Rebirth

7. Secrets

After a few twists and turns, the smell led him to a wall with only a statue in the corner and no door.

He stared at the statue. It was a woman wearing a cloak. She was leaning slightly with one hand poised in the air and the other holding her garments. As Elias observed the statued woman, he noticed her neck had a slit indicating that the head could be removed.

He held the head in his hands and tilted it backwards. A door ejected from the wall as he craned its head.

"Clever" Elias muttered to himself, letting the head go and then pushing the heavy stone to reveal a flight of stairs. He grabbed a torchlight from the hallway he had just came down and descended the stairs.

The smell was stronger here but it still was not as putrid as when he had first arrived. It wasn't long before he was finally in the dungeon.

Several cells with metal bars lined up on either side of him. The air was stale and the floor was made of damp mud. He walked down the line of cells but he saw nothing strange. Only frightened men hunched over whilst covering there heads in the corners of their cells, cowering with fear.

"Yer a new one" Elias heard someone say. He snapped his head to the side to see the owner of the voice.

It came from the cell to his left. A man hidden in the darkness approached Elias. He turned his torch towards him to get a proper look.

To Elias's surprise, he looked very young. His face and brown hair was slick with dirt, sweat and blood, his clothes filled with grime. He placed both of his hands on the metal bars, peering at Elias in awe and curiosity.

"What are you?" He asked dumbfounded.

"I would ask you the same" Elias responded as he regarded the man's attire.

His face was bruised and filled with creases, one of his eyes were swollen shut. Even if Elias had known him, he would not have recognized him by his disfigured appearance.

"I use to work here" he started to say. "Before it all went to shit"

Elias turned his full attention to the man.

"Do tell"

"What's in it fer me?" He asked, his good eye bulged to scan Elias's face.

"I shall not kill you before they do" Elias said simply.

"Oh what does it matter? Ya die today ya die tomorrow, it's still the same..Ya die anyways" the man told him.

"You look like you're already dead" Elias told him truthfully.

"So do you" he retorted.

They both stood there for a moment, staring at each other.

"You came about the monster?" the man asked after a while.

"What monster?" Elias questioned.

"The scary one that looks like a wolf" he said solemnly.

"A wolf?"

"Only, it's not a wolf" the man tittered before breaking out into a terrible laugh.

"Then what is it?" Elias questioned seriously.

"Eli.." he heard from the base of the stairs.