Chapter 3
And then the sudden memory came flooding back into his mind…
He was lying on the floor with his back against the iron bars and cradling Mykella to his stomach. Samantha had fallen asleep some time ago – how beautiful she looked in the torch-light. He looked down and smiled at the toddler as she, too, was asleep with her back to him.
He gently reached down and took her arm and saw that her blisters were already healing. Her number 450 11 was one lower than his 450 12 because she had been branded right before him. He put up a good fight when he watched the bastards holding his baby down and he vomited when he heard her screams when the poker came down and sizzled against her flesh.
He made several thousand promises to Mykella that night – most dealing with never letting her be held by the monsters again. He wasn’t sure who wept more that night; he or Mykella. There was a feeling of separation during that time between Vince and Samantha. Even though he knew that she had given birth to Mykella, he felt that he had known her longer.
Just as he finally closed his eyes, he opened them again when he heard something slithering across the floor. He turned and saw that whatever it was, it was too big to be a snake. He looked harder and saw that it was someone crawling across the floor.
“Sh,” he heard. “Don’t speak.”
He tried to see who it was that had spoken to him, but it was too dark.
“We need to wake everyone else. Tomorrow will be too late.”
Vince didn’t waste time with questions at the moment; he was too busy rousing Samantha, Chris, and Karl from their sleep. And before they knew what was happening, they were crawling across the floor, through small holes connecting all the cells (they had overlooked these apparently) and found a hole in the floor.
There, in a tunnel below the cell block, Vince found that it was Sister Agnes, alone, who had come to rescue them. She smiled at them and led them to the sewer entrance. She explained that Orion never knew this place existed.
“How could he not? He built this god damned place,” said Vince.
“There have always been people on our side, Vincent. Some might not look like us, though,” she explained with a smile…
Just as they had welcomed Agnes into their apartment – she had explained to Chris and Karl that she had abandoned her vows a while ago – Vince went into telling of the previous episode he had been going through.
Karl listened with panic in his eyes; Chris with a sympathetic look. Vince thought that it would have been Chris to panic. And Agnes listened to the story as if it was bound to happen.
“You don’t look surprised, Sister,” replied Vince as he looked at her.
She smiled and lifted her right hand. “What I have done in that convent, I don’t wish to remember. So, please, don’t call me Sister.” Vince nodded. “And no; I am not at all surprised. Mykella is twenty years old and has been locked up in here all that time. She was bound to become restless sooner or later – I thought it would have been earlier, though.”
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Vince recalled Mykella saying something about being restless, but at the time, he didn’t think too much of it. He should have paid more attention to her needs, he realized that now.
“I need to find her. There’s no argument that there is evil in the world – evil that wants her more than it wants us.” Vince lowered his head in shame. “It was my fault that she ran off. I’ll go find her myself.”
Agnes watched as Vince stood up, followed by Chris almost immediately.
“No; you can’t go alone. It’s too dangerous out there. I’ll go with you.”
Vince shook his head.
Agnes looked over and noticed that Karl had neither said a word nor stood up like Chris. She was both shocked yet not surprised by his actions. He was Mykella’s Watcher, true, but he also knew that he could never convince Vince to join him. Besides, he knew his place, and that was as a negotiator of sorts, not a blood hound.
“Not this time, Chris,” replied Vince and he turned away from them. He walked up to the door and looked at them. His eyes fell upon those of Agnes and they stared at one another for a moment. If I make it back, he thought, I need to know how she found us. If she could find us, then Orion could do the same just as easy – if not easier since he possessed divine powers.
He nodded to her and then left the apartment, not quite sure where to look first.
Seconds after he closed the door, Agnes ran over to it and opened it. “Vincent,” she called.
He turned around, startled, and looked at her.
“She’s heading into the lion’s den.”
Vince paused and stared at her. Was she implying what he thought? He walked up to her and shoved his hands into his pockets. “You’re not suggesting –?”
“No,” she replied with a smile. “I’m telling you.”
“How the hell do you know for sure?”
“All of the signs point to this time. It is her time.”
“What signs?”
“Her age,” she said with a sigh. “And her restlessness.”
“How do you know this?”
She placed a hand on his shoulder.
When he was twenty years younger, having an older woman place her hand on his shoulder would have made him uneasy. But now he is forty and she is at least sixty. It felt almost comforting.
“When you come back, feeling as if you have completed your journey, I will tell you about me and the Sisterhood of the Tainted Angel.” She didn’t let him question her further. “Now go and do what you feel you must. You might find her, but you might not.”
“I’m too old for these puzzles, Agnes.” He brushed her hand away. “If you have something to tell me, then talk.”
“Now is not the time; you are agitated.”
“You’re damned right I’m agitated. I’m not a child anymore – I don’t play these silly games.”
Agnes smiled at that. “When you come back, we’ll have our talk.”
Vince was reluctant to leave, there were questions he wanted answered – especially how she had entered Orion’s kingdom undetected and managed to break them out of his stronghold. The other side of Vince knew that he must leave if he is to reach Mykella before she meets her death.
After a moment, he sighed and about-faced and made his way to the stairwell. He never once looked back at Agnes as he descended the dark stairs. He hoped that, when the battle did end and if he was still alive, that the electricity would be turned back on; Orion had seen to it that every ounce of electricity would be vanquished.