by Joanna White
“Sine, I’m sorry but we have to go. More of them are out there probably heading this way,” Jared murmured.
Sine nodded solemnly, not saying a word. Jared came back over to me and reached out a hand. I took it and briefly thought about how I liked the feel of his hands on mine and the comfort it brought.
I banished the thought as quickly as it had appeared. My eyes refused to leave Wexx’s body, now covered in blood, eyes wide open, staring at nothing. At last, I was finally able to tear my eyes painfully away from his lifeless body to look at Jared.
“Sine, where do we go now?” I asked, almost afraid to ask him after losing his best friend.
He glanced down and it took me a minute to realize he was looking at moss on the trees.
“That’s north,” he said, pointing straight ahead of us, but slightly to the left.
Jared walked over to me. “You okay?”
I nodded. My ankle was throbbing since I hadn’t been able to properly rest it after breaking it and my chest still stung so bad it hurt to breathe in. I gritted my teeth and followed after Sine.
We walked the rest of that day, or rather, night. The sunrise finally came once again, but we could only see specks of it through the trees. Shadows covered every part of the forest floor.
“How much longer are we going to be in this forest?” I secretly hoped we would come to the end of it before the sun went down. I longed to see the sunshine again. A person never realized how badly they missed something until they didn’t have it.
“Another few hours,” Sine answered in reply. He didn’t stop walking as he spoke.
“Jared?” I started, glancing at him.
He looked at me, waiting for me to continue.
“Why do you think the Hunters left us alone?” I bit my lip.
“What do you mean?” His forehead creased in confusion.
“I mean, they shot me, killed Wexx. They were still out there watching us. So, what kept them from finishing us off?” I swallowed, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.
“What makes you think I would know?” I wasn’t sure if he sounded wary or annoyed at my question.
I shrugged. “You’re a prisoner here. I figured you would know more about them than I do.” I glanced at the ground, feeling as if I had just eaten something bitter.
“I think it’s a game to them. They think that it’s fun… Psychological torture first. Kill us off slowly, all your friends first, leave one prisoner from the group left standing, wanting death, after watching all his other friends die.” His voice was completely dead… flat.
While he talked he stared off in the woods, getting a faraway look in his eye. It was as if he was in a trance. I briefly wondered if it was something he knew from experience. I felt a surge of pity in my heart thinking about what horrors he might have gone through.
“Yeah, that… makes sense,” I answered, not knowing what else to say.
“Why do you think Wexx stopped? He knew the Hunter was still watching… why did he stop to help you when he would have lived if he had run?” he asked suddenly, catching me by surprise.
“I—uh…” I paused, unsure of how to answer him. I felt something painful and bitter deep inside my chest and swallowed back a lump in my throat. If he hadn’t stopped to help me…
Wexx would be alive right now.
“Because we’re family,” a voice said.
Jared and I both looked up to see Sine had stopped and met our gazes.
“Not by blood, but all the prisoners stick together. We’re all in the same situation; we’ve all been captured. We’re all forced to run and hide for the rest of our lives, no matter how short they may be. We stick together. We take care of each other because that’s all we have now. We’re family, and families stick together,” he answered.
Jared and I were both speechless.
“Now, come on. We need to keep moving.” With that, Sine turned around and kept walking.
I quickly followed after him, afraid to fall behind. After a few seconds, I realized Jared wasn’t beside me. I stopped and looked behind me. He was still standing there, eyes narrowed, deep in thought.
“Jared!” I called.
He blinked as if snapping out of his thoughts and met my gaze. It didn’t take him but a few seconds to catch up and we both followed behind Sine. It began to get dark again, the shadows slowly started to take over the world around us and it seemed to stretch on forever.
Jared started walking slower and slower and I noticed he got that look again. “Jared, tell me the truth,” I murmured to him.
“About…?” he asked with a blank look on his face.
“You said you lived in the caves—" I started.
“Not this again. We’ve been through this, Dalex,” he snapped.
“I know, but you don’t like the dark? It seems like every time you’re in the dark you…” My voice trailed off.
“I, what?” He shot me a glare.
“Never mind,” I answered back a little too quickly.
“No, what?”
“You seem to get… sick or something.”
“I just don’t like the dark,” he said.
I glared at him as if challenging him. I knew he was lying and he knew I knew.
“The truth,” I snapped.
“It’s a mental thing. I hate the dark,” he replied. “We should get going. I don’t want to lose Sine.” He pushed past me to catch up with Sine.
Something about him…I didn’t know specifically what it was, but there was something about him that was different.
We continued walking as it got darker around us. My ankle was throbbing so bad I was limping, and my breathing was getting more and more difficult.
“Sine, are we almost there? I think Dalex’s wound might have been deeper than we thought,” Jared called to Sine, who was slightly ahead of us.
“End of the forest is just up ahead.” He walked back toward us and glanced at me. “You need help?”
I was panting. Every breath caused my chest pain. “I’m… fine...” I gasped.
“Drop the tough act. That’ll only get you killed in here,” Sine snapped. “Grab his other side,” he told Jared.
