Risa
"Are you ready for the best kept secret in the faction?"
Heather covered my eyes with the sash of my dress as we made our way towards the Cave. I could hear a multitude of voices among us and it wasn't long before we were joined by the familiar laughter of Mason and the twins.
"Hey, Reese. You ready to see the Cave for the first time ever?" Mason patted my shoulder.
"Leave her be, everyone. You're making her nervous." But even Brooke's motherly concern was overpowered by her excitement for what was to come. "Don't worry Risa. You're going to love this."
I heard a door being thrown open, and was corralled to the entrance by bumping shoulders and nudging hands. My feet hit wooden boards, and it wasn't until I found my next step to be six inches lower that I realized they were stairs.
"You said this was a cave," I wavered, a pit forming in my stomach as I turned back and attempted to uncover my eyes.
"No, we said it was the Cave," Mason said with a laugh.
"We're right beside you, Risa. Once you see it, I promise you'll change your mind. If not I'll walk you home. Deal?"
I nodded, fighting the rising tide of panic making its way to my throat. I descended the stairs; another heavy door and I could feel that we had arrived from the rush of cool air and hollow, echoing voices.
"Here we are. Welcome to the Cave."
I slowly opened my now-uncovered eyes and blinked. Once, twice. My mouth opened in utter disbelief.
The others smiled and wandered separately toward familiar, rarely-seen faces, leaving me with knowing pats on the back.
The Cave, in its simplest form, was an old, abandoned root cellar. The room was illuminated by hundreds of red, green, and purple lanterns. The powerful spotlights usually used for shelving days were gone, save for one suspended from the ceiling, trained on a small cluster of people in the center of the room. I sidestepped a pack to see what they were attending to.
Drums. Gigantic drums of all sizes were being tested and tuned. I made my way to one, admiring the taut skin and dark, rounded belly. I looked up to see one of the drummers grinning at me.
"You ain't seen nothing yet. You ready?"
I nodded eagerly, retreating to the fringes of the room.
Groups of people milled around the edges of the vast floor, laughing and chattering with increased intensity as more arrived.
Until the first drum sounded.
The reverberation hummed through my body and made my hair stand on end. Then another one, and now one from a second drum, and so on, until the room shook with steady, powerful waves of sound.
The room roared with approval, and the bravest few made their way to the middle of the floor. The apparent leader took a moment to catch the rhythm, then started a series of hopping steps in a circle around the drums. The others watched for a moment and then followed suit, matching her movements. Others quickly followed, forming their own concentric circles around the first and creating different steps, hopping and stamping and kicking and chanting in time with the drums.
Glen had been right. I had forgotten all about the dim, dank cellars I once feared. A grin exploded across my face, and I laughed at the contagious joy swirling around the room. Here was the magic and madness I had been searching for.