Stronger Together chapter 98 (Patreon)

I had always been fascinated by the idea of Undertown. Ever since I  read about the place I had done tons of research on real life  equivalents. The idea of a city beneath a city had been something I'd  been interested in from way back in my childhood. Sadly nothing quite  like Undertown existed in my world, but knowing I was going to be going  there had me geeking out hard. The idea of going into an underground  catacomb that spanned a huge city, where there might be treasure or  forgotten secrets was intoxicating, even more so knowing the  supernatural beings that called it home.

The  first thing I noticed as we made our way into Undertown was that the  entrance we used wasn't on the surface. We headed to an abandoned house  Harry knew about and he led us into the basement. The place was trashed,  garbage and mattresses littering the floor, but there were no people  there. Harry moved over to the wall and push aside a mattress leaning  against the concrete like several others around us. Behind that mattress  was a hole in the wall, and on the other side of the hole was a path of  dirt.

The  hole was ragged and chipped as if it had been hacked away with a pipe or  something. It was also too short for most of us and we had to crouch  down to slip through, though once on the other side we were able to  stand up fine. The dirt tunnel was lit with glow sticks stabbed into the  walls at regular intervals but other than that it looked well  maintained and carefully made. The walls were held up with well made  wooden braces and the dirt along the sides was packed tight and flat  enough to be the wall of a house.

Harry  turned to us as he led us in, pulling the mattress back against the  wall. I was slightly worried to be doing this without our heavies, but  I'd been able to put down the skinwalker so we should be fine. None of  us were pushovers and we couldn't rely on Cinder, Raven, and Kara for  everything. Harry looked at us seriously "Ok. I'm bringing you all with  me because I know you'd probably find a way down here on your own soon  enough once you knew about it and I wanted to be here to keep an eye  out. That said you need to stick close and be careful. Undertown is a  bad place, it's where the things too awful to be among humans hide  away."

I  expected some attitude from Barb about that, but apparently she knew he  was being serious and was glad he at least brought us a long because she  and Yang both just nodded. Harry exhaled in relief "Thanks guys. Don't  take it personally, I do trust you, you helped a ton against the  skinwalker I'm just on edge down here. Undertown scares me. I tried to  pick an entrance that would get us to a homeless encampment and let us  avoid anything too bad but this place changes often. Be on your guard  and we should be fine."

We  followed the dirt corridor further down, along the way the walls were  broken up with pipes that seemed to come from nowhere and buried trash  or rocks. Whoever had made it had cut off anything that extended too far  into the hall but otherwise just left the refuse there and worked  around it. I could see what I thought was pipes from other houses at  random spots on the sides and top of the dirt walkway showing we were  walking through neighborhoods and under parts of the actual city.  However the tunnel was sloped downward and as we walked those bits of  detritus got fewer and fewer as we descended lower under Chicago.

Finally  after what felt like an hour we came to something truly odd. A door. Or  rather two doors, a set of large elaborate wooden things with well  polished if darkened bronze knobs. The doors were thrown wide open flung  out into the tunnel itself, and beyond them was a floor. The building  here beneath the city was mostly upright, though it seemed to be at a  slight angle, and when we walked inside we all just stopped in shock. It  was a church. Or rather a cathedral. It appeared to have been swallowed  by an earthquake or a sinkhole but the building had remained intact.  The walls were cracked and buckling in places but for the most part a  fully functional structure was just sitting here under the city.

The  walls and chandelier were lined with candles, flickering but providing  enough light to see the whole place. My eyes followed the ceiling  tracing the beautiful arches and even seeing a set of stained glass  windows along the upper walls. The windows were dark on the other side,  earth pressed against them, but somehow during the sinking they hadn't  broken. I turned to Harry, shocked, but he just smiled. "Glad it's still  here. Like I said Undertown can be a bit strange, I've taken paths  before that lead different places. This place is where we wanted to go,  Welcome to the church of Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost souls."

Barb's  eyes were widened in shock. "How is this even possible? Never mind a  building vanishing from the surface and no one noticing, or managing to  get this far down, forget even mentioning the fact that is somehow  stayed upright. How is this place still completely intact after sinking  into the earth? Even the windows are still unbroken." She was looking  around at the mostly whole structure in wonder, taking in the still  gorgeous wood work and ornamentation. The altar was still whole, well  cared for and attended to daily if the state of it was anything to go  by.

Harry smiled up at the  arched ceiling. "A miracle. St. Jude's sank in the great Chicago earth  quake in eighty seven. The priest at the time was a man named Father  Alvarez. He was a devout believer and he prayed for a miracle to protect  his flock. The church was buried but remained intact. The place had a  storm shelter so they had plenty of food and water and managed to dig  their way out. The tunnel collapsed after they escaped though and the  church was forgotten. It was found a decade later and turned into a  place for people to go."

