The Invisible Hand by James Hartley

Author:James Hartley [Hartley, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78535-499-1
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2017-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

The soil steps led them down into dank, fetid darkness but by the time they’d realised how deep they were there seemed to be nothing to do but walk on and on into the cold earth.

The tunnel smelled of worms and soil. Occasionally hanging roots, some sharp, some waspish, would tickle their faces, but Leana pressed herself close to Sam as Sam pressed stubbornly on. If anything goes wrong I’ll just retrace our steps, he thought. Out loud he said, “We’ll just see where it leads. This might be our only chance. It has to be a tunnel!”

For a long time the steps led only downwards but finally there was a levelling out. Sam gingerly felt for the one opening which presented itself – down here, with no fresh air, the empty space before their faces felt as thick as any wall – and they began to move forwards again, shuffling along like children playing trains. After a few minutes of this Leana cried out, “Listen!”

“What?”

“Our feet! Listen to the sound of our feet!”

Sam began to walk forwards again and, sure enough, something had changed. They were walking on stones now, on some kind of soily, cobbled pathway. Both lifted their hands to feel what was above them but the ceiling was earth and it flaked away into their staring, blind eyes and open mouths.

“This has to be one of the old tunnels,” Sam whispered. They were alone, in the darkness, walking under the graveyard, and it only seemed right to whisper.

“Do you think it goes right to the school?”

“Dunno. It has to go somewhere.”

Although they were both excited at what they were discovering, Sam had noticed something hanging from the ceiling, blocking his way. Thinking the obstruction was a root, they both discovered, after careful examination, a grisly truth: what was hanging from the soil ceiling was a slimy femur, and the remains of an adult’s hand. A skeleton, it seemed, had sunk down from one of the graves above.

Despite their best attempts to stay calm, Sam and Leana lost their sense of direction and panicked. They ran headlong into more human remains, crying out to each other as they became separated, clawing at the walls with their blind, bare hands as bones and dirt rained down on them from what seemed like every side.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.