Authors: Lynnie Purcell
The others whined, as if they could hear our thoughts, as if they, too, were agreeing to the Nightstalker’s promise. I was certain I couldn’t trust them to hold true to their words, but I knew that if Alex or Daniel was locked away in Nightstalker form I would want someone to give them a second chance. I would want that chance.
How would I even get you through that hole up there? I can’t pull you out…
I said, making my choice.
There is another set of levers up top that control the doors out of our cells and into the prison proper. Have you noticed the doors behind us?
No…I didn’t want to get too close to you,
I admitted.
You are frightened of us.
More than a little,
I said.
See? You are like us,
it said proudly. I didn’t understand its meaning, but I didn’t ask.
If you can get up top, you will see the levers. We can make our way out once the doors are open.
This is the weirdest day in recorded history,
I said.
I wasn’t sure how I could help them escape, or how they could help me, but it was more than I had yesterday. The reason they had decided to seek my help, instead of murder me, was a mystery, but one I wasn’t prepared to puzzle out just yet. The more pressing issue was how to escape. Their help wouldn’t erase the walls between us and freedom. The walls were still a limitation, the silver of the pit even more so. The silver didn’t bother me, but it was an obvious deterrent to the Nightstalkers. We were both limited – me by the fact that I couldn’t control my talents and them by the silver. But our limitations were no reason to think something crazy wouldn’t work. After all, this room had nothing but crazy left in it.
I’ll do what I can,
I promised the Nightstalker.
Give me some time to think of something.
Time is all we have…
it thought at me, before it moved away from my hand.
It turned and padded back to his cell. The others went to theirs and silently waited for me to shut their cell doors again. Low growling started to circle my prison, but I knew they were doing it to hide our planning and keep curious ears from following the unusual silence. It was curiously deceptive.
I sat down in what light the grate above me offered and started thinking hard about escape. It was the first time in over a month my brain was tasked with something beyond survival. It took a while for everything to get back to full speed, and even though I doubted the stability of ‘full speed’ I was full of purpose.
Plans based in surprise, stealth and danger circled my head. I finally settled on surprise; it felt like my best ally. Master Limp would never expect tame Nightstalkers.
I got up and paced the room, daring to pace outside of the circle of light with my increased familiarity of the Nightstalkers. They suddenly weren’t the terrifying death-dealers I had thought them to be. It occurred to me several times during my planning that the Nightstalkers could be in on a ploy to further break my spirit, but I knew the Watchers here didn’t treat Nightstalkers as creatures worthy of plans. They were beasts. They were entertainment.
My eyes roamed the room as I paced. I searched for an answer to our escape; an escape I planned on making Master Limp instrumental to. I wanted revenge – using Master Limp to secure my escape seemed like a fitting way to take out my vengeance. A timid hope circled through my body as I plotted. Was it possible there was a way out of this hell? Was it possible I had found the impossible?
For the first time in a long time, I had hope.
Chapter 3
The plan was fairly simple.
It had to be simple for reasons of necessity. I wasn’t the only one weakened by my time in the pit. The Nightstalkers were never let out; they were just given easy prey to kill. Though their murderous nature was irrepressible, part of them had suffered from being locked away for so long. They were tired. They were broken. The only thing we really had to depend on was our mutual, overwhelming desire to not be imprisoned any longer.
I had to wait two more days for Master Limp to come see me again. It was a long two days. I didn’t rest – I didn’t allow myself the luxury of searching out Daniel in my dreams. I remained focused on the present.
When Master Limp finally showed up again, I could tell by the way he opened the grate I was in for another beating. I had learned to see them coming. His happy expression and the cold fire in his eyes was clue enough. It meant he was coming down instead of controlling things from up above.
I eyed my ally. The Nightstalker lifted its lips in a dangerous canine smile, to show me it was ready for action. Its red eyes were full of alert energy. I repressed the urge to shudder and focused on Master Limp’s descent.
He maintained the same routine every time he came down. His injured leg didn’t allow for the same strength of other Watchers, so he was forced climb down a set of rope stairs, instead of jumping down into the hole. Whenever he climbed down, he had one of his flunkies keep watch from above, to pull him up in case something went wrong. My escape would be a matter of timing; I would have to make it to the top of the stairs, before they were pulled back by the flunky.
I stood and started backing away toward the levers.
Mister Limp’s face turned smug when he noticed my retreat. It was the first time I had retreated from his attack.
“Have we finally put fear into you?” he asked.
“Please don’t hit me anymore!” I said mustering all the fake fear I could manage. It sounded ridiculous to me, but I was certain he would never know the difference.
“This is progress!” he exclaimed. “Very good! But I’m afraid I can’t stop just because you want me to. We have to be sure of you. It’s a matter of doing something right.”
“Please!” I said continuing to back away from him.
“Come now, it’ll be over soon,” Master Limp said.
I reached the levers. “I know…”
My body tensed, and my whole spirit focused on this one attempt at freedom. This was the moment I had been waiting for, since Anna had taken me. It would be freedom or death, and I was determined to not die.
As soon as his foot touched the dirt floor of the pit, I turned around and pushed down all of the levers at once. The doors holding back the Nightstalkers opened. They were out of the cells, before Master Limp could get a handle on what I had done. The first Nightstalker tore into him, tearing him away from the rope ladder and in to the darker part of the pit. Master Limp’s startled yelp was consumed by the sounds of growling and snarling from the Nightstalkers. I hurried to the ladder, before they had finished dragging him away. The Nightstalkers made space for me, and a couple of tried to help boost me up with their snouts as I climbed.
