My hands fists at her words, and I have to bite my tongue to not scream at her to fucking tell me.
She drags a seat from behind the door, sitting on it as she closes her eyes, fingers kneading the fur on the teddy bear. “I didn’t tell Indie that’s exactly where I spent half my time. I didn’t want to trigger her.”
She looks up at me, and I nod for her to go on, crouching down to my haunches so I’m on the same eye level as her.
“He keeps his…favourites there. It’s where he…where he plays his games.”
My eyes squeeze shut for a fleeting moment, then I open them again.
I need her to tell me it all, to not hold a thing back.
Even if this is fucking killing me. “What games?”
“The first time it happened, the basement cell doors were all unlocked, no guards with us. Some used the opportunity to run for it. The older ones…they stayed behind.”
My ears prick back. “Why?”
She leans over to grab a bottle of water, almost downing the contents as she rasps, “I’d heard the rumours of the underground tunnels.” She gives me a look before continuing, her voice more firm, “The basement feels like a maze. I never got far enough before I ran back to my cell. The ones that stayed, they did so for a reason. One of the newer girls, she’d apparently found a door and got far enough to get to the end of the tunnel, was missing for hours. When they brought her back, she was erratic. If you were caught running, you were the first to be putup for Clarke’s experiments. She would mindlessly say things all night long. Whatever Clarke did to her once she was captured, it wrecked her head worse than it already was. After that, I knew the tunnels had to be true. There wasn’t anywhere to hide in the house if she managed to get there, besides, the door was always locked.”
“When they would put you on stage, how did they get you to the manor from Conrad’s?” I ask. It could have possibly benefitted from a lighter tone, but I just can’t find any gentleness to spare.
It won’t come back until I have her.
My calm.
My reason for this black heart finally fucking beating.
“We’d always wake up in the basement cells of the manor before an event.”
Fuck.
They’ve drugged them in the cells of one place, having them wake up in another. So they don’t know about the fucking tunnels to escape.
“The girl, did she mention where it led?” I ask, body vibrating with static as my mind whirls at the change in plans we’ll need.
Jenna now absentmindedly glides her finger back and forth across the water bottle, staring at it.
Seconds go by, and I allow it.
If she needs time to think, to retrace conversations.
So fucking be it.
But that’s as far as my patience is stretching at the minute.
“She was screaming about seeing the sea at the end of the tunnel. She was given a lobotomy soon after. The guards were adamant not to trust anything she said after. I know those tunnels had to be true.”
I drag my phone out of my pocket, sending a chaotic message to Rex and Dawson with an update on everything Jenna’s said.Half of it doesn’t even make sense, because I can’t fucking think straight right now.
We need to be prepared for anything. I don’t know how many tunnels these fucks have, so whatever she can give me, I’ll take it.
I lock it and stuff it back in my cargos. “What about the inside house layout?”
She seems slightly more relaxed now, still an edge in her eyes, but her breathing isn’t as wild as when I first told her. “There’s an outhouse that leads to the basement in the back yard. You won’t miss it. The kitchen and dining room take up the entire back wall of the main house, all open plan.” She takes in a breath, eyes staring ahead at nothing, envisioning the layout we desperately need. “Grand foyer with a staircase in the middle, office is the third door on the left, bedroom is the last door down the right…can’t be missed, it has gold snakes on it.”
The fact that she rhymed that off without missing a beat tells me it’s a familiar path she’s walked.
That experience is ending with Jenna.
