Love Never-Ending Read Online Free Page B

Life after they disappeared in the mountains never to
be seen again. Even though they’d been gone nearly twenty-five years their
absence was still like an aching tooth, a constant reminder of their loss.
    That one event marked the turning point for so many other
things in his life. His half brother, Nikolas, had been abducted at the same
time. When he was eventually found wandering naked and freezing in the
mountains he kept muttering about a little blue man and a vanishing tunnel. No
amount of therapy or drugs had helped and finally Nikolas had to be
institutionalized. For a long while Bishop had faithfully visited, positive
that his visits would somehow make a difference for Nik’s recovery. And then
one day Nikolas disappeared without a trace as though he had never existed.
    Bishop shook himself out of the black hole of bad memories
and dark speculations. Remembering wouldn’t help them now. He needed to locate
the elusive tunnel and help for Trav. He capped the water bottle and placed it
next to his blanket.
    Refusing to consider the nightmare a journey through a
tunnel would be for him, Bishop flashed the light along the wall, minutely
examining the ripples and folds in the rock. It took him thirty minutes to
locate the opening. The scent of roses grew stronger as he searched.
Occasionally, he thought he heard the sound of dripping water but though he
listened as intently as possible, he couldn’t pinpoint the direction. It was
such a clever optical illusion that eventually he only found it by running his
hands along the wall. He froze, shivering with a chill that had nothing to do
with the temperature and everything to do with the incredible optical illusion
he’d encountered. The folds in the rock concealed an opening at least three
feet wide.
    Holding the light on the crack, he took a couple careful
steps backward and watched the opening disappear before his eyes like magic.
    With a strange reluctance, he stepped forward again,
pointing the flashlight through the dark space. He had a very bad feeling about
the odd split in the stone. Very bad. Trav desperately needed help and there
were no other options available so he took a deep settling breath and went
through the black opening into the unknown. The light flashed around weirdly
smooth walls that appeared to be some type of man-made material. The texture
wasn’t quite like any stone he was acquainted with. He reached out to touch the
wall closest to him and found the surface slick and warm.
    The passage curved around to the right, then the left, then
the right, jogging in short and long stretches that seemed endless. He
investigated the first twenty feet and turned back. There was no sense in
making the journey twice. If the tunnel led to help, then he would have to
return for Trav. And if not? Then they were no worse off than the present.
    The journey back seemed so much farther. Fighting off the
black heart-pounding panic that he always felt in small spaces, he continued,
jogging as fast as he could in the twisty corridor. Suddenly he burst from the
tunnel into the familiar space of the cave. He bent over and planted his hands
just above his knees. His chest heaved as he gasped for air. Nausea threatened
but he wrestled the panic into submission, refusing to allow the fear to
paralyze him. Trav needed help. He was going to drag Trav down that damn
passage until he found help.
    After a moment, Bishop shakily straightened up and went to
check on Trav.
    “We can get out this way, Trav. It will be tight in some
places but I can drag you behind me.” Faint rumbles near the front of the cave
finalized their decision for them.
    Thirty minutes later, Bishop screwed up his courage and
stepped back into the tunnel. He shuffled the first five feet, dragging Trav
behind him on a jury-rigged stretcher put together from Trav’s sleeping bag, a
thin foam mat and one of the sturdier pieces of wood stacked in one corner of
the cave.
    To Bishop’s untutored eye, it