“The darkness that surrounds us cannot hurt us.
It is the darkness in your own heart you should fear.”
—Silvertris
(Fourteen years old)
Sofia’s gentle humming fills my cage. After several months, I actually look forward to hearing it, and I drift asleep to the sound.
“Hey.” No Name nudges my bare foot with his. “You up?”
Opening my eyes, I shift against the wall, my ass numb from sitting in the same position for too long. “Yeah.”
“What do you think that song is?”
I shrug. “Maybe it’s a nursery rhyme.”
He huffs a half-chuckle. “Even I know that’s no nursery rhyme.”
Sofia flicks her gaze to us. When she spots me looking at her, she smiles. She’s been doing that more lately, when her mom isn’t here. One corner of my lips lifts, and her grin widens before she goes back to coloring the fibula she’s been working on all day.
“What are you gonna do tomorrow?” I ask No Name.
He smirks, tapping one of the bars with a wrist bone Sofia gave him yesterday. It was an accident, really. Katerina was about to do her millionth interview on him, so she pulled him out of the cage. When she got annoyed at him for lifting up her dress before they even made it to the worktable, she threw him back in with me, and he shouted after her, “Hey, throw me a bone.”
Sofia took it literally.
And here we are.
Tap, tap, tap.
No Name scratches his chin with his finger, like he’s thinking hard about his answer. “Pluck Katerina’s hair out one by one and set her on fire. Then I’m going to the storage room next door to check out what chicks she’s been hiding. I’m gonna fuck them while we watch her turn to ash.”
I arch a brow and shake my head. We started this stupid game a few weeks ago. I don’t know why. Maybe it helps to pretend we’re not in a cage. Truthfully, though, I go out of my waynotto imagine it—getting out.
Releasing a breath, I rest my head against the wall and scan the studio. Steel walls. Metal table. ‘Art’ display.
The inside of these walls are all I’ve seen, day and night, for almost two years, and I feel nothing like I did the day I walked in here. Ithinknothing like I did. She fucking broke me, and honestly, I’m scared shitless of what I’d do if I got out of here alive.
“Your turn,” he mutters.
I twist to see him. He’s watching me closely, something disturbed flicking in his eyes as he waits for me to take my turn. The thing is, my answers always have the same pattern. And I don’t even have to think about it because it’s all I picture.
“I’ll start with her ears. Cut slowly from top to bottom, sawing the blade against her skin till they come right off. Then I’ll wish her luck with her interviews now that she can’t hear worth a damn, and I’ll take my time carving out her eyes. Hard to admire art without the view. Then I’ll stand back and watch the blood stream in waves down her pale skin till she bleeds out.”
The room is quiet for a moment, nothing but Sofia’s soft humming in the air.
“Shit.” No Name grins from ear to ear. “You never disappoint. I’m going to have to break us outta here just to see you run loose.”
My lips quirk, but it’s humorless. I don’t want to know what I’d be like out there. It’s something my cellmate talks about a lot, getting out of here. He’s always planning something.
After a second, I glance across the room. “Hey, Sofia.”
She falls quiet, her crayon going still against the fibula when she looks at me.
“What do you think? Would you ever want to get out of here?”
She just stares at me, like she doesn’t understand the question.
