by J. Thorn
Kora’s movements caught my attention and I stopped short as she uncurled her body and sat at the edge of the cot. She sniffled and wiped her face with the backs of her hands, her swollen eyes turned up at me.
“Rayna?”
I gave her an encouraging smile and approached.
“Yeah?”
She leaped to her feet, her pasty complexion blotched deeper as her face twisted into a corkscrew.
“I’m going to kill Emil and every last one of his crew. They did this.” She’d hissed the words through clenched teeth, and then lifted her fists and squeezed them so tightly that I thought she might draw blood from her palms. “As soon as they let us outta here, I’m going to kill them, just like they killed Julyen.”
“Hey, calm down, okay?” I folded my palms over her fists and lowered them. “I want revenge as much as you, but we need to be patient.”
Her blue eyes blazed, her face red and her nostrils flaring.
“Kora, you have to promise me to be smart about it. Do you understand?”
She twisted her bottom jaw and ground her teeth before finally conceding with a nod.
“Good. We’ll need a plan. I need to think about this, but damn, I can’t believe Wyllow was right.”
Kora’s eyes shrunk to shiny slivers while she tilted her head to the side and leaned into me. “What are you talking about?”
I stammered. “I had a run in with her earlier… I was going to tell you in the lunch room, but the alarm went off and—it was nothing. She didn’t say much really, just that I might’ve made the wrong choice. I—”
“I don’t want to hear anymore. I told you to stay away from her. She’s a manipulative witch who causes trouble just like the rest of her clan. You can’t trust any of them.”
“C’mon, how do you know that? Have you ever spoken to her?”
Her lips curled while her eyes glistened with a fresh spring of tears. Kora held up her palms and stepped away. When she spoke next, her voice sounded like it came from the deep recesses of a cave.
“I can’t deal with this right now. Leave me alone. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone.”
She flung herself back onto the cot, burying her face in the mattress while her slight frame was wracked with sobs.
I walked to the shadowed corner and sunk to the floor, wishing I knew the right words to say and kicking myself for shooting off my mouth yet again. I leaned my head against the grimy wall and squeezed my eyes shut as I listened to Kora weep like a lost child.
14
I winced as I inspected my hands—red and raw, and I had to peer closely to find skin that wasn’t blistered or splintered from working the damned rails. I held them close to my chest, breathing through the pain while I glanced over my shoulder to Kora. She had just dumped a rail tie onto the pile that would be shipped to the lands at the far edge of the track.
Although I didn’t honestly care, I’d heard the other prisoners discussing the project. And from what I’d heard, we weren’t getting released from the work prison any time soon. The slave traders needed a faster, easier way to transfer their goods to market. Horses and caravans through the high desert were both impractical and vulnerable. A few years back, they’d discovered the old railroad tracks and begun digging them out. Long stretches needed repairs, and that’s where we came in. Some of us worked on the ties—the wooden pieces they nailed the rails to—while others worked on the rails themselves, although that took place in a different part of the work yard and I didn’t know exactly what those prisoners did. Some said the tracks went from the Pacific to the Atlantic, but that sounded impossible to me. I’d always thought it would be amazing to live long enough to ride that train.
I smiled at Kora, but she never saw it. She had turned her back on me and continued to focus on her work. She hadn’t said a word to me since I’d blurted out that I’d talked with Wyllow the night before. My only friend thought I’d betrayed her, and now viewed me as an enemy.
“You.”
My fingers froze as I slowly turned my head and squinted up at a guard glaring down at me. I gulped.
“Me?”
“Did I stutter?”
I shook my head fast, biting down on my bottom lip as my body became rigid. My mind spun with possibilities.
What did I do?
His whiskers stood stiff as his mouth contorted into a smirk, and then he lifted a thick index finger and motioned for me to come closer.
I gave him a swift nod and threw a quick glance at Kora. She was pretending not to take notice, but I saw her watching the scene from the corner of her eye.
As I neared his mammoth figure and craned my neck to look up at him, he fingered the handle of the club strapped against his thigh as he studied me, his lips bulging with the roll of his tongue beneath them. Suddenly, he broke into a sneering grin and cackled like a donkey.
“Relax. Just razzing ya. You’ve been assigned to work the grounds for the rest of the day.” He pointed me toward a group of other prisoners clustered across the yard.
I exhaled as I felt the tension in my body fade, although I still wasn’t sure whether to feel relief or fear. But when I saw Wyllow among the milling prisoners, it was resentment that billowed through me like a dirty wind.
She turned her sparkling, brandy grin on me as I approached the group. “Hey there, Rayna.”
I pivoted in the gravel, walking toward the other end of the work gang. I had convinced myself that she was the reason I’d lost my only friend in the prison, and I didn’t want to make things worse between me and Kora. Besides, I was certain Kora was still watching me.
The sun made the tools hot to the touch, as if someone had left them in an oven. I looked up into the cloudless sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of the majestic eagle. Nothing.
“Hey, everything okay?”
I rolled my eyes and kept my eyes forward before answering with a single word. “No.”
