Into the Shadows by Jason D. Morrow

that will be no use against a greyskin. Just keep quiet and walk slowly.”
    I nod at her, and she motions for me to go down first. I swallow hard, not wanting to lead, but I do so without argument. The air hits me as I descend into the shadows below, and the smell engulfs me. The scent of sewage mixed with the decay of rotting flesh is enough to make me throw up about halfway down the ladder.
    Amber pulls the hatch door shut once she is on the ladder above me. Despite the bile and drool on my chin, I keep going, the underground fumes giving me a headache. It’s cold down here, much like the outside, I’m sure. My feet dip into a pool of stagnant, stinking water when I reach the bottom. The water soaks up to my shins, filling my shoes with freezing, putrid liquid. I bend down with my hands on my knees, trying to regain control of my assaulted senses, but it’s difficult. When I watched the vision of escape, I never expected to be so overwhelmed. Unable to produce any vomit, my body resorts to dry heaving instead.  
    I hear Amber slosh through the muck behind me. “Come on, Waverly. You can do it.”
    I look up to see her passing by me, taking a long, dark path ahead. “How do you know where we’re going?” I ask, but she doesn’t answer me. I suppose there is no reason to question her. I have already seen that we will get to the end.
    For the next few minutes, I follow her down the long tunnel, the sound of splashes echoing off the concrete walls. The sight before me is pitch black. Even though the vision showed us getting through this part, I can’t help feeling creeped out that there could be a greyskin right next to me and I would never know it. Finally, I start to see a light ahead. The closer we get, the more I’m able to see. I can now hear the sound of rushing water to our left.  
    A simple red lightbulb sits above a landing set between two canals of sewage water. Amber sits on the landing for a moment and motions for me to do the same.  
    She lifts a finger up to her mouth. “Get up against the wall and stay quiet.”
    I do as she tells me, though I’m not sure why she gave the command until I see a greyskin walking down the same channel Amber and I were just walking through. It stumbles forward aimlessly, unable to see, hear, or smell us. The advantage of being in the sewers is that it’s just as hard for the greyskins to sense us as it is for us to sense them. Though if one ever does, it won’t be so easy to run away.  
    When the greyskin finally walks a safe distance away, I realize that I had been holding my breath. I let it out slowly, and I can feel my heart beating in my ears.  
    “Why are there greyskins down here?” I ask.  
    “They guard the tunnels,” Amber answers. “Deters people from escaping.”
    “There are others?” I ask.  
    Amber nods. “Lots of people. You’ve just been isolated the whole time.”
    I had no idea.  
    “Why are you imprisoned here?” I ask.  
    Amber wipes her forehead with her sleeve. “Murder,” she says. It’s the same thing Olivia told me earlier. “I used to be a guard here,” she continues. “How do you think I know the ins and outs of this place?”
    “Then how can they treat you so badly if you were once one of them?”
    “Because I killed one of them,” she says. “One of the guards was abusing the prisoners in a terrible way. He did it all the time. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t even deserve to be in prison. So, I poisoned the guard. But I was caught. The guard was a friend of most of the others, of course. My sentence has been a harsh one.”
    “I talked to Shadowface today,” I tell her.  
    Amber looks at me with shock on her face. “You saw Shadowface?”
    I nod. “It’s a woman named Olivia.”
    Amber looks away form me and stares at the floor. “Wow. I thought she never wanted anyone to find out who she was.”
    “Well, she’s planning to tell everyone apparently. Next week.”
    “I see.”
    “She kept trying