As you near the end of the stone hallway, you hear the sound of rushing water. Your heart leaps within you. Water! Where there's water, there's a way out! You race through the darkness, your flashlight guiding the way. At last, you burst out into an open space... and your jaw drops. You find yourself standing in a massive chamber, gazing out onto the dark and sluggish waters of an underground river. You shine your feeble light into the gloom, but it's dancing flames that illuminate the dark and sluggish waters before you. They flicker across the surface of the river and belch from openings in the ceiling high above. You stand puzzled at this spectacle. Is there a volcano beneath your school? But no, these flames are brilliant green, casting an eerie glow across everything. You squint, trying to make out the far bank of the river, but it seems to go on forever. How big is this cave?!
You jump as a voice breaks the silence, "Who are you that dares enter this domain?" You swing your light frantically until you locate the source of the voice. There. A robed figure stands inside a weathered rowboat, his pale and ancient hand clutching an oar. His hood shadows his face, but the voice that emanates from within is brittle with age.
"I'm a student from Faybrook Academy. I want to get out of here... can you help?" The figure merely shakes his head slowly in response.
"I ferry the souls of damned across this river... I do not carry the living in my boat."
Great, you think to yourself, the only other person down here with me is completely insane. You sigh. "Well, can you at least tell me how to get out of here?" The robed figure raises a bony finger and points across the dark waters.
"The only way out, is across. But the living may not pass." With these words, he pushes off, letting the river carry him off into the green-tinted gloom. This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Fine. So the only way out is across... it looks like you're going to have to swim for it. You step to the waters edge and peer out across its surface. Not too inviting, but you don't have any other choice. Suddenly, something large moves beneath the surface to the water, sending ripples splashing against the shore. You leap backward in horror. What was that?!?
Clearly, the waters before you might be dangerous, but you don't have any other choice, do you? You have to swim for it.
