Page 26 of Heartless Enemy

Eve placed the trapdoor against the dusty stone ground and then pulled out a wooden torch. After summoning a small flame, she lit the end of the torch and then dropped it down into the tunnel.

Orange firelight danced over the packed dirt walls that surrounded the ladder. Then the torch hit the ground below. I dragged in a shaky breath.

The ladder wasn’t very long, which was good, but the space that it illuminated below was small. Far, far too small. I stared at the narrow opening in the dirt wall down there that signaled the start of the tunnel.

“Do you want to go first or last?” Eve asked.

“First.”

“Okay.”

For a while, we just stood there. I knew that I should be starting down the ladder, but I just couldn’t make my feet move. My entire soul was screaming at me not to do this.

Eve simply waited in silence, not trying to force me to get started or make me hurry up. I was more grateful for that than I could express.

Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath.

And then I dropped to the ground and swung myself onto the ladder.

Blood pounded in my ears as I climbed down into that awful abyss. Every instinct inside me told me to go back, but I pried my fingers off the ladder and jumped the final distance down to the ground.

A tiny cloud of dirt swirled up around my boots as I landed.

“Take the torch,” Eve said as she started downwards as well. “Since you’re going first.”

And so that it would be as light as possible around me. She didn’t say that, but I knew that she had thought this through very thoroughly. Once this was over, I was going to tell her just how much I appreciated what she was doing for me. But right now, all of my mental capacity went into suppressing the intense urge to flee.

I crouched down and grabbed the torch right before Eve pulled the trapdoor shut above us.

And damn it all to hell, but I almost passed out right then.

Squeezing the torch so hard that the wood almost splintered, I gritted my teeth and blocked out the horrible tide of memories that crashed over me.

My heart pounded in my chest.

Eve started down the ladder again while I raised the torch and studied the tunnel before me.

Oh fuck.

It was narrow. So fucking narrow. And the ceiling was so low that it only allowed enough room to sit, which meant that we would have to crawl through it on all fours.

I stared at those dirt walls and floor while panic clanged inside me.

I couldn’t do this.

I couldn’t fucking do this.

Eve’s footsteps stopped above me. The space below the ladder was only big enough for one person, so she wouldn’t be able to climb down until I moved into the tunnel. But still, she said nothing. Only waited.

Swallowing, I ran my tongue around my suddenly parched mouth.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

But we had to do this. It was the only way in.

So I dragged in a shuddering breath, and started into the tunnel.

Eve jumped down into the space behind me, but I could barely hear the thud of her boots connecting with the ground over the deafening pounding in my ears.