Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66334 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
But what if they didn’t? What if Ky didn’t? The thought was like a knife to the chest. The image of him with that blade sticking out of his side flashed through my mind, and I nearly lost it. Ky was always so strong, so invincible, but now… Now he was hurt and I wasn’t there to help him. The thought tore at me and made it hard to breathe.
“Come on,” Dion said softly, his voice gentle as he urged me forward again. I could hear the pain in his voice too, the grief he was trying so hard to hide.
We stepped down from the tunnel, and both Dion and Brody helped me, their hands careful, almost tender. I was too numb to notice much else, too lost in my own head. Jessica and her group had emerged behind us at some point, but I barely registered them. All I could think about was Ky, and Lana, and the fact that I had no idea if they were okay, or if they were even alive.
“Is that a pool?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as we stepped into a new section of this hellish place.
Brody looked around, his face grim. “Yeah… they’ve put more effort into it than we ever imagined.”
“What about the building behind the museum? Is this the place?” I asked, needing answers, needing something to make sense.
“This is definitely not it,” Brody replied, but he still wasn’t telling me everything.
There was something in his voice, something he wasn’t saying, and it only made the knot in my stomach tighten.
Dion stayed silent; his eyes haunted but focused. He was just as lost as I was, but he was keeping it together for us. For me. We descended a small set of stairs, the atmosphere shifting again.
The walls and ceiling were bathed in a sickly green light, and the tiles beneath our feet were too clean, too pristine for a place like this. The skylights above were blacked out, casting everything in an eerie, unnatural shadow. Ahead of us was a single door, the only way forward. It seemed out of place, almost too ordinary in this twisted nightmare.
“This was a subway station,” Jessica said from behind us, her voice strange, almost wistful. It made me want to get as far away from her as possible.
She was trailing behind with two others, and even though I knew I should be paying attention to them, I couldn’t bring myself to care. To our right, I saw a grated platform, the kind where tracks might have been once. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were walking right into another trap, but what choice did we have?
Without hesitation, Brody moved forward and opened the door, stepping through first. As we stepped onto the landing, Dion trailed off, his voice barely a whisper, "What the..."
The drastic change in atmosphere was like a slap to the face, and unnerving. The air was thick with the scent of dust and something else—something metallic, perhaps, mixed with a faint, acrid odor. Somewhere nearby, I could hear the hum of machinery, a low, constant vibration that reverberated through the walls.
"We can't go down there," one of the men with Jessica muttered, his voice trembling as he backed away, eyes wide with fear. The redhead whirled on him, her hand fisting in his shirt as she dragged him close, her voice a sharp hiss. "Cut the shit. We were just stuck in that damn room for nearly two days. If you want a chance of making it out of here, you keep moving."
Dion, Brody, and I exchanged a look, our silent agreement clear. They weren’t our concern or our problem. Wordlessly, we started down the stairs. At the bottom, the passage narrowed to a suffocating degree, forcing us to squeeze through. My shoulder brushed against the cold stone walls, the rough texture scraping against my skin as we pushed forward. I rolled my lips and sucked in a deep breath when it pressed against my hand, fighting the urge to throw up from the pain.
I desperately wished for Helios to come back to me right then. It would take all the hurt away, mental and physical. The corridor led to a set of double doors. With a deep breath, I pushed them open, and we stepped into a square room. Chains hung from the ceiling, their ends capped with rounded metal shackles, swaying slightly as if recently disturbed. A giant, altered metal fan loomed overhead, its blades still and ominous, and on one wall, a large screen was lit up, displaying blank blocks like some twisted version of Jeopardy.
Another set of doors stood at the far end of the room, and as they swung open, I felt my breath catch in my throat. The others entered, soaking wet but together, and a wave of relief washed over me. It was short-lived, though. Lana’s eyes met mine as she moved past Ciaran. Words died on my lips. I couldn’t say it—couldn’t tell her our Mel was gone.