Chapter 20: Her

Chapter 20: Her

The place where the voice was coming from was dark. Cold. Unrecognizable. But. . . Something about that huskiness and that tone, the person attached to that voice made me look anyhow.

It was her!

Another second, and I was running to the dark, uncaring about the dangers it brought.

"Pax!"

"Audra!"

Our hands fumbled together in the dark. Skin against skin, tremble upon tremble.

"How?! Why?!"

"It's you!"

Our voices mingled together like butter and chocolate, but when I was about to reach further onto the dark, something else stopped me. Something cool, frigid, and rusty.

I nearly cried out when my eyes adjusted, and I realized that there were bars. Iron bars from floor to ceiling. On the other side, Audra continued reaching out to me. "I'm so happy to see you!" she gasped. "You literally have no idea!"

I had to take a step back for a second. I had to, because I was coated in disbelief. I had never been so happy yet furious to see her. And why the hell was she in a prison?

"What are you doing in there?" I said, the gravity of the situation hitting me like a freight train, derailing me from head to toe. "Why are you behind bars?"

"Oh, you know, just hanging around," she said.

It was meant to be a joke, but it got me angrier. Now that my eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness, I could see in perfect clarity how Audra's usually smooth face was now spoiled with dirt. How her brown jacket was torn in some edges. How her Godly hair— the hair that I had aspired to run my fingers into, was messy and tangled, so unlike her.

But what got me most was not the appearance of her face, nor the sadness of her expression as she looked at me. But her eyes, which were tired and fearful; a fear that was misguided as she started to speak again.

"Oh God!" She realized. "You shouldn't be here. They might get you too, Pax. You need to get out."

"Me?" My voice had risen a notch. "Me? And what about you, Audra?!"

"What about me? I'm tougher than I look."

"Jesus, woman!"

"Please, just go."

I couldn't believe this. Any of it. Now that I'd found her, she was asking me to leave. Leave where, exactly? And how the hell did she get imprisoned here? There must be some sort of explanation.

"Tell me what happened," I rushed.

At the tone of my voice, Audra gave me a small sigh before closing her eyes. "You don't happen to have the key first, do you?" She asked.

"No."

"And you're not going to escape without me either?"

"Of course not!" I said. "Do you think that low of me?"

Her head shook firmly. "No. No, Pax. It's just that. . ." Her tired eyes flitted to me, before she gave a sad smile. "I'm happy to see you. Heck. . . I'm happy to talk to anyone at all for this past one week. But I'd prefer that you get of here. As far away from this prison cell as possible."

I gritted my teeth. She was in there but she was still thinking about my safety.

Something in my chest pinched like bread being squashed into pieces. Yet the anger towards the situation was still there as I began walking the length of the bars. Maybe, just maybe, there was an escape latch here somewhere. Or maybe someone fastened the key on a wall on these parts. I just wanted to find out.

Audra, meanwhile, slid to the ground. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop Neil from doing that to you," she reminded. "I'm sorry for everything, Pax."

My stomach turned. I hadn't forgotten about that.

But I let her continue. "After we were separated, it didn't take long before Neil, Hanz, and I were arguing. Well. . . It was more like Hanz and I were arguing with Neil. But Neil didn't want to budge and tell us where you were."

Typical. It was just like Neil to be a class-A bitch. But as usual, as with her and Audra's relationship, I was silent and acted like it was nothing, while I began to run my hands on the wall, trying to search for a hanging key.

"So. . ." Audra cleared her throat. "We began to look for you. I began to look for you— I insisted on it. But even before we got out of that damn sewer chamber, a group of men attacked us. We would have survived if there weren't so many."

I stopped. Group? What group?

"Tracers?" I said.

"No. Dante and his men."

I swiveled to Audra. From the looks of it, she was telling the truth.

"Dante, remember?" she reminded. "That guy that Hanz was talking about?"

"Dante, the store owner?"

"Exactly the same guy."

My hands fisted on their own. I hadn't even made the connection thinking that they just had the same name. What were the chances? And why didn't he tell me that Audra was here?

I was made to look like a fool. A stupid girl.

