“These don’t let you breathe underwater.” I said, holding up the suits helmet to show the vent beneath the plastic visor.

  “Aye, that’s mair for the smell. It’s not deep, not for anither hour yet. Just bide close and mind yer’ feet, or the current might pull ye’ away.”

  “Pull me…away?” I gagged, picturing myself being swallowed up in a torrent of filth.

  “Captain,” Eunice interrupted, throwing me off as she referred to Oren by his rank. She held out the bundle she was still carrying, “What about these?”

  “Here,” he said, pulling an empty backpack from the wall made from the same material as our suits. He set it on the ground in front of Eunice. “Tha’ should keep out the rank.” Eunice gave her signature nod of determination, but the look on her face said she did not want to be doing this.

  “Sorry, Eunice.” I grimaced from behind my mask.

  “For what, Miss Aine?” she asked, genuinely confused as she donned the pack, tightening the straps over her shoulders.

  “If not for me-,” I started.

  “We’d no be aboot tae wade through a maze o’ shite?” Oren cut me off, laughing as he stowed his gun in the hidden compartment before replacing the metal panel on the wall.

  “I-It’s alright,” she said, flashing a reassuring smile.

  Oren checked the seals on mine and Eunice’s suits before descending the ladder. The darkness swallowed him up, I relied on a splash and a muffled shout to know when to send Eunice after him. I followed closely behind, grunting as I tried to juggle the case with one hand, and find each rung with the other. The ladder hovered a few feet above the water, toward the center of the tunnel. Even without the smell, I nearly vomited as I stepped off the final wrung.

  It’s just mud, it’s just mud… I told myself, feeling my feet settle in the muck that lined the floor.

  “That is most definitely not mud.” He sniffed in outrage.

  You’re not helping, I snapped, gagging as I trudged in Oren’s direction. Even with the water barely reaching my knees, the current tugged at me. It wasn’t hard to imagine getting swept away. Oren pulled a metal tube from his side, twisting it as light spilled out in a narrow beam from its tip.

  “Ughh. I want to get ahead of this one before it becomes a problem. It’s called a torch. If you call it a tube-light, I will drown us.”

  “Railing,” Oren said, gesturing with his…torch to a pole that ran along the side of the tunnel.

  The tunnel curved above and below into a perfect ‘O’ with a flat grated walkway hugging each side. It didn’t fill me with confidence that the slatted metal path was already submerged. Still, it was the only thing keeping us mostly above water as we trudged ahead with Oren in front, Eunice and I trailing single file behind him.

  I was surprised to see how well Eunice was holding her own against the rushing water. Her determined grunts and groans seemed more for show, as she still managed to keep pace behind Oren despite them. How does someone as sweet as Eunice end up working for a piece of shit like Lord Caelan, I wondered.

  “You could ask her, might be more entertaining than silently staring at the back of her head.” Belial groused. I rolled my eyes, but conversation did seem preferable to silently sloshing through the dark. An opportunity came a few minutes later when she tripped over a raised section of the walkway, stumbling to her knees.

  “Here.” I said, offering a hand to help her to her feet. She grimaced through her visor as she took it, and I wondered if she felt bad for slowing us down. “So, Lord Caelan,” I started, hoping the conversation might cheer her up. “How long have you…you know, worked for him?”

  “Keep up back there,” Oren called, prompting Eunice to wade ahead after him. Silence stretched for a moment while we continued down the tunnel, long enough that I’d almost forgotten I’d asked a question when she answered.

  “Five years,” she said, looking back at me as if unsure whether to go on. “House Caelan bought my family’s indenture. The Duke only wanted my father, but…Lucian bought the rest of our contracts anyways…to keep us together.”

  I lifted an eyebrow.

  “An indenture is a type of contract for-,” Belial started to explain, but I’d already pieced that part together from context.

  “Lord Caelan did that?” I asked, surprised.

  “Aye, he’s only a piece a shite most o’ the time.” Oren muttered over his shoulder, drawing a chuckle from Eunice and me.

  Lucian…I said to myself, realizing she’d used his first name. Were they…close? Is that why he sent her with us? To keep her safe?

  “OH my GOD. I would’ve never shipped them. Tell her to spill the tea!”

  The WHAT? I shot, shaking my head as I wondered what tea and ships had to do with anything.

