Within the Walls

Chapter 31

I retract back, letting out a gasp. Shaking my head, I pull my lower lip in between my teeth. "No," I mutter. "He can't be."

Although, of course, he is not lying. He looks so much like his mother, with his lips, jaw, cheeks, nose, and hair. But those deep, thoughtful green eyes, striking like Sneya's.

"Well, he is," he says. "I hate it. I worry people hate me for it, too."

"But you aren't him, Ruben," I say harshly. My heart tears anew. "You are brave and strong and kind."

"Am I, though, Elle?" he snaps, blowing out his cheeks. "Something tells me I'm not that great. And I fear him. Not the way I am used to. Now, I'm scared that he will hurt you."

He has already hurt me, Ruben; I want to say. "Why did you used to be frightened of him?"

Ruben averts his gaze, peering out the window. The moon shifts to the far end of the window frame, its ghost light catching the fragments of glass and casting ominous shapes along the walls. He tilts his head back, eyes meeting mine. "I was frightened of him because he had control over me. He controls every citizen. He has equal control of the Convex and Concave people. They are just controlled in different ways. But he has the most control over me."

"How? You'd think you have the most freedom."

"No. It isn't like that at all," he says.

"Why not?"

Ruben blows out his cheeks, his light eyes sweeping the room. He runs a hand through his dark hair before his gaze comes back to me. "Sneya does awful things," he whispers.

I swallow, my mind reeling, hoping that Ruben will go on without me having to prompt him.

"When I was 16, my father wanted me to become a Tranquillity patrolman. But I did not. I wanted to continue what my mother had started. I wanted a solution for the Drown. But of course, my father hated it. We got into a fight, a terrible one. He got so angry that he grabbed the dagger by his bedside table and threw it." Ruben pushes his hair back by his temple, revealing a small but prominent white scar along his hairline. "He could have killed me then."

"Oh my God," I mutter, yearning for more information.

"He said that if I wanted to go into medical science, Doctor Hatchman must be my teacher. There was only one way to pay for it."

"And what was that?" I dare to ask.

Ruben's chest rises as he draws in a large breath. He exhales. "He locked me in a small closet in the dungeons," he says. "Sneya starved me. Keeps me in the dark, room for years. Sometimes only for a couple of hours, or a couple of days. Whenever I tried to fight it, he threatened to hurt people I loved and cared for. Most of the time, they were friends from my school. And so, I did let him lock me up. Then I began as Hatchman's assistant. Sneya is a new brand of evil."

For once, silence renders me. Words die on my tongue as my stomach curdles, imagining unwanted hands touching Ruben's body. But he knows, he understands, and so we sit for several moments, adrift in our own thoughts.

"But now, Sneya threatens to hurt you, Elle," Ruben says.

I draw in a deep, wavering breath. "But he has, Ruben. He banished my parents, murdered my sister, and enslaved Aston."

Ruben's shoulders slump forward. "I know. Perhaps Aston is still alive because he knows he is running out of ways to hurt you."

"But Aston is in the cavern because of me, Ruben. He is not in the cavern because of you," I say.

"I suppose that's true. But that is because of his threats. It's why I keep doing it."

My heart cracks, and I bite hard on the inside of my cheek, tasting blood. "Oh, Ruben."