Page 89 of All Hallows Game

“You shouldn’t have come,” Virgil said, startling me, far closer than I’d expected.

My stomach crashed to my shoes when he emerged from the darkness of a cell to my left, haggard and scruffy, his hair messy and longer, eyes sunken and hopeless. I flung myself across the last bit of space between us, reaching for him. His hands were curled around the bars; the moment I covered his left hand with mine, a brutal sob ripped from his throat.

“I’m getting you out,” I promised, masking every bit of pain and fear I had with confidence. “I told you I’d find you, didn’t I? I told you you’d be fine.”

I squeezed Virgil’s hand and let go, considering the bars of the cell. “Where does this thing lock?”

“It’s not safe,” he rasped, his voice choked with emotion.

“Shut up. Where does it lock?” I pressed on each bar, growing more frantic with every second. My breath caught when a simple push on a bar made a whole portion swing open like a door.

“It’s not locked,” Virgil said, half a sob. He scrubbed his face. “I think she’s hoping I’ll—I’ll kill you.”

My stomach knotted. He was so upset I didn’t need to be Misery to be able to feel it.

“You wouldn’t kill me,” I said with a forced scoff. I knew Virgil; at his core he loved taking care of people. He wasn’t one to hurt someone.

But Nightmare could get into someone’s mind, scramble it, and turn them into someone who lived for violence. She could do to him what she’d done to Miz when he killed Byron. Cold spread through me; I fought back a shiver, not wanting Virgil to see my fear.

“We’re both gonna be fine.”

His throat bobbed, his skin dirty and smeared with grime. His clothes weren’t much better, grungy and dark and hanging from his shoulders like they were a size too big even though I recognised the university rowing emblem.

I held out my hand to him, but Virgil stayed put, his eyes bright with suffering in the dim glow from the emergency lights. “It doesn’t matter what she did, or what she made you do. I love you no matter what. You know that right, Virgil?”

His throat jumped again, a tear streaking the grime on his face. “I know, Prickly.”

I smiled even as my heart hurt, lanced through with grief and pain. I hadn’t lost Virgil, he was alive, he was right here. But he was traumatised and hurting and I didn’t know how to fix it. But I needed to fix it. I couldn’t stand seeing him in pain.

“Did she—make you do things you didn’t want to?” I asked tentatively, my fingers curled around the cold bars.

He blinked fast, staring beyond me. “I couldn’t stop it. I tried to.”

“So did I.”

His eyes snapped to mine, searing right into my soul. “What did she do to you?” The words were a deep, guttural growl I didn’t recognise. Hairs stood on end all down my arms.

If you don’t run, you’re going to die.

I shook off the voice, my stomach a mess of twists and knots as I answered Virgil’s question. “She—took control of me. She made me stab my friend Darya.” I forced myself to meet his bleak eyes. “I killed her.”

Shock made him look younger. “Fuck.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a raspy laugh. “Will you come out now? Please.”

Virgil’s smile was miserable. “This is the best place for me, Cat. You need to leave me he—”

“Fuck that,” I snapped. “I didn’t find you just to leave you to Nightmare’s mercy. Fuck. That.”

“How did you find me?”

I pulled the cell door wider, intent on going inside and dragging him out if necessary. “A woman I thought was my friend hit me on the head and dragged me here.”

“What?” Virgil’s voice was deep and bestial again. “I’ll kill her.”

“I hit her skull with a test tube rack; she might already be dead.” I ignored my twinge of panic. Phil had betrayed me, and proven she was no real friend. “Come on, let’s go.”

I lifted my foot to take a step and three things happened at once. Virgil’s eyes snapped to something behind me. A body slammed into mine, knocking me to the ground. And the scalpel fell from my fingers.

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