#Chapter 158: Release

Time passed in an incoherent haze of misery. Since there were no windows in the room they’d locked me in, I had no idea how long it had been since they dragged me in there and started torturing me. Every so often, I would awaken back into the nightmare of my incarceration. My eyes were so swollen from the beatings that it was hard to see clearly. Not that it would have mattered. There was nothing inside the cement cell but me. Then, out of nowhere, the guard showed up one day and didn’t go straight to beating me. I knew it was him even though his image was blurred in my vision because I could smell his seaweedy, low-tide scent. It didn’t turn my stomach the way that it had the first day. Even if it had, I’d eaten nothing since they brought me in here. I was sure I had nothing to puke up at this point. “Come on,” he snarled, grabbing my arm and yanking me off the floor where I lay. I cried out as he jarred a dislocated shoulder. “Shut up if you know what’s good for you,” he ordered