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Reluctantly, I made my way back down to Gitgo to see what he demanded of me now or if he would finally be inclined to feed me, when a loud commotion from outside and a hammering against the backdoor startled me enough to let out a scream.
Gitgo rushed into the living room, snagged my wrist, and pulled me with him. He stopped by the three-legged table in front of the couch and pushed the stick holding the wobbling table up to the side. To my utter astonishment, it lifted, creaking, off the ground. Metallic protesting screeches followed and a hole in the floor appeared.
“Down,” Gitgo snarled at me, pushing me forward.
Horrified, I stared into the dark abyss. “No.” I shook my head.
He pulled out the remote. “Get down or I’ll kick you down while you’re writhing on the floor,” he threatened.
Hesitantly, I moved forward.
“Now!”
I licked my dry lips and set one tentative foot on a metallic rung leading down. I shifted my body and, holding on the edges, set another foot on a lower rung. “Please,” I pleaded.
He tapped his foot impatiently.
With tears in my eyes, I followed the rungs all the way down until darkness swallowed me and all I saw was his face peering down at me.
“If I hear one peep, I will use this,” he advised, holding up the remote that was connected to my collar, before the metallic plates shifted back in place, sealing me in for good.
Panic set in immediately and I felt like I couldn’t breathe down in that dark, rank hole, which stank of something sour and something my mind refused to define. Frozen, I just stood where I had landed, one hand steadying me against a rung.
What was happening? Was help finally arriving and now I was down here with no way to let them know where I was?
I didn’t hear a sound, but slowly my eyes got used to the darkness surrounding me. One by one I made out shadows on the ground, unmoving and stinking.
Now I knew where the bad smell that I had never been able to get rid ofno matter how hard I cleaned—came from.
Something metallic gleamed at me and my curiosity got the better of me. I let go of the rung and moved forward until I made out a buckle or clasp. Dirty, but shiny in parts, it looked like it was meant to hold a cape together, similar to what Daryus wore.
Daryus. Again, my eyes filled with tears at the thought that rescue might be within my grasp and yet seemed further away than ever.
Wood splintered above me, angry shouting voices froze me.
“How dare you—” Gitgo exclaimed but a stranger’s voice interrupted him.
“We’re looking for a human merrily,” somebody said.
Me!
I sucked in a deep breath, ready to let out an ear-shattering scream, when my entire body began to convulse as an electrical current hit me, starting from my neck, moving down my body and up into my brain, threatening to fry it.
With a whimper, my knees buckled and I landed hard on the ground before my body began to spasm uncontrollably. My legs kicked, my arms swung and my torso contorted under the onslaught of the current running through me. Debilitating and painful.
Every thought left me for the longest time.
It seemed forever until the current stopped, until my spasming body stilled and I took a gasping breath, tasting blood. I must have bitten my cheek or lip I concluded.
“They’re gone, but stay down there,” Gitgo called through the open hatch, which I hadn’t heard opening this time.
Lying panting on the ground, I nodded even though I doubted he could see it, and slowly rolled to my side, hitting my elbow on something hard and sharp.
Darkness swallowed me up again, and again it took several moments for my eyes to adjust. Once they did, I made out a bone sticking out of the ground, which was what had cut me at the elbow. I clapped my hands over my mouth to smother the squeal that tried to make its way out, terrified of being zapped again.
The realization that I was trapped down here with at least one body though, horrified me just as much. I clambered to my feet, blindly feeling for the rungs in the wall, ready to climb up halfway just to be away from whatever was buried underneath the ground.
Rationally I knew that a dead body—a skeleton no less—couldn’t hurt me, but I was beyond rationality at this point. I clung to the rungs like a lifeline for I don’t know how long, wondering if in the near future my bones would join those in the ground and if anybody would ever find me, mourn me.
