Page 67 of Darkness

“If it means I get to beat someone with my baseball bat, I’m in,” Mason tells me, making me shake my head.

“We’re with you,” Miles and Hayden tell me, and I give them all a small smile because they have no idea how crazy it is.

“It’s set up.” I turn to Lincoln and I give him a nod.

“I can’t explain what The Pit is. I can’t explain why I get my headaches. What the nightmare are, but tonight you can all go down except Aunt Jane. You can all wear masks. You’ll say nothing to anyone, you don’t stand by anyone’s cage, you just walk and say fucking nothing.” I turn to Logan, Blake and Travis, because if anyone is going to say something, it’s one of them, because they will see their dads down there. “If you don’t want to go, then speak now.”

I wait for someone to say something, but there’s nothing from anyone, not even my mom, who I thought would hate going there. Maybe she wants to see what I went through because of her. “One word from anyone, Lincoln will take you out. No one talks about The Pit, and you will all be blindfolded until we get there. I trust six of you, but not the others.” I don’t need to tell them who I’m talking about because they all know. “We leave in two hours, so sort out anything if you need to.”

I walk over to Lincoln to get the update from him. “They will all be in the cage, but everything else down there will be the same. I have two others walking around with us in masks too, to throw off anyone watching. You just never know.”

I give him a nod, because there is nothing to say at the moment. I’m about to take my family to hell. They might not live it, but they will get to see what I lived for years.

I glance over at my mom wiping the tears away, then talks to Logan, who gives her a side hug consoling her. I’m never going to have what those two have, but a part of me doesn’t want it. I did what grandad asked of me, to meet my mom once I got out. I didthat. He never said I have to forget everything that happened to me. I’ll never forget any of that.

Maybe one day I can forgive and forget, but right now I will continue with the relationship I have with her, or the little relationship I have with her.

Twenty-Four

Cain

I drive one car,Lincoln the other. They all have a black bag over their heads, and we help them out of the car one at a time. I remove Uncle David's mask, but only his for now. He’s my Uncle, the closest thing I have to a father, he needs to see everything from the start.

He looks around the black wall, with branches of trees down it, twigs with leaves and weed stuck to the wall. We’re in the woods, the middle of fucking nowhere. If you screamed, no one would hear you. He waits for me to say something, but what do I say about this place? There is only one thing I can say.

“Welcome to my home.” I place my hand on the wall, and wait for it to scan my print to let me in. There are only two people's hands scanned to open the main door:- mine and Lincoln’s. I see a few of the people down here jump when the wall starts opening. My uncle looks at me with eyes wide open. He probably has a million questions going through his head right now. I know he will ask me every single one of them. But not tonight, and maybe not even tomorrow, but here and there he will ask a random question for me to answer, and from this day on, no matter the question, I’m answering it.

Lincoln walks behind everyone and tells them to walk and I move to the side until they all get in, and once they do, I close the door once again.

“You can remove the bag.” I tell them all, Lincoln and I get the masks ready to hand them. These will fit their face better, and have holes for them to see through. I lock eyes with Hayden, as he’s the only one not looking around. He doesn’t need to say the words, because the look in his eyes asks the question for him. “I’m good,” I tell him and he gives me a nod, knowing I’m lying. “No one talks in there, I move you move.” Lincoln throws a mask to everyone, and I look at my mom, who is standing next to Logan. “You stay with Lincoln. Everyone is in their cage, no one is wandering around, so there is no need to worry about anything.” They all put their masks on, and I turn to Lincoln, as he walks through the door first and I hear him talking.

“Keep an eye on the cameras, open only the doors I tell you to open.” Lincoln looks over his shoulder at me.

I take a deep breath in. “Let's go.” The metal gate opens, and I lead the way through the doors. The damp smell hits me hard, the dried-up blood, the burnt skin smell lingers in this place like it lives here. Even up here, you can smell The Pit before we even get to the last step.

Walking down the stairs, the stone wall still haunts me, the jet black with a charcoal mixed in the walls, the stones still look the same as the day I first arrived. My back still feels the hard stone digging into it, reminding me of when I was weak.

