“We can’t,” Josel said, his heart racing, already knowing he was a dead man even if he were to uphold his vow. Too much had happened already. “The Dark Ones’ pets are destroying the boats that are moored in the harbor. I believe some are even crawling onto shore.”
“Dark Ones’ pets?” This from the attractive woman. “You mean the Clickers?”
“Yes,” Josel said. He’d heard that the mainlanders called the Dark Ones’ pets Clickers. It was a stupid name, but if it made the idiots happy, so be it. “What you call Clickers…they are pets to the Dark Ones.”
There were mutters of surprise from below. The bearded man had a look of fascination.
“Ga’o!” Keoni muttered. For a moment Keoni looked like he was at a crossroads. He quickly pulled himself together and addressed Josel again. “The chiefs…where are they?”
“All dead,” Josel said. “We have angered the Dark Ones.”
“How? Why?”
“Because we allowed the mainlanders to stay here. Their presence has tainted this holy ground.”
“Is there any other way we can get off this island?” The bearded man asked Keoni, his voice tinged with impatience.
Keoni ignored the bearded man. “Josel…we must get you off the island.”
“I am too old,” Josel said. “It is near the end of my time.”
“Your knowledge is most valuable,” Keoni said. He stepped out of the trapdoor and approached the old man, held his hand out. “Come…our pursuers are far enough behind that if you leave with us now, we can duck down another tunnel and quickly lose them.”
“And if you meet with other Dark Ones?”
“Other Dark Ones? You mean the Dark Ones can enter these tunnels through other means?”
Josel felt that time was slipping away fast. Another scream came from the north shore, where his people had congregated at the beach for as long as he could remember. More screams followed, accompanied by frenzied clicks. Directly outside and heading toward the house came the sound of running footsteps, along with voices of panic.
That decided it for him. Josel stepped toward Keoni and motioned down the tunnel. “Yes, the Dark Ones have the capability of entering our tunnels. But I know of a safe spot. Come.”
“Before we leave,” Keoni asked, “do you have anything we can use as weapons? Anything to defend ourselves?”
“No. Now follow me.”
Keoni stepped back and headed down into the blackness as Josel descended into the depths of the tunnels. As he reached out to close the trapdoor behind him, his last thoughts were, I will never see my home again. But I will redeem myself.
And then the door was closed and he was in the vast blackness of the tunnel. Keoni had his flashlight on. Josel saw the other two mainlanders who were with him. A man and a woman, both of them in middle age. They were standing at the bottom of the ladder that reached up to the trapdoor that had lain in the center of Josel’s bedroom. Keoni’s features were eager. “Where do we go?”
“Back down this passage, then take the far right passage,” Josel answered, climbing down to the tunnel floor to join them.
The long haired man was peppering Keoni with questions. “Who is this man?”
“He’s Naranu’s holy man,” Keoni explained. “He’ll know what to do.”
Josel’s mind was racing. Perhaps he still had time left on this earth to lead a good life, away from the superstitions of his people and the peril of Dagon. “I must warn you all,” he said, shouldering his way past the mainlanders. “The path I am about to take you down will skirt a much older section of this island.”
“Are you going to take us toward the center of Mount Rigiri?” the middle aged woman asked.
Josel turned to her. “You call it Mount Rigiri, but my people and the Dark Ones have a much older name for it.”
“What is that?”
“R’lyeh.”
The word seemed to resonate with the mainlanders in a way he never expected. They seemed taken aback; fearful. Surely they’d never heard the word before…
The young woman confirmed this. “I’ve never heard that word before today but something about it…The sound of that word strikes a sort of primal fear in me.”
The long haired man standing next to her seemed about to speak, but then he stopped. The other newcomers nodded in unison. It was true then. These people weren’t as stupid as he thought they’d be. Josel nodded at them, grateful that he could perhaps get them to listen to him when the time came. “Believe me when I tell you this: a god sleeps beneath Mount Rigiri, in a sunken city called R’lyeh. This god is Dagon but you may know him by other names: Cthulhu, Kraken, Leviathan.”