A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 35: Escape of a Madman's Clutches

I've been running around this cave for a while, evading mogs while trying to search for Henri. I shout down the halls, not worrying about the mogs hearing me, "Henri! Henri!"

Never do I get a reply. So I keep going.

I've gotten pretty winded since I left my fight against Setrákus Ra. With each step I take, I feel as though I might collapse. I keep hoping that my body will last, but I've never pushed myself this much.

As I duck around a corner and sprint as fast as I can down a long narrow hallway, the familiar sounds of my fellow prisoners catch my attention. I know the cell that I've been kept in is near. The torture chamber is near. I'm close.

I stop to rest for a minute when I reach the end of the hall, my breathing short and hasty and stomach aching in agony.

An adjoining hallway connects perpendicularly to the one I just travelled. Which direction do I turn? They both look similar. Everything looks the same. Which way to the torture chamber? Which way to Henri?

I'm frantic. I'm hurt.

I'm scared.

"Over there!" shouts a deep voice from down the hallway I just came.

I turn, my hand on the cold stone wall to steady myself.

A Mogadorian. Half a dozen of them.

"No," I think. "I can't let them catch me. I need to find Henri."

If Henri is still alive, I will get to him, and I intend to get him out of here and back to John alive.

I go right, picking the direction at random in the hopes that it's the right way.

With each step I take, I fear I won't make it. I fear the Mogadorians will catch me. My heart breaks at the thought and I feel tears develop in my eyes.

Only when another dozen of Mogadorians come approaching from around a corner does my panic drastically increase. I dash through a steel plated door at the first sight of them.

I shut the door behind me and wait, leaning my back against the door with my eyes closed.

After a full minute of silence, expecting to hear banging on the door and receiving nothing, I open my eyes.

The room I entered is dark, almost pitch black. It doesn't seem that large but feels drafty. There is an eeriness to the air.

I slowly walk closer, willing to examine the room in case Henri is here.

I find an empty space on the wall with a pair of metal cuffs, meant for keeping prisoners chained to the wall as I have been. There is a stain of dried blood at the ground below and another splotch of blood dripping from the wall.

On closer inspection, I see that it's still wet. The blood still dripping down the stone.

My breath catches in my throat.

All of a sudden, the thought of Henri's death once again returns to my mind. Setrákus Ra's words echo in my mind just as he has said them not long ago; "Dead. I saw no use in him. I do not need him anymore. All I need is you."

Did they really kill him? Did they already dispose of his body? Is this his blood?

I place a hand on the wall over top of the dripping blood; keep my head bowed and eyes closed, wanting nothing more than to hear his voice. See his face. Alive.

"Henri," I croak, crying at the possibility. "Where are you?"

There's a brief silence where I begin to lose hope; hope of finding him. It already took an immense struggle to get here. If he's not here, I don't know where else to look. I don't know what else to do.