We turn away from the fires, heading for a tunnel. Wild thoughts run through my mind as we trek down the metallic tube with charred grime crawling up the sides as though it is alive, forming whimsical patterns in a place devoid of beauty. The roar of the fires echo through the tunnel, forming a metallic drumbeat that pounds against my eardrums, causing my pulse to change its rhythm to this new melody of doom. Commander Aeron continues down the tunnel as the lights fade to a dim glow, making me feel as though I have been buried alive beneath the ground, and a new wave of anxiety courses through me as I wonder what she is up to. We turn another corner and enter a room with a giant wheel on it: its barbaric shape and sharpened spokes causing my stomach to leap as the dark figure of a person comes into view. Without warning, lights turn on, causing me to squint until my eyes become accustomed to the sudden brightness.
“This,” says Commander Aeron to Commander Vye and me, “is Shamie.”
I take a closer look at the man on the gigantic wheel. Blood drips from where the shackles have restrained him and his swollen face only allows one eye to look at his spectators a he turns his head for a moment before going limp. Beneath the bruises and cuts on his body from where he has been beaten over and over again, I spot what had once been toned muscles, the muscles of an arbiter. The haircut, the physique, it is reminiscent of someone who was once like me, and I find myself wondering what he did to be sent down here.
“Shamie was an arbiter,” Commander Aeron continues, enjoying every moment of the man’s misery, “but he made one simple mistake: the mistake of believing that he could go against the rule of Arel. So, he was sent here to me.”
Commander Aeron waves her hand and another arbiter brings her a torch. With horror, I realize what she intends to do with it and clench my fists, debating with myself over whether I should stop her or not, but if I do, I will be put on that wheel. Now I know why she is here, why she is overseeing the crematoriums: she asked for such an assignment because it grants her the ability to torment others without judgement or repercussions. Commander Aeron enjoys the misery of others and gets a certain amount of pleasure from being the deliverer of their misfortune. She lights the torch and holds it to the man’s flesh, cackling as he screams from the agony of his flesh boiling away from his bones as he writhes in pain and pulls against his restraints in a futile attempt to break free, before yanking the torch away from him.
A quick glance at Commander Vye’s clenched face tells me that she is just as disgusted as I am, but Commander Aeron isn’t finished with me.
She turns toward me, holding the torch out to me. “Perhaps you should give it a try.”
I remain still, refusing to take it.
“It’s quite simple,” Commander Aeron says to me in a low tone. “You just press it against him and watch him burn.”
The ease with which she explains this to me, causes my stomach to churn. She holds it up to the man again, placing the tip of the torch on his left cheek before turning it one. Blue flames erupt from the nozzle, engulfing his cheek as the skin bubbles and cooks, filling the room with the smell of his cooking flesh, and a lump forms in the back of my throat, warning me that I am about to expel the contents of my stomach as Commander Aeron releases a malevolent laugh.
Unable to withstand it any longer, I step forward and reach my hand out for the cresset, doing my best to keep my face impassive and not betray the disgust that I feel toward this vile woman and her methods. Pleased, Commander Aeron hands turns off the flambeau and hands it to me, thinking that she has convinced me to be just like her. My fingers wrap around the warm base of the torch, tingling as they clench it, not wanting to drop it, and I take it from her, studying its blackened tip while working up the courage to do what I know must be done. The man on the wheel looks at me with his one good eye, pleading with me to end it, to let him go and face the unknown, and I am reminded of the woman at Commandant Paq’s outpost as she lay in a pool of her own blood, wishing for her own suffering to end, and how I granted her wish. I try to give the man a little bit of comfort, before I help him, not caring what he did to be sentenced to this place. No arbiter deserves to be tortured like this. They deserve a quick death, regardless of their crime.
Commander Aeron’s sharp eyes burn into my back as she waits for me to turn on the torch and administer my form of punishment. I give a slight nod to the man stretched across the wheel, and he closes his eye, mouthing the words “thank you”, and turns away. With my free hand, I grab his nose and mouth, squeezing them shut so that he cannot breathe, keeping my grip firm as his body struggles against my grip.
