Page 115 of In Between Darkness
“Evening, gentlemen,” he says to us all, and a few of us respond. I stay silent.
“Which room have you been assigned to?” A long pause follows his question. A silence that is deafening. I think back to my dream. What rooms did I see? Come on, Asha. Eight. I hold four fingers up on each hand discreetly and show them to Ryder. It’s not like I can respond, he clearly said gentlemen, and I am definitely not one of those.
“Erm… Room Eight.” Ryder clears his throat, and the box falls silent again, waiting to see if we answered correctly, his hand firmly on the handle of his weapon.
“Ah yes, they just put that new lad in there. Well, have a good shift.”
He smiles at us, and Ryder nods back at him. The lift stops, making my stomach whirl as the door opens for him to get off. The doors shut, and I let out a shaky breath. That was a close one.
We reach the floor and now I am leading the team. Down the hallway I saw in my dream, and around the sharp corner. The lights flicker as we move past them and light up the corridor for us. My heart pounds as I remember the being that resided in room eight. He was terrifying, but that wasn’t his fault. That doctor said they had put another lad in there. I don’t even want to know what happened to him. I swallow back the lump in my throat and follow the hallway down.
“Here,” I whisper to Ryder, gesturing at the thick metal doors trailing up and down this corridor.
“Right, split up.” He calls out orders, and the group listens. “Behind each of these doors are our brothers and sisters… free them all.”
He assigns everyone else a place in the hall and then waits for them to have taken in their tasks. “Asha, you’re with me.”
“What about the cameras?” I ask as I stare up at multiple cameras lined up down the hall. He looks at a student with dark features.
“Jasper, can you connect to the main feed?” Ryder asks.
“Already on it,” he replies.
“This is why you’re my favourite Deceiver,” Ryder replies with a smile.
“Don’t get all soppy on me now,” Jasper banters while positioning himself in the middle of the hall with his palms in the air.
“What’s he doing?” I ask Ryder discreetly, shuffling in my stance.
“Jasper’s a Deceiver. He can run images through the camera feed to make it look like there is no one here,” Ryder replies, and my eyebrows raise in awe. “River, can you jam the elevator?” he asks sternly.
“What would you have done without me?” River replies with a smirk, one curl of his wrist and the whir of the elevator silences. River revels with pride as he and Ryder share a small smile. Wait, are these two actually getting along? I chuckle quietly before Ryder’s gaze narrows again.
“Now come on.” He pulls at my arm, and we run to the end of the hall. My heart is still thumping in anticipation. I haven’t heard the banging of beasts behind doors, or the blood-curdling screams of soldiers being ripped apart yet, so that’s a good sign.
The sound of unlocking echoes down the hall as we race to the end. Ryder takes the left side, and I take the right. I brace myself in front of the big metal door, dragging the tennis ball-sized lump in the back of my throat with me. I take a deep breath and slide the large metal bolt across the door with my mind, my fingers trembling too much for the task. I’m still standing a good distance away from it. I hear its heavy weight scrape across the floor as the door gingerly opens, my mind not one hundred percent ready to see what lies behind it. My knuckles tighten as the door opens. I let out a breath. A small-framed girl is crouching in the corner of the room. My fears diminish as I rush to her side.
“It’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here,” I reassure her, but she flinches away from me.
Her arms are thin, and her legs look spindly and malnourished, like they are not strong enough to lift her.
“I’m not going to hurt you, I’m here to save you.” I lace my words with compassion, but she still backs away. Of course she is not going to trust me, I’m dressed in a bloody hazmat suit. I let out a breath and take my helmet off and chuck my knife onto the floor to show her I’m not a threat.
“See, I’m not one of them,” I explain and watch her muscles relax.
“Thank the Gods…please get me out of here.” A small voice escapes her dry lips, hoarse and quiet, like her vocal cords haven’t been used for a while. She has thick chains on her wrists and ushers me to break them off her.
“They’re enchanted chains; they stop us from using our Gifts.”
Her voice cracks as she speaks, but there is a sparkle behind her eyes, a newfound sense of hope.
The chains are two inches thick, and the skin around her wrists is raw and blistered. The cuffs are etched with Enchantra, and the chains are bolted into the wall. I wrap my fingers around the cold metal and pull at the chains, heaving with all my might, but they don’t budge.
“Where is the key?” I ask, feeling defeated.
“The guards…” she explains as tears threaten to fall from her eyes.
“It’s okay, I’ll get you out.”
