From Other Worlds

5 》Working Together

Now, the six of us are in a new cell, and thankfully, we are still all together. Bas paces by the barred door, and he keeps chewing his lip, his frustration at our circumstances evident. He doesn't stop pacing, even when Adhmara demands him to.

"Did you see Dain's face? That bastard was stunned by you, Tallan!" Vilkas exclaims.

Tallan snorts.  "Yeah, but I have a feeling that this won't be the end. He will have us fight something else, something worse. I just know it."

"Was that the beast you fought before, Vilkas?" I ask, and nod toward the bandages wrapped around his shirtless chest. I do my best to not stare at his sculpted muscles, his chest pale and covered in cuts and scars. He is an attractive being. I won't deny that. But I'm still not sure what the fuck he even is, anymore. He isn't human, but his blood was red, not the usual green or turquoise of the Bohir. Or the dark blue most Trihaix have.

Vilkas nods, his long, black hair falling over the bandage on his chest and shoulder. He just chuckles and leans back against the wall, and he hums. "Maybe the thing didn't kill me, but it killed my friend. And .... I hope that thing is burning in hell for what it did."

"Hell?" Bas asks, finally sitting down.

Nodding, Vilkas curls his arms around his legs, as they press to his chest. He sighs.  "I'm just hoping that we don't get to face something like that. Something so .... twisted."

"Yeah, well, hey, maybe we will get out of here soon," says Castien.

"Cas? What the fuck are you talking about? You have some other, new kinda hairbrained plan?" Tallan asks him.

"As a matter of fact, yes, Tallan, I do."

"Oooh, do tell!" exclaims Adhmara.  "This better be good, otherwise we are all dead."

"She has a point," mutters Bas.

Cas chuckles. "Well, I know that, for instance, the guards change shifts at night, in the middle of the night. The best way we can tell, the middle of the night and middle of the day are shown not only by the guards changing, but the lights. So, when it's day, the lights are brighter than night. So I think that if we are to pretend we are asleep during the night, as they do the checkups, we could maybe find a way out then."

"Cas, we need an actual plan," says Adhmara dryly. She shakes her head.  "Maybe if we could all head out at the same time for hygiene hour, we could maybe pickpocket the keys from one of the guards."

"Pick their pockets? How would we do that?" Cas asks. He frowns, shaking his head.  "I don't know if we can do that."

Adhmara scoffs.  "I can do that. I know how to pick pockets, Castien. Don't worry. But —"

"And we can trust you?" Vilkas asks her, snarling.

"Look, wolf boy, I know that you might not trust me, but that's irrelevant now. We are going to get out of here, with or without you. So if you have nothing to add that's helpful for us, shut the fuck up."

"Adhmara," Bas mutters, shaking his head.

"What?" She blinks at him sweetly.

I roll my eyes. "Maybe we can figure this out if we stop fighting with each other!"

"Oh, of course you stick up for wolf boy," snaps Adhmara.

"Adhmara! Knock it off!" Tallan barks from the corner of the room, where they sit.

Adhmara grumbles and leans back, shaking her head, her lips peeled back from her sharp fangs. But the dog girl does not speak.

"Okay," says Cas, rubbing his hands together. He looks at the door, and nods.  "I think we can do this. Alright,  here we go! We just gotta work together for this. Think you can do that?" He glares at Adhmara, who scowls at him.

I sit back, and Bas begins to pace again. Now, we wait. Now, we hope that we can do this. We hope we can handle working together.