CHAPTER TEN
Alexa woke up screaming that evening. We had decided to sleep in shifts, so I was awake while she slept. The sound tore through the bubble of thoughtful silence I’d wrapped myself in, startling me straight into action. I rushed to her side, heart racing, and grabbed her shoulders to shake her awake.
When she opened her eyes, I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
She stared at me, panting, eyes wide and scanning the room like she had no idea where in the world she was. She reached for my hand and squeezed it, as if to reaffirm the reality she was seeing all around her.
“Holy shit,” she sighed.
“What was it? Are you okay?” I asked.
She rubbed her eyes. “It was a nightmare, but it wasn’t the devil. It was just a normal nightmare—I never thought I’d be happy to have one of those.”
I smiled at her. “You gave me one hell of a scare.”
“Trust me, I scared myself. It was about RJ… he was in trouble and I couldn’t get to him.”
I nodded. “You guys are really close, aren’t you?”
“He’s legit my best friend. It’s like I can feel how worried he is about me, how pissed he is at this whole thing.”
“He sounds like a good brother.”
“The best. I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“If he’s with Seline, he’s in good hands—and I’m sure she is, too.”
Alexa rubbed her eyes again and sat up. “Did I miss dinner?”
I stood and walked over to the plate that had been delivered for her to eat. The food on it was cold, but it was mostly plain chicken, cheese, and bread. “I thought I’d let you sleep a little more while you could,” I said, “I hope you don’t mind cold chicken.”
She waved her hand and sat upright, then started picking at the food on her plate. “Nah, not at all. How about you go and get some sleep, now? I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m starting to wonder if that even helps.”
“It makes me feel more comfortable, that’s for sure. How about you?”
“I guess.” I looked up at my bunk. “I haven’t heard anything… from the outside, I mean.”
“Oh, yeah. Seline met the Warden. Has Ezree said anything?”
“No.” Azlu caught my eye. She was still holed up on the corner of the ceiling, but her eyes were closed this time. It was weird not seeing her entirely awake and alert. “But I guess no news is… good news?”
“I think if negotiations had gone down, some shit would’ve gone down too. We would’ve heard about it.”
“Right, and no one’s come to pick me up, either. There’s nothing more to do but wait. I guess when Azlu wakes up—actually, is she asleep?”
Alexa craned her neck out from under the bunk and looked up. “That’s weird. She never sleeps.”
“She does. She’s told me she does, but she only needs to sleep like once a week or something. I mean, she slept through your screaming so she must really be knocked out.”
“I’ll let you know if she wakes up.”
“Is that you sending me to bed?”
“Yeah, it is. Let me eat my meal in peace.”
“Alright… but wake me up if anything happens.”
Nodding, Alexa stuffed a piece of chicken in her mouth and waved me up into my bunk. It was hard to argue with her. I had slept the night before, but it had been a light sleep, and I definitely hadn’t caught up with the fatigue of the last few days. I knew, as soon as I hit the pillow, I would be out again.
Only that’s not what happened.
I kept tossing and turning, mind racing. I couldn’t keep still. At one point I was too hot, at others I was too cold. I kept thinking about Seline, about the Horseman, and even Calder. Once he made his way into my mind, and the thought of interrogating the hell out of him coiled up inside of my chest like a snake, I couldn’t let the fantasy go.
He had broken into my head, rearranged my memories, and made me believe whatever lies I needed to believe in order to carry out his mission. Not only that, he’d fabricated entire sections of memory, vivid memory, of conversations I’d had with Seline about exactly the mission I was sent here to accomplish.
Seline, the real Seline, said I had been gone for six months… was that how long it had taken for Calder to paint into my mind whatever memories he wanted me to have? Where had he kept me? Had I submitted willingly, or had he captured me and stuffed me in some kind of cage?
Again.
Frustrated, I slammed my hands into my bed and sat bolt-upright… only to find the cell completely dark. I kept waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but they wouldn’t. The darkness remained, the only faint light coming from the little porthole in the door to my cell.
Heart well and truly lodged inside of my throat, I slowly slid out of my bunk and went to wake Alexa—only she wasn’t there. Her bunk was empty. Frantic, now, I spun around and checked the ceiling. Azlu wasn’t there, either. I was alone in my cell, in the dark, with my heart hammering against the sides of my neck and head.
“Shit…” I cursed, keeping my voice low, “Shit, shit… I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming.”
I shook my head to try and jerk myself awake, but it didn’t work. I’d heard it said that falling in a dream, or getting hurt, woke you up. I considered climbing up and onto my bunk to try to fall off it, but just as I placed one foot on the lower bunk, the door to my cell buzzed loudly, and then opened all by itself.
I stepped off the bunk, staring at the door. I could see out into the cell block, but it was also filled with darkness. It wasn’t just dark; but filled with a kind of murky black haze that made it difficult to see what was going on beyond the door.
There was no movement outside, no one stalking the cellblock. I couldn’t hear anything, either—nothing but the sound of my own rapidly thundering heart. I took deep breaths to try to bring my heartrate down, but eventually, I knew, I had to go through that door.
“I’m dreaming,” I said, “And I can’t wake up. That means it’s here somewhere.”
And it was here. I could feel it pawing at the edge of my senses, sniffing around for me in the dark. It had found me. The beast, the monster, the devil of Harrowgate. I had been in this exact situation once before, and if this followed the regular flow of dreams, then that meant I was about to experience the exact same thing I had back then.
And it all started with stepping out of my cell.
“Alright,” I said to no one. “You wanna play with me? Let’s play.”
Speaking helped calm my nerves a little, enough to let me finally take a tentative step or two towards the door. As soon as I reached it, I peered out and around the corner, checking for signs of life, or movement of any kind. It was dead in here. Dead, and dark, and quiet. The guard booth was empty, the other cells were open, but also empty.
I stepped into D-Block, moving through it until I found the main doors that led into and out of it. They were open, the way into the corridor beyond it was also dark, except for the red glow of emergency lights. The beast was out there, somewhere, and it wanted me to come to it.