Evolved [Book 2 of the Life Hearts Trilogy]

The Dungeon - Gem

I woke up equal parts happy and terrified.

On one hand, Blue was safe for now and I had contacted her.

But on the other hand, she had lost all emotion from her previous life. And I was sure that the others were the same way.

I got out of bed and paced my cell. There was one other cell in the gloomy basement dungeon, but it was unoccupied. I was alone down here, and it was driving me crazy.

I don't know how long I was in that tiny cell. But no one had come in. I didn't even know where I was.

I heard a noise from upstairs. Someone was coming down the ladder in the corner.

I stood up off of the cot in the corner of the cell and faced Sausage. "Why am I here?"

He didn't answer, but waited for another person to come down the ladder. It was Joey.

Joey Graceffa had dirty blonde hair that came down in thick bangs that partly hid his sky-blue eyes. He was the ruler of the Lost Empire in the jungle. He had come late from X Life using some sort of jungle magic. He had an impressive raid farm that allowed him infinite Totems of Undying, so he was practically immortal.

But now, apparently he wanted more. So he was working for the demon.

Sausage and Joey had helped FWhip and me build the Cod Mask Dungeon. It was now that I realized that they had been minions of Xornoth this whole time, trying to bring the demon back into power.

They approached my cell and stood outside. I glared at them coldly, but they didn't seem to care that much. I had never been good at looking threatening.

"Where is the dragon egg?" Sausage asked finally.

"You should know," I replied vaguely.

"Where is it?" He growled.

I didn't answer.

"We can kill you," Joey said, pulling out his axe.

I flinched but still didn't say anything. Dying was temporary, but I had slept in the cot. I would respawn there. And it was still painful. Respawning lets you keep the memory of that pain for the rest of your life.

I didn't understand how they didn't know where the dragon egg was. I hadn't meant to hide it because it needed open sky and fresh air. It's defense wasn't secrecy, it was magic. So how did they not know that the egg was on top of a mountain for all to see?

Joey gritted his teeth and swung the axe. Thankfully, it was quick. I woke up in the cot in the corner.

"We can and will do that again," Joey threatened. "Tell us where the egg is. And Scott, too, preferably."

"If you haven't found out where the egg is yet, then you are either very ignorant or too lazy to find it on your own," I taunted. "Hasn't your all-powerful demon overlord found it yet? Or is he too scared of a little baby dragon?"

Joey scowled. "He would have told us if he had found it." But there was doubt in his eyes.

So Joey at least could be swayed.

"And Scott?" Sausage said. He knew me. He knew that I wouldn't tell them anything about the egg.

"I don't know," I lied. I didn't want to encourage them.

Sausage fumed. "Tell the truth. Or we can use the axe again. It'll be more painful this time."

"I don't know."

Joey swung the axe again. And it was definitely much slower and much more painful. I'm pretty sure I screamed a couple times, but it was lost in a haze of pain before I was back in the cot, breathing heavily, my wounds healed. I nearly threw up when I saw the amount of blood on the floor.

"Where. Is. The egg?" Sausage said.

So they were back to the egg.

"I'm not telling," I gasped.

Then they finally realized that they should have tried a different approach in the first place.

"Look, Gem. You can tell us where the missing Emperors are and where the egg is, and we'll let you go. How does that sound?"

It sounded great. But I couldn't give away either location.

"At least tell us where Blue is," Joey added.

"No! I'd tell you where the egg is before I'd tell you where she is." All three of us knew they would use her against me.

Somehow it didn't seem like they wanted FWhip, even though he meant just as much to me as Blue did. There was something more to this plan of theirs, something they weren't telling me, but I didn't think I would ever find it out.

I hesitated. "Out of curiosity, why do you want Scott?"

"Oh, he's just Xornoth's brother, and that means that he is our enemy. He and the egg are Xornoth's only weaknesses, and once they're obliterated, no one can stop him. Especially not you, because you're going to be in here as long as it takes for you to tell us all we want to know."

Joey turned to leave. Sausage, however, remained for another minute.

"Give me the crystal, Gem."

How did he know?

"What crystal?"

"You know what I mean."

My hand went to my pocket, where I had managed to hide the dream communicator. I couldn't let him get it.

"That's it." He held out his hand for me to put it into.

I pulled it out, looked at it, and then threw it onto the hard stone floor.

"No!" Sausage yelled as the fragile crystal shattered. The magical glow faded. "What have you done?"

"I've stopped you from using it," I said.

Sausage stared at the shards angrily. Finally, he looked up at me. "You're going to pay for that tomorrow."

With that, Sausage the traitor left the dungeon.

For the first time, I was glad that Blue was in Last Life. She would stay there until everyone lost all their lives. And she was safe, at least physically. And because of that, I was safe from her being used by Sausage and Joey to get to me.

My mind drifted. I tried not to think about my current situation, but my brain kept coming back to it. I needed to find a way to escape.

I had power, but I needed my staff to really do a lot. Even with the staff, I could only really enchant things. My only hope was rescue. And it would be hard, because if I was under Sausage or Joey's base like I thought I was, then people would rarely come over to visit because they were so scared of them. And without the dream communicator, I couldn't call them. I hoped FWhip or Katherine would notice that I was gone, because they had taken my communicator bracelet.

I gathered the shards of the crystal and slid them back into my pocket. I didn't want to step on one and get an amethyst permanently stuck in my foot.

I laid down on the cot, desperately hoping for someone, anyone to come down the ladder and get me out. I just had to hold on a little longer.