Max grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her free of the crushing bodies. Thrusting her behind him, he used his body to shield her as people pushed and shoved against them. Aria clung to his shirt as he pressed tighter against her, trying to protect her from the jostling and shoving, but he could not protect her from being pinned hard against the wall.

“Everyone calm down!” his voice was louder than normal, but not so loud that it would bounce down the tunnels, and not so loud that it caused the people to hesitate for even a moment. “Damn it!” he hissed, his anger and frustration apparent in the constriction of his muscles, and his fisted hands.

He turned toward her, bracing one hand against the wall by her head as he fought against the people pushing against them. Grabbing hold of her arm, he pulled her against him as he shoved his way back through the crush, fighting against the seemingly endless sea of people. Her heart hammered painfully in her chest, she searched wildly for William, but she couldn’t see him amongst the wave of bodies.

They broke free; she inhaled the fresh air sharply, trying hard to get oxygen into her abused lungs. William was before her suddenly, he thrust her bow and a quiver of arrows into her hands. “We’re going to have to go out another way.”

Aria’s eyes widened. The tunnel behind them, the one everyone was shoving through, was the only one that did not eventually meet back up, in some convoluted pathway or another, with the main tunnel they had just left. There were ways outside through other tunnels that led off the main one, but there was a chance that the vampires could already be in any of those tunnels. To open one of the gates back up, and go into one of those tunnels, was a huge risk. It was something they had never planned on having to do.

She glanced back at the exit tunnel, it was jammed full of bodies pushing and shoving at each other. In the drills they had run, and practiced, most of the people were supposed to be halfway through the tunnel by now. But panic had hindered things; she was certain that there were people on the ground in there, people injured and hurt and being trampled.

“We have to help them.”

She took a step toward them but William grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her sharply back. “There is no helping them now Aria; we have to get out of here before we get trapped in here. We have to go.”

“The people,” she whispered.

“Will be fine, they have the safe exit, remember?” he retorted sharply. “Come on.”

He pulled her back toward the gate that they had entered the cavern through. “We just came through there,” she breathed.

“There are three gates closed between us and the main hall. It will be the safest one.”

His long fingers worked deftly over the locks, throwing them swiftly open. Three other men and one woman gathered with them, apparently deciding to throw their chances in with them, rather than the crushing mass of people on the other side. Aria did not know who they were, but the people within the caves changed often. Most of the rebels relocated constantly, preferring to stay on the move rather than remain cooped up in one place. It was a theory that her family often stuck to also, but her father had stayed here for far longer than normal. Aria knew it was because of her. Knew that he had wanted her to rest and recuperate in one place, and maybe even have some sense of stability for once in her life.

Aria had hated being stuck here, and now she knew why. She felt much safer moving constantly, felt much safer outside in the woods she knew so well. Yet, they had spent so much time over the years running in and out of the cave systems, that they knew most of them by heart. She always felt like a caged animal when she was within the caves, but knew them like the back of her hand. She had wanted to make her dad happy though, especially when he was so obviously worried about her, so she hadn’t complained about staying here. She wished she had now. The caves would have been raided, even if they hadn’t been here, but she couldn’t help but feel like this was somehow her fault. That she had somehow brought them here.

“Come on,” Max said softly, seizing hold of her hand.

They plunged back into the black tunnels. The darkness enveloped them; she could barely make out the back of Max’s head as she strained to see. She wished they could light at least one of the torches, but that was just begging to be caught and killed, or captured and brought back to the palace where God only knew what kind of horrible fate awaited her. She had the distinct feeling that if she was brought back to the palace, it would not go over well. In fact, although the prince was engaged, she thought she would be made to pay dearly for her escape. She knew how badly he hated to be disobeyed, and her escape had been the ultimate defiance, and she would be punished for it. Either that, or he wouldn’t even care that she was back there and just decide to let her go to whoever claimed her this time.

She shuddered at the thought. Her hand clung to the bow and quiver slung over her back. They were her specialty; she could shoot an arrow better than anyone else. She just wasn’t going to be able to do it in these narrow confines, and from the way that William was heading, she knew that it was about to get a lot tighter in here. She hated this route through the caverns because it was so narrow, but it was the one that made the most sense right now. It would be harder for the vampires to navigate through here also, and at this point the other tunnel options led out to a waterfall. It was a beautiful sight, but the sound of rushing water blocked out the noise of their pursuers, and they needed their sense of hearing most right now. Their sight was just about useless. The rocks were also slippery, and climbing them under the best of circumstances was dangerous enough, without adding the bonus obstacle of rushing.

William took a sharp right. The tunnel began to climb steeply upward. They were heading toward the back of the mountain, and what had once been an old coal mining operation, or so she had been told. Aria hated the old coal mines; they were creepy, dangerous, and filthy. Thankfully William took a left and began to climb toward the backside of the mountain. The air became easier to breathe, although the walls were still tight against them, she did not feel quite as pinned in.

Max’s hand tightened around hers. She was grateful for his reassuring presence, his solid strength and warmth as he led her swiftly along. William stopped suddenly, causing the woman to bump roughly into him. They stood silently, straining to hear anything within the dark, damp space. They were only a hundred feet from the end of the tunnel, only a hundred feet from freedom, or certain death.

