by Jacinta Jade
‘And …’
Her guards paused, and Siray closed her eyes for a moment as she hung in their grip.
‘No food or water tonight.’ The command, given in a smug tone, was a final dismissal.
***
As her guards dragged her down the passage, Siray’s mind drifted with exhaustion and numbness, the procession back to her cell giving her time to study each flake of disturbed dust below her. As much as she despised her cell, right now it seemed like a place of rest and peace, especially when compared to the rest of this place.
Her world was now forever different, her dreams and plans for a future condensed to a desperate desire for her little paradise of darkness. She wanted to be behind her door, hidden within the dark that could comfort and blanket her.
They always tormented her in the light, and that darkness now seemed a haven.
The familiar rumbling of her door opening called her back to the present. Without ceremony, her guards dragged her in and dropped her, not caring as her body hit the floor roughly. They turned and left the cell, the door rolling closed behind them again.
Siray gave them a count of ten, holding her breath, before she let loose a soft and drawn-out cry of relief. Moisture ran from her eyes as she buried her face in her dirty sleeves. She had escaped that room of bolts only to face the promise of more torture. The look in Silver’s eyes had told her that he would be relentless in making her obey—he would either break her or kill her in the process to achieve his goal.
Technically he already had.
She was beginning to think that the team that had revived her must have fed her system some medication while she unconscious. She felt jumpy and on edge, her emotions swinging back and forth between relief and desperation. Not that those feelings weren’t expected, but she felt like she didn’t have conscious control of her own body or emotions anymore.
In addition, previously blocked signals from her muscles seemed to finally be reaching her mind, and although a twitch had appeared in her right hand, Siray almost didn’t register the spasm due to a deep-set ache that was setting in, its growing intensity almost making the initial pain from the shock seem insignificant.
She tried to swallow but coughed instead as her scratchy throat protested the action. Automatically, she licked her lips only to find they were dry and cracked, her parched tongue rasping over them.
Even her eyes felt raw as she blinked, and, not bothering to get up, she simply began dragging herself on her stomach to the back of her cell. Reaching her preferred corner, she let her body drop the small way to the ground, only slightly more gentle in her exhaustion than the guards had been.
Cuddled up close to the wall, the coolness of the floor and wall against her back and sides was a relief to her burning body, and she didn’t fight as exhaustion claimed her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SHE DREAMT of green hills and sparkling lakes. She tried to run to the lake, a great need driving her. But her friends kept stopping her, wanting to know what she was doing. She tried explaining, but then her need grew more intense and she began brushing them aside. Then she was pushing them away, driving through them, her hands reaching for that water …
Siray awoke slowly from the dream, but her thirst, real and alive, brought her back to reality as soon as her eyes opened. She moaned as she struggled to prop her body up, the sound emerging in a whisper as her throat rasped out the sound.
An ache in her stomach made her hug herself, as if she could soothe the hunger gnawing at her. But her thirst was desperate.
She tried licking her lips, their rough and pitted surface sucking the last moisture from her already dry tongue, leaving her lips stinging after the dryness.
She raised herself up on shaky arms and legs, crawling to the door of her cell. Making a huge effort, she slapped her palm against the door weakly a couple of times.
‘Hey!’ she called out weakly. Her voice was barely a whisper, and Siray listened as she half sat, half slumped, against the cold door.
Nothing. She couldn’t hear any sounds at all. She tried again.
‘Hey! Heeeyyy ….’ Her voice trailed off in a high squeak, and she tried slapping her hand against the door a few times, each soft blow weaker than the last.
Soon, she tired of even making that effort and rested her forehead on the door as she continued to listen. There was still no response to her cries, if anyone had even heard her at all.
Turning away, Siray rested her back against the door and closed her eyes, exhaling deeply, her head light from her exertions. As she breathed, she felt her body relaxing and getting heavy, and sleep began to tug at her once more. She wanted to sink into that sleep state so she could at least escape that way, yet something tickled at the edges of her mind. She focused on the thought, bending all of her tired mind to understand what it was that was bothering her. It was like trying to catch a fluttering wishae with one hand, the thought slipping away each time she was close to grasping it.
Siray threw all of her remaining energy into her focus. Ah, that was it. She shouldn’t sleep. Siray smiled, happy to have recalled that important fact, then frowned, not remembering why it was important.
But the thought, once realised, wouldn’t leave her, so fighting against the temptation to curl up and sleep, she opened up her eyes and faced the darkness of her cell once more.
Only to realise it wasn’t dark.
A small glow was emanating from the ceiling, so soft that Siray doubted if the guards would have even noticed it if they opened the door at that moment.
Ignoring her protesting body, Siray rocked up onto her hands and knees and crawled slowly to a spot beneath the cracks in the ceiling. Collapsing against the wall once more, she gazed upwards, the soft glow increasing as the bug made its entrance the crevice.
Leaving its hiding place, it made straight for one of the walls, travelling upside down across the ceiling, making her mouth twitch as she beheld this bug moving with such a clear purpose.