It was then I realized we weren't alone. Of course we weren't I'd known  we came here to talk to the homeless, but even knowing that, I'd been  so distracted by the building I'd missed the crowd. Each row of pews has  a board nailed across their front to form a rail and the resulting box  was stuffed with sleeping bags and blankets, making a makeshift bed.  There were wooden barriers place every six feet or so to separate the  beds from each other so each row of pews would fit a dozen people or so.  The space under each bed had old worn bags and piles of clothes,  clearly serving as personal storage.

This  church had been turned into a home. A shelter where those who were  shunned by the world could go to find peace. As we stood there gaping, a  young man with red hair under a beanie and a thick tattered coat. "I  don't recognize you, and none of your clothes look like something one of  us would wear." He paused and then nodded at Harry "Except maybe him. I  could buy that guy being homeless." Yang started snickering at Harry's  indignant shout. The guy smirked but he kept going "Everyone is welcome  at St. Jude's but I figure if you folks are here you need something.  What do you want here?"

I  winced. He was friendly about it but the guy clearly didn't really want  us here. He didn't feel comfortable kicking us out but he was making it  clear to do what we needed to do and leave. Harry, who was still  looking annoyed at the mans comment about his clothes, decided to just  ask. "We're here looking into some strange stuff. Some folks like you  have been going missing around town. One of them was my friend Kent. We  wanted to know if any specific area seems to be more dangerous lately so  we can check there. He moves around a lot and I haven't heard from him  in a few weeks. We only found out about the disappearances recently."

His  voice was sober and sincere, and I was actively impressed by how good  he was at lying. It was for a good reason but still, the man had skills.  The red haired guy looked uncertain for a minute. "I see. I'm Elliot by  the way. I.. I have heard a bit of muttering about people in the  community up and vanishing. No one was sure it was anything bad though.  We mostly don't have phones and it's not unusual for someone to just  decide to up and leave. You get used to seeing people one day and not  seeing them the next." He looked disturbed "Although...I did hear there  was a lot of folks bailing who were last seen around Lincoln Park."

Harry  smiled reassuringly at the man. "I'm sure he's just on a bender or  something. I just want to check and make sure he's ok. It's probably a  coincidence and they just left town. I want to ask around to see if  anyone has seen him though. You mind us talking to some folks?" He did  his best to make sure the man was at ease, but we did need to talk to  other people. We needed several places people had vanished and we needed  to establish a timeline to find a pattern. "Oh, and one more thing,  sorry to bother you, Kent has been gone a few days, how long have you  been hearing about Lincoln park?"

Elliot's  face twisted in discomfort. "It's been...well I guess a week or two.  Though I haven't heard that stuff in the last day or two. If something  was going on maybe it's over. I hope so for your friend's sake. But yeah  like I said everyone is welcome in St. Jude's, I'll spread it around  that you guys are ok, people might open up a bit more." He offered a  brief smile and walked away, clearly uncomfortable and having done all  he was willing to do to help. I understood his reticence and didn't hold  it against him for not wanting to be involved.

We  approached another nearby man who we had just seen Elliot talking to.  He'd headed straight for this man after leaving us so we figured he  might know something. He was an older dark skinned man with a well cared  for goatee and patchy but clearly cherished overalls over a battered  long sleeve shirt. He saw us head over and smiled at us kindly. "Ah, out  guests. Welcome to St. Jude's. My name is Henry ,Elliot says you're  looking for one of our lost ones. Sadly an all too common issue, though I  admit most aren't missed enough to warrant someone coming down here."

Harry  smiled, repeating the story again. "So like we asked Elliot, we were  wondering if you knew of any places recently that a large number of your  community may have been seen at before going missing." Henry's eyes  were sharp as he listened, gazing at Harry in clear skepticism, but once  he heard what my mentor wanted they softened and he listened as Harry  continued. "Even if they're old rumors that have stopped like Elliot's  we could use the information, we just want to make sure he's ok."

Henry  nodded solemnly at the story. "I have heard a few things here and  there. I have quite a few friends if I do say so myself and they do love  to gossip. I would be happy to point you int he direction you're  looking for but I do have on question." An electric charge gathered in  the air around him as I felt power begin to build from the unassuming  older man "How do I know you aren't just making sure your victims aren't  suspicious." The suffocating pressure weighed down on us as I felt  magic even stronger than Harry's "I recognize you boy. Last time I saw  you you were apprenticed under that bastard DuMorne. How do I know you  aren't as rotten as your teacher?"