Chapter 64 A Promise Made
Niklaus
One Year Later
The inmate who bleeds out at my feet puts a smile on my face.
My spear is stuck in his cheek. The uneven, pointy tip of my weapon cracked into a few teeth before it sank into the oversized tongue in his mouth. I felt the meat split on impact, and his eyes widened before they went slack.
A fountain of blood is a ferocious torrent down his chin, forming a small lake at my feet.
That harrowing, beefy body jerks on the stage as I twist the spear, no doubt hitting a vein.
The two faces I do not want to see in the crowd are not there, and I grin wider.
This inmate was sentenced to life in prison for stealing the animals from the Meat Carnivals. I was hoping it was for a noble cause. But I was wrong. The reasons are far more disturbing and inhumane to repeat.
“Demechnef búizarx!” his brother roars, jumping onto the stage without permission from the Ringmaster.
The square jaw and boxed head plummet toward me like a crazed bull. He’s twice my size, but sluggish and drunk with his rageful attack.
I don’t think any of this would have worked without big brother’s invasion of the fight night for revenge. I knew I could drag the fight with Nox out long enough… But this is what’s really going to buy time. This stupid, sweaty, malignant narcissist motherfucker.
I play with him for a little while.
His fury makes him clumsy and uncoordinated. He flings random weapons at me from the rack. Charges me with a sword far too small for a man of his size. I practically float away from each squawk and powerful swing of his arm.
It’s too easy.
His naturally pale complexion is cherry-red. And he fights with all his strength to avenge his brother. But not once can he land a hit. No blood is drawn.
I simply move out of his way, using the stage as a designated platform to make him dizzy and spent from running in circles to get me.
I count the seconds carefully.
Enough time has passed. Just in time, too. The Ringmaster fidgets, clearly getting agitated that no one is being harmed.
The brother releases a hysterical battle cry, fumbling over his own feet and raising that skinny sword to attack again.
All it takes is precision. I throw the spear, and it lodges directly into his square head. The skull cracks. Metal pierces the meat of his brain. And that three-hundred-pound man is nailed to the ground without so much as a whimper.
The crowd chucks food and trash. Cheering and chanting.
The small group of men who followed the brothers raid the stage. Swarming the sentinels that attempt to corral them. And I slip into the crowd of inmates, getting lost in the shadows, and among the chaos—I disappear from the spotlight.
A trap door under the stage leads to the sewage lines.
Blueprints in history books prepared me for this.
I sprint through the putrid gray water, crouching under the low pipe ceilings and following the directions I gave to a T.
“I’m here!” I shout-whisper.
Jack and Sophia have made it to the end.
“Hurry—let’s go!” Jack signals for us to jump into the waterfall that leads to the coast. A perfect path to get passage to Dementia.
I don’t move as Sophia tries to grab my hand.
“I’m not going with you,” I tell them calmly.
Jack’s mouth falls open. “No, goddamned you. Your plan worked. We’re all leaving together!”
“I made a promise to my wife that I would get you two out of here.”
Sophia starts to cry.
“We have what we need for all of us to leave though!” Jack tugs at his backpack in frustration.
“Please,” Sophia sobs.
Moonlight leaks across the running water at our feet, highlighting their faces that will forever be etched into my memory.
“I can’t leave,” I admit. Though there is no sadness in my tone.
It’s acceptance. I’m just happy they get to start their lives, even if their fate is harsh where they’re going.
For a short while, they’ll know happiness.
Jack, when he meets Sapphire’s grandmother, Violet.
From what I remember, they were in love.
And Sophia, when she has her two sons, Kane and Arthur.
“Yes, you can!”
I sigh, hearing the footsteps and shouting down the pipes from where I came. They figured it out.
“If there’s still a chance my wife could come back, I can’t leave here.”
Sophia cries, covering her mouth to muffle the sound. Her light brown hair is greasy and askew across her face. They’re both covered in grime and shit. But they’re free now.
“Hey—don’t feel bad for me.” I tap her chin with my thumb. “Now, jump! Otherwise, we’ll all get punished!”
Jack and Sophia exchange a final hopeless look, then silently thank me with their eyes.
I don’t know what I would have done this last year without them.
Sophia, although she is younger than me here, was the most nurturing woman I have ever met.
She tended to my wounds, was patient when I went through every stage of grief, and never once judged me.
Jack became my best friend. Most of the time, he’s very serious and a little bitter, but he was also hilarious.
He helped me adapt with dark humor and companionship.
Her grandparents became my closest friends.
And I will never see them again.
The two clasp hands and jump into the waterfall, plunging down to the river that empties into the coast. That place where they’ll eventually find safe passage.
Goodbye, Sophia and Jack.
As the sentinels swarm the humid tunnels, tackling me into rushing water—I know I will sleep well tonight.
Wherever you are, I hope you can see this.
I kept my promise.