Wyllow stood there, not saying a word. Forcing me to speak again. “Just leave me alone.”
She leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Whatever. You’re dealing with shit. I get it. But I need to talk to you about something important. It has to do with your dreams. Can you meet me at Devil’s Hole during lunch?”
How inviting. Kora told me about this place, but I hadn’t seen it myself. Devil’s Hole had been used for solitary confinement in the old world. I shuddered to think how many people had suffered inside those dark walls, and how many had passed in lonely madness.
An old floor hatch in a utility closet next to the restrooms led down into a drainage system, and the far end of that tunnel opened into a cave. One entrance faced an access road inside the prison walls while another entrance sat nestled along a sheer sandstone wall. The guards had long since chained both gates, but rumor had it that a few prisoners had found a way inside.
Old cots and other industrial garbage had been piled in the closet over the years, and the guards had forgotten about the hatch. But the prisoners hadn’t. They’d sneak into the closet during lunch to descend into the tunnel where they’d smoke or screw around. Most couldn’t open the locked gate and almost everyone believed Devil’s Hole to be haunted by the souls that died there.
I shook my head. “You’re crazy. I’m not going in there.”
She laughed, an almost teasing melody drifting beneath her words.
“The risk will be worth it. I promise.”
“Why?”
Her lips stretched into the widest smile I thought I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help but be mildly captivated despite the grudge I was intent on nurturing. She twirled gracefully and then winked before setting off in the opposite direction.
“If you come, the why will find you. It always does.”
Why couldn’t people just say what they really meant? Prison seemed to be rife with double meanings and innuendo, and I hated playing games. Still, I knew I wouldn’t be able to help myself. Leaving the lunch room without permission wa
s against the rules, but I was never one to follow the rules.
15
I made it into the closet, through the hatch, and out of the tunnel undetected. I traced my fingers along the rough clefts and crevices of the sandstone, stopping short when a cool swirl of air briefly circulated around me. It was quiet in this area—forgotten territory that was no longer in use. Yet, as I gazed up at the fractured wall surrounding Devil’s Hole, I could have sworn a thousand lost souls brushed past my ears in the form of restless whispers.
Wyllow had secrets. And while I had managed to slip away from the lunch room unnoticed, I still wasn’t sure why I felt drawn to the girl they called a witch. Maybe Wyllow was right. Perhaps we shared a special soul connection. Considering the bizarre events surrounding my dreams recently, I knew deep down that not all things in this life came with an explanation. Sometimes you just had to feel and trust yourself to know it.
As it was, I had risked a severe beating to meet her and she was nowhere to be seen. I quickened my pace, following the crooked edges of the wall until I found the gated entrance. The gate was latticed with thick iron bars and secured firmly against its frame. I felt silently thankful for the chunky lock preventing me from going inside the cave. Just dawdling around the entrance was enough to freak me out.
I tried to stay out of the line of sight of the watch towers, in the notched entryway that had been carved into the rockface. As I peered through the small iron squares into a dark abyss, my nostrils filled with dank, gritty air and the tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose. I shivered, greeted with a strange sense of presence—strong and unyielding, desperate yet amicable. It wasn’t altogether bad, but it was foreign, and it made me feel uneasy. I shuddered, and had just stepped back from the gate when I collided with Wyllow.
I turned on her with a hiss. “What the hell? You scared the shit out of me!”
A wrinkle creased her smooth complexion as she pushed past me, her trembling fingers fiddling with a string of old skeleton keys.
My eyes widened as I realized exactly what she was about to do. I put my hands on my hips and began to back away.
“Uh-uh. I’m not going inside. And I’m not even going to ask where you got those keys.”
She threw me a frazzled look from over her shoulder.
“I think I was followed. We have no choice but to hide in here.”
“What do you mean, followed?” I asked, sneaking a peak from around the rockface concealing us.
Suddenly, I felt myself toppling forward as she yanked my arm toward her.
Her eyes darted around like she was a skittish mouse. “Quiet. I’m serious. If we’re caught here, we’re dead meat for sure.”
My pulse almost stopped when the realization hit me: I could stay out here and let the guards discover me, or I could take my chances with the ghosts in the hole.
I gulped and shook my head while she turned the key and pulled the gate open a crack.
Ghosts over guards. For sure.
“C’mon,” she whispered before slipping into the inky cave.
I hesitated as she vanished from view, my boots twisting in the gravel. I moved fast, sliding through the tiny gap of the gate and reminding myself I had faced a lot worse than ghosts. Like Corvus and his murderous army.
As soon as I entered Devil’s Hole, Wyllow closed the gate and pulled me further into the darkness. She grabbed my hand, gently curling her soft fingers over mine. The sensation of her touch sent a current up my arm that radiated throughout my entire body. It felt warm and comforting, instilling a sense of ease as well as a dynamic stirring within me.
Her essence seemed to drown out the dead clinging to the walls and lingering in the air around us, too. I still felt them, yet somehow she had tamed them.
