Magenta Mine (Invertary 3)

Harry surveyed his surroundings, which were dim in the faint sliver of light that seeped in from around the door. Without his flashlight on, he could make out shadows and shapes for a couple of feet in front of him, then it all turned to inky blackness. At least it wasn’t damp. He sat on the floor, leaning against the wall beside the door, his legs stretched out in front of him. According to the clock on his phone, he’d been in the mine about an hour. It felt longer.

“I’m fine. I’m great. I’m waiting on a megaton of rock and dirt to fall on my head and crush my brain like a grape, but apart from that I’m hunky-dory. When are you going to get me out of here?”

At least Betty had called for help after she’d locked him in.

“Hunky-dory? Is that what all the cool kids are saying these days?” Matt was laughing at him. Seven years older than Harry, his cousin found every opportunity he could to call him a kid.

Harry worked to stop grinding his teeth to dust. “When this kid gets out of here, he’s going to kick your backside for taking the piss.”

There was laughter. “You might be good at that fancy martial arts stuff, Harry boy, but I can still take you in a fight.”

Yeah. Right. “What’s happening? What are you doing to get me out of here?”

“Well, here’s the thing.” Matt sounded like he was grinning. “The door is seriously warped. There’s a warning sign on it so that no one will shut it. Its spring-loaded, and about ten inches thick. Every time it slams shut, it shakes things loose above it. We need to make sure it’s possible to open it without causing the entrance to weaken. Last time this happened, it took two days to get it open.”

Harry shot to his feet. “Two days?”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared,” Matt mocked.

Harry’s super brain calculated the chances of a cave-in. He didn’t like the odds he came up with. The mine was over 150 years old. When was the last time there was a collapse? He needed more data. He reached for his phone, ready to do an internet search, but remembered he had no connection.

“I need more data. When was the last time this mine collapsed?” He tried to keep the worry out of his voice.

“Not since I’ve been the police in town.”

That was what? Seven years. That wasn’t long. Harry wasn’t reassured. He was going to die trapped underground. It was not the way he thought he would go. He assumed he’d die of unrequited love.

Matt’s voice cut through his anxiety. “We’ve got an expert coming to rescue you. They’ll come in from another entrance and lead you back out with them. You should be out of there in a few hours.”

Harry glared in the direction of his cousin’s voice. “You couldn’t have started with that instead of letting me think I’d be in here for days?”

All he heard was laughter. Harry plopped back to the ground.

“It gets better.” Matt’s delight at Harry’s predicament was beyond wearing thin. “Guess who the resident mine expert is?”

There was so much glee in Matt’s voice that Harry knew the answer. He closed his eyes and gave in to the wave of resignation that hit him. “Magenta’s coming to save me.”

“This is turning out to be the best laugh I’ve had since Flynn joined the school musical to impress a girl,” Matt said.

Harry resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall as he listened to his cousin laugh at his expense. For the first time since he’d made the decision to relocate to Invertary, Harry wondered at the wisdom of coming home.

4

Magenta arrived at the north-facing entrance of the mine to find a crowd had started to gather. She wasn’t surprised. The folk of Invertary were bred nosey. She dumped her backpack with her spelunking gear at her feet and sighed. This was not how she’d planned to spend her Saturday afternoon.

“Who’s the idiot who ignored the signs?” she asked Matt.

Apart from the huge red one that said, Danger—do not enter, there were at least half a dozen that told people not to shut the door.

Invertary’s entire police force grinned. “Listen.”

Magenta frowned but did as she was told. Her heart actually stopped cold in her chest as her jaw fell. A very familiar voice was echoing out of the mine. “Is that Harry?”

Matt nodded. The same stupid grin on his face. “I think he’s calculating the mass above his head and the probability of it falling on him before his rescue. He used to mutter like this when he was a kid. He doesn’t even realise he’s doing it. For years he thought Flynn and I had psychic powers because we knew everything he was thinking.”

Magenta frowned at him. She remembered Harry’s quirk—one of them—she just hadn’t realised that his cousin had used it to tease him. If she’d been younger, if she’d still been Harry’s friend, she would have taken issue with Matt.

“Harry’s to