Lucius didn’t speak for a long time after his words of warning to Ash, retreating into the dark corner from where he had emerged. The only sign that he was even there was the sound of his rattling breath.

Ash looked away from the man, a hurricane of thoughts overwhelming her mind. What would she do? What could she do? All she knew was that she had to escape from this place as soon as possible.

She stared through the bars at the prisoners in the cells across the hallway. Most of them were silent, some of them shaking with sobs. It was quieter here than in the other section of the jail, where there had been the screams and haunted whispers from the prisoners. Here, everyone seemed to be resigned to hopeless existence, not doing much more than lying in the darkness of their cells in an attempt to hide from the rest of the world, as if the shadows were a way of escape. But all the shadows did was darken the already dark world, creating pockets of blackness in which to lose oneself.

The faces of the prisoners here were blank, their weary, bloodshot eyes staring emotionlessly at the bars of their cells as if their consciousness was lost in another dimension. Ash looked at them, hoping that she would never become like one of them.

After a while, she crept backward, leaning against the back wall of the cell. She glanced to her left and saw that Lucius had not moved from his dark corner.

As she sat there, unable to do much else, her mind started to wander. She thought about Alex and Scarlett. She couldn’t resist worrying about them—they were young, and all Alex had to defend himself was a small knife. She told herself that Scarlett would be able to defend them both, if necessary, with her pair of pistols and her hawk, Swift. Still, not knowing anything about their whereabouts or what was happening to them didn’t put Ash at ease.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the world around her. She just needed a moment to think. What, though, did she need to think about? Escaping? She couldn’t just come up with an escape plan without even getting to know the prison one bit. That would have to wait until she had figured out the workings of the prison.

Part of her knew that, no matter how well she got to know the prison, she might never find a way to escape. After all, there were so many prisoners here that several of them had probably tried to escape at one time or another. And as far as she knew, none had ever succeeded. She thought about asking Lucius about escape, but she knew he probably wouldn’t respond yet. She would wait, and ask him later. He wasn’t in a mood to talk now.

Ash wondered what had happened to him. How had he gotten his scars, and his disfigured hand? Were the stutter and the strange twitching caused by something that had happened to him? She had many questions to ask, but was afraid to, especially after his frightening words earlier.

A few hours passed by, and Ash didn’t do much other than pace around her cell and stare at the wall. She heard Lucius mutter something to himself a few times, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. There wasn’t much activity in the surrounding cells, and it was mostly quiet.

Ash looked over to the cell on her right. She hadn’t given it much attention, as she hadn’t heard any noise from over there, and it was almost entirely hidden in shadows save for a sliver of it that was lit by the red light from the hallway. She wondered if it was occupied. If it was, its inhabitant was awfully quiet and still.

She edged closer to the bars separating her from the cell on the right, away from Lucius’ cell on the left. She put her face to the bars and peered into the darkness.

Suddenly, a figure lunged at her from out of the shadows, slamming against the bars. Ash leaped backward, falling on the floor. Her heart pounded, and she quickly got to her feet, staring at the thing in the cell next to hers.

It was a woman, but she hardly looked human. Her face was pale and skeletal, with long, thin scars running from her eyes down her cheeks as if she had been clawing at her face with sharp fingernails. Her eyes were bloodshot and wild, staring vacantly at Ash through the bars that separated them. The woman’s hair was tangled and long, and oddly shaped chunks of it were missing.

The woman across from Ash gripped the bars so tightly that the cracked knuckles of her gnarled fingers turned white, and a mad ferocity gleamed in her eyes. Her chest heaved up and down, the ragged clothes she wore moving with it. Ash didn’t move.

Her brain was still processing what she saw when Lucius said from behind her, “I s-s-see you’ve met y-your other n-neighbor.”

Ash turned her head slightly to look at him in her peripheral vision, not wanting to let the ferocious woman out of her sight.

