Evolved [Book 2 of the Life Hearts Trilogy]

Rescue - Gem

Haha you don't get to read about the Wither fight yet

Get ready for another dark chapter of Sausage being evil!

-Indigo

~~~

I scratched another tally into the stone wall.

Six days since I had woken up in the cell. Six days since I had smashed the dream communicator. And six days of death over and over again while Sausage and Joey tried to get me to tell them something.

Moonlight came in through the tiny window. Today, nobody had come in. It had been nice, but it made me scared for what tomorrow would bring. What if they had spent today making some elaborate new torture method?

I heard a clock somewhere above me chime ten times. I thought that I should go to bed. I had to be well-rested if they had figured out some crazy way to get me to tell them where the Emperors were.

They knew where the egg was now. But that meant that they were trying to get me to tell them how to get it.

I laid in bed and eventually fell into a shallow rest.

I was already up when my captors climbed down the dungeon ladder. I sat on my cot, waiting for whatever method they had planned for me today.

I seemed to be their weapons testing device. The first day had just been Joey's axe, but on Day 2, they brought in the scythe that Sausage had used to knock me out. It killed me with one shot, and they seemed satisfied with its ability.

On Day 3, they had started using magic. They threw splash potions of poison and harm on me until I died. Although poison felt like I was being injected with acid, harming was almost painless, but I screamed plenty in hopes that they would decide to use it again instead of decapitating me with an axe or scythe again.

Days 4 and 5 had been mostly them perfecting those methods, and using a few other weapons as well. All I could think about was that dream I had had where Xornoth said, "Finally, another test subject."

And Day 6 was surprisingly quiet.

I had been here for a week now. They didn't seem to have weapons of any kind, but maybe they were hidden.

Sausage was the first to speak. "So, remember a week ago, when you decided it would be a good idea to smash one of the most valuable tools in the Empires?"

I didn't say anything. I had a strict rule to give them the silent treatment. Screaming did not count.

Without waiting for me to answer, Sausage continued. "Well, you're not the only one who can create communication devices."

To my horror, he held up a gemstone - a huge ruby the color of blood. It glowed faintly on the inside. And it radiated the same power mine had.

"We'll find those missing Emperors," Joey said. "There's nothing you can do to stop us."

I angrily reached through the bars, but Sausage held the crystal out of reach.

"You won't be able to take them out of there," I said, the first words I had spoken to them in several days. My voice was hoarse from disuse.

"Demonic magic is more powerful than you think," Joey replied, and then they both went up the ladder.

All the missing Emperors were in danger. I could only hope that the same being who had stopped me over and over again would also stop Sausage and Joey.

I paced my cell, wondering why they hadn't been trying me for information lately. They had obviously been excited about the whole "we can now enter people's dreams and turn them into nightmares" thing. Maybe they were too preoccupied with that to really notice me.