The Cost for Freedom

Chapter 19

"Well who else could be here?" I say, looking to the door then back, "Tyler?"

"I, I don't know where they would be..." he seemed more confused than any of us.

"Ok, let's think then," I say as I walk to Derek's cell door, peeking in briefly before locking it shut. He seemed to be in the same condition as always: beaten up, bloody and bruised, but still holding on. How could they just leave him like this, for what, a month had it been now?

Turning around, "Tyler, I" I begin until I realize I'm talking to no one. "Agh. Where did you go?" I yell into the darkness.

As I continue running aimlessly, trying to find Tyler again, I realize what I may have missed before. Tyler wasn't confused before, he was angry. And he bolted. That's why I'd never find him. He is way too fast. I stop running, and walk instead back in the direction of the dining hall. I'd find him later.

"Alexis!" Someone whisper shouts my name behind me.

"Who?" I turn around, squinting in the dark. I had stopped and was facing in the direction I thought the voice had come from. Or so I thought.

"Alexis," this time from behind me, as in the same direction I'd been facing before. Jumping in reaction, I turn around hands up in defense.

It's Chase. "Jeez Chase you scared me. Where were you coming from anyways? I thought I heard you from over there..."

"Shh," he doesn't listen to my rambles and pulls me behind a plate in the wall. "Follow me, you have to see this!"

"Chase," I stop when I see where he had taken me. We were in a narrow hallway, wide enough to fit only one person at a time. It seemed as wide as it did tall, barely over my head as I scanned the ceiling. He was facing me as I looked past him, around him. "Where, what is this?" The only source of light was coming from the small, meshed openings behind the torches illuminating the actual hall beside us. This second hallway seemed to continue on for as long as the wider hallway did.

"Cool isn't it?" He was like a kid in a candy store, shaking his hands into fists as he looked at me. I had to laugh at his excitement.

"Chase! How on earth did you find this?"

"Well, it was after everyone freaked out at dinner, I mean you bolted. But I never saw where... Anyways I managed to sneak into the kitchen and found a second exit. Only it wasn't into the hallway, it was in here!" As he told me his story, his voice got higher and higher, but quieter at the same time.

"Ok," I whisper to him. "But what do you think this means?" In my mind, it means it will be a heck of a lot easier to sneak around, but it also means-

"It means someone is spying on us," his tone had become more serious as he says where my thoughts had been heading.

"Or it means that we can spy on them... how far do you think these hallways go?"

"Who knows," he shrugs. "The whole castle? Just this hall? Come on! I just found it, I don't know much else."

"Well maybe we can use this to our advantage now. Have you seen anyone other than me walk by?"

"Seen, or felt?"

"Huh?"

"Those things are so fast sometimes you can't see them, you just feel a breeze when they race by."

"Well then yeah, I guess either one," I press.

"Then only Tyler, I think it was. Oh and there were some guards but I only felt the wind so I don't know how many there were."