My body convulsed as a spasm of pain shot through me. I lay in agony, waiting for the convulsions to ease. I tried to push myself off the cold ground, but my arms wouldn’t move. Something sharp dug into my wrist.
“Who is that?” A voice called out, muffled in the gloom. “Hazel, is that you?”
“Greg?” I choked out, rocking on my stomach. The smell of rotting flesh hung in the air, sweet and fetid. My stomach heaved, and I dissolved into a coughing fit.
“Yeah.” Greg broke down into a hacking cough of his own. “Did they make you drink…”
“…floor polish? Yeah. I can’t—” I bent over as my stomach was seized by a violent spasm. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I threw up the contents.
Across the room, Greg was also making retching sounds. I spat on the ground and tried to roll away. My wrists ached from being tied behind me. The stench was so thick here that it felt like the smell had form, that it draped over me like a blanket. I couldn’t even wipe my mouth.
Greg’s arm brushed my back. “Sit up if you can,” he said. “Perhaps if we move close enough, one of us could untie the other.”
“Good idea.” I rocked onto my side, curling my legs up to force myself into a sitting position. My body screamed in protest. Every movement was agony, but I managed to pull myself up. I shuffled backward until my spine pressed against Greg’s. After a little more fumbling we clasped our fingers awkwardly.
“I’ll try you first.” Greg curled his fingers under the rope that bound my wrist. It dug into my skin, pressing against the bruises from the beating and the scar on my wrist until red welts appeared in front of my eyes. I was dimly aware of the god’s pain, but it held nothing to my own. Greg grunted as he wiggled and tugged, but the bonds didn’t loosen.
“It’s no good,” he sighed, sliding out his fingers. “I can’t bend the way I need to pull the ropes through.”
“Okay. I’ll try you.” I dug my fingers into Greg’s ropes, feeling out the knot. Immediately, I ran into the same problem. I could tug a bit of the rope, but then I couldn’t pull it under and out. My fingers just wouldn’t bend that way. Nothing on my body worked right. But I wasn’t going to give up.
“Maybe there’s something in this room we can use,” I said. “Like an old nail or a super handy knife. We could cut the ropes. Where are we, anyway?”
Scritch-scritch-scritch.
For the first time, I focused on the space, aware not only of the odor but of the vastness around me, and the noise. We were in a large dark room, with rats circling behind the walls.
Scritch-scritch-scrrrrrrrritch.They seemed to be growing in number.
“I’ve had a little crawl around. I think it’s a disused classroom. There’s an old blackboard on the wall and a bunch of desks stacked up.”
“Any windows?” Maybe we could smash the glass, use it to cut the ropes, and then crawl outside.
“They’re boarded up. That’s why it’s so dark in here.”
Damn, knew that would be too easy.“Okay, that’s something. If the boards are old, maybe we can get some of the nails out and use those—”
“Hey!” Greg sounded bright. “You don’t happen to still have that glass shiv on you?”
I felt around my sleeve, then remembered. “No. I lost it in the attack.”
I tried to twist my feet under my body so I could lever myself up. Halfway there, my stomach heaved, and I broke down into another coughing fit.
When my stomach stopped convulsing, I pulled my wretched body to my feet and stumbled around the dark room. My face smacked into a wall.Right, found the blackboard.
Greg groaned as he pulled himself up. “The windows are over here,” he called out. I stumbled through the darkness, heading in the direction of his voice. “How long do you think we’ve been here?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say long enough to miss the Eldritch Club meeting,” I said darkly.
“They made us drink poison,” Greg’s voice shook. “We could havedied.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I know.”
Apparently, the tattoo on my wrist meant nothing. The senior members of the Eldritch Club knew about the agreement I’d made. But Greg and Andre were supposed to be off-limits, which meant that maybe Courtney didn’t know about the agreement, or that she was deliberately going against it…
Greg and Andre…
“Greg,” I choked out. “Were you with Andre when they caught you?”