“Shh,” I say in a quiet voice, trying to soothe him, and he relaxes, allowing me to bestow upon him his one last wish.
He goes limp.
I remove my hand from his gaping mouth, trying not to look at the lifeless stare in his eye as it clouds over, unable to focus anymore. Stunned silence wells up around me, seething until it morphs into diabolical hatred.
Commander Aeron makes a move for me, but I whip around, holding the torch in front of me, ready to turn it on and burn her face off if necessary, and she stops, unwilling to be on the receiving end of the very punishment she administers to others. I glare at her, daring her to try it, daring her to make one false move, to give me any excuse to attack her. The bringer of carnage and death is what she may have been in the past, but those stories are old, and it’s time for a new one to be told. Assured that she will not try anything, I use the butt of the torch to break the man’s shackles loose, relishing in the clanging noise the reverberates around us with each strike. His metal cuffs break apart, falling to the ground, and I toss the torch aside, no longer needing it. Unconcerned about the others in the room, I grab the lifeless man and hoist him off the giant wheel, carting him to the doorway and into the metallic tunnel of sweltering filth and rotted flesh, as I drag him to the belts. His feet leave streaks in the moist soot on the ground as I haul him away. No one stops me. Perhaps they are too afraid of what Commander Aeron will do to them if they interfere with her plans; or maybe they are too stunned by my actions to even consider stopping me. I don’t care. I will not allow Commander Aeron to desecrate his body like she has done to so many before him. The least I can do is make sure that he is disposed of in proper fashion and cannot be tormented anymore.
Sunken eyes glance up from their work and watch as I walk past with the body of a former arbiter in my arms, no longer devoid of life, but instead, they watch me with intent, being filled with resolution for the first time in a long while. The tunnel morphs into a chamber of smoke and fire, and the hum of the conveyor belt greet me as an old friend. My arms tire from holding the man’s corpse, but I refuse to drop him, ordering my hands to retain their grip, and to not drop him. As I reach the belts, a hand reaches for the body in my arms, and I smack them away. No one is stripping this man of his possessions. My harsh glare, causes the one who had tried to grab him to step back and sink away into the shadows like a wraith, while the gears of the conveyor belt squeal as they turn, unwilling to stop in their mission to deliver bodies to the ravenous flames behind me. Guards and workers alike watch, paused in their work, as though time itself has stopped, as they watch me place the man on the conveyor belt, not like a person tossing away a piece of garbage, but as a friend saying farewell.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into the dead man’s ear while closing his one good eye with the tip of my index finger before he is carted away.
Stepping back, I salute him as a fellow arbiter, giving him the farewell he deserves, and I watch as he is carried to the flames and dumped into the inferno without a single tear to mourn his passing. Feeling the stares of others on me, (a mixture of confusion, pride, and disgust) I shift from my spot and consider the consequences of my actions. Commander Aeron will not allow me to get away with this.
The clanging of a piece of metal falling to the ground, forces me to turn around, and in a far corner, away from the fires, the tunnel, and the conveyor belts, are the shadow
s of people hoping to go unnoticed. I hurry toward them as the workers and guards go back to their duties, unsure of what else they should do. I race to the area where the noise came from, blocking out the shouts of my name and the roar of the fires as my swift movements force the sweltering, stagnant air to dry the film of sweat on my face. Dodging around a corner, I reach a grate that appears to go to a ventilation shaft. It hangs at an angle from its hinges, and as I inspect it further, I find a missing screw laying on the soot-covered ground having just been pried loose. A shuffling sound come from inside the shaft. I grab the grate and yank it free, revealing five silhouettes in the darkness having frozen themselves as they all stare at me in fear. Each carries a small bundle in their hands. They’re running away.
“NONI!”
My name echoes through this chamber of death, stopping me cold. My punishment awaits, and I can save myself by turning these five in, but if I do… the punishment for trying to escape Arel is execution, and their deaths will be on my hands. I examine the shaft, feeling the air that comes through it, knowing that they must have put some thought into this plan. As I look around, I realize that the crematoriums have one weakness: air needs to be brought in from the outside, meaning that the ventilation shaft is the one way out that is not guarded.