“We’re going to have to move fast. Stay low and head straight for the woods. If we get separated for some reason we’ll meet up again at the south edge of the lake,” William instructed. “If we can’t get to the south edge of the lake, we’ll meet at the banquet tree.”

The banquet tree was a tree she and William had discovered when they were children. It was simply an extremely large apple tree, but it had seemed massive and wonderful to them as they spent hours climbing its massive limbs, and gorging themselves on the apples they picked from it. For a couple weeks every year they’d had an ample supply of fruit, and aching bellies. But it had always been worth it.

They were also the only ones who knew where the tree was. They had brought the fruit back to the camps, willingly sharing it with everyone, but they had never revealed its location, and now that she thought about it, she didn’t think anyone had ever asked. It was as if they had all understood that they’d needed a place of their own, and allowed them to keep it.

Aria’s hand tightened around Max’s. She understood that William was mostly concerned with her safety, but she could not lose Max. He had risked his life for hers; he had sacrificed himself for her. She would not take the chance that they were separated now. She thought that she should feel more guilt about possibly losing the others but she didn’t, not when it came to her brother, and her friend. Their world was cruel, brutal, and for most people it was every man for themselves, except for the few people that ran in slightly larger circles. As she did.

It was nice to have friends, and family that she could rely on, that she could trust with her life. But the downfall of it all was the hurt that would come with the loss of one of them. And she had been lucky so far. Before her time within the palace, she had naively believed she would be lucky forever. She was not so naïve now.

William rushed forward, leading the way as they raced through the dark, up the slope, toward freedom.

They plunged into the night. Aria inhaled large, greedy gulps of the fresh air, relieved to be free of the confining space of the caves. They were almost a hundred feet from the cave exit when the screaming pierced through the rapid beat of her heart in her ears. She froze, horror coiling through her as she turned slowly back around. They were higher up on the mountainside, staring down across the way. The lake was beneath them, gleaming in the moonlight that reflected off of it. Across the lake was the exit from the escape tunnel, hidden within a copse of trees.

The exit had been selected because it was the farthest point from the main entrance, and well concealed. It was also where the screams were coming from. Aria’s mouth went dry; she took a step forward as horror and terror coursed through her. Across the lake, through the moonlight, she could see people scattering in every direction, fleeing as they tried to escape the monsters pursuing them.

Aria gaped for a moment longer, unable to believe the carnage before her. They had to do something. Now! She darted forward, determined to get down there, determined to help, determined to try and stop this somehow. Max seized hold of her arm, pulling her back. She struggled against him as he started to pull her toward the woods.

“We have to help!” she gasped.

He grabbed hold of her other arm, holding her tight before him as he shook her slightly. “There is nothing we can do Arianna, we have to go! We have to go now!”

She tried to fight him, but he retained his fierce hold. “We can’t just leave them!”

His eyes were dark, sad, broken in the moonlight. “There is nothing we can do Aria, it’s too late for them.” Her gaze turned back to the sight below her, she couldn’t abandon them. “It’s how we were captured before Aria; you cannot run heedlessly in again.”

His words froze her, she couldn’t move as her heart lumbered to pump the blood through her suddenly frigid body. It was how they had been captured before, it had been her fault that they had been taken, and she couldn’t allow that to happen again. Her gaze wandered hopelessly over to William. He stood at the edge of the forest, waiting impatiently for them. The others had already fled into the darkness. If she went down there again, if she tried to interfere again, they would follow her, and they would be caught. And there was nothing that any of them could do to help the people being hunted now.

There was no way to stop the massacre that was raging below them, no way to silence the screams. There was no one to save them if they were captured again, no one to rescue them as Jack had blown his cover amongst his family. They knew he was a traitor now, and would not welcome him back. They might not even be captured this time; they could just be slaughtered outright.

Max moved her back, pulling her stiff body away from the sight before them. “Hurry!” William hissed.

“It will be ok, Aria. It will be ok.” Max wrapped his hand around the back of her head, pulling her close for a brief moment before tugging her toward the woods. They plunged into the darkness, moving swiftly through the dense forest. William led the way, taking a zigzagging route that wound rapidly toward the banquet tree.

Aria felt numb, hollow. The screams of the tortured followed her, long after they were out of ear shot of them. Aria was panting, breathless by the time they reached the banquet tree. She fell against the large tree, clinging to one of its branches as she gasped for air that she couldn’t quite get. Her legs buckled, she fell to her knees before their childhood tree. There had been so many dreams and plans and hopes that grew from this spot.

There were none now. Now there was only bleak hopelessness. Now there was only death, and the echoing screams of the innocent. Now there was only hurt and loss and suffering. Yet, beneath all of that there was something else, something new rising up to course through her. For a moment she couldn’t identify the novel emotion through all of the agony and confusion rolling through her. For a moment, she didn’t know what it was that was consuming her. And then, she did.

It was hatred.

It was pure and simple hate. She hated this world of cruelty, hated the monsters that had created it. She hated with everything that she had, and was. And she hated the monster that had done this to her, the creature that had stomped all over her heart, making her weaker, making her a broken shell of the person she had once been. And now, well now that shell was filling up again. That shell was angry and twisted and so hate filled that she could barely breathe through its fiery consumption.