Ezra Knox's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Ezra slept four hours and woke before the sun. The card above the others still read Watched. They sat at the table and stared at it. The keeper had left warm food. Warm food was not a trap. Warm food was an open hand. Ezra pulled on their coat and filled their pockets with granola bars. Down was the only way forward now. They could step into the chamber and be seen, or they could wait and be found on someone else's terms. Ezra picked up the flashlight and went to the door. The basket was gone. In its place leaned a small mirror, propped against the iron post. Soap letters streaked the glass. PLEASE. I CAN'T HELP YOU IF I CAN'T SEE YOU. Ezra read it twice. The keeper was not hiding anymore. The keeper was asking. Ezra set the flashlight on the tile, beam up, and stepped into its light. They lifted both hands, palms open, and spoke their own name out loud into the dark. Somewhere past the post, a slow breath answered. A shape moved at the edge of the light. Ezra did not run. The chamber had a second person in it now, and Ezra had chosen to be the one seen first. The shape came no closer. A hand slid into the light and set a knife down on the tile. The blade was dark with dried blood, not fresh. The hand withdrew. A voice, thin and old, said the boy had come down here three nights before he died, and had not come alone. Ezra stared at the knife and did not pick it up. They had stepped forward, and the keeper had answered with proof. The vandal was no longer the whole story. Ezra sat down on the cold tile across from the voice and said they were listening. The voice said one more thing before it stopped. A name. Not the vandal's. Someone older, someone the boy had trusted enough to follow underground. Ezra felt their coat pocket and found the heavy brass key the stranger had handed back days ago, the address etched down its shaft. The numbers matched the name. Ezra closed their fingers around the key until the metal bit. They had come down to be seen, and they were leaving with a door to open. The hunt had a second floor now, and Ezra knew which key fit the lock.