The tunnel wasn’t like anything Ian expected. He thought the simple design and furnishings of the previous room would continue even in the new passage. But the walls here looked far older. They seemed to be carved from the very earth itself. Rock walls were moist with groundwater, rough surfaces unevenly formed from some natural or supernatural force. His host seemed used to them, but something about them unsettled Ian. Some ancient power permeated this place.
I have nowhere to run, even if I wanted to. I have to be strong.
He repeated the mantra in his head again and again, once with each step forward. But Ian wanted to panic. He wanted to run. He could feel the impending danger before him. Saul knew him. Saul wanted him for something. The life of him and his friends were in danger until he could uncover the answer. He couldn’t help but think Saul only wanted him here to kill him. Yet if Saul wanted him dead, Sandra could have used her powers to keep him from defending himself.
The tunnel winded around and downward. If they were on the ground level before, they quickly made their way into some kind of catacombs beneath River City. As they passed an offshoot in another direction, Ian wondered how expansive the tunnels were. And how many people had died trying to escape. It was the perfect trap to keep him and Phoebe from escape.
After several long minutes, several more turns and a half dozen forks in the tunnel, Saul turned and lead Ian into a long haul. Here one side of the walls were made of solid cinder blocks, cold and flat outside the four metal doors that broke them into separate cells. Because that is all they could be, some kind of confinement for Saul’s enemies.
Is this my future?
But Saul offered him no answers. Instead, he pulled a set of keys from his pocket. The ring held over a dozen keys, all ancient skeleton keys unlike anything in regular modern use. He flipped through a few and found the one he wanted. Saul walked to the nearest door, inserted the key and opened the lock. Saul grabbed a heavy iron ring just below the lock and slowly pulled the door open.
Ian felt a surge of power blast from the opening, even as darkness rushed over him.
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