Page 23 of Bound By Darkness

Others echoed back, their coughs weaving sickness into the stale, stagnant air. A death trap waiting to suffocate and kill from the inside.

The girl moaned, her hands curling against the flooring.She’d been like this for five days. The entire five days I’d been here for.

How she’d survived this long was a mystery, let alone how she managed to pick up her ax each morning. I didn’t want to know the resolve it took to fight through the stinging of sickness, but something tugged me toward her as I looked at her from the corner of my eyes.

“Can you… stop staring at me?” a whispering voice asked.

My eyes widened as I found the girl peering at me. Her eyes were a stunning cerulean blue as she blinked back the remaining sleep.

“Surprise. I’m not dead.” Her arms shook as she positioned herself upright. Sweat dripped from her body as she raised a shaky hand to move the hair from her face.

“You… should rest as much as possible until it’s time for shift work.”

“Too late,” she replied. “There’s the big boss himself.”

On cue, a man drifted into the cave, his beard the color of salt. “Wake up,” he bellowed. “Shift work!”

“Is he deaf?” the girl said next to me. “I mean, it’s the crack of dawn. The birds from the neighboring forest could hear him.”

I bit my lip to stifle my laughter—this girl.

“You there,” the man bellowed as his finger pointed to her. “Number.”

“It’sEllia.”

The man’s knuckles turned white. “You are a slave, girl. You do not have a name. Number.”

Ellia grinned. “Fetch it yourself.”

The man’s feet pounded the earth as he closed the distance between us.

Crouching in front of her, his hands wrapped around her hair as she desperately triedto untangle herself from him.

A punch to the side stilled her movements as he tossed her against the ground.

“Stop it.” I regretted the words as soon as they left my lips.

Lifting her arm, he examined the number tattooed in ink. “194. You’re one of the new ones,” he spat. “I can see the fever in your eyes. You won’t last but a few weeks,” he said as he curled his hands. “Two extra hours to your shift should quell your tongue.”

Blood splattered the floor. “Try me,” she rasped between fits of coughing. She wiped a trickle of red from her lips.

“Stop it,” I said a little louder. This wasn’t… this wasn’tright.

The man turned toward me. “She your friend?” His fingers snatched my arm as he examined the number tattooed on my wrist in ink. “Well, 207, what did you say?”

My head dipped low as hair fell over my eyes.

“Quiet, are we?” he mused as his fingers gripped my chin. “I asked if you have anything to say?”

My eyes widened. “N—No.”

“Pity.” His fist collided with the hollow of my cheek.

Blood splattered from my mouth onto the floor as the people beside me stepped away.

The coughing in the cave stopped.

“I’ll ask you again. What do you have to say?” he spat.

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