Together, Sine on my left, Jared on my right, they walked with me. The shadows faded, and the trees started to get thinner.
“Up ahead, there! It’s the river!” Sine said enthusiastically.
“Good. I’m dying of thirst,” Jared muttered.
Sure enough, a few yards ahead, the trees ended into a small clearing. Water flowed in a small creek bordered by trees. There was a narrow bank on each side, room for each of us to walk side-by-side. Jared sank to his knees in the water immediately. Sine jogged up ahead, and then suddenly froze.
“Sine?” Jared asked. Suddenly, his whole body tensed.
“What is it?” I asked, grunting. I picked myself off the ground where they had laid me and walked up beside Sine.
Bodies floated in the river.
I swallowed hard. All of the bodies were a sick green color with blue veins popping out. Gagging, I covered my mouth to keep from throwing up.
“What caused this?” Sine asked, his voice low and husky.
“I don’t know.” Jared’s voice was a whisper.
I could only stare.
“Look at the river.” Sine nodded toward it.
I looked at the same time Jared did. I didn’t notice anything unusual outside of all the bodies. We glanced at Sine, waiting for his explanation.
He knelt beside the water on the bank, put his hand in it, and sniffed it. “It’s not clear. It’s got a pale-yellow color to it.”
Jared’s lips pulled into a deep frown. “It also smells terrible. The stench is heavy in this area.”
“From the bodies?” I asked.
Sine shrugged and stood. He and Jared both followed the river a yard or two until they reached more bodies. I walked slowly behind them.
Suddenly, Sine yelled as loud as he could, cursing as he punche
d a tree, hard. His body trembled, and he started muttering, becoming louder and louder until he was screaming. Tears were in his voice as was anger.
I looked at the body he saw. It was Freh.
He finally collapsed on his knees, eyes closed, fists clenched. I knelt by him, putting a hand on his shoulder. I didn’t realize this wouldn’t have been very manly, but at the time I was only concerned for Sine and his grief.
“You were close to him?” I murmured.
He nodded. “We were from the same village. Best friends, grew up together,” he whispered. “I lost Wexx and now…Freh?”
I looked down.
Coughing interrupted the heavy silence.
We all shot up, Sine’s hand on his sword, mine reaching for my dagger. Jared had his hand on the back of his belt. We heard it again and all looked in the direction it was coming from.
“Wait a second…” Sine walked toward the sound. I jogged, ignoring the pain, and stayed right behind him, dagger ready.
“Lehlax!” Sine ran over to another body off to the side, leaning against a tree.
“What happened?” I knelt beside them.
“Municx fixed up my wounds and then went to go check on the others. Freh and I went to restore our water supply and met up with these guys. I suspected there was something wrong with the water, but he was so thirsty he drank with the others. I stayed back, and within an hour everyone was dead,” Lehlax explained in a solemn voice.
“Poison in the river?” Sine asked him.
“It would be an efficient way to kill us,” Lehlax answered.
“Or force us to the lake…” Sine’s voice trailed off.
“Lake?” I asked, confused as usual when it came to anything about the prison.
“Where the river stems from…All of us get our water from the river because all the prisoners who have traveled to the lake before have never come back. Even the Hunters avoid it.” Lehlax blinked as if trying to stay conscious as he spoke.
“Then it’s the safest place to be,” I pointed out.
Sine shook his head with a grimace. “We don’t know what kills off the prisoners there. All we know is that they never come back.”
“What if the poison started there? There’s no other source of water,” Jared said, speaking for the first time. I finally noticed that he stood behind us.
“Who are you again?” Lehlax asked. “You look familiar.” He furrowed his eyebrows.
“He saved our lives in a fight with the flying Hunter. He’s from the caves,” Sine explained for him.
“The caves?”
Jared nodded, once, avoiding Lehlax’s gaze.
Lehlax nodded also in response, although his eyebrows were still furrowed. “If the poison is coming from there then we’re done for. But if it isn’t, we still have to go there for water.”
“In which case, we’re also finished.” Sine rubbed his eyes with a sigh.
“Wait, if you didn’t drink any water, why do you look sick?” I asked.
“The smell gets to you after a while. I stayed here with them and waited… There was nothing I could do. But after an hour, the smell started making me lightheaded,” Lehlax answered.
“Then we should keep moving,” Sine said.
Lehlax nodded. Sine helped him up and walked on ahead. I stood, still limping but tried to ignore the pain and followed them. Jared stayed behind me, walking slower.
We followed the river for hours. Night stayed and settled, the sun rose again, and I basked in the sunlight, finally getting to see it for the first time in what felt like forever. I leaned my head back, forgetting I was supposed to act like a man.
“You get used to it,” Jared said.
I looked at him questioningly.
“Not having a lot of sun.” He gestured upward.
“I don’t know how anyone could get used to it.” I glanced up at the sun peeking through the trees.
“When you’re in here for years, you just do,” he said huskily.
“How long have you been in here?” I frowned and glanced at him.
“Long enough.” He looked away from me.
I nodded, not knowing what else to say. We continued walking, the sun set, and we still walked. My body ached all over, my ankle was throbbing with stinging pain, and my breathing became rougher. I tried to take shallower breaths.
