Shades of Gray

17. Whispers in the Darkness

Carmen totally ruined the dramatic moment. "How does facing my darkest fears have anything to do with dying?" she questioned the faculty, unimpressed. "I thought death was pretty straightforward. What's all this fear stuff about?"

Graham fought to keep a smile off his face. That was the Carmen he knew, able to hold her own even in the worst of situations.

Countess Cleo leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on the faculty table. "My darling, did you really think we would be satisfied just by killing you?" She laughed. "How dull! No, you must suffer as you have made us suffer."

She snapped her fingers, and the room suddenly went pitch black. When the lights turned back on a few moments later, the faculty members were gone. He looked beside him to see Carmen's reaction, but she was gone too.

"Don't think we forgot about you, Graham Calloway," Professor Maelstrom's voice crackled over the intercom. "You too must pay for betraying us."

Before Graham had a chance to react, the floor dropped from underneath the chair he was sitting, and he plummeted into darkness.

----------------------------

Carmen found herself in a dark room. She strained to see in the gloom, but all she was met with was black. Voices drifted faintly out from the darkness. There were distant screams of people in pain, the crackle of a fire, sobs of despair, and, worst of all, desperate cries for help.

Carmen forced herself to remain calm. "It isn't real, it isn't real." she told herself firmly, taking deep breaths.

"It isn't real?" came a snarl right beside her. She whipped around to see a little girl clothed in a pile of rags standing to her left. "Do I not feel real to you?"

The girl jerked her hand up, slicing her sharp nails down Carmen's arm. It stung like fire.

"This is your fault," the girl insisted, her blue eyes glaring into Carmen's. They were dark and full of hate. "You didn't help us. You left us here to die on our own. You're the reason my entire family didn't survive!"

"I- I don't even know you!" Carmen shot back in horror, trying to push down a strange feeling of guilt welling up inside her. She knew it couldn't possibly be her fault, but... what if it was, somehow?

The voices grew louder. Now, she could make out fragments of sentences, not just sounds. The ragged girl disappeared into the darkness.

"....Daddy? Where are you?!"

"NO! Don't leave me, PLEASE!"

"Help! SOMEBODY, help!"

Even worse, she started hearing voices she recognized.

"Carm?!" Zack's voice came from the distance. He sounded weak and afraid. "Where did you go?"

"She left us behind," Ivy said bitterly. Carmen could hear the fury in her voice. "Forget about her, Zack. She never cared about us after all. We're better off without her."

"I guess we were never meant to be a family again after all," Carmen heard her mother's tearful voice say. "Maybe I should stop hoping."

"No!" Carmen yelled into the gloom. "I love all of you! Please-" her voice broke, and tears sprang to her eyes.

In the back of her mind, she knew these voices weren't real. Even still, she found herself panicking, losing control, forgetting that this was all just a V.I.L.E. trick. If there was one thing she couldn't bear, it was others suffering, especially people she knew and cared about.

"She is a disappointment," came Shadowsan's cold voice. "She failed us."

"Carmen Sandiego isn't who she says she is," Julia's voice snarled. "She is a villain like all the rest of V.I.L.E., and we must hunt her down."

"It's like Carmen doesn't need me anymore." Player's voice said, frustrated and sad. "Fine. I'll find new friends. I don't need her, either."

Carmen was about to open her mouth to respond, but a cry of pain stopped her in her tracks, making her blood turn to ice.

"CARMEN! Help me, please!" Gray's voice choked out.

She saw a hazy figure in the distance, sprawled out on the floor. It was Gray. He was bruised and battered, too weak to move. A dark shadow loomed over him, in its hands the unmistakable silhouette of a knife. Carmen let out a strangled gasp of horror, and sprinted as fast as she possibly could towards him.

But she was too late. Gray's cries of pain were abruptly cut off as the shadow slammed the knife down. Carmen tripped and fell, landing hard on the ground. It might have hurt if she wasn't so consumed by grief. Sobs wracked her body, and she began to feel dizzy. The last thought she had before losing consciousness was that she didn't see the point of trying to stay alive if everyone she loved had been torn away from her.

----------------------------

Graham gazed down at the unconscious form of Carmen lying on the cot of the dark prison cell. How long had she been asleep? Graham had been thrown in here after V.I.L.E. was done with him for the time being, and a while afterwards the Cleaners had deposited Carmen in the cell as well. Graham had carefully lifted her into the cot, hoping it would be a bit more comfortable than the floor.

He wondered what V.I.L.E. had done to her, and worry gnawed at his insides. She didn't seem to be physically hurt, but mental torture was sometimes even more dangerous.

Carmen was curled into a tight ball, her knees hugged to her chest. Her whole body was tense, her face scrunched up in distress, and tear stains ran down her cheeks. There was a strange metal collar clasped around her neck that had to have been one of Dr. Bellum's inventions. Every so often she let out small noises of anguish, curling into an even tighter ball, like she was doing now.

When she cried out, Graham instantly moved her side, squeezing her arm comfortingly until she settled back into sleep. But this time, she only grew more agitated, and suddenly her eyes flew open.

"NO!" she shrieked, sitting up with a start.