Chapter 15
15
Sonny
T he two men escort me back to my cell, and I follow along with them without issue. I can tell both of them want to make smartass remarks about my sudden change in heart, but they have enough self-preservation not to voice them. Just as they had done before, they use dimly lit headlamps to light their way through the winding tunnels.
I know it’s meant to be a form of punishment for us in the cells—perhaps even a message. They’ve taken away our light and left us to rot in the dark; both literally and figuratively.
But the dim lights are a mercy more than a punishment. Once they dragged me into that brightly lit room with Raze, I could hardly see anything. My eyes are accustomed to the darkness now, and I’ve adapted.
Just like I’ll adapt to their constant challenges.
I watch our footsteps closely, committing the path to memory as much as I can to make it that much easier to navigate when I finally get the hell out of here.
The door to my cell was left open when I left, so once we reach the corridor where all four cells face each other, they grab my arm and throw me into mine. I land on my knees with a loud crack and hiss out a string of curse words as the pain radiates up my thighs and into my sore hips. The bigger guy swings the steel door shut just as I catch a flash of the smaller one shoving a key into Matilda’s.
“What do you want?” she shouts, sounding every bit as terrified as I felt when they came for me.
“Just got new orders,” the big one tells her.
I fight my way to my feet to watch through the barred window in my door.
“I won’t tell them anything,” she insists, then snorts through her nose and launches a glob of spit into the smaller one’s face.
He makes a gagging sound and swipes his hand across his cheek, flicking the mucous onto the floor.
I glance toward the steel door beside hers, where Ava, Beatrix, and Jonah are squished together to look through their small window, even though they can’t see what’s happening in Matilda’s cell beside them. My chest tightens at their haggard appearances. I haven’t actually laid eyes on them since they were brought down. When the men came for me earlier, I was too preoccupied with fighting them to try to look at anyone else.
Dried blood and dirt are caked across their faces, and they each look like they’ve lost at least ten pounds in the few days we’ve been down here.
Beatrix’s blue hair has faded to near-white and the perfectly slicked back pony that Ava usually wears has broken flyaways dancing along her head like a spiked crown.
I want to tell them I’m sorry. I want to promise I’ll get them out of here and into safety as soon as I possibly can. But I have no idea if Raze can be trusted, or if there’s enough time to figure it out.
“Get off me!” Matilda shrieks, calling my attention back to the scuffle happening before me.
The large man is standing behind her, his enormous hands wrapped around her wrists to hold them behind her back. She thrashes against him, knocking his chin with her skull when he gets too close. He roars in pain, yanking her arms further back until I’m positive they’ve popped out of their sockets.
She doesn’t cry out, though.
Instead, she bites her lip and stifles the sound of her agony in her throat. The scowl puckering her eyebrows together is filled with pure hatred, her eyes rimmed red. If she could set them on fire with the rage burning inside her, they’d be dead in an instant.
I know because I can feel it, too. She’s opened the floodgates of her emotions, pouring them into me until I’m completely overcome by them. My muscles shake with fury, ears pounding to the beat of my racing heart.
“You stupid bitch,” the smaller man seethes when she kicks her foot out and it connects with his shin.
“Just fucking do it!” the other yells as she flails around in his arms. He tightens his hold, wrapping his meaty muscles across her whole chest until she can hardly move.
My blood boils at the sight, and I know the heightened emotion is from her siphoning her anger and betrayal toward me. I have to shut her out before she completely burns me out.
The smaller man raises his arm, and I notice the glint of metal shining off his headlamp.
It’s a knife.
“Stop!” I command uselessly.
“Are you watching, red?” he calls over his shoulder with a chuckle. “Wouldn’t want you to miss the show. It’s in your honor, after all,” he teases.
Matilda has begun humming some sort of chant. In the low lamplight, I can see that her eyes have darkened, her expression growing tighter.
As the man steps forward with the blade, her voice becomes louder, and I realize she’s speaking a completely different language.
I understand then that it’s not a chant, it’s a curse.
The man frowns in confusion, his steps faltering. The bigger one mumbles something, jostling Matilda enough that she stops speaking altogether. The small one takes another step forward, but just as his hand raises and the other man moves his arm out of the way to avoid being cut, Matilda screams.
“Tell your leaders their reckoning has finally arrived. The real Supreme has come to claim what’s hers. No one will be spared!”
The knife is swiped across her neck in one blink, and she instantly falls limp in the other man’s arms.
“No!” I screech, slamming my palms against the cool steel, as if it will melt away by sheer will.
Silence falls around us like a weighted blanket, but my ears are still ringing with Matilda’s rage. It festers inside me, desperately trying to settle and make a new home. Ava, Beatrix, and Jonah gawk at me with widened stares and slackened jaws as the shock of what happened settles in.
But I don’t give them more than a second of attention before my eyes are swinging back to the messy scene across from me. Blood spurts out of Matilda’s neck and dribbles down the front of her dress. The larger man releases his hold and tosses her to the ground, where she falls like a heavy sack of potatoes. His nose scrunches in disgust as he looks down at his chest, and his headlamp shines on the crimson stains across his button-down shirt.
“Get your shit together and grab her arms,” the other one directs. His hands are already wrapped around Matilda’s ankles, lifting them into the air.
Rage consumes me once again, crashing through my entire being like tidal waves lapping against one another. The ringing in my ears grows so loud, I smack my palms against the side of my head to try to muffle it, but even that doesn’t help. Squeezing my eyes shut, I twist my head and rock back and forth on the balls of my feet to release some of the energy building up inside of me.
I need to get it out. It’s going to consume me if I don’t.
Someone has started screaming.
The sound is echoing off the cavernous walls and bouncing back toward me. It grows louder with each passing second, though I can hardly make out the source.
I open my eyes to find the two men watching me with horrified expressions. The sconces mounted on the walls begin to flicker in and out, exposing the gory scene in greater detail. Their headlamps shine directly into my eyes, blinding me each time the lighting flicks off and darkness envelopes my cell.
“Fuck this,” the bigger guy mumbles, dropping Matilda. Her dead weight collapses to the ground once again, and another fit of rage bubbles in my chest.
They can’t treat her this way. She deserves more respect than this.
All of us do.
The two men practically sprint out of Matilda’s cell, their terror feeding the angry beast inside of me. It’s not until their forms disappear down the long, stone corridor that I feel myself settle. The flames blink out until we’re covered with that familiar, suffocating darkness. The ringing in my ears fades out, and I collapse onto the ground.