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The only reply to her statement was the gluttonous sound of chewing and cracking bone.
Loren leaned against the wall and turned her face into the carved bone. Sleep was calling her name, and her legs were sagging.
There was a flower at eyelevel. A black flower that vaguely resembled a spider. The bulb of pollen nestled in its centre was red as a cherry.
It was Spiderdrop, a plant known to fight hallucinations and drive a fever out of a person’s body.
A hand reached out in front of her, grazing the velvety petals, so soft and smooth. Loren barely recognized the hand as her own.
She plucked the bud off the wall.
That was when her legs gave out. She slid to the floor, the stem of the flower pinched between weak fingers, the wall scraping her cheek as she leaned her whole weight against it. With one last effort to save her own life, she put the flower in her mouth and chewed.
The taste of it was a cross between black licorice and maraschino cherries. It made her feel sick, but she swallowed it all.
Three minutes passed. Three minutes, and she was able to open her eyes, no longer weighed down by magic spells. She could think and see clearly, but it was still boiling hot in here, the moisture pulling on her lungs. The blonde hairs on her arms stuck to her damp skin, and her clothes were soaked through.
Rainbow Phoenix, hissed the Pale Man as Loren got to her feet. That explains why you are so smart. Not a single one of my prey has ever found the Spiderdrop, let alone been intelligent enough to consume it.
“I’m getting out of here alive.” She swallowed more bile.
Oh, you think so, do you?
“I know so.”
That was when she saw him.
The Pale Man was standing down the corridor, blocking her path to the exit. Fear stole through her at the sight of him, rooting her feet in place. A chill crawled across her skin, and her bowels turned watery.
The creature had to be almost seven feet tall. His hands were bony, fingers long and sharp, his arms nearly the same length as his legs. Grayish skin sagged off a skeletal form with webbed feet. Lethal spikes protruded from his elbows and calves, the tips of them bright red.
The face was the worst part. A smile took up the whole bottom half, pointy teeth blackened with rot. It had slits for a nose and eyeless sockets, nothing there but smooth, near—translucent skin that was slightly dark in the centers, as if it were bruised. No hair covered its head, but it had ears that were long and tapered, the ends curved like fish hooks.
I’ll give you a three minute head start, said the creature. And then I shall have my dessert.
The Pale Man didn’t need to tell her twice.
Loren spun on a heel and ran, feet slapping on stone. There was no telling if the tunnels would take her back to the entrance, or if there was another way out, but she wouldn’t give up.
Bone and flowers and pillars and gold flew by her as she sprinted, breath tearing apart her lungs, stomach roiling.
Eventually, she reached a winding staircase that led up to a second level. That level was only a small platform, the ground covered in heaps of rocks and dry bones that had been sucked clean a long time ago.
Behind the rocks was a cage—a door. A rusted padlock hung from the latch, no key in the hole.
She took off up the stairs, nearly rolling her ankle on chunks of stone and skulls.
When she got to the top, she started digging. If she could clear these rocks away, she might be able to break the lock off and climb the narrow tunnel up through the earth. A fresh breeze blew down that tunnel, kissing her skin, a promise of life waiting on the other side.
Her fingernails broke and bled as she dug at the rocks. They clacked at her feet and rolled into her shins, bruising them.
Rainbow Phoenix, Rainbow Phoenix, I can smell you. The Pale Man’s voice floated down the corridor near the bottom of the stairs. It was getting louder. Why must you attempt to escape, Rainbow Phoenix? Don’t you want to play with me?
She dug faster, cutting her palms on sharp edges, every action desperate. She barely felt the pain. Her heart thundered in her chest, and a small voice in the back of her mind whimpered that there were too many rocks. She wanted to tell the voice that it was wrong and stupid and didn’t know anything, but she knew the truth.
There was no way she was getting out of here alive.
Found you.