“NONI!”
My name strikes my ears again, warning me to hurry as I struggle with helping them or protecting myself, but as I continue to consider my options, I think of the woman I had tried to save, or the girl whom I was forced to execute, and Sigal and his family, who managed to escape Arel because of me. If I turn them in, then Commander Aeron and Tapiwa have won. I will have become what they want me to be: a mindless drone that obeys without question and kills without impunity.
“Do you know how to get to the eastern sector?” I ask, knowing that they will not get far on their own.
One nods.
“Go to the plaza there. There will be a series of barrels with garbage in them. Hide in them. I will meet you there, tonight.”
I put the grate back in position, but one of them stops me. “They will know you helped us.”
“Not if you go now,” I reply. Commander Vye’s voice draws near and my time for getting them away from here draws short.
“I saw what you did. They will not let you go without punishment,” says the man. “You must turn one of us in.” He starts to crawl out of the shaft, but a woman stops him, begging him to stay with her, but he places a gentle palm on her cheek and kisses her. “Do as the arbiter says.”
Before anyone can react, he jumps out of the shaft and grabs the grate form me, placing it back in position. “Go!” he says to the others who crawl away, knowing that there is no going back now.
Commander Vye’s voice is feet from us, and at any moment she will round the corner.
Before I have a chance to think of a plan, the man punches me in the face, forcing my training to kick in, and I seize his fist, wringing his arm behind his back and press him into the ground, immobilizing him.
“What is the meaning of this?” demands Commander Vye when she finds me.
The man cranes his head to look at me, pleading with me to think of the others first; if I don’t go along with his plan, we are all dead.
“I caught this filth,” I say, doing my best to make my voice as harsh as I can, “trying to escape.”
Commander Aeron appears with two of her guards. “What is going on here?”
“You can thank Arbiter Noni for discovering a weakness in your domain,” replies Commander Vye with smugness.
Commander Aeron’s eyes go from me to the man as she realizes what he was trying to do. She marches up to him and backhands him. “You thought you could just leave?”
He spits in her face.
Infuriated, Commander Aeron shoves me aside, forcing me to land on my side, snatching him from me and throws him to the floor, kicking him in the stomach and ribs over and over, until I lose count, and he is left a mangled mess, coughing and spitting up blood. With one final bit of rage, she lifts her foot high into the air and brings her heavy boot upon his head, crushing his skull, grinning as blood and bits of his brain spurt on to the ash surrounding him. Without a word, the guards with her pick the man’s body up and throw him on a conveyor belt to the fires, while I picture myself strangling the life from her to stop her from harming someone else. I press my hands in the ash, allowing it to coat them as I bend my knees, ready to strike.
“And you, you little…” Commander Aeron rounds on me, but I cut her off.
“You asked me what I think of your domain,” I say, changing the subject and forcing her to take a step back in surprise.
She folds her arms, waiting for me to praise her, to tell her how well she runs this place and to commend her for her efforts.
“It is a dump,” I reply, “ruled by a sadistic bitch whose glory days of protecting Arel through a horde of carnage are well behind her, having been replaced as a caretaker of filth.”
Commander Aeron’s smug face contorts into rage. She charges me, bringing her fist up to strike, but before I can defend myself, before anyone else can react, a hand snatches her wrist, stopping her in mid-swing. Commander Vye’s stern face glares at Commander Aeron, refusing to release her hold on the commander’s wrist.
“No one touches my arbiter without my consent,” Commander Vye says through gritted teeth, and I imagine her muscles bulging underneath her uniform, the same muscles I witnessed lift her as she performed an endless amount of pullups when I first arrived in the eastern sector. I have always suspected her of being an unyielding individual, and I am about to find out just how unyielding she is.
Commander Aeron glares at Commander Vye, and I step away, knowing what is about to happen.
