Tunnels of Darkness

Chapter One

Theodore lay shivering under the covers. It wasn't so much the cold that was affecting him- it was the fact that this was his first night away from his Dad. His Dad may have been a murderer, but he was still Dad.

Theodore really hated this place, even though he had only been here for one day. The whole place had an abandoned and dead atmosphere, and the teachers went around with glassy eyes. Theo doubted they would even notice if every single kid just disappeared. And the other kids were just as bad. They barely ever acknowledged each other's existence- just an empty glare now and again when you tried to talk to them and that was it. They spend most if the lessons sleeping.

Theo stared up at the tall roof of his room, seeing the creaking rafters that were slowly rotting away. He heard in his mind the great crash of noise it would make if it fell from the ceiling. Slowly he worked himself up into a cold terror and huddled up in the blankets. The darkness surrounding him was pulled back with a click as a silver torch-beam flickered on in front of him. He opened his mouth to scream, but a hissing voice cut him off. "Quiet" It said. "I'm not here to harm you."

There was a small creaking of floorboards, and then a girl with short mousy hair emerged from the darkness. Theodore looked at her confused; he had seen this girl earlier. Her name was Alex. In class he had woken her up to ask her a question about the orphanage and she had glared at him with hard grey dead eyes.

But in the torchlight, her eyes came alive. Shadows danced almost joyfully in the pupils, and the dead mist of earlier had disappeared. But the thing about her that astonished Theo most was her clothes. Gone was the typical grey uniform of the orphanage. Instead she wore a tight-fitting brown leather jacket with furry white material sewn round her shoulders, like ghostly epaulets. In grey belt that was looped round the top of her worn jeans, was a long glinting silver dagger. Theodore stared at it, shocked. He wondered what the strange browny-red stain on the blade was and hoped it wasn't blood.

Luckily for Theo, she hadn't come to his room with murderous intent. She smiled at him and gestured for him to clamber out of bed. "Follow me." She said, in a smooth, confident voice.