Finding Fire -Book 1 of the Finding the Element Series

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

My shoulders scraped against the stone walls of the cellar as we walked down the stairs. The cellar was similar to the one a child's imagination might draw. Iron cell doors with rust slowly crawling up them. Hard stone walls with mold spewing from cracks and spiderwebs homing in every corner.

I remember the nights when I couldn't sleep, my mother would come in and tell me fairy tales; the cellars in the stories where most definitely like this.

Breathing was near impossible as we passed hunched over hags that clawed at our feet and urchin children that leaped at the bars yelling curses and cries. 

The cellar smelled like death and decomposition. I had to ask myself what died in here, but honestly, I really didn't want to know. A corpse was hung from a high barred window. A chain adorned its skeletal neck and rattled as the hag under it picked something off of its bones and shoved her fingers in her mouth hungrily. I cringed.

A man dressed in rags latched hurridly onto one of my ankles, screaming for help.

"Back!" The knight holding me yelled at him. With one sharp kick the man fell back and hissed like a snake.

I watched as he huddled in a corner glaring at me. Shuddering, I moved closer to Cal who looked like he was trying to stay strong.

Stay strong is all I can really do now.

"Move on," the knight shoved me forward. The knight holding Cal grabbed onto a cell door and pulled it open letting Cal step in.

The knight removed the chains that bound my hands together and released me into the pen. I stumbled. Falling to the ground, I lifted my hands to examine the army of gravel that burried itself in my skin. I moaned in pain as trickles of red came out from under the stones. The stinging only came as i tried to remove the objects.

Cal made one last effort of grabbing onto the door before the knights slammed it shut and walked away, mocking us through their helmets. Sucking in a breath I stood up and drug him away with bloody hands and tears welling in my eyes.

"They're not coming back," I told him through wiping my nose on my sleeve.

"I know," he replied sliding down the wall. His eyes rolled back into his head and his head slumped to the side. "Cal," I whispered nudging his shoulder. He cracked open one eye to look at me.

"It's no use Fiona. We're stuck here, with no one to help us. We're doomed."

I lean against the wall with him.

"No don't say that. I mean, someone at the institute has to realize we're gone..."

"Yeah?" he half laughed. "Who? The nurse they knocked over the head with the hilt or the women that could care less. When you figure it out, tell me, that way when we get our one phone call I will know who to contact."

"No offense, but I don't think this is the era of cell phones Cal."

He scoffed and closed his eye again.

"Fine." I said angrily. I don't understand why he is giving up so quickly. It's not over yet. "Give up, chicken out; I don't care."

I got up and walked to the farthest corner. He cracked open one eye again to watch me but I wasn't budging. For years I had been stubborn; I did not practice stubbornness all those years just to give it up to some boy.

I refused to look at him. Crossing my arms to look more aggravated I rested my head against the cell door and cursed under my breath.

"I know you do care," I heard Cal whisper.