Chapter 119

Music Recommendation: Haunted Corridor- Adrian VonZiegler

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This man was from Brokengroves? That means maybe he would know something. Eve stared at the person from where she sat, her curiosity peaking with every second that passed. The man appeared to be in his late forties. She asked him,

“You grew up in Brokengroves?”

The man clicked his tongue and replied, “Isn’t that what I just told you? How is it now? From what I know it must have only turned worse,” he huffed as if he didn’t care about it. “The town was doomed to die with poverty hitting hard and rising taxes.”

“Can I ask you something, if I am allowed to ask?” Eve’s words were polite.

“What?”

Eve’s hands clenched into fists on her lap, and she made her way near the rusted iron rods that separated both their cell rooms. With a lowered voice, she asked him,

“Do you know anything about a woman named Rebecca?”

Silence filled the room, and Eve patiently waited to hear him.

“Never thought I would hear that name here,” replied the shaggy man. “The woman every man secretly wanted to take to his bed. She charged quite heavily for her service, and people of the Brokengroves couldn’t afford her. Only the rich could. Why are you interested in that woman?” He turned his head, keenly looking at her face that was slightly camouflaged by the shadows in the cell room.

Whenever Eve heard about her mother’s work, it deepened the hurt she felt in her chest. She said,

“Do you know anything about the men who were associated with her work? Whom she spent time with,” The words she uttered were nothing but bitter and painful.

The man turned his head and looked closer at her before chuckling in awe, “You are her daughter. I remember seeing you.”

“I am not,” Eve quickly denied it, her body turning rigid. The last thing she wanted was for the murderer to discover that the woman’s daughter who had witnessed him kill was now backtracking his footsteps to him.

“You are Rebecca’s daughter. I remember.”

“You are mistaking me for someone,” Eve was firm with her words.

“I wouldn’t have known if it weren’t for the bruises along with the slight resemblance you hold. It is the eyes that speak volumes,” said the man before crawling closer to where she stood. He then said, “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” he smiled at her, “I won’t tell it to anyone, not that I have anyone to tell.”

The dungeon was filled with criminals and this man was one. It wasn’t a place where one could trust another. He asked her, “Why don’t you ask your mother? She will be able to answer your questions better, after all, she did have a very very close relationship with all of them.”

If her mother was alive, Eve would have never asked about the men her mother had slept with in the past. But she had no other way to find out about her mother’s past.

“I cannot ask her…”

“You poor thing… Ashamed to confront? You should be. What woman goes whoring around, from one man’s bed to another. To think I once wanted to marry her,” he smiled, and Eve noticed his crooked teeth. “She was such a delight to look at, and I proposed marriage to her. But she refused, telling she couldn’t. She was meeting someone, but then that man disappeared, leaving her. I am sure she regrets it now.”

Eve guessed it to be her father. Her mother told her father had gone far away and wouldn’t be able to see him again.

The man continued speaking in a hushed tone, “If she would have married me, she would have been happy, but then she also wanted to whore with wealthy people, and a whore never changes her paths. Once a whore, always one.”

Eve’s eyes hardened, and her hands turned pale because her hands turned to tight fists. Her mother might have worked like that to bring food and put a roof over their heads, but she wasn’t a woman of low value. She would never accept her mother to be disgraceful like the people spoke about her.

“What’s the matter? I thought you wanted to know more about the woman,” the man moved himself a little closer before standing face to face in front of Eve, with only the rusted bars separating them.

“I am listening,” Eve replied while staring at him.

“I don’t remember a day where she stayed in the house. Even you– were not home. Always outside,” said the man, quickly trying to grab Eve between the gaps. But Eve quickly stepped backwards and looked at him warily. She heard him mock her, “Just because I couldn’t get her, doesn’t mean you and I cannot spend some time with each other. You are going to be here for a very long time.”

“Answer my questions. You must have remembered the names of the men who slept with her,” stated Eve, noticing the man pushing his hair to the side to reveal the dark circles around his eyes, and he stared at her with lust filled eyes as if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her body.

“How about you let me touch you, and I will try remembering the names. Just for you. It has been a very long time since I remember those things,” he smiled at her.

If Eve’s hands were free and she wasn’t in this state in the dungeon as a prisoner, she would have punched the man’s face until she received an answer. She wasn’t sure if the person really knew the men’s names or he was lying about it.

“Come now. There’s no time to waste when it is scarce,” the man laughed at Eve.

At the same moment, Eve and the man heard a pair of footsteps echoing in the corridor, which got louder, and the light outside the cells turned brighter. Soon two guards appeared in front of the man’s cell room, opening the cell gate, and one of them ordered the man,

“It is time. Come out!”

The man turned to look at Eve and sang, “So near… yet so far…”

Eve turned to the guards and questioned them, “Wait! Where are you taking him?” She wasn’t done with her questions. She needed a lead that would take her to her mother’s murderer.

One of the guards replied, “To the Gallows. His time here is up.” The guard turned to the man and shouted, “Now start walking!”

Eve’s eyes widened, noticing the man smiling at her like a maniac, and she shouted in desperation, “Give me a name. Please!”

“Heart. A troublesome heart,” said the man before he was pulled away by the guards, leaving Eve clutching the iron rods.

What did that mean?!

She closed her eyes in frustration. The man had answers, yet it had been too late before she could get a hold of it. But right now, what was the point of finding the name if she was only going to be put up on the Gallows.

The entire night, Eve stayed awake, unable to sleep.

The slightest noise alerted her; it seemed like the man next to her cell wasn’t the only one to be dragged out. Two more people were dragged from their cell rooms, and one was a woman who screamed and yelled for help. The screams left chills in the air before it turned distant and silence fell in the cold and deserted passages of the dungeon.

Before the break of dawn, Eve, who had slipped into sleep out of exhaustion, was quick to wake up when she heard a noise from outside the little window. She stood up and took a peek outside. The three prisoners, including the man next to her cell, were pushed to climb the stairs of the Gallows.

Nooses were put around the prisoner’s necks, and in a moment, the wooden platform upon which the prisoners’ stood on opened, hanging them to their deaths. One of them struggled for a few seconds before his body went still.

“Don’t be scared. You will be next.”

Eve heard the guard named Deacon tell her, who stood outside her cell. Eve turned her head, knowing that if no one could prove her innocence she would share the same fate as those three prisoners.