The Lost Soul

Chapter 46

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

It hadn't taken long for the young girl to succumb to starvation. Jack could do nothing but look on as she wasted away, refusing to eat or drink a single thing. He didn't eat the bread she'd thrown him until she was gone. When he heard the clattering of the chains as the shuffling feet made their way through the tunnels beneath him, Jack watched as the slave next to him tried to wake her. When she made no movement at all, the slave, a woman probably in her forties, looked over at him. Jack wanted to say something but no words would come. He looked down, ate the piece of bread he was given, drank the tepid water and handed the bowl back to the same male slave who had been there the past few times. 

No-one uttered a word. 

When the cages were lifted back up to the ceiling, the young girl with the lovely big eyes stayed on the ground below. Her cage had been opened, left there waiting for someone, or something, to come and dispose of her lifeless body. 

Jack wanted to cry for her, but there were no tears left within him. For what seemed like ages, he merely sat and watched, waiting for them to take her away. 

Eventually, a long low howl filled the cavern, the echo bouncing off of each wall before a massive winged beast appeared from a large tunnel about halfway down. It hopped down, swooping to the ground where its spindly arms reached out and pulled the corpse out onto the damp cold ground beneath its feet. Suddenly, another creature appeared from another tunnel, then another and another, until there were at least ten of them. 

Jack didn't want to watch but he just couldn't help it. His eyes were glued to the horror that unfolded beneath him. 

"Jack?" asked a voice from above him. 

"Hm?" he murmured. 

A soft hand touched him and shook his shoulder gently, "Jack? Wake up," said Zalea. 

"Zalea?" he cried, rubbing the tears from his cheeks, where he'd been sobbing in his sleep. 

"We should go," she said, not wanting to mention both she and Eric had heard. 

Standing up, he stretched his arms and legs and tried to put the terrifying scene out of his mind, but it wasn't easy. When a person is ripped apart like that, right in front of your eyes, it's not something that can easily be forgotten. No wonder he had blocked out his entire past from his consciousness. 

"Okay," he whispered, "let's move," he added, his words a little shaky. 

After they walked a few paces, Jack's shoulders hunched forward and his cries began. Zalea took him in her arms and stroked his back until the sobs began to slow and his breathing returned to a normal speed. 

"There, there," she said, "It's okay. It's over." 

But he knew it was far from over. 

"Zalea, Eric. I think I need to tell you the truth about what's in these caves..."