I was lucky I didn't have a concussion.
Even still, when I woke up, my head was throbbing. At first I had no recollection of what had happened or how much time had passed—and the later I'm still not exactly sure about. What I did know was that the four of us has been brought to a new location.
When I could finally open my eyes fully, I saw our new room consisted of two bunkbeds just as our rooms had before. But rather than the cell wall, there were four brick walls with one large metal door containing a small window in the middle of it. While there had been tables and benches before, the room was devoid of any furniture besides our beds.
How they found out it was us behind the plan, I wasn't sure. I was just glad they kept us together. If they had confined us each to a separate room I would surely have gone insane.
"How are you feeling?" A voice from beside me asked. I sat upright and turned my head to see Blasius sat against one of the brick walls. I shrugged in reply, still feeling groggy from just waking up.
"How are Menas and Silva?" I countered.
"Menas hasn't woken up yet. Silva's awake, just laying down."
I looked over to see Silva open one of her eyes and wave at me. I smiled in return.
I stood up and began walking to the door, but as I got halfway across the small room Blasius reached an arm out and grabbed hold of my wrist.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
I nodded. "Just a bit of a headache."
His eyes look around for something, trying to decide if I'm lying perhaps, but after finding no such sign Blasius let's my arm go and I continue walking across the room. The small window in the door looks out into the hallway where two guards stand on either sides of the door.
I mimic Blasius, sliding down one of the walls beside the door and leaning my head back. The cool surfaces are refreshing, but at the same time remind me of the truck which I was brought here in. The metal of the truck felt miserably similar to the metal floor of our current cell. I slid further down until my back was flat against the ground. I stare up at ceiling, cracked and in poor shape.
Chuckling ironically, I closed my eyes. We were so meticulous and careful with our plans that I hadn't thought about what would happen if we failed. In fact, we probably wouldn't have failed if it had been just us four, but the crowd of others were our downfall. Although Blasius was the one to leave the cell door open I didn't blame him. If I was in his position I would have done the same thing. It would have been iniquitous to escape while so many are left behind. As much as I wanted my freedom, I wasn't that immoral.
"How long have we been here?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. I woke up about an hour ago. There's not much of a way to tell time anyway, considering we can't see outside." Blasius answered, suspiciously close to me.
I opened one eye to see that he had moved across the room next to me.
"Actually, Amice, I was curious about your clairvoyancy," he paused and I waited for him to continue, mouth gaping slightly at his use of a nickname for me. "I've heard of it, but I don't know much about how it works."
"It's made up of three things, which some books I read call them 'precognition,' 'retrocognition,' and 'remote viewing,'" I looked over at him again to see him nodding along, coaxing me to continue, "which are basically the ability to view the future, the past, and being able to perceive beyond-normal events or locations. The last one being what I used when I saw the castle layout."
He continues to watch me, which I take as a sign to elaborate further.
"Most of the time they come on their own and I have no control over that, but sometimes I can see things on my own. It takes up a lot of energy though and I usually end up really tired."
"Wow, Amicia, that's the most I've ever heard you talk!" Silva yells. I instinctively cover my face with my hands as a start to blush. Blasius on the other hand just smiles.
"Well, it would be confusing if I didn't explain in depth," I say, removing my hands from my face.
"I know, just teasing," she winks and hops off the top bunk, sitting down in front of me and Blasius.
Despite how lively and upbeat she usually is, I can see the way her smile falters when she sits down. For only a split second, I can feel the dejection flow between the three of us as we all silently wonder what we are going to do now.
Regardless of the fact that I know my friends are courageous and tenacious, I find it hard to imagine it would be easy to get out of this cramped room which is sealed shut by one sturdy door and multiple guards outside.
Before I can spend too much time wallowing in our failure, a metal clang rings in the room and I see Menas shoot up from the corner of my eye. At the bottom of the door, a small slot about two inches high is opened up and four trays are pushed inside the room one after another. Instantly I notice that the amount of food has been cut by almost half—most likely part of their punishment, making us suffer by underfeeding us.
I decide there is no use in spending too much time analyzing every little detail of how they're trying to make us regret our actions and instead take the trays from beside me and slide them across the room to the others. I make sure to eat slow and savour the amount of food I have.
⇎ ⇎ ⇎
That night when the guards come to knock on our door to tell us it is bedtime, I'm thankful that I'm finally going to sleep. I can feel the tension and foreboding energy between the four of us, even if no one mentions it. The only thing I wanted is to sleep and not have to absorb the negative energy any longer.
I fell asleep near instantly.