All Ash could do was nod in response. Lucius coughed, and then stuttered, “Th-they call her Clara. I-it’s what she calls herself when sh-sh-she talks in her s-sleep.” The woman, Clara, sure did look like she talked in her sleep, and Ash had no doubt she had a variety of other strange traits.

Ash didn’t take her eyes off of Clara, who didn’t take her eyes off of Ash. “Ah… what happened to her?” Ash asked uneasily, not the slightest bit happy that this creepy woman was right next door to her cell.

“Sh-she just snapped,” Lucius replied emotionlessly. “Went i-i-insane after a year of b-being here.”

“Does she talk?” Ash asked. “Can she hear us? Understand what we’re saying?”

Lucius shook his head, even though Ash wasn’t looking at him. “Sh-she doesn’t understand a w-w-word. And c-can’t speak, or at least, n-not to other people. L-like I mentioned before, she talks in her s-sleep. Says strange things. S-s-sometimes has f-fits, loses any sense of r-reality.”

Clara didn’t stop staring at Ash, and an eerie smile crept across her skeletal face. Ash felt a shiver run down her spine, and she took a step away from the woman.

“Y-you’ll get used to her,” Lucius said in a low voice. “But always r-remember to watch your back. C-Clara can give quite a s-s-scare.”

Ash didn’t say anything. Slowly, she backed up against the wall and slid to the ground, sitting still and staring straight ahead. She kept a close watch on Clara from the corner of her eye, hoping that the woman would retreat back to the shadows and not move from there.

After a while, Clara shuffled back into the darkness, still staring at Ash.

Time passed without much incident. Clara didn’t return, but Ash could almost feel her presence, though she was hidden from sight in the shadows of her cell. The fact that she was only a few yards away, separated by nothing but a row of metal bars, didn’t help Ash feel any better.

It was around mid-day by now, Ash guessed, although she had no way of knowing from inside her cell. She wondered if she would get anything to eat. Obviously, the people here weren’t well-fed and looked starving, but they were alive, so they had to be given some sort of food. Most likely the worst, cheapest stuff the Authorities could find, though. Despite the fact that she was quite hungry, Ash found herself not particularly looking forward to mealtime.

After an hour or so, she heard footsteps coming down the hall and echoing through the prison. People scrambled to the front of their cells, peering through the bars and licking their lips feverishly. On her left, Lucius slowly dragged himself toward the door of his cell. Clara dashed to her door, baring her teeth and gripping the bars tightly.

Ash hesitated, and then got to her feet, walking toward the door of her own cell. She could hear people devouring something down the hall as the footsteps grew closer, and she looked through the bars to see outside.

Two people wearing dark gray suits and helmets with electric batons and whips strapped to their utility belts were making their way down the rows of cells, dragging a large cart nearly overflowing with stacks of plates. They walked down the hall, inserting a covered plate into a slot in the door of each cell. She could hear prisoners ripping the covers off of their plates and ravenously wolfing down whatever they contained.

The prison guards’ gray suits and helmets were simple, but the weapons that swung from their belts were dangerous. They were similar to the guards who had been stationed at the factory where Ash had worked. They certainly didn’t look any kinder.

Ash stepped back as the prison guards grew nearer, not wanting to be within a yard of the weapons they carried. The one passing out the plates on her side of the hallway reached Lucius’ cell, and she watched as he used his good hand to take off the thin cover over the plate.

She looked up to find the guard in front of her own cell, already inserting the plate into the slot in the door. It fell to the ground and landed with a clatter.

Ash bent to pick it up, and she lifted the cover off, which was just a thin metallic material similar to aluminum. She stared down at the plate, looking at her meal. A tiny portion of some unidentifiable goopy gray substance was in the center, with a small cup of dirty water covered by a thin lid next to it. That was all.

Ash turned and walked to the back of her cell, sitting down against the wall. She stared down at the plate, and the meager meal on it. An unpleasant aroma wafted up toward Ash from the plate she held in her lap, and she swallowed. Not a particularly appetizing lunch. But it was the only thing she had to eat, and if she didn’t eat, she wouldn’t have enough strength to escape. The prisoners here had lived off of it for a while, and so she would have to as well.

