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I know it’s night-time, because the train I occasionally hear rumble by not too far away hasn’t been past in a while. During the day, it’s more like every hour, which suggests it might be a commuter train of some kind.
It could be a train full of cops, for all it matters. I blew my voice out the first day we were here, screaming and screaming for help.
But nobody heard us.
Nobody came for us.
Not here.
My blood runs cold at the sudden metallic scraping sound of the door to the basement room opening. It wrenches inward on rusty hinges, and I wince at the blinding stab of light that hits me. It’s just a single bulb on the other side, but after five days in the blackness, my eyes sting at the sudden glare.
“Are you ready to come out yet?”
I shiver violently and peer as hard as I can, but even so, when I look at the door, all I see is the darkness of his silhouette with the light stabbing past him like knives.
“I only come out if she comes out, too.”
I hear the impatient cluck of his tongue against his teeth.
“But it’s not her I want.”
“If you want me, then you want her, too.”
He’s quiet for a second. Then he sighs.
“Perhaps tomorrow, then.”
I swallow. “Both of us. I’ll do whatever you want,” I choke. “Butboth of uscome out of this room.”
I can just barely make out his foot tapping on the floor.
“Let me think on it.”
He turns to go, but then stops, his silhouette twisting back to look at me again.
“Soon, we’ll laugh about this, Elsa. Soon, this will all be an amusing story we tell at parties.”
Venom, bile, and fear rise in my throat.
He chuckles fondly.
“I’m so glad I found you, my love.”
The door shuts with another metallic clank, and the sob I’ve been desperately holding back in front of him bursts from my throat.
Nora stirs next to me, and I turn to pull her head into my lap as I drop mine against the stone wall behind me.
Please find me.
Wherever you are, Hades.
Please.
Find me.
36
HADES
