Release In The Dark (DARK erotic romance series) by Natalie Kristen

up at the Warden
and blinks. In a broken voice, she sobs, “He killed Pam! He
attacked Ana, then he came after me. I begged him not to kill me,
but he threw me against the wall. I couldn't see anymore after
that...”
    Kylee's eyes flick to me. When
I meet her eyes, I see they are clear and lucid. They flash a stern
warning at me. Stick to the story .
    The girls help Kylee and me out
of Room Number Five, and the Warden seals the door with yellow tape.
No one is allowed to touch anything in the room.
    “ Get them to the medical
bay. Attend to their injuries and get them dressed,” the
Warden snaps. “The soldiers will be arriving soon. They will
want to question them. Go!”
    As I stagger past the Warden, I
turn to ask hoarsely, “And Pam? What about...”
    “ Someone will examine her
body,” the Warden answers tersely.
    I bow my head and turn to see
Kylee being led down the corridor by two other girls. Their
shoulders are hunched as they move swiftly and disappear round the
corner.
    May wraps a towel around my
shivering body, and once we are out of the room, out of the Warden's
earshot, she whispers, “Did you kill him?”
    I start, and after a beat, shake
my head.
    “ Then it's Kylee,”
she says. “The soldiers will take her away.”
    “ They'll take you too,”
Lilin tells me. “The last time it happened, all the girls in
that Room were taken away. No one owned up, so everyone was presumed
guilty. That's how it is.”
    “ But...if...if someone
owns up?” I ask quietly.
    “ Then you'll save everyone
a lot of trouble,” Lilin replies, shooting me a look. “Being
interrogated by the soldiers is no fun. No fun at all. We—shouldn't
have to go through that again. You understand?”
    I bite my lip and manage to give
her a small nod.
    What she is saying—is not
wrong.
    If our positions were switched,
and she is the new girl here, while I have been here far longer,
working night after night to earn my way to freedom and buy myself
out of the Red Lantern, I might be tempted to say the same thing to
her.
    In their minds and hearts, they
are still clinging to the hope that one day, they will be able to
earn their way out of here. Who am I to shatter this hope, which may
be the only thing keeping them alive, and sane? I am the new girl
here. Everyone here would have formed some sort of bond or
attachment, however temporal and tenuous. Naturally, their
attachment and loyalties would be with Kylee, not me.
    I should be the one to go.
    “ I...understand.”
    May and Lilin exchange a look.
“Thank you,” May whispers, without meeting my eyes.
    They stop in front of a white
door tucked under the spiral staircase and press the buzzer. With a
click, the door swings open.
    A lady with gray hair in a white
uniform steps out and nods at them. May and Lilin turn away without
looking at me. I can hear the sound of engines and male voices
filtering down through the corridors. “The soldiers are here,”
May gasps. Both of them take off at a run, leaving me with the
elderly lady.
    “ Come. I'm the nurse on
duty. I'll see to you and then...the soldiers will want to see you.”
She motions me into the medical bay.
    I step into the small, sterile
medical bay and see Kylee lying on her side, with her back to me in
one of the two beds in the room. She appears to be sleeping soundly.
    The nurse makes me sit on the
other bed and starts to clean the dried blood off my face and temple.
When she is done, she dabs some purple liquid onto my temple and
hands me a set of tank top and shorts. “You can wear these.”
    “ Okay.”
    When I have finished dressing,
she says simply, “You can go.”
    “ What about...her?”
My eyes dart towards Kylee. “Is she okay?”
    “ She's in shock. I gave
her a jab, so she'll sleep for a while. I'll send word to the Warden
once she wakes.”
    The buzzer sounds and the nurse
answers the door. A black-uniformed soldier ducks in and says, “I
am to escort them to the Commander now.”
    “ Oh. I