Castle of the Damned | ✔

Chapter 35: Endgame

And already I grow tired of the noise you make.

Erin couldn't imagine those words boded well for her and Jason. She wanted to yell at Thomas, curse him out like she'd done the statue, but bit her tongue, fearing awful consequences. "If you want me to be quiet, I will be," she replied meekly under her breath. "I swear, I won't make a sound."

That was the way to go, wasn't it? Compliance? If she was going to die down here at Thomas' hand, the least she could do was refrain from irking him. If she did, he might get it over with fast, without causing her too much pain and suffering. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but refused to worsen an already terrible situation.

Jason, in his startled panic, couldn't think so rationally. "Thomas, untie us!" he yelled, barely keeping his voice under control. "This isn't funny anymore, it never was, but now it's just... Come on, come on, man, just let us go! I... I want to go home..."

Erin swore she saw a red glint light up Thomas' empty eyes, a spark of fury rising as he clenched his teeth, hands shaking with hardly-contained rage. Taking a few slow, stiff steps in Jason's direction, Thomas looked down directly at the boy on the floor. Jason writhed as if that could free him. But even if he escaped, where could he go? The door had already been locked when Erin and Thomas talked earlier.

Unless that staircase...

Erin had no idea where the staircase led. Another entrance or exit? Something hidden she'd overlooked? It could be worth fleeing up there and seeing where it would get them, should the opportunity arise. But who was she kidding? They needed to be rid of the ropes binding them to even stand the slightest chance, and if there was one thing Thomas wouldn't do, it was untie them.

A low growl escaped Thomas' throat. "You want to go home." He spoke slowly, mockingly. "You want to run away from me, from everything I've built here. You want to run. It's what you've always done, what you've always liked, isn't it? Running. Your morning runs make you happy."

Jason blinked, looking up at Thomas with big, fearful eyes, never stilling in his movements, never shutting his mouth. "What the hell, Thomas, what does running have to do with any of this–"

It happened as fast as when Thomas' boot had come down to crush the slow worm's head days ago. Raising his metal weapon up, Thomas brought it down forcefully on Jason's left kneecap. Erin cringed when the sound of shattering bone and her friend's wounded howling reached her ears. She closed her eyes, not daring to look, almost feeling Jason's pain by proxy; Thomas had always been strong, whether his blood-drinking pact with the devil had truly strengthened him or not, and this had to hurt.

"Now I'm sure you won't try to leave me," Thomas told a whimpering Jason with a sadistic grin on his face. The tears in Jason's eyes didn't affect him in the slightest. "This dungeon is your home, at least for tonight. You'll never leave it. Come morning, your blood will be mine and your body long dead."

The urge to scream at Thomas once more conquered Erin's soul. After seeing what he'd done to poor Jason, she wanted nothing more than to let him know in no uncertain terms how badly he deserved to burn in hell, perhaps pairing those words with a hard slap in the face to truly get the point across. But it would do no one any good; it would only get her hurt, too. She couldn't even bring herself to comfort Jason, frozen as she was by fear of Thomas and his delusional ruthlessness.

Her old friend laughed, sending chills down her spine; his laugh didn't sound like his own, resembling the statue's cackling instead. "Now you two will be quiet," he announced with dark authority, tossing his weapon to the floor carelessly, but still out of Erin and Jason's reach. He picked up his goat mask from his makeshift altar and donned it, then grabbed a handful of scribblings. "I need to concentrate on the ritual. If you disturb me, if you dare disturb me, I'll cut out your tongues and hurt you so terribly you'll be begging me to kill you sooner rather than later."