As she continued to watch, the bug reached the corners where the walls met and began the vertical climb down. When it reached the floor, she watched as it continued its determined run. Straight at her.
Siray blinked a couple of times to be certain of what she was seeing. Then waved her hands in front of her eyes to satisfy herself that she hadn’t fallen asleep. Convinced of her observations, she became uneasy and leaned back to press herself into the wall, her exhausted body and mind unable to handle even a potential bug attack.
She became even more nervous when the bug slowed, then paused in its approach.
Siray narrowed her eyes. Foggy as she was at the moment, she was positive this wasn’t normal bug behaviour.
She continued watching as the bug hesitated, then turned from her and scuttled towards the back of the cell. She peered after it, tracking its glow, less nervous but even more curious about what it was doing. Then the glow from the bug dimmed, and complete darkness reigned once more in her cell. Curiosity had replaced her uneasiness, but it was the need for company that made her stretch out her hands and slowly pull herself forward. Manoeuvring her body over the rough and cold floor took long moments, and Siray squinted towards the back of her cell, trying to penetrate the darkness as she scanned for her glow bug and its soft light. When she couldn’t discern any such gleam, she kept moving in the direction of the wall.
Intent on her search, she almost crawled over the obstacle in front of her before she realised what it was. Crying out in alarm, a dry, rasping sound, Siray scrambled clumsily as she threw herself backwards.
Calling on her body to function in such a way proved to be a bad idea, as her twitching muscles, still refusing to cooperate in any real sense, caused her to fall back and sideways into the cell wall. Her skull connected with a sharp thud, and a soft ringing started in her ears. As bright sparks winked in and out of her vision, she moved her head, trying to see around them. Then, she remembered what she had almost crawled across. A pair of feet.
; Snapping her head back up fast enough to make sparks flash in her vision once more, she gazed at the spot where she had seen the boots. They were still there, attached to a pair of legs, that were in turn attached to … a young male.
This close, she could see the male’s outline against the darkness, and the tiniest bit of light reflected from his eyes as he stared back at her. She continued looking at him in shock and astonishment, even as her mind noted details. He looked like he might have had a few cycles on her, but his serious expression gave the impression of someone who had seen many more.
When he spoke, she flinched in surprise, suspicious.
‘Hello, Siray. I’m here to help you.’ His voice was smooth and quiet.
She looked at him openly now, not bothering to hide her doubt or mistrust. ‘Help me? Who are you?’
The male sighed and squatted before her, causing her to press herself against the wall even harder.
‘You won’t like this, but I can’t tell you. Not who I am, or anything, until I get you out of here and somewhere safe.’
Siray narrowed her eyes, then barked out a short and barely audible laugh. ‘Let me guess—you want me to trust you?’
The male nodded.
Siray shook her head, but the throbbing that resulted made her stop short. ‘That’s not going to happen,’ she managed to grind out as she grabbed at her aching head.
The young man blinked in surprise at her forceful tone.
‘I have spent a couple of long days here—in this cell and out of it,’ she told him. ‘I don’t know your name, why you want to help me, or who you’re doing it for.’ She gestured towards the door of her cell as she continued to rasp at him. ‘Basically, I know more about them at this point than I do of you. And it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this were some new torture of theirs.’
Siray leaned forwards as she grew frustrated and angry at this visitor, who seemed so relaxed. He asked for everything but risked nothing in return.
‘And just how did you get in here?’
The male shifted his weight, making her tense. ‘Siray, our time to make an escape tonight is limited, so I’ll tell you what I can, and you’ll have to decide what you want to do.’
She watched as he drew in a breath before continuing.
‘I managed to get in here through shifting into various forms.’
Stunned, she looked into the dark behind her visitor, then looked back at him, as she put the facts together. ‘You were the glow bug?’
He nodded. ‘I came in the first night to scout out the area and locate where you were being held. And now, it’s time to get you out of here. If you will trust me.’
She didn’t move. ‘How do I know you really want to help me and that you’re not just one of them?’ After all, he claimed that he could turn into various forms. Almost exactly what Silver had said of her.
Her visitor stood and looked at her with … what? Empathy? Pity? She couldn’t tell and looked away.
‘Siray.’
He said her name so softly, with such quiet understanding, that she was compelled to look back at him.
‘Put aside what you don’t know about me for the present and focus on what you do know.’ He gestured to the shadows around him. ‘You know you’re held captive by people who want to use you as a specimen for study. You’ve been through the experiments, and you know that there is only more of the same, or worse, ahead of you.’
He edged closer, and Siray tensed again, her back hard up against the wall.
‘There is no other rescue coming for you but the one I offer you now. If you stay, you will either die during their experiments as they study you or you will become an instrument of their use. You don’t need to trust me right now to leave this place. That choice you can make later.’ He moved carefully past her, backing up a couple of steps towards the door.