She glanced around at the prisoners in the cells on either side of her. Clara was messily licking the plate, having already devoured its contents. She gnashed her teeth, and a strange, high-pitched growl came from her throat. She crawled along the floor of her cell as if searching for more, and came to the door, staring out through the bars at the guards, who were continuing down the hall with the plates of food.

Ash watched as Clara reached through the bars, trying to grab at the large cart of food the prison guards tugged behind them. A grating whine emerged from her throat, and she slammed herself against the bars to try to get at the plates of food. One of the guards turned around to face Clara and slowly walked toward her cell.

Ash knew what would happen before the guard had even drawn his weapon. Clara let out a deafening howl, and the prison guard unclipped a shock baton from his belt, slicing it through the air at Clara. The baton swiped through the iron bars and hit Clara on her shoulder, a crackle of electricity accompanying the impact. Clara screamed and leaped backward, clutching her injured shoulder. She let out a guttural moan and scampered into the shadows of her cell.

Ash looked around at the prisoners at the other cells, and saw that no one had even noticed what had just happened to Clara. They didn’t even look up once. After all, this kind of thing happened every day. The prison guards continued out of sight, and Ash looked down again at the small plate resting on her lap. She had to eat.

There were no utensils accompanying the plate, so Ash tentatively took the plate in both hands and held it to her face, grimacing at the smell. She started eating the gray glop off of the plate, and nearly retched the moment it entered her mouth. The stuff—it couldn’t even be called food—tasted terrible, like overcooked rat intestines that had been left out for months. For all she knew, that was what it actually was.

Ash reached for the tiny cup of water on the plate, removing the lid and holding it to her lips. She drank a few sips, despite the bad taste of the water. She looked down at the cup and saw specks floating around in the cloudy water, and wondered where it had come from. Quite honestly, she didn’t really want to know where either the food or the water had come from, as she knew the answer would be disturbing.

She heard a strange slurping noise coming from her left. She looked over and saw Lucius hunched against the wall of his cell, holding the plate to his mouth. His face was contorted as he slowly ate from the plate. Not only did the scar that ran through his lips distort his speech, but it also made eating difficult and painful.

Ash tried to remind herself that her situation could be worse as she forced herself to eat. Yes, she was stuck underground in an inescapable prison that drove people insane, and the small meals were far from sanitary, but at least she was alive. At least she still had hope. At least she still had a fully functioning body. That was more than most people here could say.

Ash finally finished off the tiny but disgusting meal and dropped the plate on the cold floor. Nothing happened for a few minutes, until she heard a noise in the distance.

Ash looked up from the floor, creeping toward the bars that separated her from the hallway. Peering out, she saw the same two guards—or maybe they were different ones, it was impossible to tell—were coming down the rows of cells, collecting the empty plates from the prisoners.

They reached Ash’s cell eventually, and she pushed her plate, cup, and the thin metal cover through the small slot in the door. The guards took them briskly and continued down the hall.

Ash listened to the footsteps of the guards echo through the prison until they faded into the distance and the cells were quiet again. Other than the low hum of the red light from the hallway and the whimpers and moans of the prisoners, all was silent.

She sat there for a while, waiting for something to happen. She wasn’t really sure what exactly, but just something. There wasn’t much activity in the prison, or anything to see other than the dark cells that lined either side of the corridor outside and the grim faces of the starving prisoners that filled them. It was a bleak, uneventful place. There wasn’t much to do other than sleep, sit, and pace around the small cell. And think.

Her thoughts drifted to the night before. Ash wished she could forget all that had happened, but she couldn’t. That night had changed everything forever. The fresh memory had been floating in the back of her mind the whole time, haunting her. Ash closed her eyes, the weight of it threatening to crush her.

