"So what do you think?" Silva was the first one to speak.
I shook my head, "I don't know exactly, but it seemed like a good sign."
Rose hadn't told me much about whether going through the hole would be a successful escape, but there was something distinctly positive about our visit that made me feel optimistic. I combed through our meeting for signs that would point towards us being able to leave. My first clue was her calling the hole a tunnel, although she hadn't told me where it led to. For all I knew, it could lead somewhere in the castle and leave us in an even worse scenario than being trapped here. If they caught us a second time, surely the guards wouldn't go easy on us. There was something she said that stuck out to me, though. 'There are things you need to do,' Rose had said. It almost seemed like she was telling me to go ahead with the idea.
But in the end, she had never given me a yes or no. In fact, we hadn't really talked about escaping at all. I had been too distracted by the peculiar feeling she sparked in me to ask her what I needed to know.
"Well if we're doing it, we need to do it now. We never know when the guards will come to take us," Blasius spoke, tearing me from my thoughts. The rest of us nodded along.
Just as we had done the night before, Blasius lifted me up onto his shoulders and I hoisted myself up into the ceiling when I determined it was steady enough. Behind me came Silva, Menas, then finally Blasius.
Before beginning our journey through the so-called tunnel, I made sure everybody was ready. When I got responses from the three of them, I used my arms to feel my way around. I shivered as cobwebs and dust ghosted along my skin multiple times. Without any way to see what's in front of me, it's difficult to know what I'm heading towards, but the tunnel narrows quickly from a small room to a hallway-sized pathway. It's short too. I'm crawling through on my hands and knees, unable to even sit upright without hitting my head.
I felt like I had been crawling for hours, and the silence wasn't helping. Everyone was probably too nervous to talk, not knowing if this would work or not. Although I had told them I thought maybe this could be a successful escape, I wasn't exactly sure.
⇎ ⇎ ⇎
After what had probably been at least one hour, I felt forward only for my hand to come in contact with the feeling of the something cold and damp. Stone, presumably.
"Guys, we need to stop," I said before Silva could bump into me. Sitting back on my knees, I began to feel around the area. Ahead of me there was nothing but the hard surface so I moved around, feeling the sides of the pathway trying to figure out if there was a turn that I wasn't aware of. With my hands coming in contact with nothing but the same dirty, dusty wall, I started panicked. My breathing hitched, my heart started racing, and despite the dampness my palms became sweaty.
Before I could comprehend the situation, anxiety kicked in and I didn't know what to do. I thought this was what we were supposed to do. Guilt set in next. The thought of having to turn around and go back to the cell, potentially running into guards back there waiting for us, made my head spin. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stop the contents of my stomach from coming up.
"Amicia?" It was Blasius, but I couldn't answer.
I placed my hands on my thighs, gripping them tightly, no doubt leaving marks. It was difficult trying to calm myself down knowing that I put me and all of my friends in danger.
As I sat there, I realized something. While I was crawling through earlier, the ceiling was low—almost hitting my head even on my hands and knees. Considering how I was sitting now, I should've hit my head.
But I didn't.
With one last ray of hope, I felt around for the ceiling but there was nothing there. I stand on my knees and look around when I see a beacon of light. It was far away, but it was there. From the small amount of light, I could tell there seemed to be a second level of the shaft we were crawling in.
I stood up from my knees and crawled into the second floor before directing Silva to do the same. Finally, I could see my friend's faces. I smiled at them all once they had all joined me on the second level, which they mirrored, and we continued on the path. It was much easier now than it had been before considering we could see forward finally.
It took about 30 minutes to travel from the twist to the light. When we got there, I looked up to see the tops of trees. I almost cried as I climbed up and out of the opening. Once Silva, Menas, and Blasius followed, we all stood there in shock, surveying the area.
Just to our left was a large stone wall, about three times the height of myself—the castle's fencing. To the other three sides, there is nothing but a picturesque forest. Ironically, I shiver as I notice the sun shining down onto my milky white skin. It had been so long since I last experienced the warmth of the sun and it was such a refreshing feeling that it aroused goosebumps on my arms. Even the smell of the grass and pine trees felt new and nostalgic all at the same time. Being trapped in the caste for the months that we had, I hadn't noticed all of the small, mundane things that I had forgotten and missed about life. Everything was coming back all at once.
When I turned around, all too suddenly Blasius had took hold of my shoulder and reached forward, letting his lips fall onto mine. For a second, I froze up, but regained my composure in record time and began to kiss him back.
Although I had nothing to compare it to, I just knew it was good. Despite not ever having kissed a boy before, my lips just seemed to know what they were doing. The kiss was soft and gentle, just like his lips. The feeling of them on mine made me feel giddy like a child who found out they were getting a puppy. I couldn't help myself as one of my arms wrapped itself around the back of his neck, pulling my body closer to his and all but melting into his chest. Greed was getting the best of me and all other thoughts were wiped from my brain.
The only thing on my mind was him and how much I had craved his lips on mine since the first day I met him, even if I had denied our connection time and time again.
He pulled away all too soon with a goofy grin on his face. Subconsciously, I grasped his hand on my shoulder with my own and held it, mimicking the smile on his face as we stood there looking at each other.