Another fist flies at Commander Vye, and she dodges it, landing a blow of her own on Commander Aeron’s face. Commander Vye, swings again, but misses, receiving a knee in the stomach as a reward. I watch, unsure of what to do, as the two wrestle with one another. A part of me wants to help my commander, but if I do, and she wins, it will invalidate her victory; she must defeat Commander Aeron on her own, or be forever marred by my influence. The two become veiled by an onslaught of fists and feet as they move toward the fire, unaware of how close they are to it.
Commander Aeron fakes an attack and my commander falls for it, realizing her mistake too late as she is knocked to the floor with a grunt. Dazed, Commander Vye almost doesn’t see the boot coming straight for her head, but she rolls out of the way just in time and the boot slams into the blackened floor, missing her. Before her opponent can do anything, Commander Vye charges her, catching her around the middle and forcing her to take a few steps backward, but Commander Aeron’s strength is not be underestimated as she lifts Commander Vye up, throwing her over a conveyor belt where she crashes into the floor with a gasp. She lifts herself up, but limps a little, meaning that my commander has injured her ankle, but she refuses to let it stop her.
The two eye one another with the conveyor belt between them, carrying more bodies to the inferno. Commander Aeron lunges for Commander Vye, but Commander Vye seizes her wrists and drags her over the conveyor belt, knocking two bodies off in the process and slams her into another belt with her hands around her throat. Commander Aeron reaches for the hands around her throat before flinging her knee into Commander Vye’s stomach, forcing her to loosen her grip. Seizing her chance, she charges again, but Commander Vye swerves out of the way, causing Commander Aeron to roll over her back and grunt as she slams into the conveyor belt and the air is knocked out of her.
Once again, a flurry of movement envelops them, each striking and dodging the other as they move even closer to the fire that will consume us all one day. No one moves. No one dares. We all just watch, waiting for one to come out the victor. Terror overwhelms me when Commander Aeron wraps her arm around Commander Vye’s windpipe, choking the life from her, and my commander struggles to break free. This is it. If she dies, I die too because Comm
ander Aeron will never let me leave alive, not after being challenged by my commander and by me. I want to turn away, to not witness the inevitable, but I can’t, and keep my eyes on Commander Vye as she gives one last attempt to get free before going limp.
Triumphant, Commander Aeron releases her hold and stands up, but the moment she does, Commander Vye drops to the ground, rolls onto her back, and rams her foot into Commander Aeron’s calf, causing her to drop to one knee. In one swift series of movement, Commander Vye jumps up and kicks at Commander Aeron, who catches her foot and twists, forcing her back to the floor. Limping, Commander Aeron stands up, grabbing Commander Vye by the face and forcing her to her feet, so that she can look her in the eyes as she kills her. A knife appears in her hand, one that she probably kept hidden in her sleeve, and she thrusts it at Commander Vye, but Commander Vye dodges just in time, twists around and swings her leg, striking Commander Aeron in the center of her chest, forcing her into the wall of flames behind her where she is consumed by her favorite method of punishment.
Victorious, Commander Vye stands in front of the blazing fire, a menacing dark shape shrouded by dancing orange and yellow light with swirls of smoke weaving in between her legs, daring any within the chamber to challenge her. No one moves. Not even the guards dare to defy her. Secured in her victory, she turns toward me. “We’re done here.”
Wasting no time, I hurry after her as we head back to the stairs that will lead us to the outside world and to our transport. Though none of the guards have stopped us, there will be hell to pay, of that I am certain.
Chapter 19
Hello Darkness
The final chime sounds as the lights turn off throughout the manor, leaving only a few to illuminate the darkness that spreads throughout the dilapidated building, making the mold infested rugs appear to be possessed by black ghosts whose only goal is to snatch any victim unfortunate enough to cross their path. The last bits of rustling move past my door as a few arbiters who have tried to stay up past lights out realize that they need to get in their rooms before their indiscretion is discovered. I wait for the final five footsteps to cease thumping on the wooden floors before sitting up in bed, doing my best to not let the springs in my mattress squeak. While listening for anything that might prove my undoing, I put on my boots, lacing them up tight, having already gotten dressed before laying in my bed and pretending to be asleep. As I straighten up, I place my wristband on the desk.
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