Cotton Bear's Castle - Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The light from the flashlight wasn’t able to reveal too much in the dark narrow corridor. As Ben moved slowly, so did the walls. He was being watched by thousands of little eyes. Ben could hear a creaking noise as he walked. The farther he walked the louder the creak. So he stopped and moved the flashlight around the area, finally ending on the ground under his feet. The dirt and dust that lay around his shoes were joined by the littering of little bones and old cobwebs. As he stood there the creaking sound grew in strength.

Then suddenly the ground broke under him. Ben crashed through the wooden floor taking the little bones with him. In a split second move Ben let go of the flashlight and grabbed the edge of the wood floor. Watching the flashlight fall below him until it was no longer in sight, Ben hung on dearly with his legs swinging without support. Wishing he could use his whip to snag something to pull him up was only second to wanting to see where he was. Without his flashlight Ben was put into total darkness.

Feeling around the best that he could while hanging there; Ben remembered he had some matches in his jacket pocket. Letting go of one hand he reached into his pocket, found a match and using his thumb nail, struck the match in such a way to light it. What little light that came from the match showed Ben he didn’t have much to help him. Then, with a surprise, he felt a tiny prick on his other hand, the one that was holding his body from falling into nothing. Twisting his body he could just make out the multi-legged creatures that had made their way to his hand. Soon the light from the match was going to go out. Then Ben spotted something high above him in the ceiling of the corridor. A small chain, maybe 3 feet in length, was hanging down and over to the wall. Ben knew he could throw his whip out and snag the chain and pull himself up. Only the problem Ben faced was he needed another hand to grab the whip. He had to somehow get his whip out, lasso the chain while not falling to his certain doom and time was running out.

Using his amazing abilities Ben let go of the wood edge and with lightning reflexes reached down and grabbed his whip. Then with the match slowly going out and his body now falling he threw out the whip at the chain high above him. Just as the end of the whip was making contact with the chain the match went out, plunging Ben into darkness once again. Ben hung on the end of his whip as it caught and held firmly, stopping him with a snap. Now he was swinging at the end of the whip as it clung to a rusted chain link, dangling over a seemingly endless pit. It seemed like it was just another adventure for Illinois Ben.

end of chapter two