Page 84 of Gatsby's Starlet
I hadn’t answered her then.
Hadn’t trusted my voice.
Now I sat with my back pressed against the rough wall, the stone biting through my shirt, my arms wrapped tight around myself more for something to hold onto than warmth, trying to keep still, trying to think past the way the darkness pressed in from every direction, broken only by a thin strip of light far above us where there had to be some kind of opening, too high to reach and too narrow to matter, like it was there just to remind us we weren’t completely buried.
“They’re not gonna keep us here,” Ruby said, but even she didn’t sound like she believed it anymore.
I turned my head slowly, the movement stiff, looking at her through the dim, her shape more shadow than anything solid, her pacing sharper now, restless in a way that scraped against my nerves.
“You don’t know that,” I said, my voice quieter, but holding together.
“They won’t,” she insisted, faster now, like she needed it to be true. “Drago just—he’s pissed. That’s all. He’ll calm down.”
His name settled wrong in the air.
Drago.
I let that sit for a second before I shook my head, the movement small. “He’s not letting us go,” I said, and saying it out loud made something drop in my chest, heavy and final. “Not after this.”
Ruby went completely still. “Don’t say that,” she snapped, but there was something under it now, something thinner than anger.
“Ruby,” I said, turning more toward her, keeping my voice even, not pushing, just letting the truth sit between us. “Look at where we are.”
She didn’t answer.
“They didn’t bring us somewhere like this to let us walk back out,” I went on, slower now, even though every word felt like it cut. “You know that.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head hard. “No, you don’t know him like I do. He’ll calm down.”
Something in that almost made me laugh, not because it was funny, but because it sounded like something you said when you already knew the truth and just couldn’t face it.
“I think I know enough,” I said quietly.
That did it.
I saw it in the way her shoulders dropped just a fraction, the way the fight in her shifted instead of disappeared. “You don’t understand,” she said, softer now, closer to breaking. “I love him so much.”
“He’s going to hurt us,” I said, filling the space she left, keeping my voice steady because one of us had to be. “Quit lying to yourself. I’m so damn sick of it. We are going to die!”
Her silence answered that better than anything else.
The quiet settled back in, heavier now, thicker, pressing in along with the damp air, and for a second it felt like the space itself was getting smaller, like the walls were inching closer, like there wasn’t enough air left to fill my lungs, my breath caught.
Stinging.
Too fast.
I dragged in another one and it didn’t feel like enough, my chest tightening, the smell stronger all at once, the dark pressing harder, closer, like it was closing over my head—
No.
I shut my eyes for half a second and forced it down, forced my breathing slower, deeper, even when it didn’t feel right, even when everything in me wanted to fight it, because losing it down here, that would be it.
“I’m sorry,” Ruby said, her voice barely above a whisper, pulling me back. “I know you’re right, but if I let myself believe I never meant anything to him… it makes what I did worse.”
I drew in a slow breath, this one steadier, letting it out carefully before I answered. “You have to believe it,” I said. “Or we don’t get out of here. Working together is the only chance we’ve got.”
Gatsby’s face flashed in my head before I could stop it, so clear it almost hurt, and for a second I let myself believe he’d come for me, that he’d find me, that I wasn’t stuck in this place waiting, I shut that down hard.
