OKAY HERE I PUBLISHED IT LIKE A WEEK LATER THAN I PLANNED I'M SORRY BUT HERE
AND ITS SUPER SHORT AS WELL APOLOGIES

Also Nowad's holographic text is pure for me to write in text format and not care about grammar thats the only reason its there /hj

Cade hated waiting. Especially in a tiny, claustrophobic cell with a stinky toilet, and nothing to do.

Though Leo was there, he found the boy strangely quiet, as if deep in thought. Cade wasn't sure if he should interrupt him, so he just stood there idly, quietly dying while trying to gaze up and down the corridor, looking for something interesting to stare at.

He didn't know when tomorrow was, his sense of time getting more and more messed up the longer he stayed underground. He had already been given two meals already (though, calling them meals would be an overstatement) and had another nervous conversation with Nowad while Leo was on his break after the first one. It wasn't very interesting, however, mostly consisting of every possible way that this could go wrong, with Cade denying anything involving Leo betraying them.

He didn't want to think about that possibility. He didn't want to think of such a depressing thought.

He just hoped he wouldn't regret it later.

Miraculously, within the short span of—a few days? Hours?—he already felt a connection with him, like they were old friends. It wasn't exactly surprising. He'd always been prone to being friendly to others and making acquaintances, though maybe not at this pace. However, Nowad seemed to think this extremely alarming. It made its feelings very clear a few minutes after Leo left on his break again.

Don't you think you're being a little naive?? Or gullible? What's the best word for an oblivious idiot like you?

Cade frowned. "I am not—"

Shh, let me speak, Nowad interrupted. I mean, Cade, I just think you're trusting him too easily! If you do this to any stranger you meet... I don't even know! How are you still alive??

"Nowad, I'm not being too trusting," Cade insisted. "And what do you mean how am I still alive? I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I used to do fencing and archery, you know."

It's not like you have a sword or a bow and arrow to use now! Also, who even uses swords and bows anymore? It's the 21st century. Doesn't everyone know not to bring a knife to a gunfight?

"You're getting off topic."

It whirred defensively. YOU are getting off topic!

Cade shook his head, and looked Nowad directly in the eye. "Look, Nowad, you don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine! You saw me take down that centaur! I can take care of myself! I'm more worried you'll get stomped or slammed into the wall..."

Nowad was tiny. To Cade, it seemed like it would be broken if you accidentally dropped it a foot off the ground, which wasn't doing anything to reassure him.

I'm not that fragile! And— Shoot, he's coming back. I think it's almost been a day since he promised to help you. My system time is all messed up. And you! Don't let your guard down even once, okay??

"Alright, alright, now go hide. If we go, follow quietly."

Nowad looked at him grumpily, then nodded and went to hide again.

Cade stood from where he had been crouching, talking to Nowad. He heard Leo's voice dismissing the guards, and as he walked to the window, there was the door being messed with. He froze.

Then he pranced to the window in one step and glanced to the side. Leo was there, with a ring of about five thousand keys, standing in front of the door and trying every one of them.

"What are you doing?" Cade asked in a whisper.

"Oh, so you don't want to get out anymore?" Leo responded, raising an eyebrow at Cade while trying a key. The lock stayed securely closed.

Cade considered using sarcasm, but then decided it wasn't the right time. He could actually get out now! "I didn't say that. How did you get the keys?"

Leo sighed as he inserted yet another one into the keyhole. "The Warden is on lunch break, and while he was distracted, I made an imitation of all the keys." He tried turning the key, and failed. "This will disappear in an hour, so let's hope it won't take that long for me to find the right one."

He decided not to ask how he made an "imitation" of all the keys. It seemed like the same logic as making water appear from thin air, so it wasn't all that impossible, he supposed.

"Why didn't you just copy the one that's for this door?"

"And does it look like I know which one's for this door?" Leo asked, holding up the ring and jiggling it, closer to the window. He had a point. There were five thousand keys on the ring, and they all looked identical. Leo went back to trying the lock. "And while I'm doing this, I need you to promise me something, while I get you out."

Cade nodded. "Sure, what is it?"

