The Belly of the Beast

Ch. 76, Trust

I stared down at the dead man on the floor. The Admiral of the Beast. A man whose words killed thousands. And now, a man who died choking on his own blood. At the hands of his own son.

"Z." Dagger's hand touched my shoulder, and I recoiled at the touch. Then I looked up and saw the terror in his eyes, and I surged forward, wrapping my arms around him, the two of us pressed together until I wasn't sure if it was his ragged breathing I felt, or my own.

The Admiral is dead. Dagger killed the Admiral. It didn't feel real. But I was forced to come to terms with it when I remembered that we weren't alone in the room.

I pulled back, clutching my hands into fists against my legs to keep them from shaking. "What now?"

Dagger swallowed, and looked behind me. A line of seven guards stood before us, expressions ranging from shocked to terrified. It was the Kaptain who moved first, and lifted a trembling hand to his forehead.

"Hail, Admiral Androcles," the Kaptain whispered. The guards behind him followed in succession, murmuring the words, and lifting their hands in salute, as the full weight of the situation hit me. Dagger had just become the next Admiral.

"Put your hands down," Dagger's voice came out cold, and exactly how I imagined an Admiral's voice should sound. "I'm not your Admiral." The guards followed his instructions instantly. He turned to me. "We have to finish it. Win the final Letter Trial."

The Admiral's eyes stared out at nothing, and I tried not to look at the growing pool of blood. Instead I reached out to take Dagger's hand in my own. "Dag, I know this is all a shock... but you're the Admiral now. We're free. Screw the Letter Trials."

His eyes darkened. "I don't want that title. Not ever." He turned to one of the guards, and said, "Bring me the other Letter Trial survivor. Quickly."

"Yes, Admiral," the guards said in unison, bowing their heads, sending a shiver straight down my back. Dagger was now the Admiral... No. Androcles was now the Admiral. The position he'd been born for.

The seconds stretched out, the body on the floor impossible to ignore, and finally I took a breath. "Dagger, you won't be the Admiral your father was—"

"You're right. I won't. Because I will never be Admiral."

I nodded, slipping closer to him, his body turned away from mine, as I touched his hand. "Dag, we could change things, make a new world. A better world."

His voice was hoarse, lost. "Believe me, Z, if becoming Admiral would save the people of the Beast, then I would do it. But there's only one way to do that. We need to win the Top Letter Trial." He turned to me, his dark eyes beseeching. "I need you to trust me."

Then tell me why! Explain to me! Don't let our secrets tear us apart again! But I swallowed all the angry accusations and took a deep, shuddering breath.

"Then I trust you Dag... Androcles." I said the name softly, like I was tasting something new, and wasn't sure how I felt about it.

He gave me a sad half-smile. "You would trust the son of the Admiral?"

"No," I stepped forward, placing my hand on his chest, making sure he heard the words this time. "I trust the man who stood beside me when no one else would."

The door opened, and we stepped away from each other as Skull marched into the room. Skull looked at the blazing fireplace, then Dagger, then me, and then finally, the dead man on the floor.

His eyes widened, and he froze mid-step, "Holy shit is that— ?" The ninth circle of Hell? Guess you were right all along, Skull. Congratulations.

There was a horrible, quiet moment where all of us stared down at the Admiral. I wanted to pull a sheet over him, hide the body somehow, but it was Dagger who stepped forward first. I thought maybe he would close his father's eyes, make the sign of the cross, or say some small kindness. Instead, he knelt beside the body, and picked up Aliyah's necklace, inches from the pale, extended hand. I shivered when I realized the Admiral had held it last, and only in death released it.

Dagger stared down at the necklace. Then he turned to me, agony in his voice. "You found her?"

I nodded, and, glancing to Skull, continued gently. "She'd been stabbed, and thrown into the Chute. I found her on the way to the Incinerator. She mistook me for someone else, and asked for me to bring the necklace to Androcles— to you. There was a poem hidden inside that led me to the Dead Level. She must have believed that you alone would be able to find the truth of what happened to Level N, and change it." I softened my voice. "And now we can, Dag."

Dagger clenched the necklace to his head, and then slowly lowered it. I hoped that he would forget the trials, forget this path, but instead he turned to Skull.

"Skull, this necklace contains the truth of what happened to Level N, the truth my sister died for. Level N wasn't taken by disease, but was murdered by the Top. And they plan to do it again."

Skull looked between the two of us, like he was waiting for one of us to laugh.

Instead Dagger tossed the necklace to him, and he caught it with a start. "I give it to you, and with it, the Admiralty of the Beast. If we don't return, it will be your duty to tell the people the truth. The Council of B's will try to dissuade you: overrule them. You are now the Admiral, the final say and the ultimate law in all the Beast."

For maybe the first time ever, Skull was lost for words. Then he turned to me. "You're shitting me right, little fox? And this is the final Letter Trial?" He gestured to the man on the ground. "The Admiral's not really dead... this is some sort of... sick... test..." He trailed off, suddenly spinning in a circle as if he expected an attack from behind.

I stepped forward, and said gently. "The Admiral is dead, Skull." I glanced at Dagger, and swallowed. "And we have to finish the trials."

Skull let out a short bark of a laugh. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." Then he raised his arms, gesturing first to us and then to the rest of the room. "Are you two not living in the same reality I am right now? WE. FUCKING. DID. IT. We just beat the final level. Game over. Why the hell would you want to finish the trails?"

"Because if we don't, everyone on the Beast will die," Dagger whispered, and now the two of us turned to him.

"Care to explain?" Skull said, incredulous.

"No," Dagger said. "But the Council of B's will. Till then you'll have to trust me." He glanced at me, the hardness in his eyes softening. "Both of you."

Skull exchanged a wide-eyed look with me, but I took Dagger's hand in mine. I didn't understand it, but I trusted him. Skull watched us both, his eyebrows climbing as he took in our hands clenched together.

I arched a brow at Skull, trying for levity I didn't feel it. "Besides, if we don't go, we'll never know what lies at the very center of hell."

Skull shook his head, dragging a hand over his face and through his hair. "And what if I tell them the truth, and they don't accept it? And if you never come back?"

"Then lead them through the darkness," I whispered.

"Be a better leader than my father was," Dagger said.

The three of us stood there, a strange gathering of fighters, victors, and killers. A Skull, a Dagger and a Z. I wondered if history would decide if we were the heroes or villains; if the good we did outweighed the bad, if the death we caused was worth it in the end. Skull swallowed, and then slowly nodded, and placed the necklace over his head.

"Then I will hold the position for you," he said to Dagger, and then to me, his lips curling up just a little, "And I'll do my best, little fox."

"Then it's time." Dagger shattered our small circle.