Concrete Jungle || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Chapter six

Noah writhed against the wall, the cold stone sticking to his sweaty skin while the chains tightened around his wrists with unbearable ferocity. Each movement echoed with a metallic clank, yet nothing seemed to give. He leaned forward, straining his arms beyond their limits, trying to reach the empty tray lying on the floor.

“You bastards! Pieces of shit. You have to let me go; I need to help her. Don’t you see what you’ve done to her, damn it?” he shouted, his voice cracking in his dry throat. There was no response. No one willing to show themselves. But Noah kept raging, hoping his words would pierce the oppressive silence that suffocated any rational thought.

"She needs me! Let me help her, for god's sake!"

His gaze slid to Elise, lying in the center of the cell. Her breathing was so shallow it seemed almost non-existent, and her skin, already pale, had turned into a deathly mask. A knot tightened in Noah’s stomach. He needed to move, to help her. But he was pinned there, trapped like an animal in a cage.

“Noah…” Her voice hit him like a dagger. It was weak, almost a whisper, but strong enough to bring his gaze back to her. Elise was still conscious, her eyes half-closed, but her expression was that of someone who had stopped fighting.

“Elise, stay with me. Don’t close your eyes, okay?” Noah tried to remain calm, but inside he felt an uncontrollable fear growing. “We have to get out of here. There has to be a way… damn it, there has to be!”

She looked at him, a solitary tear sliding down her cheek. Then, with a desperate effort, she parted her lips, her voice a barely audible lament. “Kill me…”

These words struck Noah’s mind like nails. He shook his head, almost in disbelief. “No… no, Elise, don’t say that. You can’t give up now. I’ll get you out of here; I promised I would.”

“Please… I can’t take it anymore.”

Every word felt like a stab in Noah’s chest. He had poisoned her; between the pain from her injuries and the drugs, Elise’s body must have become a prison of unbearable suffering for her to ask him for such a thing.

“Elise, I’ll get you out of here. Elise, look at me!”

"Please" she said again.

She closed her eyes, her body motionless, her presence a fragile shadow of life. Noah felt his throat tighten, despair clouding his vision. He tried to free himself, yanking at the chains with wild fury, but all he earned were deeper wounds on his wrists.

Noah felt like he was drowning. It wasn’t just the chains cutting into his wrists or the cold stone clinging to his sweat-soaked skin. It was the fog that crept into his mind, slowly blurring his thoughts. The drugs… they were tearing him apart. Every meal, every sip of water brought something foreign, something that eroded his clarity, leaving him adrift in a haze of dulled sensations. Sounds came muffled, the edges of the world blurred. Even his own thoughts seemed distant, as if he were watching himself from the outside, trapped not only in that cell but inside his own head.

And Elise…

The thought of her clenched his heart. Her voice had pierced through him, that impossible plea he couldn’t unhear. "Kill me…" she had whispered, and those words kept echoing in his ears, heavier each time, more real.

Noah shook his head, feeling the knot in his throat tighten. He didn’t want to look at her, didn’t want to see the life draining from her. “No… Elise, no, I won’t let you go. I won’t do this to you.” His voice trembled, desperate, a mixture of pleading and terror. His hands shook, the chains clinking softly with his feverish movements. But Elise was beyond reacting. She didn’t even have the strength to openly suffer anymore.

Her voice reached him again, softer than a breath, weaker than the wind. “I can’t… anymore, Noah. Please…”

Each word felt like a knife twisting in Noah’s chest. His lips moved, but no words came. Elise, this woman he barely knew, this fragile existence that had somehow become his only anchor in this nightmare, was asking him to do the one thing he could never do. Never. And yet… a sickening thought crept into his mind, one that made him shudder. If she were dead, all of this would be over. For her. No more pain, no more fear.

And maybe… maybe for him too.

That cold, merciless rationalization horrified him. But it was there. It had lodged itself between his despair and his growing madness. If she were gone, it would all be over. Her suffering, his guilt, the endless torment. He would be free… but at what cost? Could he really be that person? Could Noah truly do what she was asking of him? In his old life, the thought would have been unimaginable. He wasn’t a killer. He wasn’t that man.

Shaking his head again, his eyes burned with unshed tears. “No, no… I can’t, Elise. I can’t do this.” He pulled against the chains again, rage and helplessness gnawing at him, spilling out with every futile tug. “You bastards! You sick bastards!” he screamed into the void. There was no answer, but he knew someone, somewhere, was watching, savoring their suffering. “Is this what you want? For me to kill her? To let her die? What the hell do you want from us?!”

Elise let out another faint moan, so soft he could have missed it, but Noah heard it, and that tiny sound brought him to his knees. Tears spilled over, unstoppable, as he wrestled between the instinct to save her and the overwhelming desire to end it all.

“Please, Noah…” his name on her lips, so fragile, so tired. Every syllable was a crushing weight on his chest.

Noah felt himself sinking deeper into the abyss, but a scream from within held him back. “I can’t do it.” He whispered, this time to himself. His hand trembled, his knuckles white from the effort to hold on, to resist. “I… I can’t.”

But deep down, he knew that, even as he said it aloud, the line between resistance and despair was growing thinner with every passing moment.

“Why? Why are you doing this?” he shouted, his voice breaking as if he were seeking answers from an unbridgeable void. "Don't you fucking see? You're killing her! She's fucking dying!"

Elise’s breathing grew increasingly slow. Noah watched her in terror, searching for a sign, even the smallest one, that she was still with him. “Elise?” he called, almost pleading. But there was no response.

His head fell against the chain, and for a moment, the world around him seemed to freeze. An oppressive silence fell in the cell. He could no longer perceive Elise’s breath, and that terror, the fear of having lost her, seeped into him like poison. His hands trembled, his breath caught in his throat. “Elise…” he murmured, but no sound came in response.

The walls seemed to close in around him. Every hiss, every creak seemed to come from within his own bones. The darkness became alive, teeming with shadows that stirred just outside his vision. Someone was watching him; he was certain of it. He felt invisible eyes scanning him, reveling in his pain.

“Let us go…” Noah whispered, his voice broken with fear, his head pounding with terror. He could no longer distinguish reality from the madness that coiled around him like a snake. The sound of the chains, his labored breathing, all melded into an unbearable cacophony.

He heard a step. Just one, slight, but in that empty cell, it resonated like thunder. He turned, but there was no one there. Yet the sound was real. “Who are you?” he shouted, his feverish eyes searching the darkness. “What do you want from us?!”

The noise continued, Noah’s heart racing. The cell itself seemed to breathe, alive, imbued with a dark presence that was crushing him. Every fiber of his being vibrated with terror.

Then, a moan. Weak, almost imperceptible. Noah’s eyes widened, his body still for a moment, trapped between fear and hope. He slowly turned his head towards Elise, his heart stopping.

A slight movement. Her fingers, almost imperceptibly, curled. Her breathing was irregular but present. Elise was not dead.

Not yet.

Noah felt a wave of relief wash over him, but the terror did not leave him. Whatever was happening there, whatever the reason they had been taken, outside that cell there was someone playing with them. They were not alone; he was sure of it.

But Elise was still alive. And for now, that was enough.