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Alexander sits up and takes another sip of water. “You said you’d rather die than be in my concubine.” He lays back down, settling into the mattress. My face flushes, knowing he’s right. “That’s a lie. You’d do anything to survive — to save your kids. I don’t know you well, but I know that much.”
He’s right, and I sigh, pushing a pillow behind my back. “Yes, I would. Please though, why am I here?” I bite my cheek to stop talking, giving him the space to answer.
Alexander rubs the back of his neck and groans. “You’re taking the couch tomorrow,” he orders.
I nod and offer a “mm-hm.”
“The Eminent’s name is Adam, but don’t call him that unless you want to die,” he warns. “He’s been down here for a few years. Lots of people have. Last outsider was over a year ago. We don’t get a lot of visitors.”
“Wow,” I let out. We must have been a shock, invading their space and setting off all kinds of alarms after a year of nothing. I can’t imagine that kind of isolation, believing that everyone above your head never survived. It would make someone submissive, and that’s what the Eminent wants.
“When this place started, there were three Eminents, a few hundred adherents, lots of military.”
I tilt my head in his direction and open my mouth to ask, but the look Alexander gives me tells me I don’t need to.
“You know they work together,” he scoffs. “Always have.”
“Right,” I agree. “Money and weapons. The perfect pair.”
“To build all this.” Alexander waves a hand around the room. “Some conspiracies are true, and people will do anything to survive.”
“Not all people,” I whisper.
Alexander offers a half smile, nodding at my sentiment.
“There are only a hundred or so adherents left,” Alexander whispers, as if someone is listening in on our conversation. “One Eminent.”
My heart pounds in my chest so loud I think Alexander might hear it. One man rules all of this, and I imagine what he did to get here. Dean would do the same, whatever it was and whatever it took. Ruthless and cunning, they’re both obsessed with power.
“Most people don’t believe the swim happened,” Alexander admits. “The ones that do think it was a random pack of crazies. But the truth is they needed to thin numbers. There’s only so much space.”
Nothing he says shocks me, but not much does anymore. The end of the world isn’t the last of our problems, and mine keeps stacking up.
“The truth is… they don’t care,” Alexander adds. “People just want to survive.”
“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” I mutter.
“In this room, underground, or alive?” Alexander mocks.
I don’t know.
“Why… am I with you?” I avoid his question. “The concubine you said… Adam’s — the Eminent’s?”
“Lonely at the top,” Alexander sighs. “Boring too when there’s no outside and only so many people to rule. Adam liked to play games, pretend he was close to people, then he would take everything from them and see how they reacted. He stabs you with the knife, leaves it in, twists every once in a while, and it amuses him. No one can do anything but bleed out.”
“I- I don’t know what you mean,” I stutter.
“My wife is one of his concubines,” he admits.
There’s a long silence after he tells me, but he doesn’t need to say more for me to understand. I can’t imagine the pain he must feel, watching the woman he loves under that monster’s control.
“I’m an ‘I’m sorry’ present,” I say.
“You’re a way to torture me and my wife,” he corrects. “Adam’s never sorry.”
“Right,” I agree. I feel the sheets pull and notice he’s balling his hands into fists. He’s holding back his rage, and I empathize with his war of emotions.
“We um…” Alexander takes in a slow breath and looks away from me at the empty wall. “We were trying to have a baby.”
