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Dex

“ D uck!” I called out to Odessa, grabbing her about the waist and pulling her down just in time. Our bodies rolled as the fire raged only a yard above us. It was so close it felt like it could burn my eyebrows off.

When the bears had been coming straight for us, I realized that my power to control bones was of no use.

I had the power to control human bones, but seeing as the bears were clearly animal, I failed to stop them.

Odessa, however had tapped into that dark power and wielded her shadows like a goddess incarnate.

But the Pyro? He was all human and with one wave of my hand, I had his form within my grasp. He stalled becoming my puppet in an instant, and the flames receded.

“What are you doing?” Odessa asked.

“Stopping him from burning us alive!” I said, sweat gathering on my brow as I began to break his bones. I started with his femurs, making him kneel on the ground in agony.

I’d lost track of time down here. There was no way to know for sure how long we’d been trapped, fighting for our lives. Days? Weeks? It was unclear. But I was fucking done having this asshole show up with his fire and try to murder us.

“It’s good that you’re afraid of me, Odessa,” I said with a sneer as she watched me snap bone by bone. “I can be fucking deadly when I want to be.”

“Stop!” He cried out. “Please, I was just following orders!”

Odessa looked at me and then him.

“Following whose orders?” She asked.

“The woman. In- my- head,” he breathed out sounding labored. I cracked one of his ribs and he screamed.

Odessa’s eyes went wide at his words, but I’d heard enough. Anyone who justifies hurting other by following orders isn’t someone I wanted to extend my mercy to.

The last bone I broke was the one that held his head in place. I twisted it right off, and he hung in a heap of his own skin, lifeless and smelling of ash.

“What did you do that for? I wasn’t done asking him questions!” Odessa stomped off, down the wide opening.

“Well, I was.” I went after her, even though I said I wouldn’t.

She could call me a liar all she wanted to and call my bluff, I didn’t care.

Waking up knowing she had left, just like I’d been left before gutted something in me.

She had a hold on me that I couldn’t push away no matter how angry she’d made me.

“You could at least give me my pack back.”

“No,” she said, not bothering to look at me. “I thought you weren’t going to follow me.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Lies, again,” she said narrowing her eyes at me. “That’s all you have right? Lies and walls for me to climb to even get to know you? When are you going to tell me anything real about yourself, Dex?”

I stared at her and opened my mouth, only to close it again.

“That’s what I thought.”

She continued on, her anger at me palpable. I wasn’t so thrilled with her either, but we were both going to the same place. The end of this fucking maze. Might as well follow the person who has the food.

“What do you want to know?” I asked after a few moments had passed.

She sighed, “Anything real.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“My favorite color is green. Like a forest.”

“A forest? You’ve actually seen a forest?”

Shit.

“Yeah, before I came to the city.”

“How did you get access to the city?”

And there it was. The question I knew would inevitably pop up, and the one I had adamantly avoided.

While my accent usually gave me away, I dodged it by telling them a version of the truth— that I’d been allowed to come here due to my family.

Usually that was enough of an answer to satiate people’s curiosity.

But I knew Odessa would want to know more.

She deserved to know more, but I couldn’t give her that.

Not yet. Not until we were at the finish line and out of here safely.

Only then could I feel comfortable revealing my most inner secrets.

“It’s a long story,” I said hoping that would buy me some time.

“Yeah, well it looks like we have some time,” she quipped.

“I don’t talk about this, Odessa. It’s private for a reason, and I’d hate to put you in a dangerous position.”

“More dangerous than the one we’re in right now?”

I was silent. If she knew the truth, it would put her in a world of trouble. And while I was angry as hell at her for walking away from me, I couldn’t do that to her. The burden was mine and mine alone to carry.

“Let’s just say, you’re better off not knowing.”

“Fine. So, your favorite color is green. Anything else?”

“I like to sing,”

That caught her by surprise. She glanced over at me with a tilt to her head that I’d come to know as her interest being piqued.

“Like what?”

“Like songs.”

She gave me a heavy sigh. “Fucking hell, getting you to open up is harder than opening a pickle jar.”

“Yeah, well, opening up in the past hasn’t served me all that well. Especially when I entrust pieces of myself to someone who’s just going to up and leave.” Maybe that was cruel, but it was the truth.

She gaped at me but then schooled her features back into neutral. Like she didn’t care at all. She might like calling me a liar, but she was one too. And she was lying to herself.

“Yeah, okay, Dex. I left. I walked away because you scare me on so many levels that I don’t know what to do with.

But I’m not like you. Everything I feel?

Everything I am, is so close to the surface.

My emotions and my thoughts spill out of me easily.

I don’t know how to stuff all that I am into a little box like you do. ”

“Well, then you’re lucky that you’ve never experienced the type of pain that makes you want to hide who you are from the world. To know that as much as you might want to trust someone, your track record shows that you’d be a fool to try again.”

“You’re right. I haven’t experienced that. But I also know that without trust, you can’t have a relationship. And this fucked up place breeds distrust. How am I supposed to trust that you won’t turn on me the second we get close to the finish line?”

“I guess you can’t. If my actions haven’t convinced you otherwise, I don’t know what else to tell you,” I said feeling every bit as bitter as the words I spat out.

As we walked, the tunnel became narrower. I had to duck down just to keep from hitting the ceiling.

The tunnel curved and opened up into a large expanse.

There was a narrow bridge made of rock that had several chunks missing from it.

A sheer drop awaited us on either side. To go forward, we would have to jump and hope we cleared with enough space to make it to the next piece.

On the opposite end there was a tunnel that was glowing with a warm amber light.

A part of me hoped that maybe, just fucking maybe, that tunnel led to the end, and we could be out of here.

“Shit,” Odessa said, looking out across the area.

“We can do this. We’ve come this far.”

“Right,” she said her voice shook as she looked down into the black cavernous space below. Her toe skirting the edge in trepidation.

“We’ll have to take it at a run,” I said, eyeing the largest gap that sat between us and the other side as I backed up.

She shook her head from side to side, swallowing hard.

“Odessa, look at me.” Her eyes were fixed downwards. “Odessa,” I said again, with more force. “We make it across this, and we could get out of here. Back to your family.”

That got her attention. She looked at me then, with a resigned determination in her eyes, and hard set to her jaw.

The parts of her face that weren’t obscured by her golden mask, were covered in smudges of grime.

She still had a faint mark on her cheek from the vines that had sliced into her skin. It would most likely leave a scar.

“Together?” She asked, coming over to where I stood.

I took her hand in mine. She might not trust me. She might have stomped all over my heart when she left like she did, but I’d still do what I could to get us to the end.

“Together,” I agreed.

We took off at a sprint. There was just enough room for her and I to fit without falling off the edges. Our boots slapped against the rock, making the ground shake beneath us.

Please hold, I begged the bridge, hoping we would make it across in one piece.

The edge was in sight. My lungs burned as we raced towards it.

“Don’t stop, and don’t let go of my hand!” I called out, tightening my grip around Odessa’s hand as we leapt into the air, hoping we’d make it.