Page 80 of Seal My Fate

I hate to leave her like this, but I know we’re running out of time. Wherever Hugh has gotten to, he won’t risk leaving us here for long.

I’ve already checked the rooms behind me, so I keep moving, deeper into the maze of narrow stone hallways and dim, dusty cells. It’s dark here, with just the occasional bare lightbulb flickering in the ceiling, and I’m filled with fear as I creep onwards, wondering if the next doorway will bring me face to face with Hugh again. I desperately check another few cells, flinging open doors before—

Found it!

It’s some kind of control room, with a desk, and filing cabinet, and bank of video screens, showing the inside of the cells. This is where the cameras are transmitting to! I can see Wren in her cell, still huddled and sobbing, so I wrench at the filing cabinet drawers. It’s locked, so I try the desk next, searching for--

There. An old-fashioned keyring, with a dozen keys on it. Thishasto be it.

I race back to Wren’s cell. “It’s OK, I’m here!” I call to her, fumbling with the keys. I try four different ones in the padlock, before the right one finally clicks.

I yank the door open, rushing over and pulling her into a hug. “It’s OK, I’ve got you,” I murmur, trying to soothe her. “Everything’s going to be OK.”

Wren lifts her head, looking at me with pure anguish in her eyes. “You can’t be here. Please, no, he’s coming back, you have to go,” she sobs, shaking and clawing at me.

“I know, I know about Hugh,” I tell her, trying to lift her to her feet. “I’m sorry, I know it’s hard, but there’s no time. We have to get out of here.”

She stares back at me, limp and unmoving. I can’t lift her, and we’re running out of time.

“Wren! Please,” I cry. “We have to go!”

The desperate sound of my voice echoing in the cell seems to snap her out of it. Her eyes come into focus again. She looks around and gasps a ragged breath. “You got it open…”

“I found the keys, in the control room. But we have to go.Now.”

I pull her to her feet, and this time, Wren stumbles upright. She’s weak but can manage to walk. I drag her to the door, and then down the hallway I just came from. “This way, I think there are stairs.”

But she stops by the control room, staring through the open doorway at the bank of video screens. “There are cameras…” she says slowly, realization dawning in her eyes.

“Come on, Wren, there isn’t time!” I pull at her arm, but she yanks free, lunging into the room.

“They recorded me,” she looks around the room wildly. “If there’s video, from before, then I can see what happened.”

“Wren!” I glance anxiously to the stairway. “Please, we’re so close to getting out of here.”

“But I have to know what happened!” her voice breaks, raw and anguished. She looks at me, imploring. “Don’t you understand, Tessa? Every time I close my eyes, the memories are haunting me. I have to see it. I have to know!”

Fuck.

I glance around again quickly, then join her in the room. “The filing cabinet,” I point, “but it’s locked.”

Wren grabs a brick from the floor and slams it against the drawer. The metal buckles instantly. She tears it open, revealing stacks of CD cases, each containing a burned disc. “In here!”

Wren grabs a handful, and I do the same, flipping through them to check the handwritten labels. There are names, and dates, scribbled in different writing on the discs.

“Some of these are twenty years old,” I say in disbelief. “Harold N, 1992… Peter J.… Lionel A…” I pause, feeling a new chill. Lionel Ambrose?

Wren shakes her head, frustrated. “I don’t see it!” she exclaims, grabbing another stack of discs. “I’m not here!”

“What’s on here, anyway?” I ask, feeling sick. I grab one of the discs.Max L, it says, with a date from five years ago.

Max Lancaster.

I shove the disc in the system drive and click to bring up the folder. Black-and-white video starts to play, one of the cameras from a cell. There’s a man sprawled, unconscious on the mattress. A boy, really, he can’t look more than eighteen.

The cell door swings open, and Max steps inside. Looking younger, reluctant. He speaks to someone outside the cell, but then the door swings shut.

He approaches the body on the mattress, unfastening his belt and pulling down his pants—

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