Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
SANORA
By the time I woke up again, I was the only one in the warehouse. Only now, I was lying flat on my back, precisely on my hands. My wrists were still bound beneath me, crushed by the weight of my own body, the rope biting so deep I couldn’t even feel my fingers.
A broken groan escaped me as I rolled onto one shoulder. Blood came rushing back in violent waves, a thousand needles stabbing their way up my arms. I clenched my eyes shut, willing myself not to scream as I tried to hold myself and my thoughts together.
Amelia was a psychotic researcher. So was her brother, and they’d left me here alone. I wondered how long I’d been asleep this time. Thirty minutes, or had an hour slipped by already? If it was close to an hour, they’d be back any second.
My gaze dragged to my legs, and despair punched me in the gut.
The rope wound tightly around my ankles with no gaps that I could work with.
I knew I was fucked when I realised my wrists too were bound with the same kind of rope.
They were thick, coarse and unyielding—ropes that bit into skin and refused to give no matter how much you struggled.
How long were they planning to keep me here? They knew damn well that if I was ever released and made it back to Thrax, they’d be ruined. The only way to secure themselves would be to kill me.
But would they? I wasn’t sure they’d murder me here in Nimorran while knowing the repercussion this town would have on them.
So what then? Keep me tied up for a month until the next train came?
Whatever their plan was, one thing was certain: I had to get out. A voice in my head told me there was no chance, not like this, but another voice whispered that I had to at least try.
First step was simple—sit up. Only, that was something I already failed at. With both my arms and legs bound tight, I was helpless.
Defeat sank into me as I let my head drop back to the floor, closing my eyes. “Fuck.”
I would never get out on my own if they kept me like this.
Maybe—just maybe—I could trick them into loosening the ropes.
If I told them the spots were bruised and convinced them not to tighten it, maybe they’d change the rope, or loosen it a bit.
..? But would they fall for that? Or would they see right through me?
There was a high possibility it’d be the latter.
Just then, I heard noises like heavy thuds from the direction of the door.
My chest tightened with the realisation that they were back for the real business as to why I was brought here.
I closed my eyes again, knowing very well I’d rather drown to death than tell them anything Thrax and I had been up to, or anything he’d told me.
The sounds grew louder, more frantic, like they were struggling with the lock. It took a while before the door finally burst open, hinges rattling violently. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d both locked the door while they left the keys inside.
Heavy footsteps rushed across the floor, closing in fast. They stopped right in front of me, crouching before hands gripped me urgently, lifting me upright with surprising ease.
“Sanora?”
That voice...
It was deep, old, raspy and very familiar. I frowned, my eyes snapping open.
Weeny Man.
He came into view, looking like time had punished him in my absence. His beard was overgrown and tangled, his hair had gone almost completely grey, his once sharp eyes looked dimmer and weaker, carrying a kind of exhaustion that made my heart twist.
He looked older—ten years older, not a handful of weeks. Something about him sagged, and I didn’t know whether to be horrified or relieved.
“What happened to you? Where have you been?” I whispered, but no words beyond that came. A thousand questions flooded me at once, choking me silent. How had he found me? How did he even know I was here? When did he come back? How did he come back?
“How did you get here?” His eyes darted to the broken door before moving to my legs, pulling a knife from his pocket like he’d been expecting to meet me in this situation. The blade gleamed under the green light as he started hacking through the ropes.
“How did you know where I was?” I asked, swallowing hard.
He didn’t look at me. “Why are you still in Nimorran? I thought you left yesterday. Thrax doesn’t know you are here. Don’t tell me those tyrants gave you something.”
The mention of Thrax hit me harder than the ropes biting my skin. He knew Thrax didn’t know where I was? But then, what he said actually dawned on me, and I jerked my head back as if he’d just slapped me.
Weeny Man knew who Thrax was, too?
Fuck, was I the only one in the dark? He’d reacted strangely and out of character when I’d talked about Thrax some weeks ago. But I didn’t know he really knew who Thrax was and that he was the Soulless Man.
Did it mean Thrax knew him, too?
I shook my head, a headache blooming from the things I’d learnt in just under one hour, including the dream I was yet to understand. Too much. It was all too much.
