The Green Ones

Episode 3, Part 2

The sun’s final breath pours through occasional windows, setting the inside of the abandoned building alight with red and orange. As we progress down three flights, then finally a fourth, we pass into the basement and out of the light entirely. In the dark, I’m forced to rely on Olin’s sixth sense to steady our progress. “Enough with the games. Where are we going?”

Centavo ignores my question. At the base of the stairs, he slaps his bare foot on the stone floor. The faintest flicker of green flame ripples outward. Suddenly the stones beneath him fall away.

Three steps above the basement floor, Olin and I freeze.

Centavo floats in the air long enough to answer my earlier question, “We’re going down.” Then he drops out of sight.

Descending the final few steps, I peer over the edge. “There’s no bottom.”

Olin joins me. “He wants us to follow.”

“Xoxochueyi, did you hear what I said? This thing could be a hundred meters deep.” As soon as I finish, the sound of stones striking the bottom echos upward. I step away, shaking my head. “No way I’m going down there.”

“I can do this, trust me.” Olin reaches for my hands.

“Do what? Fly?”

“More like slow falling.”

“And you’ve been practicing this when?”

“Stop thinking so much,” he stomps his foot. “I want to see what’s down there. Don’t you?”

The floor trembles beneath me. “Olin, you’re acting as if you’ve nothing left to live for. I won’t let you throw everything away just because of me.”

He takes my hands. “I could say the same for you.”

“It’s not the same, and you know it.” I pull him away from the gaping hole. “There’s nothing you can say that will—”

“He knew our parents,” Olin interrupts.

“Xoxochueyi,” I swear and close my eyes.

Sensing my hesitation, Olin swoops the two of us through the opening.

My stomach rises into my throat. I try to scream, mustering nothing except a shrill squeak. For an impossibly long second I’m limp with terror. Then a blue light fills the darkness. Olin’s skin warms to the touch, and I strengthen my grip. Our descent slows. “It’s working.”

Olin trembles in response.

With a stomach-lurching reverse in momentum, we stop completely, centimeters from the bottom. Shaking, I pull away from my brother and drop onto contact with the cave floor. “You did it.”

Olin shakes his head, breathing heavy. “No, not me. I couldn’t—”

“It was a noble first try.” Centavo steps out of shadow, illuminating the space around us with a green light. “The best I’ve seen.”

“Wait, this was some sort of test?” My wobbly legs strengthen with anger.

Centavo nods. “In the academy no one will bother catching you. Fly or die they call it.”

“You’re saying this is an academy test?” I step forward. “So as a consolation we’ve been enrolled into Centavo’s school of the underground?”

“I wanna know how he did it,” Olin pulls me back. “I saw the air just before…like it came alive.”

“Indeed, you’re ahead of the curve,” Centavo grins. “This way.”