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When none of that happened, our small group of nine—our diligent, brave little group that’d bonded with trust and hope—fractured like crystals shattering under too much pressure.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can stand.” Caishen scratched his arms as if he’d grown allergic to the weighted dark. “I never thought I was claustrophobic but knowing tonnes of rock are above me? That any moment it could bury me alive…fuck.”
“Me too.” Kaya—a girl I hadn’t spoken to before today—nodded. “It’s taking everything I have not to run off screaming.”
Caishen gave her a sympathetic smile, his face almost sinister thanks to the fading torch and its inability to banish the night.
“How long do you think we’ve been in here?” Catherine—the other girl I hadn’t known—shivered. “Because I’m literally seconds away from losing it.”
“No one is losing anything,” Rachel muttered.
“Keep it together, guys,” Mollie said, tucking dark blonde hair behind her ear. “If one of us snaps, we all snap.”
Pressing the back of my hand against Peter’s forehead, I hissed at his blazing fever. “If we don’t find a way out soon, I’m afraid he’ll die down here.”
“No one is dying either,” Rachel snapped. Rubbing her sore middle where Victor had repeatedly kicked her, she sighed heavily. “You asked how long we’ve been down here, Cath?” Shooting Catherine a look, she shrugged. “I’m guessing about five hours—”
“Five hours?” Caishen shot to his feet, almost bashing his head on a stalactite. The small cave we’d tumbled into barely gave enough room for all of us. “Right, that’s it. I can’t do this anymore. I need to leave.” He clawed at this throat. “I-I can’t breathe anymore.” He jumped as if something stalked him in the shadows. “I-I’m seeing things, and I’m sick of fucking shivering. The game has to be over now, surely?”
“It has to be.” Kaya sprang up from her crouch. “Victor said we all had to return before dusk. By the time we make our way out, it will probably be dark.”
“Alright.” Caishen nodded. “New plan. We retrace our steps and—”
“Peter’s unconscious,” I said quietly. “Are you proposing we leave him?”
“Course not. We’ll carry him.”
“Through all those narrow cracks?” I shook my head. “There’s no way—”
“Leave him in here much longer and like you just said…he’ll die.”
“Yes, but perhaps there’s a way out up ahead. We just need to—”
“Peter said it himself.” Caishen crossed his arms, trying his best not to tremble from the ice that’d settled into all our bones. “Ever since we left that cave with the glow worms, he didn’t have a clue which way to go.”
My shoulders slouched.
For approximately five hours, we’d travelled as one, heading deeper and deeper into the island. At one point, Peter said we were directly beneath the fortress. A staircase and tunnel led from the dungeons to the cave system, but Victor had stopped using it two years ago because a rockfall had shut off the main path to the Temple of Facets.
We’d kept going, even when Peter admitted he’d reached the end of his knowledge and every choice was now guesswork.
He’d glanced at all of us, ready to pass up the leadership mantel. The wistful longing in his eyes said he wanted someone else to forge ahead and take responsibility, but…as awful as it was to keep the pressure on someone so wounded—none of us stepped up.
With unanimous, unspoken decision, we all rested a little and gave Peter a breather before hauling him to his feet and helping him hobble through puddled seawater and continue crawling into smaller and darker caves.
One of our torches had failed on the first hour.
The second only minutes ago.
If the third went, we’d be trapped in here. Completely lost with the very real fear of starving to death or drowning. That fear now overshadowed even the terror that the Masters would find us.
Catching Rachel’s haunted blue eyes, I—
“Don’t.” She shook her head and bared her teeth. “Don’t even say it.”
“Caishen might be right,” I whispered. “By the time we get out of here, the gong will go, and we’ll be safe.”
“Safe?” Her nose wrinkled. “Do you honestly think the Masters will obey Vic? After a day of chaos? Fuck that.” She paced the small space, bumping into Sonya. “We go out there, and we’re at their mercy.”
