Page 11 of Bound By Darkness

To us, we were the only teenagers in the world. Teenagers who’d harbored more suffering than any other prisoner slapped down here. I cared for her morethan I’d ever admit.

Her fingers were light as she helped me tug on my brown tunic, the fabric rubbing against raw flesh. “What was it like?”

“What was?”

“The forest,” she whispered. “What was it like when you ran through the forest?”

Resting my head, a sigh left my lips. “I was home again.”

Water splashed against iron as Moria emptied the basin into the hallway. “Home,” she repeated. “I forgot what a home is.”

“Me too,” I answered. “But out there among the trees, I was a kid again. Free to roam and run wherever.”

“Wouldn’t that be a luxury.”

“I almost had it, too. A few more stones away and I would have been lost to the branches and thorns,” I said as I wiped my forehead.

Moria remained silent, her head tucked to her chest.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Moria.”

“It’s just… we promised to leave together.Being left alone here is enough to send me into a spiral. It’s selfish, I know, but you’re all I have. If I escape, there’s no one waiting for me besides you.”

A stone crumbled to the floor, an echo filling the catacombs.

“I get it,” I answered slowly. “I’d feel the same if you left me, but in the moment, the possession in his eyes scared me.”

She dipped her head in a low nod. “I know. I get it,” she muttered. “But don’t… don’t do that again. Don’t abandon me.”

A slight nod of my head gave her all the reassurance she needed. “Sadly, I’ve also grown fond of your company,” Iquipped, a smile crossing my face as I angled my head to look at her.

The corner of her lip lifted, the makings of a smile. “Yours as well, even if you talk in your sleep,” she teased.

A laugh escaped from my chest, burning rupturing across my back like a spider web. “I do not talk in my sleep.”

Moria flopped onto her pile of hay. “Oh, you do, and sometimes,” she whispered, her head lifting from the needles, “sometimes you whimper and cradle your hands.” Her lip jutted as she tucked her hands to her chest like a prayer.

I stifled the laughter rising within me, my head shaking gently. “You joke too much.”

“I’m not joking,” she stated. “You’re a sleeping baby. It’scute.”

“You’re lucky I’m in pain. Otherwise, I’d shove my hands through those bars.”

Moria chuckled, the sound hearty as she pointed to the marks etched into her wall, a line dividing each half. “You’re asking me to put another point on my side?”

Thirteen marks were etched into the wall, and on the other half, my half, one lone mark was etched there. “Cheater.”

Moria rolled her eyes, her legs stretching. “That line got old eight years ago.”

“No, you’re upset because I finally figured out you use the iron bars as leverage when we wrestle.”

Moria gasped. “Me? How about you?” she rebutted. “I see you pressing your legs against the iron to stabilize yourself.”

“What about rhyming? You’re always changing the rules and repeating answers.”

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