It was the sinister uncertainty that bothered her. The dark possibilities under her feet.
It started with rumours in her teenage years, and grew through analysis of the local geography. She observed the rivers which appeared and disappeared, and the limestone which was so prone to forming caves. She also studied the history and folklore of underground tunnels and secret passages.
And always more rumours… of tunnels under Kendal.
The tunnel from the castle to the old dairy .. the tunnel from the river to the market. .. the points where Blind Beck disappears... the abandoned bomb shelters. ..
How many more where there that she had yet to learn about?
More importantly, who or what could be under her feet at any moment?
At night, she heard scraping and scratching in the darkness under her bed. By day she expected the ground to collapse under her feet with every step.
By her early twenties, she avoided walking along the river, or on Wildman Street or Lowther Street, as both were known to be above tunnels. She also never slept on the ground floor of any building.
But on the other hand, she became more and more obsessed with researching the vaults and buried streets of distant cities.
Edinburgh, in particular, fascinated her.
Yet none of that gave her much comfort. Paranoia and the exhaustion of sleepless nights gnawed her heart.
To be continued.
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