“Do you want me to ask them to stop and look at your wound?” Jared asked me.
“No,” I replied too quickly.
“Why not? Wexx was in a hurry he might have stitched it too fast or there could be more damage to it,” he pointed out.
“I’m fine,” I told him, harsher than I intended. I hoped he would just leave it alone, so I forced myself to walk faster and get away from him. He easily caught back up but thankfully decided to leave it alone.
We reached the lake. The moon shone bright, staring back at its reflection in the middle of the lake. The lake itself was huge; water went on for miles in every direction, and there were trees barely visible on the horizon. It was easy to see where the river connected to the lake; small rapids led down, back into the forest, which made the river look fairly large, and it grew smaller and smaller until it formed a small stream.
“It’s beautiful,” I started.
Lehlax gave me a weird look. Now that he was away from the smell, he looked stronger and not quite as sick. I was grateful; we didn’t need to lose anyone else. I briefly remembered some of the prisoners we had met before, talking about a boy named Luke, who everyone suspected was Lehlax’s son, and that Luke had been killed. I glanced at Lehlax, wondering what kind of grief he’d been through since we’d last seen him.
I glanced from him to Sine, thinking about how he’d lost Freh and Wexx. Was it even possible to keep your loved ones alive in here? Gabriel’s face appeared in my mind and all I could think about was that I still hadn’t found him. What if…? I shook my head to rid myself of the thought.
“I mean, for a place that kills off all prisoners that come to see it, it’s prettier than what I thought it’d be,” I quickly added.
Lehlax nodded and looked back at the lake. “Be on your guard. Looks can be deceiving.” He briefly glanced at Jared. He didn’t seem to notice because he stared at the lake with a faraway look, as if he was in deep concentration.
Sine slowly walked toward the water and bent down near it. Lehlax walked over to the rapids, standing on the bank so that it wouldn’t carry him away.
I looked at Jared and shrugged.
Lehlax smelled the water. “It’s not poisoned,” he said.
Sine nodded in agreement. “I agree.”
“Then where is the poison coming from?” I asked.
Lehlax walked a little farther on the side bank by the rapids. “Ah. That’s why.”
“What?” Someone else and I had asked the question at the same time.
We all looked at him. He stared at barrels of stuff that were dumped into the river a good twenty yards from where we were standing. The barrels flanked the river, too.
“How can we get rid of it?” Sine walked closer to Lehlax.
“Burn it maybe?” I followed them.
“Who knows? For now, let’s enjoy the fresh lake water,” Lehlax murmured, walking back toward the lake.
“I agree.” Sine followed quickly behind Lehlax.
I stared at them for a minute. Something was weird. Normally, they would be the ones warning us to be careful. I shook my head and followed them up the bank back to the rapids. Sine and Lehlax jumped in the lake and started laughing.
“Dalex, Jared come on! This water is great! I haven’t done this in ages!”
Jared and I exchanged a look. He shrugged and took his shirt off and dove in with the others.
I rolled my eyes and walked calmly into the water rather than dive like they did.
“Oh, come on! Why didn’t you dive?” Sine smirked at me.
“In case you forgot I was just shot with an arrow not too long ago and I don’t want
to break open the stitches again.” I crossed my arms.
“Eh, if you do we can always sew them back up.” Jared shrugged.
That’s exactly what I’m afraid of, I thought to myself.
The water was slightly warm, and it felt good against my legs. As I got deeper into it, I closed my eyes and sighed, letting the water spool around me. The guys wrestled around, dunking each other and laughing for the first time what felt like a long time. I was glad Sine and Lehlax had a way to get their minds off the losses they’d faced.
And Jared… he finally seemed to be fitting in with them. Before now, it looked like he didn’t belong with the rest of the prisoners. They were all so close and careful and just trying to do what was necessary to keep each other alive. Yet...
I knew there was something more to Jared than we were all seeing.
There was no way of telling how long we were all there, laughing, talking, messing around in the water. I stayed quiet and enjoyed just watching them. We filled the canteens and found a couple of other containers to fill with water, dove back in—or walked in my case—and kept having fun. It felt like we had left the nightmare and entered a place where things were almost normal. Different place, different family, but someplace safe. We were finally away from sorrow, death, and the Hunters.
After a long time, I finally went all the way under the water. It was dark… too dark to see anything but blackness all around. I felt something then…And instantly everything became cold. Frigid and icy. Eerie.
It felt like it was the middle of winter, only there was no snow or ice around. I heard something way off in the distance under the water. At first, it sounded like whistling, but it grew louder and louder. Rising out of the water, I covered my ears, especially as it became louder and turned into horrible screeching. I looked to see Lehlax, Sine, and Jared standing in the water, staring in the distance.
“Did you guys hear that?” I raised my voice over the noise.
“Yeah…” Sine spoke slowly as if he was in a trance.
“That…beautiful singing…” Jared murmured.
I frowned at them both, shaking my head. “Singing? It’s screeching!”
“It’s beautiful,” Lehlax whispered.