The In Between

Chapter fifteen

• The Demon Bois Are Uncultured Swines •

James

• November 5 •

I woke up the next morning, expecting to be on the forest floor with ricky and maybe scarlet, but noooo. I had to wake up on concrete in a dark room chained to the wall with shadows.

I mentally kicked myself for falling asleep. Tip: don't fall asleep in a creepy dark room. Especially one with demons in it.

Another thing I noticed: I was hungry. I mean, that does seem normal, but I haven't been hungry at all in the past week. I almost mentally kicked myself again. Of course I was hungry. There was no light in this place, like anywhere. I also was dehydrated, beat up, and my wounds were probably getting infected as I sat there.

Was that the demon's plan? Starve me to death? Just wait until I die? Because I didn't like it.

Demons passed by occasionally, doing whatever demons do in their spare time, paying no attention to me. Which felt weird. They basically kidnapped me for no reason other than to put me in their base. For no reason.

The idiots.

Almost as stupid as ricky. Not quite though.

+++

Scarlet brought me to a sewer drain. "This is where their base is."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been here before. Do you listen? This is where Gideon died???"

"That's unfortunate."

"What? I mean, yeah. It's really unfortunate... what's your point?"

"Well, he died in a sewer. That's probably one of the worst places to die. Stinky."

"I-I just don't know how James deals with you."

"Me neither"

She opened the lid and climbed down a ladder. I followed after her, closing it behind me. As soon as it was shut, a horrible stench filled my nose. I gagged.

"Why the hell would they want to put their base here?"

"Probably so nobody can find it. Of course that didn't really work out well."

We walked around, Scarlet leading the way. The sewers were like a maze. It sort of reminded me of the mirrors. And James. I hoped we would be able to find him like I did at the end of the mirror maze.

She stopped suddenly, and stared at the wall. Then she pulled out a brick that looked particularly loose.

"The heck you doing?"

"Shut up. Just wait a second. You'll see."

We waited for like, five minutes staring at a wall, but nothing happened.

"Uhm. Was something supposed to happen by now?"

"No no no no no."

Scarlet knew how to get into the base. That was good. What wasn't good was that it wasn't where it was the last time she was here.

Well shit.

"It should be around here somewhere..." she said, glancing around wildly.

"I mean, we are in the In Between, I wouldn't be surprised if it moved somewhere--" she grabbed my hands.