The Dark Side

~32~

Several days went by after Astrid's visit. Neri'el spent them all locked in Ren's room. He would bring her two meals a day and leave for extended periods of time in between. He didn't even show up to sleep. Even more worrying was how Astrid did not return. That worry morphed into loneliness and boredom set in quicker than Neri'el expected.

She spent the first day exploring the dismal room. But there was nothing except the grey bed that took up one wall and a dresser in the far corner. She had searched the dresser without hesitation but found nothing useful, nothing sentimental nor anything she could use as a weapon.

Yet even without one, Neri'el turned her attention to escaping. There were two doors in the room; one leading to the outside corridors, the other to a sparse bathroom.

The main door was what caught Neri'el's attention. It slid in and out of place, from left to right and clicked as it locked. There was no panel on the inside of the room to open to door, so Neri'el had guessed it was motion activated. She spent hours walking back and forth in front of the door, jumping on the floor, even tried using the force but it would not budge. Unfortunately, it seemed that the only time the door opened was when Ben entered or exited.

So Neri'el had turned from the door to another escape route. The ventilation system ran the length of the base. She had moved the dresser from the corner to the end of the bed, in the center of the room. By standing precariously on top of the dresser, she could reach the ceiling and move back the slotted vent. Her fingers slid through the vent and wrapped around the bars. Muscles straining, Neri'el pushed, trying to shove the vent out of place. The cocophany of noise the metal sliding made was music to her ears and by balancing on tiptoes, Neri'el managed to make a two foot gap.

Grinning, Neri'el stepped back, expecting her foot to find the edge of the dresser. It found the air above Ben's bed instead. Arms pinwheeling, Neri'el let out a yelp of surprise before falling backwards into the bed. The mattress did not give much so she was sent bouncing off onto the floor. Elbows and knees aching, Neri'el caught her breath on the side of the bed. She was tempted to laugh at the stupidity but was stopped short by footsteps plodding down the hallway.

Neri'el's heart leapt into her mouth. Kylo was back. A quick glance at the ceiling would show the vent sabatoge. He'd see her escape attempt. She was done for.

Yet as these thoughts crossed her mind, she realized he never hesitated this long in front of the door.

That was when the door slid open.

Two pristine black boots, glistening in the light from the outer corridor, stepped into the room. A familiar sniff of disapproval, pierced the room, causing fear to ooze into her bloodstream slowly freezing every extremity of her body. Not a sound escaped her as the man strut into the center of the room to look at the dresser.

As he peered at it, scoffing at the placement and rolling his eyes to the ceiling, General Hux's eye caught on the vent.

"How curious." He muttered this to himself as Neri'el slid under the bed. Her back scraped the edge of the bed so she bit her lip hard. Her chest was pressed to the floor, cheek collecting dusk as she slid inch by inch further under the bed. She had on soft leather boots she had found in one of the dresser drawers that masked the sound of her metal foot on the floor.

"Now why would Ren need to escape his own room?"

The question hung in the air and Neri'el could practically taste the sneer Hux showed the room.

He knows.

Her lungs shriveled in her chest as she closed her eyes silently pleading with the Force for him to leave.