Happily Ever After (The Lunar Chronicles story continuation)

Chapter 21: Dungeon

Of course there was a rotting dungeon in this place. How could there not be?
Wolf had been stuck down there with Thorne for the last week, which was a punishment in itself. Let alone the unidentifiable animals and bugs roaming in the pitch-black darkness of the prison.
They had been stuck down there for six days now, only receiving brief visits from mystery guards bringing them food and water twice a day. But it wasn't figures and silhouettes bringing them food and water, it was sounds. The sound of footsteps and of breathing, the clanging armour as they walked and the thump when the bowls of food were put down, ignoring the fact that half the food fell out of the bowl doing that.
There would have been something comical about a dungeon under the underground city, had it not been for the amount of misery that clang to the atmosphere in the moist underground cave.
Wolf's senses had picked up on the growing fungi and rotting faeces within seconds of being put there.
As if it couldn't have gotten any worse, they had been given a bucket to share. A single rotting stinking bucket in which they were supposed use when they needed to relieve themselves. The inside had probably never been cleaned.
Whenever the guards left, there had been no noises save for themselves. That had been the worst thing. Thorne had told him about the executions that had taken place and couldn't help but wonder how long those people had been kept in this hole before that, how many days he and Thorne would be kept alive before they themselves might be executed, how many they had left.
Wolf and Thorne had been chained to the wall. The chains were long enough to just reach most of the bars around them. They could sit and even lie down, but the darkness prevented them from seeing what they were lying on. Maybe it was best that way.
"So, what do you want to do?" Thorne asked.
Wolf scoffed "Are you serious?" Wolf felt like roaring out his response, but he tried to keep calm. "You want to do something fun? Maybe we can have a tea party and then we can all dance around afterwards like one happy family." Wolf wasn't sure if he had ever used such a sarcastic tone.
"Don't deny that it would be nice to have a tea party by now. It would at least smell nicer."
"Just shut up." Wolf snapped.
Thorne chuckled to himself. "You know what I think? I think you can't get over the fact that it was you who got us down here. You can't get over the fact that you made a mistake and I didn't."
Wolf growled. "How the hell is not jumping high enough my fault?"
"I'm just saying, if we are going to be stuck down here, then the least we can do is talk to each other."
Wolf didn't respond.
"How long do you think we'll be stuck down here?" Thorne asked after a long pause.
Wolf didn't want to answer, he didn't want to lie and tell him that he thought they'd get out of there, but he didn't think his true thoughts would help either. "I don't know."
If only he could speak to Scarlet, make sure she was all right, then all of this would have been worth it. If he could just say one last goodbye.
The sound of footsteps grew. "Someone's coming." Wolf warned, not quite sure if Thorne had heard them yet.
Another pair of footsteps, and another. Multiple people were approaching, but the echo of the cave hindered Wolf from hearing exactly how many. No speech, just steps.
The creaking of an iron gate, the same sound they had heard when they had been dragged down here and dumped in this stupid cell.
The footsteps stopped in front of their cell. Wolf sensed a figure standing in front of the bars with two others behind, presumably prison guards or soldiers. Wolf wondered how often someone would have to have been down here for them to navigate around the place without any source of light. It sent chills down Wolf's spine.
"How are my two favourite soldiers doing?" The icy and condescending voice of Mona Park said bitterly.
"We are so enjoying our stay. Cocktails with those tiny umbrellas would be appreciated." Thorne said. Wolf suppressed a laugh. He didn't think the thaumaturge would appreciate the humour.
"Do you think you're funny?"
"Actually..." Thorne didn't get the chance to finish before he stopped, presumably not through fault of his own. His breathing tightened.
"Maybe you thought we wouldn't find out about you? We've been watching your every move since you stepped into this camp. Long-lost people don't just appear, like in the movies. If someone's missing, they're usually dead, and if not, they don't return." Her voice had turned playful and sounded way too light-hearted compared to the situation. "Besides, we have cameras in here, you know?"
Wolf didn't know if she was referring to specific conversations between Thorne and him, or if this was about the comms between Thorne and Cress.
Wolf made out a sound of hands wrapping around the bars of their cell.
"What the hell does the ICA know about us?" Mona Park snapped.
Shit. How could they know about that? Had they really been so obvious?
Neither of them responded, leaving the dungeon to echo only the silence.
The bars shuddered. A noise that could have been caused by either a forceful push or pull. "Listen to me." Mona Park's voice had changed and now contained an inexplicable wrath, bitterness holding every word. "I gave you a taste of this dungeon. Take it as a warning. I expect everything you know about the ICA, everything they have on us. If not, you will stay down in this rotting hole with just enough food and water to just barely survive. Until one day, when you don't even see it coming, soldiers will drag you up to the surface, where you will see the light one last time, before a dagger is plunged into your hearts to finally end your pathetic little lives."
In that moment, Wolf was glad that the  darkness hid Mona Park's face. He could only imagine the furious expression that went with that voice.
"Does that mean you'll have the courtesy to do it yourself, or will you force our hand like usual? Maybe you'll go all in and bomb us like you did with Rieux." Wolf said.
"I don't know what you think we did, but we didn't bomb anything. We are trying to live, to survive. You're the ones who sneak in here and sabotage us."
"You can't seriously make us believe that you don't know either. We have the damn video footage of it. It was shot right outside. The writing on the tents even matches." Thorne snarled, but for no good.
"I am going to make this very clear to you. I don't desire hurting anyone, but I will do anything necessary to survive. We didn't bomb whatever place you think we did, but I can promise you, you two won't make it out of this camp alive without giving us the information we need to survive," she said.
Wolf felt himself tense, but not of his own will. He crawled towards the bars until the iron chain no longer allowed him to move, his arms dragging him over the ground so that he practically felt the blood run from the scratches. He lay on his stomach and unwillingly stretched out his arm, further than he thought physically possible, almost ripping of his arm. Wolf had forgotten the helplessness one felt. He hadn't forgotten how much he hated being controlled, but no memory compared to the despair felt in the moment.
Wolf felt his fingers part, maximising the distance between them.
Mona Park's voice filled the room again. "What I'm about to do now is just to make clear that I don't make empty threats and that I am not afraid to give the final blow myself."
The swing of a blade.
A paralysing pain grew in his left pinky in Wolf's hand and spread along his arm to the rest of his body. Wolf cried out in agony.
"Relax, it's not like you're going to need it when you're dead." Mona Park said.
He felt a hand on his foot coming from Thorne, an attempt to help, but he was too far away to do anything useful.
Wolf felt himself being released from the control and instinctively drew back his arm in a flinch. He held his arm close to himself, only now realising the outer joint of his pinky was missing. Gone. Cut of by a weapon Wolf didn't even get to see in the eternal abyss.
The footsteps moved away from their cell, becoming softer and softer as they distanced themselves from the prisoners. The creaking of the closing gate.
Wolf still lay on the floor. He stopped feeling the pain after a while, but his entire body wouldn't stop shaking.