Page 49 of The Claiming

“Not until we find Abigail.”

“She didn’t make it to the other side?” I stare at him, fearful that she fell into difficulty in the river.

“She never made it out of the tunnel.”

Frankie’s eyes gleam in the darkness and I gasp, “What, you mean she’s still here somewhere?”

“She must be, but we searched all five tunnels and came up with nothing.”

“The door.” I say quickly, “She must have found a way through that locked door. Did you check it?”

“It’s still locked.” Frankie sighs heavily. “If she did open it, she would have needed the key. There is no key. We combed every stone in this dungeon and it simply wasn’t there.”

“But she must be somewhere.”

My fear is growing by the second because this isn’t good. If Abigail isn’t here, where is she and I still can’t shake the assumption she fell into the river.

Kennedy’s loud voice interrupts our conversation as she yells, “Don’t you dare touch me!”

“You’re coming with me.” Amos hisses and as they pass by the cell, I witness a furious Kennedy being led like a dog by her centurion, who appears to be ecstatic about how the evening ended for him.

I follow Frankie into the chamber and this time the guys are without their centurion costumes. I note their worried faces as Frankie says to Autumn and Kennedy, “Did either of you meet Abigail in the tunnels?”

“Of course.” Kennedy chews on her bottom lip.

“We were together for most of the time before we decided to split up. We each took one tunnel, and I was the first to be caught.”

There is a hint of pride in her voice that soon changes when she sighs. “To be honest, I didn’t put up much of a fight. I mean, seriously, this place is rank and this outfit cost too much to be ruined in some stupid game.”

Frankie rolls his eyes and turns to Autumn. “What about you?”

She glances nervously at River, who maintains a blank expression before saying softly, “It was like Kennedy said. I took the middle tunnel, at least I think it was. I couldn’t see a thing and, well, I’m scared of spiders and imagined they were everywhere. I heard nothing but my own racing heart and when River caught hold of my ankle, I couldn’t think about anything else.”

There is something not quite right with Autumn. She won’t look at River and appears to be shaking and I wonder about that. Frankie is thoughtful and his eyes drag between them before he turns to me.

“What about you and Siri, Cassie? Did you see Abigail in the tunnel?”

“Only when we chose which one to crawl through. I told the others the correct one, and they chose to select different ones.”

“Why? You knew it was the way out?”

Frankie stares at the other girls in surprise and Kennedy fires back. “The entire point of the exercise was to be claimed, duh. Why would we sign up in the first place if we wanted our freedom? That’s pretty dumb if you ask me and so we chose to remain in the game. Mind you–” She glares at Amos. “I would have been straight in that tunnel to freedom if I had known how it would end up. Nothing would have got in my way either.”

Frankie stifles a grin as Amos shrugs, obviously unbothered by his girl’s obvious hatred of him.

Autumn nods. “It’s true and I can speak for Abigail as well. We all wanted to experience The Claiming, which is why I doubt she tried to escape.”

“But she did.” Santi sighs as he peers into the gloom of the tunnels.

“We should check them one last time before admitting defeat. If she’s not here, she must have escaped somehow.”

“Not past me.”

Ali enters the chamber and says with a sigh. “I haven’t moved from my post and it’s getting kind of cold out there.”

“This doesn’t make sense.”

I stare at Frankie in frustration and Kennedy huffs. “Well, if you think I’m crawling back in there, think again. I’m heading back to the house and I’m taking Autumn with me. I’m guessing Abi is there now, tucked up in bed and celebrating that she’s not saddled with any of this.”

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