Chapter Text
The sewers underneath this town were clean. Eerily so. Generally Tenten did not make a habit of entering the sewers, but when she’d arrived in this town, escaping from someone who’d taken personal offense to her existence as a street orphan, and intending on just laying low for a little while before heading back to the city, she’d noticed an open grate, and peeked down it just out of curiosity.
Peeked down it for a quick look, and then ended up climbing down to investigate because there was no way they could possibly be that clean.
They were that clean. She had no idea how they were pulling it off. Was there a secret second layer of sewers? One that actually handled all of the stuff? There had to be, how else would it be so clean in here?
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest move on her part, but even when the light stopped streaming in through the grates she passed, Tenten didn’t stop wandering through them, too curious about this place to leave. It wasn’t like she had anywhere else to be, and again, it was really clean. She doubted she’d find a better place to spend the night.
She did get out her flashlight so she could see better, but honestly, the moon was full, and with how clean it was, she really just turned it on to get a closer look at various things.
Eventually, after a few hours of just walking through the tunnels, she found a hatch that went down further. It’d leave the moonlight and thus most of her light behind, but that was what her flashlight was for. And maybe this way she could figure out what was going on here.
Tenten was a great many things, and insatiably curious was absolutely one of them. It had gotten her into trouble before, and it probably would again, but she just couldn’t help herself.
The tunnels were silent. It was eerie. No rushing water, no rats scurrying, no bugs buzzing around, nothing. Eerily quiet, and eerily clean.
If Tenten was in the habit of being nervous about absolutely nothing, she’d say she was walking into a horror movie.
But frankly, most people would probably call most of her life a horror movie, so she wasn’t too concerned about it.
Her flashlight beam swept from side to side as she looked around, keeping an eye on the path ahead and watching for anything interesting.
For quite a while, there was nothing. It was getting warmer as she walked further down into the tunnel system, which was a little weird, but maybe there was something underneath the system, something that produced heat.
Eventually, she came across a little symbol. It was etched into the ceiling, she’d only spotted it because she had been looking to see if there was another hatch up into the upper tunnels.
It wasn’t easy to see, but she was pretty sure it was some sort of little star? It looked like it had a little T in it too.
The tunnels weren’t quite tall enough for her to be able to reach the carving, although when she jumped and brushed her fingers against it, just out of curiosity, there was a faint rumbling noise.
For a second, she thought she’d accidentally triggered some sort of trap and she was about to get hit by something really nasty, but all it seemed to be doing was opening a door. A door that had been very very well hidden in the wall.
Tenten poked her head inside, sweeping the flashlight across the room. Bookshelves lined the walls, and in the middle of the room was a sort of odd chair suspended over what looked like a hole.
She slowly approached the hole, peeking over the edge and realizing that it was deep. Really really deep. She shined her flashlight down the hole, and it didn’t reach any sort of bottom.
Tenten swallowed hard and backed away from the hole, nervous about falling down it. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of heights, but the idea of somehow falling down a hole into apparently the void would terrify anyone.
She went to the bookshelves instead.
They were…journals? Lots and lots of journals.
She scanned the spines, noting a lot of them were labeled with names that had the last name of Shane. The Shanes stopped after a certain point, and some names after that point didn’t have last names.
How old were some of these journals? Some of them looked like they’d fall apart if she looked at them wrong.
She noticed a piece of paper sticking out from between two of the journals, and grabbed it, unfolding it to see what was inside.
It was…a goodbye note? The whole first paragraph was about how the writer was sorry to leave whoever they were writing to behind.
She folded it back up and stuck it back where she’d found it. Not her business. She wasn’t going to intrude on that. It was probably all really emotional stuff, and it wasn’t her business at all.
Tenten scanned all of the journals, and decided not to read them. It’d take forever, and who knew what kind of stuff was in them. Probably some weird stuff she didn’t care about.
She’d just… be really careful when investigating the chair. Make sure she didn’t fall in. Her life may be kind of a mess and a horror movie to anyone else, but she was alive, and she didn’t really want to change that. It was her life, she was going to live it thank you very much. And living it didn’t involve falling down a hole into the void.
The chair was padded, orange padding obvious against the white metal, and it was bulky, with thick arms, a thick base, and something on the back. It was weird. Plus there was a bar on it, like on a sort of carnival ride. Why was that there?
It didn’t do anything when she poked it, so she hesitantly sat down on it. It was a comfortable chair, but why was it down here? Why was it in this room?
Why was it over this weird hole?
Huh, there were buttons on the arm. On the right side, two smaller orange ones above a larger blue one. On the left, a large blue one. It was slightly inset, and there was an unused hinge above it, like there was supposed to be something above it. Whatever had been above it though was long gone now.
What kind of room was this? Some sort of hidden lair? Why the clean sewer tunnels? Why the hidden entrance?
Tenten swept the flashlight beam across the room again, for a second forgetting about the buttons and putting her elbow down on the chair’s arm.
She remembered the buttons too late. She’d already pressed the larger blue one on the right side.
A seatbelt snapped into place around her waist, and the bar came down, locking in across her chest.
Tenten scrabbled at the bar and the seatbelt, but neither moved, even when she hit the orange buttons, and then the blue button again.
She was stuck.
Was it a trap of some kind? No, that'd be stupid. Who would fall for that sort of trap?
Her, obviously, but most people probably wouldn’t. And who would have a trap in a room this hidden?
The door had closed. She hadn’t noticed, but she noticed it now as she stared across the room at it. Maybe this was a trap. Had someone been alerted or was she just going to die here?
There was one option left. The large blue button on the left arm.
It probably didn’t do anything good, but her other option was just sit and wait forever.
Tenten swallowed harshly, peeking over the side of the arm rest at the hole waiting beneath her. What if it dropped her? What would be waiting at the bottom?
She turned off her flashlight, stashing it in her waistband since she couldn’t get it into her backpack with the bar across her chest. On second thought, she slid it into the inside pocket of her jacket. Slightly more secure.
Then, in the pitch black darkness of the room, she found the button with her fingers, closed her eyes, even though that did nothing, took a deep breath, and hit it.