"Did you tell him that your name was Audra?" I asked to be sure.

Audra chuckled, though humorlessly. "I'm pretty sure Hanz called my name out before he was hunted and injured by a group of their men. The three of us. . . We were separated while trying to escape. Then I—" She flinched. Audra never flinched, much less grab onto her stomach.

Immediately, I returned to her, knelt. "What's wrong?" I said. "Are you hungry?"

"No, I. . ."

She didn't continue, but somehow I understood. "Lift your shirt," I said.

"What?"

"Please, I need to see."

"It's not that bad."

"Please. . ."

Her eyes went to mine, and I could see the resolve slowly faltering.

Eventually, she began to remove her jacket, then lifted her shirt a fraction.

I gasped when I saw the developing pus on her skin.

"You're wounded!" I said.

"Neil tends to tell me that I'm too tough for my own good," Audra answered.

My hands balled into fists again. How could she be cool and collected at this time? There was a beginning infection from a small wound on her stomach, for Christ sakes!

My hand went to her forehead, and I was scared of what I felt. She was burning hot. Crap.

"That awful, huh?" Audra was back to her composed self when she spoke. Meanwhile, I. . . I wanted to hurt someone. Dante, the freaking snake, preferably.

Yet Audra grabbed my wrist before I could stand up. "Don't," she said. "I don't know what's going on. But don't yet."

"I need to confront him."

"Not tonight, you won't." Audra's hand slacked as I began to squat back down and turn to her. On her forehead— I hadn't noticed, were beads of sweat, accompanied by her extra paleness and the dark circles around her eyes. I should have seen it earlier. "Stay with me," she whispered. "Just for a little while. And don't say but." She added when I was just opening my mouth. "Please. . . It's a request."

But I really wanted to help her.

She gave me a stare, though, and I sighed.

I started to position myself in front of the bars, closer to where she was. But deep inside, I knew that we were running out of time. We could get caught at any instant.

Audra didn't seem to mind anymore, though, as she reached out to my hand, slipped it inside her cell, then began to lie down.

"Like this," she whispered. "I'd been craving for something like this."

She closed her eyes, and I was at a total loss. I'd been craving for something like this too.

The signal that Mart and Maya had told me about came thirty minutes after Audra had slept. It came in this loud booming sound that almost rattled my bones. Of course, with such noise, Audra and I were on alert at once, rising on our feet, looking at each other with mild panic.

And then, I realized what it was, and I was consoling her.

"It's alright," I said, "It's probably the signal."

Her dog-tired face looked at me quizzically.

"The game," I supplied. "I'd forgotten to tell you that I was playing a game."

Still a blank stare.

"It's a long story."

But I needed to go.

Another booming sound echoed everywhere, almost like an explosion. Maya did say that the signal would be very obvious to me, though this one was highly exaggerated. And frankly, was starting to make me panic a little, though I knew what it was for and deemed it necessary for our hide-and-seek.

But Audra's hand reached to me, then dropped before it made contact with my arm again. "Are you supposed to go now?" she asked.

"Yes."

Our eyes met. Hers wasn't full of emotion, though I knew she was worried. She always was. I realized that about her now.

"I'll come back," I said. "I'll try to snoop around while I can."

"It's dangerous, Pax."

I shook my head. Right now, nothing was more dangerous than having her behind bars. And besides, I realized, Dante didn't know that I knew about this, which gave me a big leverage.

A fifth booming sound made me take a sharp breath. "Will you be alright until I come back?" I said.

"This is me we're talking about." Her lips quirked into a tired smile. "I'll try not to be rash. Don't worry."

It took Herculean effort to get out of there afterwards, to leave her as it was and go back to the tunnels. While all I wanted to do was to run back to her.

Yet the more I walked, the more I saw the flickering torches and the cool, comfortable caves, the more the worry for Audra was replaced by rage. By disgust for everyone here. Not only had they lied to me, they also took an innocent girl like Audra and placed her behind a cage. For what reason, exactly?

I had made it to the third tunnel when I saw Maya's face. "Pax!" she cried, before going to me.

"Hey," I said, trying to be cheerful, though it sounded so fake, she could have seen through it. "What took you so long, Maya? I was waiting."