Siray’s mind began whirling as she processed his words. Was he really offering an escape from this prison? Or was this some new torture her captors had devised that she was playing into? Her heart thudded as she fought against her mind’s sluggishness. The male was right about two things. She had died yesterday, in the room with the blue conduits, and they had revived her. But the next time she might not be so fortunate. If you could call the promise of more days of torture fortunate. But she could take this chance and make any other decisions later.
‘Alright,’ she said told him in a shaky voice. She put a hand against the wall to push herself up, her legs shaky. From the corner of her eye, she saw the male tense as she rose, and she looked at him suspiciously. ‘So, how do we get out of here?’ She didn’t quite believe that he could actually get them out, but she looked up at the crack in the ceiling above her.
Seeing her look, the male shook his head. ‘Can’t go that way. You don’t have control of your forms yet.’ He moved instead to the door of her cell, putting his cheek to it for a moment. And then he just wasn’t there anymore.
Siray blinked her eyes in amazement, leaning forwards to examine where the male had just been standing in time to see the glow bug, now dim, disappear as it slipped beneath the tiny crack under the cell door.
She wasn’t prepared for the feelings of loss that pushed against her as her strange companion disappeared. Feelings strong enough to drive her to her feet and make her stumble up to the door. As she paused before the barrier, she tried to still her rapid breathing while she listened, then gasped as the rumbling of the door sounded, and she almost tripped over her own feet as she attempted to move backwards awkwardly. When the door was open, she saw the male standing tensely on the other side, looking first one way, then the other, down the hall.
He glanced at her before jerking his head at the passageway and then moving silently away. Cautiously, Siray shuffled to the opening and looked out into the passage. The male must have been right about it being night, as there were no lights, no sounds, and no movement. Her heart was beating so loudly that she thought the male might be able to hear it as she nervously stepped out into the passage, her whole body tense. When no lights came on and that purring voice failed to sound, she relaxed slightly.
Only to tense again as the rumbling sound of her door began again. She spun, but the male was only closing the door and locking it again.
‘That should buy us some time,’ he whispered, turning back around to face her. He checked the passage in both directions again before moving away from her down the hall, deeper into the underground area. ‘Let’s go!’ He gestured for her to follow him.
Siray’s suspicions rose again, but she followed as swiftly as she was able, moving up to walk behind him and to the side, so she could see past him down the hall. Meanwhile, her head continued to thump.
‘Shouldn’t we be moving up the stairs to get back up to the city?’ She whispered her question, carefully watching the male’s face, but he gave nothing away, his only response a quick shake of his head. Siray narrowed her eyes but kept following as he continued to move silently down the passage.
Soon, they reached a branching of the hallway, and Siray paused when the male stopped. After he had listened closely and peered down each new hallway, he led them around the corner, and they continued down his chosen hallway.
Siray winced as they passed the rooms where she had shocked herself and shifted her eyes away to focus on the male’s back, breathing rapidly and stumbling repeatedly as her muscles protested. The lack of food and, more importantly, water had drained her system, and her body was shaking slightly from her simple exertions.
Now moving through an area Siray hadn’t seen before, she began to wonder how this male knew his way around so well, even as they continued to move as fast as Siray’s fatigued body would allow, the maze of passages causing her to lose all sense of direction. But the farther the male led her into the underground passages, the more her doubts grew, until she was frowning constantly at his back.
The next time they paused at a corner, Siray hastily looked around, her eyes, now adjusted to the d
ark, lighting upon a large piece of rock that lay a few steps behind her. Keeping her eyes upon the male’s back in front of her, she retreated rapidly and, bending her knees, swiped it up.
Holding it, she realised the rock was actually a chunk of hard material from the old walls around her, and she gripped its uneven shape tightly in her hand as she resumed her place behind the male.
Just in time. He twisted to sharply nod at her before moving off again, encouraging her to move faster with frequent gestures. When he broke into a jog, Siray just stumbled along as fast as she could behind him, her uneven steps not reminisce of any pace.
Down another passageway, then around another turn that took them into a narrow passage. The male slowed in front of her, and as she clutched the rock firmly, Siray saw a door at the end of the passage.
A tiny red glow was coming from the wall beside the door. As they approached, Siray realised the glow was caused by an activation pad imbedded in the wall. As they reached the door, the male turned to her.
‘This door has an alarm that I can’t disable. Once I open it, they’ll know that you’ve escaped, and where to come find us.’
Siray’s palms began to sweat. Had she escaped only to be recaptured on the cusp of freedom?
The male was still looking at her, his eyes now concerned, and Siray felt her cheeks warm as she realised he had read her fears on her face.
When he spoke, though, his voice didn’t give any indication of what his eyes had seen. ‘Through this door, we’ll need to run. Even if you hurt’—and here his face reflected some regret at what he was asking of her—‘stick close behind me and don’t stop running.’ He lifted his hand and held it so that it hovered over the door pad, looking at her, waiting.
Her choice.
She drew in a deep breath. She had expected herself to hesitate, but her mind was in survival mode, and running seemed to agree with it right now. She nodded.
The male pressed his palm to the activation pad, and, with a quiet hiss, the door retracted.