Into the Darkness

Chapter 19

It happened like that for the next three days. Instead of asking Ireland to come out he would ask if she had any question. He would let her ask one and then he would leave again.
The questions went like this:

"Are the others okay?" she was dreading this question but it had to be asked. Although she feared she knew the answer.
"Most of them."
"Who... Who didn't make it?"
"Dale, Argus, Travis, Allie, Avan. Eliot."
She fought tears. How had they died? She couldn't find the courage to ask. "They think your dead?" She said instead.
"Yeah."
He slid her food under the door and she listened to his footsteps get farther and farther away from her.

"Where are we?"
"A mountain. Can't tell you where. All of this, the maze and the tunnels, that's underground. Everything that has to do with phase three is above ground."
Again he mentioned the phase three that he had refused to tell her anything about. Ireland wanted to ask but she didn't want him to get angry. This man had killed her friends. No matter how calm he seemed she would always he was capable of mass murder.
"Can you tell me if we're still in the U.S. at least." Somehow she thought she might find comfort knowing she was close to home. If they were in the U.S. then there was a chance that they were on the east coast. A chance that she was even closer to home then she realized. Or at least that was the hope she clung too but who knows what lies they were saying about what happened.
"No." He said and with that one word all the hope she had worked so hard to build up crumbled. Not even in the same country. Deep down she must have known that. It would have been so stupid to keep them in The U.S. Where he would be so easily caught.
"Oh." Was all she could think to say. This time it was his turn to realize that this conversation was over. He slid the tray under the door but she didn't eat it.

That was yesterday. Today Ireland was determined to ask a question that had been burning in the back of her mind since she first arrived in the maze.
"Why? Why are you doing this?"
Silence. At first she thought she had made a mistake in asking him. What if he got angry and decided to kill her?
"It's not meaningless if that's what your wondering."
"But what are you doing then? How can you kill and terrorize innocents?"
"Not everyone here is so innocent."
"Is that what this is about? You think we're all guilty of something." It seemed plausible. This was their own personal hell created just for them. Only Ireland couldn't think of anything she had ever done that would deserve all this. She couldn't think of anyone who deserved this. She thought she knew all the people she'd spent the last year with really well. They were all good people. She couldn't imagine any of them doing anything that bad.
But then again she was wrong about the person on the other side of the door. They all were...

"No of course not. I was just saying that everyone down there isn't as innocent as you think. I assure you however that there is a method to my madness. I just can't tell you what that is yet... but you will find out, all of you will. And then you will understand. Then you will know why I have to do this." He sounded so sincere but Ireland couldn't think of any reason that justified this. Of course she didn't have the mind of twisted psychopath. And she was going to tell him so. Somebody had to and here she was with the opportunity.
"This is all twisted. Nothing could ever justify all the suffering you caused. Your nothing but a crazy person who probably has a bucketload of mommy issues."

Silence

"I am not crazy. I have a... social disorder," He was blushing. She could tell. He was embarrassed, "I'm a sociopath, officially diagnosed and everything. Not that it really matters, sociopaths can be productive members of society just like anyone else."

"Except for you."

"I guess, and we do have emotions contrary to popular belief. It's just... harder for us... to express and understand them."
"Oh" Why was he telling her this. He was acting like this was vital for her to know when as far as she could tell it wasn't.