"Issues." Her smile was wide as she came up to me, though I wanted to seize her, have my little revenge right here.

However, it appeared that even she was lost as she paused and took my hand, pulled me towards what I presumed was the exit, where more teens like us, including Mart, were starting to come in.

"Whew!" Maya said, looking relieved. "For a second there, I thought we might never find you."

"Why?" I asked, still with the pretense.

"Well," she said, as she nodded to the others. "No one really comes this deep into the tunnels. I'm even surprised that we'd made it here. We might be breaking some rules."

"I see. . ."

A huge crowd was waiting for us soon as we'd made it back to the dwellings. People of all ages, sizes, and personalities, plus so many tables scattered throughout the town with food on them for the party.

Yet I barely noticed most of it as we passed, my thoughts concentrated on only one thing for now.

Judging on what Maya had said, it could be that Dante and the men, or possibly the adults in general, were the only ones who knew about Audra. It could be that the teenagers and the kids had no freaking clue. Why and how— I should find out as soon as I could.

Dante showed himself eventually, a big grin on his face. "Pax," he greeted.

"You—"

"Listen, everyone!" He clapped his hands, even before I could complete my sentence. And as he told everyone about me on the spot, with glittery eyes like he was proud of me for some reason or something, I knew that nothing about this was right to begin with.

How could I had been so blind?

Irregardless, once midnight struck, I was back in the prison chamber— miraculously, I remembered how to get back.

Maybe having Audra there was sort of a homing device altogether. Or maybe having the whole town asleep after they'd drank their homemade booze helped me explore and do my thing.

Anyhow, Audra immediately got up upon seeing me again, though I could now notice that she was having a hard time just staying on her feet.

My stomach lurched when she dropped back down.

"You're back," she said, a little hoarser than before, plus her lips were dry, her skin paler, as I placed a torch on the wall. "What's that you brought, Pax?"

She was asking about the backpack I stole on the way back here. Placing it down close to the cell bars, I immediately rummaged in the burlap, found what I was looking for.

Audra's eyes squinted at the sage I was holding. "A leaf?" she inquired.

"Not just any leaf," I said. "They call this down here the Sage of the Almighty."

I was half-expecting her to laugh, which she humored me with a chuckle.

Good. That was good. At least, she wasn't delirious, if she still had the room to laugh.

Audra looked surprised, though, as I inserted my hand in the cell, bringing the sage inside. "Am I supposed to eat that?" she joked.

"No. But it's supposed to cure you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really," I said. "And maybe while we're at it, you should take off your clothes too."

Wait. Did I just say that?

In an instant, I was withdrawing my hand, yet I was surprised when she pulled it right back in with her.

"It's okay." She exhaled, knowing perhaps that I meant well. That I wasn't so callous or perverse to suggest that she just take off her clothes. Yet that didn't take away the shake on my knees, nor the sharpness of breath that came out of me.

Audra let go of my hand, started to take her jacket off.

"Do I have to take my shirt all off too?" she asked after a while.

"Y-yes."

There was a shuffling inside while I looked away. My feet had suddenly turned numb. What had I even suggested?

But after a while, someone was tilting my head back to the cell. Audra, on just her bra and jeans now, was looking at me like she hadn't looked at me before. The intensity of it coming from nowhere, almost knocking me down.

It was like. . . Like the flames from a burning house had licked me for a second. She blinked away almost immediately, but I was already consumed.

"Audra, I. . ."

"Yes?"

I took a labored breath. What was this I was feeling? It was as if my heart was being squeezed repeatedly. There were butterflies in my stomach. What the hell was I going to say?

Audra, thank you? I like you? I missed you so much? And maybe I was developing some kind of feelings towards you?

But my hand was then guided to her stomach before I knew it, and whatever bubble I was wrapped in, burst with a loud pop.

Right.

I sucked a breath. How dare I think of those things when I should be helping her right now, instead of allowing myself to feel these stupid, useless feelings?

I was being so stupid. I should quit it altogether. Focus on this instead of imagining.

"Nothing," I muttered after a second. "It was nothing."