Memories: Book One Of The Eclipsed Eyes Trilogy

Chapter II

I gawked at him as he left his cell. "Well, come on, we have to go before the alarms are set off." He growled impatiently, gesturing for me to follow him.

I swallowed, hiding my shock in some dark corner of my mind, then ducked down to grab my rock. I felt his gaze scorching into me and the two seconds it took to find it and pick it up seemed to last years. I bolted to the door once it was safely placed in my jeans pocket, a little fearful of being close to him after what occurred in The Bloodring, but my excitement of seeing the outside world drowned out all thoughts of the danger he could possibly be awakened with.

The alarm blared, freezing me in my tracks, but Arc grabbed my wrist, causing the same jolt of energy as the day before to flood through my body, almost turning me to liquid. I stifled a gasp, him not allowing me any time to recover from the strange feeling, as he began sprinting towards the nearest exit, dragging me behind him, causing me to stumble and nearly fall. He looked behind his shoulder at me, an eyebrow raised. I felt my body go hot and I stared down at my moving feet, completely overwhelmed by the entire situation.

I soon discovered that I couldn't catch up to him no matter how much I tried-I was too weak. He seemed to realize this, and a low growl of frustration appeared to resonate from his chest. I shivered.

I couldn't believe that I was so close to breathing fresh air again. "They're going to block the exits." I managed to mumble out, tripping over my own feet.

"I know."

"How do you plan for us to get out?"

He jerked on my wrist, causing me to stumble forward. "Hurry up." Was his only response.

Tick, tick, tick, tick. The sound reverberated through my skull. The Underworlders around us were screaming for us to let them free, begging for a second chance at life, at family. "Arc, what about the other prisoners?"

"They don't matter. Shut up and run."

His grip on my wrist tightened to the point of pain and I gritted my teeth, upset.

The cells blurred past us, the banging and crying fading into a muffled, dull roar. The only thing I could really hear was the blood pounding in my ears and the sounds as I drew breath. I let myself have a few moments of surprise at how weak I had become from being in The Prison – simply sprinting the length of the wing had winded me, while when I was younger, I could go a longer distance without being short of breath.

When we finally reached the end, after passing nearly 400 cells in total, Arc flung open a steel door that looked similar to the ones of our cells, except containing a silver doorknob. He pulled me through the doorway, revealing a staircase that seemed to go on forever.

We ran down, often skipping several steps, following the path of the stairs that hugged the walls in a square formation. It wasn't until we were down many flights that I heard shouts from an upper floor, followed by the pounding of feet. Arc paused for millisecond to lean over the railing, looking upwards through the middle space, sighting the guards following us, then looked downwards.

"Seems we have to take a shortcut." He spun to face me, his eyes wild with excitement. He didn't even seem afraid, instead it was like the danger of the situation was a drug to him. "You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"

He didn't give me a chance to respond before swinging himself over the railing and dropping into thin air. I inhaled nervously before bolting to watch him as he plummeted past countless flights of stairs before landing neatly on his feet at the very bottom, knife still in hand. It was only with my advanced senses that I was able to see him clearly at that distance.