Chapter 21
When It’s Over
Ben
I SHOULD’VE TRUSTED my gut long before today. The woman behind me with two pistols—one aimed at Lillian and the other on me—showed signs of betrayal from the very start.
“I’ll be taking the necklace.” Margaret’s voice echoes behind us.
I find it interesting that the destruction of the cave stopped the moment Margaret showed her hand.
I don’t know how they would have been able to communicate down here, but I had to have missed something.
The echoes of my own idiocy are interrupted by the tick of a gun waving back and forth before she continues on with her threats.
“I’ll be taking anything you have, actually.
And if you want to make this easier for everyone, you can just come with me now. ”
Neither Lillian nor I speak, but the tension is palpable.
I’ve been around Lillian long enough to know what she might be feeling, what she might plan to do.
Though, the absolute devastation of losing Ademir minutes ago might make her volatile.
I shrug my shoulders to keep them loose and return my attention to Lillian.
I’ll be ready even if she wants to strike before she gives me a sign.
With her hands held up, Lillian clears her throat and dares to look behind her. “My bag.” She has to clear her throat of tears multiple times before continuing. “You’ll find everything you want there.” The struggle is enough to make me flinch. Ademir’s body lies beneath us, still warm.
As Margaret slowly retreats to look for Lillian’s bag, I start to take stock of what I have on me.
Not much, but enough.
“Hey,” I whisper. “It’s going to be okay.”
I feel her gaze on me even as I turn in the opposite direction.
Margaret still has a gun trained on Lillian, slowly backing away from us.
There’s one way out of here, surely straight into the arms of the Germans, but it would give us options.
Right now, it’s do as Margaret says or make a run for it.
“Eyes forward!” Margaret’s voice reverberates through the chamber as her feet knock rubble loose in route towards us. I’ve spooked her enough with my movement that she hasn’t gotten the bag. It will still be there to scoop up when we make our run.
When I can feel Margaret at my back once again, I calm my breathing.
I have no doubt that Margaret would shoot me if prompted, but she would never shoot Lillian; she’s too important.
Still, I don’t want to risk anything. Making a run for it will take the opportune moment, and even then, the passage out is unmeasurable.
“I’m not going to take this off for you,” Lillian snaps from beside me, bringing the focus back to the necklace. She’s playing the game too; I only hope she has a similar idea to mine.
“Like I said before”—Margaret huffs, lightly smacking Lillian’s cheek with the back of her hand—”this would be easier if you would just come with me.”
Silence from Lillian.
“They know we need the necklace; they just haven’t decided whether they need you or not.”
“But you have?” Lillian bites. Margaret taps Lillian’s cheek again before knocking some of Lillian’s curls to the side.
When the clasp is revealed, I nearly take the opening, but Margaret’s ever-watchful eyes see my fingers twitch.
She laughs in a way that I haven’t heard since the beginning of our journey and turns her attention toward me.
She finally takes it upon herself to relieve me of my two holstered guns.
Thankfully, she doesn’t reach for the small gun I have concealed in my right boot.
“I think we do need you.” She throws my weapons into the abyss before setting her sights on Lillian once again.
“I see the way the necklace responds to you.” She tugs at the necklace and flinches as if it might attack her.
“Well, I suppose it reacts to you when it wants to.” Lillian leans forward, causing the leather chain to slip from Margaret’s fingers.
A sigh escapes our captor’s lips, and for a second I think she might step away. “I didn’t want any of this. I thought perhaps you might just come willingly; I even want to take Ben. Please, make this easy for me. Your father would be happy to see you come unharmed.”
The thought of Lillian being forced to go unwillingly has my fingers twitching again.
“You can put your hands down, Ben.” Her mistake.
Throwing my hand back, I dig my fingers into my boot and procure my gun.
I’ve leveled it at her before she can even blink.
“We’re leaving,” I growl at her as I come to stand.
Moving slowly, I help Lillian up from her knees.
Her hand immediately goes to clutch her necklace just to remind herself that it didn’t get taken from her.
“What? No speech?” Margaret asks, her gun twisting in her hand.
I revel in the way she has it pointed at me as she carefully backs away down the embankment to the floor.
