and I waited for him to continue but he didn't. I was about to ask again when
a girl with long wavy blonde hair jumped in front of us and before I knew what was happening she
had reached up and flung her arms round Senka's neck, he dropped my hand and hugged her back. I
stood awkwardly waiting for her to release him. If I was honest I was a tad bit jealous. Okay maybe
more than a tad bit. All I wanted to do was reach over and pull her off of him.
She smiled and pulled back to look at him but still held onto him. “Hello Senka,”
“Hi Nilah,” he said, even I noticed the twinkle in his eyes.
She finally tore her eyes away from him and looked over at me.
“Oh hello, who are you?” she asked.
“Nilah this is Ruby, my friend.” he said, but all I heard out of those words was
'friend'
. I smiled but
it didn't feel friendly, all I wanted to do was remove her arms from Senka.
“Well it's nice to meet you Ruby.” she said before turning her attention back to Senka.
“You must dance with me Senka,” she said spinning him around and pulling him back the way we
had just walked.
“I can't,” he said untangling her from his arms. “I promise later though, okay?”
“I will hold you to that promise Senka Jenson.”
“I'm sure you will.”
She turned and skipped away. Senka reached out to take my hand but I quickly stuck it inside my
pocket.
“It's a bit cold out tonight.” I said.
It was true after the sun had gone down it always felt cooler.
“Come on we're nearly there.”
I followed closely behind him and every few steps he looked back to make sure I was still behind
him. We passed a wooden building with a sign outside with a drawing of a loaf of bread carved into
the sign. The bakery I guessed.
There was a lot of laugher and noise coming from up ahead. A tall wooden building with a sign
hung above the door, which read
'The Ugly Cow'
.
Two men stepped out of the door holding mugs. One groggily took a sip and stepped aside for
Senka and I. We walked inside to what I could only describe as a really old tavern. The wooden
tables were filled with mainly men singing and laughing, everyone looked to be having a good time.
Senka nodded his head towards the other side and I followed him over to the bar. I hopped up onto a
stool next to him.
“Where are we?” I asked looking around at the people and the way they were dressed all wearing
old fashioned clothes and handmade boots.
“Brackelburn.” he replied waving the barmen over.
“That sounds like something you just made up.”
He ordered two beers while I scanned the room. My eyes landed on Rex at the back playing cards
with a group of older boys, he looked rather ridiculous in his onesie.
“Hey darling,” said a young women's voice.
I spun around and recognised the girl immediately even though she was now dressed in a long
sleeved dark red dress, the complete opposite from the skimpy piece of fabric she had on the last
time I saw her.
“Hazel,” Senka greeted her.
Hazel was carrying a tray full of empty cups and large mugs.
Her eyes landed on me. “Hi, it's Ruby right?” she asked smiling at me.
“Yes.” I replied smiling back at her.
“Well it's nice to meet you Ruby.”
“Hazel,” another girl called.
“Coming,” Hazel said. “My other job is so much easier.” she said winking at Senka.
The barmen placed two beers in front of us.
“Three and bit daneric.” the barmen said.
I looked at Senka hoping he knew what the man was talking about. Senka pulled out his wallet from
his back pocket and flipped it open. He pulled out a handful of coins and picked out three small
silver coins and two small copper ones and handed them over. I raised an eyebrow at him and
leaned over looking at the strange money.
“What's that?”
“Nothing,” he said, quickly shutting his wallet but not before I saw a couple of U.S dollar bills
sticking out at the back.
“Huh, they don't use American dollars here then?” I asked.
He tipped his drink back ignoring me, I knew he'd heard me though.
“So how does she know my name?” I asked.
He shrugged. “One of the guys must have mentioned you. Don't worry she won't say anything about
you being here.”
“So what's this other work Hazel was talking about?” I asked.
I knew exactly what her other work involved, what I really wanted to know was did she ever visit
Senka.