Slugterra: The New Shane

Chapter 29: Opposites

Alana's POV

I felt angry, shocked, disbelieving, and fearful as I tugged at my gloves nervously.

"H-how... why..." I stammered, finding myself unable to comprehend what in Slugterra to say. Surely Dana was just lying? To kill my confidence? And yet, it seemed like she was telling the truth. When people lied, their body had natural reactions to it. Then again, of all people, it would be Dana Blakk who would be a spectacular liar.

"My father and some workers pressed them back far enough. The two choices were surrender, or the Great Abyss. The Shane led the others in your gang over to the edge and they jumped. It was suicide- even if they lived through the fall, they won't survive down there," Dana said, sounding pleased. "So, I wouldn't be expecting a heroic rescue attempt. You're the last member of the Shane Gang, and with all this dark energy, there's no chance you'll be leaving any time soon."

I turned around, unable to face Dana. Then, I screwed my eyes shut and focused as hard as I could. If I tried, I could locate Burpy's energy. Every slug's energy signature was different. Since there were only two Infurnus slugs, Burpy would be easy to track. Unfortunately, I was in a fortress of dark energy.

I slowed my breathing down and focused on Burpy's energy. The ghoul energy here made it almost seem like I was looking through fog for one pinpoint of light. I focused on the hideout. Nothing. Then I focused on the Great Abyss area. There, I felt the smallest flicker of Burpy's energy. Down in the pit. I couldn't tell where exactly, and whether or not Burpy and the others were alive.

But Dana hadn't been lying.

I turned back so I was facing Danaand walked back to the cell bars, but my eyes were glued to the ground. Then, all at once, I felt a crazy amount of anger rising, burning like fire. After all that I had been going through the past few days, I couldn't take any mote of these crazy emotions of loss. I had to let out some of this anger and sadness. I narrowed my eyes and suddenly looked upwards and slammed my fist into one of the glowing red bars.

Despite my aching muscles from the attack at the inn, I felt wide awake. My emotions stimulated me, and despite my terrible headache, I was feeling energetic, considering all this ghoul energy surround me. I stuck my hand through the bars and grabbed the collar of Dana's gray jacket. I pulled her back forcefully, almost slamming her into the glowing bars.

"You and your father... You're both impossible!" I fumed. Dana's eyes were wide. "We're the good guys, we're trying to help. We're doing what's right. And the second I can, I'm getting out of this place, and with or without my friends, I am taking you down," I yelled heatedly. Dana tore away from my grasp, looking shocked at my little outburst.

"I wouldn't be so confident, Alana. I'm preparing something big, and once it's finished, you won't be a threat any more," Dana said icily. Her eyes flashed dark red as her own emotions spiked. With that, she whipped around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Wiping away tears of both sadness and anger from my eyes, I walked back and sat on the bed, with no clue what to do with myself.

~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day, I was left alone. The door to my prison never opened, and I was thankful for that. I didn't feel in the mood to deal with any of the moronic Blakk Industries workers, especially not Twist or Dana. There were probably cameras in the room, but the aspect of letting them see how upset I was face-to-face was unbearable.

I found myself pacing the room like crazy, going back and forth. I was too jittery and anxious to sit still, but too sore and tired to actually make use of my time here by thinking of an escape plan. In my little prison, it seemed the rules of time didn't apply. There was a small wall clock next to the door, and I could usually make out at least the hour. Sometimes I would look up after a while and find that an entire hour had passed. Sometimes mere minutes ticked away.