“No words pleading for an explanation?” Her voice is full of mockery, but when I let my eyes dart to Lillian for a reaction, I see only sadness for her former friend.
“You owe me no explanation. I only feel sorry for James and what he might think of you when he finds out.” Margaret pales at Lillian’s calculated words; a slight quiver of the shoulders is visible as the barrel of her gun follows our path.
Her free hand has to pocket her flashlight in order to stabilize her aim.
As we circle around her, Lillian grabs my arm to lead the way. We’re at the base of the rockslide now. We’re still backing away slowly when Margaret seems to wake from the trance the thought of James put her in.
“Don’t even think about leaving with the rest of your things.” Lillian stiffens beside me, knowing full well she was going to make a play for her bag. Margaret takes a small step forward.
An impasse.
“I see your eyes darting to it, Lillian.” Another step forward, a bigger one.
Pebbles roll by her ankles at the shift in weight.
Lillian sees it too. “I’m letting you keep that bloody necklace; don’t think I’ll afford you any other kindness today.
Not when your boyfriend has already put this whole scenario back in his hands. It just wouldn’t be fair.”
Lillian squeezes my arm in warning. “I’m taking what’s mine,” she responds. Lillian inches her way to the floor, and then Margaret lunges forward. The entire mound of crumbled limestone shifts, and Margaret stumbles.
Lillian makes a play for the bag that holds so much of what we need, but Margaret fires a shot that ricochets off the ground near where Lillian had reached; the snap of it sends her backwards onto her back with a gasp.
Marking exactly where she is, I let my own shot go.
It’s my one bullet, our one chance at getting the upper hand.
I hear the crack of the lightbulb in Margaret’s pocket as we are plunged into darkness. It’s followed by a sharp hiss and the crack of another shot in our direction.
I’ve already got Lillian by the arms and am hauling her in the direction of our escape. Moving, let alone running, in a cave is a death sentence, but I have faith in the careful plotting I’ve done to get us out.
I have faith in the woman in my arms that she’ll find a way to light the road ahead.
Lillian
Maneuvering a cave without light is a sure death sentence, especially with an injured leg. The bullet jumped right up from the ground and grazed through the inside of my calf. I didn’t feel the pain until now, and with every step, I can feel the stickiness of blood running down into my socks.
The sensation is nearly enough for me to come to a halt, but the way that Ben is moving is like he has every step memorized.
We’re in total darkness, and yet he is moving forward with assurance.
I know that luck, that honed skill of navigation, will give out on us eventually.
I find myself begging the muiraquit? at my neck to come to life.
Like the flip of a switch, a deathly glow grows at my chest. I slow slightly to admire it. I’ve either found it within myself to control it, or Ademir has stuck around and asked the earth one more favor on my behalf.
“Keep running,” Ben whispers. “We’re not free of her yet.” His arm across my back urges me on, and with the light I find myself no longer holding back. Despite the pain in my leg, I push myself through the cavern into yet another tunnel, a tunnel that is widening.
Ben lets out a sound of triumph when the glow of my necklace starts to be drowned out of light up ahead.
Dying sunlight, but sunlight nonetheless.
The cave walls turn from black to deep purple to gray as the natural light from outside brings out its true colors.
Though my eyes burn at the brightness, I push myself harder toward the sweet taste of fresh air.
Darting out of the mouth of the cave like wildfire, Ben instantly grabs hold of me and jerks me backwards toward him.
My heart thunders when I realize that the cave has spit us out high above the treetops.
A small landing gives way to a sharp cliff face, and I was just two meters from tumbling down the side of it.
I instinctively wrap myself around Ben, and his grip only tightens as the tremors of near death wrack through me.
Our chests heave in unison at the whirlwind of adrenaline; it’s as if our heartbeats become one.
At the shared feeling, he rests his cheek atop my head, and I nuzzle further into him.
We lost Ademir, but Ben and I made it out.
There will be more challenges to come, most presently finding a way down, but Ben and I made it out unscathed.
“Lillian,” Ben gasps, holding me at arms length. “You’re bleeding.”
Relatively unscathed.
When I look behind me and see a dotted trail of blood, the pain hits me all at once. I’m already reassuring him before he can lower me to the ground. “It just grazed me, I swear.”