My perceptions came alive that day, offering a brand new experience born from the slightest touch. In that moment, I would’ve allowed her to lead me wherever she wanted me to go.
She stopped walking when we reached a crack in the cave ceiling; low streaks of grey light burst through and blushed dimly against the sharp contours surrounding us. But I took no notice. All I saw was the golden glimmer of her eyes as her hand fell from mine and she turned to face me.
“You were right, Rayna. I had a feeling about you all along—from the moment I saw you and felt your energy, I knew I’d known you in another time. Soul connections.”
I shook my head to clear my mind. Had I been hexed? Maybe she really was a witch.
“What do you mean?”
“Your dreams. You predicted the bad things coming once you chose a side. You picked Kora instead of Emil, and look what’s begun to unfold.”
I scowled through the dark, suspicion fast replacing the enchantment that had enveloped me.
“How do you know my dreams predicted anything? You’re the one who told me I made a bad choice, remember?”
I could feel her smiling through the dark space between us. She responded with a question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, I didn’t see you in the lunch room when Julyen was murdered.”
My words had tumbled out without a filter again, and I thought I’d said too much. Silence in darkness was deafening. I began to hear unearthly hums reverberating against the scored cave walls as they filled my ears. I shivered, the cave’s icy grip raising gooseflesh up and down my arms.
Then the whispering murmurs faded as her laughter filled the void and she reached for my hand again.
“I have no allegiances within the prison. Trust me, I trust nobody here… except maybe you.”
“Me?” My heart drummed a little faster.
“Yeah, you. Is it so hard to believe we’ve been brought together for a reason?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I believed her, but I wasn’t sure why.
She squeezed my hand a little tighter. “The slave traders will show up early tomorrow… you know that, right?”
I shrugged, lifting my gaze toward the shallow light struggling to cut through the heavy blanket of darkness within the cave. I thought of Julyen—his life snatched away because of my choice. I didn’t want Kora suffering because of me. I felt like a lantern, blurred and tarnished in an ocean of blackness. I knew I had to find a way to overcome the shadows.
“It’s probably better that I get sold off anyway. I’ve caused enough trouble around here already.” I’d forced the words out in a hoarse whisper, but she leaned closer to me and I could feel her breath tickle the arch of my neck.
“What if you didn’t have to be sold off? What if there’s another way out of here?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there is always a choice, even when you think there’s not. You’ve just got to open your mind and find the how.”
I tore my hand from hers and stepped back.
“Then why don’t you tell me the how, Wyllow? I came here like you asked. Give it to me straight. Why would you want to help me get out of here? And how?”
She laughed, which only infuriated me more.
“Because you’re different,” she said. “I believe you have special powers, as well as that you’re a natural leader. I believe in you. Isn’t that enough?”
Is it? It wasn’t what I’d been expecting to hear, that’s for sure. Still, the explanation was vague, and I wanted facts, not more mysterious hints.
“I have a plan and I think it’ll work.”
“Tell me.”
She chuckled and reached for my face, running her fingertips down the side of my cheek. I shrunk away from her touch.
“Trust me. I will when the time is right.”
16
Trust me.
Those two words implied a certain amount of faith. My grandfather once said that faith doesn’t question or doubt. Faith only knows. Did I have faith in Wyllow? A part of me couldn’t help but feel she was manipulating me. But if she was, did I really care? I mean, I didn’t have many options in this place, and all I wanted to do was get out. I decid
ed the best thing to do was to have faith in myself and base my decisions on my own inner guidance. It was all I had, and it would have to be enough.
Can I trust her?
I guess I’ll find out.
I was pondering all of this as I slipped unseen into the lunch room while silently feeling thankful that the guards hadn’t blinked an eye at my sly return. They seemed to be preoccupied with a commotion at the rear of the vast room.
I stopped short, scanning the area and taking in the scene. Voices circulated like a gathering tornado as the lunch room turned toward chaos. Some prisoners hollered, dragging tables and benches across the floor in a grinding rumble while others climbed upon tabletops to stand above the rowdy mob clumping together.
I shrugged, turning from the bustle and eyeing the kitchen. I wondered if I’d have enough time to eat. I was starving, and really, whatever was happening back there wasn’t my business. I had enough of my own issues to deal with.
I was about to make for the kitchen when a familiar shrill rang out over the upheaval. I halted immediately, whirling back to the crowd and cringing as I realized the riot was about to become my business.
“Shit.” I’d mumbled the word under my breath, already running toward the commotion as Kora came into view, kicking and screaming while the guards dragged her from the prisoners’ clutches.
“I know you killed him! It was you! I know it was you!” Her voice tightened into a sharp treble as she clawed at the guards restraining her. Kora pointed an accusing finger at Emil. “Let go of me! It was him. You need to do something!”
“Shut up, you crazy bitch.”
“Keep your mouth closed ‘fore we close it for you!”
Her teeth clenched as she grimaced, her eyes locked on Emil’s smug face as she was dragged away. That was when I noticed Emil’s stance. He had been leaning casually against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and a twisted grin curling the corners of his lips as he watched Kora struggling against the guards.