“How did you know Thrax?” By the time I asked, he was done cutting through the rope around my legs. He moved to my back, driving the blade over the one binding my wrists.
“I’ve known him for a long time,” he said simply.
“How long? Two years?”
He gave a low chuckle, though there was no humour in it. “Since I was born.”
My head whipped back to him, disbelief clawing at my chest. I stared at him, but he wasn’t sparing me a glance. How was that possible? Was there another gods forsaking bloodline like the twin’s? One that was unhealthily obsessed with Thrax?
“How...how is that possible?” I asked, still looking over my shoulder.
But he dodged the question. “Why are you still here? You should’ve left yesterday. You should’ve been far away by now. Nimorran isn’t good for you.”
I nearly rolled my eyes, remembering that was all he’d ever said to me before he left. Maybe he’d been right all along. I’d nearly been killed twice since. “This happened yesterday. Obviously I couldn’t get on the train.”
“Then why did Thrax say you did?” he muttered, more to himself than to me.
Another surprise hit me. “You spoke to Thrax?”
“He told me to ‘fuck off’ and slammed the door in my face. But when I got home and saw the car and money, I confirmed that you’d actually gone.”
The fact that I’d been the first person on his mind when he arrived wasn’t lost on me. He didn’t even reach his house but came to mine first.
By the time my wrists finally fell free, I let out a painful sigh.
My arms dangled uselessly beside me, weightless yet aching as though fire burned through my bones.
I thought I knew pain before, but this was agony.
My eyes squeezed shut as Weeny Man massaged my shoulders briefly before hauling me up to my feet.
My legs buckled immediately, blood rushing to them in violent waves. Ache lanced up into my bones, my whole body convulsing from the sudden rush. But he didn’t give me time to recover. He dragged me towards the exit.
“We have to leave. Now. Before they come back.”
“How do you know them? When did you return? How did you even leave this place?”
He pulled me outside, hurrying us towards a car parked close by. He yanked the passenger door open. “Questions later. In the car. Those twins are dangerous, and they’ll be back any moment.”
I glanced around. The air outside was sour with rot, the neighbourhood a graveyard of abandoned houses—they scattered around us, old and crumbling, walls cracked and roofs sagging. A perfect hideout.
I slid into the seat, and he slammed the door shut before circling to the driver’s side, speeding out of the decayed street as the engine roared to life.
We were lucky we didn’t cross paths with Amelia or Merton on our way out of the neighbourhood.
It wasn’t until we merged onto normal streets filled with people and family houses that Weeny Man finally let out a long, heavy sigh, his shoulders sagging as if a great weight had been lifted. Relief softened his hardened face, if only slightly.
But I had more questions for him, so I knew that relief was short-lived.
“How did you leave Nimorran,” I started.
“Not by the train, of course.” He glanced at me with a soft chuckle, but I was not in any situation to find anything funny or pretend to. “Fine. There is another road that leads out of here. Will never recommend it, and don’t ask me what it’s like. I don’t want to relive it.”
I knew what it was like already. Thrax had told me, and he also told me the survival chances were slim.
Seeing Weeny Man alive and well, but only roughened up a little bit, had me questioning if I knew even a fraction of who he really was.
Because I had more pressing questions to ask, I laid that one to rest.
“You must be thirsty.” With one hand, he reached behind and pulled out a bottle of water from a food bag, handing it to me.
Muttering an appreciation, I took it from him and gulped almost everything.
“How did you know where I was?” I asked as he cut around a corner, and I realised with a sudden drop in my gut that he wasn’t taking me to Thrax.
“I was buying breakfast when they came in to get some for themselves. But before they left, the twin girl asked her brother what he thinks Sanora might want to eat.” He glanced at me.
“I thought they weren’t talking about your Sanora until the girl ordered a lot of meat and whispered to her brother, ‘getting locked up in a warehouse without energy might affect her response to our questions. Let’s not make the girl cranky, the Soulless Man must have taught her how to bite.
’ I didn’t react to that. I just walked out and drove straight to that place because it was the only environment with a warehouse where one could hide someone without fear of being caught. ”
Whoa…
The image of Amelia and Merton returning to find me gone flickered across my mind. A sick part of me wanted to laugh at that. But my chest hurt too much to try.