From the horror behind her eyes, I could see that she’d had a no more pleasant experience than I’d had. “How did you try to escape?” I asked, my voice still sluggish, although my mind was clearing.
“I headed for the exit—that strange whirlpool—despite what everybody warned me against.” She nodded her head toward Marcilla, who stood watching us, her lips pursed. “They caught me and took me to the coffin room.”
Now that reality was returning to me, as I stared at the werewolf my mind began to race.
Kailyn. Lucas. Who else could be down here?
Kailyn… she would’ve died a sudden, abrupt death for sure. Having been caught by a fire, she had nowhere near been prepared to die.
I thought back to others our island had lost, both recently and in the distant past, even before my birth. Benjamin Hudson was the first person who came to mind, though I doubted he would’ve stayed behind as a ghost. From what my mother had told me of him, he had been prepared for his death, willingly given into it even when my father could have attempted to save him with his blood.
Then I thought of Samuel. Another man I’d never met. Samuel had been Ashley’s old lover. Then again, from what my parents had described of his death, he might have also been prepared for it. It would not have been sudden, that was for sure; the two had been possessed by Elders and forced to fight to a bloody end. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had already accepted that one of them would die, and that it could easily be him…
Then I thought of my grandfather, Gregor Novak… I didn’t know an awful lot about his death, other than he had been found skewered on a stake in the town square. The exact circumstances of his death were a mystery even to my parents, though they suspected the Elders had been behind it…
As I trailed my mind back in time to all our lost souls, I felt an unexpected surge of energy. I need to find out who else is here. I lifted myself to my feet.
Kailyn stood up with me, still staring at me.
“Do you know who else is here?” I asked, realizing that it was probably a stupid question to ask her. Kailyn had been one of the newer recruits to The Shade, and she had not been around to witness many deaths.
Still, she replied, “I haven’t seen anyone I recognize… Though to be honest, I have not explored much since my first failed escape attempt. I’ve only roamed the ponds on this level, to talk to people and ask them what’s going on. That’s how I met Marcilla in this pond—a fellow werewolf. She mentioned a new arrival in here. I never would have dreamt that it would be you.”
“I want to explore this place some more,” I murmured, my eyes falling on Marcilla. “So… ghouls really torture even those found roaming within the confines of these chambers?”
Marcilla let out a dry laugh. “It doesn’t take much of an excuse for them to torture us,” she replied darkly. “Though, typically, you would be punished less for roaming about inside than if they caught you trying to escape again.”
“Right,” I said, grimacing. I turned back to Kailyn. “Well, I’m going to risk it. Would you like to come with me?”
“Yes,” she replied almost without hesitation, her eyes resolute even as her eyebrows twitched uncertainly. She looked frightened but, like me, there was still a fire of hope burning within her. She had not been in The Underworld long enough to have given up yet.
“Be careful,” Marcilla said, her eyes digging into me and then fixing intensely on Kailyn. “Remember that most ghosts only have five strikes—that is, five visits to the coffin chamber before they completely lose their minds. And that’s five at the most. Some lose it after only three.” She paused, letting her warning hang in the air for several moments before continuing, “So… I would advise you to choose your battles wisely.”
I nodded curtly, her words settling on me like a chilly mist. I’d had one strike and although it had been hell, I seemed to have recovered thanks to Kailyn’s appearance shaking me back to reality. I wasn’t sure how long it would have taken to come to my senses without her familiar face. But my mind was already spinning over all the possibilities, all the people who could possibly be here. I couldn’t help but venture out.
I wasn’t yet ready to attempt escape again—I had to give myself a little more time to build up the mental fortitude—but for now, at least I had Kailyn by my side, and together we could explore this place.
Then, after the search, we would have to make it out of here—with or without Lucas… and whoever else we might find along the way.
Ben
More slowly and cautiously than ever before, I lifted myself out of the pond, followed closely by Kailyn. Hovering above the path that ran down the center of our cavern, we gazed around at the almost dozen glowing pools. Although these were all supposed to be new recruits, I still wanted to check them just in case…
This was definitely a less nerve-racking experience than previously. Not only because I had someone accompanying me to keep a lookout, but also, we were constantly dipping into ponds, lessening our chances of being seen. We found nobody else familiar in this chamber, and so we moved to the next… and then the next, and the next. Once we’d searched every pool on our level, we decided to move downward. Each level we passed, the pools became duller and duller, the ghosts more and more lifeless. Until eventually, it appeared that we had almost reached the level where I’d found Lucas.
So many of the chambers looked the same—with identical morbid decorations and a similar number of pools—but I was able to recognize Lucas’ as we passed it. I felt strangely anxious about what state he might be in now as I hurried to the edge. But as I drifted inside, to my shock, I couldn’t spot him anywhere. Fear gripped me—a fear that was surprisingly strong given Lucas Novak’s history. I feared that maybe his time had come, and the ghouls had dragged him down to The Necropolis. But why only him and not the rest of the ghosts who still lay comatose on the floor of the pond? They were in more of a fog than him.