Seven

Farrow was gone longer than I expected. We were left to stare at the upside-down mountain as the light of the sun faded from the horizon. I wondered what time it was and finally remembered that I was reaching for my watch when I’d found Sadie’s note. I pulled it out and caught the time. 9:00. I assumed that was p.m., but I really had no idea. Crap, I thought. What must my parents be thinking? Then a worse thought entered my head. Michael’s parents had already lost one child…what were they going to do when they found out Michael was gone? It made me feel slightly sick to my stomach thinking about it.
“Michael,” I turned to talk to him, say something about it, but he was looking so intently at the mountains, he didn’t even turn at the sound of his name. I didn’t want to break his reverie. It occurred to me though, that maybe Michael’s parents didn’t have to worry—at least for now. If I could only get a note to Sadie. I pulled out the notebook I had intended to doodle on during school that day and began scribbling a note.

Sadie,
Listen, can you do me a favor? I ran into Michael on the way to school today and we—

What? What could I say to Sadie that would make sense? What would she believe?

We sorta made up. That’s why I missed you at break and lunch. We decided to skip school and hang out for a bit. I think we’re gonna go to a movie tonight, the double feature. It starts at 10, so we’ll be out pretty late. Hey, and Michael forgot his cell so can you just let his parents know what’s going on ? And tell Mom and Dad too. You owe me this, Sadie, so please just do it.
-Cass
p.s. get my shoes back from Kerry.

That would hopefully buy us some time before Michael’s parents really started freaking out. I really hated the thought of them worrying. They’d been through enough. Two movies, starting at ten… maybe that’d even get us until morning if they went to sleep before we were supposed to get back. I folded the note up and then just stared at it for a bit. Now what? I had no idea how Sadie’s note had gotten to me, so I had no way of knowing how to get one back to her. Or where it would show up—if it ever did. Well, I thought, Sadie’s note ended up in my pocket. So… it’s worth a try. I slipped the note carefully into my pocket then patted it lamely. Just then, Michael turned around. His face was thoughtful, like he was trying to puzzle something out.
“What is it?” I asked, realizing that with the number of odd things that had occurred recently, that may have been a pretty ridiculous question.
“It’s just odd, that’s all. The sun I mean,” he said, when he saw the No duh look I was giving him at that moment. “I don’t really know, but I’m pretty sure that it just set in the east.”
“What gives you that idea?”
“Well, it’s the mountain – the mountain that we climbed is to the west of us, you know in …our world. So it makes sense that the sun would set behind it. But… it’s on the wrong side of me. I don’t know if that makes sense at all,” he laughed then. “Well, none of it really makes sense. But I mean, I’ve lived in the same valley my whole life and oriented myself by that mountain. It’s on the wrong side. It’s on the east. I think… I think we’re in some kind of mirror image of our world. The flipside of it. Somehow, when we climbed that mountain, it … flipped upside down. We flipped completely to the underside of the world.”
“Hey, that’s just what I was thinking!” I exclaimed, feeling a small sense of relief that at lease if I was crazy, then Michael was too. At least we were on the same page. Michael smiled a bit.
“Crazy, huh? What is this place?”
I was about to respond that I had no freaking clue, when I saw Farrow coming toward us with another demon. It was now too dim to see either one of them very well, though a faint glow radiated off of the white sand and filled the air around us with a pale, grayish light. In the light I could see that the other demon was taller, probably over six feet tall. He towered over Farrow, but somehow the two of them seemed to fit together. Like before Farrow had been half his self, and now he had it comfortably beside him. Like the oldest of friends.
As they came closer to where we were standing, I could see that the larger demon had a sort of mottled green and brown fur covering his body. Like, Farrow, he also walked on two legs, but instead of cloven feet he had more human-like ones, though they were covered in fur. His hands, too, were furry and his palms were padded. The hair on his head grew long and framed his large, intelligent face. His eyes were large and outlined by heavy forehead and cheek bones. The fur on his face was thinner than elsewhere on his body, and lighter in color. Though he did not wear any clothes, a belt rested on his hips and a broad sword hung from it. A shield, bow, and quiver were positioned on his broad back. I noticed also that Farrow now carried a sword, though it was a lighter, smaller one than his friend’s. Two small knives protruded from casings on a leather breastplate he wore. I wondered if I ought to be worried by this sudden and unprecedented display of weaponry. But before I could think much of it, they had reached us. The larger demon bowed, and somehow I felt like I was receiving some sort of undue honor. I blushed and bowed back, not knowing quite what to do.
“This is Tyrrian,” Farrow said, though he seemed quite oblivious to my embarrassment. I did catch a strange look from Michael, but I glared at him until he shrugged and looked back at Farrow and Tyrrian. Farrow continued, “Tyrrian, these are Michael and Cassie.”
Tyrrian nodded, but didn’t say anything. We all looked at Farrow then, waiting for direction. He looked around smiling, then seemed to suddenly realize that he was in charge.
“Oh yes, well!” He exclaimed. “We’d better get going. Just this way now, follow me.” He darted off, moving past us in a direction that took us away from the mountain. West, if Michael’s sense of direction was right. We followed him closely; though there was still light, it was dim and I was afraid we might lose sight of his quickly darting figure. Suddenly, out of nowhere it seemed, a looming darkness spread before us, like the edge of a great black hole. Farrow approached it fearlessly, reaching out for what looked like, oddly, a railing leading downward into the blackness. He turned back to us.
“Well, here we are, friends,” he said cheerfully. “The edge of Madness. I believe there should be some lanterns in your packs?”
Michael and I began searching in the packs that the Unsightly demons had given us before we left their cave. In mine, I saw what looked like several packets of food, possibly a weapon or two, though I didn’t have time to look, and then finally my hand came upon something that looked promising. It turned out to be a flashlight, quite similar to the one my family had for camping trips and emergency power outages. It wasn’t exactly what I had had in mind when Farrow had said lantern, but it would certainly work. Michael had found a flashlight in his bag too, and he handed his to Farrow.
“Ah, wonderful. Just down this stair, I should think, and we’ll really be in it then.”
“What do you mean?” Michael asked. His voice sounded about as surprised as I felt, and almost as alarmed. “You …think? You mean you haven’t been?”
“Well of course not! No one’s been to Madness, not any of the lesser demons anyway. We’re of the Fringes, Rim-folk, you see?” He smiled and made as if to turn around, as if he intended to descend the staircase, but Michael held out a hand.
“But how can you be our guide, if you’ve never been there? How can you help me find my sister?” he demanded.
“The Unsightly Demons are not fools,” it was Tyrrian who spoke. His voice was gentle and slow, but I still felt the reproach. “If they have chosen us for your guides, then it is because we can take you successfully through Madness.”
Michael looked as if he wanted to argue, but I stopped him lightly with a hand on his elbow. “Michael, do we really have a choice?”
He sighed. Farrow smiled and said, “The girl has a point. But really, you shouldn’t worry so much. Tyrrian here is not only our greatest scholar, engineer, and inventor, as I think I may have mentioned before, he is also one of our best warriors,” he winked “I’m the other one.”
“Whatever is waiting down there, we are your best chance at getting through it,” Tyrrian assured. Michael just nodded and Farrow turned back toward the stair. This time, there was no argument as we followed him, Michael directly behind the smaller demon, then I followed Michael, and Tyrrian falling into step behind me. I felt safer having his large frame behind me. I paused a bit as I reached the railing and slipped my hand into my pocket. The note I had written to Sadie was no longer there. Magic pockets, I thought. Neat.