Ch.58: The Basement Trap

I scramble out of the crawlspace, emerging into the main basement corridor. The air is thick with smoke, but the fire hasn't reached this level yet.

Aris is still screaming below me, thrashing in the dirt.

"Elena! Come back! I can't see!"

I ignore him. I have a better idea.

I run to the medical bay. My cell.

The blast doors are open again, the emergency override triggered by the power fluctuations. The room is exactly as I left it. The bed with the restraints. The IV pole. The monitors.

It looks like a torture chamber.

It looks perfect.

I stand by the door.

"Aris!" I shout down the hall. "I'm here! In the lab!"

I hear him scrambling out of the hatch. He is moving fast, fueled by pain and rage. He stumbles into the corridor, his hands outstretched, feeling the walls.

"Where are you?" he hisses.

"Right here," I say. "Come and get me."

I step back into the cell.

Aris reaches the doorway. He pauses, sniffing the air. He smells the antiseptic. He knows this room.

"You're in the cage," he says, a twisted smile forming on his bloody lips. "You went back to your cage."

"Come in, Aris," I say. "Let's finish this."

He steps inside.

He swings the scalpel wildly. *Swish. Swish.*

"I don't need eyes to kill you," he growls. "I know this room by heart. Four steps to the bed. Three steps to the counter."

He takes four steps. He reaches out. His hand finds the metal frame of the bed.

"See?"

I am standing on the other side of the bed.

"You're right," I say. "You know everything."

I pick up the IV tubing. I wrap it around my hand.

"But you forgot one thing."

"What?"

"I'm not the patient anymore."

I lunge.

I don't tackle him. I don't stab him.

I grab his wrist—the one holding the scalpel—and I pull.

He stumbles forward, off balance. He crashes onto the mattress.

Before he can recover, I loop the tubing around his other wrist. I yank it down to the side rail.

He thrashes. "Let me go!"

I grab the leather strap—the one Greta loosened—and buckle it over his arm. I pull it tight.

He slashes at me with the scalpel in his free hand. The blade cuts my arm, a shallow slice that stings like fire.

I ignore it. I grab his wrist. I slam it against the rail.

He drops the knife.

I buckle the second strap.

He is pinned.

He kicks his legs, screaming inarticulately.

I grab his ankles. I strap them down.

He is immobilized.

Spread-eagled on the bed where he kept me for months. Staring up at the ceiling he can no longer see.

I walk to the door.

I hit the control panel on the wall.

The heavy steel bars slide out of the ceiling. They slam into the floor with a final, resonant *CLANG*.

I step back.

Aris stops screaming. He lies there, panting, his chest heaving. He turns his head, trying to see through the diamond dust in his eyes.

"Elena?" he whispers.

"I'm here," I say from the other side of the bars.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm putting you where you belong."

I look at the control panel again.

**LOCKDOWN INITIATED.**

The bars are locked. The magnetic seal is active.

He is trapped.

In the dark. In the silence.

Waiting for the fire.

The bars slammed shut. He is in my cage.