Mallory's Melody

Chapter 49

THE VALIANT SENTINEL THREW THEM all into the dark room and slammed the metallic door with resounding finality. The force with which they were thrown in made them all topple to the floor, and with the way their hands were inescapably bound behind them, it was even harder to get up. When they finally managed to transition from a lying position to a seating one, they attempted to wriggle themselves out of the ropes, strip themselves free so that they could get out of this little hellhole, outrun their own deaths.

Death was something Mallory thought little of, for why would you think of something you could not even conceptualise, total oblivion, overwhelming darkness, the loss of consciousness. It had always seemed improbable to her, unlikely, and even if it were possible, it would not be something that would happen to her. She was young, healthy, virtuous, and full of life, everything that death was antipathies with. But now, she sensed death was near, somewhere lurking beneath the darkness, waiting patiently for the time to strike, and she didn't want to be there at that time. A sense of urgency overwhelmed her, an animalistic desperation to get out. She struggled harder with the ropes.

"Yeah, take it from me," a voice startled them from out of nowhere. "You're screwed. We, I mean, are all screwed."

Mallory gasped, and she could hear Cole and Diana make similar sounds through the darkness.

"What—who are you?" Mallory asked, a momentary calm settling upon her. A calm that had no roots in peace, but fear. She couldn't see anything or anyone through the darkness, and that heightened the chances of getting killed. Perhaps Jane had locked them up with an insane serial killer, or a blood-sucking ravenous vampire, or a—

"Fear not, beloved. I'm Ava Harrison," the voice spoke. "Former Journalist, ex-mother, and soon-to-be corpse. Nice to meet you too. We have a lot in common actuality. And just to be clear, I'm talking about the corpse part..."

Mallory was bewildered by how hilarious she could be at such a critical time like this, finding humour in what was not funny, calm in the face of impending death. She couldn't possibly be Jesus, could she...

Ava's voice felt closer. "By my insanely accurate intuition, I speculate the three people in here right now are Mallory Trent/Anderson/Orlando/who knows who? Diana Gilbert, daughter of the ever charismatic Mayor, and Cole Trent, the five years sober, heartbroken, father. Isn't this amazing? I knew we'd meet one time or the other."

If not for the ropes that bounded her, Mallory would have run out of the room screaming. It was eerie, that a stranger in total darkness, knew more about her than most of the people who saw her every day for the past seventeen years of her life.

"Sorry, but, who did you say you were again?" Diana asked. "Mother nature or the all knowing God? How the hell do you know who we are?"

"Four years of being in captivity can make you develop an insane load of intuition..."

Mallory blinked. "Wait, did you say youv'e been here for—"

"Precisely. As I said, my name is Ava Harrison, and I'm one of the many victims of Jane's. Not to be rude or anything, but Mallory, you mother is the most derlious drunk I've come across in my thirty years of living, and I've met a lot of them."

Cole cleared his throat. "Ava, is that really you?"

"You know her?" Mallory asked.

"Yeah," Cole said, in a mix of what appeared to be happiness and disgust. "We went to college together. We hated each other."

"And here we are again, together, sharing something in common in the face of death. You believe me now? I've always told you your girlfriend was insane. It feels good actually, to be proven right after about ten years of struggling to get the truth to the surface. Y'all laughed at me, mocked me, made me doubt my own convictions. How does it feel to be so right now?" Janny paused. "Not so good, actually. I didn't expect it would cost me my freedom."