Page 118 of Breaking the Dark

“Now type in this code: 6-0-8-6-star.”

Elliot punches in the numbers, his fingers fumbling slightly. “Shit,” he says, as he makes an error. “Say that again.”

Malcolm reads the numbers out to Elliot again and this time the panel beeps, and Elliot turns to Sebastian and says, “Whoa. Look.”

Jessica squints to see what it is they’re both looking at. It’s the spot on the floor where she saw the drilled-out holes, and now there is light shining up through those holes, and a metal rod has appeared, which Elliot grabs hold of and tugs at before calling over his shoulder to Sebastian, “Help me.”

Sebastian rests the flashlight on the floor and grabs hold of the metal rod and Jessica holds in her breath as they both tug and tug and then the concrete surface slowly lifts and bright light floods the entire room. Sebastian and Elliot cover their eyes with their arms and recoil for a moment before peering into the cavity together, their faces uplit and eerie on the monitor.

“Oh my God,” she hears Elliot say.

“What the hell?” she hears Sebastian say.

“What do I do now!” Elliot yells into his phone at Malcolm. “What do I do now!”

Malcolm turns to Arthur. “What do they do now, Cuck Boy? Tell me.”

“Stop calling me that,” says Arthur.

“Well, stop being one,” says Malcolm.

Jessica raises a wry eyebrow at the firm tone of Malcolm’s voice. It’s like he’s grown ten years in the hour that she’s been gone.

“I can’t,” says Arthur. “Polly will…”

“Polly will spend less time in jail if those girls get out of there alive. And so will you. So tell me how to get those girls out of there. Now.”

Jessica raises an eyebrow again. Go Malcolm, she thinks. Go you.

Arthur begins to struggle against his restraints. “No,” he yells. “I can’t. Let me go. For God’s sake. Just let me go. I need to see Polly!”

“Polly Schmolly,” says Luke, shoving Arthur’s shoulders back hard against the wall, making him wince. “You know what happens at the end of Dorian Gray, right? He thinks he can get rid of all the shit by destroying the portrait. But it doesn’t work out like that, does it? Huh? Dude ends up dead and the portrait ends up perfect. Dude takes all his gross shit with him to the grave. And that’s what’s going to happen to you both anyway, so you may as well let those girls go before it gets any worse for you. You hear what I’m saying?”

Arthur nods, rapidly, his eyes wide and watering. “Okay…” he says. “Okay.”

Luke loosens his grips on Arthur’s shoulders and Arthur gulps and says, “There are two wires, a green one, a red one. And there’s a tube. Just disconnect them all.”

Malcolm nods and swivels back on the chair toward the screen. “Did you hear that?” he says to Elliot.

Elliot nods. “A red one, a green one, and a tube. Got it.”

The room falls silent then and they all watch the screen as Elliot gets to work.

Jessica stares at the image on the second monitor, at the two pairs of open staring eyes. They don’t move. They don’t blink. Are they dead? Are they alive? What are they feeling right now? she wonders. And what, she thinks with a sickening sense of dread, will they be like once they’re free?

“Okay,” says Elliot. “I’ve done that. Now what?”

Arthur wriggles in his seat. “See those big black things? Turn them all the way, counterclockwise.”

The room is silent again as Elliot turns and turns, his slight body rigid with the effort, and then he grunts and groans and falls back, something clutched inside his hand, and he leans down very slowly, peers inside the cavity, and says, “Bloody hell. Bloody hell! Sebastian”—he turns to the older man—“help me. Shit. Help me.”

Sebastian finally peels himself away from the wall of the room, where he’s been observing in horror.

“Shit,” they hear him say, as he too peers down into the cavity. “Shit.”

Both men lie flat on their stomachs, their arms in the cavity. They tug and they haul and there, a moment later, is a girl. A moment later a second girl. They lie floppy, prone, wet, like sea creatures being pulled from the ocean floor.

“Are they alive?!” yells Jessica.