We reach the bottom, and I look at the dirty brown solid wood door, which weighs a lot more than any door should weigh. It opens, with a loud scraping on the floor as it does, and I look down for a moment because my family is about to walk through hell.

Walking through the door, I hear everyone shouting at each other, names being shouted from one side to the other, or poleshitting the metal cages to get the attention of someone. Being here can make anyone crazy after a while. Some of them stop when they see me, a few of them call my name wanting to talk, but I ignore them as I walk around the path. The whole Pit is a circle, floors of cages to the sides of it. The middle is the fighting area, with a big circle chandelier hanging with fire blazing from around it, which links with the fighting area as it also has fire all the way around it. Even now the fire is ablaze, burning bright, ready for someone who wants to fight. It reminds them all they don’t get the chance to sleep, no one fucking sleeps here.

My body shivers, remembering the first time I got burnt from fighting here, they beat me hard enough that I lost my balance, and the flame hit the skin, be it my hand, side of my body, a finger, anything,, and it was the worst pain I had ever felt. But it reminded me to never walk to the edge to fight again. Always stay in the middle. “This is where you fight, with the fire around you, and the weapons of your choice. If you’re lucky you both fight until you’re tired and you live another day, but if not then you leave in a body bag.” I point to the fight pit, as I stand by the rail looking down at it, remembering every single fight I had. Remembering every person I killed to survive another day. “I’ve got a lot of blood on my hands, and I don’t regret any of them.” I walk away from the rails and continue my way around the cages. I know Logan and the other two will see their dads here. I just have to hope they keep their mouths shut.

Walking around, we get to the third floor and I stop and introduce my pet to them all. “This is my dog, his name is Jasper. He hurt someone-” I stop and lock eyes with Travis. “-who meant the world to me, now he lives like a dog.” I have to say Jasper looks a fucking mess. I took all his clothes from him, and never gave him any since. He eats what dogs eat, he’s chained like a dog. I won’t let him die, because every day he will suffer for what he did to Tess. “He will die slowly.” Travis gives me a smallnod, then looks at Jasper. I can’t see under the mask, but I hope he’s smiling.

Mom is looking around, as is everyone else. They’re looking in the cages, at the people, and at the fire. Hayden looks up at the only light we have coming into The Pit. The top is open, only a little to give light to the dark area. It has handles for you to go up, but before you get to the handles, you have to work your way through the rocks, and some jumps. It’s a maze. One wrong move and you fall all the way down. It has to be a good ninety feet up before you get to the handles. That’s what I had to climb every time I wanted to see Tess.

Continuing to walk through, I stop by my cage, which is open and empty, no one gets this cage, it’s a reminder to me, where I lived. “Welcome to my home.” I walk in, and look over at the wall which grandad and I knocked the bricks out of. “My bed, grandad's bed.” I point to the other one just behind the wall. Everyone walks in, which is going to be tight, because there isn’t enough space for everyone.

Uncle David walks through to the other side and looks around at grandad’s room and so do Hayden and Mason. Mom looks around, and stops by the bed, while Logan walks around slowly, looking at everything. Old blood is stained on the walls and the bars. It still smells like piss in here, but they get to see where I lived.

Uncle David taps the walls to get my attention, then points to his fingers, then mine, then up to the door.

“We don’t have names here, we have numbers. They burn them into your chest-” I lift my right hand. “-my number.” Then my right hand. “Grandad's number.”

One by one they all walk out, taking one last look around, Uncle David stays in grandad's cage for a moment while mom looks down at what my bed was, and I hear the sobs escaping her. I have to say she’s staying strong, I thought she would haveasked to leave by now. Both my mom and uncle leave the cage, and I stay where I am for a moment. Looking around what was my home for most of my life, I walk into grandad's side and close my eyes. I remember him telling me stories. “I’m sorry,” I whisper the words to him.

I see Lincoln has taken them around to the next floor. He knows how hard it was for me to walk in here. How much I need the time alone, even if it was for a few seconds. Walking around to catch up with them, I hear a few people behind the cages asking for food, or fresh air, or something, but I ignore them.

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