Leo stopped after yet another wrong key, and looked up to stare straight at him. "Cade, I need you to promise me that you'll never tell anyone it was me who helped you."

That was a surprisingly simple request—and a reasonable one. Cade didn't have any objections to a promise like that. "Of course. I won't." At Leo's scrutinizing look, he added, "Cross my heart and hope to die; promise I'll try not to lie."

Leo rolled his eyes and went on to try the door again.

It took a while, but thankfully, on the thirtieth key, the door swung open, and Leo stood in the frame, silhouetted like some kind of hero or knight in shining armour. He raised an eyebrow, and he spun the ring of keys around on his finger as Cade pushed off the bars of the window, and walked to the door.

"Alright, let's get going," Leo said. He closed the door behind Cade, and started down the corridor quickly. "The guards will come by soon, so be ready to duck into a random empty room anytime."

Cade nodded, following, as they went down the closely interwoven corridors, ducking around corners to avoid the guards occasionally passing by, and going up several flights of stairs. His heart hammered against his chest, and the throbbing in his head made him extremely paranoid for some reason. He would sometimes see a flash of a red eye around a corner, before he turned to look up ahead again, reassuring him that Nowad was indeed following.

"How big is this place?" Cade inquired. "And where?"

"No one knows how big it is," Leo answered. "It's...complicated. New tunnels and corridors are being found nearly every month. As for where... I can't tell you."

Cade looked at him curiously. "Why not?"

Leo hesitated. "It's top secret. Classified. And besides, it's not a very pleasant spot. You won't be coming back here after you escape anyway."

His definite tone suggested that he didn't want to talk about it any more. Cade wasn't sure why. He wanted to know why, but he figured that Leo was already helping him a lot, so the least he could do was respect his wishes.

The walk was quiet from then on, with only their soft footsteps accompanying them. Every corridor looked exactly the same to Cade, which made him wonder how anyone could find their way out of this maze. Some corridors were slanted at an angle, some turned in a circle, some led to a larger space with more corridors leading off in other directions. It was so dizzying that at one point, as they were going up a corridor that was a large spiral, he didn't notice they were on another floor entirely until they got there. He had thought they were walking in circles for a long time.

It wasn't until they had walked up four levels—with about thirty turns on each level—that something happened. Without warning, a flash of pain erupted in his skull, and he gasped, one hand coming up to clutch the side of his head, as if that was going to help. The string in his mind, which had dulled to a quiet throbbing, seemed to turn from faint tugging to yanking. He stumbled, a hand on the wall, dizzy, his teeth gritted and brows furrowed.

The feeling of helplessness overwhelmed him, as the pain did nothing to signal that it was stopping soon, and no matter how hard he tried to subconsciously press his hand against his head, nothing happened. All thoughts were pushed out of his mind, and he couldn't think straight.

A pair of hands suddenly landed on his wrists, and pulled him off the wall. Startled, he looked up, faintly recognizing the face of Leo. In his foggy brain, he saw that Leo's face looked...passive. It was the same face that he had seen when he was first guarding Cade. The expressionless, flat face with no care in the world.

Before he could register what was going on, Leo had helped him stumbled a little further down the corridor, opened a door, and set him down inside the small room against a wall.

Before the feeling of shock and betrayal could take place, Leo took out another, separate, individual key.

He looked at Cade one more time. "July eighth is in a few hours. Stay here."

Then the door gently swung closed, and the click of a lock sounded, leaving the tiny little room in complete darkness.

Even through the constant pain, Cade realized three things.

One, he really had been too naive. Too gullible. Trusting someone he knew for less than—what, two days? Three?—and going along blindly was idiotic. Thinking he was friends with the very person who worked with the people who kidnapped him, because he showed a glimpse of fake friendliness. A friendship built on years of trust, like with Hallez's, was one thing. This "friendship" built on the subconscious loneliness of being trapped underground with only a few humans, and also perhaps his own past fears, was quite another.

Two was that he was completely alone, now. Not even Nowad was there. It was just him, and his pain, in this pitch black, tiny, claustrophobic, empty room. It was just him now.

And three, was that there was absolutely, definitely, no way out this time.