The person at the top of the pit had either grown bored with their duties as rope manager, or was exceptionally indifferent to Master Limp’s fate. As I pulled myself out of the pit, I saw a young man with brown hair staring back at me. He was startled to see me, but he didn’t try to attack me either.
“You have two choices,” I told him as I placed my feet on the floor. “Run away or I will throw you down there with your master.”
“Is he dead?” the man asked.
Master Limp screamed out one last time as the Nightstalkers ripped him apart. His scream was cut short. I peeked down and saw the Nightstalkers finish Master Limp, dragging parts of him in different directions.
“Very,” I replied.
“Thank, God,” the man said. “I was about to lose my mind.”
“I’m sure,” I said not interested in his excuses.” Where are the levers for the doors down there?”
“Here.” He pointed to some levers along the wall.
“I would start the running away part now,” I told him.
I went to the levers and pushed them all down, trusting that one of them would open the doors I needed. I was at the last lever when I sensed the man pull a knife out from his boot. It was more a shift in the air, rather than any supernatural moment. I turned at the feeling. The knife was long and silver, gleaming in the light from above. The man smiled at me, as if he thought he had won something from me.
“Thanks for getting rid of him,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for a promotion. Unfortunately, I don’t want you to take my spot, either.”
“I don’t have time for you,” I told him.
Without waiting for him to attack, I kicked him in the gut. It wasn’t a hard kick, but it was enough to offset his balance. He stumbled back and fell into the pit. His screams and the sounds of him trying to fend of the Nightstalkers filled the air. His screams didn’t last long.
A part of me flinched away from the idea I had caused his death, but another part was more interested in doing whatever it took to escape. I took a deep breath, and very carefully put away the emotions tying me down. I would look at them later, when I had the luxury to do so. Right now, I had Nightstalkers waiting for me to lead them to freedom. I climbed back down and paused long enough at the second man’s body to grab his silver knife.
The knife in hand, I followed the lead Nightstalker out of the pit and in to the darkness beyond. The Nightstalkers surrounded me as we left our prison behind. They provided a buffer against the several brief, but deadly, encounters we had in the hall. When the hall opened up to the large room they had tattooed my foot in, the Nightstalkers paused as one. The Nightstalker in front sniffed the air, and its ears pricked up. A low growl started from the others. I put a hand on its snout to find out what the problem was.
What’s wrong?
I asked.
Do you not hear it?
I strained to hear what he heard. I heard the normal sounds of screams, which wasn’t unusual down here, the sound of water dripping constantly, the sound of people moving and shifting in their cells, and then…
BOOM!!!
I jumped as the explosion sent dirt cascading down onto my head.
There is a fight. We must hurry.
The Nightstalker started forward; its toes took huge chunks out of the dirt floor as it started forward. As we ran, I saw others in the free-standing jails, their eyes terrified at seeing the Nightstalkers free. From the way I could hear their thoughts, I knew they were human. From their terror, I knew they assumed the Nightstalkers had come for them. There was too much terror to bear. I couldn’t just leave them to the fate I was trying to escape. It was wrong. To not help them was hypocritical. I left the safety of the Nightstalkers and went to the first cell.
The rest of the Nightstalkers pulled ahead, not seeing the people around them as worthy enough to save. They were more concerned with freedom. I didn’t blame them; most of their humanity had been lost with the change. Too, self-preservation would have been on any other human’s mind had they not been as stupid as I was.
The first Nightstalker noticed me leave the pack, however, and turned around, letting the rest run ahead. It approached me as I tried to use the knife I had taken to pick the lock. It whined once in a question. I sensed it hearing more than I did from the fight. It was obvious we were running out of time.
“I can’t just leave these people here. They have the right to choose if they want freedom or if they want to stay here. Just like you do.”
The Nightstalker thought over my words for a moment then moved closer. I flinched away automatically, but it wasn’t trying to attack me. With one huge swipe of its paw, it knocked away the lock. I looked at the creature in surprise, and it lowered its head for me to touch again.
I will help. But we must hurry. The fight outside is getting closer.
Thank you.
It moved away and knocked the rest of the locks free. The people inside the cells hesitated, eyeing my Nightstalker friend in fear.
“Run!” I yelled, to get them thinking along logical lines.
Fearing the thought of torture more than they feared the Nightstalker, they decided the risk was worth it. They started piling out through the narrow doors of their cells, pushing each other out of the way as they fought for freedom. I turned to head in the direction of the cells the Watchers were kept in, but the Nightstalker’s body language changed. It growled, and its lips pulled back over its gleaming teeth. Acid started to fall to the ground. I stepped away from it, thinking this change was directed at me. But it wasn’t. It was directed at something far worse.
“Are my little birdies trying to fly free?”
I spun around and saw Mama Dot step out from the hall. Her normally perfect hair was a mess, her clothes not as pristine as previous encounters. She had fought someone, though I wasn’t sure who. My heart full of hatred for her, I gripped the knife in my hand with more purpose.
“If you leave now, I promise I won’t kill you,” I said.
Mama Dot laughed. “Oh, come now. You couldn’t hurt me. If you had it in you, you would have already killed me. The truly murderous find a way…they always find a way.”
The Nightstalker shifted its weight, and I felt it preparing for a fight. Though one of the truly murderous, I wasn’t sure if it would win. I knew there was a risk it would fail. Mama Dot’s talent was too strong. I had made a promise to this creature; a promise I intended to keep. No matter the dark history of the Nightstalker, we were allies in this. I had an obligation to fulfill my end of the bargain. If it died, I would have failed my promise.