City of the Fallen - unedited

Chapter Forty-Eight

I hardly recognize him. He looks ten years older, the same age as me. My younger brother is the same age as me.

"Why are you down here?" He asks softly. He looks weak and thin, his face is pale and clothes covered in dirt. His eyes aren't as bright as I remember, they're darker and full of wisdom, his jawline more defined, his face slimmer. It doesn't look like Nick, but I know it is, there is no way it isn't.

"For you." I smile. "I figured out you died but you weren't in the Afterworld."

His head falls forward against the metal cell. "Why would you do that? Why would you go through all that just to get stuck in a cell forever? You're stupid to come here alone."

"I came here with somebody." I counter, concerned that he isn't as happy as I expected him to be.

"Who? Where?" He looks around. "I know every single person here and I don't see anyone new."

I sigh.

"Don't tell me you got separated." Nick raises an eyebrow.

"We did get separated. But he's a voyager and he's been in and out of here several times before. We are going to get you out." I assure him.

His eyes widen. "A voyager? What's that?"

"Somebody who's trained to come down here. He knows what he's doing."

Nick looks away as if I have offended him. "Please don't."

"Don't what?" I question.

"Don't give me hope. I've heard what the Afterworld is like and I don't want to get even an ounce of hope of going there. I've accepted staying in a prison forever. I don't want to be disappointed."

"You haven't tried to escape? Has anyone tried to escape?" I ask him, then looked around the room at all of the angels that are trapped here. I wish I could take all of them with me.

"Of course we've tried to escape. I've gotten close once, but they caught me. I know how to get out, there's a secret tunnel somewhere down here." Nick scratches his head. "But they're too powerful. There's no way you or me are getting out of here."

I'm taken back at his negativity. He was never a negative person when he was alive, he always seemed so happy. "Nick..." He looks up at me with sad eyes. "How did you die?"

He looks away, closing his eyes. I almost tear up after witnessing how sad he looks. "Sickness."

I shake my head. "You're lying. You died a week after me, Nick, that's not possible. How did you die?"

There is a long pause, silence takes over the room. Everyone is listening to our conversation, and the silence tells me that everyone in the room knows. "I killed myself."

It feels like somebody had taken my heart right out of my body. I lift my eyebrows and let the tears burn my eyes.

I hate the idea that my death caused so much trauma around me. I want to yell at him because now my parents are without both of their children. I want to scream at him, but I don't know why. He wasted all of his potential, he gave up. I can't imagine what my parents are going through.