Page 6 of Sins and Virtue

I hope I don’t regret this.

“Fuck, alright, let’s go.” I turned him around and shoved him forward. He stumbled a few steps before regaining his stride, leading me past the empty cells, then the spiral staircase, and straight into the library.

Closing the door behind us, we stepped inside cautiously, treading lightly against the floor as if it would burn me alive; however, the place seemed opposite to the chaos outside— unguarded, quiet, filled with cases of books, and dark with onlythe moonlight and lighting providing some sense of direction. That’s why anytime I wasn’t in my cell, I spent hours in here. Reading the books, I had almost read each one. Passing the columns of shelves and the unoccupied desk, we went to the very end of the room as he stopped in front of a sign that said “storage.”

If this motherfucker—

If memory serves me right, no one has ever opened this door, so that meant two things: there was nothing worth sharing, or they were hiding it specially so no one could find it.

I held the lever of the gun tighter as it clicked into place and prodded it against his shoulder, warning him. “Open it.”

“Alright, relax, man.” Tomaso replied, slowly lowering his hand on the knob. The diminishing seconds were agonizing as it felt like my chance for freedom was running out.

The guards came storming onto the third floor, yelling and attacking. The blurred motion of flashlights made my pulse spike and sweat break against my skin as they fought with certain inmates to get them back to their cells.

The ticking on the clock echoed louder.

The sensation of pending doom only grew.

One of the officers yelled, “Lemme look at the library to see if anyone is hiding!”

Shit.

“Come on.” I uttered as he twisted the knob.

The officer’s footsteps approached the doorway as Tomaso opened the door, which revealed a long, dark stairway to God knows where. But I didn’t have time to debate that as I tossed him forward and went right after him, making sure to close the door behind us. Just like that, we were submerged in darkness with no path in sight.

My eyes strained to find a source of light.

Nothing but hazy shapes and the outline of the fellow prisoner struck out to me as I reached out my hand and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pushing him to his feet, and commanding him, “Keep walking.”

He hissed as he limped, the fall seeming to hit his old ragged bones. “Yeah, alright, give me a second.” Tomaso, or whatever the fuck his name was, continued forward. Thankfully, the tunnel was a smooth downslope, or else we would have both been rendered unconscious with one wrong step.

“You see, I wasn’t wrong, man.”

“Shut. Up.” I gravely answered, wiping the sweat from my brows.

We weren’t in the clear yet. Not until I was out of this prison, out of this town, and out of this fucking country.

The air soon became moist and thick. There were no windows or surfaces to allow air to flow, making it hard to breathe, and the only thing that distracted me from the ragged breaths and dragging footsteps was the incessant swinging of the rosary.

Just another reminder of burying past sins to buy more time. Just a bit more so I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and leave it all behind.

All this spiraling awoke the maniac from his nap.

Well, well, well, isn’t this a lovely sight.

Now is not the time, Dya.

Really, since it seems we’re digging our grave, why not talk about our fondest memories?

Stop being a pain in my ass.

Oh, excuse me if I prefer self-preservation and not blindly trusting strangers. I mean, have you ever heard of “stranger danger”?

If it weren't for you, our ass would still be in the cell because of your trust issues.

At least we would be safe, fucker.