Chapter Seventy six

The air in the dungeon cell felt heavy, thick with the smell of damp gravestone. The only light came from a single fluttering bulb, casting long, dancing shadows on the rough hewn walls. Jessica huddled against the far wall, her chin resting on her knees. Beside her, Vicky, her generally shy smile replaced with a mouth of defiance, strained against the chains that bound her wrists.

The previous days had been a blur of endless hunger, the eating emptiness in their tummies a constant companion. Each evening, the dungeon master, a hulking brute with a face like a hammered bobby pot, would shove a stingy bowl of watery gruel through the bars. The stingy mess wouldn't indeed come near to satisfying their hunger, leaving them weak and empty. But there was a flicker of hope in their despair, a lamp of kindness amid the darkness. Tricia it would seem had taken pity on them. Every day, she'd visit, her steps echoing through the cold corridors before a gentle knock sounded on their cell door.