Final Truth

Chapter 59: Something's Not Right

Cassia's point of view:

We make it to the entrance of the prison, the giant doorway not dissimilar from a gaping mouth ready to swallow us whole.

The thought makes me hesitate for a moment, but the apprehension is short lived. Two of my best friends are in here, and it's time for them to come home.

We go through the doorway and into the darkness within the building, the only light coming from exposed lightbulbs that seem purposefully dimmed. The entire place feels menacing, what with its interior nothing but black steel running across the walls and floors and then extending above our heads in the form of stairways and ledges.

It's like being inside a skeleton with its bones forged from metal and ebony.

The most striking feature of this prison is something that is not seen, however, but rather felt: the atmosphere inside is nothing short of frigid, and I watch my breath turn to mist before curling into tendrils that rise in the air, lost to the abyss.

A shiver radiates through me, both from the cold and the horrific sight of this place, and I find myself stepping closer to Cade without really thinking.

"Follow me; there's the stairs," Adam says, gesturing to the steps that lie not far from the doorway.

"Steven said we'll go up two flights, and then there will be a long hallway where we'll find Julia's cell...fifth one on the left," he says, seemingly more to himself than us.

We begin to climb the stairs, each step promising to take us somewhere much more menacing as we tread upwards.

"Adam, this doesn't feel right. We should've encountered guards by now," Jacqueline whispers, and I find myself wishing we could just be silent instead of voicing our fears.

"They're probably all guarding Julia. Let's keep going," He answers as we finish with the first flight.

As we start on the second, I feel a hand purposefully brush mine, and I turn to find Cade's pale eyes regarding me softly.

"Are you alright?" He asks.

"I'm fine," I respond, attempting to put on a convincing smile of reassurance.

"It's okay, Cass," he says, giving me a small, hesitant smile in return. "I'm scared, too."

A feeling of warmth rushes to my chest at that, a welcome change against the incorrigible cold of the atmosphere around us all.

A few more steps and then we're on the second floor, a long corridor of darkened, empty cells lying in wait for us. And if misery had a smell, then it would smell exactly like this hall, almost as if the sufferings and torment of all who lived here were left behind.

"Fifth on the left," Adam reminds us, but as we near her cell, it's easy to see that it holds exactly what we featured:

Nothing.

Which, in turn, could mean two things: she's either being tested, or she's dead.

"Keep...keep going. We have to keep looking. Through there," Adam urges us, pointing at a door that lies at the end of the hall.

Quickening our pace now under the apparent time constraints, we practically bolt for the door and throw it open, looking around frantically.

"Where now?" Susan asks.

"Go right," Adam responds.

We follow him down the hall, the lighting becoming considerably brighter as we pass what are most likely hospital rooms and laboratories.