But this was the guard we were waiting on. I just had to wait until he had to go to the bathroom so Dove and I could corner him, and then I’d transform—
Frick.
He whipped out his manhood and started pissing on my best friend. Sie hissed through his teeth, pushing away from the stream of urine as he crawled toward the back of the cage. The clothes he was wearing were worn and battered, the metal edges of the grate digging into his skin.
Just when I thought I couldn’t hate this place any more, I watched in disgust as the guard’s pee went onto all the prisoners in the pit below. I swore to myself if I got caught and was thrown down there, I’d shift into a worm and live out my days without eyes or ears or any body part of importance.
This also completely ruined our plans because now hewouldn’t have to go to the bathroom. I really wished I had Sie’s telepathy right now because I had no idea what to do next.
“Unchain him and bring him to the torture room,” the fuchsia-pee-on-people guard ordered another one.
Sie didn’t even flinch as they manhandled him and half dragged him across the concrete floors. I ran as fast as my eight legs would allow—which was actually surprisingly fast for being so small. I had no idea how I was going to stomach watching whatever torture they were about to do to Sie, but Dovelyn and I were going to have to improvise.
I just hoped my best friend would be able to stay alive for the next twenty-four hours until we did.
SIX
SIE
Rattlingsounds brought me back to consciousness.
Fuchsia was standing outside my cage again, only this time, instead of his usual menacing look, he was fumbling over keys before he had my cell door creaking open. I knew it had been a couple of hours since he last visited me—the piss on my clothes had finally dried, although the stench lingered.
I fucking hated him. He always managed to find new ways to get under my skin, and peeing on me earlier—that was the fucking cherry on top.
He was dragging me through the halls before I registered what was happening. My feet kept slipping out from under me as I tried to keep up with his long strides.
And then I realized I wasn’t writhing in agony as we walked. He was holding me by my good arm, mercifully leaving my mangled, broken one untouched.
It wasn’t until we were turning down another hallway that I realized he was abnormally quiet. Usually he’d be throwing retort after retort about Scotlind, and whenever he’d grow bored of that, he’d tell me exactly what he had planned in the tortureroom. It added to my dread, knowing what was to come as I was forced to walk down the long hallways.
I was nothing more than a walking corpse, and I tried my damned best to keep it that way. I didn’t want to feel, didn’t want to think, didn’t want to exist.
I ran into his back as he abruptly stopped. We were in a closed hallway, one without all the prisoner cages. I looked up and saw another guard standing in front of us.
“Where are you taking him?” the guard asked. I didn’t recognize him. Besides Fuchsia and the illusion user, they were all starting to blend together.
Fuchsia cleared his throat before answering. “The torture rooms.”
The other guard smirked. “Going for round two, Nial?”
Nial—Fuchsia had a name, not that I wanted to remember it.
“Uh—yes,” he stuttered.
“Well, don’t let me stop you.” He shifted out of the way for us to pass, but Fushia didn’t move.
We stayed in the hallway forlongseconds before he leaned me against a wall. If I had the strength, I would have used the freedom to fucking pummel him. I wanted nothing more than to beat him to a pulp, but even leaning against the wall was taxing. Chills were working their way through my body, and my vision was going in and out.
“Oh, my shoe. I need to tie it.”
I blinked again, trying to focus on what he was doing as he bent down and startedun-tying his boots before slowly redoing them.
The other guard went to grab me. “I’ll bring him to the room for ya, Nial. You don’t want to leave someone like him out for too long.”
“No,” Fuchsia-Nial half screamed, then cleared his throat again. “Um, I’ll do it.”
The guard cocked a brow, watching as Fuchsia grabbed meagain—still by my good arm—and started guiding me past the hallway.
