Chapter the Twenty-First

Baeddan was huddled in a filthy corner. He hugged his knees close to his chest and leaned his chin onto them, so as not to get too filthy. “Not that it’s much use,” thought Baeddan bitterly.
He tried not to breathe in through his nose, nor look behind him. The smell of blood and decay radiated in his cellar. Baeddan let go of his knees with one hand and wiped a bit of sweat off his brow. It was desperately hot without windows. There weren’t even bars, just a solid wall, unless you counted the little bars around the top. However, there was a long crack in the wall to which Baeddan was able to tell what the general time of day it was.
“I only have to wait a bit longer,” he muttered, staring at the crack on the bland, steely gray concrete in front of him. A small bit of hope was rushing through his body. Maybe he could…….Just maybe he could…….
Baeddan was trying not to get his hopes up too high for his escape plan, but he just had to wait until it began to dim outside.
He focused on the crack, not blinking until his eyes began to blur. The crack was becoming a dark orange, and a tingle shot down to Baeddan’s toes.
“Almost time……” he thought excitedly. He waiting unblinkingly for a good long fourteen or fifteen minutes before he realized that he was actually not even looking at the crack, he was just thinking about if it was true, if he could escape……
Baeddan blinked, and saw that the crack had darkened. He grinned for the first time in a long while and bolted upright.
He ran to the other side of his cellar, grimacing with disgust as he leapt over decaying skeletons. He grabbed the iron bars around the top of the cellar, and with a groan, he hoisted himself up.
“Zerrek, you ready?” he hissed, looking down upon a small, scrawny black haired boy. Zerrek grinned, standing up.
“Have been for a long time,” he said in a hoarse whisper.
Baeddan smiled grimly back, trying not to keep his hopes up too high. Zerrek’s cellar had a window. He just had to climb through it, and the next cellar had bars for a door. Zerrek was skinny enough to slip through it easily, and the keys were hanging by the entrance to the prison.
The only problem with their plan was that Zerrek was incredibly short. The window was near the top of the cellar, so that people normally sized couldn’t reach it. Baeddan had sort of sorted this out, but he had to give Zerrek instructions along the way anyway.
“Okay, so, grab that skeleton…” instructed Baeddan, taking one finger quickly off of the bar so that he could point to a skeleton in the corner. Zerrek looked disgusted.
“That’s nasty, no way,” said Zerrek defiantly, folding his arms and gazing at the skeleton in disgust.
“Oh, so you want to wind up like him?” snarled Baeddan, again pointing at the skeleton.
Zerrek’s already pale face went paper white, and he shook his head.
“Then go get it,” said Baeddan slowly, trying to contain his temper. He had noticed that he had gotten considerably touchier since he had arrived here at the Zerhze Prison. Perhaps it was because he didn’t know why he was there.
Zerrek shuddered and made his way reproachfully to the skeleton.
“Hurry up, hurry up!” thought Baeddan impatiently, occasionally daring a glance at the crack, only to see it getting darker.
Zerrek finally managed to prop the skeleton against the wall. He turned to Baeddan, his face considerably greener.
“Climb onto it and climb through the window. Once you’re in the next cellar, I think it’s empty,” he added hastily, “slip between the bars. The keys are by the entrance, which shouldn’t be far if you run. Grab them and get quickly back here. Then we make a break for it.”
“Okay,” said Zerrek, nodding sincerely. Appearing revolted, Zerrek climbed onto the skeleton’s shoulders. Baeddan heard a sickening cracking sound, but Zerrek managed to leap through the window before the skeleton fell apart. Baeddan heard a thud on the other side of the window.
“Are you alright?” Baeddan called nervously.
“Are you joking, that was great!” cried Zerrek excitedly.
Baeddan laughed quietly. “Shhh, we can’t be too loud,” he said.
He didn’t hear anything else from Zerrek, but he heard his footsteps on the other side of the cellars, in the hall.
His arms growing tired, Baeddan put his legs against the wall and propelled himself back in an attempt to miss landing in the skeletons. He landed with a painful thud on the hard floor. Groaning and rubbing his back, Baeddan got back up and walked up to the door.
Baeddan heard a jingling of keys and the door flew open. Zerrek grinned in front of him. “Come on, I think I heard them coming,” he told Baeddan. Baeddan nodded, grinning gratefully. The pair rushed down the hall, and to Baeddan’s horror, a flying, leathery, gruesome looking creature floated at the end.
“Trying to escape?” the Zerhze asked. Its voice was blood-curdling, like listening to a knife running against a chalkboard.
Neither Baeddan nor Zerrek had an answer.
The Zerhze gazed at them expectantly, a hideous smile (if you could even call it that) slowly creeping along its round face.
“A yes, then?” it hissed.
“I-i-i-it was a-all h-h-his idea!” Zerrek said, poking Baeddan in the shoulder.
“WHAT?! LIAR! You had as much to do it as I did and you know it!” roared Baeddan, whirling on Zerrek, who was now cowering fearfully.
Zerrek, round eyed, replied in a whisper. “B-Baeddan, b-be reasonable----I-I-I d-don’t wanna d-d-die---” Zerrek was cut off. A jet of bright red light was shot, and it hit Zerrek right in the side. Baeddan watched in horror as Zerrek’s lifeless form crumpled and hit the stony ground.
Horrified, Baeddan knelt next to Zerrek’s body and shook him vigorously. He was stiff as a board. Baeddan felt for a pulse. There was none. He was dead.
Baeddan leapt to his feet and bore down upon the Zerhze furiously.
“What. Was. That. For,” said Baeddan, stating it rather than asking. His voice trembled with anger.
The Zerhze grew two times Baeddan in height and glared down at him. “We have no use for him any longer. We have our reasons for keeping you…..” it replied, sounding disgusted. “But surely there will be punishment for you,” it added gleefully.
Baeddan felt as if all the blood had been drained out of him. “W-w-w-what do you mean?” he asked more timidly than he had meant to.
The Zerhze cackled and grasped Baeddan around his wrist. Baeddan yelled and tried to pull away from its viselike grip, but he couldn’t. The Zerhze dragged him outside.
To his utmost horror, Baeddan saw Zerhze everywhere in the yard, only able to see them in the dark because of those evil, terrifying red eyes.
The Zerhze found another and they started chatting in a bizarre tongue. The new Zerhze, who seemed to be called Guepplem, glanced maliciously at Baeddan.
Baeddan turned quickly away from him, afraid of what was to come.
“Dokken!.....” shouted Guepplem, now beginning to speak that strange tongue again. Soon, a whole group surrounded Baeddan.
One of them brought out a bowl. Baeddan’s heart quickened. Surely it did something awful, right?
All the Zerhze grinned horribly as the bowl was brought up and held at eye level to Baeddan. His breathing and pulse quickened at alarming speed. “Don’t faint, don’t faint,” he thought to himself.
Then the bowl filled with an awful, bright green flame. Baeddan felt himself screaming. He held his hands tightly over his eyes as he dropped painfully down onto his knees. His eyes felt like someone had just pulled them out and popped them back in a hundred times. He didn’t dare take his hands off of his eyes, they hurt too badly. He felt tears running down his cheeks. “Kill me now! Kill me now!” he thought through his agony. It was too much. Too much pain. He faintly heard the evil cackles, slowly fading into the background. The pain in his eyes intensified for a moment, making him shout again, then it slowly –and as Baeddan says now, regretfully- it began to ebb away. He dared take his hands off his eyes. He heard all of the Zerhze around him, laughing as he got to his feet. He blinked, to make sure his eyes were open. They were, but he couldn’t see anything.
It was black, an utter, dull black.