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“I—”
Just like that—his touch is ripped away from me, and he’s gone. Everything happens too fast for my brain to process, but a sharp sting pierces my arm, and I wince, falling to the ground beneath me.
“Get her the fuck out!” The shadows from the trees ahead warp together as faces come in and out of view.
“Stop him!” Sparrow roars, throwing up his hand at whoever is behind him.
My eyes roll to the back of my head. Pain. Pain. So much pain and then darkness. Pure darkness.
I try to peel my eyes open. My head thuds to a pulse so heavy it almost knocks me back out.Thud. Thud. Thud.I try to lift my hand to reach the sharp sting, but it’s too heavy. Lead-weighted limbs aren’t going to help my current situation.
“Shi…” a whisper from somewhere behind my eyes grabs me, and I try once more to part my lashes. This time light cracks through with a blur of images, but the pain…the pain only intensifies. “Wake up. Shi!”
Someone’s grabbing my arm, shaking me, and I finally will my eyes open, the ceiling of wherever I am the first thing to come into view. Black bars line the ceiling, and I tilt my head to try to make out what it is. A cage?
Fuck. I’m in a cage.
“Shiloh!” The arm grabs me again, shaking me awake.
I jolt up from where I’m lying, wincing as my hand finally comes to my head.
“What happened?” I turn to Blaire. “Where are we?”
Her hair is wild around her face. There are brown smears all over her left cheek, and when she shuffles farther into me, I notice the smaller details that I missed at first. Like how her top is torn and ripped, exposing her chest, and she’s wearing nothing underneath.
She wipes the tears from her cheeks, and my arms find their way around her body. Desperate for anything—anything to make her feel better. “We need to get out of here, Shiloh.”
“What happened?” I ask, releasing her arm and shuffling backward. “Did you get hurt from the earthquake?”
Her dark brows turn inward. “What? What earthquake?” Shaking her head, she takes my hand with hers and forces me to my feet. My legs turn to jelly as soon as I’m standing up. “We need to get out of here.”
“Wait!” I reach for her when she makes her way to the cell door. I know that I should be helping her, but right now, I can’t see past what she’s wearing. “Did someone hurt you?”
“I—” She blinks back tears, and it’s the first time ever that I have seen my best friend terrified. Her eyes come to mine, and my heart fractures in my chest. “I don’t know.”
“Okay,” I whisper, looking around our surroundings.
A single cell with nothing inside, a long corridor with more cell blocks on either side. The floor rocks back and forward beneath us, and every now and then, I feel the dizziness settle into the back of my mind.
“Oh my God!” she gasps, looking up at the ceiling with her hand covering her mouth. “Is that—”
I tilt my head upward in search of whatever it is she’s seeing when my stomach topples over, and vomit rises in my throat. The smell. The smell hits me at the exact moment that I figure out what exactly it is. Pale bodies hang from the ceiling, their feet and legs dangling close to the cages.
“One, two, three…” Blaire starts counting, and bile rises up my throat.
“Stop!” I hiss, pushing my hair out of the way as I try to get busy on the lock. There has to be another way out of here. I lean sideways, looking down the hall. Nothing but cell after cell after cell. “Shit!”
Blaire’s silence behind me has me turning to check on her, only to find her still staring up at the bodies, her mouth wide open.
“Blaire!” I snap my fingers in front of her face to try to draw her attention my way. “Hey! Don’t look at all that.”
She finally lowers her eyes to mine. “What if we know them?”
“We don’t…” I wasn’t sure about that, but considering our current situation, we could use the optimism.
Grabbing one of the bars with my hand, I shake it furiously. It clinks loudly as if it’s knocking something, and I bend down to see a circle of rust forming at the bottom. I won’t fit through with it broken, but Blaire will.
“Cursing this fat ass once again.” I search around the space, looking for anything that I can use that will help us out of here. There’s not much in here to work with. The ground is dirt-covered, and every now and then, the stale smell of fish whips past me. “Do you remember anything?”