  “The drama,” Belial groaned. “It’s an expression…ugh. Forget it, just tell her to give us all the details about her forbidden love.”

  Forbidden- I gaped, blinking rapidly as I tried to process what he’d said. I’m not doing that. I deadpanned, fighting the urge to laugh.

  It felt like we’d been walking for about an hour before Eunice broke the silence again.

  “How…much…further,” she panted, already out of breath. I couldn’t blame her, if my enhanced lungs were burning, her body had to be ready to give out.

  I eyed the water trickling in from the smaller inlets that opened into the tunnel. Oren was doing the same, I realized, as he shined his light on each one we passed. It was rising, its cold weight pushing against my suit an inch below my chest. On the bright side, it made the case easier to carry, I only had to grip the handle to let it drift along the surface, but every inch it rose whittled at my nerves.

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  “No’ long, do ye’ need me to carry ye’?” Oren asked over his shoulder.

  Eunice halted, lowering her gaze as she answered. I knew what she must have felt like. A burden, I’d felt it before.

  “Yes, plea-”

  Water surged in from the inlet next to her, swallowing her scream as it blasted her away from the railing. The current pulled her behind us in an instant.

  We both screamed after her, frantically scanning the surface for a trace of her. I let out a short gasp, seeing one of her hands shoot up from the water, only to disappear a second later. Oren stared wide eyed from me to the water churning in from the inlet ahead. The hunch in his shoulders told me he was debating leaving her behind. Would he really do that? I wondered if he’d even be hesitating if not for the datapads from Caelan inside the pack she wore.

  “Wait ‘ere, hang on tae the rail-,” Oren started.

  No, it’s my fault she’s here…and aside from that, I was the only one of us with enhanced lungs, as far as I knew.

  I thrust the case into his arms, swiping the torch from his hand as I kicked off the wall. Oren’s screams cut off as I dove beneath the surface, swimming with the current as I searched for a trace of Eunice in the murk below. It was impossible, even with the borrowed light, my vision only cut a few feet through the swirling cloud of grime.

  “Pick a side. If she didn’t catch a railing, she’s gone,” Belial suggested.

  The current dragged harder to the right. I angled that way, letting it carry me until my hands slammed against one of the supports for the grated walkway on that side. Seconds ticked on as I swam, scanning with the light. I’d started to lose hope, tears blurring my sight as I imagined Eunice, suffocating alone in the dark.

  How much would the water have risen by the time I found her?

  No. I blinked the tears away. They mixed with the sweat inside my helmet as I pushed ahead, tightening my fist around the torch.

  My eye caught something just beyond the metal support six feet ahead, against the side of the tunnel. It was moving. Hope fluttered through my chest when it shifted again. I focused the light there, smiling as I saw it. An arm waving frantically, stirring up the ooze in the water.

  Eunice.

  She must’ve seen the torch. I let the current carry me toward her, gripping the support beam a few feet from where she was. My body jerked from the current rushing past.

  Is it getting stronger?

  Eunice was wedged tight in a tangle of steel where the sewer wall had ruptured. Pipes twisted outward as if something had punched through, the gaps in between crammed with years of debris. I let go of the support, careful to avoid the pipes, their jagged ends looking more like skewers as the current pulled me forward.

  The cool water didn’t stop sweat from gathering inside my suit as I examined her. She was hurt. Badly. One of the thinner pipes ran through her side, jutting from her midsection like a warped lance. I swallowed hard, seeing the cloud of blood already spreading from the wound.

  “If I have my human anatomy right, hasn’t pierced anything vital,” Belial said, steeling my nerves.

  She craned her head back inside her helmet to keep her nose above the water that’d made it inside. Her fingers wrapped around the torch as I placed it firmly in her hand, squeezing it hard.

  I gripped each of her shoulders, meeting her eyes as I planted my feet in the wreckage behind her, hoping she understood what I meant to do. She cried out, her scream lost in a rush of bubbles as water filled the inside of her helmet to the brim. Blood spilled from the wound, swirling into the water around us as I pulled her into my chest. I had to get her out of the water before she drowned inside her suit.

  Wrapping a hand around the edge of the walkway above us, I pulled us upward, kicking until we reached the surface. Steering us toward the wall, I searched with my hand until it found the railing.