An image formed in her mind. She was standing, petrified, in front of the black helicopter that had brought her here. She was on a dark street. The wind was fierce. In front of the helicopter across from her was a row of soldiers. With them was the Sovereign Supreme himself. And in front of him was the man who had betrayed her. The man who was the reason she was trapped here, in this prison, in the Authorities’ grasp.

Zach. Even thinking his name brought up a torrent of emotions inside of Ash. She could still hardly believe what she had witnessed that night. Not even a full day ago. Everything had changed so quickly.

Ash could hardly bear to think about Zach. She hardly knew who he was now. She had thought she had known him, believed that he had cared about her. But she had been wrong. The truth had nearly crushed her that night.

Conflicted feelings rose up within her. Part of her wanted Zach to die. Part of her didn’t care what happened to him. He had betrayed her. He had used her, and he was the reason she was stuck here, barely hanging on to hope. He deserved to die. Another part of her wanted to hope that he was still the Zach she had known. When the Sovereign Supreme had tried to force him to kill Ash, he had chosen not to. He had put his life at risk to try to spare hers, even when he had betrayed her.

She didn’t know what to think. Everything was so complicated. Everything she had thought to be the truth about Zach had been proven wrong. She had been lied to. Manipulated. Used. Betrayed. And nearly broken.

She wondered where they had taken Zach. What had they done to him? Was he in a cell similar to hers? Or had they taken him some place even worse?

Ash had no idea why the Sovereign Supreme really wanted them both alive. Lucius had tried to explain it to her, but no one really knew the Sovereign’s real motives except the man himself. Maybe they were just keeping her alive to crush all the hope out of her, and then they’d dispose of her. Just killing someone wasn’t enough for the Sovereign Supreme. Their soul, their mind, had to be destroyed first. If that was true, then they might as well kill Zach. They had used him as much as it seemed possible. He was already broken. He was devoid of all hope. He had given the Authorities what they wanted. So they probably had already killed him.

Ash squeezed her eyes shut tighter, trying to drive the terrible thoughts from her head. She knew that Zach had betrayed her. She knew he was broken. But the thought of him dying still brought pain to her heart.

She heard Lucius moving to her left, shaking her out of her thoughts. Ash looked up at him to find him staring at her. His eyes were intent and searching. Ash took a shaky breath, and realized that there were tears welling up in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away and looked at the ground.

Several minutes passed, and neither Ash nor Lucius spoke a word. Finally, after Ash had recovered, she asked, “Did… did you see a man being taken past here today?”

Lucius sighed a raspy breath and shook his head. “N-no one came past here. If y-you’re wondering where h-h-he is…” He trailed off, leaning against the bars for support. “Y-you’ll probably n-n-never find him.”

It was true. Ash might never know what had happened to Zach, or Alex, or Scarlett, or anyone.

She had to escape from this madhouse before it drove her insane. No matter what Lucius or anyone else told her, she would hold on to hope. It was all she had left, and she wasn’t about to lose it.

Ash made up her mind. Tomorrow, she would start planning. Tomorrow, she would find a way out of here. She had to wait, though. She needed rest. She needed to get to know the place, all the guards, all the shifts, all the ins and outs. Tomorrow, she promised herself. Tomorrow she would begin to figure out how to escape, one way or another.

Questions floated through her mind. What would she do after she escaped? Where could she go? Would she try to save Zach, too, or leave him to die the death he deserved? Ash knew deep inside she could never rid herself of Zach, and she could never rid herself of the crushing truth that he had betrayed her.

Ash took a deep breath to steady herself, the sour stench of the prison infiltrating her lungs. She promised herself that this would not be the air she would be eternally condemned to breathing. She would escape, no matter the cost. No matter how impossible it seemed, Ash told herself that she would get out of there. Hope, even though it was small, still existed in her heart, even in such a hopeless place.

The Sovereign Supreme thought he could crush her by locking her in here. And Ash was going to prove him wrong.