Dark Deceit by Lauren Dawes

cursing them for getting
killed, begging them for forgiveness, screaming at them to help him. Eventually
he stopped when the flesh fell from their bones in fetid puddles that filled
the cave’s belly with a stench that made his eyes water.
    They’d never answered him before.
    But this voice had.
    Maybe this was real...Maybe...
    ‘Hello?’ he called. Desperation stabbed at him as he was met with
silence. ‘Hello? Hello?’
    He waited. He heard breathing. Rapid breathing. They were close,
whoever they were. He strained his eyes, searching the darkness. ‘Whoever you
are, help me!’ he yelled, his voice cut up and bleeding like he’d swallowed
glass shards.
    He waited for their response, peering past the shadows. The
breathing sounded like it was closer. Yes! It was closer. He held his
breath to hear them more clearly, to pin-point where they were.
    What he heard was... 
    Silence.
    Deafening silence crashed over him.
    He wailed at the ceiling. The breathing had been his own. Horror
seeped into his bones. He was losing his grip on reality, losing his sanity.
Immortality was the cage keeping his body alive and functioning, but his mind
was up for grabs.
    His eyes rose to the ceiling above him. The serpent—his jailer in
this prison of torture—had not moved an inch since it had been placed there. Venom
dropped from one fang, and the cycle started all over again.
    I have watched you wither. I have watched you writhe. I have watched
you beg for your release. Yet you have not asked for forgiveness, the voice whispered once more. The silky quality to the voice
made him think it could be a woman. His skin was smoking, slowly being eaten
away. Soon the poison would be in his blood, his heart betraying his body by
pumping it all around under his skin.
    ‘Why should I ask for forgiveness?’ he wailed, staring at the
stalactite covered ceiling. ‘What do I have to be sorry for?’
    Do you forget the reason you are here? the
voice asked, growing impatient.
    ‘No,’ he ground out. ‘I have not forgotten. Nor will I forget who
put me here.’
    And what would you do if you were free?
    He smiled for the first time since his imprisonment. He’d thought of
nothing else. ‘I would kill him.’
    A satisfied purr travelled through his head. Would you now? A
rumbling chuckle reverberated around the room. And how would you do it?
    That secret was one of the things that hadn’t left his mind. He
moistened his lips with another swipe of his tongue. ‘I know a way.’
    And would you use that knowledge? the
voice purred.
    ‘Yes,’ he croaked.
    Yes? Do you swear to it?
    He barked a harsh laugh. ‘This is fruitless. I am not free.’
    If you were free?
    It was only a dream. ‘Yes,’ he whispered.
    His answer echoed around him, slowly disappearing and plunging the
cavern into silence once more. He soaked in the silence, the conversation he’d
just had playing through his mind. This wasn’t real. This conversation. This
deal. None of it was real. He slumped back, sinking into the dark oblivion of
his misery.
    Then you are free the voice eventually replied.
    Confusion and doubt began to creep through his rotting mind. What
game was being played here? What trick? The silence continued on around him,
the doubt spreading. He was not free. He was—
    The bonds that held him in place suddenly slackened against his
skin. They were...gone. He could breathe again; move his arms and his legs again.
He wanted to get up, but feared what would happen. His body was nothing more
than bones kept inside his skin.
    Be sure to keep your end of the deal, Trickster.
    He started by rotating his wrists and ankles first, letting the
feeling come back to him. Next his knees and elbows, then he sat up and the
world swam in front of his eyes.
    Hunger burned his stomach. Food. He needed food.
    Perhaps it is time to punish the serpent for the role it played in
your captivity. Consume its flesh and learn how the world has changed around
you that seductive voice