  I pressed Eunice between myself and the wall, unsure how I could get her helmet off without us being swept further down the tunnel. Somehow, she still had enough strength to remove it herself, coughing and sputtering as she discarded it to float away behind us.

  “Thank-,” she choked, weakly pushing the torch into my chest.

  “Try not to speak.” I held the light above the water, hoping I hadn’t drifted too far from Oren. Still clutching Eunice to my chest, I rolled onto my back, using the arm that held the torch, along with my legs to swim against the current. We moved faster than I’d expected.

  Is the water moving slower?

  “I think so. At this rate you should see Oren on your left in another minute or two.”

  I barked out a laugh, all the tension fleeing my lungs as I swam. I’d done it.

  Before I could finish celebrating something brushed against my feet. I wrote it off as some larger piece of debris until the feeling came again. This time, Eunice felt it too, her eyes wide as she squeezed herself against me, as if afraid I’d let her go.

  What felt like a dozen barbed hooks clamped down on my foot. I cried out, driving my other foot against something fleshy and smooth. Eunice’s face went pale as it ripped me away in an instant, dragging me under the surface.

  The torch shined off its polished black skin as I struggled to free myself, kicking wildly at its mouth. It jerked its head left and right, spinning me as I roared in pain, its hooked teeth still deep inside my foot.

  “It’s trying to take your leg,” Belial warned, as if I didn’t already know. I’d have to get close, or it would twist my limbs off one by one.

  Finally, the spinning stopped, giving me a chance to act. The creature’s hind legs touched the bottom as it held me upside down, swiping at me with clawed hands. I caught one of its arms, a revolting shiver running through my spine as I realized it was some kind of insect.

  I screamed in agony as I pulled myself toward it, my body swiveling down towards its abdomen with its teeth twisting in my foot. It fell on me as I wrapped my arms around it, squeezing with everything I had. A dull crack echoed through the water as it squirmed, trying to smother me in the mud. Its hind legs scraped against my helmet, slicing at my suit as it tried to rake me free from its abdomen. I tightened, ignoring the water seeping in, cheering each snap as it tried to wriggle free. Finally, its shell caved, splitting open between my arms, a cloud of pink gore spilling into the water.

  I felt exhausted, my arms weak as I pushed the bottom half of the creature off, sending it drifting away behind me. Standing on one leg I bent down to pry my foot from its mouth, crying out a final time as the teeth slid out.

  Using my uninjured foot, I pushed off, tearing away my helmet as I broke through the surface, gasping.

  “WOW. I did not have you sixty-nine’ing a lobster to death on my bingo card for this little foray, but here we are.”

  “Eunice,” I breathed, struggling to keep myself above the surface. The current had slowed significantly, but it was still a challenge to stay afloat. I leaned, trying to float on my back as I continued to tread.

  Why am I so tired, did I lose that much blood? I felt dizzy as I craned my head, trying to examine my wounds.

  “You pushed yourself too hard again, get somewhere shallow so we don’t drown-”

  Belial’s words faded into a dull hum, buzzing unrecognizably in my mind as my vision started to darken. I was sinking, my arms and legs felt foreign, like they belonged to someone else as I tried to will them to move. They wouldn’t. I sank, swallowed by the murky liquid of the sewer, fighting to remain conscious as my eyelids turned to lead. I struggled to keep them open when I saw it. A shadow, coming for me.

  Is it…another one of those…lobsters? I could hear the buzzing, a part of my mind recognized it was Belial trying to answer me…but I was fading in and out of consciousness. I have to fight, I can’t…just give up.

  I thrashed against the shadow as it enveloped me with its arms, only to go limp a moment later, the last of my energy finally spent.

  Why wasn’t it…eating me? I wondered, unable to keep my eyes open any longer. Or maybe it is…but I’m too tired to feel anything? No, I realized. I was moving. It was taking me somewhere. Would I be fed to its young?

  Part of me recognized how strange my numbness was to all of this. I was about to die, and…I didn’t feel anything at all. Was Belial doing that? Numbing me? Sparing me the pain of it?

  Thank you, I thought, letting myself sleep.

  ORIGINS OF BLOOD

  “Each step forward feels like a betrayal of who I once was, yet I cannot stop walking.”

  “Blood rules the World.”

  Chapters are being posted 7 days a week, Monday to Sunday (For the Time Being)