#Chapter 19: Can’t Die Twice

The guards drag me down the spiral staircase as low as it can go, down, down into the dungeon. They drag me through the narrow hallway between the rod-iron cages. Instead of going to the cell at the end of the hall, where I was once tortured with the truth serum, one of the guards unlocks a cell along the way and throws me inside. I stumble, toppling down to the dirty floor. The guard slams the gate closed behind me and locks it. I want to beg him not to go, to reconsider, to say this is all a mistake. But my crime was clear. I was trying to escape, and I got caught. Nothing I could say would change that. So, trapped in these iron bars and my own misery, I watch the guard walk away, abandoning me in this dark, damp place. Someone is wailing from down the hall, moaning like a ghost. The noise echoes through the space, unnerving. Is this to be my home now? Am I to live out my days in the dark? What about my pack? Who would alert them now? Could Nina still find a way?