The Life of the Wife

Chapter twenty two - part two

Part two

I awoke to darkness. It took me a moment to figure out what was actually happening. At first I thought I had just had a nightmare and I was still in the hotel room, but I wasn't.
I reached for my head where I had been hit, and the pain intensified. I winced in pain as I sat up from the dirty ground I had been laying on.
'Morris! You're okay!' Jerry came in to focus and I seen him crouching over me, sadness drenching his eyes.
'Where are we?' Just as I spoke my eyes adjusted and I seen that we weren't alone.
The room we were in was filled with ten or more people, all on beds and stools that filed along the walls. We were in some sort of prison.
'Prayer chamber.' Jerry whispered as he lead me to a bed.
'Prayer chamber?!' My whole body shook and I felt the blood rush from my face. I dropped to the old wooden bed, almost missing it completely.
We knew what a prayer chamber was, the corrector would use it to torture his victims, the cellar was Aiden's back in the city, but this was home base and I knew what happened to those placed in it.

After frantically searching for a way out and screaming for someone to help, I noticed the people in here just looking at me with sorrow, they had already tried what I was doing. Jerry asked around and they all had been here over a month, some almost half a year. I didn't want to give up like they did, and I told myself I wouldn't. I was trained to handle myself and that is what I had to do.
I went over to what was supposed to be my sleeping area and felt around under the bed. No springs or lose screws. I slid my hand across the walls and tapped at them to find a weak spot, but after a minute I realised there was brick behind the wood. I looked at the roof, some wires that looked fairy new where there, but no manhole or cracks. There wasn't a window, or doors other than the large wooden door without a handle that had a large lock system.
I leaned on the wall, sitting on my bed and rested for a moment. The bed I was on didn't have a mattress or pillows, just a sheet of wood and for posts under it. A small smudge of blood stained the corner and upon further inspection I noticed it was someone's name written.
'Isabel.' My voice barely a whisper.
'She had so much potential. Turns out she was as dumb as the rest of them.' The old man laying next to me groaned.
'Why?'
'She climbed out of the roof this morning and got herself killed.'
'How did they catch her?'
His stare pulled my fear back to the surface and we were eye to eye.
'They're all caught, no one ever gets out.'

Jerry and I stuck together for most of the night, or day, I didn't know what time or day it was. We looked for every possible way to get out and discussed our options. Things seemed hopeless but Jerry was a good detective, good at his job, and I was too. Surely we were to find a way out of this situation. As we were sitting on my bed talking of more plans, the sick looking man that said his name was Eric sat up and focused his attention on us.
'You need to stop and be realistic. There is no way to leave without being dead. If you're such the good detectives you say you are, you will realise that in two days it's Sunday and one of you will be cleansed, and the other... Sent to purgatory.'
'You mean killed.' Jerry corrected.
'Yes, so I'd try to be the one they like the most if I were you.' Eric handed us a book and limped his way to the toilet.
We both sighed when we read the title.

I didn't want to admit to myself that there was a chance one of us were going to die soon. We were going to get out, take down this cult and I would go home, sign my divorce papers and see Sasha's beautiful face again. Jerry would go home to his children that take him for granted and give them a huge hug. That's what was going to happen no matter what.