Chapter 5 (Part 1)
Trigger Warnings (for both parts): A child's death, abuse of children (I swear this is an essential part of the story and I'm not just doing it because I'm a psychopath TT)
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Arabella told Pansy, finally speaking after fifteen minutes of thinking. How to get out of the Gray Mile undetected had been her biggest question. She realized that they must have been watching her and Pansy somehow, which was why they weren’t too concerned about what they were doing, as long as they didn’t try to leave.
Once she had figured out how they were watching them, the rest had been easy.
Arabella leaned down and began whispering into Pansy’s ears. The answer was cameras. They were watching them through cameras. She hoped they weren’t audio cameras, but in case they were, she kept her voice as low as possible as she talked to Pansy.
“They’re keeping track of us through cameras. They don’t care what they’re doing because they know they can keep us in if they know where we’re going. So we’re going to take out the cameras.”
“How?” Pansy asked, but Arabella shushed her.
“Keep quiet while I explain. I don’t want them getting wind of what we’re trying to do. I’m going to cut the electricity in this place, so they can’t keep track of us using the security cameras. While I do that, I need you to go to the entrance and make a distraction. If they’re busy with you, then they won’t notice me.”
“I’m good at dis-” Pansy began, but Arabella quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.
“What did I say?” she hissed.
“Sorry!” Pansy said, running two fingers over her lips like she was zipping them. “My lips are sealed.”
“Good. Now, go!” Arabella stood up and showed Pansy where to go. The tiny girl took off down the hallway, running towards the exit of the prison. Arabella watched her go, then sat back down. She needed to wait for a few minutes, to make sure all the guards were properly distracted before she headed to the electrical room. Hopefully, whoever monitored the security cameras would be too busy trying to deal with the chaos going on at the front to notice where she was going.
After five minutes of waiting, alarms went off throughout the Gray Mile. Arabella stood up and slunk into shadows, watching as guards ran down the hallway. Once she was sure they were all gone, she slipped into the hallway and ran the opposite way. She stuck to the shadows, trying not to make too much sound as she ran. She got to the stairs and began running down them, hoping she was heading in the right direction.
She had to duck into random hallways several times as more guards ran down to the entrance to deal with the commotion. After the third time doing this, she began getting worried about how many guards Pansy had to deal with. She was one tiny girl, and it seemed the entire place was going after her. She hoped Pansy could last long enough for Arabella to cut the power, then use the confusion, commotion and darkness to get away.
If not… Arabella didn’t want to think about that. If it came to Pansy or her freedom, Arabella wasn’t sure what she would choose. She didn’t want another life on her conscience, but she didn’t want to waste her days away in the Gray Mile, either.
She shook her head, going back to the stairs. She continued running down them at a slight jog, trying to use the exercise to distract herself. It didn’t work. All she could think about on the way down was what she would do if it came down to herself or Pansy. Which was stupid, as she’d only known Pansy for an hour. She’d known Toby and Mila for much longer, and she had left them without any afterthought.
But she couldn’t just leave a tiny child to suffer at the hands of the Gray Mile creeps. She could barely stand the place. Everyday was another day closer to going insane. The boredom, lack of interaction, not knowing what time of day it was… It had been too much. She couldn’t leave that smiley, overconfident, bright eyed girl to the horrors she had experienced.
If it came down to Pansy or her freedom…
She sighed, knowing she would probably choose Pansy. She could never be truly free if she had another death weighing her down.
She came to this conclusion as she reached the bottom floor of the prison. It was the very bottom floor, the basement level. She opened the door into the first room she saw, hoping it was the server room.
Instead of walking into a room full of computers and technology, she walked into a nightmare.
Rows of cells were filled with young boys, ages zero to twelve. Each cell was filled with them, about seven to eight in each. The cells were so tiny that they were either all standing or they were sitting on each other. Most of them looked sick or on the verge of dying, so pale and sickly that Arabella could see their ribs under their ragged jumpsuits.
She walked down the hallway, feeling the boy’s gazes on her. She came to one cell that housed only one boy. This one looked healthy, with bright eyes, a healthy complexion and whole clothing, not like the rags the other boys were wearing. He was staring down at the ground, mumbling to himself. He had a bowl of half-eaten soup next to him. She hadn’t seen any trace of food in the other boy’s cells. Arabella crouched down in front of his cell and studied him. What made this boy so special? He seemed just as mentally broken as the others, if not more so. She wondered what kind of horrors they faced down here to get them like that.
That question led to many more. This whole place was shady. Where had these boys come from? What had they done to deserve this harsh of a life? Most of them were still children, which meant that they couldn’t have done anything remotely bad enough to deserve confinement, starvation and possible torture. She assumed that they were being abused in some way or another, as a closer look of the boy in front of her revealed deep, jagged scars along his arms, face and legs. She assumed he had more that were just covered up by his jumpsuit.
Is this what would happen to Pansy if she left her behind?
Arabella opened her mouth to speak to the boy, but couldn’t find any words to say. He was the only kid not looking at her. The others were all staring at her, eyes full of nothing but brokenness. She couldn’t detect any emotions from them except for dread. They thought she was going to hurt them.
She slowly stood up and kept walking down the long hallway of cells. Each group was about the same as the last. All hungry, dejected and in pain. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to keep them from shaking. She didn’t know why she was still in the room. It smelled rotten and stale. There was also the pungent odor of death, which wasn’t surprising. It would’ve been surprising if anything could live down here for that long.
She got to the end and stopped. A brick wall was all that was at the end, nothing else. She turned around, but something cold and wet touched her leg. She screamed, jumping back and looking down. A little boy, about five, with scraggly brown hair and hollowed gray eyes had grabbed hold of her jeans. He looked up at her with a pleading expression. She knelt down in front of him and took his little hand in hers. It was bony and cold, but it had a tough grip. He stared up at her for a moment longer, then coughed up blood. Arabella yelped and stood up, jumping away from the boy as he shook for a few seconds then drooped down, lifeless and still.
It took her a few seconds to register what had just happened, and when it finally clicked, all she could do was run. Down the hallway, out the door, back to the stairs. She sat down on the steps and began bawling. Of all the things to see, why did it have to be that? What other horrors were they keeping down here?
What fate awaited Pansy if they didn’t get out of here?
She took a few shaky breaths, trying to compose herself. She had a mission. She had to find the server room. She had to cut the power, go back upstairs, get Pansy and get them both out of there. If she couldn’t do that, then…
