Chapter 89

  - Kaysi -

  Evan didn’t look up. “Yeah. Same.” He spoke.

  He didn’t have to say it, but I could feel the desperation beneath his calm. The glint in his eye wasn’t fear—it was pressure, like a storm gathering, tight and low in his chest. We had to move. Sitting here too long would rot us from the inside out, like it had done to everyone else around us.

  I leaned toward the cell bars and whispered to the prisoner in the cell across from us. He was maybe forty, skin gray with a dull sheen of sweat, eyes sunken so far in they looked like bck holes.

  “Hey,” I said. “Do you know any way out of here?”

  He didn’t answer me.

  “I said, do you know how to escape?”

  His lips moved, just barely. “Escape? There’s nowhere to escape to.”

  “What about any of the other people, do they not come and go? What happened to them? How did you guys even get here?”

  He gave a humorless smile. “No one here has memories before coming here. As for the others, they either gave up or got thrown in the Pit.”

  Evan frowned. “What’s the Pit?”

  The man chuckled with a raspy voice. "You'll find out soon."

  "What did he mean? Why did these people act so casually about everything?"

  One person made a slight movement—a younger man with silky bck hair. "Don't listen to that old man, he is crazy. If you ever find a way out, maybe you can send a message. I want out of here. No one remembers they lived before here. I have visions still, but I am new like you."

  "I promise you, one day it is our goal to destroy this pce forever, and I will get you out as well, even if we have to come back ter. Don't give up hope."

  Thank you. My name is Paul.

  "Mine is Kaysi, and this is my friend Evan."

  After that, the cell stayed quiet for hours. The pulsing walls seemed to sigh with each passing breath, and somewhere in the distance, we could hear faint echoes—voices, chains, maybe... screaming. I wasn't sure anymore. I'd lost track of time in the way only the Abyss seemed to allow.

  But then came the sound that snapped both our heads up.

  Footsteps.

  Heavy. Inhuman. Spping against the stone with a wet, slithering scrape.

  A guard is walking down the tunnel.

  He lumbered past the cells, bored like he was inspecting livestock. His body was twisted—humanoid only in the most abstract sense, with skin that moved like oil across bone. One of his cws dragged along the bars zily, as if he were drunk or something. The shriek of metal on metal echoed down the corridor.

  I tensed up, feeling on edge that the demon guard was looking for trouble.

  But then—something. A ctter.

  The demon hissed and barked at another prisoner across the hall, smming his cw against their bars in irritation. In his carelessness, a dull iron key ring slipped from the folds of his armor and fell right in front of our cell with a loud clink.

  We froze.

  Evan stared at it like it was made of gold.

  The guard didn't notice. He slowly dragged himself out of the room.

  Once it was silent for a little bit of time, we made our move.

  I sprang to my feet first, chains only giving me enough length to get halfway across the cell. I stretched, grunting, breathing heavily, fingers barely grazing the metal ring.

  "Come on... come on..." I hissed.

  I dropped to the ground and used my boot to pull the key closer. Finally—finally— I snatched the ring.

  I turned back to Evan, holding it like it was the most important thing in the world. “Okay,” I whispered, “you first. You unlock me, then I’ll do you.”

  “No.” Evan’s voice was quiet, but firm. “You’re chained more tightly than I am. If I get free first, I can unlock you faster.”

  I hesitated; he had a point, then gave a quick nod. “Alright. That makes sense.”

  I turned sideways to try to pass him the key. But our wrists were shackled at different angles, chained to opposite walls. The space was too narrow, the chains too short. I tried to toss it, but the sound it made when it hit the ground. I flinched.

  “That’s too loud,” I whispered harshly. “We’re going to get caught, as if I wasn't talking to myself.”

  “Wait,” Evan said, eyes scanning the angles. “We can’t toss it... But if you lean forward, and I lean too…”

  Realization hit us both at the same time. I stared at the key, then at Evan. “You're not being serious, are you?”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Evan asked.

  “…Ugh.”

  “I’ll hold it with my teeth,” Evan offered.

  “Why do you get to use your teeth?”

  “Because you said you’d unlock me.”

  “Oh, right. My nerves made my mind numb. I felt panicked about everything going on right now.”

  With a groan, I gently picked the key up with my mouth, the cold iron scraping my teeth awkwardly. I walked as far as her shackles allowed. Evan mirrored my movements, and the space between us shrank.

  We were both breathing harder with each step.

  “Okay,” he said quietly, “on three.”

  I rolled her eyes. This is so embarrassing; my face is hot, and my heart is racing. My mouth was ready with the key.

  “Okay. One…”

  Our noses nearly touched. This was too close. This was way too—

  “Two…”

  I could feel his breath on my face.

  “Three—”

  I leaned in just as he did, and I gently slid the key from my lips to his. It was Weird. Our foreheads bumped.

  “Ow—!”

  “Sorry—just—got it.”

  The key passed.

  We pulled back slightly, and Evan coughed. “Well… that was the most romantic prison moment I’ve ever had.” He teased.

  I wiped her mouth with my shoulder. “Shut up.” My face was pulsing with embarrassment.

  He smiled sheepishly. “It was kind of nice, though.”

  Before I could snap a response back at him, footsteps thundered toward the cell.

  “Evan—quick!” I whispered, but it was too te.

  The guards burst in, ripping the key from Evan's hand before he could get to the lock.

  “Trying to run?” one of them growled.

  The fox-faced warren stepped forward, his long scarred snout curling into a grin. “Ah. You're both strong-spirited. Let's see if it still holds in the ring.”

  He snatched Kaysi's sword from the wall. I reached for it, but his cw batted me away.

  He turned it over in his hand and scoffed. “This thing?” he snorted. “Useless. Have it back; you're going to need it.”

  He tossed it at me like a child discarding a toy.

  “Welcome to the pit, prisoners,” he sneered. “Let’s see if either of you earns a pardon.”

  Paul looked up from the shadows of his cell as we were led away. "Don't forget," he mouthed.

  The guards walked us down the hall like pets on leashes. Kicking us any time we slowed or hesitated.

  When we talked to the two rge doors, we could hear the sound of a rge crowd cheering.